part ii. c. 7) says of the archipresbyters that "the memory of them is

preserved still in cathedral churches, in the chapters there, where the dean was nothing else but the archipresbyter; and both dean and prebendaries were to be assistant to the bishop in the regulating the church affairs belonging to the city, while the churches were contained therein." Bingham, however, following Liberatus, describes the office of the archipresbyter to have been next to that of the bishop, the head of the presbyteral college, and the functions to have consisted in administering all matters pertaining to the church in the absence of the bishop. But this does not describe accurately the office of dean in an English cathedral church. The dean is indeed second to the bishop in rank and dignity, and he is the head of the presbyteral college or chapter; but his functions in no wise consist in administering any affairs in the absence of the bishop. There may be some matters connected with the ordering of the internal arrangements of cathedral churches, respecting which it may be considered a doubtful point whether the authority of the bishop or that of the dean is supreme. But the consideration of any such question leads at once to the due theoretical distinction between the two. With regard to matters spiritual, properly and strictly so called, the bishop is supreme in the cathedral as far as--and no further than--he is supreme in his diocese generally. With regard to matters material and temporal, as concerning the fabric of the cathedral, the arrangement and conduct of the services, and the management of the property of the chapter, &c., the dean (not excluding the due authority of the other members of the chapter, but speaking with reference to the bishop) is supreme. And the cases in which a doubt might arise are those in which the material arrangements of the fabric or of the services may be thought to involve doctrinal considerations.

The Roman Catholic writers on the subject say that there are two sorts of deans in the church--the deans of cathedral churches, and the rural deans--as has continued to be the case in the English Church. And the probability would seem to be that the former were the successors and representatives of the monastic decurions, the latter of the inspectors of "ten" parishes in the primitive secular church. It is thought by some that the rural dean is the lineal successor of the _chorepiscopus_, who in the early church was the assistant of the bishop, discharging most, if not all, episcopal functions in the rural districts of the diocese. But upon the whole the probability is otherwise. W. Beveridge, W. Cave, Bingham and Basnage all hold that the _chorepiscopi_ were true bishops, though Romanist theologians for the most part have maintained that they were simple priests. But if the _chorepiscopus_ has any representative in the church of the present day, it seems more likely that the archdeacon is such rather than the dean.

The ordinary use of the term dean, as regards secular bodies of persons, would lead to the belief that the oldest member of a chapter had, as a matter of right, or at least of usage, become the dean thereof. But Bingham (lib. ii. chap. 18) very conclusively shows that such was at no time the case; as is also further indicated by the maxim to the effect that the dean must be selected from the body of the chapter--"_Unus de gremio tantum potest eligi et promoveri ad decanatus dignitatem_." The duties of the dean in a Roman Catholic cathedral are to preside over the chapter, to declare the decisions to which the chapter may have in its debates arrived by plurality of voices, to exercise inspection over the choir, over the conduct of the capitular body, and over the discipline and regulations of the church; and to celebrate divine service on occasion of the greater festivals of the church in the absence or inability of the bishop. With the exception of the last clause the same statement may be made as to the duties and functions of the deans of Church of England cathedral churches.

Deans had also a place in the judicial system of the Lombard kings in the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries. But the office indicated by that term, so used, seems to have been a very subordinate one; and the name was in all probability adopted with immediate reference to the etymological meaning of the word,--a person having authority over ten (in this case apparently) families. L. A. Muratori, in his _Italian Antiquities_, speaks of the resemblance between the _saltarii_ or _sylvani_ and the _decani_, and shows that the former had authority in the rural districts, and the latter in towns, or at least in places where the population was sufficiently close for them to have authority over ten families. Nevertheless, a document cited by Muratori from the archives of the canons of Modena, and dated in the year 813, recites the names of several "deaneries" (_decania_), and thus shows that the authority of the dean extended over a certain circumscription of territory.

In the case of the "dean of the sacred college," the connexion between the application of the term and the etymology of it is not so evident as in the foregoing instances of its use; nor is it by any means clear how and when the idea of seniority was first attached to the word. This office is held by the oldest cardinal--i.e. he who has been longest in the enjoyment of the purple, not he who is oldest in years,--who is usually, but not necessarily or always, the bishop of Ostia and Velletri. Perhaps the use of the word "dean," as signifying simply the eldest member of any corporation or body of men, may have been first adopted from its application to that high dignitary. The dean of the sacred college is in the ecclesiastical hierarchy second to the pope alone. His privileges and special functions are very many; a compendious account of the principal of them may be found in the work of G. Moroni, vol. xix. p. 168.

There are four sorts of deans of whom the law of England takes notice. (1) The dean and chapter are a council subordinate to the bishop, assistant to him in matters spiritual relating to religion, and in matters temporal relating to the temporalities of the bishopric. The dean and chapter are a corporation, and the dean himself is a corporation sole. Deans are said to be either of the old or of the new foundation--the latter being those created and regulated after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. The deans of the old foundation before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1841 were elected by the chapter on the king's _congé d'élire_; and the deans of the new foundation (and, since the act, of the old foundation also) are appointed by the king's letters patent. It was at one time held that a layman might be dean; but since 1662 priest's orders are a necessary qualification. Deaneries are sinecures in the old sense, i.e. they are without cure of souls. The chapter formerly consisted of canons and prebendaries, the dean being the head and an integral part of the corporation. By the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1841, it is enacted that "all the members of the chapter except the dean, in every collegiate and cathedral church in England, and in the cathedral churches of St David and Llandaff, shall be styled canons." By the same act the dean is required to be in residence eight months, and the canons three months, in every year. The bishop is visitor of the dean and chapter. (2) A dean of peculiars is the chief of certain peculiar churches or chapels. He "hath no chapter, yet is presentative, and hath cure of souls; he hath a _peculiar_, and is not subject to the visitation of the bishop of the diocese." The only instances of such deaneries are Battle (Sussex), Bocking (Essex) and Stamford (Rutland). The deans of Jersey and Guernsey have similar status. (3) The third dean "hath no cure of souls, but hath a court and a _peculiar_, in which he holdeth plea and jurisdiction of all such ecclesiastical matters as come within his peculiar. Such is the dean of the arches, who is the judge of the court of the arches, the chief court and consistory of the archbishop of Canterbury, so called of Bow Church, where this court was ever wont to be held." (See ARCHES, COURT OF.) The parish of Bow and twelve others were within the peculiar jurisdiction of the archbishop in spiritual causes, and exempted out of the bishop of London's jurisdiction. They were in 1845 made part of the diocese of London. (4) Rural deans are clergymen whose duty is described as being "to execute the bishop's processes and to inspect the lives and manners of the clergy and people within their jurisdiction." (See Phillimore's _Ecclesiastical Law_.)

In the colleges of the English universities one of the fellows usually holds the office of "dean," and is specially charged with the discipline, as distinguished from the teaching functions of the tutors. In some universities the head of a faculty is called "dean," and in each of these cases the word is used in a non-ecclesiastical and purely titular sense.

DEAN, FOREST OF, a district in the west of Gloucestershire, England, between the Severn and the Wye. It extends northward in an oval form from the junction of these rivers, for a distance of 20 m., with an extreme breadth of 10 m., and still retains its true forest character. The surface is agreeably undulating, its elevation ranging from 120 to nearly 1000 ft., and its sandy peat soil renders it most suitable for the growth of timber, which is the cause of its having been a royal forest from time immemorial. It is recorded that the commanders of the Armada had orders not to leave in it a tree standing. In the reign of Charles I. the forest contained 105,537 trees, and, straitened for money, the king granted it to Sir John Wyntour for £10,000, and a fee farm rent of £2000. The grant was cancelled by Cromwell; but at the Restoration only 30,000 trees were left, and Wyntour, the Royalist commander, having got another grant, destroyed all but 200 trees fit for navy timber. In 1680 an act was passed to enclose 11,000 acres and plant with oak and beech for supply of the dockyards; and the present forest, though not containing very many gigantic oaks, has six "walks" covered with timber in various stages of growth.

