ants will be considered as agents for deodorizing and fumigating. As the causes of infection exist in the atmosphere, and are spread over wide districts, disinfectants properly include whatever is made use of to purify the air, and the term may even be applied to the means employed to prevent the formation of noxious miasmata, as to a proper system of drainage, the destruction by fire of vegetable matter exposed to decay, the thorough ventilation of buildings, the provisions for abundant supplies of pure air and light, and the free use of clear water for washing away unclean matters. No more powerful disinfectant exists than the fresh wind, which stirs up the infectious vapors, dilutes them with pure air, and sweeps them away. The great plague of London was preceded by an unusual calm. Violent winds, as hurricanes, are observed to arrest the progress of disease; efficient ventilation has in many hospitals reduced its ravages to a wonderful extent. The light and warmth of the sun has also an extraordinary influence in promoting health and vigor, and destroying some of the causes of injurious exhalations. Though the nature of the action of light upon the animal system is little understood, its beneficial effects are too well established for its claim as an important natural disinfectant to be disregarded. Other agents are abundantly provided by nature which man may employ to remove infectious matters. They may be swept away by running water, or their gaseous emanations be absorbed by the earth in which they are buried. Exposure to heat may change their properties, or cause their elements to enter into new and harmless combinations; or by a freezing temperature decomposition may be arrested, and the formation of noisome gases prevented. Peat bogs present their antiseptic qualities as means of accomplishing the same end, and the astringent extracts of the bark of trees, such as are employed in tanning, possess the qualities of disinfectants. In the selection and preparation of these agents, none is found more efficient than that which imitates the great natural disinfectant, a strong current of heated air. The method of artificially applying it to the removal of noxious effluvia from clothes and articles of merchandise has been patented in Great Britain, and introduced into various manufacturing establishments. The articles are exposed in large chambers to rapid currents of air, heated from 200° to 250° F. The infectious matters present are decomposed by the heat, or swept off in the hot blasts, while these are kept at too low a temperature for the fabrics to be injured by them. It is a method highly recommended for the use of hospitals, quarantine stations, and other establishments particularly subject to infectious diseases. Earth and porous bodies generally are employed to absorb injurious vapors; none possess this property in so remarkable a degree as charcoal. De Saussure found that a single volume of this substance, prepared from boxwood, absorbed 90 volumes of ammonia; of sulphuretted hydrogen it took up 55 times its

503

own bulk; of carbonic acid, 35 times; of carbonic oxide, 9.42; of oxygen, 9.25; of nitrogen, 7.50; and of hydrogen, 1.75. Bodies of animals have been buried in charcoal powder, which, while it did not prevent decay, still arrested all escape of disagreeable odors. The gases it retained indicated that it exerts an influence in causing the decomposition of the exhalations, and the combination of their elements to form new compounds with the oxygen of the air. These properties have caused it to be introduced in the form of coarse grains into a metallic respirator, intended to be worn over the mouth where noxious vapors are present in the air, and it is recommended to be used for preventing the escape of bad odors from putrefying substances, though it has no effect as an antiseptic to arrest their decay. Chlorine, which has for many years been in use in hospitals and other places exposed to noxious exhalations, acts as a powerful disinfectant by producing a chemical change in the injurious compounds, and also by arresting decay. It is generated by the decomposition of hydrochloric acid, which is effected by adding to it some black oxide of manganese, and convenient vessels are prepared for producing the gas as may be required, in large or small quantities. The chloride of lime, as it is commonly known, is the usual medium, however, for distributing it, the gas being freely evolved on the exposure of the salt to the air. It is set free by the presence of any acid fumes, and as carbonic acid is evolved in the decomposition of organic matters, the noxious effluvia themselves provide one of the agents for their own disinfection. Vinegar or dilute sulphuric acid, however, added to the chlorinated lime, causes a more rapid evolution of the disinfecting gas. In consequence of the acrid nature of the vapor, it should be used for fumigating rooms only when these are not occupied by invalids; and the same may be said of the disinfecting solutions, as of the hyperchloride of soda, of which chlorine is the active agent. The more powerful fumes of nitrous acid, which possess the highest disinfectant qualities, are liable to the same objection; yet so important is their application regarded that Dr. Carmichael Smyth, who first proposed their use, received therefor from the British government the sum of £5,000. The unwholesome sulphuretted hydrogen is decomposed by these fumes, as it is by chlorine, the sulphur being set free and the hydrogen uniting with the disinfectants. In combination with some of the metals, chlorine has been much used as a disinfectant, especially with zinc, in the aqueous solution of the chloride of the metal, which is known as the disinfecting fluid of Sir William Burnett. Its use is somewhat objectionable, from its poisonous qualities. The same compound is advantageously applied to arresting that form of decay in timber called dry rot. Its properties as a disinfectant are fully treated in the reports of the British navy, extracts from which may be found in the "London Medical Times and Gazette," Oct. 1853.

