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DECUSSA'TION, in anatomy, the crossing of nervous filaments. Certain fibers of the anterior pyramids and lateral columns of the medulla oblongata are so crossed freely from side to side; so that disease on one side of the brain often leads to paralysis on the other side of the body.

DEDHAM, the seat of justice of Norfolk co., Mass., on Charles river, 10 m. s.w. of Boston; pop. '80, 6,224. There is railroad connection with Boston and Providence. By a canal from the Charles to the Neponset river ample water-power is obtained for a number of important manufactories. The court-house is a handsome granite building. Dedham is a favorite place of residence for business men of Boston.

DEDICATION, in literature, the address of a book, or any literary work, to a person or party; vide Shakespeare's note to the right honorable Henry Wriothesly prefaced to Venus and Adonis. The custom is as old as literature, and doubtless originated in a desire to win the favor of some powerful patron. Occasionally may be found such a dedication as "To My Mother," or " To My Wife," but usually they are to public persons. Of late years the custom has to a great extent fallen into disuse, as not accordant with the independent spirit of our times.

DEDUCTION is a particular kind of reasoning or inference. In ordinary language, to deduce means to trace one thing to another as its cause, to show that one proposition follows from some other proposition or propositions. In logic, its signification is more definite. It is usual to oppose deduction to induction (q.v.), and to say that the latter consists in reasoning from particulars to generals, the former in reasoning from generals to particulars. In fact, however, every step in a deduction is also an induction. The several steps of a train of deductive reasoning consist of syllogisms (q.v.), and the major proposition of a syllogism is an induction, or a general proposition expressing the result of a previous induction. The whole object of this kind of reasoning is to show that some particular case or phenomenon really has the marks which bring it under the class to which the general proposition was meant to apply. Thus, the equality of the angles at the base of an isosceles triangle is deduced from the general proposition, "That magnitudes which can be applied to one another so as to coincide are equal," by showing that the angles in question can be so applied.

Deduction is more properly opposed to experiment. Suppose the question to be as to the relation between the spaces and times in falling bodies, the point may be determined in two ways. We may institute experiments, and observe how far bodies do fall in different times, and conclude a general proposition from the particular instances we observed; or we may bring the case under two general principles already established, those, namely, expressed in the first law of motion, and in the nature of gravity as a moving force, and calculate from these how far bodies will or must fall in given times. The conclusion or law arrived at in both cases is the same; but in the one case it is experimental, in the other deductive. It is the tendency of all sciences to become more and more deductive. Knowledge put on a deductive basis is sometimes spoken of as science, par excellence, and the immediate results of observation as empiricism. Mathematics is essentially a deductive science, and most of the truths in natural philosophy have been gradually put on similar grounds. Chemistry remains almost wholly experimental; it can predict or deduce little or nothing regarding an untried case, except, perhaps, the proportion in which two bodies will combine. See REASONING.

DEE, the name of two rivers in Scotland. The larger and more important rises in five wells 4,000 ft. above the sea, near the top of Braeriach mountain, in the neighborhood of Cairntoul and Ben Macdhui, 25 m. n.w. of Castleton of Braemar. After flowing 12 m. s.s.e., it joins the Geauley, at the height of 1294 ft. above the sea. It then tumbles through a narrow chasm in the gneiss rock, called the Linn of Dee, across which a person can leap. After this it runs e.n.e. through Aberdeenshire and a small part of Kincardineshire, and ends in the German ocean at the harbor of Aberdeen. In this course, 96 m. in all, it receives a number of tributaries-the Lui, Muic, Feugh, etc. The basin of the Dee, which is about 1000 sq.m. in area, consists of granite and gneiss in nearly equal areas. In the gneiss occur many beds of primitive limestone, and some masses of trap-rock and serpentine. On the Dee are Balmoral castle and several villages much resorted to in summer-Castleton of Braemar, Ballater, Aboyne, Kincardine O'Neil, Banchory-Ternan, and Cults. The soil on the Dee is light and sandy and requires much rain. A railway extends up Deeside for 43 m., from Aberdeen to Ballater. See BALMORAL and BRAEMAR.-The smaller Dee rises in Kirkcudbrightshire, near the northern boundary of that county. Its general direction for the first 40 m. is southeasterly, after which it flows w. to the Solway Firth, into which it falls at Kirkcudbright bay. The D. divides Kirkcudbright into two nearly equal portions, and near the center of the county it expands to about the average breadth of a quarter of a mile, preserving this appearance for about 10 m. of its course, and forming successively Loch Ken, Loch Dee, and Long Loch. It is about 50 m. in length, and is navigable for the last 7 miles. The waters of the D. are noted for their salmon, which are of a darker hue, and are fatter than those of most rivers in the s. of Scotland.

