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THE

INTERNATIONAL CYCLOPÆDIA.

D'

ISRAELI, BENJAMIN, Earl of BEACONSFIELD, author and statesman, eldest son of ISAAC, was b. in London, 1804; he received a private education, which was carefully superintended by his father. At the age when most other young men who rise to political distinction are sent to a university, he was articled to a solicitor, with a view of qualifying him for a situation in a government office, which had been obtained for him by his father. The drudgery of a lawyer's office being distasteful to him, he contributed to a tory journal, the Representative, which came to an untimely end. In 1827, he published his novel Vivian Grey, which was succeeded at intervals by other brilliant works of fiction, including The Young Duke; Contarini Fleming; The Wondrous Tale of Alroy; and Henrietta Temple. He also wrote The Rise of Iskander; A Vindication of the British Constitution; and The Revolutionary Epic. After visiting Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Syria, he returned to England, to find the country involved in the reform bill agitation. His sympathies appear now to have inclined to radicalism in politics; and having obtained recommendations from Mr. Hume and Mr. O'Connell, he presented himself in 1832 to the electors of Wycombe, but was defeated. At the general election in 1835, he met with no better success. In April in the same year, he contested Taunton on conservative principles, but again without success. In 1837, his desire for a political career being unabated, he contested Maidstone in the conservative interest along with Mr. Wyndham Lewis. He was elected, and at the age of 32 took his seat in the house of commons. His maiden speech, which was in a high-flown style, and delivered with extravagant gestures, excited the laughter of the house of commons. He was so much disconcerted, that he stopped short abruptly, but not without uttering the remarkable prophecy : "I shall sit down now, but the time will come when you will hear me." In 1838, Mr. W. Lewis died, and in the following year D. married the widow of his late colleague. He then carefully studied the style of successful parlia mentary orators, making few speeches. It was not till 1849 that he began to attract notice, and not long afterwards he gained the ear of the house as the leader of the Young England party. After entering parliament, D. wrote several novels- Coningsby (1844); Sybil (1845); and Tancred (1847), in which the principles of Young England are most ingeniously blended with theories about the intellectual supremacy of the Jews, inaccurate scientific notions, and misconceptions of English social life. At the general election in 1841, he obtained a seat for Shrewsbury. He then became the organ of the dissatisfaction with which the landed aristocracy and country gentry regarded sir Robert Peel's relaxations of the system of protection to native industry. His brilliant invective and polished sarcasm inspired the protectionist party with fallacious hope and confidence. On the death of lord George Bentinck in 1848, D. succeeded to the leadership of the protectionist party in the commons. He bore generous testimony to the political consistency and private worth of his predecessor in his Lord George Bentinck, a Biography. In 1852, the earl of Derby, having undertaken the construction of a cabinet, offered him the post of chancellor of the exchequer. It was the first time a brilliant novelist had ever figured as the finance minister of a great commercial state and it argues well for the versatility of his genius that he emerged with honor and credit from the ordeal. His second budget, in 1853, failed, however, to find acceptance with the house of commons, and the government being outvoted upon it, the Derby cabinet ceased to exist. D. resumed the leadership of the opposition, from which he was again summoned in 1858, to fill the post of chancellor of the exchequer in th second administration of lord Derby. In 1859, he introduced a measure of parliamentary reform, which, being thrown out, was followed by the resignation of the govern ment. For seven years the liberals remained in power, and Mr. Disraeli, in opposition, displayed talents as a debater, and a spirit and persistency under defeat, which won for him the admiration of his opponents. When lord Derby returned to power in July, 1866, D. again returned to the post of chancellor of the exchequer. It was he chiefly who induced the conservative party to pass the reform bill of 1867, his argument being, that the working class householders are more conservative than those to whom the franchise had been previously extended. In Feb., 1868, D. succeeded lord Derby as