The forest is locally governed by two crown-appointed deputy gavellers to superintend the woods and mines, and four verderers elected by the freeholders, whose office, since the extermination of the deer in 1850, is almost purely honorary. From time immemorial all persons born in the hundred of St Briavel's, who have worked a year and a day in a coal mine, become "free miners," and may work coal in any part of the forest not previously occupied. The forest laws were administered at the Speech-House, a building of the 17th century in the heart of the forest, where the verderers' court is still held. The district contains coal and iron mines, and quarries of building-stone, which fortunately hardly minimize its natural beauty. Near Coleford and Westbury pit workings of the Roman period have been discovered, and the Romans drew large supplies of iron from this district. The scenery is especially fine in the high ground bordering the Wye (q.v.), opposite to Symond's Yat above Monmouth, and Tintern above Chepstow. St Briavel's Castle, above Tintern, was the headquarters of the forest officials from an early date and was frequented by King John. It is a moated castle, of which the north-west front remains, standing in a magnificent position high above the Wye.

See H. G. Nicholls, _Forest of Dean_ (London, 1858).

DEANE, RICHARD (1610-1653), British general-at-sea, major-general and regicide, was a younger son of Edward Deane of Temple Guiting or Guyting in Gloucestershire, where he was born, his baptism taking place on the 8th of July 1610. His family seems to have been strongly Puritan and was related to many of those Buckinghamshire families who were prominent in the parliamentary party. His uncle or great-uncle was Sir Richard Deane, lord mayor of London, 1628-1629. Of Deane's early life nothing is accurately known, but he seems to have had some sea training, possibly on a ship-of-war. At the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the parliamentary army as a volunteer in the artillery, a branch of the service with which he was constantly and honourably associated. In 1644 he held a command in the artillery under Essex in Cornwall and took part in the surrender after Lostwithiel. Essex (_Letter to Sir Philip Stapleton_, Rushworth Collection) calls him "an honest, judicious and stout man," an estimate of Deane borne out by Clarendon's "bold and excellent officer" (book xiv. cap. 27), and he was one of the few officers concerned in the surrender who were retained at the remodelling of the army. Appointed comptroller of the ordnance, he commanded the artillery at Naseby and during Fairfax's campaign in the west of England in 1645. In 1647 he was promoted colonel and given a regiment. In May of that year Cromwell was made lord-general of the forces in Ireland by the parliament, and Deane, as a supporter of Cromwell who had to be reckoned with, was appointed his lieutenant of artillery. Cromwell refused to be thus put out of the way, and Deane followed his example. When the war broke out afresh in 1648 Deane went with Cromwell to Wales. As brigadier-general his leading of the right wing at Preston contributed greatly to the victory. On the entry of the army into London in 1648, Deane superintended the seizure of treasure at the Guildhall and Weavers' Hall the day after Pride "purged" the House of Commons, and accompanied Cromwell to the consultations as to the "settlement of the Kingdom" with Lenthall and Sir Thomas Widdrington, the keeper of the great seal. He is rightly called by Sir J. K. Laughton (in the _Dict. of Nat. Biog._) Cromwell's "trusted partisan," a character which he maintained in the active and responsible part taken by him in the events which led up to the trial and execution of the king. He was one of the commissioners for the trial, and a member of the committee which examined the witnesses. He signed the death warrant.

Deane's capacities and activities were now required for the navy. In 1649 the office of lord high admiral was put into commission. The first commissioners were Edward Popham, Robert Blake and Deane, with the title of generals-at-sea. His command at sea was interrupted in 1651, when as major-general he was brought back to the army and took part in the battle of Worcester. Later he was made president of the commission for the settlement of Scotland, with supreme command of the military and naval forces. At the end of 1652 Deane returned to his command as general-at-sea, where Monck had succeeded Popham, who had died in 1651. In 1653 Deane was with Blake in command at the battle off Portland and later took the most prominent and active part in the refitting of the fleet on the reorganization of the naval service. At the outset of the three days' battle off the North Foreland, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of June 1653, Deane was killed. His body lay in state at Greenwich and after a public funeral was buried in Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster Abbey, to be disinterred at the Restoration.

See J. Bathurst Deane, _The Life of Richard Deane_ (1870).

DEANE, SILAS (1737-1789), American diplomat, was born in Groton, Connecticut, on the 24th of December 1737. He graduated at Yale in 1758 and in 1761 was admitted to the bar, but instead of practising became a merchant at Wethersfield, Conn. He took an active part in the movements in Connecticut preceding the War of Independence, and from 1774 to 1776 was a delegate from Connecticut to the Continental Congress. Early in 1776 he was sent to France by Congress, in a semi-official capacity, as a secret agent to induce the French government to lend its financial aid to the colonies. Subsequently he became, with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, one of the regularly accredited commissioners to France from Congress. On arriving in Paris, Deane at once opened negotiations with Vergennes and Beaumarchais, securing through the latter the shipment of many vessel loads of arms and munitions of war to America. He also enlisted the services of a number of Continental soldiers of fortune, among whom were Lafayette, Baron Johann De Kalb and Thomas Conway. His carelessness in keeping account of his receipts and expenditures, and the differences between himself and Arthur Lee regarding the contracts with Beaumarchais, eventually led, in November 1777, to his recall to face charges, of which Lee's complaints formed the basis. Before returning to America, however, he signed on the 6th of February 1778 the treaties of amity and commerce and of alliance which he and the other commissioners had successfully negotiated. In America he was defended by John Jay and John Adams, and after stating his case to Congress was allowed to return to Paris (1781) to settle his affairs. Differences with various French officials led to his retirement to Holland, where he remained until after the treaty of peace had been signed, when he settled in England. The publication of some "intercepted" letters in Rivington's _Royal Gazette_ in New York (1781), in which Deane declared his belief that the struggle for independence was hopeless and counselled a return to British allegiance, aroused such animosity against him in America that for some years he remained in England. He died on shipboard in Deal harbour, England, on the 23rd of September 1789 after having embarked for America on a Boston packet. No evidence of his dishonesty was ever discovered, and Congress recognized the validity of his claims by voting $37,000 to his heirs in 1842. He published his defence in _An Address to the Free and Independent Citizens of the United States of North America_ (Hartford, Conn., and London, 1784).

_The Correspondence of Silas Deane_ was published in the Connecticut Historical Society's Collections, vol. ii.; and _The Deane Papers_, in 5 vols., in the New York Historical Society's _Collections_ (1887-1890). See also Winsor's _Narrative and Critical History_, vol. vii. chap, i., and Wharton's _Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States_ (6 vols., Washington, 1889).

DEATH, the permanent cessation of the vital functions in the bodies of animals and plants, the end of life or act of dying. The word is the English representative of the substantive common to Teutonic languages, as "dead" is of the adjective, and "die" of the verb; the ultimate origin is the pre-Teutonic verbal stem _dau_-; cf. Ger _Tod_, Dutch _dood_, Swed. and Dan. _död_.

For the scientific aspects of the processes involved in life and its cessation see BIOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY, PATHOLOGY, and allied articles; and for the consideration of the prolongation of life see LONGEVITY. Here it is only necessary to deal with the more primitive views of death and with certain legal aspects.

_Ethnology._--To the savage, death from natural causes is inexplicable. At all times and in all lands, if he reflects upon death at all, he fails to understand it as a natural phenomenon; nor in its presence is he awed or curious. Man in a primitive state has for his dead an almost animal indifference. The researches of archaeologists prove that Quaternary Man cared little what became of his fellow-creature's body. And this lack of interest is found to-day as a general characteristic of savages. The Goajiros of Venezuela bury their dead, they confess, simply to get rid of them. The Galibis of Guiana, when asked the meaning of their curious funeral ceremony, which consists in dancing on the grave, replied that they did it to stamp down the earth. Fuegians, Bushmen, Veddahs, show the same lack of concern and interest in the memory of the dead. Even the Eskimos, conspicuous as they are for their intelligence and sociability, save themselves the trouble of caring for their sick and old by walling them up and leaving them to die in a lonely hut; the Chukches stone or strangle them to death; some Indian tribes give them over to tigers, and the Battas of Sumatra eat them. This indifference is not dictated by any realization that death means annihilation of the personality. The savage conception of a future state is one that involves no real break in the continuity of life as he leads it. If a man dies without being wounded he is considered to be the victim of the sorcerers and the evil spirits with which they consort. Throughout Africa the death of anyone is ascribed to the magicians of some hostile tribe or to the malicious act of a neighbour. A culprit is easily discovered either by an appeal to a local diviner or in torturing some one into confession. In Australia it is the same. Mr Andrew Lang says that "whenever a native dies, no matter how evident it may be that death has been the result of natural causes, it is at once set down that the defunct was bewitched." The Bechuanas and all Kaffir tribes believe that death, even at an advanced age, if not from hunger or violence, is due to witchcraft, and blood is required to expiate or avenge it. Similar beliefs are found among the Papuans, and among the Indians of both Americas. The history of witchcraft in Europe and its attendant horrors, so vividly painted in Lecky's _Rise of Rationalism_, are but echoes of this universal refusal of savage man to accept death as the natural end of life. Even to-day the ignorant peasantry of many European countries, Russia, Galicia and elsewhere, believe that all disease is the work of demons, and that medicinal herbs owe their curative properties to their being the materialized forms of benevolent spirits.

