[1] In April 1792 Desmoulins founded with Stanislas Fréron a new
journal, _La Tribune des patriotes_, but only four numbers appeared.
[2] This is borne out by the register of his birth and baptism, and
by words in his last letter to his wife,--"I die at thirty-four."
The dates (1762-1794) given in so many biographies of Desmoulins are
certainly inaccurate.
DESNOYERS, JULES PIERRE FRANÇOIS STANISLAS (1800-1887), French geologist
and archaeologist, was born at Nogent-le-Rotrou, in the department of
Eure-et-Loir, on the 8th of October 1800. Becoming interested in geology
at an early age, he was one of the founders of the Société Géologique de
France in 1830. In 1834 he was appointed librarian of the Museum of
Natural History in Paris. His contributions to geological science
comprise memoirs on the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary Strata of the
Paris Basin and of Northern France, and other papers relating to the
antiquity of man, and to the question of his co-existence with extinct
mammalia. His separate books were _Sur la Craie et sur les terrains
tertiaires du Cotentin_ (1825), _Recherches géologiques et historiques
sur les cavernes_ (1845). He died in 1887.
DESOR, PIERRE JEAN ÉDOUARD (1811-1882), Swiss geologist, was born at
Friedrichsdorf, near Frankfort-on-Main, on the 13th of February 1811.
Associated in early years with Agassiz he studied palaeontology and
glacial phenomena, and in company with J. D. Forbes ascended the
Jungfrau in 1841. Desor afterwards became professor of geology in the
academy at Neuchâtel, continued his studies on the structure of
glaciers, but gave special attention to the study of Jurassic
Echinoderms. He also investigated the old lake-habitations of
Switzerland, and made important observations on the physical features of
the Sahara. Having inherited considerable property he retired to Combe
Varin in Val Travers. He died at Nizza on the 23rd of February 1882. His
chief publications were: _Synopsis des Échinides fossiles_ (1858), _Aus
Sahara_ (1865), _Der Gebirgsbau der Alpen_ (1865), _Die Pfahlbauten des
Neuenburger Sees_ (1866), _Échinologie helvétique_ (2 vols., 1868-1873,
with P. de Loriol).
DE SOTO, a city of Jefferson county, Missouri, U.S.A., on Joachim Creek,
42 m. S.S.W. of St Louis. Pop. (1890) 3960; (1900) 5611 (332 being
foreign-born and 364 negroes); (1910) 4721. It is served by the St.
Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern railway, which has extensive repair
shops here. About 2½ m. from De Soto is the Bochert mineral spring. In
De Soto are Mount St Clement's College (Roman Catholic, 1900), a
theological seminary of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer under
the charge of the Redemptorist Fathers, and a Young Men's Christian
Association building. De Soto is in a good agricultural and
fruit-growing region, which produces Indian corn, apples, plums, pears
and small fruit. Lead and zinc are mined in the vicinity and shipped
from the city in considerable quantities; and among the city's
manufactures are shoes, flour and agricultural implements. The
municipality owns the water-works, the water supply of which is
furnished by artesian wells. De Soto was laid out in 1855 and was
incorporated in 1869.
DESPARD, EDWARD MARCUS (1751-1803), Irish conspirator, was born in
Queen's Co., Ireland, in 1751. In 1766 he entered the British navy, was
promoted lieutenant in 1772, and stationed at Jamaica, where he soon
proved himself to have considerable engineering talent. He served in the
West Indies with credit, being promoted captain after the San Juan
expedition (1779), then made governor of the Mosquito Shore and the Bay
of Honduras, and in 1782 commander of a successful expedition against
the Spanish possessions on the Black river. In 1784 he took over the
administration of Yucatan. Upon frivolous charges he was suspended by
Lord Grenville, and recalled to England. From 1790 to 1792 these charges
were held over him, and when dismissed no compensation was forthcoming.
His complaints caused him to be arrested in 1798; and with a short
interval he remained in gaol until 1800. By that time Despard was
desperate, and engaged in a plot to seize the Tower of London and Bank
of England and assassinate George III. The whole idea was patently
preposterous, but Despard was arrested, tried before a special
commission, found guilty of high treason, and, with six of his
fellow-conspirators, sentenced in 1803 to be hanged, drawn and
quartered. These were the last men to be so sentenced in England.
Despard was executed on the 21st of February 1803.
His eldest brother, JOHN DESPARD (1745-1829), had a long and
distinguished career in the British army; gazetted an ensign in 1760, he
was promoted through the various intermediate grades and became general
in 1814. His most active service was in the American War of
Independence, during which he was twice made prisoner.
DESPENSER, HUGH LE (d. 1265), chief justiciar of England, first plays an
important part in 1258, when he was prominent on the baronial side in
the Mad Parliament of Oxford. In 1260 the barons chose him to succeed
Hugh Bigod as justiciar, and in 1263 the king was further compelled to
put the Tower of London in his hands. On the outbreak of civil war he
joined the party of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, and led the
Londoners when they sacked the manor-house of Isleworth, belonging to
Richard, earl of Cornwall, king of the Romans. Having fought at Lewes
(1264) he was made governor of six castles after the battle, and was
then appointed one of the four arbitrators to mediate between Simon de
Montfort and Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester. He was summoned to
Simon de Montfort's parliament in 1264, and acted as justiciar
throughout the earl's dictatorship. Despenser was killed at Evesham in
August 1265.
See C. Bémont, _Simon de Montfort_ (Paris, 1884); T. F. Tout in
_Owens College Historical Essays_, pp. 76 ff. (Manchester, 1902).