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premier, but, in the face of a hostile majority, he resigned in the following Dec. On this occasion, Mrs. Disraeli, in acknowledgment of her husband's services, was raised to the peerage as viscountess Beaconsfield (died 1872). In 1870, D. published another novel, Lothair, marked by most of the merits and defects of those which preceded it. In 1873, the popularity of Mr. Gladstone subsided, and the election of 1874 giving the conservatives a large majority, D. returned to power as prime-minister. In 1877, D. took his seat in the upper house as Earl of Beaconsfield. Still premier, the earl was the guiding spirit of his cabinet during the critical years 1877-78, seeking by energetie action in eastern affairs to give an imperial" character to English policy; and he returned from the congress of Berlin bringing, as he said, “peace with honor.” D. was LL.D. of Edinburgh, D.C.L. of Oxford, was twice made lord rector of Glasgow university, and held many other honorary offices and titles. The elections of the year 1880 were a surprise to all parties in England. It had been known that there was considerable dissatisfaction with D.'s foreign policy, with the theatrical manner in which he sprang his diplomatic surprises upon the public, with the Royal Titles bill, which he had fathered and carried through parliament, and with the Afghan and Transvaal wars, which had just broken out. The Liberals, therefore, had looked forward to making some parliamentary gains, and a few of the more sanguine had even had hopes of overturning the D. administration by a small majority. The returns showed a sweeping defeat of the Conservatives, the new parliament numbering 349 Liberals, 243 Conservatives, and 60 Home Rulers, D. thereupon resigned his premiership and was succeeded by Gladstone. During his retirement he sometimes spoke in the House of Lords in indignant and sarcastic protest at the reversal of his favorite measures. He also published his last work of fiction, Endymion, 1880. He died at his house in Curzon street, London, 1881, April 19, and was buried on the 26th in the churchyard of Hughenden, Buckinghamshire. See Lord Beaconsfield's Correspondence with his sister, 1832-52 (1886); his Selected Speeches, edited by Kebbel (2 vols. 1882); Clayden, England under Lord Beaconsfield (1880); Thompson, Public Opinion and Lord Beaconsfield (1886); the Lives by John Mill (1863), O'Connor (hostile, 1879), Brandes (trans. 1880), Clarigny (French, 1880), Ewald (1882), Hitchman (1885), Kebbel (1888), Froude (1890).

DISRAE'LI, ISAAC, D.C.L., a well-known English author, was the descendant of s Hebrew family which flourished first in Spain, and afterwards in Italy. His father, Benjamin D'Israeli, came to England in 1748, entered into business in London, amassed a fortune while yet in middle life, and retiring to Enfield, there died in 1817, aged 90. His son Isaac, born at Enfield in 1766, was educated at Amsterdam and Leyden. He commenced his career as a poet and novelist; but, after the publication of the first volume of his Curiosities of Literature (1791), he discovered that his forte lay not in creative literature, but in the illustration of history and literary character, and to this he devoted himself. His style is elegant and pleasing, presenting the fruits of antiquarian research and study without their dryness and general want of connection. No writer is more instructively amusing or amusingly instructive than he. Lord Byron speaks of him as "that most entertaining and searching writer." D. died in 1848.

D.'s principal works are the Curiosities of Literature (1791-1823; new edition, with Life, Lond. 1851); A Dissertation on Anecdotes (1793); Essay on the Manners and Genius of the Literary Character (1795, 14th ed., 1850); Inquiry into the Literary and Political Character of King James Ì. (1816); Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I. (1828-31); Eliot, Hampden, and Pym (1832); Amenities of Literature (1841)—for which he received from the university of Oxford the honor of D.C.L.

DISRUPTION. See FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

DISSECTION. See ANATOMY, in Law.

DISSECTION WOUNDS. The practical study of anatomy is attended with certain dangers, which, however, during the last quarter of a century have been much lessened. The atmosphere of the dissecting-room, now comparatively pure by the application of proper ventilation and other sanitary measures, was, less than a generation ago, too commonly loaded with noxious emanations, which more or less poisoned the blood of those who continuously inhaled it, and consequently produced nausea, sickness, diarrhea, a bad taste in the mouth, and other symptoms. D. W., which are always attended with a certain amount of risk, were rendered more dangerous by the low state of the system, induced by the depressing influence of the surrounding air. Now, probably in consequence partly of the purer air, and partly of the general and extensive use of antiseptic injections into the vessels of the subjects to be dissected, it rarely happens that severe symptoms follow a cut or puncture. We may incidentally remark that a puncture in making a post-mortem examination, when the body is comparatively fresh, is much more likely to be followed by serious consequences than a wound in the dissecting-room in which the bodies have been lying for some weeks.

In the great majority of cases, punctures or cuts in the dissecting-room are followed by no unpleasant results; it being an established rule, that every puncture should be carefully sucked as soon as it is observed, and then freely touched with nitrate of silver. When, however, the poison has been absorbed, and is going to act, the patient begins to have a feeling of general illness in less than 24 hours. He is low-spirited, faint, and chilly, and often complains of nausea. Then come rigors, intense headache, rapid and sharp (but weak) pulse, a coated tongue, vomiting (sometimes), and great restlessness

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The first local symptom is intense pain in the shoulder of the wounded side, which is followed by fullness of the neck and armpit, extending in the form of a doughy swelling down the side of the trunk, and assuming a pinkish tint.

