(anc. geog.), a town on the coast of Illyricum, before called Epidamnum, or Epidamus, an inauspicious name, changed by the Romans to Durrrachium; a name taken from the peninsula on which it stood. Originally built by the Corcyreans. A Roman colony (Pliny). A town famous in story: its port answered to that of Brundusium, and the passage between both was very ready and expeditious. It was also a very famous mart for the people living on the Adriatic; and the free admittance of strangers contributed much to its increase: A contrast to the conduct of the Apollonians; who, in imitation of the Spartans, discouraged strangers from settling among them.
**DYSÆ,** in mythology, inferior goddessees among the Saxons, being the messengers of the great Woden, whose province it was to convey the souls of such as died in battle to his abode, called Valhalla, i.e. the hall of slaughter; where they were to drink with him and their other gods cervisia, or a kind of malt liquor, in the skulls of their enemies. The Dysæ conveyed those who died a natural death to Hela, the goddesse of hell, where they were tormented with hunger, thirst, and every kind of evil.
**DYSCRASY,** among physicians, denotes an ill habit or state of the humours, as in the scurvy, jaundice, &c.
**DYSENTERY,** in medicine, a diarrhoea or flux, wherein the stools are mixed with blood, and the bowels miserably tormented with gripes. See MEDICINE-INDEX.
**DYSENTERIC FEVER.** Ibid.
**DYSSERT,** a parliament town of Scotland, in the county of Fife, situated on the northern shore of the frith of Forth, about 11 miles north of Edinburgh.
**DYSOREXY,** among physicians, denotes a want of appetite, proceeding from a weakly stomach.
**DYSPEPSY,** a difficulty of digestion.
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**DYSPNOEA,** a difficulty of breathing; usually Dyspnoea called afflata.
**DYSPURY,** in medicine, a difficulty of making urine, attended with a sensation of heat and pain. See MEDICINE-INDEX.
**DYTISCUS,** water-beetle, in zoology, a genus of insects of the order of the coleoptera; the antennæ of which are slender and setaceous, and the hind feet are hairy, and formed for swimming. There are 23 species, distinguished by their antennæ, the colour of the elytra, &c.
The larvæ of the dytiscus are often met with in water. They are oblong, and have six scaly feet. Their body consists of eleven segments. The head is large, with four filiform antennæ and a strong pair of jaws. The last segments of their body have rows of hairs on the sides; and the abdomen is terminated by two spines charged with the like hairs, forming a kind of plumes. These larvæ are frequently of a greenish variegated brown: they are lively, active, and extremely voracious: they devour and feed upon other water-insects, and often tear and destroy each other. The perfect insect is little inferior to its larvæ in voracity-nefs, but it can only exercise its cruelty on the larvæ; the perfect insects, like himself, being sheltered by the kind of scaly cuirass with which they are armed. This creature must be touched cautiously; for besides its power of giving a severe gripe with its jaws, it has moreover, under the thorax, another weapon, a long sharp spine, which it will drive into one's fingers by the effort it makes to move backwards. The eggs of the dytisci are rather large, and are by them inclosed in a kind of silky dustlike cocoon, of a strong and thick texture, in form round, and terminated by a long appendix or slender tail, of the same substance. These cocoons are often found in the water, and from them are brought forth the eggs and larvæ of the dytisci. The strength of these cocoons probably serves the insect to defend their eggs from the voraciousness of several other aquatic insects, and even from that of their fellow-dytisci, who would not spare them.
Many species of the perfect insect are common in stagnated waters, which they quit in the evening to fly about. They swim with incredible agility, making use of their hinder-legs after the fashion of oars. The elytra of the females are in general furrowed, and those of the male plain: when they first arrive at their perfect state, their elytra are almost transparent, and in many species of a beautiful dun colour, mingled with shades of greenish brown. The best method of DYV
DYVOUR catching them is with a hand-net or sieve; for they are so nimble, and exercise their defensive weapons so often, and with such painful success, to those who endeavour to catch them, that they are very often obliged to let them escape; the easiest way to kill them, is to let them fall into boiling hot water, which instantly destroys them.