DESPENSER, HUGH LE (1262-1326), English courtier, was a son of the
English justiciar who died at Evesham. He fought for Edward I. in Wales,
France and Scotland, and in 1295 was summoned to parliament as a baron.
Ten years later he was sent by the king to Pope Clement V. to secure
Edward's release from the oaths he had taken to observe the charters in
1297. Almost alone Hugh spoke out for Edward II.'s favourite, Piers
Gaveston, in 1308; but after Gaveston's death in 1312 he himself became
the king's chief adviser, holding power and influence until Edward's
defeat at Bannockburn in 1314. Then, hated by the barons, and especially
by Earl Thomas of Lancaster, as a deserter from their party, he was
driven from the council, but was quickly restored to favour and loaded
with lands and honours, being made earl of Winchester in 1322. Before
this time Hugh's son, the younger Hugh le Despenser, had become
associated with his father, and having been appointed the king's
chamberlain was enjoying a still larger share of the royal favour. About
1306 this baron had married Eleanor (d. 1337), one of the sisters and
heiresses of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, who was slain at
Bannockburn; and after a division of the immense Clare lands had been
made in 1317 violent quarrels broke out between the Despensers and the
husbands of the other heiresses, Roger of Amory and Hugh of Audley.
Interwoven with this dispute was another between the younger Despenser
and the Mowbrays, who were supported by Humphrey Bohun, earl of
Hereford, about some lands in Glamorganshire. Fighting having begun in
Wales and on the Welsh borders, the English barons showed themselves
decidedly hostile to the Despensers, and in 1321 Edward II. was obliged
to consent to their banishment. While the elder Hugh left England the
younger one remained; soon the king persuaded the clergy to annul the
sentence against them, and father and son were again at court. They
fought against the rebellious barons at Boroughbridge, and after
Lancaster's death in 1322 they were practically responsible for the
government of the country, which they attempted to rule in a moderate
and constitutional fashion. But their next enemy, Queen Isabella, was
more formidable, or more fortunate, than Lancaster. Returning to England
after a sojourn in France in 1326 the queen directed her arms against
her husband's favourites. The elder Despenser was seized at Bristol,
where he was hanged on the 27th of October 1326, and the younger was
taken with the king at Llantrisant and hanged at Hereford on the 24th of
November following. The attainder against the Despensers was reversed in
1398. The intense hatred with which the barons regarded the Despensers
was due to the enormous wealth which had passed into their hands, and to
the arrogance and rapacity of the younger Hugh.
The younger Despenser left two sons, Hugh (1308-1349), and Edward, who
was killed at Vannes in 1342.
The latter's son EDWARD LE DESPENSER (d. 1375) fought at the battle of
Poitiers, and then in Italy for Pope Urban V.; he was a patron of
Froissart, who calls him _le grand sire Despensier_. His son, THOMAS LE
DESPENSER (1373-1400), the husband of Constance (d. 1416), daughter of
Edmund of Langley, duke of York, supported Richard II. against Thomas of
Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, and the other lords appellant in 1397,
when he himself was created earl of Gloucester, but he deserted the king
in 1399. Then, degraded from his earldom for participating in
Gloucester's death, Despenser joined the conspiracy against Henry IV.,
but he was seized and was executed by a mob at Bristol in January 1400.
The elder Edward le Despenser left another son, HENRY (c. 1341-1406),
who became bishop of Norwich in 1370. In early life Henry had been a
soldier, and when the peasants revolted in 1381 he took readily to the
field, defeated the insurgents at North Walsham, and suppressed the
rising in Norfolk with some severity. More famous, however, was the
militant bishop's enterprise on behalf of Pope Urban VI., who in 1382
employed him to lead a crusade in Flanders against the supporters of the
anti-pope Clement VII. He was very successful in capturing towns until
he came before Ypres, where he was checked, his humiliation being
completed when his army was defeated by the French and decimated by a
pestilence. Having returned to England the bishop was impeached in
parliament and was deprived of his lands; Richard II., however, stood by
him, and he soon regained an influential place in the royal council, and
was employed to defend his country on the seas. Almost alone among his
peers Henry remained true to Richard in 1399; he was then imprisoned,
but was quickly released and reconciled with the new king, Henry IV. He
died on the 23rd of August 1406. Despenser was an active enemy of the
Lollards, whose leader, John Wycliffe, had fiercely denounced his
crusade in Flanders.
The barony of Despenser, called out of abeyance in 1604, was held by the
Fanes, earls of Westmorland, from 1626 to 1762; by the notorious Sir
Francis Dashwood from 1763 to 1781; and by the Stapletons from 1788 to
1891. In 1891 it was inherited, through his mother, by the 7th Viscount
Falmouth.
DES PÉRIERS, BONAVENTURE (c. 1500-1544), French author, was born of a
noble family at Arnay-le-duc in Burgundy at the end of the 15th century.