This animistic tendency is a marked characteristic of primitive Man in every land. The savage explains the processes of inanimate nature by assuming that living beings or spirits, possessed of capacities similar to his own, are within the inanimate object. The growth of a tree, the spark struck from a flint, the devastating floods of a river, mean to him the natural actions of beings within the tree, stone or water. And thus too he explains to himself the phenomena of human life, believing that each man has within him a mannikin or animal which dictates his actions in life. This miniature man is the savage's conception of the soul; sleep and trance being regarded as the temporary, death as the permanent, absence of the soul. Each individual is thus deemed to have a dual existence. This "subliminal" self (in modern terminology) has many forms. The Hurons thought that it possessed head, body, arms and legs, in fact that it was an exact miniature of a man. The Nootkas of British Columbia regard it as a tiny man, living in the crown of the head. So long as it stands erect, its possessor is well, but if it falls from its position the misfortunes of ill-health and madness at once assail him. The ancient Egyptian believed in the soul or "double." The inhabitants of Nias, an island to the west of Sumatra, have the strange belief that to everyone before birth is given the choice of a long and heavy or short and light soul (a parallel belief may be found in early Greek philosophy), and his choice determines the length of life. Sometimes the soul is conceived as a bird. The Bororos of Brazil fancy that in that shape the soul of a sleeper passes out of the body during night-time, returning to him at his awakening. The Bella Coola Indians say the soul is a bird enclosed in an egg and lives in the nape of the neck. If the shell bursts and the soul flies away, the man must die. If however the bird flies away, egg and all, then he faints or loses his reason. A popular superstition in Bohemia assumes that the soul in the shape of a white bird leaves the body by way of the mouth. Among the Battas of Sumatra rice or grain is sprinkled on the head of a man who returns from a dangerous enterprise, and in the latter case the grains are called _padiruma tondi_, "means to make the soul (_tondi_) stay at home." In Java the new-born babe is placed in a hen-coop, and the mother makes a clucking noise, as if she were a hen, to attract the child's soul. It is regarded by many savage peoples as highly dangerous to arouse a sleeper suddenly, as his soul may not have time to return. Still more dangerous is it to move a sleeper, for the soul on its return might not be able to find the body. Flies and butterflies are forms which the souls are believed by some races to take, and the Esthonians of the island of Oesel think that the gusts of wind which whirl tornado-like through the roads are the souls of old women seeking what they can find.

But more widespread perhaps than any belief, from its simplicity doubtless, is the idea that the body's shadow or reflexion is the soul. The Basutos think that crocodiles can devour the shadow of a man cast on the surface of water. In many parts of the world sorcerers are credited with supernatural powers over a man by an attack on his shadow. The sick man is considered to have lost his shadow or a part of it. Dante refers to the shadowless spectre of Virgil, and the folklore of many European countries affords examples of the prevalence of the superstition that a man must be as careful of his shadow as of his body. In the same way the reflexion-soul is thought to be subject to a malice of enemies or attacks of beasts and has been the cause of superstitions which in one form or another exist to-day. From the Fijian and Andaman islander who exhibits abject terror at seeing himself in a glass or in water, to the English or European peasant who covers up the mirrors or turns them to the wall, upon a death occurring, lest an inmate of the house should see his own face and have his own speedy demise thus prognosticated, the idea holds its ground. It was probably the origin of the story of Narcissus, and there is scarcely a race which is free from the haunting dread. Lastly the soul is pictured as being a man's breath (_anima_), and this again has come down to us in literature, evidenced by the fact that the word "breath" has become a synonym for life itself. The "last breath" has meant more than a mere metaphor. It expresses the savage belief that there departs from the dying in the final expiration a something tangible, capable of separate existence--the soul. Among the Romans custom imposed a sacred duty on the nearest relative, usually the heir, to inhale the "last breath" of the dying. Moreover the classics bear evidence to the sanctity with which sentiment surrounded the last kiss; Cicero, in his speech against Verres, saying "_Matres ab extremo complexu liberum exclusae: quae nihil aliud orabant nisi ut filiorum extremum spiritum ore excipere sibi liceret_." Virgil, too, refers in the _Aeneid_, iv. 684, to the custom, which survives to-day as a ceremonial practice among many savage and semi-civilized people.

From the inability of the savage in all ages and in all lands to comprehend death as a natural phenomenon, there results a tendency to personify death, and myths are invented to account for its origin. Sometimes it is a "taboo" which has been broken and gives Death power over man. In New Zealand Maui, the divine hero of Polynesia, was not properly baptized. In Australia a woman was told not to go near a tree where a bat lived: she infringed the prohibition, the bat fluttered out, and death resulted. The Ningphoos were dismissed from Paradise and became mortal because one of them bathed in water which had been "tabooed" (Dalton, p. 13). Other versions of the Death-myth in Polynesia relate that Maui stole a march on Night as she slept, and would have passed right through her to destroy her, but a little bird which sings at sunset woke her, she destroyed Maui, and men lost immortality. In India Yama, the god of Death, is assumed, like Maui, to have been the first to "spy out the path to the other world." In the Solomon Islands (_Jour. Anth. Inst._, February 1881) "Koevari was the author of death, by resuming her cast-off skin." The same story is told in the Banks Islands. The Greek myth (Hesiód, _Works and Days_, 90) alleged that mortals lived "without ill diseases that give death to men" till the cover was lifted from the box of Pandora. This personification of Death has had as a consequence the introduction into the folklore of many lands of stories, often humorous, of the tricks played on the Enemy of Mankind. Thus Sisyphus fettered Death, keeping him prisoner till rescued by Ares; in Venetian folklore Beppo ties him up in a bag for eighteen months; while in Sicily an innkeeper corks him up in a bottle, and a monk keeps him in his pouch for forty years. The German parallel is Gambling Hansel, who kept Death up a tree for seven years. Such examples might be multiplied unendingly, but enough has been said to show that the attitude of civilized man towards the sphinx-riddle of his end has been in part dictated and is even still influenced by the savage belief that to die is unnatural.

_Law--Registration._--The registration of burials in England goes back to the time of Thomas Cromwell, who in 1538 instituted the keeping of parish registers. Statutory measures were taken from time to time to ensure the preservation of registers of burials, but it was not until 1836 (the Births and Deaths Registration Act) that the registration of deaths became a national concern. Other acts dealing with death registration were subsequently passed, and the whole law for England consolidated by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874. By that act, the registration of every death and the cause of the death is compulsory. When a person dies in a house information of the death and the particulars required to be registered must be given within five days of the death to the registrar to the best of the person's knowledge and belief by one of the following persons:--(1) The nearest relative of the deceased present at the death, or in attendance during the last illness of the deceased. If they fail, then (2) some other relative of the deceased in the same sub-district (registrar's) as the deceased. In default of relatives, (3) some person present at the death, or the occupier of the house in which, to his knowledge, the death took place. If all the above fail, (4) some inmate of the house, or the person causing the body of the deceased to be buried. The person giving the information must sign the register. Similarly, also, information must be given concerning death where the deceased dies not in a house.

Where written notice of the death, accompanied by a medical certificate of the cause of death, is sent to the registrar, information must nevertheless be given and the register signed within fourteen days after the death by the person giving the notice or some other person as required by the act. Failure to give information of death, or to comply with the registrar's requisitions, entails a penalty not exceeding forty shillings, and making false statements or certificates, or forging or falsifying them, is punishable either summarily within six months, or on indictment within three years of the offence. Before burial takes place the clergyman or other person conducting the funeral or religious service must have the registrar's certificate that the death of the deceased person has been duly registered, or else a coroner's order or warrant. Failing the certificate, the clergyman cannot refuse to bury, but he must forthwith give notice in writing to the registrar. Failure to do so within seven days involves a penalty not exceeding ten pounds. Children must not be registered as still-born without a medical certificate or a signed declaration from some one who would have been required, if the child had been born alive, to give information concerning the birth, that the child was still-born and that no medical man was present at the birth, or a coroner's order. The registration of deaths at sea is regulated by the act of 1874 together with the Merchant Shipping Act 1894. See further BIRTH and BURIAL AND BURIAL ACTS. Registers of death are, in law, evidence of the fact of death, and the entry, or a certified copy of it, will be sufficient evidence without a certificate of burial, although it is desirable that it should also be produced.

