empire, and on the restoration of the Bourbons was appointed president of the court of cassation. DESFONTAINES, PIERRE FRANÇOIS GUY DOT, a French critic, born at Rouen in 1685, died Dec. 16, 1745. He studied under the Jesuits, received orders, and was a successful teacher of rhetoric in the college of Bourges. He was invited to Paris in 1724, to restore the Journal des savants, which had fallen into discredit. In this he succeeded, and published afterward, sometimes alone, and sometimes in conjunction with others, several periodicals, among which were the Observations sur les écrits nouveaux. His criticisms were marked by severity and rudeness, and among the many enemies whom he made by his trenchant pen was Voltaire, who had once saved him from prison, or perhaps the galleys. The paper warfare between the critic and the philosopher attracted general attention, and ended in the discomfiture of the former. The principal works of Desfontaines are a Dictionnaire néologique, and a translation of the Eneid.

DESFONTAINES, RENÉ LOUICHE, a French botanist, born in Tremblay, in Brittany, in 1752, died in Paris, Nov. 16, 1833. After studying at the college of Rennes, he went to Paris to prepare for the medical profession, but devoted himself chiefly to botany. He was received into the academy of sciences in 1782, the custom of the time being to admit young men of approved capacity, with a view of encouraging them to greater accomplishments. He immediately embarked for the Barbary states, and during two years explored the natural history, especially the flora, of the north of Africa. He published the result of his investigations in the Flora Atlantica (2 vols., Paris, 1798), which gave descriptions of 1,600 species of plants, 300 of which were new. On his return to Paris in 1785 he was appointed by Buffon to succeed Lemonnier as professor in the jardin des plantes, and from this time he was occupied with his lectures. He was the first to indicate the difference in growth and structure between the monocotyledonous and the dicotyledonous plants. He made a catalogue of the jardin des plantes (1804; 3d ed. in Latin, 1829); continued the Collection des velins du muséum d'histoire naturelle, which had been begun for Gaston of Orleans; and published numerous memoirs in the transactions of learned societies.

DESHA, a S. E. co. of Ark., bordering on the Mississippi, intersected by Arkansas and White rivers; area, 869 sq. m.; pop. in 1854, 3,971, of whom 1,840 were slaves. The surface is low, level, and subject to inundation. The soil is alluvial, and in 1854 produced 6,940 bales of cotton, and 130,055 bushels of corn. Number of pupils in the public schools, 40. Capital, Napoleon.

DESIRADE, or DESEADA, a rocky island of the Little Antilles, in the Caribbean sea, E. of Guadeloupe, of which it is a dependency. It is scantily furnished with wood and fresh water. Area, 10,695 acres; pop. in 1856, 1,235, of

whom 284 were whites. It was the first island discovered by Columbus in his second voyage, on which he set out, Sept. 25, 1493.

DESHOULIÈRES, ANTOINETTE (DU LIGIER DE LA GARDE), a French authoress, born in Paris about 1634, died in the same city, Feb. 17, 1694. The daughter of a maître d'hôtel of Marie de' Medici and Anne of Austria, she was early noted for beauty and wit, and received a brilliant education under the best masters. She studied the Latin, Italian, and Spanish languages; read the long romances of D'Urfé, La Calprenède, and Mlle. de Scudéry, which were then the delight of the court; and early began to write verses, her first attempts being corrected by the poet Hesnaut. In her 18th year she was married to Guillaume de la Fon de Boisguérin (seigneur des Houlières), who in the troubles of the Fronde embraced the party of the prince of Condé, and was exiled. Mme. Deshoulières subsequently rejoined her husband at the court of Brussels, where she became an object of suspicion, and was imprisoned in 1657 in the castle of Vilworde, where she read the Scriptures and fathers of the church, was rescued by her husband by a coup de main after 8 months, and on her return to France after the amnesty became a favorite at the court of Anne of Austria. She wrote poems in almost all styles from the madrigal to tragedy, and was intimate with the two Corneilles, with Fléchier, Mascaron, Quinault, Benserade, and Ménage, and with the dukes of Montausier, La Rochefoucauld, Nevers, and Saint Aignan. She attained the best success in pastorals and in moral and philosophical pieces. Her idyls, especially those entitled Les moutons and Les fleurs, were most admired, and gained her the appellation of the 10th muse and the French Calliope; and the subsequent ill success of her tragedies caused the advice, of proverbial fame, to be given her, de retourner à ses moutons. She became a member of the academy of the Ricovrati of Padua in 1684, and of the academy of Arles in 1689. Like Mme. de Sévigné, she belonged to the literary clique hostile to Racine. Voltaire said that of all French ladies who had cultivated poetry, Mme. Deshoulières had succeeded best, since more of her verses than those of any other were known by heart. The principal editions of her works are those of 1747 and 1799, each in 2 vols.

