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been considered as the peculiar emblem of feminine as opposed to male occupations, and has come to be used figuratively for a woman.

DISTANCE. The limit of view in a picture, or point of distance, as it is called in perspective, is that portion of the picture where the visual rays meet; the middle distance being the central portion between the extreme distance and the foreground. The art of producing on the eye the effect of real distance, in so far as it is not accomplished by mere mechanical rules, is one of the most subtle branches of landscape-painting, and cannot be acquired otherwise than by long experience, and a careful study of the effects of light and shade.

DISTEMPER (Fr. détrempe), a coarse mode of painting, in which the colors-of a commoner kind than those usually employed for artistic purposes—are mixed in a watery glue, such as size and whiting. The chief purposes for which distemper is now used are scene-painting and staining-papers for walls. But it is known that the old masters frequently executed pictures and portions of pictures in distemper, and then oiled them, by which means they acquired the character of being painted originally in oil. It is said that Paul Veronese sometimes began his pictures in distemper, and finished them in oil, and that he frequently painted his skies in distemper. Distemper is often ignorantly supposed to be identical with fresco (q.v.). The difference is, that whilst in the former the colors are laid on a dry surface, in the latter they are put on wet mortar or plaster. See WIERTZ, ANTOINE.

DISTEMPER is a typhoid inflammation affecting the upper air-passages of young dogs, and resembling in many respects the strangles of young horses, and the scarlatina and other such complaints of children. Like these, it is generally contagious, occurs only once in a lifetime, runs a definite course, is accompanied by low fever and debility, and is most successfully treated by good nursing and attention to diet and regimen. The eyes are red, weak and watery; the nose dry and hot; draughts of air or movements of the animal readily excite sneezing or cough; there is dullness, fever, and loss of appetite. The thickened slimy mucus which the inflamed membrane, after some days, secretes, accumulates about the eyes and nostrils, and lodging in the bronchial tubes, prevents the free access of air, and the proper purification of the blood. Hence ensue distressed breathing, increasing weakness, and symptoms of nervous disturbance, such as staggering gait, chorea (q.v.), and fits. All dogs are liable to distemper, but the delicate, highly bred, and artificially treated varieties suffer most severely, and amongst them the mortality is very great. Bleeding, physicking, and all irritating and reducing remedies, must be carefully avoided, and a good dry bed in a comfortable airy place provided. The stomach, which is generally overloaded, should be relieved of its contents by an emetic, which, for an ordinary-sized English terrier, may consist of two grains each of tartar emetic and ipecacuanha, with eight or ten grains of common salt, given in a wine-glassful of tepid water. If no effect is produced, the dose must be repeated in twenty minutes. Constipation, if present, should be corrected by half an ounce each of castor and olive oil, to which, in large dogs, a few grains of gray powder is a useful addition. The febrile symptoms, if acute, may be alleviated by giving four times daily, in cold water, two drops of tincture of aconite, and five grains each of niter and extract of belladonna. Distressed breathing will be relieved by applying to the chest and sides, for an hour or two continuously, a thick flannel cloth, wrung at short intervals out of hot water. The throat may also be rubbed with hartshorn and oil, and the nostrils sponged and steamed occasionally. Give frequently, and in small quantities at a time, milk and bread, or any other such simple and digestible food; and when recovery is tardy, and weakness ensues, endeavor by nursing, tonics (q.v.), and stimulants (q.v.) to support the strength.

The term D. is sometimes applied to influenza (q.v.) in horses, and epizootic pleuro-pneumonia (q.v.) in cattle.

DISTICH (Gr. distichos, consisting of two rows or ranks) is the classical name given to any two lines, but especially to a hexameter and pentameter, making complete sense. It was much used by the Greeks and Romans as a vehicle for the expression of single thoughts and sentiments; and hence became almost exclusively employed for the classical epigram. The great poets of modern Germany, Goethe, Schiller, etc., have also shown a fondness for the D., and remarkable skill in the use of it. A collection of moral maxims in Latin, ascribed to a certain Cato, Dionysius (q.v.), are called Disticha, and were highly popular during the middle ages.

