Deutz (doits), a town in Prussia, on the right bank of the River Rhine, opposite the city of Cologne, with which it communicates by a bridge. It is strongly fortified as part of the defences of Cologne, in which it is now incorporated. There are some manufactories of porcelain and glass, also an iron-foundry and machine-works. Pop. 17,060.
Deut´zia, a genus of plants, nat. ord. Saxifragaceæ, containing seven or eight species, all of which are interesting from the beauty of their flowers, some of them favourite garden and greenhouse plants. They are small shrubs indigenous to China and Japan, and Northern India.
De Valera, Eamon, Irish Republican, born at New York in 1883, his father being a Spaniard, and his mother an Irishwoman. Educated at the Royal University of Ireland, he early became known for his revolutionary activities. In 1917 he was elected president of the Gaelic League and was arrested as an agitator. Elected to Parliament in 1918, while he was in prison, he refused to take his seat. He was elected 'President' of the so-called 'Irish Republic' soon afterwards, and in Feb., 1919, escaped from prison and reached New York, where he started an active propaganda and began to raise funds for the Irish cause. He returned to Ireland in 1921.
Dev´enter, an old town in Holland, province of Overijssel, 8 miles north from Zutphen, at the confluence of the Schipbeek and Ijssel. Its industries embrace carpets, cast-iron goods, printed cottons, hosiery, and a kind of cake called Deventer Koek. It has a large export trade in butter. Pop. 32,483 (1918).
Dev´eron, a river of Scotland belonging to Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, 60 miles long. It flows into the Moray Firth at Banff.
Deviation of the Compass, the deflection of a ship's compass needle from the magnetic meridian, caused by adjacent iron. Hard iron is very retentive of a magnetic state, and is specially liable to become magnetized during a hammering process, as in the building of the ship. Soft iron easily receives or loses magnetism, and its magnetic state varies with every shifting of the ship's head. The effect of the former can be counteracted by magnets suitably placed near the compass, that of the latter by spheres of soft iron. The ship is swung, and the compass errors found in the various positions. The effects of the several contributing causes can then be separated, and the nature of the correctors necessary inferred with considerable accuracy. When these have been provided, the small residual errors for different positions of the ship are determined, and a table is constructed from which the navigator may read the slight correction to apply to the indication of his compass in steering any desired course.
Device´, a name common to all figures, ciphers, characters, rebuses, and mottoes which are adopted by a person or a family by way of badge or distinctive emblem, often a representation of some natural body, with a motto or sentence applied in a figurative sense.
Devil (Gr., diabolos, a slanderer or accuser), in theology, the name given to a fallen angel, who is the instigator of evil, and the ruler of darkness. Most of the old religions of the East acknowledge a host of devils. The doctrine of Zoroaster, who adopted an evil principle called Ahriman, opposed to the good principle and served by several orders of inferior spirits, spread the belief in such spirits among the people. The Greek mythology did not distinguish with the same precision between good and bad spirits. With the Mohammedans Eblis, or the devil, was an archangel whom God employed to destroy a pre-Adamite race of jinns, or genii, and who was so filled with pride at his victory that he refused to obey God. The Satan of the New Testament is also a rebel against God. He uses his intellect to entangle men in sin and to obtain power over them. But he is not an independent self-existent principle like the evil principle of Zoroaster, but a creature subject to omnipotent control. The doctrine of Scripture on this subject soon became blended with numerous fictions of human imagination, with the various superstitions of different countries, and the mythology of the pagans. The excited imaginations of hermits in their lonely retreats, sunk as they were in ignorance and unable to account for natural appearances, frequently led them to suppose Satan visibly present; and innumerable stories were told of his appearance, and his attributes—the horns, the tail, the cloven foot,—distinctly described. Theology has always treated the devil from a psychological or ethical
standpoint. From the New Testament we hardly learn more regarding the devil than that he has a distinct personality; that he is a spirit or angel who in some way fell; that he is devoid of truth and of all moral goodness, always warring against the soul of man and leading him towards evil; that he has demons, spirits, or angels under him who work his will, and enter into or 'possess' men; but of his or their origin, original state, or fall, we really learn nothing.—Bibliography: Mayer, Historia Diaboli; Lecanu, Histoire de Satan, sa chute, son culte, ses manifestations, ses œuvres; Carus, History of the Devil.
Devil-fish, the popular name of various fishes, one of them being the angler. Among others the name is given to several large species of ray (especially Ceratoptera Vampyrus which attains the breadth of 20 feet) occasionally captured on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of America, and much dreaded by divers, whom they are said to devour after enveloping them in their vast wings. During gales of wind or owing to strong currents these immense fish are driven into shoal water, and, being unable to extricate themselves, fall an easy prey to the fishermen, who obtain considerable quantities of oil from their livers. The name is also applied to the larger eight-armed cephalopod molluscs belonging to Octopus and allied genera. A combat with one of these is described in Victor Hugo's Toilers of the Sea.