Mill, to denote a philosophical theory which holds that the will is not
free, but is invincibly determined either--according to the older form of
the theory--by a motive furnished by Providence, or--according to the
modern form--by the aggregation of inherited qualities and tendencies.
Biological determinism maintains that each of our voluntary acts finds its
sufficient and complete cause in the physiological conditions of the
organism. Psychological determinism ascribes efficiency to the psychical
antecedents. Opposed to determinism is the doctrine of indeterminism or
indifferentism. See _Free-will_.
DET'INUE, in law, the form of action whereby a plaintiff seeks to recover a
chattel personal unlawfully detained.
DET'MOLD, a town, Germany, capital of Lippe-Detmold, on the left bank of
the Werra, 50 miles south-west of Hanover, with a new and an old palace (or
castle), good public library, and museum. In the vicinity a colossal statue
has been erected to the Hermann or Arminius who overthrew the Roman general
Varus and his legions in a battle which was fought near this place. The
Senner race of horses is bred near Detmold. Pop. 14,295.
DET'ONATING POWDERS, certain chemical compounds which, on being exposed to
heat or suddenly struck, explode with a loud report, owing to one or more
of the constituent parts suddenly assuming the gaseous state. The chloride
and iodide of nitrogen are very powerful detonating substances. Mercuric
fulminate or fulminating mercury (C_2HgN_2O_2) explodes violently when
forcibly struck or when heated to 180degF. It is used for making percussion
caps, and in detonators for exploding guncotton and nitroglycerin
preparations. Silver fulminate (C_2Ag_2N_2O_2) explodes even more
violently.
DETONATING TUBE, a species of eudiometer, being a stout glass tube used in
chemical analysis for detonating gaseous bodies. It is generally graduated
into centesimal parts, and perforated by two opposed wires for the purpose
of passing an electric spark through the gases which are introduced into
it, and which are confined within it over mercury and water.
DETROIT (de-troit'; Fr. _d['e]troit_, a strait or channel), a flourishing
port and city of the United States, the largest town in Michigan, situated
on the Detroit River, connecting Lakes Erie and St. Clair. The site rises
gradually from the river, and the city is generally well built. Among the
chief edifices are the city hall, the house of correction, post office, and
opera-house. Detroit has increased very rapidly, a fact which is due to its
admirable position for trade, and to its connections with a region into
which a constant tide of emigration is flowing. Among the industrial
establishments are saw-mills, flour-mills, building-yards for ships and
boats, foundries, tanneries, blast-furnaces, pork-packing establishments,
tobacco and cigar manufactories, and locomotive works. The harbour is one
of the finest in the United States, and has a depth of water sufficient for
the largest vessels. Detroit owes its origin to the French, who visited the
site in 1648 and erected the Fort Pontchartrain in 1701. Pop. 688,028
(1919).
DETROIT RIVER, or STRAIT OF ST. CLAIR, a river or strait of North America
which runs from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. It is 28 miles long, and of
sufficient depth for the navigation of large vessels. It is about 3/4 mile
wide opposite Detroit and enlarges as it descends.
DETTINGEN (det'ing-en), the name of several places in Germany, amongst
which is a village of Bavaria, on the right bank of the Main, famous for
the victory gained by the English and Austrians under George II of England
over the French in 1743.
DEUCA'LION, in Greek mythology, the son of Prometheus and father of Hellen,
ancestor of the Hellenes. According to tradition he saved himself and his
wife, Pyrrha, from a deluge which Zeus had sent upon the earth, by building
a ship which rested upon Mount Parnassus. To repair the loss of mankind
they were directed by an oracle to throw stones behind them; the stones
thrown by Deucalion became men, those thrown by Pyrrha women.
DEUS EX MACHIN[^A] (mak'i-na; Lat., 'a god out of the machine'), a phrase
used to designate the resorting to supernatural causes to explain phenomena
that one is not able to account for by natural means. The phrase is taken
from the practice on the classical stage of introducing a god from above by
means of some mechanical contrivance in order to effect a speedy
_d['e]nouement_ of the plot.