DISTILLATION is an important process in the arts. It consists essentially in converting a liquid into vapor in a close vessel, by means of heat, and then conveying the vapor into another cool vessel, where it is condensed again into a liquid. When applied to a solid, the process is called sublimation. The object of D. is to separate one substance from others with which it may be mixed. In D. proper, no chemical decomposition takes place; when any of the substances are decomposed, it is called destructive D. (q.v.). The possibility of separating substances by vaporizing them, depends upon the fact that very few substances are volatile at the same temperature. Thus, water boils or becomes rapidly converted into vapor at 212°, alcohol at 173°, sulphuric ether at 94.8, while oil of turpentine must be raised to 318°, and mercury to 662°; and some sub

stances, again, are altogether fixed. By applying the proper degree of heat, then, and no more, the more volatile of two substances may be expelled from the less volatile; and supposing the vapors of the two to rise mixed, as they are gradually cooled, that of the less volatile will be condensed before the other, thus affording another opportunity of separation.

It is often, however, not so easy to obtain a perfectly pure product by distillation as might at first appear, owing to another fact in chemistry-namely, that many bodies which, when pure, require a high temperature to vaporize them, become more easily vaporized when mixed with substances more volatile than themselves. Owing to this, it is impossible to obtain, by D. alone, alcohol perfectly free from water. The circumstance, on the other hand, is sometimes turned to good account in another way. By distilling, for instance, parts of plants with water, the essential oils pass over with the steam, and are then separated from the condensed water by other processes.

The applications of D. are numerous both in chemistry and in the practical arts. Pure water is obtained by D., the most of the substances dissolved in natural waters being fixed. Sea-water may thus be rendered drinkable, and there are apparatus for the special purpose. But wherever there are cooking-utensils, a distilling apparatus might be improvised. The pure water that descends from the clouds is produced in a way which is just the process we are speaking of on a large scale. See EVAPORATION. It is no figure of speech to say that the dews are 'distilled."

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The extraction of zinc from the ore is a distillation; the metal, when reduced, passes over in vapor, and is condensed in a separate vessel. When the zinc ore contains cadmium, this metal, being more volatile, comes over in the first portions, and may be removed. When mercury is used to extract particles of gold from sand, the mercury is distilled off from the amalgam, leaving the gold, which is fixed. The mer. cury being condensed, is again ready for use.

The most extensive application of distillation is in the manufacture of intoxicating spirits, and in ordinary language this is the most common use of the word. Strictly speaking, indeed, the spirits are not produced by the act of distillation; that is done by the previous step of fermentation (q.v.); and distillation merely separates the spirits from the mixture in which they already exist. But it may be as well to give some account of the whole process under this head.

All the intoxicating drinks used in ancient times seem to have been the products of fermentation merely. The art, as it has been called, of evoking the fiery demon of drunkenness from his attempered state in wine and beer, is a discovery of modern times. It is first mentioned by an Arabian physician of the 11th c., Abulkasem, though the invention is attributed by some to the northern nations. The name aqua vita, given to distilled spirits by early physicians and alchemists, shows what an estimate they made of the discovery. Raymond Lully "declares this admirable essence to be an ema nation of the divinity, an element newly revealed to man, but hid from antiquity, because the human race were then too young to need this beverage, destined to revive the energies of modern decrepitude." Sadly have these anticipations been belied!

