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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 9 - "Dagupan" to "David"
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 9 - "Dagupan" to "David"" ***
Transcriber's notes:
(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.
(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.
(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.
(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.
(5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek
letters.
(6) The following typographical errors have been corrected:
ARTICLE DAHLMANN, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH: "It was he upon whom the
Danes afterwards threw the blame of having invented the
Schleswig-Holstein question; certainly his activities form an
important link in the chain of events which eventually led to the
solution of 1864." 'amended' from 'activites'.
ARTICLE DAHOMEY: "... L. Brunet and L. Giethlen, Dahomey et
dépendances (Paris, 1900); Édouard Foà, Le Dahomey (Paris, 1895)."
'Dahomey' amended from 'Dohomey'.
ARTICLE DAIRY and DAIRY-FARMING: "Most of the cheese is made from
two curds, the highly acid curd from the morning's milk being mixed
with the comparatively sweet curd from the evening's milk."
Duplicate word 'being' removed.
ARTICLE DAIRY and DAIRY-FARMING: "To drysalt butter, place butter
on worker, let it drain 10 to 15 minutes, then work gently till all
the butter comes together. Place it on the scales and weigh; then
weigh salt, for slight salting, ¼ oz.; medium, ½ oz.; heavy
salting, ¾ oz." 'weigh' amended from 'weight'.
ARTICLE DALLMEYER, JOHN HENRY: "Dallmeyer's position in this
workshop appears to have been an unpleasant one, and led him to
take, for a time, employment as French and German correspondent for
a commercial firm." 'correspondent' amended from 'corrrespondent'.
ARTICLE DANIEL: "The biblical account throws no light on the
subject. According to the rabbis, Daniel went back to Jerusalem
with the return of the captivity, and is supposed to have been one
of the founders of the mythical Great Synagogue." 'Jerusalem'
amended from 'Jersualem'.
ARTICLE DANIEL: "Darius Hystaspis was the father of Xerxes, and
according to Herodotus (iii. 89) established twenty satrapies."
'Hystaspis' amended from 'Hystapis'.
ARTICLE DANTE: "At that moment I saw most truly that the spirit of
life which hath its dwelling in the secretest chamber of the heart
began to tremble so violently that the least pulses of my body
shook therewith; and in trembling it said these words ..."
'trembling' amended from 'trembing'.
ARTICLE DARBOY, GEORGES: "... was born at Fayl-Billot in Haute
Marne on the 16th of January 1813." 'Haute' amended from 'Haut'.
ARTICLE DARWIN, CHARLES ROBERT: "For eight years (1846 to 1854) he
was chiefly engaged upon four monographs on the recent and fossil
Cirripede Crustacea (Roy. Soc., 1851 and 1854; Palaeontograph.
Soc., 1851 and 1854)." 'Roy' amended from 'Ray'.
ARTICLE DASS, PETTER: "... a Scottish merchant of Dundee, who,
leaving his country about 1630 to 845 escape the troubles of the
Presbyterian church, settled in Bergen, and in 1646 married a Norse
girl of good family." 'church' amended from 'chursh'.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME VII, SLICE IX
Dagupan to David
ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
DAGUPAN DANDY
DAHABEAH DANEGELD
DAHL, HANS DANELAGH
DAHL, JOHANN CHRISTIAN DANGERFIELD, THOMAS
DAHL, MICHAEL DANIEL (biblical figure)
DAHL, VLADIMIR IVANOVICH DANIEL (Russian travel-writer)
DAHLBERG, ERIK JOHANSEN, COUNT DANIEL, GABRIEL
DAHLGREN, JOHN ADOLF DANIEL, SAMUEL
DAHLGREN, KARL FREDRIK DANIELL, JOHN FREDERIC
DAHLIA DANIELL, THOMAS
DAHLMANN, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH DANNAT, WILLIAM T.
DAHLSTJERNA, GUNNO DANNECKER, JOHANN HEINRICH VON
DAHN, JULIUS SOPHUS FELIX DANNEWERK
DAHOMEY DANSVILLE
DAILLÉ, JEAN DANTE
DAIRY and DAIRY-FARMING DANTON, GEORGE JACQUES
DAIS DANUBE
DAISY DANVERS
DAKAR DANVILLE (Illinois, U.S.A.)
DALAGUETE DANVILLE (Kentucky, U.S.A.)
DALBEATTIE DANVILLE (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)
DALBERG DANVILLE (Virginia, U.S.A.)
DALE, ROBERT WILLIAM DANZIG
DALE, SIR THOMAS DAPHLA HILLS
DALECARLIA DAPHNAE
DALGAIRNS, JOHN DOBREE DAPHNE (Greek mythology)
DALGARNO, GEORGE DAPHNE (genus of shrubs)
DALHOUSIE, JAMES ANDREW RAMSAY DAPHNEPHORIA
DALHOUSIE, FOX MAULE RAMSAY DAPHNIS
DALIN, OLOF VON DARÁB
DALKEITH DARBHANGA
DALKEY D'ARBLAY, FRANCES
DALLAS, ALEXANDER JAMES DARBOY, GEORGES
DALLAS, GEORGE MIFFLIN DARCY, THOMAS DARCY
DALLAS DARDANELLES (strait)
DALLE DARDANELLES (town)
DALLIN, CYRUS EDWIN DARDANUS
DALLING AND BULWER, EARLE BULWER DARDISTAN
DALLMEYER, JOHN HENRY DARES PHRYGIUS
DALL' ONGARO, FRANCESCO DAR-ES-SALAAM
DALMATIA DARESTE DE LA CHAVANNE, ANTOINE
DALMATIC DARESTE DE LA CHAVANNE, RODOLPHE
DALMELLINGTON DARFUR
DALOU, JULES DARGAI
DALRADIAN DARGOMIJSKY, ALEXANDER SERGEIVICH
DALRIADA DARIAL
DALRY DARIEN
DALTON, JOHN DARIUS
DALTON DARJEELING
DALTON-IN-FURNESS DARLEY, GEORGE
DALY, AUGUSTIN DARLING, GRACE HORSLEY
DALYELL, THOMAS DARLING
DAM DARLINGTON
DAMAGES DARLINGTONIA
DAMANHUR DARLY, MATTHIAS
DAMARALAND DARMESTETER, JAMES
DAMASCENING DARMSTADT
DAMASCIUS DARNLEY, HENRY STEWART
DAMASCUS DARRANG
DAMASK DARTFORD
DAMASK STEEL DARTMOOR
DAMASUS DARTMOUTH (town of Canada)
DAMAUN DARTMOUTH (town of England)
DAME DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
DAME'S VIOLET DARTMOUTH, EARL OF
DAMGHAN DARU, PIERRE ANTOINE NOËL BRUNO
DAMIANI, PIETRO DARWEN
DAMIEN, FATHER DARWIN, CHARLES ROBERT
DAMIENS, ROBERT FRANÇOIS DARWIN, ERASMUS
DAMIETTA DASENT, SIR GEORGE WEBBE
DAMIRI DASHKOV, CATHERINA ROMANOVNA VORONTSOV
DAMIRON, JEAN PHILIBERT DASS, PETTER
DAMJANICH, JÁNOS DASYURE
DAMMAR DATE PALM
DAMMARTIN DATIA
DAMME DATIVE
DAMOCLES DATOLITE
DAMOH DAUB, KARL
DAMON DAUBENTON, LOUIS-JEAN-MARIE
DAMOPHON DAUBENY, CHARLES GILES BRIDLE
DAMP DAUBIGNY, CHARLES FRANÇOIS
DAMPIER, WILLIAM DAUBRÉE, GABRIEL AUGUSTE
DAN (tribe of Israel) DAUDET, ALPHONSE
DAN (town of ancient Israel) DAULATABAD
DANA, CHARLES ANDERSON DAUMIER, HONORÉ
DANA, FRANCIS DAUN (DHAUN), LEOPOLD JOSEF
DANA, JAMES DWIGHT DAUNOU, PIERRE CLAUDE FRANÇOIS
DANAE DAUPHIN
DANAO DAUPHINÉ
DANAUS DAURAT, JEAN
DANBURITE DAVENANT, CHARLES
DANBURY DAVENANT, SIR WILLIAM
DANBY, FRANCIS DAVENPORT, EDWARD LOOMIS
DANCE (English family) DAVENPORT, ROBERT
DANCE (dancing) DAVENPORT
DANCOURT, FLORENT CARTON DAVENTRY
DANDELION DAVEY OF FERNHURST, HORACE DAVEY
DANDOLO DAVID
DANDOLO, VINCENZO
DAGUPAN, a town and the most important commercial centre of the province
of Pangasinán, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on a branch of the Agno river
near its entrance into the Gulf of Lingayen, 120 m. by rail N.N.W. of
Manila. Pop. (1903), 20,357. It is served by the Manila & Dagupan
railway. Dagupan has a healthy climate. It is the chief point of
exportation for a very rich province, which produces sugar, indigo,
Indian corn, copra, and especially rice. There are several rice mills
here. Salt is an important export, being manufactured in salt water
swamps and marshes throughout the province of Pangasinán (whose name,
from _asin_, "salt," means "the place where salt is produced"). In
these, marshes grows the nipa palm, from which a liquor is
distilled--there are a number of small distilleries here. Dagupan has a
small shipyard in which sailing vessels and steam launches are
constructed. The principal language is Pangasinán.
DAHABEAH (also spelt dahabiya, dahabiyeh, dahabeeyah, &c.), an Arabic
word (variously derived from _dahab_, gold, and _dahab_, one of the
forms of the verb to go) for a native passenger boat used on the Nile.
The typical form is that of a barge-like house-boat provided with sails,
resembling the painted galleys represented on the tombs of the Pharaohs.
Similar state barges were used by the Mahommedan rulers of Egypt, and
from the circumstance that these vessels were ornamented with gilding is
attributed the usual derivation of the name from gold. Before the
introduction of steamers dahabeahs were generally used by travellers
ascending the Nile, and they are still the favourite means of travelling
for the leisured and wealthy classes. The modern dahabeah is often made
of iron, draws about 2 ft. of water, and is provided with one very large
and one small sail. According to size it provides accommodation for from
two to a dozen passengers. Steam dahabeahs are also built to meet the
requirements of tourists.
DAHL, HANS (1840- ), Norwegian painter, was born at Hardanger. After
being in the Swedish army he studied art at Karlsruhe and at Düsseldorf,
being a notable painter of landscape and _genre_. His work has
considerable humour, but his colouring is hard and rather crude. In 1889
he settled in Berlin. His pictures are very popular in Norway.
DAHL, JOHANN CHRISTIAN (1778-1857), Norwegian landscape painter, was
born in Bergen. He formed his style without much tuition, remaining at
Bergen till he was twenty-four, when he left for the better field of
Copenhagen, and ultimately settled in Dresden in 1818. He is usually
included in the German school, although he was thus close on forty years
of age when he finally took up his abode in Dresden, where he was
quickly received into the Academy and became professor. German
landscape-painting was not greatly advanced at that time, and Dahl
contributed to improve it. He continued to reside in Dresden, though he
travelled into Tirol and in Italy, painting many pictures, one of his
best being that of the "Outbreak of Vesuvius, 1820." He was fond of
extraordinary effects, as seen in his "Winter at Munich," and his
"Dresden by Moonlight;" also the "Haven of Copenhagen," and the "Schloss
of Friedrichsburg," under the same condition. At Dresden may be seen
many of his works, notably a large picture called "Norway," and a "Storm
at Sea." He was received into several academic bodies, and had the
orders of Wasa and St Olaf sent him by the king of Norway and Sweden.
DAHL, MICHAEL (1656-1743), Swedish portrait painter, was born at
Stockholm. He received his first professional education from Ernst
Klocke, who had a respectable position in that northern town, which,
however, Dahl left in his twenty-second year. His first destination was
England, where he did not long remain, but crossed over to Paris, and
made his way at last to Rome, there taking up his abode for a
considerable time, painting the portraits of Queen Christina and other
celebrities. In 1688 he returned to England, and became for some years a
dangerous rival to Kneller. He died in London. His portraits still exist
in many houses, but his name is not always preserved with them. Nagler
(_Künstler-Lexicon_) says those at Hampton Court and at Petworth contest
the palm with those of the better known and vastly more employed
painter.
DAHL (or DALE), VLADIMIR IVANOVICH (1802-1872), Russian author and
philologist, was born of Scandinavian parentage in 1802, and received
his education at the naval cadets' institution at St Petersburg. He
joined the Black Sea fleet in 1819; but at a later date he entered the
military service, and was thus engaged in the Polish campaign of 1831,
and in the expedition against Khiva. He was afterwards appointed to a
medical post in one of the government hospitals at St Petersburg, and
was ultimately transferred to a situation in the civil service. The
latter years of his life were spent at Moscow, and he died there on
November 3 (October 22), 1872. Under the name of Kossack Lugansky he
obtained considerable fame by his stories of Russian life:--_The Dream
and the Waking_, _A Story of Misery_, _Happiness, and Truth_, _The
Door-Keeper_ (Dvernik), _The Officer's Valet_ (Denshchik). His greatest
work, however, was a _Dictionary of the Living Russian Tongue_ (Tolkovyi
Slovar Zhivago Velikorusskago Yasika), which appeared in four volumes
between 1861 and 1866, and is of the most essential service to the
student of the popular literature and folk-lore of Russia. It was based
on the results of his own investigations throughout the various
provinces of Russia,--investigations which had furnished him with no
fewer than 4000 popular tales and upwards of 30,000 proverbs. Among his
other publications may be mentioned _Bemerkungen zu Zimmermann's Entwurf
des Kriegstheaters Russlands gegen Khiwa_, published in German at
Orenburg, and a _Handbook of Botany_ (Moscow, 1849).
A collected edition of his works appeared at St Petersburg in 8
volumes, 1860-1861.
DAHLBERG (DAHLBERGH), ERIK JOHANSEN, COUNT (1625-1703), Swedish soldier
and engineer, was born at Stockholm. His early studies took the
direction of the science of fortification, and as an engineer officer he
saw service in the latter years of the Thirty Years' War, and in Poland.
As adjutant-general and engineer adviser to Charles X. (Gustavus), he
had a great share in the famous crossing of the frozen Belts, and at the
sieges of Copenhagen and Kronborg he directed the engineers. In spite of
these distinguished services, Dahlberg remained an obscure
lieutenant-colonel for many years. His patriotism, however, proved
superior to the tempting offers Charles II. of England made to induce
him to enter the British service, though, in that age of professional
soldiering, there was nothing in the offer that a man of honour could
not accept. At last his talents were recognized, and in 1676 he became
director-general of fortifications. In the wars of the next twenty-five
years Dahlberg again rendered distinguished service, alike in attack (as
at Helsingborg in 1677, and Dünamünde in 1700) and defence (as in the
two sieges of Riga in 1700): and his work in repairing the fortresses of
his own country, not less important, earned for him the title of the
"Vauban of Sweden." He was also the founder of the Swedish engineer
corps. He retired as field-marshal in 1702, and died the following year.
Erik Dahlberg was responsible for the fine collection of drawings called
_Suecia antiqua et hodierna_ (Stockholm, 1660-1716; 2nd edition, 1856;
3rd edition, 1864-1865), and assisted Pufendorf in his _Histoire de
Charles X Gustave_. He wrote a memoir of his life (to be found in
Svenska Bibliotek, 1757) and an account of the campaigns of Charles X.
(ed. Lundblad, Stockholm, 1823).
DAHLGREN, JOHN ADOLF (1809-1870), admiral in the U.S. navy, was the son
of the Swedish consul at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was born in
that city on the 13th of November 1809. He entered the United States
navy in 1826, and saw some service in the Civil War in command of the
South Atlantic blockading squadron. But he was chiefly notable as a
scientific officer. His knowledge of mathematics caused him to be
employed on the coast survey in 1834. In 1837 his eyesight threatened to
fail, he retired in 1838-1842, and in 1847 he was transferred to the
ordnance department. In this post he applied himself to the improvement
of the guns of the U.S. navy. He was the inventor of the smooth bore gun
which bore his name, but was from its shape familiarly known as "the
soda water bottle." It was used in the Civil War, and for several years
afterwards in the United States navy. Dahlgren's guns were first mounted
in a vessel named the "Experiment," which cruised under his command from
1857 till 1859. They were "the first practical application of results
obtained by experimental determinations of pressure at different points
along the bore, by Colonel Bomford's tests--that is by boring holes in
the walls of the gun, through which the pressure acts upon other bodies,
such as pistol balls, pistons, &c." (Cf. article by J. M. Brooke in
Hamersley's _Naval Encyclopaedia_.) When the Civil War broke out, he was
on ordnance duty in the Washington navy yard, and he was one of the
three officers who did not resign from confederate sympathies. His rank
at the time was commander, and the command could only by held by a
captain. President Lincoln insisted on retaining Commander Dahlgren, and
he was qualified to keep the post by special act of Congress. He became
post-captain in 1862 and rear-admiral in 1863. He commanded the
Washington navy yard when he died on the 12th of July 1870.
A memoir of Admiral Dahlgren by his widow was published at Boston in
1882. (D. H.)
DAHLGREN, KARL FREDRIK (1791-1844), Swedish poet, was born at Stensbruk
in Östergötland on the 20th of June 1791. At a time when literary
partisanship ran high in Sweden, and the writers divided themselves into
"Goths" and "Phosphorists," Dahlgren made himself indispensable to the
Phosphorists by his polemical activity. In the mock-heroic poem of
_Markalls sömnlösa nätter_ (Markall's Sleepless Nights), in which the
Phosphorists ridiculed the academician Per Adam Wallmark and others,
Dahlgren, who was a genuine humorist, took a prominent part. In 1825 he
published _Babels Torn_ (The Tower of Babel), a satire, and a comedy,
_Argus in Olympen_; and in 1828 two volumes of poems. In 1829 he was
appointed to an ecclesiastical post in Stockholm, which he held until
his death. In a series of odes and dithyrambic pieces, entitled
_Mollbergs Epistlar_ (1819, 1820), he strove to emulate the wonderful
lyric genius of K. M. Bellman, of whom he was a student and follower.
From 1825 to 1827 he edited a critical journal entitled _Kometen_ (The
Comet), and in company with Almqvist he founded the _Manhemsförbund_, a
short-lived society of agricultural socialists. In 1834 he collected his
poems in one volume; and in 1837 appeared his last book,
_Angbåts-Sånger_ (Steamboat Songs). On the 1st of May 1844 he died at
Stockholm. Dahlgren is one of the best humorous writers that Sweden has
produced; but he was perhaps at his best in realistic and idyllic
description. His little poem of _Zephyr and the Girl_, which is to be
found in every selection from Swedish poetry, is a good example of his
sensuous and ornamented style.
His works were collected and published after his death by A. J.
Arwidsson (5 vols., Stockholm, 1847-1852).
DAHLIA, a genus of herbaceous plants of the natural order Compositae, so
called after Dr Dahl, a pupil of Linnaeus. The genus contains about nine
species indigenous in the high sandy plains of Mexico. The dahlia was
first introduced into Britain from Spain in 1789 by the marchioness of
Bute. The species was probably _D. variabilis_, whence by far the
majority of the forms now common have originated. The flowers, at the
time of the first introduction of the plant, were single, with a yellow
disk and dull scarlet rays; under cultivation since the beginning of the
19th century in France and England, flowers of numerous brilliant hues
have been produced. The flower has been modified also from a flat to a
globular shape, and the arrangement of the florets has been rendered
quite distinct in the ranunculus and anemone-like kinds. The ordinary
natural height of the dahlia is about 7 or 8 ft., but one of the dwarf
races grows to only 18 in. With changes in the flower, changes in the
shape of the seed have been brought about by cultivation; varieties of
the plant have been produced which require more moisture than others;
and the period of flowering has been made considerably earlier. In 1808
dahlias were described as flowering from September to November, but some
of the dwarf varieties at present grown are in full blossom in the
middle of June.
The large number of varieties may be classed as under the following
heads: (1) _Single dahlias_. These have been derived from _D. coccinea_;
they have a disk of tubular florets surrounded by the large showy ray
florets. (2) _Show dahlias_, large and double with flowers self-coloured
or pale-coloured and edged or tipped with a darker colour. (3) _Fancy
dahlias_, resembling the show but having the florets striped or tipped
with a second tint. (4) _Bouquet_ or _Pompon dahlias_, with much smaller
double flowers of various colours. (5) _Cactus dahlias_, derived from D.
Juarezi, a form which has given rise to a beautiful race with pointed
starry flowers. (6) _Paeony-flowered dahlias_, a new but not pretty
race, with large floppy heads, broad florets and several disk florets in
centre.
New varieties are procured from seed, which should be sown in pots or
pans towards the end of March, and placed in a hotbed or propagating
pit, the young plants being pricked off into pots or boxes, and
gradually hardened off for planting out in June; they will flower the
same season if the summer is a genial one. The older varieties are
propagated by dividing the large tuberous roots, in doing which care
must be taken to leave an eye to each portion of tuber, otherwise it
will not grow. Rare varieties are sometimes grafted on the roots of
others. The best and most general mode of propagation is by cuttings, to
obtain which, the old tubers are placed in heat in February, and as the
young shoots, which rise freely from them, attain the height of 3 in.,
they are taken off with a heel, and planted singly in small pots filled
with fine sandy soil, and plunged in a moderate heat. They root
speedily, and are then transferred to larger pots in light rich soil,
and their growth encouraged until the planting-out season arrives, about
the middle of June north of the Thames.
Dahlias succeed best in an open situation, and in rich deep loam, but
there is scarcely any garden soil in which they will not thrive, if it
is manured. For the production of fine show flowers the ground must be
deeply trenched, and well manured annually. The branches as well as the
blossoms require a considerable but judicious amount of thinning; they
also need shading in some cases. The plants should be protected from
cold winds, and when watered the whole of the foliage should be wetted.
They may stand singly like common border flowers, but have the most
imposing appearance when seen in masses arranged according to their
height. Florists usually devote a plot of ground to them, and plant them
in lines 5 to 10 ft. apart. This is done about the beginning of June,
sheltering them if necessary from late frosts by inverted pots or in
some other convenient way. Old roots often throw up a multitude of
stems, which render thinning necessary. As the plants increase in
height, they are furnished with strong stakes, to secure them from high
winds. Dahlias flower on till they are interrupted by frost in autumn.
The roots are then taken up, dried, and stored in a cellar, or some
other place where they may be secure from frost and moisture. Earwigs
are very destructive, eating out the young buds and florets. Small
flower-pots half filled with dry moss and inverted on stakes placed
among the branches, form a useful trap.
DAHLMANN, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH (1785-1860), German historian and
politician, was born on the 13th of May 1785; he came of an old
Hanseatic family of Wismar, which then belonged to Sweden. His father,
who was the burgomaster of the town, intended him to study theology, but
his bent was towards classical philology, and this he studied from 1802
to 1806 at the universities of Copenhagen and Halle, and again at
Copenhagen. After finishing his studies, he translated some of the Greek
tragic poets, and the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes. But he was also
interested in modern literature and philosophy; and the troubles of the
times, of which he had personal experience, aroused in him, as in so
many of his contemporaries, a strong feeling of German patriotism,
though throughout his life he was always proud of his connexion with
Scandinavia, and Gustavus Adolphus was his particular hero. In 1809, on
the news of the outbreak of war in Austria, Dahlmann, together with the
poet Heinrich von Kleist, whom he had met in Dresden, went to Bohemia,
and was afterwards with the Imperial army, up till the battle of Aspern,
with the somewhat vague object of trying to convert the Austrian war
into a German one. This hope was shattered by the defeat of Wagram. He
now decided to try his fortunes in Denmark, where he had influential
relations. After taking his doctor's degree at Wittenberg (1810) he
qualified at Copenhagen in 1811, with an essay on the origins of the
ancient theatre, as a lecturer on ancient literature and history, on
which he delivered lectures in Latin. His influential friends soon
brought him further advancement. As early as 1812 he was summoned to
Kiel, as successor to the historian Dietrich Hermann Hegewisch
(1746-1812). This appointment was in two respects a decisive moment in
his career; on the one hand it made him give his whole attention to a
subject for which he was admirably suited, but to which he had so far
given only a secondary interest; and on the other hand, it threw him
into politics.
In 1815 he obtained, in addition to his professorate, the position of
secretary to the perpetual deputation of the estates of
Schleswig-Holstein. In this capacity he began, by means of memoirs or of
articles in the _Kieler Blätter_, which he founded himself, to appear as
an able and zealous champion of the half-forgotten rights of the Elbe
duchies, as against Denmark, and of their close connexion with Germany.
It was he upon whom the Danes afterwards threw the blame of having
invented the Schleswig-Holstein question; certainly his activities form
an important link in the chain of events which eventually led to the
solution of 1864. So far as this interest affected himself, the chief
profit lay in the fact that it deepened his conception of the state, and
directed it to more practical ends. Whereas at that time mere
speculation dominated both the French Liberalism of the school of
Rotteck, and Karl Ludwig von Haller's Romanticist doctrine of the
Christian state, Dahlmann took as his premisses the circumstances as he
found them, and evolved the new out of the old by a quiet process of
development. Moreover, in the inevitable conflict with the Danish crown
his upright point of view and his German patriotism were further
confirmed. After his transference to Göttingen in 1829 he had the
opportunity of working in the same spirit. As confidant of the duke of
Cambridge, he was allowed to take a share in framing the Hanoverian
constitution of 1833, which remodelled the old aristocratic government
in a direction which had become inevitable since the July revolution in
Paris; and when in 1837 the new king Ernest Augustus declared the
constitution invalid, it was Dahlmann who inspired the famous protest of
the seven professors of Göttingen. He was deprived of his position and
banished, but he had the satisfaction of knowing that German national
feeling received a mighty impulse from his courageous action, while
public subscriptions prevented him from material cares.
After he had lived for several years in Leipzig and Jena, King Frederick
William IV. appointed him in October 1842 to a professorship at Bonn.
The years that followed were those of his highest celebrity. His
_Politik_ (1835) had already made him a great name as a writer; he now
published his _Dänische Geschichte_ (1840-1843), a historical work of
the first rank; and this was soon followed by histories of the English
and French revolutions, which, though of less scientific value,
exercised a decisive influence upon public opinion by their open
advocacy of the system of constitutional monarchy. As a teacher too he
was much beloved. Though no orator, and in spite of a personality not
particularly amiable or winning, he produced a profound impression upon
young men by the pregnancy of his expression, a consistent logical
method of thought based on Kant and by the manliness of his character.
When the revolution of 1848 broke out, the "father of German
nationality," as the provisional government at Milan called him, found
himself the centre of universal interest. Both Mecklenburg and Prussia
offered him in vain the post of envoy to the diet of the confederation.
Naturally, too, he was elected to the national assembly at Frankfort,
and took a leading part in the constitutional committees appointed first
by the diet, then by the parliament. His object was to make Germany as
far as possible a united constitutional monarchy, with the exclusion of
the whole of Austria, or at least, of its non-German parts. Prussia was
to provide the emperor, but at the same time--and in this lay the
doctrinaire weakness of the system--was to give up its separate
existence, consecrated by history, in the same way as the other states.
When, therefore, Frederick William IV., without showing any anxiety to
bind himself by the conditions laid down at Frankfort, concluded with
Denmark the seven months' truce of Malmö (26th August 1848), Dahlmann
proposed that the national parliament should refuse to recognize the
truce, with the express intention of clearing up once for all the
relations of the parliament with the court of Berlin. The motion was
passed by a small majority (September 5th); but the members of
Dahlmann's party were just those who voted against it, and it was they
who on the 17th of September reversed the previous vote and passed a
resolution accepting the truce, after Dahlmann had failed to form a
ministry on the basis of the resolution of the 5th, owing to his
objection to the Radicals. Dahlmann afterwards described this as the
decisive turning-point in the fate of the parliament. He did not,
however, at once give up all hope. Though he took but little active part
in parliamentary debates, he was very active on commissions and in party
conferences, and it was largely owing to him that a German constitution
was at last evolved, and that Frederick William IV. was elected
hereditary emperor (28th of March 1849). He was accordingly one of the
deputation which offered the crown to the king in Berlin. The king's
refusal was less of a surprise to him than to most of his colleagues. He
counted on being able to compel recognition of the constitution by the
moral pressure of the consent of the people. It was only when the
attitude of the Radicals made it clear to him that this course would
lead to a revolution, that he decided, after a long struggle, to retire
from the national parliament (21st May). He was still, however, one of
the chief promoters of the well-known conference of the imperial party
at Gotha, the proceedings of which were not, however, satisfactory to
him; and he took part in the sessions of the first Prussian chamber
(1849-1850) and of the parliament of Erfurt (1850). But finally,
convinced that for the moment all efforts towards the unity of Germany
were unavailing, he retired from political life, though often pressed to
stand for election, and again took up his work of teaching at Bonn. His
last years were, however, saddened by illness, bereavement and continual
friction with his colleagues. His death took place on the 5th of
December 1860, following on an apoplectic fit. He was a man whose
personality had contributed to the progress of the world, and whose
teaching was to continue to exercise a far-reaching influence on the
development of German affairs.
His chief works were:--_Quellenkunde der deutschen Geschichte nach der
Folge der Begebenheiten geordnet_ (1830, 7th edition of Dahlmann-Waitz,
_Quellenkunde_, Leipzig, 1906); _Politik, auf den Grund und das Mass der
gegebenen Zustände zurückgeführt_ (1 vol., 1835); _Geschichte Dänemarks_
(3 vols., 1840-1843); _Geschichte der englischen Revolution_ (1844);
_Geschichte der französischen Revolution_ (1845).
See A. Springer, _Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann_ (2 vols., 1870-1872);
and H. v. Treitschke, _Histor. und polit. Aufsätze_, i. 365 et seq.
(F. Lu.)
DAHLSTJERNA, GUNNO (1661-1709), Swedish poet, whose original surname was
Eurelius, was born on the 7th of September 1661 in the parish of Öhr in
Dalsland, where his father was rector. He entered the university of
Upsala in 1677, and after gaining his degree entered the government
office of land-surveying. He was sent in 1681 on professional business
to Livonia, then under Swedish rule. A dissertation read at Leipzig in
1687 brought him the offer of a professorial chair in the university,
which he refused. Returning to Sweden he executed commissions in
land-surveying directed by King Charles XI., and in 1699 he became head
of the whole department. In 1702 he was ennobled under the name of
Dahlstjerna. He wandered over the whole of the coast of the Baltic,
Livonia, Rügen and Pomerania, preparing maps which still exist in the
office of public land-surveying in Stockholm. His death, which took
place in Pomerania on his forty-eighth birthday, 7th of September 1709,
is said to have been hastened by the disastrous news of the battle of
Poltava. Dahlstjerna's patriotism was touching in its pathos and
intensity, and during his long periods of professional exile he
comforted himself by the composition of songs to his beloved Sweden. His
genius was most irregular, but at his best he easily surpasses all the
Swedish poets of his time. His best-known original work is _Kungaskald_
(Stettin, 1697), an elegy on the death of Charles XI. It is written in
alexandrines, arranged in _ottava rima_. The poem is pompous and
allegorical, but there are passages full of melody and high thoughts.
Dahlstjerna was a reformer in language, and it has been well said by
Atterbom that in this poem "he treats the Swedish speech just as
dictatorially as Charles XI. and Charles XII. treated the Swedish
nation." In 1690 was printed at Stettin his paraphrase of the _Pastor
Fido_ of Guarini. His most popular work is his _Götha kämpavisa om
Konungen och Herr Peder_ (The Goth's Battle Song, concerning the King
and Master Peter; Stockholm, 1701). The King is Charles XII. and Master
Peter is the tsar of Russia. This spirited ballad lived almost until our
own days on the lips of the people as a folk-song.
The works of Dahlstjerna have been collected by P. Hanselli, in the
_Samlade Vitterhetsarbeten af svenska Författare från Stjernhjelm till
Dalin_ (Upsala, 1856, &c.).
DAHN, JULIUS SOPHUS FELIX (1834- ), German historian, jurist and poet,
was born on the 9th of February 1834 in Hamburg, where his father,
Friedrich Dahn (1811-1889), was a leading actor at the city theatre. His
mother, Constance Dahn, née Le Gay, was a noted actress. In 1834 the
family moved to Munich, where the parents took leading rôles in the
classical German drama, until they retired from the stage: the mother in
1865 and the father in 1878. Felix Dahn studied law and philosophy in
Munich and Berlin from 1849 to 1853. His first works were in
jurisprudence, _Über die Wirkung der Klagverjährung bei Obligationen_
(Munich, 1855), and _Studien zur Geschichte der germanischen
Gottesurteile_ (Munich, 1857). In 1857 he became docent in German law at
Munich university, and in 1862 professor-extraordinary, but in 1863 was
called to Würzburg to a full professorship. In 1872 he removed to the
university of Königsberg, and in 1888 settled at Breslau, becoming
rector of the university in 1895. Meanwhile in addition to many legal
works of high standing, he had begun the publication of that long series
of histories and historical romances which has made his name a household
word in Germany. The great history of the German migrations, _Die Könige
der Germanen_, Bände i.-vi. (Munich and Würzburg, 1861-1870), Bände
vii.-xi. (Leipzig, 1894-1908), was a masterly study in constitutional
history as well as a literary work of high merit, which carries the
narrative down to the dissolution of the Carolingian empire. In his
_Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Völker_ (Berlin,
1881-1890), Dahn went a step farther back still, but here as in his
_Geschichte der deutschen Urzeit_ (Gotha, 1883-1888), a wealth of
picturesque detail has been worked over and resolved into history with
such imaginative insight and critical skill as to make real and present
the indistinct beginnings of German society. Together with these larger
works Dahn wrote many monographs and studies upon primitive German
society. Many of his essays were collected in a series of six volumes
entitled _Bausteine_ (Berlin, 1879-1884). Not less important than his
histories are the historical romances, the best-known of which, _Ein
Kampf um Rom_, in four volumes (Leipzig, 1876), which has gone through
many later editions, was also the first of the series. Others are
_Odhins Trost_ (Leipzig, 1880); _Die Kreuzfahrer_ (Leipzig, 1884);
_Odhins Rache_ (Leipzig, 1891); _Julian der Abtrünnige_ (Leipzig, 1894),
and one of the most popular, _Bis zum Tode getreu_ (Leipzig, 1887). The
list is too long to be given in full, yet almost all are well-known.
Parallel with this great production of learned and imaginative works,
Dahn published some twenty small volumes of poetry. The most notable of
these are the epics of the early German period. His wife Therese, _née_
Freiin von Droste-Hülshoff, was joint-author with him of _Walhall,
Germanische Götter und Heldensagen_ (Leipzig, 1898).
A collected edition of his works of fiction, both in prose and verse,
has reached twenty-one volumes (Leipzig, 1898), and a new edition was
published in 1901. Dahn also published four volumes of memoirs,
_Erinnerungen_ (Leipzig, 1890-1895).
DAHOMEY (Fr. _Dahomé_), a country of West Africa, formerly an
independent kingdom, now a French colony. Dahomey is bounded S. by the
Gulf of Guinea, E. by Nigeria (British), N. and N.W. by the French
possessions on the middle Niger, and W. by the German colony of
Togoland. The French colony extends far north of the limits of the
ancient kingdom of the same name. With a coast-line of only 75 m. (1°
38´ E. to 2° 46´ 55´´ E.), the area of the colony is about 40,000 sq.
m., and the population over 1,000,000. As far as 9° N. the width of the
colony is no greater than the coast-line. From this point, the colony
broadens out both eastward and westward, attaining a maximum width of
200 m. It includes the western part of Borgu (q.v.), and reaches the
Niger at a spot a little above Illo. Its greatest length N. to S. is 430
m.
_Physical Features._--The littoral, part of the old Slave Coast (see
GUINEA,), is very low, sandy and obstructed by a bar. Behind the
seashore is a line of lagoons, where small steamers can ply; east to
west they are those of Porto Novo (or Lake Nokue), Whydah and Grand
Popo. The Weme (300 m. long), known in its upper course as the Ofe, the
most important river running south, drains the colony from the Bariba
country to Porto Novo, entering the lagoon so named. The Zu is a western
affluent of the Weme. Farther west is the Kuffu (150 m. long), which,
before entering the Whydah lagoon, broadens out into a lake or lagoon
called Ahémé, 20 m. long by 5 m. broad. The Makru and Kergigoto, each of
which has various affluents, flow north-east to the Niger, which in the
part of its course forming the north-east frontier of the colony is only
navigable for small vessels and that with great difficulty (see NIGER).
For some 50 m. inland the country is flat, and, after the first mile or
two of sandy waste is passed, covered with dense vegetation. At this
distance (50 m.) from the coast is a great swamp known as the Lama
Marsh. It extends east to west some 25 m. and north to south 6 to 9 m.
North of the swamp the land rises by regular stages to about 1650 ft.,
the high plateau falling again to the basin of the Niger. In the
north-west a range of hills known as the Atacora forms a watershed
between the basins of the Weme, the Niger and the Volta. A large part of
the interior consists of undulating country, rather barren, with
occasional patches of forest. The forests contain the baobab, the
coco-nut palm and the oil palm. The fauna resembles that of other parts
of the West Coast, but the larger wild animals, such as the elephant and
hippopotamus, are rare. The lion is found in the regions bordering the
Niger. Some kinds of antelopes are common; the buffalo has disappeared.
_Climate._--The climate of the coast regions is very hot and moist. Four
seasons are well marked: the harmattan or long dry season, from the 1st
December to the 15th March; the season of the great rains, from the 15th
March to the 15th July; the short dry season, from the 15th July to the
15th September; and the "little rains," from the 15th September to the
1st December. Near the sea the average temperature is about 80° F. The
harmattan prevails for several days in succession, and alternates with
winds from the south and south-west. During its continuance the
thermometer falls about 10°, there is not the slightest moisture in the
atmosphere, vegetation dries up or droops, the skin parches and peels,
and all woodwork is liable to warp and crack with a loud report.
Tornadoes occur occasionally. During nine months of the year the climate
is tempered by a sea-breeze, which is felt as far inland as Abomey (60
m.). It generally begins in the morning, and in the summer it often
increases to a stiff gale at sundown. In the interior there are but two
seasons: the dry season (November to May) and the rainy season (June to
October). The rains are more scanty and diminish considerably in the
northern regions.
_Inhabitants._--The inhabitants of the coast region are of pure negro
stock. The Dahomeyans (Dahomi), who inhabit the central part of the
colony, form one of eighteen closely-allied clans occupying the country
between the Volta and Porto Novo, and from their common tongue known as
the Ewe-speaking tribes. In their own tongue Dahomeyans are called Fon
or Fawin. They are tall and well-formed, proud, reserved in demeanour,
polite in their intercourse with strangers, war-like and keen traders.
The Mina, who occupy the district of the Popos, are noted for their
skill as surf-men, which has gained for them the title of the Krumen of
Dahomey. Porto Novo is inhabited by a tribe called Nago, which has an
admixture of Yoruba blood and speaks a Yoruba dialect. The Nago are a
peaceful tribe and even keener traders than the Dahomi. In Whydah and
other coast towns are many mulattos, speaking Portuguese and bearing
high-sounding Portuguese names. In the north the inhabitants--Mahi,
Bariba, Gurmai,--are also of Negro stock, but scarcely so civilized as
the coast tribes. Settled among them are communities of Fula and Hausas.
There are many converts to Islam in the northern districts, but the Mahi
and Dahomeyans proper are nearly all fetish worshippers.
_Chief Towns._--The chief port and the seat of government is Kotonu, the
starting-point of a railway to the Niger. An iron pier, which extends
well beyond the surf, affords facilities for shipping. Kotonu was
originally a small village which served as the seaport of Porto Novo and
was burnt to the ground in 1890. It has consequently the advantage of
being a town laid out by Europeans on a definite plan. Situated on the
beach between the sea and the lagoon of Porto Novo, the soil consists of
heavy sand. Good hard roads have been made. Owing to an almost
continuous, cool, westerly sea-breeze, Kotonu is, in comparison with the
other coast towns, decidedly healthy for white men. Porto Novo (pop.
about 50,000), the former French headquarters and chief business centre,
is on the northern side of the lagoon of the same name and 20 m.
north-east of Kotonu by water. The town has had many names, and that by
which it is known to Europeans was given by the Portuguese in the 17th
century. It contains numerous churches and mosques, public buildings and
merchants' residences. Whydah, 23 m. west of Kotonu, is an old and
formerly thickly-populated town. Its population is now about 15,000. It
is built on the north bank of the coast lagoon about 2 m. from the sea.
There is no harbour at the beach, and landing is effected in boats made
expressly to pass through the surf, here particularly heavy. Whydah,
during the period of the slave-trade, was divided into five quarters:
the English, French, Portuguese, Brazilian and native. The three first
quarters once had formidable forts, of which the French fort alone
survives. In consequence of the thousands of orange and citron trees
which adorn it, Whydah is called "the garden of Dahomey." West of
Whydah, on the coast and near the frontier of Togoland, is the trading
town of Grand Popo. Inland in Dahomey proper are Abomey (q.v.), the
ancient capital, Allada, Kana (formerly the country residence and
burial-place of the kings of Dahomey) and Dogba. In the hinterland are
Carnotville (a town of French creation), Nikki and Paraku, Borgu towns,
and Garu, on the right bank of the Niger near the British frontier, the
terminus of the railway from the coast.
_Agriculture and Trade._--The agriculture, trade and commerce of Dahomey
proper are essentially different from that of the hinterland (_Haut
Dahomé_). The soil of Dahomey proper is naturally fertile and is capable
of being highly cultivated. It consists of a rich clay of a deep red
colour. Finely-powdered quartz and yellow mica are met with, denoting
the deposit of disintegrated granite from the interior. The principal
product is palm-oil, which is made in large quantities throughout the
country. The district of Toffo is particularly noted for its oil-palm
orchards. Palm-wine is also made, but the manufacture is discouraged as
the process destroys the tree. Next to palm-oil the principal vegetable
products are maize, guinea-corn, cassava, yams, sweet potatoes,
plantains, coco-nuts, oranges, limes and the African apple, which grows
almost wild. The country also produces ground-nuts, kola-nuts,
pine-apples, guavas, spices of all kinds, ginger, okros (_Hibiscus_),
sugar-cane, onions, tomatoes and papaws. Plantations of rubber trees and
vines have been made. Cattle, sheep, goats and fowls are scarce. There
is a large fishing industry in the lagoons. Round the villages, and here
and there in the forest, clearings are met with, cultivated in places,
but agriculture is in a backward condition. In the grassy uplands of the
interior cattle and horses thrive, and cotton of a fairly good quality
is grown by the inhabitants for their own use. The prosperity of the
country depends chiefly on the export of palm-oil and palm-kernels.
Copra, kola-nuts, rubber and dried fish are also exported, the fish
going to Lagos. The adulteration of the palm-kernels by the natives,
which became a serious menace to trade, was partially checked
(1900-1903) by measures taken to ensure the inspection of the kernels
before shipment. Trade is mainly with Germany and Great Britain, a large
proportion of the cargo passing through the British port of Lagos. Only
some 25% of the commerce is with France. Cotton goods (chiefly from
Great Britain), machinery and metals, alcohol (from Germany) and tobacco
are the chief imports. The volume of trade, which had increased from
£701,000 in 1898 to £1,230,000 in 1902, declined in 1903 to £826,000 in
consequence of the failure of rain, this causing a decrease in the
production of palm-oil and kernels. In 1904 the total rose to £873,399.
In 1905 the figure was £734,667, and in 1907 £853,051. By the
Anglo-French Convention of 1898 the imposition of differential duties on
goods of British origin was forbidden for a period of thirty years from
that date.
_Communications._--The Dahomey railway from Kotonu to the Niger is of
metre gauge (3.28 ft.). Work was begun in 1900, and in 1902 the main
line was completed to Toffo, a distance of 55 m. Some difficulty was
then encountered in crossing the Lama Marsh, but by the end of 1905 the
railway had been carried through Abomey to Pauignan, 120 m. from Kotonu.
In 1907 the rails had reached Paraku, 150 m. farther north. A branch
railway from the main line serves the western part of the colony. It
goes via Whydah to Segborué on Lake Ahémé. Besides the railways, tramway
lines exist in various parts of Dahomey. One, 28 m. long, runs from
Porto Novo through the market-town of Adjara to Sakete, close to the
British frontier in the direction of Lagos. This line serves a belt of
country rich in oil-palms. Kotonu is a regular port of call for steamers
from Europe to the West Coast, and there is also regular steamship
communication along the lagoons between Porto Novo and Lagos. There is a
steamboat service between Porto Novo and Kotonu. A telegraph line
connects Kotonu with Abomey, the Niger and Senegal.
_Administration._--The colony is administered by a lieutenant-governor,
assisted by a council composed of official and unofficial members. The
colony is divided into territories annexed, territories protected, and
"territories of political action," but for administrative purposes the
division is into "circles" or provinces. Over each circle is an
administrator with extensive powers. Except in the annexed territories
the native states are maintained under French supervision, and native
laws and customs, as far as possible, retained. Natives, however, may
place themselves under the jurisdiction of the French law. Such natives
are known as "Assimilés." In general the administrative system is the
same as that for all the colonies of French West Africa (q.v.). The
chief source of revenue is the customs, while the capitation tax
contributes most to the local budget.
_History._--The kingdom of Dahomey, like those of Benin and Ashanti, is
an instance of a purely negro and pagan state, endowed with a highly
organized government, and possessing a certain amount of indigenous
civilization and culture. Its history begins about the commencement of
the 17th century. At that period the country now known as Dahomey was
included in the extensive kingdom of Allada or Ardrah, of which the
capital was the present town of Allada, on the road from Whydah to
Abomey. Allada became dismembered on the death of a reigning sovereign,
and three separate kingdoms were constituted under his three sons. One
state was formed by one brother round the old capital of Allada, and
retained the name of Allada or Ardrah; another brother migrated to the
east and formed a state known under the name of Porto Novo; while the
third brother, Takudonu, travelled northwards, and after some
vicissitudes established the kingdom of Dahomey. The word Dahomey means
"in Danh's belly," and is explained by the following legend which, says
Sir Richard Burton, "is known (1864) to everybody in the kingdom."
Takudonu having settled in a town called Uhwawe encroached on the land
of a neighbouring chief named Danh (the snake). Takudonu wearied Danh by
perpetual demands for land, and the chief one day exclaimed in anger
"soon thou wilt build in my belly." So it came to pass. Takudonu slew
Danh and over his grave built himself a palace which was called Dahomey,
a name thenceforth adopted by the new king's followers. About 1724-1728
Dahomey, having become a powerful state, invaded and conquered
successively Allada and Whydah. The Whydahs made several attempts to
recover their freedom, but without success; while on the other hand the
Dahomeyans failed in all their expeditions against Grand Popo, a town
founded by refugee Whydahs on a lagoon to the west. It is related that
the repulses they met with in that quarter led to the order that no
Dahomeyan warrior was to enter a canoe. Porto Novo at the beginning of
the 19th century became tributary to Dahomey.
Such was the state of affairs at the accession of King Gezo about the
year 1818. This monarch, who reigned forty years, raised the power of
Dahomey to its highest pitch, extending greatly the border of his
kingdom to the north. He boasted of having first organized the Amazons,
a force of women to whom he attributed his successes. The Amazons,
however, were state soldiery long before Gezo's reign, and what that
monarch really did was to reorganize and strengthen the force.
In 1851 Gezo attacked Abeokuta in the Yoruba country and the centre of
the Egba power, but was beaten back. In the same year the king signed a
commercial treaty with France, in which Gezo also undertook to preserve
"the integrity of the territory belonging to the French fort" at Whydah.
The fort referred to was one built in the 17th century, and in 1842 made
over to a French mercantile house. England, Portugal and Brazil also had
"forts" at Whydah--all in a ruinous condition and ungarrisoned. But when
in 1852 England, to prevent the slave-trade, blockaded the Dahomeyan
coast, energetic protests were made by Portugal and France, based on the
existence of these "forts." In 1858 Gezo died. He had greatly reduced
the custom of human sacrifice, and left instructions that after his
death there was to be no general sacrifice of the palace women.
Gezo was succeeded by his son Gléglé (or Gélélé), whose attacks on
neighbouring states, persecution of native Christians, and encouragement
of the slave-trade involved him in difficulties with Great Britain and
with France. It was, said Earl Russell, foreign secretary, to check "the
aggressive spirit of the king of Dahomey" that England in 1861 annexed
the island of Lagos. Nevertheless in the following year Gléglé captured
Ishagga and in 1864 unsuccessfully attacked Abeokuta, both towns in the
Lagos hinterland. In 1863 Commander Wilmot, R.N., and in 1864 Sir
Richard Burton (the explorer and orientalist) were sent on missions to
the king, but their efforts to induce the Dahomeyans to give up human
sacrifices, slave-trading, &c. met with no success. In 1863, however, a
step was taken by France which was the counterpart of the British
annexation of Lagos. In that year the kingdom of Porto Novo accepted a
French protectorate, and an Anglo-French agreement of 1864 fixed its
boundaries. This protectorate was soon afterwards abandoned by Napoleon
III., but was re-established in 1882. At this period the rivalry of
European powers for possessions in Africa was becoming acute, and German
agents appeared on the Dahomeyan coast. However, by an arrangement
concluded in 1885, the German protectorate in Guinea was confined to
Togo, save for the town of Little Popo at the western end of the lagoon
of Grand Popo. In January 1886 Portugal--in virtue of her ancient rights
at Whydah--announced that she had assumed a protectorate over the
Dahomeyan coast, but she was induced by France to withdraw her
protectorate in December 1887. Finally, the last international
difficulty in the way of France was removed by the Anglo-French
agreement of 1889, whereby Kotonu was surrendered by Great Britain.
France claimed rights at Kotonu in virtue of treaties concluded with
Gléglé in 1868 and 1878, but the chiefs of the town had placed
themselves under the protection of the British at Lagos.
With the arrangements between the European powers the Dahomeyans had
little to do, and in 1889, the year in which the Anglo-French agreement
was signed, trouble arose between Gléglé and the French. The Dahomeyans
were the more confident, as through German and other merchants at Whydah
they were well supplied with modern arms and ammunition. Gléglé claimed
the right to collect the customs at Kotonu, and to depose the king of
Porto Novo, and proceeded to raid the territory of that potentate (his
brother). A French mission sent to Abomey failed to come to an agreement
with the Dahomeyans, who attributed the misunderstandings to the fact
that there was no longer a king in France! Gléglé died on the 28th of
December 1889, two days after the French mission had left his capital.
He was succeeded by his son Behanzin. A French force was landed at
Kotonu, and severe fighting followed in which the Amazons played a
conspicuous part. In October 1890 a treaty was signed which secured to
France Porto Novo and Kotonu, and to the king of Dahomey an annual
pension of £800. It was unlikely that peace on such terms would prove
lasting, and Behanzin's slave-raiding expeditions led in 1892 to a new
war with France. General A. A. Dodds was placed in command of a strong
force of Europeans and Senegalese, and after a sharp campaign during
September and October completely defeated the Dahomeyan troops. Behanzin
set fire to Abomey (entered by the French troops on the 17th of
November) and fled north. Pursued by the enemy, abandoned by his people,
he surrendered unconditionally on the 25th of January 1894, and was
deported to Martinique, being transferred in 1906 to Algeria, where he
died on the 10th of December of the same year.
Thus ended the independent existence of Dahomey. The French divided the
kingdom in two--Abomey and Allada--placing on the throne of Abomey a
brother of the exiled monarch. Chief among the causes which led to the
collapse of the Dahomeyan kingdom was the system which devoted the
flower of its womanhood to the profession of arms.
Whydah and the adjacent territory was annexed to France by General Dodds
on the 3rd of December 1892, and the rest of Dahomey placed under a
French protectorate at the same time. The prince who had been made king
of Abomey was found intriguing against the French, and in 1900 was
exiled by them to the Congo, and with him disappeared the last vestige
of Dahomeyan sovereignty.
Dahomey conquered, the French at once set to work to secure as much of
the hinterland as possible. On the north they penetrated to the Niger,
on the east they entered Borgu (a country claimed by the Royal Niger
Company for Great Britain), on the west they overlapped the territory
claimed by Germany as the hinterland of Togo. The struggle with Great
Britain and Germany for supremacy in this region forms one of the most
interesting chapters in the story of the partition of Africa. In the
result France succeeded in securing a junction between Dahomey and her
other possessions in West Africa, but failed to secure any part of the
Niger navigable from the sea (see AFRICA: _History_, and NIGERIA). A
Franco-German convention of 1897 settled the boundary on the west, and
the Anglo-French convention of the 14th of June 1898 defined the
frontier on the east. In 1899, on the disintegration of the French
Sudan, the districts of Fada N'Gurma and Say, lying north of Borgu, were
added to Dahomey, but in 1907 they were transferred to Upper
Senegal-Niger, with which colony they are closely connected both
geographically and ethnographically. From 1894 onward the French devoted
great attention to the development of the material resources of the
country.
_The "Customs."_--Reference has already been made to the Dahomey
"Customs," which gave the country an infamous notoriety. The "Customs"
appear to date from the middle of the 17th century, and were of two
kinds: the grand Customs performed on the death of a king; and the minor
Customs, held twice a year. The horrors of these saturnalia of bloodshed
were attributable not to a love of cruelty but to filial piety. Upon the
death of a king human victims were sacrificed at his grave to supply him
with wives, attendants, &c. in the spirit world. The grand Customs
surpassed the annual rites in splendour and bloodshed. At those held in
1791 during January, February and March, it is stated that no fewer than
500 men, women and children were put to death. The minor Customs were
first heard of in Europe in the early years of the 18th century. They
formed continuations of the grand Customs, and "periodically supplied
the departed monarch with fresh attendants in the shadowy world." The
actual slaughter was preluded by dancing, feasting, speechmaking and
elaborate ceremonial. The victims, chiefly prisoners of war, were
dressed in calico shirts decorated round the neck and down the sleeves
with red bindings, and with a crimson patch on the left breast, and wore
long white night-caps with spirals of blue ribbon sewn on. Some of them,
tied in baskets, were at one stage of the proceedings taken to the top
of a high platform, together with an alligator, a cat and a hawk in
similar baskets, and paraded on the heads of the Amazons. The king then
made a speech explaining that the victims were sent to testify to his
greatness in spirit-land, the men and the animals each to their kind.
They were then hurled down into the middle of a surging crowd of
natives, and butchered. At another stage of the festival human
sacrifices were offered at the shrine of the king's ancestors, and the
blood was sprinkled on their graves. This was known as _Zan Nyanyana_ or
"evil night," the king going in procession with his wives and officials
and himself executing the doomed. These semi-public massacres formed
only a part of the slaughter, for many women, eunuchs and others within
the palace were done to death privately. The skulls were used to adorn
the palace walls, and the king's sleeping-chamber was paved with the
heads of his enemies. The skulls of the conquered kings were turned into
royal drinking cups, their conversion to this use being esteemed an
honour. Sir Richard Burton insists (_A Mission to Gelele, King of
Dahome_) that the horrors of these rites were greatly exaggerated. For
instance, the story that the king floated a canoe in a tank of human
blood was, he writes, quite untrue. He denies, too, that the victims
were tortured, and affirms that on the contrary they were treated
humanely, and, in many cases, even acquiesced in their fate. It seems
that cannibalism was a sequel of the Customs, the bodies of the
slaughtered being roasted and devoured smoking hot. On the death of the
king the wives, after the most extravagant demonstrations of grief,
broke and destroyed everything within their reach, and attacked and
murdered each other, the uproar continuing until order was restored by
the new sovereign.
_Amazonian Army._--The training of women as soldiers was the most
singular Dahomeyan institution. About one-fourth of the whole female
population were said to be "married to the fetich," many even before
their birth, and the remainder were entirely at the disposal of the
king. The most favoured were selected as his own wives or enlisted into
the regiments of Amazons, and then the chief men were liberally
supplied. Of the female captives the most promising were drafted into
the ranks as soldiers, and the rest became Amazonian camp followers and
slaves in the royal households. These female levies formed the flower of
the Dahomeyan army. They were marshalled in regiments, each with its
distinctive uniform and badges, and they took the post of honour in all
battles. Their number has been variously stated. Sir R. F. Burton, in
1862, who saw the army marching out of Kana on an expedition, computed
the whole force of female troops at 2500, of whom one-third were unarmed
or only half-armed. Their weapons were blunderbusses, flint muskets, and
bows and arrows. A later writer estimated the number of Amazons at 1000,
and the male soldiers at 10,000. The system of warfare was one of
surprise. The army marched out, and, when within a few days' journey of
the town to be attacked, silence was enjoined and no fires permitted.
The regular highways were avoided, and the advance was by a road
specially cut through the bush. The town was surrounded at night, and
just before daybreak a rush was made and every soul captured if
possible; none were killed except in self-defence, as the first object
was to capture, not to kill. The season usually selected for expeditions
was from January to March, or immediately after the annual "Customs."
The Amazons were carefully trained, and the king was in the habit of
holding "autumn manoeuvres" for the benefit of foreigners. Many
Europeans have witnessed a mimic assault, and agree in ascribing a
marvellous power of endurance to the women. Lines of thorny acacia were
piled up one behind the other to represent defences, and at a given
signal the Amazons, barefooted and without any special protection,
charged and disappeared from sight. Presently they emerged within the
lines torn and bleeding, but apparently insensible to pain, and the
parade closed with a march past, each warrior leading a pretended
captive bound with a rope.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--_Notre Colonie de Dahomey_, by G. François (Paris,
1906), and _Le Dahomey_ (1909), an official publication, deal with
topography, ethnography and economics; L. Brunet and L. Giethlen,
_Dahomey et dépendances_ (Paris, 1900); Édouard Foà, _Le Dahomey_
(Paris, 1895). Religion, laws and language are specially dealt with in
_Ewe-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, by A. B. Ellis (London,
1890), and in _La Côte des Esclaves et le Dahomey_, by P. Bouche
(Paris, 1885). Much historical matter, with particular notices of the
Amazons and the "Customs," is contained in _A Mission to Gelele_, by
Sir R. Burton (London, 1864). The story of the French conquest is told
in _Campagne du Dahomey_, by Jules Poirier (Paris, 1895). The standard
authority on the early history is _The History of Dahomey_, by
Archibald Dalzel (sometime governor of the English fort at Whydah)
(London, 1793). The annual _Reports_ issued by the British, Foreign,
and French Colonial Offices may be consulted, and the _Bibliographie
raisonnée des ouvrages concernant le Dahomey_, by A. Pawlowski (Paris,
1895), is a useful guide to the literature of the country to that
date. A _Carte du Dahomey_, by A. Meunier, (3 sheets, scale
1:500,000), was published in Paris, 1907.
DAILLÉ (DALLAEUS), JEAN (1594-1670), French Protestant divine, was born
at Châtellerault and educated at Poitiers and Saumur. From 1612 to 1621
he was tutor to two of the grandsons of Philippe de Mornay, seigneur du
Plessis Marly. Ordained to the ministry in 1623, he was for some time
private chaplain to Du Plessis Mornay, whose memoirs he subsequently
wrote. In 1625 Daillé was appointed minister of the church of Saumur,
and in 1626 was chosen by the Paris consistory to be minister of the
church of Charenton. Of his works, which are principally controversial,
the best known is the treatise _Du vrai emploi des Pères_ (1631),
translated into English by Thomas Smith under the title _A Treatise
concerning the right use of the Fathers_ (1651). The work attacks those
who made the authority of the Fathers conclusive on matters of faith and
practice. Daillé contends that the text of the Fathers is often corrupt,
and that even when it is correct their reasoning is often illogical. In
his _Sermons_ on the Philippians and Colossians, Daillé vindicated his
claim to rank as a great preacher as well as an able controversialist.
He was president of the last national synod held in France, which met at
Loudun in 1659 (H. M. Baird, _The Huguenots and the Revocation of the
Edict of Nantes_, 1895, i. pp. 412 ff.), when, as in the _Apologie des
Synodes d'Alençon et de Charenton_ (1655), he defended the universalism
of Moses Amyraut. He wrote also _Apologie pour les Églises Réformées_
and _La Foy fondée sur les Saintes Écritures_. His life was written by
his son Adrien, who retired to Zürich at the revocation of the edict of
Nantes.
DAIRY and DAIRY-FARMING (from the Mid. Eng. _deieris_, from _dey_, a
maid-servant, particularly one about a farm; cf. Norw. _deia_, as in
_bu-deia_, a maid in charge of live-stock, and in other compounds; thus
"dairy" means that part of the farm buildings where the "dey" works).
Milk, either in its natural state, or in the form of butter and cheese,
is an article of diet so useful, wholesome and palatable, that dairy
management, which includes all that concerns its production and
treatment, constitutes a most important branch of husbandry. The
physical conditions of the different countries of the world have
determined in each case the most suitable animal for dairy purposes. The
Laplander obtains his supplies of milk from his rein-deer, the roving
Tatar from his mares, and the Bedouin of the desert from his camels. In
the temperate regions of the earth many pastoral tribes subsist mainly
upon the milk of the sheep. In some rocky regions the goat is invaluable
as a milk-yielder; and the buffalo is equally so amid the swamps and
jungles of tropical climates. The milking of ewes was once a common
practice in Great Britain; but it has fallen into disuse because of its
hurtful effects upon the flock. A few milch asses and goats are here and
there kept for the benefit of infants or invalids; but with these
exceptions the cow is the only animal now used for dairy purposes.
No branch of agriculture underwent greater changes during the closing
quarter of the 19th century than dairy-farming; within the period named,
indeed, the dairying industry may be said to have been revolutionized.
The two great factors in this modification were the introduction about
the year 1880 of the centrifugal cream-separator, whereby the old slow
system of raising cream in pans was dispensed with, and the invention
some ten years later of a quick and easy method of ascertaining the fat
content of samples of milk without having to resort to the tedious
processes of chemical analysis. About the year 1875 the agriculturists
of the United Kingdom, influenced by various economic causes, began to
turn their thoughts more intently in the direction of dairy-farming, and
to the increased production of milk and cream, butter and cheese. On the
24th of October 1876 was held the first London dairy show, under the
auspices of a committee of agriculturists, and it has been followed by a
similar show in every subsequent year. The official report of the
pioneer show stated that "there was a much larger attendance and a
greater amount of enthusiasm in the movement than even the most sanguine
of its promoters anticipated." On the day named Professor J. Prince
Sheldon read at the show a paper on the dairying industry, and proposed
the formation of a society to be called the British Dairy Farmers'
Association. This was unanimously agreed to, and thus was founded an
organization which has since been closely identified with the
development of the dairying industry of the United Kingdom. In its
earlier publications the Association was wont to reproduce from
_Household Words_ the following tribute to the cow:--
"If civilized people were ever to lapse into the worship of animals,
the Cow would certainly be their chief goddess. What a fountain of
blessings is the Cow! She is the mother of beef, the source of butter,
the original cause of cheese, to say nothing of shoe-horns, hair-combs
and upper leather. A gentle, amiable, ever-yielding creature, who has
no joy in her family affairs which she does not share with man. We rob
her of her children that we may rob her of her milk, and we only care
for her when the robbing may be perpetrated."
The association has, directly or indirectly, brought about many valuable
reforms and improvements in dairying. Its London shows have provided,
year after year, a variety of object-lessons in cheese, in butter and in
dairy equipment. In order to demonstrate to producers what is the ideal
to aim at, there is nothing more effective than a competitive exhibition
of products, and the approach to uniform excellence of character in
cheese and butter of whatever kinds is most obvious to those who
remember what these products were like at the first two or three dairy
shows. Simultaneously there has been a no less marked advance in the
mechanical aids to dairying, including, in particular, the centrifugal
cream-separator, the crude germ of which was first brought before the
public at the international dairy show held at Hamburg in the spring of
1877. The association in good time set the example, now beneficially
followed in many parts of Great Britain, of providing means for
technical instruction in the making of cheese and butter, by the
establishment of a dairy school in the Vale of Aylesbury, subsequently
removing it to new and excellent premises at Reading, where it is known
as the British Dairy Institute. The initiation of butter-making contests
at the annual dairy shows stimulated the competitive instinct of dairy
workers, and afforded the public useful object-lessons; in more recent
years milking competitions have been added. Milking trials and butter
tests of cows conducted at the dairy shows have afforded results of much
practical value. Many of the larger agricultural societies have found it
expedient to include in their annual shows a working dairy, wherein
butter-making contests are held and public demonstrations are given.
What are regarded as the dairy breeds of cattle is illustrated by the
prize schedule of the annual London dairy show, in which sections are
provided for cows and heifers of the Shorthorn, Jersey, Guernsey, Red
Polled, Ayrshire, Kerry and Dexter breeds (see CATTLE). A miscellaneous
class is also provided, the entries in which are mostly cross-breds.
There are likewise classes for Shorthorn bulls, Jersey bulls, and bulls
of any other pure breed, but it is stipulated that all bulls must be of
proved descent from dams that have won prizes in the milking trials or
butter tests of the British Dairy Farmers' Association or other
high-class agricultural society. The importance of securing dairy
characters in the sire is thus recognized, and it is notified that, as
the object of the bull classes is to encourage the breeding of bulls for
dairy purposes, the prizes are to be given solely to animals exhibited
in good stock-getting condition.
MILK AND BUTTER TESTS
The award of prizes in connexion with milking trials cannot be
determined simply by the quantity of milk yielded in a given period, say
twenty-four hours. Other matters must obviously be taken into
consideration, such as the quality of the milk and the time that has
elapsed since the birth cf the last calf. With regard to the former
point, for example, it is quite possible for one cow to give more milk
than another, but for the milk of the second cow to include the larger
quantity of butter-fat. The awards are therefore determined by the total
number of points obtained according to the following scheme:--
One point for every ten days since calving (deducting the first forty
days), with a maximum of fourteen points.
One point for every pound of milk, taking the average of two days'
yield.
Twenty points for every pound of butter-fat produced.
Four points for every pound of "solids other than fat."
_Deductions._--Ten points each time the fat is below 3%. Ten points
each time the solids other than fat fall below 8.5%.
TABLE I.--_Prize Shorthorn and Jersey Cows in the Milking Trials,
London Dairy Show, 1900._
+------------------------+------+------+------+------+-------+-------+
| | | In | Milk | | Other | Total |
| Cow. | Age. | Milk.| per | Fat. |Solids.|Points.|
| | | | Day. | | | |
+------------------------+------+------+------+------+-------+-------+
| |Years.| Days.| lb. | % | % | No. |
|_Shorthorns eligible | | | | | | |
| for Herd-Book_-- | | | | | | |
| Heroine III. | 6 | 61 | 52.4 | 3.7 | 8.3 | 91.5 |
| Musical | 7 | 16 | 45.2 | 3.2 | 9.3 | 90.8 |
| Lady Rosedale | 8 | 48 | 47.8 | 3.5 | 9.0 | 88.7 |
|_Shorthorns not eligible| | | | | | |
| for Herd-Book_-- | | | | | | |
| Granny | 9 | 33 | 70.2 | 3.5 | 8.9 | 144.1 |
| Cherry | 9 | 103 | 55.5 | 4.0 | 8.9 | 127.1 |
| Chance | 6 | 23 | 60.0 | 3.6 | 8.9 | 124.6 |
|_Jerseys_-- | | | | | | |
| Sultane 14th | 12 | 256 | 41.7 | 4.9 | 9.4 | 112 |
| Queen Bess | 7½ | 136 | 39.4 | 4.8 | 9.0 | 101 |
| Gloaming IV. | 7 | 156 | 30.5 | 6.7 | 9.5 | 94.9 |
+------------------------+------+------+------+------+-------+-------+
This method of award is at present the best that can be devised, but it
is possible that, as experience accumulates, some rearrangement of the
points may be found to be desirable. Omitting many of the details, Table
I. shows some of the results in the case of Shorthorn and Jersey prize
cows. The days "in milk" denote in each case the number of days that
have elapsed since calving; and if the one day's yield of milk is
desired in gallons, it can be obtained approximately[1] by dividing the
weight in pounds by 10: thus, the Shorthorn cow Heroine III. gave 52.4
lb., or 5.24 gallons, of milk per day. The table is incidentally of
interest as showing how superior as milch kine are the unregistered or
non-pedigree Shorthorns--which are typical of the great majority of
dairy cows in the United Kingdom--as compared with the pedigree animals
entered, or eligible for entry, in Coates's Herd-Book. The evening's
milk, it should be added, is nearly always richer in fat than the
morning's, but the percentages in the table relate to the entire day's
milk.
The milking trials are based upon a chemical test, as it is necessary to
determine the percentage of fat and of solids other than fat in each
sample of milk. The butter test, on the other hand, is a churn test, as
the cream has to be separated from the milk and churned. The following
is the scale of points used at the London dairy show in making awards in
butter tests:--
One point for every ounce of butter; one point for every completed ten
days since calving, deducting the first forty days. Maximum allowance
for period of lactation, 12 points.
Fractions of ounces of butter, and incomplete periods of less than ten
days, to be worked out in decimals and added to the total points.
In the case of cows obtaining the same number of points, the prize to
be awarded to the cow that has been the longest time in milk.
No prize or certificate to be given in the case of:--
(a) Cows under five years old failing to obtain 28 points.
(b) Cows five years old and over failing to obtain 32 points.
TABLE II.--_Prize Shorthorn and Jersey Cows in the Butter Tests,
London Dairy Show, 1900._
+------------+------+-----+--------+--------+-------+-------+----------+-------+
| | | In | Milk | |Milk to|Points | Points | Total |
| Cows. | Age. |Milk.| per | Butter.| 1 lb. | for | for |Points.|
| | | | Day. | |Butter.|Butter.|Lactation.| |
+------------+------+-----+--------+--------+-------+-------+----------+-------+
| |Years.|Days.|lb. oz. | lb. oz.| lb. | No. | No. | No. |
|Shorthorns--| | | | | | | | |
| 1st | 9 | 104 | 55 2 | 2 5¼ | 23.67 | 37.25 | 6.40 | 43.65 |
| 2nd | 9 | 34 | 72 7 | 2 10¾ | 27.11 | 42.75 | .. | 42.75 |
| 3rd | 7 | 33 | 58 5 | 2 7¾ | 23.47 | 39.75 | .. | 39.75 |
|Jerseys-- | | | | | | | | |
| 1st | 7 | 157 | 29 10 | 2 2¼ | 13.83 | 34.25 | 11.70 | 45.95 |
| 2nd | 4 | 103 | 33 10 | 2 3 | 15.37 | 35.00 | 6.30 | 41.30 |
| 3rd | 12 | 257 | 40 13 | 1 12 | 23.32 | 28.00 | 12.00 | 40.00 |
+------------+------+-----+--------+--------+-------+-------+----------+-------+
The manner in which butter tests are decided will be rendered clear by a
study of Table II. It is seen that whilst the much larger Shorthorn
cows--having a bigger frame to maintain and consuming more food--gave
both more milk and more butter in the day of twenty-four hours, the
Jersey milk was much the richer in fat. In the case of the first-prize
Jersey the "butter ratio," as it is termed, was excellent, as only 13.83
lb. of milk were required to yield 1 lb. of butter; in the case of the
second-prize Shorthorn, practically twice this quantity (or 27.11 lb)
was needed. Moreover, if the days in milk are taken into account, the
difference in favour of the Jersey is seen to be 123 days.
TABLE III.--_Summary of the English Jersey Cattle Society's Butter
Tests, Fourteen Years, 1886-1899._
+---------+-------+-------+--------+--------+---------+
| | |Average|Average |Average |Quantity |
| Cows' | Cows |Time in| Milk | Butter | Milk to |
| Ages. |Tested.| Milk. | Yield. | Yield. | 1 lb. |
| | | | | | Butter |
+---------+-------+-------+--------+--------+---------+
| Years. | No. | Days | lb. oz.| lb. oz.| lb. |
| 1 to 2 | 2 | 34 | 15 2 | 0 13 | 18.43 |
| 2 " 3 | 57 | 73 | 24 15¼ | 1 5¼ | 18.74 |
| 3 " 4 | 108 | 77 | 29 14¾ | 1 10 | 18.42 |
| 4 " 5 | 165 | 72 | 32 5½ | 1 11¼ | 19.01 |
| 5 " 6 | 188 | 80 | 32 15¼ | 1 12 | 18.76 |
| 6 " 7 | 189 | 89 | 34 7¾ | 1 13 | 18.92 |
| 7 " 8 | 139 | 84 | 33 11¼ | 1 13¼ | 18.40 |
| 8 " 9 | 71 | 82 | 33 6½ | 1 12 | 19.03 |
| 9 " 10 | 42 | 92 | 32 6½ | 1 11¼ | 18.95 |
|10 " 11 | 31 | 88 | 35 4 | 1 14¼ | 18.60 |
|11 " 12 | 15 | 89 | 37 1 | 1 13¾ | 19.96 |
|12 " 13 | 13 | 95 | 34 1¼ | 1 10½ | 20.56 |
|13 " 14 | 3 | 54 | 42 1¼ | 2 1¾ | 19.85 |
+---------+-------+-------+--------+--------+---------+
The butter-yielding capacity of the choicest class of butter cows, the
Jerseys, is amply illustrated in the results of the butter tests
conducted by the English Jersey Cattle Society over the period of
fourteen years 1886 to 1899 inclusive. These tests were carried out year
after year at half a dozen different shows, and the results are
classified in Table III. according to the age of the animals. The
average time in milk is measured by the number of days since calving,
and the milk and butter yields are those for the day of twenty-four
hours. The last column shows the "butter ratio." This number is lower in
the case of the Jerseys than in that of the general run of dairy cows.
The average results from the total of 1023 cows of the various ages
are:--One day's milk, 32 lb. 2¼ oz., equal to about 3 gallons or 12
quarts; one day's butter, 1 lb. 10¾ oz.; butter ratio, 19.13 or about 16
pints of milk to 1 lb. of butter. Individual yields are sometimes
extraordinarily high. Thus at the Tring show in 1899 the three leading
Jersey cows gave the following results:--
+--------------+-------+-------+--------+---------+--------+
| Cow. | Age. | Live- |In Milk.| Butter. | Butter |
| | |Weight.| | | Ratio. |
+--------------+-------+-------+--------+---------+--------+
| | Years.| lb. | Days. | lb. oz. | lb. |
| Sundew 4th | 8 | 929 | 77 | 3 6¾ | 15.10 |
| Madeira 5th | 7 | 1060 | 107 | 2 15½ | 16.14 |
| Em | 7 | 864 | 44 | 3 4¾ | 13.32 |
+--------------+-------+-------+--------+---------+--------+
The eight prize-winning Jerseys on this occasion, with an average weight
of 916 lb. and an average of 117 days in milk, yielded an average of 2
lb. 9 oz. of butter per cow in the twenty-four hours, the butter ratio
working out at 16.69. At the Tring show of 1900 a Shorthorn cow Cherry
gave as much as 4 lb. 4½ oz. of butter in twenty-four hours; she had
been in milk 41 days, and her butter ratio worked out at 15.79, which is
unusually good for a big cow.
In the six years 1895 to 1900 inclusive 285 cows of the Shorthorn,
Jersey, Guernsey and Red Polled breeds were subjected to butter tests at
the London dairy show, and the general results are summarized in Table
IV.
Although cows in the showyard may perhaps be somewhat upset by their
unusual surroundings, and thus not yield so well as at home, yet the
average results of these butter-test trials over a number of years are
borne out by the private trials that have taken place in various herds.
The trials have, moreover, brought into prominence the peculiarities of
different breeds, such as: (a) that the Shorthorns, Red Polls and
Kerries, being cattle whose milk contains small fat globules, are better
for milk than the Jerseys and Guernseys, whose milk is richer,
containing larger-sized fat globules, and is therefore more profitable
for converting into butter; (b) that the weights of the animals, and
consequently the proportionate food, must be taken into account in
estimating the cost of the dairy produce; (c) that the influence of the
stage reached in the period of lactation is much more marked in some
breeds than in others.
TABLE IV.--_Average Butter Yields and Butter Ratios at the London
Dairy Show, Six Years, 1895-1900._
+--------------+-------+-------+---------+--------------+
| Breed. |No. of | In | Butter. | Milk to 1 lb.|
| | Cows. | Milk. | | Butter. |
+--------------+-------+-------+---------+--------------+
| | | Days. | lb. oz. | lb. |
| Shorthorn | 106 | 50 | 1 11 | 28.81 |
| Jersey | 126 | 99 | 1 10¼ | 19.15 |
| Guernsey | 23 | 72 | 1 9½ | 21.86 |
| Red Polled | 30 | 60 | 1 4¾ | 30.29 |
+--------------+-------+-------+---------+--------------+
An instructive example of the milk-yielding capacity of Jersey cows is
afforded in the carefully kept records of Lord Rothschild's herd at
Tring Park, Herts. Overleaf are given the figures for four years, the
gallons being calculated at the rate of 10 lb of milk to the gallon.
In 1897, 30 cows averaged 6396 lb., or 640 gallons per cow.
In 1898, 29 " " 6209 " 621 " "
In 1899, 37 " " 6430 " 643 " "
In 1900, 39 " " 6136 " 614 " "
The average over the four years works out at about 630 gallons per cow
per annum.
Cows of larger type will give more milk than the Jerseys, but it is less
rich in fat. The milk record for the year 1900 of the herd of Red Polled
cattle belonging to Mr Garrett Taylor, Whitlingham, Norfolk, affords a
good example. The cows in the herd, which had before 1900 produced one
or more calves, and in 1900 added another to the list, being in full
profit the greater part of the year, numbered 82. Their total yield was
521,950 lb. of milk, or an average of 6365 lb.--equivalent to about 636
gallons--per cow. In 1899 the average yield of 96 cows was 6283 lb. or
628 gallons; in 1898 the average yield of 75 cows was 6473 lb. or 647
gallons. Of cows which dropped a first calf in the autumn of 1899, one
of them--Lemon--milked continuously for 462 days, yielding a total of
7166 lb. of milk, being still in milk when the herd year closed on the
27th of December. Similar cases were those of Nora, which gave 9066 lb.
of milk in 455 days; Doris, 8138 lb. in 462 days; Brisk, 9248 lb. in 469
days; Della, 8806 lb. in 434 days, drying 28 days before the year ended;
and Lottie, 6327 lb. in 394 days, also drying 28 days before the year
ended; these were all cows with their first calf. Eight cows in the herd
gave milk on every day of the 52 weeks, and 30 others had their milk
recorded on 300 days or more. Three heifers which produced a first calf
before the 11th of April 1900, averaged in the year 4569 lb. of milk, or
about 456 gallons. In 1900 three cows, Eyke Jessie, Kathleen and Doss,
each gave over 10,000 lb., or 1000 gallons of milk; four cows gave from
9000 lb. to 10,000 lb., two from 8000 lb. to 9000 lb., 17 from 7000 lb.
to 8000 lb., 19 from 6000 lb. to 7000 lb., 30 from 5000 lb. to 6000 lb.,
and 16 from 4000 lb. to 5000 lb. The practice, long followed at
Whitlingham, of developing the milk-yielding habit by milking a young
cow so long as she gives even a small quantity of milk daily, is well
supported by the figures denoting the results.
Though milking trials and butter tests are not usually available to the
ordinary dairy farmer in the management of his herd, it is, on the other
hand, a simple matter for him to keep what is known as a milk register.
By a milk register is meant a record of the quantity of milk yielded by
a cow. In other words, it is a quantitative estimation of the milk the
cow gives. It affords no information as to the quality of the milk or as
to its butter-yielding or cheese-yielding capacity. Nevertheless, by its
aid the milk-producing capacity of a cow can be ascertained exactly, and
her character in this respect can be expressed by means of figures about
which there need be no equivocation. A greater or less degree of
exactness can be secured, according to the greater or less frequency
with which the register is taken. Even a weekly register would give a
fair idea as to the milk yields of a cow, and would be extremely
valuable as compared with no register at all.
The practice of taking the milk register, as followed in a well-known
dairy, may be briefly described. The cows are always milked in the
stalls, and during summer they are brought in twice a day for this
purpose. After each cow is milked, the pail containing the whole of her
milk is hung on a spring balance suspended in a convenient position, and
from the gross weight indicated there is deducted the already known
weight of the pail.[2] The difference, which represents the weight of
milk, is recorded in a book suitably ruled. This book when open presents
a view of one week's records. In the left-hand column are the names of
the cows; on the right of this are fourteen columns, two of which
receive the morning and evening record of each cow. In a final column on
the right appears the week's total yield for each cow; and space is also
allowed for any remarks. Fractions of a pound are not entered, but 18
lb. 12 oz. would be recorded as 19 lb., whereas 21 lb. 5 oz. would
appear as 21 lb., so that a fraction of over half a pound is considered
as a whole pound, and a fraction of under half a pound is ignored. By
dividing the pounds by 10 the yield in gallons is readily ascertained.
Every dairy farmer has some idea, as to each of his cows, whether she is
a good, a bad or an indifferent milker, but such knowledge is at best
only vague. By the simple means indicated the character of each cow as a
milk-producer is slowly but surely recorded in a manner which is at once
exact and definite. Such a record is particularly valuable to the
farmer, in that it shows to him the relative milk-yielding capacities of
his cows, and thus enables him gradually to weed out the naturally poor
milkers and replace them by better ones. It also guides him in
regulating the supply of food according to the yield of milk. The
register will, in fact, indicate unerringly which are the best
milk-yielding cows in the dairy, and which therefore are, with the
milking capacity in view, the best to breed from.
The simplicity and inexpensiveness of the milk register must not be
overlooked. These are features which should commend it especially to the
notice of small dairy farmers, for with a moderate number of cows it is
particularly easy to introduce the register. But even with a large dairy
it will be found that, as soon as the system has got fairly established,
the additional time and trouble involved will sink into insignificance
when compared with the benefits which accrue.
The importance of ascertaining not only the quantity, but also the
quality of milk is aptly illustrated in the case of two cows at the
Tring show, 1900. The one cow gave in 24 hours 4½ gallons of milk, which
at 7d. per gallon would work out at about 2s. 7d.; she made 2 lb. 12 oz.
of butter, which at 1s. 4d. per lb. would bring in 3s. 8d.; consequently
by selling the milk the owner lost about 1s. 1d. per day. The second cow
gave 5(1/3) gallons of milk, which would work out at 3s. 1d.; she made 1
lb. 12 oz. of butter, which would only be worth 2s. 4d., so that by
converting the milk into butter the owner lost 9d. per day.
The colour of milk is to some extent an indication of its quality--the
deeper the colour the better the quality. The colour depends upon the
size of the fat globules, a deep yellowish colour indicating large
globules of fat. When the globules are of large size the milk will churn
more readily, and the butter is better both in quality and in colour.
The following fifty dairy rules relating to the milking and general
management of cows, and to the care of milk and dairy utensils, were
drawn up on behalf of, and published by, the United States department of
agriculture at Washington. They are given here with a few merely verbal
alterations:--
THE OWNER AND HIS HELPERS
1. Read current dairy literature and keep posted on new ideas.
2. Observe and enforce the utmost cleanliness about the cattle, their
attendants, the cow-house, the dairy and all utensils.
3. A person suffering from any disease, or who has been exposed to a
contagious disease, must remain away from the cows and the milk.
THE COW-HOUSE
4. Keep dairy cattle in a shed or building by themselves. It is
preferable to have no cellar below and no storage loft above.
5. Cow-houses should be well ventilated, lighted and drained; should
have tight floors and walls, and be plainly constructed.
6. Never use musty or dirty litter.
7. Allow no strong-smelling material in the cow-house for any length
of time. Store the manure under cover outside the cow-house, and
remove it to a distance as often as practicable.
8. Whitewash the cow-house once or twice a year; use gypsum in the
manure gutters daily.
9. Use no dry, dusty feed just previous to milking; if fodder is
dusty, sprinkle it before it is fed.
10. Clean and thoroughly air the cow-house before milking; in hot
weather sprinkle the floor.
11. Keep the cow-house and dairy room in good condition, and then
insist that the dairy, factory or place where the milk goes be kept
equally well.
THE COWS
12. Have the herd examined at least twice a year by a skilled
veterinarian.
13. Promptly remove from the herd any animal suspected of being in bad
health, and reject her milk. Never add an animal to the herd until it
is ascertained to be free from disease, especially tuberculosis.
14. Do not move cows faster than a comfortable walk while on the way
to the place of milking or feeding.
15. Never allow the cows to be excited by hard driving, abuse, loud
talking or unnecessary disturbance; do not expose them to cold or
storms.
16. Do not change the feed suddenly.
17. Feed liberally, and use only fresh, palatable feed-stuffs; in no
case should decomposed or mouldy material be used.
18. Provide water in abundance, easy of access, and always pure;
fresh, but not too cold.
19. Salt should always be accessible to the cows.
20. Do not allow any strong-flavoured food, like garlic, cabbages and
turnips, to be eaten, except immediately after milking.
21. Clean the entire skin of the cow daily. If hair in the region of
the udder is not easily kept clean, it should be clipped.
22. Do not use the milk within twenty days before calving, nor for
three to five days afterwards.
MILKING
23. The milker should be clean in all respects; he should not use
tobacco while milking; he should wash and dry his hands just before
milking.
24. The milker should wear a clean outer garment, used only when
milking and kept in a clean place at other times.
25. Brush the udder and surrounding parts just before milking and wipe
them with a clean damp cloth or sponge.
26. Milk quietly, quickly, cleanly and thoroughly. Cows do not like
unnecessary noise or delay. Commence milking at exactly the same hour
every morning and evening, and milk the cows in the same order.
27. Throw away (but not on the floor--better in the gutter) the first
two or three streams from each teat; this milk is very watery and of
little value, but it may injure the rest.
28. If in any milking a part of the milk is bloody or stringy or
unnatural in appearance, the whole should be rejected.
29. Milk with dry hands; never let the hands come in contact with the
milk.
30. Do not allow dogs, cats or loafers to be around at milking time.
31. If any accident occurs by which a pail, full or partly full, of
milk becomes dirty, do not try to remedy this by straining, but reject
all this milk and rinse the pail.
32. Weigh and record the milk given by each cow, and take a sample
morning and night, at least once a week, for testing by the fat test.
CARE OF MILK
33. Remove the milk of every cow at once from the cow-house to a clean
dry room, where the air is pure and sweet. Do not allow cans to remain
in the cow-house while they are being filled with milk.
34. Strain the milk through a metal gauze and a flannel cloth or layer
of cotton as soon as it is drawn.
35. Cool the milk as soon as strained--to 45° F. if the milk is for
shipment, or to 60° if for home use or delivery to a factory.
36. Never close a can containing warm milk.
37. If the cover is left off the can, a piece of cloth or mosquito
netting should be used to keep out insects.
38. If milk is stored, it should be kept in tanks of fresh cold water
(renewed as often as the temperature increases to any material
extent), in a clean, dry, cold room. Unless it is desired to remove
cream, it should be stirred with a tin stirrer often enough to prevent
the forming of a thick cream layer.
39. Keep the night milk under shelter so that rain cannot get into the
cans. In warm weather keep it in a tank of fresh cold water.
40. Never mix fresh warm milk with that which has been cooled.
41. Do not allow the milk to freeze.
42. In no circumstances should anything be added to milk to prevent
its souring. Cleanliness and cold are the only preventives needed.
43. All milk should be in good condition when delivered at a creamery
or a cheesery. This may make it necessary to deliver twice a day
during the hottest weather.
44. When cans are hauled far they should be full, and carried in a
spring waggon.
45. In hot weather cover the cans, when moved in a waggon, with a
clean wet blanket or canvas.
THE UTENSILS
46. Milk utensils for farm use should be made of metal and have all
joints smoothly soldered. Never allow them to become rusty or rough
inside.
47. Do not haul waste products back to the farm in the cans used for
delivering milk. When this is unavoidable, insist that the skim milk
or whey tank be kept clean.
