in Medicine, a diarrhoea or flux, wherein the stools are mixed with blood, and the bowels miserably tormented with gripes. See Medicine Index.

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**E.**

**E**, THE second vowel, and fifth letter of the alphabet, bet. The letter E is most evidently derived from the old character ą in the ancient Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets, inverted by the Greeks to this position E, and not from the Hebrew He ń. From the same origin is also derived the Saxon e, which is the first letter in their alphabet that differs from the Latin one. It is formed by a narrower opening of the larynx than the letter A; but the other parts of the mouth are used nearly in the same manner as in that letter.

It has a long and short sound in most languages. The short sound is audible in bed, fret, den, and other words ending in consonants: its long sound is produced by a final e, or an e at the end of words; as in glebe, here, hire, scene, sphere, interfere, revere, sincere, &c. in most of which it sounds like ee; as also in some others by coming after i, as in believe, chief, grief, reprove, &c. and sometimes this long sound is expressed by ee, as in bleed, beer, creed, &c. Sometimes the final e is silent, and only serves to lengthen the sound of the preceding vowel, as in rag, rage, stag, stage, hug, huge, &c. The sound of e is obscure in the following words axen, heaven, bounden, fire, massacre, mauere, &c.

The Greeks have their long and short e, which they call epsilon and eta. The French have at least six kinds of e's: the Latins have likewise a long and short e; they also write e instead of a, as dicem for dicam, &c. and this is no doubt the reason why a is so often changed into e in the preter tense, as ago, egit; facti, fecit, &c.

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**DYSENTERIC FEVER.** See Medicine Index.

**DYSSERT**, a borough town of Scotland, in the county of Fife, situated on the northern shore of the frith of Forth, about eleven miles north of Edinburgh.