for scorbutic eruptions, with a small mixture of quicksilver. DRACUNCULUS, in botany. See ARUM. DRACUT, a township of the United States, in the north part of Middlesex county, on the bank of the Merrimack, opposite Patucket Falls. It lies thirty miles north by west of Boston, and twenty-eight south-west of Exeter, in New Hampshire. DRAD, adj. for dread, or the part. passive of To DREAD, which see. Terrible; formidable. The utmost sand-breach they shortly fetch, Whilst the drad danger does behind remain. Faerie Queene. DRAFF, n. s. Sax. drof; Dutch, draf; DRAF'FY, adj. from Saxon, drabbe. Filth; offal. See DRAB. Not a jest had they to keep their auditors from sleep but of swill and draff. Yes; now and then the servant put his hand into the dish before his master, and almost choaked himself, eating slovenly and ravenously to cause sport. Surrey. We do not act, that often jest and laugh: Shakspeare. You would think I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals lately come from swinekeeping, from eating draff and husks. Shakspeare. Henry IV. "Twere simple fury, still thyself to waste On such as have no taste; To offer them a surfeit of pure bread Whose appetite is dead! No, give them grains their fill; Husks, draff, to drink and swill. Ben Jonson, Here rather let me drudge, and earn my bread, Till vermin, or the draff of servile food, Consume me. Milton's Agonistes. Refuse; sweepings. Perhaps improper. Younger brothers but the draff of nature. Dryden. DRAG, v. a., v. n. & n. s. ? Goth. draga; DRAG'-NET, n. s. S Belgic, trecken; Sax. dragan; Lat. traho; Gr. dparte. To draw; to pull onwards; to draw that which is weighty or burdensome; hence to pull about with violence or ignominy as a neuter verb, to hang down so as to sweep or trail on the ground. A drag-net is a net which is drawn along the bot tom of the water. They shall surprise The serpent, prince of air, and drag in chains Through all his realm, and there confounded leave. Milton. Who, that had seen and heard Saul breathing out threatenings, and executing his bloody cruelties upon the church of God; dragging poor Christians to their judgments and executions; would not have given him up for a man branded for hell? Bp. Hall. The constable was no sooner espied but he was reproached with disdainful words, beaten and dragged in so barbarous a manner, that he hardly escaped with his life. Clarendon. You may in the morning find it near to some fixed place, and then take it up with a drag-hook, or otherwise. Walton. makes a shew of me. DRA He triumphs in St. Austin's opinion; and is not only content to drag me at his chariot-wheels, but he Stillingfleet. Some fishermen, that had been out with a drag-net, and caught nothing, had a draught towards the evening, which put them in hope of a sturgeon at last. L'Estrange. To part with all my bliss to save my lover, The drag is made somewhat like a low car it is used for the carriage of timber, and then is drawn by the handle by two or more men. Moxon's Mech. Excr. A door is said to drag, when, by its ill hanging on its hinges, the bottom edge of the door rides in its sweep upon the floor. Id. Whatsoever old Time, with his huge dragnet, has conveyed down to us along the stream of ages, whether it be shells or shellfish, jewels or pebbles, sticks or straws, sea-weeds or mud, these are the ancients, these are the fathers. Watts. Warburton attacks the revisal of Shakspeare's text with a gloomy malignity, as if he were dragging to justice an assassin or incendiary. Johnson. We can only lament their fate, and still more that of a sailor, who is often dragged by force from his honest occupation, and compelled to imbrue his hands in perhaps innocent blood. Franklin. Thou wast the veriest slave in days of yore, That ever dragged a chain, or tugged an oar. Couper. Here, sheltering from the sons of murder, The hares drag their tired limbs no further. Beattie, of a sharp, square, iron ring, encircled with a net, DRAG, in sea language, is a machine consisting and commonly used to take the wheel off from the platform or bottom of the decks. The word is also used for whatever hangs over the ship in the sea, as shirts, coats, or the like; boats, when towed, or whatever else may retard the ship's way when she sails. DRAG'GLE, v. a. & v. n. From drag. To make or become dirty, by dragging on the ground His draggling tail hung in the dirt, Which on his rider he would flirt. Huulibras. He wore the same gown five years, without drag gling or tearing. Swift. You'll see a draggled damsel, here and there, From Billingsgate her fishy traffick bear. goman the Italians formed dragomano, and, with He caughte the dragoun, the elde serpent, that is I go alone, Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen Id. ake dragonsblood, beat it in a mortar, and put it in a cloth with aqua vitæ, and strain them together. Peacham. And you, ye dragons! of the scaly race, Rowe. Pope. Dragonsblood is a resin, so named as to seem to have been imagined an animal production. Hill. So, borne on brazen talons, watched of old The sleepless dragon o'er his