Diatonic
a term used in the science of music, orignally from the Greek, meaning "by-tones," or "from tone to tone." The diatonic species of the ancient Greeks-as distinguished from their chromatic and enharmonic species formed the foundation of their whole system of music, and was arranged in tetra-chords (embryo scales) composed of one semi-tone and two whole tones. In modern music, the term is applied to (1) the natural or normal scale, major or minor, which proceeds mainly by whole tones; (2) the different species of intervals (usually reckoned as 14 in number) occurring between the various notes of that scale; and (3) music written wholly or for the most part in that scale.
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Diaz Del Castillo
BERNAL (dē'äth del käs-tē yō), a Spanish chronicler of the conquest of Mexico; born about 1498; died in Mexico about 1593. His "True History of the Discovery and Conquest of New Spain" was published at Madrid in 1632.
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Dibranchiata
an order of cephalopods characterized by the possession of two gills only, and by the fact that the shell, if external, as is rarely the case, is never chambered. It includes the cuttlefishes, squids, and paper nautilus. The order contains two sections, octopoda and decapoda.
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Dice
small cubes of ivory marked on their sides with black dots, from one to six. The points on the opposite sides of the dice should always sum seven-i. e., ace should be opposite to six (pronounced size); deuce to cinque (pronounced sanke); and trey to quatre (pronounced kater). The invention of dice is attributed to Palamedes (circa 1244 b. c.).
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Dicecious
in botany, a term applied to unisexual plants, such as the willow and the hemp, in which the staminiferous and pistilliferous flowers are on separate individuals. In zoology, a term applied to those animals in which the sexes are distinct; that is, those in which the ovum is produced by one individual (female) and the spermatozoid by another (male). It is opposed to monœcious.
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Dicentra
a genus of plants, order Fumariaceæ, tribe Fumarieæ. Cucullaria has been employed as a medicine to expel intestinal worms, and as an emmenagogue. It is a tree growing in Brazil and Guiana.
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Dichlamydeous
a term in botany "Nicholas Nickleby" (1839); "Master applied by De Candolle to distinguish Humphrey's Clock" (1840-1841), those dicotyledonous flowers possessed of both calyx and corolla from his Monochlamydeæ, in which not more than one floral envelope is present.
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Dichogamy
a provision in hermaphrodite flowers to prevent self -fertilization, the stamens and pistils within the same flower not being matured at the same time.
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Dichotomy
in logic, a distribution or separation of ideas by pairs; the division of a class into two sub-classes opposed to each other by contradiction. In botany, a term applied to that kind of branching by a constant furcation or division into two parts, as where the stem of a plant branches into two branchlets, each of which in its turn divides into others, and so on. Example, the mistletoe. The veins of various ferns thus branch dichotomously. that phase of the moon where it appears In astronomy, bisected or is only half illuminated, as at the quadratures.
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Dichroism
the property by which a crystallized body assumes two or more colors, according to the direction by which light is transmitted through it. Examples, iolite , ladium , etc. Dick te, mica, muriate of pal- Dichroism depends upon the absorption of some of the colored rays of the polarized light in its passage through the crystal, this absorption varying with the different relative positions of the planes of primitive polarization of these rays to the axis of double refraction of the crystals, so that the two pencils formed by double refraction are differently colored. DICHROITE. See CORDIERITE.
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Dickinson College
a coeducational institution in Carlisle, da; founded in 1783, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church; reported at the end of 1919: Professors and instructors, 15; students, 375.
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Dickman
JOSEPH THEODORE, an American soldier, born in Dayton, O., in 1857. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1881 and was commissioned 2d lieutenant in the 3d Cavalry. He rose through the various grades, becoming lieutenant-colonel in 1899. He served during the Spanish- American War and was honorably mustered out of the volunteer service in 1901. In 1906 he was appointed major of the 13th United States Cavalry, and in 1909 became inspector-general. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel in the cavalry in 1912, and in 1914 was promoted to be colonel. He became brigadier-general in 1917, and in the same year was appointed major-general in the National Army. In July, 1918, he was given command of the Third Division of the American Expeditionary Force, and he commanded the American Army of Occupation in Germany following the armistice.
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Dickson
HARRIS, an American lawyer and writer, born in Yazoo City, Miss., in 1868. He was educated in the common schools and studied law at Columbia University. From 1896 he engaged in practice in Vicksburg, Miss., and from 1905 to 1907 was judge of the Municipal Court of that city. He was the author of "The Black Wolf's Breed" (1899); "The Ravanels" (1905); "Old Reliable" (1912); "The House of Luck" (1917); "Unpopular History of the United States" (1917). He contributed numerous articles and fiction to magazines. In 1917 he acted as war correspondent in France for Collier's Weekly.
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Dickson City
a borough of Pennsylvania, in Lackawanna co. It is on the Delaware and Hudson Company, and the New York, Ontario and Western railroads. It is the center of an important coal mining region and has foundries, silk mills, and machine shops. Pop. (1910) 9,331; (1920) 11,049.
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Dicotyledon
in the singular, a plant having two cotyledons or seedleaves, that is, primordial leaves, contained in the embryo. The majority of flowering plants have this structure. When therefore seed is sown, in most cases the future plant first appears above the ground as a tiny two-leaved existence, and in certain cases the next pair of leaves which appear, and all the future ones, are of a different structure from the first. The primordial pair of leaves are the two cotyledons. Th Their use in the economy of nature is to shelter the ordinary leaves situated inside. In the plural the highest class of the vegetable kingdom, containing orders of plants with the structure of seed just described.
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