DESMIDIEÆ, minute and interesting algæ, which grow in fresh water, and whose contour and forms present singularly beautiful appearances under the microscope. For a long time claimed both as animals and plants, they seem to stand on the limits of either kingdom. The controversy as to their true place has enlisted a great number of observers, who have submitted every fact connected with their study to the most rigorous examination. Ehrenberg has claimed them as animalcules; and in the "Annals of Natural History" (London, 1840), Mr. Dalrymple has given extended observations of a similar character upon a single genus (closterium), which appeared to him to indicate

animality. In the "American Journal of Science and Arts" (vol. xli., 1841), Professor Bailey admits the general correctness of Mr. Dalrymple's observations, yet differs from him in some respects. He considers the desmidie as animalcules, and includes them in his sketch of the infusoria. In a memoir "On the Organization of the Polygastric Infusoria," in Weigmann's Archiv for 1846, C. Eckhard advocates their animality. He notices only the closteria, and derives his argument for their being animals partly from their motion, partly from their organization. According to Pritchard, in his "History of Infusoria, living and fossil" (London, 1842), Dr. Meyen shows that Ehrenberg has described and represented in his great work a very considerable number of organized bodies looked upon by botanists as belonging to the vegetable kingdom. In these representations naturalists have been able to attain what has been long desirable; for although in respect to the more highly developed and complete vegetable beings the truest delineations are indispensably necessary at the present day, it is much more requisite that every one of these lower and microscopic organisms should be laid before us in the same tangible manner. Ehrenberg has not only given systematic descriptions of these questionable animals or plants, but his own observations, coupled with those of his predecessors, upon the nature of these bodies, will be found copiously detailed by him. It is, however, apparent that all the facts known upon the subject are interpreted as if these creations were undoubtedly animals, while the same facts would bear a very different signification if we proceeded upon the supposition that they were merely plants. Meyen contended for the vegetable character of the desmidiem, and was the first to detect the presence of starch in the cells; and the accuracy of his remarks, which had been doubted, was fully confirmed by Ralfs, Jenner, and other recent algologists. The presence of starch in the desmidie can be readily detected by treating them with a solution of iodine; all vegetable tissues in which starch grains are found assume a purplish or violet color on its application. Prof. Bailey did not consider this a conclusive proof of their vegetable nature, since, if animal, the starch might have been swallowed. But it is affirmed that no starch is to be detected in the young cell, while upon the growth of the sporangium or seed-vessel it appears and increases rapidly, as in the seeds of the higher plants, in which it generally abounds. Of all the circumstances which indicate the vegetable nature of the desmidieæ, this is the most important, since it can be so easily submitted to experiment. In certain cavities in closterium, Mr. Dalrymple noticed a peculiar motion of molecules on which he laid some stress. This motion has been frequently noticed, and is to be seen in many plants. At first sight it would seem to denote an animal function, yet really in the desmidien it becomes a proof of their vegetability. It has been termed swarming, on

