in 1797 to the house of cadets in Berlin, but made him enter the ranks of the Russian imperial guard in 1801. He fought bravely in the battle of Austerlitz in 1805, in those of Eylau and Friedland in 1807, was made captain, devoted himself with zeal to the study of military science during the 5 years of peace which followed the treaty of Tilsit, served with great distinction under Wittgenstein during the invasion of the French in 1812, compelled, or rather persuaded, the Prussian general York to capitulate, was active as chief of Wittgenstein's staff in 1813, distinguished himself at Lützen, and was then attached as quartermaster-general to the corps of Barclay de Tolly in Silesia. Here he contributed to the conclusion of the secret treaty of Reichenbach between Russia, Prussia, Austria, and England, in June, 1813. He fought at Dresden, as well as at Leipsic, where he was made by Alexander lieutenant-general on the battle field. In the French campaign of 1814, when Schwartzenberg, frightened by the bold march of Napoleon, who threw himself between his army and the Rhine, advised the retreat of the allied armies, it was Diebitsch who decided for the march on Paris, which terminated the war. Arrived at Montmartre, the emperor Alexander embraced him, and decorated him with the order of Alexander Nevskoi. In 1815 he was married to a niece of Barclay de Tolly. After the return of Napoleon from Elba he was sent to the first corps, but was soon recalled to serve as adjutant of the emperor. Being made chief of the staff of the army, he accompanied Alexander on his journey through the south of Russia, and was present at his death at Taganrog in 1825. Having been sent with the news of this event to the grand duke Constantine at Warsaw, he returned to St. Petersburg, where he distinguished himself during the revolutionary outbreak of Dec. 25 by intrepidity, prudence, and humanity. The new emperor, Nicholas, rewarded his services with the title of baron, and afterward with that of count. In the war of 1828-'9 against Turkey, he acquired new renown by the taking of Varna, and by the crossing of the Balkan, which forced the Porte to make the peace of Adrianople, and procured him the name of Zabalkanskoi (Transbalkanian). Having spent some time at Berlin, he hastened to St. Petersburg at the news of the outbreak of the revolution in Warsaw, Nov. 29, 1830, and was appointed commander-in-chief of the army which was sent to put it down, as well as governor of the provinces adjoining Poland. Commencing the campaign in the midst of winter, he crossed the Polish frontier, Jan. 25, 1831; but the first engagements at Wisniew and Stoczek, Feb. 11, at Dobre on the 18th, at Grochow and Wawer on the 19th, in which the Poles fought heroically against overwhelming numbers, and still more the battles fought about the end of March in the vicinity of Praga, proved that fortune had left his banners. Without profiting by the favorable issue of the bloody battles of Nur, Lomza, and Ostrolenka (May 15-26), he

removed his camp to Kleczewo, where he was suddenly overtaken by death, which was officially attributed to the cholera, but by general rumor to poison. Certain it is, that his deposition was determined upon, and that shortly before Count Orloff had arrived at the camp from St. Petersburg to examine into the condition of the army.

DIEFFENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH, a German surgeon, born in Königsberg, Prussia, in 1792, died in Berlin, Nov. 11, 1847. He was the son of a professor of theology, and at first devoted himself to that study, but broke off this peaceful pursuit to join in the war against Napoleon, serving as a volunteer in a company of Mecklenburg troops from 1813 to 1815. He afterward resumed his theological studies, which, however, he exchanged for the more congenial pursuit of medicine. Having taken his medical degree at Würzburg in 1822, he established himself at Berlin, where he had great success as a surgeon, and where, in 1830, he was appointed head surgeon of one of the hospitals, 2 years after professor in the university, and in 1840 director of clinical surgery in the same institution. Dieffenbach was especially distinguished for his remarkable dexterity in the use of the scalpel, for the success of his operations in the formation of artificial noses, cheeks, lips, &c., and for the cures which he effected in cases of squinting and stammering. He was, however, not eminent as a lecturer. Among his works may be mentioned the "Operative Surgery," his masterpiece, which has been translated into several different languages; "Surgical Experiences, especially with regard to the Restoration of Portions of the Human Body which have been destroyed;" "The Cure of Stammering by a new Surgical Operation;" and "On the Cutting of the Sinews and Muscles."

