Descant
the addition of a part or parts to a tenor or subject. This art, the forerunner of modern counterpoint and harmony, grew out of the still earlier art of diaphony or the organum. It may be said to have come into existence at the end of the 11th or beginning of the 12th century. Originally, as had been previously the case with diaphony, it consisted of two parts only, but later in its life developed into motetts and various other forms of composition. The real difference between diaphony and descant seems to have been that the for mer was rarely, if ever, more compli cated than note against note, whereas descant made use of the various proportionate values of notes. Double descant is where the parts are contrived in such a manner that the treble may be made the bass , and the bass the treble.
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Descent
in law, a passing from an ancestor to an heir; a transmission by succession or inheritance. Lineal descent is where property descends directly from father to son, and from son to grandson; where property descends directly from a man to a brother, nephew, or other collateral representative. DESCENT OF MAN. See DARWINIAN THEORY.
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Deschanel
PAUL EUGÈNE LOUIS, former President of the French Republic. He was born in 1856 and was educated at the Collège St. Barbe and the Lycée Condorcet, graduating as Licencié ès lettres et en droit. In 1878 he became sub-prefect of Dreux and in the following year general secretary of Seine-et-Marne and sub-prefect of Brest. In 1881 he became sub-prefect of Meaux. In 1885 he was elected deputy to represent Eure-et-Loir in the Chamber of Deputies, and continued as a member of the Chamber, becoming its Vice-President in 1898 and holding that position till 1902. During 1905-1912 he was President of the Commission of Foreign and Colonial Affairs, and during 1906- 1912 was Rapporteur of the Budget of Foreign Affairs. In 1919 he was elected President of the Republic, but had to resign, owing to ill health in 1920, being succeeded by Alexandre Millerand. M. Deschanel has won for himself a place in the literary world almost as conspicuous as the place held by him in the public life of France. His works include: "La Politique française en Océanie;" "Les Intérêts français dans l'océan Pacifique;" "Figures de femmes;" Figures litteraires; "La République Nouvelle;" "Paroles françaises;" "Madame de Sévigné;" M. Deschanel was a member of the Académie Française and the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques.
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Desdemona
des-de-mo'na, the heroine of Shakespeare's tragedy, Othello. She is the daughter of Brabantio, a Venetian senator. Desdemona listens while Othello, the Moor, recounts his many adventures to her father. Her admiration is won; then her love. She weds the Moor against her father's wishes. Othello is led by Iago to believe his wife unfaithful, and in a fit of rage he smothers her. Desdemona's character is well drawn. She is innocent, modest, and ingenuous. Incapable of any base suspicion herself, she is slow to realize that she may be suspected.
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Deseada
or DÉSIRADE, one of the Leeward Islands, belonging to France, in the Caribbean Sea, about 10 miles long and hardly 5 broad. The soil is in some places black and good, in others sandy and unproductive.
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Deseret
the name first adopted by the Mormons for what is now Utah. See MORMONS: UTAH.
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Desert Land Act
a statute of the United States providing that any citizen may file on a tract of desert land not exceeding 640 acres, in any one of several arid Western states, declaring his intent to irrigate. If within three years he expend three dollars per acre in securing water rights and constructing waterworks, a patent is issued for the land. Any number of individuals may associate, file joint declarations, and make joint expenditure to bring water from a distant point. See Irrigation
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Desertas
a group of three rocky islets in the Atlantic Ocean, to the S. E. of Madeira, visited at certain seasons of the year by fishermen and herdsmen.
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Desiccation
the evaporation or drying off of the aqueous portion of bodies. It is practiced with fruit, meat , milk, vegetable extracts, and many other matters. It is usually done by a current of heated dry air, and as such may be considered as distinguished from evaporators, so called, to which furnace heat or steam heat is applied.
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Desman
an insectivorous mammal of the shrew family. It is 7 inches in length, tail, 8 inches; the feet are webbed, and the flattened tail is covered with scales; the nose is lengthened into a flexible proboscis. It is found in southeastern Russia, making borrows in river banks, beginning under water , and ascending above the level of the highest floods. The food consists of small fishes , frogs, leeches, and larvæ of aquatic insects. The Mygale M Pyrenaica is not much more than half the size of the Russian species; it is found in France . DESMIDIACEÆ, a family of confervoid algæ, consisting entirely of microscopic flexible organisms inhabiting in fresh water, scarcely a specimen of which can be found that does not con- Sometimes they tain some of them. adhere in large quantities to aquatic plants, forming green films investing these; at others they rest as a thick coating at the bottom of water, or lie intermingled with confervæ , etc. The most distinctive feature in their appearance is the bilateral symmetry, indicative of the tendency to divide into two valves or segments. Many of the gen- 22-Vol. III-Cyc 334. era have the power of fixing themselves to external objects, and possess a feeble power of locomotion. Reproduction is effected by (1) cell-division, where each pustule divides into two; (2) by zoöspores; (3) by by conjugation. There are 22 genera. five tribes, containing
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Desmodium
a genus of papilionaceous plants, sub-tribe Hedysareæ. The leaves have generally three leaflets; more rarely they are simple. The flowers are in racemes or panicles; the legumes jointed, each joint one-seeded. About 100 species are known, chiefly from South America or from India. D. gyrans, an Indian species, is the moving-plant, so called from the rotatory movement of the leaflets. It is sometimes cultivated in greenhouses. D. diffusum is a fodder-plant.
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