Chloride of manganese is an efficient salt of similar properties, and being the refuse of chlorine manufacture, may be cheaply procured. The sesquichloride of iron is another cheap and efficient agent of this class. It is prepared by dissolving calcined iron pyrites in strong hydrochloric acid. Its use is attended with none of the objections belonging to the poisonous metallic combinations with chlorine. Nitrate of lead has been recommended for its disinfectant properties, particularly in the solution known as Ledoyer's disinfecting fluid. It corrects the fetid odors of sulphuretted hydrogen and hydrosulphuret of ammonia by decomposing these compounds, but it has no antiseptic properties, and is objectionable on account of its cost and poisonous nature. None of the agents yet named combine so many advantages as sulphurous acid and its compounds with lime or magnesia. In the form of fumes from burning sulphur it has always been highly esteemed for its purifying nature, and its chemical action upon organic compounds has long been applied in bleaching. Beside the property of decomposing and thus destroying effluvia, it also acts as an antiseptic, checking fermentation and the formation of putrid substances. The objection to its use is its own suffocating odor. This is avoided by using the acid in combination, as in the form of sulphate of soda, an excellent antiseptic for purposes of embalming. Combined with lime and magnesia, it is recommended as the best of all disinfectants. It is thus prepared by the patentees, Dr. R. Angus Smith and Mr. A. McDougall, of Manchester, England; and so highly is it approved that the British government have ordered it to be furnished to every transport ship containing horses. Applied to manures, it destroys the disagreeable smell without impairing their properties as fertilizers; on the contrary, the salts of which it is composed, even if in great excess, act themselves as stimulants to vegetation on being converted into sulphates, as they are when spread upon the ground. In treating of its qualities Dr. Muspratt, in his "Chemistry," remarks as follows: "When magnesia is united with sulphurous acid, the most effective, perhaps the only compound capable of serving both ends" (deodorizing and preserving from putrefaction), "is then produced. Metallic salts have no beneficial action on manures; magnesia alone preserves the phosphoric acid and the ammonia. To the mixture already mentioned a few per cent. of carbolic acid, or rather of carbolate of lime, are added; the latter has been found by experience to assist in destroying one portion of the odor with great rapidity. Being a fine, dry, white powder, it absorbs moisture in stables, &c., wherever it is deposited; metallic salts, on the contrary, must be in solution, and the wet is injurious, not only to the hoofs, but also to the health generally of cattle. In the sick room it is said to preserve the atmosphere, when sprinkled on offensive substances, in great purity. In the veterinary hospitals of barracks it has been

proved to be very valuable. . . . . . A disinfectant uniting efficiency, cleanliness, agreeable manipulation, and cheapness in an equal degree with this will not be easily found."

