[1] An Anglo-French law term meaning a "scroll" or strip of
parchment, cognate with the English "shred." The modern French
_ecroue_ is used for the entry of a name on a prison register.
DEEMS, CHARLES (ALEXANDER) FORCE (1820-1893), American clergyman, was
born in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 4th of December 1820. He was a
precocious child and delivered lectures on temperance and on Sunday
schools before he was fourteen years old. He graduated at Dickinson
College in 1839, taught and preached in New York city for a few months,
in 1840 took charge of the Methodist Episcopal church at Asbury, New
Jersey, and removed in the next year to North Carolina, where he was
general agent for the American Bible Society. He was professor of logic
and rhetoric at the University of North Carolina in 1842-1847, and
professor of natural sciences at Randolph-Macon College (then at
Boydton, Virginia) in 1847-1848, and after two years of preaching at
Newbern, N.C., he held for four years (1850-1854) the presidency of
Greensboro (N.C.) Female College. He continued as a Methodist Episcopal
clergyman at various pastorates in North Carolina from 1854 to 1865, for
the last seven years being a presiding elder and in 1859 to 1863 being
the proprietor of St Austin's Institute, Wilson. In 1865 he settled in
New York City, where in 1866 he began preaching in the chapel of New
York University, and in 1868 he established and became the pastor of the
undenominational Church of the Strangers, which in 1870 occupied the
former Mercer Street Presbyterian church, purchased and given to Dr
Deems by Cornelius Vanderbilt; there he remained until his death in New
York city on the 18th of November 1893. He was one of the founders
(1881) and president of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy
and for ten years was editor of its organ, _Christian Thought_. Dr Deems
was an earnest temperance advocate, as early as 1852 worked
(unsuccessfully) for a general prohibition law in North Carolina, and in
his later years allied himself with the Prohibition party. He was
influential in securing from Cornelius Vanderbilt the endowment of
Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a man of rare
personal and literary charm; he edited _The Southern Methodist Episcopal
Pulpit_ (1846-1852) and _The Annals of Southern Methodism_ (1855-1857);
he compiled _Devotional Melodies_ (1842), and, with the assistance of
Phoebe Cary, one of his parishioners, _Hymns for all Christians_ (1869;
revised, 1881); and he published many books, among which were: _The Life
of Dr Adam Clarke_ (1840); _The Triumph of Peace and other Poems_
(1840); _The Home Altar_ (1850); _Jesus_ (1872), which ran through many
editions and several revisions, the title being changed in 1880 to _The
Light of the Nations_; _Sermons_ (1885); _The Gospel of Common Sense_
(1888); _The Gospel of Spiritual Insight_ (1891) and _My Septuagint_
(1892). The Charles F. Deems Lectureship in Philosophy was founded in
his honour in 1895 at New York University by the American Institute of
Christian Philosophy.
His _Autobiography_ (New York, 1897) is autobiographical only to 1847,
the memoir being completed by his two sons.
DEER (O. E. _deor_, _dior_, a common Teutonic word, meaning a wild animal,
cf. Ger. _Tier_, Du. _dier_, &c., probably from a root _dhus_-, to
breathe), originally the name of one of two British species, the red-deer
or the fallow-deer, but now extended to all the members of the family
_Cervidae_, in the section Pecora of the suborder Artiodactyla of the
order Ungulata. (See PECORA; ARTIODACTYLA and UNGULATA.) Briefly, deer may
be defined as Pecora presenting the following characteristics:--either
antlers present in the male, or when these are absent, the upper canines
large and sabre-like, and the lateral metacarpal bones represented only by
their lower extremities. This definition will include the living and also
most of the extinct forms, although in some of the latter the lateral
metacarpal bones not only retain their lower ends, but are complete in
their entire length.
The leading characters of antlers are described under PECORA, but these
structures may be defined somewhat more fully in the following passage
from the present writer's _Deer of all Lands_:--
"Antlers are supported on a pair of solid bony processes, or pedicles,
arising from the frontal bones of the skull, of which they form an
inseparable portion; and if in a fully adult deer these pedicles be
sawn through, they will generally be found to consist of solid,
ivory-like bone, devoid of perceptible channels for the passage of
blood-vessels. The pedicles are always covered with skin well supplied
with blood-vessels; and in young deer, or those in which the antlers
have been comparatively recently shed, the covering of skin extends
over their summits, when they appear as longer or shorter projections
on the forehead, according to the species. When the first or a new
antler is about to be formed, the summits of these pedicles become
tender, and bear small velvet-like knobs, which have a high
temperature, and are supplied by an extra quantity of blood, which
commences to deposit bony matter. This deposition of bony matter
progresses very rapidly, and although in young deer and the adults of
some species the resulting antler merely forms a simple spike, or a
single fork, in full-grown individuals of the majority it assumes a
more or less complexly branched structure. All this time the growing
antler is invested with a skin clothed with exceedingly fine short
hairs, and is most liberally supplied with blood-vessels; this
sensitive skin being called the velvet. Towards the completion of its
growth a more or less prominent ring of bone, termed the burr or
coronet, is deposited at its base just above the junction with the
pedicle; this ring tending to constrict the blood-vessels, and thus
cut off the supply of blood from the antlers....
