FOOTNOTE:

[1] "_De la prophécie Merlin sur la destruction d'Angleterre qui doit

brief advenir_" (_OEuvres_, No. 211).

DESCHANEL, PAUL EUGÈNE LOUIS (1856- ), French statesman, son of Émile

Deschanel (1819-1904), professor at the Collège de France and senator,

was born at Brussels, where his father was living in exile (1851-1859),

owing to his opposition to Napoleon III. Paul Deschanel studied law, and

began his career as secretary to Deshayes de Marcère (1876), and to

Jules Simon (1876-1877). In October 1885 he was elected deputy for Eure

and Loire. From the first he took an important place in the chamber, as

one of the most notable orators of the Progressist Republican group. In

January 1896 he was elected vice-president of the chamber, and

henceforth devoted himself to the struggle against the Left, not only in

parliament, but also in public meetings throughout France. His addresses

at Marseilles on the 26th of October 1896, at Carmaux on the 27th of

December 1896, and at Roubaix on the 10th of April 1897, were triumphs

of clear and eloquent exposition of the political and social aims of the

Progressist party. In June 1898 he was elected president of the chamber,

and was re-elected in 1901, but rejected in 1902. Nevertheless he came

forward brilliantly in 1904 and 1905 as a supporter of the law on the

separation of church and state. He was elected a member of the French

Academy in 1899, his most notable works being _Orateurs et hommes

d'état_ (1888), _Figures de femmes_ (1889), _La Décentralization_

(1895), _La Question sociale_ (1898).

DES CLOIZEAUX, ALFRED LOUIS OLIVIER LEGRAND (1817-1897), French

mineralogist, was born at Beauvais, in the department of Oise, on the

17th of October 1817. He became professor of mineralogy at the École

Normale Supérieure and afterwards at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle in

Paris. He studied the geysers of Iceland, and wrote also on the

classification of some of the eruptive rocks; but his main work

consisted in the systematic examination of the crystals of numerous

minerals, in researches on their optical properties and on the subject

of polarization. He wrote specially on the means of determining the

different felspars. He was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological

Society of London in 1886. He died in May 1897. His best-known books are

_Leçons de cristallographie_ (1861); _Manuel de minéralogie_ (2 vols.,

Paris, 1862, 1874 and 1893).

DESCLOIZITE, a rare mineral species consisting of basic lead and zinc

vanadate, (Pb, Zn)_2(OH)V0_4, crystallizing in the orthorhombic

system and isomorphous with olivenite. It was discovered by A. Damour in

1854, and named by him in honour of the French mineralogist Des

Cloizeaux. It occurs as small prismatic or pyramidal crystals, usually

forming drusy crusts and stalactitic aggregates; also as fibrous

encrusting masses with a mammillary surface. The colour is deep

cherry-red to brown or black, and the crystals are transparent or

translucent with a greasy lustre; the streak is orange-yellow to brown;

specific gravity 5.9 to 6.2; hardness 3½. A variety known as

cuprodescloizite is dull green in colour; it contains a considerable

amount of copper replacing zinc and some arsenic replacing vanadium.

Descloizite occurs in veins of lead ores in association with

pyromorphite, vanadinite, wulfenite, &c. Localities are the Sierra de

Cordoba in Argentina, Lake Valley in Sierra county, New Mexico, Arizona,

Phoenixville in Pennsylvania, and Kappel (Eisen-Kappel) near Klagenfurt

in Carinthia.

Other names which have been applied to this species are vanadite,

tritochorite and ramirite; the uncertain vanadates eusynchite, araeoxene

and dechenite are possibly identical with it.

DESCRIPTIVE POETRY, the name given to a class of literature, which may

be defined as belonging mainly to the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries in

Europe. From the earliest times, all poetry which was not subjectively

lyrical was apt to indulge in ornament which might be named descriptive.

But the critics of the 17th century formed a distinction between the

representations of the ancients and those of the moderns. We find

Boileau emphasizing the statement that, while Virgil _paints_, Tasso

_describes_. This may be a useful indication for us in defining not what

should, but what in practice has been called "descriptive poetry." It is

poetry in which it is not imaginative passion which prevails, but a

didactic purpose, or even something of the instinct of a sublimated

auctioneer. In other words, the landscape, or architecture, or still

life, or whatever may be the object of the poet's attention, is not used

as an accessory, but is itself the centre of interest. It is, in this

sense, not correct to call poetry in which description is only the

occasional ornament of a poem, and not its central subject, descriptive

poetry. The landscape or still life must fill the canvas, or, if human

interest is introduced, that must be treated as an accessory. Thus, in

the _Hero and Leander_ of Marlowe and in the _Alastor_ of Shelley,

description of a very brilliant kind is largely introduced, yet these

are not examples of what is technically called "descriptive poetry,"

because it is not the strait between Sestos and Abydos, and it is not

the flora of a tropical glen, which concentrates the attention of the

one poet or of the other, but it is an example of physical passion in

the one case and of intellectual passion in the other, which is

diagnosed and dilated on. On the other hand Thomson's _Seasons_, in

which landscape takes the central place, and Drayton's _Polyolbion_,

where everything is sacrificed to a topographical progress through

Britain, are strictly descriptive.

It will be obvious from this definition that the danger ahead of all

purely descriptive poetry is that it will lack intensity, that it will

be frigid, if not dead. Description for description's sake, especially

in studied verse, is rarely a vitalized form of literature. It is

threatened, from its very conception, with languor and coldness; it must

exercise an extreme art or be condemned to immediate sterility. Boileau,

with his customary intelligence, was the first to see this, and he

thought that the danger might be avoided by care in technical execution.

His advice to the poets of his time was:--

"Soyez riches et pompeux dans vos descriptions;

C'est-là qu'il faut des vers étaler l'élégance,"

and:--

"De figure sans nombre égayez votre ouvrage;

Que toute y fasse aux yeux une riante image,"

and in verses of brilliant humour he mocked the writer who, too full of

his subject, and describing for description's sake, will never quit his

theme until he has exhausted it:--

"Fuyez de ces auteurs l'abondance stérile

Et ne vous chargez point d'un détail inutile."

This is excellent advice, but Boileau's humorous sallies do not quite

meet the question whether such purely descriptive poetry as he

criticizes is legitimate at all.

In England had appeared the famous translation (1592-1611), by Josuah

Sylvester, of the _Divine Weeks and Works_ of Du Bartas, containing such

lines as those which the juvenile Dryden admired so much:--

"But when winter's keener breath began

To crystallize the Baltic ocëan,

To glaze the lakes, and bridle up the floods,

And perriwig with wool the bald-pate woods."

There was also the curious physiological epic of Phineas Fletcher, _The

Purple Island_ (1633). But on the whole it was not until French

influences had made themselves felt on English poetry, that

description, as Boileau conceived it, was cultivated as a distinct art.

The _Cooper's Hill_ (1642) of Sir John Denham may be contrasted with the

less ambitious _Penshurst_ of Ben Jonson, and the one represents the new

no less completely than the other does the old generation. If, however,

we examine _Cooper's Hill_ carefully, we perceive that its aim is after

all rather philosophical than topographical. The Thames is described

indeed, but not very minutely, and the poet is mainly absorbed in moral

reflections. Marvell's long poem on the beauties of Nunappleton comes

nearer to the type. But it is hardly until we reach the 18th century

that we arrive, in English literature, at what is properly known as

descriptive poetry. This was the age in which poets, often of no mean

capacity, began to take such definite themes as a small country estate

(Pomfret's _Choice_, 1700), the cultivation of the grape (Gay's _Wine_,

1708), a landscape (Pope's _Windsor Forest_, 1713), a military

manoeuvre (Addison's _Campaign_, 1704), the industry of an

apple-orchard (Philip's _Cyder_, 1708) or a piece of topography

(Tickell's _Kensington Gardens_, 1722), as the sole subject of a lengthy

poem, generally written in heroic or blank verse. These _tours de force_

were supported by minute efforts in miniature-painting, by touch applied

to touch, and were often monuments of industry, but they were apt to

lack personal interest, and to suffer from a general and deplorable

frigidity. They were infected with the faults which accompany an

artificial style; they were monotonous, rhetorical and symmetrical,

while the uniformity of treatment which was inevitable to their plan

rendered them hopelessly tedious, if they were prolonged to any great

extent.

This species of writing had been cultivated to a considerable degree

through the preceding century, in Italy and (as the remarks of Boileau

testify) in France, but it was in England that it reached its highest

importance. The classic of descriptive poetry, in fact, the specimen

which the literature of the world presents which must be considered as

the most important and the most successful, is _The Seasons_ (1726-1730)

of James Thomson (q.v.). In Thomson, for the first time, a poet of

considerable eminence appeared, to whom external nature was all

sufficient, and who succeeded in conducting a long poem to its close by

a single appeal to landscape, and to the emotions which it directly

evokes. Coleridge, somewhat severely, described _The Seasons_ as the

work of a good rather than of a great poet, and it is an indisputable

fact that, at its very best, descriptive poetry fails to awaken the

highest powers of the imagination. A great part of Thomson's poem is

nothing more nor less than a skilfully varied catalogue of natural

phenomena. The famous description of twilight in "the fading

many-coloured woods" of autumn may be taken as an example of the highest

art to which purely descriptive poetry has ever attained. It is obvious,

even here, that the effect of these rich and sonorous lines, in spite of

the splendid effort of the artist, is monotonous, and leads us up to no

final crisis of passion or rapture. Yet Thomson succeeds, as few other

poets of his class have succeeded, in producing nobly-massed effects and

comprehensive beauties such as were utterly unknown to his predecessors.

