[1] At the 7th plenary sitting of the second Hague Conference
(September 7th, 1907) the chiefs of the Spanish and Mexican
delegations, M. de Villa Urratia and M. de la Barra, announced the
determination of their respective governments to accede to the
Declaration of Paris.
[2] This relates to the incident in the Russo-Japanese War of the
transformation of Russian vessels which had passed through the
Dardanelles unarmed.
DECLARATOR, in Scots law, a form of action by which some right of
property, or of servitude, or of status, or some inferior right or
interest, is sought to be judicially declared.
DECLINATION (from Lat. _declinare_, to decline), in magnetism the angle
between true north and magnetic north, i.e. the variation between the
true meridian and the magnetic meridian. In 1596 at London the angle of
declination was 11 deg. E. of N., in 1652 magnetic north was true north,
in 1815 the magnetic needle pointed 24(1/2) deg. W. of N., in 1891 18
deg. W., in 1896 17 deg. 56' W. and in 1906 17 deg. 45'. The angle is
gradually diminishing and the declination will in time again be 0 deg.,
when it will slowly increase in an easterly direction, the north
magnetic pole oscillating slowly around the North Pole. Regular daily
changes of declination also occur. Magnetic storms cause irregular
variations sometimes of one or two degrees. (See MAGNETISM,
TERRESTRIAL.)
In astronomy the declination is the angular distance, as seen from the
earth, of a heavenly body from the celestial equator, thus corresponding
with terrestrial latitude.
DECOLOURIZING, in practical chemistry and chemical technology, the
removal of coloured impurities from a substance. The agent most
frequently used is charcoal, preferably prepared from blood, which when
shaken with a coloured solution frequently precipitates the coloured
substances leaving the solution clear. Thus the red colour of wines may
be removed by filtering the wine through charcoal; the removal of the
dark-coloured impurities which arise in the manufacture of sugar may be
similarly effected. Other "decolourizers" are sulphurous acid,
permanganates and manganates, all of which have received application in
the sugar industry.
DECORATED PERIOD, in architecture, the term given by Richman to the
second pointed or Gothic style, 1307-1377. It is characterized by its
window tracery, geometrical at first and flowing in the later period,
owing to the omission of the circles in the tracery of windows, which
led to the juxtaposition of the foliations and their pronounced curves
of contre-flexure. This flowing or flamboyant tracery was introduced in
the first quarter of the century and lasted about fifty years. The
arches are generally equilateral, and the mouldings bolder than in the
Early English, with less depth in the hollows and with the fillet
largely used. The ball flower and a four-leaved flower take the place of
the dog-tooth, and the foliage in the capitals is less conventional than
in Early English and more flowing, and the diaper patterns in walls are
more varied. The principal examples are those of the east end of Lincoln
and Carlisle cathedral; the west fronts of York and Lichfield; the
crossing of Ely cathedral, including the lantern and three west bays of
choir and the Lady Chapel; and Melrose Abbey. (R. P. S.)
DE COSTA, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1831-1904), American clergyman and
historical writer, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 10th
of July 1831. He graduated in 1856 at the Biblical Institute at Concord,
New Hampshire (now a part of Boston University), became a minister in
the Episcopal Church in 1857, and during the next three years was a
rector first at North Adams, and then at Newton Lower Falls, Mass. After
serving as chaplain in two Massachusetts regiments during the first two
years of the Civil War, he became editor (1863) of _The Christian Times_
in New York, and subsequently edited _The Episcopalian_ and _The
Magazine of American History_. He was rector of the church of St John
the Evangelist in New York city from 1881 to 1899, when he resigned in
consequence of being converted to Roman Catholicism. He was one of the
organizers and long the secretary of the Church Temperance Society, and
founded and was the first president (1884-1899) of the American branch
of the White Cross Society. He became a high authority on early American
cartography and the history of the period of exploration. He died in New
York city on the 4th of November 1904. In addition to numerous
monographs and valuable contributions to Winsor's _Narrative and
Critical History of America_, he published _The Pre-Columbian Discovery
of America by the Northmen_ (1868); _The Northmen in Maine_ (1870); _The
Moabite Stone_ (1871); _The Rector of Roxburgh_ (1871), a novel under
the _nom de plume_ of "William Hickling"; and _Verrazano the Explorer;
being a Vindication of his Letter and Voyage_ (1880).