_Presumption of Death._--The fact of death may, in English law, be proved not only by direct but by presumptive evidence. When a person disappears, so that no direct proof of his whereabouts or death is obtainable, death may be presumed at the expiration of seven years from the period when the person was last heard of. It is always, however, a matter of fact for the jury, and the onus of proving the death lies on the party who asserts it. In Scotland, by the Presumption of Life (Scotland) Act 1891, the presumption is statutory. In those cases where people disappear under circumstances which create a strong probability of death, the court may, for the purpose of probate or administration, presume the death before the lapse of seven years. The question of survivorship, where two or more persons are shown to have perished by the same catastrophe, as in cases of shipwreck, has been much discussed. It was at one time thought that there might be a presumption of survivorship in favour of the younger as against the older, of the male as against the female, &c. But it is now clear that there is no such presumption (_In re Alston_, 1892, P. 142). This is also the rule in most states of the American Union. The doctrine of survivorship originated in the Roman Law, which had recourse to certain artificial presumptions, where the particular circumstances connected with deaths were unknown. Some of the systems founded on the civil law, as the French code, have adopted certain rules of survivorship.

_Civil Death_ is an expression used, in law, in contradistinction to natural death. Formerly, a man was said to be dead in law (1) when he entered a monastery and became professed in religion; (2) when he abjured the realm; (3) when he was attainted of treason or felony. Since the suppression of the monasteries there has been no legal establishment for professed persons in England, and the first distinction has therefore disappeared, though for long after the original reason had ceased to make it necessary grants of life estates were usually made for the terms of a man's _natural_ life. The act abolishing sanctuaries (1623) did away with civil death by abjuration; and the Forfeiture Act 1870, that on attainder for treason or felony.

For the tax levied on the estate of deceased persons, and sometimes called "death duty," see SUCCESSION DUTY.

For the statistics of the death-rate of the United Kingdom as compared with that of the various European countries see UNITED KINGDOM. See also the articles ANNUITY; CAPITAL PUNISHMENT; CREMATION; INSURANCE; MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE, &c.

DEATH-WARNING, a term used in psychical research for an intimation of the death of another person received by other than the ordinary sensory channels, i.e. by (1) a sensory hallucination or (2) a massive sensation, both being of telepathic origin. (See TELEPATHY.) Both among civilized and uncivilized peoples there is a widespread belief that the apparition of a living person is an omen of death; but until the Society of Psychical Research undertook the statistical examination of the question, there were no data for estimating the value of the belief. In 1885 a collection of spontaneous cases and a discussion of the evidence was published under the title _Phantasms of the Living_, and though the standard of evidence was lower than at the present time, a substantial body of testimony, including many striking cases, was there put forward. In 1889 a further inquiry was undertaken, known as the "Census of Hallucinations," which provided information as to the percentage of individuals in the general population who, at some period of their lives, while they were in a normal state of health, had had "a vivid impression of seeing or being touched by a living being or inanimate object, or of hearing a voice; which impression, so far as they could discover, was not due to any external cause." To the census question about 17,000 answers were received, and after making all deductions it appeared that death coincidences numbered about 30 in 1300 cases of recognized apparitions; or about 1 in 43, whereas if chance alone operated the coincidences would have been in the proportion of 1 to 19,000. As a result of the inquiry the committee held it to be proved that "between deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connexion exists which is not due to chance alone." From an evidential point of view the apparition is the most valuable class of death-warning, inasmuch as recognition is more difficult in the case of an auditory hallucination, even where it takes the form of spoken words; moreover, auditory hallucinations coinciding with deaths may be mere knocks, ringing of bells, &c.; tactile hallucinations are still more difficult of recognition; and the hallucinations of smell which are sometimes found as death-warnings rarely have anything to associate them specially with the dead person. Occasionally the death-warning is in the form of an apparition of some other person; it may also take the form of a temporary feeling of intense depression or other massive sensation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Podmore, Gurney and Myers, _Phantasms of the Living_ (1885); for the Census Report see _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, part xxvi.; see also F. Podmore, _Apparitions and Thought Transference_. For a criticism of the results of the Census see E. Parish, _Hallucinations and Illusions_ and _Zur Kritik des telepathischen Beweismaterials_, and Mrs Sidgwick's refutation in _Proc. S.P.R._ part xxxiii. 589-601. The _Journal of the S.P.R._ contains the most striking spontaneous cases received from time to time by the society. (N. W. T.)

DEATH-WATCH, a popular name applied to insects of two distinct families, which burrow and live in old furniture and produce the mysterious "ticking" vulgarly supposed to foretell the death of some inmate of the house. The best known, because the largest, is a small beetle, _Anobium striattum_, belonging to the family _Ptinidae_. The "ticking," in reality a sexual call, like the chirp of a grasshopper, is produced by the beetle rapidly striking its head against the hard and dry woodwork. In the case of the smaller death-watches, some of the so-called book-lice of the family _Psocidae_, the exact way in which the sound is caused has not been satisfactorily explained. Indeed the ability of such small and soft insects to give rise to audible sounds has been seriously doubted; but it is impossible to ignore the positive evidence on the point. The names _Atropos divinatoria_ and _Clothilla pulsatoria_, given to two of the commoner forms, bear witness both to a belief in a causal connexion between these insects and the ticking, and to the superstition regarding the fateful significance of the sound.

DE BARY, HEINRICH ANTON (1831-1888), German botanist, was of Belgian extraction, though his family had long been settled in Germany, and was born on the 26th of January 1831, at Frankfort-on-Main. From 1849 to 1853 he studied medicine at Heidelberg, Marburg and Berlin. In 1853 he settled at Frankfort as a surgeon. In 1854 he became privat-docent for botany in Tübingen, and professor of botany at Freiburg in 1855. In 1867 he migrated to Halle, and in 1872 to Strassburg, where he was the first rector of the newly constituted university, and where he died on the 19th of January 1888.

Although one of his largest and most important works was on the _Comparative Anatomy of Ferns and Phanerogams_ (1877), and notwithstanding his admirable acquaintance with systematic and field botany generally, de Bary will always be remembered as the founder of modern mycology. This branch of botany he completely revolutionized in 1866 by the publication of his celebrated _Morphologie und Physiologie d. Pilze_, &c., a classic which he rewrote in 1884, and which has had a world-wide influence on biology. His clear appreciation of the real significance of symbiosis and the dual nature of lichens is one of his most striking achievements, and in many ways he showed powers of generalizing in regard to the evolution of organisms, which alone would have made him a distinguished man. It was as an investigator of the then mysterious Fungi, however, that de Bary stands out first and foremost among the biologists of the 19th century. He not only laid bare the complex facts of the life-history of many forms,--e.g. the Ustilagineae, Peronosporeae, Uredineae and many Ascomycetes,--treating them from the developmental point of view, in opposition to the then prevailing anatomical method, but he insisted on the necessity of tracing the evolution of each organism from spore to spore, and by his methods of culture and accurate observation brought to light numerous facts previously undreamt of. These his keen perception and insight continually employed as the basis for hypotheses, which in turn he tested with an experimental skill and critical faculty rarely equalled and probably never surpassed. One of his most fruitful discoveries was the true meaning of infection as a morphological and physiological process. He traced this step by step in _Phytophthora_, _Cystopus_, _Puccinia_, and other Fungi, and so placed before the world in a clear light the significance of parasitism. He then showed by numerous examples wherein lay the essential differences between a parasite and a saprophyte; these were by no means clear in 1860-1870, though he himself had recognized them as early as 1853, as is shown by his work, _Die Brandpilze_.