He was widely imitated in England, especially by Armstrong, by Akenside,

by Shenstone (in _The Schoolmistress_, 1742), by the anonymous author of

_Albania_, 1737, and by Goldsmith (in _The Deserted Village_, 1770). No

better example of the more pedestrian class of descriptive poetry could

be found than the last-mentioned poem, with its minute and Dutch-like

painting:--

"How often have I paused on every charm:

The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm;

The never-failing brook, the busy mill,

The decent church that topped the neighbouring hill:

The hawthorn-bush, with seats beneath the shade.

For talking age and whispering lovers made."

On the continent of Europe the example of Thomson was almost immediately

fruitful. Four several translations of _The Seasons_ into French

contended for the suffrages of the public, and J. F. de Saint-Lambert

(1716-1803) imitated Thomson in _Les Saisons_ (1769), a poem which

enjoyed popularity for half a century, and of which Voltaire said that

it was the only one of its generation which would reach posterity.

Nevertheless, as Madame du Deffand told Walpole, Saint-Lambert is

"_froid, fade et faux,_" and the same may be said of J. A. Roucher

(1745-1794), who wrote _Les Mois_ in 1779, a descriptive poem famous in

its day. The Abbé Jacques Delille (1738-1813), perhaps the most

ambitious descriptive poet who has ever lived, was treated as a Virgil

by his contemporaries; he published _Les Géorgiques_ in 1769, _Les

Jardins_ in 1782, and _L'Homme des champs_ in 1803, but he went furthest

in his brilliant, though artificial, _Trois règnes de la nature_ (1809),

which French critics have called the masterpiece of this whole school of

descriptive poetry. Delille, however, like Thomson before him, was

unable to avoid monotony and want of coherency. Picture follows picture,

and no progress is made. The satire of Marie Joseph Chénier, in his

famous and witty _Discours sur les poèmes descriptifs_, brought the

vogue of this species of poetry to an end.

In England, again, Wordsworth, who treated the genius of Thomson with

unmerited severity, revived descriptive poetry in a form which owed more

than Wordsworth realized to the model of _The Seasons_. In _The

Excursion_ and _The Prelude_, as well as in many of his minor pieces,

Wordsworth's philosophical and moral intentions cannot prevent us from

perceiving the large part which pure description takes; and the same may

be said of much of the early blank verse of S. T. Coleridge. Since their

day, however, purely descriptive poetry has gone more and more

completely out of fashion, and its place has been taken by the richer

and directer effects of such prose as that of Ruskin in English, or of

Fromentin and Pierre Loti in French. It is almost impossible in

descriptive verse to obtain those vivid and impassioned appeals to the

imagination which are of the very essence of genuine poetry, and it is

unlikely that descriptive poetry, as such, will again take a prominent

place in living literature. (E. G.)

DESERT, a term somewhat loosely employed to describe those parts of the

land surface of the earth which do not produce sufficient vegetation to

support a human population. Few areas of large extent in any part of the

world are absolutely devoid of vegetation, and the transition from

typical desert conditions is often very gradual and ill-defined.

("Desert" comes from Lat. _deserere_, to abandon; distinguish "desert,"

merit, and "dessert," fruit eaten after dinner, from _de_ and _servier_,

to serve.)

Deserts are conveniently divided into two classes according to the

causes which give rise to the desert conditions. In "cold deserts" the

want of vegetation is wholly due to the prevailing low temperature,

while in "hot deserts" the surface is unproductive because, on account

of high temperature and deficient rainfall, evaporation is largely in

excess of precipitation. Cold deserts accordingly occur in high

latitudes (see TUNDRA and POLAR REGIONS). Hot desert conditions are

primarily found along the tropical belts of high atmospheric pressure in

which the conditions of warmth and dryness are most fully realized, and

on their equatorial sides, but the zonal arrangement is considerably

modified in some regions by the monsoonal influence of elevated land.

Thus we have in the northern hemisphere the Sahara desert, the deserts

of Arabia, Iran, Turan, Takla Makan and Gobi, and the desert regions of

the Great Basin in North America; and in the southern hemisphere the

Kalahari desert in Africa, the desert of Australia, and the desert of

Atacama in South America. Where the line of elevated land runs east and

west, as in Asia, the desert belt tends to be displaced into higher

latitudes, and where the line runs north and south, as in Africa,

America and Australia, the desert zone is cut through on the windward

side of the elevation and the arid conditions intensified on the lee

side. Desert conditions also arise from local causes, as in the case of

the Indian desert situated in a region inaccessible to either of the two

main branches of the south-west monsoon.

Although rivers rising in more favoured regions may traverse deserts on

their way to the sea, as in the case of the Nile and the Colorado, the

fundamental physical condition of an arid area is that it contributes

nothing to the waters of the ocean. The rainfall chiefly occurs in

violent cloud-bursts, and the soluble matter in the soil is carried down

by intermittent streams to salt lakes around which deposits are formed

as evaporation takes place. The land forms of a desert are exceedingly

characteristic. Surface erosion is chiefly due to rapid changes of

temperature through a wide range, and to the action of wind transferring

sand and dust, often in the form of "dunes" resembling the waves of the

sea. Dry valleys, narrow and of great depth, with precipitous sides, and

ending in "cirques," are probably formed by the intense action of the

occasional cloud-bursts.

When water can be obtained and distributed over an arid region by

irrigation, the surface as a rule becomes extremely productive. Natural

springs give rise to oases at intervals and make the crossing of large

deserts possible. Where a river crosses a desert at a level near that of

the general surface, irrigation can be carried on with extremely

profitable results, as has been done in the valley of the Nile and in

parts of the Great Basin of North America; in cases, however, where the

river has cut deeply and flows far below the general surface, irrigation

is too expensive. Much has been done in parts of Australia by means of

artesian wells.

For a general account of deserts see Professor Johannes Walther, _Das

Gesetz der Wüstenbildung_ (Berlin, 1900), in which many references to

other original authorities will be found. (H. N. D.)

DESERTION, the act of forsaking or abandoning; more particularly, the

wilful abandonment of an employment or of duty, in violation of a legal

or moral obligation.

The offence of naval or military desertion is constituted when a man

absents himself with the intention either of not returning or of

escaping some important service, such as embarkation for foreign

service, or service in aid of the civil power. In the United Kingdom

desertion has always been recognized by the civil law, and until 1827 (7

& 8 Geo. IV. c. 28) was a felony punishable by death. It was

subsequently dealt with by the various Mutiny Acts, which were replaced

by the Army Act 1881, renewed annually by the Army (Annual) Act. By § 12

of the act every person subject to military law who deserts or attempts

to desert, or who persuades or procures any person to desert, shall, on

conviction by court martial, if he committed the offence when on active

service or under orders for active service, be liable to suffer death,

or such less punishment as is mentioned in the act. When the offence is

committed under any other circumstances, the punishment for the first

offence is imprisonment, and for the second or any subsequent offence

penal servitude or such less punishment as is mentioned in the act. § 44

contains a scale of punishments, and §§ 175-184 an enumeration of

persons subject to military law. By § 153 any person who persuades a

soldier to desert or aids or assists him or conceals him is liable, on

conviction, to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, for not more

than six months. § 154 makes provision for the apprehension of

deserters. § 161 lays down that where a soldier has served continuously

in an exemplary manner for not less than three years in any corps of

regular forces he is not to be tried or punished for desertion which has

occurred before the commencement of the three years. Desertion from the

regular forces can only be tried by a military court, but in the case of

the militia and reserve forces desertion can be tried by a civil court.

The Army Act of 1881 made a welcome distinction between actual

desertion, as defined at the commencement of this article, and the

quitting one regiment in order to enlist in another. This offence is now

separately dealt with as fraudulent enlistment; formerly, it was termed

"desertion and fraudulent enlistment," and the statistics of desertion

proper were consequently and erroneously magnified. The gross total of

desertions in the British Army in an average year (1903-1904) was nearly

4000, or 1.4% of the average strength of the army, but owing to men

rejoining from desertion, fraudulent enlistment, &c., the net loss was

no more than 1286, i.e. less than .5%. The army of the United States

suffers very severely from desertion, and very few deserters rejoin or

are recaptured (see _Journal of the Roy. United Service Inst._, December

1905, p. 1469). In the year 1900-1901, 3110 men deserted (4.3% of

average strength); in 1901-1902, 4667 (or 5.9%); in 1904-1905, 6553 (or

6.8%); and in 1905-1906, 6258 out of less than 60,000 men, or 7.4%.

In all armies desertion while on active service is punishable by death;

on the continent of Europe, owing to the system of compulsory service,

desertion is infrequent, and takes place usually when the deserter

wishes to leave his country altogether. It was formerly the practice in

the English army to punish a man convicted of desertion by tattooing on

him the letter "D" to prevent his re-enlistment, but this has been long

abandoned in deference to public opinion, which erroneously adopted the

idea that the "marking" was effected by red-hot irons or in some other

manner involving torture. The Navy Discipline Act 1866, and the Naval

Deserters Act 1847, contain similar provisions to the Army Act of 1881

for dealing with desertions from the navy. In the United States navy the

term "straggling" is applied to absence without leave, where the

probability is that the person does not intend to desert. The United

States government offers a monetary reward of between $20 and $30 for

the arrest and delivery of deserters from the army and navy.

In the British merchant service the offence of desertion is defined as

the abandonment of duty by quitting the ship before the termination of

the engagement, without justification, and with the intention of not

returning.

Desertion is also the term applied to the act by which a man abandons

his wife and children, or either of them. Desertion of a wife is a

matrimonial offence; under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, a decree of

judicial separation may be obtained in England by either husband or wife

on the ground of desertion, without cause, for two years and upwards

(see also DIVORCE).