48. Cans used for the return of skim milk or whey should be emptied,
scalded and cleaned as soon as they arrive at the farm.
49. Clean all dairy utensils by first thoroughly rinsing them in warm
water; next clean inside and out with a brush and hot water in which a
cleaning material is dissolved; then rinse and, lastly, sterilize by
boiling water or steam. Use pure water only.
50. After cleaning, keep utensils inverted in pure air, and sun if
possible, until wanted for use.
FOOD AND MILK PRODUCTION
In their comprehensive paper relating to the feeding of animals
published in 1895, Lawes and Gilbert discussed amongst other questions
that of milk production, and directed attention to the great difference
in the demands made on the food--on the one hand for the production of
meat (that is, of animal increase), and on the other for the production
of milk. Not only, however, do cows of different breeds yield different
quantities of milk, and milk of characteristically different
composition, but individual animals of the same breed have very
different milk-yielding capacity; and whatever the capacity of a cow may
be, she has a maximum yield at one period of her lactation, which is
followed by a gradual decline. Hence, in comparing the amounts of
constituents stored up in the fattening increase of an ox with the
amounts of the same constituents removed in the milk of a cow, it is
necessary to assume a wide range of difference in the yield of milk.
Accordingly, Table V. shows the amounts of nitrogenous substance, of
fat, of non-nitrogenous substance not fat, of mineral matter, and of
total solid matter, carried off in the weekly yield of milk of a cow, on
the alternative assumptions of a production of 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16,
18 or 20 quarts per head per day. For comparison, there are given at the
foot of the table the amounts of nitrogenous substance, of fat, of
mineral matter, and of total solid matter, in the weekly increase in
live-weight of a fattening ox of an average weight of 1000 lb.--on the
assumption of a weekly increase, first, of 10 lb., and, secondly, of 15
lb. The estimates of the amounts of constituents in the milk are based
on the assumption that it will contain 12.5% of total solids--consisting
of 3.65 albuminoids, 3.50 butter-fat, 4.60 sugar and 0.75 of mineral
matter. The estimates of the constituents in the fattening increase of
oxen are founded on determinations made at Rothamsted.
TABLE V.--_Comparison of the Constituents of Food carried off in Milk,
and in the Fattening Increase of Oxen._
+---------------------------+---------+-------+---------+--------+--------+
| | | | Non- | | |
| | Nitro- | | Nitro- | | |
| | genous | | genous | Mineral| Total |
| [1 Gallon = 10.33 lb.] | Sub- | Fat. | Sub- | Matter.| Solid |
| | stance. | | stance | | Matter.|
| | | | not Fat | | |
| | | | (Sugar).| | |
+---------------------------+---------+-------+---------+--------+--------+
| _In Milk per Week._ |
+---------------------------+---------+-------+---------+--------+--------+ | | | | |
| If:-- | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. |
| 4 quarts per head per day | 2.64 | 2.53 | 3.33 | 0.54 | 9.04 |
| 6 " " " | 3.96 | 3.80 | 4.99 | 0.81 | 13.56 |
| 8 " " " | 5.28 | 5.06 | 6.66 | 1.08 | 18.08 |
|10 " " " | 6.60 | 6.33 | 8.32 | 1.35 | 22.60 |
|12 " " " | 7.92 | 7.59 | 9.99 | 1.62 | 27.12 |
|14 " " " | 9.24 | 8.86 | 11.65 | 1.89 | 31.64 |
|16 " " " | 10.56 | 10.12 | 13.32 | 2.16 | 36.16 |
|18 " " " | 11.88 | 11.39 | 14.98 | 2.43 | 40.68 |
|20 " " " | 13.20 | 12.65 | 16.65 | 2.70 | 45.20 |
+---------------------------+---------+-------+---------+--------+--------+
| _In Increase in Live-Weight per Week.--Oxen._ |
+---------------------------+---------+-------+---------+--------+--------+
|If 10 lb. increase | 0.75 | 6.35 | .. | 0.15 | 7.25 |
|If 15 lb. increase | 1.13 | 9.53 | .. | 0.22 | 10.88 |
+---------------------------+---------+-------+---------+--------+--------+
With regard to the very wide range of yield of milk per head per day
which the figures in the following table assume, it may be remarked that
it is by no means impossible that the same animal might yield the
largest amount, namely, 20 quarts, or 5 gallons, per day near the
beginning, and only 4 quarts, or 1 gallon, or even less, towards the end
of her period of lactation. At the same time, an entire herd of, for
example, Shorthorns or Ayrshires, of fairly average quality, well fed,
and including animals at various periods of lactation, should not yield
an average of less than 8 quarts, or 2 gallons, and would seldom exceed
10 quarts, or 2½ gallons, per head per day the year round.
For the sake of illustration, an average yield of milk of 10 quarts,
equal 2½ gallons, or between 25 and 26 lb. per head per day, may be
assumed, and the amount of constituents in the weekly yield at this rate
may be compared with that in the weekly increase of the fattening ox at
the higher rate assumed in the table, namely, 15 lb. per 1000 lb.
live-weight, or 1.5% per week. It is seen that whilst of the nitrogenous
substance of the food the amount stored up in the fattening increase of
an ox would be only 1.13 lb., the amount carried off as such in the milk
would be 6.6 lb., or nearly six times as much. Of mineral matter, again,
whilst the fattening increase would only require about 0.22 lb., the
milk would Carry off 1.35 lb., or again about six times as much. Of fat,
however, whilst the fattening increase would contain 9.53 lb., the milk
would contain only 6.33 lb., or only about two-thirds as much. On the
other hand, whilst the fattening increase contains no other
non-nitrogenous substance than fat, the milk would carry off 8.32 lb. in
the form of milk-sugar. This amount of milk-sugar, reckoned as fat,
would correspond approximately to the difference between the fat in the
milk and that in the fattening increase.
It is evident, then, that the drain upon the food is very much greater
for the production of milk than for that of meat. This is especially the
case in the important item of nitrogenous substance; and if, as is
frequently assumed, the butter-fat of the milk is at any rate largely
derived from the nitrogenous substance of the food, so far as it is so
at least about two parts of such substance would be required to produce
one of fat. On such an assumption, therefore, the drain upon the
nitrogenous substance of the food would be very much greater than that
indicated in the table as existing as nitrogenous substance in the milk.
To this point further reference will be made presently.
TABLE VI.--_Constituents consumed per 1000lb. Live-Weight per Day, for
Sustenance and for Milk-Production. The Rothamsted Herd of 30 Cows,
Spring 1884._
+---------------------+---------+----------------------------------+
| | | Digestible. |
| | +----------+------------+----------+
| | Total | | | Total |
| | Dry | Nitro- | Non-Nitro- | Nitro- |
| | Sub- | genous | genous | genous |
| | stance. | Sub- | Substance | and Non- |
| | | stance. |(as Starch).| Nitro- |
| | | | | genous |
| | | | |Substance.|
+---------------------+---------+----------+------------+----------+
| | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. |
| 3.1 lb. Cotton cake | 2.76 | 1.07 | 1.50 | 2.57 |
| 2.7 lb. Bran | 2.33 | 0.33 | 1.09 | 1.42 |
| 2.8 lb. Hay-chaff | 2.34 | 0.15 | 1.18 | 1.33 |
| 5.6 lb. Oat-straw- | | | | |
| chaff | 4.64 | 0.08 | 2.21 | 2.29 |
|62.8 lb. Mangel | 7.85 | 1.01 | 5.73 | 6.74 |
| +---------+----------+------------+----------+
| Total | 19.92 | 2.64* | 11.71* | 14.35 |
| Required for sus- | | | | |
| tenance | | 0.57 | 7.40 | 7.97 |
| +---------+----------+------------+----------+
| Available for milk | | 2.07 | 4.31 | 6.38 |
| In 23.3 lb. milk | | 0.85 | 3.02 | 3.87 |
| +---------+----------+------------+----------+
| Excess in food | | 1.22 | 1.29 | 2.51 |
+---------------------+---------+----------+------------+----------+
| _Per 1000 lb. Live-Weight._ |
+---------------------+---------+----------+------------+----------+
| Wolff | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. |
| | 24 | 2.5 | 12.5** | 15.4 |
+---------------------+---------+----------+------------+----------+
* Albuminoid ratio, 1-4.4.
** Exclusive of 0.4 fat; albuminoid ratio, 1-5.4.
Attention may next be directed to the amounts of food, and of certain of
its constituents, consumed for the production of a given amount of milk.
This point is illustrated in Table VI., which shows the constituents
consumed per 1000 lb. live-weight per day in the case of the Rothamsted
herd of 30 cows in the spring of 1884. On the left hand are shown the
actual amounts of the different foods consumed per 1000 lb. live-weight
per day; and in the respective columns are recorded--first the amounts
of total dry substance which the foods contained, and then the amounts
of digestible nitrogenous, digestible non-nitrogenous (reckoned as
starch), and digestible total organic substance which the different
foods would supply; these being calculated according to Lawes and
Gilbert's own estimates of the percentage composition of the foods, and
to Wolff's estimates of the proportion of the several constituents which
would be digestible.
The first column shows that the amount of total dry substance of food
actually consumed by the herd, per 1000 lb. live-weight per day, was
scarcely 20 lb. whilst Wolff's[3] estimated requirement, as stated at
the foot of the table, is 24 lb. But his ration would doubtless consist
to a greater extent of hay and straw-chaff, containing a larger
proportion of indigestible and effete woody fibre. The figures show,
indeed that the Rothamsted ration supplied, though nearly the same, even
a somewhat less amount of total digestible constituents than Wolff's.
Of digestible nitrogen substance the food supplied 2.64 lb. per day,
whilst the amount estimated to be required for sustenance merely is 0.57
lb.; leaving, therefore, 2.07 lb. available for milk production. The
23.3 lb. of milk yielded per 1000 lb. live-weight per day would,
however, contain only 0.85 lb.; and there would thus remain an apparent
excess of 1.22 lb. of digestible nitrogenous substance in the food
supplied. But against the amount of 2.64 lb. actually consumed, Wolff's
estimate of the amount required for sustenance and for milk-production
is 2.5 lb., or but little less than the amount actually consumed at
Rothamsted. On the assumption that the expenditure of nitrogenous
substance in the production of milk is only in the formation of the
nitrogenous substances of the milk, there would appear to have been a
considerable excess given in the food. But Wolff's estimate assumes no
excess of supply, and that the whole is utilized; the fact being that he
supposes the butter-fat of the milk to have been derived largely, if not
wholly, from the albuminoids of the food.
It has been shown that although it is possible that some of the fat of a
fattening animal may be produced from the albuminoids of the food,
certainly the greater part of it, if not the whole, is derived from the
carbohydrates. But the physiological conditions of the production of
milk are so different from those for the production of fattening
increase, that it is not admissible to judge of the sources of the fat
of the one from what may be established in regard to the other. It has
been assumed, however, by those who maintain that the fat of the
fattening animal is formed from albuminoids, that the fat of milk must
be formed in the same way. Disallowing the legitimacy of such a
deduction, there do, nevertheless, seem to be reasons for supposing that
the fat of milk may, at any rate in large proportion, be derived from
albuminoids.
Thus, as compared with fattening increase, which may in a sense be said
to be little more than an accumulation of reserve material from excess
of food, milk is a special product, of a special gland, for a special
normal exigency of the animal. Further, whilst common experience shows
that the herbivorous animal becomes the more fat the more, within
certain limits, its food is rich in carbohydrates, it points to the
conclusion that both the yield of milk and its richness in butter are
more connected with a liberal supply of the nitrogenous constituents in
the food. Obviously, so far as this is the case, it may be only that
thereby more active change in the system, and therefore greater activity
of the special function, is maintained. The evidence at command is, at
any rate, not inconsistent with the supposition that a good deal of the
fat of milk may have its source in the breaking up of albuminoids, but
direct evidence on the point is still wanting; and supposing such
breaking up to take place in the gland, the question arises--What
becomes of the by-products? Assuming, however, that such change does
take place, the amount of nitrogenous substance supplied to the
Rothamsted cows would be less in excess of the direct requirement for
milk-production than the figures in the table would indicate, if,
indeed, in excess at all.
The figures in the column of Table VI. relating to the estimated amount
of digestible non-nitrogenous substance reckoned as starch show that the
quantity actually consumed was 11.71 lb., whilst the amount estimated by
Wolff to be required was 12.5 lb., besides 0.4 lb. of fat. The figures
further show that, deducting 7.4 lb. for sustenance from the quantity
actually consumed, there would remain 4.31 lb. available for
milk-production, whilst only about 3.02 lb. would be required supposing
that both the fat of the milk and the sugar had been derived from the
carbohydrates of the food; and, according to this calculation, there
would still be an excess in the daily food of 1.29 lb. It is to be borne
in mind, however, that estimates of the requirement for mere sustenance
are mainly founded on the results of experiments in which the animals
are allowed only such a limited amount of food as will maintain them
without either loss or gain when at rest. But physiological
considerations point to the conclusion that the expenditure,
independently of loss or gain, will be the greater the more liberal the
ration, and hence it is probable that the real excess, if any, over that
required for sustenance and milk-production would be less than that
indicated in the table, which is calculated on the assumption of a fixed
requirement for sustenance for a given live-weight of the animal.
Supposing that there really was any material excess of either the
nitrogenous or the non-nitrogenous constituents supplied over the
requirement for sustenance and milk-production, the question
arises--Whether, or to what extent, it conduced to increase in
live-weight of the animals, or whether it was in part, or wholly,
voided, and so wasted.
Table VII.--Percentage Composition of Milk each Month of the Year;
also Average Yield of Milk, and of Constituents, per Head per Day each
Month, according to Rothamsted Dairy Records.
+-----------+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| |Average Composition of Milk each| Rothamsted Diary. |
| | Month, 1884. +----------+----------------------+
| | (Dr Vieth--14,235 analyses.) | | Estimated Quantity |
| | | Average | of Constituents in |
| +--------+-------+------+--------+ Yield | Milk per Head per |
| | | | | | of Milk | Day each Month. |
| |Specific|Butter-|Solids| Total | per Head +-------+------+-------+
| |Gravity.| Fat. | not | Solids.| per Day, |Butter-|Solids| Total |
| | | | Fat. | | 6 Years. | Fat. | not |Solids.|
| | | | | | | | Fat. | |
+-----------+--------+-------+------+--------+----------+-------+------+-------+
| | | % | % | % | lb | lb | lb | lb |
| January | 1.0325 | 3.55 | 9.34 | 12.89 | 20.31* | 0.72 | 1.90 | 2.62 |
| February | 1.0325 | 3.53 | 9.24 | 12.77 | 22.81 | 0.80 | 2.11 | 2.91 |
| March | 1.0323 | 3.50 | 9.22 | 12.72 | 24.19 | 0.85 | 2.23 | 3.08 |
| April | 1.0323 | 3.43 | 9.22 | 12.65 | 26.50 | 0.91 | 2.44 | 3.35 |
| May | 1.0324 | 3.34 | 9.30 | 12.64 | 31.31 | 1.05 | 2.91 | 3.96 |
| June | 1.0323 | 3.31 | 9.19 | 12.50 | 30.81 | 1.02 | 2.83 | 3.85 |
| July. | 1.0319 | 3.47 | 9.13 | 12.60 | 28.00 | 0.97 | 2.56 | 3.53 |
| August | 1.0318 | 3.87 | 9.08 | 12.95 | 25.00 | 0.97 | 2.27 | 3.24 |
| September | 1.0321 | 4.11 | 9.17 | 13.28 | 22.94 | 0.94 | 2.11 | 3.05 |
| October | 1.0324 | 4.26 | 9.27 | 13.53 | 21.00 | 0.89 | 1.95 | 2.84 |
| November | 1.0324 | 4.36 | 9.29 | 13.65 | 19.19 | 0.84 | 1.78 | 2.62 |
| December | 1.0326 | 4.10 | 9.29 | 13.39 | 19.31 | 0.79 | 1.79 | 2.58 |
| +--------+-------+------+--------+----------+-------+------+-------+
| Mean | 1.0323 | 3.74 | 9.22 | 12.96 | 24.28 | 0.90 | 2.24 | 3.14 |
+-----------+--------+-------+------+--------+----------+-------+------+-------+
* Average over five years only, as the records did not commence until
February 1884.
As regards the influence of the period of the year, with its
characteristic changes of food, on the quantity and composition of the
milk, the first column of the second division of Table VII. shows the
average yield of milk per head per day of the Rothamsted herd, averaging
about 42 cows, almost exclusively Shorthorns, in each month of the year,
over six years, 1884 to 1889 inclusive; and the succeeding columns show
that amounts of butter-fat, of solids not fat, and of total solids in
the average yield per head per day in each month of the year,
calculated, not according to direct analytical determinations made at
Rothamsted, but according to the results of more than 14,000 analyses
made, under the superintendence of Dr Vieth, in the laboratory of the
Aylesbury Dairy Company in 1884;[4] the samples analysed representing
the milk from a great many different farms in each month.
It should be stated that the Rothamsted cows had cake throughout the
year; at first 4 lb. per head per day, but afterwards graduated
according to the yield of milk, on the basis of 4 lb. for a yield of 28
lb. of milk, the result being that then the amount given averaged more
per head per day during the grazing period, but less earlier and later
in the year. Bran, hay and straw-chaff, and roots (generally mangel),
were also given when the animals were not turned out to grass. The
general plan was, therefore, to give cake alone in addition when the
cows were turned out to grass, but some other dry food, and roots, when
entirely in the shed during the winter and early spring months.
Referring to the column showing the average yield of milk per head per
day each month over the six years, it will be seen that during the six
months January, February, September, October, November and December the
average yield was sometimes below 20 lb. and on the average only about
21 lb. of milk per head per day; whilst over the other six months it
averaged 27.63 lb., and over May and June more than 31 lb. per head per
day. That is to say, the quantity of milk yielded was considerably
greater during the grazing period than when the animals had more dry
food, and roots instead of grass.
Next, referring to the particulars of composition, according to Dr
Vieth's results, which may well be considered as typical for the
different periods of the year, it is seen that the specific gravity of
the milk was only average, or lower than average, during the grazing
period, but rather higher in the earlier and later months of the year.
The percentage of total solids was rather lower than the average at the
beginning of the year, lowest during the chief grazing months, but
considerably higher in the later months of the year, when the animals
were kept in the shed and received more dry food. The percentage of
butter-fat follows very closely that of the total solids, being the
lowest during the best grazing months, but considerably higher than the
average during the last four or five months of the year, when more dry
food was given. The percentage of solids not fat was considerably the
lowest during the later months of the grazing period, but average, or
higher than average, during the earlier and later months of the year. It
may be observed that, according to the average percentages given in the
table, a gallon of milk will contain more of both total solids and of
butter-fat in the later months of the year; that is, when there is less
grass and more dry food given.
Turning to the last three columns of the table, it is seen that
although, as has been shown, the percentage of the several constituents
in the milk is lower during the grazing months, the actual amounts
contained in the quantity of milk yielded per head are distinctly
greater during those months. Thus, the amount of butter-fat yielded _per
head per day_ is above the average of the year from April to September
inclusive; the amounts of solids not fat are over average from April to
August inclusive; and the amounts of total solids yielded are average,
or over average, from April to August inclusive.
From the foregoing results it is evident that the quantity of milk
yielded per head is very much the greater during the grazing months of
the year, but that the percentage composition of the milk is lower
during that period of higher yield, and considerably higher during the
months of more exclusively dry-food feeding. Nevertheless, owing to the
much greater quantity of milk yielded during the grazing months, the
actual quantity of constituents yielded per Cow is greater during those
months than during the months of higher percentage composition but lower
yield of milk per head. It may be added that a careful consideration of
the number of newly-calved cows brought into the herd each month shows
that the results as above stated were perfectly distinct, independently
of any influence of the period of lactation of the different individuals
of the herd.
The few results which have been brought forward in relation to
_milk-production_ are admittedly quite insufficient adequately to
illustrate the influence of variation in the quantity and composition of
the food on the quantity and composition of the milk yielded. Indeed,
owing to the intrinsic difficulties of experimenting on such a subject,
involving so many elements of variation, any results obtained have to be
interpreted with much care and reservation. Nevertheless, it may be
taken as clearly indicated that, within certain limits, high feeding,
and especially high nitrogenous feeding, does increase both the yield
and the richness of the milk.[5] But it is evident that when high
feeding is pushed beyond a comparatively limited range, the tendency is
to increase the weight of the animal--that is, to favour the development
of the individual, rather than to enhance the activity of the functions
connected with the reproductive system. This is, of course, a
disadvantage when the object is to maintain the milk-yielding condition
of the animal; but when a cow is to be fattened off it will be
otherwise.
It has been stated that, early in the period of six years in which the
Rothamsted results that have been quoted were obtained, the amount of
oil-cake given was graduated according to the yield of milk of each
individual cow; as it seemed unreasonable that an animal yielding, say,
only 4 quarts per day, should receive, beside the home foods, as much
cake as one yielding several times the quantity. The obvious inference
is, that any excess of food beyond that required for sustenance and
milk-production would tend to increase the weight of the animal, which,
according to the circumstances, may or may not be desirable.
It may be observed that direct experiments at Rothamsted confirm the
view, arrived at by common experience, that roots, and especially
mangel, have a favourable effect on the flow of milk. Further, the
Rothamsted experiments have shown that a higher percentage of
butter-fat, of other solids, and of total solids, was obtained with
mangel than with silage as the succulent food. The yield of milk was,
however, in a much greater degree increased by grazing than by any other
change in the food; and at Rothamsted the influence of roots comes next
in order to that of grass, though far behind it, in this respect. But
with grazing, as has been shown, the percentage composition of the milk
is considerably reduced; though, owing to the greatly increased quantity
yielded, the amount of soil-constituents removed in the milk when cows
are grazing may nevertheless be greater per head per day than under any
other conditions. Lastly, it has been clearly illustrated how very much
greater is the demand upon the food, especially for nitrogenous and for
mineral constituents, in the production of milk than in that of
fattening increase.
MANURIAL VALUE OF FOOD CONSUMED IN THE PRODUCTION OF MILK
In any attempt to estimate the average value of the manure derived from
the consumption of food for the production of milk, the difficulty
arising from the very wide variation in the amount of milk yielded by
different cows, or by the same cow at different periods of her
lactation, is increased by the inadequate character of information
concerning the difference in the amount of the food actually consumed by
the animal coincidently with the production of such different amounts of
milk. But although information is lacking for correlating, with
numerical accuracy, the great difference in milk-yield of individual
cows with the coincident differences in consumption to produce it, it
may be considered as satisfactorily established that more food is
consumed by a herd of cows to produce a fair yield of milk, of say 10 or
12 quarts per head per day, than by an equal live-weight of oxen fed to
produce fattening increase. In the cases supposed it may, for practical
purposes, be assumed that the cows would consume about one-fourth more
food than the oxen. Accordingly, in the Rothamsted estimates of the
value of the manure obtained on the consumption of food for the
production of milk, it is assumed that one-fourth more will be consumed
by 1000 lb. live-weight of cows than by the same weight of oxen; but the
estimates of the amounts of the constituents of the food removed in the
milk, or remaining for manure, are nevertheless reckoned per ton of each
kind of food consumed, as in the case of those relating to feeding for
the production of fattening increase. It may be added that the
calculations of the amounts of the constituents in the milk are based on
the same average composition of milk as is adopted in the construction
of Table V. Thus the nitrogen is taken at 0.579 (= 3.65 nitrogenous
substance)%, the phosphoric acid at 0.2175%, and the potash at 0.1875%
in the milk.
Table VIII. shows in detail the estimate of the amount of nitrogen in
one ton of each food, and in the milk produced from its consumption, on
the assumption of an average yield of 10 quarts per head per day; also
the amount remaining for manure, the amount of ammonia corresponding to
the nitrogen, and the value of the ammonia at 4d. per lb. Similar
particulars are also given in relation to the phosphoric acid and the
potash consumed in the food, removed in the milk, and remaining for
manure, &c. This table will serve as a sufficient illustration of the
mode of estimating the _total or original_ value of the manure, derived
from the consumption of the different foods for the production of milk
in the case supposed; that is, assuming an average yield of a herd of 10
quarts per head per day.
In Table IX. are given the results of similar detailed calculations of
the _total or original_ manure-value (as in Table VIII. for 10 quarts),
on the alternative assumptions of a yield of 6, 8, 12 or 14 quarts per
head per day. For comparison there is also given, in the first column,
the estimate of the _total or original_ manure-value when the foods are
consumed for the production of fattening increase.
So much for the plan and results of the estimations of _total or
original_ manure-value of the different foods, that is, deducting only
the constituents removed in the milk, and reckoning the remainder at the
prices at which they can be purchased in artificial manures. With a view
to direct application to practice, however, it is necessary to estimate
the _unexhausted manure-value_ of the different foods, or what may be
called their _compensation-value_, after they have been used for a
series of years by the outgoing tenant and he has realized a certain
portion of the manure-value in his increased crops. In the calculations
for this purpose the rule is to deduct one-half of the _original
manure-value_ of the food used the last year, and one-third of the
remainder each year to the eighth, in the case of all the more
concentrated foods and of the roots--in fact, of all the foods in the
list excepting the hays and the straws. For these, which contain larger
amounts of indigestible matter, and the constituents of which will be
more slowly available to crops, two-thirds of the _original
manure-value_ is deducted for the last year, and only one-fifth from
year to year to the eighth year back. The results of the estimates of
_compensation-value_ so made are given for the five yields of 6, 8, 10,
12 and 14 quarts of milk per head per day respectively in Lawes and
Gilbert's paper[6] on the valuation of the manures obtained by the
consumption of foods for the production of milk, which may be consulted
for fuller details. It must, however, be borne in mind that when cows
are fed in sheds or yards the manure is generally liable to greater
losses than is the case with fattening oxen. The manure of the cow
contains much more water in proportion to solid matter than that of the
ox. Water will, besides, frequently be used for washing, and it may be
that a good deal of the manure is washed into drains and lost. In the
event, therefore, of a claim for compensation, the management and
disposal of the manure requires the attention of the valuer. Indeed, the
varying circumstances that will arise in practice must be carefully
considered. Bearing these in mind, the estimates may be accepted as at
any rate the best approximation to the truth that existing knowledge
provides; and they should be found sufficient for the requirements of
practical use. Obviously they will be more directly applicable in the
case of cows feeding entirely on the foods enumerated in the list, and
not depending largely on grass; but, even when the animals are partially
grass-fed, the value of the manure derived from the additional dry food
or roots may be estimated according to the scale given.
TABLE VIII.--_Estimates of the Total or Original Manure-Value of
Cattle Foods after Consumption by Cows for the Production of Milk.
Valuation on the assumption of an average production by a herd of 10
quarts of milk per head per day._
+----+---------+---------------------------------------+-----------------------------+--------------------------+---------+
| | | Nitrogen. | Phosphoric Acid. | Potash. | |
| | +-------+------+------------------------+-------+------+--------------+------+-----+-------------+Total or |
| | | | | In Manure. | | | In Manure. | | | In Manure. |Original |
| | Descrip-| | In +------------------------+ | In +-------+------+ | In +-------+-----+ Manure- |
|Nos.| tion of | In | Milk | | Nitro-| Value | In | Milk | | Value| In | Milk| |Value| Value |
| | Food. | 1 Ton | from | Total | gen | of Am- | 1 Ton | from | Total | at | 1 Ton| from| Total | at | per Ton |
| | | of |1 Ton |remain-| equal | monia | of |1 Ton |remain-| 2 d. | of |1 Ton|remain-|1½ d.| of Food |
| | | Food.| of |ing for| Am- | at 4 d.| Food. | of |ing for| per | Food.| of |ing for| per |consumed.|
| | | | Food.|Manure.| monia.| per | | Food.|Manure.| lb. | |Food.|Manure.| lb. | |
| | | | | | | lb. | | | | | | | | | |
+----+---------+-------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+-------+-----+---------+
| | | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. |£ s. d.| lb. | lb. | lb. | s. d.| lb. | lb. | lb. |s. d.| £ s. d.|
| 1 |Linseed | 80.64 |25.04 | 55.60 | 67.52 |1 2 6 | 34.50 | 9.34 | 25.16 | 4 2 |30.69 | 8.02| 22.67 | 2 10| 1 9 6 |
| 2 |Linseed | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | cake |106.40 |20.86 | 85.54 |103.87 |1 14 7 | 44.80 | 7.79 | 37.01 | 6 2 |31.36 | 6.71| 24.65 | 3 1| 2 3 10 |
| 3 |Decort- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | icated | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | cotton | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | cake |147.84 |19.27 |128.57 |156.13 |2 12 1 | 69.44 | 7.18 | 62.26 |10 5 |44.80 | 6.22| 38.58 | 4 10| 3 7 4 |
| 4 |Palm-nut | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | cake | 56.00 |17.86 | 38.14 | 46.31 |0 15 5 | 26.88 | 6.68 | 20.20 | 3 4 |11.20 | 5.73| 5.47 | 0 8| 0 19 5 |
| 5 |Undecor- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | ticated | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | cotton | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | cake | 84.00 |15.66 | 68.34 | 82.99 |1 7 8 | 44.80 | 5.85 | 38.95 | 6 6 |44.80 | 5.07| 39.73 | 5 0| 1 19 2 |
| 6 |Cocoa- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | nut cake| 76.16 |15.66 | 60.50 | 73.47 |1 4 6 | 31.36 | 5.85 | 25.51 | 4 3 |44.80 | 5.07| 39.73 | 5 0| 1 13 9 |
| 7 |Rape | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | cake |109.76 |12.50 | 97.26 |118.11 |1 19 4 | 56.00 | 4.69 | 51.31 | 8 7 |33.60 | 4.09| 29.51 | 3 8| 2 11 7 |
| | +-------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+-------+-----+---------+
| 8 |Peas | 80.64 |17.86 | 62.78 | 76.24 |1 5 5 | 19.04 | 6.68 | 12.36 | 2 1 |21.50 | 5.73| 15.77 | 2 0| 1 9 6 |
| 9 |Beans | 89.60 |17.86 | 71.74 | 87.12 |1 9 0 | 24.64 | 6.68 | 17.96 | 3 0 |29.12 | 5.73| 23.39 | 2 11| 1 14 11 |
| 10 |Lentils | 94.08 |17.86 | 76.22 | 92.56 |1 10 10 | 16.80 | 6.68 | 10.12 | 1 8 |15.68 | 5.73| 9.95 | 1 3| 1 13 9 |
| 11 |Tares | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | (seed) | 94.08 |17.86 | 76.22 | 92.56 |1 10 10 | 17.92 | 6.68 | 11.24 | 1 10 |17.92 | 5.73| 12.19 | 1 6| 1 14 2 |
| 12 |Maize | 38.08 |17.38 | 20.70 | 25.14 |0 8 5 | 13.44 | 6.50 | 6.94 | 1 2 | 8.29 | 5.56| 2.73 | 0 4| 0 9 11 |
| 13 |Wheat | 40.32 |17.38 | 22.94 | 27.86 |0 9 3 | 19.04 | 6.50 | 12.54 | 2 1 |11.87 | 5.56| 6.31 | 0 9| 0 12 1 |
| 14 |Malt | 38.08 |17.86 | 20.22 | 24.55 |0 8 2 | 17.92 | 6.68 | 11.24 | 1 10 |11.20 | 5.73| 5.47 | 0 8| 0 10 8 |
| 15 |Barley | 36.96 |17.38 | 19.58 | 23.78 |0 7 11 | 16.80 | 6.50 | 10.30 | 1 9 |12.32 | 5.56| 6.76 | 0 10| 0 10 6 |
| 16 |Oats | 44.80 |16.68 | 28.12 | 34.15 |0 11 5 | 13.44 | 6.24 | 7.20 | 1 2 |11.20 | 5.40| 5.80 | 0 9| 0 13 4 |
| 17 |Rice meal| 42.56 |16.68 | 25.88 | 31.43 |0 10 6 |(13.44)| 6.24 | 7.20 | 1 2 |(8.29)| 5.40| 2.89 | 0 4| 0 12 0 |
| 18 |Locust | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | beans | 26.88 |13.90 | 12.98 | 15.76 |0 5 3 | .. | 5.19 | .. | .. | .. | 4.42| .. | .. | .. |
| | +-------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+-------+-----+---------+
| 19 |Malt | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | coombs | 87.36 |15.66 | 71.70 | 87.07 |1 9 0 | 44.80 | 5.85 | 38.95 | 6 6 |44.80 | 5.07| 39.73 | 5 0| 2 0 6 |
| 20 |Fine | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | pollard | 54.88 |16.68 | 38.20 | 46.39 |0 15 6 | 64.96 | 6.24 | 58.72 | 9 9 |32.70 | 5.40| 27.30 | 3 5| 1 8 8 |
| 21 |Coarse | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | pollard | 56.00 |15.66 | 40.34 | 48.99 |0 16 4 | 78.40 | 5.85 | 72.55 |12 1 |33.60 | 5.07| 28.53 | 3 7| 1 12 0 |
| 22 |Bran | 56.00 |13.90 | 42.10 | 51.12 |0 17 0 | 80.64 | 5.19 | 75.45 |12 7 |32.48 | 4.42| 28.06 | 3 6| 1 13 1 |
| | +-------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+-------+-----+---------+
| 23 |Clover | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | hay | 53.76 | 8.94 | 44.82 | 54.43 |0 18 2 | 12.77 | 3.35 | 9.42 | 1 7 |33.60 | 2.94| 30.66 | 3 10| 1 3 7 |
| 24 |Meadow | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | hay | 33.60 | 8.36 | 25.24 | 30.65 |0 10 3 | 8.96 | 3.10 | 5.86 | 1 0 |35.84 | 2.62| 33.22 | 4 2| 0 15 5 |
| | +-------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+-------+-----+---------+
| 25 |Pea straw| 22.40 | 7.83 | 14.57 | 17.69 |0 5 11 | 7.84 | 2.91 | 4.93 | 0 10 |22.40 | 2.46| 19.94 | 2 6| 0 9 3 |
| 26 |Oat straw| 11.20 | 6.95 | 4.25 | 5.16 |0 1 9 | 5.38 | 2.60 | 2.78 | 0 6 |22.40 | 2.29| 20.11 | 2 6| 0 4 9 |
| 27 |Wheat | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | straw | 10.08 | 5.98 | 4.10 | 4.98 |0 1 8 | 5.38 | 2.23 | 3.15 | 0 6 |17.92 | 1.96| 15.96 | 2 0| 0 4 2 |
| 28 |Barley | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | straw | 8.96 | 5.46 | 3.50 | 4.25 |0 1 5 | 4.03 | 2.04 | 1.99 | 0 4 |22.40 | 1.80| 20.60 | 2 7| 0 4 4 |
| 29 |Bean | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | straw | 20.16 | 5.68 | 14.48 | 17.58 |0 5 10 | 6.72 | 2.14 | 4.58 | 0 9 |22.40 | 1.80| 20.60 | 2 7| 0 9 2 |
| | +-------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+-------+-----+---------+
| 30 |Potatoes | 5.60 | 2.07 | 3.53 | 4.29 |0 1 5 | 3.36 | 0.78 | 2.58 | 0 5 |12.32 | 0.66| 11.66 | 1 5| 0 3 3 |
| 31 |Carrots | 4.48 | 1.46 | 3.02 | 3.67 |0 1 3 | 2.02 | 0.54 | 1.48 | 0 3 | 6.27 | 0.49| 5.78 | 0 9| 0 2 3 |
| 32 |Parsnips | 4.93 | 1.67 | 3.26 | 3.96 |0 1 4 | 4.26 | 0.63 | 3.63 | 0 7 | 8.06 | 0.49| 7.57 | 0 11| 0 2 10 |
| 33 |Mangel | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | wurzels | 4.93 | 1.32 | 3.61 | 4.38 |0 1 6 | 1.57 | 0.49 | 1.08 | 0 2 | 8.96 | 0.49| 8.47 | 1 1| 0 2 9 |
| 34 |Swedish | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | turnips | 5.60 | 1.14 | 4.46 | 5.42 |0 1 10 | 1.34 | 0.44 | 0.90 | 0 2 | 4.93 | 0.33| 4.60 | 0 7| 0 2 7 |
| 35 |Yellow | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | turnips | 4.48 | 0.93 | 3.55 | 4.31 |0 1 5 | (1.34)| 0.34 | 1.00 | 0 2 |(4.93)| 0.33| (4.60)| 0 7| 0 2 2 |
| 36 |White | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | turnips | 4.03 | 0.84 | 3.19 | 3.87 |0 1 3 | 1.12 | 0.31 | 0.81 | 0 2 | 6.72 | 0.33| 6.39 | 0 10| 0 2 3 |
+----+---------+-------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+------+-------+------+------+-----+-------+-----+---------+
CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING
For generations, perhaps for centuries, the question has been discussed
as to why there should be so large a proportion of bad and inferior
cheese and so small a proportion of really good cheese made in
farmhouses throughout the land. That the result is not wholly due to
skill and care or to the absence of these qualities on the part of the
dairymaid may now be taken for granted. Instances might be quoted in
which the most painstaking of dairymaids, in the cleanest of dairies,
have failed to produce cheese of even second-rate quality and character,
and yet others in which excellent cheese has been made under commonplace
conditions as to skill and equipment, and with not much regard to
cleanliness in the dairy. The explanation of what was so long a mystery
has been found in the domain of ferments. It is now known that whilst
various micro-organisms, which in many dairies have free access to the
milk, have ruined an incalculable quantity of cheese--and of butter
also--neither cheese nor butter of first-rate quality can be made
without the aid of lactic acid bacilli. As an illustrative case, mention
may be made of that of two most painstaking dairymaids who had tried in
vain to make good cheese from the freshest of milk in the cleanest of
dairies in North Lancashire. Advice to resort to the use of the ferment
was acted upon, and the result was a revelation and a transformation,
excellent prize-winning cheese being made from that time forward. By the
addition of a "starter," in the form of a small quantity of sour milk,
whey or buttermilk, in an advanced stage of fermentation, the
development of acidity in the main body of milk is accelerated. It has
been ascertained that the starter is practically a culture of bacteria,
which, if desired, may be obtained as a pure culture. Professor J. R.
Campbell, as the result of experiments on pure cultures for Cheddar
cheese-making, states[7] that (1) first-class Cheddar cheese can be made
by using pure cultures of a lactic organism; (2) this organism abounds
in all samples of sour milk and sour whey; (3) the use of a whey starter
is attended with results equal in every respect to those obtained from a
milk-starter. It is well within the power of any dairyman to prepare
what is practically a pure culture of the same bacterium as is supplied
from the laboratory. Moreover, the sour-whey starter used by some of the
successful cheese-makers before the introduction of the American system
is in effect a pure culture, from which it follows that these men had,
by empirical methods, attained the same end as that to which
bacteriological research subsequently led. Wherever a starter is
necessary, the use of a culture practically pure is imperative, whether
such culture be obtained from the laboratory or prepared by what may be
called the "home-made starter." Pure cultures may be bought for a few
shillings in the open market.
TABLE IX.--_Comparison of the Estimates of Total or Original
Manure-Value when Foods are consumed for the Production of Fattening
Increase, with those when the Food is consumed by Cows giving
different Yields of Milk._
+----+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| | | Total or Original Manure-Value per Ton of Food |
| | | consumed--that is, only deducting the Constituents |
| | | in Fattening Increase or in Milk. |
| | Description +---------+-------------------------------------------------+
|Nos.| of Food. | For the | For the Production of Milk, supposing |
| | | Produc- | the Yield per Head per Day to be as under-- |
| | | tion of | |
| | |Fattening+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
| | |Increase | 6 qts. | 8 qts. | 10 qts. | 12 qts. | 14 qts. |
+----+---------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
| | | £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d.|
| 1 | Linseed | 1 19 2 | 1 14 7 | 1 12 0 | 1 9 6 | 1 7 1 | 1 4 5 |
| 2 | Linseed cake | 2 11 11 | 2 8 1 | 2 6 0 | 2 3 10 | 2 1 9 | 1 19 8 |
| 3 | Decorticated | | | | | | |
| | cotton cake | 3 14 9 | 3 11 2 | 3 9 2 | 3 7 4 | 3 5 4 | 3 3 4 |
| 4 | Palm-nut cake | 1 6 4 | 1 3 2 | 1 1 4 | 0 19 5 | 0 17 9 | 0 15 11 |
| 5 | Undecorticated| | | | | | |
| | cotton cake | 2 5 3 | 2 2 4 | 2 0 8 | 1 19 2 | 1 17 6 | 1 15 11 |
| 6 | Cocoa-nut cake| 1 19 10 | 1 16 11 | 1 15 3 | 1 13 9 | 1 12 3 | 1 10 6 |
| 7 | Rape cake | 2 16 5 | 1 14 2 | 2 12 11 | 2 11 7 | 2 10 4 | 2 9 1 |
| 8 | Peas | 1 16 5 | 1 13 1 | 1 11 2 | 1 9 6 | 1 7 8 | 1 5 9 |
| 9 | Beans | 2 1 11 | 1 18 7 | 1 16 10 | 1 14 11 | 1 13 1 | 1 11 4 |
| 10 | Lentils | 2 0 8 | 1 17 5 | 1 15 7 | 1 13 9 | 1 12 2 | 1 10 1 |
| 11 | Tares (seed) | 2 1 1 | 1 17 11 | 1 16 0 | 1 14 2 | 1 12 6 | 1 10 7 |
| 12 | Maize | 0 16 7 | 0 13 4 | 0 11 7 | 0 9 11 | 0 8 1 | 0 6 5 |
| 13 | Wheat | 0 18 11 | 0 15 8 | 0 13 11 | 0 12 1 | 0 10 5 | 0 8 8 |
| 14 | Malt | 0 17 7 | 0 14 5 | 0 12 7 | 0 10 8 | 0 9 0 | 0 7 1 |
| 15 | Barley | 0 17 2 | 0 14 0 | 0 12 3 | 0 10 6 | 0 8 8 | 0 6 11 |
| 16 | Oats | 0 19 9 | 0 16 8 | 0 15 0 | 0 13 4 | 0 11 7 | 0 9 10 |
| 17 | Rice meal |(0 18 6)| 0 15 5 | 0 13 9 | 0 12 0 | 0 10 5 | 0 8 7 |
| 18 | Locust beans | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
| 19 | Malt coombs | 2 6 7 | 2 3 9 | 2 2 0 | 2 0 6 | 1 18 11 | 1 17 4 |
| 20 | Fine pollard | 1 15 2 | 1 12 0 | 1 10 5 | 1 8 8 | 1 6 11 | 1 5 3 |
| 21 | Coarse pollard| 1 18 1 | 1 15 2 | 1 13 6 | 1 12 0 | 1 10 5 | 1 8 9 |
| 22 | Bran | 1 18 6 | 1 15 11 | 1 14 6 | 1 13 1 | 1 11 8 | 1 10 3 |
| 23 | Clover hay | 1 7 0 | 1 5 5 | 1 4 5 | 1 3 7 | 1 2 8 | 1 1 8 |
| 24 | Meadow hay | 0 18 7 | 0 17 0 | 0 16 3 | 0 15 5 | 0 14 5 | 0 13 7 |
| 25 | Pea straw | 0 12 2 | 0 10 9 | 0 10 0 | 0 9 3 | 0 8 5 | 0 7 8 |
| 26 | Oat straw | 0 7 5 | 0 6 2 | 0 5 5 | 0 4 9 | 0 4 0 | 0 3 3 |
| 27 | Wheat straw | 0 6 6 | 0 5 5 | 0 4 10 | 0 4 2 | 0 3 6 | 0 3 0 |
| 28 | Barley straw | 0 6 5 | 0 5 6 | 0 4 10 | 0 4 4 | 0 3 9 | 0 3 2 |
| 29 | Bean straw | 0 11 5 | 0 10 4 | 0 9 9 | 0 9 2 | 0 8 7 | 0 8 0 |
| 30 | Potatoes | 0 4 1 | 0 3 9 | 0 3 6 | 0 3 3 | 0 3 1 | 0 2 11 |
| 31 | Carrots | 0 2 9 | 0 2 6 | 0 2 4 | 0 2 3 | 0 2 1 | 0 1 11 |
| 32 | Parsnips | 0 3 6 | 0 3 3 | 0 3 1 | 0 2 10 | 0 2 8 | 0 2 7 |
| 33 | Mangel wurzels| 0 3 2 | 0 3 0 | 0 2 10 | 0 2 9 | 0 2 7 | 0 2 5 |
| 34 | Swedish | | | | | | |
| | turnips | 0 2 11 | 0 2 9 | 0 2 8 | 0 2 7 | 0 2 5 | 0 2 3 |
| 35 | Yellow turnips|(0 2 6)| 0 2 4 | 0 2 3 | 0 2 2 | 0 2 1 | 0 2 0 |
| 36 | White turnips | 0 2 7 | 0 2 5 | 0 2 4 | 0 2 3 | 0 2 2 | 0 2 0 |
+----+---------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
The factory-made cheese of Canada, the United States and Australasia,
which is so largely imported into the United Kingdom, is all of the
Cheddar type. The factory system has made no headway in the original
home of the Cheddar cheese in the west of England. The system was thus
described in the _Journal_ of the British Dairy Farmers' Association in
1889 by Mr R. J. Drummond:--
"In the year 1885 I was engaged as cheese instructor by the Ayrshire
Dairy Association, to teach the Canadian system of Cheddar
cheese-making. I commenced operations under many difficulties, being a
total stranger to both the people and the country, and with this, the
quantities of milk were very much less than I had been in the habit of
handling. Instead of having the milk from 500 to 1000 cows, we had to
operate with the milk from 25 to not over 60 cows.
"The system of cheese-making commonly practised in the county of Ayr
at that time was what is commonly known as the Joseph Harding or
English Cheddar system, which differs from the Canadian system in many
details, and in one particular is essentially different, namely, the
manner in which the necessary acidity in the milk is produced. In the
old method a certain quantity of sour whey was added to the milk each
day before adding the rennet, and I have no doubt in my own mind that
this whey was often added when the milk was already acid enough, and
the consequence was a spoiled cheese.
"Another objection to this system of adding sour whey was, should the
stuff be out of condition one day, the same trouble was inoculated
with the milk from day to day, and the result was sure to be great
unevenness in the quality of the cheese. The utensils commonly in use
were very different to anything I had ever seen before; instead of the
oblong cheese vat with double casings, as is used by the best makers
at the present time, a tub, sometimes of tin and sometimes of wood,
from 4 to 7 ft. in diameter by about 30 in. deep, was universally in
use. Instead of being able to heat the milk with warm water or steam,
as is commonly done now, a large can of a capacity of from 20 to 30
gallons was filled with cold milk and placed in a common hot-water
boiler, and heated sufficiently to bring the whole body of the milk in
the tub to the desired temperature for adding the rennet. I found that
many mistakes were made in the quantity of rennet used, as scarcely
any two makers used the same quantity to a given quantity of milk.
Instead of having a graduated measure for measuring the rennet, a
common tea-cup was used for this purpose, and I have found in some
dairies as low as 3 oz. of rennet was used to 100 gallons of milk,
where in others as high as 6½ oz. was used to the same quantity. This
of itself would cause a difference in the quality of the cheese.
"Coagulation and breaking completed, the second heating was effected
by dipping the whey from the curd into the can already mentioned, and
heated to a temperature of 140° F., and returned to the curd, and thus
the process was carried on till the desired temperature was reached.
This mode of heating I considered very laborious and at the same time
very unsatisfactory, as it is impossible to distribute the heat as
evenly through the curd in this way as by heating either with hot
water or steam. The other general features of the method do not differ
from our own very materially, with the exception that in the old
method the curd was allowed to mature in the bottom of the tub, where
at the same stage we remove the curd from the vat to what we call a
curd-cooler, made with a sparred bottom, so as to allow the whey to
separate from the curd during the maturing or ripening process. In
regard to the quality of cheese on the one method compared with the
other, I think that there was some cheese just as fine made in the old
way as anything we can possibly make in the new, with one exception,
and that is, that the cheese made according to the old method will not
toast--instead of the casein melting down with the butter-fat, the two
become separated, which is very much objected to by the consumer--and,
with this, want of uniformity through the whole dairy. This is a very
short and imperfect description of how the cheese was made at the time
I came into Ayrshire; and I will now give a short description of the
system that has been taught by myself for the past four years, and has
been the means of bringing this county so prominently to the front as
one of the best cheese-making counties in Britain.
"Our duty in this system of cheese-making begins the night before, in
having the milk properly set and cooled according to the temperature
of the atmosphere, so as to arrive at a given heat the next morning.
Our object in this is to secure, at the time we wish to begin work in
the morning, that degree of acidity or ripeness essential to the
success of the whole operation. We cannot give any definite guide to
makers how, or in what quantities, to set their milk, as the whole
thing depends on the good judgment of the operator. If he finds that
his milk works best at a temperature of 68° F. in the morning, his
study the night before should tend toward such a result, and he will
soon learn by experience how best to manage the milk in his own
individual dairy. I have found in some dairies that the milk worked
quite fast enough at a temperature of 64° in the morning, where in
others the milk set in the same way would be very much out of
condition by being too sweet, causing hours of delay before matured
enough to add the rennet. Great care should be taken at this point,
making sure that the milk is properly matured before the rennet is
added, as impatience at this stage often causes hours of delay in the
making of a cheese. I advise taking about six hours from the time the
rennet is added till the curd is ready for salting, which means a
six-hours' process; if much longer than this, I have found by
experience that it is impossible to obtain the best results. The cream
should always be removed from the night's milk in the morning and
heated to a temperature of about 84° before returning it to the vat.
To do this properly and with safety, the cream should be heated by
adding about two-thirds of warm milk as it comes from the cow to
one-third of cream, and passed through the ordinary milk-strainers. If
colouring matter is used, it should be added fifteen to twenty minutes
before the rennet, so as to become thoroughly mingled with the milk
before coagulation takes place.
"We use from 4 to 4½ oz. of Hansen's rennet extract to each 100
gallons of milk, at a temperature of 86° in spring and 84° in summer,
or sufficient to coagulate milk firm enough to cut in about forty
minutes when in a proper condition. In cutting, great care should be
taken not to bruise the curd. I cut lengthwise, then across with
perpendicular knife, then with horizontal knife the same way of the
perpendicular, leaving the curd in small cubes about the size of
ordinary peas. Stirring with the hands should begin immediately after
cutting, and continue for ten to fifteen minutes prior to the
application of heat. At this stage we use a rake instead of the hands
for stirring the curd during the heating process, which lasts about
one hour from the time of beginning until the desired temperature of
100° or 102° is reached. After heating, the curd should be stirred
another twenty minutes, so as to become properly firm before allowing
it to settle. We like the curd to lie in the whey fully one hour after
allowing it to settle before it is ready for drawing the whey, which
is regulated altogether by the condition of the milk at the time the
rennet is added. At the first indication of acid, the whey should be
removed as quickly as possible. I think at this point lies the
greatest secret of cheese-making--to know when to draw the whey.
"I depend entirely on the hot-iron test at this stage, as I consider
it the most accurate and reliable guide known to determine when the
proper acidity has been developed. To apply this test, take a piece of
steel bar about 18 in. long by 1 in. wide and ¼ in. thick, and heat to
a black heat; if the iron is too hot, it will burn the curd; if too
cold, it will not stick; consequently it is a very simple matter to
determine the proper heat. Take a small quantity of the curd from the
vat and compress it tightly in the hand, so as to expel all the whey;
press the curd against the iron, and when acid enough it will draw
fine silky threads ¼ in. long. At this stage the curd should be
removed to the curd-cooler as quickly as possible, and stirred till
dry enough to allow it to mat, which generally takes from five to
eight minutes. The curd is now allowed to stand in one end of the
cooler for thirty minutes, when it is cut into pieces from 6 to 8 in.
square and turned, and so on every half-hour until it is fit for
milling. After removing the whey, a new acid makes its appearance in
the body of the curd, which seems to depend for its development upon
the action of the air, and the presence of which experience has shown
to be an essential element in the making of a cheese. This acid should
be allowed to develop properly before the addition of salt. To
determine when the curd is ready for salting, the hot-iron test is
again resorted to; and when the curd will draw fine silky threads 1½
in. long, and at the same time have a soft velvety feel when pressed
in the hand, the butter-fat will not separate with the whey from the
curd. I generally advise using 1 lb. of salt to 50 lb. of curd, more
or less, according to the condition of the curd. After salting, we let
the curd lie fifteen minutes, so as to allow the salt to be thoroughly
dissolved before pressing.
"In the pressing, care should be taken not to press the curd too
severely at first, as you are apt to lose some of the butter-fat, and
with this I do not think that the whey will come away so freely by
heavy pressing at first. We advise three days' pressing before cheese
is taken to the curing-room. All cheese should have a bath in water at
a temperature of 120° next morning after being made, so as to form a
good skin to prevent cracking or chipping. The temperature of the
curing-room should be kept as near 60° as possible at all seasons of
the year, and I think it a good plan to ventilate while heating."
With regard to the hot-iron test for acidity, Mr F. J. Lloyd, in
describing his investigations on behalf of the Bath and West of England
Society, states that cheese-makers have long known that in both the
manufacture and the ripening of cheese the acidity produced--known to
the chemist as "lactic acid"--materially influences the results
obtained, and that amongst other drawbacks to the test referred to is
the uncertainty of the temperature of the iron itself. He gives an
account,[8] however, of a chemical method involving the use of a
standard solution of an alkali (soda), and of a substance termed an
"indicator" (phenolphthalein), which changes colour according to whether
a solution is acid or alkaline. The apparatus used with these reagents
is called the acidimeter. The two stages in the manufacture of a Cheddar
cheese most difficult to determine empirically are--(1) when to stop
stirring and to draw the whey, and (2) when to grind the curd. The
introduction of the acidimeter has done away with these difficulties;
and though the use of this apparatus is not actually a condition
essential to the manufacture of a good cheese, it is to many makers a
necessity and to all an advantage. By its use the cheese-maker can
determine the acidity of the whey, and so decide when to draw the latter
off, and will thus secure not only the proper development of acidity in
the subsequent changes of cheese-making, but also materially diminish
the time which the cheese takes to make. Furthermore, it has been proved
that the acidity of the whey which drains from the curd when in the
cooler is a sufficiently accurate guide to the condition of the curd
before grinding; and by securing uniformity in this acidity the maker
will also ensure uniformity in the quality and ripening properties of
the cheese. Speaking generally, the acidity of the liquid from the press
should never fall below 0.80% nor rise above 1.20%, and, the nearer it
can be kept to 1.00% the better. Simultaneously, of course, strict
attention must be paid to temperature, time and every other factor which
can be accurately determined. Analyses of large numbers of Cheddar
cheeses manufactured in every month of the cheese-making season show the
average composition of ripe specimens to be--water, 35.58%; fat, 31.33;
casein, 29.12; mineral matter or ash, 3.97. It has been maintained that
in the ripening of Cheddar cheese fat is formed out of the curd, but a
comparison of analyses of ripe cheeses with analyses of the curd from
which the cheeses were made affords no evidence that this is the case.
The quantity of milk required to make 1 lb. of Cheddar cheese may be
learnt from Table X., which shows the results obtained at the cheese
school of the Bath and West of England Society in the two seasons of
1899 and 1900. The cheese was sold at an average age of ten to twelve
weeks. In 1899 a total of 21,220 gallons of milk yielded 20,537 lb. of
saleable cheese, and in 1900, 31,808 gallons yielded 29,631 lb. In the
two years together 53,028 gallons yielded 50,168 lb., which is
equivalent to 1.05 gallon of milk to 1 lb. of cheese. For practical
purposes it may be taken that one gallon, or slightly over 10 lb. of
milk, yields 1 lb. of pressed cheese. The prices obtained are added as a
matter of interest.
Cheshire cheese is largely made in the county from which it takes its
name, and in adjoining districts. It is extensively consumed in
Manchester and Liverpool, and other parts of the densely populated
county of Lancaster.
TABLE X.--_Quantities of Milk employed and of Cheese produced in the
Manufacture of Cheddar Cheese._
+---------------+-------+-------+--------+---------------------+--------+
| When Made. | Milk. | Green |Saleable| Shrinkage. | Price. |
| | |Cheese.| Cheese.| | |
+---------------+-------+-------+--------+---------------------+--------+
| | galls.| lb. | lb. | |per cwt.|
| April 1899 | 3077 | 3100 | 2924 | 6 per cent. | 60s. |
| May | 4462 | 4502 | 4257 | 6½ lb. per cwt. | 63s. |
| June | 4316 | 4434 | 4141 | 7 lb. 6 oz. per cwt.| 70s. |
| July | 3699 | 3785 | 3545 | 7 lb. 2 oz. per cwt.| 74s. |
| August | 2495 | 2539 | 2353 | 8 lb. 3 oz. per cwt.| 74s. |
| Sept. and Oct.| 3171 | 3583 | 3317 | 8 lb. 5 oz. per cwt.| 74s. |
| April 1900 | 3651 | 3505 | 3292 | 6 per cent. | 63s. |
| May | 6027 | 6048 | 5577 | 7¾ per cent. | 64s. |
| June | 5960 | 5889 | 5466 | 7¼ per cent. | 68s. |
| July and Aug. | 7227 | 7177 | 6630 | 7½ per cent. | 66s. |
| Sept. and Oct.| 8943 | 9635 | 8666 | 10 per cent. | 66s. |
+---------------+-------+-------+--------+---------------------+--------+
The following is a description of the making of Cheshire cheese:--
The evening's milk is set apart until the following morning, when the
cream is skimmed off. The latter is poured into a pan which has been
heated by being placed in the boiling water of a boiler. The new milk
obtained early in the morning is poured into the vessel containing the
previous evening's milk with the warmed cream, and the temperature of
the mixture is brought to about 75° F. Into the vessel is introduced a
piece of rennet, which has been kept in warm water since the preceding
evening, and in which a little Spanish annatto (¼ oz. is enough for a
cheese of 60 lb.) is dissolved. (Marigolds, boiled in milk, are
occasionally used for colouring cheese, to which they likewise impart
a pleasant flavour. In winter, carrots scraped and boiled in milk, and
afterwards strained, will produce a richer colour; but they should be
used with moderation, on account of their taste.) The whole is now
stirred together, and covered up warm for about an hour, or until it
becomes curdled; it is then turned over with a bowl and broken very
small. After standing a little time, the whey is drawn from it, and as
soon as the curd becomes somewhat more solid it is cut into slices and
turned over repeatedly, the better to press out the whey.
The curd is then removed from the tub, broken by hand or cut by a
curd-breaker into small pieces, and put into a cheese vat, where it is
strongly pressed both by hand and with weights, in order to extract
the remaining whey. After this it is transferred to another vat, or
into the same if it has in the meantime been well scalded, where a
similar process of breaking and expressing is repeated, until all the
whey is forced from it. The cheese is now turned into a third vat,
previously warmed, with a cloth beneath it, and a thin loop of binder
put round the upper edge of the cheese and within the sides of the
vat, the cheese itself being previously enclosed in a clean cloth, and
its edges placed within the vat, before transfer to the cheese-oven.
These various processes occupy about six hours, and eight more are
requisite for pressing the cheese, under a weight of 14 or 15 cwt. The
cheese during that time should be twice turned in the vat. Holes are
bored in the vat which contains the cheese, and also in the cover of
it, to facilitate the extraction of every drop of whey. The pressure
being continued, the cheese is at length taken from the vat as a firm
and solid mass.
On the following morning and evening it must be again turned and
pressed; and also on the third day, about the middle of which it
should be removed to the salting-chamber, where the outside is well
rubbed with salt, and a cloth binder passed round it which is not
turned over the upper surface. The cheese is then placed in brine
extending half-way up in a salting-tub, and the upper surface is
thickly covered with salt. Here it remains for nearly a week, being
turned twice in the day. It is then left to dry for two or three days,
during which period it is turned once--being well salted at each
turning--and cleaned every day. When taken from the brine it is put on
the salting benches, with a wooden girth round it of nearly the
thickness of the cheese, where it stands a few days, during which time
it is again salted and turned every day. It is next washed and dried;
and after remaining on the drying benches about seven days, it is once
more washed in warm water with a brush, and wiped dry. In a couple of
hours after this it is rubbed all over with sweet whey butter, which
operation is afterwards frequently repeated; and, lastly, it is
deposited in the cheese- or store-room--which should be moderately
warm and sheltered from the access of air, lest the cheese should
crack--and turned every day, until it has become sufficiently hard and
firm. These cheeses require to be kept a considerable time.
As a matter of fact, there are three different modes of cheese-making
followed in Cheshire, known as the _early_ ripening, the _medium_
ripening and the _late_ ripening processes. There is also a method
which produces a cheese that is permeated with "green mould" when
ripe, called "Stilton Cheshire"; this, however, is confined to limited
districts in the county. The early ripening method is generally
followed in the spring of the year, until the middle or end of April;
the medium process, from that time till late autumn, or until early in
June, when the late ripening process is adopted and followed until the
end of September, changing again to the medium process as the season
advances. The late ripening process is not found to be suitable for
spring or late autumn make. There is a decided difference between
these several methods of making. In the early ripening system a larger
quantity of rennet is used, more acidity is developed, and less
pressure employed than in the other processes. In the medium ripening
process a moderate amount of acidity is developed, to cause the
natural drainage of the whey from the curd when under press. In the
late ripening system, on the other hand, the development of acidity is
prevented as far as possible, and the whey is got out of the curd by
breaking down finer, using more heat, and skewering when under press.
In the Stilton Cheshire process a larger quantity of rennet is used,
and less pressure is employed, than in the medium or late ripening
systems.
It is hardly possible to enunciate any general rules for the making of
Stilton cheese, which differs from Cheddar and Cheshire in that it is
not subjected to pressure. Mr J. Marshall Dugdale, in 1899, made a visit
of inspection to the chief Leicestershire dairies where this cheese is
produced, but in his report[9] he stated that every Stilton cheese-maker
worked on his own lines, and that at no two dairies did he find the
details all carried out in the same manner. There is a fair degree of
uniformity up to the point when the curd is ladled into the
straining-cloths, but at this stage, and in the treatment of the curd
before salting, diversity sets in, several different methods being in
successful use. Most of the cheese is made from two curds, the highly
acid curd from the morning's milk being mixed with the comparatively
sweet curd from the evening's milk. Opinion varies widely as to the
degree of tightening of the straining-cloths. No test for acidity
appears to be used, the amount of acidity being judged by the taste,
feel and smell of the curd. When the desired degree of acidity has
developed, the curd is broken by hand to pieces the size of small
walnuts, and salt is added at the rate of about 1 oz. to 4 lb. of dry
curd, or 1 oz. to 3½ lb. of wet curd, care being taken not to get the
curd pasty. If a maker has learnt how to rennet the milk properly, and
how to secure the right amount of acidity at the time of hooping--that
is, when the broken and salted curd is put into the wooden hoops which
give the cheese its shape--he has acquired probably two of the most
important details necessary to success. It was formerly the custom to
add cream to the milk used for making Stilton cheese, but the more
general practice now is to employ new milk alone, which yields a product
apparently as excellent and mellow as that from enriched milk.
As a cheese matures or becomes fit for consumption, not only is there
produced the characteristic flavour peculiar to the type of cheese
concerned, but with all varieties, independently of the quality of
flavours developed, a profound physical transformation of the casein
occurs. In the course of this change the firm elastic curd "breaks
down"--that is, becomes plastic, whilst chemically the insoluble casein
is converted into various soluble decomposition products. These ripening
phenomena--the production of flavour and the breaking down of the casein
(that is, the formation of proper texture)--used to be regarded as
different phases of the same process. As subsequently shown, however,
these changes are not necessarily so closely correlated. The theories
formerly advanced as explanatory of the ripening changes in cheese were
suggestive rather than based upon experimental data, and it is only
since 1896 that careful scientific studies of the problem have been
made. Of the two existing theories, the one, which is essentially
European, ascribes the ripening changes wholly to the action of living
organisms--the bacteria present in the cheese. The other, which had its
origin in the United States, asserts that there are digestive
enzymes--that is, unorganized or soluble ferments--inherent in the milk
itself that render the casein soluble. The supporters of the bacterial
theory are ranged in two classes. The one, led by Duclaux, regards the
breaking down of the casein as due to the action of liquefying bacteria
(Tyrothrix forms). On the other hand, von Freudenreich has ascribed
these changes to the lactic-acid type of bacteria, which develop so
luxuriantly in hard cheese like Cheddar.
With regard to the American theory, and in view of the important
practical results obtained by Babcock and Russell at the Wisconsin
experiment station, the following account[10] of their work is of
interest, especially as the subject is of high practical importance. In
1897 they announced the discovery of an inherent enzyme in milk, which
they named _galactase_, and which has the power of digesting the casein
of milk, and producing chemical decomposition products similar to those
that normally occur in ripened cheese. The theory has been advanced by
them that this enzyme is an important factor in the ripening changes;
and as in their experiments bacterial action was excluded by the use of
anaesthetic agents, they conclude that, so far as the breaking down of
the casein is concerned, bacteria are not essential to this process. In
formulating a theory of cheese-ripening, they have further pointed out
the necessity of considering the action of rennet extract as a factor
concerned in the curing changes. They have shown that the addition of
increased quantities of rennet extract materially hastens the rate of
ripening, and that this is due to the pepsin which is present in all
commercial rennet extracts. They find it easily possible to
differentiate between the proteolytic action--that is, the decomposing
of proteids--of pepsin and galactase, in that the first-named enzyme is
incapable of producing decomposition products lower than the peptones
precipitated by tannin. They have shown that the increased
solubility--the ripening changes--of the casein in cheese made with
rennet is attributable solely to the products peculiar to peptic
digestion. The addition of rennet extract or pepsin to fresh milk does
not produce this change, unless the acidity of the milk is allowed to
develop to a point which experience has shown to be the best adapted to
the making of Cheddar cheese. The _rationale_ of the empirical process
of ripening the milk before the addition of the rennet is thus
explained. In studying the properties of galactase it was further found
that this enzyme, as well as those present in rennet extract, is
operative at very low temperatures, even below freezing-point. When
cheese made in the normal manner was kept at temperatures ranging from
25° to 45° F. for periods averaging from eight to eighteen months, it
was found that the texture of the product simulated that of a perfectly
ripened cheese, but that such cheese developed a very mild flavour in
comparison with the normally-cured product. Subsequent storage at
somewhat higher temperatures gives to such cheese a flavour the
intensity of which is determined by the duration of storage. This
indicates that the breaking down of the casein and the production of the
flavour peculiar to cheese are in a way independent of each other, and
may be independently controlled--a point of great economic importance in
commercial practice. Although it is generally believed that cheese
ripened at low temperatures is apt to develop a more or less bitter
flavour, the flavours in the cases described were found to be
practically perfect. Under these conditions of curing, bacterial
activity is inoperative, and these experiments are held to furnish an
independent proof of the enzyme theory.
Not only are these investigations of interest from the scientific
standpoint, as throwing light on the obscure processes of cheese-curing,
but from a practical point of view they open up a new field for
commercial exploitation. The inability to control the temperature in the
ordinary factory curing-room results in serious losses, on account of
the poor and uneven quality of the product, and the consumption of
cheese has been greatly lessened thereby. These conditions may all be
avoided by this low-temperature curing process, and it is not improbable
that the cheese industry may undergo important changes in methods of
treatment. With the introduction of cold-storage curing, and the
necessity of constructing centralized plant for this purpose, the cheese
industry may perhaps come to be differentiated into the manufacture of
the product in factories of relatively cheap construction, and the
curing or ripening of the cheese in central curing stations. In this way
not only would the losses which occur under present practices be
obviated, but the improvement in the quality of the cured product would
be more than sufficient to cover the cost of cold-storage curing.
The characteristics of typical specimens of the different kinds of
English cheese may be briefly described. Cheddar cheese possesses the
aroma and flavour of a nut--the so-called "nutty" flavour. It should
melt in the mouth, and taste neither sweet nor acid. It is of flaky
texture, neither hard nor crumbly, and is firm to the touch. It is
early-ripening and, if not too much acid is developed in the making,
long-keeping. Before all others it is a cosmopolitan cheese. Some
cheeses are "plain," that is, they possess the natural paleness of the
curd, but many are coloured with annatto--a practice that might be
dispensed with. The average weight of a Cheddar cheese is about 70 lb.
Stilton cheese is popularly but erroneously supposed to be commonly made
from morning's whole milk with evening's cream added, and to be a
"double-cream" cheese. The texture is waxy, and a blue-green mould
permeates the mass if well ripened; the flavour is suggestive of decay.
The average weight of a Stilton is 15 lb. Cheshire cheese has a fairly
firm and uniform texture, neither flaky on the one hand nor waxy on the
other; is of somewhat sharp and piquant flavour when fully ripe; and is
often--at eighteen months old, when a well-made Cheshire cheese is at
its best--permeated with a blue-green mould, which, as in the case of
Stilton cheese, contributes a characteristic flavour which is much
appreciated. Cheshire cheese is, like Cheddar, sometimes
highly-coloured, but the practice is quite unnecessary; the weight is
about 55 lb. Gloucester cheese has a firm, somewhat soapy, texture and
sweet flavour. Double Gloucester differs from single Gloucester only in
size, the former usually weighing 26 to 30 lb., and the latter 13 to 15
lb. Leicester cheese is somewhat loose in texture, and mellow and moist
when nicely ripened. Its flavour is "clean," sweet and mild, and its
aroma pleasant. To those who prefer a mild flavour in cheese, a perfect
Leicester is perhaps the most attractive of all the so-called "hard"
cheese; the average weight of such a cheese is about 35 lb. Derby cheese
in its best forms is much like Leicester, being "clean" in flavour and
mellow. It is sometimes rather flaky in texture, and is slow-ripening
and long-keeping if made on the old lines; the average weight is 25 lb.
Lancashire cheese, when well made and ripe, is loose in texture and is
mellow; it has a piquant flavour. As a rule it ripens early and does not
keep long. Dorset cheese--sometimes called "blue vinny" (or veiny)--is
of firm texture, blue-moulded, and rather sharp-flavoured when fully
ripe; it has local popularity and the best makes are rather like
Stilton. Wensleydale cheese, a local product in North Yorkshire, is of
fairly firm texture and mild flavour, and may almost be spread with a
knife when ripe; the finest makes are equal to the best Stilton.
Cotherstone cheese, also a Yorkshire product, is very much like Stilton
and commonly preferable to it. The blue-green mould develops, and the
cheese is fairly mellow and moist, whereas many Stiltons are hard and
dry. Wiltshire cheese, in the form of "Wilts truckles," may be described
as small Cheddars, the weight being usually about 16 lb. Caerphilly
cheese is a thin, flat product, having the appearance of an undersized
single Gloucester and weighing about 8 lb.; it has no very marked
characteristics, but enters largely into local consumption amongst the
mining population of Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire. Soft cheese of
various kinds is made in many localities, beyond which its reputation
scarcely extends. One of the oldest and best, somewhat resembling
Camembert when well ripened, is the little "Slipcote," made on a small
scale in the county of Rutland; it is a soft, mellow, moist cheese, its
coat slipping off readily when the cheese is at its best for
eating--hence the name. Cream cheese is likewise made in many districts,
but nowhere to a great extent. A good cream cheese is fairly firm but
mellow, with a slightly acid yet very attractive flavour. It is the
simplest of all cheese to make--cream poured into a perforated box lined
with loose muslin practically makes itself into cheese in a few days'
time, and is usually ripe in a week.
In France the pressed varieties of cheese with hard rinds include
Gruyère, Cantal, Roquefort and Port Salut. The first-named, a
pale-yellow cheese full of holes of varying size, is made in Switzerland
and in the Jura Mountains district in the east of France; whilst Cantal
cheese, which is of lower quality, is a product of the midland districts
and is made barrel-shape. Roquefort cheese is made from the milk of
ewes, which are kept chiefly as dairy animals in the department of
Aveyron, and the cheese is cured in the natural mountain caves at the
village of Roquefort. It is a small, rather soft, white cheese,
abundantly veined with a greenish-blue mould and weighs between 4 and 5
lb. The Port Salut is quite a modern cheese, which originated in the
abbey of that name in Mayenne; it is a thin, flat cheese of
characteristic, and not unattractive odour and flavour. The best known
of the soft unpressed cheeses are Brie, Camembert and Coulommiers,
whilst Pont l'Evêque, Livarot and other varieties are also made. After
being shaped in moulds of various forms, these cheeses are laid on straw
mats to cure, and when fit to eat they possess about the same
consistency as butter. The Neufchâtel, Gervais and Bondon cheeses are
soft varieties intended to be eaten quite fresh, like cream cheese.
Of the varieties of cheese made in Switzerland, the best known is the
Emmenthaler, which is about the size of a cart-wheel, and has a weight
varying from 150 to 300 lb. It is full of small holes of almost uniform
size and very regularly distributed. In colour and flavour it is the
same as Gruyère. The Edam and Gouda are the common cheeses of Holland.
The Edam is spherical in shape, weighs from 3 to 4 lb., and is usually
dyed crimson on the outside. The Gouda is a flat cheese with convex
edges and is of any weight up to 20 lb. Of the two, the Edam has the
finer flavour. Limburger is the leading German cheese, whilst other
varieties are the Backstein and Munster; all are strong-smelling.
Parmesan cheese is an Italian product, round and flat, about 5 in.
thick, weighing from 60 to 80 lb. and possessed of fine flavour.
Gorgonzola cheese, so called from the Italian town of that name near
Milan, is made in the Cheddar shape and weighs from 20 to 40 lb. When
ripe it is permeated by a blue mould, and resembles in flavour,
appearance and consistency a rich old Stilton.
For descriptions of all the named varieties of cheese, see _Bulletin
105 of the Bureau of Animal Industry_ (U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Washington), issued 27th of June 1908, compiled by C. F. Doane and H.
W. Lawson.
BUTTER AND BUTTER-MAKING
As with cheese, so with butter, large quantities of the latter have been
inferior not because the cream was poor in quality, but because the
wrong kinds of bacteria had taken possession of the atmosphere in
hundreds of dairies. The greatest if not the latest novelty in dairying
in the last decade of the 19th century was the isolation of lactic acid
bacilli, their cultivation in a suitable medium, and their employment in
cream preparatory to churning. Used thus in butter-making, an excellent
product results, provided cleanliness be scrupulously maintained. The
culture repeats itself in the buttermilk, which in turn may be used
again with marked success. Much fine butter, indeed, was made long
before the bearing of bacteriological science upon the practice of
dairying was recognized--made by using acid buttermilk from a previous
churning.
In Denmark, which is, for its size, the greatest butter-producing
country in the world, most of the butter is made with the aid of
"starters," or artificial cultures which are employed in ripening the
cream. Though the butter made by such cultures shows little if any
superiority over a good sample made from cream ripened in the ordinary
way--that is, by keeping the cream at a fairly high temperature until it
is ready for churning, when it must be cooled--it is claimed that the
use of these cultures enables the butter-makers of Denmark to secure a
much greater uniformity in the quality of their produce than would be
possible if they depended upon the ripening of the cream through the
influence of bacteria taken up in the usual way from the air.
Butter-making is an altogether simpler process than cheese-making, but
success demands strict attention to sound principles, the observance of
thorough cleanliness in every stage of the work, and the intelligent use
of the thermometer. The following rules for butter-making, issued by the
Royal Agricultural Society sufficiently indicate the nature of the
operation:--
Prepare churn, butter-worker, wooden-hands and sieve as follows:--(1)
Rinse with cold water. (2) Scald with boiling water. (3) Rub
thoroughly with salt. (4) Rinse with cold water.
_Always use a correct thermometer._
The cream, when in the churn, to be at a temperature of 56° to 58° F.
in summer and 60° to 62° F. in winter. The churn should never be more
than half full. Churn at number of revolutions suggested by maker of
churn. If none are given, _churn at 40 to 45 revolutions per minute_.
Always churn slowly at first.
_Ventilate_ the churn _freely_ and frequently during churning, until
no air rushes out when the vent is opened.
_Stop churning immediately_ the butter comes. This can be ascertained
by the sound; if in doubt, _look_.
The butter should now be like grains of mustard seed. Pour in a small
quantity of cold water (1 pint of water to 2 quarts of cream) to
harden the grains, and give a few more turns to the churn gently.
Draw off the buttermilk, giving plenty of time for draining. Use a
straining-cloth placed over the hair-sieve, so as to prevent any loss,
and wash the butter in the churn with plenty of cold water: then draw
off the water, and repeat the process until the water comes off quite
clear.
_To brine butter_, make a strong brine, 2 to 3 lb. of salt to 1 gallon
of water. Place straining-cloth over mouth of churn, pour in brine,
put lid on churn, turn sharply half a dozen times, and leave for 10 to
15 minutes. Then lift the butter out of the churn into sieve, turn
butter out on worker, leave it a few minutes to drain, and work gently
till all superfluous moisture is pressed out.
_To drysalt butter_, place butter on worker, let it drain 10 to 15
minutes, then work gently till all the butter comes together. Place it
on the scales and weigh; then weigh salt, for slight salting, ¼ oz.;
medium, ½ oz.; heavy salting, ¾ oz. to the lb. of butter. Roll butter
out on worker and carefully sprinkle salt over the surface, a little
at a time; roll up and repeat till all the salt is used.
_Never touch the butter with your hands._
Well-made butter is firm and not greasy. It possesses a characteristic
texture or "grain," in virtue of which it cuts clean with a knife and
breaks with a granular fracture, like that of cast-iron. Theoretically,
butter should consist of little else than fat, but in practice this
degree of perfection is never attained. Usually the fat ranges from 83
to 88%, whilst water is present to the extent of from 10 to 15%.[11]
There will also be from 0.2 to 0.8% of milk-sugar, and from 0.5 to 0.8%
of casein. It is the casein which is the objectionable ingredient, and
the presence of which is usually the cause of rancidity. In badly-washed
or badly-worked butter, from which the buttermilk has not been properly
removed, the proportion of casein or curd left in the product may be
considerable, and such butter has only inferior keeping qualities. At
the same time, the mistake may be made of overworking or of overwashing
the butter, thereby depriving it of the delicacy of flavour which is one
of its chief attractions as an article of consumption if eaten fresh.
The object of washing with brine is that the small quantity of salt thus
introduced shall act as a preservative and develop the flavour. Streaky
butter may be due either to curd left in by imperfect washing, or to an
uneven distribution of the salt.
EQUIPMENT OF THE DAIRY
The improved form of milking-pail shown in fig. 1 has rests or brackets,
which the milker when seated on his stool places on his knees; he thus
bears the weight on his thighs, and is entirely relieved of the strain
involved in gripping the can between the knees. The milk sieve or
strainer (fig. 2) is used to remove cow-hairs and any other mechanical
impurity that may have fallen into the milk. A double straining surface
is provided, the second being of very fine gauze placed vertically, so
that the pressure of the milk does not force the dirt through; the
strainer is easily washed. The cheese tub or vat receives the milk for
cheese-making. The rectangular form shown in fig. 3 is a Cheshire
cheese-vat, for steam. The inner vat is of tinned steel, and the outer
is of iron and is fitted with pipes for steam supply. Round cheese-tubs
(fig. 4) are made of strong sheets of steel, double tinned to render
them lasting. They are fitted with a strong bottom hoop and bands round
the sides, and can be double-jacketed for steam-heating if required.
Curd-knives (fig. 5) are used for cutting the coagulated mass into cubes
in order to liberate the whey. They are made of fine steel, with sharp
edges; there are also wire curd-breakers. The object of the curd-mill
(fig. 6) is to grind consolidated curd into small pieces, preparatory to
salting and vatting; two spiked rollers work up to spiked breasts.
Hoops, into which the curd is placed in order to acquire the shape of
the cheese, are of wood or steel, the former being made of well-seasoned
oak with iron bands (fig. 7), the latter of tinned steel. The cheese is
more easily removed from the steel hoops and they are readily cleaned.
The cheese-press (fig. 8) is used only for hard or "pressed" cheese,
such as Cheddar. The arrangement is such that the pressure is
continuous; in the case of soft cheese the curd is merely placed in
moulds (figs. 9 and 10) of the required shape, and then taken cut to
ripen, no pressure being applied. The cheese-room is fitted with
easily-turned shelves, on which newly-made "pressed" cheeses are laid to
ripen.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Milking-Pail.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Milk Sieve.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Rectangular Cheese-Vat.]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Cheese-Tub.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Curd-Knives.]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Curd-Mill]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Hoop for Flat Cheese.]
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Cheese-Press.]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Cheese-Mould (Gervais).]
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Cheese-Mould (Pont l'Évêque).]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Milk-Pan.]
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Skimmer.]
In the butter dairy, when the centrifugal separator is not used, milk is
"set" for cream-raising in the milk-pan (fig. 11), a shallow vessel of
white porcelain, tinned steel or enamelled iron. The skimming-dish or
skimmer (fig 12), made of tin, is for collecting the cream from the
surface of the milk, whence it is transferred to the cream-crock (fig.
13), in which vessel the cream remains from one to three days, till it
is required for churning. Many different kinds of churns are in use, and
vary much in size, shape and fittings; the one illustrated in fig. 14 is
a very good type of diaphragm churn. The butter-scoop (fig. 15) is of
wood and is sometimes perforated; it is used for taking the butter out
of the churn. The butter-worker (fig. 16) is employed for consolidating
newly-churned butter, pressing out superfluous water and mixing in salt.
More extended use, however, is now being made of the "Délaiteuse" butter
dryer, a centrifugal machine that rapidly extracts the moisture from the
butter, and renders the butter-worker unnecessary, whilst the butter
produced has a better grain. Scotch hands (fig. 17), made of boxwood,
are used for the lifting, moulding and pressing of butter.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Cream-Crock.]
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Churn.]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Butter-Scoop.]
In the centrifugal cream-separator the new milk is allowed to flow into
a bowl, which is caused to rotate on its own axis several thousand times
per minute. The heavier portion which makes up the watery part of the
milk flies to the outer circumference of the bowl, whilst the lighter
particles of butter-fat are forced to travel in an inner zone. By a
simple mechanical arrangement the separated milk is forced out at one
tube and the cream at another, and they are collected in distinct
vessels. Separators are made of all sizes, from small machines dealing
with 10 or 20 up to 100 gallons an hour, and worked by hand (fig. 18),
to large machines separating 150 to 440 gallons an hour, and worked by
horse, steam or other power (fig. 19). Separation is found to be most
effective at temperatures ranging in different machines from 80° to 98°
F., though as high a temperature as 150° is sometimes employed. The most
efficient separators remove nearly the whole of the butter-fat, the
quantity of fat left in the separated milk falling in some cases to as
low as 0.1. When cream is raised by the deep-setting method, from 0.2 to
0.4% of fat is left in the skim-milk; by the shallow-setting method from
0.3 to 0.5% of the fat is left behind. As a rule, therefore, "separated"
milk is much poorer in fat than ordinary "skim" milk left by the
cream-raising method in deep or shallow vessels.
The first continuous working separator was the invention of Dr de Laval.
The more recent invention by Baron von Bechtolsheim of what are known as
the Alfa discs, which are placed along the centre of the bowl of the
separator, has much increased the separating capacity of the machines
without adding to the power required. This has been of great assistance
to dairy farmers by lessening the cost of the manufacture of butter, and
thus enabling a large additional number of factories to be established
in different parts of the world, particularly in Ireland, where these
disc machines are very extensively used.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Butter-Worker.]
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Scotch Hands.]
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Hand-Separator.]
The pasteurizer--so named after the French chemist Pasteur--affords a
means whereby at the outset the milk is maintained at a temperature of
170° to 180° F. for a period of eight or ten minutes. The object of this
is to destroy the tubercle bacillus, if it should happen to exist in the
milk, whilst incidentally the bacilli associated with several other
diseases communicable through the medium of milk would also be killed if
they were present. Discordant results have been recorded by
experimenters who have attempted to kill tubercle bacilli in milk by
heating the latter in open vessels, thereby permitting the formation of
a scum or "scalded layer" capable of protecting the tubercle bacilli,
and enabling them to resist a higher temperature than otherwise would be
fatal to them. At a temperature not much above 150° F. milk begins to
acquire the cooked flavour which is objectionable to many palates,
whilst its "body" is so modified as to lessen its suitability for
creaming purposes. Three factors really enter into effective
pasteurization of milk, namely (1) the temperature to which the milk is
raised, (2) the length of time it is kept at that temperature, (3) the
maintenance of a condition of mechanical agitation to prevent the
formation of "scalded layer." Within limits, what a higher temperature
will accomplish if maintained for a very short time may be effected by a
lower temperature continued over a longer period. The investigation of
the problem forms the subject of a paper[12] in the 17th _Annual Report
of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station_, 1900. The following
are the results of the experiments:--
1. An exposure of tuberculous milk in a tightly closed commercial
pasteurizer for a period of ten minutes destroyed in every case the
tubercle bacillus, as determined by the inoculation of such heated
milk into susceptible animals like guinea-pigs.
2. Where milk is exposed under conditions that would enable a pellicle
or membrane to form on the surface, the tubercle organism is able to
resist the action of heat at 140° F. (60° C.) for considerably longer
periods of time.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Power Separator.]
3. Efficient pasteurization can be more readily accomplished in a
closed receptacle such as is most frequently used in the commercial
treatment of milk, than where the milk is heated in open bottles or
open vats.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Refrigerator and Can.]
4. It is recommended, in order thoroughly to pasteurize milk so as to
destroy any tubercle bacilli which it may contain, without in any way
injuring its creaming properties or consistency, to heat the same in
closed pasteurizers for a period of not less than twenty minutes at
140° F.
Under these conditions one may be certain that disease bacteria such
as the tubercle bacillus will be destroyed without the milk or cream
being injured in any way. For over a year this new standard has been
in constant use in the Wisconsin University Creamery, and the results,
from a purely practical point of view, reported a year earlier by
Farrington and Russell,[13] have been abundantly confirmed.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Cyclindrical Cooler or Refrigerator.]
Dairy engineers have solved the problem as to how large bodies of milk
may be pasteurized, the difficulty of raising many hundreds or thousands
of gallons of milk up to the required temperature, and maintaining it at
that heat for a period of twenty minutes, having been successfully dealt
with. The plant usually employed provides for the thorough filtration of
the milk as it comes in from the farms, its rapid heating in a closed
receiver and under mechanical agitation up to the desired temperature,
its maintenance thereat for the requisite time, and finally its sudden
reduction to the temperature of cold water through the agency of a
refrigerator, to be next noticed.
Refrigerators are used for reducing the temperature of milk to that of
cold water, whereby its keeping properties are enhanced. The milk flows
down the outside of the metal refrigerator (fig. 20), which is
corrugated in order to provide a larger cooling surface, whilst cold
water circulates through the interior of the refrigerator. The conical
vessel into which the milk is represented as flowing from the
refrigerator in fig. 20 is absurdly called a "milk-churn," whereas
milk-can is a much more appropriate name. For very large quantities of
milk, such as flow from a pasteurizing plant, cylindrical refrigerators
(fig. 21), made of tinned copper, are available; the cold water
circulates inside, and the milk, flowing down the outside in a very thin
sheet, is rapidly cooled from a temperature of 140° F. or higher to 1°
above the temperature of the water.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Butyrometer.]
