272 DRUMMOND at Slieve Snaught, Donegal, and it was dis- tinctly seen by the engineers at Devis moun- tain, 66 miles distant. Subsequently it was said to have been visible at a distance of 112 miles. Drummond described his invention in the "Philosophical Transactions" for 1826. When quicklime is subjected to intense heat, such as is produced by the oxyhydrogen blow- pipe, the light emitted is exceedingly powerful and dazzling ; the lime itself is slowly volatilized, and the surface around is covered with its sub- limate. Drummond placed the light thus pro- duced in the focus of a parabolic mirror, which reflects the rays in parallel lines, thus directing the entire light toward a single point. Many experiments have been made to adapt the Drum- mond light to lighthouses ; but the deficiency of divergence in the rays, and the difficulty of maintaining a regular supply of gases for the blowpipe, have thus far proved insurmountable. It has been applied to the gas microscope, in which it gives the prismatic colors almost as bright as in the solar spectrum. In 1825 Drum- mond invented a heliostat, which is still em- ployed in the government survey of Great Britain. He made a large collection of scien- tific instruments, and carried on extensive ex- periments for their improvement ; but the en- tire collection and the observatory that con- tained it were destroyed by a storm in a single night. In 1835 he was appointed under secre- tary for Ireland. In 1836 he was placed at the head of a commission to plan a railway system for Ireland, and his scheme has been substantially followed. The oft quoted words, " Property has its duties as well as its rights," are from a letter which he wrote to the magis- trates of Tipperary in 1838. He was a favorite with the Irish people, who erected a statue to his memory in the royal exchange of Dublin. A memoir of his professional life, by Oapt. Lar- con, was published in 1841, in the 4th volume of "Papers on Subjects connected with the Duties of the Corps of Royal Engineers." DRUMMOND, William, a Scottish poet, born at Hawthornden, Edinburghshire, Dec. 13, 1585, died Dec. 4, 1649. He spem) about eight years on the continent of Europe engaged in study, travel, and the collection of books ; but passed most of the remainder of his life on his estate at Hawthornden, devoting himself to literature. He wrote a history of Scotland from 1423 to 1542 ; but the work is of little value, and he is chiefly remembered for his poetry and for his "Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden, January, 1619." His versification sometimes bears a striking resemblance to that of some of Mil- ton's poems. His sonnets, which form a con- siderable part of his works, are especially ele- gant. An edition of his poems, with a life by Peter Cunningham, was published at Edinburgh in 1852. DRUMMOND, Sir William, a British author and diplomatist, born in Scotland about 1760, died in Rome, March 29, 1828. In 1794 he DRUSES published "A Review of the Government of Sparta and Athens," and in the following year was elected to parliament. He sat also in the parliaments of 1796 and 1801, and was sent on diplomatic missions to Naples and Constanti- nople. He published a number of works, among which are: "Academical Questions" (4to, 1805), containing an attack on all kinds of dogmatism, embracing an exhibition of in- soluble problems, and tending to show the weakness of the human intellect ; and " Ori- gines, or Remarks on the Origin of several Em- pires, States, and Cities " (4 vols. 8vo, London, 1824-'9). A work written by him, printed for private distribution, and entitled " The (Edipus Judaicus " (1811), brought upon its author much censure and criticism, because of its attempt to explain away some of the narratives of the Old Testament as astronomical allegories. He was an accomplished scholar, and made an excellent translation of the satires of Persius. DRUSES, or Drnzes, a race and religious sect of Syria, chiefly in the southern ranges of Le- banon and Anti-Libanus. Their name is derived from Derazi or Durzi, who, according to the Arabic historian Makrizi, appeared in Cairo A. D. 1019, as a missionary of the Batenian sect, an offshoot from the Moslem stock. The Druses regard him as a heretical pupil of Hamza, the Messiah of their system, and look upon the title which has been fastened upon them as a stigma, the only name they acknowl- edge being that of Muahids or Unitarians. The proper era of the Druses begins in 1020, when Hamza, a wandering fanatic, persuaded Hakem, the Fatimite caliph of Egypt, to declare himself a manifestation of God. The caliph was as- sassinated the next year, and Hamza, retiring into Syria, continued to propagate the new faith among the mountain tribes. He and one of his followers, Moktana Boha ed-Din, com- mitted their doctrines to writing, and enjoined the strictest secrecy as to their nature. No member of another sect and no uninitiated Druse was to be permitted to see the sacred writings, and no revelation is to be made until the second advent of the lord Hakem and Hamza his minister. The imperial library of Paris contains five volumes of the sa- cred writings, the Vatican contains one, the imperial library at Vienna one, the library of the Leyden University two, and the Bodleian library at Oxford four. There are also several less important MSS. in the hands of private in- dividuals ; some are owned by the American missionaries in Syria. The first three volumes in the Paris library were brought from Syria in 1700 by the physician Nasr- Allah, and pre- sented to Louis XIV. The fourth volume was procured from the private library of M. Piques, who died in Paris in 1699. These volumes contain the exposition of the doc- trines of the sect by Hamza and Boha ed-Din ; they were translated into French by Petis de la Oroix in 1701. The Vienna, Vatican, and Leyden MSS., with two of the Bodleian, are
