(Diaphragma,) in Anatomy, a part vulgarly called the midriff, and by anatomists septum transversum. It is a strong muscular substance, sep- rating the breast or thorax from the abdomen or lower venter, and serving as a partition between the abdomi- nal and the thoracic viscera. See Anatomy Index.

Plato, as Galen informs us, first called it diaphragm, from the verb διαφέρω, to separate or be between two. Till his time it had been called φύλλον, from a notion that an inflammation of this part produced phrenzy; which is not more warranted by experience than ano- ther tradition, that a transverse section of the diaphragm with a sword causes the patient to die laughing.

DIAPHORESIS, (Διαφορείς,) in Rhetoric, is used to express the hesitation or uncertainty of the speaker.

We have an example in Homer, where Ulysses, go- ing to relate his sufferings to Alcinous, begins thus;

Τι πάτερ ἐν ὀπώρᾳ, τι ἐν ὀπώρᾳ ῥαταίξας; Quid primum, quid deinde, quid postremo alloquar?

This figure is most naturally placed in the exordium or introduction to a discourse. See Doubting.

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