Drumclog´, a moorland tract in Lanarkshire, Scotland, 6 miles S.W. of Strathaven, the scene of a skirmish between Claverhouse and the Covenanters, in which the former was defeated (1679). A graphic description of the battle is given by Scott in his Old Mortality.
Drum-fish, or Drum, Pogonias chromis, and other species of the same genus, fishes found on the Atlantic coast of N. America, and so named from the deep drumming sound they make, by means of the swim-bladder and its muscles, during the spawning season in April. It is the most powerful sound-producing apparatus known among fishes. They often weigh about 20 lb.
Drum-major, in the British army, a warrant or non-commissioned officer whose duty it is to teach and direct the drummers. He marches at the head of the band carrying the regimental baton.
Drum´mond, Professor Henry, was born at Stirling in 1851, died in 1897. Educated at the Universities of Edinburgh and Tübingen, he entered the ministry of the Free Church, and having devoted much attention to science, in 1877 was appointed lecturer on natural science in the Free Church College (or divinity hall), Glasgow, becoming professor in 1884. He travelled much, and wrote a popular book on Tropical Africa (1888). His most remarkable work is Natural Law in the Spiritual World (1883), which has passed through many editions and been translated into various languages. He is author, also, of Travel Sketches in Our New Protectorate, The Greatest Thing in the World, and The Ascent of Man (1894).
Drummond, Rev. James, Unitarian theologian, was born at Dublin in 1835, died 13th June, 1918. After receiving his early education at a private school, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated and obtained the first gold medal for classics in 1855. In 1859 he became colleague of the Rev. W. Gaskell in Cross Street Chapel, Manchester, and ten years later was appointed professor of theology at Manchester New College, London, of which institution (now known, since its removal to Oxford in 1889, simply as Manchester College) he was principal from 1885 to 1906, when he retired from his post. His works include: Spiritual Religion: Sermons on Christian Faith and Life (1870); The Jewish Messiah: a Critical History of the Messianic Idea among the Jews (1877); Introduction to the Study of Theology (1884); Philo-Judæus (2 vols., 1888); Via, Veritas, Vita (the Hibbert lectures for 1894); The Pauline Benediction (1897); The Epistles to the Thessalonians, &c. (International Handbooks, 1899); Some Thoughts on Christology (1902); The Character and Authorship of the Fourth Gospel (1904); Johannine Thoughts (1909); Paul: his Life and Teaching (1911).
Drummond, William, of Hawthornden, a Scottish poet distinguished for the elegance and tenderness of his verses, was born at Hawthornden House, 7 miles from Edinburgh, 1585, died 1649. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh; after which he spent four years in foreign travels, residing for a part of the time at Bourges, to study the civil law. On his return to Scotland he retired to Hawthornden and gave himself up to the cultivation of poetry and polite literature, and here he spent the most of his
life. He entertained Ben Jonson on the occasion of a visit which the English dramatist made to Scotland in the winter of 1618-9, and took notes of Jonson's conversation, first published in entirety in 1842 (Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations with William Drummond). He was the first Scottish writer to abandon the native dialect for the language raised to supremacy by the Elizabethan writers. His chief productions are: The Cypress Grove, in prose, containing reflections upon death; Flowers of Zion, or Spiritual Poems; Tears on the Death of Mœliades (that is, Prince Henry); Poems, Amorous, Funeral, Divine, Pastoral, in Sonnets, Songs, Sextains, Madrigals; The River Forth Feasting (on King James's visit to Scotland in 1617); Polemo-Middinia, or the Battle of the Dunghill: a Macaronic Poem; and History of the Lives and Reigns of the Five Jameses, Kings of Scotland. As an historian he is chiefly remarkable for an ornate style, and a strong attachment to the High Church principles of the Jacobites.
Drumont, Édouard, French journalist and anti-Semitic agitator, born at Paris in 1844, died there in 1917. His work Mon vieux Paris (1879) was crowned by the Académie Française. In 1886 he published La France Juive devant l'opinion. He thus began a violent campaign against the Jews which he continued until his death, especially in his organ La Libre Parole, founded in 1892. In 1898 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, retaining his seat till 1902. His other works include: La fin d'un monde (1888), Testament d'un Anti-Sémite (1891), De l'or et de la boue du Sang (1896), and Les Juifs et l'affaire Dreyfus (1899).
Drunkards, Habitual. The Habitual Drunkards Act of 1879 provided for the licensing of retreats for receiving habitual drunkards, and for the regular inspection of such retreats. An habitual drunkard desiring admission to a retreat had to make a written application, accompanied by a declaration of two persons that the applicant was an habitual drunkard, and attested by two justices of the peace. No patient in a retreat was permitted to leave before the expiration of the term stated in the application, such term not to exceed one year. This Act was to expire in ten years; but another Act, passed in 1888, made it permanent, with some modifications. The Inebriates Act of 1898 introduced several important changes. It transferred the licensing power in counties from justices of the peace to County Councils and their committees, and in boroughs from magistrates to town councillors or police commissioners. The maximum period of detention was extended to two years, and the attestation of one justice was made sufficient for a valid application. It also gave power to the Secretary of State to establish State inebriate reformatories, or to grant certificates to reformatories suitable for such a purpose. If an habitual drunkard, when drunk, commit an offence punishable by imprisonment or penal servitude, the court may, in addition to, or in substitution for, the ordinary sentence, order him to be detained three years in a State or certified inebriate reformatory. The proof that the accused is an habitual drunkard may consist either in his own admission or in the jury's verdict after inquiry. The Inebriates' Act of 1899 was very short, and made no important change in the law. In Scotland habitual drunkenness is now a ground justifying judicial separation of spouses, while under the Matrimonial Causes Bill, 1920, it is proposed that in England, where one spouse has been granted a temporary separation order on the ground of the incurable habitual drunkenness of the other, and such order has been in force for at least three years, a divorce should be granted.
Drunkenness, the state of being drunk or overpowered by alcoholic liquor, or the habit of indulging in intoxication. A similar condition may be produced by numerous agents, but the term is always applied to the act or habit of drinking alcoholics to excess. By the law of Britain drunkenness is an offence against the public economy, and those found drunk are liable to fine or imprisonment. Drunkenness is no excuse for any crime, but it renders a contract invalid if either of the parties was in a state of complete drunkenness when the contract was signed.