DIEL DU PARQUET, JACQUES, a French colonial governor, died at St. Pierre, Martinique, Jan. 3, 1658. In 1638 he was appointed governor of Martinique by his uncle, D'Enambuc, the founder of the French colony on that island, and also of that on the island of St. Christopher. This appointment was afterward confirmed by the company which then had control of French affairs in the islands of America, and Du Parquet held the office until his death. He exerted himself vigorously to promote the welfare of the colony, which was in a miserable condition when he assumed the control of its affairs, and his efforts were attended with a gratifying success. He purchased from a Carib chief one of the small islands of the West Indies, and the seller, afterward repenting of his agreement, made war upon the colonists whom Du Parquet had established there. The contest was long and bloody, but at last the French compelled the savages to submit. Du Parquet introduced the cultivation of the sugar cane into Martinique. In 1650 he went to France, where he purchased for a large sum of money and an annual rent the ownership of the islands of Martinique Sainte Alousie, Grenada, and the Grenadines. He ad

ministered the affairs of the colony with success for a period of nearly 20 years, and after his death, his wife, who was a woman of great energy, governed in his place for a time; but having been struck with paralysis, she embarked for Europe, and died on the passage in Aug. 1659. DIEPPE, a seaport town of France, in the department of Seine-Inférieure, on the English channel, at the mouth of the Arques, 93 m. N. N. W. from Paris; lat. 49° 56′ N., long. 1° 5' E.; pop. in 1856, 18,226. It extends a mile along the coast, has wide and regular streets, and its houses, mostly of the same style, are built of brick, 2 stories high, with balconies toward the street. The finest hotels and residences are near the harbor, on the Grand rue, or main street, which runs parallel with the sea the whole length of the town. The most remarkable public edifices are the churches of St. Remy and St. Jacques. The latter is a large structure in the Gothic style, was commenced in 1200, and not completed till after three centuries, and is built entirely of stone brought from England. The former is in the mixed Gothic-Saracenic style. Dieppe is well supplied with water by means of an aqueduct 3 m. in length, cut in the solid rock, which supplies 68 public and numerous private fountains. The port, enclosed by 2 jetties, is spacious and secure, with a basin of sufficient depth for vessels of 600 tons, but the entrance to it is difficult. Dieppe has 2 suburbs, La Barre and Le Pollet, and is the seat of a court of first resort and of a communal college. Its manufactures in ivory are the most famed in Europe. Its present distinction, however, is due mainly to its sea-baths, which, with its pure air and picturesque situation, have made it the chief watering place of France. The principal bathing establishment is an immense hotel, combining reception rooms, ball, concert, and billiard rooms, a theatre, and literary, social, and convivial saloons. In the early part of this century it first became, under the patronage of the gay duchess de Berry, the rendezvous during the summer of the noblest families in France. Dieppe was founded in the 10th century, in so favorable a position that in less than 4 centuries it had become the rival of Rouen. Dieppe mariners discovered Canada in the middle of the 16th century, and formed the first French settlements on the banks of the Senegal. It was bombarded by the English and Dutch in 1694.

DIEREVILLE, a French traveller, born in Pont l'Évêque in the 17th century. He sailed for Acadia in 1699, remained there one year, and on his return published an account of the country, at first in verse, and afterward in prose (Paris, Rouen, and Amsterdam, 1708-'12). He brought back from America several new plants, one of which Tournefort named after him.

DIES IRÆ, the opening words of a celebrated Latin hymn upon the last judgment, which, on account of the sublimity of its ideas, and the fervent sentiment which pervades it, was early received into the liturgy of the Catholic church. VOL. VI.-30

The authorship of this terrible and beautiful poem has been variously ascribed to Gregory the Great in the 7th century, to St. Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th, and to two Dominican monks and devotional poets, Umbertus and Frangipani, in the 13th. It is more probable that the true author was a Franciscan, Thomas de Celano, who was born in Abruzzo in 1221, was appointed guardian of the Minorite convents at Mentz, Worms, and Cologne, and in 1230 returned to Italy, where he died in 1255. When the Catholic church adopted this hymn into its liturgy, and added it to the service for the dead, cannot be precisely known, though it was certainly before the year 1385. At that time the text suffered some modifications; the beginning was omitted, and some verses added, composed by Felix Haemmerlin, who was hence for a long time regarded as the author of the entire hymn. It is as thus modified that it was included in the Roman missal, published in 1567 by order of the council of Trent, which is still used by the Roman Catholic church. The original text, Dies ira, dies illa, is engraved upon a marble tablet in the church of St. Francis, at Mantua.