For the desertion of children see CHILDREN, LAW RELATING TO; INFANT.

(T. A. I.)

DES ESSARTS, EMMANUEL ADOLPHE (1839- ), French poet and man of letters,

was born at Paris on the 5th of February 1839. His father, Alfred

Stanislas Langlois des Essarts (d. 1893), was a poet and novelist of

considerable reputation. The son was educated at the École Normale

Supérieure, and became a teacher of rhetoric and finally professor of

literature at Dijon and at Clermont. His works are: _Poésies

parisiennes_ (1862), a volume of light verse on trifling subjects; _Les

Élévations_ (1864), philosophical poems; _Origines de la poésie lyrique

en France au XVI^e siècle_ (1873); _Du génie de Chateaubriand_ (1876);

_Poèmes de la Révolution_ (1879); _Pallas Athéné_ (1887); _Portraits de

maîtres_ (1888), &c.

DESFONTAINES, RENÉ LOUICHE (1750-1833), French botanist, was born at

Tremblay (Île-et-Vilaine) on the 14th of February 1750. After graduating

in medicine at Paris, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences

in 1783. In the same year he set out for North Africa, on a scientific

exploring expedition, and on his return two years afterwards brought

with him a large collection of plants, animals, &c., comprising, it is

said, 1600 species of plants, of which about 300 were described for the

first time. In 1786 he was nominated to the post of professor at the

Jardin des Plantes, vacated in his favour by his friend, L. G.

Lemonnier. His great work, _Flora Atlantica sive historia plantarum quae

in Atlante, agro Tunetano el Algeriensi crescunt_, was published in 2

vols. 4to in 1798, and he produced in 1804 a _Tableau de l'école

botanique du muséum d'histoire naturelle de Paris_, of which a third

edition appeared in 1831, under the new title _Catalogus plantarum horti

regii Parisiensis_. He was also the author of many memoirs on vegetable

anatomy and physiology, descriptions of new genera and species, &c., one

of the most important being a "Memoir on the Organization of the

Monocotyledons." He died at Paris on the 16th of November 1833. His

Barbary collection was bequeathed to the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle,

and his general collection passed into the hands of the English

botanist, Philip Barker Webb.

DESFORGES, PIERRE JEAN BAPTISTE CHOUDARD (1746-1806), French dramatist

and man of letters, natural son of Dr Antoine Petit, was born in Paris

on the 15th of September 1746. He was educated at the Collège Mazarin

and the Collège de Beauvais, and at his father's desire began the study

of medicine. Dr Petit's death left him dependent on his own resources,

and after appearing on the stage of the Comédie Italienne in Paris he

joined a troupe of wandering actors, whom he served in the capacity of

playwright. He married an actress, and the two spent three years in St

Petersburg, where they were well received. In 1782 he produced at the

Comédie Italienne an adaptation of Fielding's novel with the title _Tom

Jones à Londres_. His first great success was achieved with _L'Épreuve

villageoise_ (1785) to the music of Grétry. _La Femme jalouse_, a

five-act comedy in verse (1785), _Joconde_ (1790) for the music of Louis

Jaden, _Les Époux divorcés_ (1799), a comedy, and other pieces followed.

Desforges was one of the first to avail himself of the new facilities

afforded under the Revolution for divorce and re-marriage. The curious

record of his own early indiscretions in _Le Poète, ou mémoires d'un

homme de lettres écrits par lui-même_ (4 vols., 1798) is said to have

been undertaken at the request of Madame Desforges. He died in Paris on

the 13th of August 1806.

DESGARCINS, MAGDELEINE MARIE [LOUISE] (1769-1797), French actress, was

born at Mont Dauphin (Hautes Alpes). In her short career she became one

of the greatest of French tragédiennes, the associate of Talma, with

whom she nearly always played. Her début at the Comédie Française

occurred on the 24th of May 1788, in _Bajazet_, with such success that

she was at once made _sociétaire_. She was one of the actresses who left

the Comédie Française in 1791 for the house in the rue Richelieu, soon

to become the Théâtre de la République, and there her triumphs were no

less--in _King Lear_, _Othello_, La Harpe's _Mélanie et Virginie_, &c.

Her health, however, failed, and she died insane, in Paris, on the 27th

of October 1797.

DESHAYES, GÉRARD PAUL (1795-1875), French geologist and conchologist,

was born at Nancy on the 13th of May 1797, his father at that time being

professor of experimental physics in the École Centrale of the

department of la Meurthe. He studied medicine at Strassburg, and

afterwards took the degree of _bachelier ès lettres_ in Paris in 1821;

but he abandoned the medical profession in order to devote himself to

natural history. For some time he gave private lessons on geology, and

subsequently became professor of natural history in the Muséum

d'Histoire Naturelle. He was distinguished for his researches on the

fossil mollusca of the Paris Basin and of other Tertiary areas. His

studies on the relations of the fossil to the recent species led him as

early as 1829 to conclusions somewhat similar to those arrived at by

Lyell, to whom Deshayes rendered much assistance in connexion with the

classification of the Tertiary system into Eocene, Miocene and Pliocene.

He was one of the founders of the Société Géologique de France. In 1839

he began the publication of his _Traité élémentaire de conchyliologie_,

the last part of which was not issued until 1858. In the same year

(1839) he went to Algeria for the French Government, and spent three

years in explorations in that country. His principal work, which

resulted from the collections he made, _Mollusques de l'Algérie_, was

issued (incomplete) in 1848. In 1870 the Wollaston medal of the

Geological Society of London was awarded to him. He died at Boran on the

9th of June 1875. His publications included _Description des coquilles

fossiles des environs de Paris_ (2 vols. and atlas, 1824-1837);

_Description des animaux sans vertèbres découverts dans le bassin de

Paris_ (3 vols. and atlas, 1856-1866); _Catalogue des mollusques de

l'île la Réunion_ (1863).

DESHOULIÈRES, ANTOINETTE DU LIGIER DE LA GARDE (1638-1694), French poet,

was born in Paris on the 1st of January 1638. She was the daughter of

Melchior du Ligier, sieur de la Garde, _maître d'hôtel_ to the queens

Marie de' Medici and Anne of Austria. She received a careful and very

complete education, acquiring a knowledge of Latin, Spanish and Italian,

and studying prosody under the direction of the poet Jean Hesnault. At

the age of thirteen she married Guillaume de Boisguerin, seigneur

Deshoulières, who followed the prince of Condé as lieutenant-colonel of

one of his regiments to Flanders about a year after the marriage. Madame

Deshoulières returned for a time to the house of her parents, where she

gave herself to writing poetry and studying the philosophy of Gassendi.

She rejoined her husband at Rocroi, near Brussels, where, being

distinguished for her personal beauty, she became the object of

embarrassing attentions on the part of the prince of Condé. Having made

herself obnoxious to the government by her urgent demand for the

arrears of her husband's pay, she was imprisoned in the château of

Wilworden. After a few months she was freed by her husband, who attacked

the château at the head of a small band of soldiers. An amnesty having

been proclaimed, they returned to France, where Madame Deshoulières soon

became a conspicuous personage at the court of Louis XIV. and in

literary society. She won the friendship and admiration of the most

eminent literary men of the age--some of her more zealous flatterers

even going so far as to style her the tenth muse and the French

Calliope. Her poems were very numerous, and included specimens of nearly

all the minor forms, odes, eclogues, idylls, elegies, chansons, ballads,

madrigals, &c. Of these the idylls alone, and only some of them, have

stood the test of time, the others being entirely forgotten. She wrote

several dramatic works, the best of which do not rise to mediocrity. Her

friendship for Corneille made her take sides for the _Phèdre_ of Pradon

against that of Racine. Voltaire pronounced her the best of women French

poets; and her reputation with her contemporaries is indicated by her

election as a member of the Academy of the Ricovrati of Padua and of the

Academy of Arles. In 1688 a pension of 2000 livres was bestowed upon her

by the king, and she was thus relieved from the poverty in which she had

long lived. She died in Paris on the 17th February 1694. Complete

editions of her works were published at Paris in 1695, 1747, &c. These

include a few poems by her daughter, Antoine Thérèse Deshoulières

(1656-1718), who inherited her talent.

DESICCATION (from the Lat. _desiccare_, to dry up), the operation of

drying or removing water from a substance. It is of particular

importance in practical chemistry. If a substance admits of being heated

to say 100°, the drying may be effected by means of an air-bath, which

is simply an oven heated by gas or by steam. Otherwise a _desiccator_

must be employed; this is essentially a closed vessel in which a

hygroscopic substance is placed together with the substance to be dried.

The process may be accelerated by exhausting the desiccator; this

so-called vacuum desiccation is especially suitable for the

concentration of aqueous solutions of readily decomposable substances.

Of the hygroscopic substances in common use, phosphoric anhydride,

concentrated sulphuric acid, and dry potassium hydrate are almost equal

in power; sodium hydrate and calcium chloride are not much behind.

Two common types of desiccator are in use. In one the absorbent is

placed at the bottom, and the substance to be dried above. Hempel

pointed out that the efficiency would be increased by inverting this

arrangement, since water vapour is lighter than air and consequently

rises. Liquids are dried either by means of the desiccator, or, as is

more usual, by shaking with a substance which removes the water. Fused

calcium chloride is the commonest absorbent; but it must not be used

with alcohols and several other compounds, since it forms compounds with

these substances. Quicklime, barium oxide, and dehydrated copper

sulphate are especially applicable to alcohol and ether; the last traces

of water may be removed by adding metallic sodium and distilling. Gases

are dried by leading them through towers or tubes containing an

appropriate drying material. The experiments of H. B. Baker on the

influence of moisture on chemical combination have shown the difficulty

of removing the last traces of water.

