Dry-rot

(dri'- rot.) (Bot.) A minute fungus which grows in timber, decomposes its fibres, and produces rapid decay. D.-R. is so called by architects in contradistinction only to the more usual circumstances of decay to which wood is liable. Many methods have been proposed for rendering wood, and the various substances consisting of woody fibre, incapable of being affected by dry-rot: the most effectual is the saturating them with a solution of corrosive sublimate. Dual, (du'al.) [From L. dual is, containing two.] Generally, expre ing or containing the number two.(Gram.) A dual number is that form of the verb and noun which indicates that two of the things designated are referred to, the plural form referring to more than two. The anc. Greek, Sanskrit, and Gothic, and the modern Sclavonic languages have a dual number. Dual'ism, (-izm.) [Same der iv.] (Theol.) The Manichæ an doctrine of two principles - the good and the evil. Also, the extreme Calvin is tic, which holds that all mankind are divided, by the absolute decree of the Almighty, into two cla es-the elect and the reprobate.-(Philos.) The philosophical exposition of the nature of things by the adoption of two di imilar primitive principles, not derived from each other. It is the most striking feature in all the early Greek cosmogonies, and that which chiefly distinguishes them from the Oriental. Among the ancients, the most eminent of those who adopted it were the Pythagoreans, and, among the moderns, the Cartes i ans. Those who hold that matter and spirit are distinct principles, in opposition to the materialists, are, in some sense, dualists. [s. 305]