fruits of gold. Darwin. DRAGON, in botany. See ARUM. DRAGON, in zoology. See DRACO. DRAGON, WILD. See ARTEMISIA. DRAGONET, OF DRAGON-FISH, in ichthyology. See CALLIONYMUS. DRAGON FLY. See LIBELLULA. DRAGON GUM, or GUM TRAGACANTH. See ASTRAGALUS. DRAGONS-BLOOD, a gummi-resinous substance brought from the East Indies, either in oval drops wrapped up in flag leaves, or in large It is said to masses composed of smaller tears. be principally obtained from the dracæna draco, the pterocarpus draco, and several other vegetables. The fine dragon's blood of either sort breaks smooth, free from any visible impurities, of a dark red color, which changes, upon being powdered, into an elegant bright crimson. Several artificial compositions, colored with the true dragon's blood, or Brasil wood, are sometimes sold for this commodity. Some of these dissolve like gums in water; others crackle in the fire without proving inflammable; whilst the genuine sanguis draconis readily melts and catches flame, and is not acted on by watery liquors. It totally dissolves iu pure spirit, and tinges a large quantity of the menstruum of a deep red color. It is likewise soluble in expressed oils, and gives them a red hue, but less beautiful than that communicated by anchusa. This drug, in substance, has no sensible smell or taste; when dissolved, it discovers some degree of warmth and pungency. A solution of dragon's blood in spirit of wine is used for staining marble, to which it gives a red tinge, which penetrates more or less deeply according to the heat of the marble during the time of application. But as it spreads at the same time that it sinks deep, for fine designs the marble should be cold. DRAGON'S HEAD. See DRACOCEPHALUM. DRAGON'S HEAD AND TAIL, caput and cauda draconis, in astronomy, are the nodes of the planets; or the two points in which the ecliptic is intersected by the orbits of the planets, and particularly that of the moon; making with it angles of 5° 18'. One of these points looks northward, the moon beginning then to have north latitude, and the other southward, where she commences south. Thus her deviation from the ecliptic seems, according to the fancy of some, to make a figure like that of a dragon, whose belly is where she has the greatest latitude; the intersection representing the head and tail, from which resemblance the denomination arises. But hese points abide not always in one place, but have a motion of their own in the zodiac, retrograde-wise 3' 11" per day; completing their circle in eighteen years 225 days; so that the moon can be but twice in the ecliptic during her monthly period, but at all other times she will have a latitude or declination from the ecliptic. About these points of intersection all eclipses happen. They are usually denoted by these characters dragon's head, and y dragon's In politicks I hear you're staunch, Directly bent against the French Deny to have your free-born foe Dragooned into a wooden shoe. Will the famished wretch who has braved your bayonets be appalled by your gibbets? When death is a relief, and the only relief it afford him, will he be dragooned into tranquillity! appears that you Byron will DRAGOONS are divided into brigades as the cavalry and each regiment into troops; each troop having a captain, lieutenant, cornet, quar ter-master, two serjeants, three corporals, and two drums. Some regiments have hautboys. They are very useful on any expedition that requires despatch; for they can keep pace with the cavalry, and do the duty of infantry they encamp, generally, on the wings of the army, or at the passes leading to the camp; and sometimes there brought to cover the general's quarters; they march in front and rear of the army. The first regiment of dragoons raised in England was in 1681, and called the regiment of dragoons of North Britain. In battles or attacks they generally fight sword in hand after the first fire. Their arms are, a sword, firelock, and bayonet, to which pistols are now generally added. DRAGOONING, a term that has been used to express the horrible persecution and oppresin inflicted on the French Protestants under Louis XIV. after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. By these means the Protestants in Montauban alone were, in four or five days, stripped of above a million of money. Their dining-rooms were turned into stables; and the owners of the houses where the military were quartered were treated with every possible indignity and cruelty, without intermission. At Negreplisse, a town near Montauban, they hung up Isaac Favin, a Protestant citizen of that place, by his arm-pits, and tormented him a whole night, by pinching and tearing off his flesh with pincers. They made a great fire round a boy of about twelve years old, who, with hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, cried out, "My God, help me;' And when they found the youth resolved to die rather than renounce his religion, they snatched him from the fire just as he was on the point of being burnt. In several places the soldiers applied red-hot irons to the hands and feet