In chemical technology, apparatus on the principle of the laboratory

air-bath are mainly used. Crystals and precipitates, deprived of as much

water as possible by centrifugal machines or filter-presses, are

transported by means of a belt, screw, or other form of conveyer, on to

trays staged in brick chambers heated directly by flue gases or steam

pipes; the latter are easily controlled, and if the steam be superheated

a temperature of 300° and over may be maintained. In some cases the

material traverses the chamber from the coolest to the hottest part on a

conveyer or in wagons. Rotating cylinders are also used; the material to

be dried being placed inside, and the cylinder heated by a steam jacket

or otherwise.

DESIDERIO DA SETTIGNANO (1428-1464), Italian sculptor, was born at

Settignano, a village on the southern slope of the hill of Fiesole,

still surrounded by the quarries of sandstone of which the hill is

formed, and inhabited by a race of "stone-cutters." Desiderio was for a

short time a pupil of Donatello, whom, according to Vasari, he assisted

in the work on the pedestal of David, and he seems to have worked also

with Mino da Fiesole, with the delicate and refined style of whose works

those of Desiderio seem to have a closer affinity than with the perhaps

more masculine tone of Donatello. Vasari particularly extols the

sculptor's treatment of the figures of women and children. It does not

appear that Desiderio ever worked elsewhere than at Florence; and it is

there that those who are interested in the Italian sculpture of the

Renaissance must seek his few surviving decorative and monumental works,

though a number of his delicately carved marble busts of women and

children are to be found in the museums and private collections of

Germany and France. The most prominent of his works are the tomb of the

secretary of state, Marsuppini, in Santa Croce, and the great marble

tabernacle of the Annunciation in San Lorenzo, both of which belong to

the latter period of Desiderio's activity; and the cherubs' heads which

form the exterior frieze of the Pazzi Chapel. Vasari mentions a marble

bust by Desiderio of Marietta degli Strozzi, which for many years was

held to be identical with a very beautiful bust bought in 1878 from the

Strozzi family for the Berlin Museum. This bust is now, however,

generally acknowledged to be the work of Francesco Laurana; whilst

Desiderio's bust of Marietta has been recognized in another marble

portrait acquired by the Berlin Museum in 1842. The Berlin Museum also

owns a coloured plaster bust of an Urbino lady by Desiderio, the model

for which is in the possession of the earl of Wemyss. Other important

busts by the master are in the Bargello, Florence, the Louvre in Paris,

the collections of M. Figdor and M. Benda in Vienna, and of M. Dreyfus

in Paris. Like most of Donatello's pupils, Desiderio worked chiefly in

marble, and not a single work in bronze has been traced to his hand.

See Wilhelm Bode, _Die italienische Plastik_ (Berlin, 1893).

DESIDERIUS, the last king of the Lombards, is chiefly known through his

connexion with Charlemagne. He was duke of Tuscany and became king of

the Lombards after the death of Aistulf in 756. Seeking, like his

predecessors, to extend the Lombard power in Italy, he came into

collision with the papacy, and about 772 the new pope, Adrian I.,

implored the aid of Charlemagne against him. Other causes of quarrel

already existed between the Frankish and the Lombard kings. In 770

Charlemagne had married a daughter of Desiderius; but he soon put this

lady away, and sent her back to her father. Moreover, Gerberga, the

widow of Charlemagne's brother Carloman, had sought the protection of

the Lombard king after her husband's death in 771; and in return for the

slight cast upon his daughter, Desiderius had recognized Gerberga's sons

as the lawful Frankish kings, and had attacked Adrian for refusing to

crown them. Such was the position when Charlemagne led his troops across

the Alps in 773, took the Lombard capital, Ticinum, the modern Pavia, in

June 774, and added the kingdom of Lombardy to his own dominions.

Desiderius was carried to France, where he died, and his son, Adalgis,

spent his life in futile attempts to recover his father's kingdom. The

name of Desiderius appears in the romances of the Carolingian period.

See S. Abel, _Untergang des Langobardenreichs_ (Göttingen, 1859); and

_Jahrbücher des fränkischen Reiches unter Karl dem Grossen_ (Leipzig,

1865); L. M. Hartmann, _Geschichte Italiens im Mittelalter_ (Gotha,

1903); and Paulus Diaconus, _Historia Langobardorum_, edited by L.

Bethmann and G. Waitz (Hanover, 1878).

DESIGN (Fr. _dessin_, drawing; Lat. _designare_, to mark out), in the

arts, a drawing, more especially when made as a guide for the execution

of work; that side of drawing which deals with arrangement rather than

representation; and generally, by analogy, a deliberate planning,

scheming or purpose. Modern use has tended to associate design with the

word "original" in the sense of new or abnormal. The end of design,

however, is properly utility, fitness and delight. If a discovery, it

should be a discovery of what seems inevitable, an inspiration arising

out of the conditions, and parallel to invention in the sciences. The

faculty of design has best flourished when an almost spontaneous

development was taking place in the arts, and while certain classes of

arts, more or less noble, were generally demanded and the demand

copiously satisfied, as in the production of Greek vases, Byzantine

mosaics, Gothic cathedrals, and Renaissance paintings. Thus where a

"school of design" arises there is much general likeness in the products

but also a general progress. The common experience--"tradition"--is a

part of each artist's stock in trade; and all are carried along in a

stream of continuous exploration. Some of the arts, writing, for

instance, have been little touched by conscious originality in design,

all has been progress, or, at least, change, in response to conditions.

Under such a system, in a time of progress, the proper limitations react

as intensity; when limitations are removed the designer has less and

less upon which to react, and unconditioned liberty gives him nothing at

all to lean on. Design is response to needs, conditions and aspirations.

The Greeks so well understood this that they appear to have consciously

restrained themselves to the development of selected types, not only in

architecture and literature, but in domestic arts, like pottery. Design

with them was less the new than the true.

For the production of a school of design it is necessary that there

should be a considerable body of artists working together, and a large

demand from a sympathetic public. A process of continuous development is

thus brought into being which sustains the individual effort. It is

necessary for the designer to know familiarly the processes, the

materials and the skilful use of the tools involved in the productions

of a given art, and properly only one who practises a craft can design

for it. It is necessary to enter into the traditions of the art, that

is, to know past achievements. It is necessary, further, to be in

relation with nature, the great reservoir of ideas, for it is from it

that fresh thought will flow into all forms of art. These conditions

being granted, the best and most useful meaning we can give to the word

design is exploration, experiment, consideration of possibilities.

Putting too high a value on originality other than this is to restrict

natural growth from vital roots, in which true originality consists. To

take design in architecture as an example, we have rested too much on

definite precedent (a different thing from living tradition) and, on the

other hand, hoped too much from newness. Exploration of the

possibilities in arches, vaults, domes and the like, as a chemist or a

mathematician explores, is little accepted as a method in architecture

at this time, although in antiquity it was by such means that the great

master-works were produced: the Pantheon, Santa Sophia, Durham and

Amiens cathedrals. The same is true of all forms of design. Of course

the genius and inspiration of the individual artist is not here ignored,

but assumed. What we are concerned with is a mode of thought which shall

make it most fruitful. (W. R. L.)

DESIRE, in popular usage, a term for a wishing or longing for something

which one has not got. For its technical use see PSYCHOLOGY. The word is

derived through the French from Lat. _desiderare_, to long or wish for,

to miss. The substantive _desiderium_ has the special meaning of desire

for something one has once possessed but lost, hence regret or grief.

The usual explanation of the word is to connect it with _sidus_, star,

as in _considerare_, to examine the stars with attention, hence, to look

closely at. If this is so, the history of the transition in meaning is

unknown. J. B. Greenough (_Harvard Studies in Classical Philology_, i.

96) has suggested that the word is a military slang term. According to

this theory _desiderare_ meant originally to miss a soldier from the

ranks at roll-call, the root being that seen in _sedere_, to sit,

_sedes_, seat, place, &c.

DESK (from Lat. _discus_, quoit, in med. sense of "table," cf. "dish"

and Ger. _Tisch_, table, from same source), any kind of flat or sloping

table for writing or reading. Its earliest shape was probably that with

which we are familiar in pictures of the monastic _scriptorium_--rather

high and narrow with a sloping slab. The primitive desk had little

accommodation for writing materials, and no storage room for papers;

drawers, cupboards and pigeon-holes were the evolution of periods when

writing grew common, and when letters and other documents requiring

preservation became numerous. It was long the custom to secure papers

in chests or cabinets, whereas the modern desk serves the double purpose

of a writing-table and a storehouse for documents. The first development

from the early stall-like desk consisted of the addition of a drawer;

then the table came to be supported upon legs or columns, which, as in

the many beautiful examples constructed by Boulle and his school, were

often of elaborate grace. Eventually the legs were replaced by a series

of superimposed drawers forming pedestals--hence the familiar pedestal

writing-table.

For a long period there were two distinct contemporary forms of

desk--the table and the bureau or escritoire. The latter shape attained

a popularity so great that, especially in England and America, it was

found even in houses in which there was little occasion for writing. The

English-speaking people of the 18th century were amazingly fond of

pieces of furniture which served a double or triple purpose. The

bureau--the word is the French generic appellation for a desk--derives

its name from the material with which it was originally covered (Fr.