The fat test for milk was originally devised by Dr S. M. Babcock, of the
Wisconsin, U.S.A., experiment station. It combines the principle of
centrifugal force with simple chemical action. Besides the machine
itself and its graduated glass vessels, the only requirements are
sulphuric acid of standard strength and warm water. The machines--often
termed butyrometers--are commonly made to hold from two up to two dozen
testers. After the tubes or testers have been charged, they are put in
the apparatus, which is rapidly rotated as shown (fig. 22); in a few
minutes the test is complete, and with properly graduated vessels the
percentage of fat can be read off at a glance. The butyrometer is
extremely useful, alike for measuring periodically the fat-producing
capacity of individual cows in a herd, for rapidly ascertaining the
percentage of fat in milk delivered to factories and paying for such
milk on the basis of quality, and for determining the richness in fat of
milk supplied for the urban milk trade. Any intelligent person can soon
learn to work the apparatus, but its efficiency is of course dependent
upon the accuracy of the measuring vessels. To ensure this the board of
agriculture have made arrangements with the National Physical
Laboratory, Old Deer Park, Richmond, Surrey, to verify at a small fee
the pipettes, measuring-glasses, and test-bottles used in connexion with
the centrifugal butyrometer, which in recent years has been improved by
Dr N. Gerber of Zürich.
DAIRY FACTORIES
In connexion with co-operative cheese-making the merit of having founded
the first "cheesery" or cheese factory is generally credited to Jesse
Williams, who lived near Rome, Oneida county, N.Y. The system,
therefore, was of American origin. Williams was a skilled cheese-maker,
and the produce of his dairy sold so freely, at prices over the average,
that he increased his output of cheese by adding to his own supply of
milk other quantities which he obtained from his neighbours. His example
was so widely followed that by the year 1866 there had been established
close upon 500 cheese factories in New York state alone. In 1870 two
co-operative cheeseries were at work in England, one in the town of
Derby and one at Longford in the same county. There are now thousands of
cheeseries in the United States and Canada, and also many "creameries,"
or butter factories, for the making of high-class butter.
The first creamery was that of Alanson Slaughter, and it was built near
Wallkill, Orange county, N.Y., in 1861, or ten years later than the
first cheese factory; it dealt daily with the milk of 375 cows.
Cheeseries and creameries would almost certainly have become more
numerous than they are in England but for the rapidly expanding urban
trade in country milk. The development of each, indeed, has been
contemporaneous since 1871, and they are found to work well in
conjunction one with the other--that is to say, a factory is useful for
converting surplus milk into cheese or butter when the milk trade is
overstocked, whilst the trade affords a convenient avenue for the sale
of milk whenever this may happen to be preferable to the making of
cheese or butter. Extensive dealers in milk arrange for its conversion
into cheese or butter, as the case may be, at such times as the milk
market needs relief, and in this way a cheesery serves as a sort of
economic safety-valve to the milk trade. The same cannot always be said
of creameries, because the machine-skimmed milk of some of these
establishments has been far too much used to the prejudice of the
legitimate milk trade in urban districts. Be this as it may, the
operations of cheeseries and creameries in conjunction with the milk
trade have led to the diminution of home dairying. A rapidly increasing
population has maintained, and probably increased, its consumption of
milk, which has obviously diminished the farmhouse production of cheese,
and also of butter. The foreign competitor has been less successful with
cheese than with butter, for he is unable to produce an article
qualified to compete with the best that is made in Great Britain. In the
case of butter, on the other hand, the imported article, though not ever
surpassing the best home-made, is on the average much better, especially
as regards uniformity of quality. Colonial and foreign producers,
however, send into the British markets as a rule only the best of their
butter, as they are aware that their inferior grades would but injure
the reputation their products have acquired.
There are no official statistics concerning dairy factories in Great
Britain, and such figures relating to Ireland were issued for the first
time in 1901. The number of dairy factories in Ireland in 1900 was
returned at 506, comprising 333 in Munster, 92 in Ulster, 52 in Leinster
and 29 in Connaught. Of the total number of factories, 495 received milk
only, 9 milk and cream and 2 cream only. As to ownership, 219 were
joint-stock concerns, 190 were maintained by co-operative farmers and 97
were proprietary. In the year ended 30th September 1900 these factories
used up nearly 121 million gallons of milk, namely, 94 in Munster, 14 in
Ulster, 7 in Leinster and 6 in Connaught. The number of centrifugal
cream-separators in the factories was 985, of which 889 were worked by
steam, 79 by water, 9 by horse-power and 8 by hand-power. The number of
hands permanently employed was 3653, made up of 976 in Munster, 279 in
Leinster, 278 in Ulster and 120 in Connaught. The year's output was
returned at 401,490 cwt. of butter, 439 cwt. of cheese (made from whole
milk) and 46,253 gallons of cream. In most cases the skim-milk is
returned to the farmers. A return of the number of separators used in
private establishments gave a total of 899, comprising 693 in Munster,
157 in Leinster, 39 in Ulster and 10 in Connaught. In factories and
private establishments together as many as 1884 separators were thus
accounted for. Much of the factory butter would be sent into the markets
of Great Britain, though some would no doubt be retained for local
consumption. A great improvement in the quality of Irish butter has
recently been noticeable in the exhibits entered at the London dairy
show.
ADULTERATION OF DAIRY PRODUCE[14]
The Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1899, which came into operation on the
1st of January 1900, contains several sections relating to the trade in
dairy produce in the United Kingdom. Section 1 imposes penalties in the
case of the importation of produce insufficiently marked, such as (a)
margarine or margarine-cheese, except in passages conspicuously marked
"Margarine" or "Margarine-cheese"; (b) adulterated or impoverished
butter (other than margarine) or adulterated or impoverished milk or
cream, except in packages or cans conspicuously marked with a name or
description indicating that the butter or milk or cream has been so
treated; (c) condensed separated or skimmed milk, except in tins or
other receptacles which bear a label whereon the words "machine-skimmed
milk" or "skimmed milk" are printed in large and legible type. For the
purposes of this section an article of food is deemed to be adulterated
or impoverished if it has been mixed with any other substance, or if any
part of it has been abstracted, so as in either case to affect
injuriously its quality, substance, or nature; provided that an article
of food shall not be deemed to be adulterated by reason only of the
addition of any preservative or colouring matter of such a nature and in
such quantity as not to render the article injurious to health. Section
7 provides that every occupier of a manufactory of margarine or
margarine-cheese, and every wholesale dealer in such substances, shall
keep a register showing the quantity and destination of each consignment
of such substances sent out from his manufactory or place of business,
and this register shall be open to the inspection of any officer of the
board of agriculture. Any such officer shall have power to enter at all
reasonable times any such manufactory, and to inspect any process of
manufacture therein, and to take samples for analysis. Section 8 is of
much practical importance, as it limits the quantity of butter-fat which
may be contained in margarine; it states that it shall be unlawful to
manufacture, sell, expose for sale or import any margarine the fat of
which contains more than 10% of butter-fat, and every person who
manufactures, sells, exposes for sale or imports any margarine which
contains more than that percentage shall be guilty of an offence under
the Margarine Act 1887. For the purposes of the act _margarine-cheese_
is defined as "any substance, whether compound or otherwise, which is
prepared in imitation of cheese, and which contains fat not derived from
milk"; whilst _cheese_ is defined as "the substance usually known as
cheese, containing no fat derived otherwise than from milk." The
so-called "filled" cheese of American origin, in which the butter-fat of
the milk is partially or wholly replaced by some other fat, would come
under the head of "margarine-cheese." In making such cheese a cheap form
of fat, usually of animal origin, but sometimes vegetable, is added to
and incorporated with the skim-milk, and thus takes the place previously
occupied by the genuine butter-fat. The act is regarded by some as
defective in that it does not prohibit the artificial colouring of
margarine to imitate butter.
In connexion with this act a departmental committee was appointed in
1900 "to inquire and report as to what regulations, if any, may with
advantage be made by the board of agriculture under section 4 of the
Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1899, for determining what deficiency in any
of the normal constituents of genuine milk or cream, or what addition of
extraneous matter or proportion of water, in any sample of milk
(including condensed milk) or cream, shall for the purposes of the Sale
of Food and Drugs Acts 1875 to 1899, raise a presumption, until the
contrary is proved, that the milk or cream is not genuine." Much
evidence of the highest interest to dairy-farmers was taken, and
subsequently published as a Blue-Book (Cd. 484). The report of the
committee (Cd. 491) included the following "recommendations," which were
signed by all the members excepting one:--
I. That regulations under section 4 of the Food and Drugs Act 1899 be
made by the board of agriculture with respect to milk (including
condensed milk) and cream.
II. (a) That in the case of any milk (other than skimmed, separated or
condensed milk) the total milk-solids in which on being dried at 100°
C. do not amount to 12% a presumption shall be raised, until the
contrary is proved, that the milk is deficient in the normal
constituents of genuine milk.
(b) That any milk (other than skimmed, separated or condensed milk)
the total milk-solids in which are less than 12%, and in which the
amount of milk-fat is less than 3.25%, shall be deemed to be
deficient in milk-fat as to raise a presumption, until the contrary
is proved, that it has been mixed with separated milk or water, or
that some portion of its normal content of milk-fat has been
removed. In calculating the percentage amount of deficiency of fat
the analyst shall have regard to the above-named limit of 3.25% of
milk-fat.
(c) That any milk (other than skimmed, separated or condensed milk)
the total milk-solids in which are less than 12%, and in which the
amount of non-fatty milk-solids is less than 8.5%, shall be deemed
to be so deficient in normal constituents as to raise a presumption,
until the contrary is proved, that it has been mixed with water. In
calculating the percentage amount of admixed water the analyst shall
have regard to the above-named limit of 8.5% of non-fatty
milk-solids, and shall further take into account the extent to which
the milk-fat may exceed 3.25%.
III. That the artificial thickening of cream by any addition of
gelatin or other substance shall raise a presumption that the cream is
not genuine.
IV. That any skimmed or separated milk in which the total milk-solids
are less than 9% shall be deemed to be so deficient in normal
constituents as to raise a presumption, until the contrary is proved,
that it has been mixed with water.
V. That any condensed milk (other than that labelled "machine-skimmed
milk" or "skimmed milk," in conformity with section 11 of the Food and
Drugs Act 1899) in which either the amount of milk-fat is less than
10%, or the amount of non-fatty milk-solids is less than 25%, shall be
deemed to be so deficient in some of the normal constituents of milk
as to raise a presumption, until the contrary is proved, that it is
not genuine.
The committee further submitted the following expressions of opinion on
points raised before them in evidence:--
(a) That it is desirable to call the attention of those engaged in the
administration of the Food and Drugs Acts to the necessity of adopting
effective measures to prevent any addition of water, separated or
condensed milk, or other extraneous matter, for the purpose of
reducing the quality of genuine milk to any limits fixed by regulation
of the board of agriculture.
(b) That it is desirable that steps should be taken with the view of
identifying or "ear-marking" separated milk by the addition of some
suitable and innocuous substance, and by the adoption of procedure
similar to that provided by section 7 of the Food and Drugs Act 1899,
in regard to margarine.
(c) That it is desirable that, so far as may be found practicable, the
procedure adopted in collecting, forwarding, and retaining pending
examination, samples of milk (including condensed milk) and cream
under the Food and Drugs Acts should be uniform.
(d) That it is desirable that, so far as may be found practicable, the
methods of analysis used in the examination of samples of milk
(including condensed milk) or cream taken under the Food and Drugs
Acts should be uniform. (e) That it is desirable in the case of
condensed milk (other than that labelled "machine-skimmed milk" or
"skimmed milk," in conformity with section 11 of the Food and Drugs
Act 1899) that the label should state the amount of dilution required
to make the proportion of milk-fat equal to that found in uncondensed
milk containing not less than 3.25% of milk-fat.
(f) That it is desirable in the case of condensed whole milk to limit,
and in the case of condensed machine-skimmed milk to exclude, the
addition of sugar.
(g) That the official standardizing of the measuring vessels
commercially used in the testing of milk is desirable.
In the minority report, signed by Mr Geo. Barham, the most important
clauses are the following:--
(a) That in the case of any milk (other than skimmed, separated or
condensed milk) the total milk-solids in which are less than 11.75%,
and in which, during the months of July to February inclusive, the
amount of milk-fat is less than 3%, and in the case of any milk which
during the months of March to June inclusive shall fall below the
above-named limit for total solids, and at the same time shall contain
less than 2.75% of fat, it shall be deemed that such milk is so
deficient in its normal constituent of fat as to raise a presumption,
for the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts 1875 to 1899,
until the contrary is proved, that the milk is not genuine.
(b) That any milk (other than skimmed, separated or condensed milk)
the total milk-solids in which are less than 11.75%, and in which the
amount of non-fatty solids is less than 8.5%, shall be deemed to be so
deficient in its normal constituents as to raise a presumption, for
the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts 1875 to 1899, until
the contrary is proved, that the milk is not genuine. In calculating
the amount of the deficiency the analyst shall take into account the
extent to which the milk-fat exceeds the limits above named.
(c) That any skimmed or separated milk in which the total milk-solids
are less than 8.75% shall be deemed to be so deficient in its normal
constituents as to raise a presumption, for the purpose of the Sale of
Food and Drugs Acts 1875 to 1899, until the contrary is proved, that
the milk is not genuine.
Much controversy arose out of the publication of these reports, the
opinion most freely expressed being that the standard recommended in the
majority report was too high. The difficulty of the problem is
illustrated by, for example, the diverse legal standards for milk that
prevail in the United States, where the prescribed percentage of fat in
fresh cows' milk ranges from 2.5 in Rhode Island to 3.5 in Georgia and
Minnesota, and 3.7 (in the winter months) in Massachusetts, and the
prescribed total solids range from 12 in several states (11.5 in Ohio
during May and June) up to 13 in others. Standards are recognized in
twenty-one of the states, but the remaining states have no laws
prescribing standards for dairy products. That the public discussion of
the reports of the committee was effective is shown by the following
regulations which appeared in the _London Gazette_ on the 6th of August
1901, and fixed the limit of fat at 3%:--
The board of agriculture, in exercise of the powers conferred on them
by section 4 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1899, do hereby make
the following regulations:--
1. Where a sample of milk (not being milk sold as skimmed, or
separated or condensed milk) contains less than 3% of milk-fat, it
shall be presumed for the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts
1875 to 1899, until the contrary is proved, that the milk is not
genuine, by reason of the abstraction therefrom of milk-fat, or the
addition thereto of water.
2. Where a sample of milk (not being milk sold as skimmed, or
separated or condensed milk) contains less than 8.5% of milk-solids
other than milk-fat, it shall be presumed for the purposes of the Sale
of Food and Drugs Acts 1875 to 1899, until the contrary is proved,
that the milk is not genuine, by reason of the abstraction therefrom
of milk-solids other than milk-fat, or the addition thereto of water.
3. Where a sample of skimmed or separated milk (not being condensed
milk) contains less than 9% of milk-solids, it shall be presumed for
the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts 1875 to 1899, until
the contrary is proved, that the milk is not genuine, by reason of the
abstraction therefrom of milk-solids other than milk-fat, or the
addition thereto of water.
4. These regulations shall extend to Great Britain.
5. These regulations shall come into operation on the 1st of September
1901.
6. These regulations may be cited as the Sale of Milk Regulations
1901.
In July 1901 another departmental committee was appointed by the board
of agriculture to inquire and report as to what regulations, if any,
might with advantage be made under section 4 of the Sale of Food and
Drugs Act 1899, for determining what deficiency in any of the normal
constituents of butter, or what addition of extraneous matter, or
proportion of water in any sample of butter should, for the purpose of
the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, raise a presumption, until the contrary
is proved, that the butter is not genuine. As bearing upon this point
reference may be made to a report of the dairy division of the United
States department of agriculture on experimental exports of butter, in
the appendix to which are recorded the results of the analyses of many
samples of butter of varied origin. First, as to American butters, 19
samples were analysed in Wisconsin, 17 in Iowa, 5 in Minnesota and 2 in
Vermont, at the respective experiment stations of the states named. The
amount of moisture throughout was low, and the quantity of fat
correspondingly high. In no case was there more than 15% of water, and
only 4 samples contained more than 14%. On the other hand, 11 samples
had less than 10%, the lowest being a pasteurized butter from Ames,
Iowa, with only 6.72% of water. The average amount of water in the total
43 samples was 11.24%. The fat varies almost inversely as the water,
small quantities of curd and ash having to be allowed for. The largest
quantity of fat was 91.23% in the sample containing only 6.72% of water.
The lowest proportion of fat was 80.18%, whilst the average of all the
samples shows 85.9%, which is regarded as a good market standard. The
curd varied from 0.55 to 1.7%, with an average of 0.98. This small
amount indicates superior keeping qualities. Theoretically there should
be no curd present, but this degree of perfection is never attained in
practice. It was desired to have the butter contain about 2½% of salt,
but the quantity of ash in the 43 samples ranged from 0.83 to 4.79%, the
average being 1.88. Analyses made at Washington of butters other than
American showed a general average of 13.22% of water over 28 samples
representing 14 countries. The lowest were 10.25% in a Canadian butter
and 10.38 in an Australian sample. The highest was 19.1% in an Irish
butter, which also contained the remarkably large quantity of 8.28% of
salt. Three samples of Danish butter contained 12.65, 14.27 and 15.14%
respectively of water. French and Italian unsalted butter included, the
former 15.46 and the latter 14.41% of water, and yet appeared to be
unusually dry. In 7 samples of Irish butters the percentages of water
ranged from 11.48 to 19.1. Of the 28 foreign butters 15 were found to
contain preservatives. All 5 samples from Australia, the 2 from France,
the single ones from Italy, New Zealand, Argentina, and England, and 4
out of the 7 from Ireland, contained boric acid.
THE MILK TRADE
The term "milk trade" has come to signify the great traffic in country
milk for the supply of dwellers in urban districts. Prior to 1860 this
traffic was comparatively small or in its infancy. Thirty years earlier
it could not have been brought into existence, for it is an outcome of
the great network of railways which was spread over the face of the
country in the latter half of the 19th century. It affords an
instructive illustration of the process of commercial evolution which
has been fostered by the vast increase of urban population within the
period indicated. It is a tribute to the spirit of sanitary reform
which--as an example in one special direction--has brought about the
disestablishment of urban cow-sheds and the consequent demand for milk
produced in the shires. London, in fact, is now being regularly supplied
with fresh milk from places anywhere within 150 m., and the milk traffic
on the railways, not only to London but to other great centres, is an
important item. A factor in the development of the milk trade must no
doubt be sought in the outbreak of cattle plague in 1865, for it was
then that the dairymen of the metropolis were compelled to seek milk all
over England, and the capillary refrigerator being invented soon after,
the production of milk has remained ever since in the hands of dairymen
living mainly at a distance from the towns supplied.
This great change in country dairying, involving the continuous export
of enormous quantities of milk from the farms, has been accompanied by
subsidiary changes in the management of dairy-farms, and has
necessitated the extensive purchase of feeding-stuffs for the production
of milk, especially in winter-time. It is probable that, in this way, a
gradual improvement of the soil on such farms has been effected, and the
corn-growing soils of distant countries are adding to the store of
fertility of soils in the British Isles. Country roads, exposed to the
wear and tear of a comparatively new traffic, are lively at morn and eve
with the rattle of vehicles conveying fresh milk from the farms to the
railway stations. Most of these changes were brought about within the
limits of the last third of the 19th century.
In the case of London the daily supply of a perishable article such as
milk, which must be delivered to the consumer within a few hours of its
production, to a population of five millions, is an undertaking of very
great magnitude, especially when it is considered that only a
comparatively minute proportion of the supply is produced in the
metropolitan area itself. To meet the demand of the London consumer some
5000 dairies proper exist, as well as a large number of businesses where
milk is sold in conjunction with other commodities. It has been computed
that some 12,000 traders are engaged in the business of milk-selling in
the metropolis, and the number of persons employed in its distribution,
&c., cannot be fewer than 25,000. The amount of capital involved is very
great, and it may be mentioned that the paid-up capital of six of the
principal distributing and retail dairy companies amounts to upwards of
one million sterling. The most significant feature in connexion with the
milk-supply of the metropolis at the beginning of the 20th century is
the gradual extinction of the town "cowkeeper"--the retailer who
produces the milk he sells. The facilities afforded by the railway
companies, the favourable rates which have been secured for the
transport of milk, and the more enlightened methods of its treatment
after production, have made it possible for milk produced under more
favourable conditions to be brought from considerable distances and
delivered to the retailer at a price lower than that at which it has
been possible to produce it in the metropolis itself. As a result, the
number of milk cows in the county of London diminished from 10,000 in
1889 to 5144 in 1900, the latter, on an estimated production of 700
gallons per cow--the average production of stall-fed town
cows--representing a yearly milk yield of 3,600,000 gallons. How small a
proportion this is of the total supply will be gathered from the fact
that the annual quantity of milk delivered in London on the Great
Western line amounts to some 11,000,000 gallons, whilst the London &
North-Western railway delivers 9,000,000, and the Midland railway at St
Pancras 5,000,000, and at others of its London stations about 1,000,000,
making 6,000,000 in all. The London & South-Western railway brings
upwards of 8,000,000 gallons to London, a quantity of 7,500,000 gallons
is carried by the Great Northern railway, and the Great Eastern railway
is responsible for 7,000,000. The London, Brighton & South Coast railway
delivers 1,000,000 gallons, and the South-Eastern & Chatham and the
London & Tilbury railways carry approximately 1,000,000 gallons between
them. A large quantity of milk is also carried in by local lines from
farms in the vicinity of London and delivered at the local stations, and
a quantity is also brought by the Great Central railway. In addition to
this, milk is taken into London by carts from farms in the neighbourhood
of the metropolis. A computation of the total milk-supply of the
metropolis reveals a quantity approximating to 60,000,000 gallons per
annum, or rather more than a million gallons per week, which, taking 500
gallons as the average yearly production of the cows contributing to
this supply, represents the yield of at least 120,000 cows. The growth
of the supply of country milk to London may be judged from the figures
given by Mr George Barham, chairman of the Express Dairy Co. Ltd., in an
article on "The Milk Trade" contributed to Professor Sheldon's work on
_The Farm and Dairy_. The quantities carried by the respective railways
in 1889 are therein stated in gallons as:--Great Western, 9,000,000;
London & North-Western, 7,000,000; Midland, 7,000,000; London &
South-Western, 6,000,000; Great Northern, 3,000,000; Great Eastern,
3,000,000; the southern lines, 2,000,000. The increase, therefore, on
these lines amounted to no less than 13,500,000 gallons per annum, or
36%. The diminished production in the metropolis itself amounted
approximately only to 3,000,000 gallons, and it follows, therefore, that
the consumption largely increased.
Previously to 1864 it was only possible to bring milk into London from
short distances, but the introduction of the refrigerator has enabled
milk to be brought from places as far removed from the metropolis as
North Staffordshire, and it has even been received from Scotland.
Practically the whole of the milk supplied to the metropolis is produced
in England. Attempts have been made to introduce foreign milk, and in
1898 a company was formed to promote the sale of fresh milk from
Normandy, but the enterprise did not succeed. The trade subsequently
showed signs of reviving, owing probably to the increased cost of the
home produced article, and during the winter season of 1900-1901 the
largest quantity received into the kingdom in one week amounted to
10,000 gallons. Of recent years a large demand has sprung up for
sterilized milk in bottles, and a considerable trade is also done in
humanized milk, which is a milk preparation approximating in its
chemical composition to human milk.
Estimating the average yield of milk of each country cow at 500 gallons
per annum, and assuming an average of 28 cows to each farm, as many as
4300 farmers are engaged in supplying London with milk; allotting ten
cows to each milker, it needs 12 battalions of 1000 men each for this
work alone. Some 3500 horses are required to convey the milk from the
farms to the country railway stations. The chief sources of supply are
in the counties of Derby, Stafford, Leicester, Northampton, Notts,
Warwick, Bucks, Oxford, Gloucester, Berks, Wilts, Hants, Dorset, Essex,
and Cambridge. It is not entirely owing to the railways that London's
enormous supply of milk has been rendered possible, for the milk must
still have been produced in the immediate neighbourhood of the
metropolis had not the method of reducing the temperature of the product
by means of the refrigerator been devised. There are probably 5700
horses engaged in the delivery of milk in London, and more people are
employed in this work than in milking the cows. One of the great
difficulties the London dairyman has to contend with, and a cause of
frequent anxiety to him, is associated with the rise and fall of the
thermometer, for a movement to the extent of ten degrees one way or the
other may diminish or increase the supply in an inverse ratio to the
demand. Thus, at periods of extreme cold, the cows shrink in their yield
of milk, while from the same cause the Londoner is demanding more, in an
extra cup of coffee, &c. Again, at periods of extreme heat, which has
the same effect on the cow's production as extreme cold, the customer
also demands an increased quantity of milk. Ten degrees fall of
temperature in the summer will result in a lessened demand and an
enlarged supply--to such an extent, indeed, that a single firm has been
known to have had returned by its carriers some 600 gallons in one day.
In such cases the cream separator is capable of rendering invaluable
assistance. To make cheese in London in large quantities and at
uncertain intervals has been found to be impracticable, while to set for
cream a great bulk of milk is almost equally so. But now a considerable
portion of what would otherwise be lost is saved by passing the milk
through separators, and churning the cream into butter.
Previously to the enormous development of the urban trade in country
milk, dairy farms were in the main self-sustaining in the matter of
manures and feeding-stuffs, and the cropping of arable land was governed
by routine. To-day, on the contrary, many dairy farms are run at high
pressure by the help of purchased materials,--corn, cake, and
manure,--and the land is cropped regardless of routine and independent
of courses. Such crops, moreover, are grown--white straw crops, green
crops, root crops--as are deemed likely to be most needed at the time
when they are ready. Green crops,--"soiling" crops, as they are termed
in North America,--consisting largely of vetches or tares (held up by
stalks of oat plants grown amongst them), cabbages, and in some
districts green maize, are used to supplement the failing grass-lands at
the fall of the year, and root crops, especially mangel, are
advantageously grown for the same purpose. For winter feeding the farm
is made to yield what it will in the shape of meadow and clover hay, and
of course root crops of the several kinds. This provision is
supplemented by the purchase of, for example, brewers' grains as a bulky
food, and of oilcake and corn of many sorts as concentrated food.
TABLE XI.--_Estimated Annual Production of Milk, Butter and Cheese in
the United Kingdom for the Ten Years ended 31st December 1899._
+-------+-----------+-------+-----------+----------+-----------------+----------------+-----------------+
| Year | | | |Influence | | Estimated | Estimated |
| ended | | | Cows and |of Season.| Estimated | Total Quantity | Total Quantity |
| Decem-| Cows and | Cows | Heifers |Percentage| Total Quantity | of Butter | of Cheese |
|ber 31.|Heifers in | per | giving | above or | of Milk produced| produced in the| produced in the |
| |Milk or in |1000 of| Milk all |below the | in the 52 Weeks,| 52 Weeks, | 52 Weeks, |
| | Calf on | Popu- | the year |Average of| by 75% of the | taking 32% of | taking 20% of |
| | 4th June. |lation.| round; | previous | Total Herd, at | the Total Milk | the Total Milk |
| | | | say 75% | 10 Years.| 49 cwt. or 531 | to yield 80 lb.| to yield 220 lb.|
| | | | of Total. | | gallons per Cow.| of Butter per | of Cheese per |
| | | | | | | Ton of Milk. | Ton of Milk. |
+-------+-----------+-------+-----------+----------+-----------------+----------------+-----------------+
| | No. | No. | No. | % | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. |
| 1890 | 3,956,220 | 105.5 | 2,967,165 | +3.0 | 7,487,640 | 85,572 | 147,078 |
| 1891 | 4,117,707 | 108.9 | 3,088,281 | Average. | 7,566,288 | 86,472 | 148,624 |
| 1892 | 4,120,451 | 108.1 | 3,090,339 | -5.6 | 7,147,337 | 81,684 | 140,394 |
| 1893 | 4,014,055 | 104.4 | 3,010,542 | -9.0 | 6,712,004 | 76,709 | 131,843 |
| 1894 | 3,925,486 | 101.2 | 2,944,115 | +6.3 | 7,667,505 | 87,628 | 150,611 |
| 1895 | 3,937,590 | 100.5 | 2,953,193 | -3.5 | 6,982,087 | 79,652 | 137,148 |
| 1896 | 3,958,762 | 100.0 | 2,969,387 | -4.0 | 6,983,999 | 79,817 | 130,000 |
| 1897 | 3,984,167 | 99.7 | 2,988,126 | +3.1 | 7,547,856 | 86,261 | 148,260 |
| 1898 | 4,035,501 | 100.0 | 3,025,526 | +3.2 | 7,645,105 | 87,372 | 150,171 |
| 1899 | 4,133,249 | 101.9 | 3,099,937 | -3.5 | 7,329,027 | 83,760 | 130,020 |
+-------+-----------+-------+-----------+----------+-----------------+----------------+-----------------+
| 10 | | | | | | | |
| Years'| 4,018,318 | 103.0 | 3,013,660 | -0.7 | 7,906,874 | 83,992 | 141,412 |
|Average| | | | | | | |
+-------+-----------+-------+-----------+----------+-----------------+----------------+-----------------+
BRITISH OUTPUT, IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF DAIRY PRODUCE
Whilst the quantity of imported butter and cheese consumed in the United
Kingdom from year to year can be arrived at with a tolerable degree of
accuracy, it is more difficult to form an estimate of the amounts of
these articles annually produced at home. Various attempts have,
however, from time to time been made by competent authorities to arrive
approximately at the annual output of milk, butter and cheese in the
United Kingdom, and the results are given by Messrs W. Weddel & Co. in
their annual _Dairy Produce Review_. Table XI. shows the estimates for
each of the ten years 1890 to 1899, the numbers in the second column of
"cows and heifers in milk or in calf" being identical with those
officially recorded in the agricultural returns. In thus estimating the
quantity of milk, butter and cheese produced within the United Kingdom,
the "average milking life" of a cow is taken to be four years, from
which it follows that on the average one-fourth of the total herd has to
be renewed every year by heifers with their first calf. This leaves 75%
of the total herd giving milk throughout the year. Each cow of this 75%
is estimated as yielding 49 cwt., or 531 gallons of milk annually. It is
assumed that 15% of the total milk yield is used for the calf, 32%
utilized for butter-making, 20% for cheese-making, and the remaining 33%
consumed in the household as fresh milk. A ton of milk is estimated to
produce 80 lb. of butter or 220 lb. of cheese. A gallon of milk weighs
10.33 lb. (10(1/3) lb.). The probable effects of each season upon the
production have been taken into consideration in making these estimates,
and it will be noticed that owing to the terrible drought of 1893 a
reduction of 9% is made from the average. Accepting these estimates with
due reservation,[15] it is seen that the annual production of milk
varied in the decade to the extent of nearly a million tons, the exact
difference between the maximum of 7,667,505 tons in 1894 and the minimum
of 6,712,004 tons in 1893 being 955,501 tons. The decennial averages are
7,906,874 tons of milk, 83,992 tons of butter, and 141,412 tons of
cheese.
Table XII. furnishes an estimate of the total consumption of butter in
the United Kingdom in each of the years 1891 to 1900. Whilst the
estimated home production did not vary greatly from year to year, the
imports from colonial and foreign sources underwent almost continuous
increase. The ten years' average indicates 37.6% home-made, 7.3%
imported colonial, and 55.1% imported foreign butter. But whereas at
the beginning of the decade the proportions were 45.4% home-made, 1.5%
colonial, and 53.2% foreign, at the end of the percentages were 32.8,
14.7 and 52.5 respectively. It thus appears that whilst the United
Kingdom was able in 1891 to furnish nearly half of its requirements
(45.4%), by 1900 it was unable to supply more than one-third (32.8%).
TABLE XII.--_Estimated Home Production and Imports of Butter into
the United Kingdom for the Ten Years ended 30th June 1900._
+------------+-------------+-------------+-----------+---------+
| Year ended | Home | Imported | Imported | |
| 30th June. | Production, | Colonial. | Foreign. | Total. |
| | _estimated_.| | | |
+------------+-------------+-------------+-----------+---------+
| | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. |
| 1891 | 84,961 | 2,883 | 99,598 | 187,442 |
| 1892 | 86,022 | 6,323 | 101,796 | 194,141 |
| 1893 | 84,078 | 9,408 | 105,712 | 199,198 |
| 1894 | 79,196 | 15,550 | 107,534 | 202,280 |
| 1895 | 82,168 | 17,807 | 116,730 | 216,705 |
| 1896 | 83,640 | 12,949 | 133,249 | 229,838 |
| 1897 | 79,734 | 18,111 | 138,800 | 236,645 |
| 1898 | 83,039 | 17,732 | 141,426 | 242,197 |
| 1899 | 87,326 | 22,443 | 142,193 | 251,962 |
| 1900 | 83,760 | 37,534 | 133,957 | 255,251 |
| +-------------+-------------+-----------+---------+
| 10 Years' | | | | |
| Average | 83,392 | 16,074 | 122,099 | 221,565 |
+------------+-------------+-------------+-----------+---------+
The rapid headway which colonial butter has made in British markets is
shown by the fact that for the five years ended 30th of June 1900 the
import had grown from 12,949 tons to 37,534 tons per annum, or an
increase of 24,585 tons. It is during the mid-winter months that the
colonial butter from Australasia arrives on the British markets, while
that from Canada begins to arrive in July, and virtually ceases in the
following January. The bulk of the Canadian butter reaches British
markets during August, September and October; the bulk of the
Australasian in December, January and February.
It appears to be demonstrated by the experience of the last decade of
the 19th century that the United Kingdom is quite unable to turn out
sufficient dairy produce to supply its own population. In the year
ended 30th of June 1891 the total import of butter was 102,500 tons,
and for the year ended 30th of June 1900 it was 170,700 tons, which
shows an annual average increase in the decade of 6800 tons. This
growth was on the whole very uniform, any disturbance in its
regularity being attributable more to the deficient seasons in the
colonies and foreign countries than to the bountiful seasons at home.
Twice in the decade the import of butter from colonial sources fell
off slightly from the previous year, namely, in 1896 and 1898, while
only once was there any decrease in the foreign supply, and this
occurred in 1900. In 1896 the colonial supply fell off by 5000 tons,
principally owing to drought in Australia, but from foreign countries
this deficiency was more than made good, as the increased import from
these sources exceeded 16,500 tons. In 1900 the position was reversed,
for while the foreign import fell away to the extent of over 8000
tons, the supply from the colonies exceeded that of 1899 by 15,000
tons, thus leaving a gain in the quantity of imported butter of nearly
7000 tons on the year. Table XII. shows that over the ten years,
1891-1900, the import of colonial butter was augmented by 34,600 tons,
and that of foreign by 33,600 tons, so that the increased import is
fairly divided between colonial and foreign sources. If, however, the
last five years of the period be taken, it will be seen that the
increases in the arrivals of colonial butter have far exceeded those
from foreign countries. Between 1891 and 1900 the Australasian
colonies increased their quota by 13,400 tons, and Canada by 11,100
tons. Of foreign countries, Denmark showed the greatest development in
the supply of imported butter, which increased in the ten years by
28,678 tons. Next came Russia and Holland, with increases respectively
of 7207 tons and 6589 tons. Sweden, which made steady progress from
1891 to 1896, subsequently declined, and in 1900 sent 1400 tons less
than in 1891. France and Germany are rapidly falling away, and the
latter country will soon cease its supply altogether. Up to 1896 it
was 6000 tons annually; by 1900 it had fallen to 1850 tons. France,
which in 1892 sent to the United Kingdom 29,000 tons, regularly
declined, and in 1900 sent only 16,800. Among the countries sending
the smaller quantities, Argentina, Belgium and Norway are all
gradually increasing their supplies; but their totals are
comparatively insignificant, as they together contributed in 1900 only
6400 tons out of a total foreign supply of 134,000 tons. The United
States was erratic in its supplies during the decade, and up to 1900
had not made butter specially for export to the United Kingdom, as all
the other foreign countries had done. Consequently it is only when
supplies from elsewhere fail that American butter is sought for by
British buyers. The large amount of salt in this butter, although
suitable for the American palate, prevents its becoming popular in the
United Kingdom.
TABLE XIII.--_Annual Imports of Butter into the United Kingdom,
1897-1900._
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| From | 1897. | 1898. | 1899. | 1900. |
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| | Cwt. | Cwt. | Cwt. | Cwt. |
| Denmark | 1,334,726 | 1,465,030 | 1,430,052 | 1,486,342 |
| Australasia | 269,432 | 228,563 | 366,944 | 509,910 |
| France | 448,128 | 416,821 | 353,942 | 322,048 |
| Holland | 278,631 | 269,631 | 284,810 | 282,805 |
| Russia* | .. | .. | .. | 209,738 |
| Sweden | 299,214 | 294,962 | 245,599 | 196,041 |
| Canada | 109,402 | 156,865 | 250,083 | 138,313 |
| United States | 154,196 | 66,712 | 159,137 | 56,046 |
| Germany | 51,761 | 41,231 | 36,953 | 36,042 |
| Other countries | 272,312 | 269,645 | 262,331 | 141,231 |
| +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Total | 3,217,802 | 3,209,153 | 3,389,851 | 3,378,516 |
| +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| | % | % | % | % |
| Denmark | 41.5 | 45.6 | 42.2 | 44.0 |
| Australasia | 8.4 | 7.1 | 10.8 | 15.1 |
| France | 13.9 | 13.0 | 10.5 | 9.5 |
| Holland | 8.7 | 8.4 | 8.4 | 8.4 |
| Russia* | .. | .. | .. | 6.2 |
| Sweden | 9.3 | 9.2 | 7.2 | 5.8 |
| Canada | 3.4 | 4.9 | 7.4 | 4.1 |
| United States | 4.8 | 2.1 | 4.7 | 1.6 |
| Germany | 1.6 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 1.1 |
| Other countries | 8.4 | 8.4 | 7.7 | 4.2 |
| +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Total | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
* Not shown separately in the Trade and Navigation Returns prior to
1900.
The sources whence the United Kingdom receives butter from abroad are
sufficiently indicated in Table XIII., which shows the absolute
quantities and the relative proportions sent by the chief contributory
countries in each of the four years 1897 to 1900, the order of
precedence of the several countries being in accord with the figures
for 1900. Denmark, as a result of the efforts made by that little
kingdom to supply a sound product of uniform quality, possesses over
40% of the trade, and in the year 1900 received from the United
Kingdom upwards of £8,000,000 for butter and over £3,000,000 for
bacon, the raising of pigs for the consumption of separated milk being
an important adjunct of the dairying industry in Denmark, where butter
factories are extensively maintained on the co-operative principle. It
is worthy of note that some at least of the butter received in the
United Kingdom from Russia is made in Siberia, whence it is sent at
the outset on a long land journey in refrigerated railway cars for
shipment at a Baltic port, usually Riga. The countries not specially
enumerated in Table XIII. from which butter is sent to the United
Kingdom are Argentina, Belgium, Norway and Spain--these are included
in "other countries."
In Table XIV., relating to the estimated home production of cheese and
the imports of that article, the ten years' average indicates a
home-made supply of 555.3%, imports of colonial cheese 24.2%, and
imports of foreign cheese 20.5%. Comparing, however, the first with
the last year of the period 1891-1900, it appears that in 1891 the
proportions were 58.6% home-made, 17.2% colonial and 24.2% foreign,
whereas in 1900 the percentages were 50.3, 28.9 and 20.8 respectively.
Hence the colonial contribution (chiefly Canadian) has gained ground
at the expense both of the home-made and of the foreign. Again,
comparing 1891 with 1900, the import of cheese into the United Kingdom
increased to the extent of only 24,500 tons, so that it shows no
expansion comparable with that of butter, which increased by about
70,000 tons. Simultaneously the estimated home production diminished
by 17,000 tons.
TABLE XIV.--_Estimated Home Production and Imports of Cheese into
the United Kingdom for the Ten Years ended 30th June 1900._
+-----------+------------+---------+---------+---------+
| Year ended| Home | Imported| Imported| |
| 30th June | Production,| Colonial| Foreign.| Total. |
| |_estimated._| | | |
+-----------+------------+---------+---------+---------+
| | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. |
| 1891 | 147,078 | 43,228 | 60,816 | 251,122 |
| 1892 | 148,624 | 45,781 | 59,452 | 253,857 |
| 1893 | 140,394 | 55,549 | 56,767 | 252,710 |
| 1894 | 131,843 | 57,322 | 52,498 | 241,663 |
| 1895 | 150,611 | 61,622 | 52,570 | 264,803 |
| 1896 | 137,148 | 62,478 | 44,569 | 244,195 |
| 1897 | 130,000 | 67,028 | 46,317 | 243,345 |
| 1898 | 148,260 | 77,620 | 49,114 | 274,994 |
| 1899 | 150,000 | 73,752 | 46,985 | 270,737 |
| 1900 | 130,000 | 74,702 | 53,903 | 258,605 |
| +------------+---------+---------+---------+
| 10 Years' | | | | |
| Average | 141,396 | 61,908 | 52,299 | 255,603 |
+-----------+------------+---------+---------+---------+
In imported colonial cheese Canada virtually has the field to itself,
for the only other colonial cheese which finds its way into the United
Kingdom is from New Zealand, but the amount of this kind is
comparatively insignificant, having been in 1900 only 4000 tons out of
a total import of 128,600 tons. Australia, in several seasons since
1891, sent small quantities, but they are not worth quoting.
From foreign countries the decline in the export of cheese is mainly
in the case of the United States, which shipped to British ports
10,000 tons less in 1900 than in 1891. France also is losing its
cheese trade in British markets, and is being supplanted by Belgium.
In 1891 France supplied over 3000 tons, in 1900 the import was below
2000 tons. Belgium in 1891 supplied less than 1000 tons, but in 1900
contributed 2600 tons. The import trade in Dutch cheese remains almost
stationary. In 1891 it amounted to 15,300 tons, in 1899 it was 15,600
tons, whilst in 1900, owing to exceptionally high prices, which
stimulated the manufacture, it reached 17,000 tons.
TABLE XV.--_Annual Imports of Cheese into the United Kingdom,
1897-1900._
+----------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| From | 1897. | 1898. | 1899. | 1900. |
+----------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| | Cwt. | Cwt. | Cwt. | Cwt. |
| Canada |1,526,664 |1,432,181 |1,337,198 |1,511,872 |
| United States | 631,616 | 485,995 | 590,737 | 680,583 |
| Holland | 297,604 | 292,925 | 328,541 | 327,817 |
| Australasia | 68,615 | 44,608 | 32,294 | 86,513 |
| France | 36,358 | 33,086 | 34,307 | 35,110 |
| Other countries| 42,321 | 50,657 | 60,992 | 69,910 |
| +----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Total |2,603,178 |2,339,452 |2,384,069 |2,711,805 |
| +----------+----------+----------+----------+
| | % | % | % | % |
| Canada | 58.6 | 61.2 | 56.1 | 55.8 |
| United States | 24.3 | 20.8 | 24.8 | 25.1 |
| Holland | 11.4 | 12.5 | 13.8 | 12.0 |
| Australasia | 2.7 | 1.9 | 1.3 | 3.2 |
| France | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.3 |
| Other countries| 1.6 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 2.6 |
| +----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Total | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
+----------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
Over 80% of the cheese imported into the United Kingdom is derived
from North America, but the bulk of the trade belongs to Canada, which
supplies nearly 60% of the entire import. The value of the cheese
exported from Canada to the United Kingdom in the calendar year 1900
was close upon £3,800,000. As is shown in Table XV. below, Holland,
Australasia and France participate in this trade, whilst amongst the
"other countries" are Germany, Italy and Russia. The cheese sent from
North America and Australasia is mostly of the substantial Cheddar
type, whereas soft or "fancy" cheese is the dominant feature of the
French shipments. Thus, in the calendar year 1900 the average price of
the cheese imported into the United Kingdom from France was 61s. per
cwt., whilst the average value of the cheese from all other sources
was 50s. per cwt., there being a difference of 11s. in favour of the
"soft" cheese of France.
The imports of butter and margarine into the United Kingdom were not
separately distinguished before the year 1886. Previous to that date
they amounted, at five-year intervals, to the following aggregate
quantities:--
1870. 1875. 1880. 1885.
Cwt. 1,159,210 1,467,870 2,326,305 2,401,373
For the same years the imports of cheese registered the subjoined
totals:--
1870. 1875. 1880. 1885.
Cwt. 1,041,281 1,627,748 1,775,997 1,833,832
The imports of butter and margarine, both separately and together, and
also the imports of cheese in each year from 1886 to 1900 inclusive,
are set out in Table XVI., the most significant feature of which is
the rapid expansion it shows in the imports of butter. In the space of
nine years, between 1887 and 1896, the quantity was doubled. On the
other hand, the general tendency of the imports of margarine, which
have been much more uniform than those of butter, has been in the
direction of decline since 1892. It is necessary, however, to point
out that there has been an increase in the number of margarine
factories in the United Kingdom, and in the quantity of margarine
manufactured in them, during the last few years. Taking the imports of
butter and margarine together, the aggregate in 1889 and also in 1900
was practically three times as large as a quarter of a century
earlier, in 1875. The imports of cheese have increased at a less rapid
rate than those of butter, and the quantity imported in 1900, which
was a maximum, fell considerably short of twice the quantity in 1875.
In 1886, 1887, 1888, 1890 and 1892 the imports of cheese exceeded
those of butter, but since the last-named year those of butter have
always been the larger, and 1899 were fully a million cwt. more than
the cheese imports. The cheapness of imported fresh meat has probably
had the effect of checking the growth of the demand for cheese amongst
the industrial classes.
TABLE XVI.--_Imports of Butter, Margarine and Cheese into the United
Kingdom, 1886-1900._
+------+-----------+-----------+------------+-----------+
| | | |Total Butter| |
| Year.| Butter. | Margarine.| and | Cheese. |
| | | | Margarine. | |
+------+-----------+-----------+------------+-----------+
| | Cwt. | Cwt. | Cwt. | Cwt. |
| 1886 | 1,543,566 | 887,974 | 2,431,540 | 1,734,890 |
| 1887 | 1,513,134 | 1,276,140 | 2,789,274 | 1,836,789 |
| 1888 | 1,671,433 | 1,139,743 | 2,811,176 | 1,917,616 |
| 1899 | 1,927,842 | 1,241,690 | 3,169,532 | 1,907,999 |
| 1890 | 2,027,717 | 1,079,856 | 3,107,573 | 2,144,074 |
| 1891 | 2,135,607 | 1,235,430 | 3,371,037 | 2,041,325 |
| 1892 | 2,183,009 | 1,305,350 | 3,488,359 | 2,232,817 |
| 1893 | 2,327,474 | 1,299,970 | 3,627,444 | 2,077,462 |
| 1894 | 2,574,835 | 1,109,325 | 3,684,160 | 2,266,145 |
| 1895 | 2,825,662 | 940,168 | 3,765,830 | 2,133,819 |
| 1896 | 3,037,718 | 925,934 | 3,963,652 | 2,244,525 |
| 1897 | 3,217,802 | 936,543 | 4,154,345 | 2,603,178 |
| 1898 | 3,209,153 | 900,615 | 4,343,026 | 2,384,069 |
| 1999 | 3,389,851 | 953,175 | 4,343,026 | 2,384,069 |
| 1900 | 3,378,516 | 920,416 | 4,298,932 | 2,711,805 |
+------+-----------+-----------+------------+-----------+
The imports of condensed milk into the United Kingdom were not
separately distinguished before 1888. In that year they amounted to
352,332 cwt. The quantities imported in subsequent years were the
following:--
+------+---------++------+---------++------+---------|
| Year.| Cwt. || Year.| Cwt. || Year.| Cwt. |
+------+---------++------+---------++------+---------|
| 1889 | 389,892 || 1893 | 501,005 || 1897 | 756,243 |
| 1890 | 407,426 || 1894 | 529,465 || 1898 | 817,274 |
| 1891 | 444,666 || 1895 | 545,394 || 1899 | 824,599 |
| 1892 | 481,374 || 1896 | 611,335 || 1900 | 986,741 |
+------+---------++------+---------++------+---------|
The quantity thus increased continuously in each year after 1889, with
the result that in 1900 the imports had grown to nearly three times
the amount of those in 1889. Simultaneously, over the period 1889-1900
the annual value of the imports steadily advanced from £704,849 to
£1,405,033. Thus, while the imports of condensed milk trebled in
quantity, they doubled in value. A fair proportion is, however,
exported, as is shown in the following statement of exports of
imported condensed milk for the four years 1897 to 1900:--
1897. 1898. 1899. 1900.
Quantity, cwt. 143,932 133,596 118,394 164,602
Value £274,578 £256,525 £228,446 £309,460
There is also an export trade in condensed milk made in the United
Kingdom. Thus, in 1892 the exports of home-made condensed milk
amounted to 61,442 cwt., valued at £133,556. By 1896 the quantity had
almost doubled, and reached 111,959 cwt., of the value of £224,831. In
subsequent years the exports were:--
1897. 1898. 1899. 1900.
Quantity, cwt. 154,901 178,055 185,749 209,447
Value £302,748 £343,070 £353,819 £390,559
Milk and cream (fresh or preserved other than condensed) received no
separate classification in the imports until 1894, in which year the
quantity imported was 161,633 gallons, followed by 126,995 gallons in
1895, and 22,776 gallons in 1896. The quantities have since been
returned by weight--10,006 cwt. in 1897, 10,691 cwt. in 1898, 7859
cwt. in 1899, and 15,638 cwt. in 1900. The values of these imports in
the successive years 1894 to 1900 were £21,371, £19,991, £5489, £9848,
£11,293, £16,068 and £26,837.
The total values of the imports of dairy produce of all kinds--butter,
margarine, cheese, &c.--into the United Kingdom were, at five-year
intervals between 1875 and 1890, the following:--
1875. 1880. 1885. 1890.
Value £13,211,592 £17,232,548 £15,632,852 £19,505,798
TABLE XVII.--_Values of Dairy Products imported into the United
Kingdom from 1891 to 1900, in Thousands of Pounds Sterling._
+------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+
| Year.| Butter. | Margarine.| Cheese. | Condensed | Total. |
| | | | | Milk. | |
+------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+
| | £1000. | £1000. | £1000. | £1000. | £1000. |
| 1891 | 11,591 | 3558 | 4813 | 900 | 20,863 |
| 1892 | 11,965 | 3713 | 5417 | 930 | 22,025 |
| 1893 | 12,754 | 3655 | 5161 | 1010 | 22,580 |
| 1894 | 13,457 | 3045 | 5475 | 1079 | 23,077 |
| 1895 | 14,245 | 2557 | 4675 | 1084 | 22,581 |
| 1896 | 15,344 | 2498 | 4900 | 1170 | 23,920 |
| 1897 | 15,917 | 2485 | 5886 | 1398 | 25,715 |
| 1898 | 15,962 | 2384 | 4970 | 1436 | 24,779 |
| 1899 | 17,214 | 2549 | 5503 | 1455 | 26,747 |
| 1900 | 17,450 | 2465 | 6838 | 1743 | 28,544 |
+------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+
The values in each year of the closing decade of the 19th century are
set forth in Table XVII., where the totals in the last column include
small sums for margarine-cheese and, since 1893, for fresh milk and
cream. The aggregate value more than doubled during the last quarter
of the century. The earliest year for which the value of imported
butter is separately available is 1886, when it amounted to
£8,141,438. Thirteen years later this sum had more than doubled, and
it is an impressive fact that in the closing year of the century the
United Kingdom should have expended on imported butter alone a sum
closely approximating to 17½ million pounds sterling, equivalent to
about three-fourths of the total amount disbursed on imported wheat
grain.[16]
The imports of margarine--that is, of margarine specifically declared
to be such--into the United Kingdom are derived almost entirely from
Holland. Out of a total of 920,416 cwt. imported in 1900 Holland
supplied 862,154 cwt., and out of £2,464,839 expended on imported
margarine in the same year Holland received £2,295,174. To the imports
in the year named Holland contributed 93.7%; France, 2.9; Norway, 0.9;
all other countries, 2.5; so that Holland possesses almost a monopoly
of this trade. The quantities of imported butter, margarine and cheese
that are again exported from the United Kingdom are trivial when
compared with the imports, as will be seen from the following
quantities and values in the three years 1898 to 1900:--
+-----------+--------+--------+--------++---------+---------+---------+
| | 1898. | 1899. | 1900. || 1898. | 1899. | 1900. |
+-----------+--------+--------+--------++---------+---------+---------+
| | Cwt. | Cwt. | Cwt. || £ | £ | £ |
| Butter | 63,491 | 50,453 | 51,583 || 319,806 | 257,999 | 258,931 |
| Margarine | 10,023 | 13,139 | 11,326 || 24,721 | 33,319 | 27,882 |
| Cheese | 56,694 | 56,390 | 55,982 || 159,210 | 163,991 | 168,369 |
+-----------+--------+--------+--------++---------+---------+---------+
There is also a very small export trade in butter and cheese made in
the United Kingdom, but its insignificant character is evident from
the subjoined details as to quantities and values for the years
named:--
+-----------+--------+--------+--------++---------+---------+---------+
| | 1898. | 1899. | 1900. || 1898. | 1899. | 1900. |
+-----------+--------+--------+--------++---------+---------+---------+
| | Cwt. | Cwt. | Cwt. || £ | £ | £ |
| Butter | 11,359 | 9,936 | 10,127 || 59,731 | 53,195 | 53,701 |
| Cheese | 10,126 | 9,758 | 9,356 || 36,803 | 35,890 | 36,691 |
+-----------+--------+--------+--------++---------+---------+---------+
AMERICAN DAIRYING
The development of the dairying industry in the vast region of the
United States of America has been described in the official _Year-Book_
by Major Henry E. Alvord, chief of the dairy division of the bureau of
animal industry in the department of agriculture at Washington. The
beginning of the 20th century found the industry upon an altogether
higher level than seemed possible a few decades earlier. The milch cow
herself, upon which the whole business rests, has become almost as much
a machine as a natural product, and a very different creature from the
average animal of bygone days. The few homely and inconvenient
implements for use in the laborious duties of the dairy have been
replaced by perfected appliances, skilfully devised to accomplish their
object and to lighten labour. Long rows of shining metal pans no longer
adorn rural dooryards. The factory system of co-operative or
concentrated manufacture has so far taken the place of home dairying
that in entire states the cheese vat or press is as rare as the
handloom, and in many counties it is as difficult to find a farm churn
as a spinning-wheel. An illustration of the nature of the changes is
afforded in the butter-making district of northern Vermont, at St
Albans, the business centre of Franklin county. In 1880 the first
creamery was built in this county; ten years later there were 15. Now a
creamery company at St Albans has upwards of 50 skimming or separating
stations distributed through Franklin and adjoining counties. To these
is carried the milk from more than 30,000 cows. Farmers who possess
separators at home may deliver cream which, after being inspected and
tested, is accepted and credited at its actual butter value, just as
other raw material is sold to mills and factories. The separated cream
is conveyed by rail and waggon to the central factory, where in one room
from 10 to 12 tons of butter are made every working day--a single
churning place for a whole county! The butter is all of standard
quality, "extra creamery," and is sold on its reputation upon orders
received in advance of its manufacture. The price is relatively higher
than the average for the product of the same farms fifty years earlier.
This is mainly due to better average quality and greater uniformity--two
important advantages of the creamery system.
In one important detail dairy labour is the same as a century ago. Cows
still have to be milked by hand. Although many attempts have been made,
and patent after patent has been issued, no mechanical contrivance has
yet proved a practical success as a substitute for the human hand in
milking. Consequently, twice (or thrice) daily every day in the year,
the dairy cows must be milked by manual labour. This is one of the main
items of labour in dairying, and is a delicate and important duty.
Assuming 10 cows per hour to a milker, which implies quick work, it
requires the continuous service of an army of 300,000 men, working 10 or
12 hours a day throughout the year, to milk the cows kept in the United
States.
The business of producing milk for urban consumption, with the
accompanying agencies for transportation and distribution, has grown to
immense proportions. In many places the milk trade is regulated and
supervised by excellent municipal ordinances, which have done much to
prevent adulteration and to improve the average quality of the supply.
Quite as much is, however, being done by private enterprise through
large milk companies, well organized and equipped, and establishments
which make a speciality of serving milk and cream of fixed quality and
exceptional purity. Such efforts to furnish "certified" and "guaranteed"
milk, together with general competition for the best class of trade, are
doing more to raise the standard of quality and improve the service than
all the legal measures. The buildings and equipment of some of these
modern dairies are beyond precedent. This branch of dairying is
advancing fast, upon the safe basis of care, cleanliness and better
sanitary conditions.
Cheese-making has been transferred bodily from the domain of domestic
arts to that of manufactures. In the middle of the 19th century about
100,000,000 lb. of cheese was made yearly in the United States, and all
of it in farm dairies. At the beginning of the 20th century the annual
production was about 300,000,000 lb., and 96 or 97% of this was made in
factories. Of these there are nearly 3000, but they vary greatly in
capacity, and some are very small. New York and Wisconsin possess a
thousand each, but the former state makes nearly twice as much cheese as
the latter, whilst the two together produce three-fourths of the entire
output of the country. A change is taking place in the direction of
bringing a number of factories previously independent into a
"combination" or under the same management. This tends to improve the
quality and secure greater uniformity in the product, and often reduces
cost of manufacture. More than nine-tenths of all the cheese made is of
the familiar standard type, copied after the English Cheddar, but new
kinds and imitations of foreign varieties are increasing. The annual
export of cheese from the United States ranges between 30,000,000 and
50,000,000 lb. The consumption _per capita_ does not exceed 3½ lb. per
annum, which is much less than in most European countries.
Butter differs from cheese in that it is still made much more largely on
farms in the United States than in creameries. Creamery butter controls
all the large markets, but this represents little more than one-third of
the entire business. Estimating the annual butter product of the entire
country at 1,400,000,000 lb. not much over 500,000,000 lb. of this is
made at the 7500 or 8000 creameries in operation. Iowa is the greatest
butter-producing state, and the one in which the greater proportion is
made on the factory plan. The total output of butter in this state is
one-tenth of all made in the Union. The average quality of butter has
materially improved since the introduction of the creamery system and
the use of modern appliances. Nevertheless, a vast quantity of poor
butter is made--enough to afford a large and profitable business in
collecting it at country stores at grease prices or a little more, and
then rendering or renovating it by patent processes. This renovated
butter has been fraudulently sold to a considerable extent as the true
creamery article, of which it is a fair imitation while fresh, and
several states have made laws for the identification of the product and
to prevent buyers from being imposed upon. No butter is imported, and
the quantity exported is insignificant, although there is beginning to
be a foreign demand for American butter. The home consumption is
estimated at the yearly rate of 20 lb. per person, which, if correct,
would indicate Americans to be the greatest butter-eating people in the
world. The people of the United States also consume millions of pounds
every year of butter substitutes and imitations, such as oleomargarine
and butterine. Most of this is believed to be butter by those who use
it, and the state dairy commissioners are busily employed in carrying
out the laws intended to protect purchasers from these butter frauds.
The by-products of dairying have, within recent years, been put to
economical uses, in an increasing degree. For every pound of butter made
there are 15 to 20 lb. of skim-milk and about 3 lb. of butter-milk, and
for every pound of cheese nearly 9 lb. of whey. Up to 1889 or 1890
enormous quantities of skim-milk and butter-milk from the creameries and
of whey from the cheese factories were entirely wasted. At farm dairies
these by-products are generally used to advantage in feeding animals,
but at the factories--especially at the seasons of greatest milk
supply--this most desirable method of utilization is to a great extent
impracticable. In many places new branches have been instituted for the
making of sugar-of-milk and other commercial products from whey, and for
the utilization of skim-milk in various ways. The albumin of the latter
is extracted for use with food products and in the arts. The casein is
desiccated and prepared as a substitute for eggs in baking, as the basis
of an enamel paint, and as a substitute for glue in paper-sizing. It has
also been proposed to solidify it to make buttons, combs, brush-backs,
electrical insulators and similar articles.
No census of cows in the United States was taken until the year 1840,
but they have been enumerated in each subsequent decennial census.
From 23 to 27 cows to every 100 of the population were required to
keep the country supplied with milk, butter and cheese, and provide
for the export of dairy products. The export trade, though it has
fluctuated considerably, has never exceeded the produce of 500,000
cows. At the close of the 19th century it was estimated that there was
one milch cow in the United States for every four persons, making the
number of cows about 17,500,000. They are, however, very unevenly
distributed, being largely concentrated in the great dairy states,
Iowa leading with 1,500,000 cows, and being followed closely by New
York. In the middle and eastern states the milk product goes very
largely to the supply of the numerous large towns and cities. In the
central, west and north-west butter is the leading dairy product.
TABLE XVIII.--_Estimated Number of Cows and Quantity and Value of
Dairy Products in the United States in 1899._
+------------+----------+----------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
| | | Rate of | | Rate of | |
| Cows. | Product. | Product | Total Product. | Value. | Total Value.|
| | | per Cow. | | | |
+------------+----------+----------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
| | | | | Cents. | Dollars. |
| 11,000,000 | Butter | 130 lb. | 1,430,000,000 lb. | 18 | 257,400,000 |
| 1,000,000 | Cheese | 300 lb. | 300,000,000 lb. | 9 | 27,000,000 |
| 5,500,000 | Milk | 380 gals.| 2,090,000,000 gals.| 8 | 167,200,000 |
+------------+----------+----------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
Table XVIII. shows approximately the quantity and value of the dairy
products of the United States for a typical year, the grand total
representing a value of $451,600,000. Adding to this the skim-milk,
butter-milk and whey, at their proper feeding value, and the calves
dropped yearly, the annual aggregate value of the produce of the dairy
cows exceeds $500,000,000, or is more than one hundred million pounds
sterling. Accepting these estimates as conservative, they show that
the commercial importance of the dairy industry of the United States
is such as to justify all reasonable provisions for guarding its
interests. (W. Fr.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A gallon of milk weighs 10.3 lb., so that very little error is
involved in converting pounds to gallons by dividing the number of
pounds by 10.
[2] A portable milk-weighing appliance is made in which the weight of
the pail is included, and an indicator shows on a dial the exact
weight in pounds and ounces, and likewise the volume in gallons and
pints, of the milk in the pail. When the pail is empty the indicator
of course points to zero.
[3] _Landw. Futterungslehre_, 5te Aufl., 1888, p. 249.
[4] The Analyst, April 1885, vol. x. p. 67.
[5] The evidence on this point taken by the Committee on Milk and
Cream Regulations in 1900 is somewhat conflicting. The report states
that an impression commonly prevails that the quality of milk is more
or less determined by the nature and composition of the food which
the cow receives. One witness said that farmers who produce milk for
sale feed differently from what they do if they are producing for
butter. Another stated that most of the statistics which go to show
that food has no effect on milk fail, because the experiments are not
carried far enough to counterbalance that peculiarity of the animal
first to utilize the food for itself before utilizing it for the
milk. A witness who kept a herd of 100 milking cows expressed the
opinion that improvement in the quality of milk can be effected by
feeding, though not to any large extent. On the other hand, it was
maintained that the fat percentage in the milk of a cow cannot be
raised by any manner or method of feeding. It is possible that in the
case of cows very poorly fed the addition of rich food would alter
the composition of their milk, but if the cows are well-fed to begin
with, this would not be so. The proprietor of a herd of 500 milking
cows did not think that feeding affected the quality of milk from
ordinarily well-kept animals. An experimenter found that the result
of resorting to rather poor feeding was that the first effect was
produced upon the weight of the cow and not upon the milk; the animal
began to get thin, losing its weight, though there was not very much
effect upon the quality of the milk.
[6] _Journ. Roy. Agric. Soc._, 1898.
[7] Trans. Highl. and Agric. Soc. Scot., 1899.
[8] _Report on Cheddar Cheese-Making_, London, 1899.
[9] "The Practice of Stilton Cheese-Making," _Journ. Roy. Agric.
Soc._, 1899.
[10] _Experiment Station Record_, xii. 9 (Washington, 1901).
[11] Market butter is sometimes deliberately over-weighted with
water, and a fraudulent profit is obtained by selling this extra
moisture at the price of butter.
[12] "Thermal Death-Point of Tubercle Bacilli, and Relation of same
to Commercial Pasteurization of Milk," by H. L. Russell and E. G.
Hastings.
[13] _16th Rept. Wis. Agric. Expt. Station_, 1899, p. 129.
[14] See also the article ADULTERATION.
[15] A special committee appointed by the council of the Royal
Statistical Society commenced in 1901 an inquiry into the home
production of milk and meat in the United Kingdom.
[16] In 1901 the United Kingdom imported 3,702,810 cwt. of butter,
valued at £19,297,005, both totals being the largest on record.
DAIS (Fr. _dais_, _estrade_, Ital. _predella_), originally a part of the
floor at the end of a medieval hall, raised a step above the rest of the
building. On this the lord of the mansion dined with his friends at the
high table, apart from the retainers and servants. In medieval halls
there was generally a deep recessed bay window at one or at each end of
the dais, supposed to be for retirement, or greater privacy than the
open hall could afford. In France the word is understood as a canopy or
hanging over a seat; probably the name was given from the fact that the
seats of great men were then surmounted by such a feature. In ordinary
use, the term means any raised platform in a room, for dignified
occupancy.
DAISY (A.S. _daeges eage_, day's eye), the name applied to the plants
constituting the genus _Bellis_, of the natural order Compositae. The
genus contains ten species found in Europe and the Mediterranean region.
The common daisy, _B. perennis_, is the only representative of the genus
in the British Isles. It is a perennial, abundant everywhere in pastures
and on banks in Europe, except in the most northerly regions, and in
Asia Minor, and occurs as an introduced plant in North America. The stem
of the daisy is short; the leaves, which are numerous and form a
rosette, are slightly hairy, obovate-spathulate in shape, with rounded
teeth on the margin in the upper part; and the root-stock is creeping,
and of a brownish colour. The flowers are to be found from March to
November, and occasionally in the winter months. The heads of flowers
are solitary, the outer or ray-florets pink or white, the disk-florets
bright yellow. The size and luxuriance of the plant are much affected by
the nature of the soil in which it grows. The cultivated varieties,
which are numerous, bear finely-coloured flowers, and make very
effective borders for walks. What is known as the "hen-and-chicken"
daisy has the main head surrounded by a brood of sometimes as many as
ten or twelve small heads, formed in the axils of the scales of the
involucre. The ray-florets curve inwards and "close" the flower-head in
dull weather and towards evening.
Chaucer writes--
"The daisie, or els the eye of the daie,
The emprise, and the floure of flouris alle";
and again--
"To seen this floure agenst the sunne sprede
Whan it riseth early by the morrow,
That blissful sight softeneth all my sorrow";
and the flower is often alluded to with admiration by the other poets of
nature. To the farmer, however, the daisy is a weed, and a most wasteful
one, as it exhausts the soil and is not eaten by any kind of stock.
In French the daisy is termed _la marguerite_ ([Greek: margaritês], a
pearl), and "herb margaret" is stated to be an old English appellation
for it. In Scotland it is popularly called the gowan, and in Yorkshire
it is the bairn wort, or flower beloved by children. The Christmas and
Michaelmas daisies are species of _Aster_; the ox-eye daisy is
_Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum_, a common weed in meadows and waste places.
_B. perennis flore-pleno_, the double daisy, consists of dwarf, showy, 3
to 4 in. plants, flowering freely in spring if grown in rich light soil,
and frequently divided and transplanted. The white and pink forms, with
the white and red quilled, and the variegated-leaved _aucubaefolia_, are
some of the best.
DAKAR, a seaport of Senegal, and capital of French West Africa, in 14°
40´ N., 17° 24´ W. The town, which is strongly fortified, holds a
commanding strategic position on the route between western Europe and
Brazil and South Africa, being situated in the Gulf of Goree on the
eastern side of the peninsula of Cape Verde, the most westerly point of
Africa. It is the only port of Senegal affording safe anchorage for the
largest ships. Pop. (1904), within the municipal limits, 18,447;
including suburbs, 23,452.
The town consists for the most part of broad and regular streets and
possesses several fine public buildings, notably the palace of the
governor-general. It is plentifully supplied with good water and is
fairly healthy. It is the starting point of the railway to St Louis, and
is within five days steam of Lisbon. The harbour, built in 1904-1908, is
formed by two jetties, one of 6840 ft., the other of 1968 ft., the
entrance being 720 ft. wide. There are three commercial docks, with over
7000 ft. of quayage, ships drawing 26 ft. being able to moor alongside.
Cargo is transferred directly to the railway trucks. There is also a
naval dock and arsenal with a torpedo-boat basin 755 ft. by 410 ft. and
a dry dock 656 ft. long and 92 ft. broad. The Messageries Maritimes
Company use the port as a coaling station and provisioning depot for
their South American trade. Dakar is a regular port of call for other
French lines and for the Elder Dempster boats sailing between Liverpool
and the West Coast of Africa. It shares with Rufisque and St Louis the
external trade of Senegal and the adjacent regions. For trade statistics
see SENEGAL.
Dakar was originally a dependency of Goree and was founded in 1862, a
year after the declaration of a French protectorate over the mainland.
The port was opened for commerce in 1867, and in 1885 its importance was
greatly increased by the completion of the railway (163 m. long) to St
Louis. Dakar thus came into direct communication with the countries of
Upper Senegal and the middle Niger. In 1887 the town was made a commune
on the French model, all citizens irrespective of colour being granted
the franchise. In 1903 the offices of the governor-general and of the
court of appeal of French West Africa were transferred from St Louis to
Dakar, which is also the seat of a bishop. In February 1905 a submarine
cable was laid between Brest and Dakar, affording direct telegraphic
communication between France and her West African colonies by an all
French route.
DALAGUETE, a town of the province of Cebú, island of Cebú, Philippine
Islands, at the mouth of the Tapón river on the E. coast, 50 m. S.S.W.
of Cebú, the capital. The town has a healthy climate, cool during
November, December, January and February, and hot during the rest of the
year. The inhabitants grow hemp, Indian corn, coffee, sibucao, cacao,
cocoanuts (for copra) and sugar, weave rough fabrics and manufacture
tuba (a kind of wine used as a stimulant), clay pots and jars, salt and
soap. There is some fishing here. The language is Cebú-Visayan.
DALBEATTIE, a police burgh of Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901)
3469. It lies on Dalbeattie Burn, 14½ m. S.W. of Dumfries by the Glasgow
& South-Western railway. The town dates from 1780 and owes its rise to
the granite quarries at Craignair and elsewhere in the vicinity, from
which were derived the supplies used in the construction of the Thames
Embankment, the docks at Odessa and Liverpool and other works. Besides
quarrying, the industries include granite-polishing, concrete (crushed
granite) works, dye-works, paper-mills and artificial manures. The
estuary of the Urr, known as Rough Firth, is navigable by ships of from
80 to 100 tons, and small vessels can ascend as far as the mouth of
Dalbeattie Burn, within a mile of the town. A mile to the north-west
stand the ruins of the castle of Buittle or Botel, where lived John de
Baliol, founder of Baliol college, who had married Dervorguila, daughter
of Alan (d. 1234), the last "king" of Galloway.
DALBERG, the name of an ancient and distinguished German noble family,
derived from the hamlet and castle (now in ruins) of Dalberg or Dalburg
near Kreuznach in the Rhine Province. In the 14th century the original
house of Dalberg became extinct in the male line, the fiefs passing to
Johann Gerhard, chamberlain of the see of Worms, who married the heiress
of his cousin, Anton of Dalberg, about 1330. His own family was of great
antiquity, his ancestors having been hereditary ministerials of the
bishop of Worms since the time of Ekbert the chamberlain, who founded in
1119 the Augustinian monastery of Frankenthal and died in 1132. By the
close of the 15th century the Dalberg family had grown to be of such
importance that, in 1494, the German King Maximilian I. granted them the
honour of being the first to receive knighthood at the coronation; this
part of the ceremonies being opened by the herald asking in a loud voice
"Is no Dalberg present?" (_Ist kein Dalberg da?_). This picturesque
privilege the family enjoyed till the end of the Holy Roman Empire. The
elder line of the family of Dalberg-Dalberg became extinct in 1848, the
younger, that of Dalberg-Herrnsheim, in 1833. The male line of the
Dalbergs is now represented only by the family of Hessloch, descended
from Gerhard of Dalberg (c. 1239), which in 1809 succeeded to the title
and estates in Moravia and Bohemia of the extinct counts of Ostein.
The following are the most noteworthy members of the family:
1. JOHANN VON DALBERG (1445-1503), chamberlain and afterwards bishop of
Worms, son of Wolfgang von Dalberg. He studied at Erfurt and in Italy,
where he took his degree of doctor _utriusque juris_ at Ferrara and
devoted himself more especially to the study of Greek. Returning to
Germany, he became privy councillor to the elector palatine Philip, whom
he assisted in bringing the university of Heidelberg to the height of
its fame. He was instrumental in founding the first chair of Greek,
which was filled by his friend Rudolph Agricola, and he also established
the university library and a college for students of civil law. He was
an ardent humanist, was president of the _Sodalitas Celtica_ founded by
the poet Konrad Celtes (q.v.), and corresponded with many of the leading
scholars of his day, to whom he showed himself a veritable Maecenas. He
was employed also on various diplomatic missions by the emperor and the
elector.
See K. Morneweg, _Johann von Dalberg, ein deutscher Humanist und
Bischof_ (Heidelberg, 1887).
2. KARL THEODOR ANTON MARIA VON DALBERG (1744-1817), archbishop-elector
of Mainz, arch-chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, and afterwards
primate of the Confederation of the Rhine and grand-duke of Frankfort.
He was the son of Franz Heinrich, administrator of Worms, one of the
chief counsellors of the elector of Mainz. Karl had devoted himself to
the study of canon law, and entered the church; and, having been
appointed in 1772 governor of Erfurt, he won further advancement by his
successful administration; in 1787 he was elected coadjutor of Mainz and
of Worms, and in 1788 of Constance; in 1802 he became archbishop-elector
of Mainz and arch-chancellor of the Empire. As statesman Dalberg was
distinguished by his "patriotic" attitude, whether in ecclesiastical
matters, in which he leaned to the Febronian view of a German national
church, or in his efforts to galvanize the atrophied machinery of the
Empire into some sort of effective central government of Germany.
Failing in this, he turned to the rising star of Napoleon, believing
that he had found in "the truly great man, the mighty genius which
governs the fate of the world," the only force strong enough to save
Germany from dissolution. By the peace of Lunéville, accordingly, though
he had to surrender Worms and Constance, he received Regensburg,
Aschaffenburg and Wetzlar. On the dissolution of the Empire in 1806 he
formally resigned the office of arch-chancellor in a letter to the
emperor Francis, and was appointed by Napoleon prince primate of the
Confederation of the Rhine. In 1810, after the peace of Vienna
(Schönbrunn), the grand-duchy of Frankfort was created for his benefit
out of his territories, which, in spite of the cession of Regensburg to
Bavaria, were greatly augmented. Dalberg's subservience, as a prince of
the Confederation, to Napoleon was specially resented since, as a
priest, he had no excuse of necessity on the ground of saving family or
dynastic interests; his fortunes therefore fell with those of Napoleon,
and, when he died on the 10th of February 1817, of all his dignities he
was in possession only of the archbishopric of Regensburg. Weak and
shortsighted as a statesman, as a man and prelate Dalberg was amiable,
conscientious and large-hearted. Himself a scholar and author, he was a
notable patron of letters, and was the friend of Goethe, Schiller and
Wieland.
See Karl v. Beaulieu-Marconnay, _Karl von Dalberg und seine Zeit_
(Weimar, 1879).
3. WOLFGANG HERIBERT VON DALBERG (1750-1806), brother of the above. He
was intendant of the theatre at Mannheim, which he brought to a high
state of excellence. His chief claim to remembrance is that it was he
who first put Schiller's earlier dramas on the stage, and it is to him
that the poet's _Briefe an den Freiherrn von Dalberg_ (Karlsruhe, 1819)
are addressed. He himself wrote several plays, including adaptations of
Shakespeare. His brother, Johann Friedrich Hugo von Dalberg (1752-1812),
canon of Trier, Worms and Spires, had some vogue as a composer and
writer on musical subjects.
4. EMMERICH JOSEPH, DUC DE DALBERG (1773-1833), son of Baron Wolfgang
Heribert. He was born at Mainz on the 30th of May 1773. In 1803 he
entered the service of Baden, which he represented as envoy in Paris.
After the peace of Schönbrunn (1809) he entered the service of Napoleon,
who, in 1810, created him a duke and councillor of state. He had from
the first been on intimate terms with Talleyrand, and retired from the
public service when the latter fell out of the emperor's favour. In 1814
he was a member of the provisional government by whom the Bourbons were
recalled, and he attended the congress of Vienna, with Talleyrand, as
minister plenipotentiary. He appended his signature to the decree of
outlawry launched in 1815 by the European powers against Napoleon. For
this his property in France was confiscated, but was given back after
the second Restoration, when he became a minister of state and a peer of
France. In 1816 he was sent as ambassador to Turin. The latter years of
his life he spent on his estates at Herrnsheim, where he died on the
27th of April 1833.
The due de Dalberg had inherited the family property of Herrnsheim from
his uncle the arch-chancellor Karl von Dalberg, and this estate passed,
through his daughter and heiress, Marie Louise Pelline de Dalberg, by
her marriage with Sir (Ferdinand) Richard Edward Acton, 7th baronet (who
assumed the additional name of Dalberg), to her son the historian, John
Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (q.v.).
DALE, ROBERT WILLIAM (1829-1895), English Nonconformist divine, was born
in London on the 1st of December 1829, and was educated at Spring Hill
College, Birmingham, for the Congregational ministry. In 1853 he was
invited to Carr's Lane Chapel, Birmingham, as co-pastor with John Angell
James (q.v.), on whose death in 1859 he became sole pastor for the rest
of his life. In the London University M.A. examination (1853) Dale stood
first in philosophy and won the gold medal. The degree of LL.D. was
conferred upon him by the university of Glasgow during the lord
rectorship of John Bright. Yale University gave him its D.D. degree, but
he never used it, "not because it came from America, but because I have
a sentimental objection--perhaps it is something more--to divinity
degrees." Dale displayed a keen interest in Liberal politics and in the
municipal affairs of Birmingham; and his high moral ideal made him a
great force on the progressive side. In 1886 he adhered to Mr
Chamberlain in opposition to Irish Home Rule, but this difference did
not diminish his influence even among those Liberals and Nonconformists
who adopted the Gladstonian standpoint. In the education controversy of
1870 he took an important part, ably championing the Nonconformist
position. When Mr Foster's bill appeared, Dale attacked it on the
grounds that the schools would in many cases be purely denominational
institutions, that the conscience clause gave inadequate protection, and
that school boards were empowered by it to make grants out of the rates
to maintain sectarian schools. He was himself in favour of secular
education, claiming that it was the only logical solution and the only
legitimate outcome of Nonconformist principles. In Birmingham the
controversy was terminated in 1879 by a compromise, from which, however,
Dale stood aloof. His interest in educational affairs had led him to
accept a seat on the Birmingham school board. He was appointed a
governor of the grammar school, served on the royal commission of
education, and was also chairman of the council of Mansfield College,
Oxford, with the foundation of which he had much to do. He was a strong
advocate of disestablishment, holding that the church was essentially a
spiritual brotherhood, and that any vestige of political authority
impaired its spiritual work. In church polity he held that
congregationalism constituted the most fitting environment in which
religion could achieve her work. Perhaps the most effective
contributions he made to ecclesiastical literature were those dealing
with the history and principles of the congregational system. At his
death on the 13th of March 1895 he left an unfinished MS. of the history
of congregationalism, since edited and completed (1907) by his son, A.
W. W. Dale, principal of Liverpool University.
Dale's powers were fully appreciated by his colleagues in the
congregational ministry, and at the early age of thirty-nine he was
elected chairman of the Congregational union of England and Wales. His
addresses from the chair on "Christ and the Controversies of
Christendom," and the "Holy Spirit and the Christian Ministry" were
remarkable for a keen insight into the conditions and demands of the
age. For some years he edited the _Congregationalist_, a monthly
magazine connected with the denomination. In 1877 he was appointed Lyman
Beecher lecturer at Yale University, and visited America to deliver his
"Lectures on Preaching." At the International Council of
Congregationalists, meeting in London in 1891, the first gathering of
the kind, Dale was nominated for the presidency. He accepted the honour
and delivered an address on "The Divine Life in Man."
As a theologian Dale occupied an influential position amongst the
religious thinkers of the 19th century. He ably interpreted the
Evangelical thought of his age, but his Evangelicalism was of a broad
and progressive type. His chief contribution to constructive theological
thought is his work _On The Atonement_, in which he contends that the
death of Christ is the objective ground on which the sins of man were
remitted. Among his other theological books are: _The Epistle to the
Ephesians_ (a series of expositions), _Christian Doctrine_, _The Living
Christ and the Four Gospels_, _Fellowship with Christ_, _The Epistle to
James_, and _The Ten Commandments_.
DALE, SIR THOMAS (d. 1619), British naval commander and colonial
deputy-governor of Virginia. From about 1588 to 1609 he was in the
service of the Low Countries with the English army originally under
Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester; in 1606, while visiting in England, he
was knighted by King James; from 1611 to 1616 he was actually though not
always nominally in chief control of the province of Virginia either as
deputy-governor or as "high marshall," and he is best remembered for the
energy and the extreme rigour of his administration there, which
established order and in various ways seems to have benefited the
colony; he himself declared that he left it "in great prosperity and
peace." Under him began the first real expansion of the colony with the
establishment of the settlement of Henrico on and about what was later
known as Farrar's Island; it was he who, about 1614, took the first step
toward abolishing the communal system by the introduction of private
holdings, and it was during his administration that the first code of
laws of Virginia, nominally in force from 1610 to 1619, was effectively
tested. This code, entitled "Articles, Lawes, and Orders--Divine,
Politique, and Martiall," but popularly known as Dale's Code, was
notable for its pitiless severity, and seems to have been prepared in
large part by Dale himself. He left Virginia in 1616 with the intention
probably of returning to the service of the Low Countries, but instead
was given command of an English fleet sent against the Dutch, defeated
the enemy near Batavia in the East Indies late in the year 1618, arrived
at Masulipatam in July 1619, and died there on the 9th of the following
month.
An account of Dale's career in Virginia is given in Alexander Brown's
_The First Republic in America_ (Boston, 1898); a scholarly discussion
of "Dale's Code" by Walter F. Prince may be found in vol. i. of the
_Annual Report of the American Historical Association_ for 1899
(Washington, D.C., 1900), and the code itself is reprinted in Peter
Force's _Historical Tracts_, vol. iii., No. 11.
DALECARLIA (_Dalarne_, "the Dales"), a west midland region of Sweden,
virtually coincident with the district (_län_) of Kopparberg, which
extends from the mountains of the Norwegian frontier to within 25 m. of
Gefle on the Baltic coast. It is a region full of historical
associations, and possesses strong local characteristics in respect of
its products, and especially of its people. The Dalecarlians or Dalesmen
speak their own peculiar dialect, wear their own peculiar costumes, and
are famed for their brave spirit and sturdy love of independence. In
1434, led by Engelbrecht, the miner, they rose against the oppressive
tyranny of the officers of Eric XIV. of Denmark, and in 1519-1523 it was
among them that Gustavus Vasa found his staunchest supporters in his
patriotic task of freeing Sweden from the yoke of the Danes. The
districts around Lakes Runn and Siljan ("the Eye of the Dales"), the
principal sheets of water in the valleys of the Dal rivers, are
consequently classic ground. By the banks of Lake Runn, for example, is
seen the barn in which Vasa threshed corn in disguise, when still a
fugitive from the Danes. The people are for the most part small peasant
proprietors. They eke out their scanty returns from tilling the soil by
a variety of home industries, such as making scythes, saws, bells,
wooden wares, hair goods, and so forth. About three quarters of the
whole district is covered with forest. Besides the wealth of the
forests, the Dales contain some of the largest and most prolific iron
mines in Sweden, notably those of Grängesberg. Copper is mined at Falun
(q.v.), the chief town of Kopparberg, and some silver and lead, zinc and
sulphur is found. In consequence of this the district has numerous
smelting furnaces, blasting and rolling mills, iron and metallurgical
works, as well as saw-mills, wood-pulp factories, and chemical works.
See G. H. Mellin, _Skildringar af den Skandinaviska Nordens Folklif og
Natur_, vol. iii. (1865); and Frederika Bremer, _I Dalarne_ (1845), of
which there is an English translation by William and Mary Howitt
(1852). For the dialect, see a paper by A. Noreen, in _De Svenska
Landsmålen_, vol. iv. (1881).
DALGAIRNS, JOHN DOBREE (1818-1876), English Roman Catholic priest, was
born in Guernsey on the 21st of October 1818. About the age of seventeen
he entered Exeter College, Oxford, and soon after taking his degree he
contributed a letter to Louis Veuillot's ultramontane organ _L'Univers_,
on "Anglican Church Parties," which gave him considerable repute.
Together with Mark Pattison and others, he translated the _Catena aurea_
of St Thomas Aquinas, a commentary on the Gospels, taken from the works
of the Fathers. He was a contributor to Newman's _Lives of the English
Saints_, for which he wrote the beautiful studies on the Cistercian
Saints. _The Life of St Stephen Harding_ has been translated into
several languages. Dalgairns became a Roman Catholic in 1845, and was
ordained priest in the following year. He joined his friend John Henry
Newman in Rome, and, together with him, entered the Congregation of the
Oratory. On his return to England in 1848, he was attached to the London
Oratory, where he laboured successfully as a priest, with the exception
of three years spent in Birmingham. Dalgairns was a prominent member of
the well-known "Metaphysical Society." He died at Burgess Hill, near
Brighton, on the 6th of April 1876. During the Catholic period of his
life, Dalgairns wrote _The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with
an Introduction on the History of Jansenism_ (London 1853); _The German
Mystics of the Fourteenth Century_ (London, 1858); _The Holy Communion,
its Philosophy, Theology and Practice_ (Dublin, 1861).
A list of his contributions on religious and philosophical subjects,
to the reviews and periodicals, is given in J. Gillow's
_Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics_, vol. ii.
DALGARNO, GEORGE (c. 1626-1687), English writer, was born at Old
Aberdeen about 1626. He appears to have studied at Marischal College;
but he finally settled in Oxford, where, according to Wood, "he taught a
private grammar-school with good success for about thirty years," and
where he died on the 28th of August 1687. He was master of Elizabeth
school, Guernsey, for some ten years, but resigned in 1672. In his work
entitled _Didascalocophus, or the Deaf and Dumb Man's Tutor_ (Oxford,
1680), he explained, for the first time, the hand alphabet for the deaf
and dumb, though he does not claim to have invented this method of
communication. Twenty years before the publication of his
_Didascalocophus_, Dalgarno had given to the world a very ingenious
piece entitled _Ars Signorum_ (1661), dividing ideas into seventeen
classes, to be represented by the letters of the Latin alphabet with the
addition of two Greek characters. Among the Sloane manuscripts are
several tracts by Dalgarno, further elucidating his system of universal
shorthand. Leibnitz on various occasions alluded to the _Ars signorum_
in commendatory terms.
The chief works of Dalgarno were reprinted (1834) for the Maitland
Club.
DALHOUSIE, JAMES ANDREW BROUN RAMSAY, 1ST MARQUESS and 10TH EARL OF
(1812-1860), British statesman and Indian administrator, was born at
Dalhousie Castle, Scotland, on the 22nd of April 1812. He crowded into
his short life conspicuous public services in England, and established
an unrivalled position among the master-builders of the Indian empire.
Denounced on the eve of his death as the chief offender who failed to
notice the signs of the mutiny of 1857, and even aggravated the crisis
by his overbearing self-consciousness, centralizing activity and
reckless annexations, he stands out in the clear light of history as the
far-sighted governor-general who consolidated British rule in India,
laid truly the foundations of its later administration, and by his sound
policy enabled his successors to stem the tide of rebellion.
