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tone; or an interval consisting of a less or imperfect semitone.Diesis is the smallest and softest change or inflexion of the voiceimaginable; it is called a faint, expressed thus (X,) by a St. An-drew’s cross or saltier.

DIESPITER, in antiquity, a name given to Jupiter ; and sig-nifying diei pater, father of the day. St. Augustin derives thename from dies, day, and partus, bringing forth ; Jupiter beingreputed to bring forth the day.

D1ESENHOFEN, a large and elegant town of the Helveticrepublic , in the late canton of Schalfhausen, 5 miles S. of Schaff- >hausen.

DIE3T, a town of France , in the department of Dyle, 15 miles |N. E. of Louvain, and 22 W. of Maestricht .

DIET, [ dierta , low Lat. Ji^ito,] in medicine, according tosome, comprehends the whole regimen of life, with regard to air,meat, drink, sleep, watching, motion, rest, the passions, reten-tions, and excretions. Others restrict the term to eating anddrinking alone. The natural constitution of the body of man issuch, that it can easily- beat some changes ami irregularities with-out much injury. Had it been otherwise, we should be almostconstantly put out of order by every slight cause. This advan-tage is from those wonderful communications of the inward parts,whereby, when one part is affected, another comes immediately.toits relief. Thus, when the body is too full, nature causes evacua-tions through some of the outlets: and for this reason, diseasesfrom absolute inanition are generally more dangerous than fromrepletion, unless the latter be excessive ; because we can moreexpeditiously diminish than increase the juices of the body. Uponthe same account, though temperance be beneficial to all men,the ancient physicians advised persons in good health, now andthen to eat and drink more plentifully than usual. Rut, of (hetwo, intemperance in drinking is safer than eating. If a man beobliged to fast, he ought to avoid ail laborious work. From sa-tiety it is not proper to pass directly to sharp hunger, nor fromhunger to satiety: neither will it be safe to indulge absolute restimmediately after excessive labour, nor suddenly to fall to hardwork after long idleness. In a word, all changes in the way ofliving should be made bv degrees. The softer and milder kindsof aliment are proper /or children, and for youth the stronger.Old people ought to lessen the quantity of their food, and increasethat of their drink : but some allowance is to be made for custom,especially in cold climates like ours ; for as in these the appetiteis keener, so is the digestion better performed. Mead ’s “ Mo-nita et l’recspta.*’ Milk pottage for breakfast is far more whole-some than tea with bread and butter; and, if made after the fol-lowing manner, is in many respects preferable to milk alone: letequal quantities of milk mid water be boiled lip with a little oat-meal, which will break the viscidity of the milk, and be at thesame time more easily digested than the latter in an undilutedstate. Besides oatmeal is a much wanner nourishment than wheatenflour, and agree, belter with weak stomachs.

Diet Drinks, in physic, include all the medicated wines,ales, and wheys, used in chronic cases. They require continuationto answer any good purpose.

Diet of Appearance, in Scots law, the day to which a de-fender is cited to appear in court: and every other day to whichthe court shall afterwards adjourn the consideration of the ques-tion.

Diet, [from dies, an appointed day, Skinner: from diet, anold German word signifying a multitude, Junius,] in matters ofpolicy, was used for the general assembly of the states or circles ofthe empire of Germany, and formerly of Poland , to deliberate‘End concert measures proper to be taken for the good of the pub-lic. The general diet of the empire was usually held at Ratishon :it consisted of the emperor, the ten electors, and the ecclesiasticalprinces ; viz. the archbishops, bishops, abbots, and abbesses; thesecular princes, who were dukes, marquises, counts, viscounts, orbarons; and the representatives of the imperial cities. It meton the emperor’s summons, and any of the priuces might send theirdeputies thither in their stead. The diet made laws, raised taxes,determined differences between the several princes and states,and could relieve the subjects from the oppressions of their sove-reigns.