The circumstances of his education are uncertain, but he became a good
classical scholar, and was attached to various noble houses in the
capacity of tutor. In 1533 or 1534 Des Périers visited Lyons, then the
most enlightened town of France, and a refuge for many liberal scholars
who might elsewhere have had to suffer for their opinions. He gave some
assistance to Robert Olivetan and Lefèvre d'Étaples in the preparation
of the vernacular version of the Old Testament, and to Étienne Dolet in
the _Commentarii linguae latinae_. In 1536 he put himself under the
protection of Marguerite d'Angoulême, queen of Navarre, who made him her
_valet-de-chambre_. He acted as the queen's secretary, and transcribed
the _Heptaméron_ for her. It is probable that his duties extended beyond
those of a mere copyist, and some writers have gone so far as to say
that the _Heptaméron_ was his work. The free discussions permitted at
Marguerite's court encouraged a licence of thought as displeasing to the
Calvinists as to the Catholics. This free inquiry became scepticism in
Bonaventure's _Cymbalum Mundi ..._ (1537), and the queen of Navarre
thought it prudent to disavow the author, though she continued to help
him privately until 1541. The book consisted of four dialogues in
imitation of Lucian. Its allegorical form did not conceal its real
meaning, and, when it was printed by Morin, probably early in 1538, the
Sorbonne secured the suppression of the edition before it was offered
for sale. The dedication provides a key to the author's intention:
_Thomas du Clevier (or Clenier) à son ami Pierre Tryocan_ was recognized
by 19th-century editors to be an anagram for _Thomas l'Incrédule à son
ami Pierre Croyant_. The book was reprinted in Paris in the same year.
It made many bitter enemies for the author. Henri Estienne called it
_détestable_, and Étienne Pasquier said it deserved to be thrown into
the fire with its author if he were still living. Des Périers prudently
left Paris, and after some wanderings settled at Lyons, where he lived
in poverty, until in 1544 he put an end to his existence by falling on
his sword. In 1544 his collected works were printed at Lyons. The
volume, _Recueil des oeuvres de feu Bonaventure des Périers_, included
his poems, which are of small merit, the _Traité des quatre vertus
cardinales après Sénèque_, and a translation of the _Lysis_ of Plato. In
1558 appeared at Lyons the collection of stories and fables entitled the
_Nouvelles récréations et joyeux devis_. It is on this work that the
claim put forward for Des Périers as one of the early masters of French
prose rests. Some of the tales are attributed to the editors, Nicholas
Denisot and Jacques Pelletier, but their share is certainly limited to
the later ones. The book leaves something to be desired on the score of
morality, but the stories never lack point and are models of simple,
direct narration in the vigorous and picturesque French of the 16th
century.
His _OEuvres françaises_ were published by Louis Lacour (Paris, 2
vols., 1856). See also the preface to the _Cymbalum Mundi ..._ (ed.
F. Franck, 1874); A. Cheneviere, _Bonaventure Despériers, sa vie, ses
poésies_ (1885); and P. Toldo, _Contributo allo studio della novella
francese del XV. e XVI. secolo_ (Rome, 1895).
DESPORTES, PHILIPPE (1546-1606), French poet, was born at Chartres in
1546. As secretary to the bishop of Le Puy he visited Italy, where he
gained a knowledge of Italian poetry afterwards turned to good account.
On his return to France he attached himself to the duke of Anjou, and
followed him to Warsaw on his election as king of Poland. Nine months in
Poland satisfied the civilized Desportes, but in 1574 his patron became
king of France as Henry III. He showered favours on the poet, who
received, in reward for the skill with which he wrote occasional poems
at the royal request, the abbey of Tiron and four other valuable
benefices. A good example of the light and dainty verse in which
Desportes excelled is furnished by the well-known _villanelle_ with the
refrain "Qui premier s'en repentira," which was on the lips of Henry,
duke of Guise, just before his tragic death. Desportes was above all an
imitator. He imitated Petrarch, Ariosto, Sannazaro, and still more
closely the minor Italian poets, and in 1604 a number of his plagiarisms
were exposed in the _Rencontres des Muses de France et d'ltalie_. As a
sonneteer he showed much grace and sweetness, and English poets borrowed
freely from him. In his old age Desportes acknowledged his
ecclesiastical preferment by a translation of the Psalms remembered
chiefly for the brutal _mot_ of Malherbe: "Votre potage vaut mieux que
vos psaumes." Desportes died on the 5th of October 1606. He had
published in 1573 an edition of his works including _Diane_, _Les Amours
d'Hippolyte_, _Élégies_, _Bergeries_, _OEuvres chrétiennes_, &c.
An edition of his _OEuvres_, by Alfred Michiels, appeared in 1858.
DESPOT (Gr. [Greek: despotês], lord or master; the origin of the first
part of the Gr. word is unknown, the second part is cognate with [Greek:
posis], husband, Lat. _potens_, powerful), in Greek usage the master of
a household, hence the ruler of slaves. It was also used by the Greeks
of their gods, as was the feminine form [Greek: despoina]. It was,
however, principally applied by the Greeks to the absolute monarchs of
the eastern empires with which they came in contact; and it is in this
sense that the word, like its equivalent "tyrant," is in current usage
for an absolute sovereign whose rule is not restricted by any
constitution. In the Roman empire of the East "despot" was early used as
a title of honour or address of the emperor, and was given by Alexius I.
(1081-1118) to the sons, brothers and sons-in-law of the emperor
(Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, ed. Bury, vol. vi. 80). It does not seem
that the title was confined to the heir-apparent by Alexius II. (see
Selden, _Titles of Honour_, part ii. chap. i. s. vi.). Later still it
was adopted by the vassal princes of the empire. This gave rise to the
name "despotats" as applied to these tributary states, which survived
the break-up of the empire in the independent "despotats" of Epirus,
Cyprus, Trebizond, &c. Under Ottoman rule the title was preserved by the
despots of Servia and of the Morea, &c. The early use of the term as a
title of address for ecclesiastical dignitaries survives in its use in
the Greek Church as the formal mode of addressing a bishop.
