Dyersburg
a city of Tennessee, the county-seat of Dyer co. It is on the Illinois Central, the Birmingham and Northwestern, and the Chicago, Memphis and Gulf railroads, and on the Forked Deer river. It is the center of an important agricultural region and has an important trade in cotton, wheat, and Its industries include a cottoncorn. seed-oil mill, saw, planing, and flour mills, wagon factories, pressed brick factory, grain elevator, tobacco factory, etc. Pop. (1910) 4,149; (1920) 6,444. 29-Vol. III-Cyc
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Dynamic Theory
a hypothesis broached by Kant that all matter originated from the action of two mutually antagonistic forces-attraction and repulsion. All the predicates of these two forces are attributed by Kant to motion. As applied to heat, it is a theory or hypothesis that now is generally accepted as the correct one-which represents a heated body as being simply a body the particles of which are in a state of vibration. This vibratory movement increases as the body is still more heated, and diminishes proportionately as it more or less rapidly cools. It is called also the mechanical theory of heat.
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Dynamometer
an instrument for measuring the force used in overcoming resistance and producing motion.
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Dysentery
a febrile, infectious tropical disease, not common in this country. It may be acute or chronic, or again complex, and is very intractable and highly dangerous. It is seated in the large intestine, the lower part of the bowel, but sometimes extends upward into the small intestine above the ileocæcal valve. Dysentery is accompanied by straining, and scanty mucous and bloody stools, containing little or no fæces. The most frequent complication is with the liver and disease of the kidney. There is feverishness throughout, dry skin, furred tongue, thirst, sleeplessness, quick pulse, despondency, y, etc., slow convalescence, rarely complete, leaving the patient frequently a complete wreck. Ipecacuanha is the chief remedy, especially in the acute cases. In the scorbutic form, the Bael fruit is the best remedy. Dysentery usually commences with griping diarrhea, and shooting or cutting pains. In favorable cases recovery may take place in from three to four weeks, but death sometimes occurs in 10 or 12 days, or the case may extend over months or years.
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Dyspepsia
difficulty of digestion. The action of the stomach on the food is that usually designated as digestion, and it is the derangement of this process that is usually expressed by the term dyspepsia. The sub-acute and chronic forms of gastric irritation and inflammation are the most common forms of dyspepsia, and are often caused by too highly seasoned or too abundant food and stimulant drinks. Another class of dyspeptic diseases is connected with irritation of the mucous membrane of the duodenum, causing perversion of secretions and disorder of functions. A third class of dyspeptic diseases depends on the nerves connected with the digestive viscera. Hence arises an order of dyspeptic symptoms independent of any immediate affection of the stomach. The most common causes of dyspepsia are excesses of various kinds, especially in the quantity of food eaten. The quality must also be considered, while good cooking is also a preservative against dyspepsia. Linnæan genus of
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Dytiscus
a aquatic coleopterous insects or water beetles, forming the tribe or family Dytiscidæ. They are pentamerous coleoptera; i.e., have all the tarsi five-jointed. Their general form is oval, the outline little broken, and the surface very smooth. The respiratory organs of the perfect insect are not adapted to the extraction of air from water, and it must occasionally come to the surface to breathe, where it rests for a short time back downward, and with the extremity of the abdomen exposed to the air, the openings of the air tubes being in the last segment.
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Dyvour
in the old legal language of Scotland, a bankrupt who under various acts from 1606 to 1696 was until discharged compelled to wear hideous and conspicuous costume. a Thus an act of 1688 prescribes the bes as dyvour's habit "a bonnet partly of brown and partly of a yellow color, with uppermost hose, or stockings, on his legs, half brown and half yellow colored, conform to a pattern delivered to the magistrates of Edinburgh." The barbarous usage had fallen into desuetude long ere the dyvour's habit was abolished by law in 1836.
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Dŭguid, David
A Glasgow painting medium who achieved considerable success in his line. He was a cabinet-maker, who in 1866 found himself possessed of mediumistic faculties. At first an ordinary rapping medium, he speedily developed the power of painting in trance, even in the dark. A still higher stage of mediumship was reached when direct drawings were produced in his presence. These drawings, generally copies of Dutch masters, purporting to be done by the original artists, are said not to have been without some merit, apart from the fact that they were done in complete darkness. The two principal controls were Ruysdael and Steen. In 1869 control of the medium's organism was taken by Hafed, prince of Persia at the beginning of the Christian era, and Archmagus. Hafed related his many adventures through Duguid's mediumship in a series of sittings extending over some years. A Persian of princely birth, he had borne arms in his country's defence. After extensive travels, he was admitted to the magi, and ultimately became Archmagus. He was of those who bore rich gifts to Bethlehem at the birth of Christ. Finally he met his death in the arena at Rome . Hafed, Prince of Persia, was afterwards published in book form. (See Spiritualism ). Duk-duk, The: Members of a secret society of New Pomerania, who are also called Spirits.
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