UI 



: : ' \ : - 



difficult to be appreciated by inspection after d.th. The mme is true 

 of Ute diseases of the nnre which transmits the imprewoii from the 

 internal organ of hrariug to the brain, and of the dix-.-w* of the brain 

 iUelf. We know that it U indispensable to the now of hearing that 

 thi. part ..( (he auditory nerve be sound, nd that that portion of the 

 brain with which the auditory nenre u in immediate communication 

 be sound ; we know that the auditory nerve and the brain are both 

 mibject to numerous disease* which impair or abolish their fin 

 The substance of the netre may bo diseased, or a tumour may press 

 upon it in some part of iU course to the brain ; the brain may be 

 diseased, inflamed, softened, hardened, oppressed by the effusion of 

 water, lymph, pus, blood, or by the growth of tumour* in its substance, 

 occasioning general disease*, the most severe to which the body U sub- 

 ject, as phrenitis, hydrocephalus, epilepsy, apoplexy, Ac. Among the 

 local morbid phenomena produced by those diseases, deafness U alwayi 

 ooe. Often al*> this malady immediately follows repelled cutaneous 

 eruption* and retrocedent gout, and it is the frequent concomitant of 

 fever. In all these cam deafness is the consequence either of disease 

 of the brain, or of disordered secretions of the auditory apparatus, or 

 of both conjoined ; and the hearing always returns as these diseases 

 diminish and disappear. 



When deafness arises from inflammation of the auditory passage, the 

 ,\ftfo~* can be cured only by the removal of the inflammation, which 

 must be treated according to the principles proper for the treatment 

 of inflammation in any other part of the body. When deafness results 

 from a disordered action of the follicles which secrete the wax, it is 

 often removed by introducing into the auditory passage, night and 

 morning, a dossil of cotton, containing some stimulating substance, as 

 camphor, ammonia, or alcohol, suspended in almond-oil. When the 

 auditory passage is loaded with hardened wax, the ear should !>. 

 syringed night and morning with warm milk and water, or soap and 

 water. When polypi grow from the lining membrane of the passage, 

 they must be removed by a surgical operation, and the proper pre- 

 cautions taken to prevent, or the proper remedies employed to remove, 

 ::. ' . . Wnan there flows from the pa je an acrid or fetid 

 discharge, the ear should be cautiously syringed night and morning. 

 and counter-irritation kept up by repeated blisters behind the ear, or 

 by a perpetual blister, caused by daily dressing the vesicated surface 

 with unguentum lytuc. When the deafness arises from a diminished 

 secretion of wax, good effects have often been experienced by the 

 employment of galvanism, which is found not only to occasion a grate- 

 ful warmth in the meatus, but also considerably to augment the 

 secretion of wax. When deafness arises from inflammation of the 

 membrane which lines the chamber of the tympanum, and from 

 the consequent thickening of the membrane, or the effusion of fluid 

 into the cavity, the most effectual remedies are blisters behind the ears 

 and active purgative medicines. When closure of the Kiutachian tube 

 is the cause of deafness, the imperfection of hearing is often imme- 



diately removed by perforating the membrana tympani, this operation 

 immediately establishing a free communication of air to and from the 

 tympanum. When deafness is the consequence of disease of the audi- 



tory nerve, or of the brain, the nature of the nervous or cerebral 

 affection must be discriminated and ascertained before any remedy can 

 be applied with the slightest chance of success ; and even when this is 

 accomplished, it is too often only to satisfy us that the disease is 

 beyond the reach of art. 



DEALS. A term originally applied to the thin slabs of timber cut 

 out of log-stuff; but of late years it has been exclusively appropriated 

 to such as are sent from timber-growing countries, in pieces from 84 

 to 9 inches in width by 3 inches in thickness. Deals are <>1<1 in 

 London by what is called the St. Petersburg standard, whatever may 

 be their length, the standard being considered to be 120 deals of 12 feet 

 in length, or in fact 1440 feet lineal. 



The best yellow and white deals for ordinary joiner's work are 

 obtained from St. Petersburg, Christiania, Oefle, Dram, Dantzic ; the 

 best spruce-deals come from Christiania and Gefle ; the best pine, red 

 or yellow, deals come from St. John's in New Brunswick, and Port- 

 land in Maine ; and the best pitch-pine is obtained from the ports of 

 Georgia and South Carolina. The present duty upon deals is calculated 

 upon the same rates as that upon battens ; or 10*. per load of 50 cubic 

 feet when imported from foreign countries, and 5*. per load with 5 per 

 cent additional when imported from British possessions. 



The timber duties, some years ago, were so ill-regulated, in 

 to the different rates charged on deal* of different dimensions, as to 

 interfere greatly with the natural course of tr.-ulr. When the. duty 

 was charged at a fixed rate per great hundred (of 120) without 

 reference to dimensions, and when that duty was on a moderate scale, 

 it was the practice in the wood-producing countries to cut deals of 

 those dimensions which would produce the greatest cubical quantity of 

 sound wood from each tree ; and it then rarely happened that deals 

 were longer than 12 feet ; but when the duty wan greatly increased, 

 and was charged according to their dimensions in classes with 

 intervals, it became an object to introduce as much wood as possible, 

 at each specific rate of charge, and without duo regard to t 

 in cutting. It is naturally to be exacted that, with a rate of duty 

 forming a large percentage upon the first cost of the article, no 

 person would import any deals much short of each of the maximum 

 dimensions admissible at each rate of duty, but would sacrifice a part 



DEAN. 4H 



of the material when necessary, in order to escape a higher rate of 

 charge ; by this means the cost was necsesarily enhanced to the con- 

 sumer. The same motive did not operate with respect to the lower 

 Uxed deals of the English colonies, nearly the whole i which were 

 accordingly brought of such dimensions that the duty amounted to 

 one-third more upon the cubical contents than it would amount to if 

 the importers availed themselves of the provisions of the law in the 

 way adopted by the important of Km..|wan deals. The duty charged 

 upon the deals of Sweden, and still more 141011 those of Norway, was, 

 by the working of the system, much higher than ujion tl: 

