DIAPHRAGM (Diaphragma), in Anatomy, a part vulgarly called the midriff, and by anatomists septum trans-
Diaphoresis versum. It is a strong muscular substance, separating the breast or thorax from the abdomen or lower venter, and serving as a partition between the abdominal and the thoracic viscera. (See ANATOMY, Index.) Plato, as Galen informs us, first called it diaphragm, from the verb διαφράσσειν, to separate. Till his time it had been called zōnis, from a notion that an inflammation of this part produced frenzy, which is not more warranted by experience than another tradition, that a transverse section of the diaphragm with a sword causes the patient to die laughing.
DIAPHORESIS (διαφρόσις), in Rhetoric, is used to express the hesitation or uncertainty of the speaker.