These researches led to the explanation of epidemic diseases, and de Bary's contributions to this subject were fundamental, as witness his classical work on the potato disease in 1861. They also led to his striking discovery of _heteroecism_ (or _metoecism_) in the Uredineae, the truth of which he demonstrated in wheat rust experimentally, and so clearly that his classical example (1863) has always been confirmed by subsequent observers, though much more has been discovered as to details. It is difficult to estimate the relative importance of de Bary's astoundingly accurate work on the sexuality of the Fungi. He not only described the phenomena of sexuality in Peronosporeae and Ascomycetes--_Eurotium_, _Erysiphe_, _Peziza_, &c.--but also established the existence of parthenogenesis and apogamy on so firm a basis that it is doubtful if all the combined workers who have succeeded him, and who have brought forward contending hypotheses in opposition to his views, have succeeded in shaking the doctrine he established before modern cytological methods existed. In one case, at least (_Pyronema confluens_), the most skilful investigations, with every modern appliance, have shown that de Bary described the sexual organs and process accurately.

It is impossible here to mention all the discoveries made by de Bary. He did much work on the Chytridieae, Ustilagineae, Exoasceae and Phalloideae, as well as on that remarkable group the Myxomycetes, or, as he himself termed them, _Mycetozoa_, almost every step of which was of permanent value, and started lines of investigation which have proved fruitful in the hands of his pupils. Nor must we overlook the important contributions to algology contained in his earlier monograph on the Conjugatae (1858), and investigations on Nostocaceae (1863), _Chara_ (1871), _Acetabularia_ (1869), &c. De Bary seems to have held aloof from the Bacteria for many years, but it was characteristic of the man that, after working at them in order to include an account of the group in the second edition of his book in 1884, he found opportunity to bring the whole subject of bacteriology under the influence of his genius, the outcome being his brilliant _Lectures on Bacteria_ in 1885. De Bary's personal influence was immense. Every one of his numerous pupils was enthusiastic in admiration of his kind nature and genial criticism, his humorous sarcasm, and his profound insight, knowledge and originality.

Memoirs of de Bary's life will be found in _Bot. Centralbl._ (1888), xxxiv. 93, by Wilhelm; _Ber. d. d. bot. Ges._ vol. vi. (1888) p. viii., by Reess, each with a list of his works; _Bot. Zeitung_ (1889), vol. xlvii. No. 3, by Graf zu Soems-Laubach. (H. M. W.)

DEBENTURES and DEBENTURE STOCK. One of the many advantages incident to incorporation under the English Companies Acts is found in the facilities which such incorporation affords a trading concern for borrowing on debentures or debenture stock. More than five hundred millions of money are now invested in these forms of security. Borrowing was not specifically dealt with by the Companies Acts prior to the act of 1900, but that it was contemplated by the legislature is evident from the provision in § 43 of the act of 1862 for a company keeping a register of mortgages and charges. The policy of the legislature in this, as in other matters connected with trading companies, was apparently to leave the company to determine whether borrowing should or should not form one of its objects.

The first principle to be borne in mind is that a company cannot borrow unless it is expressly or impliedly authorized to do so by its memorandum of association. In the case of a _trading_ company borrowing is impliedly authorized as a necessary incident of carrying on the company's business. Thus a company established for the conveyance of passengers and luggage by omnibuses, a company formed to buy and run vessels between England and Australia, and a company whose objects included discounting approved commercial bills, have all been held to be trading companies with an incidental power of borrowing as such to a reasonable amount. A building society, on the other hand, has no inherent power of borrowing (though a limited statutory power was conferred on such societies by the Building Societies Act 1874); nor has a society formed not for gain but to promote art, science, religion, charity or any other useful object. Public companies formed to carry out some undertaking of public utility, such as docks, water works, or gas works, and governed by the Companies Clauses Acts, have only limited powers of borrowing.

An implied power of borrowing, even when it attaches, is too inconvenient to be relied on in practice, and an express power is always now inserted in a joint stock company's memorandum of association. This power is in the most general terms. It is left to the articles to define the amount to be borrowed, the nature of the security, and the conditions, if any,--such as the sanction of a general meeting of shareholders,--on which the power is to be exercised. Under the Companies Act 1908, § 87, a company cannot exercise any borrowing power until it has fulfilled the conditions prescribed by the act entitling it to commence business: one of which is that the company must have obtained its "minimum subscription." A person who is proposing to lend money to a company must be careful to acquaint himself with any statutory regulations of this kind, and also to see (1) that the memorandum and articles of association authorize borrowing, and (2) that the borrowing limit is not being exceeded, for if it should turn out that the borrowing was in excess of the company's powers and _ultra vires_, the company cannot be bound, and the borrower's only remedy is against the directors for breach of warranty of authority, or to be surrogated to the rights of any creditors who may have been paid out of the borrowed moneys.

A company proposing to borrow usually issues a prospectus, similar to the ordinary share prospectus, stating the amount of the issue, the dates for payment, the particulars of the property to be comprised in the security, the terms as to redemption, and so on, and inviting the public to subscribe. Underwriting is also resorted to, as in the case of shares, to ensure that the issue is taken up. There is no objection to a company issuing debentures or debenture stock at a discount, as there is to its issuing its shares at a discount. It must borrow on the best terms its credit will enable it to obtain. A prospectus inviting subscriptions for debentures or debenture stock comes within the terms of the Directors' Liability Act 1890 (re-enacted in Companies Act 1908, § 84), and persons who are parties to it have the onus cast upon them, should the prospectus contain any misstatements, of showing that, at the time when they issued the prospectus, they had reasonable grounds to believe, and did in fact believe, that the statements in question were true; otherwise they will be liable to pay compensation to any person injured by the misstatements. A debenture prospectus is also within the terms of the Companies Act 1908. It must be filed with the registrar of joint stock companies (§ 80) and must contain all the particulars specified in § 81 of the act. (See COMPANY.)

The usual mode of borrowing by a company is either on debentures or debenture stock. Etymologically, debenture is merely the Latin word _debentur_,--The first word in a document in common use by the crown in early times admitting indebtedness to its servants or soldiers. This was the germ of a security which has now, with the expansion of joint stock company enterprise, grown into an instrument of considerable complexity.

Debentures may be classified in various ways. From the point of view of the security they are either (1) debentures (simply); (2) mortgage debentures; (3) debenture bonds. In the debenture the security is a floating charge. In the mortgage debenture there is also a floating charge, but the property forming the principal part of the security is conveyed by the company to trustees under a trust deed for the benefit of the debenture-holders. In the debenture bond there is no security proper: only the covenant for payment by the company. For purposes of title and transfer, debentures are either "registered" or "to bearer." For purposes of payment they are either "terminable" or "perpetual" (see Companies Act 1908, § 103).

_The Floating Debenture._--The form of debenture chiefly in use at the present day is that secured by a floating charge. By it the company covenants to pay to the holder thereof the sum secured by the debenture on a specified day (usually ten or fifteen years after the date of issue), or at such earlier date as the principal moneys become due under the provisions of the security, and in the meantime the company covenants to pay interest on the principal moneys until payment, or until the security becomes enforceable under the conditions; and the company further charges its undertaking and all its property, including its uncalled capital, with the payment of the amount secured by the debentures. Uncalled capital if included must be expressly mentioned, because the word "property" by itself will not cover uncalled capital which is only property potentially, i.e. when called up. This is the body of the instrument; on its back is endorsed a series of conditions, constituting the terms on which the debenture is issued. Thus the debenture-holders are to rank _pari passu_ with one another against the security; the debenture is to be transferable free from equities between the company and the original holder; the charge is to be a floating charge, and the debenture-holders' moneys are to become immediately repayable and the charges enforceable in certain events: for instance, if the interest is in arrear for (say) two or three months, or if a winding-up order is made against the company, or a resolution for winding-up is passed. Other events indicative of insolvency are sometimes added in which payment is to be accelerated. The conditions also provide for the mode and form of transfer of the debentures, the death or bankruptcy of the holder, the place of payment, &c. The most characteristic feature of the security--the floating charge--grew naturally out of a charge on a company's undertaking as a going concern. Such a charge could only be made practicable by leaving the company free to deal with and dispose of its property in the ordinary course of its business--to sell, mortgage, lease, and exchange it as if no charge existed: and this is how the security works. The debenture-holders give the directors an implied licence to deal with and dispose of the property comprised in the security until the happening of any of the events upon which the debenture-holders' money becomes under the debenture conditions immediately repayable. Pending this the charge is dormant. The licence extends, however, only to dealings in _the ordinary course of business_. Payment by a company of its just debts is always in the ordinary course of business, but satisfaction by execution levied _in invitum_ is not. This floating form of security is found very convenient both to the borrowing company and to the lender. The company is not embarrassed by the charge, while the lender has a security covering the whole assets for the time being, and can intervene at any moment by obtaining a receiver if his security is imperilled, even though none of the events in which the principal moneys are made payable have happened. If any of them has happened, for instance default in payment of interest, or a resolution by the company to wind up, the payment of the principal moneys is accelerated, and a debenture-holder can at once commence an action to obtain payment and to realize his security. At times a proviso is inserted in the conditions endorsed on the debenture, that the company is not to create any mortgage or charge ranking in priority to or _pari passu_ with that contained in the debentures. Very nice questions of priority have arisen under such a clause. A floating charge created by a company within three months of its being wound up will now be invalid under § 12 of the Companies Act 1908 unless the company is shown to have been solvent at the time, but there is a saving clause for cash paid under the security and interest at 5%.