 from Russia and Prussia; this arose partly from tl.. -ues to 



which the trees grow in the respective countries, and partly from thu 

 difficulty experienced in Sweden and Norway in conveying the trees, 

 after they are cut, down rapid or narrow rivers to the place of manu- 

 facture. In France, where the duties on timber are low, deals are 

 imported of all sices suited to the convenience of the producers, and 

 consequently the price is lower to the consumer ; besides which, the 

 quality of the wood is in some instances better, because thinner deals 

 than are brought to England may be cut from the best part of the tree 

 nearest to the sap. The deals of North America are inferior in 

 strength and durability to those brought from the north of Europe, and 

 to these last the preference is usually given for the flooring of houses and 

 other purposes where durability is of importance. In building smaller 

 houses, where cheapness is the principal consideration, Canadian 

 are used. For small articles, such as mouldings, picture-frames, hat- 

 boxes, musical instruments, as well as for many of the internal fittings 

 of houses, and other purposes which call for the employment of wood 

 that can be easily worked, Canada deals are preferred. 



DEAN (French Doyen, and in Latin Dccanut), a word which, at first 

 sight, would appear to be allied to DEACON, but which has probal >ly a 

 different origin. Etymologists seem not to be agreed concerning the 

 origin of the word ; but the most usual origin assigned to it is the 

 word dtcem, ten, as if a dean were a person who presided over collec- 

 tive bodies of men or things, in number (en. The word A is 

 generally used as an ecclesiastical term. The French word Doyen is 

 applied both to ecclesiastical and lay personages. Richelet (' Diet,' 

 art Doien) says, that when applied to other than ecclesiastical bodies, 

 it signifies the oldest of the body ; thus the French used to speak of 

 the Doien des Conseillers du Parlement. The Italian word Decano also 

 signifies the head of a lay corporation, as well as an ecclesiastical 

 dignitary. In Scotland it is used for the head of lay communities, but 

 in England we believe it is generally confined to promotions or pre- 

 sidencies spiritual. It is, however, used in some colleges, as in 

 University and King's Colleges, London, to signify the chief or head 

 of a faculty chosen for a limited period. Deans ill the colleges of 

 Oxford and Cambridge are persons appointed to superintend the 

 religious service in the college chapels, to enforce the attendance of 

 the students there, and to exercise some control over them in other 

 respects. In Scotland it is used as a lay title. 



In England there are three classes of ecclesiastical presidencies to 

 which the title Dean belongs : 



1. Deans rural. The dioceses are divided into archdeaconries, and 

 the archdeaconries into deaneries, below which there is no other sub- 

 division till we come to parishes, the minutest of the proper eccle- 

 siastical divisions of the country. The whole country is thus di\ i.l, -d, 

 with the exception of certain districts of no great extent, which claim 

 to be exempt jurisdictions. 



Those who contend for the derivation of the word dean, whence 

 deanery, from decem, .suppose that originally there were tin churches or 

 parishes forming each of these deaneries. This is a very obscure point, 

 and it is equally uncertain at what time this distribution of the 

 dioceses was made. It appears, however, that tUpre were deaneries 

 before the Norman Conquest 



In each of these deaneries there was a clergyman who was dean ; he 

 was usually a beneficed clergyman within the deanery. His 

 were to exercise a superintendency over the clergy, to preside at their 

 assemblies, and to be the medium of their communication with 

 spiritual superiors. He had his public seal. He appears also to have 

 discharged those duties which are now performed by clergymen called 

 surrogates. 



By degrees this office in the English church fell into disuse. The 

 history or the reason of its decline is not very well known, for the 

 advantage of having such an officer, especially where the archdeacon- 

 ries were extensive, must have been always evident The office, lj\\ 

 ever, did by degrees disappear in one diocese after another, till it 

 became totally lost There was a dean of Chalke, in the diocese of 

 Salisbury, as late as the reign of Charles II. ; and a dean of 1 1, .m-astcr, 

 in the diocese of York, in the reigns of George I. and II. 



Attempts have been made to n u\e it. Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne, 

 tried to establish the office again in Ireland ; and soon after the Lite 

 Dr. Burgess was made bishop of Salisbury, he did actually revive the 

 i that diocese, appointing Mr. Dausey, the rector of Donhead 

 St. Andrew, rural dean of Chalke: this was in 1825. The Re | 

 the Ecclesiastical Commi-^iouers, 1835, under the head Territory, 

 recommends that each parish shall be assigned to a deanery, and each 

 deanery to an archdeaconry. There is a work, in two volumes quarto, 

 entitled ' Hone Decauicic Ruralos, being an attempt to illustrate by 

 a series of notes and extracts, the name and title, the origin, appoint- 