DIESKAU, LUDWIG AUGUST, a German general who served in France, Germany, and America, born in 1701, died at Surenne, near Paris, in 1767. He was adjutant of Marshal Saxe, in whose interest he visited St. Petersburg in 1741. He accompanied him in the campaigns against the Netherlands, and became in 1748 brigadiergeneral of infantry, and commauder of Brest. In 1755 he sailed as field marshal to Canada, at the head of French troops, to assist in the campaign against the English. With 600 Indians, as many Canadians, and 200 regular troops, he ascended Lake Champlain with the design of attacking Fort Edward. He defeated a detachment under Col. E. Williams, which had been sent for relief, and pursued them to the fort with the hope of entering it with them. The savages, however, halted just without the intrenchments, the Canadians became alarmed, and the regulars perished before the fire of New England marksmen. Dieskau, thrice wounded, refused to retire from the field, but, indignant at the conduct of his troops, seated himself on the stump of a tree, exposed to the rattle of the bullets. He was hit by a random shot after the flight of his army, and though wounded incurably, returned to Europe and lived several years, receiving a pension from France.

DIET (Fr. diète), a term applied to several political bodies of medieval and modern Europe, corresponding to the parliament in Great Britain, the cortes in Spain and Portugal, the states-general, national assembly, and chambers in the history of France, and the congress in the United States. The derivation of the term from the Latin dies, day, as meaning a day fixed for the national deliberations on public affairs, is proved by the corresponding words in German (Reichstag), Dutch (Rijksdag), Swedish (Riksdag), and Danish (Rigsdag), all of which mean day of the empire; by the similar Swiss

term for the Helvetian diet (Tagsatzung), and by the verbs tagen, to be assembled, in German, and ajourner, to adjourn, in French, derived respectively from Tag and jour, day. It is used by English and French historians of the state assemblies of the German empire and confederation, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland, and some other countries, to which the Germans apply the distinctive appellations of Reichstag, Landtag, Landstände, Bundestag, Tagsatzung, &c. The constitutional organization of the diets still existing in European states is described under the respective heads of the countries, while we add here a few remarks on those which, belonging to the past, are only historically important. The diet of the German empire, which must not be confounded with the popular assemblies of the Germanic nations in the Carlovingian times, or with the assembly (Bundestag) of the German confederation as established by the congress of Vienna, had its rise after the dissolution of the Frankish empire, and was slowly developed under the successive German houses, undergoing material changes, particularly in the reigns of the emperors Charles IV. in the 14th century, Frederic III. in the 15th, and Charles V. in the 16th, until it received its ultimate modifications by the treaty of Westphalia in 1648, and the session of Ratisbon in 1663. From this date down to the dissolution of the empire in 1806, Ratisbon became its permanent seat, while in previous times the emperor had the privilege of choosing the place of its sessions. The emperor, who formerly appeared in person, was now represented by a principal commissary, and all members of the empire by plenipotentiaries or agents. The diet consisted of 3 divisions, the so-called colleges of electors, princes, and imperial cities. The elector of Mentz, the archchancellor of the empire, presided in the electoral college, the archbishop of Saltzburg and the archduke of Austria alternately in the college of princes, and the city where the session was held in that of the cities. The electors and cities had individual votes, as well as the chief members of the college of princes, while the imperial counts and imperial prelates, who belonged to the latter, had only collective votes by benches, of which there were 4 of counts and 2 of prelates. Resolutions were passed by majority, except in religious matters and those concerning individual members of the empire alone. But the concurrence of all the 3 colleges and the ratification of the emperor were required to establish a decree of the empire (Reichsschluss). Concurrence in case of difference of opinion was obtained by reconsideration and conference. The emperor had the right of rejection, but not of modification. The collection of resolutions passed and sanctioned by a diet was termed imperial recess (Reichsabschied). The diet framed the laws of the empire, abolished and explained them, declared war and made peace, received and sent ambassadors, and concluded treaties. Imperial wars were proposed by the emperor, decided