"When the antlers are freed from the velvet--a process usually
assisted by the animal rubbing them against tree stems or boughs--they
have a more or less rugose surface, owing to the grooves formed in
them by the nutrient blood-vessels. Although a few living species have
the antlers in the form of simple spikes in the adult male, in the
great majority of species they are more or less branched; while in
some, like the elk and fallow-deer, they expand into broad palmated
plates, with tines, or snags, on one or both margins. In the antlers
of the red-deer group, which form the type of the whole series, the
following names have been applied to their different component parts
and branches. The main shaft is termed the beam; the first or lowest
tine the brow-tine; the second the bez-tine; the third the trez-tine,
or royal; and the branched portion forming the summit the crown, or
surroyals. But the antlers of all deer by no means conform to this
type; and in certain groups other names have to be adopted for the
branches.
"The antlers of young deer are in the form of simple spikes; and this
form is retained in the South American brockets, although the simple
antlers of these deer appear due to degeneration, and are not
primitive types. Indeed, no living deer shows such primitive
spike-like antlers in the adult, and it is doubtful whether such a
type is displayed by any known extinct form, although many have a
simple fork. In the deer of the sambar group, where the antlers never
advance beyond a three-tined type, the shedding is frequently, if not
invariably, very irregular; but in the majority at least of the
species with complex antlers the replacement is annual, the new
appendages attaining their full development immediately before the
pairing-season. In such species there is a more or less regular annual
increase in the complexity of the antlers up to a certain period of
life, after which they begin to degenerate."
The _Cervidae_ are distributed all over Europe, Asia, Northern Africa
and America, but are unknown in Africa south of the Sahara. They are
undoubtedly a group of European or Asiatic origin, and obtained an
entrance into America at a time when that continent was connected with
Asia by way of Bering Strait.
The existing members of the family are classified in the writer's _Deer
of all Lands_ as follows:--
A. Subfamily CERVINAE.--Antlers, with one exception, present in the
male; liver without a gall-bladder; a face-gland, and a gland-pit in
the skull.
I. Reindeer, Genus _Rangifer_.--Lateral metacarpal bones represented
only by their lower extremities; antlers present in both sexes,
complex. Northern part of both hemispheres.
II. Elk, Genus _Alces_.--Lateral metacarpals as in preceding; antlers
(as in the following genera) present only in the male, arising at
right angles to the median longitudinal line of the skull, and
extending at first in the plane of the forehead, after which, when in
their fullest development, they expand into a broad palmation margined
with snags. Northern portion of both hemispheres.
III. True Deer, Genus _Cervus_.--Lateral metacarpals represented only
by their upper ends. Antlers arising at acute angles to the median
line of the skull (as in the following genera), at first projecting
from the plane of the forehead, and then continued upwards nearly in
that plane, supported on short pedicles, and furnished with a
brow-tine, never regularly forked at first division, but generally of
large size, and with not less than three tines; the skull without
ridges on the frontals forming the bases of the pedicles of the
antlers. Upper canine teeth small, or wanting. Europe, Asia and N.
America.
1. Red-deer Group, Subgenus _Cervus_.--Antlers rounded, usually with
five or more tines, generally including a bez (second), and always a
trez (third); coat of adult generally unspotted, with a large
light-coloured disk surrounding the tail; young, spotted. Europe,
Northern and Central Asia and North America.
2. Sika Deer, Subgenus _Pseudaxis_.--Antlers smaller and simpler,
four-tined, with a trez (third), but no bez (second); coat of adult
spotted, at least in summer, with a white area bordered by black in
the region of the tail, which is also black and white. North-Eastern
Asia.
3. Fallow-deer, Subgenus _Dama_.--Antlers without a bez, but with a
trez-tine, above which the beam is more or less palmated, and
generally furnished with numerous snags; coat of adult spotted in
summer, uniform in winter, with black and white markings in the region
of the tail similar to those of _Pseudaxis_; young, spotted.
Mediterranean region, but more widely spread in Europe during the
Pleistocene epoch, and also introduced into many European countries.
4. Sambar Group, Subgenus _Rusa_.--Antlers rounded, three-tined, with
the bez- and trez-tines wanting, and the beam simply forked at the
summit; coat either uniform or spotted at all seasons. Indo-Malay
countries and part of China.
5. Barasingha Group, Subgenus _Rucervus_.--Antlers flattened or
rounded, without bez- or trez-tine, the beam dichotomously forking,
and one or both branches again forked, so that the number of tines is
at least four; brow-tine forming a right angle or a continuous curve
with the beam; coat of adult generally more or less uniform, of young
spotted. Indo-Malay countries.
IV. Muntjacs, Genus _Cervulus_.--Lateral metacarpals as in _Cervus_;
antlers small, with a brow-tine and an unbranched beam, supported on
long bony pedicles, continued downwards as convergent ridges on the
forehead; upper canines of male large and tusk-like. Indo-Malay
countries and China.
V. Tufted Muntjacs, Genus _Elaphodus_.--Nearly related to the last,
but the antlers still smaller, with shorter pedicles and divergent
frontal ridges; upper canines of male not everted at the tips. Tibet
and China.
VI. Water-deer, Genus _Hydrelaphus_.--Lateral metacarpals as in
_Rangifer_; antlers wanting; upper canines of males tusk-like and
growing from semi-persistent pulps; cheek-teeth tall-crowned
(hypsodont); tail moderate. China.
VII. Roe-deer, Genus _Capreolus_.--Lateral metacarpals as in
_Rangifer_; antlers rather small, without a brow-tine or sub-basal
snag, dichotomously forked, with the upper or posterior prong again
forking; tail rudimentary; vomer not dividing posterior nasal aperture
of skull. Europe and Northern Asia.
VIII. Pere David's Deer, Genus _Elaphurus_.--Lateral metacarpals as in
_Cervus_; antlers large, without a brow-tine or sub-basal snag,
dichotomously forked, with the upper prong of the fork curving
forwards and dividing, and the lower prong long, simple, and projected
backwards, the beam making a very marked angle with the plane of the
face; tail very long; vomer as in _Capreolus_. North-East Asia.