account of the commotion which arises within the cell, as if all its contents were endowed with life; as the disturbance increases, the cell opens, when the molecules, or rather zoospores, hasten from their prison, darting about in every direction, until at length they settle down into a state of repose. The presence and functions of zoospores in plants of entirely differing families and groups, render their occurrence in those under consideration no evidence of their being animals. That the desmidies resist decomposition, exhale oxygen on exposure to the sun, preserve the purity of the water containing them, and when burned do not emit the peculiar odor usually so characteristic of animal combustion, are also important facts respecting this family. Berkeley, in his Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany," remarks that much controversy has existed with respect to their true nature, but that at the present day few persons will adopt the views of Ehrenberg; for if in some points there be anomalies, as in closterium, their whole history is so evidently vegetable, their mode of increase, growth, &c., that if we refuse them the title of vegetables, we may as well dispute that of the whole tribe of zoosporous algae. As to their occasionally producing bodies endowed with active motion, it is now a matter of certainty that such bodies exist in a variety of algae of very different construction; and in order that the cellulose (or peculiar material of the cell walls of vegetables) should exhibit the proper reaction when acids are applied for tests, the membranes of cells or of the fronds must be thoroughly cleansed from all extraneous matters. But perhaps the most important of all is the fact that, under the influence of light, they give out oxygen, which, added to the other characteristics, is quite convincing.-Considering the desmidiem as vegetable productions, we find them peculiar for their beauty, variety of forms, and the external markings and appendages to be noticed upon them. They are mostly of an herbaceous green color, and contain a green internal matter. The frond divides into two valves or segments, by a sort of voluntary action; a mode of growth in the bisection of cells that Meyen and others have proved to be frequent if not universal in the more simple algae. In the desmidies the multiplication of the cells by repeated division is full of interest, both on account of the remarkable manner in which it takes place, and because it unfolds the process of cell-growth in the tissue of other plants, thus furnishing valuable facts in general vegetable physiology. The compressed and deeply constricted cells of eriastrum offer most favorable opportunities for ascertaining the manner of this division; for although the frond is really a single cell, yet this cell in all its stages appears like two, the segments being always distinct, even from the commencement. As the connecting portion is so small, and necessarily produces the new segments, which cannot arise from a broader base than its opening, these are at first very minute, though they rapidly increase in size.

The

segments are separated by the elongation of the connecting tube, which is converted into two roundish hyaline lobules. These lobules increase in size, acquire color, and gradually put on the appearance of the older portions. Of course, as they increase, the original segments are pushed further asunder, and at length are disconnected, each taking with it a new segment to supply the place of that from which it has separated. All the desmidies are gelatinous. In some the mucus is condensed into a distinct and well defined hyaline sheath or covering; in others it is more attenuated, and the fact that it forms a covering is discerned only from its preventing the contact of the colored cells. In general, its quantity is merely sufficient to hold the fronds together in a kind of filmy cloud, which is dispersed by the slightest touch. When they are left exposed by the evaporation of the water, this mucus becomes denser, and is apparently secreted in larger quantities to protect them from the effects of drought. Their normal mode of propagation seems to be by the production of single large spores or sporangiums, which derive their existence from the union of the green coloring matter (endochromes) of two contiguous plants. These spores are mostly globular, although they exhibit a great variety of forms with reference to their external surfaces. Sometimes they bear no resemblance to the parent plant. But once formed, they are propagated by division, in the same manner as the ordinary cells, and in the 3d generation acquire their regular form, which they may continue to propagate for years, without ever producing a true spore.-Very little is known respecting the uses of the desmidiem. Probably they assist in preserving the purity of the water in which they grow; a function which they may fulfil in the economy of nature in common with most aquatic vegetables. The food of bivalve mollusks belonging to fresh waters seems to be made up of them. They are found principally where there is some admixture of peat, and in clear pools rather than in running streams. They abound in open places, and are rarely seen in shady woods or in deep ditches. According to Brébisson, the calcareous districts of France are very unproductive of them. So numerous are the species and so diversified their shapes and characters, that they have been divided into distinct genera as natural series present themselves in turn. In the first of these series we discover the plant an elongated, jointed filament, which may be cylindrical, sub-cylindrical, triangular or quadrangular, plane with the margins even and smooth, or with the margins incised and sinuated. In hyalotheca we have the mucous envelope alluded to above, within which are numerous joints, which are usually broader than long; and as each has a shallow groove passing round it, it resembles a small pulley wheel. The minuteness of the plant may be estimated from the length of these joints, which vary from to of an inch. H. dissiliens (Bréb.) is found in North America VOL. VI.-27