DES PRÉS, JOSQUIN (c. 1445-1521), also called DEPRÉS or DESPREZ, and by
a latinized form of his name, JODOCUS PRATENSIS or A PRATO, French
musical composer, was born, probably in Condé in the Hennegau, about
1445. He was a pupil of Ockenheim, and himself one of the most learned
musicians of his time. In spite of his great fame, the accounts of his
life are vague and the dates contradictory. Fétis contributed greatly
towards elucidating the doubtful points in his _Biographie universelle_.
In his early youth Josquin seems to have been a member of the choir of
the collegiate church at St Quentin; when his voice changed he went
(about 1455) to Ockenheim to take lessons in counterpoint; afterwards he
again lived at his birthplace for some years, till Pope Sixtus IV.
invited him to Rome to teach his art to the musicians of Italy, where
musical knowledge at that time was at a low ebb. In Rome Des Prés lived
till the death of his protector (1484), and it was there that many of
his works were written. His reputation grew rapidly, and he was
considered by his contemporaries to be the greatest master of his age.
Luther, who was a good judge, is credited with the saying that "other
musicians do with notes what they can, Josquin what he likes." The
composer's journey to Rome marks in a manner the transference of the art
from its Gallo-Belgian birthplace to Italy, which for the next two
centuries remained the centre of the musical world. To Des Prés and his
pupils Arcadelt, Mouton and others, much that is characteristic in
modern music owes its rise, particularly in their influence upon Italian
developments under Palestrina. After leaving Rome Des Prés went for a
time to Ferrara, where the duke Hercules I. offered him a home; but
before long he accepted an invitation of King Louis XII. of France to
become the chief singer of the royal chapel. According to another
account, he was for a time at least in the service of the emperor
Maximilian I. The date of his death has by some writers been placed as
early as 1501. But this is sufficiently disproved by the fact of one of
his finest compositions, _A Dirge (Déploration) for Five Voices_, being
written to commemorate the death of his master Ockenheim, which took
place after 1512. The real date of Josquin's decease has since been
settled as the 27th of August 1521. He was at that time a canon of the
cathedral of Condé (see Victor Delzant's _Sépultures de Flandre_, No.
118).
The most complete list of his compositions--consisting of masses,
motets, psalms and other pieces of sacred music--will be found in
Fétis. The largest collection of his MS. works, containing no less
than twenty masses, is in the possession of the papal chapel in Rome.
In his lifetime Des Prés was honoured as an eminent composer, and the
musicians of the 16th century are loud in his praise. During the 17th
and 18th centuries his value was ignored, nor does his work appear in
the collections of Martini and Paolucci. Burney was the first to
recover him from oblivion, and Forkel continued the task of
rehabilitation. Ambros furnishes the most exhaustive account of his
achievements. An admirable account of Josquin's art, from the rare
point of view of a modern critic who knows how to allow for modern
difficulties, will be found in the article "Josquin," in Grove's
_Dictionary of Music and Musicians_, new ed. vol. ii. The _Répertoire
des chanteurs de St Gervais_ contains an excellent modern edition of
Josquin's _Miserere_.
DESPRÈS, SUZANNE (1875- ), French actress, was born at Verdun, and
trained at the Paris Conservatoire, where in 1897 she obtained the first
prize for comedy, and the second for tragedy. She then became associated
with, and subsequently married, Aurelien Lugné-Poë (b. 1870), the
actor-manager, who had founded a new school of modern drama,
_L'OEuvre_, and she had a brilliant success in several plays produced
by him. In succeeding years she played at the Gymnase and at the Porte
Saint-Martin, and in 1902 made her début at the Comédie Française,
appearing in _Phèdre_ and other important parts.
DESRUES, ANTOINE FRANÇOIS (1744-1777), French poisoner, was born at
Chartres in 1744, of humble parents. He went to Paris to seek his
fortune, and started in business as a grocer. He was known as a man of
great piety and devotion, and his business was reputed to be a
flourishing one, but when, in 1773, he gave up his shop, his finances,
owing to personal extravagance, were in a deplorable condition.
Nevertheless he entered into negotiations with a Madame de la Mothe for
the purchase from her of a country estate, and, when the time came for
the payment of the purchase money, invited her to stay with him in Paris
pending the transfer. While she was still his guest, he poisoned first
her and then her son, a youth of sixteen. Then, having forged a receipt
for the purchase money, he endeavoured to obtain possession of the
property. But by this time the disappearance of Madame de la Mothe and
her son had aroused suspicion. Desrues was arrested, the bodies of his
victims were discovered, and the crime was brought home to him. He was
tried, found guilty and condemned to be torn asunder alive and burned.
The sentence was carried out (1777), Desrues repeating hypocritical
protestations of his innocence to the last. The whole affair created a
great sensation at the time, and as late as 1828 a dramatic version of
it was performed in Paris.
DESSAIX, JOSEPH MARIE, COUNT (1764-1834), French general, was born at
Thonon in Savoy on the 24th of September 1764. He studied medicine, took
his degree at Turin, and then went to Paris, where in 1789 he joined the
National Guard. In 1791 he tried without success to raise an _émeute_ in
Savoy, in 1792 he organized the "Legion of the Allobroges," and in the
following years he served at the siege of Toulon, in the Army of the
Eastern Pyrenees, and in the Army of Italy. He was captured at Rivoli,
but was soon exchanged. In the spring of 1798 Dessaix was elected a
member of the Council of Five Hundred. He was one of the few in that
body who opposed the _coup d'état_ of the 18th Brumaire (November 9,
1799). In 1803 he was promoted general of brigade, and soon afterwards
commander of the Legion of Honour. He distinguished himself greatly at
the battle of Wagram (1809), and was about this time promoted general of
division and named grand officer of the Legion of Honour, and in 1810
was made a count. He took part in the expedition to Russia, and was
twice wounded. For several months he was commandant of Berlin, and
afterwards delivered the department of Mont Blanc from the Austrians.
