DE QUINCEY
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DESMIDS
in 1837 as Indiana Asbury University. It was later enlarged and endowed through the liberality of Washington C. De Pauw, and in 1884 the name was changed to De Pauw University. It has a college of liberal arts, school of music, school of art and an academy. The faculty numbers 43 and the students 890.
De Quin'cey, Thomas, was born at Manchester, England, Aug. 15, 1785. His father, a linen-merchant, died when Thomas was seven years old, leaving his family well-provided for. His mother was of good family and wide culture. At school he was an apt scholar, and could talk readily in Greek at 15. When 17, his health failed, and, as his guardians refused to take him out of school, he ran away to wander and study in Wales. He soon made his way to London, where, after failing to raise money on his expectations, he was in serious want. He was finally sent to Oxford, but disliked his life there and left in 1807. It was in Oxford that De Quincey first used opium to allay pain; the use of the drug afterward became an overmastering and lifelong habit. He met Coleridge and visited Wordsworth and Southey at the English Lakes. In 1808 he went back to London, where he became an associate of Knight, Lamb, Hazlitt and other men of letters. In 1816 he married Margaret Simpson, "one of nature's gentlewomen." He edited a weekly paper and contributed to Blackwood and other magazines. In 1821 there appeared in the London Magazine his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, which at once made him famous. Except a work on political economy and a novel, all his writings appeared in magazines. No magazinist of the first half of the ipth century holds a like high-place in English literature with De Quincey. His essays are on all manner of subjects, and are almost faultless in style. One of the best specimens of his impassioned prose, as it has been called, is his paper on Joan of Arc. He died at Edinburgh on Dec. 8, 1859.
Der'by, a manufacturing city of England, capital of Derbyshire lies on Der-went River, 129 miles northwest of London. A Roman station was on its site, and it was a royal borough in the time of Edward the Confessor. It has sent two members to Parliament since 1295. The Tower of All Saints, 175 feet high, is a fine piece of architecture. A very old chapel, that of St. Mary-on-the-Bridge, is still standing. Derby is the headquarters of the Midland Railroad, and is an important railroad-center. Its manufactures are silk, cotton, elastic web, lace, hosiery, iron, lead, shot, porcelain, marble, colors and chemicals. Silk was first manufactured here in 1719. Richardson and Herbert Spencer were natives of the town. Population, 123,433. Derbyshire is interesting for its
fine churches, abbey ruins, feudal castles and manor-houses.
De Reszke, Jean, operatic singer and brother of Edouard de Reszke, was born at Warsaw, Poland, on Jan. 14, 1852. He studied under celebrated teachers in Italy and made his debut in 1874, in Venice, as Alfonso in La Favorita. He has since appeared in the principal countries of the world in opera, as a tenor singer of great power and culture. He has also appeared in leading r61es in grand opera in the United States. His brother, Edouard, is possessed of a phenomenal bass voice, which he, however, uses artistically. His first appearance was at Covent Garden, London, in 1880.
Dermat'ogen (in plants). At the apex of a growing stem or root there is an embryonic region where the different parts of the plant-body are organized. That embryonic region at the apex which gives rise to the epidermis is called dermatogen, the name literally meaning the epidermis-producer.
Descartes (dd'kdrf), Rene generally regarded as the father of modern philosophy, was born at La Haye, near Tours, France, on March 31, 1596. At school he was an apt scholar, but on leaving college he found it impossible to believe what had been taught him and was at the time held to be accurate knowledge. He threw away his books and strove to forget all he had learned, so as to leave his mind free to find out what was really true in all departments of thought and study. He enlisted as a soldier, afterward traveled, and then settled down in Holland for 20 years of study and writing. Here appeared his Discourse on Method and other works on philosophy. Descartes also wrote on physics and mathematics; and it was in mathematics that he made his greatest and most lasting discoveries, especially in algebra; while analytical geometry was founded by him. He died at Stockholm on Feb. n, 1650.
Deschanel (dd'sha'nel'), Emile A., a French educator, writer and member of the French senate, was born at Paris on Nov. 14, 1819. He began his career in the field of journalism as an active Liberal, and in 1851 was exiled for his opinions. At an earlier period he was professor of rhetoric at Bourges and later on in Paris, where he became writer in the Journal des Debats and was also connected with La Revue des Deux Mondes. In 1859 he returned from exile in Brussels and devoted himself to literature in Paris, where he became professor of modern literature in the College of France and member of the chamber of deputies and of the senate. His chief writings embrace Aristophanes; Benjamin Franklin; The Theatre of Voltaire; and The Romanticism of the Classics. He died in 1903.
Des'mids, a group of plants belonging to the green algae, but very different from
