774 



DESERTAS 



DESMIDS 



but the typical steppes in South Russia are luxuri- 

 antly clothed with verdure and flowers in spring. 

 In summer they form a dusty plain of withered 

 herbage, and in winter are wind-swept wastes of 

 snow. The grassy llanos of the Orinoco present 

 a similar desert appearance in the dry season \ in 

 the wet season they are inundated marshes which 

 burst into blade and bloom as the water subsides. 

 The pampas of the Plate river-system under similar 

 but less marked seasonal changes form a natural 

 transition to the fertile prairie lands which, although 

 naturally treeless, are always richly grassed. 



Desertas, a group of three rocky islets in the 

 Atlantic Ocean, to the SE. of Madeira, visited at 

 certain seasons of the year by fishermen and herds- 

 men. 



Desertion from the army or navy is the crime 

 of absence without leave, coupled with the inten- 

 tion of not returning to the service, or of avoiding 

 some important duty, such as embarkation for a 

 foreign station or aiding the civil power, however 

 short the time of absence or the distance to which 

 the absentee may have gone. Under the Army 

 Act of 1881 the very common offence of quitting 

 one regiment to join another ( formerly charged as 

 both 'desertion and fraudulent enlistment'), in- 

 asmuch as it proves no intention to leave the 

 service, is punishable by Court-martial (q.v.) as 

 fraudulent enlistment only, but in the same way 

 as desertion when not on active service viz. by 

 imprisonment up to two years for a first offence, 

 and penal servitude for not less than five years for 

 a second or subsequent offence, together with for- 

 feiture of service, medals, &c., to which may be 

 added stoppages of pay for loss of kit, and dis- 

 charge with ignominy. By thus distinguishing 

 between desertion and fraudulent enlistment, the 

 number of soldiers annually convicted of the former 

 crime has been reduced by one-half ; short service, 

 the abolition of Bounty (q.v.) on enlistment, and 

 better education have had the effect of still further 

 reducing this number. It is still, however, large 

 (about 3000) ; and, beyond a published description 

 of all absentees and deserters, recruiting officers have 

 no means such as formerly existed, when tattooing 

 with the letter ' D ' ( erroneously called Branding, 

 q.v.) always formed part of the sentence of detect- 

 ing a man who has been convicted of this crime 

 and discharged with ignominy, or who endeavours 

 to fraudulently re-enlist. Thus individual men 

 often join five or six regiments, deserting imme- 

 diately from each in turn and selling their kits, 

 which cost the country some 4 or 5 each. When 

 apprehended considerable further expense is in- 

 curred in bringing them to trial and maintaining 

 them in prison. 



Desertion, or attempting to desert, when on 

 active service, or under orders for active service, is 

 much more rare, and is punishable with death. So 

 is the crime of inducing a soldier to desert under 

 those circumstances ; and a civilian who is con- 

 victed of it, if subject to military law because 

 accompanying a force in the field, as a newspaper 

 correspondent or a camp-follower, is liable to this 

 punishment. When riot subject to military law, 

 six months' imprisonment with hard labour may 

 be awarded by any court of summary jurisdiction 

 to a civilian who induces or assists a soldier to 

 desert. Deserters from the United States army 

 forfeit all pay and allowances due at the time of 

 desertion. If in time of war, the penalty is death ; 

 in peace, they suffer such penalty as a court-martial 

 may direct. 



Desertion is equally a crime when committed by 

 a seaman of the royal navy. A sailor absent from 

 three successive musters is a ' runaway ; ' and when 

 discovered and brought back, he is punished by a 



deduction from his pay. If his absence is con- 

 tinued, it amounts to desertion. All harbouring of 

 deserters by other persons is punishable. In the 

 navy of the United States, a temporary absence 

 without leave with an apparent intention of return- 

 ing to duty, is regarded as 'straggling,' but an 

 absence of ten days constitutes desertion. In 

 either case the commanding officer decides the 

 points, and causes the proper entries to be made 

 on the ship's books. 



Desertion of the Diet. See DIET. 



Desertion of Wife and Children. See 

 HUSBAND AND WIFE, PARENT AND CHILD. 



Desiccants, in Medicine, are substances with 

 astringent properties, which are serviceable in 

 checking secretion and exhalation. 



Desiccation is the process of drying by the 

 employment of heat, dry air, or chemical agents 

 which have an affinity for water. Examples of 

 the class of desiccants or drying substances are 

 fused chloride of calcium, quicklime, fused car- 

 bonate of potash, and oil of vitriol. The latter is 

 employed by being placed in a separate vessel near 

 the substance to be dried, and under a bell jar. 



Not a few of the lower animals are said to 

 be able to endure drying up without losing the 

 power of recovery. Some of the Protozoa form 

 protective sheaths or cysts from which they 

 emerge on the return of moisture. Nematodes or 

 thread-worms (paste-eels) have been known to 

 revive after fourteen years' desiccation, but trials 

 beyond this limit were unsuccessful. With those 

 animals the interesting fact has been noticed that 

 the longer the period of desiccation, the longer 

 the time required for recovery. Rotifers are 

 also described as reviving after prolonged and 

 thorough desiccation, but experiments have shown 

 that, in the case in question at least, only the 

 associated eggs retained their life. The eggs 

 rapidly developed on the return of moisture, but 

 the adult organisms proved to be really dead. 

 The bear-animalcules or Tardigrades have been 

 thoroughly desiccated and even heated to a high 

 temperature without, it is said, losing power of 

 revivification. A state of latent life is also 

 assumed in consequence of cold, absence of stimu- 

 lus, &c., and a relative quiescence occurs natu- 

 rally in hibernation, or pathologically in trance. 

 Among the lower plants, resting spores, &c., may 

 survive desiccation ; and, among the higher, seeds 

 are well known to have a similar power. See 

 HIBERNATION, INSECTS, LATENT LIFE, MUD- 

 FISHES, MUMMY- WHEAT (under Wheat) ROTA- 

 TORIA, TARDIGRADA, THREAD-WORMS, TRANCE. 



Design, SCHOOLS OF. See, under ART, Art 

 Instruction, vol. i. p. 456. 



Desira'de, a small island of the West Indies, 

 belonging to France, and lying 4 miles E. of Guade- 

 loupe, with an area of 10 sq. in., and a population 

 of about 1600, engaged in fishery and the cultiva- 

 tion of cotton. 



Desman. See MUSK RAT. 



Desniids (Desmidece) are a group of conjugate 

 Algae (see ALG^E) related to diatoms, but readily 

 distinguished from these by their bright green 

 instead of brownish-yellow colour, their cellulose 

 instead of silicified walls, and their general form, 

 which is usually more or less deeply constricted in 

 the middle line. As with diatoms the lower forms 

 are, however, united in long chains, so indicating 

 a relationship to the lower and filamentous Conju- 

 gates ( Spirogyra, &c. ). About four hundred species 

 have been described, but these are often variable 

 and ill defined. All are inhabitants of fresh water, 

 but chiefly occur in the standing pools of heaths 

 and peat-mosses. They rarely form large aggrega- 



