PIERRE

See also:

• JEAN

JEAN EDOUARD

See also:

• PIERRE JEAN EDOUARD DESOR (1811-1882)

DESOR (1811-1882)  , Swiss geologist, was born at Friedrichsdorf, near Frankfort-on-Main, on .the 13th of February 1811 . Associated in early years with Agassiz he studied palaeontology and glacial phenomena, and in company with J . D . Forbes ascended the Jungfrau in 1841 . Desor afterwards became professor of geology in the academy at Neuchatel, continued his studies on the structure of glaciers, but gave special attention to the study of Jurassic Echinoderms . He also investigated the old lake-habitations of Switzerland, and made important observations on the physical features of the Sahara . Having inherited considerable property he retired to Combe Varin in Val Travers . He died at Nizza on the 23rd of February 1882 . His chief publications were: Synopsis des Echinides fossiles (1858), Aus Sahara (1865), Der Gebirgsbau der Alpen (1865), Die Pfahlbauten des Neuenburger Sees (1866), Echinologie helvetique (2 vols., 1868-1873, with P. de Loriol) . DE SOTO, a city of Jefferson county, Missouri, U.S.A., on Joachim Creek, 42 M . S.S.W. of St Louis . Pop .

(189o) 3960; (1900) 5611 (332 being

foreign-born and 364 negroes); (1910) 4721 . It is served by the St . Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern railway, which has extensive repair shops here . About 22 in. from De Soto is the Bochert mineral spring . In De Soto are Mount St Clement's College (Roman Catholic, 1900), a theological seminary of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer under the charge of the Redemptorist Fathers, and a Young Men's Christian Association building . De Soto is in a good agricultural and fruit-growingregion, which produces Indian corn, apples, plums, pears and small fruit . Lead and zinc are mined in the vicinity and shipped from the city in considerable quantities; and among the city's manufactures are shoes, flour and agricultural implements . The municipality owns the water-works, the water supply of-which is furnished by artesian wells . De Soto was laid out in 1855 and was incorporated in 1869 .