DEUTERONOMY (Gr. _deuteronomion_, the second law), the name of the fifth
book of the _Pentateuch_ (q.v.). Until the seventeenth century it was
believed to have been written by Moses, but now it is generally held to be
a compilation, the bulk of it having been written in the reign of Manasseh,
or according to other scholars in the reign of Josiah. At any rate the book
was discovered or rediscovered while Josiah was king (_2 Kings_, xxii). It
represents the latest phase in the development of the teaching of Moses.
Its chief aim is to combat idolatry, and to concentrate the religious life
of the country at Jerusalem. It has a lofty moral tone. Of one passage (vi,
4 and 5) Christ said: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets" (_Matt._ xxii, 40), and all His answers to the Tempter in the
Wilderness are taken from the book of _Deuteronomy_.
DEUTZ (doits), a town in Prussia, on the right bank of the River Rhine,
opposite the city of Cologne, with which it communicates by a bridge. It is
strongly fortified as part of the defences of Cologne, in which it is now
incorporated. There are some manufactories of porcelain and glass, also an
iron-foundry and machine-works. Pop. 17,060.
DEUT'ZIA, a genus of plants, nat. ord. Saxifragaceae, containing seven or
eight species, all of which are interesting from the beauty of their
flowers, some of them favourite garden and greenhouse plants. They are
small shrubs indigenous to China and Japan, and Northern India.
DE VALERA, Eamon, Irish Republican, born at New York in 1883, his father
being a Spaniard, and his mother an Irishwoman. Educated at the Royal
University of Ireland, he early became known for his revolutionary
activities. In 1917 he was elected president of the Gaelic League and was
arrested as an agitator. Elected to Parliament in 1918, while he was in
prison, he refused to take his seat. He was elected 'President' of the
so-called 'Irish Republic' soon afterwards, and in Feb., 1919, escaped from
prison and reached New York, where he started an active propaganda and
began to raise funds for the Irish cause. He returned to Ireland in 1921.
DEV'ENTER, an old town in Holland, province of Overijssel, 8 miles north
from Zutphen, at the confluence of the Schipbeek and Ijssel. Its industries
embrace carpets, cast-iron goods, printed cottons, hosiery, and a kind of
cake called _Deventer Koek_. It has a large export trade in butter. Pop.
32,483 (1918).
DEV'ERON, a river of Scotland belonging to Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, 60
miles long. It flows into the Moray Firth at Banff.
DEVIATION OF THE COMPASS, the deflection of a ship's compass needle from
the magnetic meridian, caused by adjacent iron. Hard iron is very retentive
of a magnetic state, and is specially liable to become magnetized during a
hammering process, as in the building of the ship. Soft iron easily
receives or loses magnetism, and its magnetic state varies with every
shifting of the ship's head. The effect of the former can be counteracted
by magnets suitably placed near the compass, that of the latter by spheres
of soft iron. The ship is swung, and the compass errors found in the
various positions. The effects of the several contributing causes can then
be separated, and the nature of the correctors necessary inferred with
considerable accuracy. When these have been provided, the small residual
errors for different positions of the ship are determined, and a table is
constructed from which the navigator may read the slight correction to
apply to the indication of his compass in steering any desired course.
DEVICE', a name common to all figures, ciphers, characters, rebuses, and
mottoes which are adopted by a person or a family by way of badge or
distinctive emblem, often a representation of some natural body, with a
motto or sentence applied in a figurative sense.
DEVIL (Gr., _diabolos_, a slanderer or accuser), in theology, the name
given to a fallen angel, who is the instigator of evil, and the ruler of
darkness. Most of the old religions of the East acknowledge a host of
devils. The doctrine of Zoroaster, who adopted an evil principle called
Ahriman, opposed to the good principle and served by several orders of
inferior spirits, spread the belief in such spirits among the people. The
Greek mythology did not distinguish with the same precision between good
and bad spirits. With the Mohammedans _Eblis_, or the devil, was an
archangel whom God employed to destroy a pre-Adamite race of _jinns_, or
genii, and who was so filled with pride at his victory that he refused to
obey God. The Satan of the New Testament is also a rebel against God. He
uses his intellect to entangle men in sin and to obtain power over them.