Spirits were first distilled from wine, and hence called spirits of wine. An endless variety of substances are now used in this extensive manufacture. Alcohol (q.v.) is the essential ingredient of all spirits, and it results from the decomposition of sugar, which, by the process of fermentation, is resolved into carbonic acid and alcohol. Sugar, then, is the direct source of alcohol, and accordingly all vegetable products containing sugar, such as grapes, the sugar-cane, sweet fruits, beet-root, etc., may be used in the manufacture of spirits. But there is another more abundant vegetable substance-namely, starch-which is easily convertible into sugar, and thus becomes indirectly a source of alcohol. In malt, and in germinating seeds generally, there is found a substance called diastase (q.v.). If a small quantity of this, or of an infusion of malt, be added to a paste of starch, it will in a short time become thin and sweet, the whole of the starch being transformed into sugar. See BEER. It is thus that grain of all kinds, potatoes, and other substances which contain little or no free sugar, are yet capable of yielding alcoholic spirits.

All substances, then, containing either sugar or starch, or both, will yield spirits. With sugar, the manufacture consists of two processes-fermentation and distillation. When starch is the original source, as is more commonly the case in the distilleries of this country, the first step is to convert it into sugar, or to saccharify it. This is the object of what is technically called mashing, which consists in mixing the materials in a triturated state with water at the temperature of about 160°. It is mostly from barley, oats, and rye that spirits are manufactured; wheat is less used, owing to its cost. Raw grain is ground to meal; malt is only bruised. A certain proportion of malt is always used, even in distilling from raw grain or potatoes, as the diastase of the malt is necessary to set agoing the saccharine fermentation. After being agitated for two or three hours, the saccharine infusion, called wort, is drawn off from the grains, and cooled. To this wort is now added a certain quantity of yeast or barm, which induces the vinous fermentation, and resolves the saccharine matter into alcohol and carbonic acid, accompanied by a rise of temperature. The alcoholic mixture which results is called the wash, and is now ready for distillation. This takes place in an apparatus called a still, or alembic (q.v.). In its older and simpler form, the still consists of a copper vessel, into

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which the wash is put. This vessel is provided with a close head, terminating in a bent tube, which passes, in a spiral form (the worm), through the refrigeratory, filled with cold water. See STILL. When heat is applied to the still, the spirit begins to rise in vapor at 176°, along with more or less steam; these vapors pass through the worm, become condensed by the cold, and drop or trickle in the form of liquid into a receiver. The product of this first distillation in a simple still is called low wines. This is then redistilled at a lower temperature, in order to deprive it of part of the water and of the fetid oils that had passed over with the alcohol. To obtain great purity and strength, repeated distillation is used.

A great improvement in distilling was invented in 1801 by a workman of Montpellier, of the name of Adam. By making the vapors arising from the still pass through a series of winding passages, maintained at a determinate degree of heat, and deposit part of their water and other impurities, he was able to obtain from wine a spirit of any required cleanness and strength at one operation. This principle has been adapted, by Pistorius of Berlin (1817), to the distillation of the coarser washes of grain and other materials.

Absolute or anhydrous alcohol (q.v.) cannot be obtained by distillation alone. Rectified spirit, or spirit of wine, for burning in a lamp, still contains, when of ordinary strength, about 25 per cent of water. Alcohol is considerably lighter than water, its specific gravity being 793 (water, 1000). The stronger any spirit is, then, the less will be its specific gravity; and thus the strength of spirits may be ascertained by an instrument which measures their specific gravity, the areometer (q.v.) or hydrometer. The excise of Great Britain has established one degree of strength as the legal standard, and this is called proof. The specific gravity of proof-spirit is 918.6, and it contains nearly equal weights of water and alcohol.

If only alcohol and water passed over in distillation, all spirits, from whatever extracted, would be the same; but this is not the case. Brandy, which is distilled from wine, has a peculiar essential oil derived from the grape, and also some acid; rum is impregnated with an essential oil from the sugar-cane, and with other impurities; malt liquor has the essential oil of barley, etc. It is these essential oils that give to the various spirits their distinguishing flavors. Some of the oils and other impurities are disagreeable and positively noxious; and it is the objects of rectifying to remove these. The mellowing effect of age upon spirits is owing to the evaporation or spontaneous decomposition of the essential oils. Newly distilled spirits are in general fiery, and specially unwholesome.