He was the third son of George Ramsay, 9th earl of Dalhousie
(1770-1838), one of Wellington's generals, who, after holding the
highest offices in Canada, became commander-in-chief in India, and of
his wife Christina Broun of Coalstoun, a lady of noble lineage and
distinguished gifts. From his father he inherited a vigorous
self-reliance and a family pride which urged him to prove worthy of the
Ramsays who had "not crawled through seven centuries of their country's
history," while to his mother he owed his high-bred courtesy and his
deeply seated reverence for religion. The Ramsays of Dalhousie (or
Dalwolsie) in Midlothian were a branch of the main line of Scottish
Ramsays, of whom the earliest known is Simon de Ramsay, of Huntingdon,
England, mentioned in 1140 as the grantee of lands in West Lothian at
the hands of David I. A Sir William de Ramsay of Dalhousie swore fealty
to Edward I. in 1296, but is famous for having in 1320 signed the letter
to the pope asserting the independence of Scotland; and his supposed
son, Sir Alexander Ramsay (d. 1342), was the Scottish patriot and
capturer of Roxburgh Castle (1342), who, having been made warder of the
castle and sheriff of Teviotdale by David II., was soon afterwards
carried off and starved to death by his predecessor, the Douglas, in
revenge. Sir John Ramsay of Dalhousie (1580-1626), James VI.'s
favourite, is famous for rescuing the king in the Gowrie conspiracy, and
was created (1606) Viscount Haddington and Lord Ramsay of Barns
(subsequently baron of Kingston and earl of Holderness in England). The
barony of Ramsay of Melrose was granted in 1618 to his brother George
Ramsay of Dalhousie (d. 1629), whose son William Ramsay (d. 1674) was
made 1st earl of Dalhousie in 1633.
The 9th earl was in 1815 created Baron Dalhousie in the peerage of the
United Kingdom, and had three sons, the two elder of whom died early.
His youngest son, the subject of this article, was small in stature, but
his firm chiselled mouth, high forehead and masterful manner intimated a
dignity that none could overlook. Yet his early life gave little promise
of the dominating force of his character or of his ability to rise to
the full height of his splendid opportunities. Nor did those brought
into closest intimacy with him, whether at school or at Oxford, suspect
the higher qualities of statesmanship which afterwards established his
fame on so firm a foundation.
Several years of his early boyhood were spent with his father and mother
in Canada, reminiscences of which were still vivid with him when
governor-general of India. Returning to Scotland he was prepared for
Harrow, where he entered in 1825. Two years later he was removed from
school, his entire education being entrusted to the Rev. Mr Temple,
incumbent of a quiet parish in Staffordshire. To this gentleman he
referred in later days as having taught him all he knew, and to his
training he must have owed those habits of regularity and that
indomitable industry which marked his adult life. In October 1829 he
passed on to Christ Church, Oxford, where he worked fairly hard, won
some distinction, and made many lifelong friends. His studies, however,
were so greatly interrupted by the protracted illness and death in 1832
of his only surviving brother, that Lord Ramsay, as he then became, had
to content himself with entering for a "pass" degree, though the
examiners marked their appreciation of his work by placing him in the
fourth class of honours for Michaelmas 1833. He then travelled in Italy
and Switzerland, enriching with copious entries the diary which he
religiously kept up through life, and storing his mind with valuable
observations.
An unsuccessful but courageous contest at the general election in 1835
for one of the seats in parliament for Edinburgh, fought against such
veterans as the future speaker, James Abercrombie, afterwards Lord
Dunfermline, and John Campbell, future lord chancellor, was followed in
1837 by Ramsay's return to the House of Commons as member for East
Lothian. In the previous year he had married Lady Susan Hay, daughter of
the marquess of Tweeddale, whose companionship was his chief support in
India, and whose death in 1853 left him a heartbroken man. In 1838 his
father had died after a long illness, while less than a year later he
lost his mother.
Succeeding to the peerage, the new earl soon made his mark in a speech
delivered on the 16th of June 1840 in support of Lord Aberdeen's Church
of Scotland Benefices Bill, a controversy arising out of the
Auchterarder case, in which he had already taken part in the "general
assembly" in opposition to Dr Chalmers. In May 1843 he became
vice-president of the board of trade, Gladstone being president, and was
sworn in as a member of the privy council. Succeeding Gladstone as
president in 1845, he threw himself into the work during the crisis of
the railway mania with such energy that his health partially broke down
under the strain. In the struggle over the corn laws he ranged himself
on the side of Sir Robert Peel, and after the failure of Lord John
Russell to form a ministry he resumed his post at the board of trade,
entering the cabinet on the retirement of Lord Stanley. When Peel
resigned office in June 1846, Lord John offered Dalhousie a seat in the
cabinet, an offer which he declined from a fear that acceptance might
"involve the loss of public character." Another attempt to secure his
services in the appointment of president of the railway board was
equally unsuccessful; but in 1847 he accepted the post of
governor-general of India in succession to Lord Hardinge, on the
understanding that he was to be left in "entire and unquestioned
possession" of his own "personal independence with reference to party
politics."
Dalhousie assumed charge of his dual duties as governor-general of India
and governor of Bengal on the 12th of January 1848, and shortly
afterwards he was honoured with the green ribbon of the Order of the
Thistle. In writing to the president of the board of control, Sir John
Hobhouse, he was able to assure him that everything was quiet. This
statement, however, was to be falsified by events almost before it could
reach England. For on the 19th of April Vans Agnew of the civil service
and Lieutenant Anderson of the Bombay European regiment, having been
sent to take charge of Multan from Diwan Mulraj, were murdered there,
and within a short time the Sikh troops and sardars joined in open
rebellion. Dalhousie agreed with Sir Hugh Gough, the commander-in-chief,
that the Company's military forces were neither adequately equipped
with transport and supplies, nor otherwise prepared to take the field
immediately. He also foresaw the spread of the rebellion, and the
necessity that must arise, not merely for the capture of Multan, but
also for the entire subjugation of the Punjab. He therefore resolutely
delayed to strike, organized a strong army for operations in November,
and himself proceeded to the Punjab. Despite the brilliant successes
gained by Herbert Edwardes in conflict with Mulraj, and Goagh's
indecisive victories at Ramnagar in November, at Sadulapur in December,
and at Chillianwalla in the following month, the stubborn resistance at
Multan showed that the task required the utmost resources of the
government. At length, on the 22nd of January 1849, the Multan fortress
was taken by General Whish, who was thus set at liberty to join Gough at
Gujrat. Here a complete victory was won on the 21st of February, the
Sikh army surrendered at Rawal Pindi, and their Afghan allies were
chased out of India. For his services the earl of Dalhousie received the
thanks of parliament and a step in the peerage, as marquess.
The war being now over, Dalhousie, without waiting for instructions from
home, annexed the Punjab, and made provision for the custody and
education of the infant maharaja. For the present the province was
administered by a triumvirate under the personal supervision of the
governor-general, and later, a place having been found for Henry
Lawrence in Rajputana, by John Lawrence as sole commissioner. Twice did
Dalhousie tour through its length and breadth, settling on the spot all
matters of importance, and when he left India no province could show a
better record of progress.
One further addition to the empire was made by conquest. The arrogant
Burmese court at Ava was bound by the treaty of Yandabo, 1826, to
protect British ships in Burmese waters, but the outrageous conduct of
the governor of Rangoon towards the masters of the "Monarch" and
"Champion" met with no redress from the king. Dalhousie adopted the
maxim of Lord Wellesley "that an insult offered to the British flag at
the mouth of the Ganges should be resented as promptly and fully as an
insult offered at the mouth of the Thames"; but, anxious to save the
cost of war, he tried to settle the dispute by diplomacy. When that
failed he made vigorous preparation for the campaign to be undertaken in
the autumn, giving his attention to the adequate provision of rations,
boat transport, and medical supplies, composing differences between the
military contingents from Bengal and Madras, and between the military
and naval forces employed, and conferring with General Godwin whom he
had chosen to command the expedition. Martaban was taken on the 5th of
April 1852, and Rangoon and Bassein shortly afterwards. Since, however,
the court of Ava showed no sign of submission, the second campaign
opened in October, and after the capture of Prome and Pegu the
annexation of the province of Pegu was declared by a proclamation dated
the 20th of December 1853. To any further invasion of the Burmese empire
Dalhousie was firmly opposed, being content to "consolidate" the
Company's possessions by uniting Arakan to Tenasserim. By his wise
policy he pacified the new province, placing Colonel Arthur Phayre in
sole charge of it, personally visiting it, and establishing a complete
system of telegraphs and communications.
These military operations added force to the conviction which Dalhousie
had formed of the need of consolidating the Company's ill-knit
possessions, and as a step in that direction he decided to apply the
doctrine of "lapse," and annex any Hindu native states, created or
revived by the grants of the British government, in which there was a
failure of male lineal descendants, reserving for consideration the
policy of permitting adoptions in other Hindu chiefships tributary and
subordinate to the British government as paramount. Under the first head
he recommended the annexation of Satara in January 1849, of Jaitpur and
Sambalpur in the same year, and of Jhansi and Nagpur in 1853. In these
cases his action was approved by the home authorities, but his proposal
to annex Karauli in 1849 was disallowed, while Baghat and the petty
estate of Udaipur, which he had annexed in 1851 and 1852 respectively,
were afterwards restored to native rule.
Other measures with the same object were carried out in the Company's
own territories. Bengal, too long ruled by the governor-general or his
delegate, was placed under a separate lieutenant-governor in May 1854; a
department of public works was established in each presidency, and
engineering colleges were provided. An imperial system of telegraphs
followed; the first link of railway communication was completed in 1855;
well-considered plans mapped out the course of other lines and their
method of administration; the Ganges canal, which then exceeded "all the
irrigation lines of Lombardy and Egypt together," was completed; and
despite the cost of wars in the Punjab and Burma, liberal provision was
made for metalled roads and bridges. The useless military boards were
swept away; selection took the place of seniority in the higher
commands; an army clothing and a stud department were created, and the
medical service underwent complete reorganization.
"Unity of authority coupled with direct responsibility" was the keynote
of his policy. In nine masterly minutes he suggested means for
strengthening the Company's European forces, calling attention to the
dangers that threatened the English community, "a handful of scattered
strangers"; but beyond the additional powers of recruitment which at his
entreaty were granted in the last charter act of 1853, his proposals
were shelved by the home authorities, who scented no danger and wished
to avoid expense. In his administration Dalhousie vigorously asserted
the control of the civil government over military affairs, and when Sir
Charles Napier ordered certain allowances, given as compensation for the
dearness of provisions, to be granted to the sepoys on a system which
had not been sanctioned from headquarters, and threatened to repeat the
offence, the governor-general found it necessary to administer such a
rebuke that the hot-headed soldier resigned his command.
Dalhousie's reforms were not confined to the departments of public works
and military affairs. He created an imperial system of post-offices,
reducing the rates of carrying letters and introducing postage stamps.
To him India owes the first department of public instruction; it was he
who placed the gaols under proper inspection, abolishing the practice of
branding convicts; put down the crime of _meriahs_ or human sacrifices;
freed converts to other religions from the loss of their civil rights;
inaugurated the system of administrative reports; and enlarged and
dignified the legislative council of India. His wide interest in
everything that concerned the welfare of the country was shown in the
encouragement he gave to the culture of tea, in his protection of
forests, in the preservation of ancient and historic monuments. With the
object of improving civil administration, he closed the useless college
in Calcutta for the education of young civilians, establishing in its
place a proper system of training them in _mufasal_ stations, and
subjecting them to departmental examinations. He was equally careful of
the well-being of the European soldier, providing him with healthy
recreations and public gardens. To the civil service he gave improved
leave and pension rules, while he purified its _moral_ by forbidding all
share in trading concerns, by vigorously punishing insolvents, and by
his personal example of careful selection in the matter of patronage. As
a comprehensive view of the constitution of the Indian government,
dealing with the functions of its various members and the different
parts of the official machinery, nothing could be more masterly than his
minute of the 13th of October 1852. Indeed no governor-general ever
penned a larger number of weighty papers dealing with public affairs in
India. Even after laying down office and while on his way home, he
forced himself, ill as he was, to review his own administration in a
document of such importance that the House of Commons gave orders for
its being printed (Blue Book 245 of 1856).
His foreign policy was guided by a desire to recognize the
"independence" of the larger native states, and to avoid extending the
political relations of his government with foreign powers outside India.
Pressed to intervene in Hyderabad, he refused to do so, laying down the
doctrine that interference was only justified "if the administration of
native princes tends unquestionably to the injury of the subjects or of
the allies of the British government." Protection in his view carried no
right of interference in the affairs of what he called "independent"
states. In this spirit he negotiated in 1853 a treaty with the nizam,
which provided funds for the maintenance of the contingent kept up by
the British in support of that prince's authority, by the assignment of
the Berars in lieu of annual payments of the cost and large outstanding
arrears. "The Berar treaty," he told Sir Charles Wood, "is more likely
to keep the nizam on his throne than anything that has happened for
fifty years to him," while at the same time the control thus acquired
over a strip of territory intervening between Bombay and Nagpur promoted
his policy of consolidation and his schemes of railway extension. The
same spirit induced him to tolerate a war of succession in Bahawalpur,
so long as the contending candidates did not violate British territory.
This reluctance to increase his responsibilities further caused him to
refrain from punishing Dost Mahommed for the part he had taken in the
Sikh War, and resolutely to refuse to enter upon any negotiations until
the amir himself came forward. Then he steered a middle course between
the proposals of his own agent, Herbert Edwardes, who advocated an
offensive alliance, and those of John Lawrence, who would have avoided
any sort of engagement. He himself drafted the short treaty of peace and
friendship which Lawrence signed in 1855, that officer receiving in 1856
the order of K.C.B, in acknowledgment of his services in the matter.
While, however, Dalhousie was content with a mutual engagement with the
Afghan chief, binding each party to respect the territories of the
other, he saw that a larger measure of interference was needed in
Baluchistan, and with the khan of Kalat he authorized Major Jacob to
negotiate a treaty of subordinate co-operation on the 14th of May 1854.
The khan was guaranteed an annual subsidy of Rs. 50,000, in return for
the treaty which "bound him to us wholly and exclusively." To this the
home authorities demurred, but the engagement was duly ratified, and the
subsidy was largely increased by Dalhousie's successors. On the other
hand, he insisted on leaving all matters concerning Persia and Central
Asia to the decision of the queen's advisers. The frontier tribesmen it
was obviously necessary to coerce into good behaviour after the
annexation of the Punjab. "The hillmen," he wrote, "regard the plains as
their food and prey," and the Afridis, Mohmands, Black Mountain tribes,
Waziris and others had to be taught that their new neighbours would not
tolerate outrages. But he proclaimed to one and all his desire for
peace, and urged upon them the duty of tribal responsibility.
The settlement of the Oudh question was reserved to the last. The home
authorities had begged Dalhousie to prolong his tenure of office during
the Crimean War, but the difficulties of the problem no less than
complications elsewhere had induced him to delay operations. In 1854 he
appointed Outram as resident at the court of Lucknow, directing him to
submit a report on the condition of the province. This was furnished in
March 1855. But though the state of disorder and misrule revealed by it
called for prompt remedy, Dalhousie, looking at the treaty of 1801,
considered that he was bound to proceed in the matter of reform with the
king's consent. He proposed, therefore, to demand a transfer to the
Company of the entire administration, the king merely retaining his
royal rank, certain privileges in the courts, and a liberal allowance.
If he should refuse this arrangement, a general rising was almost
certain to follow, and then the British government would of necessity
intervene on its own terms. On the 21st of November 1855 the court of
directors instructed Dalhousie to assume the powers essential to the
permanence of good government in Oudh, and to give the king no option
unless he was sure that his majesty would surrender the administration
rather than risk a revolution. Dalhousie was in wretched health and on
the eve of retirement when the belated orders reached him; but he at
once laid down instructions for Outram in every detail, moved up troops,
and elaborated a scheme of government with particular orders as to
conciliating local opinion. The king refused to sign the treaty put
before him, and a proclamation annexing the province was therefore
issued on the 13th of February 1856.
Only one important matter now remained to him before quitting office.
The insurrection of the half-civilized Kolarian Santals of Bengal
against the extortions of landlords and money-lenders had been severely
repressed, but the causes of the insurrection had still to be reviewed
and a remedy provided. By removing the tract of country from the
ordinary regulations, enforcing the residence of British officers there,
and employing the Santal headmen in a local police, he ensured a system
of administration which afterwards proved eminently successful.
At length, after seven years of strenuous labour, Dalhousie, on the 6th
of March 1856, set sail for England on board the Company's "Firoze," an
object of general sympathy and not less general respect. At Alexandria
he was carried by H.M.S. "Caradoc" to Malta, and thence by the "Tribune"
to Spithead, which he reached on the 13th of May. His return had been
eagerly looked for by statesmen who hoped that he would resume his
public career, by the Company which voted him an annual pension of
£5000, by public bodies which showered upon him every mark of respect,
and by the queen who earnestly prayed for the "blessing of restored
health and strength." That blessing was not to be his. He lingered on,
seeking sunshine in Malta and medical treatment at Malvern, Edinburgh
and other places in vain obedience to his doctors. The outbreak of the
mutiny led to bitter attacks at home upon his policy, and to strange
misrepresentation of his public acts, while on the other hand John
Lawrence invoked his counsel and influence, and those who really knew
his work in India cried out, "Oh, for a dictator," and his return "for
one hour!" To all these cries he turned a deaf ear, refusing to
embarrass those who were responsible by any expressions of opinion,
declining to undertake his own defence or to assist in his vindication
through the public press, and by his last directions sealing up his
private journal and papers of personal interest against publication
until fifty years after his death. On the 9th of August 1859 his
youngest daughter, Edith, was married at Dalhousie Castle to Sir James
Fergusson, Bart. In the same castle Dalhousie died on the 19th of
December 1860; he was buried in the old churchyard of Cockpen.
Dalhousie's family consisted of two daughters, and the marquessate
became extinct at his death.
The detailed events of the period will be found in Sir William
Lee-Warner's _Life of the Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T._; Sir E. Arnold's
_Dalhousie's Administration of British India_; Sir C. Jackson's
_Vindication of Dalhousie's Indian Administration_; Sir W. W. Hunter's
_Dalhousie_; Capt. L. J. Trotter's _Life of the Marquis of Dalhousie_;
the duke of Argyll's _India under Dalhousie and Canning_; Broughton
MSS. (British Museum); and parliamentary papers. (W. L.-W.)
DALHOUSIE, FOX MAULE RAMSAY, 11th EARL OT (1801-1874), was the eldest
son of William Ramsay Maule, 1st Baron Panmure (1771-1852), and a
grandson of George, 8th earl of Dalhousie. Born on the 22nd of April
1801 and christened Fox as a compliment to the great Whig, he served for
a term in the army, and then in 1835 entered the House of Commons as
member for Perthshire. In Lord Melbourne's ministry (1835-1841) Maule
was under-secretary for home affairs, and under Lord John Russell he was
secretary-at-war from July 1846 to January 1852, when for two or three
weeks he was president of the board of control. In April 1852 he became
the 2nd Baron Panmure, and early in 1855 he joined Lord Palmerston's
cabinet, filling the new office of secretary of state for war. Panmure
held this office until February 1858, being at the war office during the
concluding period of the Crimean War and having to meet a good deal of
criticism, some of which was justified and some of which was not. In
December 1860 he succeeded his kinsman, the marquess of Dalhousie, as
11th earl of Dalhousie, and he died childless on the 6th of July 1874.
Always interested in church matters, Dalhousie was a prominent supporter
of the Free Church of Scotland after the disruption of 1843. On his
death the barony became extinct, but his earldom passed to his cousin,
George Ramsay (1806-1880), an admiral who, in 1875, was created a peer
of the United Kingdom as Baron Ramsay. George's grandson, Arthur George
Maule Ramsay (b. 1878), became the 14th earl in 1887.
See the _Panmure Papers_, a selection from Panmure's correspondence,
edited in two volumes (1908), by Sir G. Douglas, Bart., and Sir G. D.
Ramsay. These numerous letters throw much light on the concluding
stage of the Crimean War.
DALIN, OLOF VON (1708-1763), Swedish poet, was born on the 29th of
August 1708 in the parish of Vinberg in Halland, where his father was
the minister. He was nearly related to Rydelius, the philosophical
bishop of Lund, and he was sent at a very early age to be instructed by
him, Linnaeus being one of his fellow-pupils. While studying at Lund,
Dalin had visited Stockholm in the year 1723, and in 1726 entered one of
the public offices there. Under the patronage of Baron Rålamb he rapidly
rose to preferment, and his skill and intelligence won him golden
opinions. In 1733 he started the weekly _Svenska Argus_, on the model of
Addison's _Spectator_, writing anonymously till 1736. His next work was
_Tankar öfver Critiquer_ (Thoughts about Critics, 1736). With the avowed
purpose of enlarging the horizon of his cultivation and tastes, Dalin
set off, in company with his pupil, Baron Rålamb's son, on a tour
through Germany and France, in 1739-1740. On his return the shifting of
political life at home caused him to write his famous satiric allegories
of _The Story of the Horse_ and _Aprilverk_ (1738), which were very
popular and provoked countless imitations. His didactic epos of _Svenska
Friheten_ (Swedish Liberty) appeared in 1742. Hitherto Addison and Pope
had been his models; in this work he draws his inspiration from Thomson,
whose poem of _Liberty_ it emulated. On the accession of Adolphus
Freduck in 1751 Dalin received the post of tutor to the crown prince,
afterwards Gustavus III. He had enjoyed the confidence of Queen Louisa
Ulrika, sister of Frederick the Great of Germany, while she was crown
princess, and she now made him secretary of the Swedish academy of
literature, founded by her in 1753. His position at court involved him
in the queen's political intrigues, and separated him to a vexatious
degree from the studies in which he had hitherto been absorbed. He held
the post of tutor to the crown prince until 1756, when he was arrested
on suspicion of having taken part in the attempted _coup d'état_ of that
year, and was tried for his life before the diet. He was acquitted, but
was forbidden on any pretence to show himself at court. This period of
exile, which lasted until 1761, Dalin spent in the preparation of the
third volume of his great historical work, the _Svea Rikes historia_
(History of the Swedish Kingdom), which came down to the death of
Charles IX. in 1611. The first two volumes appeared in 1746-1750; the
third, in two parts, in 1760-1762. Dalin had been ennobled in 1751, and
made privy councillor in 1753; and now, in 1761, he once more took his
place at court. During his exile, however, his spirit and his health had
been broken; in a fit of panic he had destroyed some packets of his best
unpublished works and this he constantly brooded over. On the 12th of
August 1763 he died at his house in Drottningholm. In the year 1767 his
writings in _belles lettres_ were issued in six volumes, edited by J. C.
Bökman, his half-brother. Amid an enormous mass of occasional verses,
anagrams, epigrams, impromptus and the like, his satires and serious
poems were almost buried. But some of these former, even, are found to
be songs of remarkable grace and delicacy, and many display a love of
natural scenery and a knowledge of its forms truly remarkable in that
artificial age. His dramas also are of interest, particularly his
admirable comedy of _Den afvundsjuke_ (The Envious Man, 1738); he also
wrote a tragedy, _Brynilda_ (1739), and a pastoral in three scenes on
King Adolphus Frederick's return from Finland. During the early part of
his life he was universally admitted to be _facile princeps_ among the
Swedish poets of his time.
See also K. Warburg, "Olof von Dalin," in the _Handlingar_ (vol. lix.,
1884) of the Swedish Academy. A selection of his works was edited by
E. V. Lindblad (Örebro, 1872).
DALKEITH, a municipal and police burgh of Edinburghshire, Scotland,
lying between the North and South Esk, 7½ m. S.E. of Edinburgh, by the
North British railway. Pop. (1891) 7035; (1901) 6812. It is an important
agricultural centre, and has every week one of the largest grain-markets
in Scotland. Besides milling, brewing and tanning, the chief industries
are the making of carpets, brushes and bricks, and iron and brass
founding. Near Eskbank, a handsome residential quarter with a railway
station, coal-mining is carried on. Market-gardening, owing to the
proximity of the capital, flourishes. The parish church--an old Gothic
edifice, which was originally the Castle chapel, and was restored in
1852--the municipal buildings, corn exchange, Foresters' hall and
Newmills hospital are among the principal public buildings. Dalkeith was
the birthplace of Professor Peter Guthrie Tait, the mathematician
(1831-1901). Dalkeith Palace, a seat of the duke of Buccleuch, was
designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1700 for the widow of the duke of
Monmouth, countess of Buccleuch in her own right. It occupies the site
of a castle which belonged first to the Grahams and afterwards to the
Douglases, and was sold in 1642 by William, seventh or eighth earl of
Morton, to Francis, second earl of Buccleuch, for the purpose of raising
money to assist Charles I. in the Civil War. The palace has been the
residence of several sovereigns during their visits to Edinburgh, among
them George IV. in 1822, Queen Victoria in 1842, and Edward VII. in
1903. The picture gallery possesses important examples of the Old
Masters; the gardens are renowned for their fruit and flowers; and the
beautiful park of over 1000 acres--containing a remnant of the
Caledonian Forest, with oaks, beeches and ashes of great girth and
height--is watered by the North and South Esk, which unite before they
leave the policy. About 1 m. south is Newbattle Abbey, the seat of the
marquess of Lothian, delightfully situated on the South Esk. It is built
on the site of an abbey founded by David I., the ancient crypt being
incorporated in the mansion. The library contains many valuable books
and illuminated MSS., and excellent pictures and carvings. In the park
are several remarkable trees, among them one of the largest beeches in
the United Kingdom. Two miles still farther south lies Cockpen,
immortalized by the Baroness Nairne's humorous song "The Laird of
Cockpen," and Dalhousie Castle, partly ancient and partly modern, which
gives a title to the earls of Dalhousie. About 6 m. south-east of
Dalkeith are Borthwick and Crichton castles, 1 m. apart, both now in
ruins. Queen Mary spent three weeks in Borthwick Castle, as in durance
vile, after her marriage with Bothwell, and fled from it to Dunbar in
the guise of a page. The castle, which is a double tower, was besieged
by Cromwell, and the marks of his cannon-balls are still visible. In the
manse of the parish of Borthwick, William Robertson, the historian, was
born in 1721. About 4 m. west of Dalkeith is the village of Burdiehouse,
the limestone quarries of which are famous for fossils. The name is said
to be a corruption of Bordeaux House, which was bestowed on it by Queen
Mary's French servants, who lived here when their mistress resided at
Craigmillar.
DALKEY, a small port and watering-place of Co. Dublin, Ireland, in the
south parliamentary division; 9 m. S.E. of Dublin by the Dublin &
South-Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901), 3398. It is
pleasantly situated on and about Sorrento Point, the southern horn of
Dublin Bay. Dalkey Island, lying off the town, has an ancient ruined
chapel, of the history of which nothing is certainly known, and a
disused battery, which protected the harbour, a landing-place of some
former importance. A castle in the town, of the 15th century, is
restored to use as offices for the urban district council. There are
also ruins of an old church, the dedication of which, like the island
chapel, is ascribed to one St Begnet, perhaps a diminutive form of Bega,
but the identity is not clear. Until the close of the 18th century
Dalkey was notorious for the burlesque election of a "king," a mock
ceremony which became invested with a certain political importance.
DALLAS, ALEXANDER JAMES (1759-1817), American statesman and financier,
was born on the island of Jamaica, West Indies, on the 21st of June
1759, the son of Dr Robert C. Dallas (d. 1774), a Scottish physician
then practising there. Dr Dallas soon returned to England with his
family, and Alexander was educated at Edinburgh and Westminster. He
studied law for a time in the Inner Temple, and in 1780 returned to
Jamaica. There he met the younger Lewis Hallam (1738-1808), a pioneer
American theatrical manager and actor, who induced him to remove to the
United States, and in 1783 he settled in Philadelphia, where he at once
took the oath of allegiance to the United States, was admitted to
practise law in 1785, and rapidly attained a prominent position at the
bar. He was interested in the theatrical projects of Hallam, for whom he
wrote several dramatic compositions, and from 1787 to 1789 he edited
_The Columbian Magazine_. From 1791 to 1801 he was secretary of the
commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Partly owing to his publication of an able
pamphlet against the Jay treaty in 1795, he soon acquired a position of
much influence in the Democratic-Republican party in the state. During
the Whisky Insurrection he was paymaster-general of the state militia.
His official position as secretary did not entirely prevent him from
continuing his private law practice, and, with Jared Ingersoll, he was
the counsel of Senator William Blount in his impeachment trial. Dallas
was United States attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania from
1801 until 1814, a period marked by bitter struggles between the
Democratic-Republican factions in the state, in which he took a leading
part in alliance with Governor Thomas M'Kean and Albert Gallatin, and in
opposition to the radical factions led by Michael Leib (1759-1822) and
William Duane (1760-1835), of the _Aurora_. The quarrel led in 1805 to
the M'Kean party seeking Federalist support. By such an alliance,
largely due to the political ingenuity of Dallas, M'Kean was re-elected.
In October 1814 President Madison appointed Dallas secretary of the
treasury, to succeed George W. Campbell (1768-1848), whose brief and
disastrous term had been marked by wholesale bank suspensions, and an
enormous depreciation of state and national bank notes. The appointment
itself inspired confidence, and Dallas's prompt measures still further
relieved the situation. He first issued new interest-bearing treasury
notes of small denominations, and in addition proposed the
re-establishment of a national bank, by which means he expected to
increase the stability and uniformity of the circulating medium, and
furnish the government with a powerful engine in the upholding of its
credit. In spite of his already onerous duties, Dallas, with
characteristic energy, served also as secretary of war _ad interim_ from
March to August 1815, and in this capacity successfully reorganized the
army on a peace footing. Although peace brought a more favourable
condition of the money market, Dallas's attempt to fund the treasury
notes on a satisfactory basis was unsuccessful, but a bill, reported by
Calhoun, as chairman of the committee on national currency, for the
establishment of a national bank, became law on the 10th of April 1816.
Meanwhile (12th of February 1816) Dallas, in a notable report,
recommended a protective tariff, which was enacted late in April,
largely in accordance with his recommendation. Although Dallas left the
cabinet in October 1816, it was through his efforts that the new bank
began its operations in the following January, and specie payments were
resumed in February. Dallas, who belonged to the financial school of
Albert Gallatin, deserves to rank among America's greatest financiers.
He found the government bankrupt, and after two years at the head of the
treasury he left it with a surplus of $20,000,000; moreover, as Henry
Adams points out, his measures had "fixed the financial system in a firm
groove for twenty years." He retired from office to resume his practice
of the law, but the burden of his official duties had undermined his
health, and he died suddenly at Philadelphia on the 16th of June 1817.
He was the author of several notable political pamphlets and state
papers, and in addition edited _The Laws of Pennsylvania, 1700-1801_
(1801), and _Reports of Cases ruled and adjudged by the Courts of the
United States and of Pennsylvania before and since the Revolution_ (4
vols., 1790-1807; new edition with notes by Thomas J. Wharton, 1830). He
wrote _An Exposition of the Causes and Character of the War of 1812-15_
(1815), which was republished by government authority in New York and
London and widely circulated. He left in MS. an unfinished _History of
Pennsylvania_.
His brother, ROBERT CHARLES DALLAS (1754-1824), was born in Jamaica, and
lived at various times in the West Indies, the United States, England
and France. He was an intimate friend of Lord Byron. He wrote
_Recollections of Lord Byron_ (1824), and several novels, plays and
miscellaneous works.
See G. M. Dallas, _Life and Writings of Alexander James Dallas_
(Philadelphia, 1871).
DALLAS, GEORGE MIFFLIN (1792-1864), American statesman and diplomat, was
born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of July 1792. He
graduated at Princeton in 1810 at the head of his class; then studied
law in the office of his father, Alexander J. Dallas, the financier, and
was admitted to the bar in 1813. In the same year he accompanied Albert
Gallatin, as his secretary, to Russia, and in 1814 returned to the
United States as the bearer of important dispatches from the American
peace commissioners at Ghent. He practised law in New York and
Philadelphia, was chosen mayor of Philadelphia in 1828, and in 1829 was
appointed by President Jackson, whom he had twice warmly supported for
the presidency, United States attorney for the eastern district of
Pennsylvania, a position long held by his father. From 1831 to 1833 he
was a Democratic member of the United States Senate, in which he
advocated a compromise tariff and strongly supported Jackson's position
in regard to nullification. On the bank question he was at first at
variance with the president; in January 1832 he presented in the Senate
a memorial from the bank's president, Nicholas Biddle, and its managers,
praying for a recharter, and subsequently he was chairman of a committee
which reported a bill re-chartering the institution for a fifteen-year
period. Afterwards, however, his views changed and he opposed the bank.
From 1833 to 1835 Dallas was attorney-general of Pennsylvania, and from
1835 to 1839 was minister to Russia. During the following years he was
engaged in a long struggle with James Buchanan for party leadership in
Pennsylvania. He was vice-president of the United States from 1845 to
1849, but the appointment of Buchanan as secretary of state at once shut
him off from all hope of party patronage or influence in the Polk
administration, and he came to be looked upon as the leader of that body
of conservative Democrats of the North, who, while they themselves
chafed at the domination of Southern leaders, were disposed to disparage
all anti-slavery agitation. By his casting vote at a critical period
during the debate in the Senate on the tariff bill of 1846, he
irretrievably lost his influence with the protectionist element of his
native state, to whom he had given assurances of his support of the
Tyler tariff of 1842. For several years after his retirement from
office, he devoted himself to his law practice, and in 1856 succeeded
James Buchanan as United States minister to England, where he remained
until relieved by Charles Francis Adams in May 1861. During this trying
period he represented his country with ability and tact, making every
endeavour to strengthen the Union cause in Great Britain. He died at
Philadelphia on the 1st of December 1864. He wrote a biographical memoir
for an edition of his father's writings, which was published in 1871.
His _Diary_ of his residence in St Petersburg and London was published
in Philadelphia in 1892.
DALLAS, a city and the county-seat of Dallas county, Texas, U.S.A.,
about 220 m. N.W. of Houston, on the E. bank of the Trinity river. Pop.
(1880) 10,358; (1890) 38,067; (1900) 42,638, of whom 9035 were negroes
and 3381 were foreign-born; (1910) 92,104. Area, about 15 sq. m. Dallas
is served by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Gulf, Colorado &
Santa Fé, the Houston & Texas Central, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the
St Louis South-western, the Texas & New Orleans, the Trinity & Brazos
Valley, and the Texas & Pacific railways, and by interurban electric
railways to Fort Worth and Sherman. The lower channel of the Trinity
river has been greatly improved by the Federal government; but in 1908
the river was not navigable as far as Dallas. Among public buildings are
the Carnegie library (1901), Dallas county court house, the city hall,
the U.S. government building, St Matthew's cathedral (Prot. Episc.), the
cathedral of the Sacred Heart (Rom. Cath.), the city hospital, St Paul's
sanitarium (Rom. Cath.), and the Baptist Memorial sanitarium.
Educational institutions include Dallas medical college (1901), the
colleges of medicine and pharmacy of Baylor University, the medical
college of South-western University (at Georgetown, Texas), Oak Cliff
female academy, Patton seminary, St Mary's female college (Prot.
Episc.), and Holy Trinity college (Rom. Cath.). The city had in 1908
three parks--Bachman's Reservoir (500 acres); Fair (525 acres)--the
Texas state fair grounds, in which an annual exhibition is held--and
City park (17 acres). Lake Cliff, Cycle and Oak Lawn parks are amusement
grounds. A Confederate soldiers' monument, a granite shaft 50 ft. high,
was erected in 1897, with statues of R. E. Lee, Jefferson Davis,
"Stonewall" Jackson and A. S. Johnston. Dallas was in 1900 the third
city in population and the most important railway centre in Texas. It is
a shipping centre for a large wheat, fruit and cotton-raising region,
and the principal jobbing market for northern Texas, Oklahoma and part
of Louisiana, and the biggest distributing point for agricultural
machinery in the South-west. It is a livestock market, and one of the
chief centres in the United States for the manufacture of saddlery and
leather goods, and of cotton-gin machinery. It has flour and grist mills
(the products of which ranked first in value among the city's
manufactures in 1905), wholesale slaughtering and meat-packing
establishments, cooperage works, railway repair shops, cotton
compresses, lumber yards, salt works, and manufactories of cotton-seed
oil and cake, boots and shoes and cotton and agricultural machinery. In
1900 and 1905 it was the principal manufacturing centre in the state,
the value of its factory product in 1905 being $15,627,668, an increase
of 64.7% over that in 1900. The water-works are owned and operated by
the city, and the water is taken from the Elm fork of Trinity river.
There are several artesian wells. Dallas, named in honour of G. M.
Dallas, was settled in 1841, and first chartered as a city in 1856. The
city is governed, under a charter of 1907, by a mayor and four
commissioners, who together pass ordinances, appoint nearly all city
officers, and generally are responsible for administering the
government. In addition a school board is elected by the people. The
charter contains initiative and referendum provisions, provides for the
recall of any elective city official, and prohibits the granting of any
franchise for a longer term than twenty years.
DALLE (pronounced "dal," Fr. for a flag-stone or flat tile), a rapid
falling over flat smooth rock surfaces in a river bed, especially in
rivers flowing between basaltic rocks. The name is common in America,
and came into use through the French employés of the Hudson's Bay
Company. Well-known "dalles" are on the St Louis, St Croix and Wisconsin
rivers. The "dalles" of the Columbia river are very beautiful, and have
given its name to Dalles (1910 pop. 4880), county-seat of Wasco county,
Oregon.
DALLIN, CYRUS EDWIN (1861- ), American sculptor, was born at
Springville, Utah, on the 22nd of November 1861. He was a pupil of
Truman H. Bartlett in Boston, of the École des Beaux Arts, the Académie
Julien and the sculptors Henri M. Chapu and Jean Dampt (born 1858), in
Paris, and on his return to America became instructor in modelling in
the state normal art school in Boston. He is best known for his plastic
representations of the North American Indian--especially for "The Signal
of Peace" in Lincoln Park, Chicago, and "The Medicine Man," in Fairmount
Park, Philadelphia. As a boy he had lived among the Indians in the Far
West, and had learned their language. His later works include "Pioneer
Monument," Salt Lake City; "Sir Isaac Newton," Congressional Library,
Washington; and "Don Quixote." He won a silver medal at the Paris
Exposition, 1900, and a gold medal at the St Louis Exposition, 1904.
DALLING AND BULWER, WILLIAM HENRY LYTTON EARLE BULWER, BARON
(1801-1872), better known as Sir HENRY BULWER, English diplomatist and
author, was born in London on the 13th of February 1801. His father,
General William Earle Bulwer, when colonel of the 106th regiment, had
married Elizabeth Barbara Lytton, who--as the only child of Richard
Warburton Lytton, of Knebworth Park, in Hertfordshire--was sole heiress
of the family of Norreys-Robinson-Lytton of Monacdhu in the island of
Anglesea and of Guersylt in Denbighshire. Three sons were the fruit of
this marriage. The second, afterwards Lord Dalling, was amply provided
for by his selection as heir to his maternal grandmother; the paternal
estates in Norfolk went to his elder brother William, and the maternal
property in Herts to the youngest, Edward, known first as Bulwer the
novelist and dramatist, and afterwards as the first Baron Lytton (q.v.)
of Knebworth.
General Bulwer, as brigadier-general of volunteers, was one of the four
commanding officers to whom was entrusted the defence of England in
1804, when threatened with invasion by Napoleon. Three years afterwards,
on the 7th of July 1807, he died prematurely at fifty-two at Heyden
Hall. His young widow had then devolved upon her not only the double
charge of caring for the estates in Herts and Norfolk, but the far
weightier responsibility of superintending the education of her three
sons, then in their earliest boyhood. Henry Bulwer was educated at
Harrow, under Dr George Butler, and at Trinity College and Downing
College, Cambridge. In 1822 he published a small volume of verse,
beginning with an ode on the death of Napoleon. It is chiefly
interesting now for its fraternal dedication to Edward Lytton Bulwer,
then a youth of nineteen.
On leaving Cambridge in the autumn of 1824, Henry Bulwer went, as
emissary of the Greek committee then sitting in London, to the Morea,
carrying with him £80,000 sterling, which he handed over to Prince
Mavrocordato and his colleagues, as the responsible leaders of the War
of Independence. He was accompanied on this expedition by Hamilton
Browne, who, a year before, had been despatched by Lord Byron to
Cephalonia to treat with the insurgent government. Shortly after his
return to England in 1826, Bulwer published a record of this excursion,
under the title of _An Autumn in Greece_. Meanwhile, bent for the moment
upon following in his father's footsteps, he had, on the 19th of October
1825, been gazetted as a cornet in the 2nd Life Guards. Within less than
eight months, however, he had exchanged from cavalry to infantry, being
enrolled on the 2nd of June 1826 as an ensign in the 58th regiment. That
ensigncy he retained for little more than a month, obtaining another
unattached, which he held until the 1st of January 1829, when he finally
abandoned the army. The court, not the camp, was to be the scene of his
successes; and for thirty-eight years altogether--from August 1827 to
August 1865--he contrived, while maturing from a young attaché to an
astute and veteran ambassador, to hold his own with ease, and in the end
was ranked amongst the subtlest intellects of his time as a master of
diplomacy. His first appointment in his new profession was as an attaché
at Berlin. In April 1830 he obtained his next step through his
nomination as an attaché at Vienna. Thence, exactly a year afterwards,
he was employed nearer home in the same capacity at the Hague.
As yet ostensibly no more than a careless lounger in the _salons_ of the
continent, the young ex-cavalry officer veiled the keenest observation
under an air of indifference. His constitutional energy, which
throughout life was exceptionally intense and tenacious, wore from the
first a mask of languor. When in reality most cautious he was seemingly
most negligent. No matter what he happened at the moment to take in
hand, the art he applied to it was always that highest art of all, the
_ars celare artem_. His mastery of the lightest but most essential
weapon in the armoury of the diplomatist, tact, came to him as it seemed
intuitively, and from the outset was consummate. Talleyrand himself
would have had no reason, even in Henry Bulwer's earliest years as an
attaché, to write entreatingly, "_pas de zèle_," to one who concealed so
felicitously, even at starting, a lynx-like vigilance under an aspect
the most phlegmatic. He had hardly reached his new post at the Hague
when he found and seized his opportunity. The revolutionary explosion of
July at Paris had been echoed on the 25th of August 1830 by an outburst
of insurrection at Brussels. During the whole of September a succession
of stormy events swept over Belgium, until the popular rising reached
its climax on the 4th of October in the declaration of Belgian
independence by the provisional government. At the beginning of the
revolution, the young attaché was despatched by the then foreign
secretary at Whitehall, Lord Aberdeen, to watch events as they arose and
report their character. In the execution of his special mission he
traversed the country in all directions amidst civil war, the issue of
which was to the last degree problematic. Under those apparently
bewildering circumstances, he was enabled by his sagacity and
penetration to win his spurs as a diplomatist. Writing almost haphazard
in the midst of the conflict, he sent home from day to day a series of
despatches which threw a flood of light upon incidents that would
otherwise have appeared almost inexplicable. Scarcely a week had
elapsed, during which his predictions had been wonderfully verified,
when he was summoned to London to receive the congratulations of the
cabinet. He returned to Brussels no longer in a merely temporary or
informal capacity. As secretary of legation, and afterwards as chargé
d'affaires, he assisted in furthering the negotiations out of which
Belgium rose into a kingdom. Scarcely had this been accomplished when he
wrote what may be called the first chapter of the history of the newly
created Belgian kingdom. It appeared in 1831 as a brief but luminous
paper in the January number of the _Westminster Review_. And as the
events it recorded had helped to inaugurate its writer's career as a
diplomatist, so did his narrative of those occurrences in the pages of
the Radical quarterly signalize in a remarkable way the commencement of
his long and consistent career as a Liberal politician. Shortly before
his appearance as a reviewer, and immediately prior to the carrying of
the first Reform Bill, Bulwer had won a seat in the House of Commons as
member for Wilton, afterwards in 1831 and 1832 sitting there as M.P. for
Coventry. Nearly two years having elapsed, during which he was absent
from parliament, he was in 1834 returned to Westminster as member for
Marylebone. That position he retained during four sessions, winning
considerable distinction as a debater. Within the very year in which he
was chosen by the Marylebone electors, he brought out in two volumes,
entitled _France--Literary, Social and Political_, the first half of a
work which was only completed upon the publication, two years
afterwards, of a second series, also in two volumes, under the title of
_The Monarchy of the Middle Classes_. Through its pages he made good his
claim to be regarded not merely as a keen-witted observer, but as one of
the most sagacious and genial delineators of the generic Frenchman,
above all of that supreme type of the race, with whom all through his
life he especially delighted to hold familiar intercourse, the true
Parisian. Between the issuing from the press of these two series, Henry
Bulwer had prefixed an intensely sympathetic _Life of Lord Byron_ to the
Paris edition of the poet's works published by Galignani,--a memoir
republished sixteen years afterwards. A political argument of a
curiously daring and outspoken character, entitled _The Lords, the
Government, and the Country_, was given to the public in 1836 by Bulwer,
in the form of an elaborate letter to a constituent. At this point his
literary labours, which throughout life were with him purely labours
by-the-way, ceased for a time, and he disappeared during three decades
from authorship and from the legislature.
During the period of his holding the position of chargé d'affaires at
Brussels, Bulwer had seized every opportunity of making lengthened
sojourns at Paris, always for him the choicest place of residence. It
was in the midst of one of these _dolce far niente_ loiterings on the
boulevards that, on the 14th of August 1837, he received his nomination
as secretary of embassy at Constantinople. Recognizing his exceptional
ability Lord Ponsonby, the British ambassador at Constantinople, at once
entrusted to him the difficult task of negotiating a commercial treaty,
which had the double object of removing the intolerable conditions which
hampered British trade with Turkey and of dealing a blow at the
threatening power of Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt, by shattering the
system of monopolies on which it was largely based. In this difficult
task Bulwer was helped by the hatred of Sultan Mahmed II. for Mehemet
Ali, but the treaty was none the less a remarkable proof of his
diplomatic skill, and the compliment was well deserved when Palmerston,
in writing his congratulations to him from Windsor Castle, on the 13th
of September 1838, pronounced the treaty a _capo d'opera_, adding that
without reserve it would be at once ratified. Shortly after this
achievement Bulwer was nominated secretary of embassy at St Petersburg.
Illness, however, compelled him to delay his northern journey--almost
opportunely, as it happened, for in June 1839 he was despatched, in the
same capacity, to the more congenial atmosphere of Paris. At that
juncture the developments of the feud between Mehemet Ali and the Porte
were threatening to bring England and France into armed collision (see
MEHEMET ALI). In 1839 and 1840, during the temporary absence of his
chief, Lord Granville, the secretary of embassy was gazetted _ad
interim_ chargé d'affaires at the court of France, and thus during this
critical time he had fresh opportunities of winning distinction as a
diplomatist.
On the 14th of November 1843 he was appointed ambassador at the court of
the young Spanish queen Isabella II. Upon his arrival at Madrid signal
evidence was afforded of the estimation in which he was then held as a
diplomatist. He was chosen arbitrator between Spain and Morocco, then
confronting each other in deadly hostility, and, as the result of his
mediation, a treaty of peace was signed between the two powers in 1844.
In 1846 a much more formidable difficulty arose,--one which, after
threatening war between France and England, led at last to a diplomatic
rupture between the British and Spanish governments. The dynastic
intrigues of Louis Philippe were the immediate cause of this
estrangement, and those intrigues found their climax in what has ever
since been known in European annals as the Spanish Marriages. The storm
sown in the Spanish marriages was reaped in the whirlwind of the
February revolution. And the explosion which took place at Paris was
answered a month afterwards at Madrid by a similar outbreak. Marshal
Narvaez thereupon assumed the dictatorship, and wreaked upon the
insurgents a series of reprisals of the most pitiless character. These
excessive severities of the marshal-dictator the British ambassador did
his utmost to mitigate. When at last, however, Narvaez carried his
rigour to the length of summarily suppressing the constitutional
guarantees, Bulwer sent in a formal protest in the name of England
against an act so entirely ruthless and unjustifiable. This courageous
proceeding at once drew down upon the British envoy a counter-stroke as
ill-judged as it was unprecedented. Narvaez, with matchless effrontery,
denounced the ambassador from England as an accomplice in the
conspiracies of the Progressistas; and despite his position as an envoy,
and in insolent defiance of the Palmerstonian boast, _Civis
Britannicus_, Bulwer, on the 12th of June, was summarily required to
quit Madrid within twenty-four hours. Two days afterwards M. Isturitz,
the Spanish ambassador at the court of St James's, took his departure
from London. Diplomatic relations were not restored between the two
countries until years had elapsed, nor even then until after a formal
apology, dictated by Lord Palmerston, had been signed by the prime
minister of Queen Isabella. Before his return the ambassador was
gazetted a K.C.B., being promoted to the grand cross some three years
afterwards. In addition to this mark of honour he received the formal
approbation of the ministry, and with it the thanks of both Houses of
Parliament.
Before the year of his return from the peninsula had run out Sir Henry
Bulwer was married to the Hon. Georgiana Charlotte Mary Wellesley,
youngest daughter of the 1st Baron Cowley, and niece to the duke of
Wellington. Early in the following year, on the 27th of April 1849, he
was nominated ambassador at Washington. There he acquired immense
popularity. His principal success was the compact known as the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (q.v.), ratified in May 1850, pledging the
contracting governments to respect the neutrality of the meditated ship
canal through Central America, bringing the waters of the Atlantic and
Pacific into direct communication. After having been accredited as
ambassador to the United States for three years, Sir Henry Bulwer, early
in 1852, was despatched as minister plenipotentiary at the court of the
grand duke of Tuscany at Florence. Shortly after his retirement from
that post in the January of 1855, he was entrusted with various
diplomatic missions, in one of which he was empowered as commissioner
under the 23rd article of the treaty of Paris, 1856, to investigate the
state of things in the Danubian principalities, with a view to their
definite reorganization. Finally he was installed, from May 1858 to
August 1865, as the immediate successor, after the close of the Crimean
war, of the "Great Elchi," Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, as
ambassador extraordinary to the Ottoman Porte at Constantinople.
In the winter of 1865 Bulwer returned home from the Bosporus, and
retired with a pension. He was elected member for Tamworth on the 17th
of November 1868, and retained his seat until gazetted as a peer of the
realm on the 21st of March 1871, under the title of Baron Dalling and
Bulwer of Wood Dalling in the county of Norfolk. Upon the eve of his
return to his old haunts as a debater and a politician he had asserted
his claim to literary distinction by giving to the world in two volumes
his four masterly sketches of typical men, entitled _Historical
Characters_. This work, dedicated to his brother Edward, in testimony of
the writer's fraternal affection and friendship, portrayed in luminous
outline Talleyrand the Politic Man, Cobbett the Contentious Man, Canning
the Brilliant Man, and Mackintosh the Man of Promise. Two other kindred
sketches, those of Sir Robert Peel and Viscount Melbourne, having been
selected from among their author's papers, were afterwards published
posthumously. Another work of ampler outline and larger pretension was
begun and partially issued from the press during Lord Dalling's
lifetime, but not completed. This was the _Life of Viscount Palmerston_,
the first two volumes of which were published in 1870. A third volume
appeared four years afterwards. Even then it left the story of the
English statesman broken off so abruptly that the work remained at the
last the merest fragment. It was completed by Evelyn Ashley.
Lord Dalling died unexpectedly on the 23rd of May 1872 at Naples. He had
no issue, and the title became extinct. In his public career he enjoyed
a three-fold success--as ambassador, as politician and as man of
letters. His popularity in society was at all times remarkable, mainly
no doubt from his mastery of all the subtler arts of a skilled
conversationalist. The apparent languor with which he related an
anecdote, flung off a _bon mot_, or indulged in a momentary stroke of
irony imparted interest to the narrative, wings to the wit and point to
the sarcasm in a manner peculiarly his own. (C. K.)
DALLMEYER, JOHN HENRY (1830-1883), Anglo-German optician, was born on
the 6th of September 1830 at Loxten, Westphalia, the son of a landowner.
On leaving school at the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an
Osnabrück optician, and in 1851 he came to London, where he obtained
work with an optician, W. Hewitt, who shortly afterwards, with his
workmen, entered the employment of Andrew Ross, a lens and telescope
manufacturer. Dallmeyer's position in this workshop appears to have been
an unpleasant one, and led him to take, for a time, employment as French
and German correspondent for a commercial firm. After a year he was,
however, re-engaged by Ross as scientific adviser, and was entrusted
with the testing and finishing of the highest class of optical
apparatus. This appointment led to his marriage with Ross's second
daughter, Hannah, and to the inheritance, at Ross's death (1859), of a
third of his employer's large fortune and the telescope manufacturing
portion of the business. Turning from astronomical work to the making of
photographic lenses (see PHOTOGRAPHY), he introduced improvements in
both portrait and landscape lenses, in object-glasses for the microscope
and in condensers for the optical lantern. In connexion with celestial
photography he constructed photo-heliographs for the Wilna observatory
in 1863, for the Harvard College observatory in 1864, and, in 1873,
several for the British government. Dallmeyer's instruments achieved a
wide success in Europe and America, taking the highest awards at various
international exhibitions. The Russian government gave him the order of
St Stanislaus, and the French government made him chevalier of the
Legion of Honour. He was for many years upon the councils of both the
Royal Astronomical and Royal Photographic societies. About 1880 he was
advised to give up the personal supervision of his workshops, and to
travel for his health, but he died on board ship, off the coast of New
Zealand, on the 30th of December 1883.
His second son, THOMAS RUDOLPHUS DALLMEYER (1859-1906), who assumed
control of the business on the failure of his father's health, was
principally known as the first to introduce telephotographic lenses into
ordinary practice (patented 1891), and he was the author of a standard
book on the subject (_Telephotography_, 1899). He served as president of
the Royal Photographic Society in 1900-1903.
DALL' ONGARO, FRANCESCO (1808-1873), Italian writer, born in Friuli, was
educated for the priesthood, but abandoned his orders, and taking to
political journalism founded the _Favilla_ at Trieste in the Liberal
interest. In 1848 he enlisted under Garibaldi, and next year was a
member of the assembly which proclaimed the republic in Rome, being
given by Mazzini the direction of the _Monitor officiale_. On the
downfall of the republic he fled to Switzerland, then to Belgium and
later to France, taking a prominent part in revolutionary journalism; it
was not till 1860 that he returned to Italy, where he was appointed
professor of dramatic literature at Florence. Subsequently he was
transferred to Naples, where he died on the 10th of January 1873. His
patriotic poems, _Stornelli_, composed in early life, had a great
popular success; and he produced a number of plays, notably
_Fornaretto_, _Bianca Capello_, _Fasma_ and _Il Tesoro_. His collected
_Fantasie drammatiche e liriche_ were published in his lifetime.
DALMATIA (Ger. _Dalmatien_; Ital. _Dalmazia_; Serbo-Croatian,
_Dalmacija_), a kingdom and crownland of the Austro-Hungarian empire, in
the north-west of the Balkan Peninsula, and on the Adriatic Sea.
Dalmatia is bounded, on the landward side, by Croatia and Bosnia, in the
N. and N.E.; and by Herzegovina and Montenegro, in the S.E. and S. Its
area amounts to 4923 sq. m.; its greatest length, from north-west to
south-east, is 210 m.; its breadth reaches 35 m. between Point Planca
and the Bosnian frontier, diminishing to less than 1 m. at Cattaro. Near
the ports of Klek and Castelnuovo the Herzegovinian frontier comes down
to the sea,[1] but only for a total distance of 14½ m.
_Physical Features._--No part of the Mediterranean shore, except the
coast of Greece, is so deeply indented as the Dalmatian littoral, with
its multitude of rock-bound bays and inlets. It is sheltered from the
open sea by a rampart of islands which vary greatly in size; a few being
large enough to support several thousand inhabitants, while others are
mere reefs, swept bare by the sea, or tenanted only by rabbits and
seabirds. This Dalmatian archipelago, separated from the Istrian by the
Gulf of Quarnerolo, forms two island groups, the northern or Liburnian,
and the southern; with open water intervening, off Point Planca. In calm
weather the channels between the islands and the mainland resemble a
chain of landlocked lakes, brilliantly clear to a depth of several
fathoms. As a rule, the surrounding hills are rugged, bleached almost
white or pale russet, and destitute of verdure; but their monotony is
relieved by the half-ruined castles and monasteries clinging to the
rocks, or by the beauty of such cities as Ragusa, or Arbe, with its
fantastic row of steeples overlooking the beach. The principal islands,
Arbe, Brazza, Curzola, Lacroma, Lesina, Lissa and Meleda, are described
under separate headings. The promontory of Sabbioncello, or Punta di
Stagno, which juts out for 41 m. into the sea, between Curzola and
Lesina, is almost another island; for its breadth, which nowhere exceeds
5 m., dwindles to about 1 m. at the narrow isthmus which unites it with
the shore. There are two small ports on this isthmus--on the south,
Stagno Grande (Serbo-Croatian, _Ston Veliki_), once celebrated for its
salt and shipbuilding industries, and, on the north, Stagno Piccolo
(_Ston Mali_). Dalmatia possesses a magnificent anchorage in the Bocche
di Cattaro, and there are numerous lesser havens, at Sebenico, Traù,
Zara and elsewhere along the coast and among the islands.
The country is almost everywhere hilly or mountainous. On the Croatian
border rises the lofty barrier of the Velebit, which culminates in Sveto
Brdo (5751 ft.), and Vakanski Vrh (5768 ft.). The Dinaric Alps form the
frontier between Dalmatia and Bosnia; Dinara (6007 ft.), which gives its
name to the whole chain, and Troglav (6276 ft.), being the highest
Dalmatian summits. North-west of Sinj rise the Svilaja and Mosec
Planinas; the ridges of Mosor and Biokovo, with Sveto Juraj (5781 ft.),
follow the windings of the coast from Spalato to Macarsca; Orjen marks
the meeting-place of the Herzegovinian, Montenegrin and Dalmatian
frontiers, and the Sutorman range appears in the extreme south. The
barren dry limestone of the Dalmatian highlands has been aptly compared
with a petrified sponge; for it is honeycombed with underground caverns
and water-courses, into which the rainfall is at once filtered. Thus
arises a complete system of subterranean rivers, with waterfalls, lakes
and regular seasons of flood. Even the few surface rivers vanish and
emerge again at intervals. The Trebinjcica, for instance, disappearing
in Herzegovina, supplies both the broad and swift estuary of Ombla, near
Ragusa, and the fresh-water spring of Doli, which issues from the bottom
of the sea. Apart from the Ombla, and the Narenta (Serbo-Croatian,
_Neretva_; Roman, _Naro_), which creates a broad marshy delta between
Metkovic and the sea, Dalmatia has only three rivers more than 25 m.
long; the Zermagna (_Zrmanja_, _Tedanium_), Kerka, (_Krka_, _Titius_),
and Cetina (_Cetina_; _Narona_ or _Tilurus_). The Zermagna skirts the
southern foothills of the Velebit and falls into the harbour of
Novigrad. Better known is the Kerka, which rises in the Dinaric Alps and
flows south-westward to the Adriatic. Near Scardona (_Skradin_) it
spreads into a broad lake, and forms several fine waterfalls, after
receiving its tributary the Cikola (_Cikola_), from the east. South of
Spalato, the Cetina, which also springs from the Dinaric Alps, descends
to the sea at Almissa (_Omis_), after passing between the Mosor and
Biokovo ranges. There are a few small lakes near Zara, Zaravecchia and
the Narenta estuary; while the fertile, but unhealthy, hollows among the
mountains fill with water after heavy rain, and sometimes cause
disastrous floods. But most parts of the country suffer from drought.
For an account of the chief geological formations see BALKAN PENINSULA.
Small quantities of iron, lignite, asphalt and bay salt are the only
minerals of commercial importance.
The climate is warm and healthy, the mean temperature at Zara being 57°
F., at Lesina 62°, and at Ragusa 63°. The prevailing wind is the
sirocco, or S.E.; but the terrible Bora, or N.N.E., may blow at any
season of the year. The average annual rainfall is about 28 in., but a
dry and a wet year usually alternate.
_Fauna._--Bears, badgers and wild cats, with a larger number of wolves
and foxes, find shelter in the Dinaric Alps and on the heights of
Svilaja, Mosor and Biokovo; while jackals exist on Curzola and
Sabbioncello, almost their last refuges in Europe. Roedeer are uncommon,
and the wild boar, chamois, red-deer and beaver are extinct; but hares
and rabbits abound. The game-laws are not strict, and are often evaded
by the Morlachs; but moderate sport may be obtained in the fens formed
by the Cetina about Sinj, and the lagoons of the Narenta estuary; both
regions being frequented by wild swans, geese, duck, snipe and other
aquatic birds. Among land-birds, the commonest are quails, woodcock,
partridges, and especially the so-called "stone-fowl" (_Steinhuhn_,
_Perdix Graeca_). Tortoises are numerous; snakes, lizards, scorpions and
innumerable sand-flies infest the dry hillsides; and the limestone
caverns are peopled by sightless bats, reptiles, fish, flies, beetles,
spiders, crustacea and molluscs.
_Fisheries._--No region of Europe is richer in its marine fauna and
flora. Sponge and coral fisheries afford a valuable source of income to
the peasantry, many of whom also go northward for the sardine and tunny
fisheries of the Istrian coast, while salmon, trout and eels are caught
in the Dalmatian rivers.
_Flora._--The olive, almond, fig, orange, palm, aloe, myrtle,
locust-tree and other characteristic members of the Mediterranean flora
thrive in the sheltered valleys of the Dalmatian littoral, where
almond-blossoms appear in mid-winter, and the palm occasionally bears
ripe fruit. The _marasca_, or wild cherry, is abundant, and yields the
celebrated liqueur called _maraschino_. But at a little distance from
the rivers and on the more exposed parts of the coast the aspect of the
country changes entirely. Patches of thin grass, heather, juniper,
thyme, tamarisks and mountain roses hardly relieve the bareness and
aridity of the seaward slopes.
_Forests._--Oaks, pines and beeches still, in a few parts, clothe the
landward slopes, but, as a rule, the forests for which Dalmatia was once
famous were cut down for the Venetian shipyards or burned by pirates;
while every attempt at replanting is frustrated by the shallowness of
the soil, the drought and the multitude of goats that browse on the
young trees.
_Agriculture._--Little more than one-tenth of the whole surface is under
the plough; the rest, where it is not altogether sterile, being chiefly
mountain pasture, vineyards and garden land. Asses are the favourite
beasts of burden; goats are strikingly numerous; and sheep are kept for
the sake of their mutton, which is almost the only animal food freely
consumed by the peasantry. Cattle-breeding, bee-keeping, and the
cultivation of fruit and vegetables, especially potatoes and beetroot,
are among the principal resources of the people, while wheat, rye,
barley, oats, Indian corn, hemp and millet are also grown. Viticulture
is carried on with great and increasing success (see WINE).
_Land-tenure._--Individual proprietorship of the soil is rare, for,
despite the decadence of the _zadruga_ or household community, the
tenure of land and the privilege of using the communal domain still
appertain to the family as a whole. There are a few large estates, but
most of the land is parcelled out in small holdings.
_Industries._--Besides fishing, farming and such allied trades as
shipbuilding, wine and oil pressing, and the distillation of spirits,
notably _maraschino_, a few other industries are practised, such as
tile-burning and the manufacture of soap; but these are of minor
importance. Certain crafts are also carried on by the country-folk, in
their own homes; thus the peasant is sometimes his own mason, carpenter,
weaver and miller. Manufactured goods and foodstuffs are imported, in
return for asphalt, lignite, bay salt, wine, spirits, oil, honey, wax
and hides; and there is a lucrative transit trade with Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Montenegro, Turkey and various Adriatic and Mediterranean
ports.
_Communications._--Communications are defective, some parts of the
interior being only accessible by the roughest of mountain roads. The
principal railway, in point of size, traverses the central districts,
linking together Knin, Spalato, Sebenico and Sinj; but the southern
lines, which unite Dalmatia with Herzegovina and terminate at Ragusa,
Metkovic and Castlenuovo on the Bocche di Cattaro, are almost of equal
importance, Cattaro being one of the chief outlets for Montenegrin
commerce, while the vessels which steam up the Narenta to Metkovic carry
the bulk of the sea-borne trade of Herzegovina. In 1897 Dalmatia
possessed 151 post and 98 telegraph offices.
_Chief Towns._--The chief towns are Zara, the capital, with 32,506[2]
inhabitants in 1900, Spalato (27,198), Sebenico (24,751), Traù (17,064),
Ragusa (13,174), Macarsca (11,016), and Cattaro (5418). All these are
described under separate headings.
_Population and National Characteristics._--With a constant excess of
male over female children, the population increased steadily from 1869
to 1900, when it reached 591,597. Of this total 1% are foreigners and
about 3% Italians, whose numbers tend slowly to diminish. The Morlachs,
who constitute the remaining 96%, belong to the Serbo-Croatian branch of
the Slavonic race, having absorbed the Latinized Illyrians, Albanians
and other alien elements with which they have been associated. The name
of _Morlachs_, _Morlaks_ or _Morlacks_ commonly bestowed by English
writers on the Dalmatian Slavs, though sometimes restricted to the
peasantry of the hills, is an abbreviated form of _Mavrovlachi_, meaning
either "Black Vlachs," or, less probably, "Sea Vlachs." It was
originally applied to the scattered remnants of the Latin or Latinized
inhabitants of central Illyria, who were driven from their homes by the
barbarian invaders during the 7th century, and took refuge among the
mountains. Throughout the middle ages the Mavrovlachi were usually
nomadic shepherds, cattle-drovers or muleteers. In the 14th century they
emigrated from central Illyria into northern Dalmatia and maritime
Croatia; and these regions were thenceforward known as _Morlacchia_,
until the 18th century. Gradually, however, the Mavrovlachi became
identified with the Slavs, whose language and manners they adopted, and
to whom they gave their own name. In northern Dalmatia the Slavs of the
interior are still called _Morlacchi_; in the south this name expresses
contempt. Of the Vlachs, properly so called, very few are left in the
country; although the name Vlachs (q.v.) is frequently used by the Slavs
to designate the Italians and the town-dwellers generally. The literary
languages of Dalmatia are Italian and Serbo-Croatian; the spoken
language is, in each case, modified by the introduction of various
dialect forms.
The Morlachs wear a picturesque and brightly-coloured costume,
resembling that of the Serbs (see SERVIA). In appearance they are
sometimes blond, with blue or grey eyes, like the Shumadian peasantry of
Servia; more often, olive-skinned, with dark hair and eyes, like the
Montenegrins, whom they rival in stature, strength and courage; while
their conservative spirit, their devotion to national traditions, poetry
and music, their pride, indolence and superstition, are typically
Servian. Dalmatian public life is deeply affected by the jealousies
which subsist between the Slavs and the Italians, whose influence,
though everywhere waning, remains predominant in some of the towns; and
between Orthodox "Serbs," who use the Cyrillic alphabet, and Roman
Catholic "Croats," who prefer the Latin.
_Government._--Dalmatia occupies a somewhat anomalous position in the
Austro-Hungarian state system. Itself a crownland of Austria, returning
eleven members to the Austrian parliament, it is severed geographically
from the other Austrian lands by the Hungarian kingdom of Croatia.
Ethnologically it is one with Croatia, and it is included in the
official title of the Croatian king, i.e. the emperor. The political
system is based on a law of the 26th of February 1861. The provincial
diet is composed of 43 members, comprising the Roman Catholic
archbishop, the Orthodox bishop of Zara and representatives of the chief
taxpayers, the towns and the communes. Benkovac, on the main road from
Zara to Spalato, Cattaro, Curzola, Imotski, 21 m. N. by E. of Macarsca,
Knin, Lesina, Macarsca, Ragusa, Sebenico, Sinj, Spalato and Zara, give
names to the twelve administrative districts, of which they are the
capitals.
_Defence._--Conscription is in force, as elsewhere in Austria, and the
Dalmatian coast furnishes the Austrian--as formerly the Venetian--navy
with many of its best recruits.
_Religion._--Roman Catholicism is the religion of more than 80% of the
population, the remainder belonging chiefly to the Orthodox Church. The
Roman Catholic archbishop has his seat in Zara, while Cattaro, Lesina,
Ragusa, Sebenico and Spalato are bishoprics. At the head of the Orthodox
community stands the bishop of Zara.
The use of Slavonic liturgies written in the Glagolitic alphabet, a very
ancient privilege of the Roman Catholics in Dalmatia and Croatia, caused
much controversy during the first years of the 20th century. There was
considerable danger that the Latin liturgies would be altogether
superseded by the Glagolitic, especially among the northern islands and
in rural communes, where the Slavonic element is all-powerful. In 1904
the Vatican forbade the use of Glagolitic at the festival of SS. Cyril
and Methodius, as likely to impair the unity of Catholicism. A few
years previously the Slavonic archbishop Rajcevic of Zara, in discussing
the "Glagolitic controversy," had denounced the movement as "an
innovation introduced by Panslavism to make it easy for the Catholic
clergy, after any great revolution in the Balkan States, to break with
Latin Rome." This view is shared by very many, perhaps by the majority,
of the Roman Catholics in Dalmatia.
_Education._--Education progressed slowly between 1860 and 1900,
attendance at school being often a hardship in the poor and widely
scattered hamlets of the interior. In 1890 more than 80% of the
population could neither read nor write, although schools are maintained
by every commune. In 1893 the country possessed 5 intermediate and 337
elementary schools, 6 theological seminaries, 6 gymnasia, and about 40
continuation and technical schools.
_Antiquities._--To the foreign visitor Dalmatia is chiefly interesting
as a treasury of art and antiquities. The grave-mounds of Curzola,
Lesina and Sabbioncello have yielded a few relics of prehistoric man,
and the memory of the early Celtic conquerors and Greek settlers is
preserved only in a few place-names; but the monuments left by the
Romans are numerous and precious. They are chiefly confined to the
cities; for the civilization of the country was always urban, just as
its history is a record of isolated city-states rather than of a united
nation. Beyond the walls of its larger towns, little was spared by the
barbarian Goths, Avars and Slavs; and the battered fragments of Roman
work which mark the sites of Salona, near Spalato, and of many other
ancient cities, are of slight antiquarian interest and slighter artistic
value. Among the monuments of the Roman period, by far the most
noteworthy in Dalmatia, and, indeed, in the whole Balkan Peninsula, is
the Palace of Diocletian at Spalato (q.v.). Dalmatian architecture was
Byzantine in its general character from the 6th century until the close
of the 10th. The oldest memorials of this period are the vestiges of
three basilicas, excavated in Salona, and dating from the first half of
the 7th century at latest. Byzantine art, in the latter half of this
period and the two succeeding centuries, continued to flourish in those
cities which, like Zara, gave their allegiance to Venice; just as, in
the architecture of Traù and other cities dominated by Hungary, there
are distinct traces of German influence. The belfry of S. Maria, at
Zara, erected in 1105, is first in a long list of Romanesque buildings.
At Arbe there is a beautiful Romanesque campanile which also belongs to
the 12th century; but the finest example in this style is the cathedral
of Traù. The 14th century Dominican and Franciscan convents in Ragusa
are also noteworthy. Romanesque lingered on in Dalmatia until it was
displaced by Venetian Gothic in the early years of the 15th century. The
influence of Venice was then at its height. Even in the hostile republic
of Ragusa the Romanesque of the custom-house and Rectors' palace is
combined with Venetian Gothic, while the graceful balconies and ogee
windows of the Prijeki closely follow their Venetian models. Gothic,
however, which had been adopted very late, was abandoned very early; for
in 1441 Giorgio Orsini of Zara, summoned from Venice to design the
cathedral of Sebenico, brought with him the influence of the Italian
Renaissance. The new forms which he introduced were eagerly imitated and
developed by other architects, until the period of decadence--which
virtually concludes the history of Dalmatian art--set in during the
latter half of the 17th century. Special mention must be made of the
carved woodwork, embroideries and plate preserved in many churches. The
silver statuette and the reliquary of St Biagio at Ragusa, and the
silver ark of St Simeon at Zara, are fine specimens of Byzantine and
Italian jewellers' work, ranging in date from the 11th or 12th to the
17th century.
HISTORY
_Dalmatia under Roman Rule_, A.D. 9-1102.--The history of Dalmatia may
be said to begin with the year 180 B.C., when the tribe from which the
country derives its name declared itself independent of Gentius, the
Illyrian king, and established a republic. Its capital was
Delminium[3]; its territory stretched northwards from the Narenta to the
Cetina, and later to the Kerka, where it met the confines of Liburnia.
In 156 B.C. the Dalmatians were for the first time attacked by a Roman
army and compelled to pay tribute; but only in the time of Augustus (31
B.C.-A.D. 14) was their land finally annexed, after the last of many
formidable revolts had been crushed by Tiberius in A.D. 9. This event
was followed by total submission and a ready acceptance of the Latin
civilization which overspread Illyria (q.v.). The downfall of the
Western Empire left this region subject to Gothic rulers, Odoacer and
Theodoric, from 476 to 535, when it was added by Justinian to the
Eastern Empire. The great Slavonic migration into Illyria, which wrought
a complete change in the fortunes of Dalmatia, took place in the first
half of the 7th century. In other parts of the Balkan Peninsula these
invaders--Serbs, Croats or Bulgars--found little difficulty in expelling
or absorbing the native population. But here they were baffled when
confronted by the powerful maritime city-states, highly civilized, and
able to rely on the moral if not the material support of their kinsfolk
in Italy. Consequently, while the country districts were settled by the
Slavs, the Latin or Italian population flocked for safety to Ragusa,
Zara and other large towns, and the whole country was thus divided
between two frequently hostile communities. This opposition was
intensified by the schism between Eastern and Western Christianity
(1054), the Slavs as a rule preferring the Orthodox or sometimes the
Bogomil creed, while the Italians were firmly attached to the Papacy.
Not until the 15th century did the rival races contribute to a common
civilization in the literature of Ragusa. To such a division of
population may be attributed the two dominant characteristics of local
history--the total absence of national as distinguished from civic life,
and the remarkable development of art, science and literature. Bosnia,
Servia and Bulgaria had each its period of national greatness, but
remained intellectually backward; Dalmatia failed ever to attain
political or racial unity, but the Dalmatian city-states, isolated and
compelled to look to Italy for support, shared perforce in the march of
Italian civilization. Their geographical position suffices to explain
the relatively small influence exercised by Byzantine culture throughout
the six centuries (535-1102) during which Dalmatia was part of the
Eastern empire. Towards the close of this period Byzantine rule tended
more and more to become merely nominal. In 806 Dalmatia was added to the
Holy Roman empire, but was soon restored; in 829 the coast was ravaged
by Saracens. A strange republic of Servian pirates arose at the mouth of
the Narenta. In the 10th century description of Dalmatia by Constantine
Porphyrogenitus (_De Administrando Imperio_, 29-37), this region is
called _Pagania_, from the fact that its inhabitants had only accepted
Christianity about 890, or 250 years later than the other Slavs. These
_Pagani_, or _Arentani_ (Narentines), utterly defeated a Venetian fleet
despatched against them in 887, and for more than a century exacted
tribute from Venice itself. In 998 they were finally crushed by the doge
Pietro Orseolo II., who assumed the title duke of Dalmatia, though
without prejudice to Byzantine suzerainty. Meanwhile the Croatian kings
had extended their rule over northern and central Dalmatia, exacting
tribute from the Italian cities, Traù, Zara and others, and
consolidating their own power in the purely Slavonic towns, such as Nona
or Belgrad (Zaravecchia). The Church was involved in the general
confusion; for the synod of Spalato, in 1059, had forbidden the use of
any but Greek or Latin liturgies, and so had accentuated the differences
between Latin and Slav. A raid of Norman corsairs in 1073 was hardly
defeated with the help of a Venetian fleet.
_Rivalry of Venice and Hungary in Dalmatia_, 1102-1420.--Unable amid
such dissensions to stand alone, unprotected by the Eastern empire and
hindered by their internal dissensions from uniting in a defensive
league, the city-states turned to Venice and Hungary for support. The
Venetians, to whom they were already bound by race, language and
culture, could afford to concede liberal terms because their own
principal aims was not the territorial aggrandizement sought by Hungary,
but only such a supremacy as might prevent the development of any
dangerous political or commercial competitor on the eastern Adriatic.
Hungary had also its partisans; for in the Dalmatian city-states, like
those of Greece and Italy, there were almost invariably two jealous
political factions, each ready to oppose any measure advocated by its
antagonist. The origin of this division seems here to have been
economic. The farmers and the merchants who traded in the interior
naturally favoured Hungary, their most powerful neighbour on land; while
the seafaring community looked to Venice as mistress of the Adriatic. In
return for protection, the cities often furnished a contingent to the
army or navy of their suzerain, and sometimes paid tribute either in
money or in kind. Arbe, for example, annually paid ten pounds of silk or
five pounds of gold to Venice. The citizens clung to their municipal
privileges, which were reaffirmed after the conquest of Dalmatia in
1102-1105 by Coloman of Hungary. Subject to the royal assent they might
elect their own chief magistrate, bishop and judges. Their Roman law
remained valid. They were even permitted to conclude separate alliances.
No alien, not even a Hungarian, could reside in a city where he was
unwelcome; and the man who disliked Hungarian dominion could emigrate
with all his household and property. In lieu of tribute, the revenue
from customs was in some cases shared equally by the king, chief
magistrate, bishop and municipality. These rights and the analogous
privileges granted by Venice were, however, too frequently infringed,
Hungarian garrisons being quartered on unwilling towns, while Venice
interfered with trade, with the appointment of bishops, or with the
tenure of communal domains. Consequently the Dalmatians remained loyal
only while it suited their interests, and insurrections frequently
occurred. Even in Zara four outbreaks are recorded between 1180 and
1345, although Zara was treated with special consideration by its
Venetian masters, who regarded its possession as essential to their
maritime ascendancy. The doubtful allegiance of the Dalmatians tended to
protract the struggle between Venice and Hungary, which was further
complicated by internal discord due largely to the spread of the Bogomil
heresy; and by many outside influences, such as the vague suzerainty
still enjoyed by the Eastern emperors during the 12th century; the
assistance rendered to Venice by the armies of the Fourth Crusade in
1202; and the Tartar invasion of Dalmatia forty years later (see Traù).
The Slavs were no longer regarded as a hostile race, but the power of
certain Croatian magnates, notably the counts of Bribir, was from time
to time supreme in the northern districts (see CROATIA-SLAVONIA); and
Stephen Tvrtko, the founder of the Bosnian kingdom, was able in 1389 to
annex the whole Adriatic littoral between Cattaro and Fiume, except
Venetian Zara and his own independent ally, Ragusa (see BOSNIA AND
HERZEGOVINA). Finally, the rapid decline of Bosnia, and of Hungary
itself when assailed by the Turks, rendered easy the success of Venice;
and in 1420 the whole of Dalmatia, except Almissa, which yielded in
1444, and Ragusa, which preserved its freedom, either submitted or was
conquered. Many cities welcomed the change with its promise of
tranquillity.
_Venetian and Turkish Rule_, 1420-1797.--An interval of peace ensued,
but meanwhile the Turkish advance continued. Constantinople fell in
1453, Servia in 1459, Bosnia in 1463 and Herzegovina in 1483. Thus the
Venetian and Ottoman frontiers met; border wars were incessant; Ragusa
sought safety in friendship with the invaders. In 1508 the hostile
league of Cambrai compelled Venice to withdraw its garrison for home
service, and after the overthrow of Hungary at Mohács in 1526 the Turks
were able easily to conquer the greater part of Dalmatia. The peace of
1540 left only the maritime cities to Venice, the interior forming a
Turkish province, governed from the fortress of Clissa by a _Sanjakbeg_,
or administrator with military powers. Christian Slavs from the
neighbouring lands now thronged to the towns, outnumbering the Italian
population and introducing their own language, but falling under the
influence of the Roman Catholic Church. The pirate community of the
Uskoks (q.v.) had originally been a band of these fugitives; its
exploits contributed to a renewal of war between Venice and Turkey
(1571-1573). An extremely curious picture of contemporary manners is
presented by the Venetian agents,[4] whose reports on this war resemble
some knightly chronicle of the middle ages, full of single combats,
tournaments and other chivalrous adventures. They also show clearly that
the Dalmatian levies far surpassed the Italian mercenaries in skill and
courage. Many of these troops served abroad; at Lepanto, for example, in
1571, a Dalmatian squadron assisted the allied fleets of Spain, Venice,
Austria and the Papal States to crush the Turkish navy. A fresh war
broke out in 1645, lasting intermittently until 1699, when the peace of
Carlowitz gave the whole of Dalmatia to Venice, including the coast of
Herzegovina, but excluding the domains of Ragusa and the protecting band
of Ottoman territory which surrounded them. After further fighting this
delimitation was confirmed in 1718 by the treaty of Passarowitz; and it
remains valid, though modified by the destruction of Ragusan liberty and
the substitution of Austria-Hungary for Venice and Turkey.
The intellectual life of Dalmatia during the 15th, 16th and 17th
centuries reached a higher level than any attained by the purely
Slavonic peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. Its chief monuments are
described elsewhere,--the work of the Ragusan poets and historians as a
part of Servian literature, the scientific achievements of R. G.
Boscovich and Marcantonio de Dominis in separate biographies.
Architecture and art generally have been discussed above. But this
intellectual development was the work of a small and opulent minority in
all the cities except Ragusa. Popular education was neglected; Zara had
no printing-press until 1796; Venetian Dalmatia possessed only one
public school, and that an ecclesiastical seminary; and even the sons of
the rich, though free to visit the universities of Italy, France,
Holland and England, ran the risk of exile or worse punishment if they
brought home too liberal a culture. Poorer students learned what they
could from the clergy, and the peasantry were wholly illiterate.
Although the secular power of the Church was strictly limited, the
country was overrun by ecclesiastics. When Fortis visited the island of
Arbe in the 18th century, he found a population of 3000, mostly
fishermen, contributing to the stipends of sixty priests. There were
also three monasteries and three nunneries. Heavy taxes, the salt
monopoly, reckless destruction of timber, and a deliberate attempt to
ruin the oil and silk industries, were among the means by which Venice
prevented competition with its own trade. Although justice was fairly
well administered and some show of municipal autonomy conceded, the
right of electing a chief magistrate had been withheld after 1420; and
the Grand Council or Senate of each city, losing its original democratic
character, had degenerated into a mere tool of the resident Venetian
agents (_provveditori_), officials who held their post for thirty-two
months and were subject to little effective control. Nevertheless, 150
years of war against the common Turkish enemy had drawn the Venetians
and their subjects closely together, and the loyalty of the Dalmatian
soldiers and sailors abroad, if not of their fellow-citizens at home,
rests beyond doubt.
_Dalmatia after 1797._--After the fall of the Venetian republic in 1797,
the treaty of Campo Formio gave Dalmatia to Austria. The republics of
Ragusa and Poglizza retained their independence, and Ragusa grew rich by
its neutrality during the earlier Napoleonic wars. By the peace of
Pressburg in 1805 the country was handed over to France, but its
occupation was ineffectually contested by a Russian force which seized
the Bocche di Cattaro and induced the Montenegrins to render aid.
Poglizza was deprived of its independence by Napoleon in 1807, Ragusa
in 1808. In 1809 the French troops were withdrawn, but in the same year
Dalmatia was restored to France and united to the Illyrian kingdom by
the treaty of Vienna. A British naval force under Captain Hoste, after a
successful engagement with a small French squadron off Lissa, occupied
the islands of Curzola, Lesina and Lagosta from 1812 to 1815, and
established a considerable overland trade through Dalmatia, Austria and
Germany. The allied British and Austrian forces drove out the last
French garrison in 1814, and in 1815 Dalmatia was finally incorporated
in the Austro-Hungarian empire, with which its history has since been
identified. Its subsequent tranquillity has only been disturbed by the
ineffectual risings of 1869 and 1881-1882, which took place near Cattaro
(q.v.). For an account of the development of Croatian nationalism among
the Dalmatians, during the 19th and 20th centuries, see
CROATIA-SLAVONIA.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--A minute and accurate account of Dalmatian history, art
(especially architecture), antiquities and topography, is given by T.
G. Jackson, in _Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria_ (Oxford, 1887), (3
vols. illustrated). E. A. Freeman, _Subject and Neighbour Lands of
Venice_ (London, 1881), and G. Modrich, _La Dalmazia_ (Turin, 1892),
describe the chief towns, their history and antiquities. Much
miscellaneous information is contained in the following mainly
topographical works:--P. Bauron, _Les Rives illyriennes_ (Paris,
1888); Sir A. A. Paton, _Highlands and Islands of the Adriatic_
(London, 1849); Sir J. G. Wilkinson, _Dalmatia and Montenegro_
(London, 1840); A. Fortis, _Travels into Dalmatia_ (London, 1778); and
the periodicals, _Rivista Dalmatica_ (Zara, 1899, &c.), and _Annuario
Dalmatico_ (Zara, 1884, &c.). The best maps are those of the Austrian
General Staff and Vincenzo de Haardt's _Zemljovid Kraljevine
Dalmacije_ (Zara, 1892). See also for trade, the Annual British
Consular Reports; for sport, "Snaffle," _In the Land of the Bora_
(London, 1897); for Roman and pre-Roman antiquities, R. Munro,
_Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia_ (Edinburgh, 1904). Besides the works
mentioned above, and those by Farlatus, Makushev, Miklosich, Theiner,
Shafarik, Orbini and du Cange, which are quoted under BOSNIA AND
HERZEGOVINA, the chief authority for Dalmatian history is G. Lucio
(Lucius of Traù), _De regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae, a gentis origine ad
annum 1480_ (Amsterdam, 1666). To this edition are appended the works
of the Presbyter Diocleas, Thomas of Spalato and other native
chroniclers from the 12th century onwards. An Italian translation,
omitting the appendix, was published at Trieste in 1892, entitled
_Storia del Regno di Dalmatia e di Croazia_, and edited by Luigi
Cesare. Lucio's work is singularly trustworthy and scientific. See
also P. Pisani, _La Dalmatie de 1797 à 1815_ (Paris, 1893).
(K. G. J.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This arrangement is based on the terms of the peace of Carlowitz
1699 (articles IX. and XI. of the Turco-Venetian Treaty). It is due
to the commercial and maritime rivalry between Venice and Ragusa. The
Ragusans bribed the Turkish envoys at Carlowitz to stipulate for a
double extension of the Ottoman dominions down to the Adriatic; and
thus the Ragusan lands, which otherwise would have bordered upon the
Dalmatian possessions of Venice, were surrounded by neutral
territory.
[2] These figures, taken from the Austrian official returns, include
the population of the entire commune, not merely the urban residents.
Only in Zara, Spalato, Sebenico and Ragusa, do the actual townsfolk
number more than 1000.
[3] Also written _Dalminium_, _Deminium_, and _Delmis_. Thomas of
Spalato (c. 1200-1250) mentions that the site of Delminium had been
forgotten in his time, although certain ancient walls among the
mountains were believed to be its ruins. It has been variously
identified, by modern archaeologists, with Almissa, on the coast,
Dalen, in the Herzegovina, Duvno, near Sinj, and Gardun, in the same
locality. It was evidently a stronghold of considerable size and
importance, and Appian (_De bellis Illyricis_) alludes to its almost
impregnable fortifications.
[4] Long extracts from these reports or diaries are published by
Wilkinson, _Dalmatia and Montenegro_ (London, 1840), ii. 297-350.
DALMATIC (Lat. _dalmatica_, _tunica dalmatica_), a liturgical vestment
of the Western Church, proper to deacons, as the tunicle (_tunicella_)
is to subdeacons. Dalmatic and tunicle are now, however, practically
identical in shape and size; though, strictly, the latter should be
somewhat smaller and with narrower arms. In most countries, e.g.
