DYSART

vier than water is suspended in this fluid by a rope passing over a pulley. As power is applied to this rope to draw the cylinder out of the water, the increasing weight of this, as more is raised into the air, will at last cause the resistance to equal the force applied, the cylinder being sufficiently large and long. By means of a scale properly arranged, the amount of the power applied may be accurately measured.

DYSART, or DESART, a parliamentary borough and seaport town of Scotland, in the county of Fife, 12 m. N. N. E. from Edinburgh, on the N. side of the firth of Forth; pop. in 1851, 8,739. The town is very old, and in former times was a place of much importance. Its trade was then considerable, but it now exports little beside coal, and has no manufactures of note except checks and ticks.

with false membrane, sometimes appearing as if struck with gangrene. When the pain and tenderness are very considerable, the treatment may be commenced by the application of leeches over the track of the inflamed bowel; if any constipation has previously existed, a dose of castor oil, to which a few drops of laudanum have been added, may be given; opiates and astringents may be afterward administered. From the fact that the rectum is the part of the intestinal canal most affected, opiates in the form of suppositories or enemata are found particularly useful. Calomel has been highly recommended in the treatment of the dysentery of tropical climates, but in temperate regions it is rarely necessary to resort to it. During the treatment the patient should be confined to his bed, and the diet should be of the mildest and most unirritating character. When dysentery passes into the chronic state, the tenesmus subsides, the stools become more copious and loose, and are found to contain pus; the complaint is apt to be tedious and intractable, and when recovery does take place the digestive organs remain for a long time feeble and irritable. A strictly regulated diet with the use of opium, combined with a small dose of sulphate of copper or nitrate of silver, are the means commonly had recourse to in its treatment.

DYSPEPSIA, INDIGESTION. Under this head are commonly grouped all those functional disorders of the stomach which are independent of organic disease, and are not symptomatic of disease of other parts of the economy. Its characteristic symptoms, as given by Cullen,

DYSENTERY, a disease characterized by frequent straining efforts at stool, attended by small and painful mucous and bloody discharges. Dysentery is more common in hot climates than in temperate ones; in summer and autumn than in winter and spring. It is subject to epidemic influences, being in some seasons frequent and fatal over an extensive region, and then almost disappearing for years. It is more common and severe in malarious districts. It sometimes breaks out and is excessively fatal in public institutions where the inmates have been subject to the combined influence of a vitiated atmosphere and an improper and innutritious diet; and under the influence of fatigue, exposure, and improper diet, it has often proved very destructive to armies. It is commonly attributed to the use of irritating and indiges-"are want of appetite, nausea, vomiting, flattible food, and to cold, particularly after the body has been debilitated by a prolonged exposure to heat. The milder cases of dysentery are attended by little or no fever; but when the disease is severe fever is always present, and may precede though it more commonly follows the local manifestations. There is often a good deal of pain and soreness in the lower part of the abdomen or extending along the track of the colon, frequent calls to stool, attended with painful and often violent straining; the stools consist chiefly of mucus more or less tinged with blood, and sometimes mixed with membranous shreds, or they may consist of blood almost pure, or they resemble the washings of flesh; their odor is not feculent, but faint and peculiar, and sometimes horribly fetid; occasionally the neck of the bladder sympathizes with the neighboring bowel, and there is difficulty in passing urine. While mild cases of dysentery are attended with no danger, when severe the disease is always serious and often fatal; or it may become chronic, and slowly waste the powers of the constitution. When death occurs, post mortem examination reveals the existence of extensive ulceration in the large intestines. The ulcers are often large, irregular in shape, laying bare the muscular and sometimes the peritoneal coat; between them the mucous membrane is thickened, often lined

ulence, eructations, and pain; more or fewer of these symptoms concurring, together sometimes with constipation." Many circumstances must concur to render digestion easy and perfect. The mind should be free from any harassing care or anxiety; otherwise not only the appetite is impaired, but the food which is taken is digested with difficulty. The food should be thoroughly masticated and insalivated to prepare it for the action of the gastric juice. Those who bolt their food half chewed, who have salivary fistula, or who waste their saliva by constant spitting, finally suffer from dyspepsia. The quantity of food taken must be suited to the wants of the system, and to the capabilities of the stomach. After recovery from wasting diseases, a larger quantity of food is required and will be digested than at ordinary times. It must be suited to the digestive capacity of the stomach; if the quantity be too large or the quality too rich, a sense of fulness and weight in the region of the stomach, nausea, heartburn, and eructation of acid and gaseous matters follow; with these symptoms the tongue becomes furred, there is some feverishness, and there is more or less headache; if vomiting occurs, and the ejecta contain bile, the sufferer in ordinary phrase is said to have had a bilious attack. The food must be taken at proper intervals, and these intervals are not always the same for all