1

as well as in Europe. In desmidium, the joints are bidentate at the angles; the filament is fragile and of a pale green color; the length of the joint is from 6 to 8 of an inch. D. Swartzii (Ag.) is common throughout the United States. In micrasterias we have a simple, lenticular frond, deeply divided into two-lobed segments, each lobe inciso-dentate and generally radiate. Many species of this beautiful plant are common in this country. We have also found euastrum, which belongs to the same series, of frequent occurrence. Certain curious spiny objects detected in a fossil state in flint in Europe remind us of xanthidium, but which probably are spores; the compressed bipartite and bivalved frond of the xanthidium being represented in the fossils by one that is globose and entire. The constriction about the middle of the frond is lost in closterium, which also differs in shape, it being crescent-like or arcuate. The species of this are common and numerous. The fronds of ankistrodesmus are aggregated into fagot-like bundles. Pediastrum tetras, occurring from Maine to Virginia, according to Bailey, has an extremely minute frond composed of 4 cells, which make a star-like figure; while P. biradiatum, found in New Jersey (Bailey) as well as in Germany (Meyen), has many more cells, yet still arranged in a stello-radiate manner.-In collecting the desmidies, the student must seek in proper situations the sediment observable in the form of a dirty cloud or greenish scum upon the stems and leaves of filiform aquatic plants. This is to be carefully transferred to a bottle of pure water, and thus he will secure many beautiful species for his microscopes. If the bottle be exposed to the light, the little plants will continue in good condition, and thrive for several months, thus furnishing subjects for examination ready at hand.

DES MOINES, a S. E. co. of Iowa, bordering on Ill., washed by the Mississippi on the E. and S. E., bounded S. W. by Skunk river, and drained by Flint creek; area, 408 sq. m.; pop. in 1856, 20,198. Limestone and anthracite are the principal mineral productions. The surface is much diversified and occupied by prairies and tracts of timber. The soil is fertile, well cultivated, and in 1856 yielded 11,274 tons of hay, 221,109 bushels of wheat, 359,938 of oats, 1,456,491 of corn, 206,026 lbs. of butter, and 20,056 of wool. Capital, Burlington.

DES MOINES, the largest river of Iowa. It rises in the S. W. part of Minnesota, and takes a S. E. course to Emmet co., Iowa. Thence it runs nearly S. S. E. to the Mississippi, which it joins about 4 m. below Keokuk. The country through which it flows is an undulating, fertile region, interspersed with tracts of prairie. The state government has recently undertaken to render the river navigable as far as Fort Des Moines, a distance of over 200 m.

DESMOND, EARLS OF, an ancient family of great influence in the S. W. of Ireland, from the year 1329 to 1583. The line numbered 15 earls. The title and family are now extinct.

Before the English gained a footing in Ireland, the kingdom of Cork was a separate sovereignty, embracing much of the present province of Munster. It was divided into Desmond, or South Munster, Muskerry, or West Munster, and Carbery, on the S. W. In 1172 Dermod Mac Carthy, king of Cork, with the view of aggrandizing himself by the aid of so powerful an ally, swore fealty to Henry II., but soon afterward broke his plight and attacked his liege's forces. He was overpowered, and Henry, in 1177, bestowed the kingdom on Robert Fitz Stephen and Milo de Cogan. Cogan's share, falling ultimately to co-heiresses, was divided between Robert Carew, Patrick Courcey, and Maurice Fitz Thomas. The last was created by the English monarch 1st earl of Desmond in 1329. By aggressions on the lands of Courcey and Carew, and by other acquisitions, the estates of the Desmonds so increased that the 8th earl was possessor of almost the whole of the former kingdom of Cork. This earl exercised rights of sovereignty with such a high hand that he was attainted of treason, and beheaded at Drogheda, Feb. 15, 1467. His estates, being suffered to remain in his family, continued to augment until Gerald, the last earl, owned a territory extending 150 miles through the counties of Waterford, Cork, Kerry, and Limerick, and comprising 500,000 acres of tenants' land. These earls never yielded more than a nominal allegiance to the English crown. One of them in the reign of Henry VIII. agreed with Francis I. of France that he would take up arms when required, and not lay them down till he had conquered one half of Ireland for himself and the remainder for Richard de la Pole, the representative of the house of York. Francis withdrew from the agreement, leaving the earl to explain it to his sovereign as he best might. The country of the Desmonds was Irish in language, habits, and religion. Hence it was deemed a favorable locality by Philip II. of Spain, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, to attempt the conquest of Ireland. Accordingly, on July 1, 1578, a body of Italian troops, under the command of James Fitz Maurice, brother of the earl of Desmond, and accompanied by Saunders, the pope's legate, landed in the Desmond country, where they were immediately joined by Sir John of Desmond and James Fitzgerald, other brothers of the earl. At first Earl Desmond made some show of resistance, but subsided at length into neutrality. On this, Lord Justice Pelham summoned him to surrender his castles to the queen. Desmond refused, whereon he and all of his name were proclaimed traitors, Nov. 1, 1579. Desmond now raised the standard of revolt, summoned his people to meet him at Ballyhowra, Cork, to support the Catholic cause, and his dependants responded to the call. He seized on the town of Youghal, and until Nov. 1583, maintained a determined warfare. Being by that time driven from his strongholds, one after another, he was compelled to seek safety in concealment. He wandered over the coun

