Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/152

132J DIA This .malady is very common, being either a primary disease, or only a symptom or effect of ano- ther. In many cases, it is a salu- tary effort of Nature, and therefore should never be stopped, unless it continue too long, or evidently weaken the patient. Infants, adults of tender and delicate constitutions, and those who are of a choleric, or a sanguine habit, are peculiar- ly liable to this disorder, which may be occasioned by too great a quantity of aliment being taken into the stomach ; by the acrid or fiatulent nature of the food 5 by an impaired state of digestion ; by va- rious passions of 'die mind; by dis- eases of other parts, or of the ge- neral system. Many other causes might be enumerated, but these will be sufficient to shew the pro- priety of not attempting to adopt, in this instance, an uniform mode ci treatment. Where looseness is occasioned by excess, or repletion, or from improper food, a gentle emetic may be safely administered, as it will not only cleanse the stomach, but promote all the secretions. The patient ought then chiefly to live on light vegetable dishes, and to drink whey, thin gruel, or barley- water. If a diarrhoea be the con- sequence of violent passions, or affections of the mind, it requires to be treated with the utmost cau- tion. Very mild laxatives, some- times gentle opiates, and other an- tispasmodics, are in such cases the most proper ; particular care ought to be taken, to restore chearfulncss, and tranquillity of mind ; as, with- out this, medicines will be of little or no service. Those persons who, from a pe- culiar weakness, or too great an irritability of the bowels, are liable to periodical or frequent returns of DIB this disease, ought to live with a constant regard to temperance, and avoid all crude summer fruit, and provisions of difficult digestion. They should, likewise, stri£tly guard against cold, moisture, or whatever may tend to obstruct per- spiration ; wear flannel next their skin ; and carefully avoid every inducement to the depressing pas- sions of fear, anger, &c. Nutritive drinks, such as broths, gruel, &c. with the addition of rice, or toasted bread, may be taken freely ; but, beyond these, the patient should not venture without medical aid, unless he be able clearly to ascer- tain the cause on which his com- plaint depends. — See Bile. DIBBLE, or Dibber, a simple but useful implement in gardening, for the purpose of setting out young- plants, &c. Within these few years, it has been employed for dibbling wheat, and the whole process con- sists in making perpendicular holes an inch and a half or two inches deep, in the same manner as is usually done in planting potatoe- roots. These holes are made by a man who has a proper staff, shod with iron, in each hand ; and, as he walks backwards, is able, by looking at the part of the row al- ready formed, to keep nearly in a strait line, and to make two holes at once, about four inches distant from set to set in the rows. Two or more children attend him, and drop two, three, or four seeds into every hole, which are afterwards covered by drawing over them what is called a bush-harrow. This method is deservedly consi- dered one of the greatest improve- ments in agriculture. It appears to have originated from the plant- ing of grain in a garden, from mere curiosity, by persons who neither designed, nor had any opportunity of