704

persons; before a second meal is taken, the previous meal should be completely digested, and the stomach should have a period of repose. The food must not only be of a character which permits its easy digestion by the stomach and small intestines, but it must afford a residuum bulky and stimulating enough to maintain a regular action of the bowels. When constipation is induced by neglect, indolent habits, or too concentrated a diet, the stomach is apt to suffer, and dyspeptic symptoms follow. To all these causes of dyspepsia must be added the abuse of fermented and distilled liquors. When dyspepsia has been induced by any one of the above-mentioned causes, its cure is to be sought in the removal of the cause by which it was brought on; but this alone will often be found tedious or inefficient. In one class of cases a certain degree of inflammation of the gastric mucous membrane seems to be produced. The presence of food excites pain, which continues so long as the food remains in the stomach; carminatives or stimulants, so far from affording relief, aggravate the distress. In such cases the diet must be of the blandest and most un

the 5th letter and 2d vowel of the Latin

E

E

stimulating kind, and the amount of food rigid-
ly limited. Restricting the patient to milk,
diluted with an equal part of lime water, is
sometimes attended by great benefit, and fari-
naceous articles are preferable to meat. In
another and the larger class of cases, there is
neither inflammation nor irritation present, but
the powers of the stomach seem enfeebled; here
stimulants relieve the distress, and cause at least
a temporary improvement. In such cases a
meat diet agrees better than an exclusively fari-
naceous one, and the patient is benefited by the
use of the bitter tonics, colombo, gentian, quas-
sia, &c. Certain remedies are adapted to the
relief of particular symptoms; acidity is re-
lieved by the use of alkalies and the alkaline
earths; pain, by bismuth and hydrocyanic acid;
flatulence, by carminatives; and constipation,
when it cannot be obviated by diet and atten-
tion, may call forth the use of some of the pur-
gative mineral waters, or of small doses of aloes
in combination with nux vomica. It is in these
cases that travel, combining as it does relaxa-
tion with mental excitement and exercise, is par-
ticularly serviceable.

E, temptiness), dots, one

is both short and long, and in the Greek alphabet
has 2 corresponding forms, Evov (slender E),
the 5th letter, and Hra (long E), the 7th letter
(but counting 8 if the stigma be included). The
short and long O, Ομικρον and Ωμέγα, are abalo-
gous to them. Simonides is said to have formed
the H (nra) by doubling the E (ehov), thus
Ea, the epsilon having before been both short
and long. The H, however, was made by the
Latins an aspirate, and was employed to repre-
sent the rough breathing, and the aspirate sound
in e, , and X, as Homerus, Thales, Philon,
Charon. The prototypes of the aspirated Greek
letters in question are the Phoenician and He-
brew He and Chet. Indicating the most fleeting
sound of the human voice, a mere breathing in
many cases, the letter E is the basis of the
Vowel system, and the most protean of all the
vowels, as regards its shades of sound, its conver-
tibility, the modes in which it is indicated in
writing, and the uses that are made of it in
various graphic systems. But few of its pecu-
liarities can here be pointed out. In English it
has 5 sounds, called long, short, open, obtuse,
and obscure, respectively as in mete, met, there,
her, and brier. The long English sound corre
sponds to the French and German I, while the
French nasal E in em and en sounds like the
English a in swan; and the sound of the French
sharp E is represented in English by a, ai, ay,
or ey, as in made, maid, say, and they. In
Hebrew, it has 2 sounds; the open is noted by
Tsere (break), or 2 horizontal dots under the con-

sonant; the close by Segol (grape), or 3 dots, and
movable (half mute), the other quiescent (mute).
The long E is written AI in Meso-Gothic. In
Greek the long and short E (e and 7) are both
either open or close, but the latter is pronounced
as I in Neo-Hellenic, Coptic, and Slavonic. In
German it has 3 sounds, very short in hatte,
hoffen, like the English short E in Engel, rennen,
and like the English long A in geben, predigen;
in Magyar 3, as in emberiség, humanity; in Italian
and Spanish 2, the open and close; in French 6,
viz.: open in fete, il cède, half open in nous fe-
tons, sharp in été, parlez, nasal in bien, half mute
in je, le, Breton, and almost mute in simple, sucre,
and is quite mute in la rue, j'avouerai. Both
in English and French it influences preceding syl-
lables by lengthening and changing their vowels;
thus compare made, mete, pine, note, and tube,
with mad, met, pin, not, and tub; and il plane,
il mène, fine, and une, with le plan, il ment, fin,
and un. In German it produces the metaphony
of A, O, U, into Ä, Ö, Ü, as in Männer, men,
Vögel, birds, Hüte, hats. It also lengthens
vowels immediately preceding, as in Germ. See,
sea, dieser, this, Eng. true, and Fr. la vie. It
is very often elided, absorbing and absorbed;
the elision is in many languages recorded by the
sign of apostrophe; thus: John's house, wish'd,
l'homme, and Verbe. It is often a euphonic
means for facilitating the utterance of words,
as in establish, établir, establecer, épice, espiritu,
esprit, escribir, écrire, estado, état, estrella, étoile,
Estevan, and Étienne. It is prefixed for other
reasons in exeios, ecquis, and many other

