Derzhavin (der-zhä´vin), Gabriel Romanovitsh, a Russian lyric poet, born in 1743, died in 1816. He entered the army as a private soldier, distinguished himself highly, and was eventually transferred to the Civil Service, in which he obtained the highest offices. In 1803 he retired from public life and devoted himself entirely to poetry. One of his most beautiful poems is Oda Bog, or The Address to the Deity.
Desaguadero (des-a˙-gwa˙-dā´rō), a river of Bolivia, in a valley of the same name, issuing from Lake Titicaca, and carrying its waters into Lake Aullagas. Also a river in the Argentine Confederation flowing into Lake Bevedero Grande, and separating the provinces of San Juan and Mendoza. Desaguadero signifies in Spanish 'a channel of outlet'.
Desaix de Veygoux (dė-sā dė vā-gö), Louis Charles Antoine, a distinguished French general, born in 1768 at St. Hilaire d'Ayat, in Auvergne, died 1800. He was of noble family, and entered the army as a sub-lieutenant. He distinguished himself greatly in 1794 under Pichegru, and two years later with the army of the Rhine under Moreau. In 1797 he accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt, and was very successful in reducing Upper Egypt. After the Treaty of El Arish he followed Bonaparte to Italy, took command of the corps of reserve, and, arriving on the field of Marengo at a critical moment, decided the victory by a brilliant charge, 14th June, 1800. He himself fell, mortally wounded by a musket bullet.
Desault (dė-sö), Pierre Joseph, one of the most celebrated surgeons of France, was born in 1744, and died in 1795. After some experience in the military hospital at Béfort, he went to Paris in 1764, studied under Petit, and two years afterwards became a lecturer on his own account. His reputation soon increased, and he became principal surgeon in the Hospital de la Charité, and in 1788 was put at the head of the great Hôtel Dieu in Paris. Here he founded a surgical school, in which many of the most eminent surgeons of Europe were educated. A digest of his surgical works was published by Bichat in 1798 (Œuvres chirurgicales de Desault).
Des´cant, in music, an addition of a part or parts to a subject or melody, a branch of musical composition which preceded the more modern counterpoint and harmony, coming into existence at the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century.
Descartes (dā-kärt), René, a great French philosopher and mathematician, with whom the modern or new philosophy is often considered as commencing. He was born 31st March, 1596, at La Haye, in Touraine, died 11th Feb., 1650. Educated at the Jesuit College of La Flèche, where he showed great talent, he entered the military profession and served in Holland and in Bavaria. In 1621 he left the army, and after a variety of travels finally settled in Holland, and devoted himself to philosophical inquiries. Descartes, seeing the errors and inconsistencies in which other philosophers had involved themselves, determined to build up a system anew for himself, divesting himself first of all of the beliefs he had acquired by education or otherwise, and resolving to accept as true only what could stand the test of reason. Proceeding in this way, he found (Meditationes de Prima Philosophia) that there was one thing that he could not doubt or divest himself of the belief of, and that was the existence of himself as a thinking being, and this ultimate certainty he expressed in the celebrated phrase "Cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am). Here, then, he believed he had found the test of truth. Starting from this point Descartes found the same kind of certainty in such propositions as these: that the thinking being or soul differs from the body (whose existence consists in space and extension) by its simplicity and immateriality and by the freedom that pertains to it; that every perception of the soul is not distinct; that it is so far an imperfect finite being; that this imperfection of its own leads it to the idea of an absolutely perfect being; and from this last idea he deduces all further knowledge of truth. Descartes has been rightly called the father of modern philosophy, for in him the modern spirit came into existence. In an age of unrest and ferment his work was that of a great systematizer. He also contributed greatly to the advancement of mathematics and physics, the method of co-ordinates, which has revolutionized geometry, and is of fundamental importance in modern mathematical physics, being due to him. His system of the universe attracted great attention in his time. One of his fundamental doctrines was that the universe is full of matter, there being no such thing as empty space. On this basis he developed the hypothesis of celestial vortices, immense currents of ethereal matter, by which he accounted for the motion of the planets (Principia Philosophiæ, 1644). His works effected a great revolution in the principles and methods of philosophy. In 1647 the French court granted him a pension of 3000 livres, and two years later, on the invitation of Christina of Sweden, he went to Stockholm, where he died.—Bibliography: Sir J. P. Mahaffy, Descartes; A. Fouillée, Descartes; E. Boutroux, L'Imagination et les mathématiques selon Descartes; N. Smith, Studies in Cartesian Philosophy; E. S. Haldane, Descartes: his Life and Times.
