DIRECTOR. 279 DIRSCHAU. in comparison with the interests involved; usu- ally the motive of the director in taking the office is the prosperity of the concern as benefiting him in the position of a stockholder. See Corpoba- Tio.x : and consult the authorities there re- ferred to. DIRECTORY (Fr. <lircctoin; from Lat. d»- recturius, serving to direct, from Lat. dirigere, to direct). The name given to the executive Gov- ernment in France from October 28, 1795, to Novcmljer 9, 1799. After the overthrow of the ultra-Jacobins, the moderate Republicans pro- mulgated a new constitution, that of the year III., which provided for a legislative l>ody of two councils. The Council of Five Hundred was to propose the laws, the Council of Ancients was to pass on them. As e.vecutive bead, five members, chosen from both bodies, were to act. The first five Directors chosen were Barras, Carnot, Rew- bell, L;ireveill&re-Lepaux, and Letourneur. Each was to preside for three months at a time, and one had to retire every year. Though the for- eign policy of the Directory was successful at first, its management of home affairs was cor- rupt and incompetent in the extreme. The mem- bers formed factions, and Barras, with his asso- ciates Lareveill?re and Rewbell, succeeded in ousting the other two Directors, Carnot and Bar- thelemy. who had succeeded Letourneur. by the coup detat of ISth Fructidor (September 4, 1707). .t the end of that year the Directorj' consisted of Barras, Ducos. Gohier. Moulins, and the Abb6 Sieves : but the last of these had begun to plot against the Constitution, and the military disasters of 1799 furnished a pretext for its over- throw by the coup dV-tat of the 18th Brumaire (Xovember 9, 1799), which resulted in the estab- lishment of the Consulate (q.v.), with Xapoleon as First Consul. Consult: Granier de Cassa- gnac, Histoire du Directoire (3 vols., Paris, 1S6.3) ; Barante. Bistoire da Directoire (3 vols., Paris, IS.j.j) : Pierre, La Tcrreur sotts le Direc- toire (Paris, 1887). See Fkaxce. DIRECTORY FOR THE PUBLIC WOR- SHIP OF GOD. . code of regulations which govcTTis iniblic worship in the Church of Scotland and supplies the place of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. It was compiled by the West- minster Assembly in 1044, by order of both Hou.ses of the English Parliament, and was adopted by the Church and the Parliament of Scotland in 164.5. Many of its regulations are still adhered to by ^le Scottish Presljyterian Church. Consult Xeale, History of the Puritans, vol. v. (London, 1822). DIRECTRIX OF A CONTC. A straight line perpendicular to the axis, by reference to which the nature of the conic may be defined. .ssume an indefinite straight line as the direc- trix, and a point without the directrix as the focus: then if a line he revolved about the focus any point moving in the line will generate a cur^e, which will he a conic section (q.v.). pro- vided there is a constant ratio between the dis- tance from the moving point to the focus and the perpendicular distance from the point to the directrix. The eun-e is an ellipse, a parabola, or an hyperbola, according as the distance from any point of the cun-e to the focus is less than, equal to. cr cTeater than the perpendicnlar distance from the point to the directrix. The constant ratio mentioned is often called the determining ratio of the conic. In the figure, DD' represents the directrix of a parabola, F the focus, O the vertex, and P any point on the curve. According to the determining ratio, PM = PF. The focus is the pob of the directrix and the directrix is the polar of the focus. Quadric surfaces also have directrices. See P01.E and Polak ; Cylixdeb. DIRICHLET, de'resh'la'. Peteb Gistav Le- JEVXE (lSO.5-59). A (ik-rman mathematician. He was bom at Diiren, and was successively pro- fessor of mathematics at Breslau, Berlin, and Giittingen, where he succeeded Gauss in 1855. His memoirs on the theory of numbers are im- portant, the most original being that on the de- termination of means with application to tlie distribution of prime numbers. He has also per- manently influenced the theory of mechanics by his work on potentials. His papers on the theory of numbers were edited by R. Dedekind ( Bruns- wick, 1879-81). His work on the theory of po- tentials was edited by F. Grube (Leipzig, 1887). DIRK. See Daggeb. DIRKSEN, derk'sen, Heineich Edcabd (1790-lSOS). A German jurist. He was born at Kiinigsberg, and studied at Heidelberg and Berlin. In 1817 he was appointed professor of Roman law at the L'niversity of Kiinigsberg, where he remained until 1829, when he received a call to Berlin. He was one of the greatest authorities of his time on the history and sources of Roman law, to which subject he contriliuted the following valuable works: Manuale Latini- tatiftt'ontium JurisCivHis Rmnanoruvi ( 1837-30) ; and lieitriige zur Kunde des RSmischen Rechts (1825). DIRSCHAU, der'shou. A town of Prussia, in the Province of West Prussia, on the Vistula, about 19 miles southeast of Danzig (Map: Prus- sia, HI). The river is here crossed by two fine bridges. The chief article of manufacture is sugar. There are also large machine and car works. Population, in 1890. 11.897: in 1900, 12.800. Dirschau received municipal rights in 12G0. and in 1308 it came into the possession of the Knights of the Teutonic Order. By the Peace of Thorn in 14G6 it was given to Poland, hut it became Prussian on the first partition of Poland in 1772.
