Roman Catholics being referred to under their specific name. The most important bodies of English dissenters are the different bodies of Methodists, the Congregationalists, and the Baptists; and of Scottish dissenters, the United Free Church and the Free Church. The Nonconformists were dissenters from the English Church, and the name is sometimes used as meaning simply dissenters, though it has properly a wider meaning.
Dissentis´, a Swiss town, canton of Grisons, 3800 feet above the sea, at the junction of the Middle and Vorder Rhine, with a Benedictine abbey established so long ago as A.D. 614. Pop. 1420.
Dissociation. Certain substances tend to break down into simpler substances with change of temperature; thus ammonium chloride on heating gives a mixture of hydrochloric acid (HCl) and ammonia (NH3), and on cooling these substances recombine to give ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) again. Dissociation is therefore a particular case of decomposition, where the products of decomposition recombine on obtaining the original conditions.
Dis´sonance, in music, that effect which, results from the union of two sounds not in accord with each other. The ancients considered thirds and sixths as dissonances; and, in fact, every chord except the perfect concord is a dissonant chord. The old theories include an infinity of dissonances, but the present received system reduces them to a comparatively small number. The most common are those of the tonic against the second, the fifth against the sixth, or (the most frequent of all) the fourth against the fifth.
Dis´taff, the first instrument employed in spinning. It consisted of a staff, on one end of which the wool or flax was rolled. The spinner held it in the left hand, and drew out the fibres with the right, at the same time twisting them. A small piece of wood called a spindle was attached to the thread, the weight of which carried it down as it was formed. When the spindle reached the ground, the thread which had been spun was wound round it, and it was then again fastened near the beginning of the new thread. In ancient and modern art the Fates are usually represented with the distaff, engaged in spinning the thread of life.
Distemp´er, a disease of the dog commonly considered as of a catarrhal nature. In most cases a running from the nose and eyes is one of the first and chief symptoms, the defluxion becoming after some time mucous and purulent. The animal is subject to violent fits of coughing combined with vomiting, loses its appetite, its flesh begins to waste, and if the disease be virulent, symptoms of affection of the brain manifest themselves, accompanied by fits, paralysis, or convulsive twitchings. In the first stage of the disease laxatives, emetics, and occasional bleeding are the principal remedies; diarrhœa should be checked by astringents, and to reduce the violence of the fits warm bathing and antispasmodics should be resorted to. The distemper is generally contagious, and occurs but once in a lifetime.
Distemper (It. tempera), in painting, a preparation of colour mixed with size, yolk of egg or white of egg. Prepared with size, it is used chiefly in scene painting and household decorations, but in other forms it is much used for easel and mural paintings. Before the introduction of oil as a medium in the fifteenth century, fresco and distemper were the principal methods of painting. Distemper is usually but not necessarily applied to a dry ground, fresco always to a wet.
Distich (dis´tik), a couplet of verses, especially one consisting of a Latin or Greek hexameter and pentameter, making complete sense. Distichs have been frequently made use of by the modern German poets.