DE COSTER, CHARLES THEODORE HENRI (1827-1879), Belgian writer, was born
at Munich on the 20th of August 1827. His father, Augustin de Coster,
was a native of Liege, who was attached to the household of the papal
nuncio at Munich, but soon returned to Belgium. Charles was placed in a
Brussels bank, but in 1850 he entered the university of Brussels, where
he completed his studies in 1855. He was one of the founders of the
_Societe des Joyeux_, a small literary club, more than one member of
which was to achieve literary distinction. De Coster made his debut as a
poet in the _Revue trimestrielle_, founded in 1854, and his first
efforts in prose were contributed to a periodical entitled
_Uylenspiegel_ (founded 1856). A correspondence covering the years
1850-1858, his _Lettres a Elisa_, were edited by Ch. Potvin in 1894. He
was a keen student of Rabelais and Montaigne, and familiarized himself
with 16th-century French. He said that Flemish manners and speech could
not be rendered faithfully in modern French, and accordingly wrote his
best works in the old tongue. The success of his _Legendes flamandes_
(1857) was increased by the illustrations of Felicien Rops and other
friends. In 1861 he published his _Contes brabancons_, in modern French.
His masterpiece is his _Legende de Thyl Uylenspiegel et de Lamme
Goedzak_ (1867), a 16th-century romance, in which Belgian patriotism
found its fullest expression. In the preparation for this prose epic of
the _gueux_ he spent some ten years. Uylenspiegel (Eulenspiegel) has
been compared to Don Quixote, and even to Panurge. He is the type of the
16th-century Fleming, and the history of his resurrection from the grave
itself was accepted as an allegory of the destiny of the race. The
exploits of himself and his friend form the thread of a semi-historical
narrative, full of racy humour, in spite of the barbarities that find a
place in it. This book also was illustrated by Rops and others. In 1870
De Coster became professor of general history and of French literature
at the military school. His works however were not financially
profitable; in spite of his government employment he was always in
difficulties; and he died in much discouragement on the 7th of May 1879
at Ixelles, Brussels. The expensive form in which _Uylenspiegel_ was
produced made it open only to a limited class of readers, and when a new
and cheap edition in modern French appeared in 1893 it was received
practically as a new book in France and Belgium.
DECOY, a contrivance for the capture or enticing of duck and other wild
fowl within range of a gun, hence any trap or enticement into a place or
situation of danger. Decoys are usually made on the following plan: long
tunnels leading from the sea, channel or estuary into a pool or pond are
covered with an arched net, which gradually narrows in width; the ducks
are enticed into this by a tame trained bird, also known as a "decoy" or
"decoy-duck." In America the "decoy" is an artificial bird, placed in
the water as if it were feeding, which attracts the wild fowl within
range of the concealed sportsman. The word "decoy" has, etymologically,
a complicated history. It appears in English first in the 17th century
in these senses as "coy" and "coy-duck," from the Dutch _kooi_, a word
which is ultimately connected with Latin _cavea_, hollow place,
"cage."[1] The _de_-, with which the word begins, is either a corruption
of "duck-coy," the Dutch article _de_, or a corruption of the Dutch
_eende-kooi_, _eende_, duck. The _New English Dictionary_ points out
that the word "decoy" is found in the particular sense of a sharper or
swindler as a slang term slightly earlier than "coy" or "decoy" in the
ordinary sense, and, as the name of a game of cards, as early as 1550,
apparently with no connexion in meaning. It is suggested that "coy" may
have been adapted to this word.