After the first restoration Dessaix held a command under the Bourbons.
He nevertheless joined Napoleon in the Hundred Days, and in 1816 he was
imprisoned for five months. The rest of his life was spent in
retirement. He died on the 26th of October 1834.
See _Le Général Dessaix, sa vie politique et militaire_, by his
nephew Joseph Dessaix (Paris, 1879).
DESSAU, a town of Germany, capital of the duchy of Anhalt, on the left
bank of the Mulde, 2 m. from its confluence with the Elbe, 67 m. S.W.
from Berlin and at the junction of lines to Cöthen and Zerbst. Pop.
(1905) 55,134. Apart from the old quarter lying on the Mulde, the town
is well built, is surrounded by pleasant gardens and contains many
handsome streets and spacious squares. Among the latter is the Grosse
Markt with a statue of Prince Leopold I. of Anhalt-Dessau, "the old
Dessauer." Of the six churches, the Schlosskirche, adorned with
paintings by Lucas Cranach, in one of which ("The Last Supper") are
portraits of several reformers, is the most interesting. The ducal
palace, standing in extensive grounds, contains a collection of
historical curiosities and a gallery of pictures, which includes works
by Cimabue, Lippi, Rubens, Titian and Van Dyck. Among other buildings
are the town hall (built 1899-1900), the palace of the hereditary
prince, the theatre, the administration offices, the law courts, the
Amalienstift, with a picture gallery, several high-grade schools, a
library of 30,000 volumes and an excellently appointed hospital. There
are monuments to the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (born here in 1729),
to the poet Wilhelm Müller, father of Professor Max Müller, also a
native of the place, to the emperor William I., and an obelisk
commemorating the war of 1870-71. The industries of Dessau include the
production of sugar, which is the chief manufacture, woollen, linen and
cotton goods, carpets, hats, leather, tobacco and musical instruments.
There is also a considerable trade in corn and garden produce. In the
environs are the ducal villas of Georgium and Luisium, the gardens of
which, as well as those of the neighbouring town of Wörlitz, are much
admired.
Dessau was probably founded by Albert the Bear; it had attained civic
rights as early as 1213. It first began to grow into importance at the
close of the 17th century, in consequence of the religious emancipation
of the Jews in 1686, and of the Lutherans in 1697.
See Würdig, _Chronik der Stadt Dessau_ (Dessau, 1876).
DESSEWFFY, AUREL, COUNT (1808-1842), Hungarian journalist and
politician, eldest son of Count József Dessewffy and Eleonora Sztaray,
was born at Nagy-Mihály, county Zemplén, Hungary. Carefully educated at
his father's house, he was accustomed to the best society of his day.
While still a child he could declaim most of the _Iliad_ in Greek
without a book, and read and quoted Tacitus with enthusiasm. Under the
noble influence of Ferencz Kazinczy he became acquainted with the chief
masterpieces of European literature in their original tongues. He was
particularly fond of the English, and one of his early idols was Jeremy
Bentham. He regularly accompanied his father to the diets of which he
was a member, followed the course of the debates, of which he kept a
journal, and made the acquaintance of the great Széchenyi, who
encouraged his aspirations. On leaving college, he entered the royal
aulic chancellery, and in 1832 was appointed secretary of the royal
stadtholder at Buda. The same year he turned his attention to politics
and was regarded as one of the most promising young orators of the day,
especially during the sessions of the diet of 1832-1836, when he had the
courage to oppose Kossuth. At the Pressburg diet in 1840 Dessewffy was
already the leading orator of the more enlightened and progressive
Conservatives, but incurred great unpopularity for not going far enough,
with the result that he was twice defeated at the polls. But his
reputation in court circles was increasing; he was appointed a member of
the committee for the reform of the criminal law in 1840; and, the same
year with a letter of recommendation from Metternich in his pocket,
visited England and France, Holland and Belgium, made the acquaintance
of Thiers and Heine in Paris, and returned home with an immense and
precious store of practical information. He at once proceeded to put
fresh life into the despondent and irresolute Conservative party, and
the Magyar aristocracy, by gallantly combating in the _Világ_ the
opinions of Kossuth's paper, the _Pesti Hírlap_. But the multiplicity of
his labours was too much for his feeble physique, and he died on the 9th
of February 1842, at the very time when his talents seemed most
indispensable.
See _Aus den Papieren des Grafen Aurel Dessewffy_ (Pest, 1843);
_Memorial Wreath to Count Aurel Dessewffy_ (Hung.), (Budapest, 1857);
_Collected Works of Count Dessewffy, with a Biography_ (Hung.),
(Budapest, 1887). (R. N. B.)