Sugar, when fermented, resolves itself into nearly equal weights of carbonic acid and alcohol; a pound of sugar, therefore, should yield upwards of half a pound of proof-spirit. The quantity of spirit afforded by different grains depends upon the proportion of starch they contain: 100 pounds of starch is calculated to yield 35 pounds of alcohol, equal to nearly 8 gallons of proof-spirits. Of the various grains, wheat is the most productive. Taking the average of wheat, barley, rye, oats, and maize, 100 pounds of corn yield 40 pounds of spirit of specific gravity 942 = 3.47 gallons proof. A distiller of malt whisky, says Dr. Úre, calculates on obtaining two gallons of proofspirits from one bushel of malt in ordinary years. The highest yield is 20 gallons per quarter of 8 busheis.

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The principal intoxicating beverages produced by distillation are: 1. Brandy (q.v.), which name is applied properly only to spirits distilled from wine. 2. Rum is manufactured from molasses and other uncrystallizable products of the sugar-cane. 3 Corn or malt spirit, under the various names of British spirits, gin, whisky, etc. Dutch distillers give a peculiar flavor to their spirits (Hollands) by adding a portion of juniper-berries to the other ingredients. From the French name of the juniper, genièvre, come geneva and gin. 4. Spirits from various vegetable substances. In Germany, a great quantity of spirit is distilled from potatoes, which contain about five per cent of starch. Beet-root and carrots are also used in the same way. The Swedes make a kind of spirit from the sap of the birch, and the maple and other trees are turned to a similar account. We have, besides, cherry-brandy, peach-brandy, ciderspirit, etc. 5. Arrack (q.v.) is the East Indian name for all ardent spirits. See SPIRIT.

DISTILLATION, DESTRUCTIVE, is the term applied to the process of heating vegetable and animal substances in retorts or similarly closed vessels, at a temperature sufficient to decompose the original substance, and obtain therefrom products possessing different properties from the material which yielded them. Examples of this process are, the heating of coal in gas-works at a red heat, when it resolves itself into coke, which is left in the retort, and coal-gas, naphtha, tar, etc., which distill over into suitable receivers; the treatment of coal at and below a low red heat, when it yields much paraffine oil; the distillation of wood in close vessels, at a red heat, when charcoal is left in the vessel, and wood-vinegar, wood-spirit, tar, etc., pass over in vapor, and are condensed; and the heating of bones in similar retorts, when animal charcoal is left in the retort, and Dippel's animal oil distils over.

DISTILLED WATER is the condensed product obtained by the distillation of water. All natural waters, even rain-water, contain certain saline matters (common salt, etc.) in a state of solution, from which they can only be completely freed by the process of distillation. The characters of distilled water are, that it possesses a mawkish, insipid

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taste, without odor or color, and when evaporated to dryness in a vessel, it ought to leave no residue. The other properties of distilled water will be noticed under WATER.

DISTILLED WATERS are obtained by distilling water along with the parts of plants containing essential oils. Rose-water and lavender-water are familiar examples.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER, an order instituted in 1886, and conferred prima rily upon British naval and military officers who have been honorably mentioned in despatches. The badge is a gold cross enameled white, bearing the imperial crown on a red ground on the obverse, and the cipher V. R. I. on a red ground on the reverse, and is worn, suspended from a red riband, on the left breast.

DISTORTION. The rules of perspective impose certain conditions in the delineation of natural objects, and when the image formed by a lens on the focusing screen of a camera obscura does not fulfill those conditions, it is said to be distorted. The effect of distortion is to render all straight lines, which do not pass through the center of the lens, curvilinear, and also so to alter the relative proportions of objects in the picture as to be opposed to the principles of true perspective.

DISTRAIN. See DISTRESS.