of men and breasts of women. Nantes they hung up several naked woman by their fect, and others by their arm-pits, and thus exposed them to public view. They bound to posts mothers that gave suck, and let their sucking infants lie languishing in their sight for several days and nights, crying, mourning, and gasping for life. Some they bound before a great fire, and, being half roasted, let them go. Amidst a thousand hideous cries and blasphemies, they hung up men and women on hooks in chimneys by the hair, and feet, and suffocated them with wisps of wet hay. Some they tied under the arms with ropes, and plunged them again and again into wells: but we cannot proceed in these shocking details. If any to escape these barbarities endeavoured to save themselves by flight, they pursued them into the fields and woods, where they were hunted down like wild beasts, and prohibited at the same time from departing the kingdom, upon pain of confiscation of their effects. At DRAGUIGNAN, a town of France, the capital of the department of the Var, Provence, is situated in a fertile plain, on the river Pis. The bishops of Frejus had formerly a palace here. The town is the seat of the courts of provincial justice, and has a public library There is little trade, and the manufactures are coarse loth, soap, oil, and sugar of lead, the two last heing made in considerable quantities. The wine raised on the sides of the neighbouring alls is remarkable for its strength. The general trade is by no means considerable. Population VOL. VII. Thirty-five miles north-cast of about 5000. Fr. trainer; Teut. Straner, part. of verò drygan, Sax. to expel; and therefore to dry, according to Mr. Tooke; or from drehnigean, to strain, says Mr. Todd. To draw off; to empty of a fluid gradually; to make dry: as a substantive, it means the channel, or course of the water or fluid taken off. Drainage is the act or system of draining. The fountains drain the water from the ground adjacent, and leave but sufficient moisture to breed moss. Bacon. In times of dearth it drained much coin of the kingdom, to furnish us with corn from foreign parts. Id. to Villiers. Sinking waters, the firm land to drain, Filled the capacious deep, and formed the main Roscommon. The royal babes a tawny wolf shall drain. Byron. In cases which arise from springs, as well as those which are produced by the stagnation of surface water, it will frequently be necessary, in order to effect their drainage, to have one or more deep open cuts, brought up in a proper direction from the lowest point at which the water can be discharged. Dr. A. Rees, DRAINS, in the fen countries, are certain large cuts or ditches of twenty or thirty, nay sometimes forty feet wide, carried through the marshy ground to some river or other place, capable of discharging the water out of the fen lands. To clear wet and boggy lands of their superfluous moisture, is an art of the highest importance, not only to the agriculture, but to the health of a country; yet it is only of late years that the principles of this art became well understood, and opened the way for many improvements. Dr. James Anderson of Edinburgh, in his Essays on Agriculture, seems to have been the first who treated the subject scientifically; but before quoting his ingenious introductory observations, it may be remarked that land becomes charged with moisture from two causes : 1. From water collected in the higher grounds, and filtrating among the different beds of gravel and other porous materials forming springs below, and flowing over the surface, or stagnating underneath it. 2. From 2 G rain or water lodging and becoming stagnant on the surface, from the clayey or impervious nature of the soil or superior stratum. The first of these is the cause of bogs, swamps, and morasses, and is the most difficult to remedy. Dr. Anderson says, springs are formed in the bowels of the earth, by water percolating through the upper strata where that is of a porous texture, which continues to descend downwards till it meets with a stratum of clay that intercepts it in its course; where, being collected in considerable quantities, it is forced to seek a passage through the porous strata of sand, gravel, or rock, that may be above the clay, following the course of these strata till they approach the surface of the earth, or are interrupted by any obstacle which occasions the water to rise upwards, forming springs, bogs, and the other phenomena of this nature; which, being variously diversified in different circumstances, produce that variety of appearance in this respect that we often meet with. This being the case, we may naturally conclude that an abundant spring need never be expected in any country that is covered to a great depth with sand, without any stratum of clay to force it upwards, as is the case in the sandy deserts of Arabia, and the immeasurable plains of Libya: neither are we to expect abundant springs in any soil that consists of a uniform bed of clay from the surface to a great depth; for it must always be in some porous stratum that the water flows