IX. American Deer, Genus _Mazama_.--Lateral metacarpals as in
_Rangifer_; antlers very variable in size, forming a marked angle with
the plane of the face, without a brow-tine; when consisting of more
than a simple prong, dichotomously forked, frequently with a sub-basal
snag, and always with the lower prong of the fork projected from the
front edge of the beam, in some cases the lower, in others the upper,
and in others both prongs again dividing; tail long; tarsal gland
generally present; metatarsal gland very variable, both as regards
presence and position; vomer dividing the inner aperture of the
nostrils in the skull into two distinct chambers. America.
1. White-tailed Group, Subgenus _Dorcelaphus_ or
_Odocoileus_.--Antlers large and complex, with a sub-basal snag, and
the lower prong more or less developed at the expense of the upper
one; metatarsal gland usually present; tail long or moderate, and
hairy below; face very long and narrow; the face-gland small, and the
gland-pit in the skull of moderate extent; no upper canines; size
generally large. North America to Northern South America.
2. Marsh-deer Group, Subgenus _Blastoceros_.--Antlers large and
complex, without a sub-basal snag, and the upper prong more developed
than the lower one; metatarsal gland absent; tail short; face
moderately long; face-gland and gland-pit well developed; upper
canines usually present in male. Size large or rather small. South
America.
3. Guemals, Subgenus _Xenelaphus_.--Antlers small and simple, forming
a single dichotomous fork; metatarsal gland absent; tail short; face
moderately long; face-gland and gland-pit well developed; upper
canines present in both sexes. Size medium. South America.
4. Brockets, Subgenus _Mazama_.--Antlers in the form of simple
unbranched spikes; metatarsal, and in one case also the tarsal gland
absent; tail very short; face elongated; face-gland small and
gland-pit deep and triangular; hair of face radiating from two whorls:
upper canines sometimes present in old males. Size small. Central and
South America.
X. Genus _Pudua_.--Skull and metacarpals generally as in _Mazama_;
size very small; hair coarse and brittle; antlers in the form of
short, simple spikes; cannon-bones very short; tail very short or
wanting; no whorls in the hair of the face; face-gland moderately
large, and gland-pit deep and oval; tarsal and metatarsal glands
wanting; ectocuneiform bone of tarsus united with the naviculocuboid.
South America.
B. Subfamily MOSCHINAE.--Antlers wanting in both sexes; liver
furnished with a gall-bladder; no face-gland or gland-pit.
XI. Musk-deer, Genus _Moschus_.--Hair coarse and brittle; upper
canines of male very long; no tarsal or metatarsal glands or tufts;
lateral metacarpals represented by their lower extremities; lateral
hoofs very large; tail very short; naked portion of muzzle extensive;
male with a large abdominal gland. Central Asia.
Of the above, Reindeer and Elk are dealt with in separate articles
(qq.v.).
The first or typical group of the genus _Cervus_ includes the red-deer
(_Cervus elaphus_) of Europe and western Asia, of which there are
several local races, such as the large _C. elaphus maral_ of eastern
Europe and Persia, which is often partially spotted above and
dark-coloured below, the smaller _C. e. barbarus_ of Tunisia and
Morocco, and the still smaller _C. e. corsicanus_ of Corsica. The
Scandinavian red-deer is the typical form of the species. In all
red-deer the antlers are rounded, and show a more or less marked
tendency to form a cup at the summit. Wapiti, on the other hand, show a
marked tendency to the flattening of the antlers, with a great
development of the fourth tine, which is larger than all the others, and
the whole of the tines above this in the same plane, or nearly so, this
plane being the same as the long axis of the animal. Normally no cup is
developed at the summit of the antler. The tail, too, is shorter than in
the red-deer; while in winter the under parts become very dark, and the
upper surface often bleaches almost white. The cry of the stags in the
breeding season is also different. The typical representative of the
group is the North American wapiti _C. canadensis_, but there are
several closely allied races in Central Asia, such as _C. canadensis
songaricus_ and _C. c. bactrianus_, while in Manchuria the subgroup is
represented by _C. c. xanthopygus_, in which the summer coat is reddish
instead of grey. The hangul (_C. cashmirianus_) of Kashmir is a distinct
dark-coloured species, in which the antlers tend to turn in at the
summit; while _C. yarcandensis_, of the Tarim Valley, Turkestan, is a
redder animal, with a wholly rufous tail, and antlers usually
terminating in a simple fork placed in a transverse plane. Another
Asiatic species is the great shou (_C. affinis_) of the Chumbi Valley,
in which the antlers curve forwards in a remarkable manner. Lastly _C.
albirostris_, of Tibet, is easily recognized by its white muzzle, and
smooth, whitish, flattened antlers, which have fewer tines than those of
the other members of the group, all placed in one plane.
The second group of the genus _Cervus_, forming the subgenus
_Pseudaxis_, is typified by the handsome little Japanese deer, or sika,
_C. (P.) sika_, in which the antlers are four-tined, and covered with
red "velvet" when first grown, while the coat is fully spotted in
summer, but more or less uniformly brown in winter. The most distinctive
feature of the deer of this group is, however, the patch of long
erectile white hairs on the buttocks, which, although inconspicuous when
the animals are quiescent, is expanded into a large chrysanthemum-like
bunch when they start to run or are otherwise excited. The patch then
forms a guiding signal for the members of the herd when in flight. On
the mainland of Manchuria both the typical sika, and a larger race (_C.
sika manchuricus_), occur. A still larger and finer animal is the Pekin
sika (_C. hortulorum_), of northern Manchuria, which is as large as a
small red-deer; it is represented in the Yang-tse valley by a local
race, _C. h. kopschi_. Formosa possesses a species of its own (_C.
taevanus_), which, in correlation with the perpetual verdure of that
island, is spotted at all seasons.