But he is not an independent self-existent principle like the evil
principle of Zoroaster, but a creature subject to omnipotent control. The
doctrine of Scripture on this subject soon became blended with numerous
fictions of human imagination, with the various superstitions of different
countries, and the mythology of the pagans. The excited imaginations of
hermits in their lonely retreats, sunk as they were in ignorance and unable
to account for natural appearances, frequently led them to suppose Satan
visibly present; and innumerable stories were told of his appearance, and
his attributes--the horns, the tail, the cloven foot,--distinctly
described. Theology has always treated the devil from a psychological or
ethical standpoint. From the New Testament we hardly learn more regarding
the devil than that he has a distinct personality; that he is a spirit or
angel who in some way fell; that he is devoid of truth and of all moral
goodness, always warring against the soul of man and leading him towards
evil; that he has demons, spirits, or angels under him who work his will,
and enter into or 'possess' men; but of his or their origin, original
state, or fall, we really learn nothing.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mayer, _Historia
Diaboli_; Lecanu, _Histoire de Satan, sa chute, son culte, ses
manifestations, ses oeuvres_; Carus, _History of the Devil_.
DEVIL-FISH, the popular name of various fishes, one of them being the
angler. Among others the name is given to several large species of ray
(especially _Ceratoptera Vampyrus_ which attains the breadth of 20 feet)
occasionally captured on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of America, and
much dreaded by divers, whom they are said to devour after enveloping them
in their vast wings. During gales of wind or owing to strong currents these
immense fish are driven into shoal water, and, being unable to extricate
themselves, fall an easy prey to the fishermen, who obtain considerable
quantities of oil from their livers. The name is also applied to the larger
eight-armed cephalopod molluscs belonging to _Octopus_ and allied genera. A
combat with one of these is described in Victor Hugo's _Toilers of the
Sea_.
DEVIL'S BIT, the common name of a British species of scabious (_Scabi[=o]sa
succ[=i]sa_), nat. ord. Dipsaceae. It has heads of blue flowers nearly
globular, and a fleshy root, which is, as it were, cut or bitten off
abruptly. It flowers from June to October, and is common in meadows and
pastures.
DEVIL'S BRIDGE, a name for several bridges in wild situations; one being in
Cardiganshire, spanning a gorge of the Mynach; another in Switzerland, over
which the St. Gothard Railway crosses the Reuss.
DEVIL'S PARLIAMENT, the name given to a Parliament convened by Henry VI,
which met at Coventry in 1459 and unjustly accused the Duke of York of high
treason.
DEVIL'S PUNCH-BOWL, a small lake of Ireland, near the Lakes of Killarney,
between 2000 and 3000 feet above the sea, supposed to be the crater of an
ancient volcano. The name is also given to Highcomb Bottom, a glen in
Surrey.
DEVIL'S WALL, in the south of Germany, a structure which was originally a
Roman rampart, intended to protect the Roman settlements on the left bank
of the Danube and on the right bank of the Rhine against the inroads of the
Teutonic and other tribes. Remains of it are found from the Danube, in
Bavaria, to Bonn, on the Rhine.
DEVIL-WORSHIP, the worship paid to the devil, an evil spirit, a malignant
deity, or the personified evil principle in nature, by many of the
primitive tribes of Asia, Africa, and America, under the assumption that
the good deity does not trouble himself about the world; or that the powers
of evil are as mighty as the powers of good, and have in consequence to be
bribed and reconciled. There is a sect called devil-worshippers inhabiting
Armenia and the valley of the Tigris, who pay respect to the devil, to
Christ, and to Allah or the supreme being, and also worship the sun.
DEVISE, in law, usually the disposition of real estate by will, but also
sometimes applied to any gift by will, whether of real or personal estate.
DEVITRIFICATION. Glass which has been kept for a considerable time at a
temperature just below its fusion-point gradually becomes opaque or
crystalline in appearance; this phenomenon is spoken of as
_devitrification_. Poor glass, badly prepared window-glass, and glass which
has been subjected to strain tend to devitrify on exposure to air, some of
the ingredients separating in a crystalline form.
DEVI'ZES, a town in England, county of Wilts, giving name to a
parliamentary division, finely situated on a commanding eminence, 82 miles
west by south of London. The name is derived from the Lat. _divisae_
(_terrae_, divided lands), because the ancient castle of Devizes was built
at the meeting-place of three different manors. Agricultural engines and
implements are made, and malting is carried on. Pop. 6740.
