Di'al

[L. dies, aday.] An instrument constructed to show the hour of the day from the position the shadow of a style cast by the sun 011 the face of a dial-plate. It consists of a straight rod or style attached to a plane surface, which is gradu¬ ated in such a way that the shadow points to the correct time of day as shown by the sun. The style is placed in a direction parallel to the earth’s axis. The time shown by a sun-dial is true solar time. of Diamond. [Fr., from Gk. ada mantos.'] The hardest and next to the ruby the most valuable of gems. Chemically, it is pure, crystallized car¬ bon, its crystalline form belonging to the regular in or cubic system, having generally eight or twelve of tions are unsurpa ed by any other stone. It is treme hardne . The value of a diamond is greatly enhanced by cutting. This industry was at one time confined almost exclusively to Am¬ sterdam, but it is now carried on in other places. Diamonds are cut iu two forms—the brilliant and the rose cut. The former brings out better the beauty of the stone. The dust is used by the lapidary and the gem-engraver, and the stone is used for jewelling watches and in cutting gla , c f and for the latter purpose it must not be cut. In¬ ferior sorts are used by engineers in rock-boring, and by copper-plate engravers as etching-points. Diamonds are found in India and Borneo, and sometimes in North America and Australia; but the chief diamond fields of the present day are those of South Africa and Brazil. They were first discovered in South Africa in 1867, existing there in a blueish earth, from which they are washed out. An immense number of diamonds, of great collective value, have been obtained at from these mines. Among the large diamonds found the most famous is the Koh-i-no or, which has a very interesting history. Others are the Great Mogul, the Orloff, the Regent, and the Saucy. of lyinen or cotton cloth or towelling, woven with constantly-repeated figures like iasper. (See Damask.) separating the chest from the abdomen, and forming a movable partition between these two cavities, its most important office being con¬ nected with the function of respiration. inhabiting seas and rivers, each consisting of a single organic cell, inclosed iu a double case of silica, the two halves fitting together like a box of and its lid. They exist in vast multitudes and of many different forms, being visible only under the microscope. marking coins, iu forging metals, and in striking sheet metal. Dies are always made of the finest steel, and the figures on the die are cut by small steel tools. Book-stamps are cut iu bra instead of steel. distributing food over the body. All vertebrates have a mouth, which is generally furnished with teeth. The food is mostly cut and divided in the mouth and mixed with saliva, after which it is swallowed and digested in the stomach (q.v.) by gastric juice, and in the intestines by bile and pancreatic juice, the nutritious portions being absorbed in the blood. In shell-fish, after food is crushed by hard plates in the stomach and mixed with saliva, it pa es into a long intestine, where the nutritious parts are absorbed into the blood. Insects pa the food into a crop and then into a gizzard, where it is crushed and pa ed into the true stomach and intestines.