For the fallow-deer, _Cervus [Dama] dama_, see FALLOW-DEER.
The rusine or sambar group of _Cervus_, of which the characteristics are
given above, comprises a considerable number of long-tailed species with
three-tined antlers from the Indo-Malay countries and some parts of
China. The largest and handsomest is the sambar of India (_Cervus [Rusa]
unicolor_), characterized by its massive and rugged antlers. It is
represented by a number of local races, mostly of smaller size, such as
the Burmese and Malay _C. u. equinus_, the Formosan _C. u. swinhoei_,
and the Philippine _C. u. philippinus_ and _C. u. nigricans_, of which
the latter is not larger than a roe-buck, while the sambar itself is as
large as a red-deer. Whether these local phases of a single variable
type are best denominated races or species, must be largely a matter of
individual opinion. The rusa, or Javan sambar, _C. (R.) hippelaphus_, is
a lighter-coloured and smaller deer than the Indian sambar, with longer,
slenderer and less rugged antlers. Typically from Java, this deer is
also represented in the Moluccas and Timor, and has thus the most
easterly range of the whole tribe. A black coat with white spots
distinguishes the Philippine spotted deer, _C. alfredi_, which is about
the size of a roe-buck; while other members of this group are the
Calamianes deer of the Philippines (_C. culionensis_), the Bavian deer
(_C. kuhli_) from a small island near Java, and the well-known Indian
hog-deer or para (_C. porcinus_), all these three last being small, more
or less uniformly coloured, and closely allied species. On the other
hand, the larger and handsomer chital, or spotted deer (_C. axis_),
stands apart by its white-spotted fawn-red coat and differently formed
antlers.
Nearly allied to the preceding is the barasingha or rucervine group
(subgenus _Rucervus_), in which the antlers are of a different and
generally more complex character. The typical species is the Indian
barasingha or swamp-deer, _Cervus (Rucervus) duvauceli_, a uniformly red
animal, widely distributed in the forest districts of India. In Siam it
is replaced by _C. (R.) schomburgki_, in which the antlers are of a
still more complex type. Finally, we have the thamin, or Eld's deer, _C.
(R.) eldi_, ranging from Burma to Siam, and characterized by the
continuous curve formed by the beam and the brow-tine of the antlers.
For the small eastern deer, respectively known as muntjacs (_Cervulus_)
and tufted muntjacs or tufted deer (_Elaphodus_), see MUNTJAC; while
under WATER-DEER will be found a notice of the Chinese representative of
the genus _Hydrelaphus_ (or _Hydropotes_). The roe-deer, or roe-buck
(_Capreolus_), likewise form the subject of a separate article (see
ROE-BUCK), as is also the case with Pere David's deer, the sole
representative of the genus _Elaphurus_.
The American deer include such New World species as are generically
distinct from Old World types. All these differ from the members of the
genus _Cervus_ in having no brow-tine to the antlers, which, in common
with those of the roe-deer, belong to what is called the forked type.
Including all these deer except one in the genus _Mazama_ (of which the
typical representatives are the South American brockets), the North
American species constitute the subgenus _Dorcelaphus_ (also known as
_Cariacus_ and _Odocoileus_). One of the best known of these is the
white-tailed deer _Mazama (Dorcelaphus) americana_, often known as the
Virginian deer. It is typically an animal of the size of a fallow-deer,
reddish in summer and greyish in winter, with a long tail, which is
coloured like the back above but white below, and is carried elevated
when the animal is running, so as to form with the white of the inner
sides of the buttocks a conspicuous "blaze." A white fetlock-gland with
a black centre is also distinctive of this species. The antlers are
large and curve forwards, giving off an upright snag near the base, and
several vertical tines from the upper surface of the horizontal portion.
As we proceed southwards from the northern United States, deer of the
white-tailed type decrease steadily in size, till in Central America,
Peru and Guiana they are represented by animals not larger that a
roe-buck. The most convenient plan appears to be to regard all these
degenerate forms as local races of the white-tail, although here again
there is room for difference of opinion, and many naturalists prefer to
call them species. The large ears, brown-and-white face, short,
black-tipped tail, and antlers without large basal snag serve to
distinguish the mule-deer _M. (D.) hemionus_, of western North America;
while the black tail, _M. (D.) columbiana_, ranging from British
Columbia to California, is a smaller animal, recognizable by the larger
and longer tail, which is black above and white below.
South America is the home of the marsh-deer or guazu, _M. (Blastoceros)
dichotoma_, representing a subgenus in which the complex antlers lack a
basal snag, while the hair of the back is reversed. This species is
about the size of a red-deer, with a foxy red coat with black legs. The
pampas-deer, _M. (B.) bezoartica_, of the Argentine pampas is a much
smaller animal, of paler colour, with three-tined antlers. The Chilean
and Peruvian Andes and Patagonia are the homes of two peculiar deer
locally known as guemals (huemals), and constituting the subgenus
_Xenelaphus_, or _Hippocamelus_. They are about the size of fallow-deer,
and have simply forked antlers. The Chilian species is _M. (B.) bisulca_
and the Peruvian _M. (B.) antisiensis_. Brockets, of which there are
numerous species, such as _M. rufa_ and _M. nemorivaga_, are Central and
South American deer of the size of roe-bucks or smaller, with simple
spike-like antlers, tufted heads and the hair of the face radiating from
two whorls on the forehead so that on the nose the direction is
downwards. The smallest of all deer is the Chilian pudu (_Pudua pudu_),
a creature not much larger than a hare, with almost rudimentary antlers.