_Trust Deeds._--When the amount borrowed by a company is large, the company commonly executes a trust deed by way of further security. The object of such a trust deed is twofold: (1) it conveys specific property to the trustees of the deed by way of legal mortgage (the charge contained in the debentures is only an equitable security), and it further charges all the remaining assets in favour of the debenture-holders, with appropriate provisions for enabling them, in certain events similar to those expressed in the debenture conditions, to enforce the security, and for that purpose to enter into possession and carry on the business, or to sell it and distribute the proceeds; (2) it organizes the debenture-holders and constitutes in the trustees of the deed a body of experienced business men who can watch over the interests of the debenture-holders and take steps for their protection if necessary. In particular it provides machinery for the calling of meetings of debenture-holders by the trustees, and empowers a majority of (say) two-thirds or three-fourths in number and value at such meeting to bind the rest to any compromise or arrangement with the company which such majorities may deem beneficial. This is found a very useful power, and may save recourse to a scheme or arrangement first sanctioned under the machinery of the Joint Stock Companies Arrangement Act 1870 (Companies Act 1908, § 120).

_Registration of Mortgages and Charges._--A company is bound, under the Companies Act 1862, to keep a register of mortgages and charges, but the register is only open for the inspection of persons who have actually become creditors of the company, not of persons who may be thinking of giving it credit, and the legislature recognizing its inadequacy provided in the Companies Act 1900 (§ 4 of act of 1908) for a public register at Somerset House of all mortgages and charges of certain specified classes by a company. If not registered within twenty-one days from their creation such mortgages and charges are made void--so far as they are securities--against the liquidator and any creditor of the company, but the debenture-holders retain the rights of unsecured creditors. An extension of the time for registering may be granted by the court, but it will only be without prejudice to the rights of third persons acquired before actual registration. These provisions for registration as amended are contained in the Companies Act 1908 (§ 93).

_Debentures Registered and to Bearer._--Debentures are, for purposes of title and transfer, of two kinds--(1) registered debentures, and (2) debentures to bearer. Registered debentures are transferable only in the books of the company. Debentures to bearer are negotiable instruments and pass by delivery. Coupons for interest are attached. Sometimes debentures to bearer are made exchangeable for registered debentures and vice versa.

_Redemption._--A company generally reserves to itself a right of redeeming the security before the date fixed by the debenture for repayment; and accordingly a power for that purpose is commonly inserted in the conditions. But as debenture-holders, who have got a satisfactory security, do not wish to be paid off, the right of redemption is often qualified so as not to arise till (say) five years after issue, and a premium of 5% is made payable by way of bonus to the redeemed debenture-holder. Sometimes the number of debentures to be redeemed each year is limited. The selection is made by drawings held in the presence of the directors. A sinking fund is a convenient means frequently resorted to for redemption of a debenture debt, and is especially suitable where the security is of a wasting character, leaseholds, mining property or a patent. Such a fund is formed by the company setting apart a certain sum each year out of the profits of the company after payment of interest on the debentures. Redeemed debentures may in certain cases be reissued; see Companies Act 1908 (§ 104).

_Debenture Stock._--Debenture stock bears the same relation to debentures that stock does to shares. "Debenture stock," as Lord Lindley states (_Companies_, 5th ed., 195), "is merely borrowed capital consolidated into one mass for the sake of convenience. Instead of each lender having a separate bond or mortgage, he has a certificate entitling him to a certain sum, being a portion of one large loan." This sum is not uniform, as in the case of debentures, but variable. One debenture-stockholder, for instance, may hold £20 of the debenture stock, another £20,000. Debenture stock is usually issued in multiples of £10 or sometimes of £1, and is made transferable in sums of any amount not involving a fraction of £1. It is this divisibility of stock, whether debenture or ordinary stock, into quantities of any amount, which constitutes in fact its chief characteristic, and its convenience from a business point of view. It facilitates dealing with the stock, and also enables investors with only a small amount to invest to become stockholders. The property comprised in this security is generally the same as in the case of debentures. Debenture stock created by trading companies differs in various particulars from debenture stock created by public companies governed by the Companies Clauses Act. The debenture stock of trading companies is created by a contract made between the company and trustees for the debenture-stockholders. This contract is known as a debenture-stockholders' trust deed, and is analogous in its provisions to the trust deed above described as used to secure debentures. By such a deed the company acknowledges its indebtedness to the trustees, as representing the debenture-stockholders, to the amount of the sum advanced, covenants to pay it, and conveys the property by way of security to the trustees with all the requisite powers and provisions for enabling them to enforce the security on default in payment of interest by the company or on the happening of certain specified events evidencing insolvency. The company further, in pursuance of the contract, enters the names of the subsisting stockholders in a register, and issues certificates for the amount of their respective holdings. These certificates have, like debentures, the conditions of the security indorsed on their back. Debenture stock is also issued to bearer. A deed securing debenture stock requires an _ad valorem_ stamp.

_Debenture Scrip._--Debentures and debenture stock are usually made payable in instalments, for example 10% on application, 10% on allotment and the remainder at intervals of a few months. Until these payments are complete the securities are not issued, but to enable the subscriber to deal with his security pending completion the company issues to him an interim scrip certificate acknowledging his title and exchangeable on payment of the remaining instalments for debentures or debenture stock certificates. If a subscriber for debentures made default in payment the company could not compel him specifically to perform his contract, the theory of law being that the company could get the loan elsewhere, but this inconvenience is now removed (see § 105 of the Companies Act 1908).

_Remedies._--When debenture-holders' security becomes enforceable there are a variety of remedies open to them. These fall into two classes--(1) remedies available without the aid of the court; (2) remedies available only with the aid of the court.

1. If there is a trust deed, the trustees may appoint a receiver of the property comprised in the security, and they may also sell under the powers contained in the deed, or under § 25 of the Conveyancing Act 1881. Sometimes, where there is no trust deed, similar powers--to appoint a receiver and to sell--are inserted in the conditions indorsed on the debentures.

2. The remedies with the aid of the court are--(a) an action by one or more debenture-holders on behalf of all for a receiver and to realize the security; (b) an originating summons for sale or other relief, under Rules of Supreme Court, 1883, O. lv. r. 5A; (c) an action for foreclosure where the security is deficient (all the debenture-holders must be parties to this proceeding); (d) a winding-up petition. Of these modes of proceeding, the first is by far the most common and most convenient. Immediately on the issue of the writ in the action the plaintiff applies for the appointment of a receiver to protect the security, or if the security comprises a going business, a receiver _and manager_. In due course the action comes on for judgment, usually on agreed minutes, when the court directs accounts and inquiries as to who are the holders of the debentures, what is due to them, what property is comprised in the security, and gives leave to any of the parties to apply in chambers for a sale. If the company has gone into liquidation, leave must be obtained to commence or continue the action, but such leave in the case of debenture-holders is _ex debito justitiae_. A debenture-holder action when the company is in winding up is always now transferred to the judge having the control of the winding-up proceedings. The administration of a company's assets in such actions by debenture-holders (debenture-holders' liquidations, as they are called) has of late encroached very much on the ordinary administration of winding up, and it cannot be denied that great hardship is often inflicted by the floating security on the company's unsecured creditors, who find that everything belonging to the company, uncalled capital included, has been pledged to the debenture-holders. The conventional answer is that such creditors might and ought to have inspected the company's register of mortgages and charges. The matter was fully considered by the departmental board of trade committee which reported in July 1906, but the committee, looking at the business convenience of the floating charge, saw no reason for recommending an alteration in the law.

