lies east
of the capital in the rolling plains watered by tributaries of the
Tigris. An exceptionally rich copper mine exists at Arghana Maden, but
it is very imperfectly worked; galena mineral oil and silicious sand are
also found. (C. W. W.; F. R. M.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] From _Diar_, land, and Bekr (i.e. Abu Bekr, the caliph).

DIARRHOEA (from Gr. [Greek: dia], through, [Greek: rheo], flow), an
excessive looseness of the bowels, a symptom of irritation which may be
due to various causes, or may be associated with some specific disease.
The treatment in such latter cases necessarily varies, since the symptom
itself may be remedial, but in ordinary cases depends on the removal of
the cause of irritation by the use of aperients, various sedatives being
also prescribed. In chronic diarrhoea careful attention to the diet is
necessary.

DIARY, the Lat. _diarium_ (from _dies_, a day), the book in which are
preserved the daily memoranda regarding events and actions which come
under the writer's personal observation, or are related to him by
others. The person who keeps this record is called a diarist. It is not
necessary that the entries in a diary should be made each day, since
every life, however full, must contain absolutely empty intervals. But
it is essential that the entry should be made during the course of the
day to which it refers. When this has evidently not been done, as in the
case of Evelyn's diary, there is nevertheless an effort made to give the
memoranda the effect of being so recorded, and in point of fact, even in
a case like that of Evelyn, it is probable that what we now read is an
enlargement of brief notes jotted down on the day cited. When this is
not approximately the case, the diary is a fraud, for its whole value
depends on its instantaneous transcript of impressions.

In its primitive form, the diary must always have existed; as soon as
writing was invented, men and women must have wished to note down, in
some almanac or journal, memoranda respecting their business, their
engagements or their adventures. But the literary value of these would
be extremely insignificant until the spirit of individualism had crept
in, and human beings began to be interesting to other human beings for
their own sake. It is not, therefore, until the close of the Renaissance
that we find diaries beginning to have literary value, although, as the
study of sociology extends, every scrap of genuine and