DESSOIR, LUDWIG (1810-1874), German actor, whose name was originally
Leopold Dessauer, was born on the 15th of December 1810 at Posen, the
son of a Jewish tradesman. He made his first appearance on the stage
there in 1824 in a small part. After some experience at the theatre in
Posen and on tour, he was engaged at Leipzig from 1834 to 1836. Then he
was attached to the municipal theatre of Breslau, and in 1837 appeared
at Prague, Brünn, Vienna and Budapest, where he accepted an engagement
which lasted until 1839. He succeeded Karl Devrient at Karlsruhe, and
went in 1847 to Berlin, where he acted Othello and Hamlet with such
extraordinary success that he received a permanent engagement at the
Hof-theater. From 1849 to 1872, when he retired on a pension, he played
110 parts, frequently on tour, and in 1853 acting in London. He died on
the 30th of December 1874 in Berlin. Dessoir was twice married; his
first wife, Theresa, a popular actress (1810-1866), was separated from
him a year after marriage; his second wife went mad on the death of her
child. By his first wife Dessoir had one son, the actor Ferdinand
Dessoir (1836-1892). In spite of certain physical disabilities Ludwig
Dessoir's genius raised him to the first rank of actors, especially as
interpreter of Shakespeare's characters. G. H. Lewes placed Dessoir's
Othello above that of Kean, and the _Athenaeum_ preferred him in this
part to Brooks or Macready.
DESTOUCHES, PHILIPPE (1680-1754), French dramatist, whose real name was
Néricault, was born at Tours in April 1680. When he was nineteen years
of age he became secretary to M. de Puysieux, the French ambassador in
Switzerland. In 1716 he was attached to the French embassy in London,
where he remained for six years under the abbé Dubois. He contracted
with a Lancashire lady, Dorothea Johnston, a marriage which was not
avowed for some years. He drew a picture later of his own domestic
circumstances in _Le Philosophe marié_ (1726). On his return to France
(1723) he was elected to the Academy, and in 1727 he acquired
considerable estates, the possession of which conferred the privileges
of nobility. He spent his later years at his château of Fortoiseau near
Melun, dying on the 4th of July 1754. His early comedies were: _Le
Curieux Impertinent_ (1710), _L'Ingrat_ (1712), _L'Irrésolu_ (1713) and
_Le Médisant_ (1715). The best of these is _L'Irrêsolu_, in which
Dorante, after hesitating throughout the play between Julie and
Célimène, marries Julie, but concludes the play with the reflection:--
"J'aurais mieux fait, je crois, d'épouser Célimène."
After eleven years of diplomatic service Destouches returned to the
stage with the _Philosophe marié_ (1727), followed in 1732 by his
masterpiece _Le Glorieux_, a picture of the struggle then beginning
between the old nobility and the wealthy _parvenus_ who found their
opportunity in the poverty of France. Destouches wished to revive the
comedy of character as understood by Molière, but he thought it
desirable that the moral should be directly expressed. This moralizing
tendency spoilt his later comedies. Among them may be mentioned: _Le
Tambour nocturne_ (1736), _La Force du naturel_ (1750) and _Le
Dissipateur_ (1736).
His works were issued in collected form in 1755, 1757, 1811 and, in a
limited edition (6 vols.), 1822.
DESTRUCTORS. The name destructors is applied by English municipal
engineers to furnaces, or combinations of furnaces, commonly called
"garbage furnaces" in the United States, constructed for the purpose of
disposing by burning of town refuse, which is a heterogeneous mass of
material, including, besides general household and ash-bin refuse, small
quantities of garden refuse, trade refuse, market refuse and often
street sweepings. The mere disposal of this material is not, however, by
any means the only consideration in dealing with it upon the destructor
system. For many years past scientific experts, municipal engineers and
public authorities have been directing careful attention to the
utilization of refuse as fuel for steam production, and such progress in
this direction has been made that in many towns its calorific value is
now being utilized daily for motive-power purposes. On the other hand,
that proper degree of caution which is obtained only by actual
experience must be exercised in the application of refuse fuel to
steam-raising. When its value as a low-class fuel was first recognized,
the idea was disseminated that the refuse of a given population was of
itself sufficient to develop the necessary steam-power for supplying
that population with the electric light. The economical importance of a
combined destructor and electric undertaking of this character naturally
presented a somewhat fascinating stimulus to public authorities, and
possibly had much to do with the development both of the adoption of the
principle of dealing with refuse by fire, and of lighting towns by
electricity. However true this phase of the question may be as the
statement of a theoretical scientific fact, experience so far does not
show it to be a basis upon which engineers may venture to calculate,
although, as will be seen later, under certain circumstances of
equalized load, which must be considered upon their merits in each case,
a well-designed destructor plant can be made to perform valuable
commercial service to an electric or other power-using undertaking.
Further, when a system, thermal or otherwise, for the storage of energy
can be introduced and applied in a trustworthy and economical manner,
the degree of advantage to be derived from the utilization of the waste
heat from destructors will be materially enhanced.
Composition and quantity of refuse.
The composition of house refuse, which must obviously affect its
calorific value, varies considerably in different localities, according
to the condition, habits and pursuits of the people. Towns situated in
coal-producing districts invariably yield a refuse richer in unconsumed
carbon than those remote therefrom. It is also often found that the
refuse from different parts of the same town varies considerably--that
from the poorest quarters frequently proving of greater calorific value
than that from those parts occupied by the rich and middle classes. This
has been attributed to the more extravagant habits of the working
classes in neglecting to sift the ashes from their fires before
disposing of them in the ash-bin. In Bermondsey, for example, the refuse
has been found to possess an unusually high calorific value, and this
experience is confirmed in other parts of the metropolis. Average refuse
consists of breeze (cinder and ashes), coal and coke, fine dust,
vegetable and animal matters, straw, shavings, cardboard, bottles, tins,
iron, bones, broken crockery and other matters in very variable
proportions according to the character of the district from which it is
collected. In London the quantity of house refuse amounts approximately
to 1¼ million tons per annum, which is equivalent to from 4 cwt. to 5
cwt. per head per annum, or to from 200 to 250 tons per 1000 of the
population per annum. Statistics, however, vary widely in different
districts. In the vicinity of the metropolis the amount varies from 2.5
cwt. per head per annum at Leyton to 3.5 cwt. at Hornsey, and to as much
as 7 cwt. at Ealing. In the north of England the total house refuse
collected, exclusive of street sweepings, amounts on the average to 8
cwt. per head per annum. Speaking generally, throughout the country an
amount of from 5 cwt. to 10 cwt. per head per annum should be allowed
for. A cubic yard of ordinary house refuse weighs from 12¼ to 15 cwt.