_bure_, woollen cloth). It consists of an upright carcass sloping inward

at the top, and provided with long drawers below. The upper part is

fitted with small drawers and pigeon-holes, and often with secret

places, and the writing space is formed by a hinged slab supported on

runners; when not in use this slab closes up the sloping top. During the

18th century innumerable thousands of these bureaux were made on both

sides of the Atlantic--indeed, if we except tables and chairs, no piece

of old furniture is more common. In the first part of that period they

were usually of oak, but when mahogany was introduced into Europe it

speedily ousted the heavier-looking wood. Its deep rich colour and the

high polish of which it was capable added appreciably to its ornamental

appearance. While the pigeon-holes and small drawers were used for

papers, the long drawers were often employed for purposes other than

literary. In time the bureau-secretaire became a bureau-bookcase, the

glazed shelves, which were often a separate erection, resting upon the

top of the bureau. The cabinetmakers of the second half of the 18th

century, the period of the greatest _floraison_ of this combination,

competed with each other in devising elegant frets for the glass fronts.

Solid and satisfying to the eye, if somewhat severe in form, the

mahogany bureau was usually an exceedingly presentable piece of

furniture. Occasionally it had a _bombé_ front which mitigated its

severity; this was especially the case in the Dutch varieties, which

were in a measure free adaptations of the French Louis Quinze _commode_.

These Dutch bureaux, and the English ones made in imitation of them,

were usually elaborately inlaid with floral designs in coloured woods;

but whereas the Batavian marquetry was often rough and crude, the

English work was usually of considerable excellence. Side by side with

this form of writing apparatus was one variety or another of the

writing-table proper. In so far as it is possible to generalize upon

such a detail it would appear that the bureau was the desk of the yeoman

and what we now call the lower middle class, and that the slighter and

more table-like forms were preferred by those higher in the social

scale. This probably means no more than that while the one class

preserved the old English affection for the solid and heavy furniture

which would last for generations, those who were more free to follow the

fashions and fancies of their time were, as the pecuniarily easy classes

always have been, ready to abandon the old for the new.

Just about the time when the flat table with its drawers in a single

row, or in nests serving as pedestals, was finally assuming its familiar

modern shape, an invention was introduced which was destined eventually,

so far as numbers and convenience go, to supersede all other forms of

desk. This was the cylinder-top writing-table. Nothing is known of the

originator of this device, but it is certain that if not French himself

he worked in France. The historians of French furniture agree in fixing

its introduction about the year 1750, and we know that a desk worked on

this principle was in the possession of the French crown in the year

1760. Even in its early days the cylinder took more than one form. It

sometimes consisted of a solid piece of curved wood, and sometimes of a

tambour frame--that is to say, of a series of narrow jointed strips of

wood mounted on canvas; the revolving shutters of a shop-front are an

adaptation of the idea. For a long period, however, the cylinder was

most often solid, and remained so until the latter part of the 19th

century, when the "American roll-top desk" began to be made in large

numbers. This is indeed the old French form with a tambour cylinder, and

it is now the desk that is most frequently met with all over the world

for commercial purposes. Its popularity is due to its large

accommodation, and to the facility with which the closing of the

cylinder conceals all papers, and automatically locks every drawer. To

France we owe not only the invention of this ubiquitous form, but the

construction of many of the finest and most historic desks that have

survived--the characteristic marquetry writing-tables of the Boulle

period, and the gilded splendours of that of Louis Quinze have never

been surpassed in the history of furniture. Indeed, the "Bureau du roi"

which was made for Louis XV. is the most famous and magnificent piece of

furniture that, so far as we know, was ever constructed. This desk,

which is now one of the treasures of the Louvre, was the work of several

artist-artificers, chief among whom were Oeben and Riesener--Oeben, it

may be added here as a matter of artistic interest, became the

grandfather of Eugene Delacroix. The bureau is signed "Riesener fa. 1769

à l'Arsenal de Paris," but it has been established that, however great

may have been the share of its construction which fell to him, the

conception was that of Oeben. The work was ordered in 1760; it would

thus appear that nine years were consumed in perfecting it, which is not

surprising when we learn from the detailed account of its construction

that the work began with making a perfect miniature model followed by

one of full size. The "bureau du roi" is a large cylinder desk

elaborately inlaid in marquetry of woods, and decorated with a wonderful

and ornate series of mounts consisting of mouldings, plaques, vases and

statuettes of gilt bronze cast and chased. These bronzes are the work of

Duplessis, Winant and Hervieux. The desk, which shows plainly the

transition between the Louis Quinze and Louis Seize styles, is as

remarkable for the boldness of its conception as for the magnificent

finish of its details. Its lines are large, flowing and harmonious, and

although it is no longer exactly as it left the hands of its makers

(Oeben died before it was finished) the alterations that have been made

have hardly interfered with the general effect. For the head of the king

for whom it was made that of Minerva in a helmet was substituted under

his successor. The ciphers of Louis XV. have been removed and replaced

by Sèvres plaques, and even the key which bore the king's initial

crowned with laurels and palm leaves, with his portrait on the one side,

and the fleur de lys on the other, has been interfered with by an

austere republicanism. Yet no tampering with details can spoil the

monumental nobility of this great conception. (J. P.-B.)

DESLONGCHAMPS, JACQUES AMAND EUDES- (1794-1867), French naturalist and

palaeontologist, was born at Caen in Normandy on the 17th of January

1794. His parents, though poor, contrived to give him a good education,

and he studied medicine in his native town to such good effect that in

1812 he was appointed assistant-surgeon in the navy, and in 1815 surgeon

assistant major to the military hospital of Caen. Soon afterwards he

proceeded to Paris to qualify for the degree of doctor of surgery, and

there the researches and teachings of Cuvier attracted his attention to

subjects of natural history and palaeontology. In 1822 he was elected

surgeon to the board of relief at Caen, and while he never ceased to

devote his energies to the duties of this post, he sought relaxation in

geological studies. Soon he discovered remains of _Teleosaurus_ in one

of the Caen quarries, and he became an ardent palaeontologist. He was

one of the founders of the museum of natural history at Caen, and acted

as honorary curator; he was likewise one of the founders of the

_Sociétié linnéenne de Normandie_ (1823), to the transactions of which

society he communicated papers on _Teleosaurus_, _Poekilopleuron_

(_Megalosaurus_), on Jurassic mollusca and brachiopoda. In 1825 he

became professor of zoology to the faculty of sciences, and in 1847,

dean. He died on the 17th of January 1867.

His son EUGÈNE EUDES-DESLONGCHAMPS (1830-1889), French palaeontologist,

was born in 1830. He succeeded his father about the year 1856 as

professor of zoology at the faculty of sciences at Caen, and in 1861 he

became also professor of geology and dean. After the death of his father

in 1867, he devoted himself to the completion of a memoir on the

Teleosaurs: the joint labours being embodied in his _Prodrome des

Téléosauriens du Calvados_. To the Société Linnéenne de Normandie he

contributed memoirs on Jurassic brachiopods, on the geology of the

department of La Manche (1856), of Calvados (1856-1863), on the _Terrain

callovien_ (1859), on _Nouvelle-Calédonie_ (1864), and _Études sur les

étages jurassiques inférieurs de la Normandie_ (1864). His work _Le Jura

normand_ was issued in 1877-1878 (incomplete). He died at Château

Matthieu, Calvados, on the 21st of December 1889.

DESMAISEAUX, PIERRE (1673-1745); French writer, was born at Saillat,

probably in 1673. His father, a minister of the reformed church, had to

leave France on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and took refuge

in Geneva, where Pierre was educated. Bayle gave him an introduction to

the 3rd Lord Shaftesbury, with whom, in 1699, he came to England, where

he engaged in literary work. He remained in close touch with the

religious refugees in England and Holland, and constantly in

correspondence with the leading continental savants and writers, who

were in the habit of employing him to conduct such business as they

might have in England. In 1720 he was elected a fellow of the Royal

Society. Among his works are _Vie de St Evremond_ (1711), _Vie de

Boileau-Despréaux_ (1712), _Vie de Bayle_ (1730). He also took an active

part in preparing the _Bibliothèque raisonnée des ouvrages de l'Europe_

(1728-1753), and the _Bibliothèque britannique_ (1733-1747), and edited

a selection of St Evremond's writings (1706). Part of Desmaiseaux's

correspondence is preserved in the British Museum, and other letters are

in the royal library at Copenhagen. He died on the 11th of July 1745.

DESMAREST, NICOLAS (1725-1815), French geologist, was born at Soulaines,

in the department of Aube, on the 16th of September 1725. Of humble

parentage, he was educated at the college of the Oratorians of Troyes

and Paris. Taking full advantage of the instruction he received, he was

able to support himself by teaching, and to continue his studies

independently. Buffon's _Theory of the Earth_ interested him, and in

1753 he successfully competed for a prize by writing an essay on the

ancient connexion between England and France. This attracted much

attention, and ultimately led to his being employed in studying and

reporting on manufactures in different countries, and in 1788 to his

appointment as inspector-general of the manufactures of France. He

utilized his journeys, travelling on foot, so as to add to his knowledge

of the earth's structure. In 1763 he made observations in Auvergne,

recognizing that the prismatic basalts were old lava streams, comparing

them with the columns of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, and referring

them to the operations of extinct volcanoes. It was not, however, until

1774 that he published an essay on the subject, accompanied by a

geological map, having meanwhile on several occasions revisited the

district. He then pointed out the succession of volcanic outbursts and

the changes the rocks had undergone through weathering and erosion. As

remarked by Sir A. Geikie, the doctrine of the origin of valleys by the

erosive action of the streams which flow through them was first clearly

taught by Desmarest. An enlarged and improved edition of his map of the

volcanic region of Auvergne was published after his death, in 1823, by

his son ANSELME GAËTAN DESMAREST (1784-1838), who was distinguished as a

zoologist, and author of memoirs on recent and fossil crustacea. He died

in Paris on the 20th of September 1815.

