Dishonour of a Bill, the refusal or neglect to accept or pay when due a bill of exchange, or promissory note, or draft on a banker. It is absolutely necessary that the holder of a dishonoured bill should give immediate notice of the non-payment to the drawer or endorsers.
Disinfection, the means employed for killing the germs of infectious or contagious disease by physical or chemical agencies. The former are the more important, and consist in applying water or steam at the boiling-point, or hot air at 160°C. Ten minutes' boiling, or half an hour in hot air, kills all ordinary disease germs, but a longer exposure is necessary to kill germs (especially those of putrefaction), which form spores (see Bacteria). The most important chemical agents are chlorine, iodine, carbolic acid, bleaching powder, Condy's red fluid (containing permanganate of potash), perchloride of mercury, formalin, and flavine. Carbolic acid is one of the most effective, needing, however, care in the handling, as it is very poisonous and in strong solution causes severe burns. It does not in its common form mix with water, but solutions can be made by using hot water. A greater dilution than 1 part in 40 of water is useless as a disinfectant. For application to the skin, tincture of iodine is one of the readiest preparations. In cases of infectious disease the most important points are the immediate disinfection of all the excretions of the patient. Expectoration should be received into a sputum-cup containing 1-20 carbolic acid, and all handkerchiefs when soiled should be similarly treated. The personal linen and sheets of the patient should be placed in carbolic acid (1-40) in a slop-pail, and should be boiled before being sent to the laundry. All plates, spoons, &c., used for the patient's food, should be boiled or scalded immediately after use. The excretions of the bowels or kidneys should be treated with bleaching powder. Those in attendance should wear an overall when in the sickroom, and should wash the hands and face before coming into contact with anyone outside. They should wash out the mouth frequently with Condy as strong as can be tolerated. Their linen should be treated in the same way as that of the patient. At the close of the illness all bedding should be baked in the hot-air oven which most local authorities now provide for the purpose. Everything washable in the sickroom should be washed with soft soap, and it is better that the room should be repapered.
Disin´tegrator, a machine for pulverizing and sometimes for mixing various materials, such as rock, asphalt, ore, artificial manures, sugars, corn, and the ingredients of mortar.
Disloca´tion, a surgical term applied to cases in which the articulating surfaces of the bones have been forced out of their proper places. The particular dislocation takes its name either from the joint itself or its farthest bone, and is called compound when accompanied by an external wound. The most common dislocations are those of the hip, shoulder, elbow, knee, and ankle, and the chief obstacle to their reduction is the spasmodic and violent contraction of the muscles consequent upon them, the application of considerable force being often necessary to set the joint. Chloroform is of great use, not only in preventing pain but in relaxing the muscles. The most dangerous dislocations are those of the bones of the spine.—In geology it signifies the displacement of parts of rocks or portions of strata from the situations they originally occupied.
Dismal Swamp, a large tract of marshy land in America, beginning a little south of Norfolk, in Virginia, and extending into North Carolina, containing 150,000 acres; 30 miles long, from
north to south, and 10 miles broad. This tract was entirely covered with trees, with almost impervious brushwood between them, but it has now in part been cleared and drained. In the midst of the swamp is a lake, called Drummond's Pond, 7 miles in length. A navigable canal through the swamp connects Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound.
Dispensa´tion is the act by which an exception is made to the rigour of the law in favour of some person. The Pope may release from all oaths or vows, and may sanction a marriage within the prohibited degrees of the Mosaic law, or exempt from obedience to the disciplinary enactments of the canon law. In England the monarch claimed, in former times, a similar dispensing power in civil law, but the prerogative was so much abused by James II that it was abolished by the Bill of Rights. The power of commuting sentences in capital cases is the only form in which the dispensing power of the Crown still exists. In ecclesiastical matters a bishop may grant a dispensation allowing a clergyman to hold more than one benefice, or to absent himself from his parish.—Cf. F. W. Maitland, Constitutional History of England.
1, Ash. 2, Sycamore. 3, Hornbeam.
