The vilayet of Diarbekr extends south from Palu on the Euphrates to Mardin and Nisibin on the edge of the Mesopotamian plain, and is divided into three sanjaks—Arghana, Diarbekr and Mardin. The headwaters of the main arm of the Tigris have their source in the vilayet.
Cereals, cotton, tobacco, rice and silk are produced, but most of the fertile lands have been abandoned to semi-nomads, who raise large quantities of live stock. The richest portion of the vilayet lies east of the capital in the rolling plains watered by tributaries of the Tigris. An exceptionally rich copper mine exists at Arghana Maden, but it is very imperfectly worked; galena mineral oil and silicious sand are also found.
(C. W. W.; F. R. M.)
[1] From Diar, land, and Bekr (i.e. Abu Bekr, the caliph).
DIARRHOEA (from Gr. διά, through, ῥέω, flow), an excessive looseness of the bowels, a symptom of irritation which may be due to various causes, or may be associated with some specific disease. The treatment in such latter cases necessarily varies, since the symptom itself may be remedial, but in ordinary cases depends on the removal of the cause of irritation by the use of aperients, various sedatives being also prescribed. In chronic diarrhoea careful attention to the diet is necessary.
DIARY, the Lat. diarium (from dies, a day), the book in which are preserved the daily memoranda regarding events and actions which come under the writer’s personal observation, or are related to him by others. The person who keeps this record is called a diarist. It is not necessary that the entries in a diary should be made each day, since every life, however full, must contain absolutely empty intervals. But it is essential that the entry should be made during the course of the day to which it refers. When this has evidently not been done, as in the case of Evelyn’s diary, there is nevertheless an effort made to give the memoranda the effect of being so recorded, and in point of fact, even in a case like that of Evelyn, it is probable that what we now read is an enlargement of brief notes jotted down on the day cited. When this is not approximately the case, the diary is a fraud, for its whole value depends on its instantaneous transcript of impressions.