See _The Founders of Geology_, by Sir A. Geikie (1897), pp. 48-78.

(H. B. Wo.)

DESMARETS (or DESMARETZ), JEAN, SIEUR DE SAINT-SORLIN (1595-1676),

French dramatist and miscellaneous writer, was born in Paris in 1595.

When he was about thirty he was introduced to Richelieu, and became one

of the band of writers who carried out the cardinal's literary ideas.

Desmarets's own inclination was to novel-writing, and the success of his

romance _Ariane_ in 1631 led to his formal admission to the circle that

met at the house of Valentine Conrart and later developed into the

Académie Française. Desmarets was its first chancellor. It was at

Richelieu's request that he began to write for the theatre. In this kind

he produced a comedy long regarded as a masterpiece, _Les Visionnaires_

(1637); a prose-tragedy, _Érigone_ (1638); and _Scipion_ (1639), a

tragedy in verse. His success led to official preferment, and he was

made _conseiller du roi_, _contrôleur-général de l'extraordinaire des

guerres_, and secretary-general of the fleet of the Levant. His long

epic _Clovis_ (1657) is noteworthy because Desmarets rejected the

traditional pagan background, and maintained that Christian imagery

should supplant it. With this standpoint he contributed several works in

defence of the moderns in the famous quarrel between the Ancients and

Moderns. In his later years Desmarets devoted himself chiefly to

producing a quantity of religious poems, of which the best-known is

perhaps his verse translation of the _Office de la Vierge_ (1645). He

was a violent opponent of the Jansenists, against whom he wrote a

_Réponse à l'insolente apologie de Port-Royal ..._ (1666). He died in

Paris on the 28th of October 1676.

See also H. Rigault, _Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des

modernes_ (1856), pp. 80-103.

DESMARETS, NICOLAS, SIEUR DE MAILLEBOIS (1648-1721), French statesman,

was born in Paris on the 10th of September 1648. His mother was the

sister of J. B. Colbert, who took him into his offices as a clerk. He

became counsellor to the parlement in 1672, master of requests in 1674

and intendant of finances in 1678. In these last functions he had to

treat with the financiers for the coinage of new silver pieces of four

sous. After Colbert's death he was involved in the legal proceedings

taken against those financiers who had manufactured coins of bad alloy.

The prosecution, conducted by the members of the family of Le Tellier,

rivals of the Colberts, presented no proof against Desmarets.

Nevertheless he was stripped of his offices and exiled to his estates by

the king, on the 23rd of December 1683. In March 1686 he was authorized

to return to Paris, and again entered into relations with the

controllers-general of finance, to whom he furnished for more than ten

years remarkable memoirs on the economic situation in France. As early

as 1687 he showed the necessity for radical reforms in the system of

taxation, insisting on the ruin of the people and the excessive expenses

of the king. By these memoirs he established his claim to a place among

the great economists of the time, Vauban, Boisguilbert and the comte de

Boulainvilliers. When in September 1699 Chamillart was named

controller-general of finances, he took Desmarets for counsellor; and

when he created the two offices of directors of finances, he gave one to

Desmarets (October 22, 1703). Henceforth Desmarets was veritable

minister of finance. Louis XIV. had long conversations with him. Madame

de Maintenon protected him. The economists Vauban and Boisguilbert

exchanged long conversations with him. When Chamillart found his double

functions too heavy, and retaining the ministry of war resigned that of

finance in 1708, Desmarets succeeded him. The situation was exceedingly

grave. The ordinary revenues of the year 1708 amounted to 81,977,007

livres, of which 57,833,233 livres had already been spent by

anticipation, and the expenses to meet were 200,251,447 livres. In 1709

a famine reduced still more the returns from taxes. Yet Desmarets's

reputation renewed the credit of the state, and financiers consented to

advance money they had refused to the king. The emission of paper money,

and a reform in the collection of taxes, enabled him to tide over the

years 1709 and 1710. Then Desmarets decided upon an "extreme and violent

remedy," to use his own expression,--an income tax. His "tenth" was

based on Vauban's plan; but the privileged classes managed to avoid it,

and it proved no better than other expedients. Nevertheless Louis XIV.

managed to meet the most urgent expenses, and the deficit of 1715, about

350,000,000 livres, was much less than it would have been had it not

been for Desmarets's reforms. The honourable peace which Louis was

enabled to conclude at Utrecht with his enemies was certainly due to the

resources which Desmarets procured for him.

After the death of Louis XIV. Desmarets was dismissed by the regent

along with all the other ministers. He withdrew to his estates. To

justify his ministry he addressed to the regent a _Compte rendu_, which

showed clearly the difficulties he had to meet. His enemies even, like

Saint Simon, had to recognize his honesty and his talent. He was

certainly, after Colbert, the greatest finance minister of Louis XIV.

See Forbonnais, _Recherches et considérations sur les finances de la

France_ (2 vols., Basel, 1758); Montyon, _Particularités et

observations sur les ministres des finances de la France_ (Paris,

1812); De Boislisle, _Correspondance des contrôleurs-généraux des

finances_ (3 vols., Paris, 1873-1897); and the same author's

"Desmarets et l'affaire des pièces de quatre sols" in the appendix to

the seventh volume of his edition of the _Mémoires de Saint-Simon_.

(E. Es.)

DES MOINES, the capital and the largest city of Iowa, U.S.A., and the

county-seat of Polk county, in the south central part of the state, at

the confluence of the Raccoon with the Des Moines river. Pop. (1890)

50,093; (1900) 62,139, of whom 7946 were foreign-born, including 1907

from Sweden and 1432 from Germany; (1910 census) 86,368. Des Moines is

served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago & North-Western,

the Chicago Great Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Wabash, the Minneapolis & St Louis,

and the Des Moines, Iowa Falls & Northern railways; also by several

interurban electric lines. The chief building in Des Moines is the State

Capitol, erected at a cost of about $3,000,000; other important

buildings are the public library (containing, in 1908, 40,415 volumes),

the court house, the post office, the Iowa State Historical building, a

large auditorium and two hospitals. As a manufacturing centre the city

has considerable importance. Among the leading products are those of the

furnaces, foundries and machine shops, flour and grist mills, planing

mills, creameries, bridge and iron works, publishing houses and a

packing house; and brick, tile, pottery, patent medicines, furniture,

caskets, tombstones, carriages, farm machinery, Portland cement, glue,

gloves and hosiery. The value of the factory product in 1905 was

$15,084,958, an increase of 79.7% in five years. The city is in one of

the most productive coal regions of the state, has a large jobbing

trade, and is an important centre for the insurance business. The Iowa

state fair is held here annually. In 1908 this city had a park system of

750 acres. Des Moines is the seat of Des Moines College, a Baptist

institution, co-educational, founded in 1865 (enrolment, 1907-1908,

214); of Drake University (co-educational; founded in 1881 by the

Disciples of Christ; now non-sectarian), with colleges of liberal arts,

law, medicine, dental surgery and of the Bible, a conservatory of music,

and a normal school, in which are departments of oratory and commercial

training, and having in 1907-1908 1764 students, of whom 520 were in the

summer school only; of the Highland Park College, founded in 1890; of

Grand View College (Danish Lutheran), founded in 1895; and of the

Capital City commercial college (founded 1884). A new city charter,

embodying what has become known as the "Des Moines Plan" of municipal

government, was adopted in 1907. It centralizes power in a council of

five (mayor and four councilmen), nominated at a non-partisan primary

and voted for on a non-partisan ticket by the electors of the entire

city, ward divisions having been abolished. Elections are biennial.

Other city officers are chosen by the council, and city employees are

selected by a civil service commission of three members, appointed by

the council. The mayor is superintendent of the department of public

affairs, and each of the other administrative departments (accounts and

finances, public safety, streets and public improvements, and parks and

public property) is under the charge of one of the councilmen. After

petition signed by a number of voters not less than 25% of the number

voting at the preceding municipal election, any member of the council

may be removed by popular vote, to which all public franchises must be

submitted, and by which the council may be compelled to pass any law or

ordinance.

A fort called Fort Des Moines was established on the site of the city in

1843 to protect the rights of the Sacs and Foxes. In 1843 the site was

opened to settlement by the whites; in 1851 Des Moines was incorporated

as a town; in 1857 it was first chartered as a city, and, for the

purpose of a more central location, the seat of government was removed

hither from Iowa City. A fort was re-established here by act of Congress

in 1900 and named Fort Des Moines. It is occupied by a full regiment of

cavalry. The name of the city was taken from that of the river, which in

turn is supposed to represent a corruption by the French of the original

Indian name, _Moingona_,--the French at first using the abbreviation

"moin," and calling the river "_la rivière des moins_" and then, the

name having become associated with the Trappist monks, changing it into

"_la rivière des moines_."

DESMOND, GERALD FITZGERALD, 15TH EARL OF (d. 1583), Irish leader, was

son of James, 14th earl, by his second wife More O'Carroll. His father

had agreed in January 1541, as one of the terms of his submission to

Henry VIII., to send young Gerald to be educated in England. At the

accession of Edward VI. proposals to this effect were renewed; Gerald

was to be the companion of the young king. Unfortunately for the

subsequent peace of Munster these projects were not carried out. The

Desmond estates were held by a doubtful title, and claims on them were

made by the Butlers, the hereditary enemies of the Geraldines, the 9th

earl of Ormonde having married Lady Joan Fitzgerald, daughter and

heiress-general of the 11th earl of Desmond. On Ormonde's death she

proposed to marry Gerald Fitzgerald, and eventually did so, after the

death of her second husband, Sir Francis Bryan. The effect of this

marriage was a temporary cessation of open hostility between the

Desmonds and her son, Thomas Butler, 10th earl of Ormonde.

