ong recent works, see E.
Cannan's _History of Theories of Production and Distribution, 1776-1848_
(1893), J. R. Common's _Distribution of Wealth_ (1893), and H. J.
Davenport's _Value and Distribution_ (Chicago, 1908).

DISTRICT, a word denoting in its more general sense, a tract or extent
of a country, town, &c., marked off for administrative or other
purposes, or having some special and distinguishing characteristics. The
medieval Latin _districtus_ (from _distringere_, to distrain) is defined
by Du Cange as _Territorium feudi, seu tractus, in quo Dominus vassallos
et tenentes suos distringere potest_; and as _justitiae exercendae in eo
tractu facultas_. It was also used of the territory over which the
feudal lord exercised his jurisdiction generally. It may be noted that
_distringere_ had a wider significance than "to distrain" in the English
legal sense (see DISTRESS). It is defined by Du Cange as _compellere ad
aliquid faciendum per mulctam, poenam, vel capto pignore_. In English
usage, apart from its general application in such forms as postal
district, registration district and the like, "district" has specific
usages for ecclesiastical and local government purposes. It is thus
applied to a division of a parish under the Church Building Acts,
originally called a "perpetual curacy," and the church serving such a
division is properly a "district chapel." Under the Local Government Act
of 1894 counties are divided for the purposes of the act into urban and
rural districts. In British India the word is used to represent the
_zillah_, an administrative subdivision of a province or presidency. In
the United States of America the word has many administrative, judicial
and other applications. In South Carolina it was used instead of
"county" for the chief division of the state other than in the coast
region. In the Virginias, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky and Maryland it
answers to "township" or precinct, elsewhere the principal subdivision
of a county. It is used for an electoral "division," each state being
divided into Congressional and senatorial districts; and also for a
political subdivision ranking between an unorganized and an organized
Territory--e.g., the District of Columbia and Alaska.

DISTYLE (from Gr. [Greek: di-], two, and [Greek: stylos], column), the
architectural term given to a portico which has two columns between
antae, known as _distyle-in-antis_ (see TEMPLE).

DITHMARSCHEN, or DI