DISLOCATION (Lat. dis, apart, and locus, place), a term used by geologists to indicate that change which takes place in the position of rocks when torn from their original place, either by upheaval or subsidence. It is most commonly applied, however, to that displacement in the osseous structure which results from the direct application of force or other long-continued cause. All the joints are liable to dislocation, but it most commonly occurs to those which possess the greatest mobility; hence the shoulder joint is of all others the most frequent seat of this accident. The head of the humerus or bone of the upper arm, forming a ball and socket joint in connection with the scapula or shoulder blade, is regulated in its motions by very strong muscles, and is but slightly impeded in its free motions by the very shallow socket in which it rests. While this arrangement bestows great freedom of action upon this joint, it renders it liable to dislocation in almost every direction. The most common is that which occurs when the arm is elevated above the head, by means of which the head of the humerus is thrown into the armpit. Next in frequency is the dislocation of the hip joint, which is generally produced by a sudden blow upon the knee when the thigh is flexed toward the abdomen, whereby the head of the thigh bone is drawn backward by the action of the gluteal muscles upon the dorsum of the ileum or pelvis. The jaw bone is often thrown out of place in laughing, and much more frequently in yawning. This accident sometimes occurs while speaking under undue excitement. The writer was cognizant of a case in which a female who was talking in an excited manner, while under the influence of a violent fit of passion, had her discourse suddenly arrested by dislocation of the jaw. This displacement may be easily remedied by placing the thumbs on the back teeth so as to press them downward while the chin is raised by the fingers slowly upward. Care should be taken to remove the thumbs quickly on the restoration of the joint, or they may be painfully compressed between the teeth. -The chief difficulty in restoring a dislocation consists in the opposition offered by the muscles, rendered acutely irritable by the unnatural position of the head of the luxated bone. This is often overcome by reducing the heart's action by general bleeding. The warm bath and emetics are likewise used to relax the muscles, and with the same view tobacco moistened with water is sometimes laid upon the abdomen until it induces sickness and a disposition to syncope. The surgeon in reducing a luxated joint endeavors, by a steady application of force exerted in the direction of the joint, either to fatigue the muscles, or seize some moment when they are relaxed to slip the joint into its socket. Various degrees of force and different appliances

DISMAL SWAMP

are used to effect this object. In the case of the shoulder joint the surgeon frequently forms a lever with the heel of his boot placed in the armpit, over which, by pressing the arm inward toward the body, he overcomes the resistance of the muscles, and restores the joint. In the case of the hip joint, the force is necessarily great, and pulleys are often resorted to, by which means not only a greater but a steadier force is exerted. A recent dislocation is much more easily reduced than one of long standing; indeed, no time should be permitted to elapse between the accident and an attempt at its reduction, for every hour adds to the uncertainty of the success of the operation. The bones of the spine frequently suffer a partial dislocation which admits of no relief, and not unfrequently terminates in paralysis from the pressure on the spinal column, or death. The hangman in suspending a criminal dislocates the second vertebra of the neck. This sometimes occurs in other ways. A fellow student of the writer, while playing at ball, struck his companion an accidental blow with his club upon the back of the neck, which dislocated this bone and produced almost immediate death.

DISMAL SWAMP, GREAT, a large morass in Virginia and North Carolina, extending, according to Sir Charles Lyell, 40 m. S. from near Norfolk, in the former state, and 25 m. E. and W. The soil consists of black vegetable matter to the depth of 15 feet, saturated with water, yielding to the tread of man, and during a large part of the year covered in many places with stagnant pools. Several small streams flow through, and in the centre is Lake Drummond, 6 m. long and 3 m. wide, the surface of which is 21 feet above tide water. A large proportion of the swamp was originally covered with a thick forest of cypress, white cedar, and other timber, and portions are overgrown with reeds. Nearly all the most valuable timber has been cut down to furnish shingles, ship timber, and rails, the last being exported to New York and other places, under the name of cedar rails. The shingle trade is enormous, and some of the many proprietors among whom the swamp is divided employ over 100 hands in cutting shingles alone. Since the woods have been thinned out, great quantities of timber have been procured from beneath the surface, where fallen trunks have been preserved by the wetness of the soil. The supply thus obtained, however, is beginning to fail, and the lumber trade of the swamp is losing its importance. The lumbermen are slaves, who are hired of their owners by the proprietors of the swamp lands, and sent into the swamp in gangs, under white overseers. There they remain 5 months out of every 6, camping out in rude huts. An account is kept of the number of shingles cut by each man, for which a fixed sum per 1,000 is allowed, and after the value of the food and clothing furnished, and the hire paid to the owner, have been deducted from the amount, the surplus is given to the slave. The great channel of transportation is the Dismal Swamp

