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 D A X —D EACONESS that university in 1842. Returning to Canada he carried out some geological explorations under the direction of Sir Charles Lyell, and was afterwards appointed superintendent of education for Nova Scotia, a position in which he was responsible for important reforms in the educational arrangements of the province. From 1855 to 1893 he was principal of M‘Gill University, which prospered under his fostering care and attained a reputation that was a good deal more than local. When the Royal Society of Canada was constituted he was the first to occupy the presidential chair, and he also acted as president of the British Association at its meeting at Birmingham in 1866, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Sir William Dawson’s name is especially associated with the Eozoon Canadense, which in 1865 he described as an organism existing in a fossil state in the Laurentian rocks, but his views on the subject were far from commanding general assent. Besides many memoirs published in the Transactions of various learned societies, he was the author of numerous popular books on geological subjects. In these he maintained a distinctly theological attitude, declining to admit the descent or evolution of man from brute ancestors, and holding that the human species only made its appearance on this earth within quite recent times. He died on 20th November 1899. His son, George Mercer Dawson (1849-1901), was born at Pictou on 1st August 1849, and received his education at M‘Gill University and the Royal School of Mines, London, where he had a brilliant career.. In 1873 he was appointed geologist and naturalist to the North American Boundary Commission, and two years later he joined the staff of the Geological Survey of Canada, of which he became assistant director in 1883, and director-general in 1895. He was in charge of the Canadian Government’s Yukon Expedition in 1887, and as one of H.M. Bering Sea Commissioners spent the summer of 1891 investigating the facts of the seal fisheries on the northern coasts of Asia and America. For his services there, and at the subsequent arbitration in Paris, he was made a C.M.G. He died on 2nd March 1901. He was the author of many scientific papers and reports, especially on the surface geology and glacial phenomena of the northern parts of America, and he was largely responsible for the Canadian articles in this Supplement. Dax, chief town of arrondissement, in the department of Landes, France, 35 miles west-south-west of Montde-Marsan, with station on railway from Bordeaux to Bayonne. It is an important market for resinous substances, cattle, mules, and horses, and has considerable mercantile interchange with Spain. In the middle of the town there is a hot sulphur spring of a temperature of 140° Fahr.; and the place is consequently frequented by visitors for the sake of the baths. An important new bathing establishment, beautifully situated on the site of the old castle and near the Adour, was opened by the President of the Republic in 1891. In the same year a monument to the engineer Borda (d. 1799) was unveiled. Population (1881), 8359; (1891), 8403; (1896), 8307, (comm.) 9836 ; (1901), 10,329. Dayton, a city of Campbell county, Kentucky, U.S.A., on the south bank of the Ohio river, opposite Cincinnati, and adjoining Bellevue and Newport, Ky., in the northern part of the state. Population (1890), 4264; (1900), 6104, of whom 655 were foreign-born and 63 negroes. Dayton, capital of Montgomery county, Ohio, U.S.A., in 39° 44' N. lat. and 84° 08' W. long., on the Great Miami river, which here is not navigable, at an altitude of 737 feet. The site is level, and the streets

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broad, with a fairly regular plan, and paved with gravel. It is supplied with water by the Holly pumping system, the works being owned by the city. Dayton is a commercial city of importance, being on the Miami and Erie Canal, and on ten lines of railway, belonging to five railway companies, and radiating in all directions. Its manufactures are large and varied. In 1890 the invested capital was $13,470,000, employing over 12,000 hands. The product was valued at $22,446,572. The more prominent of the products were agricultural implements, flour, and iron and steel goods. The assessed valuation of real and personal property, on a basis of about 55 per cent, of the full value, was, in 1899, $42,565,200, the net debt of the municipality, $3,562,943, and the rate of taxation, $25-60 per $1000. The city had a slow growth between 1870 and 1880, but from then until 1900 it increased rapidly, owing to the development of manufactures and trade. Population (1880), 38,678; (1890), 61,220; (1900), 85,333, of whom 10,053 were foreign-born and 3387 negroes. The death-rate in 1900 was 16'5. Deacon.—The germ of the Christian diaconate may be seen in the choosing of the Seven (Acts vi.), whose primary function was “ to serve tables ” ; but its definite and permanent shape comes from the Greek churches founded by St Paul. The ministers of these formed two distinct classes, “ those who rule ” and “ those who serve,” with the designations cttio-kottoi and Sid/coroi; and St Paul enumerates their qualifications in 1 Tim. iii. 8-13, &c. With the development of the episcopate (in the later sense), the deacons became the immediate ministers of the bishop for disciplinary purposes; and their primary function was extended to include supervising church property, visiting the sick, distributing alms, &c. By degrees these became subsidiary to another function, that of ministering in the church, especially in Baptism and the Eucharist, and later on that of teaching too. And thus the duties of the deacon came to be summed up as follows in the Roman Pontifical: diaconus oportet ministrare ad altare, baptizare et prcedicare. (In the English Ordinal both functions, ministering in temporal matters and ministering in the congregation, are kept in view.) But the fundamental character of his office remained : on the one hand he was sharply distinguished, as being in “ holy orders ” like the bishop and presbyter, from the various lower orders in the ancient Church ; on the other hand, he “ ministered ” to those of higher degree. And although in their absence fresh functions devolved upon him (varying with times and regions), he could never perform strictly “ sacerdotal ” functions, such as consecrating the Eucharist. The office frequently led in ancient days to the higher ‘orders; but it was frequently held for life, and in great cities, where the number of deacons was long restricted to seven, it became one of high honour and emolument. In modern days both tendencies are represented: in the West the office is usually a stepping-stone to the priesthood, whereas in the East it is often held for life, and some high offices are reserved to deacons. The ancient canonical age for the diaconate was twenty-five; it is now twenty-three. In the Lutheran Churches the Diakonat is merely a title of certain assistant clergy, not a separate order; in most other non-Episcopal Churches it is practically a lay office. Thomassinus. Vetus ac Nova Disciplina, pars i. lib. i. c. 51 f. and lib. ii. c. 29 f. Lugdunum, 1706.—J. N. Seidl. Der Diakonat in der katholischen Kirche. Regensburg, 1884.—R. Sohm. Kirchenrecht, i. 121-137. Leipzig, 1892.—Smith and Cheetham. Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, art. “Deacon.” (’vv. e. Co.') Deaconess.—The office of deaconess has a special importance at the present day, in view of the movement for its revival. It may now be considered certain that (a)