[12] “Thermal Death-Point of Tubercle Bacilli, and Relation of same to Commercial Pasteurization of Milk,” by H. L. Russell and E. G. Hastings.
[13] 16th Rept. Wis. Agric. Expt. Station, 1899, p. 129.
[14] See also the article [Adulteration].
[15] A special committee appointed by the council of the Royal Statistical Society commenced in 1901 an inquiry into the home production of milk and meat in the United Kingdom.
[16] In 1901 the United Kingdom imported 3,702,810 cwt. of butter, valued at £19,297,005, both totals being the largest on record.
DAIS (Fr. dais, estrade, Ital. predella), originally a part of the floor at the end of a medieval hall, raised a step above the rest of the building. On this the lord of the mansion dined with his friends at the high table, apart from the retainers and servants. In medieval halls there was generally a deep recessed bay window at one or at each end of the dais, supposed to be for retirement, or greater privacy than the open hall could afford. In France the word is understood as a canopy or hanging over a seat; probably the name was given from the fact that the seats of great men were then surmounted by such a feature. In ordinary use, the term means any raised platform in a room, for dignified occupancy.
DAISY (A.S. daeges eage, day’s eye), the name applied to the plants constituting the genus Bellis, of the natural order Compositae. The genus contains ten species found in Europe and the Mediterranean region. The common daisy, B. perennis, is the only representative of the genus in the British Isles. It is a perennial, abundant everywhere in pastures and on banks in Europe, except in the most northerly regions, and in Asia Minor, and occurs as an introduced plant in North America. The stem of the daisy is short; the leaves, which are numerous and form a rosette, are slightly hairy, obovate-spathulate in shape, with rounded teeth on the margin in the upper part; and the root-stock is creeping, and of a brownish colour. The flowers are to be found from March to November, and occasionally in the winter months. The heads of flowers are solitary, the outer or ray-florets pink or white, the disk-florets bright yellow. The size and luxuriance of the plant are much affected by the nature of the soil in which it grows. The cultivated varieties, which are numerous, bear finely-coloured flowers, and make very effective borders for walks. What is known as the “hen-and-chicken” daisy has the main head surrounded by a brood of sometimes as many as ten or twelve small heads, formed in the axils of the scales of the involucre. The ray-florets curve inwards and “close” the flower-head in dull weather and towards evening.
Chaucer writes—