canal, made by the assistance of the national government and the state of Virginia, who are the principal owners. It is 6 feet deep, fed by Lake Drummond, and passes for 20 m. through the swamp, affording an outlet not only for lumber but for much of the agricultural produce of the E. part of North Carolina. Its annual freightage was stated in 1856 to be about 24,000,000 shingles, 6,000,000 staves, 165,000 cubic feet of plank, scantling, and ship timber, 700 bbls. of spirits of turpentine, 4,500 bales of cotton, 2,000,000 bushels of Indian corn, 30,000 of wheat, 25,000 of peas, 5,000 cwt. of bacon, 1,300 kegs of lard, 50,000 bbls. of shad and herrings, and 30,000 of naval stores. Roads are made in the swamp by laying logs 8 or 10 feet long side by side on the surface of the soil or "sponge." They are passable by mules and oxen, but carrying is done mostly by hand to the creeks and ditches communicating with the canal. Along the coast of North Carolina are the Little Dismal and several smaller swamps, covering in the aggregate about 2,000,000 acres, and mostly state property. The "Dismals," as they are locally called, are noted retreats of runaway negroes, whose children have been born, lived, and died here. They depend for support on stealing or charity, and chance employment from the lumbermen and poor white settlers. Their number is said to have been much diminished within a few years. A part of the Great Dismal has been drained and devoted to agriculture.

DISPENSATION, the act by which an exception is made to the rigor of the law in favor of some person. To make a dispensation is an attribute of sovereign power. In the United States no power exists, except in the legislature, to dispense with law, and then it is rather a change of the law than a dispensation.-In the Roman Catholic church a dispensation is an exemption from obedience to disciplinary enactments (see CANON LAW), and is, more strictly defined, a release from the obligation of observing some ecclesiastical law, granted to a person for just and rational causes, by the proper authority. The pope has reserved to himself the granting of dispensations in the more important cases, but bishops and priests may grant them in lesser ones.

DISRAELI, BENJAMIN, a British statesman, orator, and novelist, was born in London in December, 1805, and is the eldest son of Isaac Disraeli, the author of the “Curiosities of Literature." His mother's maiden name was Basevi. He received his early education at a private academy in the suburbs of London, whence while yet a boy he was transferred to the office of an attorney as an articled clerk, where he remained 3 years. At length weary of the drudgery of his duties, and with ambitious views far beyond the brightest dreams of the most successful attorney, Disraeli the Younger," as he loved to style himself, availing himself of the assistance of his father's distinguished friends, obtained admission into what is called in London "the best society." His per

66

sonal beauty, refined manners, and remarkable powers of conversation, soon made him a great favorite. At the age of 19 he visited Germany, and on his return to England published in 1826 -"7 his famous novel "Vivian Grey," the chief characters in which were faithful pictures of himself and of persons well known in English society. The originality, vivacity, and wit of this book gave it great celebrity, and it was translated into the principal languages of Europe. Simultaneously with its publication the author became editor of a short-lived daily political paper entitled the "Representative," on which John Murray, the publisher, between Jan. 25, 1826, and July 29 following, is said to have expended $350,000. In 1828 Mr. Disraeli published in one volume the "Voyage of Captain Popanilla," a gay and good-humored but flimsy satire, which met with little success. In 1829 he left England to make an extended tour in Italy, Greece, Albania, Syria, Egypt, and Nubia, and returned in 1831. He was in Albania at the time of the massacre of the beys by Reshid Pasha, and witnessed many of the scenes of the civil war then raging there. Shortly after his return he published his second fashionable novel, the "Young Duke;" and in the following year he issued from the press another novel, "Contarini Fleming, a Psychological Autobiography," which Heine the German poet has pronounced to be one of the most original works ever written." Its subject is the development of the poetical nature, and it contains brilliant sketches of Italy, Spain, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. At this time Mr. Disraeli made his first attempt to enter parliament. He presented himself to the electors of High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, as a tory-radical, and was defeated by the whig candidate. In December, 1834, he again sought the support of the Wycombe electors, and was again defeated. Perceiving that tory-radicalism did not find favor with the English people, he next appeared, in May, 1835, at Taunton, as a thorough-going conservative. It was on this occasion that, when charged by somebody in the crowd with "O'Connellism," he called the great Irish agitator a "bloody traitor;" to which Mr. O'Connell made the memorable retort: "For aught I know, the present Disraeli is the true heir at law of the impenitent thief who died on the cross." Exasperated by this taunt, Mr. Disraeli challenged O'Connell's son, Morgan O'Connell, who had taken up his father's quarrel; but the challenge was not accepted. In the meanwhile Mr. Disraeli wrote and published several books: the "Wondrous Tale of Alroy," an oriental romance of extraordinary eloquence and power, based on the adventures of a prince of the house of David, who in the 12th century proclaimed himself the Messiah, and called the Jews of Persia to arms, appeared in 1833, accompanied by "The Rise of Iskander," a tale founded on the revolt of the famous Scanderbeg against the Turks in the 15th century; a political pamphlet entitled "What Is He?" in 1834, in which he tried to explain his