Gerald succeeded to the earldom in 1558; he was knighted by the lord

deputy Sussex, and did homage at Waterford. He soon established close

relations with his namesake Gerald Fitzgerald, 11th earl of Kildare

(1525-1585), and with Shane O'Neill. In spite of an award made by Sussex

in August 1560 regulating the matters in dispute between Ormonde and the

Fitzgeralds, the Geraldine outlaws were still plundering their

neighbours. Desmond neglected a summons to appear at Elizabeth's court

for some time on the plea that he was at war with his uncle Maurice.

When he did appear in London in May 1562 his insolent conduct before the

privy council resulted in a short imprisonment in the Tower. He was

detained in England until 1564, and soon after his return his wife's

death set him free from such restraint as was provided by her Butler

connexion. He now raided Thomond, and in Waterford he sought to enforce

his feudal rights on Sir Maurice Fitzgerald of Decies, who invoked the

help of Ormonde. The two nobles thereupon resorted to open war, fighting

a battle at Affane on the Blackwater, where Desmond was defeated and

taken prisoner. Ormonde and Desmond were bound over in London to keep

the peace, being allowed to return early in 1566 to Ireland, where a

royal commission was appointed to settle the matters in dispute between

them. Desmond and his brother Sir John of Desmond were sent over to

England, where they surrendered their lands to the queen after a short

experience of the Tower. In the meanwhile Desmond's cousin, James

Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, caused himself to be acclaimed captain of

Desmond in defiance of Sidney, and in the evident expectation of

usurping the earldom. He sought to give the movement an ultra-Catholic

character, with the idea of gaining foreign assistance, and allied

himself with John Burke, son of the earl of Clanricarde, with Connor

O'Brien, earl of Thomond, and even secured Ormonde's brother, Sir Edmund

Butler, whom Sidney had offended. Piers and Edward Butler also joined

the rebellion, but the appearance of Sidney and Ormonde in the

south-west was rapidly followed by the submission of the Butlers. Most

of the Geraldines were subjugated by Humphrey Gilbert, but Fitzmaurice

remained in arms, and in 1571 Sir John Perrot undertook to reduce him.

Perrot hunted him down, and at last on the 23rd of February 1573 he made

formal submission at Kilmallock, lying prostrate on the floor of the

church by way of proving his sincerity.

Against the advice of the queen's Irish counsellors Desmond was allowed

to return to Ireland in 1573, the earl promising not to exercise

palatinate jurisdiction in Kerry until his rights to it were proved. He

was detained for six months in Dublin, but in November slipped through

the hands of the government, and within a very short time had reduced

to a state of anarchy the province which Perrot thought to have pacified

by his severities. Edward Fitzgerald, brother of the earl of Kildare,

and lieutenant of the queen's pensioners in London, was sent to

remonstrate with Desmond, but accomplished nothing. Desmond asserted

that none but Brehon law should be observed between Geraldines; and

Fitzmaurice seized Captain George Bourchier, one of Elizabeth's officers

in the west. Essex met the earl near Waterford in July, and Bourchier

was surrendered, but Desmond refused the other demands made in the

queen's name. A document offering £500 for his head, and £1000 to any

one who would take him alive, was drawn up but was vetoed by two members

of the council. On the 18th of July 1574 the Geraldine chiefs signed the

"Combination" promising to support the earl unconditionally; shortly

afterwards Ormonde and the lord deputy, Sir William Fitzwilliam, marched

on Munster, and put Desmond's garrison at Derrinlaur Castle to the

sword. Desmond submitted at Cork on the 2nd of September, handing over

his estates to trustees. Sir Henry Sidney visited Munster in 1575, and

affairs seemed to promise an early restoration of order. But Fitzmaurice

had fled to Brittany in company with other leading Geraldines, John

Fitzgerald, seneschal of Imokilly, who had held Ballymartyr against

Sidney in 1567, and Edmund Fitzgibbon, the son of the White Knight who

had been attainted in 1571. He intrigued at the French and Spanish

courts for a foreign invasion of Ireland, and at Rome met the adventurer

Stucley, with whom he projected an expedition which was to make a nephew

of Gregory XIII. king of Ireland. In 1579 he landed in Smerwick Bay,

where he was joined later by some Spanish soldiers at the Fort del Ore.

His ships were captured on the 29th of July and he himself was slain in

a skirmish while on his way to Tipperary. Nicholas Sanders, the papal

legate who had accompanied Fitzmaurice, worked on Desmond's weakness,

and sought to draw him into open rebellion. Desmond had perhaps been

restrained before by jealousy of Fitzmaurice; his indecisions ceased

when on the 1st of November Sir William Pelham proclaimed him a traitor.

The sack of Youghal and Kinsale by the Geraldines was speedily followed

by the successes of Ormonde and Pelham acting in concert with Admiral

Winter. In June 1581 Desmond had to take to the woods, but he maintained

a considerable following for some time, which, however, in June 1583,

when Ormonde set a price on his head, was reduced to four persons. Five

months later, on the 11th of November, he was seized and murdered by a

small party of soldiers. His brother Sir John of Desmond had been caught

and killed in December 1581, and the seneschal of Imokilly had

surrendered on the 14th of June 1583. After his submission the seneschal

acted loyally, but his lands excited envy; he was arrested in 1587, and

died in Dublin Castle two days later.

By his second marriage with Eleanor Butler, the 15th earl left two sons,

the elder of whom, James, 16th earl (1570-1601), spent most of his life

in prison. After an unsuccessful attempt in 1600-1601 to recover his

inheritance he returned to England, where he died, the title becoming

extinct.

See G. E. C(okayne,) _Complete Peerage_; R. Bagwell, _Ireland under

the Tudors_ (1885-1890); _Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters_ (ed.

J. O'Donovan, 1851); and the article FITZGERALD.

DESMOND (_Des-Mumha_), an ancient territorial division of Ireland,

covering the eastern part of the modern Co. Kerry and the western part

of Co. Cork. Its creation as a kingdom is placed in the year 248, when

Oliol Olum, king of Munster, divided his territory between his two sons,

giving Desmond to Eoghan, and Thomond or North Munster to Cormac. In

1329 Maurice Fitzthomas or Fitzgerald (d. 1356), lord of Decies and

Desmond, was created 1st earl of Desmond by Edward III.; like other

earls created about that time he ruled his territory as a palatinate,

and his family acquired enormous powers and a large measure of

independence. Meanwhile native kings continued to reign in a restricted

territory until 1596. In 1583 came the attainder of Gerald Fitzgerald,

15th earl of Desmond (q.v.), and in 1586 an act of parliament declared

the forfeiture of the Desmond estates to the crown. In 1571 a commission

provided for the formation of Desmond into a county, and it was

regarded as such for a few years, but by the beginning of the 17th

century it was joined to Co. Kerry.

In 1619 the title of earl of Desmond was conferred on Richard Preston,

Lord Dingwall, at whose death in 1628 it again became extinct. It was

then bestowed on George Feilding, second son of William, earl of

Denbigh, who had held the reversion of the earldom from 1622. His son

William Feilding succeeded as earl of Denbigh in 1675, and thenceforward

the title of Desmond was held in conjunction with that honour.

DESMOSCOLECIDA, a group of minute marine worm-like creatures. The body

tapers towards each end and is marked by a number of well-defined

ridges. These ridges resemble on a small scale those which surround the

body of a _Porocephalus_ (Linguatulida), and like them have no segmental

significance. Their number varies in the different species. The head

bears four setae, and some of the ridges bear a pair either dorsally or

ventrally. The setae are movable. Two pigment spots between the fourth

and fifth ridges are regarded as eyes. The Desmoscolecida move by

looping their bodies like geometrid caterpillars or leeches, as well as

by creeping on their setae. The mouth is terminal, and leads into a

muscular oesophagus which opens into a straight intestine terminating in

an anus, which is said to be dorsal in position. The sexes are distinct.

The testis is single, and its duct opens into the intestine and is

provided with two chitinous spicules. The ovary is also single, opening

independently and anterior to the anus. The nervous system is as yet

unknown.

[Illustration:

From _Cambridge Natural History_, vol. ii., "Worms," &c., by

permission of Macmillian & Co. Ltd.

Female _Desmoscolex elongatus_ Panceri, ventral view. a, Ovary. (From

Panceri.)]

There are several species. _D. minutus_ Clap. has been met with in the

English Channel. Others are _D. nematoides_ Greef, _D. adelphus_ Greef,

_D. chaetogaster_ Greef, _D. elongatus_ Panceri, _D. lanuginosa_

Panceri. _Trichoderma oxycaudatum_ Greef is 0.3 mm. long, and is also a

"ringed creature with long hair-like bristles." The male has two

spicules, and there is some doubt as to whether it should be placed with

the Desmoscolecida or with the Nematoda. With regard to the systematic

position of the group, it certainly comes nearest--especially in the

structure of its reproductive organs--to the Nematoda. We still,

however, are very ignorant of the internal anatomy of these forms, and

until we know more it is impossible to arrive at a very definite

conclusion as to their position in the animal kingdom.

See Panceri, _Atti Acc. Napoli._ vii. (1878); Greef, _Arch. Naturg._

35 (i.) (1869), p. 112. (A. E. S.)