The musk-deer forms the subject of a separate article.
For deer in general, see R. Lydekker, _The Deer of all Lands_ (London,
1898, 1908). (R. L.*)
DEERFIELD, a township of Franklin county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on the
Connecticut and Deerfield rivers, about 33 m. N. of Springfield. Pop.
(1900) 1969; (1910 U.S. census) 2209. Deerfield is served by the Boston
& Maine and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways. The natural
beauty and the historic interest of Deerfield attract many visitors.
There are several villages and hamlets in the township, the oldest and
most interesting of which is that known as "The Street" or "Old Street."
This extends along one wide thoroughfare over a hill and across a
plateau or valley that is hemmed in on the E. by a range of highlands
known as East Mountain and on the W. by the foothills of Hoosac
Mountain. Many of the houses in this village are very old. In Memorial
Hall, a building erected in 1797-1798 for the Deerfield academy, the
Pocumtuck Valley memorial association (incorporated in 1870) has
gathered an interesting collection of colonial and Indian relics.
Deerfield was one of the first places in the United States to enter into
the modern "arts and crafts movement"; in 1896 many of the old household
industries were revived and placed upon a business basis. Most of the
work is done by women in the homes. The products, including needlework
and embroidery, textiles, rag rugs, netting, wrought iron, furniture,
and metal-work in gold and silver embellished with precious and
semi-precious stones, are annually exhibited in an old-fashioned house
built in 1710, and a large portion of them are sold to tourists. There
is an arts and crafts society, but the profits from the sales go
entirely to the workers.
The territory which originally constituted the township of Deerfield
(known as Pocumtuck until 1674) was a tract of 8000 acres granted in
1654 to the town of Dedham in lieu of 2000 acres previously taken from
that town and granted to Rev. John Eliot to further his mission among
the Natick Indians. The rights of the Pocumtuck Indians to the Deerfield
tract were purchased at about fourpence per acre, settlement was begun
upon it in 1669, and the township was incorporated in 1673. For many
years, Deerfield was the N.W. frontier settlement of New England. It was
slightly fortified at the beginning of King Philip's War, and after an
attack by the Indians on the 1st of September 1675 it was garrisoned by
a small force under Captain Samuel Appleton. A second attack was made on
the 12th of September, and six days later, as Captain Thomas Lothrop and
his company were guarding teams that were hauling wheat from Deerfield
to the English headquarters at Hadley, they were surprised by Indians in
ambush at what has since been known as Bloody Brook (in the village of
South Deerfield), and Lothrop and more than sixty of his men were slain.
From this time until the end of the war Deerfield was abandoned. In the
spring of 1677 a few of the old settlers returned, but on the 19th of
September some were killed and the others were captured by a party of
Indians from Canada. Resettlement was undertaken again in 1682. On the
15th of September 1694 Deerfield narrowly escaped capture by a force of
French and Indians from Canada. In the early morning of the 29th of
February 1703-1704, Deerfield was surprised by a force of French and
Indians (under Hertel de Rouville), who murdered 49 men, women and
children, captured 111, burned the town, and on the way back to Canada
murdered 20 of the captured. Among the captives was the Rev. John
Williams (1664-1729), the first minister of Deerfield, who (with the
other captives) was redeemed in 1706 and continued as pastor here until
his death; in 1707 he published an account of his experiences as a
prisoner, _The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion_, which has frequently
been reprinted. From the original township of Deerfield the territory of
the following townships has been taken: Greenfield (1753 and 1896),
Conway (1767, 1791 and 1811), Shelburne (1768) and a part of Whately
(1810).
See George Sheldon, _A History of Deerfield_ (Deerfield, 1895); the
_History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association_
(Deerfield, 1890 et seq.); and Pauline C. Bouve, "The Deerfield
Renaissance," in _The New England Magazine_ for October 1905.
DEER PARK, an enclosure of rough wooded pastureland for the
accommodation of red- or fallow-deer. The distinction between a deer
"park" and a deer "forest" is that the former is always enclosed either
by a wall or fence, and is relatively small, whereas the forest covers a
much larger area, and is not only open but sometimes contains
practically no trees at all. Originally, the possession of a deer park
in England was a royal prerogative, and no subject could enclose one
without a direct grant from the crown--a licence to impark, like a
licence to embattle a house, was always necessary. When Domesday Book
was compiled, there were already thirty-one deer parks in England, some
of which may have existed in Saxon times; about one-fourth of them
belonged to the king. After the Conquest they increased rapidly in
number, but from about the middle of the 11th century this tendency was
reversed. In the middle of the 16th century it was conjectured that
one-twentieth of England and Wales was given up to deer and rabbits.
