que Nucleus quidam, London, 1573. The catalogue of his printed and published works is to be found in his Compendious Rehearsal, &3 well as in his letter to Archbishop "VVhitgift, to which tho reader is referred. A manuscript of Dee s, relating what passed for many years between him and some spirits, was edited by Meric Cas- aubon and published in 1659. The Private Diary of Dr John Dee, and the Catalogue of his Library of Manuscripts, edited by J. 0. Halliwell, was published by the Camden Society in 1842.
DEED is a contract in writing, sealed and delivered by
the party bound to the party benefited, Contracts or
obligations under seal are called in English law specialties,
and down to a recent date they took precedence in pay
ment over simple contracts, whether written or not.
Writing, sealing, and- delivery are all essential to a deed.
The signature of the party charged is not material, and the
deed is not void for want of a date. Delivery, it is held,
may be complete without the actual handing over of the
deed ; it is sufficient if the act of sealing were accompanied
by words or acts signifying that the deed was intended to
be presently binding ; and delivery to a third person for
the use of the party benefited will be sufficient. On the
other hand, the deed may be handed over to a third person
as an escrow (ecrit), in which case it will not take effect as
a deed until certain conditions are performed. Such con
ditional delivery may be inferred from the circumstances
attending the transaction, although the conditions be not
expressed in words. A deed indented, or indenture (so
ealled because written in counterparts on the same sheet of
parchment, separated by cutting a wavy line between
them), is between two or more parties who contract
mutually. The actual indentation is not now necessary to
an indenture. A deed-poll (without indentation) is a deed
in which one party binds himself without reference to any
corresponding obligations undertaken by another party.
See CONTRACT.
DEER (Cervidce), a family of Ruminant Artiodactyle
Mammals, distinguished by the possession of deciduous
branching horns or antlers, and by the presence of spots on
the young. The antlers are borne by the frontal bone, and
generally begin to appear towards the end of spring. At
that season there is a marked determination of blood to the
head, the vessels surrounding the frontal eminences become
temporarily enlarged, and the budding horn grows with
marvellous rapidity, the antlers of a full-grosvn stag being
produced in ten weeks. At first the horns are soft,
vascular, and highly sensitive, and are covered with a
delicate hairy integument known as the " velvet," amply
provided with blood-vessels. On attaining their full
growth the " burr," consisting of a ring of osseous tubercles
at the base of the horn, is formed, and this by pressing
upon, gradually cuts off the blood-vessels which supply
nutriment to the antlers. The velvety covering then
begins to shrivel and to peel off, its disappearance being
hastened by the deer rubbing its antlers against trees and
rocks ; while the grooves, which are seen to furrow the now
exposed surface, mark the place of the former blood-vessels.
With the single exception of the reindeer, antlers are con
fined to the male sex, and are fully developed at the com
mencement of the rutting season, when they are brought
into use as offensive weapons in the sanguinary fights
between the males for possession of the females. When
the season of love is over they are shed, reappearing, how
ever, in the following spring, and continuing to grow larger
and heavier until the deer attains its full growth. Whether
the deer inhabiting the warmer regions of the earth shed
their antlers every year has been a matter of considerable
dispute, but in a recent work (Highlands of Central India)
Forsyth states that he has convinced himself, from repeated
observations, that in Indian deer this operation does not
take place annually. In castrated animals the antlers
either^ cease to appear or are merely rudimentary, while
any influence whatever which disturbs the general
system seems detrimental to their growth, as was
observed in a case quoted by Darwin, where the
antlers of a Wapiti deer, formed during a voyage from
America, were singularly stunted, although the same
individual afterwards, when living under normal condi
tions, produced perfect horns. Spots are common to the
young of so many species of deer that their presence may
fairly be regarded as a family character. These spots
persist through life in such forms as the Axis, or Spotted
Deer (Axis maculata), but in the majority of species they
altogether disappear in the adult form. Darwin considers
that in all such cases the old have had their colour
changed in the course of time, while the young have
remained but little altered, and this he holds has been
effected " through the principle of inheritance at corre
sponding ages." The lachrymal sinus, or " tearpit," is
present in most species of deer. This consists of a cavity
beneath each eye, capable of being opened at pleasure, in
which a waxy substance of a disagreeable odour is secreted,
the purpose of which is not yet clearly-ascertained. " The
big round tears " which the contemplative Jacques watched,
as they
" Coursed one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase,"
is Shakespeare s interpretation of the appearance presented
by the motion of the glistening edges of the tearpits in the
stag. The deer family comprises 8 genera and 52 species,
distributed over all the great regions of the earth except
the Ethiopian, and living under the most diverse climatic
conditions. Their total absence from Africa south of the
Sahara maybe due, as A. R. Wallace (Geographical Distri
bution of Animals) contends, to the presence in the past, as
now, of a great belt of dry and desert country effectually
preventing the immigration from Europe into Africa of
such a forest-frequenting group as the deer, while favour
ing the introduction of antelopes, which attain their
greatest development in that region. They are also absent
from Australia, although present in the Auslro-Malayan
region. The following are some of the more remarkable
species.
The Red Deer or Stag (Cervus elaphus), the largest of
the British deer, is a native of the temperate regions of
Europe and Northern Asia, inhabiting dense forests, or fre
quenting moors and barren hill-sides as in Scotland. In
England, where in feudal times it was protected by forest
laws, which set greater value on the life of a stag than on
that of a man, it was formerly abundant in all the royal
forests. It is now almost extinct in that country, as well
as in Ireland, in the wild state. In Scotland considerable
herds are still to be found in the Highlands, and in several
of the Western Isles, although, owing probably to the
diminished extent of their feeding grounds, to the breeding
in and in which takes place, and to the anxiety of deer
stalkers to secure the finest heads, the species is believed
to be degenerating. The finest specimens in this country
are found in the deer forests of Sutherlandshire, but these
are inferior in size to those still obtained in the east of
Europe. The antlers of the Stag are rounded, and bear
three " tines," or branches, and a crown consisting of three or
more points. The points increase in number with the age
of the creature, and when 12 are present it is known in Scot
land as a "royal stag." This number, however, is sometimes
exceeded, as in the case of a pair of antlers, weighing 74 Bb,
from a stag killed in Transylvania, which had 45 points.
The antlers during the second year consist of a simple un-
branched stem, to which a tine or branch is added in each suc
ceeding year, until the normal development is attained, after
which their growth is somewhat irregular. The Red Deer is
gregarious, the females and calves herding together apart
from the males except at the rutting season, which begins
about the end of September and lasts for three weeks. Dur-