DESMOULINS, LUCIE SIMPLICE CAMILLE BENOIST (1760-1794), French

journalist and politician, who played an important part in the French

Revolution, was born at Guise, in Picardy, on the 2nd of March 1760. His

father was lieutenant-general of the _bailliage_ of Guise, and through

the efforts of a friend obtained a _bourse_ for his son, who at the age

of fourteen left home for Paris, and entered the college of Louis le

Grand. In this school, in which Robespierre was also a bursar and a

distinguished student, Camille Desmoulins laid the solid foundation of

his learning. Destined by his father for the law, at the completion of

his legal studies he was admitted an advocate of the parlement of Paris

in 1785. His professional success was not great; his manner was violent,

his appearance unattractive, and his speech impaired by a painful

stammer. He indulged, however, his love for literature, was closely

observant of public affairs, and thus gradually prepared himself for

the main duties of his life--those of a political _littérateur_.

In March 1789 Desmoulins began his political career. Having been

nominated deputy from the _bailliage_ of Guise, he appeared at Laon as

one of the commissioners for the election of deputies to the

States-General summoned by royal edict of January 24th. Camille heralded

its meeting by his _Ode to the States-General_. It is, moreover, highly

probable that he was the author of a radical pamphlet entitled _La

Philosophie au peuple français_, published in 1788, the text of which is

not known. His hopes of professional success were now scattered, and he

was living in Paris in extreme poverty. He, however, shared to the full

the excitement which attended the meeting of the States-General. As

appears from his letters to his father, he watched with exultation the

procession of deputies at Versailles, and with violent indignation the

events of the latter part of June which followed the closing of the

Salle des Menus to the deputies who had named themselves the National

Assembly. It is further evident that Desmoulins was already

sympathizing, not only with the enthusiasm, but also with the fury and

cruelty, of the Parisian crowds.

The sudden dismissal of Necker by Louis XVI. was the event which brought

Desmoulins to fame. On the 12th of July 1789 Camille, leaping upon a

table outside one of the cafés in the garden of the Palais Royal,

announced to the crowd the dismissal of their favourite. Losing, in his

violent excitement, his stammer, he inflamed the passions of the mob by

his burning words and his call "To arms!" "This dismissal," he said, "is

the tocsin of the St Bartholomew of the patriots." Drawing, at last, two

pistols from under his coat, he declared that he would not fall alive

into the hands of the police who were watching his movements. He

descended amid the embraces of the crowd, and his cry "To arms!"

resounded on all sides. This scene was the beginning of the actual

events of the Revolution. Following Desmoulins the crowd surged through

Paris, procuring arms by force; and on the 13th it was partly organized

as the Parisian militia which was afterwards to be the National Guard.

On the 14th the Bastille was taken.

Desmoulins may be said to have begun on the following day that public

literary career which lasted till his death. In May and June 1789 he had

written _La France libre_, which, to his chagrin, his publisher refused

to print. The taking of the Bastille, however, and the events by which

it was preceded, were a sign that the times had changed; and on the 18th

of July Desmoulins's work was issued. Considerably in advance of public

opinion, it already pronounced in favour of a republic. By its erudite,

brilliant and courageous examination of the rights of king, of nobles,

of clergy and of people, it attained a wide and sudden popularity; it

secured for the author the friendship and protection of Mirabeau, and

the studied abuse of numerous royalist pamphleteers. Shortly afterwards,

with his vanity and love of popularity inflamed, he pandered to the

passions of the lower orders by the publication of his _Discours de la

lanterne aux Parisiens_ which, with an almost fiendish reference to the

excesses of the mob, he headed by a quotation from St John, _Qui male

agit odit lucem_. Camille was dubbed "Procureur-général de la lanterne."

In November 1789 Desmoulins began his career as a journalist by the

issue of the first number of a weekly publication, _Les Révolutions de

France et de Brabant_. The title of the publication changed after the

73rd number. It ceased to appear at the end of July 1791.[1]

Success attended the _Révolutions_ from its first to its last number,

Camille was everywhere famous, and his poverty was relieved. These

numbers are valuable as an exhibition not so much of events as of the

feelings of the Parisian people; they are adorned, moreover, by the

erudition, the wit and the genius of the author, but they are

disfigured, not only by the most biting personalities and the defence

and even advocacy of the excesses of the mob, but by the entire absence

of the forgiveness and pity for which the writer was afterwards so

eloquently to plead.

Desmoulins was powerfully swayed by the influence of more vigorous

minds; and for some time before the death of Mirabeau, in April 1791, he

had begun to be led by Danton, with whom he remained associated during

the rest of his life. In July 1791 Camille appeared before the

municipality of Paris as head of a deputation of petitioners for the

deposition of the king. In that month, however, such a request was

dangerous; there was excitement in the city over the presentation of the

petition, and the private attacks to which Desmoulins had often been

subject were now followed by a warrant for the arrest of himself and

Danton. Danton left Paris for a little; Desmoulins, however, remained

there, appearing occasionally at the Jacobin club. Upon the failure of

this attempt of his opponents, Desmoulins published a pamphlet, _Jean

Pierre Brissot démasqué_, which abounded in the most violent

personalities. This pamphlet, which had its origin in a petty squabble,

was followed in 1793 by a _Fragment de l'histoire secrète de la

Révolution_, in which the party of the Gironde, and specially Brissot,

were most mercilessly attacked. Desmoulins took an active part on the

10th of August and became secretary to Danton, when the latter became

minister of justice. On the 8th of September he was elected one of the

deputies for Paris to the National Convention, where, however, he was

not successful as an orator. He was of the party of the "Mountain," and

voted for the abolition of royalty and the death of the king. With

Robespierre he was now more than ever associated, and the _Histoire des

Brissotins_, the fragment above alluded to, was inspired by the

arch-revolutionist. The success of the _brochure_, so terrible as to

send the leaders of the Gironde to the guillotine, alarmed Danton and

the author. Yet the role of Desmoulins during the Convention was of but

secondary importance.

In December 1793 was issued the first number of the _Vieux Cordelier_,

which was at first directed against the Hébertists and approved of by

Robespierre, but which soon formulated Danton's idea of a committee of

clemency. Then Robespierre turned against Desmoulins and took advantage

of the popular indignation roused against the Hébertists to send them to

death. The time had come, however, when Saint Just and he were to turn

their attention not only to _les enragés_, but to _les indulgents_--the

powerful faction of the Dantonists. On the 7th of January 1794

Robespierre, who on a former occasion had defended Camille when in

danger at the hands of the National Convention, in addressing the

Jacobin club counselled not the expulsion of Desmoulins, but the burning

of certain numbers of the _Vieux Cordelier_. Camille sharply replied

that he would answer with Rousseau,--"burning is not answering," and a

bitter quarrel thereupon ensued. By the end of March not only were

Hébert and the leaders of the extreme party guillotined, but their

opponents, Danton, Desmoulins and the best of the moderates, were

arrested. On the 31st the warrant of arrest was signed and executed, and

on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of April the trial took place before the

Revolutionary Tribunal. It was a scene of terror not only to the accused

but to judges and to jury. The retorts of the prisoners were notable.

Camille on being asked his age, replied, "I am thirty-three, the age of

the _sans-culotte_ Jesus, a critical age for every patriot." This was

false; he was thirty-four.[2] The accused were prevented from defending

themselves; a decree of the Convention denied them the right of speech.

Armed with this and the false report of a spy, who charged the wife of

Desmoulins with conspiring for the escape of her husband and the ruin of

the republic, Fouquier-Tinville by threats and entreaties obtained from

the jury a sentence of death. It was passed in absence of the accused,

and their execution was appointed for the same day.

Since his arrest the courage of Camille had miserably failed. He had

exhibited in the numbers of the _Vieux Cordelier_ almost a disregard of

the death which he must have known hovered over him. He had with

consummate ability exposed the terrors of the Revolution, and had

adorned his pages with illustrations from Tacitus, the force of which

the commonest reader could feel. In his last number, the seventh, which

his publisher refused to print, he had dared to attack even Robespierre,

but at his trial it was found that he was devoid of physical courage. He

had to be torn from his seat ere he was removed to prison, and as he sat

next to Danton in the tumbrel which conveyed them to the guillotine, the

calmness of the great leader failed to impress him. In his violence,

bound as he was, he tore his clothes into shreds, and his bare shoulders

and breast were exposed to the gaze of the surging crowd. Of the fifteen

guillotined together, including among them Marie Jean Hérault de

Séchelles, François Joseph Westermann and Pierre Philippeaux, Desmoulins

died third; Danton, the greatest, died last.

On the 29th of December 1790 Camille had married Lucile Duplessis, and

among the witnesses of the ceremony are observed the names of Brissot,

Pétion and Robespierre. The only child of the marriage, Horace Camille,

was born on the 6th of July 1792. Two days afterwards Desmoulins brought

it into notice by appearing with it before the municipality of Paris to

demand "the formal statement of the civil estate of his son." The boy

was afterwards pensioned by the French government, and died in Haiti in

1825. Lucile, Desmoulins's accomplished and affectionate wife, was, a

few days after her husband, and on a false charge, condemned to the

guillotine. She astonished all onlookers by the calmness with which she

braved death (April 13, 1794).

See J. Claretie, _OEuvres de Camille Desmoulins avec une étude

biographique ..._ &c. (Paris, 1874), and _Camille Desmoulins, Lucile

Desmoulins, étude sur les Dantonistes_ (Paris, 1875; Eng. trans.,

London, 1876); F. A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la Législative et de la

Convention_ (Paris, 1905, 2nd ed.): G. Lenôtre, "La Maison de Camille

Desmoulins" (_Le Temps_, March 25, 1899).