upon by majority, and carried on by the contingents of both the majority and the minority. -The Polish diet (sejm) dates principally from the reign of Ladislas the Short, who in 1331 assembled all the nobles of his kingdom. Its form was established by law under Casimir IV. In the last period of independent Poland it was convened regularly every 2 years, for a session of no more than 6 weeks, twice successively in Warsaw and the 3d time at Grodno, in Lithuania. It consisted of a senate and a chamber of deputies (posel, plur. poslowie). The latter were elected in previous municipal or district assemblies (sejmik, little diet). After the verification of their powers, the diet elected their president or marshal (marszalek). The most remarkable feature of the Polish diet is the so-called liberum veto, or the right of each member to prevent the enactment of a law or measure by individual opposition (nie pozwalam, I do not allow, or veto). This extreme of liberty, unknown in the history of any other nation, was remedied in part by confederations formed by the majority for the execution of its designs, and by timely applica tion of violence, which silenced bribed or treacherous opponents; but it also led to fatal distractions, scenes of bloodshed, the permanence of factions, and finally, with other causes, to the fall of Poland. The diet of election was preceded by a diet of convocation, the archbishop of Gnesen, the primate of the state, having announced in a circular the death of the king, and the vacancy of the throne. Hereupon all nobles appeared personally, assembling on the plain of Wola, near Warsaw, the senate in a shed (szopa), the common nobles in the kolo (circle). A diet of coronation, and, if that of election had been stormy, another of pacification, followed.-The diet of Hungary (diéta, or országgyülés), formerly convened at various places, was finally regularly held at Presburg, except in the revolutionary periods, under Rákóczy and Kossuth. It consisted of 2 houses, the upper, or table of magnates, and the lower, or table of deputies. In the latter, previous to the law of 1848, only the representatives of the nobles in the counties had a decisive personal vote.

DIETERICI, KARL FRIEDRICH WILHELM, a German statistician and economist, born in Berlin, Aug. 23, 1790. He began his university studies in Königsberg, devoting particular attention to mathematics, and continued them in Berlin, where, in 1812, he became tutor in the family of Klewitz, minister of state. He studied history and law under Eichhorn, Rühs, Savigny, and Hoffmann. In 1813 he was appointed engineer in the army of Blücher, and in this position made the campaigns of 1813 and 1814. In 1815 he again served under Blücher, and in 1820 he was employed in the ministry of public instruction under Stein. In 1834 he was appointed professor of political science in the university of Berlin, and in 1844 succeeded Hoffmann in the direction of the statistical bureau. His writings are numerous, principally upon subjects of political econ

omy. The most valuable of them are his "Statistical Survey of the most important Objects of Traffic and Consumption in the Prussian State and the German Commercial Union," and his "Prosperity of the People in the Prussian State." DIETETICS. For his complete nutrition man must have presented to him in his food the albumen or fibrine of which his tissues are mainly composed, the iron and the salts contained in those tissues and in the blood and fatty matter, or some substance which can readily be converted into fat, which enters into the composition of his body, and which serves to maintain the animal heat. (See ALIMENT, ANIMAL HEAT, and ABSTINENCE.) But food must not only contain all the principles necessary to nutrition, it must likewise be digestible and assimilable; it must be capable of being disintegrated and dissolved in the alimentary canal, so that it may be absorbed, and finally converted into blood from which the waste of the tissues may be supplied. Digestibility and nutritive value bear no necessary relation to each other; an article of food may be highly nutritious and yet exceedingly indigestible, or it may be easily digestible and yet afford but little nutriment. While certain articles and classes of articles are in general more digestible, there is no rule of invariable application. There are innate differences in kind as well as in degree in the digestive as in the intellectual powers of mankind; and what will offend the stomach of one man, another no stronger or healthier will digest with ease. But aside from individual peculiarities, of which more will be said further on, there are other causes of difference more general in their character. 1. Habit has in this way great influence. What men have been used to, they digest with greater facility. An American or Englishman visiting the continent of Europe is frequently attacked with diarrhoea from an unaccustomed diet, which experience proves is equally wholesome with his own. During the revolutionary war numbers of the troops from the southern states while on duty at the North became ill, and their health was only restored by an allowance of fat bacon. The ill-fed Irishman on enlisting into the British army frequently is affected with what is termed a "meat fever," his new diet is so much superior to what he was accustomed to, that his organs do not readily adapt themselves to the change. 2. The circumstances of the system have a great influence on the digestibility of food. A diet suited to Canada or Labrador would be oppressive and injurious in the West Indies or on the isthmus of Panama; the season, amount of clothing, exposure, exercise, have an influence on the digestive capacity as well as on the requirements of the system. 3. The digestibility of food is much influenced by our liking for it; within certain limits, what we are fond of agrees with us, and what we dislike is not apt to digest well. The haut goût which excites the appetite of the epicure provokes nausea in a less cultivated stomach. Still despite the