Upon Saxton's maps, which were made between 1575 and 1580, over 700
parks are marked, and it is not improbable that the number was
understated. Mr Evelyn Philip Shirley enumerated only 334 in his book on
_English Deer Parks_ published in 1867. To these Mr Joseph Whitaker, in
_A Descriptive List of the Deer Parks of England_ (1892), has added
another fifty, and the total is believed to be now about 400. It is a
curious circumstance that despite the rather minute detail of Domesday
none of the parks there enumerated can now be identified. There is,
however, a plausible case for Eridge Park in Sussex as the Reredfelle of
Domesday. The state and consequence of the great barons of the middle
ages depended in some measure upon the number of deer parks which they
possessed. Most bishops and abbots had one or two, and at one time more
than twenty were attached to the archbishopric of Canterbury. When the
power of the barons was finally broken and a more settled period began
with the accession of the house of Tudor, the deer park began to fall
into decay. By Queen Elizabeth's time a considerable proportion of the
ancestral acres of the great houses had passed into the possession of
rich merchants and wealthy wool-staplers, and it had become more
profitable to breed bullocks than to find pasture for deer, and even
where the new men retained, and even in some cases created, deer parks,
they reduced their area in order that more land might be available for
grazing or for corn. Thus began that decadence of the deer park which
has continued down to the present time. More than anything, however, the
strife between Charles I. and parliament contributed to reduce both the
number and size of English parks containing deer. By the Restoration the
majority of the parks in England had for the time being been destroyed,
the palings pulled down, the trees felled, and the deer stolen. Of the
duke of Newcastle's eight parks seven were ruined, that at Welbeck alone
remaining intact. Not a tree was left in Clipston Park, although the
timber had been valued at L20,000. One of the results of the Restoration
was to empty the parks of the Roundhead squires to replenish those of
the Royalists, but this measure helped little, and great numbers of deer
had to be brought from Germany to replenish the depleted stocks. A
gentleman of the Isle of Ely was indeed given a baronetcy in return for
a large present of deer which he made to Charles II. The largest
existing deer park in England is that at Savernake (4000 acres), next
comes Windsor, which contains about 2600 acres in addition to the 1450
acres of Windsor Forest. Lord Egerton of Tatton's park at Tatton in
Cheshire, and Lord Abergavenny's at Eridge, each contain about 2500
acres. Other parks which are much about the same size are those of
Blenheim, Richmond, Eastwell, Duncombe, Grimsthorpe, Thoresby and
Knowsley. All these parks are famous either for their size, their
beauty, or the number and long descent of the deer which inhabit them.
The size of English parks devoted to deer varies from that of these
historic examples down to a very few acres. A small proportion of the
older enclosures contains red- as well as fallow-deer. In some of the
larger ones many hundreds of head browse, whereas those of the smallest
size may have only a dozen or two. Although many enclosures were
disparked in very recent times, the 19th century saw the making of a
considerable number of new ones, usually of small dimensions. The
tendency, however, is still towards diminution both in number and
extent, cattle taking the place of deer.
DEFAMATION (from the classical Lat. _diffamare_, to spread abroad an
evil report--the English form in _de_ is taken from the Late Lat.
_defamare_), the saying or writing something of another, calculated to
injure his reputation or expose him to public hatred, contempt and
ridicule. (See LIBEL AND SLANDER.)
DEFAULT (Fr. _defaut_, from _defailler_, to fail, Lat. _fallere_), in
English law, a failure to do some act required by law either as a
regular step in procedure or as being a duty imposed. Parties in an
action may be in default as to procedure by failure to appear to the
writ, or to take some other step, within the prescribed time. In such
cases the opposing party gains some advantage by being allowed to sign
judgment or otherwise. But as a rule, unless the party is much in
default and is under a peremptory order to proceed, the penalty for
default is by order to pay the costs occasioned. When there is default
in complying with the terms of a judgment the remedy is by executing it
by one of the processes admitted by the law. (See EXECUTION.) In the
case of judgments in criminal or quasi-criminal cases, where a fine is
imposed, it is in most cases legal and usual to order imprisonment if
the fine is not paid or if the property of the defendant is insufficient
to realize its amount. Default in compliance with a statute renders the
defaulter liable to action by the person aggrieved or to indictment if
the matter of command is of public concern, subject in either case to
the qualification that the statute may limit the remedy for the default
to some particular proceeding specifically indicated; and in some
instances, e.g. in the case of local authorities, default in the
execution of their public duties is dealt with administratively by a
department of the government, and only in the last resort, if at all, by
recourse to judicial tribunals.
DEFEASANCE, or DEFEAZANCE (Fr. _defaire_, to undo), in law, an
instrument which defeats the force or operation of some other deed or
estate; as distinguished from _condition_, that which in the same deed
is called a condition is a defeasance in another deed. A defeasance
should recite the deed to be defeated and its date, and it must be made
between the same parties as are interested in the deed to which it is
collateral. It must be of a thing defeasible, and all the conditions
must be strictly carried out before the defeasance can be consummated.
Defeasance in a bill of sale is the putting an end to the security by
realizing the goods for the benefit of the mortgagee. It is not strictly
a defeasance, because the stipulation is in the same deed; it is really
a condition in the nature of a defeasance.
DEFENCE (Lat. _defendere_, to defend), in general, a keeping off or
defending, a justification, protection or guard. Physical defence of
self is the right of every man, even to the employment of force, in
warding off an attack. A person attacked may use such force as he
believes to be necessary for the warding off an attack, even to the
extent of killing an assailant. The same right of reciprocal defence
extends not only to defence of one's own person, but also to the defence
of a husband or wife, parent or child, master or servant. (See ASSAULT;
HOMICIDE.) As a legal term in English pleading, "defence" means the
denial by the party proceeded against of the validity of a charge, or
the steps taken by an accused person or his legal advisers for defending
himself. In civil actions, a statement of defence is the second step in
proceedings, being the answer of the defendant to the plaintiff's
statement of claim. In the statement of defence must be set out every
material fact upon which the defendant intends to rely at the trial.