The general symptoms increase in severity, the breathing becoming difficult, the pulse very rapid and weaker, the tongue dry, brown, and often tremulous when protruded, and the skin more or less yellow. The case may terminate fatally at or before this stage; or abscesses may continue to form, from which the patient may more slowly sink; or if he survive, the arm may remain stiff and useless, or some of the fingers may be destroyed by gangrene. In the article POISONS we have noticed the rapidity with which death occasionally ensues in these cases. The essential points of treatment are briefly summed up as follows by Dr. Druitt in his excellent remarks on this subject in The Surgeon's Vademecum: "The indications clearly are to eliminate the poison from the blood; to support the strength; and to relieve pain, and promote the discharge of pus or sloughs.' The treatment, both general and local, is, however, so similar to that of pyæmia, that it is sufficient to refer our readers to that article.

As a precautionary measure in post-mortem examinations, the surgeon, especially if he be out of health, or if the patient have died from a disease of an erysipelatous character, should thoroughly anoint his hands with lard. Very thin india-rubber gloves have been recommended as a safeguard to dissectors; but they have not been found to answer; probably from the constraint to which they subject the action of the fingers. DISSEISIN. See SASINE.

DISSENTERS, the common appellation of those who dissent or differ from the estab lished church of their country in any of its doctrines, or in any part of its constitu tion, and therefore separate themselves from it. Although sometimes employed as a sufficiently appropriate designation of the sects which separated themselves from the general body of the church during the early and middle ages, the term D. belongs to modern times and Protestant countries; the claims of the Roman Catholic church, where dominant, having always been asserted in a manner incompatible with the existence of recognized religious dissent. The measure in which the rights of D. are conceded by law, may be esteemed a fair test of the religious liberty enjoyed in a country, and of the general enlightenment of a people. The term D. is of English origin and growth, although its almost exact equivalent may be said to have existed in Poland in the name dissidents, a term which first appears in the acts of the Warsaw confederation of 1573, and there denotes the Polish Protestants, in contradistinction to the members of the established Catholic religion. After 1632, the term dissidents was applied in Poland to all who were not Roman Catholics, such as Lutherans, Calvinists, Greeks, Armenians, etc.

In England, the term D. appears to have come into use in the 17th c., as synonymous with nonconformists; and from England its use was transferred to Scotland in the 18th c., after the Secession church had been founded in that country. It is usually applied to those who agree with the established church in the most essential doctrines, but differ from it on some minor point, or on questions of church-government, relation to the state, rites, etc., as in England to Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists. The claim of the church of Rome to be regarded as the Catholic church prevents its members from accepting the name D., and others seldom seek to apply it to them. On somewhat similar grounds, it is rejected by Episcopalians in Scotland; and for very different reasons, to be found in the peculiar circumstances which attended their growth, the Methodist (q.v.) churches are seldom included in it, as ordinarily used. See ESTABLISHED CHURCH; NONCONFORMISTS; PURITANS; UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH; TOLERATION, etc. The term D. is not strictly legal or ecclesiastical, those to whom it applies being usually described in legal language by a periphrasis. It is in Gt. Britain a convenient term to designate those Protestant denominations which have dissented from the doctrine and practice of the church as by law established. Immediately after the reformamation, D., or nonconformists, as they were then called, were subjected to severe restrictions and penalties. During the rebellion, the laws against Protestant sectaries were repealed; but they revived at the restoration; and the parliament of Charles II. proceeded to enforce systematically, by new measures of vigor, the principle of universal conformity to the established church."-Stephen's Com., iii. 53. By 1 Will. and Mary, c. 18, the restrictions on D. were first relaxed, and certain denominations were suffered to exercise their own religious observances. From that period, various statutes have been passed, each extending in some degree the free exercise of religious opinion. At the present time, D. of all denominations are allowed to practice without restraint their own system of religious worship and discipline. They are entitled to their own places of worship, and to maintain schools for instruction in their own opinions. They are also permitted, in their character as householders, to sit and vote in the parish vestries. A dissenter, if a patron of a church, may also exercise his own judg ment in appointing a clergyman of the church of England to a vacant living.

Since the beginning of the 18th c., the Presbyterian, Independent or Congregationalist, and Baptist denominations in England, have been associated under the name of the Three Denominations. This association was fully organized in 1727, and enjoys--like the established clergy of London and the two great universities-the remarkable privi

Distillation.

lege of approaching the sovereign on the throne. Notwithstanding much weakness, arising from doctrinal and other differences, this association has contributed much to promote toleration and religious liberty in England.

