DEGREE DEJANIRA. 



625 



niul thus an arc of twenty degrees, from the Balearic 

 Islands, near the coast of Spain, over France and 

 England, to the Orcades, has been measured, and 

 the flattening of the earth has been determined as 

 accurately as it can be done in Europe. The flatten- 

 ing has been found to be one 304th. In India, 

 Lambton has begun the measurement of a degree. 

 These measurements of degrees are among those 

 enterprises which do mankind much honour, because 

 they are not undertaken for the sake of immediate 

 profit, nor of bare utility, but from an ardent desire 

 of knowing the truth, from the same deep thirst for 

 knowledge, which has so often impelled men to ex- 

 plore the icy seas of the poles and the burning 

 deserts of Africa. The history of such expeditions 

 is better fitted to awaken a generous spirit in youth 

 than the oft-repeated tale of conquest and bloodshed. 

 Measurement of a Degree of Longitude. The de- 

 grees of longitude are largest under the equator, and 

 diminish continually towards the pole. Under the 

 equator, a degree of longitude contains sixty geogra- 

 phical, sixty-nine and a half statute miles. If the 

 form of the earth is not entirely regular, the degrees 

 of longitude on the same parallel of latitude cannot all 

 be of the same length ; and it has been proposed to 

 investigate this by actual measurement. This task 

 is, in the trigonometric part, as easy as the measure- 

 ment of a degree of latitude ; but in the astronomi- 

 cal part, it is fifteen times more difficult. The dif- 

 ference of the longitude of two places is determined 

 by the difference of the hour of the day, at the 

 same point of time in the two ; as a place, situated 

 fifteen degrees to the east of another, has noon a 

 whole hour earlier. One hour, therefore, corre- 

 sponds to fifteen degrees, or 1042^ statute miles under 

 the equator, or 5,504,400 feet ; a minute of time, to 

 91,740 feet, and a second of time, to 1529 feet. A 

 mistake of a second of time, therefore, in calculat- 

 ing the longitude of two places, makes a correspond- 

 ing error in space. To determine time, within two 

 or tliree seconds, by means of rockets, at a distance 

 of 1042j miles is impossible ; and, whilst the mea- 

 surement of an arc, corresponding to this distance, 

 trignometrically, may be attended with an error to 

 the amount of 200 feet, an astronomical measure- 

 ment would leave an uncertainty of 2000 feet. The 

 earlier measurements of the French were directed, in 

 the North, by Maupertuis ; in the South, by Bou- 

 guer. Detailed notices on the measurements of 

 degrees are given by Delambre, in his Astronomic, 

 iii. chap. 35. A popular description is given in the 

 excellent work, Anleitung zur Allgemeinen Kenntniss 

 d. Erdkugel (Introduction to a general Knowledge of 

 the Globe, second edition, Berlin, 1803), by Bode. 

 The latest information respecting this subject is 

 given by captain Edward Sabine. He made obser- 

 vations with the pendulum, from lat. 13 S. to lat. 

 80 N. He calculates the flattening of the earth to 

 be ?-g.f ; and if the measurements of Sabine, Kater, 

 and Die modem French ones by Biot, are connected, 

 and the mean of the whole taken, the flattening will 

 be found to be ^fa T . See Sabine's Account of Ex- 

 veriments to determine the Figure of the Earth, by 

 Means of the Pendulum vibrating Seconds in different 

 Latitudes, London, 1825, 4to. 



DEGREE, in universities, denotes a distinction 

 conferred on the students or members thereof, as a 

 testimony of their proficiency in the arts or sciences, 

 and entitling them to certain privileges. The de- 

 grees are much the same in all universities ; but the 

 laws thereof, and the previous discipline or exercise 

 differ. The degrees are, bachelor, master, and doc- 

 tor ; instead of which last, in some foreign universi- 

 ties, is licentiate. 



DEIDAMEA (Deidamcia), daughter of Lycome- 

 ii. 



des : she bore Pyrrhus and Onites to Achilles, during 

 lis abode at Seyms. 



DEI GRATIA (by the grace of God\ ; a formula 

 which sovereigns add to their title. The expression 

 is taken from an epistle of the apostle Paul, and was 

 used first by the clergy in the time of Constantine 

 the Great. In the times of the Carlovingian race, 

 the secular princes also assumed it. The high clergy 

 of the Catholic church used it with an addition : 

 " By the grace of God and the apostolic see." 



DEIOTARUS, tetrarch of Galatia, received from 

 the Roman senate the title of king of that province 

 and Armenia Minor, on account of services rendered 

 Lo the Romans in the Asiatic wars. In the civil war, 

 lie joined the party of Pompey. Csesar took from 

 tiim Armenia, obliged him to march with him 

 against Pharnaces, and left him nothing but the title 

 of royalty. He was accused of having plotted 

 against the life of Ccesar, from which charge Cicero 

 defended him in an oration yet extant. After the 

 murder of Caesar, he returned to his dominions, joined 

 Brutus, and afterwards Augustus. He died, at an 

 advanced age, 30 B. C. 



DEIR ; an Arabian word signifying house , as, 

 Deir-el-Kamar, the house of the moon. It often oc- 

 curs in geographical compounds. 



DEISM (from the Latin deus), as a philosophical 

 system ; that which finds in God the cause of all 

 things. It is, as such, opposed to atheism. In a 

 religious point of view, it is used for the belief in 

 natural religion, contradistinguished from the belief 

 in revelation, and is considered, by many persons, 

 almost equivalent to atheism, though this opinion can 

 only be caused by ignorance. Theism has the same 

 signification, and is derived from the Greek 9-i? 

 (god). In India, there is a sect of pure deists, called 

 Seiks. 



DEJANIRA, in fabulous history; daughter of 

 (Eneus, king of Calydon, a city of /Etolia ; accord- 

 ing to others, of Bacchus and Altlisea, who, with her 

 sister Gorgo, alone retained her form, when her other 

 sisters were transformed, while mourning for then- 

 brother. She was betrothed to Achelous, the god of 

 the river of the same name, who, on her account, 

 engaged in a combat with Hercules. Achelous was 

 overcome, and the maiden became the prize of the 

 victor, who, on his return to his country, was stop- 

 ped in his way by the river Evenus, which had over- 

 flowed its banks. In this emergency, the Centaur 

 Nessus offered to take Dejanira across the river on 

 his back. Hercules readily consented, and passed 

 over the river first ; but, when he had reached the 

 opposite bank, he saw that the Centaur was attempt- 

 ing to offer her violence. Enraged at the sight, he 

 pierced him with an arrow, which had been dipped 

 in the blood of die hydra. Nessus, perceiving his 

 death approaching, wished to be revenged, and gave 

 to Dejanira his bloody tunic, telling her that if her 

 husband was unfaithful, she should persuade him to 

 put this on, and it would reclaim him from his un- 

 lawful passion. The credulous Dejanira accepted 

 the present. Hearing, subsequently, that Hercules 

 was captivated by the charms of lole, the daughter 

 of Eurytus of Euboea, she sent him the tunic of Nessus 

 by a young slave, named Lichas, with the tenderest 

 messages. Hercules joyfully accepted the fatal pre- 

 sent, and hastened to make we of it ; but was thrown 

 into the most violent agony. In his fury, he hurled 

 Lichas into the sea, where, by the compassion of the 

 gods, he was changed into a rock. Then, liaving 

 hewed down some trees on mount CEta, and erected 

 a funeral pile, he ascended the pile, and begged his 

 friend Philoctetes to set fire to it. When Dejanira 

 heard of the death of Hercules, she was so overcome 

 by anguish, that she destroyed herself. 

 8* 



