may be observed. The cardiac contractions become irregular, the ventricle assumes curious shapes—“hour-glass,” &c.—becomes very pale and bloodless, and finally the heart stops in a state of spasm, which shortly afterwards becomes rigor-mortis. Before this final change the heart may be started again by the application of a soluble potassium salt, or by raising the fluid pressure within it. Clinically it is to be observed that the drug is cumulative, being very slowly excreted, and that after it has been taken for some time the pulse may become irregular, the blood-pressure low, and the cardiac pulsations rapid and feeble. These symptoms with more or less gastro-intestinal irritation and decrease in the quantity of urine passed indicate digitalis poisoning. The initial action of digitalis is a stimulation of the cardiac terminals of the vagus nerves, so that the heart’s action is slowed. Thereafter follows the most important effect of the drug, which is a direct stimulation of the cardiac muscle. This can be proved to occur in a heart so embryonic that no nerves can be recognized in it, and in portions of cardiac muscle that contain neither nervecells nor nerve-fibres.
The action of this drug on the kidney is of importance only second to its action on the circulation. In small or moderate doses it is a powerful diuretic. Though Heidenhain asserts that rise in the renal blood-pressure has not a diuretic action per se, it seems probable that this influence of the drug is due to a rise in the general blood-pressure associated with a relatively dilated condition of the renal vessels. In large doses, on the other hand, the renal vessels also are constricted and the amount of urine falls. It is probable that digitalis increases the amount of water rather than that of the urinary solids. In large doses the action of digitalis on the circulation causes various cerebral symptoms, such as seeing all objects blue, and various other disturbances of the special senses. There appears also to be a specific action of lowering the reflex excitability of the spinal cord.
Digitalis is used in therapeutics exclusively for its action on the circulation. In prescribing this drug it must be remembered that fully three days elapse before it gets into the system, and thus it must always be combined with other remedies to tide the patient over this period. It must never be prescribed in large doses to begin with, as some patients are quite unable to take it, intractable vomiting being caused. The three days that must pass before any clinical effect is obtained renders it useless in an emergency. A certain consequence of its use is to cause or increase cardiac hypertrophy—a condition which has its own dangers and ultimately disastrous consequences, and must never be provoked beyond the positive needs of the case. But digitalis is indicated whenever the heart shows itself unequal to the work it has to perform. This formula includes the vast majority of cardiac cases. The drug is contra-indicated in all cases where the heart is already beating too slowly; in aortic incompetence—where the prolongation of diastole increases the amount of the blood that regurgitates through the incompetent valve; in chronic Bright’s disease and in fatty degeneration of the heart—since nothing can cause fat to become contractile.
DIGNE, the chief town of the department of the Basses Alpes, in S.E. France, 14 m. by a branch line from the main railway line between Grenoble and Avignon. Pop. (1906), town, 4628; commune, 7456. The Ville Haute is built on a mountain spur running down to the left bank of the Bléone river, and is composed of a labyrinth of narrow winding streets, above which towers the present cathedral church, dating from the end of the 15th century, but largely reconstructed in modern times, and the former bishop’s palace (now the prison). The fine Boulevard Gassendi separates the Ville Haute from the Ville Basse, which is of modern date. The old cathedral (Notre Dame du Bourg) is a building of the 13th century, but is now disused except for funerals: it stands at the east end of the Ville Basse. The neighbourhood of Digne is rich in orchards, which have long made the town famous in France for its preserved fruits and confections. It is the Dinia of the Romans, and was the capital of the Bodiontii. From the early 6th century at least it has been an episcopal see, which till 1790 was in the ecclesiastical province of Embrun, but since 1802 in that of Aix en Provence. The history of Digne in the middle ages is bound up with that of its bishops, under whom it prospered greatly. But it suffered much during the religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, when it was sacked several times. A little way off, above the right bank of the Bléone, is Champtercier, the birthplace of the astronomer Gassendi (1592–1655), whose name has been given to the principal thoroughfare of the little town.
See F. Guichard, Souvenirs historiques sur la ville de Digne et ses environs (Digne, 1847). (W. A. B. C.)
DIGOIN, a town of east-central France, in the department of Saône-et-Loire, on the right bank of the Loire, 55 m. W.N.W. of Mâcon on the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 5321. It is situated at the meeting places of the Loire, the Lateral canal of the Loire and the Canal du Centre, which here crosses the Loire by a fine aqueduct. The town carries on considerable manufactures of faience, pottery and porcelain. The port on the Canal du Centre has considerable traffic in timber, sand, iron, coal and stone.
DIJON, a town of eastern France, capital of the department of Côte d’Or and formerly capital of the province of Burgundy, 195 m. S.E. of Paris on the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 65,516. It is situated on the western border of the fertile plain of Burgundy, at the foot of Mont Afrique, the north-eastern summit of the Côte d’Or range, and at the confluence of the Ouche and the Suzon; it also has a port on the canal of Burgundy. The great strategic importance of Dijon as a centre of railways and roads, and its position with reference to an invasion of France from the Rhine, have led to the creation of a fortress forming part of the Langres group. There is no enceinte, but on the east side detached forts, 3 to 4 m. distant from the centre, command all the great roads, while the hilly ground to the west is protected by Fort Hauteville to the N.W. and the “groups” of Motte Giron and Mont Afrique to the S.W., these latter being very formidable works. Including a fort near Saussy (about 8 m. to the N.W.) protecting the water-supply of Dijon, there are eight forts, besides the groups above mentioned. The fortifications which partly surrounded the old and central portion of the city have disappeared to make way for tree-lined boulevards with fine squares at intervals. The old churches and historic buildings of Dijon are to be found in the irregular streets of the old town, but industrial and commercial activity has been transferred to the new quarters beyond its limits. A fine park more than 80 acres in extent lies to the south of the city, which is rich in open spaces and promenades, the latter including the botanical garden and the Promenade de l’Arquebuse, in which there is a black poplar famous for its size and age.
The cathedral of St Bénigne, originally an abbey church, was built in the latter half of the 13th century on the site of a Romanesque basilica, of which the crypt remains. The west front is flanked by two towers and the crossing is surmounted by a slender timber spire. The plan consists of three naves, short transepts and a small choir, without ambulatory, terminating in three apses. In the interior there is a fine organ and a quantity of statuary, and the vaults contain the remains of Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and Anne of Burgundy, daughter of John the Fearless. The site of the abbey buildings is occupied by the bishop’s palace and an ecclesiastical seminary. The church of Notre-Dame, typical of the Gothic style of Burgundy, was erected from 1252 to 1334, and is distinguished for the grace of its interior and the beauty of the western façade. The portal consists of three arched openings, above which are two stages of arcades, open to the light and supported on slender columns. A row of gargoyles surmounts each storey of the façade, which is also ornamented by sculptured friezes. A turret to the right of the portal carries a clock called the Jaquemart, on which the hours are struck by two figures. The church of St Michel belongs to the 15th century. The west façade, the most remarkable feature of the church, is, however, of the Renaissance period. The vaulting of the three portals is of exceptional depth owing to the projection of the lower storey of the façade. Above this storey rise two towers of five stages, the fifth stage being formed by an octagonal cupola. The columns decorating the façade represent all the four orders. The design of this façade is wrongly attributed to Hugues