try for months, and was at last killed by a peasant named Kelly, in a cabin where he had taken shelter. His estates were divided among the captains of Elizabeth's army. Sir Walter Raleigh received 20,000 acres, which he sold cheaply to Richard Boyle, afterward earl of Cork.-JEANNE FITZGERALD, wife of James, 14th earl, lived to an age exceeding 140 years. Her husband presented her at the court of Edward IV., where she danced with the duke of Gloucestor, afterward Richard III.; she was widowed during the reign of Edward IV., and died in the reign of James I., some time after 1603. At the age of 140 she travelled from her home at Inchiquin, Ireland, by the way of Bristol, to London, to urge some claim against the government. At that time she was quite vivacious and in possession of all her faculties. Sir Walter Raleigh says: "I myself knew her." ("History of the World," book i., cap. 5.) Bacon mentions that the old countess of Desmond had thrice renewed her teeth.

DESMOULINS, BENOÎT CAMILLE, a French revolutionist, born at Guise in Picardy in 1762, guillotined in Paris, April 5, 1794. He was a lawyer in Paris when the revolution broke out; he ardently adopted its principles, and became one of the favorite orators of the crowd which gathered at the palais royal to hear the news of the day. On the dismissal of Necker, July 12, 1789, he mounted a table and in an impassioned speech called the people to the defence of their threatened liberty; he boldly declared that he would not be deterred from speaking by fear of the police, and with a loaded pistol in each hand, swore that he would not be taken alive. He advised the patriots to wear a green badge as a rallying sign, and as there was not a sufficient quantity of ribbon, he gave them the green leaves of the trees in the garden. The cry "To arms!" was raised; the crowd seized upon all the arms they could find at the gunsmiths', and forming in procession, carried through the streets the bust of the dismissed minister in conjunction with that of the then popular duke of Orleans. The next day the muskets and cannon at the Invalides fell into the hands of the people, and on July 14 the Bastile was taken. Camille, who had given the first, if not the controlling impulse to this insurrection, figured conspicuously among the combatants, and at once gained popularity as one of the most influential democratic leaders. His popularity was enhanced by a pamphlet, La lanterne aux Parisiens, in which he styled himself the "attorney-general of the lamp-post." The success of this publication encouraged him to commence, under the title of Les récolutions de France et de Brabant, a newspaper which commanded a large sale and exercised great influence by its vigor of thought, sparkling wit, and lively style. Such was the importance of this periodical, that Mirabeau sought to conciliate its editor, whom he soon treated as a friend, and whose support was not useless to the great tribune. Camille had been a schoolmate of Robes