Descent´, in law, is the transmission of the right and title to lands to the heir, on the decease of the proprietor, by the mere operation of law. The rule determining to whom an estate belongs, on the decease of the proprietor, is that of consanguinity, or relationship by blood, though with some exceptions, as in the case of the portion, or the use of a portion, of a man's property given by the laws of Britain to his widow. The rules of descent, designating what relations shall inherit, and their respective shares, will be determined by the genius and policy of the Government and institutions. Hence the practice of entailments in the feudal system. And wherever the Government is founded in family privileges, or very intimately connected with them, as is the case in all Governments where the hereditarily aristocratical part of the community has a great preponderance, the sustaining of families will very probably be a characteristic feature in the code of laws. Thus, in Britain, all the lands of the father, unless otherwise directed by will, go to the eldest son. (In England, however, this privilege may shortly be abolished, or the succession to real estate assimilated to the succession to personal estate.) In the United States of America this distinction in favour of the eldest son has been abolished, and the laws there are founded upon the principle of equal distribution both of real and personal estate among heirs of the nearest surviving degree. Kindred in blood are divided into three general classes, viz. 1, descendants; 2, ancestors; 3, collateral relatives, that is, those who have descended from the same common ancestor. The civil law computes the degrees by counting the generations up to the common ancestor, as father, grandfather, great-grandfather; or mother, grandmother, great-grandmother; and from him or her down to the collateral relative, as brother, cousin, &c., making the degree of relationship the sum of these two series of generations. Every person has two sets of ancestors, the paternal and maternal, and therefore two sets of collateral relatives. There is also a distinction of collateral kindred, into those of the whole blood and those of the half blood.—Cf. Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law.
Deschanel, Paul Eugène Louis, French statesman and tenth President of the French Republic, born at Brussels on 13th Feb., 1856, where his father was in exile for opposition to Napoleon III. Educated at the Collège Sainte Barbe and the Lycée Condorcet, Paris, he was private secretary first to De Marcère, the Home Secretary, in 1876, and then to the Premier,
Jules Simon, in 1877. Sub-prefect at Dreux, Brest, and Meaux, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in Oct., 1885, for Nogent le Rotrou. In the Chamber of Deputies he soon displayed his power of eloquence, and eventually became the leader of the Progressive Republicans and exponent of the separation of Church and State. His authority, which he owed not only to his eloquence but also to his great tact and correct and dignified conduct during debates, gradually increased in the Chamber of Deputies, and even his political enemies admired his courage and his superiority of intellect. He was consequently elected Vice-President of the Chamber in 1896 and in 1897, and succeeded Henri Brisson as President of the Chamber in 1898, retaining his office till 1902, when M. Léon Bourgeois became President of the Chamber. Re-elected President of the Chamber in 1912, and withdrawing his candidature to the presidency of the Republic in favour of Poincaré in 1913, Deschanel retained his post until 1920, when he was elected President of the Republic by 734 votes. In the meantime, however, his health had given way, and on 23rd May, 1920, he fell out of a moving train, an accident resulting in a prolonged illness. A prompt recovery was at first expected, but this hope soon proved vain. Unable to attend to the duties of his office, he resigned on 16th Sept., and was succeeded by Alexandre Millerand. He was elected to the Académie Française on 18th May, 1899, and his works include: La Question du Tonkin (1883), La Politique Française en Océanie (1884), Orateurs et Hommes d'État (1888), Figures des Femmes (1889), Figures Littéraires (1889), La Question Sociale (1898), Quatre ans de Présidence (1902), Politique Intérieure et étrangère (1906), Paroles Françaises (1911), La France Victorieuse (1919), and Gambetta (1920).