group of fresh-water algæ, chiefly unicellular, remarkable for the symmetry of form and beauty of the cell contents. See Chlorophyceæ; Algæ.
DES MOINES, de moin′ (Fr., of the monks). The largest city of Iowa, State capital and county-seat of Polk County; near the geographical centre of the State, 138 miles east by north of Omaha, Neb.; on the Des Moines River, at the head of navigation, and at the mouth of Coon River (Map: Iowa, D 3). It is an important manufacturing and commercial city, and is noted for its extensive insurance interests and its exceptional railroad facilities, which include the lines of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific; the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy; the Chicago Great Western; the Chicago and Northwestern; the Wabash; and the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul. Des Moines was settled in 1846, incorporated as the town of Fort Des Moines in 1851, and in 1857 was chartered as a city and became the capital of the State. The city is built on gently sloping hills, and contains, among its finest structures, the Capitol, erected at a cost of $3,000,000; the United States Government Building; the State Arsenal; the State and city libraries; and the city hall. Des Moines is the seat of Des Moines College (Baptist), established in 1865; Drake University (Christian), founded in 1881; and three other colleges, including two medical schools. It has public parks, and several bridges across the two rivers. The Iowa State Fair is held here. An army post for a regiment of cavalry has recently been established at the city. Des Moines and the surrounding region are underlaid with vast deposits of bituminous coal, a material advantage which has contributed to the rapid growth of the manufacturing industries. Among the products are typewriters, sewer-pipe, patent medicines, brick, trunks, carriages, wagons, sleighs, cotton and woolen goods, starch, pottery, oatmeal, confectionery, crackers, mattresses, harness, engines and boilers, scales, furnaces, bicycles, plows, soap, brooms, white bronze, gloves, twine, tents, linseed oil, wall-paper, mashing-machines, furniture, axle-grease, baking-powder, electrical appliances, etc. The annual income and expenditures of the city amount to about $1,055,000 and $800,000 respectively, the principal items in the budget being $40,000 for street lighting, $35,000 for the police department, $65,000 for the fire department, and $265,000 for schools. Population, in 1850, 502; in 1870, 12,035; in 1890, 50,093; in 1900, 62,139; including 7900 persons of foreign birth and 1700 of negro descent.
DES MOINES COLLEGE. An institution of higher education, situated at Des Moines, Iowa. It was established in 1865 by members of the Baptist Church, and was affiliated with Chicago University (q.v.) in 1892. The college offers the bachelor's degree in arts, science, and philosophy. It had in 1902 an enrollment of some 320, including students in the musical and preparatory departments. The library contains about 5000 volumes. Owing to large gifts recently made by friends of the institution, it entered in 1902 upon a course of rapid expansion.
DES MOINES RIVER. The most important river of Iowa. It is formed by the meeting of the east and west forks of the Des Moines in Humboldt County, Iowa. The east fork is the outlet of Okamanpadu Lake, in Emmet County, Iowa; the west fork flows from a chain of lakes among which is Lake Heron, in Jackson County, Minn. (Map: Iowa, D 3). The Des Moines flows southeasterly across Iowa, and empties into the Mississippi River (q.v.) three miles below Keokuk. It is 550 miles long, drains an area of 14,500 square miles, and is navigable for nearly 100 miles. From Farmington to its mouth it falls 48 feet, or 135 feet per mile. The chief tributary is the Coon River, which joins it from the west at Des Moines. The chief cities along its banks are Ottumwa, Des Moines, and Fort Dodge. Through Lee County it flows in a narrow, gorge-like valley noted for scenery.
DES′MOSPON′GIÆ. See Hexactinellida.
DESMOULINS, dā̇′mo͞o′lăN′, Benoit Camille (1760-94). A French politician and journalist of the time of the Revolution. He was born at Guise, in Picardy, March 2, 1760, the eldest son of the Lieutenant-General of the Bailiwick of Guise. Through the influence of a relative young Desmoulins obtained a scholarship in the Collège Louis le Grand, Paris, where he had Robespierre as a fellow-student. After his graduation young Desmoulins studied law, and became an advocate before the Parliament of Paris in 1784, but met with little success, owing, it is said, to a stammer in his speech. In 1788 he published a philosophical work, La philosophie du peuple français, which attracted considerable attention; but it was the dismissal of Necker, July 11, 1789, that first brought Desmoulins to the front as a Revolutionist. He heard the news on the evening of July 12, and, in the excitement of the moment forgetting his stammer, sprang on a café table in the garden of the Palais Royal and harangued the crowd of people around him. This scene marked the actual beginning of the Revolution. The cry “To arms!” resounded, and two days later the Bastille was taken. A republican pamphlet, La France libre, which he brought out, was received with instantaneous favor, and he was encouraged to follow it up with a journal of a revolutionary nature. His Discours de la lanterne aux Parisiens was less to his credit, and earned for him the nickname of ‘Procureur de la lanterne.’ Desmoulins was a hero-worshiper, but inconsistent in his allegiance, and after making Mirabeau his idol, transferred his affections to Danton, to whom he clung until the end. In 1791 both men were in danger of arrest for the extreme boldness of their views, but both escaped. It was at this time that Desmoulins ceased publishing Les Révolutions de France et de Brabant, his first journal, and began La Tribune des Patriotes, which became the organ of the Cordeliers. He was also intimate with Robespierre, who persuaded him to attack the Girondists in a work entitled Fragment de l'histoire de la Révolution (usually referred to as the Histoire des Brissotins). This venomous attack helped greatly in overthrowing the opposite party; but it is said that later Desmoulins regretted his course. With Danton he began to call for moderation, and toward the end of 1793 the first number of Le Vieux Cordelier appeared and stood up for just and legal trials and less severe sentences. Desmoulins attacked the Hébertists as well as the Committee of Public Safety,
