Da Costa

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

JACOB MENDEZ, an American physician and educator; born in St. Thomas, W. I., Feb. 7, 1833. He was graduated at Jefferson Medical College in 1852, practicing in Philadelphia. In 1863 he became Lecturer in Jefferson Medical College, in 1872 Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine there, and in 1891 Professor Emeritus. In 1895 he was chosen president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Philadelphia. He wrote "Harvey and his Discovery," "Medical Diagnosis," etc. He died in 1900. DÆDALUS (dē'da-lus or ded'a-lus), a figure in Greek mythology who personi fied the beginning of the arts of sculpture and architecture. He was of the old Athenian royal race of the Erechtheidæ. Having killed his nephew and pupil in envy at his growing skill, he had to fiee rought to Crete where he made the well-known cow for Queen Pasiphaë, and afterward for King Minos the famous labyrinth to mansingh State Railway in 1886 notably confine the Minotaur. Minos next imprisoned Dædalus, but he escaped with the help of Pasiphaë, and formed wings for himself and his son Icarus, with which to fly across the sea. He himself flew safe across the Ægean, but unhappily Icarus flew too near the sun, the heat of which melted the wax that fastened his wings to him, so that he dropped into the sea, and left his name to be borne by that part of the Ægean into which he fell. Dædalus made his way to Sicily. Some accounts made him first alight at Cumæ in Italy, where he dedicated his wings to Apollo. Works of art were freely ascribed to Dædalus in Greece, Italy, Libya, and the Mediterranean islands. The name Dædala was applied to the earlier painted and gilded wooden statues of the gods.