DIETETICS, [JnmniTwi.] the science or philosophy of diets:that which teaches us to adapt particular foods to particular organs

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of digestion, or to particular states of the same organs; so that thegreatest possible portion of nutriment may be extracted from agiven quantity of nutritive matter; or a sufficient portion may lieobtained with the least possible quantity of organic action and ex-haustion, In this sense the science of dietetics embraces a know-ledge as well of the organs and economy of digestion, as of the sub-stances to be digested. Sec At: atom v, and Medicine.

DIETFURTII, a town of Germ any, in the circle of Bavaria ,19 miles \V, of Ratishon.

DIEI Z, or MASSAU DIE 1Z, a county of Germany , in thecircle of Upper Rhine .

Dietz, the capital of the above county, 16 miles E. of Co-logne, and 25 N. of Mentz.

DIEU ET MON DROIT, [Fr. t. e. God and my right ,] themotto of the arms of England, first assumed by Richard 1 . to in-timate that he did not hold Iris empire in vassalage of isny mortal.It was afterwards taken up by Edward III . ami was continuedwithout interruption to the time of king William III . who usedthe motto Je maintiendray, though the former was still retainedupon the great seal. After him queen Anne used the motto Sem-per eadem, which had beer, before used by queen Elizabeth; butever since queen Anne, Dieu el inon droit has been the royalmotto.

Dif.cj f.t Son Actf., in common law, a maxim that the act ofGod shall hurt no man: so that if a house be beat down by a tem-pest, the lessee shall not only be free from an action of warte, butalso have a right to take timber to rebuild the house.

Dieu, Isle de, a small island in the Atlantic, near the coast of'France, 13 miles .3. S. W. of Noirmoutier .

D1 EU3E, or D1 FUZE, a town of France , in the departmentof Meuse , 22 miles N. E. of Nanci.

DIEZ, St. a town of France, in the department of Vosges , 30miles S. oflameville.

DIEZEUGMENON, [Su-Jiuy/AiMv, Gr.] in rhetoric, a figure,whereby several clauses in a sentence relate to one verb.

DIKE, the name of an instrument in music among the Arabs ,serving chiefly to heat lime to the voice : it is a hoop, sometimeswith pieces of brass fixed to it to make a gingling, over which apiece of parchment is distended. It is beat with the fingers, andis the true tympanum of the ancients.

D1 FFAllREATION, in Roman antiquity, a ceremony wherebythe divorce of their priests was solemnized. "The word comes fromthe proposition dis, used, in composition, for division, and farreatio,a ceremony with wheat, of far, wheat.

DIFFERENCE, in heraldry, a term given to a certain figureadded to coats of arms, serving to distinguish one family fromanother; and to shew how distant younger branches are from theelder or principal branch.

Difference, in logic, an essential attribute belonging to somespecies, and not found in the genus; being the idea that defines thespecies. Thus, body and spirit are the two species of substance,which in their ideas include something more than is included in theidea of substance. In body, fur instance, is found impenetrabililyand extension; in spirit, a power of thinking and reasoning: sothat the difference of body is impenetrable extension, ami the dif-ference of spin is cogitation.

Difference, in mathematics, is the remainder, when one num-ber or quantity is subtracted from another.

Difference of Longitude , of two places on the earth, is anarch of the equator, comprehended between the meridians of thesetwo places.

Difference of Latitude , of two places on the earth, is anarch of a meridian contained between the parallels of latitude ofthe two places.

DIFFERENTIAL, DIFFERENTIALS, in thehigher geome-try is an infin itely small quantity, or a particle of quantity so small asto be less than any assignable one. It is called a differential, ordifferential quantity, because frequently considered as the dif-ference of two quantities; and, as such,"is the foundation of thedifferential calculus: Sir Isaac Newton, and the English , call it amoment, as being considered as the momentary increase of quan-tity. Sec Fluxions.

"Differential Method is applied to the doctrine of infinite-simals, or infinitely small quantities, called the arithmetic offluxions. It consists in descending from wh#le quantities to their2 R ‘ infinitely