DEAD SEA. 16 loriued of while takaivous marl, salt, and gyp- sum, and rises 40 to 80 feet above the water, ending in a cliff 300 feet high. Soutli of al- Lisan the lake is comparatively shallow ( 10 to 18 feet) ; the greatest depth is 1310 feet. The level of the water varies considerably with the season; it has been maintained that its volume is shrinking, the inflow not being equal to the loss by evaporation, but the evidence on this point is not satisfactory. The water contains about 25 i)er cent, of solid substances, common salt, chloride of magnesium, chloride of calcium, and many other ingredients. The specific gravity is about I.IG, and the human body easily floats on the surface. The lake contains no life of any kind, with the exception of a few microbes, and sea-fish put into its waters soon die. The Dead Sea has presented substantially the same appear- ance since the beginning of the Quaternary period. As a result of the elevation of the whole region out of the sea, after the close of the Eocene jieriod, a fault or fracture was produced running the whole distance from the Gulf of Akabah to base of Mount Hermon. During the Pleiocene and Pleistocene epochs the character of the de- pression was considerably clumged. The large rainfall and the melting of the snows of Mount Lebanon, during the subglacial period, added greatly to tlie volume of water pouring into the Jordan 'N'alley, and formed a lake that included J^ake Huleh, Gennesaret, and the Dead Sea. There is evidence that the water once stood as much as 1180 feet above its present level. At a subsc(]ucnt stage it seems to have been only 378 feet higher than now. As the rain- fall diminished and the climate grew warmer, evaporation increased. Beds of bituminous marl are found near the lake, and bituminous masses float on its surface, particularly at times when there are seismic disturbances. The region is not, as has been supposed, volcanic. The subsi- dence of the land in the southern part of the lake may have given rise to the legend of the four sunken cities. A pillar of rock salt in the Jebel Vsdum range is to-day pointed out as Lot's wife. The name Bahr Lut, or its equivalent, cannot be traced beyond the period of ^Moslem occupancy. In the Fourth Book of Ezra (v. 7), the lake is called mare tSodoiiiiticum. There is no passage in the canonical books of the Bible distinctly connecting the Dead Sea with Sodom and Gomor- rah. An ancient glossator who explained 'the vale of Siddinv in Gen. xiv. 3 as 'the Salt Sea' may have erroneously supposed that the lake was once in historic times dry land. But the writer of Gen. xix. did not think of an inunda- tion as causing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but of a rain of fire and brimstone from heaven. Consult : von Schubert, Reise in das Moryenland (Leipzig, 1837) ; Lynch, Official Re- port of the United litalcs Expedition to the Jor- dan and the Dead .S'en (Washington, 1852) ; Hill, "The Jordan and the Gulf of Akabah," in Memoirs of the Palestine Exploration Fund (London, 1886) ; Buhl, Oeographie des alten Paliistina (Freiburg. 1800) : George Adam Smith, Histori- cal Geographi/ of the Holy Land (London, 1895). DEAD SOTTLS, The. A novel by Gogol (1841), roiuiiiucd after the author's death by Dr. Zahart'hcnko, in 1857. In 1880 Isabel Hap- good publislied a translation, under the title, Tchitchikojf's Journeys. The title was suggested DEAF MUTE. by the act of the ill;unous hero, who buys up the names of all the dead serfs (souls) he heara of, with the object of converting the apparently bona-fide serf-roll, thus created, into cash at a bank. DEAD'WOOD. A city and the county-seat of Law rence Count-, S. D., in the extreme west- ern part of the State; on the Fremont, Elkhorn and .Missouri Valley, and the Burlington and Missouri River railroads (ilap: South Dakota, 1> 5). It has a Masonic Temple, which cost $50,000. The city is the distributing and finan- cial centre for the highly productive uiiuiug section of the Black Hills, yielding gold, lead, silver, and tin. There are smelting and cyanide reduction works, planing-mills, machine-shops, foundry, brick and lime works, etc. Deadwood was settled in 1876. Population, in 1890, 2366; in 1900, 3498. DEAF MUTE. A person who is deaf and dumb. Those who are born deaf or who lose their hearing at a very early age are also dumb, because they have not learned to speak by hear- ing others speak. They should not, therefore, be classed with those who camiot articulate words because of defect in the speech centres of the brain or disease of the organs of articula- tion. Persons who have learned to speak, and then become deaf, do not becom'e mute, though the quality of voice used is often harsh and unnatural ; and if the deprivation of hearing occurred in childhood the voice often remains childish. Deafness from birth (congenital deaf- ness) is probably due to arrest of development in the embryo. 'Ihe condition is found in certain instances as a family trait, in families with neu- rotic inherit^inces. Alcoholism and insanity are found in such families; and, besides these, paren- tal syphilis is frequently a causal inlluence in producing congenital deafness. The intermar- riage of near relatives who inherit similar disease tendencies has been a large factor in the production of deaf ofTsiJring. Boudin, of Paris, asserts that about 25 per cent, of the deaf mutes of France are the ort'spring of con- sanguineous marriages. In England, Buxton places the figures at 10 per cent, in his experi- ence. Bemiss, of Louisville, Kv.. records that over 10 per cent, of the deaf and dumb through- out the country at large are the offspring of kin- dred parents. Howe, of Boston, gave similar testimony. The principal causes of acquired deafness have been noted under De.vfxess. In early historical limes, statesmen, lawyers, and jihilosophers agreed that deaf mutes were capable of being educated. Legally, deaf mutes were then almost everywhere in the same position as idiots and madmen. The Roman law held them to be incapable of consent, and conse- quently unable to enter into a legal obligation or contract. In France, deaf mutes were considered a disgrace to their parents, and were kept in seclusion in convents and asylums. Yet, ex- amples of considerable capacity on the part of deaf mutes were not unknown in ancient times and in the Middle Ages. Pliny mentions a suc- cessful deaf-mute painter at Rome. The Venerable Bede, about the close of the seventh century, gives an account of a dumb youth who was taught by an early English bishop. Saint .John of Beverley, to repeat words and sentences after him. Rodolphus Agricola, of Groningen (1442-