DISSEPIMENT (Lat. dissepio, I separate), in botany, the partition between two carpels (q.v.) in an ovary or fruit composed of a number of carpels. A D. is formed by the union of the sides of two carpels. Sometimes dissepiments meet in the center or axis, completely dividing the ovary or fruit into cells; sometimes they are partial, appearing as mere projections from the outer walls of the ovary or fruit, and leaving it one-celled. Many ovaries and fruits exhibit partitions not formed by the union of the sides of carpels; these are sometimes called spurious dissepiments.

DISSOCIATION, or DISASSOCIATION, a word belonging to the nomenclature of chemistry, first adopted by Henry St. Clair Deville to express the influence of heat in the decomposition of compound bodies. In a paper presented to the French institute, 1857, he says that "by selecting a proper compound and heating it sufficiently, the distance between the molecules can be increased to such extent that they will separate into their elementary conditions." He holds that water may be thus dissociated into its constituent elements at the temperature of melted silver. Deville placed a tube of porous porcelain within a tube of glass, and provided each with a separate outlet. He passed hydrogen through the inner tube, and carbonic acid through the annular space; both the gases passed through the pores of the septum, and a combustible gas issued from the carbonic acid tube. Thus far the experiment was not new. He now placed the tubes in a furnace heated to between 1000° and 1300° C., and substituted steam for the hydrogen of the inner tube. Part of the steam was decomposed, the hydrogen passing through the porous matter to the outer tube, and a corresponding portion of carbonic acid entering the inner tube by the same route. Some hydroden was lost by combining with oxygen of the carbonic acid, CO2+H, yielding CO+H2O. From the inner tube came steam, carbonic acid, and oxygen, from which the oxygen was easily isolated; from the outer tube came steam, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, and hydrogen, from which the hydrogen was also isolated. If the carbonic acid of the process were derived from the furnace which furnished the heat, and the steam were generated by the same heat, there results from the heating of water in this apparatus a certain quantity of separated oxygen and hydrogen, which might be used for the production of light and heat. By a modification of this process, sulphurous acid was separated, at 1200° C., into sulphur and anhydrous sulphuric acid; hydrochloric acid into hydrogen and chlorine; carbonic oxide into carbon and carbonic acid; and carbonic acid into carbonic oxide and oxygen. The economic value of this discovery is yet a problem. Lamy has applied it to the preparation of a pyrometer for showing high temperatures.

DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE. See DIVORCE.

DISSOLVING VIEWS are pictures painted upon glass, and made to appear of great size and with great distinctness upon a wall by means of a magic lantern with strong lenses and an intense oxyhydrogen light, and then-by removal of the glass from the focus, and gradual increase of its distance-apparently dissolved into a haze, through which a second picture is made to appear by means of a second slide, at first with a feeble, and afterwards with a strong light. Subjects are chosen to which such an optical illusion is adapted, such as representations of the same object or landscape at different periods. Dissolving views were invented and first exhibited as a popular entertainment in England.

DIS'SONANCE is the opposite of consonance, and is applied to those intervals in music whose relative proportions are to a certain extent unsatisfactory to the ear, and produce a degree of disquietude. In a special sense, the term dissonance is applied to the interval causing the unpleasant effect; which sound is not always, as some think, the upper note, but may be the middle or the lowest note. Many believe that the feeling of dissatisfaction produced by the dissonances of music, arises from the mind not being able without difficulty to comprehend at once the arithmetical proportions of the vibrations. The foundation of dissonance, however, is generally allowed to be more æsthetical than intellectual, as through the vibrations of a sounding body the air is put into a similar state of vibration, which is communicated to our ear, and so to our whole nervous system, through which we obtain the inward feeling representing the sound. In music, dissonance may be called a necessary æsthetical evil, which is used in the finest musical works for the purpose of producing pleasing contrasts, with their resolutions. In modern music, dissonance is divided into essential and accidental; the former arising fundamentally, the latter arising from passing notes, anticipations, suspensions, etc. See HARMONY.

DISTAFF, the staff on which the flax or wool is fastened, and from which the thread is drawn in spinning. A distaff of a very elegant construction is represented in art, and was no doubt generally used in antiquity. It is made of a cane-stick, the top of which is slit in such a manner as that the portions, when bent downwards, form a receptacle for the flax or wool. A ring was put over the top, for the purpose of keeping the divided ends of the cane together. The distaff was dedicated to Pallas; and the Fates are always represented with it, and engaged in spinning the thread of life. It has ever

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