DISTRESS is defined to be "the taking of a personal chattel out of the possession of the wrong-doer into the possession of the party injured, to procure a satisfaction for the wrong committed." (Stephen's Com., III. 342.) It was a remedy of feudal law, inseparable from fealty to the lord, and incident to every service. Now it is practically enforced chiefly for non-payment of rent, or of certain public dues, and upon cattle straying upon land not belonging to their master. been generally adopted in the United States, with some local difference. It does not The English law of distress has seem to be very popular, however, as a means of collecting rents, as it places the landlord in a better position thap the other creditors. place to an attachment on mesne profits. In New York it is expressly abolished by In New England distress has given statute, and in North Carolina is held to be inconsistent with the spirit of the laws and not to exist in that state. tenant's goods for fifteen days after removal from the premises. There are some articles, The law of Louisiana permits the landlord to follow his however, which cannot be distrained under the law of any of the states. For example, where the proprietor is compelled by necessity to place his goods on the land, or where he does it for commercial purposes; as, in the first instance, the goods of a traveler at an inn, or in the second, goods deposited in a warehouse on storage. Beasts of the plow, implements of trade, and similar chattels in actual use are often exempt. taken under distress are properly advertised and sold at public auction, and the overplus, if any, returned to the tenant. Goods when

DISTRIBUTIONS OF LIFE, ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE. In the light of modern discoveries, the interdependence of every part of nature is clearly revealed, and the life of the world is seen to be one symmetrical organism, the different parts of which are distributed in time and in space by the operation of laws as yet but imperfectly understood. Animals and plants, though sustaining very close relations to each other, form two distinct branches of study, whose phenomena require to be carefully discriminated. Animals are divided into terrestrial and aquatic, the first class being the most important and best understood. Their distribution is considered in two aspects-the climatical and the geographical-which present distinct and sometimes conflicting classes of facts. Of the two, the geographical conditions are the most important. The range of animals is determined in some degree by the altitude or depression of the land-surface on which they dwell. A very important element to be considered, in determining the causes of the distribution of animals, is found in their different powers of dispersal or migration, some having no means of passing over seas, or lofty mountains, or arid deserts, while others, especially the insect tribes, are not thus limited. But migrating animals can not always maintain themselves in a new region, the organisms in previous possession of the soil being too strong for them. The power of adaptation is generally inferior to the power of dispersion. The nature of the vegetation determines the range of some animals. Deserts, marshes, and forests have each their peculiar inhabitants, which do not often stray beyond their limits. Tropical forests especially supply the wants of a great number of peculiar form of life. Mountains of great height and in unbroken ranges form a barrier to the migration of many groups, but their geological age is limited, while oceans, owing to their great antiquity, have separated the faunas of different continents for countless ages. The zoological regions of the earth, according to the best authority, are six in number, each one having marked and distinct peculiarities. The last of these divisions is the Nearctic, which comprises all temperate North America, and is subdivided into the Californian, the Rocky mountain, the Alleghany, and the Canadian regions. The peculiar fauna of the Nearctic region is best represented in the United States, where many peculiar genera of mammalia, birds, reptiles, and insects are found. The distribution of the higher animals during the post-tertiary and tertiary periods is a subject of very deep interest. It is found that, during the post-tertiary period, the reindeer and the antelope inhabited France; elephants and rhinoceroses roamed all over Europe; in North America there were lions, horses, camels, bisons, elephants, and mastodons. This period was characterized by great movements or migrations of the higher animals, and by the extinction of many huge creatures belonging to almost every order of mammalia,

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and several orders of birds. The tertiary fauna of North America, compared with that of Europe, exhibits proof of a former communication between the two northern continents. From the knowledge now possessed of the extinct fauna of most of the great continents, scientists can approximately determine the original birthplace of some now widely distributed groups. The distribution of the marine animals also presents many interesting phenomena, but they cannot be noticed here. The geological record on which depends our knowledge of the distribution of animals in respect to time, though it reveals much important truth, is yet very imperfect. The evidence, so far as it goes, tends, it is thought, to confirm the doctrine of evolution.