Every fact alleged in the statement of claim must be dealt with, and
either admitted or denied; further facts may be pleaded in answer to
those admitted; the whole pleading of the plaintiff may be objected to
as insufficient in law, or a set-off or counter-claim may be advanced. A
statement of defence must be delivered within ten days from the delivery
of the statement of claim, or appearance if no statement of claim be
delivered.
By the Poor Prisoners' Defence Act 1903, where it appears, having regard
to the nature of the defence set up by any poor prisoner, as disclosed
in the evidence given or statement made by him before the committing
justices, that it is desirable in the interests of justice that he
should have legal aid in the preparation and conduct of his defence, and
that his means are insufficient to enable him to obtain such aid, it may
be ordered either (1) on committal for trial by the committing justices,
or (2) after reading the depositions by the judge or quarter sessions
chairman. The defence includes the services of solicitor and counsel and
the expenses of witnesses, the cost being payable in the same manner as
the expenses of a prosecution for felony. Briefly, the object of the act
is, not to give a prisoner legal assistance to find out if he has got a
defence, but in order that a prisoner who has a defence may have every
inducement to tell the truth about it at the earliest opportunity. Legal
assistance under the act is only given where both (1) the nature of the
defence as disclosed is such that in the interests of justice the
prisoner should have legal aid to make his defence clear, and (2) where
also his means are insufficient for that end (Lord Alverstone, C. J., at
Warwick Summer Assizes, _The Times_, July 26, 1904).
DEFENDANT, in law, a person against whom proceedings are instituted or
directed; one who is called upon to answer in any suit. At one time the
term "defendant" had a narrower meaning, that of a person sued in a
personal action only, the corresponding term in a real action being
"tenant," but the distinction is now practically disregarded, except in
a few states of the United States.
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH (_Fidei Defensor_), a title belonging to the
sovereign of England in the same way as _Christianissimus_ belonged to
the king of France, and _Catholicus_ belongs to the ruler of Spain. It
seems to have been suggested in 1516, and although certain charters have
been appealed to in proof of an earlier use of the title, it was first
conferred by Pope Leo X. on Henry VIII. The Bull granting the title is
dated the 11th of October 1521, and was a reward for the king's
treatise, _Assertio, septem sacramentorum_, against Luther. When Henry
broke with the papacy, Pope Paul III. deprived him of this designation,
but in 1544 the title of "Defender of the Faith" was confirmed to Henry
by parliament, and has since been used by all his successors on the
English throne.
DEFERENT (Lat. _deferens_, bearing down), in ancient astronomy, the mean
orbit of a planet, which carried the epicycle in which the planet
revolved. It is now known to correspond to the actual orbit of the
planet round the sun.
DEFFAND, MARIE ANNE DE VICHY-CHAMROND, MARQUISE DU (1697-1780), a
celebrated Frenchwoman, was born at the chateau of Chamrond near
Charolles (department of Saone-et-Loire) of a noble family in 1697.
Educated at a convent in Paris, she showed, along with great
intelligence, a sceptical and cynical turn of mind. The abbess, alarmed
at the freedom of her views, arranged that Massillon should visit and
reason with her, but he accomplished nothing. Her parents married her at
twenty-one years of age to her kinsman, Jean Baptiste de la Lande,
marquis du Deffand, without consulting her inclination. The union proved
an unhappy one, and resulted in a separation as early as 1722. Madame du
Deffand, young and beautiful, is said by Horace Walpole to have been for
a short time the mistress of the regent, the duke of Orleans (Walpole to
Gray, January 25, 1766). She appeared in her earlier days to be
incapable of any strong attachment, but her intelligence, her cynicism
and her _esprit_ made her the centre of attraction of a brilliant
circle. In 1721 began her friendship with Voltaire, but their regular
correspondence dates only from 1736. She spent much time at Sceaux, at
the court of the duchesse du Maine, where she contracted a close
friendship with the president Henault. In Paris she was in a sense the
rival of Madame Geoffrin, but the members of her salon were drawn from
aristocratic society more than from literary cliques. There were,
however, exceptions. Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontenelle and Madame de
Staal-Delaunay were among the habitues. When Henault introduced
D'Alembert, Madame du Deffand was at once captivated by him. With the
encyclopaedists she was never in sympathy, and appears to have tolerated
them only for his sake. In 1752 she retired from Paris, intending to
spend the rest of her days in the country, but she was persuaded by her
friends to return. She had taken up her abode in 1747 in apartments in
the convent of St Joseph in the rue St Dominique, which had a separate
entrance from the street. When she lost her sight in 1754 she engaged
Mademoiselle de Lespinasse to help her in entertaining. This lady's wit
made some of the guests, D'Alembert among others, prefer her society to
that of Madame du Deffand, and she arranged to receive her friends for
an hour before the appearance of her patron. When this state of things
was discovered Mademoiselle de Lespinasse was dismissed (1764), but the
salon was broken up, for she took with her D'Alembert, Turgot and the
literary clique generally. From this time Madame du Deffand very rarely
received any literary men. The principal friendships of her later years
were with the duchesse de Choiseul and with Horace Walpole. Her
affection for the latter, which dated from 1765, was the strongest and
most durable of all her attachments. Under the stress of this tardy
passion she developed qualities of style and eloquence of which her
earlier writings had given little promise. In the opinion of
Sainte-Beuve the prose of her letters ranks with that of Voltaire as the
best of that classical epoch without excepting any even of the great
writers. Walpole refused at first to acknowledge the closeness of their
intimacy from an exaggerated fear of the ridicule attaching to her age,
but he paid several visits to Paris expressly for the purpose of
enjoying her society, and maintained a close and most interesting
correspondence with her for fifteen years. She died on the 23rd of
September 1780, leaving her dog Tonton to the care of Walpole, who was
also entrusted with her papers. Of her innumerable witty sayings the
best known is her remark on the cardinal de Polignac's account of St
Denis's miraculous walk of two miles with his head in his hands,--_Il
n'y a que le premier pas qui coute_.