pierre, and lived on intimate terms with the future dictator of the revolution, who was then but an obscure member of the constituent assembly. He was also acquainted with Marat, the epileptic editor of L'Ami du peuple; but his bosom friend was Danton, whose energetic character entirely controlled the somewhat wavering mind of the young and brilliant writer. The destinies of both were closely connected from the establishment of the club of the Cordeliers. Camille was instrumental in the insurrection of Aug. 10, 1792, and was appointed secretary to the ministry of justice when Danton received that office from the legislative assembly. He must have had a share in the massacre of September, but he used his influence to preserve the lives of several intended victims. With Danton, he was elected to the national convention, and acted and voted in accordance with his friend's directions. In the contest between the Girondists and the Montagnards, he contributed to bring the former into distrust and contempt by his Histoire des Brissotins, a pamphlet in which ridicule was skillfully blended with serious charges. Satisfied with their fall as a party, he would have saved them individually, but this was beyond his power. Both he and Danton now tried to bring the convention to a milder policy, and Camille established a journal toward the end of Jan. 1794, Le vieux Cordelier, in which he advocated conciliatory measures with as much earnestness as he had urged a contrary course in his former publication. His eloquent pen shone to advantage in the cause of justice and mercy. Denouncing the system of proscription, he demanded the establishment of a committee of clemency as a preliminary step to clearing the prisons of the suspected. This generous effort, which he supported by biting satires against the Montagnards, was answered by accusations brought against him in the club of the Jacobins. Robespierre, with hypocritical generosity toward an old friend, defended him on two occasions; he represented Camille as a wayward child, whose person it was not necessary to injure, but demanded that his writings should be burned. "To burn is not to answer," exclaimed the headlong journalist; and from that day his fate was sealed. He was arrested on the same night with Danton, arraigned with him before the revolutionary tribunal, sentenced to death, and with him sent to the scaffold. On his way there, while Danton stood composed and immovable, Camille became almost frantic, struggling with his bonds, and appealing to the people. His friend vainly motioned him to keep quiet; he continued to address the crowd, and recalled to their memory all that he had done in their service. "Behold," he cried in despair, "behold the recompense reserved to the first apostle of the revolution!" His young and beautiful wife, who had vainly implored his pardon from the old friendship of Robespierre, tried to raise a riot to save him, but she was arrested, and suffered death a few days later. Camille Desmoulins holds a distinguished rank

among French pamphleteers. His Vieux Cordelier was reprinted in 1833.

DESNA, a large river of Russia, which rises in the government of Smolensk, flows through those of Orel and Tchernigov, and falls into the Dnieper a few miles above Kiev. It is a fine stream, abounding in fish, and navigable for the greater part of its course of 600 m. It has been proposed to open a water communication between the Caspian and the Black and Baltic seas by means of a canal connecting this river with the river Oka.

DESNOYERS, AUGUSTE GASPARD LOUIS BOUCHER, baron, a French engraver, born in Paris, Dec. 20, 1779, died there, Feb. 15, 1857. At the age of 20 he received a prize of $400 for an engraving of Venus disarming Cupid, and in 1801 established his reputation by the reproduction of Raphael's Belle jardinière, in the gallery of the Luxembourg. His most admired productions are copies of that great master's works, and prominent among them is an engraving of the "Transfiguration." He was elected a member of the institute in 1816, appointed chief engraver to the king in 1825, created baron in 1828, and officer of the legion of honor in 1835.

DE SOTO. I. A N. W. co. of Miss., bordering on Tenn., and bounded N. W. by the Mississippi river; area, 960 sq. m.; pop. in 1850, 19,042, of whom 9,553 were slaves. The surface is generally level, and occupied chiefly by cotton plantations. There are extensive swamps in the western part. The soil is fertile, and in 1850 produced 20,278 bales of cotton, 741,519 bushels of corn, 10,272 lbs. of rice, and 32,907 of beeswax and honey. There were 22 churches, and 416 pupils attending public schools. The county was organized in 1836. Capital, Hernando. II. A N. W. parish of Louisiana, bordering on Texas, drained by Red and Sabine rivers; area, 910 sq. m.; pop. in 1855, 9,703, of whom 5,939 were slaves. By means of Red river it has steamboat communication with New Orleans. In 1855 the productions were 9,861 bales of cotton, and 340,034 bushels of Indian corn. Capital, Mansfield.

DE SOTO, FERNANDO, a Spanish officer, the discoverer of the Mississippi, born at Xeres de los Caballeros, in Estremadura, in 1500, died on the banks of the Mississippi, June 5, 1542. Of a noble but reduced family, he was enabled by the favor of Pedrarias Davila to spend several years at one of the universities, probably that of Saragossa, and distinguished himself in literary studies, and especially in the athletic accomplishments of knighthood. In 1519 he accompanied his patron on his second expedition to America as governor of Darien, and was the most intrepid opponent of the oppressive administration of that officer. He supported Hernandez in Nicaragua in 1527, who perished by the hand of Davila, in consequence of not heeding his advice. Withdrawing from the service of Davila, he explored in 1528 the coast of Guatemala and Yucatan for 700 m., in search of the strait which was