England, France, Spain and Germany, dalmatic and tunicle are now no
longer tunics, but scapular-like cloaks, with an opening for the head to
pass through and square lappets falling from the shoulder over the upper
part of the arm; in Italy, on the other hand, though open up the side,
they still have regular sleeves and are essentially tunics. The most
characteristic ornament of the dalmatic and tunicle is the vertical
stripes running from the shoulder to the lower hem, these being
connected by a cross-band, the position of which differs in various
countries (see figs. 3, 4). Less essential are the orphreys on the hem
of the arms and the fringes along the slits at the sides and the lower
hem. The tassels hanging from either shoulder at the back (see fig. 6),
formerly very much favoured, have now largely gone out of use.
The _dalmatica_, which originated--as its name implies--in Dalmatia,
came into fashion in the Roman world in the 2nd century A.D. It was a
loose tunic with very wide sleeves, and was worn over the _tunica alba_
by the better class of citizens (see. fig. 2). According to the _Liber
pontificalis_ (ed. Duchesne, l. 171) the dalmatic was first introduced
as a vestment in public worship by Pope Silvester I. (314-335), who
ordered it to be worn by the deacons; but Braun (_Liturg. Gewandung_, p.
250) thinks that it was probably in use by the popes themselves so early
as the 3rd century, since St Cyprian (d. 258) is mentioned as wearing it
when he went to his death. If this be so, it was probably given to the
Roman deacons to distinguish them from the other clergy and to mark
their special relations to the pope. However this may be, the dalmatic
remained for centuries the vestment distinctive of the pope and his
deacons, and--according at least to the view held at Rome--could be worn
by other clergy only by special concession of the pope. Thus Pope
Symmachus (498-514) granted the right to wear it to the deacons of
Bishop Caesarius of Arles; and so late as 757 Pope Stephen II. gave
permission to Fulrad, abbot of St Denis, to be assisted by six deacons
at mass, and these are empowered to wear "the robe of honour of the
dalmatic." How far, however, this rule was strictly observed, and what
was the relation of the Roman dalmatic to the diaconal alba and
subdiaconal tunica, which were in liturgical use in Gaul and Spain so
early as the 6th century, are moot points (see Braun, p. 252). The
dalmatic was in general use at the beginning of the 9th century, partly
as a result of the Carolingian reforms, which established the Roman
model in western Europe; but it continued to be granted by the popes to
distinguished ecclesiastics not otherwise entitled to wear it, e.g. to
abbots or to the cardinal priests of important cathedrals. So far as the
records show, Pope John XIII. (965-972) was the first to bestow the
right to wear the dalmatic on an abbot, and Pope Benedict VII. the first
to grant it to a cardinal priest of a foreign cathedral (975). The
present rule was firmly established by the 11th century. According to
the actual use of the Roman Catholic Church dalmatic and tunicle are
worn by deacon and subdeacon when assisting at High Mass, and at solemn
processions and benedictions. They are, however, traditionally vestments
symbolical of joy (the bishop in placing the dalmatic on the newly
ordained deacon says:--"May the Lord clothe thee in the tunic of joy and
the garment of rejoicing"), and they are therefore not worn during
seasons of fasting and penitence or functions connected with these, the
folded chasuble (_paenula plicata_) being substituted (see CHASUBLE).
Dalmatic and tunicle are never worn by priests, as priests, but both are
worn by bishops under the chasuble (never under the cope) and also by
those prelates, not being bishops, to whom the pope has conceded the
right to wear the episcopal vestments.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Deacon in dalmatic, apparelled amice and alb.]
In England at the Reformation the dalmatic ultimately shared the fate of
the chasuble and other mass vestments. It was, however, certainly one of
the "ornaments of the minister" in the second year of Edward VI., the
rubric in the office for Holy Communion directing the priest's "helpers"
to wear "albes with tunacles." In many Anglican churches it has
therefore been restored, as a result of the ritual revival of the 19th
century, it being claimed that its use is obligatory under the
"ornaments rubric" of the Book of Common Prayer (see VESTMENTS).
In the Eastern churches the only vestment that has any true analogy with
the dalmatic or liturgical upper tunic is the _sakkos_, the tunic worn
by deacons and subdeacons over their everyday clothes being the
equivalent of the Western alb (q.v.). The sakkos, which, as a liturgical
vestment, first appears in the 12th century as peculiar to patriarchs,
is now a scapular-like robe very similar to the modern dalmatic (see
fig. 5). Its origin is almost certainly the richly embroidered dalmatic
that formed part of the consular insignia, which under the name of
sakkos became a robe of state special to the emperors. It is clear,
then, that this vestment can only have been assumed with the emperor's
permission; and Braun suggests (p. 305) that its use was granted to the
patriarchs, after the completion of the schism of East and West, in
order "in some sort to give them the character, in outward appearance as
well, of popes of the East." Its use is confined to the Greek rite. In
the Greek and Greek-Melchite churches it is confined to the
patriarchs and metropolitans; in the Russian, Ruthenian and Bulgarian
churches it is worn by all bishops. Unlike the practice of the Latin
church, it is not worn under, but has replaced the phelonion (chasuble).
[Illustration: PLATE I.
FIG. 2.--TUNIC OF LINEN, WOVEN WITH BANDS OF PURPLE WOOL EMBROIDERED
WITH WHITE FLAX.
From the tombs at Akhmim. Egypto-Roman; 1st to 4th century. (In the
Victoria and Albert Museum.)
FIG. 3.--BACK OF A DALMATIC OF STAMPED GREEN WOOLLEN VELVET: THE
ORPHREYS AND APPARELS ARE OF EMBROIDERED SILK VELVET.
The two figures on the cross-band or apparel represent St. Gregory the
Great and St. Augustine. The shields of arms are for the dukes of
Jülich and Berg, counts of Ravensberg, and for the electors of
Bavaria. Said to have come from the church of St. Severin, Cologne.
German (Cologne); second half of 15th century. (In the Victoria and
Albert Museum.)]
[Illustration: PLATE II.
FIG. 4.--DALMATIC OF WHITE SATIN EMRROIDERED WITH COLOURED SILKS AND
SILVER-GILT AND SILVER THREAD
Spanish; early 17th century. (In the Victoria and Albert Museum.)
FIG. 5.--GREEK SAKKOS, OF RED SATIN EMBROIDERED WITH SILVER-GILT AND
SILVER THREAD WITH SILK.
It has the names and arms of two archbishops. 18th century. (In the
Victoria and Albert Museum.)
FIG. 6.--DALMATIC OF POPE PIUS V.
An early example of the modern Roman type. Roman; 16th century.
Preserved at Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome. From a photograph taken by
Father J. Braun (in _Die liturgische Gewandung_), by permission of B.
Herder.]
A silk dalmatic forms one (the undermost) of the English coronation
robes. Its use would seem to have been borrowed, not from the robes of
the Eastern emperors, but from the church, and to symbolize with the
other robes the quasi-sacerdotal character of the kingship (see
CORONATION). The magnificent so-called dalmatic of Charlemagne,
preserved at Rome (see EMBROIDERY), is really a Greek sakkos.
See Joseph Braun, S.J., _Die liturgische Gewandung_ (Freiburg im
Breisgau, 1907), pp. 247-305. For further references and illustrations
see the article VESTMENTS. (W. A. P.)
DALMELLINGTON, a village of Ayrshire, Scotland, 15 m. S.E. of Ayr by a
branch line, of which it is the terminus, of the Glasgow & South-Western
railway. Pop. (1901) 1448. The district is rich in minerals--coal,
ironstone, sandstone and limestone. Though the place is of great
antiquity, the Roman road running near it, few remains of any interest
exist. It was, however, a centre of activity in the Covenanting times.
DALOU, JULES (1838-1902), French sculptor, was the pupil of Carpeaux and
Duret, and combined the vivacity and richness of the one with the
academic purity and scholarship of the other. He is one of the most
brilliant virtuosos of the French school, admirable alike in taste,
execution and arrangement. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1867, but
when in 1871 the troubles of the Commune broke out in Paris, he took
refuge in England, where he rapidly made a name through his appointment
at South Kensington. Here he laid the foundation of that great
improvement which resulted in the development of the modern British
school of sculpture, and at the same time executed a remarkable series
of terra-cotta statuettes and groups, such as "A French Peasant Woman"
(of which a bronze version under the title of "Maternity" is erected
outside the Royal Exchange), the group of two Boulogne women called "The
Reader" and "A Woman of Boulogne telling her Beads." He returned to
France in 1879 and produced a number of masterpieces. His great relief
of "Mirabeau replying to M. de Dreux-Brézé," exhibited in 1883 and now
at the Palais Bourbon, and the highly decorative panel, "Triumph of the
Republic," were followed in 1885 by "The Procession of Silenus." For the
city of Paris he executed his most elaborate and splendid achievement,
the vast monument, "The Triumph of the Republic," erected, after twenty
years' work, in the Place de la Nation, showing a symbolical figure of
the Republic, aloft on her car, drawn by lions led by Liberty, attended
by Labour and Justice, and followed by Peace. It is somewhat in the
taste of the Louis XIV. period, ornate, but exquisite in every detail.
Within a few days there was also inaugurated his great "Monument to
Alphand" (1899), which almost equalled in the success achieved the
monument to Delacroix in the Luxembourg Gardens. Dalou, who gained the
_Grand Prix_ of the International exhibition of 1889, and was an officer
of the Legion of Honour, was one of the founders of the New Salon
(_Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts_), and was the first president of the
sculpture section. In portraiture, whether statues or busts, his work is
not less remarkable.
DALRADIAN, in geology, a series of metamorphic rocks, typically
developed in the high ground which lies E. and S. of the Great Glen of
Scotland. This was the old Celtic region of Dalradia, and in 1891 Sir A.
Geikie proposed the name Dalradian as a convenient provisional
designation for the complicated set of rocks to which it is difficult to
assign a definite position in the stratigraphical sequence (_Q.J.G.S._
47, p. 75). In Sir A. Geikie's words, "they consist in large proportion
of altered sedimentary strata, now found in the form of mica-schist,
graphite-schist, andalusite-schist, phyllite, schistose grit, greywacke
and conglomerate, quartzite, limestone and other rocks, together with
epidiorites, chlorite-schists, hornblende schists and other allied
varieties, which probably mark sills, lava-sheets or beds of tuff,
intercalated among the sediments. The total thickness of this assemblage
of rocks must be many thousand feet." The Dalradian series includes the
"Eastern or Younger schists" of eastern Sutherland, Ross-shire and
Inverness-shire--the Moine gneiss, &c.--as well as the metamorphosed
sedimentary and eruptive rocks of the central, eastern and south-western
Highlands. The series has been traced into the north-western counties of
Ireland. The whole of the Dalradian complex has suffered intense
crushing and thrusting.
See PRE-CAMBRIAN; also J. B. Hill, _Q.J.G.S._, 1899, 55, and G.
Barrow, loc. cit., 1901, 57, and the _Annual Reports and Summaries of
Progress of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom_ from 1893
onwards.
DALRIADA, the name of two ancient Gaelic kingdoms, one in Ireland and
the other in Scotland. The name means the home of the descendants of
Riada. Irish Dalriada was the district which now forms the northern part
of county Antrim, and from which about A.D. 500 some emigrants crossed
over to Scotland, and founded in Argyllshire the Scottish kingdom of
Dalriada. For a time Scottish Dalriada appears to have been dependent
upon Irish Dalriada, but about 575 King Aidan secured its independence.
One of Aidan's successors, Kenneth, became king of the Picts about 843,
and gradually the name Dalriada both in Ireland and Scotland fell into
disuse.
See W. F. Skene, _Celtic Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1876-1880).
DALRY (Gaelic, "the field of the king"), a mining and manufacturing town
of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Garnock, 23¼ m. S.W. of Glasgow, by the
Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 5316. The public buildings
include the library and reading-room, the assembly rooms, Davidshill
hospital, Temperance hall and night asylum. There is a public park. The
industries consist of woollen factories, worsted spinning, box-,
cabinet-, coke- and brick-making, machine-knitting, currying and the
manufacture of aerated waters. Coal and iron are found, but mining is
not extensively pursued. In the vicinity are the iron works of Blair and
Glengarnock, and a curious stalactite cave, known as Elf House, 30 ft.
high and about 200 ft. long, offering some resemblance to a pointed
aisle. Rye Water flows into the Garnock close to the town. Captain
Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill (1530-1603), the captor of Dumbarton
Castle, spent the closing years of his life at Dalry, where a
considerable estate had been granted to him.
DALTON, JOHN (1766-1844), English chemist and physicist, was born about
the 6th of September 1766 at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth in
Cumberland. His father, Joseph Dalton, was a weaver in poor
circumstances, who, with his wife (Deborah Greenup), belonged to the
Society of Friends; they had three children--Jonathan, John and Mary.
John received his early education from his father and from John
Fletcher, teacher of the Quakers' school at Eaglesfield, on whose
retirement in 1778 he himself started teaching. This youthful venture
was not successful, the amount he received in fees being only about five
shillings a week, and after two years he took to farm work. But he had
received some instruction in mathematics from a distant relative, Elihu
Robinson, and in 1781 he left his native village to become assistant to
his cousin George Bewley who kept a school at Kendal. There he passed
the next twelve years, becoming in 1785, through the retirement of his
cousin, joint manager of the school with his elder brother Jonathan.
About 1790 he seems to have thought of taking up law or medicine, but
his projects met with no encouragement from his relatives and he
remained at Kendal till, in the spring of 1793, he moved to Manchester,
where he spent the rest of his life. Mainly through John Gough
(1757-1825), a blind philosopher to whose aid he owed much of his
scientific knowledge, he was appointed teacher of mathematics and
natural philosophy at the New College in Moseley Street (in 1880
transferred to Manchester College, Oxford), and that position he
retained until the removal of the college to York in 1799, when he
became a "public and private teacher of mathematics and chemistry."
During his residence in Kendal, Dalton had contributed solutions of
problems and questions on various subjects to the _Gentlemen's_ and
_Ladies' Diaries_, and in 1787 he began to keep a meteorological diary
in which during the succeeding fifty-seven years he entered more than
200,000 observations. His first separate publication was _Meteorological
Observations and Essays_ (1793), which contained the germs of several of
his later discoveries; but in spite of the originality of its matter,
the book met with only a limited sale. Another work by him, _Elements of
English Grammar_, was published in 1801. In 1794 he was elected a member
of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and a few weeks
after election he communicated his first paper on "Extraordinary facts
relating to the vision of colours," in which he gave the earliest
account of the optical peculiarity known as Daltonism or
colour-blindness, and summed up its characteristics as observed in
himself and others. Besides the blue and purple of the spectrum he was
able to recognize only one colour, yellow, or, as he says in his paper,
"that part of the image which others call red appears to me little more
than a shade or defect of light; after that the orange, yellow and green
seem one colour which descends pretty uniformly from an intense to a
rare yellow, making what I should call different shades of yellow." This
paper was followed by many others on diverse topics--on rain and dew and
the origin of springs, on heat, the colour of the sky, steam, the
auxiliary verbs and participles of the English language and the
reflection and refraction of light. In 1800 he became a secretary of the
society, and in the following year he presented the important paper or
series of papers, entitled "Experimental Essays on the constitution of
mixed gases; on the force of steam or vapour of water and other liquids
in different temperatures, both in Torricellian vacuum and in air; on
evaporation; and on the expansion of gases by heat." The second of these
essays opens with the striking remark, "There can scarcely be a doubt
entertained respecting the reducibility of all elastic fluids of
whatever kind, into liquids; and we ought not to despair of effecting it
in low temperatures and by strong pressures exerted upon the unmixed
gases"; further, after describing experiments to ascertain the tension
of aqueous vapour at different points between 32° and 212° F., he
concludes, from observations on the vapour of six different liquids,
"that the variation of the force of vapour from all liquids is the same
for the same variation of temperature, reckoning from vapour of any
given force." In the fourth essay he remarks, "I see no sufficient
reason why we may not conclude that all elastic fluids under the same
pressure expand equally by heat and that for any given expansion of
mercury, the corresponding expansion of air is proportionally something
less, the higher the temperature.... It seems, therefore, that general
laws respecting the absolute quantity and the nature of heat are more
likely to be derived from elastic fluids than from other substances." He
thus enunciated the law of the expansion of gases, stated some months
later by Gay-Lussac. In the two or three years following the reading of
these essays, he published several papers on similar topics, that on the
"Absorption of gases by water and other liquids" (1803), containing his
"Law of partial pressures."
But the most important of all Dalton's investigations are those
concerned with the Atomic Theory in chemistry, with which his name is
inseparably associated. It has been supposed that this theory was
suggested to him either by researches on olefiant gas and carburetted
hydrogen or by analysis of "protoxide and deutoxide of azote," both
views resting on the authority of Dr Thomas Thomson (1773-1852),
professor of chemistry in Glasgow university. But from a study of
Dalton's own MS. laboratory notebooks, discovered in the rooms of the
Manchester society, Roscoe and Harden (_A New View of the Origin of
Dalton's Atomic Theory_, 1896) conclude that so far from Dalton being
led to the idea that chemical combination consists in the approximation
of atoms of definite and characteristic weight by his search for an
explanation of the law of combination in multiple proportions, the idea
of atomic structure arose in his mind as a purely physical conception,
forced upon him by study of the physical properties of the atmosphere
and other gases. The first published indications of this idea are to be
found at the end of his paper on the "Absorption of gases" already
mentioned, which was read on the 21st of October 1803 though not
published till 1805. Here he says: "Why does not water admit its bulk of
every kind of gas alike? This question I have duly considered, and
though I am not able to satisfy myself completely I am nearly persuaded
that the circumstance depends on the weight and number of the ultimate
particles of the several gases." He proceeds to give what has been
quoted as his first table of atomic weights, but on p. 248 of his
laboratory notebooks for 1802-1804, under the date 6th of September
1803, there is an earlier one in which he sets forth the relative
weights of the ultimate atoms of a number of substances, derived from
analysis of water, ammonia, carbon-dioxide, &c. by chemists of the time.
It appears, then, that, confronted with the "problem of ascertaining the
relative diameter of the particles of which, he was convinced, all gases
were made up, he had recourse to the results of chemical analysis.
Assisted by the assumption that combination always takes place in the
simplest possible way, he thus arrived at the idea that chemical
combination takes place between particles of different weights, and this
it was which differentiated his theory from the historic speculations of
the Greeks. The extension of this idea to substances in general
necessarily led him to the law of combination in multiple proportions,
and the comparison with experiment brilliantly confirmed the truth of
his deduction" (_A New View, &c._, pp. 50, 51). It may be noted that in
a paper on the "Proportion of the gases or elastic fluids constituting
the atmosphere," read by him in November 1802, the law of multiple
proportions appears to be anticipated in the words--"The elements of
oxygen may combine with a certain portion of nitrous gas or with twice
that portion, but with no intermediate quantity," but there is reason to
suspect that this sentence was added some time after the reading of the
paper, which was not published till 1805.
Dalton communicated his atomic theory to Dr Thomson, who by consent
included an outline of it in the third edition of his _System of
Chemistry_ (1807), and Dalton gave a further account of it in the first
part of the first volume of his _New System of Chemical Philosophy_
(1808). The second part of this volume appeared in 1810, but the first
part of the second volume was not issued till 1827, though the printing
of it began in 1817. This delay is not explained by any excess of care
in preparation, for much of the matter was out of date and the appendix
giving the author's latest views is the only portion of special
interest. The second part of vol. ii. never appeared.
Altogether Dalton contributed 116 memoirs to the Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society, of which from 1817 till his death he was the
president. Of these the earlier are the most important. In one of them,
read in 1814, he explains the principles of volumetric analysis, in
which he was one of the earliest workers. In 1840 a paper on the
phosphates and arsenates, which was clearly unworthy of him, was refused
by the Royal Society, and he was so incensed that he published it
himself. He took the same course soon afterwards with four other papers,
two of which--"On the quantity of acids, bases and salts in different
varieties of salts" and "On a new and easy method of analysing sugar,"
contain his discovery, regarded by him as second in importance only to
the atomic theory, that certain anhydrous salts when dissolved in water
cause no increase in its volume, his inference being that the "salt
enters into the pores of the water."
As an investigator, Dalton was content with rough and inaccurate
instruments, though better ones were readily attainable. Sir Humphry
Davy described him as a "very coarse experimenter," who "almost always
found the results he required, trusting to his head rather than his
hands." In the preface to the second part of vol. i. of his _New System_
he says he had so often been misled by taking for granted the results of
others that he "determined to write as little as possible but what I can
attest by my own experience," but this independence he carried so far
that it sometimes resembled lack of receptivity. Thus he distrusted, and
probably never fully accepted, Gay-Lussac's conclusions as to the
combining volumes of gases; he held peculiar and quite unfounded views
about chlorine, even after its elementary character had been settled by
Davy; he persisted in using the atomic weights he himself had adopted,
even when they had been superseded by the more accurate determinations
of other chemists; and he always objected to the chemical notation
devised by J. J. Berzelius, although by common consent it was much
simpler and more convenient than his cumbersome system of circular
symbols. His library, he was once heard to declare, he could carry on
his back, yet he had not read half the books it contained.
Before he had propounded the atomic theory he had already attained a
considerable scientific reputation. In 1804 he was chosen to give a
course of lectures on natural philosophy at the Royal Institution in
London, where he delivered another course in 1809-1810. But he was
deficient, it would seem, in the qualities that make an attractive
lecturer, being harsh and indistinct in voice, ineffective in the
treatment of his subject, and "singularly wanting in the language and
power of illustration." In 1810 he was asked by Davy to offer himself as
a candidate for the fellowship of the Royal Society, but declined,
possibly for pecuniary reasons; but in 1822 he was proposed without his
knowledge, and on election paid the usual fee. Six years previously he
had been made a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences,
and in 1830 he was elected as one of its eight foreign associates in
place of Davy. In 1833 Lord Grey's government conferred on him a pension
of £150, raised in 1836 to £300. Never married, though there is evidence
that he delighted in the society of women of education and refinement,
he lived for more than a quarter of a century with his friend the Rev.
W. Johns (1771-1845), in George Street, Manchester, where his daily
round of laboratory work and tuition was broken only by annual
excursions to the Lake district and occasional visits to London, "a
surprising place and well worth one's while to see once, but the most
disagreeable place on earth for one of a contemplative turn to reside in
constantly." In 1822 he paid a short visit to Paris, where he met many
of the distinguished men of science then living in the French capital,
and he attended several of the earlier meetings of the British
Association at York, Oxford, Dublin and Bristol. Into society he rarely
went, and his only amusement was a game of bowls on Thursday afternoons.
He died in Manchester in 1844 of paralysis. The first attack he suffered
in 1837, and a second in 1838 left him much enfeebled, both physically
and mentally, though he remained able to make experiments. In May 1844
he had another stroke; on the 26th of July he recorded with trembling
hand his last meteorological observation, and on the 27th he fell from
his bed and was found lifeless by his attendant. A bust of him, by
Chantrey, was publicly subscribed for in 1833 and placed in the entrance
hall of the Manchester Royal Institution.
See Henry, _Life of Dalton_, Cavendish Society (1854); Angus Smith,
_Memoir of John Dalton and History of the Atomic Theory_ (1856), which
on pp. 253-263 gives a list of Dalton's publications; and Roscoe and
Harden, _A New View of the Origin of Dalton's Atomic Theory_ (1896);
also Atom.
DALTON, a city and the county-seat of Whitfield county, Georgia, U.S.A.,
in the N.W. part of the state, 100 m. N.N.W. of Atlanta. Pop. (1890)
3046; (1900) 4315 (957 negroes); (1910) 5324. Dalton is served by the
Southern, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis, and the Western &
Atlanta (operated by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis) railways.
The city is in a rich agricultural region; ships cotton, grain, fruit
and ore; and has various manufactures, including canned fruit and
vegetables, flour and foundry and machine shop products. It is the seat
of Dalton Female College. Dalton was founded by Duff Green and others in
1848, and was incorporated in 1874. Hither General Braxton Bragg
retreated after his defeat at Chattanooga in the last week of November
1863. Three weeks afterwards Bragg, in command of the army in northern
Georgia in winter quarters here, was replaced by General Joseph E.
Johnston, who, with his force of 54,400, adopted defensive tactics to
meet Sherman's invasion of Georgia, with his 99,000 or 100,000 men in
the Army of the Cumberland (60,000) under General G. H. Thomas, the Army
of the Tennessee (25,000) under General J. B. M'Pherson, and the Army of
the Ohio (14,000) under General J. M. Schofield. The Federal forces
stretched for 20 m. in a position south of Ringgold and between Ringgold
and Dalton. Johnston's line of defences included Rocky Face Ridge, a
wall of rock through which the railway passes about 5 m. north-west of
the city, Mill Creek (1 m. north-north-west of Dalton), which he dammed
so that it could not be forded, and earthworks north and east of the
city. On the 7th of May General M'Pherson started for Resaca, 18 m.
south of Dalton, to occupy the railway there in Johnston's rear, but he
did not attack Resaca, thinking it too strongly protected; Thomas, with
Schofield on his left, on the 7th forced the Confederates through
Buzzard's Roost Gap (the pass at Mill Creek) north-west of Dalton; at
Dug Gap, 4 m. south-west of Dalton, on the 8th a fierce Federal assault
under Brigadier-General John W. Geary failed to dislodge the
Confederates from a quite impregnable position. On the 11th the main
body of Sherman's army followed M'Pherson toward Resaca, and Johnston,
having evacuated Dalton on the night of the 12th, was thus forced, after
five days' manoeuvring and skirmishing, to march to Resaca and to meet
Sherman there.
See J. D. Cox, _The Atlanta Campaign_ (New York, 1882); Johnson and
Buel, _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_ (4 vols., New York,
1887); and _Official Records of the War of the Rebellion_, series 1,
vols. 32, 38, 39, 45, 49; series ii., vol. 8.
DALTON-IN-FURNESS, a market town in the North Lonsdale parliamentary
division of Lancashire, England, 4 m. N.E. by N. of Barrow-in-Furness by
the Furness railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 13,020. The church of
St Mary is in the main a modern reconstruction, but retains ancient
fragments and a font believed to have belonged to Furness Abbey. This
fine ruin lies 3 m. south of Dalton (see FURNESS). St Mary's churchyard
contains the tomb of the painter George Romney, a native of the town. Of
Dalton Castle there remains a square tower, showing decorated windows.
Here was held the manorial court of Furness Abbey. There are numerous
iron-ore mines in the parish, and ironworks at Askam-in-Furness, in the
northern part of the district.
DALY, AUGUSTIN (1838-1899), American theatrical manager and playwright,
was born in Plymouth, North Carolina, on the 20th of July 1838. He was
dramatic critic for several New York papers from 1859, and he adapted or
wrote a number of plays, _Under the Gaslight_ (1867) being his first
success. In 1869 he was the manager of the Fifth Avenue theatre, and in
1879 he built and opened Daly's theatre in New York, and, in 1893,
Daly's theatre in London. At the former he gathered a company of
players, headed by Miss Ada Rehan, which made for it a high reputation,
and for them he adapted plays from foreign sources, and revived
Shakespearean comedies in a manner before unknown in America. He took
his entire company on tour, visiting England, Germany and France, and
some of the best actors on the American stage have owed their training
and first successes to him. Among these were Clara Morris, Sara Jewett,
John Drew, Fanny Davenport, Maude Adams, Mrs Gilbert and many others.
Daly was a great book-lover, and his valuable library was dispersed by
auction after his death, which occurred in Paris on the 7th of June
1899. Besides plays, original and adapted, he wrote _Woffington: a
Tribute to the Actress and the Woman_ (1888).
DALYELL (or DALZIELL or DALZELL), THOMAS (d. 1685), British soldier, was
the son of Thomas Dalyell of Binns, Linlithgowshire, a cadet of the
family of the earls of Carnwath, and of Janet, daughter of the 1st Lord
Bruce of Kinloss, master of the rolls in England. He appears to have
accompanied the Rochelle expedition in 1628, and afterwards, becoming
colonel, served under Robert Munro, the general in Ireland. He was taken
prisoner at the capitulation of Carrickfergus in August 1650, but was
given a free pass, and having been banished from Scotland remained in
Ireland. He was present at the battle of Worcester (3rd of September
1651), where his men surrendered, and he himself was captured and
imprisoned in the Tower. In May he escaped abroad, and in 1654 took part
in the Highland rebellion and was excepted from Cromwell's act of grace,
a reward of £200 being offered for his capture, dead or alive. The
king's cause being now for the time hopeless, Dalyell entered the
service of the tsar of Russia, and distinguished himself as general in
the wars against the Turks and Tatars. He returned to Charles in 1665,
and on the 19th of July 1666 he was appointed commander-in-chief in
Scotland to subdue the Covenanters. He defeated them at Rullion Green
and exercised his powers with great cruelty, his name becoming a terror
to the peasants. He obtained several of the forfeited estates. On the
3rd of January 1667 he was made a privy councillor, and from 1678 till
his death represented Linlithgow in the Scottish parliament. He was
incensed by the choice of the duke of Monmouth as commander-in-chief in
June 1679, and was confirmed in his original appointment by Charles, but
in consequence did not appear at Bothwell Bridge till after the close of
the engagement. On the 25th of November 1681, a commission was issued
authorizing him to enrol the regiment afterwards known as the Scots
Greys. He was continued in his appointment by James II., but died soon
after the latter's accession in August 1685. He married Agnes, daughter
of John Ker of Cavers, by whom he had a son, Thomas, created a baronet
in 1685, whose only son and heir, Thomas, died unmarried. The baronetage
apparently became extinct, but it was assumed about 1726 by James
Menteith, a son of the sister of the last baronet, who took the name of
Dalyell; his last male descendant, Sir Robert Dalyell, died unmarried in
1886.
DAM. (1) (A common Teutonic word, cf. Swed. and Ger. _damm_, and the
Gothic verb _faurdammjan_, to block up), a barrier of earth or masonry
erected to restrain, divert or contain a body of water, particularly in
order to form a reservoir. (2) (Fr. _dame_, dame; Lat. _domina_,
feminine of _dominus_, lord, master), the mother of an animal, now
chiefly used of the larger quadrupeds, and particularly of a mare, the
mother of a foal.
DAMAGES (through O. Fr. _damage_, mod. Fr. _dommage_, from Lat.
_damnum_, loss), the compensation which a person who has suffered a
legal wrong is by law entitled to recover from the person responsible
for the wrong. Loss caused by an act which is not a legal wrong (_damnum
sine injuria_) is not recoverable, e.g. where a father loses a young
child by the negligence of a third party.
The principle of compensation in law makes its first appearance as a
substitute for personal retaliation. In primitive law something of the
nature of the Anglo-Saxon _wer-gild_, or the [Greek: poinê] of the
_Iliad_, appears to be universal. It marks out with great minuteness the
measure of the compensation appropriate to each particular case of
personal injury. And there is a resemblance between the legal
compensation, as it may be called, and the compensation which an injured
person, seeking his own remedy, would be likely to exact for himself. In
such a system the two entirely different objects of personal
satisfaction and criminal punishment are not clearly separated, and in
fact, criminal and civil remedies were administered in the same
proceeding.
Under modern systems of law, the object of legal compensation is to
place the injured person as nearly as possible in the situation in which
he would have been but for the injury; and the controlling principle is
that compensation should be determined so far as possible by the actual
amount of the loss sustained. In England, civil proceedings for
reparation and criminal proceedings for punishment are with few
exceptions carefully kept separate. In Scotland, pursuit of the two
kinds of remedies in the same proceeding is possible but very rare; but
in France and other European states it is lawful and usual in the case
of those delicts which are also punishable criminally.
In the law of England the two historical systems of common law and
equity viewed compensation or reparation from two different points of
view. The principle of the common law was that the amount of every
injury might be estimated by pecuniary valuation. The idea was no doubt
derived from the old tariffs of _were_, _bot_ and _wite_, in which the
valuations were elaborate. Until 1858 (Cairns' Act) courts of equity had
no direct jurisdiction to award damages, and their business was to place
the injured party in the actual position to which he was entitled
(_restitutio ad integrum_). This difference comes out most clearly in
cases of breach of contract. The common law, with a few partial
exceptions, could do no more than compel the defaulter to make good the
loss of the other party, by paying him an ascertained sum of money as
damages. Equity, recognizing the fact that complete satisfaction was not
in all cases to be obtained by mere money payment, compelled those who
broke certain classes of contracts specifically to perform them, and in
the case of acts or defaults not amounting to breach of contract, on
satisfactory proof that a wrong was contemplated, would interfere to
prevent it by injunction; while at common law no action could be brought
until the injury was accomplished, and then only pecuniary damages could
be obtained. Since the Judicature Acts this distinction has ceased and
the appropriate remedy may be awarded in any division of the High Court
of Justice.
Under the common law damages were always assessed by a jury. Under the
existing procedure in England they may be assessed (1) by a jury under
the directions of a judge; (2) by a judge alone or sitting with
assessors; (3) by a referee, official or special, or officer of the
courts with or without the assistance of mercantile or other assessors;
(4) by a consensual tribunal such as an arbitrator or valuer selected by
the parties. Whatever the mode of assessment, it is subject to review if
the assessors have clearly mistaken the proper measure of damage.
In the case of assessment by a jury, the verdict may be set aside
because the damages are clearly excessive or palpably insufficient, or
arrived at by some irregular conduct, e.g. by setting down the sum which
each juryman would give and dividing the result by twelve. The appellate
court, however, cannot, without the consent of the parties, itself fix
the amount of damages in a case which has been submitted to a jury
(_Watt_ v. _Watt_, 1905, Appeal Cases 115).
Measure of damages.
The courts have gradually evolved certain rules or principles for the
proper assessment of damages, although extreme difficulty is found in
their application to concrete cases. A distinction is drawn between
_general_ and _special_ damages. (1) General damage is that _implied by
law_ as necessarily flowing from the breach of right, and requiring no
proof. (2) Special damage is that _in fact_ caused by the wrong. Under
existing practice this form of damage cannot be recovered unless it has
been specifically claimed and proved, or unless the best available
particulars or details have been before trial communicated to the party
against whom it is claimed.
_Contracts._--"The law imposes or implies a term that upon breach of
contract damages must be paid." The general tendency of legal decisions
in cases of contract is (i.) to make the amount of damages which may be
awarded a matter of legal certainty, (ii.) to leave to a jury or like
tribunal little more to do than find the facts, (iii.) and to revise the
assessment if it is clear that it has been made in disregard of the
terms of the contract or of the natural and direct consequences of the
breach. The measure of damage, general speaking, is the sum necessary to
place the aggrieved party in the same position so far as money will do
it as if the contract had been performed. If the breach is proved, but
the person complaining has suffered no real damage, he is entitled to
have his legal right recognized by an award of what are called _nominal
damages_, i.e. a sum just sufficient to carry a judgment in his favour
on the infraction of his rights. Nominal damages, it will therefore be
seen, are not the same as "small damages." He is, however, also entitled
to prove and recover the special or particular damage lawfully
attributable to the breach. Where the contract is to pay a fixed sum of
money or liquidated amount, the measure of damages for non-payment is
the sum agreed to be paid and interest thereon at the rate stipulated in
the contract or recognized by law.
The law is the same in Scotland and in France (Civil Code, art. 1153).
In some contracts the parties themselves fix the sum to be paid as
damages if the contract is not fulfilled. These damages are described as
_liquidated_, in Scots law _stipulated_ or _estimated_. It would be
supposed that the sum thus fixed would be the proper damages to be
awarded. And under the French Civil Code (arts. 1152, 1153, 1780) the
stipulation of the parties as to the damages to be paid for breach of a
stipulation other than for paying a sum of money is binding on the
courts. But in England, Scotland and the United States, courts disregard
the words used, and inquire into the real nature of the transaction in
order to see whether the sum fixed is to be treated as ascertained
damage or as a penalty to be held _in terrorem_ over the defaulter, and
in the latter case, notwithstanding the stipulation, will require proof
of the actual loss. In _Kemble_ v. _Farren_ (1829, 6 Bingham, 141), a
contract between a manager and an actor provided that for a breach of
any of the stipulations therein, the sum of £1000 should be payable by
the defaulter, not as a penalty, but as liquidated and ascertained
damages. Yet, the court, observing that under the stipulations of the
contract the sum of £1000, if it were taken to be liquidated damages,
might become payable for mere non-payment of a trifling sum, held that
it was not fixed as damages, but as a penalty only. The case in which an
agreed sum is most usually treated as a penalty is a bond to pay a fixed
sum containing a condition that it shall be void if certain acts are
done or a certain smaller sum paid. Another case is where a single lump
sum is fixed as the liquidated amount of damage to be paid for doing or
failing to do a number of different things of very varying degrees of
importance (_Elphinstone_ v. _Monkland Iron Co._, 1887, 11 A.C. 333).
But the courts have accepted as creating a contractual measure of damage
a stipulation to finish sewerage works by a given day (_Law_ v.
_Redditch Local Board_, 1892, 1 Q.B. 127); or to complete torpedo boats
within a limited time for a foreign government (_Clydebank Engineering
Co._ v. _Yzquierda_, 1905, A.C. 6). In this last case the law lords
indicated that the provision of an agreed sum was peculiarly appropriate
in view of the difficulty of showing the exact damage which a state
sustains by non-delivery of a warship. Where the damage is not
liquidated or agreed it is assessed to upon evidence as to the actual
loss naturally and directly flowing from the breach of contract.
In contracts for the sale of goods the measure of damages is fixed by
statute. Where the buyer wrongfully refuses or neglects to accept and
pay for, or the seller wrongfully neglects or refuses to deliver the
goods, the measure is the estimated loss directly and naturally
resulting in the ordinary course of events from the buyer's or seller's
breach of contract. Where there is an available market for the goods in
question, the measure of damages is prima facie to be ascertained by the
difference between the contract price and the market or current price at
the time or times when the goods ought to have been accepted or
delivered, or if no such time was fixed for acceptance or delivery, then
at the time of refusal to accept or deliver (Sale of Goods Act 1893, §§
50, 51).
Where there is no market, the value is fixed by the price of the nearest
available substitute. Where the sufferer, at the request of the person
in default, postpones purchase or sale, any increased loss thereby
caused falls on the defaulter. If the buyer, before the time fixed for
delivery, has resold the goods to a sub-vendor, he cannot claim against
his own vendor any damages which the sub-vendor may recover against him
for breach of contract, because he ought to have gone into the market
and purchased other goods. But this is subject to modification in cases
falling within the rule in _Hadley_ v. _Baxendale_ (1854, 9 Exchequer,
341). But trouble and expense incurred by the seller of finding a new
purchaser or other goods may be taken account of in assessing the
damages.
Where the goods delivered are not as contracted the buyer may as a rule
sue the seller for a breach of warranty, or set it up as reduction of
price. Where the warranty is of quality the loss is prima facie the
difference between the value of the goods delivered when delivered and
the value which they would have then had if they had answered to the
warranty (Sale of Goods Act 1893, § 53). In an American case, where a
person had agreed with a boarding-house keeper for a year, and quitted
the house within the time, it was held that the measure of damages was
not the price stipulated to be paid, but only the loss caused by the
breach of contract. In contracts to marry, a special class of
considerations is recognized, and the jury in assessing damages will
take notice of the conduct of the parties. The social position and means
of the defendant may be given in evidence to show what the plaintiff has
lost by the breach of contract.
On a breach of contract to replace stock lent, the measure of damages is
the price of the stock on the day when it ought to have been delivered,
or on the day of trial, at the plaintiff's option.
In contracts for the sale of realty, the measure of damage for breach by
the vendor is the amount of any deposit paid by the would-be purchaser
and of the expenses thrown away. But the purchaser may, in a proper
case, obtain specific performance, and if he has been cheated may obtain
damages in an action for deceit.
Breaches of trust are in a sense distinct from breaches of contract, as
they fell under the jurisdiction of courts of equity and not of the
common law courts. The rule applied was to require a defaulting trustee
to make good to the beneficiaries any loss flowing from a breach of
trust and not to allow him to set off against this liability any gain to
the trust fund resulting from a different breach of trust or from good
management (Lewin on _Trusts_, ed. 1904, 1146).
In estimating the proper amount to be assessed as damages for a breach
of contract, it is not permissible to include every loss caused by the
act or default upon which the claim for damages is based. The damage to
be awarded must be that fairly and naturally arising from the breach
under ordinary circumstances or the special circumstances of the
particular contract, or in other words, which may reasonably be supposed
to have been in the contemplation of the parties at the time of making
the contract. The chief authority for this rule is the case of _Hadley_
v. _Baxendale_ (1854, 9 Exch. 341), which has been accepted in Scotland
and the United States and throughout the British empire, and often
differs little, if at all, from the rule adopted in the French civil
code (art. 1150). In that case damages were sought for the loss of
profits caused by a steam mill being kept idle, on account of the delay
of the defendants in sending a new shaft which they had contracted to
make. The court held the damage to be too remote, and stated the proper
rule as follows:--
"Where two parties have made a contract which one of them has broken,
the damages which the other party ought to receive in respect of such
breach of contract should be such as may fairly and reasonably be
considered either arising naturally, i.e. according to the usual
course of things, from such breach of contract itself, or such as may
reasonably be supposed to have been in the contemplation of both
parties at the time they made the contract as the probable result of
the breach of it. Now if the special circumstances under which the
contract was actually made were communicated by the plaintiffs to the
defendants, and thus known to both parties, the damages resulting from
such contract which they would reasonably contemplate would be the
amount of injury which would ordinarily flow from a breach of contract
under these special circumstances so known and communicated. But on
the other hand, if those special circumstances were wholly unknown to
the party breaking the contract, he at the most could only be supposed
to have had in his mind the amount of injury which would arise
generally, and in the great multitude of cases not affected by any
special circumstances, from such breach of contract."[1]
The rule is, however, only a general guide, and does not obviate the
necessity of inquiring in each case what are the natural or contemplated
damages. In an action by the proprietor of a theatre, it was alleged
that the defendant had written a libel on one of the plaintiff's
singers, whereby she was deterred from appearing on the stage, and the
plaintiff lost his profits; such loss was held to be too remote to be
the ground of an action for damages. In _Smeed_ v. _Foord_ (1 Ellis and
Ellis, 602), the defendant contracted to deliver a threshing-machine to
the plaintiff, a farmer, knowing that it was needed to thresh the wheat
in the field. Damages were sought for injury done to the wheat by rain
in consequence of the machine not having been delivered in time, and
also for a fall in the market before the grain could be got ready. It
was held that the first claim was good, as the injury might have been
anticipated, but that the second was bad. When, through the negligence
of a railway company in delivering bales of cotton, the plaintiffs,
having no cotton to work with, were obliged to keep their workmen
unemployed, it was held that the wages paid and the profits lost were
too remote for damages. On the other hand, where the defendant failed to
keep funds on hand to meet the drafts of the plaintiff, so that a draft
was returned dishonoured, and his business in consequence was for a time
suspended and injured, the plaintiff was held entitled to recover damage
for such loss.
The rule that the contract furnishes the measure of the damages does not
prevail in the case of unconscionable, i.e. unreasonable, absurd or
impossible contracts. The old school-book juggle in geometrical
progression has more than once been before the courts as the ground of
an action. Thus, when a man agreed to pay for a horse a barley-corn per
nail, doubling it every nail, and the amount calculated as 32 nails was
500 quarters of barley, the judge directed the jury to disregard the
contract, and give as damages the value of the horse. And when a
defendant had agreed for £5 to give the plaintiff two grains of rye on
Monday, four on the next Monday,[2] and so on doubling it every Monday,
it was contended that the contract was impossible, as all the rye in the
world would not suffice for it; but one of the judges said that, though
foolish, it would hold in law, and the defendant ought to pay something
for his folly. And when a man had promised £1000 to the plaintiff if he
should find his owl, the jury were directed to mitigate the damages.
Interest is recoverable as damages at common law only upon mercantile
securities, such as bills of exchange and promissory notes or where a
promise to pay interest has been made in express terms or may be implied
from the usage of trade or other circumstances [Mayne, _Damages_ (7th
ed.) 166]. Under the Civil Procedure Act 1833, the jury is allowed to
give interest by way of damages on debts or sums payable at a certain
time, or if not so payable, from the date of demand in writing, and in
actions on policies of insurance, and in actions of tort arising out of
conversion or seizure of goods.
In the United States, interest is in the discretion of the court, and is
made to depend on the equity of the case. In both England and America
compound interest, or interest on interest, appears to have been
regarded with the horror that formerly attached to usury. Lord Eldon
would not recognize as valid an agreement to pay compound interest. And
Chancellor Kent held that compound interest could not be taken except
upon a special agreement made after the simple interest became due.
In Scotland compound interest is not allowed by way of damages.
_Torts._--In actions arising otherwise than from breach of contract
(i.e. of tort, delict or quasi-delict), the principles applied to the
assessment of damage in cases arising _ex contractu_ are generally
applicable (_The Notting Hill_, 1884, 9 P.D. 105); but from the nature
of the case less precision in assessment is attainable. The remoteness
of the damage claimed is a ground for excluding it from the assessment.
In some actions of tort the damages can be calculated with exactness
just as in cases of contract, e.g. in most cases of interference with
rights of property or injury to property. Thus, for wrongful
dispossession from a plantation (in Samoa) it was held that the measure
of damage was the annual value of the produce of the lands when
wrongfully seized, less the cost of management, and that the wilful
character of the seizure did not justify the infliction of a penalty
over and above the loss to the plaintiff (_McArthur_ v. _Cornwall_,
1892, A.C. 75). Where minerals are wrongfully severed and carried away,
the damage is assessed by calculating the value of the mineral as a
chattel and deducting the reasonable expense of getting it. But where
the interference with property, whether real or personal, is attended by
circumstances of aggravation such as crime or fraud or wanton insult, it
is well established that additional damages may be awarded which in
effect are penal or vindictive. In actions for injuries to the person or
to reputation, it is difficult to make the damages a matter for exact
calculation, and it has been found impossible or inexpedient by the
courts to prevent juries from awarding amounts which operate as a
punishment of the delinquent rather than as a true assessment of the
reparation due to the sufferer. And while a bad motive (malice) is
seldom enough to give a cause of action, proof of its existence is a
potent inducement to a jury to swell the assessment of damages, as
evidence of bad character may induce them to reduce the damages to a
derisory amount. In the case of injuries to the person caused by
negligence, the tribunal considers, as part of the general damage, the
actual pain and suffering, including nervous shock (but not wounded
feelings) and the permanent or temporary character of the injury, and as
special damage the loss of time and employment during recovery and the
cost of cure. It is difficult by any arithmetical calculation to value
pain and suffering; nor is it easy to value the effect of a permanent
injury; and in the Workmen's Compensation Act and Employers' Liability
Act, an attempt has been made in the case of workmen to assess by
reference to the earnings of the injured person.
In the case of such wrongs as assault, arrest or prosecution, the
motives of the defendant naturally affect the amount of general damage
awarded, even when not essential elements in the case, and the damages
are "at large." Any other rule would enable a man to distribute blows as
he can utter curses at a statutory tariff of so much a curse, according
to his rank. This position was strongly asserted in the cases arising
out of the celebrated "General Warrants" (1763) in the time of Lord
Camden, who is reported in one case to have said, "damages are designed
not only as a satisfaction to the injured person, but as a punishment to
the guilty, and as a proof of the detestation in which the wrongful act
is held by the jury." In another case he mentioned the importance of the
question at issue, the attempt to exercise arbitrary power, as a reason
why the jury might give exemplary damages. Another judge, in another
case, said "I remember a case when the jury gave £500 damages for
knocking a man's hat off; and the court refused a new trial." And he
urged that exemplary damages for personal insult would tend to prevent
the practice of duelling.
The right to give exemplary or punitive or (as they are sometimes
called) vindictive damages is fully recognized both in England and in
the United States, and especially in the following cases. (1) Against
the co-respondent in a divorce suit. This right is the same as that
recognized at common law in the abolished action of criminal
conversation, but the damages awarded may by the court be applied for
the maintenance and education of the children of the marriage or the
maintenance of the offending wife. (2) In actions of trespass to land
where the conduct of the defendant has been outrageous. (3) In actions
of defamation spoken or written, attended by circumstances of
aggravation, and the analogous action of malicious prosecution. (4) In
the anomalous actions of seduction and breach of promise of marriage.
In actions for wrongs, as in those _ex contractu_, the damages may be
general or special. In a few cases of tort, the action fails wholly if
special damage is not proved, e.g. slander by imputing to a man vicious,
unchaste or immoral conduct, slander of title to land or goods or
nuisance.
In theory, English law does not recognize "moral or intellectual"
damage, such as was claimed by the South African Republic after the
Jameson Raid. The law of Scotland allows a solatium for wounded
feelings, as does French law under the name of _dommage moral, éprouvé
par la partie lésée dans sa liberté, sa sûreté, son honneur, sa
considération, ses affections légitimes ou dans la jouissance de son
patrimoine_. Under this head compensation is awarded to widow, child or
sister, for the loss of husband, parent or brother, in addition to the
actual pecuniary loss (Dalloz, _Nouveau Code civil_, art. 1382). Claims
of damage for negligence are defeated by proof of what is known as
contributory negligence (_faute commune_). In other claims of tort, as
already stated, the conduct of the claimant may materially reduce the
amount of his damages.
In cases of damages to ships or cargo by collision at sea, the rule of
the old court of admiralty (derived from the civil law and preserved by
the Judicature Acts) is that when both or all vessels are to blame, the
whole amount of the loss is divided between them. The rule appears not
to apply to cases where death or personal injury results from the
collision ("Vera Cruz," 1884, 14 A.C. 59. "Bernina," 1888, 13 A.C. 1).
_Costs._--The costs of a legal proceeding are no longer treated as
damages to be assessed by the jury, nor do they depend on any act of the
jury. The right to receive them depends on the court, and they are taxed
or assessed by its officers (see COSTS). In a few cases where costs
cannot be given, e.g. on compulsory acquisition of land in London, the
assessing tribunal is invited to add to the compensation price the
owner's expense in the compensation proceedings.
_Death._--In English law a right to recover damages for a tort as a
general rule was lost on the death of the sufferer or of the delinquent.
The cause of action was considered not to survive. This rule differs
from that of Scots law (under which the claim for damages arises at the
moment of injury and is not affected by the death of either party). The
English rule has been criticized as barbarous, and has been considerably
broken in upon by legislation, in cases of taking the goods of another
(4 Edw. III., c. 7, 1330), and injuries to real or personal property (3
& 4 Will. IV., c. 42, 1833), but continues in force as to such matters
as defamation, malicious prosecution and trespass to the person. By the
Fatal Accidents Act 1846 (commonly called Lord Campbell's Act), it is
enacted that wherever a wrongful act would have entitled the injured
person to recover damages (if death had not ensued), the person who in
such case would have been liable "shall be liable to an action for
damages for the pecuniary loss which the death has caused to certain
persons, and although the death shall have been caused under such
circumstances as amount in law to felony." The only persons by whom or
for whose benefit such an action may be brought are the husband, wife,
parent and child (including grandchild and stepchild, but not
illegitimate child) of the deceased. The right of action and the measure
of damages are statutory and distinct from the right which the deceased
had till he died. It was held in _Osborne_ v. _Gillett_, 1873, L.R. 8
Ex. 88, and has since been approved (_Clark_ v. _London General Omnibus
Co._, 1906, 2 K.B. 648), that no person can recover damages for the
death of another wrongfully killed by the act of a third person, unless
he claims through or represents the person killed, and unless that
person in case of an injury short of death would have had a good claim
to recover damages.
In Scotland the law of compensation for breach of contract is
substantially the same as in England. In cases of delict or
quasi-delict, the measure of reparation is a fair and reasonable
compensation for the advantage which the sufferer would, but for the
wrong, have enjoyed and has lost as a natural and proximate result of
the wrong, coupled with a solatium for wounded feelings. The claim for
reparation vests as a debt when it arises and survives to the
representatives of the sufferer, and against the representatives of
the delinquent. In other words, the maxim _actio personalis moritur
cum persona_ does not apply in Scots law; and even in cases of murder
there has always been recognized a right to "assythement."
See also Mayne on _Damages_, 7th ed.; Sedgwick on _Damage_; Bell,
_Principles of Law of Scotland_. (W. F. C.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In the Indian Contracts Code (Act xii. of 1872), the rule is thus
summarized:--
"When a contract has been broken, the party who suffers by such
breach is entitled to receive from the party who has broken the
contract, compensation for any loss or damage caused to him thereby,
which naturally arose in the usual course of things from such breach,
or which the parties knew when they made the contract to be likely to
result from the breach of it. Such compensation is not to be given
for any remote or indirect loss or damage sustained by reason of the
breach.... In estimating the loss or damage arising from a breach of
contract, the means of remedying the inconvenience caused by the
non-performance must be taken into account" (§ 73).
[2] _Quolibet alio die lunae_, which was translated by some _every
Monday_, and by others _every other Monday_. The amount in the latter
case would have been 125 quarters, in the former 524,288,000
quarters.
DAMANHUR, a town of Lower Egypt, 38 m. E.S.E. of Alexandria by rail,
capital of the richly-cultivated province of Behera. It is the ancient
Timenhor, "town of Horus," which in Ptolemaic times was capital of a
nome and lay on the Canopic branch of the Nile. Its name and other
circumstances imply that Horus (= Apollo) was worshipped there in the
same form as at Edfu (Brugsch, _Dictionnaire géographique_, p. 521), but
its Greek name, Hermopolis Parva, should indicate Thoth as the local
god. This apparent contradiction is perhaps due to some early
misunderstanding that held its ground after the Greeks knew Egypt
better. A much frequented fair is held at Damanhur three times a year,
and there are several cotton manufactories. Population (1907) 38,752.
DAMARALAND, a region of south-western Africa, bounded W. by the
Atlantic, E. by the Kalahari, N. by Ovampoland, and S. by Great
Namaqualand. It forms the central portion of German South-West Africa.
Damaraland is alternatively known as Hereroland, both names being
derived from the tribes inhabiting the region. The so-called Damara
consist of two probably distinct peoples. They are known respectively as
"the Hill Damara" and "the Cattle Damara," i.e. those who breed cattle
in the plains. The Hill Damara are Negroes with much Hottentot blood,
and have adopted the Hottentot tongue, while the Cattle Damara are of
distinct Bantu-Negro descent and speak a Bantu language. The term Damara
("Two Dama Women") is of Hottentot origin, and is not used by the
people, who call themselves Ova-herero, "the Merry People" (see
HOTTENTOTS and HERERO).
DAMASCENING, or DAMASKEENING, a term sometimes applied to the production
of damask steel, but properly the art of in-crusting wire of gold (and
sometimes of silver or copper) on the surface of iron, steel or bronze.
The surface upon which the pattern is to be traced is finely undercut
with a sharp instrument, and the gold thread by hammering is forced into
and securely held by the minute furrows of the cut surface. This system
of ornamentation is peculiarly Oriental, having been much practised by
the early goldsmiths of Damascus, and it is still eminently
characteristic of Persian metal work.
DAMASCIUS, the last of the Neoplatonists, was born in Damascus about
A.D. 480. In his early youth he went to Alexandria, where he spent
twelve years partly as a pupil of Theon, a rhetorician, and partly as a
professor of rhetoric. He then turned to philosophy and science, and
studied under Hermeias and his sons, Ammonius and Heliodorus. Later on
in life he migrated to Athens and continued his studies under Marinus,
the mathematician, Zenodotus, and Isidore, the dialectician. He became a
close friend of Isidore, succeeded him as head of the school in Athens,
and wrote his biography, part of which is preserved in the _Bibliotheca_
of Photius (see appendix to the Didot edition of Diogenes Laërtius). In
529 Justinian closed the school, and Damascius with six of his
colleagues sought an asylum, probably in 532, at the court of Chosroes
I., king of Persia. They found the conditions intolerable, and in 533,
in a treaty between Justinian and Chosroes, it was provided that they
should be allowed to return. It is believed that Damascius settled in
Alexandria and there devoted himself to the writing of his works. The
date of his death is not known.
His chief treatise is entitled _Difficulties and Solutions of First
Principles_ ([Greek: 'Aporiai kai chuseis peri tôn prôtôn apxôn]). It
examines into the nature and attributes of God and the human soul. This
examination is, in two respects, in striking contrast to that of certain
other Neoplatonist writers. It is conspicuously free from that Oriental
mysticism which stultifies so much of the later pagan philosophy of
Europe. Secondly, it contains no polemic against Christianity, to the
doctrines of which, in fact, there is no allusion. Hence the charge of
impiety which Photius brings against him. His main result is that God is
infinite, and as such, incomprehensible; that his attributes of
goodness, knowledge and power are credited to him only by inference from
their effects; that this inference is logically valid and sufficient for
human thought. He insists throughout on the unity and the indivisibility
of God, whereas Plotinus and Porphyry had admitted not only a Trinity,
but even an Ennead (nine-fold personality).
Interesting as Damascius is in himself, he is still more interesting as
the last in the long succession of Greek philosophers. (See
NEOPLATONISM.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The [Greek: Aporiai] was partly edited by J. Kopp
(1826), and in full by C. E. Ruelle (Paris, 1889). French trans. by
Chaignet (1898). See T. Whittaker, _The Neo-platonists_ (Cambridge,
1901); E. Zeller, _History of Greek Philosophy_; C. E. Ruelle, _Le
Philosophe Damascius_ (1861); Ch. Levêque, "Damascius" (_Journal des
savants_, February 1891). See also works quoted under NEOPLATONISM and
ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL.
DAMASCUS, the chief town of Syria, and the capital of a government
province of the same name, 57 m. from Beirut, situated in 33° 30´ N.,
and 36° 18´ E.
_History._--The origin of the city is unknown, and the popular belief
that it is the oldest city in the world still inhabited has much to
recommend it. It has been suggested that the ideogram by which it is
indicated in Babylonian monuments literally means "fortress of the
Amorites"; could this be proved it would be valuable testimony to its
antiquity if not its origin. The city is mentioned in the document that
describes the battle of the four kings against five, inserted in the
book of Genesis (ch. xiv.): Abram (Abraham) is reported to have pursued
the routed kings to Hobah _north of Damascus_ (v. 15). The name of the
steward of Abram's establishment is given in Genesis xv. 2, as _Dammesek
Eliezer_, which is explained in the Aramaic and Syriac versions as
"Eliezer of Damascus." This reading is adopted by the authorized
version, but the Hebrew, as it stands, will not support it. There is
probably here some textual corruption.
In the period of the Egyptian suzerainty over Palestine in the
eighteenth dynasty Damascus (whose name frequently appears in the Tell
el-Amarna tablets) was capital of the small province of Ubi. The name of
the city in the Tell el-Amarna correspondence is Dimashka. Towards the
end of that period the overrunning of Palestine and Syria by the Khabiri
and Suti, the forerunners of the Aramaean immigration, changed the
conditions, language and government of the country. One of the first
indications of this change that has been traced is the appearance of the
Aramaean Darmesek for Damascus in an inscription of Rameses III.
The growth of an independent kingdom with Damascus as centre must date
from very early in the Aramaean occupation. It had reached such strength
that though Tiglath-Pileser I. reduced the whole of northern Syria, and
by the fame of his victories induced the king of Egypt to send him
presents, yet he did not venture to attack Kadesh and Damascus, so that
this kingdom acted as a "buffer" between the king of Assyria and the
rising kingdom of Saul.
David, however, after his accession made an expedition against Damascus
as a reprisal for the assistance the city had given his enemy Hadadezer,
king of Zobah. The expedition was successful; David smote of the Syrians
22,000 men, and took and garrisoned the city; "and the Syrians became
servants to David, and brought gifts" (2 Sam. viii. 5, 6; 1 Chron.
xviii. 5). This statement, it should be noticed, has been questioned by
some modern historical and textual critics, who believe that "Syria"
(Hebrew _Aram_) is here a corruption for "Edom." There is no other
evidence--save the corrupt passage, 2 Sam. xxiv. 6, where
"Tahtim-hodshi" is explained as meaning "the land of the Hittites to
Kadesh"--that David's kingdom was so far extended northward. However
this may be, it is evident that the Israelite possession of Syria did
not last long. A subordinate of Hadadezer named Rezon (Rasun) succeeded
in establishing himself in Damascus and in founding there a royal
dynasty. Throughout the reign of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 23, 24) this Rezon
seems to have been a constant enemy to the kingdom of Israel.
It is inferred from 1 Kings xv. 19 that Abijah, son of Rehoboam, king of
Judah, made a league with Tab-Rimmon of Damascus to assist him in his
wars against Israel, and that afterwards Tab-Rimmon's son Ben-Hadad came
to terms with the second successor of Jeroboam, Baasha. Asa, son of
Abijah, followed his father's policy, and bought the aid of Syria,
whereby he was enabled to destroy the border fort that Baasha had
erected (1 Kings xv. 22).
Hostilities between Israel and Syria lasted to the days of Ahab. From
Omri the king of Syria took cities and the right to establish a quarter
for his merchants in Samaria (1 Kings xx. 34). His son Ben-Hadad made an
unsuccessful attack on Israel at Aphek, and was allowed by Ahab to
depart on a reversal of these terms (loc. cit.). This was the cause of a
prophetic denunciation (1 Kings xx. 42). According to the Assyrian
records Ahab fought as Ben-Hadad's ally at the battle of Karkar against
Shalmaneser in 854. This seems to indicate an intermediate defeat and
vassalage of Ahab, of which no direct record remains; and it was
probably in the attempt to throw off this vassalage in 853, the year
after the battle of Karkar, that Ahab met his death in battle with the
Syrians (1 Kings xxii. 34-40). In the reign of Jehoram, Naaman, the
Syrian general, came and was cleansed by the prophet Elisha of leprosy
(2 Kings v.).
In 843 Hazael assassinated Ben-Hadad and made himself king of Damascus.
The states which Ben-Hadad had brought together into a coalition against
the advancing power of Assyria all revolted; and Shalmaneser, king of
Assyria, took advantage of this in 842 and attacked Syria. He wasted the
country, but could not take the capital. Jehu, king of Israel, paid
tribute to Assyria, for which Hazael afterwards revenged himself, during
the time when Shalmaneser was distracted by his Armenian wars, by
attacking the borders of Israel (2 Kings x. 32).
Adad-nirari IV. invaded Syria and besieged Damascus in 806. Taking
advantage of this and similar succeeding events, Jehoash, king of
Israel, recovered the cities that his father had lost to Hazael.
In 734 Ahaz became king of Judah, and Rezon (Rasun, Rezin), the king of
Damascus at the time, came up against him; at the same time the Edomites
and the Philistines revolted. Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III.,
king of Assyria, sent him gifts, and besought his protection.
Tiglath-Pileser invaded Syria, and in 732 succeeded in reducing Damascus
(see also BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA, _Chronology_, § 5, and JEWS, §§ 10
sqq.).
Except for the abortive rising under Sargon in 720, we hear nothing more
of Damascus for a long period. In 333 B.C., after the battle of Issus,
it was delivered over by treachery to Parmenio, the general of Alexander
the Great; the harem and treasures of Darius had here been lodged. It
had a chequered history during the wars of the successors of Alexander,
being occasionally in Egyptian hands. In 112 B.C. the empire of Syria
was divided by Antiochus Grypus and Antiochus Cyzicenus; the city of
Damascus fell to the share of the latter. Hyrcanus took advantage of the
disputes of these rulers to advance his own kingdom. Demetrius Eucaerus,
successor of Cyzicenus, invaded Palestine in 88 B.C., and defeated
Alexander Jannaeus at Shechem. On his dethronement and captivity by the
Parthians, Antiochus Dionysus, his brother, succeeded him, but was slain
in battle by Haritha (Aretas) the Arab--the first instance of Arab
interference with Damascene politics. Haritha yielded to Tigranes, king
of Armenia, who in his turn was driven out by Q. Caecilius Metellus (son
of Scipio Nasica), the Roman general. In 63 Syria was made a Roman
province.
In the New Testament Damascus appears only in connexion with the
miraculous conversion of St Paul (Acts ix., xxii., xxvi.), his escape
from Aretas the governor by being lowered in a basket over the wall
(Acts ix. 25; 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33), and his return thither after his
retirement in Arabia (Gal. i. 17).
In 150, under Trajan, Damascus became a Roman provincial city.
On the establishment of Christianity Damascus became the seat of a
bishop who ranked next to the patriarch of Antioch. The great temple of
Damascus was turned by Arcadius into a Christian church.
In 635 Damascus was captured for Islam by Khalid ibn Walid, the great
general of the new religion, being the first city to yield after the
battle of the Yarmuk (Hieromax). After the murder of Ali, the fourth
caliph, his successor Moawiya transferred the seat of the Caliphate
(q.v.) from Mecca to Damascus and thus commenced the great dynasty of
the Omayyads, whose rule extended from the Atlantic to India. This
dynasty lasted about ninety years; it was supplanted by that of the
Abbasids, who removed the seat of empire to Mesopotamia; and Damascus
passed through a period of unrest in which it was captured and ravaged
by Egyptians, Carmathians and Seljuks in turn. The crusaders attacked
Damascus in 1126, but never succeeded in keeping a firm hold of it, even
during their brief domination of the country. It was the headquarters of
Saladin in the wars with the Franks. Of its later history we need only
mention the Mongolian capture in 1260; its Egyptian recapture by the
Mameluke Kotuz; the ferocious raid of Timur (Tamerlane) in 1399; and the
conquest by the Turkish sultan Selim, whereby it became a city of the
Ottoman empire (1516). In its more recent history the only incidents
that need be mentioned are its capture by Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian
general, in 1832, when the city was first opened to the representatives
of foreign powers; its revolt against Ibrahim's tyranny in 1834, which
he crushed with the aid of the Druses; the return of the city to Turkish
domination, when the Egyptians were driven out of Syria in 1840 by the
allied powers; and the massacre of July 1860, when the Moslem population
rose against the Christians, burnt their quarter, and slaughtered about
3000 adult males.
_Modern City._--Damascus is a city with a population estimated at from
154,000 (35,000 Christians and Jews) to 225,000 (55,000 Christians and
Jews), situated near the northern edge of a plain called the Ghutah, at
the foot of Anti-Lebanon, 2250 ft. above the sea. The river Barada (the
_Abanah_ of 2 Kings v. 12) rises in the Anti-Lebanon, runs for about 10
m. in a narrow channel, and then spreads itself fan-wise over the plain.
About 18 m. east of the city it loses itself in the marshlands known as
the Meadow Lakes. A second river, the 'Awaj (possibly the _Pharpar_ of 2
Kings), pursues a similar course. The plain is thus exceptionally well
irrigated, and its consequent fertility is proverbial over the East.
Damascus is situated on both banks of the Barada, about 2 m. from the
exit of the river from the gorge. On the right bank is all the older
part of the city, and a long suburb called El-Meidan extending about a
mile along the Hajj Road. On the left bank are the suburbs El 'Amaara
and El-Salihia. The waters of the river are carried by channels and
conduits to all the houses of the city. The orchards, gardens, vineyards
and fields of Damascus are said to extend over a circuit of at least 60
m. In the surrounding plain are one hundred and forty villages, occupied
in all by about 50,000 persons (1000 Christians, 2000 Druses).
The rough mud walls in the private houses give poor promise of splendour
within. The entrance is usually by a low door, and through a narrow
winding passage which leads to the outer court, where the master has his
reception room. From this another winding passage leads to the harem,
which is the principal part of the house. The plan of all is the
same--an open court, with a tesselated pavement, and one or two marble
fountains; orange and lemon trees, flowering shrubs, and climbing plants
give freshness and fragrance. All the apartments open into the court;
and on the south side is an open alcove, with a marble floor, and raised
dais round three sides, covered with cushions; the front wall is
supported by an ornamented Saracenic arch. The decoration of some of the
rooms is gorgeous, the walls being covered in part with mosaics and in
part with carved work, while the ceilings are rich in arabesque
ornaments, elaborately gilt. A few of the modern Jewish houses have been
embellished at an enormous cost, but they are wanting in taste.
_Antiquities._--Considering the great age of Damascus, its comparative
poverty in antiquities is remarkable. The walls of the city seem to be
Seleucid in origin; some of the Roman gateways being still in good
order. The _Derb el-Mistakiim_, or "Straight Street," still runs through
the city from the eastern to the western gate. At the north-west corner
is a large castle built in A.D. 1219, by El-Malik el-Ashraf, on the site
of an earlier palace. It is quadrangular, surrounded by a moat filled by
the Barada. The outer walls are in good preservation, but the interior
is ruined.
The church of St John the Baptist constructed by Arcadius on the site of
the temple was turned by Caliph Walid I. (705-717) to a mosque which was
the most important building of Damascus. It was a structure 431 ft. by
125 ft. interior dimensions, extending along the south side of a
quadrangle 163 yds. by 108 yds. Except the famous inscription over the
door--"Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and thy
dominion endureth throughout all generations"--every trace of
Christianity was effaced from the church at its conversion. It was
destroyed by fire on the 14th of October 1893, and though it was
subsequently rebuilt, much that was of archaeological and historical
interest perished. It is estimated that there are over two hundred
mosques in Damascus.
_Products, Manufactures, &c._--Damascus occupies an important commercial
position, being the market for the whole of the desert; it also is of
great importance religiously, as being the starting-point for the Hajj
pilgrimage from Syria to Mecca, which leaves on the 15th of the lunar
month of Shawwal each year. This of course brings much trade to the
city. Its chief manufactures are silk work, cloths and cloaks, gold and
silver ornaments, &c., brass and copper work, furniture and ornamental
woodwork. The bazaars of Damascus are among the most famous of their
kind. It is connected with Beirut and Mezerib by railway, and at the end
of the past century the great undertaking of running a line to Mecca was
commenced. In the surrounding gardens and fields walnuts, apricots,
wheat, barley, maize, &c. are grown. Its commercial importance is
referred to by Ezekiel (xxvii. 18), who mentions its trade in wines and
wool. The climate is good; in winter there is often hard frost and much
snow, and even in summer, with a day temperature of 100° F., the nights
are always cool. Fever, dysentery and ophthalmia, chiefly due to
exposure to heavy dews and cold nights, are prevalent. Though still the
market of the nomads, the surer and cheaper sea route has almost
destroyed the transit trade to which it once owed its wealth, and has
even diminished the importance of the annual pilgrim caravan to Mecca.
The Damascene, however, still retains his skill as a craftsman and
tiller of the soil. The chief imports are cloths, prints, muslins, raw
silk, sugar, rice, &c.
The value of exports and imports in certain specified years is shown in
the following table:--
+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| | 1890. | 1894. | 1898. | 1905. |
+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Exports | £325,660 | £400,830 | £302,050 | £386,000 |
| Imports | 525,710 | 614,490 | 675,080 | 872,400 |
+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
Most of the Christians belong to the Orthodox and Roman Catholic
(United) Greek Churches; and there are also communities of Melchites,
Jacobites, Maronites, Nestorians, Armenians and Protestants. There are
Protestant missions, founded 1843, and a British hospital.
AUTHORITIES.--Lortet, _La Syrie d'aujourd'hui_, p. 567 f. (Paris,
1884); Von Oppenheim, _Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf_, i. 49 f.
(Berlin, 1899); G. A. Smith, _Historical Geography of the Holy Land_;
_Encyclopaedia Biblica_, art. "Damascus"; Consular Reports;
Baedeker-Socin, _Handbook to Syria and Palestine_. For the Great
Mosque see Dickie, Phené Spiers, and Sir C. W. Wilson in _Palestine
Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement_, Oct. 1897. (R. A. S. M.)
DAMASK, the technical term applied to certain distinct types of fabric.
The term owes its origin to the ornamental silk fabrics of Damascus,
fabrics which were elaborately woven in colours, sometimes with the
addition of gold and other metallic threads. At the present day it
denotes a linen texture richly figured in the weaving with flowers,
fruit, forms of animal life, and other types of ornament. "China, no
doubt," says Dr Rock (_Catalogue of Textile Fabrics_, Victoria and
Albert Museum), "was the first country to ornament its silken webs with
a pattern. India, Persia, and Syria, then Byzantine Greece followed, but
at long intervals between, in China's footsteps. Stuffs so figured
brought with them to the West the name 'diaspron' or diaper, bestowed
upon them at Constantinople. But about the 12th century the city of
Damascus, even then long celebrated for its looms, so far outstripped
all other places for beauty of design, that her silken textiles were in
demand everywhere; and thus, as often happens, traders fastened the name
of damascen or damask upon every silken fabric richly wrought and
curiously designed, no matter whether it came or not from Damascus." The
term is perhaps now best known in reference to damask table-cloths, a
species of figured cloth usually of flax or tow yarns, but sometimes
made partly of cotton. The finer qualities are made of the best linen
yarn, and, although the latter is of a brownish colour during the
weaving processes, the ultimate fabric is pure white. The high lights in
these cloths are obtained by long floats of warp and weft, and, as these
are set at right angles, they reflect the light differently according to
the angle of the rays of light; the effect changes also with the
position of the observer. Subdued effects are produced by shorter floats
of yarn, and sometimes by special weaves. Any subject, however
intricate, can be copied by this method of weaving, provided that
expense is no object. The finest results are obtained when the so-called
double damask weaves are used. These weaves are shown under DIE, and it
will be seen that each weave gives a maximum float of seven threads. (In
some special cases a weave is used which gives a float of nine.) The
small figure here shown to illustrate a small section of a damask design
is composed of the two single damask weaves; these give a maximum float
of four threads or picks. No shading is shown in the design, and this
for two reasons--(1) the single damask weaves do not permit of elaborate
shading, although some very good effects are obtainable; (2) the
available space is not sufficiently large to show the method to
advantage. The different single damask weaves used in the shading of
these cloths appear, however, at the bottom of the figure, while between
these and the design proper there is an illustration of the thirty-first
pick interweaving with all the forty-eight threads.
[Illustration]
The principal British centres for fine damasks are Belfast and
Dunfermline, while the medium qualities are made in several places in
Ireland, in a few places in England, and in the counties of Fife, Forfar
and Perth in Scotland. Cotton damasks, which are made in Paisley,
Glasgow, and several places in Lancashire, are used for toilet covers,
table-cloths, and similar purposes. They are often ornamented with
colours and sent to the Indian and West Indian markets. Silk damasks for
curtains and upholstery decoration are made in the silk-weaving centres.
DAMASK STEEL, or DAMASCUS STEEL, a steel with a peculiar watered or
streaked appearance, as seen in the blades of fine swords and other
weapons of Oriental manufacture. One way of producing this appearance is
to twist together strips of iron and steel of different quality and then
weld them into a solid mass. A similar but inferior result may be
obtained by etching with acid the surface of a metal; parts of which are
protected by some greasy substance in such a way as to give the watered
pattern desired. The art of producing damask steel has been generally
practised in Oriental countries from a remote period, the most famous
blades having come from Isfahan, Khorasan, and Shiraz in Persia.
DAMASUS, the name of two popes.
DAMASUS I. was pope from 366 to 384. At the time of the banishment of
Pope Liberius (355), the deacon Damasus, like all the Roman clergy, made
energetic protest. When, however, the emperor Constantius sent to Rome
an anti-pope in the person of Felix II., Damasus, with the other clergy,
rallied to his cause. When Liberius returned from exile and Felix was
expelled from Rome, Damasus again took his place among the adherents of
Liberius. On the death of Liberius (366) a considerable party nominated
Damasus successor; but the irreconcilables of the party of Liberius
refused to pardon his trimming, and set up against him another deacon,
Ursinus. A serious conflict ensued between the rival factions, which
quickly led to rioting and hand-to-hand fighting. In one of these
encounters the then new basilica, called the Liberian Basilica (S. Maria
Maggiore), was partially destroyed, and 137 dead bodies were left in the
building. On several occasions the secular arm had to intervene,
although the government of the emperor Valentinian was averse from
involving itself in ecclesiastical affairs. From the outset the prefect
of Rome recognized the claims of Damasus, and exerted himself to support
him. Ursinus and the leading men of his faction were expelled from Rome,
and afterwards from central Italy, or even interned in Gaul. They,
however, persisted obstinately in their opposition to Damasus, combating
him at first by riots, and then by calumnious law-suits, such as that
instituted by one Isaac, a converted and relapsed Jew.
To the official support, which never failed him, Damasus endeavoured to
join the popular sympathy. From before his election he had been in high
favour with the Roman aristocracy, and especially with the great ladies.
At that period the urban masses, but recently converted to Christianity,
sought in the worship of the martyrs a sort of substitute for
polytheism. Damasus showed great zeal in discovering the tombs of
martyrs, adorning them with precious marbles and monumental
inscriptions. The inscriptions he composed himself, in mediocre verse,
full of Virgilian reminiscences. Several have come down to us on the
original marbles, entire or in fragments; others are known from old
copies. In the interior of Rome he erected or embellished the church
which still bears his name (S. Lorenzo in Damaso), near which his
father's house appears to have stood.
The West was recovering gradually from the troubles caused by the Arian
crisis. Damasus took part, more or less effectually, in the efforts to
eliminate from Italy and Illyria the last champions of the council of
Rimini. In spite of his declaration at the council convened by him in
372, he did not succeed in evicting Auxentius from Milan. But Auxentius
died soon afterwards, and his successor, Ambrose, undertook to bring
these hitherto abortive efforts to a successful conclusion, and to
complete the return of Illyria to the confessions of Nicaea. The bishops
of the East, however, under the direction of St Basil, were involved in
a struggle with the emperor Valens, whose policy was favourable to the
council of Rimini. Damasus, to whom they appealed for help, was unable
to be of much service to them, the more so because that episcopal group,
viewed askance by St Athanasius and his successor Peter, was incessantly
combated at the papal court by the inveterate hatred of Alexandria. The
Eastern bishops triumphed in the end under Theodosius, at the council of
Constantinople (381), in which the pope and the Western church took no
part. They were invited to a council of wider convocation, held at Rome
in 382, but very few attended.
This council had brought to Rome the learned monk Jerome, for whom
Damasus showed great esteem. To him Damasus entrusted the revision of
the Latin text of the Bible and other works of religious erudition. A
short time before, the pope had received a visit from the
Priscillianists after their condemnation in Spain, and had dismissed
them. Damasus died in 384, on the 11th of December, the day on which his
memory is still celebrated.
DAMASUS II., pope from the 17th of July to the 9th of August 1048, was
the ephemeral successor of Clement II. His original name was Poppo, and
he was bishop of Brixen when the emperor Henry III. raised him to the
papacy. (L. D.*)
DAMAUN or DAMAN, a town of Portuguese India, capital of the settlement
of Damaun, situated on the east side of the entrance of the Gulf of
Cambay within the Bombay Presidency. The area of the settlement is 82
sq. m. Pop. (1900) 41,671. The settlement is divided into two parts,
Damaun proper, and the larger _pargana_ of Nagar Havili, the two being
separated by a narrow strip of British territory. The soil is fertile,
and rice, wheat and tobacco are the chief crops. The teak forests are
valuable. Weaving is an industry less important than formerly; mats and
baskets are manufactured, and deep-sea fishing is an important
industry. The shipbuilding business at the town of Damaun is important.
Early in the 19th century a large transit trade in opium between Karachi
and China was carried on at Damaun, but it ceased in 1837, when the
British prohibited it after their conquest of Sind. The settlement is
administered as a unit, and has a municipal chamber.
Damaun town was sacked and burnt by the Portuguese in 1531. It was
subsequently rebuilt, and in 1558 was again taken by the Portuguese, who
made a permanent settlement and converted the mosque into a Christian
church. From that time it has remained in their hands. The territory of
Damaun proper was conquered by the Portuguese in 1559; that of Nagar
Havili was ceded to them by the Mahrattas in 1780 in indemnification for
piracy.
DAME (through the Fr. from Lat. _domina_, mistress, lady, the feminine
of _dominus_, master, lord), properly a name of respect or a title
equivalent to "lady," now surviving in English as the legal designation
of the wife or widow of a baronet or knight and prefixed to the
Christian name and surname. It has also been used in modern times by
certain societies or orders, e.g. the Primrose League, as the name of a
certain rank among the lady members, answering to the male rank of
knight. The ordinary use of the word by itself is for an old woman. As
meaning "mistress," i.e. teacher, "dame" was used of the female keepers
of schools for young children, which have become obsolete since the
advance of public elementary education. At Eton College boarding-houses
kept by persons other than members of the teaching staff of the school
were known as "Dames' Houses," though the head might not necessarily be
a lady. As a term of address to ladies of all ranks, from the sovereign
down, "madam," shortened to "ma'am," represents the French _madame_, my
lady.
"Damsel," a young girl or maiden, now only used as a literary word, is
taken from the Old French _dameisele_, formed from _dame_, and parallel
with the popular _dansele_ or _doncele_ from the medieval Latin
_domicella_ or _dominicella_, diminutive of _domina_. The French
_damoiselle_ and _demoiselle_ are later formations. The English literary
form "damosel" was another importation from France in the 15th century.
In the early middle ages _damoiseau_, medieval Latin _domicellus_,
_dameicele_, _damoiselle_, _domicella_, were used as titles of honour
for the unmarried sons and daughters of royal persons and lords
(_seigneurs_). Later the _damoiseau_ (in the south _donzel_, in Béarn
_domengar_) was specifically a young man of gentle birth who aspired to
knighthood, equivalent to _écuyer_, esquire, or valet (q.v.). The
_damoiseau_ performed certain functions and received training in
knightly accomplishments in the domestic service of his lord. Later
again the name was also used of nobles who had not been knighted. In
certain _seigneuries_ in France, notably in that of Commercy, in
Lorraine, _damoiseau_ became the permanent title of the holder. In
England the title, when used by the French-speaking nobility and members
of the court, was only applied to the son or grandson of the king; thus
in the _Laws of Edward the Confessor_, quoted in Du Cange (_Glossarium,
s.v. Domicellus_), we find "Rex vero Edgarum ... pro filio nutrivit et
quia cogitavit ipsum heredem facere, nominavit _Ethelinge_, quod nos
Domicellum, id, _Damisell_; sed nos indiscrete de pluribus dicimus, quia
Baronum filios vocamus domicellos, Angli vero nullos nisi natos regum."
Froissart calls Richard II. during the lifetime of his father the Black
Prince, _le jeune Demoisel_. The use of _damoiselle_ followed much the
same development; it was first applied to the unmarried daughters of
royal persons and _seigneurs_, then to the wife of a _damoiseau_, and
also to the young ladies of gentle birth who performed for the wives of
the _seigneurs_ the same domestic services as the _damoiseaus_ for their
husbands. Hence the later form _demoiselle_ became merely the title of
address of a young unmarried lady, the _mademoiselle_ of modern usage,
the English "miss." At the court of France, after the 17th century,
_Mademoiselle_, without the name of the lady, was a courtesy title given
to the eldest daughter of the eldest brother of the king, who was known
as _Monsieur_. To distinguish the daughter of Gaston d'Orléans, brother
of Louis XIII., from the daughter of Philippe d'Orléans, brother of
Louis XIV., the former, Anne Marie Louise, duchesse de Montpensier, was
called _La Grande Mademoiselle_, by which title she is known to history
(see MONTPENSIER, A. M. L., DUCHESSE DE).
DAME'S VIOLET, the English name for _Hesperis matronalis_, a herbaceous
plant belonging to the natural order Cruciferae, and closely allied to
the wallflower and stock. It has an erect stout leafy stem 2 to 3 ft.
high, with irregularly toothed short-stalked leaves and white or lilac
flowers, ¾ in. across, which are scented in the evening (hence the name
of the genus, from the Gr. [Greek: hesperos], evening). The slender pods
are constricted between the seeds. The plant is a native of Europe and
temperate Asia, and is found in Britain as an escape from gardens, in
meadows and plantations.
DAMGHAN, a town of Persia in the province of Semnan va Damghan, 216 m.
from Teheran on the high-road thence to Khorasan, at an elevation of
3770 ft. and in 36° 10´ N., 54° 20´ E. Pop. about 10,000. There are post
and telegraph offices, and a great export trade is done in pistachios
and almonds, the latter being of the kind called _Kaghazi_ ("of paper")
with very thin shells, famous throughout the country. Damghan was an
important city in the middle ages, but only a ruined mosque with a
number of massive columns and some fine wood carvings and two minarets
of the 11th century remain of that period. Near the city, a few miles
south and south-west, are the remains of Hecatompylos, extending from
Frat, 16 m. south of Damghan, to near Gúsheh, 20 m. west. Damghan was
destroyed by the Afghans in 1723. On an eminence in the western part of
the city are the ruins of a large square citadel with a small
white-washed building, called _Molud Khaneh_ (the house of birth), in
which Fath Ali Shah was born (1772).
DAMIANI, PIETRO (c. 1007-1072), one of the most celebrated ecclesiastics
of the 11th century, was born at Ravenna, and after a youth spent in
hardship and privation, gained some renown as a teacher. About 1035,
however, he deserted his secular calling and entered the hermitage of
Fonte Avellana, near Gubbio; and winning sound reputation through his
piety and his preaching, he became the head of this establishment about
1043. A zealot for monastic and clerical reform, he introduced a more
severe discipline, including the practice of flagellation, into the
house, which, under his rule, quickly attained celebrity, and became a
model for other foundations. Extending the area of his activities, he
entered into communication with the emperor Henry III., addressed to
Pope Leo IX. in 1049 a writing denouncing the vices of the clergy and
entitled _Liber Gomorrhianus_; and soon became associated with
Hildebrand in the work of reform. As a trusted counsellor of a
succession of popes he was made cardinal bishop of Ostia, a position
which he accepted with some reluctance; and presiding over a council at
Milan in 1059, he courageously asserted the authority of Rome over this
province, and won a signal victory for the principles which he
advocated. He rendered valuable assistance to Pope Alexander II. in his
struggle with the anti-pope, Honorius II.; and having served the papacy
as legate to France and to Florence, he was allowed to resign his
bishopric in 1067. After a period of retirement at Fonte Avellana, he
proceeded in 1069 as papal legate to Germany, and persuaded the emperor
Henry IV. to give up his intention of divorcing his wife Bertha. During
his concluding years he was not altogether in accord with the political
ideas of Hildebrand. He died at Faenza on the 22nd of February 1072.
Damiani was a determined foe of simony, but his fiercest wrath was
directed against the married clergy. He was an extremely vigorous
controversialist, and his Latin abounds in denunciatory epithets. He was
specially devoted to the Virgin Mary, and wrote an _Officium Beatae
Virginis_, in addition to many letters, sermons, and other writings.
His works were collected by Cardinal Cajetan, and were published in
four volumes at Rome (1606-1615), and then at Paris in 1642, at Venice
in 1743, and there are other editions. See A. Vogel, _Peter Damiani_
(Jena, 1856); A. Capecelatro, _Storia di S. Pier Damiani e del suo
tempo_ (Florence, 1862); F. Neukirch, _Das Leben des Peter Damiani_
(Göttingen, 1875); L. Guerrier, _De Petro Damiano_ (Orleans, 1881); W.
von Giesebrecht, _Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit_ (Leipzig,
1885-1890); and Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_, Band iv. (Leipzig,
1898).
DAMIEN, FATHER, the name in religion of JOSEPH DE VEUSTER (1840-1889),
Belgian missionary, was born at Tremeloo, near Louvain, on the 3rd of
January 1840. He was educated for a business career, but in his
eighteenth year entered the Church, joining the Society of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus and Mary (also known as the Picpus Congregation), and
taking Damien as his name in religion. In October 1863, while he was
still in minor orders, he went out as a missionary to the Pacific
Islands, taking the place of his brother, who had been prevented by an
illness. He reached Honolulu in March 1864, and was ordained priest in
Whitsuntide of that year. Struck with the sad condition of the lepers,
whom it was the practice of the Hawaian government to deport to the
island of Molokai, he conceived an earnest desire to mitigate their lot,
and in 1873 volunteered to take spiritual charge of the settlement at
Molokai. Here he remained for the rest of his life, with occasional
visits to Honolulu, until he became stricken with leprosy in 1885.