bird is about 3 feet 2 inches, the extent of wings eter at the widest part; they are laid in Febru7 feet, the bill along the back 24 inches, the tar- ary or March; the young, when able to provide sus 44 inches, and the middle toe and claw the for themselves, are driven from the eyry by same; the bill is very robust, angular above; their parents. This bird is long-lived, individthe head is moderate, the neck short, and the uals, it is said, having been kept in captivity body full; the tarsi are feathered to the toes, for more than a century. Though the eagle holds and the feet are very stout; the middle toe has among the feathered race a position equivalent a membrane at the base connecting it with the to that of the lion among beasts, being king of others. The above dimensions are those of an birds as the latter is the monarch of mammals, adult female, the male being considerably small- he belongs to the section of the ignoble birds of er, in conformity with the rule that in birds of prey, which cannot be employed in the noble prey the females are larger than the males. The sport of falconry; in proportion to their size, the plumage is compact, imbricated, and glossy; the eagles are less courageous, and less powerful in feathers of the neck and head are narrow and beak, wings, and talons, than the falcons. The pointed, and may be erected like a short crest; noble nature of the eagle, like that of the lion, is the tail consists of 12 broad feathers. In the mostly a creation of the imagination, founded on adult the bill is black at the tip, bluish gray at external characters which have no corresponding the base, the cere and margins yellow; iris internal qualities; he follows the instinct of his chestnut; toes bright yellow, claws black; gen- carnivorous nature, without regard to surrounderal color of the plumage dark brown, glossed ing weaker animals, attacking where he is sure with purple; the hind head and neck light of victory, gorging himself like a glutton, pabrownish yellow, the feathers with dark shafts; tiently bearing forced abstinence from food, and the wing coverts light brown; primaries brown- at last soiling his royal beak with the foulness ish black; tail rounded, dark brown, lighter at of carrion; the king-bird and the shrike are far the base, irregularly marked with whitish; lower his superiors in bravery, and all the qualities tail coverts, feathers of legs and tarsi, yellowish which have been specially assumed for him can brown. The immature bird is of a deep brown be found in greater perfection in many common color, with the tail white at the base for of birds, beside many of the softer traits of charits length, and dark at the end; this is the ring- acter which find no place in his royal constitutailed eagle of Wilson and others; the adult, tion; like most other kings, he has his supefrom its majestic appearance, is called in Eu- riors in many of the lowest of his subjects. The rope the royal eagle; the American species is eagle is monogamous, and the mated pair are considered distinct by some, and is called A. generally not far from each other; the same Canadensis (Linn.). The golden eagle is rarely nest is used for many successive years. The seen in the eastern portion of the United States, scent of the eagle is feeble, but his sight is exthough specimens have been obtained in all the ceedingly keen; able to gaze at the sun at noonnorthern states; a few years since a young bird day, and rising toward it until beyond human was shot in Lexington, Mass.; the species is sight, he can detect in the plains below his livmost common in the north-west, on the upper ing prey. Like the condor, the eagle has been Mississippi, and in the mountainous regions of accused of carrying off little children to its nest, the country; it is also found in the cold and but such instances in both birds must be very mountainous districts of northern Europe and rare, though doubtless they may have occurred. Asia. The flight is powerful, though less rapid Another species of this genus is the spotted or than that of the bald eagle, being continued for rough-footed eagle (A. nævia, Gmel.), smaller hours in majestic circles at a great elevation, than the golden, of a brownish color, with black and without apparent exertion; its prey is not white-tipped tail, and wings yellow spotted; it seized on the wing, but is pounced upon on the is found in the mountains of central and southground from a great height with rarely failing ern Europe and northern Africa, and preys upon precision. Its food consists of young fawns, the smaller animals. In the genus haliaetus raccoons, hares, wild turkeys, and birds and ani- (Sav.) belong the fishing or sea eagles, the best mals of similar size, and, when hard pressed by known and largest of which is the bald or whitehunger, of carrion; capable of going several headed eagle (H. leucocephalus, Linn.); the bill days without food, it gorges itself when oppor- is 24 inches long, very robust, convex above; tunity offers. Its strength is great, and its the head is large, and flat above; neck short weight about 12 lbs.; it is able to withstand and thick; body large, wings long, and tail extreme cold, and pursues its prey in the most rounded; the tarsus only 3 inches long, bare for violent storms. The voice is harsh and scream- its lower two-thirds and covered with large ing, and very loud at the breeding season. The scales; the feet are short and robust, and the plumage does not attain its full beauty until the toes are free, rough, and tuberculous beneath, 4th year; the American Indians are fond of with very sharp curved claws. The plumage using the tail feathers as ornaments for their is compact and imbricated; the feathers of the persons, pipes, and weapons. The nest is of head, neck, and breast are narrow and pointed. large size, consisting of a rude collection of and of the other parts broad and rounded; there sticks, and placed on some inaccessible cliff; the is a bare space between the bill and eye with a eggs are generally 2, of a dull white color, with few bristly feathers; the eyebrows are bare and brownish shades, 3 inches long and 24 in diam- very prominent. In the adult the bill, cere, iris,

EAGLE