various sources of diversity, some articles are for the majority of men of comparatively easy digestion, others are assimilated with greater difficulty.-Food is commonly classed in 2 great divisions, according as it is derived from the animal or vegetable kingdom. Animal food again may be subdivided into the flesh of mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles, crustaceans, and mollusks. The flesh of the mammals, and indeed of the birds and fishes used for food, differs very little in chemical composition. The fibrine, albumen, and gelatine of which chiefly they are made up, may be considered as chemically identical, from whatever animal they may be derived. The fats differ in the relative proportions, and sometimes in the character of the fatty acids which enter into their composition. The saline matters, varying in their proportions, are mainly of the same character, while the immense variety of flavors by which they are distinguished depend upon principles existing in exceedingly minute proportions, and for the most part soluble in water. The difference in meats arises from the varying proportions of fibrine, gelatine, and fat, and from variations in mechanical texture, and to these circumstances is due their difference in digestibility. Whatever renders the animal fibre harder, makes the meat less digestible; whatever renders it more delicate and tender, more easily separated and disintegrated, makes it more easily soluble in the juices of the stomach. Provided an animal has reached maturity, the tenderness of its meat is increased by youth, by its not having been worked, by its being in good condition, the muscular fibres interpenetrated and separated by minute proportions of fatty tissue. Keeping tends very much to improve the tenderness of meat. Few animals are fit to be eaten the day they are killed; but when kept, long before the slightest taint can be detected, a change takes place that renders the fibres more easily separated and disintegrated, more readily broken down and comminuted during mastication, and more quickly reduced and assimilated by the stomach. Of the different meats, venison that has been well kept is, in its season, perhaps the most tender and digestible. In Dr. Beaumont's experiments he found that in St. Martin a meal of broiled venison steak was completely digested and removed from the stomach in 13 hours, a shorter time than was required by any other meat. Wether mutton of a proper age, that has hung for a sufficient length of time, is scarcely inferior in digestibility to venison. Beef ranks next to mutton. The flesh of the lamb and of the calf are less digestible than mutton or beef, and of the two, veal is less readily digested than lamb. Of all the meats in ordinary use, pork is most refractory to the gastric juices; and, contrary to what holds with regard to beef and mutton, the sucking pig is more digestible than pork. The fat of meats generally, and all varieties of fatty matters, are difficult of assimilation; they are particularly offensive to weak stomachs, sometimes appearing to form an oily pellicle,