_Reconstruction._--When a company reconstructs, as it often does in these days, the rights of debenture-holders have to be provided for. Reconstructions are mainly of two kinds--(1) by arrangement, under the Joint Stock Companies Arrangement Act 1870, amended in 1900 and 1907, incorporated in act of 1908 (§ 120), and (2) by sale and transfer of assets, either under § 192 of the act of 1908, or under a power in the company's memorandum of association. By the procedure provided under (1) a petition for the sanction of the court to a scheme is presented, and the court thereupon directs meetings of creditors, including debenture-holders, to be held. A three-fourths majority in value of debenture-holders present at the meeting in person or by proxy binds the rest. Debenture-holders claiming to vote must produce their debentures at or before the meeting. Under the other mode of reconstruction--sale and transfer of assets--there is usually a novation, and the debenture-holders accept the security of the new company in the shape of debentures of equivalent value or--occasionally--of fully paid preference shares.

A point in this connexion, which involves some hardship to debenture-holders, may here be adverted to. It is a not uncommon practice for a solvent company to pass a resolution to wind up voluntarily for the purpose of reconstructing. The effect of this is to accelerate payment of the security, and the debenture-holders have to accept their principal and interest only, parting with a good security and perhaps a premium which would have accrued to them in a year or two. The company is thus enabled by its own act to redeem the reluctant debenture-holder on terms most advantageous to itself. To obviate this hardship, it is now a usual thing in a debenture-holders' trust deed to provide--the committee of the London Stock Exchange indeed require it--that a premium shall be paid to the debenture-holders in the event of the security becoming enforceable by a voluntary winding up with a view to reconstruction.

_Public Companies._--Public companies, i.e. companies incorporated by special act of parliament for carrying on undertakings of public utility, form a class distinct from trading companies. The borrowing powers of these companies, the form of their debenture or debenture stock, and the rights of the debenture-holders or debenture-stockholders, depend on the conjoint operation of the companies' own special act and the Companies Clauses Acts 1845, 1863 and 1869. The provisions of these acts as to borrowing, being express, exclude any implicit power of borrowing. The first two of the above acts relate to mortgages and bonds, the last to debenture stock. The policy of the legislature in all these acts is the same, namely, to give the greatest facilities for borrowing, and at the same time to take care that undertakings of public utility which have received legislative sanction shall not be broken up or destroyed, as they would be if the mortgagees or debenture-holders were allowed the ordinary rights of mortgagees for realizing their security by seizure and sale. Hence the legislature has given them only "the fruit of the tree," as Lord Cairns expressed it. The debenture-holders or the debenture-stockholders may take the earnings of the company's undertaking by obtaining the appointment of a receiver, but that is all they can do. They cannot sell the undertaking or disorganize it by levying execution, so long as the company is a going concern; but this protecting principle of public policy will not be a bar to a debenture-holder, in his character of creditor, presenting a petition to wind up the company, if it is no longer able to fulfil its statutory objects. Railway companies have further special legislation, which will be found in the Railway Companies Powers Act 1864, the Railways Construction Facilities Act 1864 and the Railway Securities Act 1866.

_Municipal Corporations and County Councils._--These bodies are authorized to borrow for their proper purposes on debentures and debenture stock with the sanction of the Local Government Board. See the Municipal Corporations Act 1882, the Local Authorities' Loans Act 1875, and the Local Government (England and Wales) Act 1888.

_United States._--In the United States there are two meanings of debenture--(1) a bond not secured by mortgage; (2) a certificate that the United States is indebted to a certain person or his assigns in a certain sum on an audited account, or that it will refund a certain sum paid for duties on imported goods, in case they are subsequently exported.

AUTHORITIES.--E. Manson, _Debentures and Debenture Stock_ (London, 2nd ed., 1908); Simonson, _Debentures and Debenture Stock_ (London, 2nd ed., 1902); Palmer, _Company Precedents (Debentures)_ (3rd ed., London, 1907). (E. Ma.)

DEBORAH (Heb. for "bee"), the Israelite heroine in the Bible through whose encouragement the Hebrews defeated the Canaanites under Sisera. The account is preserved in Judges iv.-v., and the ode of victory (chap. v.), known as the "Song of Deborah," is held to be one of the oldest surviving specimens of Hebrew literature. Although the text of this _Te Deum_ has suffered (especially in vv. 8-15) its value is without an equal for its historical contents. It is not certain that the poem was actually composed by Deborah (v. 1); ver. 7, which can be rendered "until _thou_ didst arise, O Deborah," is indecisive. The poem consists of a series of rapidly shifting scenes; the words are often obscure, but the general drift of the whole can be easily followed. After the exordium, the writer describes the approach of Yahweh from his seats in Seir and Edom in the south to the help of his people--the language is reminiscent of Ps. lxviii. 7 sqq., Hab. iii. 3 seq. 12 seq. In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath the land had been insecure, the people were disarmed, and neither shield nor spear was to be seen among their forty thousand (cf. 1 Sam. xiii. 19-22, and for the number Josh. iv. 13). Then follows, apparently, a summons to magnify Yahweh. After an apostrophe to Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, the meeting of the clans is vividly portrayed. Ephraim, with Benjamin behind him (for the wording, cf. Hos. v. 8), Machir (here the tribe of Manasseh) and Zebulun, Issachar and Naphtali, pour down into the valley of the Kishon. Not all the tribes were represented. Reuben was wavering, Gilead (i.e. Gad) remained beyond the Jordan, and Dan's interests were apparently with the sea-going Phoenicians (see DAN); their conduct is contrasted with the reckless bravery of Zebulun and Naphtali. Judah is nowhere mentioned; it lay outside the confederation. The Canaanite kings unite at Taanach by Megiddo, an ancient battlefield probably to be identified with Lejjun. The heavens joined the fight against Sisera (cf. the appeal in Josh. x. 12 seq.), a storm rages, and the enemy are swept away in the flood. Meroz, presumably on the line of flight, is bitterly cursed for its inaction: "they came not to the help of Yahweh." In vivid contrast to this is the conduct of one of the Kenites: "blessed of all women is Jael, of all the nomad women is she blessed." The poem recounts how the fleeing king craves water, she gives him milk, and (as he drinks) she fells him (perhaps with a tent-peg); "at her feet he sank down, he fell, he lay, where he sank he lay overcome." The last scene paints the mother of Sisera impatiently awaiting the king. Her attendants confidently picture him dividing the booty--a maiden or two for each man, and richly embroidered cloth for himself. With inimitable strength the poet suddenly drops the curtain--"so perish thine enemies, all of them, Yahweh! But let them that love him be as the sun when it rises in its might."

The historical background of this great event is unknown. The Israelite confederation consists of central Palestine with the (east-Jordanic) Machir, and the northern tribes with the exception of Dan and Asher. This has suggested to some an invasion from the coast, or from the north by way of the coast, since had Dan and Asher fallen into the hands of the enemy, this would probably have been referred to in some way. Sisera is scarcely a Semitic name; a "Hittite" origin has been suggested.[1] Shamgar son of Anath seems equally foreign; the latter is the name of a Syrian goddess and the former recalls Sangara, a Hittite chief of Carchemish in the 9th century. The context suggests that Shamgar is a foreign oppressor (ver. 6), but he appears to have been converted subsequently into one of the "judges" of Israel (iii. 31), perhaps with the idea of bringing their total up to twelve.