Besides attending to the spiritual needs of the lepers, he managed, by
the labour of his own hands and by appeals to the Hawaian government, to
improve materially the water-supply, the dwellings, and the victualling
of the settlement. For five years he worked alone; subsequently other
resident priests from time to time assisted him. He succumbed to leprosy
on the 15th of April 1889. Some ill-considered imputations upon Father
Damien by a Presbyterian minister produced a memorable tract by Robert
Louis Stevenson (_An Open Letter to the Rev. Dr Hyde_, 1890).
See also lives by E. Clifford (1889) and Fr. Pamphile (1889).
(J. M'F.)
DAMIENS, ROBERT FRANÇOIS (1715-1757), a Frenchman who attained notoriety
by his attack on Louis XV. of France in 1757, was born in a village near
Arras in 1715, and early enlisted in the army. After his discharge, he
became a menial in the college of the Jesuits in Paris, and was
dismissed from this as well as from other employments for misconduct,
his conduct earning for him the name of Robert le Diable. During the
disputes of Clement XI. with the parlement of Paris the mind of Damiens
seems to have been excited by the ecclesiastical disorganization which
followed the refusal of the clergy to grant the sacraments to the
Jansenists and Convulsionnaires; and he appears to have thought that
peace would be restored by the death of the king. He, however, asserted,
perhaps with truth, that he only intended to frighten the king without
wounding him severely. On the 5th of January 1757, as the king was
entering his carriage, he rushed forward and stabbed him with a knife,
inflicting only a slight wound. He made no attempt to escape, and was at
once seized. He was condemned as a regicide, and sentenced to be torn in
pieces by horses in the Place de Grève. Before being put to death he was
barbarously tortured with red-hot pincers, and molten wax, lead, and
boiling oil were poured into his wounds. After his death his house was
razed to the ground, his brothers and sisters were ordered to change
their names, and his father, wife, and daughter were banished from
France.
See _Pièces originales et procédures du procès fait à Robert François
Damiens_ (Paris, 1757).
DAMIETTA, a town of Lower Egypt, on the eastern (Damietta or Phatnitic)
branch of the Nile, about 12 m. above its mouth, and 125 m. N.N.E. of
Cairo by rail. Pop. (1907) 29,354. The town is built on the east bank of
the river between it and Lake Menzala. Though in general ill-built and
partly ruinous, the town possesses some fine mosques, with lofty
minarets, public baths and busy bazaars. Along the river-front are many
substantial houses furnished with terraces, and with steps leading to
the water. Their wooden lattices of saw-work are very graceful. After
Cairo and Alexandria, Damietta was for centuries the largest town in
Egypt, but the silting up of the entrance to the harbour, the rise of
Port Said, and the remarkable development of Alexandria have robbed
Damietta of its value as a port. It has still, however, a coasting trade
with Syria and the Levant. Ships over 6 ft. draught cannot enter the
river, but must anchor in the offing. Lake Menzala yields large
supplies of fish, which are dried and salted, and these, with rice,
furnish the chief articles of trade.
Damietta is a Levantine corruption of the Coptic name _Tamiati_, Arabic
_Dimyat_. The original town was 4 m. nearer the sea than the modern
city, and first rose into importance on the decay of Pelusium. When it
passed into the hands of the Saracens it became a place of great wealth
and commerce, and, as the eastern bulwark of Egypt, was frequently
attacked by the crusaders. The most remarkable of these sieges lasted
eighteen months, from June 1218 to November 1219, and ended in the
capture of the town, which was, however, held but for a brief period. In
June 1249 Louis IX. of France occupied Damietta without opposition, but
being defeated near Mansura in the February following, and compelled
(6th April) to surrender himself prisoner, Damietta was restored to the
Moslems as part of the ransom exacted. To prevent further attacks from
the sea the Mameluke sultan Bibars blocked up the Phatnitic mouth of the
Nile (about 1260), razed old Damietta to the ground, and transferred the
inhabitants to the site of the modern town. It continued to be a place
of commercial importance for a considerable period, until in fact Port
Said gave the eastern part of the Delta a better port. Damietta gives
its name to dimity, a kind of striped cloth, for which the place was at
one time famous. Cotton and silk goods are still manufactured here.
DAMIRI, the common name of KAMAL UD-DIN MUHAMMAD IBN MUSA UD-DAMIRI
(1344-1405), Arabian writer on canon law and natural history, belonged
to one of the two towns called Damira near Damietta and spent his life
in Egypt. Of the Shafi'ite school of law, he became professor of
tradition in the _Rukniyya_ at Cairo, and also at the mosque el-Azhar;
in connexion with this work he wrote a commentary on the _Minhaj
ut-Talibin_ of Nawawi (q.v.). He is, however, better known in the
history of literature for his _Life of Animals_ (_Hayat ul-Hayawan_),
which treats in alphabetic order of 931 animals mentioned in the Koran,
the traditions and the poetical and proverbial literature of the Arabs.
The work is a compilation from over 500 prose writers and nearly 200
poets. The correct spelling of the names of the animals is given with an
explanation of their meanings. The use of the animals in medicine, their
lawfulness or unlawfulness as food, their position in folk-lore are the
main subjects treated, while occasionally long irrelevant sections on
political history are introduced.
The work exists in three forms. The fullest has been published several
times in Egypt; a mediate and a short recension exist in manuscript.
Several editions have been made at various times of extracts, among
them the poetical one by Suyuti (q.v.), which was translated into
Latin by A. Ecchelensis (Paris, 1667). Bochartus in his _Hierozoicon_
(1663) used Damiri's work. There is a translation of the whole into
English by Lieutenant-Colonel Jayakar (Bombay, 1906-1908).
(G. W. T.)
DAMIRON, JEAN PHILIBERT (1794-1862), French philosopher, was born at
Belleville. At nineteen he entered the normal school, where he studied
under Burnouf, Villemain, and Cousin. After teaching for several years
in provincial towns, he came to Paris, where he lectured on philosophy
in various institutions, and finally became professor in the normal
school, and titular professor at the Sorbonne. In 1824 he took part with
P. F. Dubois and Th. S. Jouffroy in the establishment of the _Globe_;
and he was also a member of the committee of the society which took for
its motto _Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera_. In 1833 he was appointed
chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and in 1836 member of the Academy of
Moral Sciences. Damiron died at Paris on the 11th of January 1862.
The chief works of Damiron, of which the best are his accounts of French
philosophers, are the following:--An edition of the _Nouveaux mélanges
philosophiques de Jouffroy_ (1842), with a notice of the author, in
which Damiron softened and omitted several expressions used by Jouffroy,
which were opposed to the system of education adopted by the Sorbonne,
an article which gave rise to a bitter controversy, and to a book by
Pierre Leroux, _De la mutilation des manuscrits de M. Jouffroy_ (1843);
_Essai sur l'histoire de la philosophie en France au XIX^e siècle_
(1828, 3rd ed. 1834); _Essai sur l'histoire de la philosophie en France
au XVII. siècle_ (1846); _Mémoires à servir pour l'histoire de la
philosophie en France au XVIII. siècle_ (1858-1864); _Cours de la
philosophie_; _De la Providence_ (1849, 1850).
See A. Franck, _Moralistes et philosophes_ (1872).
DAMJANICH, JÁNOS (1804-1849), Hungarian soldier, was born at Stása in
the Banat. He entered the army as an officer in the 61st regiment of
foot, and on the outbreak of the Hungarian war of independence was
promoted to be a major in the third Honvéd regiment at Szeged. Although
an orthodox Serb, he was from the first a devoted adherent of the Magyar
liberals. He won his colonelcy by his ability and valour at the battles
of Alibunár and Lagerdorf in 1848. At the beginning of 1849 he was
appointed commander of the 3rd army corps in the middle Theiss, and
quickly gained the reputation of being the bravest man in the Magyar
army, winning engagement after engagement by sheer dash and daring. At
the beginning of March 1849 he annihilated a brigade at Szolnók, perhaps
his greatest exploit. He was elected deputy for Szolnók to the Hungarian
diet, but declined the honour. Damjanich played a leading part in the
general advance upon the Hungarian capital under Görgei. He was present
at the engagements of Hort and Hatvan, converted the doubtful fight of
Tápió-Bicsk into a victory, and fought with irresistible _élan_ at the
bloody battle of Isaszeg. At the ensuing review at Gödöllö, Kossuth
expressed the sentiments of the whole nation when he doffed his hat as
Damjanich's battalions passed by. Always a fiery democrat, Damjanich
uncompromisingly supported the extremist views of Kossuth, and was
appointed commander of one of the three divisions which, under Görgei,
entered Vacz in April 1849. His fame reached its culmination when, on
the 19th of April, he won the battle of Nagysarló, which led to the
relief of the hardly-pressed fortress of Komárom. At this juncture
Damjanich broke his leg, an accident which prevented him from taking
part in field operations at the most critical period of the war, when
the Magyars had to abandon the capital for the second time. He recovered
sufficiently, however, to accept the post of commandant of the fortress
of Arad. After the Vilagós catastrophe, Damjanich, on being summoned to
surrender, declared he would give up the fortress to a single company of
Cossacks, but would defend it to the last drop of his blood against the
whole Austrian army. He accordingly surrendered to the Russian general
Demitrius Buturlin (1790-1849), by whom he was handed over to the
Austrians, who shot him in the market-place of Arad a few days later.
See Ödön Hamvay, _Life of János Damjanich_ (Hung.), (Budapest, 1904).
(R. N. B.)
DAMMAR, or DAMMER (Hind, _damar_ = resin, pitch), a resin, or rather
series of resins, obtained from various coniferous trees of the genus
_Dammara_ (_Agathis_). East Indian dammar or cat's eye resin is the
produce of _Dammara orientalis_, which grows in Java, Sumatra, Borneo
and other eastern islands and sometimes attains a height of 80-100 ft.
It oozes in large quantities from the tree in a soft viscous state, with
a highly aromatic odour, which, however, it loses as it hardens by
exposure. The resin is much esteemed in oriental communities for
incense-burning. Dammar is imported into England by way of Singapore;
and as found in British markets it is a hard, transparent, brittle,
straw-coloured resin, destitute of odour. It is readily soluble in
ether, benzol and chloroform, and with oil of turpentine it forms a fine
transparent varnish which dries clear, smooth and hard. The allied kauri
gum, or dammar of New Zealand (Australian dammar), is produced by
_Dammara australis_, or kauri-pine, the wood of which is used for wood
paving. Much of the New Zealand resin is found fossil in circumstances
analogous to the conditions under which the fossil copal of Zanzibar is
obtained. Dammar is besides a generic Indian name for various other
resins, which, however, are little known in western commerce. Of these
the principal are black dammar (the Hindustani _kala-damar_), yielded by
_Canarium strictum_, and white dammar, Indian copal, or piney varnish
(_sufed-damar_), the produce of _Vateria indica_. Sal dammar (_damar_)
is obtained from _Shorea robusta_; _Hopea micrantha_ is the source of
rock dammar (the Malay _dammer-batu_); and other species yield resins
which are similarly named and differ little in physical properties.
DAMMARTIN, a small town of France, in the department of Seine et Marne,
22 m. N.E. of Paris. It is well situated on a hill forming part of the
plateau of la Goële, and is known as Dammartin-en-Goële to distinguish
it from Dammartin-sous-Tigeaux, a small commune in the same department.
Dammartin is historically important as the seat of a countship of which
the holders played a considerable part in French history. The earliest
recorded count of Dammartin was a certain Hugh, who made himself master
of the town in the 10th century; but his dynasty was replaced by another
family in the 11th century. Reynald I. (Renaud), count of Dammartin (d.
1227), who was one of the coalition crushed by King Philip Augustus at
the battle of Bouvines (1214), left two co-heiresses, of whom the elder,
Maud (Matilda or Mahaut), married Philip Hurepel, son of Philip
Augustus, and the second, Alix, married Jean de Trie, in whose line the
countship was reunited after the death of Philip Hurepel's son Alberic.
The countship passed, through heiresses, to the houses of Fayel and
Nanteuil, and in the 15th century was acquired by Antoine de Chabannes
(d. 1488), one of the favourites of King Charles VII., by his marriage
with Marguerite, heiress of Reynald V. of Nanteuil-Aci and Marie of
Dammartin. This Antoine de Chabannes, count of Dammartin in right of his
wife, fought under the standard of Joan of Arc, became a leader of the
_Écorcheurs_, took part in the war of the public weal against Louis XI.,
and then fought for him against the Burgundians. The collegiate church
at Dammartin was founded by him in 1480, and his tomb and effigy are in
the chancel. His son, Jean de Chabannes, left three heiresses, of whom
the second left a daughter who brought the countship to Philippe de
Boulainvilliers, by whose heirs it was sold in 1554 to the dukes of
Montmorency. In 1632 the countship was confiscated by Louis XIII. and
bestowed on the princes of Condé.
DAMME, a decayed city of Belgium, 5 m. N.E. of Bruges, once among the
most important commercial ports of Europe. It is situated on the canal
from Bruges to Sluys (Ecluse), but in the middle ages a navigable
channel or river called the Zwyn gave ships access to it from the North
Sea. The great naval battle of Sluys, in which Edward III. destroyed the
French fleet and secured the command of the channel, was fought in the
year 1340 at the mouth of the Zwyn. About 1395 this channel began to
show signs of silting up, and during the next hundred years the process
proved rapid. In 1490 a treaty was signed at Damme between the people of
Bruges and the archduke Maximilian, and very soon after this event the
channel became completely closed up, and the foreign merchant gilds or
"nations" left the place for Antwerp. This signified the death of the
port and was indirectly fatal to Bruges as well. The marriage of Charles
the Bold and Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV., was celebrated at
Damme on the 2nd of July 1468. It will give some idea of the importance
of the town to mention that it had its own maritime law, known as _Droit
maritime de Damme_. The new ship canal from Zeebrugge will not revive
the ancient port, as it follows a different route, leaving Damme and
Ecluse quite untouched. Damme, although long neglected, preserves some
remains of its former prosperity, thanks to its remoteness from the area
of international strife in the Low Countries. The tower of Notre Dame,
dating from 1180, is a landmark across the dunes, and the church behind
it, although a shell, merits inspection. Out of a portion of the ancient
markets a hôtel-de-ville of modest dimensions has been constructed, and
in the hospital of St Jean are a few pictures. Camille Lemonnier has
given in one of his _Causeries_ a striking picture of this faded scene
of former greatness, now a solitude in which the few residents seem
spectres rather than living figures.
DAMOCLES, one of the courtiers of the elder Dionysius of Syracuse. When
he spoke in extravagant terms of the happiness of his sovereign,
Dionysius is said to have invited him to a sumptuous banquet, at which
he found himself seated under a naked sword suspended by a single hair
(Cicero, _Tusc._ v. 21; Horace, _Odes_, iii. 1, 17; Persius iii. 40).
DAMOH, a town and district of British India, in the Jubbulpore division
of the Central Provinces. The town has a railway station, 48 m. E. of
Saugor. Pop. (1901) 13,355. It has a considerable cattle-market, and a
number of small industries, such as weaving, dyeing and pottery-making.
The DISTRICT OF DAMOH has an area of 2816 sq. m. Except on the south and
east, where the offshoots from the surrounding hills and patches of
jungle break up the country, the district consists of open plains of
varying degrees of fertility, interspersed with low ranges and isolated
heights. The richest tracts lie in the centre. The gentle declivity of
the surface and the porous character of the prevailing sandstone
formation render the drainage excellent. All the streams flow from south
to north. The Sunar and the Bairma, the two principal rivers, traverse
the entire length of the district. Little use has been made of any of
the rivers for irrigation, though in many places they offer great
facilities for the purpose. Damoh was first formed into a separate
district in 1861. In 1901 the population was 285,326, showing a decrease
of 12% in one decade due to famine. Damoh suffered severely from the
famine of 1896-1897. Fortunately the famine of 1900 was little felt. A
branch of the Indian Midland railway was opened throughout from Saugor
to Katni in January 1899.
DAMON, of Syracuse, a Pythagorean, celebrated for his disinterested
affection for Phintias (not, as commonly given, Pythias), a member of
the same sect. Condemned to death by Dionysius the Elder (or Younger) of
Syracuse, Phintias begged to be set at liberty for a short time that he
might arrange his affairs. Damon pledged his life for the return of his
friend; and Phintias faithfully returned before the appointed day of
execution. The tyrant, to express his admiration of their fidelity,
released both the friends and begged to be admitted to their friendship
(Diod. Sic. x. 4; Cicero, _De Off._ iii. 10). Hyginus (_Fab._ 257, who
is followed by Schiller in his ballad, _Die Bürgschaft_) tells a similar
story, in which the two friends are named Moerus and Selinuntius.
DAMOPHON, a Greek sculptor of Messene, who executed many statues for the
people of Messene, Megalopolis, Aegium and other cities of Peloponnesus.
Considerable fragments, including three colossal heads from a group by
him representing Demeter, Persephone, Artemis and the giant Anytus, have
been discovered on the site of Lycosura in Arcadia, where was a temple
of the goddess called "The Mistress." They are preserved in part in the
museum at Athens and partly on the spot. Hence there has arisen a great
controversy as to the date of the artist, who has been assigned to
various periods, from the 4th century B.C. to the 2nd A.D. A good
account of the whole matter will be found in Frazer's _Pausanias_, iv.
372-379. Frazer wisely inclines to an early date; it is in fact
difficult to find any period, when the cities mentioned were in a
position to found temples, later than the time of Alexander.
DAMP, a common Teutonic word, meaning vapour or mist (cf. Ger. _Dampf_,
steam), and hence moisture. In its primitive sense the word persists in
the vocabulary of coal-miners. Their "firedamp" (formerly fulminating
damp) is marsh gas, which, when mixed with air and exploded, produced
"choke damp," "after damp," or "suffocating damp" (carbon dioxide).
"Black damp" consists of accumulations of irrespirable gases, mostly
nitrogen, which cause the lights to burn dimly, and the term "white
damp" is sometimes applied to carbon monoxide. As a verb, the word means
to stifle or check; hence damped vibrations or oscillations are those
which have been reduced or stopped, instead of being allowed to die out
naturally; the "dampers" of the piano are small pieces of felt-covered
wood which fall upon the strings and stop their vibrations as the keys
are allowed to rise; and the "damper" of a chimney or flue, by
restricting the draught, lessens the rate of combustion.
DAMPIER, WILLIAM (1652-1715), English buccaneer, navigator and
hydrographer, was born at East Coker, Somersetshire, in 1652 (baptized
8th of June). Having early become an orphan, he was placed with the
master of a ship at Weymouth, in which he made a voyage to Newfoundland.
On his return he sailed to Bantam in the East Indies. He served in 1673
in the Dutch War under Sir Edward Sprague, and was present at two
engagements (28th of May; 4th of June); but then fell sick and was put
ashore. In 1674 he became an under-manager of a Jamaica estate, but
continued only a short time in this situation. He afterwards engaged in
the coasting trade, and thus acquired an accurate knowledge of all the
ports and bays of the island. He made two voyages to the Bay of
Campeachy (1675-1676), and remained for some time with the
logwood-cutters, varying this occupation with buccaneering. In 1678 he
returned to England, again visiting Jamaica in 1679 and joining a party
of buccaneers, with whom he crossed the Isthmus of Darien, spent the
year 1680 on the Peruvian coast, and sacking, plundering and burning,
made his way down to Juan Fernandez Island. After serving with another
privateering expedition in the Spanish Main, he went to Virginia and
engaged with a captain named Cook for a privateering voyage against the
Spaniards in the South Seas. They sailed in August 1683, touched at the
Guinea coast, and then proceeded round Cape Horn into the Pacific.
Having touched at Juan Fernandez, they made the coast of South America,
cruising along Chile and Peru. They took some prizes, and with these
they proceeded to the Galapagos Islands and to Mexico, which last they
fell in with near Cape Blanco. While they lay here Captain Cook died,
and the command devolved on Captain Davis, who, with several other
pirate vessels, English and French, raided the west American shores for
the next year, attacking Guayaquil, Puebla Nova, &c. At last Dampier,
leaving Davis, went on board Swan's ship, and proceeded with him along
the northern parts of Mexico as far as southern California. Swan then
proposed, as the expedition met with "bad success" on the Mexican coast,
to run across the Pacific and return by the East Indies. They started
from Cape Corrientes on the 31st of March 1686, and reached Guam in the
Ladrones on the 20th of May; the men, having almost come to an end of
their rations, had decided to kill and eat their leaders next, beginning
with the "lusty and fleshy" Swan. After six months' drunkenness and
debauchery in the Philippines, the majority of the crew, including
Dampier, left Swan and thirty-six others behind in Mindanao, cruised
(1687-1688) from Manila to Pulo Condore, from the latter to China, and
from China to the Spice Islands and New Holland (the Australian
mainland). In March 1688 they were off Sumatra, and in May off the
Nicobars, where Dampier was marooned (at his own request, as he
declares, for the purpose of establishing a trade in ambergris) with two
other Englishmen, a Portuguese and some Malays. He and his companions
contrived to navigate a canoe to Achin in Sumatra; but the fatigues and
distress of the voyage proved fatal to several and nearly carried off
Dampier himself. After making several voyages to different places of the
East Indies (Tongking, Madras, &c.), he acted for some time, and
apparently somewhat unwillingly, as gunner to the English fort of
Benkulen. Thence he ultimately contrived to return to England in 1691.
In 1699 he was sent out by the English admiralty in command of the
"Roebuck," especially designed for discovery in and around Australia. He
sailed from the Downs, the 14th of January, with twenty months'
provisions, touched at the Canaries, Cape Verdes and Bahia, and ran from
Brazil round the Cape of Good Hope direct to Australia, whose west coast
he reached on the 26th of July, in about 26° S. lat. Anchoring in
Shark's Bay, he began a careful exploration of the neighbouring
shore-lands, but found no good harbour or estuary, no fresh water or
provisions. In September, accordingly, he left Australia, recruited and
refitted at Timor, and thence made for New Guinea, where he arrived on
the 3rd of December. By sailing along to its easternmost extremity, he
discovered that it was terminated by an island, which he named New
Britain (now Neu Pommern), whose north, south and east coasts he
surveyed. That St George's Bay was really St George's Channel, dividing
the island into two, was not perceived by Dampier; it was the discovery
of his successor, Philip Carteret. Nor did Dampier visit the west coast
of New Britain or realize its small extent on that side. He was
prevented from prosecuting his discoveries by the discontent of his men
and the state of his ship. In May 1700 he was again at Timor, and thence
he proceeded homeward by Batavia (4th July-17th October) and the Cape of
Good Hope. In February 1701 he arrived off Ascension Island, when the
vessel foundered (21st-24th February), the crew reaching land and
staying in the island till the 3rd of April, when they were conveyed to
England by some East Indiamen and warships bound for home. In 1703-1707
Dampier commanded two government privateers on an expedition to the
South Seas with grievous unsuccess; better fortune attended him on his
last voyage, as pilot to Woodes Rogers in the circumnavigation of
1708-1711. On the former venture Alexander Selkirk, the master of one of
the vessels, was marooned at Juan Fernandez; on the latter Selkirk was
rescued and a profit of nearly £200,000 was made. But four years before
the prize-money was paid Dampier died (March 1715) in St Stephen's
parish, Coleman Street, London. Dampier's accounts of his voyages are
famous. He had a genius for observation, especially of the scientific
phenomena affecting a seaman's life; his style is usually
admirable--easy, clear and manly. His knowledge of natural history,
though not scientific, appears surprisingly accurate and trustworthy.
See Dampier's _New Voyage Round the World_ (1697); his _Voyages and
Descriptions_ (1699), a work supplementary to the _New Voyage_; his
_Voyage to New Holland in ... 1699_ (1703, 1709); also Funnell's
Narrative of the Voyage of 1703-1707; Dampier's _Vindication of his
Voyage_ (1707); Welbe's _Answer to Captain Dampier's Vindication_;
Woodes Rogers, _Cruising Voyage Round the World_ (1712).
(C. R. B.)
DAN (from a Hebrew word meaning "judge"), a tribe of Israel, named after
a son of Jacob and Bilhah, the maid of Rachel. The meaning of the name
(referred to in Gen. xxx. 5 seq., xlix. 16) connects Dan with Dinah
("judgment"), the daughter of Leah, whose story in Gen. xxxiv. (cf.
xlix. 5 seq.) seems to point to an Israelite occupation of Shechem, a
treacherous massacre of its Canaanite inhabitants by Simeon and Levi,
and the subsequent scattering of the latter. But, historically, the
occupation of Shechem, whether by conquest (Gen. xlviii. 22) or purchase
(xxxiii. 19), is as obscure as the conquest of central Palestine itself
(see JOSHUA), and the true relation between Dan and Dinah is uncertain.
The earliest seats of Dan lay at Zorah, Eshtaol and Kirjath-jearim, west
of Jerusalem, whence they were forced to seek a new home, and a valuable
narrative detailing some of the events of the move is preserved in the
story of the sanctuary of the Ephraimite Micah (q.v.). Laish (Leshem)
was taken with the sword and re-named Dan (see below). Here a sanctuary
was founded under the guardianship of Jonathan, the grandson of Moses,
which survived until the "captivity of the land" (by Tiglath-Pileser IV.
in 733-732), or, according to another notice, until the fall of Shiloh
(Judg. xviii. 30 seq.). Dan formed the northern limit of the land,[1]
and with Abel (-beth-Maacah) was an old place renowned for Israelite
lore (2 Sam. xx. 18; on the text see the commentaries). Little can be
made of Dan's history. The reference to it as a seafaring folk (Judg. v.
17) is difficult, and it is uncertain whether its character as
represented in Gen. xlix. 17, Deut. xxxiii. 22, refers to its earlier or
later seat. The post-exilic accounts of its southern border would make
it part of Judah, and both of them are in tradition the greatest of the
tribes in the wanderings in the wilderness. Dan was subsequently either
regarded as the embodiment of wickedness or entirely ignored; late
speculation that the Antichrist should spring from it appears to be
based upon an interpretation of Gen. xlix. 17 (see further R. H.
Charles, _Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs_, pp. 128 seq.).
A brief record of the Danite migration is found in some old detached
fragments which K. Budde (_Richter und Samuel_) ingeniously arranges
thus:--Judg. i. 34 (Amorite pressure); Josh. xix. 47a (see the
Septuagint), 47_b_; Judg. i. 35. The position of Judg. xvii. seq.
(after the stories of Samson) may imply that the Philistines, not the
Amorites, caused the migration (cf. 1 Sam. vii. 14, where the two
ethnical terms interchange). The Mosaic priesthood and the reference to
Shiloh suggest that the story of Eli may have belonged to this cycle of
narratives; and the spoliation of the unknown sanctuary of the
Ephraimite Micah and the character of the fierce Puritan tribesmen
connect Dan with the problems of the tribes of Simeon and Levi. Dan's
northern home lay near Beth-rehob, which appears to have been Aramean in
David's time (2 Sam. x. 6), and it is possible that the migration has
been antedated (cf. similarly the case of Jair, Num. xxxii. 41, Judg. x.
3-5). The Tyrian artificer sent to Solomon by Hiram was partly of Danite
descent (2 Chron. ii. 13 seq.; but of Naphtali, so 1 Kings vii. 14); and
of the two workers in brass who took part in the building of the
tabernacle in the desert, one was Danite (Oholiab, Ex. xxxi. 6), while
the other appears to have been Calebite (Bezalel, ib., v. 2; 1 Chron.
ii. 20). The Kenites, too, have been regarded as a race of metal-workers
(see CAIN, KENITES), and there is evidence which would show that
Danites, Calebites and Kenites were once closely associated in
tradition.
See S. A. Cook, _Critical Notes_, Index, _s.v._: E. Meyer,
_Israeliten_, pp. 525 seq. (S. A. C.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] On the late phrase "Dan to Beersheba" as the extreme points of
religious life in Israel, see H. W. Hogg, _Expositor_, viii. 411-421
(1898); and for a complete discussion of the tribe, his art. "Dan" in
_Encyc. Bib._
DAN, a town of ancient Israel, near the head-waters of the Jordan,
inhabited before its conquest by the Danites by a peaceful commercial
population who called their city Laish or Leshem (Josh. xix. 47, Judg.
xviii.). It appears to have been even at this early period a sacred
city, the shrine of Micah being removed hither, and it was chosen by
Jeroboam as the site of one of his calf-shrines. It makes the north
limit of Palestine in the proverbial expression "from Dan to Beersheba."
The town was plundered by Benhadad of Damascus, and appears from that
time to have gradually declined. Its site is sought in the mound called
Tell-el-Kadi, "the hill of the judge" (Dan = "judge" in Hebrew), though
weighty authorities incline to place it 4 m. east of this, at Banias,
the old Caesarea Philippi. (See above.)
DANA, CHARLES ANDERSON (1819-1897), American journalist, was born in
Hinsdale, New Hampshire, on the 8th of August 1819. At the age of twelve
he became a clerk in his uncle's general store at Buffalo, which failed
in 1837. In 1839 he entered Harvard, but the impairment of his eyesight
in 1841 forced him to leave college, and caused him to abandon his
intention of entering the ministry and of studying in Germany. From
September 1841 until March 1846 he lived at Brook Farm, where he was
made one of the trustees of the farm, was head waiter when the farm
became a Fourierite phalanx, and was in charge of the phalanstery's
finances when its buildings were burned in 1846. He had previously
written for (and managed) the _Harbinger_, the Brook Farm organ, and had
written as early as 1844 for the Boston _Chronotype_. In 1847 he joined
the staff of the New York _Tribune_, and in 1848 he wrote from Europe
letters to it and other papers on the revolutionary movements of that
year. Returning to the _Tribune_ in 1849, he became its managing-editor,
and in this capacity actively promoted the anti-slavery cause, seeming
to shape the paper's policy at a time when Greeley was undecided and
vacillating. In 1862 his resignation was asked for by the board of
managers of the _Tribune_, apparently because of wide temperamental
differences between him and Greeley. Secretary of War Stanton
immediately made him a special investigating agent of the war
department; in this capacity Dana discovered frauds of quartermasters
and contractors, and as the "eyes of the administration," as Lincoln
called him, he spent much time at the front, and sent to Stanton
frequent reports concerning the capacity and methods of various generals
in the field; he went through the Vicksburg campaign and was at
Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and urged the placing of General Grant in
supreme command of all the armies in the field. Dana was second
assistant-secretary of war in 1864-1865, and in 1865-1866 conducted the
newly-established and unsuccessful Chicago _Republican_. He became the
editor and part-owner of the New York _Sun_ in 1868, and remained in
control of it until his death at Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, on
the 17th of October 1897. Under Dana's control the _Sun_ opposed the
impeachment of President Johnson; it supported Grant for the presidency
in 1868; it was a sharp critic of Grant as president; and in 1872 took
part in the Liberal Republican revolt and urged Greeley's nomination. It
favoured Tilden, the Democratic candidate for the presidency, in 1876,
opposed the Electoral Commission and continually referred to Hayes as
the "fraud president." In 1884 it supported Benjamin F. Butler, the
candidate of Greenback-Labor and Anti-Monopolist parties, for the
presidency, and opposed Blaine (Republican) and even more bitterly
Cleveland (Democrat); it supported Cleveland and opposed Harrison in
1888, although it had bitterly criticized Cleveland's first
administration, and was to criticize nearly every detail of his second,
with the exception of Federal interference in the Pullman strike of
1894; and in 1896, on the free-silver issue, it opposed Bryan, the
Democratic candidate for the presidency. Dana's literary style came to
be the style of the _Sun_--simple, strong, clear, "boiled down." _The
Art of Newspaper Making_, containing three lectures which he wrote on
journalism, was published in 1900. With George Ripley he edited _The New
American Cyclopaedia_ (15 vols., 1857-1863), reissued as the _American
Cyclopaedia_ in 1873-1876. He had excellent taste in the fine arts and
edited an anthology, _The Household Book of Poetry_ (1857). He was a
very good linguist, published several versions from the German, and read
the Romance and Scandinavian languages; he was an art connoisseur and
left a remarkable collection of Chinese porcelain. Dana's _Reminiscences
of the Civil War_ was published in 1898, as was his _Eastern Journeys,
Notes of Travel_. He also edited a campaign _Life of U. S. Grant_,
published over his name and that of General James H. Wilson in 1868.
See James Wilson, _The Life of Charles A. Dana_ (New York, 1907).
DANA, FRANCIS (1743-1811), American jurist, was born in Charlestown,
Massachusetts, on the 13th of June 1743. He was the son of Richard Dana
(1699-1772), a leader of the Massachusetts provincial bar, and a
vigorous advocate of colonial rights in the pre-revolutionary period.
Francis Dana graduated at Harvard in 1762, was admitted to the bar in
1767, and, being an opponent of the British colonial policy, became a
leader of the Sons of Liberty, and in 1774 was a member of the first
provincial congress of Massachusetts. During a two years' visit to
England he sought earnestly to gain friends to his colony's cause, but
returned to Boston in April 1776 convinced that a friendly settlement of
the dispute was impossible. He was a member of the Massachusetts
executive council from 1776 to 1780, and a delegate to the Continental
Congress from 1776 to 1778. As a member of the latter body he became
chairman in January 1778 of the committee appointed to visit Washington
at Valley Forge, and confer with him concerning the reorganization of
the army. This committee spent about three months in camp, and assisted
Washington in preparing the plan of reorganization which Congress in the
main adopted. In this year he was also a member of a committee to
consider Lord North's offer of conciliation, which he vigorously
opposed. In the autumn of 1779 he was appointed secretary to John Adams,
who had been selected as minister plenipotentiary to negotiate treaties
of peace and commerce with Great Britain, and in December 1780 he was
appointed diplomatic representative to the Russian government. He
remained at St Petersburg from 1781 to 1783, but was never formally
received by the empress Catherine. In February 1784 he was again chosen
a delegate to Congress, and in January 1785 he became a justice of the
Massachusetts supreme court. He was chief justice of this court from
1791 to 1806, and presided with ability and rare distinction. He was an
earnest advocate of the adoption of the Federal constitution, was a
member of the Massachusetts convention which ratified that instrument,
and was one of the most influential advisers of the leaders of the
Federalist party. His tastes were scholarly, and he was one of the
founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He died at
Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 25th of April 1811.
His son, RICHARD HENRY DANA (1787-1879), was born in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, on the 15th of November 1787. He was educated at Harvard
in the class of 1808. Subsequently he studied law and in 1811 was
admitted to practice. But all other interests were early subordinated to
his love of literature, to which the greater part of his long life was
devoted. He became in 1814 a member of a literary society in Cambridge,
known as the Anthology Club. This club began the publication of a
monthly magazine, _The Monthly Anthology_, which gave way in 1815 to
_The North American Review_. In the editorial control of this periodical
he was associated with Jared Sparks and Edward T. Channing (1790-1856)
until 1821, contributing essays and criticisms which attracted wide
attention. In 1821-1822 he edited in New York a short-lived literary
magazine, _The Idle Man_. He published his first volume of _Poems_ in
1827, and in 1833 appeared his _Poems and Prose Writings_, republished
in 1850 in two volumes, in which were included practically all of his
poems and of his prose contributions to periodical literature. Although
the bulk of his published writings was not large, his influence on
American literature during the first half of the 19th century was
surpassed by that of few of his contemporaries.
RICHARD HENRY DANA (1815-1882), son of the last-mentioned, was born in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 1st of August 1815. He entered Harvard
in the class of 1835, but at the beginning of his junior year an illness
affecting his sight necessitated a suspension of his college work, and
in August 1834 he shipped before the mast for California, returning in
September 1836. The rough experience of this voyage did more than endow
him with renewed health; it changed him from a dreamy, sensitive boy,
hereditarily disinclined to any sort of active career, into a
self-reliant, energetic man, with broad interests and keen sympathies.
He re-entered Harvard in December 1836 and graduated in June 1837. He
was a student at the Harvard law school from 1837 to 1840, and from
January 1839 to February 1840 he was also an instructor in elocution in
the college. In 1840 the notes of his sea-trip were published under the
title _Two Years Before the Mast_. The book attained an almost
unprecedented popularity both in America and in Europe, where it was
translated into several languages; and it came to be considered a
classic. Immediately after the appearance of this book Dana began the
practice of law, which brought him a large number of maritime cases. In
1841 he published _The Seaman's Friend_, republished in England as _The
Seaman's Manual_, which was long the highest authority on the legal
rights and duties of seamen. After gaining recognition as one of the
most prominent members of the Suffolk bar, he became associated in 1848
with the Free Soil movement, and took a prominent part in the Buffalo
convention of that year. This step, which caused him to be ostracized
for a time from the Boston circles in which he had been reared, brought
him the cases of the fugitive slaves, Shadrach, Sims and Burns, and of
the rescuers of Shadrach. On the night following the surrender of Burns
(May 1854) Dana was brutally assaulted on the Boston streets. In 1853 he
took a prominent part in the state constitutional convention. He allied
himself with the Republican party on its organization, but his inborn
dislike for political manoeuvring prevented his ever becoming prominent
in its councils. In 1857 he became a regular attendant at the meetings
of the famous Boston Saturday Club, to the members of which he dedicated
his account of a vacation trip, _To Cuba and Back_ (1857). He returned
to America from a trip round the world in time to participate in the
presidential campaign of 1860, and after Lincoln's inauguration he was
appointed United States district attorney for Massachusetts. In this
office in 1863 he won before the Supreme Court of the United States the
famous prize case of the "Amy Warwick," on the decision in which
depended the right of the government to blockade the Confederate ports,
without giving the Confederate States an international status as
belligerents. He brought out in 1865 an edition of _Wheaton's
International Law_, his notes constituting a most learned and valuable
authority on international law and its bearings on American history and
diplomacy; but immediately after its publication Dana was charged by the
editor of two earlier editions, William Beach Lawrence, with infringing
his copyright, and was involved in litigation which was continued for
thirteen years. In such minor matters as arrangement of notes and
verification of citations the court found against Dana, but in the main
Dana's notes were vastly different from Lawrence's. In 1865 Dana
declined an appointment as a United States district judge. During the
Reconstruction period he favoured the congressional plan rather than
that of President Johnson, and on this account resigned the
district-attorneyship. In 1867-1868 he was a member of the Massachusetts
House of Representatives, and in 1867 was retained with William M.
Evarts to prosecute Jefferson Davis, whose admission to bail he
counselled. In 1877 he was one of the counsel for the United States
before the commission which in accordance with the treaty of Washington
met at Halifax, N.S., to arbitrate the fisheries question between the
United States and Great Britain. In 1878 he gave up his law practice and
devoted the rest of his life to study and travel. He died in Rome,
Italy, on the 9th of January 1882.
See Charles Francis Adams, _Richard Henry Dana: a Biography_ (2 vols.,
Boston, Mass., 1891).
DANA, JAMES DWIGHT (1813-1895), American geologist, mineralogist and
zoologist, was born in Utica, New York, on the 12th of February 1813. He
early displayed a taste for science, which had been fostered by Fay
Edgerton, a teacher in the Utica high school, and in 1830 he entered
Yale College, in order to study under Benjamin Silliman the elder.
Graduating in 1833, for the next two years he was teacher of mathematics
to midshipmen in the navy, and sailed to the Mediterranean while engaged
in his duties. In 1836-1837 he was assistant to Professor Silliman in
the chemical laboratory at Yale, and then, for four years, acted as
mineralogist and geologist of a United States exploring expedition,
commanded by Captain Charles Wilkes, in the Pacific ocean (see WILKES,
CHARLES). His labours in preparing the reports of his explorations
occupied parts of thirteen years after his return to America in 1842. In
1844 he again became a resident of New Haven, married the daughter of
Professor Silliman, and in 1850, on the resignation of the latter, was
appointed Silliman Professor of Natural History and Geology in Yale
College, a position which he held till 1892. In 1846 he became joint
editor and during the later years of his life he was chief editor of the
_American Journal of Science and Arts_ (founded in 1818 by Benjamin
Silliman), to which he was a constant contributor, principally of
articles on geology and mineralogy. A bibliographical list of his
writings shows 214 titles of books and papers, beginning in 1835 with a
paper on the conditions of Vesuvius in 1834, and ending with the fourth
revised edition (finished in February 1895) of his _Manual of Geology_.
His reports on _Zoophytes_, on the _Geology of the Pacific Area_, and on
_Crustacea_, summarizing his work on the Wilkes expedition, appeared in
1846, 1849 and 1852-1854, in quarto volumes, with copiously illustrated
atlases; but as these were issued in small numbers, his reputation more
largely rests upon his _System of Mineralogy_ (1837 and many later
editions in 1892); _Manual of Geology_ (1862; ed. 4, 1895); _Manual of
Mineralogy_ (1848), afterwards entitled _Manual of Mineralogy and
Lithology_ (ed. 4, 1887); and Corals and Coral Islands (1872; ed. 2,
1890). In 1887 Dana revisited the Hawaiian Islands, and the results of
his further investigations were published in a quarto volume in 1890,
entitled _Characteristics of Volcanoes_. By the Royal Society of London
he was awarded the Copley medal in 1877; and by the Geological Society
the Wollaston medal in 1874. His powers of work were extraordinary, and
in his 82nd year he was occupied in preparing a new edition of his
_Manual of Geology_, the 4th edition being issued in 1895. He died on
the 14th of April 1895.
His son EDWARD SALISBURY DANA, born at New Haven on the 16th of November
1849, is author of _A Textbook of Mineralogy_ (1877; new ed. 1898) and a
_Text Book of Elementary Mechanics_ (1881). In 1879-80 he was professor
of natural philosophy and then became professor of physics at Yale.
See _Life of J. D. Dana_, by Daniel C. Gilman (1899).
DANAE, in Greek legend, daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. Her father,
having been warned by an oracle that she would bear a son by whom he
would be slain, confined Danae in a brazen tower. But Zeus descended to
her in a shower of gold, and she gave birth to Perseus, whereupon
Acrisius placed her and her infant in a wooden box and threw them into
the sea. They were finally driven ashore on the island of Seriphus,
where they were picked up by a fisherman named Dictys. His brother
Polydectes, who was king of the island, fell in love with Danae and
married her. According to another story, her son Perseus, on his return
with the head of Medusa, finding his mother persecuted by Polydectes,
turned him into stone, and took Danae back with him to Argos. Latin
legend represented her as landing on the coast of Latium and marrying
Pilumnus or Picumnus, from whom Turnus, king of the Rutulians, was
descended. Danae formed the subject of tragedies by Aeschylus,
Sophocles, Euripides, Livius Andronicus and Naevius. She is the
personification of the earth suffering from drought, on which the
fertilizing rain descends from heaven.
Apollodorus ii. 4; Sophocles, _Antigone_, 944; Horace, _Odes_, iii.
16; Virgil, _Aeneid_, vii. 410. See also P. Schwarz, _De Fabula
Danaeia_ (1881).
DANAO, a town of the province of Cebú, island of Cebú, Philippine
Islands, on the E. coast, at the mouth of the Danao river, 17 m. N.N.E.
of Cebú, the capital. Pop. (1903) 16,173. Danao has a comparatively cool
and healthy climate, is the centre of a rich agricultural region
producing rice, Indian corn, sugar, copra and cacao, and coal is mined
in the vicinity. The language is Cebú-Visayan.
DANAUS, in Greek legend, son of Belus, king of Egypt, and twin-brother
of Aegyptus. He was born at Chemmis (Panopolis) in Egypt, but having
been driven out by his brother he fled with his fifty daughters to
Argos, the home of his ancestress Io. Here he became king and taught the
inhabitants of the country to dig wells. In the meantime the fifty sons
of Aegyptus arrived in Argos, and Danaus was obliged to consent to their
marriage with his daughters. But to each of these he gave a knife with
injunctions to slay her husband on the marriage night. They all obeyed
except Hyperm(n)estra, who spared Lynceus. She was brought to trial by
her father, acquitted and afterwards married to her lover. Being unable
to find suitors for the other daughters, Danaus offered them in marriage
to the youths of the district who proved themselves victorious in racing
contests (Pindar, _Pythia_, ix. 117). According to another story,
Lynceus slew Danaus and his daughters and seized the throne of Argos
(schol. on Euripides, _Hecuba_, 886). By way of expiation for their
crime the Danaïdes were condemned to the endless task of filling with
water a vessel which had no bottom. This punishment, originally
inflicted on those who neglected certain mystic rites, was transferred
to those who, like the Danaïdes, despised the mystic rite of marriage;
cf. the water-bearing figure ([Greek: loutrophoros]) on the grave of
unmarried persons. The murder of the sons of Aegyptus by their wives is
supposed to represent the drying up of the rivers and springs of Argolis
in summer by the agency of the nymphs.
Apollodorus ii. 1; Horace, _Odes_, iii. 11; O. Waser, in _Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft_, ii. Heft 1, 1899; articles in Pauly-Wissowa's
_Realencyclopädie_ and W. H. Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_;
Campbell Bonner, in _Harvard Studies_, xiii. (1902).
DANBURITE, a rare mineral species consisting of calcium and boron
orthosilicate, CaB2(SiO4)2, crystallizing in the orthorhombic system. It
was discovered by C.U. Shepard in 1839 at Danbury, Connecticut, U.S.A.,
and named by him after this locality. The crystals are prismatic in
habit, and closely resemble topaz in form and interfacial angles. There
is an imperfect cleavage parallel to the basal plane. Crystals are
transparent to translucent, and colourless to pale yellow; hardness 7;
specific gravity 3.0. At Danbury the mineral occurs with microcline and
oligoclase embedded in dolomite. Large crystals, reaching 4 in. in
length, have been found with calcite in veins traversing granite at
Russell in St Lawrence county, New York. Smaller but well-developed
crystals have been found on gneiss at Mt. Scopi and Petersthal (the
valley of the Vals Rhine) in Switzerland. Splendid crystals have
recently been obtained from Japan.
DANBURY, a city and one of the county-seats of Fairfield county,
Connecticut, U.S.A., in Danbury township, in the south-west part of the
state, on the Still river, a tributary of the Housatonic. Pop. (1890)
16,552; (1900) 16,537 (3702 foreign-born); (1910) 20,234. In 1900 the
population of the township, including that of the city, was 19,474, and
in 1910, 23,502. Danbury is served by three divisions of the New York,
New Haven & Hartford railway; by the Danbury & Harlem electric railway,
which connects at Goldens Bridge, New York, with the Harlem division of
the New York Central; and by an electric line to Bethel, Connecticut.
Lake Kenosia, about 2½ m. from the centre of the city, is a pleasure
resort. A state normal school was opened in Danbury in 1904, and there
is a home for destitute and homeless children under private
(unsectarian) control. The city has good water-power, and the
municipality owns the water works. The principal industry is the
manufacture of felt hats, begun in 1780, and in 1905 engaging about
thirty factories, with a product for the year valued at $5,798,107
(71.9% of the value of all the factory products of the city, and 15.8%
of the value of all the felt hats produced in the United States). The
city ranked first among the cities of the country in this industry in
1900 and second in 1905, and in 1905 no other city showed so high a
degree of specialization in it. Silver-plated ware (mostly manufactured
by Rogers Bros.) is another important product. At Danbury is held
annually the well-known agricultural Danbury Fair. The township was
settled in 1684 by emigrants from Norwalk, and received its present name
in 1687. When the War of Independence opened, Enoch Crosby, believed to
be the original of Harvey Birch, the hero of J. F. Cooper's _The Spy_,
was a resident of Danbury. A depot of military supplies was established
in the village of Danbury in 1776; in April 1777 Governor William Tryon,
of New York, raided the place, destroying the military stores and
considerable private property. During his retreat he was attacked (April
26th) at Ridgefield (about 9 m. south by east of Danbury) by the
Americans under General David Wooster (1710-1777), who was fatally
wounded in the conflict (being succeeded by General Benedict Arnold),
and to whose memory a monument was erected in Danbury in 1854. Danbury
was chartered as a borough in 1832 and as a city in 1880. In 1870 the
_Danbury News_ was established by the consolidation of the
_Jeffersonian_ and the _Times_, by James Montgomery Bailey (1841-1894),
from 1865 to 1870 proprietor of the _Times_. He wrote for the _News_
humorous sketches, which made him and the paper famous, Bailey being
known as the "Danbury News Man"; among his books are _Life in Danbury_
(1873), _The Danbury News Man's Almanac_ (1873), _They All Do It_
(1877), _England from a Back Window_ (1878), _Mr Philip's Goneness_
(1879), _The Danbury Boom_ (1880), and _History of Danbury_ (1896).
DANBY, FRANCIS (1793-1861), English painter, was born in the south of
Ireland on the 16th of November 1793. His father farmed a small property
he owned near Wexford, but his death caused the family to remove to
Dublin, while Francis was still a schoolboy. He began to practice
drawing at the Royal Dublin Society's schools; and under an erratic
young artist named O'Connor he began painting landscape. Danby also made
acquaintance with George Petrie, and all three left for London together
in 1813. This expedition, undertaken with very inadequate funds, quickly
came to an end, and they had to get home again by walking. At Bristol
they made a pause, and Danby, finding he could get trifling sums for
water-colour drawings, remained there working diligently and sending to
the London exhibitions pictures of importance. There his large pictures
in oil quickly attracted attention. "The Upas Tree" (1820) and "The
Delivery of the Israelites" (1825) brought him his election as an
associate of the Royal Academy. He left Bristol for London, and in 1828
exhibited his "Opening of the Sixth Seal" at the British Institution,
receiving from that body a prize of 200 guineas; and this picture was
followed by two others from the Apocalypse. He suddenly left London,
declaring that he would never live there again, and that the Academy,
instead of aiding him, had, somehow or other, used him badly. Some
insurmountable domestic difficulty overtook him also, and for eleven or
twelve years he lived on the Lake of Geneva, a Bohemian with
boat-building fancies, painting only now and then. He returned to
England in 1841, when his sons, James and Thomas, both artists, were
growing up. Other pictures by him were "The Golden Age" and "The Evening
Gun," the first begun before he left England, the second painted after
his return; he had taken up his abode at Exmouth, where he died on the
9th of February 1861.
DANCE, the name of an English family distinguished in architecture, art
and the drama. GEORGE DANCE, the elder (1700-1768), obtained the
appointment of architect to the city of London, and designed the Mansion
House (1739); the churches of St Botolph, Aldgate (1741), St Luke's, Old
Street; St Leonard, Shoreditch; the old excise office; Broad Street; and
other public works of importance. He died on the 8th of February 1768.
His eldest son, JAMES DANCE (1722-1744), was born on the 17th of March
1722, and educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and St John's
College, Oxford, which he left before graduating. He took the name of
Love, and became an actor and playwright of no great merit. In the
former capacity he was for twelve years connected with Drury Lane
theatre. He wrote "an heroic poem" on _Cricket_, about 1740, and a
volume of _Poems on Several Occasions_ (1754), and a number of
comedies--the earliest _Pamela_ (1742).
George Dance's third son, Sir NATHANIEL DANCE-HOLLAND, Bart.
(1735-1811), was born on the 18th of May 1735, and studied art under
Francis Hayman, and in Italy, where he met Angelica Kauffmann, to whom
he was devotedly and hopelessly attached. From Rome he sent home "Dido
and Aeneas" (1763), and he continued to paint occasional historical
pictures of the same quasi-classic kind throughout his career. On his
return to England he took up portrait-painting with great success, and
contributed to the first exhibition of the Royal Academy, of which he
was a foundation member, full-length portraits of George III. and his
queen. These, and his portraits of Captain Cook and of Garrick as
Richard III., engraved by Dixon, are his best-known works. Himself a
rich man, in 1790 he married a widow with £15,000 a year, dropped his
profession, and became M.P. for East Grinstead, taking the additional
name of Holland. He was made a baronet in 1800. He died on the 15th of
October 1811, leaving a fortune of £200,000.
George Dance's fifth and youngest son, GEORGE DANCE, the younger
(1741-1825), succeeded his father as city surveyor and architect in
1768. He was then only twenty-seven, had spent several years abroad,
chiefly in Italy with his brother Nathaniel, and had already
distinguished himself by designs for Blackfriars Bridge sent to the 1761
exhibition of the Incorporated Society of Artists. His first important
public work was the rebuilding of Newgate prison in 1770. The front of
the Guildhall was also his. He, too, was a foundation member of the
Royal Academy, and for a number of years the last survivor of the forty
original academicians. His last years were devoted to art rather than to
architecture, and after 1798 his Academy contributions consisted solely
of chalk portraits of his friends, seventy-two of which were engraved
and published (1808-1814). He resigned his office in 1815, and after
many years of illness died on the 14th of January 1825, and was buried
in St Paul's. His son, CHARLES DANCE (1794-1863), was for thirty years
registrar, taxing officer and chief clerk of the insolvent debtors'
court, retiring, when it was abolished, on an allowance. In
collaboration with J. R. Planché and others, or alone, he wrote a great
number of extravaganzas, farces and comediettas. He was one of the
first, if not the first, of the burlesque writers, and was the author of
those produced so successfully by Madame Vestris for years at the
Olympic. Of his farces, _Delicate Ground, Who Speaks First?_, _A Morning
Call_ and others are still occasionally revived. He died on the 6th of
January 1863.
DANCE (Fr. _danse_; of obscure origin, connected with Old High Ger.
_danson_, to stretch). The term "dancing" in its widest sense includes
three things:--(1) the spontaneous activity of the muscles under the
influence of some strong emotion, such as social joy or religious
exultation; (2) definite combinations of graceful movements performed
for the sake of the pleasure which the exercise affords to the dancer
or to the spectator; (3) carefully trained movements which are meant by
the dancer vividly to represent the actions and passions of other
people. In the highest sense it seems to be for prose-gesture what song
is for the instinctive exclamations of feeling. Regarded as the outlet
or expression of strong feeling, dancing does not require much
discussion, for the general rule applies that such demonstrations for a
time at least sustain and do not exhaust the flow of feeling. The voice
and the facial muscles and many of the organs are affected at the same
time, and the result is a high state of vitality which among the
spinning Dervishes or in the ecstatic worship of Bacchus and Cybele
amounted to something like madness. Even here there is traceable an
undulatory movement which, as Herbert Spencer says, is "habitually
generated by feeling in its bodily discharge." But it is only in the
advanced or volitional stage of dancing that we find developed the
essential feature of _measure_, which has been said to consist in "the
alternation of stronger muscular contractions with weaker ones," an
alternation which, except in the cases of savages and children, "is
compounded with longer rises and falls in the degree of muscular
excitement." In analysing the state of mind which this measured dancing
produces, we must first of all allow for the pleasant glow of excitement
caused by the excess of blood sent to the brain. But apart from this,
there is an agreeable sense of uniformity in the succession of muscular
efforts, and in the spaces described, and also in the period of their
recurrence. If the steps of dancing and the intervals of time be not
precisely equal, there is still a pleasure depending on the gradually
increasing intensity of motion, on the undulation which uniformly rises
in order to fall. As Florizel says to Perdita, "When you do dance, I
wish you a wave of the sea" (_Winter's Tale_, iv. 3). The mind feels the
beauty of emphasis and cadence in muscular motion, just as much as in
musical notes. Then, the figure of the dance is frequently a circle or
some more graceful curve or series of curves,--a fact which satisfies
the dancer as well as the eye of the spectator. But all such effects are
intensified by the use of music, which not only brings a perfectly
distinct set of pleasurable sensations to dancer and spectator, but by
the control of dancing produces an inexpressibly sweet harmony of sound
and motion. This harmony is further enriched if there be two dancing
together on one plan, or a large company of dancers executing certain
evolutions, the success of which depends on the separate harmonies of
all the couples. The fundamental condition is that throughout the dance
all the dancers keep within their bases of gravity. This is not only
required for the dancers' own enjoyment, but, as in the famous Mercury
on tiptoe, it is essential to the beautiful effect for the spectator.
The idea of much being safely supported by little is what proves
attractive in the posturing ballet. But this is merely one condition of
graceful dancing, and if it be made the chief object the dancer sinks
into the acrobat.
Dancing is, in fact, the universal human expression, by movements of the
limbs and body, of a sense of rhythm which is implanted among the
primitive instincts of the animal world. The rhythmic principle of
motion extends throughout the universe, governing the lapse of waves,
the flow of tides, the reverberations of light and sound, and the
movements of celestial bodies; and in the human organism it manifests
itself in the automatic pulses and flexions of the blood and tissues.
Dancing is merely the voluntary application of the rhythmic principle,
when excitement has induced an abnormally rapid oxidization of brain
tissue, to the physical exertion by which the overcharged brain is
relieved. This is primitive dancing; and it embraces all movements of
the limbs and body expressive of joy or grief, all pantomimic
representations of incidents in the lives of the dancers, all
performances in which movements of the body are employed to excite the
passions of hatred or love, pity or revenge, or to arouse the warlike
instincts, and all ceremonies in which such movements express homage or
worship, or are used as religious exercises. Although music is not an
essential part of dancing, it almost invariably accompanies it, even in
the crudest form of a rhythm beaten out on a drum.
_Primitive and Ancient Dancing._--In Tigrè the Abyssinians dance the
_chassée_ step in a circle, and keep time by shrugging their shoulders
and working their elbows backwards and forwards. At intervals the
dancers squat on the ground, still moving the arms and shoulders in the
same way. The Bushmen dance in their low-roofed rooms supporting
themselves by sticks; one foot remains motionless, the other dances in a
wild irregular manner, while the hands are occupied with the sticks. The
Gonds, a hill-tribe of Hindustan, dance generally in pairs, with a
shuffling step, the eyes on the ground, the arms close to the body, and
the elbows at an angle with the closed hand. Advancing to a point, the
dancer suddenly erects his head, and wheels round to the starting point.
The women of the Pultooah tribe dance in a circle, moving backwards and
forwards in a bent posture. The Santal women, again, are slow and
graceful in dance; joining hands, they form themselves into the arc of a
circle, towards the centre of which they advance and then retire, moving
at the same time slightly towards the right, so as to complete the
circle in an hour. The Kukis of Assam have only the rudest possible
step, an awkward hop with the knees very much bent. The national dance
of the Kamchadale is one of the most violent known, every muscle
apparently quivering at every movement. But there, and in some other
cases where men and women dance together, there is a trace of deliberate
obscenity; the dance is, in fact, a rude representation of sexual
passion. It has been said that some of the Tasmanian _corrobories_ have
a phallic design. The Yucatan dance of _naual_ may also be mentioned.
The Andamans hop on one foot and swing the arms violently backwards and
forwards. The Veddahs jump with both feet together, patting their
bodies, or clapping their hands, and make a point of bringing their long
hair down in front of the face. In New Caledonia the dance consists of a
series of twistings of the body, the feet being lifted alternately, but
without change of place. The Fijians jump half round from side to side
with their arms akimbo. The only modulation of the Samoan dance is one
of time--a _crescendo_ movement, which is well-known in the modern
ball-room. The Javans are perhaps unique in their distinct and graceful
gestures of the hands and fingers. At a Mexican feast called
Huitzilopochtli, the noblemen and women danced tied together at the
hands, and embracing one another, the arms being thrown over the neck.
This resembles the dance variously known as the Greek Bracelet or Brawl,
[Greek: Hormos], or Bearsfeet; but all of them[1] probably are to a
certain extent symbolical of the relations between the sexes. Actual
contact of the partners, however, is quite intelligible as matter of
pure dancing; for, apart altogether from the pleasure of the embrace,
the harmony of the double rotation adds very much to the enjoyment. In a
very old Peruvian dance of ceremony before the Inca, several hundreds of
men formed a chain, each taking hold of the hand of the man beyond his
immediate neighbour, and the whole body moving forwards and backwards
three steps at a time as they approached the throne. In this, as in the
national dance of the Coles of Lower Bengal, there was perhaps a
suggestion of "l'union fait la force." In Yucatan stilts were
occasionally used for dancing.
It seldom happens that dancing takes place without accompaniment, either
by the dancers or by others. This is not merely because the feelings
which find relief in dancing express themselves at the same time in
other forms; in some cases, indeed, the vocal and instrumental elements
largely predominate, and form the ground-work of the whole emotional
demonstration. Whether they do so or not will of course depend on the
intellectual advancement of the nation or tribe and upon the particular
development of their aesthetical sensibility. A striking instance occurs
among the Zulus, whose grand dances are merely the accompaniment to the
colloquial war and hunting songs, in which the women put questions which
are answered by the men. So also in Tahiti there is a set of national
ballads and songs, referring to many events in the past and present
lives of the people. The fisherman, the woodsman, the canoe-builder,
has each his trade song, which on public occasions at least is
illustrated by dancing. But the accompaniment is often consciously
intended, by an appeal to the ear, to regulate and sustain the
excitement of the muscles. And a close relation will be found always to
exist between the excellence of a nation's dancing and the excellence or
complexity of its music and poetry. In some cases the performer himself
sings or marks time by the clanking of ornaments on his person. In
others the accompaniment consists sometimes of a rude chant improvised
by those standing round, or of music from instruments, or of mere
clapping of the hands, or of striking one stick against another or on
the ground, or of "marking time," in the technical sense. The Tasmanians
beat on a rolled-up kangaroo-skin. The Kamchadales make a noise like a
continuous hiccough all through the dance. The Andamans use a large
hollow dancing-board, on which one man is set apart to stamp. Sometimes
it is the privilege of the tribal chief to sing the accompaniment while
his people dance. The savages of New Caledonia whistle and strike upon
the hip.
The rude imitative dances of early civilization are of extreme interest.
In the same way the dances of the Ostyak tribes (Northern Asiatic)
imitate the habitual sports of the chase and the gambols of the wolf and
the bear and other wild beasts, the dancing consisting mainly of sudden
leaps and violent turns which exhaust the muscular powers of the whole
body. The Kamchadales, too, in dancing, imitate bears, dogs and birds.
The _Kru_ dances of the Coast Negroes represent hunting scenes; and on
the Congo, before the hunters start, they go through a dance imitating
the habits of the gorilla and its movements when attacked. The Damara
dance is a mimic representation of the movements of oxen and sheep, four
men stooping with their heads in contact and uttering harsh cries. The
canter of the baboon is the humorous part of the ceremony. The Bushmen
dance in long irregular jumps, which they compare to the leaping of a
herd of calves, and the Hottentots not only go on all-fours to
counterfeit the baboon, but they have a dance in which the buzzing of a
swarm of bees is represented. The Kennowits in Borneo introduce the mias
and the deer for the same purpose. The Australians and Tasmanians in
their dances called _corrobories_ imitate the frog and the kangaroo
(both leaping animals). The hunt of the emu is also performed, a number
of men passing slowly round the fire and throwing their arrows about so
as to imitate the movements of the animal's head while feeding. The
Gonds are fond of dancing the bison hunt, one man with skin and horns
taking the part of the animal. Closely allied to these are the mimic
fights, almost universal among tribes to which war is one of the great
interests of life. The Bravery dance of the Dahomans and the Hoolee of
the Bhil tribe in the Vindhya Hills are illustrations. The latter seems
to have been reduced to an amusement conducted by professionals who go
from village to village,--the battle being engaged in by women with long
poles on the one side, and men with short cudgels on the other. There is
here an element of comedy, which also appears in the Fiji club-dance.
This, although no doubt originally suggested by war, is enlivened by the
presence of a clown covered with leaves and wearing a mask. The
monotonous song accompanying the club-dance is by way of commentary or
explanation. So, also, in Guatemala there is a public _baile_ or dance,
in which all the performers, wearing the skins and heads of beasts, go
through a mock battle, which always ends in the victory of those wearing
the deer's head. At the end the victors trace in the sand with a pole
the figure of some animal; and this exhibition is supposed to have some
historical reference. But nearly all savage tribes have a regular
war-dance, in which they appear in fighting costume, handle their
weapons, and go through the movements of challenge, conflict, pursuit or
defeat. The women generally supply the stimulus of music. There is one
very picturesque dance of the Natal Kaffirs, which probably refers to
the departure of the warriors for the battle. The women appeal
plaintively to the men, who slowly withdraw, stamping on the ground and
darting their short spears or _assegais_ towards the sky. In
Madagascar, when the men are absent on war, the women dance for a great
part of the day, believing that this inspires their husbands with
courage. In this, however, there may be some religious significance.
These war-dances are totally distinct from the institution of military
drill, which belongs to a later period, when social life has become less
impulsive and more reflective.[2] There can be little doubt that some of
the characteristic movements of these primitive hunting and war-dances
survive in the smooth and ceremonious dances of the present day. But the
early mimetic dance was not confined to these two subjects; it embraced
the other great events of savage life--the drama of courtship and
marriage, the funeral dance, the consecration of labour, the celebration
of harvest or vintage;[3] sometimes, too, purely fictitious scenes of
dramatic interest, while other dances degenerated into games. For
instance, in Yucatan one man danced in a cowering attitude round a
circle, while another followed, hurling at him _bohordos_ or canes,
which were adroitly caught on a small stick. Again, in Tasmania, the
dances of the women describe their "clamber for the opossum, diving for
shell-fish, digging for roots, nursing children and quarrelling with
husbands." Another dance, in which a woman by gesture taunts a chieftain
with cowardice, gives him an opportunity of coming forward and
recounting his courageous deeds in dance. The funeral dance of the Todas
(another Indian hill-tribe) consists in walking backwards and forwards,
without variation, to a howling tune of "ha! hoo!" The meaning of this
is obscure, but it can scarcely be solely an outburst of grief. In
Dahomey the blacksmiths, carpenters, hunters, braves and bards, with
their various tools and instruments, join in a dramatic dance. We may
add here a form of dance which is almost precisely equivalent to the
spoken incantation. It is used by the professional devil-dancer of the
wild Veddahs for the cure of diseases. An offering of eatables is put on
a tripod of sticks, and the dancer, decorated with green leaves, goes
into a paroxysm of dancing, in the midst of which he receives the
required information. This, however, rather belongs to the subject of
religious dances.
It is impossible here to enumerate either the names or the forms of the
sacred dances which formed so prominent a part of the worship of
antiquity. A mystic philosophy found in them a resemblance to the
courses of the stars. This Pythagorean idea was expanded by Sir John
Davies, in his epic poem _Orchestra_, published in 1596. They were
probably adapted to many purposes,--to thanksgiving, praise,
supplication and humiliation. It is only one striking illustration of
this widespread practice, that there was at Rome a very ancient order of
priests especially named Salii, who struck their shields and sang
_assamenta_ as they danced. The practice reappeared in the early church,
special provision being made for dancing in the choir. Scaliger, who
astonished Charles V. by his dancing powers, says the bishops were
called _Praesules_, because they led the dance on feast days. According
to some of the fathers, the angels are always dancing, and the glorious
company of the apostles is really a _chorus_ of dancers. Dancing,
however, fell into discredit with the feast of the _Agapae_. St
Augustine says, "Melius est fodere quam saltare"; and the practice was
generally prohibited for some time. No church or sect has raged so
fiercely against the cardinal sin of dancing as the Albigenses of
Languedoc and the Waldenses, who agreed in calling it the devil's
procession. After the middle of the 18th century there were still traces
of religious dancing in the cathedrals of Spain, Portugal and
Roussillon--especially in the Mozarabic Mass of Toledo. An account of
the numerous secular dances, public and private, of Greece and Rome will
be found in the classical histories, and in J. Weaver's _Essay towards a
History of Dancing_, (London, 1712), which, however, must be revised by
more recent authorities. The Pyrrhic (derived from the Memphitic) in all
its local varieties, the Bacchanalia and the Hymenaea were among the
more important. The name of Lycurgus is also associated with the
Trichoria. Among the stage dances of the Athenians, which formed
interludes to the regular drama, one of the oldest was the Delian dance
of the Labyrinth, ascribed to Theseus, and called [Greek: Geranos], from
its resemblance to the flight of cranes, and one of the most powerful
was the dance of the Eumenides. A further development of the art took
place at Rome, under Augustus, when Pylades and Bathyllus brought
serious and comic pantomime to great perfection. The subjects chosen
were such as the labours of Hercules, and the surprise of Venus and Mars
by Vulcan. The state of public feeling on the subject is well shown in
Lucian's amusing dialogue _De Saltatione_. Before this Rome had only
very inferior buffoons, who attended dinner parties, and whose art
traditions belonged not to Greece, but to Etruria.[4] Apparently,
however, the Romans, though fond of ceremony and of the theatre, were by
temperament not great dancers in private. Cicero says: "Nemo fere saltat
sobrius, nisi forte insanit." But the Italic dance of the imperial
theatre, supported by music and splendid dresses, supplanted for a time
the older dramas. It was the policy of Augustus to cultivate other than
political interests for the people; and he passed laws for the
protection and privilege of the pantomimists. They were freed from the
_jus virgarum_, and they used their freedom against the peace of the
city. Tiberius and Domitian oppressed and banished them; Trajan and
Aurelius gave them such titles as decurions and priests of Apollo; but
the pantomime stage soon yielded to the general corruption of the
empire.
_Modern Dancing._--In modern civilized countries dancing has developed
as an art and pastime, as an entertainment. Its direct application to
arouse emotion or religious feeling tends to be obscured and finally
dropped out.
Italy, in the 15th century, saw the renaissance of dancing, and France
may be said to have been the nursery of the modern art, though
comparatively few modern dances are really French in origin. The
national dances of other countries were brought to France, studied
systematically, and made perfect there. An English or a Bohemian dance,
practised only amongst peasants, would be taken to France, polished and
perfected, and would at last find its way back to its own country, no
more recognizable than a piece of elegant cloth when it returns from the
printer to the place from which as "grey" material it was sent. The fact
that the terminology of dancing is almost entirely French is a
sufficient indication of the origin of the rules that govern it. The
earliest dances that bear any relation to the modern art are probably
the _danses basses_ and _danses hautes_ of the 16th century. The _danse
basse_ was the dance of the court of Charles IX. and of good society,
the steps being very grave and dignified, not to say solemn, and the
accompaniment a psalm tune. The _danses hautes_ or _baladines_ had a
skipping step, and were practised only by clowns and country people.
More lively dances, such as the _Gaillarde_ and _Volta_, were introduced
into France from Italy by Catherine de' Medici, but even in these the
interest was chiefly spectacular. Other dances of the same period were
the _Branle_ (afterwards corrupted to _Braule_, and known in England as
the Brawle)--a kind of generic dance which was capable of an almost
infinite amount of variety. Thus there were imitative dances--_Branles
mimés_, such as the _Branles des Ermites_, _Branles des flambeaux_ and
the _Branles des lavandières_. The _Branle_ in its original form had
steps like the _Allemande_. Perhaps the most famous and stately dance of
this period was the _Pavane_ (of Spanish origin), which is very fully
described in Tabouret's _Orchésographie_, the earliest work in which a
dance is found minutely described. The _Pavane_, which was really more a
procession than a dance, must have been a very gorgeous and noble sight,
and it was perfectly suited to the dress of the period, the stiff
brocades of the ladies and the swords and heavily-plumed hats of the
gentlemen being displayed in its simple and dignified measures to great
advantage. The dancers in the time of Henry III. of France usually
sang, while performing the _Pavane_, a _chanson_, of which this is one
of the verses:
"Approche donc, ma belle,
Approche-toi, mon bien;
Ne me sois plus rebelle,
Puisque mon coeur est tien;
Pour mon âme apaiser,
Donne-moi un baiser."
In the _Pavane_ and _Branle_, and in nearly all the dances of the 17th
and 18th centuries, the practice of kissing formed a not unimportant
part, and seems to have added greatly to the popularity of the pastime.
Another extremely popular dance was the _Saraband_, which, however, died
out after the 17th century. It was originally a Spanish dance, but
enjoyed an enormous success for a time in France. Every dance at that
time had its own tune or tunes, which were called by its own name, and
of the _Saraband_ the chevalier de Grammont wrote that "it either
charmed or annoyed everyone, for all the guitarists of the court began
to learn it, and God only knows the universal twanging that followed."
Vauquelin des Yveteaux, in his eightieth year, desired to die to the
tune of the _Saraband_, "so that his soul might pass away sweetly."
After the _Pavane_ came the _Courante_, a court dance performed on
tiptoe with slightly jumping steps and many bows and curtseys. The
_Courante_ is one of the most important of the strictly modern dances.
The minuet and the waltz were both in some degree derived from it, and
it had much in common with the famous _Seguidilla_ of Spain. It was a
favourite dance of Louis XIV., who was an adept in the art, and it was
regarded in his time as of such importance that a nobleman's education
could hardly have been said to be begun until he had mastered the
_Courante_.
The dance which the French brought to the greatest perfection--which
many, indeed, regard as the fine flower of the art--was the _Minuet_.
Its origin, as a rustic dance, is not less antique than that of the
other dances from which the modern art has been evolved. It was
originally a _branle_ of Poitou, derived from the _Courante_. It came to
Paris in 1650, and was first set to music by Lully. It was at first a
gay and lively dance, but on being brought to court it soon lost its
sportive character and became grave and dignified. It is mentioned by
Beauchamps, the father of dancing-masters, who flourished in Louis
XIV.'s reign, and also by Blondy, his pupil; but it was Pécour who
really gave the minuet its popularity, and although it was improved and
made perfect by Dauberval, Gardel, Marcel and Vestris, it was in Louis
XV.'s reign that it saw its golden age. It was then a dance for two in
moderate triple time, and was generally followed by the gavotte.
Afterwards the minuet was considerably developed, and with the gavotte
became chiefly a stage dance and a means of display; but it should be
remembered that the minuets which are now danced on the stage are
generally highly elaborated with a view to their spectacular effect, and
have imported into them steps and figures which do not belong to the
minuet at all, but are borrowed from all kinds of other dances. The
original court minuet was a grave and simple dance, although it did not
retain its simplicity for long. But when it became elaborated it was
glorified and moulded into a perfect expression of an age in which
deportment was most sedulously cultivated and most brilliantly polished.
The "languishing eye and smiling mouth" had their due effect in the
minuet; it was a school for chivalry, courtesy and ceremony; the hundred
slow graceful movements and curtseys, the pauses which had to be filled
by neatly-turned compliments, the beauty and bravery of attire--all were
eloquent of graces and outward refinements which we cannot boast now.
The fact that the measure of the minuet has become incorporated in the
structure of the symphony shows how important was its place in the
polite world. The _Gavotte_, which was often danced as a pendant to the
minuet, was also originally a peasant's dance, a _danse des Gavots_, and
consisted chiefly of kissing and capering. It also became stiff and
artificial, and in the later and more prudish half of the 18th century
the ladies received bouquets instead of kisses in dancing the gavotte.
It rapidly became a stage dance, and it has never been restored to the
ballroom. Grétry attempted to revive it, but his arrangement never
became popular. Other dances which were naturalized in France were the
_Écossaise_, popular in 1760; the _Cotillon_, fashionable under Charles
X., derived from the peasant _branles_ and danced by ladies in short
skirts; the _Galop_, imported from Germany; the _Lancers_, invented by
Laborde in 1836; the _Polka_, brought by a dancing-master from Prague in
1840; the _Schottische_, also Bohemian, first introduced in 1844; the
_Bourrée_, or French clog-dance; the _Quadrille_, known in the 18th
century as the _Contre-danse_; and the _Waltz_, which was danced as a
_volte_ by Henry III. of France, but only became popular in the
beginning of the 19th century. We shall return to the history of some of
these later dances in discussing the dances at present in use.
If France has been the nursery and school of the art of dancing, Spain is
its true home. There it is part of the national life, the inevitable
expression of the gay, contented, irresponsible, sunburnt nature of the
people. The form of Spanish dances has hardly changed; some of them are
of great antiquity, and may be traced back with hardly a break to the
performances in ancient Rome of the famous dancing-girls of Cadiz. The
connexion is lost during the period of the Arab invasion, but the art was
not neglected, and Jovellanos suggests that it took refuge in the
Asturias. At any rate, dances of the 10th and 12th centuries have been
preserved uncorrupted. The earliest dances known were the _Turdion_, the
_Gibidana_, the _Pié-de-gibao_, and (later) the _Madama Orleans_, the
_Alemana_ and the _Pavana_. Under Philip IV. theatrical dancing was in
high popularity, and ballets were organized with extraordinary
magnificence of decoration and costume. They supplanted the national
dances, and the _Zarabanda_ and _Chacona_ were practically extinct in the
18th century. It is at this period that the famous modern Spanish dances,
the _Bolero_, _Seguidilla_ and the _Fandango_, first appear. Of these the
_Fandango_ is the most important. It is danced by two people in 6-8 time,
beginning slowly and tenderly, the rhythm marked by the click of
castanets, the snapping of the fingers and the stamping of feet, and the
speed gradually increasing until a whirl of exaltation is reached. A
feature of the _Fandango_ and also of the _Seguidilla_ is a sudden pause
of the music towards the end of each measure, upon which the dancers
stand rigid in the attitudes in which the stopping of the music found
them, and only move again when the music is resumed. M. Vuillier, in his
_History of Dancing_, gives the following description of the
_Fandango_:--"Like an electric shock, the notes of the Fandango animate
all hearts. Men and women, young and old, acknowledge the power of this
air over the ears and soul of every Spaniard. The young men spring to
their places, rattling castanets or imitating their sound by snapping
their fingers. The girls are remarkable for the willowy languor and
lightness of their movements, the voluptuousness of their
attitudes--beating the exactest time with tapping heels. Partners tease
and entreat and pursue each other by turns. Suddenly the music stops, and
each dancer shows his skill by remaining absolutely motionless, bounding
again into the full life of the Fandango as the orchestra strikes up. The
sound of the guitar, the violin, the rapid tic-tac of heels (_taconeos_),
the crack of fingers and castanets, the supple swaying of the dancers,
fill the spectator with ecstasy. The measure whirls along in a rapid
triple time. Spangles glitter; the sharp clank of ivory and ebony
castanets beats out the cadence of strange, throbbing, deepening
notes--assonances unknown to music, but curiously characteristic,
effective and intoxicating. Amidst the rustle of silks, smiles gleam over
white teeth, dark eyes sparkle and droop and flash up again in flame. All
is flutter and glitter, grace and animation--quivering, sonorous,
passionate, seductive."
The _Bolero_ is a comparatively modern dance, having been invented by
Sebastian Cerezo, a celebrated dancer of the time of King Charles III.
It is remarkable for the free use made in it of the arms, and is said to
be derived from the ancient _Zarabanda_, a violent and licentious dance,
which has entirely disappeared, and with which the later Saraband has
practically nothing in common. The step of the _Bolero_ is low and
gliding but well marked. It is danced by one or more couples. The
_Seguidilla_ is hardly less ancient than the _Fandango_, which it
resembles. Every province in Spain has its own _Seguidilla_, and the
dance is accompanied by _coplas_, or verses, which are sung either to
traditional melodies or to the tunes of local composers; indeed, the
national music of Spain consists largely of these coplas. Baron
Davillier, among several specimens of _Seguidillas_, gives this one
"Mi corazon volando
Se fué á tu pecho;
Le cortaste las alas,
Y quédo dentro.
Por atrevido
Se quedará por siempre
En el metido."[5]
M. Vuillier quotes a _copla_ which he heard at Polenza, in the Balearic
Islands. This verse is formed on the rhythm of the _Malagueña_:
"Una estrella se ha pardida
En el ciel y no parece;
En tu cara se ha metido;
Y en tu frente resplandece."[6]
The _Jota_ is the national dance of Aragon, a lively and splendid, but
withal dignified and reticent, dance derived from the 16th-century
_Passacaille_. It is still used as a religious dance. The _Cachuca_ is a
light and graceful dance in triple time. It is performed by a single
dancer of either sex. The head and shoulders play an important part in
the movements of this dance. Other provincial dances now in existence
are the _Jaleo de Jerez_, a whirling measure performed by gipsies, the
_Palotéa_, the _Polo_, the _Gallegada_, the _Muyneria_, the _Habas
Verdes_, the _Zapateado_, the _Zorongo_, the _Vito_, the _Tirano_ and
the _Tripola Trapola_. Most of these dances are named either after the
places where they are danced or after the composers who have invented
tunes for them. Many of them are but slight variations from the
_Fandango_ and _Seguidilla_.
The history of court dancing in Great Britain is practically the same as
that of France, and need not occupy much of our attention here. But
there are strictly national dances still in existence which are quite
peculiar to the country, and may be traced back to the dances and games
of the Saxon gleemen. The Egg dance and the Carole were both Saxon
dances, the Carole being a Yule-tide festivity, of which the present-day
Christmas carol is a remnant. The oldest dances which remain unchanged
in England are the Morris dances, which were introduced in the time of
Edward III. The name Morris or Moorish refers to the origin of these
dances, which are said to have been brought back by John of Gaunt from
his travels in Spain. The Morris dances are associated with May-day, and
are danced round a maypole to a lively and capering step, some of the
performers having bells fastened to their knees in the Moorish manner.
They are dressed as characters of old English tradition, such as Robin
Hood, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little John and Tom the Piper. All the
true country dances of Great Britain are of an active and lively
measure; they may all, indeed, be said to be founded on the jig; and the
hornpipe, which is a kind of jig, is the national dance of England.
Captain Cook, on his voyages, made his sailors dance hornpipes in calm
weather to keep them in good health. A characteristic of English dances
was that they partook to a great extent of the nature of games; there
was little variety in the steps, which were nearly all those of the jig
or hornpipe, but these were incorporated into various games or plays, of
which the Morris dances were the most elaborate. Richard Baxter wrote
that "sometimes the Morris dancers would come into the church in all
their linen and scarves and antic dresses, with Morris bells jingling at
their legs; and as soon as Common Prayer was read, did haste and
presently to their play again." May-day has always been celebrated in
England with rustic dances and festivities. Before the Reformation there
were no really national dances in use at court; but in the reign of
Elizabeth the homely, domestic style of dancing reached the height of
its popularity. Remnants of many of these dances remain to-day in the
games played by children and country people; "Hunt the Slipper," "Kiss
in the Ring," "Here we go round the Mulberry Bush," are examples. All
the Tudor dances were kissing dances, and must have been the occasion of
a great deal of merriment. Mrs Groves gives the following description of
the Cushion dance:--"The dance is begun by a single person, man or
woman, who, taking a cushion in hand, dances about the room, and at the
end of a short time stops and sings: 'This dance it will no farther go,'
to which the musician answers: 'I pray you, good sir, why say so?'
'Because Joan Sanderson will not come to.' 'She must come to whether she
will or no,' returns the musician, and then the dancer lays the cushion
before a woman; she kneels and he kisses her, singing 'Welcome, Joan
Sanderson.' Then she rises, takes up the cushion, and both dance and
sing 'Prinkum prankum is a fine dance, and shall we go dance it over
again?' Afterwards the woman takes the cushion and does as the man did."
Other popular dances--generally adapted to the tunes of popular songs,
the nature of some of which may be guessed from their titles--were the
Trenchmore, Omnium-gatherum, Tolly-polly, Hoite cum toite, Dull Sir
John, Faine I would, Sillinger, All in a Garden Green, An Old Man's a
Bed Full of Bones, If All the World were Paper, John, Come Kiss Me Now,
Cuckholds All Awry, Green Sleeves and Pudding Pies, Lumps of Pudding,
Under and Over, Up Tails All, The Slaughter House, Rub her Down with
Straw, Have at thy Coat Old Woman, The Happy Marriage, Dissembling Love,
Sweet Kate, Once I Loved a Maiden Fair. Dancing practically disappeared
during the Puritan _régime_, but with the Restoration it again became
popular. It underwent no considerable developments, however, until the
reign of Queen Anne, when the glories of Bath were revived in the
beginning of the 18th century, and Beau Nash drew up his famous codes of
rules for the regulation of dress and manners, and founded the balls in
which the polite French dances completely eclipsed the simpler English
ones. An account of a dancing lesson witnessed by a fond parent at this
time is worth quoting, as it shows how far the writer (but not his
daughter) had departed from the jolly, romping traditions of the old
English dances:--"As the best institutions are liable to corruption, so,
sir, I must acquaint you that very great abuses are crept into this
entertainment. I was amazed to see my girl handed by and handing young
fellows with so much familiarity, and I could not have thought it had
been my child. They very often made use of a most impudent and
lascivious step called _setting_ to partners, which I know not how to
describe to you but by telling you that it is the very reverse of _back_
to _back_. At last an impudent young dog bid the fiddlers play a dance
called _Moll Patley_, and, after having made two or three capers, ran to
his partner, locked his arms in hers, and whisked her round cleverly
above ground in such a manner that I, who sat upon one of the lowest
benches, saw farther above her shoe than I can think fit to acquaint you
with. I could no longer endure these enormities, wherefore, just as my
girl was going to be made a whirligig, I ran in, seized my child and
carried her home." What we may call polite dancing, when it became
fashionable, soon invaded London, its first home being Madame Cornely's
famous Carlisle House in Soho Square. Ranelagh and Vauxhall and Almack's
were all extensively patronized, and the rage for magnificent
entertainment and dancing culminated in the erection of the palatial
Pantheon in Oxford Street--a place so universally patronized that even
Dr Johnson was to be found there. White's and Boodle's were also famous
assembly rooms, but the most exclusive of all these establishments was
Almack's, the original of Brooks's Club.
The only true national dances of Scotland are reels, strathspeys and
flings, while in Ireland there is but one dance--the jig, which is
there, however, found in many varieties and expressive of many shades of
emotion, from the maddest gaiety to the wildest lament. Curiously
enough, although the Welsh dance often, they have no strictly national
dances.
Dancing in present-day society is a comparatively simple affair, as
five-sixths of almost all ball programmes consists of waltzes. The
origin of the waltz is a much-debated subject, the French, Italians and
Bavarians each claiming for their respective countries the honour of
having given birth to it. As a matter of fact the waltz, as it is now
danced, comes from Germany; but it is equally true that its real origin
is French, since it is a development of the _Volte_, which in its turn
came from the _Lavolta_ of Provence, one of the most ancient of French
dances. The _Lavolta_ was fashionable in the 16th century and was the
delight of the Valois court. The _Volte_ danced by Henry III. was really
a _Valse à deux pas_; and Castil-Blaze says that "the waltz which we
took again from the Germans in 1795 had been a French dance for four
hundred years." The change, it is true, came upon it during its visit to
Germany, hence the theory of its German origin. The first German waltz
tune is dated 1770--"Ach! du lieber Augustin." It was first danced at
the Paris opera in 1793, in Gardel's ballet _La Dansomanie_. It was
introduced to English ballrooms in 1812, when it roused a storm of
ridicule and opposition, but it became popular when danced at Almack's
by the emperor Alexander in 1816. The waltz _à trois temps_ has a
sliding step in which the movements of the knees play an important part.
The _tempo_ is moderate, so as to allow three distinct movements on the
three beats of each bar; and the waltz is written in 3-4 time and in
eight-bar sentences. Walking up and down the room and occasionally
breaking into the step of the dance is not true waltzing, and the habit
of pushing one's partner backwards along the room is an entirely English
one. But the dancer must be able to waltz equally well in all
directions, pivoting and crossing the feet when necessary in the reverse
turn. It need hardly be said that the feet should never leave the floor
in the true waltz. Gungl, Waldteufel and the Strauss family may be said
to have moulded the modern waltz to its present form by their rhythmical
and agreeable compositions. There are variations which include hopping
and lurching steps; these are degradations, and foreign to the spirit of
the true waltz.
