DECLARATION OF RIGHTS 297 DECORATION DAY pendent States may of right do. And for the Bupport of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mu- tually pledge to each other, our lives, our for- tunes, and our sacred honor. JOHN HANCOCK. New Hampshire.— Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton. Massachusetts Bay. — Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, El- bridge Gerry. Rhode Island, Etc. — Steph. Hop- kins, William Ellery. Connecticut. — Roger Sherman, Sam'l Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wol- cott. New York. — Wm. Floyd, Phil. Liv- ingston, Frans. Lewis, Lewis Morris. New Jersey. — Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Frans. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark. Pennsylvania. — Robt. Morris, Ben- jamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross. Delaware. — Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read, Tho. M'Kean. Maryland. — Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll of Carroll- ton. Virginia. — George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thos. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton. North Carolina. — Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn. South Carolina. — Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton. Georgia. — Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton. DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, a dec- laration drawn up by Parliament, and presented to William III. and Mary on their acceptance of the Crown of Eng- land, 1689. In it Parliament claimed the right of Englishmen to keep arms for their own defense; that the election of members of Parliament ought to be free; that no excessive fines or unusual punishments should be inflicted; that money should not be raised without the consent of Parliament; that a standing army must not be raised or kept up in times of peace without the consent of Parliament, etc. These articles were afterward embodied in the Bill of Rights. DECLENSION, in grammar, the ag- gregate of the inflections or changes of form which nouns, pronouns, and adjec- tives receive in certain languages ac- cording to their meaning or relation to other words in a sentence, such varia- tions being comprehended under the three heads of number, gender, and case, the latter beinjc the most numerous. DECLINATION, in astronomy, the distance of a heavenly body from the celestial equator (equinoctial), meas- ured on a great circle passing through the pole and also through the body. It is said to be N. or S. according as the body is N. or S. of the equator. Great circles passing through the poles, and cutting the equator at right angles, are called circles of declination. Twenty- four circles of declination, dividing the equator into 24 arcs of 15° each, are called hour circles or horary circles. Declination of the compass or needle, or magnetic declination, is the variation of the magnetic needle from the true meridian of a place. This is different at different places, and at the same place at different times. DECLINOMETER (dek-li-nom'e-ter), an instrument for determining the mag- netic declination, and for observing its variations. In magnetic observatories there are permanent instruments of this kind, and they are now commonly made self -registering. Such instruments reg- ister the small hourly and annual vari- ations in declination, and also the variations due to magnetic storms. DECOCTION, the term applied in pharmacy to the solution procured by boiling an organic substance with water. DECOLORIMETER (de-kol-6-rim'€- ter), an instrument for determining the power of portions of bone-black or ani- mal charcoal to abstract coloring matter. DECOMPOSITION, the rather com- prehensive term applied to the breaking up of complex substances or substances of delicate stability, into others which are less complex or more stable. The term decomposition is constantly applied in chemistry to the changes which com- pounds undergo in the most varied cir- cumstances when subjected to change of conditions. DE COPPET, CAMILLE, a Swiss statesman and former president of the Republic. He was born in the canton of Vaud, 1862, and received his educa- tion in the cantonal schools. As a young man he engaged in politics, at- taching himself to the Radical Democrat party. He soon distinguished himself by his political ability and took a fore- most position at the head of his party. In 1912 he became member of the Fed- eral Council; later he became head of the War Department. Finally be was elected President of the Federal Council of Switzerland for 1916. DECORATION DAY, a day set apart for decorating the graves of soldiers and sailors who fell in the American Civil