The distribution of vegetable life is involved in much obscurity. For a long time the investigation of the subject was pursued under great disadvantages, and with very unsatisfactory results. The writings of Darwin, Hooker, Gray, and Bentham, however, have thrown much light on the subject. Bentham recognizes three ancient floras-the northern, the tropical, and the southern. The northern is divided into that of the old and new world by the severance of North America from Northern Asia, and by the barriers of the Rocky mountains. The divergences in the flora of these two regions originated in distance, but have been greatly increased by isolation. Lesquereux believes that the origin of the present American flora is American. There is a strong analogy, however, between it and the miocene flora of Central Europe, and the American element in the latter is supposed to be derivative, confirming the observation of Gray that plants tend to migrate from east to west, rather than from west to east. The boundaries of the northern flora, under the influence of climatic variations, have also undergone longitudinal changes. The northern flora, by the combined influence of physical and genetic causes, has undergone a specialization into three distinct groups-the Arctic-Alpine, the temperate, and the Mediterraneo-Caucasian. The southern flora is still more complex in its relations, and is described in five types-the Antarctic-alpine, the Australian, the Andine, the Mexico-Californian, and the South African; the latter, though limited in extent, being the richest of all. The tropical flora has hardly as yet been investigated.

DISTRIBUTION, STATUTE OF, the distribution of the personal property of any person dying without a will by order of the court having authority. Real property is said to be acquired by descent, and goes to the heirs; personal property is distributed to the next of kin. In a large proportion of the states the rules of distribution of personal property follow the laws of descent of real estate, in others there are In N. Y., for example, it is provided that after the payment important distinctions. of debts, etc., the residue shall be distributed as follows: One-third to the widow, and If there be no children, one-half to the the residue equally among the children. If there be no widow, and the other half to be divided among the next of kin. If there be no children, parents, brothers, or sisters, then the widow takes the whole.

widow, the children take the whole; if they too are wanting then the property is divided among the next of kin. The statute is very full and provides for a very large variety of contingencies, and reference should be made to it. 3 N. Y. Rev. Stat., 6th ed., p. 104.

DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES. See SPECIES.

D'ISTRIA. See GHIKA, HELENA.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF THE UNITED STATES, is a member of the bar appointed to try civil and criminal suits for the government in the circuit and district courts of the United States, and required by law to report his doings to the attorney-general in Washington. He has a merely nominal salary, but receives fees, often large, prescribed by act of congress. The office is one of responsibility and honor.

DISTRICT, CONGRESSIONAL, is that portion of the territory of a state the voters in which are by law entitled to choose once in two years a representative to the con(See CONGRESS, gress of the United States. The number of such districts varies from time to time, being fixed by congress immediately after each decennial census.

UNITED STATES.) The boundaries of the district in each state are determined by the legislature thereof. The ratio of representation (number of inhabitants required for a district) under the census of 1890 is 173,901; the number of districts is 356. The ratio is raised after each census, on account of increase of population, as otherwise The time may come when a member of congress would be inconveniently large. congress will represent a million of people. The constitution declares that each state shall have at least one representative, even if its whole population should at any time come short of the prescribed ratio. Under this rule the state of Delaware with a population of only 168,493 has one representative in the lower house of congress, while in the senate its representation is equal to that of any other state.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (see WASHINGTON), a small territory between Maryland and Virginia selected in 1800 as the site for the national capital of the United States. The selection of a place for the seat of government provoked the first discussion of a sectional nature after the adoption of the federal constitution. The government was organized at New York, Mar. 4, 1789, and congress met in that city until 1791. In 1790, after a long discussion, a bill was passed providing that the seat of government should be changed to Philadelphia, where it should remain from Dec., 1790, to Dec., 1800, a district of territory not exceeding 10 sq.m., on the at which time it should be upon

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