DEE, a river in England, draining parts of the shires of Merioneth, Denbigh, Flint, and Salop, in Wales, and the w. of Cheshire. Near Trevor, it is crossed by the Elles

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mere canal, on an aqueduct 1007 ft. long and 120 high; and also by the stone viaduct of the Chester and Shrewsbury railway, of 19 arches, each 90 ft. span, and 150 ft. high. Below Trevor, the D. winds first s.e., and then n.e., and u. to Chester, which city it nearly encircles. At Chester, it is 100 yards broad, and runs alongside marshes in an artificial tidal canal 9 m. long, and admitting ships of 600 tons. It ends in the Irish sea, in a tidal estuary 9 m. long and 3 to 6 m. broad, and forming at high-water a noble arm of the sea; but at low-water a dreary waste of sand and ooze, with the river flowing through it in a narrow stream. Its whole course is 80 m. long, and its chief tributaries are the Treveryn, Alwen, Ceirog, Clyweddog, and Alyn. Its upper basin chiefly_consists of Silurian strata, and its lower of new red sandstone. Canals connect the D. with the rivers of central England. The ancient Britons held its waters sacred.

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DEE, JOHN, a celebrated astrologer and mathematician, was the son of Rowland Dee, gentleman-sewer" to Henry VIII., b. in London, 13th July, 1527, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. After residing for some time at the university of Louvain, he went in 1550 to Paris, where, at the college of Rheims, he read lectures on the Elements of Euclid with very great success. In 1551, he returned to England, was presented by Cecii to Edward VI., and pensioned; but during the reign of the "Bloody Mary" he nearly lost his life. He again set out for the continent in 1564, ostensibly for the purpose of presenting to the emperor Maximilian a book which he had previously dedicated to him. Lilly, however, in his Memoirs (p. 224), aflirms that he acted as queen Elizabeth's "intelligencer" or spy, and this theory is probably the true one. Lilly says that he was "a ready-witted man, quick of apprehension . . . . and excellent in all kinds of learning;" while the professional mask which he wore, the pretensions he made of being able to raise and converse with spirits, served to prevent all suspicion.

The impression that Dee had dealings with the devil, seems to have become more prevalent the longer he lived. In 1576, a mob assembled around Mortlake, his country residence, and, attacking the house, broke his instruments, and destroyed his library, which was large and costly, Dee and his family escaping with difficulty.

In the year 1581, having taken into his service an apothecary of the name of Kelly as assistant, Dee visited various continental courts, pretending to be able to raise spirits. Whether he took to this strange profession through a sincere belief in what he professed, or adopted it merely as a blind, a pretext for visiting foreign courts at which he had more serious business to transact, it is impossible to say. In 1595, he was appointed warden of Manchester college, where he resided nine years, and whence he returned to Mortlake. His death took place in 1608, in the 81st year of his age. He died very poor. Dee's writings are very numerous; they are chiefly scientific treatises, and many of them are still in manuscript in the Cottonian and other collections. In 1842, the Cambridge society published the Private Diary of Dr. John Dee, with a catalogue of his library of scientific MSS. made by himself.

DEED, in law, is a formal written expression of something done by the party or parties from whom it proceeds. The term is applied to almost every form of legal writing, and will consequently be treated under various heads. See INDENTURE, CHARTER, WILL, DISPOSITION. As to the manner in which deeds are executed in England, see SIGNING, SEALING, AND DELIVERING; and in Scotland, see TESTING CLAUSE, WITNESS, HOLOGRAPH, REGISTRATION OF DEEDS AND WRITS.

DEEMS, CHARLES F., D.D., b. Baltimore, 1820; a graduate of Dickinson college 1839, and not long afterwards agent in North Carolina for the American Bible society. In 1840, he accepted the professorship of logic and rhetoric in the university of that state. In 1846, he was a Methodist preacher at New Berne, and delegate to the general conference. He was for five years principal of the Gainsboro college for women; he was presiding elder of the Wilmington and New Berne districts 1858 to 1865. In 1865, he went to New York, where he was employed in journalism, and took great interest in the founding of the Church of the Strangers" (undenominational), of which he became and still remains pastor, with great success in a peculiar field. He has published Annals of Southern Methodism; Life of Jesus; The Home Altar; etc.

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DEEM'STER, DEMPSTER, or DOOMSTER, the name of an officer formerly attached to the high court of justiciary in Scotland, who pronounced the doom or sentence of condemned persons. The office was held along with that of executioner. At the conclusion of a trial, this dread official was produced in open court, in presence of the wretched criminal, as is graphically described by Scott in his tale of Old Mortality. See notes to that work, and also notes to Heart of Mid-Lothian. The office of deemster has been long abolished. In the isle of Man (q.v.) and Jersey (q.v.), deemsters are a kind of judges.

DEEP BOTTOM, on the n. side of James river, 12 m. by land and 20 by water below Richmond, near the battle-ground of Malvern hill. Several important actions were fought near this point in 1864, generally resulting favorably to the unionists.