political views; the "Revolutionary Epic " and the "Crisis Examined" in the same year, and "A Vindication of the English Constitution" in 1835. In 1836, being still unable to get a seat in the house of commons, he published a series of letters in the London "Times" under the signature of "Runnymede," which were read with great interest on account of their remarkable wit and sarcasm. Toward the close of the same year he published a love story, "Henrietta Temple:" and in the spring of 1837 appeared "Venetia,” a novel, in which he portrayed the characters and appearance of Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. At last he achieved the great object of his ambition. In the first parliament of the reign of Victoria, Mr. Disraeli, being then 32 years of age, obtained a seat as representative of the conservative borough of Maidstone. His maiden speech was a lamentable failure. Ignorant of the tastes and temper of his audience, and with the most violent and grotesque gestures, he poured forth the grossest abuse of O'Connell, the only effect of which was to call forth the laughter and ridicule of the house. He closed this now famous speech in the following words: “I am not surprised at the reception I have experienced. I have begun several times many things, and I have often succeeded at last. I shall sit down now; but the time will come when you will hear me." In July, 1839, this prediction first began to be fulfilled. He made a speech which was listened to with attention, and prais ed for its ability. In that year, too, he published his 5 act tragedy, the" Count Alarcos," founded on an old Spanish ballad, and was relieved from pressing pecuniary difficulties by a marriage with the wealthy widow of Wyndham Lewis, his friend and colleague in the representation of Maidstone. The happy influence of this union upon his career he has himself acknowledged in the graceful dedication of one of his novels to a "perfect wife." In 1841 he was elected as one of the representatives of the borough of Shrewsbury, and in 1844 published his most successful novel, "Coningsby, or the New Generation," which within 3 months of the date of publication had run through 3 editions, and was translated into several foreign languages. The cause of its extraordinary popularity, apart from its great literary merit, was the fact of its principal characters being drawn from wellknown persons then living. It was regarded also as an exposition of the views and designs of the famous half literary, half political party then attracting public attention under the name of "Young England," of which Mr. Disraeli was one of the most conspicuous leaders. In 1845 he published "Sibyl, or the Two Nations." In 1847 he was returned as one of the members for Buckinghamshire, and in the same year he published "Ixion in Heaven," with other tales, and also "Tancred, or the New Crusade." His reputation as a parliamentary debater, and as a leading member of the conservative party, was now established. His severe and effective attacks on Sir Robert Peel, for the alleged treachery of

that statesman to his party in the adoption of his free trade policy, are among the most remarkable speeches to be found in the annals of the British legislature. They established Disraeli's reputation as one of the most powerful debaters and keen and polished satirists in that body. In 1849 he became the recognized leader of the conservative party in parliament. A biography of his father, Isaac Disraeli (1849), and a memoir of his personal and political friend, Lord George Bentinck (1852), were his next literary productions. In March, 1852, in the first Derby administration, Mr. Disraeli received the appointment of chancellor of the exchequer, was made a member of the privy council, and became leader of the ministerial party in the house of commons. He went out of office with the rest of the Derby ministry in Dec. of the same year. In Feb. 1858, when Lord Derby again accepted the task of forming a new cabinet after the downfall of Lord Palmerston, Mr. Disraeli was again selected to fill the responsible office, the duties of which he had discharged with great ability 6 years before. In Feb. 1859, he brought forward in parliament an elaborate plan of electoral reform, a principal feature of which was the extension of the suffrage to the whole body of the educated class without regard to property. The bill was defeated in the house of commons, March 31, 1859, whereupon parliament was dissolved. The political career of Mr. Disraeli thus far is one of the most extraordinary in English history. By force of talent, industry, and perseverance, unaided by wealth or family connections, in spite of the disadvantages of his Jewish origin and of his reputation as a mere novelist, he has raised himself to the position of leader of the house of commons and of minister of finance in the greatatest commercial empire of the world.