Shop refuse is lighter, frequently containing a large proportion of
paper, straw and other light wastes. It sometimes weighs as little as 7¼
cwt. per cubic yard. A load, by which refuse is often estimated, varies
in weight from 15 cwt. to 1½ tons.
Refuse disposal.
The question how a town's refuse shall be disposed of must be considered
both from a commercial and a sanitary point of view. Various methods
have been practised. Sometimes the household ashes, &c., are mixed with
pail excreta, or with sludge from a sewage farm, or with lime, and
disposed of for agricultural purposes, and sometimes they are conveyed
in carts or by canal to outlying and country districts, where they are
shot on waste ground or used to fill up hollows and raise the level of
marshland. Such plans are economical when suitable outlets are
available. To take the refuse out to sea in hopper barges and sink it in
deep water is usually expensive and frequently unsatisfactory. At
Bermondsey, for instance, the cost of barging is about 2s. 9d. a ton,
while the material may be destroyed by fire at a cost of from 10d. to
1s. a ton, exclusive of interest and sinking fund on the cost of the
works. In other cases, as at Chelsea and various dust contractors'
yards, the refuse is sorted and its ingredients are sold; the fine dust
may be utilized in connexion with manure manufactories, the pots and
pans employed in forming the foundations of roads, and the cinders and
vegetable refuse burnt to generate steam. In the Arnold system, carried
out in Philadelphia and other American towns, the refuse is sterilized
by steam under pressure, the grease and fertilizing substances being
extracted at the same time; while in other systems, such as those of
Weil and Porno, and of Defosse, distillation in closed vessels is
practised. But the destructor system, in which the refuse is burned to
an innocuous clinker in specially constructed furnaces, is that which
must finally be resorted to, especially in districts which have become
well built up and thickly populated.
Types of destructors.
Various types of furnaces and apparatus have from time to time been
designed, and the subject has been one of much experiment and many
failures. The principal towns in England which took the lead in the
adoption of the refuse destructor system were Manchester, Birmingham,
Leeds, Heckmondwike, Warrington, Blackburn, Bradford, Bury, Bolton,
Hull, Nottingham, Salford, Ealing and London. Ordinary furnaces, built
mostly by dust contractors, began to come into use in London and in the
north of England in the second half of the 19th century, but they were
not scientifically adapted to the purpose, and necessitated the
admixture of coal or other fuel with the refuse to ensure its cremation.
The Manchester corporation erected a furnace of this description about
the year 1873, and Messrs Mead & Co. made an unsatisfactory attempt in
1870 to burn house refuse in closed furnaces at Paddington. In 1876
Alfred Fryer erected his destructor at Manchester, and several other
towns adopted this furnace shortly afterwards. Other furnaces were from
time to time brought before the public, among which may be mentioned
those of Pearce and Lupton, Pickard, Healey, Thwaite, Young, Wilkinson,
Burton, Hardie, Jacobs and Odgen. In addition to these the "Beehive" and
the "Nelson" destructors became well known. The former was introduced by
Stafford and Pearson of Burnley, and one was erected in 1884 in the
parish yard at Richmond, Surrey, but the results being unsatisfactory,
it was closed during the following year. The "Nelson" furnace, patented
in 1885 by Messrs Richmond and Birtwistle, was erected at
Nelson-in-Marsden, Lancashire, but being very costly in working was
abandoned. The principal types of destructors now in use are those of
Fryer, Whiley, Horsfall, Warner, Meldrum, Beaman and Deas, Heenan and
Froude, and the "Sterling" destructor erected by Messrs Hughes and
Stirling.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Fryer's Destructor.]
Fryer's.
The general arrangement of the destructor patented[1] by Alfred Fryer
in 1876 is illustrated in fig. 1. An installation upon this principle
consists of a number of furnaces or cells, usually arranged in pairs
back to back, and enclosed in a rectangular block of brickwork having
a flat top, upon which the house refuse is tipped from the carts.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Horsfall's Improved Destructor.]
A large main flue, which also forms the dust chamber, is placed
underneath the furnace hearths. The Fryer furnace ordinarily burns
from 4 to 6 tons of refuse per cell per 24 hours. It will be observed
that the outlets for the products of combustion are placed at the
back near the refuse feed opening, an arrangement which is imperfect
in design, inasmuch as while a charge of refuse is burning upon the
furnace bars the charge which is to follow lies on the dead hearth
near the outlet flue. Here it undergoes drying and partial
decomposition, giving off offensive empyreumatic vapours which pass
into the flue without being exposed to sufficient heat to render them
entirely inoffensive. The serious nuisances thus produced in some
instances led to the introduction of a second furnace, or "cremator,"
patented by C. Jones of Ealing in 1885, which was placed in the main
flue leading to the chimney-shaft, for the purpose of resolving the
organic matters present in the vapour, but the greatly increased cost
of burning due to this device led to its abandonment in many cases.