DEEP RIVER, a tributary of Cape Fear river, North Carolina, rising in Guilford co., and running through Randolph and Chatham counties to join the Haw. Its length

is about 120 m., and it is navigable as far as the coal-mines. The coal-beds in its valley have been long known, but little worked. Their productive area is more than 40 sq m., and the total deposit estimated at 240,000,000 tons. The coal is in part highly bituminous, in part semi-bituminous, in part anthracite; all good. In places it is metamorphosed into graphite. Iron and copper ores are found near the coal.

DEER (Ger. thier, meaning "beast"-a sense which the Eng. deer once had, Gr. thēr, Lat. fera), a Linnæan genus of ruminant quadrupeds, now constituting the family cervida, which some naturalists have divided into a number of genera, whilst others still regard it as forming only one, the distinctions between its groups not seeming to them sufficiently marked or important for generic characters. Deer are animals of graceful form, combining much compactness and strength with slenderness of limb and fleetness. They use their powerful horns for weapons of defense, and sometimes of offense; but in general they trust to flight for their safety. They have a long neck, a small head, which they carry high, large ears, and large full eyes. In most of them there is, below each eye, a sac or fold of the skin, sometimes very small, sometimes of considerable size, called the suborbital sinus, lachrymal sinus, or tear-pit, the use of which is not well known. Deer have no cutting teeth in the upper, but eight in the lower jaw; the males have usually two short canines in the upper, but neither sex has any in the lower jaw; the præmolars are three, and the true molars three on each side in each jaw. They are distinguished from all other ruminants by their branching horns (antlers), which in most of the species exist in the male sex only, they are solid and deciduous, i.e., fall off annually, and are renewed with increase of size, and of breadth of palmation, and number of branches, according to the kind, until the animal has reached old age, when the size of the horns begins to diminish on each annual renewal. The size and develop ment of the horns are indeed closely connected with the sexual system, and their annual renewal takes place just in time for the rutting season, when they are much used in fierce combats. Females with diseased ovaries sometimes exhibit horns like those of the male.

The horn of a deer is a continuation of bone from the outer table of the skull, and is at first clothed with a velvet-like covering (the "velvet "), continuous with the outer integuments of the head, which, however, is soon rubbed off-the animal appearing to be impelled by some irritation to rub it against trees or rocks-leaving the horn hard und solid, with traces of the course of the many vessels which were employed for its production. The growth of the horn is very rapid. When the old horn has been cast, there is a wound which bleeds a little, but is soon skinned over with a fine film, and the new horn almost immediately begins to sprout. Cast-horns are very rarely found in deer-forests, a circumstance that has never been quite satisfactorily accounted for. The growth of the horn is attended with much heat, and the blood-vessels which supply the head enlarge in size. The last part of the process is the formation of a rough circle of bony tubercles (the burr or pearl) at the base of the horn, bearing some proportion to the size of the horn and the age of the animal. It is by these, as they enlarge, that the nutritive vessels of the "velvet" are compressed and obliterated.-Deer are pretty uniformly clothed with hair, longer and thicker in those which inhabit cold, than in those which inhabit warm climates. The tail of all the species is short. The horns of some are broadly palmated, those of others are rounded; and importance has been attached in classification to their having or wanting a distinct snag or short branch projecting in front from the base of the antler; which is present, for example, in the stag, fallow deer, reindeer, and axis, and wanting in the roebuck, elk, and cariacou. The broad palmation of the horns of species inhabiting the coldest climates has been supposed to be intended for turning over the snow in search of food. One of the most beautiful adaptations in nature is a peculiarity of the foot of the reindeer, by which the hoofs separate to a remarkable width, and the greater extent of surface prevents the foot from sinking in soft snow. Deer are found in almost all parts of the globe except Australia and the s. of Africa, their place in the latter region being supplied by antelopes in extraor dinary number and variety. Some of them live amidst the snows of very northerly regions, and some in tropical forests; the greater number inhabit the warmer temperate countries, and they are chiefly found in wide plains and hills of moderate height, none dwelling on those lofty mountain summits which are the chosen abode of some animals of the kindred families of antilopida, capride, and moschida, as the chamois, the bouquetin, and the musk. The flesh (venison) of most kinds of deer is highly esteemed for the table, and they have long been regarded as among the noblest objects of the chase. Only one species, the reindeer, can be said to have been fully domesticated and reduced to the service of man; although individuals of many species have been rendered very tame.

See AXIS, CARIACOU, ELK, FALLOW-DEER, MUNTJAK, REINDEER, RUSA, STAG, WAPITI, etc.-The musk (q.v.), although sometimes called musk-deer, is not of the deer family.

DEER, or DEIR, OLD, a village and parish in the n.e. of Aberdeenshire, in the district of Buchan. Here are vestiges of a Cistercian monastery founded about the year 1219, by William Cumyn, earl of Buchan, on the site of a church believed to have been planted by St. Columba, and his disciple, St. Drostan, about the year 580. A few

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DEER, ETC. -1. Chough and Jack-daw. 2. Cuckoo. 3. Coati.
13. Crane's head. 14. Condor. 15. Black coot. 16. Diver.

4. Civet. 5. Chinchilla. 6. Moo

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