The _Correspondance inedite_ of Madame du Deffand with D'Alembert,
Henault, Montesquieu, and others was published in Paris (2 vols.) in
1809. _Letters of the marquise du Deffand to the Hon. Horace Walpole,
afterwards earl of Orford, from the year 1766 to the year 1780_ (4
vols.), edited, with a biographical sketch, by Miss Mary Berry, were
published in London from the originals at Strawberry Hill in 1810.
The standard edition of her letters is the _Correspondance complete de
la marquise du Deffand ..._ by M. de Lescure (1865); the
_Correspondance inedite_ with M. and Mme de Choiseul and others was
edited in 1859 and again in 1866 by the marquis de Ste-Aulaire. Other
papers of Madame du Deffand obtained at the breaking up of Walpole's
collection are in private hands. Madame du Deffand returned many of
Walpole's letters at his request, and subsequently destroyed those
which she received from him. Those in his possession appear to have
been destroyed after his death by Miss Berry, who printed fragments
from them as footnotes to the edition of 1810. The correspondence
between Walpole and Madame du Deffand thus remains one-sided, but
seven of Walpole's letters to her are printed for the first time in
the edition (1903) of his correspondence by Mrs Paget Toynbee, who
discovered a quantity of her unedited letters. See Sainte-Beuve,
_Causeries du lundi_, vols. i. and xiv.; and the notice by M. de
Lescure in his edition of the correspondence.
DEFIANCE, a city and the county seat of Defiance county, Ohio, U.S.A.,
at the confluence of the Auglaize and Tiffin rivers with the Maumee,
about 50 m. S.W. of Toledo. Pop. (1890) 7694; (1900) 7579 (960
foreign-born); (1910) 7327. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio and the
Wabash railways, and by the Ohio Electric railway to Lima (42 m.). The
city commands a fine view of the rivers and the surrounding country,
which is well adapted to agriculture; and has large machine shops and
several flour mills, besides manufactories of agricultural implements,
waggons, sashes and blinds, and wood-working machinery for the
manufacture of artillery wheels. Here, too, is Defiance College, an
institution of the Christian Denomination, opened in 1885. Defiance was
long the site of an Indian village. In 1794 General Anthony Wayne built
a fort here and named it Defiance. In 1822 Defiance was laid out as a
town; in 1845 it was made the county seat of the newly erected county;
and in 1881 it became a city of the second class.
DEFILE, a military expression for a passage, to march through which
troops are compelled to "defile," or narrow their front (from the Fr.
_defiler_, to march in a line, or by "files"). The word is usually
applied to a ravine or gorge in a range of hills, but a causeway over a
river, a bridge and even a village may equally be called a defile. The
term is also used to express, without any special reference to military
operations, a gorge in mountains. The verb "to defile" is used of troops
marching on a narrow front, or narrowing their front, under all
circumstances, and in this sense is the contrary of "deploy."
"Defile," in the sense of "pollute," is another form of "defoul"; though
spelt alike, the two words are pronounced differently, the accent being
on the first syllable for the former and on the second for the latter.
DEFINITION (Lat. _definitio_, from _de-finire_, to set limits to,
describe), a logical term used popularly for the process of explaining,
or giving the meaning of, a word, and also in the concrete for the
proposition or statement in which that explanation is expressed. In
logic, definition consists in determining the qualities which belong to
given concepts or universals; it is not concerned with individuals,
which are marked by an infinity of peculiarities, any one or all of
which might be predicated of another individual. Individuals can be
defined only in so far as they belong to a single kind. According to
Aristotle, definition is the statement of the essence of a concept
([Greek: horismos men gar tou ti esti kai ousias], _Posterior
Analytics_, B iii. 90 b 30); that is, it consists of the genus and the
differentia. In other words, "man" is defined as "animal _plus_
rationality," or "rational animal,"[1] i.e. the concept is (1) referred
to the next higher genus, and (2) distinguished from other modes in
which that genus exists, i.e. from other species. It is sometimes argued
that, there being no definition of individuals as such, definition is of
names (see J. S. Mill, _Logic_, i. viii. 5), not of things; it is
generally, however, maintained that definition is _of things, regarded
as, or in so far as they are, of a kind_. Definition of words can be
nothing more than the explanation of terms such as is given in a
dictionary.
The following rules are generally given as governing accurate
definition. (1) _The definition must be equivalent or commensurate with
that which is defined_; it must be applicable to all the individuals
included in the concept and to nothing else. Every man, and nothing
else, is a rational animal. "Man is mortal" is not a definition, for
mortality is predicable of irrational animals. (2) _The definition must
state the essential attributes_; a concept cannot be defined by its
accidental attributes; those attributes must be given which are
essential and primary. (3) _The definition must be per genus et
differentiam_ (or _differentias_), as we have already seen. These are
the important rules. Three minor rules are: (4) _The definition must not
contain the name of the concept to be defined_; if it does, no
information is given. Such a proposition as "an archdeacon is one who
performs archidiaconal functions" is not a definition. Concepts cannot
be defined by their correlatives. Such a definition is known as a
_circulus in definiendo_. (5) _Obscure and figurative language must be
avoided_, and (6) _Definitions must not be in the negative when they can
be in the affirmative_.