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DISMAS, ST. 377 DISTAFF This tract was entirely covered with trees, with almost impervious brush- wood between them, but it has now in part been cleared and drained. In the midst of the swamp is Drummond's Lake, seven miles in length, the scene of Thomas Moore's "Lake of the Dismal Swamp." In 1899, the Dismal Swamp canal, connecting Chesapeake Bay with Albemarle Sound, which from about the beginning of the 19th century to the close of the Civil War was a famous historic waterway, was reopened for navigation. It extends from the village of Deep Creek, Va., to South Mills, N. C, a distance of 22 miles; and is one of the most important links in the chain of inland waterways extending along the coast from New York to Florida. A marked advantage of the restored canal is that it enables shipping to avoid the dangers of Cape Hatteras; another is that it furnishes the means of inland and protected navigation for the smaller vessels of the navy and the revenue service. Although only 22 miles long it opens up 2,500 miles of in- land navigation. DISMAS, ST., the name of the penitent thief according to mediaeval legends. DISPENSATION, the act by which an exception is made to the rigor of the law in favor of some person. The Pope may release from all oaths or vows, and may sanction a marriage within the prohibited degrees of the Mosaic law, or exempt from obedience to the disci- plinary enactments of the canon law. In England the monarch claimed, in former times, a similar dispensing power in civil law, but the prerogative Was so much abused by James II. that it was abolished by the Bill of Rights. The power of commuting sentences in capital cases is the only form in which the dispensing power still exists. In ecclesiastical matters a bishop may grant a dispensation allowing a clergy- man to hold more than one benefice, or to absent himself from his parish. Dis- pensations were first granted by Pope Innocent III. in 1200, and, being paid for, became a source of considerable revenue to the Holy See. Appeal to them on the part of English subjects was rendered illegal by 25 Henry VIII., c. 21, passed in 1533. A certain dis- pensing power was continued to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and an ordi- nary bishop can still dispense with the law of the Church in many cases. DISPERSION, the decomposition of light, passing through a prism or any- thing similar, into the rainbow colors; or the angle of separation of two se- lected rays, say the red and the violet produced by a prism. DISBAELI, BENJAMIN. See Bea- CONSFIELD. D'ISRAELI, ISAAC (diz-ra'li), an English essayist, compiler, and histo- rian; father of Benjamin; born in En- field in Middlesex, May, 1766. He was of Spanish-Jew stock, but left the Jew- ish communion. Rejecting a career or trade, he frequented the British Mu- seum and compiled the "Curiosities of Literature," in 1791. The author pre- sented the copyright to the publisher, but bought it back a few years later on its remarkable success; it is still re- published. A series of like collec- tions followed, with the same success: "Calamities of Authors," "Quarrels of Authors," "Miscellanies, or Literary Recollections." He wrote some unsuccess- ful romances; among them is "Mej- noun and Leila," probably the earliest Oriental romance in the language. His "Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I." marked a distinct ad- vance in the methods of historical re- search. He died Jan. 9, 1848. DISRUPTION, the name commonly applied in Scotland to the act by which, in 1843, 474 ministers and professors of the Established Church gave up their livings to vindicate principles which they held to be essential to the purity of the Church, and in harmony with its earlier history. DISSECTION, the act or science of cutting up or dissecting an animal or vegetable body for the purpose of ex- amining the structure and use of its several organs and tissues; the dissec- tion of the human body for purposes of science was ordered by Ptolemy Phila- delphus in the college of Alexandria. He even authorized the vivisection of crim- inals condemned to death. Herophilus of Cos was among the first of the pro- fessors in this great school of medicine. DISSENTERS, the common name by which in Great Britain all Christian denominations, excepting that of the Established Churches, are usually designated, though in acts of Parlia- ment it generally includes only Protes- tant dissenters, Roman Catholics being referred to under their specific name. The Nonconformists were dissenters from the English Church. DISTAFF, a cleft stick about 3 feet long, on which wool or carded cotton was wound in the ancient mode of spin- ning. The distaff was held under the left arm, and the fibers of cotton drawn from it were twisted spirally by the