This type of cell was largely used during the early period of the
history of destructors, but has to a considerable extent given place
to furnaces of more modern design.
[Illustration: FIG. 3. - Meldrum's Destructor at Darwen]
Whiley's.
A furnace[2] patented in 1891 by Mr Henry Whiley, superintendent of
the scavenging department of the Manchester corporation, is automatic
in its action and was designed primarily with a view to saving
labour--the cells being fed, stoked and clinkered automatically.
There is no drying hearth, and the refuse carts tip direct into a
shoot or hopper at the back which conducts the material directly on
to movable eccentric grate bars. These automatically traverse the
material forward into the furnace, and finally push it against a
flap-door which opens and allows it to fall out. This apparatus is
adapted for dealing with screened rather than unscreened refuse,
since it suffers from the objection that the motion of the bars tends
to allow fine particles to drop through unburnt. Some difficulty has
been experienced from the refuse sticking in the hopper, and
exception may also be taken to the continual flapping of the door
when the clinker passes out, as cold air is thereby admitted into the
furnace. As in the Fryer cell, the outlet for the products of
combustion into the main flue is close to the point where the crude
refuse is fed into the furnace, and the escape of unburnt vapours is
thus facilitated. Forced draught is applied by means of a Roots
blower. The Manchester corporation has 28 cells of this type in use,
and the approximate amount of refuse burnt per cell per 24 hours is
from 6 to 8 tons at a cost per ton for labour of 3.47 pence.
Horsfall's.
Horsfall's destructor[3] (fig. 2) is a high-temperature furnace of
modern type which has been adopted largely in Great Britain and on
the continent of Europe. In it some of the general features of the
Fryer cell are retained, but the details differ considerably from
those of the furnaces already described. Important points in the
design are the arrangement of the flues and flue outlets for the
products of combustion, and the introduction of a blast duct through
which air is forced into a closed ash-pit. The feeding-hole is
situated at the back of and above the furnace, while the flue opening
for the emission of the gaseous products is placed at the front of
the furnace over the dead plate; thus the gases distilled from the
raw refuse are caused to pass on their way to the main flue over the
hottest part of the furnace and through the flue opening in the
red-hot reverberatory arch. The steam jet, which plays an important
part in the Horsfall furnace, forces air into the closed ash-pit at a
pressure of about ¾ to 1 in. of water, and in this way a temperature
varying from 1500° to 2000° F., as tested by a thermo-electric
pyrometer, is maintained in the main flue. In a battery of cells the
gases from each are delivered into one main flue, so that a uniform
temperature is maintained therein sufficiently high to prevent
noxious vapours from reaching the chimney. The cells being charged
and clinkered in rotation, when the fire in one is green, in the
others it is at its hottest, and the products of combustion do not
reach the boiler surfaces until after they have been mixed in the
main flue. The cast iron boxes which are provided at the sides of the
furnaces, and through which the blast air is conveyed on its way to
the grate, prevent the adhesion of clinker to the side walls of the
cells, and very materially preserve the brickwork, which otherwise
becomes damaged by the tools used to remove the clinker. The wide
clinkering doors are suspended by counterbalance weights and open
vertically. The rate of working of these cells varies from 8 tons per
cell per 24 hours at Oldham to 10 tons per cell at Bradford, where
the furnaces are of a later type. The cost of labour in stoking and
clinkering is about 6d. per ton of the refuse treated at Bradford,
and 9d. per ton at Oldham, where the rate of wages is higher.
Well-constructed and properly-worked plants of this type should give
rise to no nuisance, and may be located in populous neighbourhoods
without danger to the public health or comfort. Installations were
put down at Fulham (1901), Hammerton Street, Bradford (1900), West
Hartlepool (1904), and other places, and the surplus power generated
is employed in the production of electric energy.
Warner's.
Warner's destructor,[4] known as the "Perfectus," is, in general
arrangement, similar to Fryer's, but differs in being provided with
special charging hoppers, dampers in flues, dust-catching
arrangements, rocking grate bars and other improvements. The refuse
is tipped into feeding-hoppers, consisting of rectangular cast iron
boxes over which plates are placed to prevent the escape of smoke and
fumes. At the lower portion of the feeding-hopper is a flap-door
working on an axis and controlled by an iron lever from the tipping
platform. When refuse is to be fed into the furnace the lever is
thrown over, the contents of the hopper drop on to the sloping
firebrick hearth beneath, and the door is at once closed again. The
door should be kept open as short a time as possible in order to
prevent the admission of cold air into the furnace at the back end,
since this leads to the lowering of the temperature of the cells and
main flue, and also to paper and other light refuse being carried
into the flues and chimney. The flues of each furnace are provided
with dampers, which are closed during the process of clinkering in
order to keep up the heat. The cells are each 5 ft. wide and 11 ft.
deep, the rearmost portion consisting of a firebrick drying hearth,
and the front of rocking grate bars upon which the combustion takes
place. The crown of each cell is formed of a reverberatory firebrick
arch having openings for the emission of the products of combustion.
The flap dampers which are fitted to these openings are operated by
horizontal spindles passing through the brickwork to the front of the
cell, where they are provided with levers or handles; thus each cell
can be worked independently of the others. With the view of
increasing the steam-raising capabilities of the furnace, forced
draught is sometimes applied and a tubular boiler is placed close to
the cells. The amount of refuse consumed varies from 5 tons to 8 tons
per cell per 24 hours. At Hornsey, where 12 cells of this type are in
use, the cost of labour for burning the refuse is 9½d. per ton.