which, floating on the partially chymified mass, becomes rancid and occasions distressing heart burn and nausea, or causes eructations of acrid matter which leave a peculiarly disagreeable taste upon the palate. The mode of dressing meat has a great influence upon its digestibility; that which agrees best with the majority of stomachs is broiling. The fire should be brisk, so that the albumen on the surface of the meat may be rapidly coagulated; this preserves the juices of the meat, and it is rendered at once more savory and more tender. The same rule applies to boiling and roasting. When the meat is to be cooked, if boiled, it should be at once plunged into boiling water; the coagulation of the albumen on the surface thus produced, protects the interior from loss; while if soup is to be made, the meat should be put into cold water and the temperature slowly and graduly raised, thus extracting its nutritious fluids to the greatest possible extent. Of all methods of cooking, frying is the most objectionable; not only is the meat rendered harder than when boiled, and thus more indigestible, but it becomes imbued with boiling fat, and is thus rendered still more refractory to the gastric juice. Rich stews are objectionable on the same account; the fat set free by the heat penetrates and is absorbed by the meat, and renders it liable to offend delicate stomachs. By the action of salt on muscular flesh, the juices of the meat are abstracted; in this manner not only is its nutritive value impaired (see ALIMENT), but it is rendered harder and drier and consequently more indigestible; the longer the flesh is exposed to the action of salt, the harder and drier it becomes. Perhaps all fats form an exception to the fact that meat is rendered more indigestible by salting; they have little water to lose, and their texture cannot consequently become consolidated; fat pork is even rendered more digestible by salting. St. Martin, according to Dr. Beaumont's observations, digested recently salted pork when raw or broiled in from 3 hours to 3 hours and 15 minutes; the same article fried occupied him 4 hours 15 minutes for its reduction; while fresh pork, fat and lean, roasted, required 5 hours 15 minutes. On the other hand, boiled fresh beef with a little salt was digested in 2 hours 45 minutes, while old salted beef required 4 hours 15 minutes when dressed in the same manner. All empyreumatic substances impair digestion by interfering with the action of the animal matter, the pepsin, which is the principal solvent agent of the gastric juice. In this manner smoking impairs the digestibility of meat; few things are more difficult of management by a feeble stomach than old and well-smoked beef. Of poultry, the turkey is most digestible. St. Martin found fowls, roasted or boiled, of slower digestion than beef; ducks and geese, as might be supposed from the amount of fat they contain, are assimilated with difficulty. Fish furnishes an abundant and digestible variety of food. The dry, white sorts, cod, haddock, bass, &c., are the

most digestible; while the richer kinds, salmon, shad, mackerel, eels, &c., are less apt to agree with the stomach. St. Martin digested boiled or fried salmon trout in 14 hours, boiled dried cod in 2 hours, fried catfish in 3 hours 20 minutes, and boiled pickled salmon in 4 hours. Milk, the only food during the earlier months of infancy, contains from 12 to 13 per cent. of solid matter, about of what is contained in flesh; it is poorer in plastic and richer in respiratory food; its ash furnishes but 0.47 per cent. of iron, while those of flesh and wheat flour yield 1 per cent. It is not digested so quickly as would be supposed, and in this respect boiled has the advantage of unboiled milk; the one took St. Martin 2 hours, the other 21, to convert into chyme. Milk disagrees with a great many persons; this is often connected with the readiness with which it undergoes change when exposed to the atmosphere, and this change commences long before it can be recognized by the taste. Milk just drawn from the cow agrees perfectly with many persons who are unable to take it when a few hours old. When cows are kept in an impure and confined atmosphere, it has been conclusively shown that their milk produces disturbance of the digestive organs and diarrhoea in infants who are fed upon it, and there is good reason to believe that constitutional diseases, scrofula and phthisis, may be thus developed. The caseine of milk, coagulated, generally mixed with more or less butter, and pressed so as to free it from the whey, constitutes cheese. Its richness varies with the quantity of butter it contains; some varieties, Stilton for instance, are made from milk to which an additional quantity of cream has been added. Salt is used to preserve it, and some kinds, as Dutch cheese, are very highly salted. When cheese is kept for a length of time, it undergoes a number of changes, partly dependent on the liberation of the volatile fatty acids existing in the butter, partly in the richer varieties on the commencement of putrefactive fermentation. The firm, close texture of cheese renders it always hard of digestion, and the rich and strong-smelling varieties are particularly to be avoided by delicate stomachs. Fresh sweet butter is, perhaps, the most wholesome and digestible of fatty matters; by heating or rancidity its digestibility is greatly impaired.-Of farinaceous articles, light well-made wheaten bread, from 12 to 24 hours old, is the most generally digestible; warm bread is indigestible, because it forms a tough mass not readily penetrated by the saliva and rebellious to the gastric juices. Unleavened bread, maccaroni, and vermicelli are wholesome, and agree well with the stomach; on the other hand, flour combined with fatty matter, whether in the form of pastry, cake, or pudding, is more or less indigestible, according to its texture and richness. Next to wheat flour, rye affords the best and most wholesome bread. În various countries oatmeal, barley, and maize are used as substitutes for wheat; they form kinds of bread wholesome enough for those habituated