DEALFiSH 288 DEATH a load, and 100 feet superficial are a square. DEALFISH, a genus of deep-sea bony fishes, in the ribbon-fish sub-order of Acanthopteri. Some eight species are known, on European coasts and from the W. of South America. They rarely come to the surface. One form (T. arcticus or bqgmarus, the vaagmaer of Icelanders and Norwegians) is occasionally found on North British coasts. It is a large fish, 4 to 6 feet in length, and of a sil- very color. The dorsal and caudal fins are red. A smaller species (T. tcenia) occurs along with others in the Mediter- ranean. DE AMICIS, EDMONDO. See Amicis. DEAN (literally, a head or chief of 10 men), in the Church of England, an ecclesiastical dignitary in cathedral and collegiate churches, and the head of a chapter, originally said to consist of 10 canons or prebendaries; whence the ori- gin of the term. The presiding head of the faculty in some of the English and Scottish universities. In the Univer- sities of Oxford and Cambridge, an oflScer deputed to compel the attend- ance of students at prayers in the chapels of the colleges, and generally, to supervise their conduct at religious service. In the United States the sev- eral schools of medicine, law, etc., con- nected with the universities frequently appoint a dean, whose functions vary with the requirements of his particular in- stitution. The dean of a faculty is its registrar or secretary. DEAN, BASHFORD, an American zoologist; born in New York City in 1867. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1886 and after- ward took post-graduate courses at Co- lumbia. He served as tutor of natural history at the College of the City of New York from 1886 to 1890. In 1891 he was appointed instructor of biology at Co- lumbia University and became succes- sively adjunct professor of zoology and professor of vertebrate zoology at that university. He was assistant of the New York State Fish Commission from 1886 to 1888. and served as special in- vestigator 01 the United States Fish Commission. He was for a time director of the Biological Laboratory of Cold Spring Harbor, New York. From 1903 he was curator of herpetology and ich- thyology at the American Museum of Natural History. He was also curator of arms and armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was a member of many learned societies. During the Woald War he served as major of ord- nance in the United States Army, and was a member of the Mission to France, Belgium, and England in 1917. He was the author of several works on biological subjects. DEATH, the cessation of life; the state of any being, animal, or plant, in which the vital functions have totally and permanently ceased to act. Every blow we strike, every thought we think, is accompanied by the death and disintegra- tion of a certain amount of muscular or nervous fiber as its necessary condition; thus every action of our corporeal life, from its beginning to its close, takes place at the expense of the vitality of a certain amount of organized structure. This is termed molecular death, and, within its proper limits, is obviously es- sential to the life and well-being of the organism. The cessation of the circu- lation and respiration may be regarded as constituting somatic death, or the death of the entire organism, which must obviously be shortly followed by the mo- lecular death of every portion of the body. Death happens either from the natural decay of the organism, as in old age, or from some of those derangements or lesions of the vital organs which oc- cur in diseases and injuries. For techni- cal reasons a discrimination should be made between death, decease, and demise. The three principal modes of dying begin at the heart, the brain, or the lungs. At the approach of death, the mind may be affected in various ways, includ- ing dullness of the senses, vacancy of the intellect, extinction of the sentiments, as in natural death from old age, or a pe- culiar delirium closely resembling dream- ing, which is usually of a pleasing and cheerful character. In most diseases of long standing the cessation of the heart's action is gradual, the rate of the pul- sation being much increased, but their energy being much impaired. In some acute aflTections the failure is shown by the irregularity of the pulse, while the force is little altered. In other cases, es- pecially in cerebral diseases, the heart, before finally ceasing to beat, contracts violently and suddenly stops. The respi- ration is sometimes hurried and panting till just before death, while in other cases it is slow, laborious, and stertorous. There is also a loss of animal heat, begin- ning at the extremities. The signs of actual death ai'e (1) the heart's arrest and the gradual extinction of the vital functions; (2) changes in the tissues; (3) change in the external ap- pearance of the body. (1) The arrest of the circulation and respiration at first sight appears to af- ford decisive evidence of death, but these