The prose version (iv.) contains new and conflicting details. Deborah, whose home is placed under "Deborah's palm" between Ramah and Bethel, summons Barak from Kadesh-Naphtali to collect Naphtali and Zebulun, 10,000 strong, and to meet Sisera (who is here the general of a certain Jabin, king of Hazor) at Mt. Tabor. But Sisera marches south to Kishon, and after his defeat flees north through Israelite territory, past Hazor to the neighbourhood of Kadesh. His death, moreover, is differently described (iv. 21, v. 25-27), and Jael "who with inhospitable guile smote Sisera sleeping" (Milton) is guilty of an act which has possibly originated from a misunderstanding of the poem. In the prose narrative Jabin has nothing to do with the fight, whereas in Josh. xi. he is at the head of an alliance of north Canaanite kings who were defeated by Joshua at the waters of Merom. It would seem that certain elements which are inconsistent with the representation in Judg. v. belonged originally to the other battle. Kadesh, for example, might be a natural meeting-place for an attack upon Hazor, and the designation "Jabin's general," applied to Sisera, is probably due to the attempt to harmonize the two distinct stories. Moreover, Deborah, who is associated with the tribe of Issachar (v. 15), appears to have been confused with Rebekah's nurse, whose tomb lay near Bethel (Gen. xxxv. 5). Some more northerly place seems to be required, and it has been pointed out that the name corresponds with Daberath (modern Daburiyeh) at the foot of Tabor, on the border of Zebulun and Issachar. At all events, to represent her as a prophetess, judging the people of Israel (iv. 4 seq.), ill accords with both the older account (v.) and the general situation reflected in the earlier narratives in the book of Judges.

For fuller details see G. A. Cooke, _History and Song of Deborah_ (1892), the commentaries on Judges and the histories of Israel. Cheyne, _Critica Biblica_, pp. 446-464, offers many new textual emendations. Paton (_Syria and Palestine_, p. 158 sqq.) suggests that the battle was against the Hittites (Sisera, a successor of Shamgar). See also L. W. Batten, J_ourn. Bibl. Lit._ (1905) pp. 31-40 (who regards Judg. v. and Josh. xi. as duplicates); Winckler, _Gesch. Israels_, ii. 125-155; _Keilinschr. u. d. Alte Test._(³) p. 218; and Ed. Meyer, _Israeliten_, pp. 272 sqq., 487 sqq. (S. A. C.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The term "Hittite" is here used as a loose but convenient designation for closely related groups of N. Syria; see HITTITES.

DEBRECZEN, a town of Hungary, capital of the county of Hajdu, 138 m. E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900) 72,351. It is the principal Protestant centre in Hungary, and bears the name of "Calvinistic Rome." Debreczen is one of the largest towns of Hungary, and is situated in the midst of a sandy but fertile plain. It consists of the inner old town, and several suburbs, which stretch out irregularly into the plain. The walls of the old town have given place to a broad boulevard and several open commons, beautifully laid out. The most prominent of its public buildings is the principal Protestant church, built at the beginning of the 19th century, which ranks as the largest in the country, but has no great architectural pretensions. In its immediate neighbourhood is the Protestant Collegium, for theology and law, which is one of the most frequented institutions of its kind in Hungary, being attended by over two thousand students. This college was founded in 1531, and possesses a rich library and other scientific collections. The town hall, the Franciscan church, the Piarist monastery and college, and the theatre are also worthy of mention. Amongst its educational establishments it includes an agricultural academy. The industries of the town are various, but none is of importance enough to give it the character of a manufacturing centre. Its tobacco-pipes, sausages and soap are widely known. It carries on an active trade in cattle, horses, corn and honey, while four well-attended fairs are held annually. The municipality of Debreczen owns between three hundred and four hundred square miles of the adjoining country, which possesses all the characteristics of the Hungarian _puszta_, and on which roam large herds of cattle.

The town is of considerable antiquity, but owes its development to the refugees who flocked from the villages plundered by the Turks in the 15th century. In 1552 it adopted the Protestant faith, and it had to suffer in consequence, especially when it was captured in 1686 by the imperial forces. In 1693 it was made a royal free city. In 1848-1849 it formed a refuge for the national government and legislature when Budapest fell into the hands of the Austrians; and it was in the great Calvinist church that, on Kossuth's motion (April 14th, 1849) the resolution was passed declaring the house of Habsburg to have forfeited the crown of St Stephen. On the 3rd of July the town was captured by the Russians.

DEBT (Lat. _debitum_, a thing owed), a definite sum due by one person to another. It may be created by contract, by statute or by judgment. Putting aside those created by statute, recoverable by civil process, debts may be divided into three classes, (1) judgment debts, (2) specialty debts, and (3) simple contract debts. As to judgment debts, it is sufficient to say that, when by the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction an order is made that a sum of money be paid by one of two parties to another, such a debt is not only enforceable by process of court, but it can be sued upon as if it were an ordinary debt. A specialty debt is created by deed or instrument under seal. Until 1869 specialty debts had preference under English law over simple contract debts in the event of the bankruptcy or death of the debtor, but this was abolished by the Administration of Estates Act of that year. The main difference now is that a specialty debt may, in general, be created without consideration, as for example by a bond (a gratuitous promise under seal), and that a right of action arising out of a specialty debt is not barred if exercised any time within twenty years, whereas a right of action arising out of a simple contract debt is barred unless exercised within six years. (See LIMITATION, STATUTES OF.) Any other debt than a judgment or specialty debt, whether evidenced by writing or not, is a simple contract debt. There are also certain liabilities or debts which, for the convenience of the remedy, have been made to appear as though they sprang from contract, and are sometimes termed quasi-contracts. Such would be an admission by one who is in account with another that there is a balance due from him. Such an admission implies a promise to pay when requested and creates an actionable liability _ex contractu_. Or, when one person is compelled by law to discharge the legal liabilities of another, he becomes the creditor of the person for the money so paid. Again, where a person has received money under circumstances which disentitle him to retain it, such as receiving payment of an account twice over, it can generally be recovered as a debt.

At English common law debts and other choses in action were not assignable (see CHOSE), but by the Judicature Act 1873 any absolute assignment of any debt or other legal chose in action, of which express notice in writing is given to the debtor, trustee or other person from whom the assignor would have been entitled to receive or claim such debt, is effectual in law. Debts do not, as a general rule, carry interest, but such an obligation may arise either by agreement or by mercantile usage or by statute. The discharge of a debt may take place either by payment of the amount due, by accord and satisfaction, i.e. acceptance of something else in discharge of the liability, by set-off (q.v.), by release or under the law of bankruptcy (q.v.). It is the duty of a debtor to pay a debt without waiting for any demand, and, unless there is a place fixed on either by custom or agreement, he must seek out his creditor for the purpose of paying him unless he is "beyond the seas." Payment by a third person to the creditor is no discharge of a debt, as a general rule, unless the debtor subsequently ratifies the payment. When a debtor tenders the amount due to his creditor and the creditor refuses to accept, the debt is not discharged, but if the debtor is subsequently sued for the debt and continues willing and ready to pay, and pays the amount tendered into court, he can recover his costs in the action. A creditor is not bound to give change to the debtor, whose duty it is to make tender in lawful money the whole amount due, or more, without asking for change. (See PAYMENT.) A debtor takes the risk if he makes payment through the post, unless the creditor has requested or authorized that mode of payment. The payment of a debt is sometimes secured by one person, called a surety, who makes himself collaterally liable for the debt of the principal. (See GUARANTEE.) The ordinary method of enforcing a debt is by action. Where the debt does not exceed £100 the simplest procedure for its recovery is that of the county court, but if the debt exceeds £100 the creditor must proceed in the high court, unless the cause of action has arisen within the jurisdiction of certain inferior courts, such as the mayor's court of London, the Liverpool court of passage, &c. When judgment has been obtained it may be enforced either by process (under certain conditions) against the person of the debtor, by an execution against the debtor's property, or, with the assistance of the court, by attaching any debt owed to the debtor by a third person. Where a debtor has committed any act of bankruptcy a creditor or creditors whose aggregate claims are not less than £50 may proceed against him in bankruptcy (q.v.). Where the debtor is a company or corporation registered under the companies acts, the creditor may petition to have it wound up. (See COMPANY.)

Imprisonment for debt, the evils of which have been so graphically described by Dickens, was abolished in England by the Debtors Act 1869, except in cases of default of payment of penalties, default by trustees or solicitors and certain other cases. But in cases where a debt or instalment is in arrear and it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that the person making default either has or has had since the date of the order or judgment the means to pay the sum in respect of which he has made default and has refused or neglected to pay, he may be committed to prison at the discretion of the judge for a period of not more than forty-two days. In practice, a period of twenty-one days is usually the maximum period ordered. Such an imprisonment does not operate as a satisfaction or extinguishment of the debt, and no second order of commitment can be made against him for the same debt, although where the court has made an order or judgment for the payment of the debt by instalments a power of committal arises on default of payment of each instalment. In Ireland imprisonment for debt was abolished by the Debtors Act (Ireland) 1872, and in Scotland by the Debtors (Scotland)