Dewey, Thomas E(dmund) (b. March 24, 1902, Owosso, Mich., U.S.—d. March 16, 1971, Bal Harbour, Fla.) U.S. attorney and politician. He became an assistant U.S. attorney in New York in 1931 and was elected district attorney in 1937. His successful prosecution of organized-crime figures won him three terms as governor of New York (1943-55), during which he pursued policies of political and fiscal moderation. He received the Republican presidential nomination in 1944 but was soundly defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt; nominated again in 1948, he was widely pre¬ dicted to defeat the incumbent, Harry S. Truman, but Truman retained the vote of farmers and labour to prevail. Dewey retired from politics in 1955 but continued to advise Republican administrations.
Dewey Decimal Classification or Dewey Decimal System
System for organizing the contents of a library based on the division of all knowledge into 10 groups. Each group is assigned 100 numbers. Sub¬ divisions eventually extend into decimal numbers; for example, the his¬ tory of England is placed at 942, the history of the Stuart period at 942.06, and the history of the English Commonwealth at 942.063. The system was first formulated in 1873 by Melvil Dewey. Many libraries add a book number created from the Cutter, or Cutter-Sanborn, Tables, which further specify author and genre. The Library of Congress Cassification has largely replaced the Dewey system.
dextrose See glucose
Dezhnev Vdezh-nyif\, Cape Russian Mys Deshneva
Vmos-dezh-'nyo-voV Cape, extreme eastern Russia. It is the easternmost point of the Chukchi Peninsula and of the entire Eurasian landmass. It is separated from Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska by the Bering Strait (see Bering Sea).
Dga'I-dan or Galdan Vgal-'dan\ (b. 1644?, Central Asia—d. May 3, 1697, East Turkistan) Leader of the Dzungar tribes of Mongols, who built an empire that reached from Tibet in the southwest to the borders of Rus¬ sia in the northeast. As a younger son of a powerful chief, Dga’I-dan was sent to Tibet, where he was trained as a Buddhist lama. His older broth¬ er’s death gave Dga’I-dan the opportunity to exercise political power; he avenged the death and went on to conquer eastern Turkistan (modern Sichuan, China) and Outer Mongolia. He led his armies toward Beijing but was defeated by the Kangxi emperor, who personally led some 80,000 troops armed with Western artillery.
Dge-lugs-pa or Gelukpa Vga-liik-ba\ Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism, the chief religion in Tibet since the 17th century. It was founded in the 14th century by Tsong-kha-pa (1357-1419). His reforms included strict monastic discipline, celibacy, and improved education for monks. The head of the chief monastery at Lhasa first received the title of Daai Lama from Altan Khan in 1578. With his aid the Dge-lugs-pa triumphed over the Karma-pa, or Red Hat, sect. The Dge-lugs-pa ruled Tibet until the Chinese Communist takeover (1950); the sect continues to exist, but many of its members, including the Dalai Lama, remain in exile.
Dhaka or Dacca Yda-ko, 'da-k9\ City (pop., 2001 prelim.: city, 5,644,235; metro, area, 10,403,597), capital of Bangadesh. It can be traced to the 1st millennium ad, but it did not rise to prominence until the 17th century, when it served as the Mughal capital of Bengal province. It came under British control in 1765 and was the capital of Eastern Bengal and Assam province (1905-12). The capital of East Bengal province in 1947 and of East Pakistan in 1956, it suffered heavy damage during Ban¬ gladesh’s war of independence in 1971. Together with its port, Dhaka is
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540 I Dhar ► dialect
the country’s leading industrial cen¬ tre. Its historic buildings include temples, churches, and more than 700 mosques, some of which date to the 15 th century.
Dhar Vdar\ Town (pop., 2001 pre¬ lim.: 75,472), western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. On the northern slopes of the Vindhya Range, it commands one of the gaps leading to the Narmada River valley.
An ancient town, it was famous as the capital of the Rajputs (9th-14th centuries). It was conquered by the Muslims in the 14th century, was under Mughal dominion, and fell to the Marathas in 1730. Long a centre of culture and learning, its fine historic sites include the Pillar Mosque (1405), built out of the remains of Jaina temples.
dharma In Hinduism, the religious and moral law governing individual and group conduct. It is treated in the dharmasutras, the oldest collection of Hindu laws, and in the compilations of law and custom called the dhar- mashastras. In Buddhism, dharma is the universal truth common to all indi¬ viduals at all times, and it is regarded as one of the primary sources of Buddhist doctrine and practice. In Jainism, dharma signifies moral virtue as well as the eternal life force.
Dhiban See Dibon
Dhofar Liberation Front See Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman
dhow \'dau\ One- or two-masted Arab sailing vessel, usually with lateen rigging (slanting, triangular sails), common on the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. On the larger types, called baggalas and booms, the mainsail is considerably bigger than the mizzensail. Bows are sharp, with a forward and upward thrust, and the sterns of the larger dhows may be windowed and decorated.
Di Prima \di- , pre-mo\ / Diane (b. Aug. 6, 1934, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. poet. Di Prima settled in Greenwich Village and became one of the few women to attain prominence in the Beat movement. In 1961 she cofounded Floating Bear, a monthly featuring notable Beat writers. Her collections include Earthsong (1968), The Book of Hours (1970), and Pieces of a Song (1990). She also founded two publishing houses that specialized in young poets. In 2001 she published Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years.
diabase or dolerite Fine- to medium-grained, dark gray to black intrusive igneous rock. Diabase is one of the dark rocks known commer¬ cially as “black granite.” It is extremely hard and tough and is commonly quarried for crushed stone, under the name “trap.” Chemically and min- eralogically, diabase closely resembles the volcanic rock basalt, but it is generally somewhat coarser grained.
diabetes insipidus X.dl-o-'be-tez-in-'si-po-dssX Endocrine disorder causing extreme thirst and excessive production of very dilute urine, apparently due to lack of antidiuretic hormone (vasopressin, which regu¬ lates the kidney’s water conservation and urine production) or failure of the kidney tubules to respond to it. Injections of synthetic vasopressin are effective if the hormone is lacking but not if the response is absent. Dis¬ orders of the hypothalamus are one cause of diabetes insipidus.
diabetes mellitus Vmel-ot-osX Disorder of insufficient production of or reduced sensitivity to insulin. Insulin, synthesized in the islets of Langerhans (see Langerhans, islets of), is necessary to metabolize glucose. In diabetes, blood sugar levels increase (hyperglycemia). Excess sugar is excreted in the urine (glycosuria). Symptoms include increased urine out¬ put, thirst, weight loss, and weakness. Type 1, or insulin-dependent dia¬ betes mellitus (IDDM), an autoimmune disease in which no insulin is produced, must be treated by insulin injections. Type 2, or non-insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), in which tissues do not respond to insulin, is linked to heredity and obesity and may be controlled by diet; it accounts for 90% of all cases, many of which go undiagnosed for years. Untreated diabetes leads to accumulation of ketones in the blood, followed by acidosis (high blood acid content) with nausea and vomiting and then coma. Careful attention to content and timing of meals, with periodic