The _Quadrille_ is of some antiquity, and a dance of this kind was first
brought to England from Normandy by William the Conqueror, and was
common all over Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. The term
quadrille means a kind of card game, and the dance is supposed to be in
some way connected with the game. A species of quadrille appeared in a
French ballet in 1745, and since that time the dance has gone by that
name. Like many other dances, it came from Paris to Almack's in 1815,
and in its modern form was danced in England for the first time by Lady
Jersey, Lady Harriet Butler, Lady Susan Ryder and Miss Montgomery, with
Count Aldegarde, Mr Montgomery, Mr Harley and Mr Montague. It
immediately became popular. It then consisted of very elaborate steps,
which in England have been simplified until the degenerate practice has
become common of walking through the dance. The quadrille, properly
danced, has many of the graces of the minuet. It is often stated that
the square dance is of modern French origin. This is incorrect, and
probably arises from a mistaken identification of the terms quadrille
and square dance. "Dull Sir John" and "Faine I would" were square dances
popular in England three hundred years ago.
An account of the country-dance, with the names of some of the old
dance-tunes, has been given above. The word is not, as has been
supposed, an adaptation of the French _contre-danse_, neither is the
dance itself French in origin. According to the _New English
Dictionary_, _contre-danse_ is a corruption of "country-dance," possibly
due to a peculiar feature of many of such dances, like Sir Roger de
Coverley, where the partners are drawn up in lines opposite to each
other. The earliest appearance of the French word is in its application
to English dances, which are contrasted with the French; thus in the
_Memoirs of Grammont_, Hamilton says: "On quitta les danses françaises
pour se mettre aux contre-danses." The English "country-dances" were
introduced into France in the early part of the 18th century and became
popular; later French modifications were brought back to England under
the French form of the name, and this, no doubt, caused the
long-accepted but confused derivation.
The _Lancers_ were invented by Laborde in Paris in 1836. They were
brought over to England in 1850, and were made fashionable by Madame
Sacré at her classes in Hanover Square Rooms. The first four ladies to
dance the lancers in England were Lady Georgina Lygon, Lady Jane
Fielding, Mdlle. Olga de Lechner and Miss Berkeley.
The _Polka_, the chief of the Bohemian national dances, was adopted by
Society in 1835 at Prague. Josef Neruda had seen a peasant girl dancing
and singing the polka, and had noted down the tune and the steps. From
Prague it readily spread to Vienna, and was introduced to Paris by
Cellarius, a dancing-master, who gave it at the Odéon in 1840. It took
the public by storm, and spread like an infection through England and
America. Everything was named after the polka, from public-houses to
articles of dress. Mr Punch exerted his wit on the subject weekly, and
even _The Times_ complained that its French correspondence was
interrupted, since the polka had taken the place of politics in Paris.
The true polka has three slightly jumping steps, danced on the first
three beats of a four-quaver bar, the last beat of which is employed as
a rest while the toe of the unemployed foot is drawn up against the heel
of the other.
The _Galop_ is strictly speaking a Hungarian dance, which became popular
in Paris in 1830. But some kind of a dance corresponding to the galop
was always indulged in after _Voltes_ and _Contre-danses_, as a relief
from their grave and constrained measures.
The _Washington Post_ and several varieties of _Barn-dance_ are of
American origin, and became fashionable towards the end of the 19th
century.
The _Polka-Mazurka_ is extremely popular in Vienna and Budapest, and is
a favourite theme with Hungarian composers. The six movements of this
dance occupy two bars of 3-4 time, and consist of a mazurka step joined
to the polka. It is of Polish origin.
The _Polonaise_ and _Mazurka_ are both Polish dances, and are still
fashionable in Russia and Poland. Every State ball in Russia is opened
with the ceremonious Polonaise.
The _Schottische_, a kind of modified polka, was "created" by Markowski,
who was the proprietor of a famous dancing academy in 1850. The
_Highland Schottische_ is a fling. The Fling and Reel are Celtic dances,
and form the national dances of Scotland and Denmark. They are
complicated measures of a studied and classical order, in which free use
is made of the arms and of cries and stampings. The _Strathspey_ is a
slow and grandiose modification of the Reel.
_Sir Roger de Coverley_ is the only one of the old English social dances
which has survived to the present day, and it is frequently danced at
the conclusion of the less formal sort of balls. It is a merry and
lively game in which all the company take part, men and women facing
each other in two long rows. The dancers are constantly changing places
in such a way that if the dance is carried to its conclusion everyone
will have danced with everyone else. The music was first printed in
1685, and is sometimes written in 2-4 time, sometimes in 6-8 time, and
sometimes in 3-9 time.
The _Cotillon_ is a modern development of the French dance of the same
name referred to above. It is an extremely elaborate dance, in which a
great many toys and accessories are employed; hundreds of figures may be
contrived for it, in which presents, toys, lighted tapers, biscuits,
air-balloons and hurdles are used.
_Ballet, &c._--The modern ballet (q.v.) seems to have been first
produced on a considerable scale in 1489 at Tortona, before Duke
Galeazzo of Milan. It soon became a common amusement on great occasions
at the European courts. The ordinary length was five acts, each
containing several _entrées_, and each _entrée_ containing several
quadrilles. The accessories of painting, sculpture and movable scenery
were employed, and the representation often took place at night. The
allegorical, moral and ludicrous ballets were introduced to France by
Baïf in the time of Catherine de' Medici. The complex nature of these
exhibitions may be gathered from the title of one played at Turin in
1634--_La verità nemica della apparenza, sollevata dal tempo._ Of the
ludicrous, one of the best known was the Venetian ballet of _I a veritá
raminga_. Now and then, however, a high political aim may be discovered,
as in the "Prosperity of the Arms of France," danced before Richelieu in
1641, or "Religion uniting Great Britain to the rest of the World,"
danced at London on the marriage of Princess Elizabeth to the elector
Frederick. Outside the theatre, the Portuguese revived an ambulatory
ballet which was played on the canonization of Carlo Borromeo, and to
which they gave the name of the Tyrrhenic Pomp. During this time also
the ceremonial ball (with all its elaborate detail of _courante_, minuet
and saraband) was cultivated. The fathers of the church assembled at
Trent gave a ball in which they took a part. Masked balls, too,
resembling in some respects the Roman Saturnalia, became common towards
the end of the 17th century. In France a ball was sometimes diversified
by a masquerade, carried on by a limited number of persons in
character-costume. Two of the most famous were named "au Sauvage" and
"des Sorciers." In 1715 the regent of France started a system of public
balls in the opera-house, which did not succeed. Dancing, also, formed a
leading element in the Opéra Français introduced by Quinault. His
subjects were chiefly marvellous, drawn from the classical mythologies;
and the choral dancing was not merely _divertissement_, but was intended
to assist and enrich the dramatic action of the whole piece.
_Musical Gymnastics._--Dancing is an important branch of physical
education. Long ago Locke pointed out (_Education_, §§ 67, 196) that the
effects of dancing are not confined to the body; it gives to children,
he says, not mere outward gracefulness of motion, but manly thoughts and
a becoming confidence. Only lately, however, has the advantage been
recognized of making gymnastics attractive by connecting it with what
Homer calls "the sweetest and most perfect of human enjoyments." The
practical principle against heavy weights and intense monotonous
exertion of particular muscles was thus stated by Samuel Smiles
(_Physical Education_, p. 148):--"The greatest benefit is derived from
that exercise which calls into action the greatest number of muscles,
and in which the action of these is intermitted at the shortest
intervals." It required only one further step to see how, if light and
changing movements were desirable, music would prove a powerful stimulus
to gymnastics. It touches the play-impulse, and substitutes a
spontaneous flow of energy for the mechanical effort of the will. The
force of imitation or contagion, one of the most valuable forces in
education, is also much increased by the state of exhilaration into
which dancing puts the system. This idea was embodied by Froebel in his
_Kindergarten_ plan, and was developed by Jahn and Schreber in Germany,
by Dio Lewis in the United States, and by Ling (the author of the
_Swedish Cure Movement_) in Sweden.
AUTHORITIES.--For the old division of the _Ars Gymnastica_ into
_palaestrica_ and _saltatoria_, and of the latter into _cubistica_,
_sphaeristica_ and _orchestica_, see the learned work of Hieronymus
Mercurialis, _De arte Gymnastica_ (Amsterdam, 1572). Cubistic was the
art of throwing somersaults, and is described minutely by Tuccaro in
his _Trois Dialogues_ (Paris, 1599). Sphaeristic included several
complex games at ball and tilting--the Greek [Greek: kôrukos], and the
Roman _trigonalis_ and _paganica_. Orchestic, divided by Plutarch into
_latio_, _figura_ and _indicatio_, was really imitative dancing, the
"silent poetry" of Simonides. The importance of the [Greek:
cheironomia] or hand-movement is indicated by Ovid:--"Si vox est,
canta; si mollia brachia, salta." For further information as to modern
dancing, see Rameau's _Le maître à danser_ (1726); Querlon's _Le
triomphe des grâces_ (1774); Cahousac, _La danse ancienne et moderne_
(1754); Vuillier, _History of Dancing_ (Eng. trans., 1897); Giraudet,
_Traité de la danse_ (1900). (W. C. S.; A. B. F. Y.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Compare the Chica of South America, the Fandango of Spain, and
the Angrismene or la Fachée of modern Greece. See also _Romaunt de la
rose_, v. 776.
[2] The Greek [Greek: karpaia] represented the surprise by robbers of
a warrior ploughing a field. The gymnopaedic dances imitated the
sterner sports of the palaestra.
[3] The Greek Lenaea and Dionysia had a distinct reference to the
seasons.
[4] The Pantomimus was an outgrowth from the _canticum_ or choral
singing of the older comedies and _fabulae Atellanae_.
[5] "My heart flew to thy breast. Thou didst cut its wings, so that
it remained there. And now it has waxed daring, and will stay with
thee for evermore."
[6] "A star is lost and appears not in the sky; in thy face it has
set itself; on thy brow it shines."
DANCOURT, FLORENT CARTON (1661-1725), French dramatist and actor, was
born at Fontainebleau on the 1st of November 1661. He belonged to a
family of rank, and his parents entrusted his education to Père de la
Rue, a Jesuit, who made earnest efforts to induce him to join the order.
But he had no religious vocation and proceeded to study law. He
practised at the bar for some time, but his marriage to the daughter of
the comedian François Lenoir de la Thorillière led him to become an
actor, and in 1685, in spite of the strong opposition of his family, he
appeared at the Théâtre Français. His gifts as a comedian gave him
immediate and marked success, both with the public and with his fellow
actors. He was the spokesman of his company on occasions of state, and
in this capacity he frequently appeared before Louis XIV., who treated
him with great favour. One of his most famous impersonations was Alceste
in the _Misanthrope_ of Molière. His first play, _Le Notaire obligeant_,
produced in 1685, was well received. _La Désolation des joueuses_ (1687)
was still more successful. _Le Chevalier à la mode_ (1687) is generally
regarded as his best work, though his claim to original authorship in
this and some other cases has been disputed. In _Le Chevalier à la mode_
appears the _bourgeoise_ infatuated with the desire to be an aristocrat.
The type is developed in _Les Bourgeoises à la mode_ (1692) and _Les
Bourgeoises de qualité_ (1700). Dancourt was a prolific author, and
produced some sixty plays in all. Some years before his death he
terminated his career both as an actor and as an author by retiring to
his château at Courcelles le Roi, in Berry, where he employed himself in
making a poetical translation of the Psalms and in writing a sacred
tragedy. He died on the 7th of December 1725. The plays of Dancourt are
faithful descriptions of the manners of the time, and as such have real
historical value. The characters are drawn with a realistic touch that
led to his being styled by Charles Palissot the Teniers of comedy. He is
very successful in his delineation of low life, and especially of the
peasantry. The dialogue is sparkling, witty and natural. Many of the
incidents of his plots were derived from actual occurrences in the
"fast" and scandalous life of the period, and several of his characters
were drawn from well-known personages of the day. Most of the plays
incline to the type of farce rather than of pure comedy. Voltaire
defined his talent in the words: "Ce que Regnard était à l'égard de
Molière dans la haute comédie, le comédien Dancourt l'était dans la
farce."
His two daughters, Manon and Marie Anne (Mimi), both obtained success on
the stage of the Théâtre Français.
The complete works of Dancourt were published in 1760 (12 vols. 12mo).
An edition of his _Théâtre choisi_, with a preface by F. Sarcey,
appeared in 1884.
DANDELION (_Taraxacum officinale_), a perennial herb belonging to the
natural order Compositae. The plant has a wide range, being found in
Europe, Central Asia, North America, and the Arctic regions, and also in
the south temperate zone. The leaves form a spreading rosette on the
very short stem; they are smooth, of a bright shining green, sessile,
and tapering downwards. The name dandelion is derived from the French
_dent-de-lion_, an appellation given on account of the tooth-like lobes
of the leaves. The long tap-root has a simple or many-headed rhizome; it
is black externally, and is very difficult of extirpation. The
flower-stalks are smooth, brittle, leafless, hollow, and very numerous.
The flowers bloom from April till August, and remain open from five or
six in the morning to eight or nine at night. The flower-heads are of a
golden yellow, and reach 1½ to 2 in. in width; the florets are all
strap-shaped. The fruits are olive or dull yellow in colour, and are
each surmounted by a long beak, on which rests a pappus of delicate
white hairs, which occasions the ready dispersal of the fruit by the
wind; each fruit contains one seed. The globes formed by the plumed
fruits are nearly two inches in diameter. The involucre consists of an
outer spreading (or reflexed) and an inner and erect row of bracts. In
all parts of the plant a milky juice is contained, which has a somewhat
complex composition. The chief constituent is taraxacin, a neutral
principle. In addition the juice contains taraxacerin (derived from the
former), asparagin, inulin, resins and salts. An extract (dose 5-15
grains), a liquid extract (dose ½-1 drachm) and a succus (dose 1-2
drachms) of the root are all used medicinally. For the purposes formerly
recognized taraxacum is now never used, but it has been shown to possess
definite cholagogue properties, and may therefore be prescribed along
with ammonium chloride in cases of hepatic constipation, which it very
constantly relieves. The root--which is the medicinal product--is most
bitter from March to July, but the milky juice it contains is less
abundant in the summer than in the autumn. For this reason, the extract
and succus are usually prepared during the months of September and
October. After a frost a change takes place in the root, which loses its
bitterness to a large extent. In the dried state the root will not keep
well, being quickly attacked by insects. Externally it is brown and
wrinkled, internally white, with a yellow centre and concentric paler
rings. It is two inches to a foot long, and about a quarter to half an
inch in diameter. The leaves are bitter, but are sometimes eaten as a
salad; they serve as food for silkworms when mulberry leaves are not to
be had. The root is roasted as a substitute for coffee. Several
varieties of the dandelion are recognized by botanists; they differ in
the degree and mode of cutting of the leaf-margin and the erect or
spreading character of the outer series of bracts. The variety
_palustre_, which affects boggy situations, and flowers in late summer
and autumn, has nearly entire leaves, and the outer bracts of its
involucre are erect.
[Illustration: Dandelion (_Taraxacum officinale_).
1, Unopened head; 2, ripe head from which all the fruits except two have
been removed; 3, one floret, enlarged; 4, one fruit.]
DANDOLO, the name of one of the most illustrious patrician families of
Venice, of which the earliest recorded member was one of the electors of
the first doge (A.D. 697). The Dandolo gave to Venice four doges; of
these the first and most famous was Enrico Dandolo (c. 1120-1205),
elected on the 1st of January 1193 (_more Veneto_, 1192). He had
distinguished himself in various military enterprises and diplomatic
negotiations in the course of an active career, and although over
seventy years old and of very weak sight (the story that he had been
made blind by the emperor Manuel Comnenus while he was at Constantinople
is a legend), he proved a most energetic and capable ruler. His first
care was to re-establish Venetian authority over the Dalmatians who had
rebelled with the king of Hungary's protection, but he failed to capture
Zara, owing to the arrival of the Pisan fleet, and although the latter
was defeated by the Venetians, the undertaking was suspended. In the
meanwhile the situation in the East was becoming critical. The Eastern
emperor Isaac II. Angelus had been deposed, imprisoned, and blinded by
his brother Alexius, who usurped the throne. The new emperor proved
unfriendly to the Venetians and made difficulties about renewing their
privileges. In the West a new crusade to the Holy Land was in
preparation, and the crusaders sent ambassadors, one of whom was
Villehardouin, the historian of the expedition, to ask the Venetians to
give them passage and means of transport (1201). After much deliberation
the republic agreed to transport 4500 horse and 29,000 foot to Palestine
with provisions for one year, for a sum of 85,000 marks; in addition 50
Venetian galleys would be provided free of charge, while Venice was to
receive half the conquests made by the crusaders. But as the time agreed
upon for the departure approached, it appeared that the crusaders had
not the money to pay the stipulated advance. Dandolo then proposed that
if they helped him to reduce Zara payment might be deferred. Some of the
crusaders disapproved of this attack on a Christian city, but the
majority, only too glad of an opportunity for plunder, willingly agreed.
The expedition sailed on the 8th of October 1202, three hundred sail in
all, with the aged Dandolo himself in command. Zara was taken and
pillaged, for which the Venetians were severely reprimanded by the pope.
But new possibilities of conquest were now opened up at the suggestion
of Alexius, the son of the deposed emperor Isaac. He promised the
crusaders that if they went first to Constantinople and re-instated
Isaac, the latter would maintain them for a year, contribute 10,000 men
and 200,000 marks for the expedition to Egypt, and subject the Eastern
to the Western Church. The proposal was accepted, largely owing to the
influence of Dandolo, who saw in it a means for further extending the
dominions and commerce of the Venetians. After wintering at Zara the
fleet set sail on the 7th of April 1203, and on the 23rd of June
anchored in the Bosporus. After long parleys the city was attacked by
land and sea on the 17th of July (the fleet being commanded by Dandolo)
and taken by storm. The emperor Alexius fled, and Isaac reoccupied the
throne, but, although grateful to the crusaders, he was not disposed to
fulfil the promises made by his son. Tumults between crusaders and
Greeks arose, and the people of the city, excited by a certain Alexis
Murzuphlus, murmured at the new taxes which were imposed on them. A
revolt broke out, and an officer named Nicholas Canabus was placed on
the throne; Prince Alexius was strangled by order of Murzuphlus, Isaac
died of the shock, Murzuphlus imprisoned Canabus and made himself
emperor (Alexius V.). The crusaders thereupon attacked Constantinople a
second time (12th of April 1204), and after a desperate struggle
captured the city, which they subjected to hideous carnage. Immense
booty was secured, the Venetians obtaining among other treasures the
four bronze horses which adorn the façade of St Mark's. The Eastern
empire was abolished, and a feudal Latin empire erected in its stead.
The leaders of the crusaders then met to elect an emperor. Dandolo was
one of the candidates, but Count Baldwin of Flanders was elected and
crowned on the 23rd of May. The Venetians were given Crete and several
other islands and ports in the Levant, which formed an uninterrupted
chain from Venice to the Black Sea, a large part of Constantinople
(whence the doge assumed the title of "lord of a quarter and a half of
Romania"), and many valuable privileges. But hardly had the new state
been established when various provinces rose in rebellion and the
Bulgarians invaded Thrace. A Latin army was defeated by them at
Adrianople (April 1205), and the emperor himself was captured and
killed, the fragments of the force being saved only by Dandolo's
prowess. But he was now old and ill, and on the 23rd of June 1205 he
died. He certainly consolidated Venice's dominion in the East and
increased its commercial prosperity to a very high degree. But the
policy he pursued in turning the crusaders against Constantinople, in
order to promote the interests of the republic, while serving to break
up the Greek empire, created in its place a Latin state that was far too
feeble to withstand the onslaught of Greek national feeling and Orthodox
fanaticism; at the same time the Greeks were greatly weakened and their
power of resisting the Turks consequently lessened. This paved the way
for the Turkish invasion of Europe, which proved an unmixed calamity
for all Christendom, Venice included.
Enrico Dandolo's sons distinguished themselves in the public service,
and his grandson Giovanni was doge from 1280 to 1289. The latter's son
Andrea commanded the Venetian fleet in the war against Genoa in 1294,
and, having been defeated and taken prisoner, he was so overwhelmed with
shame that he committed suicide by beating his head against the mast
(according to Andrea Navagero). Francesco Dandolo, also known as Dandolo
Cane, was doge from 1329 to 1339. During his reign the Venetians went to
war with Martino della Scala, lord of Verona, with the result that they
occupied Treviso and otherwise extended their possessions on the _terra
firma_. Andrea Dandolo (1307/10-1354), the last doge of the family,
reigned from 1343 to 1354. He had been the first Venetian noble to take
a degree at the university of Padua, where he had also been professor of
jurisprudence. The terrible plague of 1348, wars with Genoa, against
whom the great naval victory of Lojera was won in 1353, many treaties,
and the subjugation of the seventh revolt of Zara, are the chief events
of his reign. The poet Petrarch, who was the doge's intimate friend, was
sent to Venice on a peace mission by Giovanni Visconti, lord of Milan.
"Just, incorruptible, full of zeal and of love for his country, and at
the same time learned, of rare eloquence, wise, affable, and humane," is
the poet's verdict on Andrea Dandolo (_Varior. epist._ xix.). Dandolo
died on the 7th of September 1354. He is chiefly famous as a historian,
and his _Annals_ to the year 1280 are one of the chief sources of
Venetian history for that period; they have been published by Muratori
(_Rer. Ital. Script._ tom. xxi.). He also had a new code of laws
compiled (issued in 1346) in addition to the statute of Jacopo Tiepolo.
Another well-known member of this family was Silvestro Dandolo
(1796-1866), son of Girolamo Dandolo, who was the last admiral of the
Venetian republic and died an Austrian admiral in 1847. Silvestro was an
Italian patriot and took part in the revolution of 1848.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--S. Romanin, _Storia documentata di Venezia_ (Venice,
1853); among more recent books H. Kretschmayr's excellent _Geschichte
von Venedig_ (Gotha, 1905) should be consulted: it contains a
bibliography of the authorities and all the latest researches and
discoveries; C. Cipolla and G. Monticolo have published many essays
and editions of chronicles in the _Archivio Veneto_, and the "Fonti
per la Storia d'Italia," in the _Istituto storico italiano_; H.
Simonsfeld has written a life of _Andrea Dandolo_ in German (Munich,
1876). (L. V.*)
DANDOLO, VINCENZO, COUNT (1758-1819), Italian chemist and agriculturist,
was born at Venice, of good family, though not of the same house as the
famous doges, and began his career as a physician. He was a prominent
opponent of the oligarchical party in the revolution which took place on
the approach of Napoleon; and he was one of the envoys sent to seek the
protection of the French. When the request was refused, and Venice was
placed under Austria, he removed to Milan, where he was made member of
the great council. In 1799, on the invasion of the Russians and the
overthrow of the Cisalpine republic, Dandolo retired to Paris, where, in
the same year, he published his treatise _Les Hommes nouveaux, ou moyen
d'opérer une régénération nouvelle_. But he soon after returned to the
neighbourhood of Milan, to devote himself to scientific agriculture. In
1805 Napoleon made him governor of Dalmatia, with the title of
_provéditeur général_, in which position Dandolo distinguished himself
by his efforts to remove the wretchedness and idleness of the people,
and to improve the country by draining the pestilential marshes and
introducing better methods of agriculture. When, in 1809, Dalmatia was
re-annexed to the Illyrian provinces, Dandolo returned to Venice, having
received as his reward from the French emperor the title of count and
several other distinctions. He died in his native city on the 13th of
December 1819.
Dandolo published in Italian several treatises on agriculture,
vine-cultivation, and the rearing of cattle and sheep; a work on
silk-worms, which was translated into French by Fontanelle; a work on
the discoveries in chemistry which were made in the last quarter of
the 18th century (published 1796); and translations of several of the
best French works on chemistry.
DANDY, a word of uncertain origin which about 1813-1816 became a London
colloquialism for the exquisite or fop of the period. It seems to have
been in use on the Scottish border at the end of the 18th century, its
full form, it is suggested, being "Jack-a-Dandy," which from 1659 had a
sense much like its later one. It is probably ultimately derived from
the French _dandin_, "a ninny or booby," but a more direct derivation
was suggested at the time of the uprise of the Regency dandies. In _The
Northampton Mercury_, under date of the 17th of April 1819, occurs the
following: "Origin of the word 'dandy.' This term, which has been
recently applied to a species of reptile very common in the metropolis,
appears to have arisen from a small silver coin struck by King Henry
VII., of little value, called a _dandiprat_; and hence Bishop Fleetwood
observes the term is applied to worthless and contemptible persons."
It was Beau Brummel, the high-priest of fashion, who gave dandyism its
great vogue. But before his day foppery in dress had become something
more than the personal eccentricity which it had been in the Stuart days
and earlier. About the middle of the 18th century was founded the
Macaroni Club. This was a band of young men of rank who had visited
Italy and sought to introduce the southern elegances of manner and dress
into England. The Macaronis gained their name from their introduction of
the Italian dish to English tables, and were at their zenith about 1772,
when their costume is described as "white silk breeches, very tight coat
and vest with enormous white neckcloths, white silk stockings and
diamond-buckled red-heeled shoes." For some time the moving spirit of
the club was Charles James Fox. It was with the advent of Brummel,
however, that the cult of dandyism became a social force. Beau Brummel
was supreme dictator in matters of dress, and the prince regent is said
to have wept when he disapproved of the cut of the royal coat. Around
the Beau collected a band of young men whose insolent and affected
manners made them universally unpopular. Their chief glory was their
clothes. They wore coats of blue or brown cloth with brass buttons, the
coat-tails almost touching the heels. Their trousers were buckskin, so
tight that it is said they "could only be taken off as an eel would be
divested of his skin." A pair of highly-polished Hessian boots, a
waistcoat buttoned incredibly tight so as to produce a small waist, and
opening at the breast to exhibit the frilled shirt and cravat, completed
the costume of the true dandy. Upon the Beau's disgrace and ruin, Lord
Alvanley was regarded as leader of the dandies and "first gentleman in
England." Though in many ways a worthier man than Brummel, his vanity
exposed him to much derision, and he fought a duel on Wimbledon Common
with Morgan O'Connell, who, in the House of Commons, had called him a
"bloated buffoon." After 1825 "dandy" lost its invidious meaning, and
came to be applied generally to those who were neat in dress rather than
to those guilty of effeminacy.
See Barbey D'Aurevilly, _Du dandysme et de G. Brummel_ (Paris, 1887).
DANEGELD, an English national tax originally levied by Æthelred II. (the
Unready) as a means of raising the tribute which was the price of the
temporary cessation of the Danish ravages. This expedient of buying off
the invader was first adopted in 991 ou the advice of certain great men
of the kingdom. It was repeated in 994, 1002, 1007 and 1012. With the
accession of the Danish king Canute, the original _raison d'être_ of the
tax ceased to exist, but it continued to be levied, though for a
different purpose, assuming now the character of an occasional war-tax.
It was exceedingly burdensome, and its abolition by Edward the Confessor
in 1051 was welcomed as a great relief. William the Conqueror revived it
immediately after his accession, as a convenient method of national
taxation, and it was with the object of facilitating its collection that
he ordered the compilation of Domesday Book. It continued to be levied
until 1163, in which year the name Danegeld appears for the last time in
the Rolls. Its place was taken by other imposts of similar character
but different name.
DANELAGH, the name given to those districts in the north and north-east
of England which were settled by Danes and other Scandinavian invaders
during the period of the Viking invasions. The real settlement of
England by Danes began in the year 866 with the appearance of a large
army in East Anglia, which turned north in the following year. The Danes
captured York and overthrew the Northumbrian kingdom, setting up a
puppet king of their own. They encamped in Nottingham in 868, and
Northern Mercia was soon in their hands; in 870 Edmund, king of the East
Anglians, fell before them. During the next few years they maintained
their hold on Mercia, and we have at this time coins minted in London
with the inscription "Alfdene rex," the name of the Danish leader. In
the winter of 874-875 they advanced as far north as the Tyne, and at the
same time Cambridge was occupied. In the meantime the great struggle
with Alfred the Great was being carried on. This was terminated by the
peace of Wedmore in 878, when the Danes withdrew from Wessex and settled
finally in East Anglia under their king Guthrum. This peace was finally
and definitely ratified in the document known as the peace of Alfred and
Guthrum, which is probably to be referred to the year 880. The peace
determined the boundary of Guthrum's East Anglian kingdom. According to
the terms of the agreement the boundary was to run along the Thames
estuary to the mouth of the Lea (a few miles east of London), then up
the Lea to its source near Leighton Buzzard, then due north to Bedford,
then eastwards up the Ouse to Watling Street somewhere near Fenny or
Stony Stratford. From this point the boundary is left undefined, perhaps
because the kingdoms of Alfred and Guthrum ceased to be conterminous
here, though if Northamptonshire was included in the kingdom of Guthrum,
as seems likely, the boundary must be carried a few miles along Watling
Street. Thus Northern Mercia, East Anglia, the greater part of Essex and
Northumbria were handed over to the Danes and henceforth constitute the
district known as the Danelagh.
The three chief divisions of the Danelagh were (1) the kingdom of
Northumbria, (2) the kingdom of East Anglia, (3) the district of the
Five (Danish) Boroughs--lands grouped round Leicester, Nottingham,
Derby, Stamford and Lincoln, and forming a loose confederacy. Of the
history of the two Danish kingdoms we know very little. Guthrum of East
Anglia died in 890, and later we hear of a king Eric or Eohric who died
in 902. Another Guthrum was ruling there in the days of Edward the
Elder. The history of the Northumbrian kingdom is yet more obscure.
After an interregnum consequent on the death of Healfdene the kingdom
passed in 883 to one Guthred, son of Hardicanute, who ruled till 894,
when his realm was taken over by King Alfred, though probably only under
a very loose sovereignty. It may be noted here that Northumbria north of
the Tyne, the old Bernicia, seems never to have passed under Danish
authority and rule, but to have remained in independence until the
general submission to Edward in 924.
More is known of the history of the five boroughs. From 907 onwards
Edward the Elder, working together with Æthelred of Mercia and his wife,
worked for the recovery of the Danelagh. In that year Chester was
fortified. In 911-912 an advance on Essex and Hertfordshire was begun.
In 914 Buckingham was fortified and the Danes of Bedfordshire submitted.
In 917 Derby was the first of the five boroughs to fall, followed by
Leicester a few months later. In the same year after a keen struggle all
the Danes belonging to the "borough" of Northampton, as far north as the
Welland (i.e. the border of modern Northamptonshire), submitted to
Edward and at the same time Colchester was fortified; a large portion of
Essex submitted and the whole of the East Anglian Danes came in.
Stamford was the next to yield, soon followed by Nottingham, and in 920
there was a general submission on the part of the Danes and the
reconquest of the Danelagh was now complete.
Though the independent occupation of the Danelagh by Viking invaders did
not last for more than fifty years at the outside, the Danes left
lasting marks of their presence in these territories.
The divisions of the land are foreign not native. The grouping of shires
round a county town as distinct from the old national shires is probably
of Scandinavian origin, and so certainly is the division of Yorkshire
and Lincolnshire into "ridings." In Derbyshire, Leicestershire,
Lincolnshire, part of Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutlandshire
(of later formation) and Yorkshire we have the counties divided into
"wapentakes" instead of "hundreds," again a mark of Danish influence.
When we turn to the social divisions we find in Domesday and other
documents classes of society in these districts bearing purely Norse
names, _dreng_, _karl_, _karlman_, _bonde_, _thrall_, _lysing_, _hold_;
in the system of taxation we have an assessment by _carucates_ and not
by hides and _virgates_, and the duodecimal rather than the decimal
system of reckoning.
The highly developed Scandinavian legal system has also left abundant
traces in this district. We may mention specially the institution of the
"lawmen," whom we find as a judicial body in several of the towns in or
near the Danelagh. They are found at Cambridge, Stamford, Lincoln, York
and Chester. There can be no doubt that these "lawmen," who can be shown
to form a close parallel to and indeed the ultimate source of our jury,
were of Scandinavian origin. Many other legal terms can be definitely
traced to Scandinavian sources, and they are first found in use in the
district of the Danelagh.
The whole of the place nomenclature of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire,
Nottinghamshire and Northern Northamptonshire is Scandinavian rather
than native English, and in the remaining districts of the Danelagh a
goodly proportion of Danish place-names may be found. Their influence is
also evident in the dialects spoken in these districts to the present
day. It is probable that until the end of the 10th century Scandinavian
dialects were almost the sole language spoken in the district of the
Danelagh, and when English triumphed, after an intermediate bilingual
state, large numbers of words were adopted from the earlier Scandinavian
speech.
See _The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, edited by Earle and Plummer (Oxford,
1892-1899); J. C. H. R. Steenstrup, _Normannerne_ (4 vols.,
1876-1882); and A. Bugge, _Vikingerne_ (2 vols.). (A. Mw.)
DANGERFIELD, THOMAS (c. 1650-1685), English conspirator, was born about
1650 at Waltham, Essex, the son of a farmer. He began his career by
robbing his father, and, after a rambling life, took to coining false
money, for which offence and others he was many times imprisoned. False
to everyone, he first tried to involve the duke of Monmouth and others
by concocting information about a Presbyterian plot against the throne,
and this having been proved a lie, he pretended to have discovered a
Catholic plot against Charles II. This was known as the "Meal-tub Plot,"
from the place where the incriminating documents were hidden at his
suggestion, and found by the king's officers by his information. Mrs
Elizabeth Cellier,--in whose house the tub was,--almoner to the countess
of Powis, who had befriended Dangerfield when he posed as a Catholic,
was, with her patroness, actually tried for high treason and acquitted
(1680). Dangerfield, when examined at the bar of the House of Commons,
made other charges against prominent Papists, and attempted to defend
his character by publishing, among other pamphlets, _Dangerfield's
Narrative_. This led to his trial for libel, and on the 29th of June
1685 he received sentence to stand in the pillory on two consecutive
days, be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate, and two days later from
Newgate to Tyburn. On his way back he was struck in the eye with a cane
by a barrister, Robert Francis, and died shortly afterwards from the
blow. The barrister was, tried and executed for the murder.
DANIEL, the name given to the central figure[1] of the biblical Book of
Daniel (see below), which is now generally regarded as a production
dating from the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.). There are
no means of ascertaining anything definite concerning the origin of the
hero Daniel. The account of him in Dan. i. has been generally
misunderstood. According to i. 3, the Babylonian chief eunuch was
commanded to bring "certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's
seed, and of the nobles" to serve in the court. Many commentators have
considered this to mean that some of the children were of the royal
Judaean line of Jewish noble families, an interpretation which is not
justified by the wording of the passage, which contains nothing to
indicate that the author meant to convey the idea that Daniel was either
royal or noble. Josephus,[2] never doubting the historicity of Daniel,
made the prophet a relative of Zedekiah and consequently of Jehoiakim, a
conclusion which he apparently drew from the same passage, i. 3.
Pseudo-Epiphanius,[3] again, probably having the same source in mind,
thought that Daniel was a Jewish noble. The true Epiphanius[4] even
gives the name of his father as Sabaan, and states that the prophet was
born at Upper Beth-Horon, a village near Jerusalem. The after life and
death of the seer are as obscure as his origin. The biblical account
throws no light on the subject. According to the rabbis,[5] Daniel went
back to Jerusalem with the return of the captivity, and is supposed to
have been one of the founders of the mythical Great Synagogue. Other
traditions affirm that he died and was buried in Babylonia in the royal
vault, while the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela (12th cent. A.D.)
was shown his tomb in Susa, which is also mentioned by the Arab,
Abulfaragius (Bar-hebraeus). The author of _Daniel_ did not pretend to
give any sketch of the prophet's career, but was content merely with
making him the central figure, around which to group more or less
disconnected narratives and accounts of visions. In view of these facts,
and also of the generally inaccurate character of all the historical
statements in the work, there is really no evidence to prove even the
existence of the Daniel described in the book bearing his name.
The question at once arises as to where the Maccabaean author of
_Daniel_ could have got the name and personality of his Daniel. It is
not probable that he could have invented both name and character. There
is an allusion in the prophet Ezekiel (xiv. 14, 20, xxviii. 3) to a
Daniel whom he places as a great personality between Noah and Job. But
this could not be our Daniel, whom Ezekiel, probably a man of ripe age
at the time of the Babylonian deportation of the Jews, would hardly have
mentioned in the same breath with two such characters, much less have
put him _between_ them, because, had the Daniel of the biblical book
existed at this time, he would have been a mere boy, lacking any such
distinction as to make him worthy of so high a mention. It is evident
that Ezekiel considered his Daniel to be a celebrated ancient prophet,
concerning whose date and origin, however, there is not a single trace
to guide research. Hitzig's[6] conjecture that the Daniel of Ezekiel was
Melchizedek is quite without foundation. The most that can be said in
this connexion is that there may really have been a spiritual leader of
the captive Jews who resided at Babylon and who was either named Daniel,
perhaps after the unknown patriarch mentioned by Ezekiel, or to whom the
same name had been given in the course of tradition by some historical
confusion of persons. Following this hypothesis, it must be assumed that
the fame of this Judaeo-Babylonian leader had been handed down through
the unclear medium of oral tradition until the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes, when some gifted Jewish author, feeling the need of producing
a work which should console his people in their affliction under the
persecutions of that monarch, seized upon the personality of the seer
who lived during a time of persecution bearing many points of
resemblance to that of Antiochus IV., and moulded some of the legends
than extant about the life and activity of this misty prophet into such
a form as should be best suited to a didactic purpose.[7]
DANIEL, BOOK OF.--The Book of Daniel stands between Ezra and Esther in
the third great division of the Hebrew Bible known as the _Hagiographa_,
in which are classed all works which were not regarded as being part of
the Law or the Prophets. The book presents the unusual peculiarity of
being written in two languages, i.-ii. 4 and viii.-xii. being in Hebrew,
while the text of ii. 4-vii. is the Palestinian dialect of Aramaic.[8]
The subject matter, however, falls naturally into two divisions which
are not co-terminous with the linguistic sections; viz. i.-vi. and
vii.-xii. The first of these sense-divisions deals only with narratives
regarding the reign of Nebuchadrezzar and his supposed son Belshazzar,
while the second section consists exclusively of apocalyptic prophecies.
There can be no doubt that a definite plan was followed in the
arrangement of the work. The author's object was clearly to demonstrate
to his readers the necessity of faith in Israel's God, who shall not for
ever allow his chosen ones to be ground under the heel of a ruthless
heathen oppressor. To illustrate this, he makes use on the one hand
(i.-vi.) of carefully chosen narratives, somewhat loosely connected it
is true, but all treating substantially the same subject,--the physical
triumph of God's servant over his unbelieving enemies; and on the other
hand (vii.-xii.), he introduces certain prophetic visions illustrative
of God's favour towards the same servant, Daniel. So carefully is this
record of the visions arranged that the first two chapters of the second
part of the book (vii.-viii.) were no doubt purposely made to appear in
a symbolic form, in order that in the last two revelations (xi.-xii.),
which were couched in such direct language as to be intelligible even to
the modern student of history, the author might obtain the effect of a
climax. The book is probably not therefore a number of parts of
different origin thrown loosely together by a careless editor, who does
not deserve the title of author.[9] The more or less disconnected
sections of the first part of the work were probably so arranged
purposely, in order to facilitate its diffusion at a time when books
were known to the people at large chiefly by being read aloud in public.
Various attempts have been made to explain the sudden change from Hebrew
to Aramaic in ii. 4. It was long thought, for example, that Aramaic was
the vernacular of Babylonia and was consequently employed as the
language of the parts relating to that country. But this was not the
case, because the Babylonian language survived until a later date than
that of the events portrayed in Daniel.[10] Nor is it possible to follow
the theory of Merx, that Aramaic, which was the popular tongue of the
day when the Book of Daniel was written, was therefore used for the
simpler narrative style, while the more learned Hebrew was made the
idiom of the philosophical portions.[11] The first chapter, which is
just as much in the narrative style as are the following Aramaic
sections, is in Hebrew, while the distinctly apocalyptic chapter vii. is
in Aramaic. A third view, that the bilingual character of the work
points to a time when both languages were used indifferently, is equally
unsatisfactory,[12] because it is highly questionable whether two idioms
can ever be used quite indifferently. In fact, a hybrid work in two
languages would be a literary monstrosity. In view of the apparent unity
of the entire work, the only possible explanation seems to be that the
book was written at first all in Hebrew, but for the convenience of the
general reader whose vernacular was Aramaic, a translation, possibly
from the same pen as the original, was made into Aramaic. It must be
supposed then that, certain parts of the original Hebrew manuscript
being lost, the missing places were supplied from the current Aramaic
translation.[13]
It cannot be denied in the light of modern historical research that if
the Book of Daniel be regarded as pretending to full historical
authority, the biblical record is open to all manner of attack. It is
now the general opinion of most modern scholars who study the Old
Testament from a critical point of view that this work cannot possibly
have originated, according to the traditional theory, at any time during
the Babylonian monarchy, when the events recorded are supposed to have
taken place.
The chief reasons for such a conclusion are as follows.[14]
1. The position of the book among the _Hagiographa_, instead of among
the Prophetical works, seems to show that it was introduced after the
closing of the Prophetical Canon. Some commentators have believed that
Daniel was not an actual prophet in the proper sense, but only a seer,
or else that he had no official standing as a prophet and that therefore
the book was not entitled to a place among official prophetical books.
But if the work had really been in existence at the time of the
completion of the second part of the canon, the collectors of the
prophetical writings, who in their care did not neglect even the parable
of Jonah, would hardly have ignored the record of so great a prophet as
Daniel is represented to have been.
2. Jesus ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), who wrote about 200-180 B.C., in
his otherwise complete list of Israel's leading spirits (xlix.), makes
no mention of Daniel. Hengstenberg's plea that Ezra and Mordecai were
also left unmentioned has little force, because Ezra appears in the book
bearing his name as nothing more than a prominent priest and scholar,
while Daniel is represented as a great prophet.
3. Had the Book of Daniel been extant and generally known after the time
of Cyrus (537-529 B.C.), it would be natural to look for some traces of
its power among the writings of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, whose
works, however, show no evidence that either the name or the history of
Daniel was known to these authors. Furthermore, the manner in which the
prophets are looked back upon in ix. 6-10 cannot fail to suggest an
extremely late origin for the book. Besides this, a careful study of ix.
2 seems to indicate that the Prophetical Canon was definitely completed
at the time when the author of Daniel wrote. It is also highly probable
that much of the material in the second part of the book was suggested
by the works of the later prophets, especially by Ezekiel and Zechariah.
4. Some of the beliefs set forth in the second part of the book also
practically preclude the possibility of the author having lived at the
courts of Nebuchadrezzar and his successors. Most noticeable among these
doctrines is the complete system of angelology consistently followed out
in the Book of Daniel, according to which the management of human
affairs is entrusted to a regular hierarchy of commanding angels, two of
whom, Gabriel and Michael, are even mentioned by name. Such an idea was
distinctly foreign to the primitive Israelitish conception of the
indivisibility of Yahweh's power, and must consequently have been a
borrowed one. It could certainly not have come from the Babylonians,
however, whose system of attendant spirits was far from being so
complete as that which is set forth in the Book of Daniel, but rather
from Persian sources where a more complicated angelology had been
developed. As many commentators have brought out, there can be little
doubt that the doctrine of angels in Daniel is an indication of
prolonged Persian influence. Furthermore, it is now very generally
admitted that the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which is
advanced for the first time in the Old Testament in Daniel, also
originated among the Persians,[15] and could only have been engrafted on
the Jewish mind after a long period of intercourse with the Zoroastrian
religion, which came into contact with the Jewish thinkers considerably
after the time of Nebuchadrezzar.
5. All the above evidences are merely internal, but we are now able to
draw upon the Babylonian historical sources to prove that Daniel could
not have originated at the time of Nebuchadrezzar. There can be no doubt
that the author of Daniel thought that Belshazzar (q.v.), who has now
been identified beyond all question with _Bel-sar-uzur_, the son of
Nabonidus, the last Semitic king of Babylon, was the son of
Nebuchadrezzar, and that Belshazzar attained the rank of king.[16] This
prince did not even come from the family of Nebuchadrezzar. Nabonidus,
the father of Belshazzar, was the son of a nobleman _Nabu-baladsu-iqbi_,
who was in all probability not related to any of the preceding kings of
Babylon. Had Nabonidus been descended from Nebuchadrezzar he could
hardly have failed in his records, which we possess, to have boasted of
such a connexion with the greatest Babylonian monarch; yet in none of
his inscriptions does he trace his descent beyond his father. Certain
expositors have tried to obviate the difficulty, first by supposing that
the expression "son of Nebuchadrezzar" in Daniel means "descendant" or
"son," a view which is rendered untenable by the facts just cited. This
school has also endeavoured to prove that the author of Daniel did not
mean to imply Belshazzar's kingship of Babylon at all by his use of the
word "king," but they suggest that the writer of Daniel believed
Belshazzar to have been co-regent. If Belshazzar had ever held such a
position, which is extremely unlikely in the absence of any evidence
from the cuneiform documents, he would hardly have been given the
unqualified title "king of Babylon" as occurs in Daniel.[17] For
example, Cambyses, son of Cyrus, was undoubtedly co-regent and bore the
title "king of Babylon" during his father's lifetime, but, in a contract
which dates from the first year of Cambyses, it is expressly stated that
Cyrus was still "king of the lands." This should be contrasted with Dan.
viii. 1, where reference is made to the "third year of Belshazzar, king
of Babylon" without any allusion to another over-ruler. Such attempts
are at best subterfuges to support an impossible theory regarding the
origin of the Book of Daniel, whose author clearly believed in the
kingship of Belshazzar and in that prince's descent from Nebuchadrezzar.
Furthermore, the writer of Daniel asserts (v. 1) that a monarch "Darius
the Mede" received the kingdom of Babylon after the fall of the native
Babylonian house, although it is evident, from i. 21, x. 1, that the
biblical author was perfectly aware of the existence of Cyrus.[18] The
fact that in no other scriptural passage is mention made of any Median
ruler between the last Semitic king of Babylon and Cyrus, and the
absolute silence of the authoritative ancient authors regarding such a
king, make it apparent that the late author of Daniel is again in error
in this particular. It is known that Cyrus became master of Media by
conquering Astyages, and that the troops of the king of Persia capturing
Babylon took Nabonidus prisoner with but little difficulty. Unsuccessful
attempts have been made to identify this mythical Darius with the
Cyaxares, son of Astyages, of Xenophon's _Cyropaedia_, and also with the
Darius of Eusebius, who was in all probability Darius Hystaspis. There
is not only no room in history for this Median king of the Book of
Daniel, but it is also highly likely that the interpolation of "Darius
the Mede" was caused by a confusion of history, due both to the
destruction of the Assyrian capital Nineveh by the Medes, sixty-eight
years before the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, and also to the fame of
the later king, Darius Hystaspis, a view which was advanced as early in
the history of biblical criticism as the days of the Benedictine monk,
Marianus Scotus. It is important to note in this connexion that Darius
the Mede is represented as the son of Xerxes (Ahasuerus) and it is
stated that he established 120 satrapies. Darius Hystaspis was the
father of Xerxes, and according to Herodotus (iii. 89) established
twenty satrapies. Darius the Mede entered into possession of Babylon
after the death of Belshazzar; Darius Hystaspis conquered Babylon from
the hands of certain rebels (Her. iii. 153-160). In fine, the
interpolation of a Median Darius must be regarded as the most glaring
historical inaccuracy of the author of Daniel. In fact, this error of
the author alone is proof positive that he must have lived at a very
late period, when the record of most of the earlier historical events
had become hopelessly confused and perverted.
With these chief reasons why the Book of Daniel cannot have originated
in the Babylonian period, if the reader will turn more especially to the
apocalyptic sections (vii.-xii.), it will be quite evident that the
author is here giving a detailed account of historical events which may
easily be recognized through the thin veil of prophetic mystery thrown
lightly around them. It is indeed highly suggestive that just those
occurrences which are the most remote from the assumed standpoint of the
writer are the most correctly stated, while the nearer we approach the
author's supposed time, the more inaccurate does he become. It is quite
apparent that the predictions in the Book of Daniel centre on the period
of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.), when that Syrian prince was
endeavouring to suppress the worship of Yahweh and substitute for it the
Greek religion.[19] There can be no doubt, for example, that in the
"Little Horn" of vii. 8, viii. 9, and the "wicked prince" described in
ix.-x., who is to work such evil among the saints, we have clearly one
and the same person. It is now generally recognized that the king
symbolized by the Little Horn, of whom it is said that he shall come of
one of four kingdoms which shall be formed from the Greek empire after
the death of its first king (Alexander), can be none other than
Antiochus Epiphanes, and in like manner the references in ix. must
allude to the same prince. It seems quite clear that xi. 21-45 refers to
the evil deeds of Antiochus IV. and his attempts against the Jewish
people and the worship of Yahweh. In xii. follows the promise of
salvation from the same tyrant, and, strikingly enough, the predictions
in this last section, x.-xii., relating to future events, become
inaccurate as soon as the author finishes the section describing the
reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. The general style of all these prophecies
differs materially from that of all other prophetic writings in the Old
Testament. Other prophets confine themselves to vague and general
predictions, but the author of Daniel is strikingly particular as to
detail in everything relating to the period in which he lived, i.e. the
reign of Antiochus IV. Had the work been composed during the Babylonian
era, it would be more natural to expect prophecies of the return of the
exiled Jews to Palestine, as in Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah, rather
than the acclamation of an ideal Messianic kingdom such as is emphasized
in the second part of Daniel.
As a specimen of the apocalyptic method followed in Daniel, the
celebrated prophecy of the seventy weeks (ix. 24-27) may be cited, a
full discussion of which will be found in Prince, _Daniel_ 157-161.
According to Jer. xxv. 11-12, the period of Israel's probation and trial
was to last seventy years. In the angelic explanation in Daniel of
Jeremiah's prophecy, these years were in reality year-weeks, which
indicated a period of 490 years. This is the true apocalyptic system.
The author takes a genuine prophecy, undoubtedly intended by Jeremiah to
refer simply to the duration of the Babylonian captivity, and, by means
of a purely arbitrary and mystical interpretation, makes it denote the
entire period of Israel's degradation down to his own time. This
prophecy is really nothing more than an extension of the vision of the
2300 evening-mornings of viii. 14, and of the "time, times and a half a
time" of vii. 25. The real problem is as to the beginning and end of
this epoch, which is divided into three periods of uneven length; viz.
one of seven weeks; one of sixty-two weeks; and the last of one week. It
seems probable that the author of Daniel, like the Chronicler, began his
period with the fall of Jerusalem in 586. His first seven weeks,
therefore, ending with the rule of "Messiah the Prince,"[20] probably
Joshua ben Jozadak, the first high-priest after the exile (Ezra iii. 2),
seem to coincide exactly with the duration of the Babylon exile, i.e.
forty-nine years.
The second period of the epoch, during which Jerusalem is to be peopled
and built, and at the end of which the Messiah is to be cut off, is much
more difficult to determine. The key to the problem lies undoubtedly in
the last statement regarding the overthrow of the Messiah or Anointed
One. Such a reference coming from a Maccabean author can only allude to
the deposition by Antiochus IV. of the high-priest Onias III., which
took place about 174 B.C., and the Syrian king's subsequent murder of
the same person not later than 171 (2 Macc. iv. 33-36). The difficulty
now arises that between 537 and 171 there are only 366 years instead of
the required number 434. It was evidently not the author's intention to
begin the second period of sixty weeks simultaneously with the first
period, as some expositors have thought, because the whole passage shows
conclusively that he meant seventy independent weeks. Besides, nothing
is gained by such a device, which would bring the year of the end of the
second period down to the meaningless date 152, too late to refer to
Onias. Cornill therefore adopted the only tenable theory regarding the
problem; viz. that the author of Daniel did not know the chronology
between 537 and 312, the establishment of the Seleucid era, and
consequently made the period too long. A parallel case is the much
quoted example of Demetrius, who placed the fall of Samaria (722 B.C.)
573 years before the succession of Ptolemy IV. (222), thus making an
error of seventy-three years. Josephus, who places the reign of Cyrus
forty to fifty years too early, makes a similar error.
The last week is divided into two sections (26-27), in the first of
which the city and sanctuary shall be destroyed and in the second the
daily offering is to be suspended. All critical scholars recognize the
identity of this second half-week with the "time, times and a half a
time" of vii. 25. This last week must, therefore, end with the
restoration of the temple worship in 164 B.C.
This whole prophecy, which is perhaps the most interesting in the Book
of Daniel, presents problems which can never be thoroughly understood,
first because the author must have been ignorant of both history and
chronology, and secondly, because, in his effort to be as mystical as
possible, he purposely made use of indefinite and vague expressions
which render the criticism of the passage a most unsatisfactory task.
The Book of Daniel loses none of its beauty and force because we are
bound, in the light of modern criticism, to consider it as a production
of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, nor should conservative
Bible-readers lament because the historical accuracy of the work is thus
destroyed. The influence of the work was very great on the subsequent
development of Christianity, but it was not the influence of the
_history_ contained in it which made itself felt, but rather of that
sublime hope for a future deliverance of which the author of Daniel
never lost sight. The allusion to the book by Jesus (Matt. xxiv. 15)
shows merely that our Lord was referring to the work by its commonly
accepted title, and implies no authoritative utterance with regard to
its date or authorship. Our Lord simply made use of an apt quotation
from a well-known work in order to illustrate and give additional force
to his own prediction. If the book be properly understood, it must not
only be admitted that the author made no pretence at accuracy of detail,
but also that his prophecies were clearly intended to be merely an
historical résumé, clothed for the sake of greater literary vividness in
a prophetic garb. The work, which is certainly not a forgery, but only a
consolatory political pamphlet, is just as powerful, viewed according to
the author's evident intention, as a consolation to God's people in
their dire distress at the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, as if it were,
what an ancient but mistaken tradition had made it, really an accurate
account of events which took place at the close of the Babylonian
period.[21]
LITERATURE.--See bibliography in Bevan, _Daniel_ 9, and add
Kamphausen, _Dan._, in Haupt's _Sacred Books of the Old Testament_;
Behrmann, _Dan._ (1894); J. D. Prince, _Dan._ (1899); G. A. Barton,
"The Compilation of the Book of Daniel," in _Journ. Bibl. Lit._
(1898), 62-86, against the unity of the book, &c., &c.; J. D. Davis,
"Persian Words and the Date of O.T. Documents," in _Old Testament and
Semitic Studies: in Memory of W. R. Harper_ (Chicago, 1908).
(J. D. Pr.)
ADDITIONS TO DANIEL.--The "additions to Daniel" are three in number:
_Susannah and the Elders_, _Bel and the Dragon_, and _The Song of the
Three Children_. Of these the two former have no organic connexion with
the text. The case is otherwise with regard to the last. In some
respects it helps to fill up a gap in the canonical text between verses
23 and 24 of chapter iii. And yet we find Polychronius, early in the 5th
century, stating that this song was not found in the Syriac version.
_Susannah._--This addition was placed by Theodotion before chap. i., and
Bel and the Dragon at its close, whereas by the Septuagint and the
Vulgate it was reckoned as chap. xiii. after the twelve canonical
chapters, Bel and the Dragon as xiv. Theodotion's version is the source
of the Peshitto and the Vulgate, for all three additions, and the
Septuagint is the source of the Syro-Hexaplaric which has been published
by Ceriani (_Mon. Sacr._ vii.). The legend recounts how that in the
early days of the Captivity Susannah, the beautiful and pious wife of
the rich Joakim, was walking in her garden and was there seen by two
elders who were also judges. Inflamed with lust, they made infamous
proposals to her, and when repulsed they brought against her a false
charge of adultery. When brought before the tribunal she was condemned
to death and was on the way to execution, when Daniel interposed and, by
cross-questioning the accusers apart, convinced the people of the
falsity of the charge.
The source of the story may, according to Ewald (_Gesch._³ iv. 636),
have been suggested by the Babylonian legend of the seduction of two old
men by the goddess of love (see also Koran, _Sur._ ii. 96). Another and
much more probable origin of the work is that given by Brüll (_Das
apocr. Susanna-Buch_, 1877) and Ball (_Speaker's Apocr._ ii. 323-331).
The first half of the story is based on a tradition--originating
possibly in Jer. xxix. 21-32 and found in the Talmud and Midrash--of two
elders Ahab and Zedekiah, who in the Captivity led certain women astray
under the delusion that they should thereby become the mother of the
Messiah. But the most interesting part of the investigation is concerned
with the latter half of the story, which deals with the trial. The
characteristics of this section point to its composition about 100-90
B.C., when Simon ben Shetah was president of the Sanhedrin. Its object
was to support the attempts of the Pharisees to bring about a reform in
the administration of the law courts. According to Sadducean principles
the man who was convicted of falsely accusing another of a capital
offence was not put to death unless his victim was already executed. The
Pharisees held that the intention of the accusers was equivalent to
murder. Our apocryph upholds the Pharisaic contention. As Simon ben
Shetah insisted on a rigorous examination of the witnesses, so does our
writer: as he and his party required that the perjurer should suffer the
same penalty he sought to inflict on another, so our writer represents
the death penalty as inflicted on the perjured elders.
The language was in all probability Semitic-Hebrew or Aramaic. The
paronomasiae in the Greek in verses 54-55 ([Greek: hupo schinon ...
schisei]) and 58-59 ([Greek: hupo prinon ... prisei]) present no cogent
difficulty against this view; for they may be accidental and have arisen
for the first time in the translation. But as Brüll and Ball have shown
(see _Speaker's Apocr._ ii. 324), the same paronomasiae are possible
either in Hebrew or Aramaic.
LITERATURE.--Ball in the _Speaker's Apocr._ ii. 233 sqq.; Schürer,
_Gesch._³ iii. 333; Rothstein in Kautzsch's _Apocr. u. Pseud._ i. 176
sqq.; Kamphausen in _Ency. Bib._; Marshall in Hastings' _Bible Dict._;
Toy in the _Jewish Encyc._
_Bel and the Dragon._--We have here two independent narratives, in both
of which Daniel appears as the destroyer of heathenism. The latter had a
much wider circulation than the former, and is most probably a Judaized
form of the old Semitic myth of the destruction of the old dragon, which
represents primeval chaos (see Ball, _Speaker's Apocr._ ii. 346-348;
Gunkel, _Schöpfung und Chaos_, 320-323). Marduk destroys Tiamat in a
similar manner to that in which Daniel destroys the dragon (Delitzsch,
_Das babylonische Weltschöpfung Epos_), by driving a storm-wind into the
dragon which rends it asunder. Marshall (Hastings' _Bib. Dict._ i. 267)
suggests that the "pitch" of the Greek (Aramaic [Aramaic: zifa]) arose
from the original term for storm-wind ([Aramaic: zafa]).
The Greek exists in two recensions, those of the Septuagint and
Theodotion. Most scholars maintain a Greek original, but this is by no
means certain. Marshall (Hastings' _Bib Dict._ i. 268) argues for an
Aramaic, and regards Gasters's Aramaic text [_Proceedings of the Society
of Biblical Archaeology_ (1894), pp. 280-290, 312-317; (1895) 75-94] as
of primary value in this respect, but this is doubtful.
LITERATURE.--Fritzsche's _Handbuch zu den Apoc._; Ball in the
_Speaker's Apocr._ ii. 344 sqq.; Schürer,³ _Gesch._ iii. 332 sqq.; and
the articles in the _Ency. Bibl., Bible Dict._, and _Jewish Encyc._
The Greek text is best given in Swete iii., and the Syriac will be
found in Walton's _Polyglot_, Lagarde and Neubauer's _Tobit_.
_Song of the Three Children._--This section is composed of the Prayer of
Azariah and the Song of Azariah, Ananias and Misael, and was inserted
after iii. 23 of the canonical text of Daniel. According to Fritzsche,
König, Schürer, &c., it was composed in Greek and added to the Greek
translation. On the other hand, Delitzsch, Bissell, Ball, &c., maintain
a Hebrew original. The latter view has been recently supported by
Rothstein, _Apocr. und Pseud._ i. 173-176, who holds that these
additions were made to the text before its translation into Greek. These
additions still preserve, according to Rothstein, a fragment of the
original text, i.e. verses 23-28, which came between verses 23 and 24 of
chapter iii. of the canonical text. They certainly fill up excellently a
manifest gap in this text. "The Song of the Three Children" was first
added after the verses just referred to, and subsequently the Prayer of
Azariah was inserted before these verses.
LITERATURE.--Ball in the _Speaker's Apocr._ ii. 305 sqq.; Rothstein in
Kautzsch's _Apocr. und Pseud._ i. 173 sqq.; Schürer,³ _Gesch._ iii.
332 sqq. (R. H. C.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Four personages of the name of Daniel appear in the Old
Testament: (1) the patriarch of Ezekiel (see above); (2) a son of
David (1 Chron. iii. 1); (3) a Levite contemporary with Ezra (Ezra
viii. 2; Neh. x. 6); (4) our Daniel.
[2] Ant. x. 10, 1.
[3] Chap, x., on the Prophets.
[4] Panarion, _adv._ Haeres. 55, 3.
[5] Prince, _Dan._ p. 26, n. 6.
[6] _Dan._ p. viii.
[7] The account in chap. ii. of the promotion of Daniel to be
governor of Babylon, as a reward for his correct interpretation of
Nebuchadrezzar's dream, is very probably an imitation of the story of
Joseph in Gen. xl-xli. The points of resemblance are very striking.
In both accounts, we have a young Hebrew raised by the favour of a
heathen king to great political prominence, owing to his
extraordinary God-given ability to interpret dreams. In both
versions, the heathen astrologers make the first attempt to solve the
difficulty, which results in failure, whereupon the pious Israelite,
being summoned to the royal presence, in both cases through the
friendly intervention of a court official, triumphantly explains the
mystery to the king's satisfaction (cf. Prince, _Dan._ p. 29).
[8] See Bevan, _Dan._ 28-40, on the Hebrew and Aramaic of Daniel.
[9] According to Lagarde, _Mitteilungen_, iv. 351 (1891); also Gött,
_Gelehrte Anzeigen_ (1891), 497-520.
[10] The latest connected Babylonian inscription is that of Antiochus
Soter (280-260 B.C.), but the language was probably spoken until
Hellenic times; cf. Gutbrod, _Zeitschr. für Assyriol._ vi. 27.
[11] Prince, _Dan._ 12.
[12] Bertholdt, Dan. 15; Franz Delitzsch, in Herzog,
_Realencyklopädie_, 2nd ed., iii. 470.
[13] Bevan, _Dan._ 27 ff.; Prince, _Dan._ 13.
[14] For this whole discussion, see Prince, _Dan._ 15 ff.
[15] The investigations of Haug, Spiegel and Windischmann show that
this was a real Zoroastrian doctrine.
[16] Prince, _Dan._ 35-42.
[17] Certain tablets published by Strassmaier, bearing date
continuously from Nabonidus to Cyrus, show that neither Belshazzar
nor "Darius the Mede" could have had the title "king of Babylon." See
Driver, _Introduction_,[3] xxii.
[18] Prince, _Dan._ 44-56.
[19] Prince, _Dan._ 19-20, 140, 155, 179 ff.
[20] That "Messiah" or "Anointed One" was used of the High-Priest is
seen from Lev. x, 3, v. 16.
[21] Prince, _Dan._ 22-24.
DANIEL (DANIL), of Kiev, the earliest Russian travel-writer, and one of
the leading Russian travellers in the middle ages. He journeyed to Syria
and other parts of the Levant about 1106-1107. He was the _igumen_, or
abbot, of a monastery probably near Chernigov in Little Russia: some
identify him with one Daniel, bishop of Suriev (fl. 1115-1122). He
visited Palestine in the reign of Baldwin I., Latin king of Jerusalem
(1100-1118), and apparently soon after the crusading capture of Acre
(1104); he claims to have accompanied Baldwin, who treated him with
marked friendliness, on an expedition against Damascus (c. 1107). Though
Daniel's narrative, beginning (as it practically ends) at
Constantinople, omits some of the most interesting sections of his
journey, his work has considerable value. His picture of the Holy Land
preserves a record of conditions (such as the Saracen raiding almost up
to the walls of Christian Jerusalem, and the friendly relations
subsisting between Roman and Eastern churches in Syria) peculiarly
characteristic of the time; his account of Jerusalem itself is
remarkably clear, minute and accurate; his three excursions--to the Dead
Sea and Lower Jordan (which last he compares to a river of Little
Russia, the Snov), to Bethlehem and Hebron, and towards Damascus--gave
him an exceptional knowledge of certain regions. In spite of some
extraordinary blunders in topography and history, his observant and
detailed record, marked by evident good faith, is among the most
valuable of medieval documents relating to Palestine: it is also
important in the history of the Russian language, and in the study of
ritual and liturgy (from its description of the Easter services in
Jerusalem, the Descent of the Holy Fire, &c.). Several Russian friends
and companions, from Kiev and Old Novgorod, are recorded by Daniel as
present with him at the Easter Eve "miracle," in the church of the Holy
Sepulchre.
There are seventy-six MSS. of Daniel's Narrative, of which only five
are anterior to A.D. 1500; the oldest is of 1475 (St Petersburg,
Library of Ecclesiastical History 9/1086). Three editions exist, of
which I. P. Sakharov's (St Petersburg, 1849) is perhaps the best known
(in _Narratives of the Russian People_, vol. ii. bk. viii. pp. 1-45).
See also the French version in _Itinéraires russes en orient_, ed M^e
B. de Khitrovo (Geneva, 1889) (_Société de l'orient latin_); and the
account of Daniel in C. R. Beazley, _Dawn of Modern Geography_, ii.
155-174. (C. R. B.)
DANIEL, GABRIEL (1649-1728), French Jesuit historian, was born at Rouen
on the 8th of February 1649. He was educated by the Jesuits, entered the
order at the age of eighteen, and became superior at Paris. He is best
known by his _Histoire de France depuis l'établissement de la monarchie
française_ (first complete edition, 1713), which was republished in
1720, 1721, 1725, 1742, and (the last edition, with notes by Father
Griffet) 1755-1760. Daniel published an abridgment in 1724 (English
trans., 1726), and another abridgment was published by Dorival in 1751.
Though full of prejudices which affect his accuracy, Daniel had the
advantage of consulting valuable original sources. His _Histoire de la
milice française_, &c. (1721) is superior to his _Histoire de France_,
and may still be consulted with advantage. Daniel also wrote a by no
means successful reply to Pascal's _Provincial Letters_, entitled
_Entretiens de Cléanthe et d'Eudoxe sur les lettres provinciales_
(1694); two treatises on the Cartesian theory as to the intelligence of
the lower animals, and other works.
See Sommervogel, _Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus_, t. ii.
DANIEL, SAMUEL (1562-1619), English poet and historian, was the son of a
music-master, and was born near Taunton, in Somersetshire, in 1562.
Another son, John Daniel, was a musician, who held some offices at
court, and was the author of _Songs for the Lute, Viol and Voice_
(1606). In 1579 Samuel was admitted a commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford,
where he remained for about three years, and then gave himself up to the
unrestrained study of poetry and philosophy. The name of Samuel Daniel
is given as the servant of Lord Stafford, ambassador in France, in 1586,
and probably refers to the poet. He was first encouraged and, if we may
believe him, taught in verse, by the famous countess of Pembroke, whose
honour he was never weary of proclaiming. He had entered her household
as tutor to her son, William Herbert. His first known work, a
translation of Paulus Jovius, to which some original matter is appended,
was printed in 1585. His first known volume of verse is dated 1592; it
contains the cycle of sonnets to _Delia_ and the romance called _The
Complaint of Rosamond_. Twenty-seven of the sonnets had already been
printed at the end of Sir Philip Sidney's _Astrophel and Stella_ without
the author's consent. Several editions of _Delia_ appeared in 1592, and
they were very frequently reprinted during Daniel's lifetime. We learn
by internal evidence that Delia lived on the banks of Shakespeare's
river, the Avon, and that the sonnets to her were inspired by her memory
when the poet was in Italy. To an edition of _Delia_ and _Rosamond_, in
1594, was added the tragedy of _Cleopatra_, a severe study in the manner
of the ancients, in alternately rhyming heroic verse, diversified by
stiff choral interludes. _The First Four Books of the Civil Wars_, an
historical poem in _ottava rima_, appeared in 1595. The bibliography of
Daniel's works is attended with great difficulty, but as far as is known
it was not until 1599 that there was published a volume entitled
_Poetical Essays_, which contained, besides the "Civil Wars,"
"Musophilus," and "A letter from Octavia to Marcus Antonius," poems in
Daniel's finest and most mature manner. About this time he became tutor
to Anne Clifford, daughter of the countess of Cumberland. On the death
of Spenser, in the same year, Daniel received the somewhat vague office
of poet-laureate, which he seems, however, to have shortly resigned in
favour of Ben Jonson. Whether it was on this occasion is not known, but
about this time, and at the recommendation of his brother-in-law,
Giovanni Florio, he was taken into favour at court, and wrote a
_Panegyric Congratulatorie offered to the King at Burleigh Harrington in
Rutlandshire_, in _ottava rima_. In 1603 this poem was published, and in
many cases copies contained in addition his _Poetical Epistles_ to his
patrons and an elegant prose essay called _A Defence of Rime_
(originally printed in 1602) in answer to Thomas Campion's _Observations
on the Art of English Poesie_, in which it was contended that rhyme was
unsuited to the genius of the English language. In 1603, moreover,
Daniel was appointed master of the queen's revels. In this capacity he
brought out a series of masques and pastoral tragi-comedies,--of which
were printed _A Vision of the Twelve Goddesses_, in 1604; _The Queen's
Arcadia_, an adaptation of Guarini's _Pastor Fido_, in 1606; _Tethys
Festival or the Queenes Wake_, written on the occasion of Prince Henry's
becoming a Knight of the Bath, in 1610; and _Hymen's Triumph_, in honour
of Lord Roxburgh's marriage in 1615. Meanwhile had appeared, in 1605,
_Certain Small Poems_, with the tragedy of _Philotas_; the latter was a
study, in the same style as _Cleopatra_, written some five years
earlier. This drama brought its author into difficulties, as Philotas,
with whom he expressed some sympathy, was taken to represent Essex. In
1607, under the title of _Certaine small Workes heretofore divulged by
Samuel Daniel_, the poet issued a revised version of all his works
except _Delia_ and the _Civil Wars_. In 1609 the Civil Wars had been
completed in eight books. In 1612 Daniel published a prose _History of
England_, from the earliest times down to the end of the reign of Edward
III. This work afterwards continued, and published in 1617, was very
popular with Drayton's contemporaries. The section dealing with William
the Conqueror was published in 1692 as being the work of Sir Walter
Raleigh, apparently without sufficient grounds.
Daniel was made a gentleman-extraordinary and groom of the chamber to
Queen Anne, sinecure offices which offered no hindrance to an active
literary career. He was now acknowledged as one of the first writers of
the time. Shakespeare, Selden and Chapman are named among the few
intimates who were permitted to intrude upon the seclusion of a
garden-house in Old Street, St Luke's, where, Fuller tells us, he would
"lie hid for some months together, the more retiredly to enjoy the
company of the Muses, and then would appear in public to converse with
his friends." Late in life Daniel threw up his titular posts at court
and retired to a farm called "The Ridge," which he rented at Beckington,
near Devizes in Wiltshire. Here he died on the 14th of October 1619.
The poetical writings of Daniel are very numerous, but in spite of the
eulogies of all the best critics, they were long neglected. This is the
more singular since, during the 18th century, when so little Elizabethan
literature was read, Daniel retained his poetical prestige. In later
times Coleridge, Charles Lamb and others expended some of their most
genial criticisms on this poet. Of his multifarious works the sonnets
are now, perhaps, most read. They depart from the Italian sonnet form in
closing with a couplet, as is the case with most of the sonnets of
Surrey and Wyat, but they have a grace and tenderness all their own. Of
a higher order is _The Complaint of Rosamond_, a soliloquy in which the
ghost of the murdered woman appears and bewails her fate in stanzas of
exquisite pathos. Among the _Epistles to Distinguished Persons_ will be
found some of Daniel's noblest stanzas and most polished verse. The
epistle to Lucy, countess of Bedford, is remarkable among those as being
composed in genuine _terza rima_, till then not used in English. Daniel
was particularly fond of a four-lined stanza of solemn alternately
rhyming iambics, a form of verse distinctly misplaced in his dramas.
These, inspired it would seem by like attempts of the countess of
Pembroke's, are hard and frigid; his pastorals are far more pleasing;
and _Hymen's Triumph_ is perhaps the best of all his dramatic writing.
An extract from this masque is given in Lamb's _Dramatic Poets_, and it
was highly praised by Coleridge. In elegiac verse he always excelled,
but most of all in his touching address _To the Angel Spirit of the Most
Excellent Sir Philip Sidney_. We must not neglect to quote _Musophilus_
among the most characteristic writings of Daniel. It is a dialogue
between a courtier and a man of letters, and is a general defence of
learning, and in particular of poetic learning as an instrument in the
education of the perfect courtier or man of action. It is addressed to
Fulke Greville, and written, with much sententious melody, in a sort of
_terza rima_, or, more properly, _ottava rima_ with the couplet omitted.
Daniel was a great reformer in verse, and the introducer of several
valuable novelties. It may be broadly said of his style that it is full,
easy and stately, without being very animated or splendid. It attains a
high average of general excellence, and is content with level flights.
As a gnomic writer Daniel approaches Chapman, but is far more musical
and coherent. He is wanting in fire and passion, but he is preeminent in
scholarly grace and tender, mournful reverie.
Daniel's works were edited by A. B. Grosart in 1885-1896. (E. G.)
DANIELL, JOHN FREDERIC (1700-1845), English chemist and physicist, was
born in London on the 12th of March 1790, and in 1831 became the first
professor of chemistry at the newly founded King's College, London. His
name is best known for his invention of the Daniell cell (_Phil.
Trans._, 1836), still extensively used for telegraphic and other
purposes. He also invented the dew-point hygrometer known by his name
(_Quar. Journ. Sci._, 1820), and a register pyrometer (_Phil. Trans._,
1830); and in 1830 he erected in the hall of the Royal Society a
water-barometer, with which he carried out a large number of
observations _(Phil. Trans._, 1832). A process devised by him for the
manufacture of illuminating gas from turpentine and resin was in use in
New York for a time. His publications include _Meteorological Essays_
(1823), an _Essay on Artificial Climate considered in its Applications
to Horticulture_ (1824), which showed the necessity of a humid
atmosphere in hothouses devoted to tropical plants, and an _Introduction
to the Study of Chemical Philosophy_ (1839). He died suddenly of
apoplexy on the 13th of March 1845, in London, while attending a meeting
of the council of the Royal Society, of which he became a fellow in 1813
and foreign secretary in 1839.
DANIELL, THOMAS (1749-1840), English landscape painter, was born at the
Chertsey inn, kept by his father, in 1749, and apprenticed to an
heraldic painter. Daniell, however, was animated with a love of the
romantic and beautiful in architecture and nature. Up to 1784 he painted
topographical subjects and flower pieces. By this time his two nephews
(see below) had come under his influence, the younger, Samuel, being
apprenticed to Medland the landscape engraver, and the elder, William,
being under his own care. In this year (1784) he embarked for India
accompanied by William, and found at Calcutta ample encouragement. Here
he remained ten years, and on returning to London he published his
largest work, _Oriental Scenery_, in six large volumes, not completed
till 1808. From 1795 till 1828 he continued to exhibit Eastern subjects,
temples, jungle hunts, &c., and at the same time continued the
publication of illustrated works. These are--_Views of Calcutta_;
_Oriental Scenery_, 144 plates; _Views in Egypt_; _Excavations at
Ellora_; _Picturesque Voyage to China_. These were for the most part
executed in aquatint. He was elected an Academician in 1799, fellow of
the Royal Society about the same time, and at different times member of
several minor societies. His nephews both died before him; his Indian
period had made him independent, and he lived a bachelor life in much
respect at Kensington till his death on the 19th of March 1840.
WILLIAM DANIELL (1769-1837), his nephew, was fourteen when he
accompanied his uncle to India. His own publications, engraved in
aquatint, were--_Voyage to India_; _Zoography_; _Animated Nature_;
_Views of London_; _Views of Bootan_, a work prepared from his uncle's
sketches; and a _Voyage Round Great Britain_, which occupied him several
years. The British Institution made him an award of £100 for a "Battle
of Trafalgar," and he was elected R.A. in 1822. He turned to panorama
painting before his death, beginning in 1832 with Madras, the picture
being enlivened by a representation of the Hindu mode of taming wild
elephants.
SAMUEL DANIELL, William's younger brother, was brought up as an
engraver, and first appears as an exhibitor in 1792. A few years later
he went to the Cape and travelled into the interior of Africa, with his
sketching materials in his haversack. The drawings he made there were
published, after his return, in his _African Scenery_. He did not rest
long at home, but left for Ceylon in 1806, where he spent the remaining
years of his life, publishing _The Scenery, Animals and Natives of
Ceylon_.
DANNAT, WILLIAM T. (1853- ), American artist, was born in New York city
in 1853. He was a pupil of the Royal Academy of Munich and of Munkacsy,
and became an accomplished draughtsman and a distinguished figure and
portrait painter. He early attracted attention with sketches and
pictures made in Spain, and a large composition, "The Quartette," now in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, was one of the successes of
the Paris Salon of 1884. Dannat settled in Paris, became an officer of
the Legion of Honour, and is represented in the Luxembourg.
DANNECKER, JOHANN HEINRICH VON (1758-1841), German sculptor, was born at
Stuttgart, where his father was employed in the stables of the duke of
Württemberg, on the 15th of October 1758. The boy was entered in the
military school at the age of thirteen, but after two years he was
allowed to take his own taste for art. We find him at once associating
with the young sculptors Scheffauer and Le Jeune, the painters Guibal
and Harper, and also with Schiller, and the musician Zumsteeg. His busts
of some of these are good; that of Schiller is well known. In his
eighteenth year he carried off the prize at the Concours with his model
of Milo of Crotona. On this the duke made him sculptor to the palace
(1780), and for some time he was employed on child-angels and caryatides
for the decoration of the reception rooms. In 1783 he left for Paris
with Scheffauer, and placed himself under Pajou. His Mars, a sitting
figure sent home to Stuttgart, marks this period; and we next find him,
still travelling with his friend, at Rome in 1785, where he settled down
to work hard for five years. Goethe and Herder were then in Rome and
became his friends, as well as Canova, who was the hero of the day, and
who had undoubtedly a great authoritative influence on his style. His
marble statues of Ceres and Bacchus were done at this time. These are
now in the Residenz-schloss, at Stuttgart. On his return to Stuttgart,
which he never afterwards quitted except for short trips to Paris,
Vienna and Zürich, the double influence of his admiration for Canova and
his study of the antique is apparent in his works. The first was a girl
lamenting her dead bird, which pretty light motive was much admired.
Afterwards, Sappho, in marble for the Lustschloss, and two
offering-bearers for the Jagdschloss; Hector, now in the museum, not in
marble; the complaint of Ceres, from Schiller's poem; a statue of
Christ, worthy of mention for its nobility, which has been skilfully
engraved by Amsler; Psyche; kneeling water-nymph; Love, a favourite he
had to repeat. These stock subjects with sculptors had freshness of
treatment; and the Ariadne, done a little later, especially had a charm
of novelty which has made it a European favourite in a reduced size. It
was repeated for the banker Von Bethmann in Frankfort, and it now
appears the ornament of the Bethmann Museum. Many of the illustrious men
of the time were modelled by him. The original marble of Schiller is now
at Weimar; after the poet's death it was again modelled in colossal
size. Lavater, Metternich, Countess Stephanie of Baden, General
Benkendorf and others are much prized. Dannecker was director of the
Gallery of Stuttgart, and received many academic and other distinctions.
His death in 1841 was preceded by a period of mental failure.
DANNEWERK, or DANEWERK (Danish, _Dannevirke_ or _Danevirke_, "Danes'
rampart"), the ancient frontier rampart of the Danes against the
Germans, extending 10½ m. from just south of the town of Schleswig to
the marshes of the river Trene near the village of Hollingstedt. The
rampart was begun by Guðoðr (_Godefridus_), king of Vestfold, early in
the 9th century. In 934 it was passed by the German king Henry I., after
which it was extended by King Harold Bluetooth (940-986), but was again
stormed by the emperor Otto II. in 974. The chronicler Saxo Grammaticus
mentions in his _Gesta Danorum_ the "rampart of Jutland" (_Jutiae
moenia_) as having been once more extended by Valdemar the Great
(1157-1182), which has been cited among the proofs that Schleswig
(_Sønderjylland_) forms an integral part of Jutland (_Manuel hist. de la
question de Slesvig_, 1906). After the union of Schleswig and Holstein
under the Danish crown, the Danevirke fell into decay, but in 1848 it
was hastily strengthened by the Danes, who were, however, unable to hold
it in face of the superiority of the Prussian artillery, and on the 23rd
of April it was stormed. From 1850 onwards it was again repaired and
strengthened at great cost, and was considered impregnable; but in the
war of 1864 the Prussians turned it by crossing the Schlei, and it was
abandoned by the Danes on the 6th of February without a blow. It was
thereupon destroyed by the Prussians; in spite of which, however, a long
line of imposing ruins still remains. The systematic excavation of
these, begun in 1900, has yielded some notable finds, especially of
valuable runic inscriptions (F. de Jessen, _La Question de Slesvig_, pp.
25, 44-50, &c.).
See Lorenzen, _Dannevirke og Omegn_ (2nd ed., Copenhagen, 1864); H.
Handelmann, _Das Dannewerk_ (Kiel, 1885); Philippsen and Sünksen,
_Führer durch das Danewerk_ (Hamburg, 1903).
DANSVILLE, a village of Livingston county, New York, U.S.A., 49 m. S. of
Rochester, on the Canaseraga Creek. Pop. (1890) 3758; (1900) 3633, of
whom 417 were foreign-born; (1905) 3908; (1910) 3938. The village is
served by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and the Dansville & Mount
Morris railways. At Dansville is the Jackson Health Resort, a large
sanatorium, with which a nurses' training school is connected. There is
a public library. The village has large nurseries and vineyards, flour
and paper mills, a large printing establishment, a foundry, and a shoe
factory. Dansville, named in honour of Daniel P. Faulkner, was settled
about 1800, and was incorporated in 1845.
DANTE, Dante (or Durante) Alighieri (1265-1321), the greatest of Italian
poets, was born at Florence about the middle of May 1265. He was
descended from an ancient family, but from one which at any rate for
several generations had belonged to the burgher and not to the knightly
class. His biographers have attempted on very slight grounds to deduce
his origin from the Frangipani, one of the oldest senatorial families of
Rome. We can affirm with greater certainty that he was connected with
the Elisei who took part in the building of Florence under Charles the
Great. Dante himself does not, with the exception of a few obscure and
scattered allusions, carry his ancestry beyond the warrior Cacciaguida,
whom he met in the sphere of Mars (_Par._ xv. 87, foll.). Of
Cacciaguida's family nothing is known. The name, as he told Dante
(_Par._ xv. 139, 5), was given him at his baptism; it has a Teutonic
ring. The family may well have sprung from one of the barons who, as
Villani tells us, remained behind Otto I. It has been noted that the
phrase "Tonde venner quivi" (xvi. 44) seems to imply that they were not
Florentines. He further tells his descendant that he was born in the
year 1106 (or, if another reading of xvi, 37, 38 be adopted, in 1091),
and that he married an Aldighieri from the valley of the Po. Here the
German strain appears unmistakably; the name Aldighiero (Aldiger) being
purely Teutonic. He also mentions two brothers, Moronte and Eliseo, and
that he accompanied the emperor Conrad III. upon his crusade into the
Holy Land, where he died (1147) among the infidels. From Eliseo was
probably descended the branch of the Elisei; from Aldighiero, son of
Cacciaguida, the branch of the Alighieri. Bellincione, son of
Aldighiero, was the grandfather of Dante. His father was a second
Aldighiero, a lawyer of some reputation. By his first wife, Lapa di
Chiarissimo Cialuffii, this Aldighiero had a son Francesco; by his
second, Donna Bella, whose family name is not known, Dante and a
daughter. Thus the family of Dante held a most respectable position
among the citizens of his beloved city; but had it been reckoned in the
very first rank they could not have remained in Florence after the
defeat of the Guelphs at Montaperti in 1260. It is clear, however, that
Dante's mother at least did so remain, for Dante was born in Florence in
1265. The heads of the Guelph party did not return till 1267.
Dante was born under the sign of the twins, "the glorious stars pregnant
with virtue, to whom he owes his genius such as it is." Astrologers
considered this constellation as favourable to literature and science,
and Brunetto Latini, the philosopher and diplomatist, his instructor,
tells him in the _Inferno_ (xv. 25, foll.) that, if he follows its
guidance, he cannot fail to reach the harbour of fame. Boccaccio relates
that before his birth his mother dreamed that she lay under a very lofty
laurel, growing in a green meadow, by a very clear fountain, when she
felt the pangs of childbirth,--that her child, feeding on the berries
which fell from the laurel, and on the waters of the fountain, in a very
short time became a shepherd, and attempted to reach the leaves of the
laurel, the fruit of which had nurtured him,--that, trying to obtain
them he fell, and rose up, no longer a man, but in the guise of a
peacock. We know little of Dante's boyhood except that he was a hard
student and was profoundly influenced by Brunetto Latini. Boccaccio
tells us that he became very familiar with Virgil, Horace, Ovid and
Statius, and all other famous poets. From the age of eighteen he, like
most cultivated young men of that age, wrote poetry assiduously, in the
philosophical amatory style of which his friend, older by many years
than himself, Guido Cavalcanti, was a great exponent, and of which Dante
regarded Guido Guinicelli of Bologna as the master (_Purg._ xxvi. 97,
8). Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo, writing a hundred years or more after his
death, says that "by study of philosophy, of theology, astrology,
arithmetic and geometry, by reading of history, by the turning over many
curious books, watching and sweating in his studies, he acquired the
science which he was to adorn and explain in his verses." Of Brunetto
Latini Dante himself speaks with the most loving gratitude and
affection, though he does not hesitate to brand his vices with infamy.
Under such guidance Dante became master of all the science of his age at
a time when it was not impossible to know all that could be known. He
had some knowledge of drawing; at any rate he tells us that on the
anniversary of the death of Beatrice he drew an angel on a tablet. He
was an intimate friend of Giotto, who has immortalized his youthful
lineaments in the chapel of the Bargello, and who is recorded to have
drawn from his friend's inspiration the allegories of Virtue and Vice
which fringe the frescoes of the Scrovegni Chapel at Padua. Nor was he
less sensible to the delights of music. Milton had not a keener ear for
the loud uplifted angel trumpets and the immortal harps of golden wires
of the cherubim and seraphim; and the English poet was proud to compare
his own friendship with Henry Lawes with that between Dante and Casella,
"met in the milder shades of purgatory." Of his companions the most
intimate and sympathetic were the lawyer-poet Cino of Pistoia, Lapo
Gianni, Guido Cavalcanti and others, similarly gifted and dowered with
like tastes, who moved in the lively and acute society of Florence, and
felt with him the first warm flush of the new spirit which was soon to
pass over Europe. He has written no sweeter or more melodious lines than
those in which he expresses the wish that he, with Guido and Lapo, might
be wafted by enchantment over the sea wheresoever they might list,
shielded from tempest and foul weather, in such contentment that they
should wish to live always in one mind, and that the good enchanter
should bring Monna Vanna and Monna Bice and that other lady into their
barque, where they should for ever discourse of love and be for ever
happy. It is a wonderful thing (says Leonardo Bruni) that, though he
studied without intermission, it would not have appeared to anyone that
he studied, from his joyous mien and youthful conversation. Like Milton
he was trained in the strictest academical education which the age
afforded; but Dante lived under a warmer sun and brighter skies, and
found in the rich variety and gaiety of his early life a defence against
the withering misfortunes of his later years. Milton felt too early the
chill breath of Puritanism, and the serious musing on the experience of
life, which saddened the verse of both poets, deepened in his case
rather into grave and desponding melancholy, than into the fierce scorn
and invective which disillusion wrung from Dante.