DISRAELI, ISAAC, an English author, born near Enfield in May, 1766, died Jan. 19, 1848. His father removed to England in 1748 from Venice, whither his ancestors, of Hebrew race, had fled in the 15th century from the inquisition in Spain. In Venice they assumed the name of Disraeli (originally written D'Israeli), "a name never borne before or since by any other family, that their race might be for ever recognized." Isaac was an only son, and was intended for the pursuits of commerce, by which his father had attained to fortune. The latter was seriously alarmed when his son during his school days produced a poem; "the loss of one of his argosies uninsured could not have filled him with more blank dismay." He was sent to a college at Amsterdam, where he studied the philosophical works in fashion at the time, and when 18 years of age returned to England a disciple of Rousseau. When informed that a place in the establishment of a great merchant was prepared for him, he replied that he had written and intended to publish a poem of considerable length against commerce, which was the corruptor of man; and he at once enclosed his poem to Dr. Johnson, who however was in his last illness and was unable to read it. Of a pensive and

507

sensitive character, fond of solitude and the society of books, he found no literary friend and counsellor, and was sent by his parents, to whom he was an enigma, to travel in France, with the hope that adventures and change of scene might divert him from the eccentricity of his course. He lived in Paris, associating with learned men and frequenting libraries, till 1788. On his return he published anonymously a satire "On the Abuse of Satire," in polished verses, which was directed against Peter Pindar, then in the height of his popularity. This venture obtained for him the friendship of Mr. Pye, afterward poet laureate, through whose influence the elder Disraeli was persuaded to renounce the effort to convert a poet into a merchant, and was finally induced to furnish means sufficient to enable his son to gratify his passion for book-collecting and for tranquil study. The son now wrote some metrical pieces in the magazines, and in 1803 published a volume of romantic tales. In 1791 he published the first volume of his "Curiosities of Literature" (2d vol. in 1793; new edition of both vols. in 1794), a product of curious and elegant erudition, abounding in discursive and anecdotical criticism. A volume of "Miscellanies, or Literary Recreations," was published in 1796. After residing for a time in Exeter he removed to London, and resolved to devote the rest of his life, not to authorship, but to the acquisition of knowledge. Ten years were occupied chiefly with acquiring that store of facts which was the foundation of his future speculations, and it was not till the age of 45 that he resolutely began his career of authorship. In 1812 appeared his "Calamities of Authors; including some Inquiries respecting their Moral and Literary Character;" in 1814, his "Quarrels of Authors; or some Memoirs for our Literary History, including Specimens of Controversy to the Reign of Elizabeth;" and in 1816, the most finished of his compositions, his "Illustrations of the Literary Character; or the History of Men of Genius, drawn from their own Feelings and Confessions." All of these works are amusing and anecdotical, and reveal the author not only as a literary antiquary, but as a man of humor, thoughtfulness, and elegant tastes. His "Curiosities of Literature" had reached the 5th edition, when in 1817 he added a new volume, containing more elaborate essays than the preceding, and the success of the publication was such that he rapidly produced 3 additional volumes. He was 5 years in the composition of his work on the "Life and Reign of Charles I.," which appeared in 1828-'81, and gained for him the degree of D.C.L. from Oxford. He had long meditated a history of English literature, for which all his previous writings had been preparatory, but in 1839 a paralysis of the optic nerve prevented him from pursuing his researches, and a selection from his numerous manuscripts was given to the public in 1841 under the title of "Amenities of Literature." During the latter part of his life he resided on his manor of Bradenham in Buckinghamshire.