DEVON, or DEVONSHIRE, a maritime county in the s.w. of England, its
northern coast being on the Bristol Channel and its southern on the English
Channel; area, 1,671,364 acres, the county being the third largest of
England. Its principal rivers are the Torridge and the Taw, flowing north
into the Bristol Channel; and the Exe, Axe, Teign, Dart, and Tamar, flowing
into the English Channel. From Exeter to the confines of Cornwall extends
the wide and barren tract called Dartmoor; but the vale of Exeter,
comprising from 120,000 to 130,000 acres, and the south extremity of the
county called _South Hams_, limited by a line drawn from Torbay to Plymouth
Sound, are amongst the most fertile districts of England. Tin, lead, iron,
copper, manganese, granite, and the clay used by potters and pipe-makers
are the chief mineral products. The geological formation of the Old Red
Sandstone is so largely developed that the term Devonian has to some extent
become its synonym. Agriculture is in a somewhat backward state, owing,
probably, to the general preference given to dairy husbandry, for which the
extent and richness of its grass-lands make the county most suitable.
Wheat, barley, beans, pease, and potatoes are the principal crops. About
three-fourths of the county is under crops or in pasture. There is a large
trade in butter, cheese, and live-stock, and the 'clotted' cream and cider
of Devonshire are well known as specialities of the county. There are seven
parliamentary divisions, each with one member. Pop. 699,703.--BIBLIOGRAPHY:
_Victoria County History, Devonshire_; F. J. Snell, _Devonshire,
Historical, Descriptive, and Biographical_.
DEVO'NIAN SYSTEM, in geology, a name originally given to rocks in
Devonshire and Cornwall, intermediate between the Silurian and
Carboniferous strata, and consisting of sandstones, calcareous slates and
limestones, &c. They are divided into lower, middle, and upper series, the
middle most abounding in fossils, including corals, crinoids, brachiopods,
and molluscs. Devonian rocks occupy a large area in Central Europe, as well
as in the United States, Eastern Canada, and Nova Scotia. The terrestrial
and lacustrine equivalents are known as the Old Red Sandstone.
DEV'ONPORT, formerly a county borough and port of England, county of Devon,
contiguous to Plymouth. It is the seat of one of the royal dockyards, and
an important naval and military station. A bastioned wall and fosse defend
the town on the north-east and south sides, while the sea entrance is
protected by heavy batteries on Mount Wise. Connected with the dockyards
and fortifications are the gun wharf, foundries, machine-works, rope-walks,
store-houses, and naval and military barracks. It has no special trade
beyond that connected with the dockyards and Government works. Formerly a
parliamentary borough, returning two members to Parliament, Devonport now
gives its name to a parliamentary division of Plymouth, with which it is
amalgamated since Nov., 1914. Pop. 84,370.
DEVONSHIRE, Spencer Compton Cavendish, eighth Duke of, long known as
Marquess of Hartington, born in 1833, died 1908. He was the eldest
surviving son of the seventh Duke of Devonshire, whom he succeeded in the
dukedom in 1891. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he
graduated as M.A. in 1854. He was attached in 1856 to Earl Granville's
Russian mission, and in 1857 was elected as a Liberal one of the members
for North Lancashire. In 1863 he was for a short time a Lord of the
Admiralty, and he then became Under-Secretary for War, being raised to
Cabinet rank as War Secretary in 1866. In 1868 he lost his seat for North
Lancashire, but became Postmaster-General under Gladstone, and was returned
for the Radnor boroughs. In 1871 he was appointed Chief Secretary for
Ireland. He went out with the Gladstone ministry in 1874, and on
Gladstone's retirement he became the leader of the Liberal party. On the
fall of the Conservative Government in 1880 he was elected for North-East
Lancashire, and became Secretary for India under Gladstone, being
transferred to the War Office in 1882. In the general election of 1885 he
was returned for the Rossendale division of Lancashire. He strenuously
opposed Gladstone's Home Rule Scheme of 1886, and became the leader of the
Liberal Unionists, but long declined to take office in the Cabinet. In
1895, however, he became Lord President of the Council, and from 1900 to
1902 he was President of the newly-instituted Board of Education. In 1903
he withdrew from co-operating with Mr. Balfour as Premier, mainly because
he disliked the fiscal changes proposed by Chamberlain. He then accepted
the position of head of the Free-Trade Unionists.
