Demijohn
a bottle or jug inclosed in wickerwork for safety in handling. The most satisfactory explanation of the origin of the term is that it is a corruption of Damagan, the name of a Persian town where glass demijohns were originally made for the safe carriage of precious essences and cordials in the caravan trade. The demijohn may be of glass or of earthenware, and is made in sizes from a half pint to five gallons. The less the capacity the more precious the contents, and the finer the handiwork of the wicker covering. The term is associated in the public mind with ardent spirits, as a demijohn of whiskey; but in the trade, perfumery, essences, extracts, mercury, expensive drugs, and many other costly liquids, as well as liquors, etc., are imported or shipped in demijohns. In place of wicker protection, American shippers of acids and similar chemicals in bulk use the carboy, which consists of a large bottle packed in a wooden box or case. See Bottle ; Glass
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Demise
(a laying down), in law a grant by lease; is applied to an estate either in fee-simple, fee-tail, or for a term of life or years. As applied to the crown of England, demise signifies its transmission to the next heir on being laid down by the sovereign at death.
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Demisemiquaver
in music, half a semi-quaver, or the 32d part of a semibreve.
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Demiurge
in some of the Peloponnesian states the name of a magistrate, probably corresponding to the tribunes Rome. It is also a name given by the Platonian philosophers to an exalted and mysterious agent, by whom God was supposed to have created the universe. He corresponds to the Logos or Word of St. John and the Platonizing Christians of the Early Church.
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Democritu
Greek philosopher of the new Eleatic school, a native of Abdera, who was born between 470 and 460 b. c. He traveled to Egypt, where he studied geometry. Among the Greek philosophers he enjoyed the instruction of Leucippus. He afterward returned to his native city, where he was placed at the head of public affairs. Indignant at the follies of the Abderites, he resigned his office and retired to devote himself exclusively to philosophical studies. He explained the origin of the world by the eternal motion of an infinite number of invisible and indivisible bodies or atoms, which differ from one another in form, position, and arrangement, and which have a primary motion, which brings them into contact, and forms innumerable combinations, the result of which is seen in the productions and phenomena of nature. In this way the universe was formed, fortuitously, without the interposition of a First Cause . He applied his atomical theory, also, to natural philosophy and astronomy. Even the gods he considered to have arisen from atoms, and to be perishable like the rest of things existing. written a great deal; but nothing has He is said to have come to us except a few fragments. He died 370 b. C., at an advanced age. His school was supplanted by that of Epicurus.
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Democritus
A celebrated philosopher of Abdera , one of the disciples of Leucippus . He traveled over the greatest part of Europe, Asia , and Africa in quest of knowledge, and returned home in the greatest poverty. He indulged in continual laughter at the follies of mankind for distracting themselves with care and anxiety in the short term of their lives. He told Darius, who was inconsolable for the loss of his wife, that he would raise her from the dead if he could find three persons who had gone through life without adversity, whose names he might engrave on the queen's monument. He taught his disciples that the soul died with the body. He died in his 109th year, B. C. 361. He has been termed the laughing philosopher. Dr. Johnson refers to this phase in his character in "The Vanity of Human Wishes": "Once more, Democritus, arise on earth, With cheerful wisdom and instructive mirth, See motley life in modern trappings drest, And feed with varied fools th' eternal jest."
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Demodex
a genus of arachnida, folliculorum inhabits the sebaceous folusually placed in the family acarina. D. pecially in the vicinity of the nose. licles of the face of many persons, es- (Anthropoides virgo). It is of a slaty-
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Demoiselle
a species of crane gray color, with the outer portion of the quill-feathers dingy black; a tuft of feathers from the breast blackish. It is found all over Africa, whence it finds its way occasionally to Europe and India. It is called also the Numidian crane. vr), a French mathematician; born in
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Demoivre
ABRAHAM (de-mwa ' Vitry, May 26, 1667. He settled in London after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His chief works are: "Miscellanea Analytica"; "The Doctrine of Chances, or a Method of Calculating the Probabilities of Events at Play"; and a in the "Transactions" of the Royal Sowork on " Annuities," besides "Papers" ciety, of which he was a fellow. He died in London, Nov. 27, 1754. Greeks to beings equivalent to those
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Demon
a name given by the ancient spiritual existences termed angels in the Bible. The word in Scripture is translated devil , but it meant properly a spirit generally, whether good or evil. lates to demons, a body of spiritual be-
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Demonography
The history and description of demons and all that concerns them. Authors who write upon this subject-such as Wierus, Delancre, Leloyer are sometimes called demonographers.
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Demonomancy
Divination by means of demons. This divination takes place by the oracles they make, or by the answers they give to those who evoke them.
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Demonomania
The mania of those who believe all that is told concerning demons and sorcerers, such as Bodin, Delancre, Leloyer, and others. Bodin's work is entitled Demonomania of the Sorcerers, but in this case it signifies devilry. De Morgan, Mrs.: The author of a mystico-spiritual work entitled From Matter to Spirit, published in 1863. Mrs. de Morgan, whose interest in spiritualism was awakened at the séances of Mrs. Hayden, was the wife of Professor de Morgan, who himself offered emphatic testimony to the genuineness of Mrs. Hayden's mediumship.
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