DIODATI, de-O-di'te, Giovanni, Italian Protestant clergyman: b. Lucca about 1576; d. Geneva, 3 Oct. 1649. He was for some time professor, first of Hebrew, then of theology, in Geneva, and in 1618-19 represented the Gen evan clergy at the Synod of Dort, and aided in drawing up the Belgic confession of faith. He was unsuccessful in his attempts to spread the Reformed doctrines in Venice and other Italian cities. He is most celebrated for a translation of the Bible into Italian, which is superior to his translation of it into French, and is still in general use among Italian Pro testants. His biography by Eugene de Bude appeared at Geneva in 1869.
DIODON, 66-don, a genus of teleostean fish, family Gymnodontes, order Plectognothi, deriving their name from the fact that the ivory-clad terminations of the jaws show no suture, and the fish thus appear to possess but two teeth. The body, as in other members of the family, can be inflated with air till the creature floats on ,the surface of the water under side uppermost; it is likewise covered with ossifications in the skin, each with a pair of lateral roots and a stiff, movable, erectile spine. The rotundity of these fish when dis
tended has earned for them the name of globe fish, or prickly globe-fish, in addition to the designations porcupine-fish and sea-hedgehog, suggested by the numerous spines. The four species of Diodon fire found in all the seas between the tropics, and range to the Cape of Good Hope. The largest species (D. hystri.x) attains the length of two feet six inches. The food of Diodon consists of crustaceans and sea weeds, for the trituration of which its jaws are admirably adapted. This genus has by some naturalists been made the type of a family Diodontidee.