DEW is the name given to the minute drops of water which at certain times
appear by night upon grass, flowers, foliage, and other surfaces which
readily radiate heat. The first attempts at a scientific explanation of dew
were made early in the nineteenth century, when Dr. Wells propounded his
theory on the subject. According to this, the origin is to be found in the
moisture previously contained in a vaporous state in the atmosphere. During
the day the earth both absorbs and emits heat, but by night its supply of
warmth is cut off, while it continues, under favouring circumstances, to
lose heat by radiation into surrounding space. For any given state of the
atmosphere, in respect of the amount of aqueous vapour it contains in a
specified volume, there is a certain temperature at which it can hold just
that amount and no more in suspension. If it be cooled to that temperature,
it begins to deposit its moisture in the liquid form, and if the cooling
proceeds further, more and more is deposited. This particular temperature
is the _dew-point_ appropriate to the given state of humidity of the air.
If the dew-point is below 32degF., the vapour will, when the dew-point is
reached, pass directly into the solid form and be deposited as hoar-frost.
While there is a certain amount of truth in the foregoing theory, it does
not contain the whole facts of the case. Dr. John Aitken, of Falkirk,
Stirlingshire, established by experiments that in most cases probably the
dew found on plants does not come mainly from the atmosphere. To some
extent it exudes from the plants themselves. They derive moisture from the
soil, and in the process of supplying their tissues it passes to their
outer surfaces, whence in the daytime it is evaporated into the air. By
night the fall of temperature checks evaporation of this moisture, and when
it reaches their surfaces, it may remain there in the form of dew-drops.
Also, moisture is condensed out of the atmosphere upon the cooler plant
surfaces, but even this has more often been yielded not long before to the
atmosphere through the medium of the plant tissues, so that upon the whole
the plants play a much more important part in the process than had been
supposed. Dew is most copiously produced when there is a large difference
between the day and night temperatures. Hence it is favoured by the absence
of clouds, which would throw back much of the heat radiated from the earth.
Other favouring circumstances are a still condition of the atmosphere, good
radiating surfaces, and an abundant supply of moisture in the soil.
DEWAR (d[=u]'[.a]r), Sir James, scientist, born at Kincardine-on-Forth,
1842, educated at Dollar Academy, Edinburgh University--where he was
assistant to Lord Playfair when professor of chemistry--and Ghent. In 1873
he was elected Jacksonian professor of experimental philosophy at
Cambridge, an office which he still holds, and in 1879 a professorial
fellow of St. Peter's College. In the latter year he also became Fullerian
professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, London. He is a fellow of
the Royal Society, has been awarded several medals and prizes for his
scientific researches, including the Rumford medal in 1894 for his
investigations into the properties of matter at its lowest temperatures,
this branch of science, with which the liquefaction of air and gases is
connected, being peculiarly his own. He was the first to reduce hydrogen
gas to the liquid and solid form. Together with Sir F. Abel, he was the
discoverer of cordite. He is an honorary graduate of several universities,
a late president of the Chemical Society and vice-president of the Royal
Society, and was president of the British Association in 1902. He has
contributed numerous papers to the proceedings of the learned societies of
Great Britain, and was knighted in 1904. His collected papers on
spectroscopy appeared in 1915.
DEWAR FLASK, a flask devised by Dewar for the examination of liquefied
gases. It consists of an inner vessel surrounded by a vacuum, which much
reduces loss or gain of heat by the liquid. The principle now finds
practical application in the 'Thermos Flask'.
DEW['A]S, a native state of Central India consisting of two combined states
with two chiefs. Total pop. 250,000. Dew['a]s, the chief town, has a pop.
of 5200.
DEWBERRY (_Rubus coesius_), a European plant belonging to the ord. of the
Rosaceae, and to the same genus as the bramble, from which it is
distinguished by its smaller berries, with fewer grains, and by the bloom,
resembling dew, with which they are covered, and from which the plant
derives its name. It is common in some parts of England. The Canadian
dewberry (_R. procumbens_) yields a much superior fruit.