706 



DEAD SEA 



DEAF AND DUMB 



opsis) the closely allied Hemp-nettle, are very 

 common British weeds. The commoner species 

 have been somewhat 

 thoroughly naturalised 

 in the long-settled parts 

 of the United States. 

 They are sometimes 

 boiled as pot-herbs in 

 Sweden. The name 

 seems derived from the 

 superficial resemblance 

 to the true or stinging 

 nettles ; this is especially 

 marked in L. album. 



Dead Sea is the 



usual name, dating from 

 the time of Jerome, for 

 a most remarkable lake 

 in the south-east of 

 Palestine, called in the 

 Old Testament The Salt 

 Sea, Sea of the Plain, or 

 East Sea ; by Josephus, 

 Lacus Asphaltites ; and 

 White Dead Nettle by the Arabs now, Bahr- 



( Lamium album }. Lut, ' Sea of Lot. ' It is 



46 miles long, with a 



breadth of from 5 to 9 miles. Its surface, which 

 is lower than that of any water known, is 1292 

 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. The 

 depth of the greater part, the northern section, 

 is about 1300 feet ; but at the southern end the 

 water is only from 3 to 12 feet deep. The shape is 

 that of an elongated oval, interrupted by a pro- 

 montory which projects into it from the south-east. 

 The Dead Sea is fed by the Jordan from the north, 

 and by many other streams, but has no apparent 

 outlet, its superfluous water being supposed to be 

 entirely carried off by evaporation. Along the 

 eastern and western borders of the Dead Sea 

 there are lines of bold, and in some cases perpen- 

 dicular, cliffs rising in general to an elevation of 

 1500 feet on the west, and 2500 feet on the east. 

 These cliffs are chiefly composed of limestone, and 

 are destitute of vegetation save in the ravines 

 traversed by fresh-water streamlets. The north 

 shores of the lake form an extensive and desolate 

 muddy flat, marked by the blackened trunks and 

 branches of trees, strewn about and incrusted 

 with salt. The southern shore is low, level, and 

 marshy, desolate, and dreary. On this shore is 

 the remarkable ridge of rock-salt, 7 miles long and 

 300 feet high, called Khashm Usdom ( ' Ridge of 

 Sodom ' ). Lava-beds, pumice-stone, warm springs, 

 sulphur, and volcanic slag prove the presence here 

 of volcanic agencies at some period. The neigh- 

 bourhood of the Dead Sea is frequently visited by 

 earthquakes, and the lake still occasionally casts 

 up to its surface large masses of asphalt. The 

 basin of the sea and the valley of the Jordan seem 

 both to be due to a great fault or crack in the 

 earth's surface of very ancient date. The long- 

 entertained belief that the exhalations from this 

 lake were fatal is not founded upon fact. Within 

 the thickets of tamarisk and oleander, which here 

 and there may be seen upon its brink, the birds 

 sing sweetly, and they fly over and swim about on 

 its surface. But the salinity of the waters is 

 adverse to life, though some lower organisations 

 are found in them. 



The water of the Dead Sea is characterised by the 

 presence of a large quantity of magnesian and soda 

 salts. Its specific gravity ranges from 1172 to 1227 

 (pure water being 1000). The proportion of saline 

 matter is so great, that whilst sea-water contains 

 only 3 '5 per cent, of salts, the water of the Dead 

 Sea contains upwards of 26 per cent., or more than 

 eight times as-much as that of the ocean. In all 



lakes or collections of water without any outflow, 

 the water acquires an infusion of salt, its feeders 

 constantly bringing in this material, while none 

 can go off by evaporation, even Avhen the shores do 

 not as here abound in salt and nitre. The evapora- 

 tion is great as the heat is intense, and the sea 

 rather contracts than increases. Rain hardly ever 

 falls ; the water is nearly as blue and clear as that 

 of the Mediterranean ; and though its taste is 

 horribly salt and fetid, a bath in it is refreshing. 

 Owing to the great specific gravity of the water, 

 it is almost impossible for the bather to sink in it, 

 strive as he may. Several of those who have navi- 

 gated and explored the sea have fallen victims to a 

 fatal fever. The story of the ' Cities of the Plain,' 

 is given in Gen. xix. See PALESTINE ; and Comler 

 says, ' It is now generally agreed that the Dead 

 Sea and Jordan were formed bv a great fault or 

 crack in the earth's surface long before the creation 

 of man, and that the district presents in our own 

 days much the same aspect as in the days of 

 Abraham. It is vain, therefore, to suppose that the 

 "cities of the plain " were beneath the present sea, 

 although this view was held as early as the time 

 of Josephus ' (Bible Geography, 1884). See also 

 Ritter's Geography, and the works on Palestine 

 by Robinson, Stanley, and Tristram ; De Luynes' 

 Mer Morte (1874) ; Lieutenant Lynch's Report of 

 the United States Dead Sea Expedition (1852); 

 and Professor Hall's Survey of Western Palestine 

 (Palestine Exploration Fund, 1886). 



's Part, in Scots law, is that part of a 

 man's movable property which he is entitled to 

 dispose of by testament. If a man dies without 

 leaving widow or children, the dead's part is the 

 whole ; if he leave widow but no children, or 

 children but no widow, it is a half ; and if he 

 leave both widow and children, it is a third of his 

 movable property. The dead's part, however, may 

 be increased or diminished by special provisions in 

 a marriage-contract, or by wife and children re- 

 nouncing their legal rights. This dead's part in 

 English law is called the ' dead man's part,' and 

 went formerly to pay for masses for the dead man's 

 soul. Afterwards the administrators applied it to 

 their own use, until finally it was by statute sub- 

 jected to be distributed among the next of kin. 



Deaf and Dumb* Persons who are born 

 deaf, or who lose their hearing at a very early age, 

 are dumb also ; hence the compound term deaf- 

 emo?-dumb. But deafness is the primary defect ; 

 dumbness is only the consequence of deafness. 

 Children ordinarily hear sounds, and then learn to 

 imitate them i.e. they learn to repeat what they 

 hear other persons say. It is thus that every one 

 of us has learned to speak. But the deaf child 

 hears nothing ; cannot, therefore, imitate, and re- 

 mains dumb. Persons who lose their hearing later 

 in life are not to be classed among the deaf and 

 dumb. Having learned to speak before their hear- 

 ing was lost, they can readily communicate with 

 others ; and if they are educated, there are still 

 open to them all the stores of knowledge contained 

 in books, from which the juvenile deaf and dumb, 

 ignorant of all written and spoken language, are 

 utterly excluded. It is this latter class alone which 

 is contemplated in our census enumerations, and for 

 which our institutions for the education of the deaf 

 and dumb are designed. 



The term ' deaf and dumb ' is somewhat unfortu- 

 nate, as embodying and repeating the error that the 

 affliction is twofold. It affects two organs, certainly, 

 but only, as above described, in the way of cause 

 and effect. The organ of hearing is wanting, but 

 the organs of speech are present ; they merely lack 

 the means of exercise. The ear is the guide and 

 directress of the tongue ; and when the ear is doomed 