in abundance; and it can be made to flow horizontally in that, only when it is supported by a stratum of clay, or other substance that is equally impermeable by water. Hence the rationale of that rule so universally established in digging for wells, that if you begin with sand, gravel, &c. you need seldom hope to find water till you come to clay; and, if you begin with clay, you can hope for none in abundance till you reach to sand, gravel, or rock. It is necessary that the farmer should attend to this process of nature with care, as his success in draining bogs, and every species of damp and spouting groud, will in a great measure depend upon his thorough knowledge of this, his acuteness in perceiving in every case the variations that may be occasioned by particular circumstauces and his skill in varying the plan of his operations according to these. As the variety of cases that may occur in this respect is very great, it would be a very tedious task to enumerate the whole, and describe the particular method of treating each; I shall therefore content myself with enumerating a few particular cases, to show in what manner the principles above established may be applied to practice.' Let fig. 1. Plate DoGs and DRAINS represent a perpendicular section of a part of the earth, in which AB is the surface of the ground, beneath which are several strata of porous substances, which allow the water to sink through them till it reaches the line CD, that is supposed to represent the upper surface of a solid bed of clay; above which lies a stratum of rock, sand, or gravel. In this case, it is plain, that when the water reaches the bed of clay, and can sink no farther, it must be there accumulated into a body; and seeking for itself a passage, it flows along the surface of the clay, among the sand or gravel, from D towards C; till at last it issues forth, at the opening A, a spring of pure water. If the quantity of water that is accumulated be tween D and C is not very considerable, and the stratum of clay approaches near the surface; in that case, the whole of it will issue by the opening at A, and the ground will remain dry both above and below it. But if the quantity of water is so great, as to raise it to a considerable height in the bed of sand or gravel, and if that stratum of sand is not discontinued before it reaches the surface of the ground, the water, in this case, would not only issue at A, but would likewise ooze out in small streams through every part of the ground between A and a; forming a barren patch of wet, sandy, or gravelly ground upon the side of a declivity, which every attentive observer must have frequently met with. To drain a piece of ground in this situation is perhaps the most unprofitable task that a farmer can engage in; not only because it is difficult to execute, bet also because the soil that is gained is hat of very little value. However, it is lucky, that patches of this kind are seldom of great breadth, although they sometimes run along the side of the declivity in a horizontal direction for a great length. The only effectual method of draining this kind of ground, is to open a ditch as hig up as the highest of the springs at a, which should be of such a depth as not only to penetrate through the whole bed of sand or gravel, but also to sink so far into the bed of clay below as to make a canal therein sufficiently large to contain and carry off the whole of the water. Such a di is represented by the dotted lines aez: bat as the expense of making a ditch of such a depth as this would suppose, and of keeping it aharwards in repair, is very great, it is but in very few cases that this mode of draining would be adviseable; and never, unless where the declivity happens to be so small, as that a great surface is lost for little depth, as would have been the case here if the surface had extended in the direction of the dotted line ad. But supposing that the stratum of clay, after approaching toward the surface at A, continued to keep at a little depth below ground; and that the soil which it was of a sandy or spongy nature, so as to allow the water to penetrate it easily; even sup posing the quantity of water that flowed from to C was but very inconsiderable, instead o rising out at the spring A, it would flow forward along the surface of the clay among the porous earth that forms the soil, so as to keep it constantly drenched with water, and of consequence render it of very little value. Wetness arising from this cause, is usually of much greater extent than the former: and, as it admits of an easy cure, it ought not to be one moment delayed; as a ditch of a very moderate depth opened at A, and carried through a part of the stratum of clay (as represented by the dotted lines A kf), would intercept and carry off the whole of the water, and render the field as dry as could be desired. It is, there fore, of very great consequence to the farmer, accurately to distinguish between these two cases, so nearly allied to each other in appearance; and, as this can be easiest done by boring, every one above |