Political life.
We must now consider the political circumstances in which lay the
activity of Dante's manhood. From 1115, the year of the death of Matilda
countess of Tuscany, to 1215, Florence enjoyed a nearly uninterrupted
peace. Attached to the Guelph party, it remained undivided against
itself. But in 1215 a private feud between the families of Buondelmonte
and Uberti introduced into the city the horrors of civil war. Villani
(lib. v. cap. 38) relates how Buondelmonte de' Buondelmonti, a noble
youth of Florence, being engaged to marry a lady of the house of Amidei,
allied himself instead to a Donati, and how Buondelmonte was attacked
and killed by the Amidei and Uberti at the foot of the Ponte Vecchio,
close by the pilaster which bears the image of Mars. "The death of
Messer Buondelmonte was the occasion and beginning of the accursed
parties of Guelphs and Ghibellines in Florence." Of the seventy-two
families then in Florence thirty-nine became Guelph under the leadership
of the Buondelmonte and the rest Ghibelline under the Uberti. The strife
of parties was for a while allayed by the war against Pisa in 1222, and
the constant struggles against Siena; but in 1248 Frederick II. sent
into the city his natural son Frederick "of Antioch," with 1600 German
knights. The Guelphs were driven away from the town, and took refuge,
part in Montevarchi, part in Capraia. The Ghibellines, masters of
Florence, behaved with great severity, and destroyed the towers and
palaces of the Guelph nobles. At last the people became impatient. They
rose in rebellion, reduced the powers of the podestà, elected a captain
of the people to manage the internal affairs of the city, with a council
of twelve, established a more democratic constitution, and, encouraged
by the death of Frederick II. in December 1250, recalled the exiled
Guelphs. Manfred, the bastard son of Frederick, pursued the policy of
his father. He stimulated the Ghibelline Uberti to rebel against their
position of subjection. A rising of the vanquished party was put down by
the people, in July 1258 the Ghibellines were expelled from the town,
and the towers of the Uberti razed to the ground. The exiles betook
themselves to the friendly city of Siena. Manfred sent them a
reinforcement of German horse, under his kinsman Count Giordano Lancia.
The Florentines, after vainly demanding their surrender, despatched an
army against them. On the 4th of September 1260 was fought the great
battle of Montaperti, which dyed the Arbia red, and in which the Guelphs
were entirely defeated. The hand which held the banner of the republic
was sundered by the sword of a traitor (_Inf._ xxxii. 106). For the
first time in the history of Florence the Carroccio was taken. Florence
lay at the mercy of her enemies. A parliament was held at Empoli, in
which the deputies of Siena, Pisa, Arezzo and other Tuscan towns
consulted on the best means of securing their new war power. They voted
that the accursed Guelph city should be blotted out. But Farinata degli
Uberti stood up in their midst, bold and defiant as when he stood erect
among the sepulchres of hell, and said that if, from the whole number of
the Florentines, he alone should remain, he would not suffer, whilst he
could wield a sword, that his country should be destroyed, and that, if
it were necessary to die a thousand times for her, a thousand times
would he be ready to encounter death. Help came to the Guelphs from an
unexpected quarter. Clement IV., elected pope in 1265, offered the crown
of Apulia and Sicily to Charles of Anjou. The French prince, passing
rapidly through Lombardy, Romagna and the Marches, reached Rome by way
of Spoleto, was crowned on the 6th of January 1266, and on the 23rd of
February defeated and killed Manfred at Benevento. In such a storm of
conflict did Dante first see the light. In 1267 the Guelphs were
recalled, but instead of settling down in peace with their opponents
they summoned Charles of Anjou to vengeance, and the Ghibellines were
driven out. The meteor passage of Conradin gave hope to the imperial
party, which was quenched when the head of the fair-haired boy fell on
the scaffold at Naples. Pope after pope tried in vain to make peace.
Gregory X. placed the rebellious city under an interdict; in 1278
Cardinal Latini by order of Nicholas III. effected a truce, which lasted
for four years. The city was to be governed by a committee of fourteen
_buonomini_, on which the Guelphs were to have a small majority. In 1282
the constitution of Florence received the final form which it retained
till the collapse of freedom. From the three arti _maggiori_ were chosen
six priors, in whose hands was placed the government of the republic.
Before the end of the century, seven greater arts were recognized,
including the _speziali_,--druggists and dealers in all manner of
oriental goods, and in books--among whom Dante afterwards enrolled
himself. They remained in office for two months, and during that time
lived and shared a common table in the public palace. We shall see what
influence this office had upon the fate of Dante. The success of the
"Sicilian Vespers" (March 1282), the death of Charles of Anjou (January
1285), and of Martin IV. in the following March, roused again the
courage of the Ghibellines. They entered Arezzo, where the Ghibellines
at present had the upper hand, and threatened to drive out the Guelphs
from Tuscany. Skirmishes and raids, of which Villani and Bruni have left
accounts, went on through the winter of 1288-1289, forming a prelude to
the great battle of Campaldino in the following summer. Then it was
that Dante saw "horsemen moving camp and commencing the assault, and
holding muster, and the march of foragers, the shock of tournaments, and
race of jousts, now with trumpets and now with bells, with drums and
castle signals, with native things and foreign" (_Inf._ xxii. 1, foll.).
On the 11th of June 1289, at Campaldino near Poppi, in the Casentino,
the Ghibellines were utterly defeated. They never again recovered their
hold on Florence, but the violence of faction survived under other
names. In a letter quoted, though not at first hand, by Leonardo Bruni,
which is not now extant, Dante is said to mention that he himself fought
with distinction at Campaldino. He was present shortly afterwards at the
battle of Caprona (_Inf._ xxi. 95, foll.), and returned in September
1289 to his studies and his love. His peace was of short duration. On
the 9th of June 1290 died Beatrice, whose mortal love had guided him for
thirteen years, and whose immortal spirit purified his later life, and
revealed to him the mysteries of Paradise.
Dante had first met Beatrice Portinari at the house of her father Folco
on May-day 1274. In his own words, "already nine times after my birth
the heaven of light had returned as it were to the same point, when
there appeared to my eyes the glorious lady of my mind, who was by many
called Beatrice who knew not what to call her. She had already been so
long in this life that already in its time the starry heaven had moved
towards the east the twelfth part of a degree, so that she appeared to
me about the beginning of her ninth year, and I saw her about the end of
my ninth year. Her dress on that day was of a most noble colour, a
subdued and goodly crimson, girdled and adorned in such sort as best
suited with her tender age. At that moment I saw most truly that the
spirit of life which hath its dwelling in the secretest chamber of the
heart began to tremble so violently that the least pulses of my body
shook therewith; and in trembling it said these words, 'Ecce deus
fortior me qui veniens dominabitur mihi.'" In the _Vita Nuova_ is
written the story of his passion from its commencement to within a year
after the lady's death (June 9th, 1290). He saw Beatrice only once or
twice, and she probably knew little of him. She married Simone de'
Bardi. But the worship of her lover was stronger for the remoteness of
its subject. The last chapter of the Vita Nuova relates how, after the
lapse of a year, "it was given me to behold a wonderful vision, wherein
I saw things which determined me to say nothing further of this blessed
one until such time as I could discourse more worthily concerning her.
And to this end I labour all I can, as she in truth knoweth. Therefore
if it be His pleasure through whom is the life of all things that my
life continue with me a few years, it is my hope that I shall yet write
concerning her what hath not before been written of any woman. After the
which may it seem good unto Him who is the master of grace that my
spirit should go hence to behold the glory of its lady, to wit, of that
blessed Beatrice who now gloriously gazes on the countenance of Him qui
est per omnia saecula benedictus." In the _Convito_ he resumes the story
of his life. "When I had lost the first delight of my soul (that is,
Beatrice) I remained so pierced with sadness that no comforts availed me
anything, yet after some time my mind, desirous of health, sought to
return to the method by which other disconsolate ones had found
consolation, and I set myself to read that little-known book of Boetius
in which he consoled himself when a prisoner and an exile. And hearing
that Tully had written another work, in which, treating of friendship,
he had given words of consolation to Laelius, I set myself to read that
also." He so far recovered from the shock of his loss that in 1292 he
married Gemma, daughter of Manetto Donati, a connexion of the celebrated
Corso Donati, afterwards Dante's bitter foe. It is possible that she is
the lady mentioned in the _Vita Nuova_ as sitting full of pity at her
window and comforting Dante for his sorrow. By this wife he had two sons
and two daughters, and although he never mentions her in the _Divina
Commedia_, and although she did not accompany him into exile, there is
no reason to suppose that she was other than a good wife, or that the
union was otherwise than happy. Certain it is that he spares the memory
of Corso in his great poem, and speaks kindly of his kinsmen Piccarda
and Forese.
In 1293 Giano della Bella, a man of old family who had thrown in his lot
with the people, induced the commonwealth to adopt the so-called
"Ordinances of Justice," a severely democratic constitution, by which
among other things it was enacted that no man of noble family, even
though engaged in trade, could hold office as prior. Two years later
Giano was banished, but the ordinances remained in force, though the
_grandi_ recovered much of their power.
Dante now began to take an active part in politics. He was inscribed in
the _arte_ of the _Medici_ and _Speziali_, which made him eligible as
one of the six _priori_ to whom the government of the city was entrusted
in 1282. Documents still existing in the archives of Florence show that
he took part in the deliberations of the several councils of the city in
1295, 1296, 1300 and 1301. The notice in the last year is of some
importance. The pope had demanded a contingent of 100 Florentine knights
to serve against his enemies, the Colonna family. On the 19th of June we
read in the contemporary report of the debate on this question in the
Council of a Hundred: "_Dantes Alagherius consuluit quod de servitio
faciendo Domino Papae nihil fieret_." Other instances of his invariable
opposition to Boniface occur. Filelfo says that he served on fourteen
embassies, a statement not only unsupported by evidence, but impossible
in itself. Filelfo does not mention the only embassy in which we know
for certain that Dante was engaged, that to the town of San Gemignano in
May 1300. From the 15th of June to the 15th of August 1300 he held the
office of prior, which was the source of all the miseries of his life.
The spirit of faction had again broken out in Florence. The two rival
families were the Cerchi and the Donati,--the first of great wealth but
recent origin, the last of ancient ancestry but poor. A quarrel had
arisen in Pistoia between the two branches of the Cancellieri,--the
Bianchi and Neri, the Whites and the Blacks. The quarrel spread to
Florence, the Donati took the side of the Blacks, the Cerchi of the
Whites. Pope Boniface was asked to mediate, and sent Cardinal Matteo
d'Acquasparta to maintain peace. He arrived just as Dante entered upon
his office as prior. The cardinal effected nothing, but Dante and his
colleagues banished the heads of the rival parties in different
directions to a distance from the capital. The Blacks were sent to Città
della Pieve in the Tuscan mountains; the Whites, among whom was Dante's
dearest friend Guido Cavalcanti, to Serrezzano in the unhealthy Maremma.
After the expiration of Dante's office both parties returned, Guido
Cavalcanti so ill with fever that he shortly afterwards died. At a
meeting held in the church of the Holy Trinity the Whites were denounced
as Ghibellines, enemies of the pope. The Blacks sought for vengeance.
Their leader, Corso Donati, hastened to Rome, and persuaded Boniface
VIII. to send for Charles of Valois, brother of the French king, Philip
the Fair, to act as "peacemaker." The priors sent at the end of
September four ambassadors to the pope, one of whom, according to the
chronicler Dino, was Dante. There are, however, improbabilities in the
story, and the passage quoted in support of it bears marks of later
interpolation. He never again saw the towers of his native city. Charles
of Valois, after visiting the pope at Anagni, retraced his steps to
Florence, entering the city on All Saints' Day and taking up his abode
in the Oltr' Arno. Corso Donati, who had been banished a second time,
returned in force and summoned the Blacks to arms. The prisons were
broken open, the podestà driven from the town, the Cerchi confined
within their houses, a third of the city was destroyed with fire and
sword. By the help of Charles the Blacks were victorious. They appointed
Cante de' Gabrielli of Gubbio as podestà, a man devoted to their
interests. More than 600 Whites were condemned to exile and cast as
beggars upon the world. On the 27th of January 1302, Dante, with four
others of the White party, was charged before the podestà, Cante de'
Gabrielli, with _baratteria_, or corrupt jobbery and peculation when in
office, and, not appearing, condemned to pay a fine of 5000 lire of
small florins. If the money was not paid within three days their
property was to be destroyed and laid waste; if they did pay the fine
they were to be exiled for two years from Tuscany; in any case they were
never again to hold office in the republic. The charge in Dante's case
was obviously preposterous, though ingeniously devised; for he was known
to be at the time in somewhat straitened circumstances, and had recently
been in control of certain public works. But of all sins, that of
"barratry" was one of the most hateful to him. No doubt the papal finger
may be traced in the affair. On the 10th of March Dante and fourteen
others were condemned to be burned alive if they should come into the
power of the republic. Similar sentences were passed in September 1311
and October 1315. The sentence was not formally reversed till 1494,
under the government of the Medici.
Leonardo Bruni, who accepts the story of the embassy to Rome, states
that Dante received the news of his banishment in that city, and at once
joined the other exiles at Siena. How he escaped arrest in the papal
states is not explained. The exiles met first at Gargonza, a castle
between Siena and Arezzo, and then at Arezzo itself. They joined
themselves to the Ghibellines, to which party the podestà Uguccione
della Faggiuola belonged. The Ghibellines, however, were divided amongst
themselves, and the more strict Ghibellines were not disposed to favour
the cause of the White Guelphs. On the 8th of June 1302, however, a
meeting was held at San Godenzo, a place in the Florentine territory,
Dante's presence at which is proved by documentary evidence, and an
alliance was there made with the powerful Ghibelline clan of the
Ubaldini. The exiles remained at Arezzo till the summer of 1304. In
September 1303 the fleur-de-lis had entered Anagni, and Christ had a
second time been made prisoner in the person of his vicar. At the
instigation of Philip the Fair, William of Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna
had entered the papal palace at Anagni, and had insulted and, it is
said, even beaten the aged pontiff under his own roof. Boniface did not
survive the insult long, but died in the following month. He was
succeeded by Benedict XI., and in March the cardinal da Prato came to
Florence, sent by the new pope to make peace. The people received him
with enthusiasm; ambassadors came to him from the Whites; and he did his
best to reconcile the two parties. But the Blacks resisted all his
efforts. He shook the dust from off his feet, and departed, leaving the
city under an interdict. Foiled by the calumnies and machinations of the
one party, the cardinal gave his countenance to the other. It happened
that Corso Donati and the heads of the Black party were absent at
Pistoia. Da Prato advised the Whites to attack Florence, deprived of its
heads and impaired by a recent fire. An army was collected of 16,000
foot and 9000 horse. Communications were opened with the Ghibellines of
Bologna and Romagna, and a futile attempt was made to enter Florence
from Lastra, the failure of which further disorganized the party. Dante
had, however, already separated from the "ill-conditioned and foolish
company" of common party-politicians, who rejected his counsels of
wisdom, and had learnt that he must henceforth form a party by himself.
In 1303 he had left Arezzo and gone to Forli in Romagna, of which city
Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi was lord. To him, according to Flavius Blondus
the historian (d. before 1484), a native of the place, Dante acted for a
time as secretary.
Dante's Ghibellinism.
From Forli Dante probably went to Bartolommeo della Scala, lord of
Verona, where the country of the great Lombard gave him his first refuge
and his first hospitable reception. Can Grande, to whom he afterwards
dedicated the _Paradiso_, was then a boy. Bartolommeo died in 1304, and
it is possible that Dante may have remained in Verona till his death. We
must consider, if we would understand the real nature of Dante's
Ghibellinism, that he had been born and bred a Guelph; but he saw that
the conditions of the time were altered, and that other dangers menaced
the welfare of his country. There was no fear now that Florence, Siena,
Pisa, Arezzo should be razed to the ground in order that the castle of
the lord might overlook the humble cottages of his contented subjects;
but there was danger lest Italy should be torn in sunder by its own
jealousies and passions, and lest the fair domain bounded by the sea and
the Alps should never properly assert the force of its individuality,
and should present a contemptible contrast to a united France and a
confederated Germany. Sick with petty quarrels and dissensions, Dante
strained his eyes towards the hills for the appearance of a universal
monarch, raised above the jars of faction and the spur of ambition,
under whom each country, each city, each man, might, under the
institutions best suited to it, lead the life and do the work for which
it was best fitted. United in spiritual harmony with the vicar of
Christ, he should show for the first time to the world an example of a
government where the strongest force and the highest wisdom were
interpenetrated by all that God had given to the world of piety and
justice. In this sense and in no other was Dante a Ghibelline. The
vision was never realized--the hope was never fulfilled. Not till 500
years later did Italy become united and the "greyhound of deliverance"
chase from city to city the wolf of cupidity. But is it possible to say
that the dream did not work its own realization, or to deny that the
high ideal of the poet, after inspiring a few minds as lofty as his own,
has become embodied in the constitution of a state which acknowledges no
stronger bond of union than a common worship of the exile's indignant
and impassioned verse?
Wanderings.
It is very difficult to determine with exactness the order and the place
of Dante's wanderings. Many cities and castles in Italy have claimed the
honour of giving him shelter, or of being for a time the home of his
inspired muse. He certainly spent some time with Count Guido Salvatico
in the Casentino near the sources of the Arno, probably in the castle of
Porciano, and with Uguccione in the castle of Faggiuola in the mountains
of Urbino. After this he is said to have visited the university of
Bologna; and in August 1306 we find him at Padua. Cardinal Napoleon
Orsini, the legate of the French pope Clement V., had put Bologna under
a ban, dissolved the university and driven the professors to the
northern city. In May or June 1307 the same cardinal collected the
Whites at Arezzo and tried to induce the Florentines to recall them. The
name of Dante is found attached to a document signed by the Whites in
the church of St Gaudenzio in the Mugello. This enterprise came to
nothing. Dante retired to the castle of Moroello Malespina in the
Lunigiana, where the marble ridges of the mountains of Carrara descend
in precipitous slopes to the Gulf of Spezzia. From this time till the
arrival of the emperor Henry VII. in Italy, October 1310, all is
uncertain. His old enemy Corso Donati had at last allied himself with
Uguccione della Faggiuola, the leader of the Ghibellines. Dante thought
it possible that this might lead to his return. But in 1308 Corso was
declared a traitor, attacked in his house, put to flight and killed.
Dante lost his last hope. He left Tuscany, and went to Can Grande della
Scala at Verona. From this place it is thought that he visited the
university of Paris (1309), studied in the rue du Fouarre and went on
into the Low Countries. That he ever crossed the Channel or went to
Oxford, or himself saw where the heart of Henry, son of Richard, earl of
Cornwall, murdered by his cousin Guy of Montfort in 1271, was "still
venerated on the Thames," may safely be disbelieved. The only evidence
for it is in the _Commentary_ of John of Serravalle, bishop of Fermo,
who lived a century later, had no special opportunity of knowing, and
was writing for the benefit of two English bishops. The election in 1308
of Henry of Luxemburg as emperor stirred again his hopes of a deliverer.
At the end of 1310, in a letter to the princes and people of Italy, he
proclaimed the coming of the saviour; at Milan he did personal homage to
his sovereign. The Florentines made every preparation to resist the
emperor. Dante wrote from the Casentino a letter dated the 31st of March
1311, in which he rebuked them for their stubbornness and obstinacy.
Henry still lingered in Lombardy at the siege of Cremona, when Dante, on
the 16th of April 1311, in a celebrated epistle, upbraided his delay,
argued that the crown of Italy was to be won on the Arno rather than on
the Po, and urged the tarrying emperor to hew the rebellious Florentines
like Agag in pieces before the Lord. Henry was as deaf to this
exhortation as the Florentines themselves. After reducing Lombardy he
passed from Genoa to Pisa, and on the 29th of June 1312 was crowned by
some cardinals in the church of St John Lateran at Rome; the Vatican
being in the hands of his adversary King Robert of Naples. Then at
length he moved towards Tuscany by way of Umbria. Leaving Cortona and
Arezzo, he reached Florence on the 19th of September. He did not dare to
attack it, but returned in November to Pisa. In the summer of the
following year he prepared to invade the kingdom of Naples; but in the
neighbourhood of Siena he caught a fever and died at the monastery of
Buonconvento, on the 24th of August 1313. He lies in the Campo Santo of
Pisa; and the hopes of Dante and his party were buried in his grave.
Old age and death.
After the death of the emperor Henry (Bruni tells us) Dante passed the
rest of his life as an exile, sojourning in various places throughout
Lombardy, Tuscany and the Romagna, under the protection of various
lords, until at length he retired to Ravenna, where he ended his life.
Very little can be added to this meagre story. There is reason for
supposing that he stayed at Gubbio with Bosone dei Rafaelli, and
tradition assigns him a cell in the monastery of Sta Croce di Fonte
Avellana in the same district, situated on the slopes of Catria, one of
the highest peaks of the Apennines in that region. After the death of
the French pope, Clement V., he addressed a letter, dated the 14th of
July 1314, to the cardinals in conclave, urging them to elect an Italian
pope. About this time he came to Lucca, then lately conquered by his
friend Uguccione. Here he completed the last cantos of the _Purgatory_,
which he dedicated to Uguccione, and here he must have become acquainted
with Gentucca, whose name had been whispered to him by her countryman on
the slopes of the Mountain of Purification (_Purg._ xxiv. 37). That the
intimacy between the "world-worn" poet and the young married lady (who
is thought to be identifiable with Gentucca Morla, wife of one
Cosciorino Fondora) was other than blameless, is quite incredible. In
August 1315 was fought the battle of Monte Catini, a day of humiliation
and mourning for the Guelphs. Uguccione made but little use of his
victory; and the Florentines marked their vengeance on his adviser by
condemning Dante yet once again to death if he ever should come into
their power. In the beginning of the following year Uguccione lost both
his cities of Pisa and Lucca. At this time Dante was offered an
opportunity of returning to Florence. The conditions given to the exiles
were that they should pay a fine and walk in the dress of humiliation to
the church of St John, and there do penance for their offences. Dante
refused to tolerate this shame; and the letter is still extant in which
he declines to enter Florence except with honour, secure that the means
of life will not fail him, and that in any corner of the world he will
be able to gaze at the sun and the stars, and meditate on the sweetest
truths of philosophy. He preferred to take refuge with his most
illustrious protector Can Grande della Scala of Verona, then a young man
of twenty-five, rich, liberal and the favoured head of the Ghibelline
party. His name has been immortalized by an eloquent panegyric in the
seventeenth canto of the _Paradiso_. Whilst on a visit at the court of
Verona he maintained, on the 20th of January 1320, the philosophical
thesis _De aqua et terra_, on the levels of land and water, which is
included in his minor works. The last three years of his life were spent
at Ravenna, under the protection of Guido da Polenta. In his service
Dante undertook an embassy to the Venetians. He failed in the object of
his mission, and, returning disheartened and broken in spirit through
the unhealthy lagoons, caught a fever and died in Ravenna on the 14th of
September 1321. His bones still repose there. His doom of exile has been
reversed by the union of Italy, which has made the city of his birth and
the various cities of his wanderings component members of a common
country. His son Piero, who wrote a commentary on the _Divina Commedia_,
settled as a lawyer in Verona, and died in 1364. His daughter Beatrice
lived as a nun in Ravenna, dying at some time between 1350 (when
Boccaccio brought her a present of ten gold crowns from a Florentine
gild) and 1370. His direct line became extinct in 1509.
Divina Commedia.
_Dante's Works._--Of Dante's works, that by which he is known to all the
educated world, and in virtue of which he holds his place as one of the
half-dozen greatest writers of all time, is of course the _Commedia_.
(The epithet _divina_, it may be noted, was not given to the poem by its
author, nor does it appear on a title-page until 1555, in the edition
of Ludovico Dolce, printed by Giolito; though it is applied to the poet
himself as early as 1512.) The poem is absolutely unique in literature;
it may safely be said that at no other epoch of the world's history
could such a work have been produced. Dante was steeped in all the
learning, which in its way was considerable, of his time; he had read
the _Summa Theologica_ of Aquinas, the _Trésor_ of his master Brunetto,
and other encyclopaedic works available in that age; he was familiar
with all that was then known of the Latin classical and post-classical
authors. Further, he was a deep and original political thinker, who had
himself borne a prominent part in practical politics. He was born into a
generation in which almost every man of education habitually wrote
verse, as indeed their predecessors had been doing for the last fifty
years. Vernacular poetry had come late into Italy, and had hitherto,
save for a few didactic or devotional treatises hitched into rough
rhyme, been exclusively lyric in form. Amatory at first, later, chiefly
in the hands of Guittone of Arezzo and Guido Cavalcanti, taking an
ethical and metaphysical tone, it had never fully shaken off the
Provençal influence under which it had started, and of which Dante
himself shows considerable traces.
The age also was unique, though the two great events which made the 15th
century a turning-point in the world's history--the invention of
printing and the discovery of the new world (to which might perhaps be
added the intrusion of Islam into Europe)--were still far in the future.
But the age was essentially one of great men; of free thought and free
speech; of brilliant and daring action, whether for good or evil. It is
easy to understand how Dante's bitterest scorn is reserved for those
"sorry souls who lived without infamy and without renown, displeasing to
God and to His enemies."
The time was thus propitious for the production of a great imaginative
work, and the man was ready who should produce it. It called for a
prophet, and the prophet said, "Here am I." "Dante," says an acute
writer, "is not, as Homer is, the father of poetry springing in the
freshness and simplicity of childhood out of the arms of mother earth;
he is rather, like Noah, the father of a second poetical world, to whom
he pours forth his prophetic song fraught with the wisdom and the
experience of the old world." Thus the _Commedia_, though often classed
for want of a better description among epic poems, is totally different
in method and construction from all other poems of that kind. Its "hero"
is the narrator himself; the incidents do not modify the course of the
story; the place of episodes is taken by theological or metaphysical
disquisitions; the world through which the poet takes his readers is
peopled, not with characters of heroic story, but with men and women
known personally or by repute to him and those for whom he wrote. Its
aim is not to delight, but to reprove, to rebuke, to exhort; to form
men's characters by teaching them what courses of life will meet with
reward, what with penalty, hereafter; "to put into verse," as the poet
says, "things difficult to think." For such new matter a new vehicle was
needed. We have Bembo's authority for believing that the _terza rima_,
surpassed, if at all, only by the ancient hexameter, as a measure
equally adaptable to sustained narrative, to debate, to fierce
invective, to clear-cut picture and to trenchant epigram, was first
employed by Dante.
The action of the _Commedia_ opens in the early morning of the Thursday
before Easter, in the year 1300. The poet finds himself lost in a
forest, escaping from which he has his way barred by a wolf, a lion and
a leopard. All this, like the rest of the poem, is highly symbolical.
This branch of the subject is too vast to be entered on at any length
here; but so far as this passage is concerned it may be said that it
seems to indicate that at this period of his life, about the age of
thirty-five, Dante went through some experience akin to what is now
called "conversion." Having led up till then the ordinary life of a
cultivated Florentine of good family; taking his part in public affairs,
military and civil, as an hereditary member of the predominant Guelph
party; dallying in prose which with all its beauty and passion is full
of the conceits familiar to the 13th century, and in verse which save
for the excellence of its execution differs in no way from that of his
predecessors, with the memory of his lost love; studying more
seriously, perhaps, than most of his associates; possibly travelling a
little,--gradually or suddenly he became convinced that all was not well
with him, and that not by leading, however blamelessly, the "active"
life could he save his soul. The strong vein of mysticism, found in so
many of the deepest thinkers of that age, and conspicuous in Dante's
mind, no doubt played its part. His efforts to free himself from the
"forest" of worldly cares were impeded by the temptations of the
world--cupidity (including ambition), the pride of life and the lusts of
the flesh, symbolized by the three beasts. But a helper is at hand.
Virgil appears and explains that he has a commission from three ladies
on high to guide him. The ladies are the Blessed Virgin, St Lucy (whom
for some reason never yet explained Dante seems to have regarded as in a
special sense his protector) and Beatrice. In Virgil we are apparently
intended to see the symbol of what Dante calls philosophy, what we
should rather call natural religion; Beatrice standing for theology, or
rather revealed religion. Under Virgil's escort Dante is led through the
two lower realms of the next world, Hell and Purgatory; meeting on the
way with many persons illustrious or notorious in recent or remoter
times, as well as many well enough known then in Tuscany and the
neighbouring states; but who, without the immortality, often unenviable,
that the poet has conferred on them, would long ago have been forgotten.
Popes, kings, emperors, poets and warriors, Florentine citizens of all
degrees, are there found; some doomed to hopeless punishment, others
expiating their offences in milder torments, and looking forward to
deliverance in due time. It is remarkable to notice how rarely, if ever,
Dante allows political sympathy or antagonism to influence him in his
distribution of judgment. Hell is conceived as a vast conical hollow,
reaching to the centre of the earth. It has three great divisions,
corresponding to Aristotle's three classes of vices, incontinence,
brutishness and malice. The first are outside the walls of the city of
Dis; the second, among whom are included unbelievers, tyrants, suicides,
unnatural offenders, usurers, are within; the first apparently on the
same level as those without, the rest separated from them by a steep
descent of broken rocks. (It should be said that many Dante scholars
hold that Aristotle's "brutishness" has no place in Dante's scheme; but
the symmetry of the arrangement, the special reference made to that
division, and certain expressions used elsewhere by Dante, seem to make
it probable that he would here, as in most other cases, have followed
his master in philosophy.) The sinners by malice, which includes all
forms of fraud or treachery, are divided from the last by a yet more
formidable barrier. They lie at the bottom of a pit, the depth of which
is not stated, with vertical sides, and accessible only by supernatural
means; a monster named Geryon bearing the poets down on his back. The
torments here are of a more terrible, often of a loathsome character.
Ignominy is added to pain, and the nature of Dante's demeanour towards
the sinners changes from pity to hatred. At the very bottom of the pit
is Lucifer, immovably fixed in ice; climbing down his limbs they reach
the centre of the earth, whence a cranny conducts them back to the
surface, at the foot of the purgatorial mountain, which they reach as
Easter Day is dawning. Before the actual Purgatory is attained they have
to climb for the latter half of the day and rest at night. The occupants
of this outer region are those who have delayed repentance till death
was upon them. They include many of the most famous men of the last
thirty years. In the morning the gate is opened, and Purgatory proper is
entered. This is divided into seven terraces, corresponding to the seven
deadly sins, which encircle the mountain and have to be reached by a
series of steep climbs, compared by Dante in one instance to the path
from Florence to Samminiato. The penalties are not degrading, but rather
tests of patience or endurance; and in several cases Dante has to bear a
share in them as he passes. On the summit is the Earthly Paradise. Here
Beatrice appears, in a mystical pageant; Virgil departs, leaving Dante
in her charge. By her he is led through the various spheres of which,
according to both the astronomy and the theology of the time, Heaven is
composed, to the supreme Heaven, or Empyrean, the seat of the Godhead.
For one moment there is granted him the intuitive vision of the Deity,
and the comprehension of all mysteries, which is the ultimate goal of
mystical theology; his will is wholly blended with that of God, and the
poem ends.
Convito.
The _Convito_, or _Banquet_, also called _Convivio_ (Bembo uses the
first form, Trissino the other), is the work of Dante's manhood, as the
_Vita Nuova_ is the work of his youth. It consists, in the form in which
it has come down to us, of an introduction and three treatises, each
forming an elaborate commentary in a long canzone. It was intended, if
completed, to have comprised commentaries on eleven more canzoni, making
fourteen in all, and in this shape would have formed a _tesoro_ or
handbook of universal knowledge, such as Brunetto Latini and others have
left to us. It is perhaps the least well known of Dante's Italian works,
but crabbed and unattractive as it is in many parts, it is well worth
reading, and contains many passages of great beauty and elevation.
Indeed a knowledge of it is quite indispensable to the full
understanding of the _Divina Commedia_ and the _De Monarchia_. The time
of its composition is uncertain. As it stands it has very much the look
of being the contents of note-books partially arranged. Dante mentions
princes as living who died in 1309; he does not mention Henry VII. as
emperor, who succeeded in 1310. There are some passages which seem to
have been inserted at a later date. The canzoni upon which the
commentary is written were probably composed between 1292 and 1300, when
he was seeking in philosophy consolation for the loss of Beatrice. The
_Convito_ was first printed in Florence by Buonaccorsi in 1490. It has
never been adequately edited.
Vita Nuova.
The _Vita Nuova_ (_Young Life_ or _New Life_, for both significations
seem to be intended) contains the history of his love for Beatrice. He
describes how he met Beatrice as a child, himself a child, how he often
sought her glance, how she once greeted him in the street, how he
feigned a false love to hide his true love, how he fell ill and saw in a
dream the death and transfiguration of his beloved, how she died, and
how his health failed from sorrow, how the tender compassion of another
lady nearly won his heart from its first affection, how Beatrice
appeared to him in a vision and reclaimed his heart, and how at last he
saw a vision which induced him to devote himself to study that he might
be more fit to glorify her who gazes on the face of God for ever. This
simple story is interspersed with sonnets, ballads and canzoni, arranged
with a remarkable symmetry, to which Professor Charles Eliot Norton was
the first to draw attention, chiefly written at the time to emphasize
some mood of his changing passion. After each of these, in nearly every
case, follows an explanation in prose, which is intended to make the
thought and argument intelligible to those to whom the language of
poetry was not familiar. The whole has a somewhat artificial air, in
spite of its undoubted beauty; showing that Dante was still under the
influence of the _Dugentisti_, many of whose conceits he reproduces. The
book was probably completed by 1300. It was first printed by Sermartelli
in Florence, 1576.
Canzoniere.
Besides the smaller poems contained in the _Vita Nuova_ and _Convito_
there are a considerable number of canzoni, ballate and sonnetti bearing
the poet's name. Of these many undoubtedly are genuine, others as
undoubtedly spurious. Some which have been preserved under the name of
Dante belong to Dante de Maiano, a poet of a harsher style; others which
bear the name of Aldighiero are referable to Dante's sons Jacopo or
Pietro, or to his grandsons; others may be ascribed to Dante's
contemporaries and predecessors Cino da Pistoia and others. Those which
are genuine secure Dante a place among lyrical poets scarcely if at all
inferior to that of Petrarch. Most of these were printed in _Sonetti e
canzoni_ (Giunta, 1527). The best edition of the _Canzoniere_ of Dante
is that by Fraticelli published by Barbéra at Florence. His collection
includes seventy-eight genuine poems, eight doubtful and fifty-four
spurious. To these are added an Italian paraphrase of the seven
penitential psalms in _terza rima_, and a similar paraphrase of the
Credo, the seven sacraments, the ten commandments, the Lord's Prayer and
the Ave Maria.
De monarchia.
The Latin treatise _De monarchia_, in three books, contains the mature
statement of Dante's political ideas. In it he propounds the theory that
the supremacy of the emperor is derived from the supremacy of the Roman
people over the world, which was given to them direct from God. As the
emperor is intended to assure their earthly happiness, so does their
spiritual welfare depend upon the pope, to whom the emperor is to do
honour as to the first-born of the Father. The date of its publication
is almost universally admitted to be the time of the descent of Henry
VII. into Italy, between 1310 and 1313, although its composition may
have been in hand from a much earlier period. The book was first printed
by Oporinus at Basel in 1559, and placed on the Index of forbidden
books.
De vulgari eloquentia.
The treatise _De vulgari eloquentia_, in two books, also in Latin, is
mentioned in the _Convito_. Its object was first to establish the
Italian language as a literary tongue, and to distinguish the noble or
"courtly" speech which might become the property of the whole nation, at
once a bond of internal unity and a line of demarcation against external
nations, from the local dialects peculiar to different districts; and
secondly, to lay down rules for poetical composition in the language so
established. The work was intended to be in four books, but only two are
extant. The first of these deals with the language, the second with the
style and with the composition of the canzone. The third was probably
intended to continue this subject, and the fourth was destined to the
laws of the ballata and sonetto. It contains much acute criticism of
poetry and poetic diction. This work was first published in the Italian
translation of Trissino at Vicenza in 1529. The original Latin was not
published till 1577 at Paris by Jacopo Corbinelli, one of the Italians
who were brought from Florence by Catherine de' Medici, from a MS. now
preserved at Grenoble. The work was probably left unfinished in
consequence of Dante's death.
Eclogues.
Boccaccio mentions in his life of Dante that he wrote two eclogues in
Latin in answer to Johannes de Virgilio, who invited him to come from
Ravenna to Bologna and compose a great work in the Latin language. The
most interesting passage in the work is that in the first poem, where he
expresses his hope that when he has finished the three parts of his
great poem his grey hairs may be crowned with laurel on the banks of the
Arno. Although the Latin of these poems is superior to that of his prose
works, we may feel thankful that Dante composed the great work of his
life in his own vernacular. The versification, however, is good, and
there are pleasant touches of gentle humour. The _Eclogues_ have been
edited by Messrs Wicksteed and Gardiner (_Dante and Giovanni del
Virgilio_, London, 1902).
De aqua et terra.
A treatise _De aqua et terra_ has come down to us, which Dante tells us
was delivered at Mantua in January 1320 (perhaps 1321) as a solution of
the question which was being at that time much discussed--whether in any
place on the earth's surface water is higher than the earth. It was
first published at Venice in 1508, by an ecclesiastic named Moncetti,
from a MS. which he alleged to be in his possession, but which no one
seems to have seen. Its genuineness is accordingly very doubtful; but Dr
Moore has from internal evidence made out a very strong case for it.
Letters.
The _Letters_ of Dante are among the most important materials for his
biography. Giovanni Villani mentions three as specially remarkable--one
to the government of Florence, in which he complains of undeserved
exile; another to the emperor Henry VII., when he lingered too long at
the siege of Brescia; and a third to the Italian cardinals to urge them
to the election of an Italian pope after the death of Clement V. The
first of these letters has not come down to us, the two last are extant.
Besides these we have one addressed to the cardinal da Prato, one to a
Florentine friend refusing the base conditions of return from exile, one
to the princes and lords of Italy to prepare them for the coming of
Henry of Luxembourg, another to the Florentines reproaching them with
the rejection of the emperor, and a long letter to Can Grande della
Scala, containing directions for interpreting the _Divina Commedia_,
with especial reference to the _Paradiso_. Of less importance are the
letters to the nephews of Count Alessandro da Romena, to the marquis
Moroello Malespina, to Cino da Pistoia and to Guido da Polenta. The
genuineness of all the letters has at one time or another been impugned;
but the more important are now generally accepted. They have been
translated by Mr C. S. Latham, ed. by Mr G. R. Carpenter (Cambridge,
Massachusetts and London, 1891).
Dante's reputation has passed through many vicissitudes, and much
trouble has been spent by critics in comparing him with other poets of
established fame. Read and commented upon with more admiration than
intelligence in the Italian universities in the generation immediately
succeeding his death, his name became obscured as the sun of the
Renaissance rose higher towards its meridian. In the 16th century he was
held inferior to Petrarch; in the 17th and first half of the 18th he was
almost universally neglected. His fame is now fully vindicated.
Translations and commentaries issue from every press in Europe and
America, and many studies for separate points are appearing every year.
AUTHORITIES.--It would be impossible here to give anything like a
complete account even of the editions of Dante's works; still more of
the books which have been written to elucidate the _Commedia_ as a
whole, or particular points in it. The section "Dante" in the British
Museum catalogue down to 1887 occupies twenty-nine folio pages; the
supplement, to 1900, as many more. The catalogue of the Fiske
collection, in Cornell University library, is in two quarto volumes
and covers 606 pages. A few of the more important editions and of the
more valuable commentaries and aids may, however, be recorded.
_Editions._--The _Commedia_ was first printed by John Numeister at
Foligno, in April 1472. Two other editions followed in the same year:
one at Jesi (_Federicus Veronensis_), and Mantua (_Georgius et Paulus
Teutonici_). These, together with a Naples edition of about 1477
(Francesco del Tuppo), were included by Lord Vernon in _Le Prime
Quattro Edizioni_ (1858). Another Neapolitan edition, without
printer's name, is dated 1477, and in the same year Wendelin of Spires
published the first Venetian edition. Milan followed in 1478 with that
known from the name of its editor as the _Nidobeatine_. In 1481
appeared the first Florentine edition (_Nicolo and Lorenzo della
Magna_) with the commentary of Cristoforo Landino, and a series of
copper engravings ascribed to Baccio Baldini, varying in number in
different copies from two to twenty; a sumptuous and very carelessly
printed volume. Venice supplied most of the editions for many years to
come. Altogether twelve existed by the end of the century. In 1502
Aldus produced the first "pocket" edition in his new "italic" type,
probably cut from the handwriting of his friend Bembo. A second
edition of this is dated 1515. The firm of Giunta at Florence printed
the poem in a small volume with cuts, in 1506; and for the rest of the
16th century edition follows edition, to the number of about thirty in
all. The most noteworthy commentaries are those of Alessandro
Vellutello (Venice, 1544), and Bernardo Daniello (Venice, 1568), both
of Lucca. The Cruscan Academicians edited the text in 1595. The first
edition with woodcuts is that of Boninus de Boninis (Brescia, 1487).
Bernardino Benali followed at Venice in 1491, and from that time
onward few if any of the folio editions are without them. The 17th
century produced three (or perhaps four) small, shabby and inaccurate
editions. In 1716 a revival of interest in Dante had set in, and
before 1800 some score of editions had appeared, the best-known being
those of G. A. Volpi (Padua, 1727), Pompeo Venturi (Venice, 1739) and
Baldassare Lombardi (Rome, 1791).
_Commentaries._--The _Commedia_ began to be the subject of
commentaries as soon as, if not before, the author was in his grave.
One known as the _Anonimo_ until in 1881 Dr Moore identified its
writer as Graziole de' Bambaglioli, was in course of writing in 1324.
It was published by Lord Vernon, to whose munificence we owe the
accessibility of most of the earlier commentaries, in 1848. That of
Jacopo della Lana is thought to have been composed before 1340. It was
printed in the Venice and Milan editions of 1477, and 1478
respectively. The so-called _Ottimo Comento_ (Pisa, 1837) is of about
the same date. It embodies parts of Lana's, but is largely an
independent work. Witte ascribes it to Andrea della Lancia, a
Florentine notary. Dante's sons Pietro and Jacopo also commented on
their father's poem. Their works were published, again at Lord
Vernon's expense, in 1845 and 1848. Boccaccio's lectures on the
_Commedia_, cut short at _Inf._ xvii. 17 by his death in 1375, are
accessible in various forms. His work was achieved by his disciple
Benvenuto Rambaldi of Imola (d. c. 1390). Benvenuto's commentary,
written in Latin, genial in temper, and often acute, was popular from
the first. Extracts from it were used as notes in many MSS. Much of it
was printed by Muratori in his _Antiquitates Italicae_; but the entire
work was first published in 1887 by Mr William Warren Vernon, with the
aid of Sir James Lacaita. No greater boon has ever been offered to
students of Dante. Another early annotator who must not be overlooked
is Francesco da Buti of Pisa, who lectured in that city towards the
close of the same century. His commentary, which served as the basis
of Landino's already mentioned, was first printed in Pisa in 1858. One
more commentary deserves mention. During the council of Constance,
John of Serravalle, bishop of Fermo, fell in with the English bishops
Robert Hallam and Nicholas Bubwith, and at their request compiled a
voluminous exposition of the _Commedia_. This remained in MS. till
recently, when it was printed in a costly form.
_Translations._--Probably the first complete translation of Dante into
a modern language was the Castilian version of Villena (1428). In the
following year Andreu Febrer produced a rendering into Catalan verse.
In 1515 Villegas published the _Inferno_ in Spanish. The earliest
French version is that of B. Grangier (1597). Chaucer has rendered
several passages beautifully, and similar fragments are embedded in
Milton and others. But the first attempt to reproduce any considerable
portion of the poem was made by Rogers, who only completed the
_Inferno_ (1782). The entire poem appeared first in English in the
version of Henry Boyd (1802) in six-line stanzas; but the first
adequate rendering is the admirable blank verse of H. F. Cary (1814,
2nd ed. 1819), which has remained the standard translation, though
others of merit, notably those of Pollock (1854) and Longfellow (1867)
in blank verse, Plumptre (1887) and Haselfoot (1887) in _terza rima_;
J. A. Carlyle (_Inferno_ only, 1847). C. E. Norton (1891), and H. F.
Tozer (1904), in prose, have since appeared. The best in German are
those of "Philalethes" (the late King John of Saxony) and Witte, both
in blank verse.
_Modern Editions and Commentaries._--The first serious attempt to
establish an accurate text in recent times was made by Carl Witte,
whose edition (1862) has been subsequently used as the basis for the
text of the _Commedia_ in the Oxford edition of Dante's complete works
(1896 and later issues). Dr Toynbee's text (1900) follows the Oxford,
with some modifications. The notes of Cary, Longfellow, Witte and
"Philalethes," appended to their several translations, and Tozer's, in
an independent volume, are valuable. Scartazzini's commentary is the
most voluminous that has appeared since the 15th century. With a good
deal of superfluous, and some superficial, erudition, it cannot be
neglected by any one who wishes to study the poem thoroughly. An
edition by A.J. Butler contains a prose version and notes. Of modern
Italian editions, Bianchi's and Fraticelli's are still as good as any.
_Other Aids._--For beginners no introduction is equal to the essay on
Dante by the late Dean Church. Maria Rossetti's _Shadow of Dante_ is
also useful. _A Study of Dante_, by J. A. Symonds, is interesting.
More advanced students will find Dr Toynbee's _Dante Dictionary_
indispensable, and Dr E. Moore's _Studies in Dante_ of great service
in its discussion of difficult places. Two concordances, to the
_Commedia_ by Dr Fay (Cambridge, Mass., 1888), and to the minor works
by Messrs Sheldon and White (Oxford, 1905), are due to American
scholars. Mr W. W. Vernon's _Readings in Dante_ have profited many
students. Dante's minor works still lack thorough editing and
scholarly elucidation, with the exception of the _De vulgari
eloquentia_, which has been well handled by Professor Pio Rajna
(1896), and the _Vita Nuova_ by F. Beck (1896) and Barbi (1907). Good
translations of the latter by D. G. Rossetti and C. E. Norton, and of
the _De monarchia_ by F. C. Church and P. H. Wicksteed are in
existence. The best text is that of the Oxford _Dante_, though much
confessedly remains to be done. The dates of their original
publication have already been given.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The first attempt at a bibliography of editions of
Dante was made in Pasquali's edition of his collected works (Venice,
1739); but the first really adequate work on the subject is that of
the viscount Colomb de Batines (1846-1848). A supplement by Dr Guido
Biagi appeared in 1888. Julius Petzholdt had already covered some of
the same ground in _Bibliographia Dantea_, extending from 1865 to
1880. The period from 1891 to 1900 has been dealt with by SS.
Passerini and Mazzi in _Un Decennio di bibliografia Dantesca_ (1905).
The catalogues of the two libraries already named, and that of Harvard
University, are worth consulting. For the MSS. Dr E. Moore's _Textual
Criticism_ (1889) is the most complete guide. (A. J. B.*)
DANTON, GEORGE JACQUES (1759-1794), one of the most conspicuous actors
in the decisive episodes of the French Revolution, was born at
Arcis-sur-Aube on the 26th of October 1759. His family was of
respectable quality, though of very moderate means. They contrived to
give him a good education, and he was launched in the career of an
advocate at the Paris bar. When the Revolution broke out, it found
Danton following his profession with apparent success, leading a
cheerful domestic life, and nourishing his intelligence on good books.
He first appears in the revolutionary story as president of the popular
club or assembly of the district in which he lived. This was the famous
club of the Cordeliers, so called from the circumstance that its
meetings were held in the old convent of the order of the Cordeliers,
just as the Jacobins derived their name from the refectory of the
convent of the Jacobin brothers. It is an odd coincidence that the old
rivalries of Dominicans and Franciscans in the democratic movement
inside the Catholic Church should be recalled by the names of the two
factions in the democratic movement of a later century away from the
church. The Cordeliers were from the first the centre of the popular
principle in the French Revolution carried to its extreme point; they
were the earliest to suspect the court of being irreconcilably hostile
to freedom; and it was they who most vehemently proclaimed the need for
root-and-branch measures. Danton's robust, energetic and impetuous
temperament made him the natural leader in such a quarter. We find no
traces of his activity in the two great insurrectionary events of
1789--the fall of the Bastille, and the forcible removal of the court
from Versailles to the Tuileries. In the spring of 1790 we hear his
voice urging the people to prevent the arrest of Marat. In the autumn we
find him chosen to be the commander of the battalion of the national
guard of his district. In the beginning of 1791 he was elected to the
post of administrator of the department of Paris. This interval was for
all France a barren period of doubt, fatigue, partial reaction and
hoping against hope. It was not until 1792 that Danton came into the
prominence of a great revolutionary chief.
In the spring of the previous year (1791) Mirabeau had died, and with
him had passed away the only man who was at all likely to prove a wise
guide to the court. In June of that year the king and queen made a
disastrous attempt to flee from their capital and their people. They
were brought back once more to the Tuileries, which from that time forth
they rightly looked upon more as a prison than a palace or a home. The
popular exasperation was intense, and the constitutional leaders, of
whom the foremost was Lafayette, became alarmed and lost their judgment.
A bloody dispersion of a popular gathering, known afterwards as the
massacre of the Champ-de-Mars (July 1791), kindled a flame of resentment
against the court and the constitutional party which was never
extinguished. The Constituent Assembly completed its infertile labours
in September 1791. Then the elections took place to its successor, the
short-lived Legislative Assembly. Danton was not elected to it, and his
party was at this time only strong enough to procure for him a very
subordinate post in the government of the Parisian municipality. Events,
however, rapidly prepared a situation in which his influence became of
supreme weight. Between January and August 1792 the want of sympathy
between the aims of the popular assembly and the spirit of the king and
the queen became daily more flagrant and beyond power of disguise. In
April war was declared against Austria, and to the confusion and
distraction caused by the immense civil and political changes of the
past two years was now added the ferment and agitation of war with an
enemy on the frontier. The distrust felt by Paris for the court and its
loyalty at length broke out in insurrection. On the memorable morning of
the 10th of August 1792 the king and queen took refuge with the
Legislative Assembly from the apprehended violence of the popular forces
who were marching on the Tuileries. The share which Danton had in
inspiring and directing this momentous rising is very obscure. Some look
upon him as the head and centre of it. Apart from documents, support is
given to this view by the fact that on the morrow of the fall of the
monarchy Danton is found in the important post of minister of justice.
This sudden rise from the subordinate office which he had held in the
commune is a proof of the impression that his character had made on the
insurrectionary party. To passionate fervour for the popular cause he
added a certain broad steadfastness and an energetic practical judgment
which are not always found in company with fervour. Even in those days,
when so many men were so astonishing in their eloquence, Danton stands
out as a master of commanding phrase. One of his fierce sayings has
become a proverb. Against Brunswick and the invaders, "_il nous faut de
l'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace_,"--we must
dare, and again dare, and for ever dare. The tones of his voice were
loud and vibrant. As for his bodily presence, he had, to use his own
account of it, the athletic shape and the stern physiognomy of the
Liberty for which he was ready to die. Jove the Thunderer, the rebel
Satan, a Titan, Sardanapalus, were names that friends or enemies
borrowed to describe his mien and port. He was thought about as a
coarser version of the great tribune of the Constituent Assembly; he was
called the Mirabeau of the sansculottes, and Mirabeau of the markets.
In the executive government that was formed on the king's dethronement,
this strong revolutionary figure found himself the colleague of the
virtuous Roland and others of the Girondins. Their strength was speedily
put to a terrible test. The alarming successes of the enemy on the
frontier, and the surrender of two important fortresses, had engendered
a natural panic in the capital. But in the breasts of some of the wild
men whom the disorder of the time had brought to prominent place in the
Paris commune this panic became murderously heated. Some hundreds of
captives were barbarously murdered in the prisons. There has always been
much dispute as to Danton's share in this dreadful transaction. At the
time, it must be confessed, much odium on account of an imputed
direction of the massacres fell to him. On the whole, however, he cannot
be fairly convicted of any part in the plan. What he did was to make the
best of the misdeed, with a kind of sombre acquiescence. He deserves
credit for insisting against his colleagues that they should not flee
from Paris, but should remain firm at their posts, doing what they could
to rule the fierce storm that was raging around them.
The elections to the National Convention took place in September, when
the Legislative Assembly surrendered its authority. The Convention ruled
France until October 1795. Danton was a member; resigning the ministry
of justice, he took a foremost part in the deliberations and proceedings
of the Convention, until his execution in April 1794. This short period
of nineteen months was practically the life of Danton, so far as the
world is concerned with him.
He took his seat in the high and remote benches which gave the name of
the Mountain to the thoroughgoing revolutionists who sat there. He found
himself side by side with Marat, whose exaggerations he never
countenanced; with Robespierre, whom he did not esteem very highly, but
whose immediate aims were in many respects his own; with Camille
Desmoulins and Phélippeaux, who were his close friends and constant
partisans. The foes of the Mountain were the group of the
Girondins,--eloquent, dazzling, patriotic, but unable to apprehend the
fearful nature of the crisis, too full of vanity and exclusive
party-spirit, and too fastidious to strike hands with the vigorous and
stormy Danton. The Girondins dreaded the people who had sent Danton to
the Convention; and they insisted on seeing on his hands the blood of
the prison massacres of September. Yet in fact Danton saw much more
clearly than they saw how urgent it was to soothe the insurrectionary
spirit, after it had done the work of abolition which to him, as to them
too, seemed necessary and indispensable. Danton discerned what the
Girondins lacked the political genius to see, that this control of Paris
could only be wisely effected by men who sympathized with the vehemence
and energy of Paris, and understood that this vehemence and energy made
the only force to which the Convention could look in resisting the
Germans on the north-east frontier, and the friends of reaction in the
interior. "Paris," he said, "is the natural and constituted centre of
free France. It is the centre of light. When Paris shall perish there
will no longer be a republic."
Danton was among those who voted for the death of the king (January
1793). He had a conspicuous share in the creation of the famous
revolutionary tribunal, his aim being to take the weapons away from that
disorderly popular vengeance which had done such terrible work in
September. When all executive power was conferred upon a committee of
public safety, Danton had been one of the nine members of whom that body
was originally composed. He was despatched on frequent missions from the
Convention to the republican armies in Belgium, and wherever he went he
infused new energy into the work of national liberation. He pressed
forward the erection of a system of national education, and he was one
of the legislative committee charged with the construction of a new
system of government. He vainly tried to compose the furious dissensions
between Girondins and Jacobins. The Girondins were irreconcilable, and
made Danton the object of deadly attack. He was far too robust in
character to lose himself in merely personal enmities, but by the
middle of May (1793) he had made up his mind that the political
suppression of the Girondins had become indispensable. The position of
the country was most alarming. Dumouriez, the victor of Valmy and
Jemmappes, had deserted. The French arms were suffering a series of
checks and reverses. A royalist rebellion was gaining formidable
dimensions in the west. Yet the Convention was wasting time and force in
the vindictive recriminations of faction. There is no positive evidence
that Danton directly instigated the insurrection of the 31st of May and
the 2nd of June, which ended in the purge of the Convention and the
proscription of the Girondins. He afterwards spoke of himself as in some
sense the author of this revolution, because a little while before,
stung by some trait of factious perversity in the Girondins, he had
openly cried out in the midst of the Convention, that if he could only
find a hundred men, they would resist the oppressive authority of the
Girondin commission of twelve. At any rate, he certainly acquiesced in
the violence of the commune, and he publicly gloried in the expulsion of
the men who stood obstinately in the way of a vigorous and concentrated
exertion of national power. Danton, unlike the Girondins, accepted the
fury of popular passion as an inevitable incident in the work of
deliverance. Unlike Billaud Varenne or Hébert, or any other of the
Terrorist party, he had no wish to use this frightful two-edged weapon
more freely than was necessary. Danton, in short, had the instinct of
the statesman. His object was to reconcile France with herself; to
restore a society that, while emancipated and renewed in every part,
should yet be stable; and above all to secure the independence of his
country, both by a resolute defence against the invader, and by such a
mixture of vigour with humanity as should reconcile the offended opinion
of the rest of Europe. This, so far as we can make it out, was what was
in his mind.
The position of the Mountain had now undergone a complete change. In the
Constituent Assembly its members did not number more than 30 out of the
578 of the third estate. In the Legislative Assembly they had not been
numerous, and none of their chiefs had a seat. In the Convention for the
first nine months they had an incessant struggle for their very lives
against the Girondins. They were now (June 1793) for the first time in
possession of absolute power. It was not easy, however, for men who had
for many months been nourished on the ideas and stirred to the methods
of opposition, all at once to develop the instincts of government.
Actual power was in the hands of the two committees--that of public
safety and of general security. Both were chosen out of the body of the
Convention. The drama of the nine months between the expulsion of the
Girondins and the execution of Danton turns upon the struggle of the
committee to retain power--first, against the insurrectionary commune of
Paris, and second, against the Convention, from which the committees
derived an authority that was regularly renewed on the expiry of each
short term.
Danton, immediately after the fall of the Girondins, had thrown himself
with extraordinary energy into the work to be done. The first task in a
great city so agitated by anarchical ferment had been to set up a strong
central authority. In this genuinely political task Danton was
prominent. He was not a member of the committee of public safety when
that body was renewed in the shape that speedily made its name so
redoubtable all over the world. This was the result of a self-denying
ordinance which he imposed upon himself. It was he who proposed that the
powers of the committee should be those of a dictator, and that it
should have copious funds at its disposal. In order to keep himself
clear of any personal suspicion, he announced his resolution not to
belong to the body which he had thus done his best to make supreme in
the state. His position during the autumn of 1793 was that of a powerful
supporter and inspirer, from without, of the government which he had
been foremost in setting up. Danton was not a great practical
administrator and contriver, like Carnot, for instance. But he had the
gift of raising in all who heard him an heroic spirit of patriotism and
fiery devotion, and he had a clear eye and a cool judgment in the
tempestuous emergencies which arose in such appalling succession. His
distinction was that he accepted the insurrectionary forces, instead of
blindly denouncing them as the Girondins had done. After these forces
had shaken down the throne, and then, by driving away the Girondins, had
made room for a vigorous government, Danton perceived the expediency of
making all haste to an orderly state. Energetic prosecution of the war,
and gradual conciliation of civil hatreds, had been, as we have said,
the two marks of his policy ever since the fall of the monarchy. The
first of these objects was fulfilled abundantly, partly owing to the
energy with which he called for the arming of the whole nation against
its enemies. His whole mind was now given to the second of them. But the
second of them, alas, was desperate.
It was to no purpose that, both in his own action and in the writings of
Camille Desmoulins (_Le Vieux Cordelier_), of whom he was now and always
the intimate and inspirer, he worked against the iniquities of the bad
men, like Carrier and Collot d'Herbois, in the provinces, and against
the severity of the revolutionary tribunal in Paris. The black flood
could not at a word or in an hour subside from its storm-lashed fury.
The commune of Paris was now composed of men like Hébert and Chaumette,
to whom the restoration of any sort of political order was for the time
indifferent. They wished to push destruction to limits which even the
most ardent sympathizers with the Revolution condemn now, and which
Danton condemned then, as extravagant and senseless. Those men were not
politicians, they were fanatics; and Danton, who was every inch a
politician, though of a vehement type, had as little in common with them
as John Calvin of Geneva had with John of Leiden and the Münster
Anabaptists. The committee watched Hébert and his followers uneasily for
many weeks, less perhaps from disapproval of their excesses than from
apprehensions of their hostility to the committee's own power. At length
the party of the commune proposed to revolt against the Convention and
the committees. Then the blow was struck, and the Hébertists were
swiftly flung into prison, and thence under the knife of the guillotine
(March 24th, 1794). The execution of the Hébertists was the first
victory of the revolutionary government over the extreme insurrectionary
party. But the committees had no intention to concede anything to their
enemies on the other side. If they refused to follow the lead of the
anarchists of the commune, they were none the more inclined to give way
to the Dantonian policy of clemency. Indeed, such a course would have
been their own instant and utter ruin. The Terror was not a policy that
could be easily transformed. A new policy would have to be carried out
by new men, and this meant the resumption of power by the Convention,
and the death of the Terrorists. In Thermidor 1794 such a revolution did
take place, with those very results. But in Germinal feeling was not
ripe. The committees were still too strong to be overthrown. And Danton
seems to have shown a singular heedlessness. Instead of striking by
vigour in the Convention, he waited to be struck. In these later days a
certain discouragement seems to have come over his spirit. His wife had
died during his absence on one of his expeditions to the armies; he had
now married again, and the rumour went that he was allowing domestic
happiness to tempt him from the keen incessant vigilance proper to the
politician in such a crisis. He must have known that he had enemies.
When the Jacobin club was "purified" in the winter, Danton's name would
have been struck out as a moderate if Robespierre had not defended him.
The committees had deliberated on his arrest soon afterwards, and again
it was Robespierre who resisted the proposal. Yet though he had been
warned of the lightning that was thus playing round his head, Danton did
not move. Either he felt himself powerless, or he rashly despised his
enemies. At last Billaud Varenne, the most prominent spirit of the
committee after Robespierre, succeeded in gaining Robespierre over to
his designs against Danton. Robespierre was probably actuated by the
motives of selfish policy which soon proved the greatest blunder of his
life. The Convention, aided by Robespierre and the authority of the
committee, assented with ignoble unanimity. On the 30th of March Danton,
Desmoulins and others of the party were suddenly arrested. Danton
displayed such vehemence before the revolutionary tribunal, that his
enemies feared lest he should excite the crowd in his favour. The
Convention, in one of its worst fits of cowardice, assented to a
proposal made by St Just that, if a prisoner showed want of respect for
justice, the tribunal might pronounce sentence without further delay.
Danton was at once condemned, and led, in company with fourteen others,
including Camille Desmoulins, to the guillotine (April 5th, 1794). "I
leave it all in a frightful welter," he said; "not a man of them has an
idea of government. Robespierre will follow me; he is dragged down by
me. Ah, better be a poor fisherman than meddle with the government of
men!"
Events went as Danton foresaw. The committees presently came to quarrel
with the pretensions of Robespierre. Three months after Danton,
Robespierre fell. His assent to the execution of Danton had deprived him
of the single great force that might have supported him against the
committee. The man who had "saved France from Brunswick" might perhaps
have saved her from the White reaction of 1794.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Sources for the life of Danton abound in the national
archives and in the columns of the _Moniteur_. His _Oeuvres_ were
published by A. Vermorel (Paris, 1866), and his speeches are included
in H. Morse Stephens' _Principal Speeches of the Statesmen and Orators
of the French Revolution_ (vol. ii., Oxford, 1892); cf. F. V. Aulard,
_Les Orateurs de la Législative et de la Convention_ (Danton and his
group; 2 vols., 1885-1886). The charges of corruption freely brought
against Danton by contemporaries were accepted by many historians, and
he has been persistently accused of instigating or at least abetting,
by failure to use the power he possessed, the September massacres. A
minute examination of the evidence by F. V. Aulard and J. F. E.
Robinet in France, followed by A. H. Beesly in England, has placed his
career and his character in a fairer light. The chief books on
Danton's life are:--A. Bougeart, _Danton, documents pour servir à
l'histoire de la Révolution française_ (Brussels, 1861); J. F. E.
Robinet, _Danton, mémoire sur sa vie privée_ (Paris, 1865), _Le Procès
des Dantonistes_ (Paris, 1879), _Danton émigré_ (Paris, 1887),
_Danton, homme d'état_ (Paris, 1889); F. V. Aulard, _Hist. pol. de la
Rév. fr._ (Paris, 1901), and _Danton_ (Paris, 1887); A. Dubost,
_Danton et la politique contemporaine_ (Paris, 1880); A. H. Beesly,
_Life of Danton_ (1899, new ed. 1906); H. Belloc, _Danton_ (1899).
There is a short "Life of Danton" in Morse Stephens' _Principal
Speeches_, cited above. See also C. F. Warwick, _Danton and the French
Revolution_ (1909). (J. Mo.)
DANUBE (Ger. _Donau_, Hungarian _Duna_, Rumanian _Dunarea_, Lat.
_Danubius_ or _Danuvius_, and in the lower part of its course _Ister_),
the most important river of Europe as regards the volume of its outflow,
but inferior to the Volga in length and in the area of its drainage. It
originates at Donaueschingen in the Black Forest, where two mountain
streams, the Brigach and the Brege, together with a third stream from
the Palace Gardens, unite at an elevation of 2187 ft. above the sea to
form the Danube so called. From this point it runs in an easterly
direction until it falls into the Black Sea some 1750 m. from its
source, being the only European river of importance with a course from
west to east. Its basin, which comprises a territory of nearly 300,000
sq. m., is bounded by the Black Forest, some of the minor Alpine ranges,
the Bohemian Forest and the Carpathian Mountains on the north, and by
the Alps and the Balkan range on the south. From the point where the
Danube first becomes navigable, i.e. at its junction with the Iller at
Ulm (1505 ft. above sea-level), it is fed by at least 300 tributaries,
the principal of which on the right bank are the Inn, the Drave and the
Save; while on the left bank are the Theiss or Tisza, the Olt, the
Sereth and the Pruth. These seven rivers have a total length of 2920 m.
and drain one half of the basin of the Danube.
Historical and political associations.
The course of this mighty river is rich in historical and political
associations. For a long period it formed the frontier of the Roman
empire; near Eining (above Regensburg) was the ancient Abusina, which
for nearly five centuries was the chief Roman outpost against the
northern barbarians. Traces of Trajan's wall still exist between that
point and Wiesbaden, while another line of fortifications bearing the
same emperor's name are found in the Dobrudja between Cernavoda (on the
lower Danube) and Constantza. At intervening points are still found many
notable Roman remains, such as Trajan's road, a marvellous work on the
right bank of the river in the rocky Kazan defile (separating the
Balkans on the south from the Carpathians on the north), where a
contemporary commemorative tablet is still conspicuously visible. At
Turnu Severin below the end of this famous gorge are the remains of a
solid masonry bridge constructed by the same emperor at the period of
his Dacian conquests. But since Roman days the central Danube has never
formed the boundary of a state; on the contrary it became the route
followed from east to west by successive hordes of barbarians--the Huns,
Avars, Slavs, Magyars and Turks; while the Franks under Charlemagne, the
Bavarians and the Crusaders all marched in the opposite direction
towards the east. In more modern days its banks were the scenes of many
bloody battles during the Napoleonic Wars. Still more recently it has
become the great highway of commerce for central Europe. It has been
pointed out by J. G. Kohl (_Austria and the Danube_, London, 1844) and
others that, in consequence of the Danube having been in constant use as
the line of passage of migratory hostile tribes, it nowhere forms the
boundary between two states from Orsova upwards, and thus it traverses
as a central artery Württemberg, Bavaria, Austria and Hungary, while on
the other hand various tributaries both north and south, which formed
serious obstacles to the march of armies, have become lines of
separation between different states. Thus Hungary is separated from
Austria by the rivers March and Leitha; the river Enns, for a
considerable period the extreme western boundary of the Magyar kingdom,
still separates Upper and Lower Austria; the Inn and the Salzach divide
Austria from Bavaria, and farther west the Iller separates Bavaria from
Württemberg.
Course.
The Danube after leaving Donaueschingen flows south-east in the
direction of Lake Constance, and below Immendingen a considerable
quantity of its waters escapes through subterranean fissures to the
river Ach in the Rhine basin. At Gutmadingen it turns to the north-east,
which general direction, although with many windings, it maintains as
far as Linz. At Tuttlingen it contracts and the hills crowd close to the
banks, while ruins of castles crown almost every possible summit. The
scenery is wild and beautiful until the river passes Sigmaringen. At
Ulm, where the river leaves Württemberg and enters Bavaria, it is joined
by a large tributary, the Iller, and from this point becomes navigable
downstream for specially constructed boats carrying 100 tons of
merchandise. It is here some 78 yds. in breadth, with an average depth
of 3 ft. 6 in. Continuing its north-easterly course it passes through
Bavaria, gradually widening its channel first at Steppberg, then at
Ingolstadt, but finally narrowing again until it reaches Regensburg
(height 949 ft.). At this point it changes its direction to the
south-east, and passing along the southern slopes of the Bavarian Forest
enters Austria at Passau (height 800 ft.). In its passage through
Bavaria it receives several important affluents on both banks, notably
on the right the Alpine rivers Lech, Isar and Inn, the last of which at
the junction near Passau exceeds in volume the waters of the Danube.
From Passau the Danube flows through Austria for a distance of 233 m.
Closed in by mountains it flows past Linz in an unbroken stream--below,
it expands and divides into many arms until it reaches the famous
whirlpool near Grein where its waters unite and flow on in one channel
for 40 m., through mountains and narrow passes. Beyond Krems it again
divides, forming arms and islands beyond Vienna. The Danube between Linz
and Vienna is renowned not only for its picturesque beauty but for the
numerous medieval and modern buildings of historical and archaeological
interest which crown its banks. The splendid Benedictine monastery of
Melk and the ruins of Dürrenstein, the prison of Richard Coeur de Lion,
are among the most interesting.
After passing Vienna and the Marchfeld, the Danube (here 316 yds. wide
and 429 ft. above sea-level) passes through a defile formed by the lower
spurs of the Alps and the Carpathians and enters Hungary at the ruined
castle of Theben a little above Pressburg, the old Magyar capital, after
leaving which the river passes through the Hungarian plains, receiving
several affluents on both sides. It divides into three channels, forming
several islands. After passing the fortress of Komárom it loses its
easterly course at Vácz (Waitzen), and flows nearly due south for 230 m.
down to its junction with the Drave (81 ft. above sea-level), passing in
its course Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and farther on Mohács.
Below Mohács the Franz Josef canal connects the Danube with the Theiss.
After its junction with the Save the Danube follows a south-easterly
direction for 200 m. until it is joined on the right bank of the Drave
at Belgrade, above which it receives on the left bank the Theiss or
Tisz., the largest of its Hungarian affluents. From Belgrade the Danube
separates Hungary from Servia. It flows eastward until it has passed
through the stupendous Kazan defile, in which its waters (at Semlin 1700
yds. wide and 40 ft. deep) are hemmed in by precipitous rocks to a width
of only 162 yds., with a depth of 150 ft. and a tremendous current.
Emerging, above Orsova, at a height of 42 ft. above sea-level, it opens
to nearly a mile in width and, turning south-eastwards, is again
narrowed by its last defile, the Iron Gates, where it passes over the
Prigrada rock. The course of the river through Hungary, from Pressburg
to Orsova, is some 600 m.
The river now flows south, separating Servia from Rumania down to its
junction with the Timok, after which as far as Silistria, a distance of
284 m., it separates Rumania from Bulgaria. The north bank is mostly
flat and marshy, whereas the Bulgarian bank is almost continuously
crowned by low heights on which are built the considerable towns of
Vidin (Widdin), Lom Palanka, Rustchuk and Silistria, all memorable names
in Turko-Russian wars. From Silistria the river flows through Rumanian
territory and after passing Cernavoda, where it is crossed by a modern
railway bridge, it reaches (left bank) the important commercial ports of
Braila and Galatz. A few miles east of Galatz the Pruth enters on the
left bank, which is thenceforward Russian territory. The Danube flows in
a single channel from Galatz for 30 m. to the Ismail Chatal (or fork),
where it breaks up into the several branches of the delta. The Kilia
branch from this point flows to the north-east past the towns of Ismail
and Kilia, and 17 m. below the latter breaks up into another delta
discharging by seven channels into the Black Sea. The Tulcea branch
flows south-east from the Ismail Chatal, and 7 m. below the town of
Tulcea separates into two branches. The St George's branch, holding a
general, though winding, course to the south-east, discharges by two
channels into the sea; and the Sulina branch, taking an easterly
direction, emerges into the Black Sea 20 m. south of the Ochakov mouth
of the Kilia, and 20 m. north of the Kedrilles mouth of the St George.
In 1857 the proportion of discharge by the three branches of the Danube
was Sulina 7%, St George's 30% and Kilia 63%; but in 1905 the relative
proportions had altered to Sulina 9%, St George's 24% and Kilia 67%. The
average outflow by the three mouths combined is 236,432 cub. ft. per
second. The delta enclosed between the Kilia and St George's branches,
about 1000 sq. m. in area, mainly consists of one large marsh covered
with reeds, and intersected by channels, relieved in places by isolated
elevations covered with oak, beech and willows, many of them marking the
ancient coast-line. On the eastern side of the Kilia delta the
coast-line is constantly advancing and the sea becoming shallower, owing
to the enormous amount of solid deposits brought down by the river. In
time of ordinary flood the Kilia branch with its numerous mouths pours
into the sea some 3000 cub. ft. of sand and mud per minute. Its effects
are felt as far south as Sulina, and tend to necessitate the farther
extension into the sea of the guiding piers of that port.
Navigation.
In the course of the 19th century, more especially during its latter
half, much was done to render the Danube more available as a means of
communication. In 1816 Austria and Bavaria made arrangements for the
common utilization of the upper portion of the river, and since then
both governments have been liberal in expenditure on its improvement. In
1844 the Ludwigs Canal was constructed by King Louis of Bavaria. It is
110 m. in length and 7 ft. in depth, and connects the Danube at Kelheim
(half way between Ulm and Passau) with the Rhine at Mainz by means of
the rivers Altmühl, Regnitz and Main. Various other projects exist, one
for the connexion of the Danube (near Vienna) with the river Oder at
Oderberg, another for a canal from the Danube to the Moldau at Budweis,
125 m. in length, which owing to the regularization of the Moldau is the
last uncompleted link of a navigable channel 1875 m. in length between
Sulina and Hamburg at the mouths of the Danube and the Elbe
respectively. There also exist other schemes for joining the Danube with
the rivers Neckar and Theiss, and also for connecting the Oder Canal
with the Vistula and the Dniester. Between Ulm and Vienna, a distance of
629 m., works of rectification have been numerous and have greatly
improved the navigability of the river. The draining of the Donau-moos
between Neuburg and Ingolstadt, commenced in 1791, was successfully
completed about 1835; and in 1853 the removal of the rocks which
obstructed the river below Grein was finally achieved; while at Vienna
itself the whole mass of the Danube was conducted nearer the town for a
distance of nearly 2 m. through an artificial channel 10 m. in length
and 330 yds. in width, with a depth of about 12 ft., and at a cost with
subsidiary works of over three millions sterling. The work, begun in
1866, involved the removal of 12,000,000 cub. metres of sand and gravel,
and proved a great success, not only amply realizing its principal
object, the protection of Vienna from disastrous inundations, but also
improving the navigability of the river in that portion of its course.
The Hungarian government also, throughout the latter half of the 19th
century, expended vast sums at Budapest for the improvement of
navigation and the protection of the town from inundation, and in the
regularization of the Danube down to Orsova.
In prehistoric times a great part of the plains of Hungary formed a
large inland sea, which ultimately burst its bounds, whereupon the
Danube forced its way through the Carpathians at the Kazan defile. Much
of what then formed the bottom of this sea consisted until modern times
of marshes and waste lands lying in the vicinity of its numerous rivers.
The problem of draining and utilizing these lands was not the only
difficulty to be surmounted by the Hungarian engineers; the requirements
of navigation and the necessity in winter of preventing the formation of
large ice-fields, such as caused the disastrous floods at Budapest in
1838, had also to be considered. In carrying out these works the
Hungarian government between 1867 and 1895 spent seven millions
sterling, and a further expenditure of three and a half millions was
provided for up to 1907. At Budapest, where the formation of ice-fields
at the upper entrance of the two side arms of the Danube--the Promontor
on the north, 20 m. in length, and the Soroksar, 35 m. long,--caused the
inundation alluded to, the latter branch has been artificially blocked
and the whole of the Danube now flows through Budapest in a single
channel. For the first section of 60 m. after entering Hungary, the bed
of the river, here surcharged with gravel, was constantly changing its
course. It has been regularized throughout, the width of the stream
varying from 320 to 400 yds. In the second section from Gönyö to Paks,
164 m. in length, the river had a tendency to form islands and
sandbanks--its width now varies uniformly from 455 to 487 yds. The third
section of 113 m., from Paks to the mouth of the Drave, differed from
the others and made innumerable twists and curves. No fewer than
seventeen cuttings have been made, reducing the original course of the
river by 75 m. The fourth section, 217 m. in length, from the Drave to
Old Moldova, resembles in its characteristics the second section and has
been similarly treated. Cuttings have also been made where necessary,
and the widths of the channel are 487 yds. to the mouth of the Theiss,
650 between that point and the Save, and lower down 760 yds. In the
fifth and last section from Old Moldova to Orsova and the Iron Gates the
river is enclosed by mountains and rocky banks, and the obstacles to
navigation are rocks and whirlpools.
Article VI. of the treaty of London (1871) authorized the powers which
possess the shores of this part of the Danube to come to an
understanding with the view of removing these impediments, and to have
the right of levying a provisional tax on vessels of every flag which
may henceforth benefit thereby until the extinction of the debt
contracted for the execution of the works. As the riverain powers could
not come to an agreement on the subject, the great powers at the
congress of Berlin (1878) entrusted to Austria-Hungary the execution of
the works in question. Austria-Hungary subsequently conferred its rights
on Hungary, by which country the works were carried out at a cost of
about one and a half millions sterling.
The principal obstructions between Old Moldova and Turnu Severin were
the Stenka Rapids, the Kozla Dojke Rapids, the Greben section and the
Iron Gates. At the first named there was a bank of rocks, some of them
dry at low water, extending almost across the river (985 yds. wide). The
fall of the river bed is small, but the length of the rapid is 1100 yds.
The Kozla Dojke, 9 m. below the Stenka Rapids, extend also for 1100
yds., with a fall of 1 in 1000, where two banks of rocks cause a sudden
alternation in the direction of the current. The river is here only 170
to 330 yds. in width. Six miles farther on is the Greben section, the
most difficult part of the works of improvement. A spur of the Greben
mountains runs out below two shoals where the river suddenly narrows to
300 yds. at low water, but presently widens to 1½ m. Seven miles lower
down are the Jucz Rapids, where the river-bed has a fall of 1 in 433. At
the Iron Gates, 34 m. below the Greben, the Prigrada rocky bank nearly
blocked the river at the point where it widens out after leaving the
Kazan defile. The general object of the works was to obtain a navigable
depth of water at all seasons of 2 metres (6.56 ft.) on that portion of
the river above Orsova, and a depth of 3 metres (9.84 ft.) below that
town. To effect this at Stenka, Kozla Dojke, Islaz and Tachtalia,
channels 66 yds. wide had to be cut in the solid rock to a depth of 6
ft. 6 in. below low water. The point of the Greben spur had to be
entirely removed for a distance of 167 yds. back from its original face.
Below the Greben point a training wall 7 to 9 ft. high, 10 ft. at top
and nearly 4 m. in length, has been built along the Servian shore in
order to confine the river in a narrow channel. At Jucz another similar
channel had to be cut and a training wall built. At the Iron Gates a
channel 80 yds. wide, nearly 2000 yds. in length and 10 ft. deep (in the
immediate vicinity of traces of an old Roman canal) had to be cut on the
Servian side of the river through solid rock. Training walls have been
built on either side of the channel to confine the water so as to raise
its level; that on the right bank having a width of 19 ft. 6 in. at top,
and serving as a tow-path; that on the left being 13 ft. in width. These
training walls are built of stone with flat revetments to protect them
against ice. These formidable and expensive works have not altogether
realized the expectations that had been formed of them. One most
important result, however, has been attained, i.e. vessels can now
navigate the Iron Gates at all seasons of the year when the river is not
closed by ice, whereas formerly at extreme low water, lasting generally
for about three months in the late summer and autumn, through navigation
was always at a standstill, and goods had to be landed and transported
considerable distances by land. The canal was opened for traffic on the
1st of October 1898. It was designed of sufficient width, as was
supposed, for the simultaneous passage of boats in opposite directions;
but on account of the great velocity of the current this has been found
to be impracticable.
European commission of the Danube.
From the Iron Gates down to Braila, which is the highest point to which
large sea-going ships ascend the river, there have been no important
works of improvement. From Braila to Sulina, a distance of about 100 m.,
the river falls under the jurisdiction of the European commission of the
Danube, an institution of such importance as to merit lengthened notice.
It was called into existence under Art. XVI. of the treaty of Paris
(1856), and in November of that year a commission was constituted in
which Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia and
Turkey were each represented by one delegate "to designate and cause to
be executed the works necessary below Isaktcha[1] to clear the mouths of
the Danube as well as the neighbouring parts of the sea, from the sands
and other impediments which obstructed them, in order to put that part
of the river and the said parts of the sea in the best possible state
for navigation."
In Art. XVIII. of the same treaty it was anticipated that the European
commission would have finished the works described within the period of
two years, when it was to be dissolved and its powers taken over by a
Riverain commission to be established under the same treaty; but this
commission has never come into existence. Extended by short periods up
to 1871, the powers of the European commission were then prolonged under
the treaty of London for twelve years. At the congress of Berlin in 1878
its jurisdiction was extended from Isakcea to Galatz (26 m.), and it was
decided that the commission, in which Rumania was henceforward to be
represented by a delegate, should exercise its powers in complete
independence of the territorial authority. By the treaty of London of
1883 the jurisdiction of the commission was extended from Galatz to
Braila and its powers were prolonged for twenty-one years (i.e. till the
24th of April 1904), after which its existence was to continue by tacit
prolongation for successive terms of three years unless one of the high
contracting powers should propose any modification in its constitution
or attributes. It was also decided that the European commission should
no longer exercise any effective control over that portion of the Kilia
branch of which the two banks belonged to one of the riverain powers
(Russia and Rumania), while as regards that portion of it which
separated the two countries, control was to be exercised by the Russian
and Rumanian delegates on the European commission. Russia was also
authorized to levy tolls intended to cover the expenses of any works of
improvement that might be undertaken by her. Art. VII. of the same
treaty declared that the regulations for navigation, river police, and
superintendence drawn up on the 2nd of June 1882 by the European
commission, assisted by the delegates of Servia and Bulgaria, should be
made applicable to that part of the Danube situated between the Iron
Gates and Braila. In consequence of Rumania's opposition, the proposed
_Commission Mixte_ was never formed, and these regulations have never
been put in force. As regards the extension of the powers of the
European commission to Braila, 11 m. above Galatz, and at the head of
the maritime navigation, a tacit understanding has been arrived at,
under which questions concerning navigation proper come under the
jurisdiction of the commission, while the police of the ports remains in
the hands of the Rumanian authorities.
Sir Charles Hartley, who was chief engineer of the commission from 1856
to 1907,[2] in a paper contributed to the Institution of Civil Engineers
in 1873 (vol. xxxvi.), gave the following graphic description of the
state of the Sulina mouth when the commission entered on its labours in
1856:--
"The entrance to the Sulina branch was a wild open seaboard strewn
with wrecks, the hulls and masts of which, sticking out of the
submerged sandbanks, gave to mariners the only guide where the deepest
channel was to be found. The depth of the channel varied from 7 to 11
ft., and was rarely more than 9 ft.
"The site now occupied by wide quays extending several miles in length
was then entirely covered with water when the sea rose a few inches
above ordinary level, and that even in a perfect calm; the banks of
the river near the mouth were only indicated by clusters of wretched
hovels built on piles and by narrow patches of sand skirted by tall
weeds, the only vegetable product of the vast swamps beyond.
"For some years before the improvements, an average of 2000 vessels of
an aggregate capacity of 400,000 tons visited the Danube, and of this
number more than three-fourths loaded either the whole or part of
their cargoes from lighters in the Sulina roadstead, where, lying off
a lee shore, they were frequently exposed to the greatest danger.
Shipwrecks were of common occurrence, and occasionally the number of
disasters was appalling. One dark winter night in 1855, during a
terrific gale, 24 sailing ships and 60 lighters went ashore off the
mouth and upwards of 300 persons perished."
The state of affairs in the river was not much better than at the Sulina
mouth. Of the three arms of the Danube, the Kilia, the Sulina and the
St George, the central or Sulina branch, owing to its greater depth of
water over the bar, had from time immemorial been the principal waterway
for sea-going vessels; its average depth throughout its course, which
could not always be counted on, was 8 ft., but it contained numerous
shoals where vessels had to lighten, so that cargo had often to be
shifted several times in the voyage down the river. It also contained
numerous bends and sharp curves, sources of the greatest difficulty to
navigation.
The commission fixed its seat at Galatz. Provisional works of
improvement were begun almost immediately at the mouth of the Sulina
branch of the Danube, but two years were spent in discussing the
relative claims to adoption of the Kilia, the Sulina and the St George's
mouths. Unable to agree, the delegates referred the question to their
respective governments, and a technical commission appointed by France,
England, Prussia and Sardinia met at Paris and decided unanimously in
favour of St George's; but recommended, instead of the embankment of the
natural channel, the formation of an artificial canal 17 ft. in depth
closed by sluices at its junction with the river, and reaching the sea
at some distance from the natural embouchure. The choice of St George's
made by this commission was adopted at Galatz in December 1858, and six
of the seven representatives voted for its canalization; but owing to
various political and financial considerations, it was ultimately
decided to do nothing more in the meantime than render permanent and
effective the provisional works already in progress at the Sulina mouth.
These consisted of two piers forming a seaward prolongation of the
fluvial channel, begun in 1858 and completed in 1861. The northern pier
had a length of 4631 ft., the southern of 3000, and the depth of the
water in which they were built varied from 6 to 20 ft. At the
commencement of the works the depth of the channel was only 9 ft. but by
their completion it had increased to 19 ft. The works designed and
constructed by Sir Charles Hartley had in fact proved so successful that
nothing more was ever heard of the St George's project. In 1865 a new
lighthouse was erected at the end of the north pier. The value of these
early works of the commission is shown by the fact that of 2928 vessels
navigating the lower Danube in 1855, 36 were wrecked, while of 2676 in
1865 only 7 were wrecked. In 1871 it was found expedient to lengthen the
piers seaward, and in 1876 the south jetty was prolonged, so as to bring
its end exactly opposite the lighthouse on the north pier. This resulted
in an increase of the depth to 20½ ft., and for fifteen years, from 1879
to 1895, this depth remained constant without the aid of dredging. In
1894, owing to the constantly increasing size of vessels frequenting the
Danube, it was found necessary to deepen the entrance still further, and
to construct two parallel piers between the main jetties, reducing the
breadth of the river to 500 ft., and thereby increasing the scour. There
is now a continuous channel 24 ft. in depth, 5200 ft. in length, and 300
ft. in width between the piers, and 600 ft. outside the extremities of
the piers, until deep water is reached in the open sea. This depth is
only maintained by constant dredging. The engineers of the commission
have been equally successful in dealing with the Sulina branch of the
river. Its original length of 45 m. from St George's Chatal to the sea
was impeded at the commencement of the improvement works by eleven
bends, each with a radius of less than 1000 ft., besides numerous others
of somewhat larger radius, and its bed was encumbered by ten shifting
shoals, varying from 8 to 13 ft. in depth at low water. By means of a
series of training walls, by groynes thrown out from the banks, by
revetments of the banks, and by dredging, all done with the view of
narrowing the river, a minimum depth of 11 ft. was attained in 1865, and
13 ft. in 1871. In 1880 the needs of commerce and the increased size of
steamers frequenting the river necessitated the construction of a new
entrance from the St George's branch. This work, designed in 1857, but
unexecuted during a quarter of a century, owing to insufficiency of
funds, was completed in 1882; and in 1886, after other comparatively
short cuttings had been made to get rid of difficult bends and further
to deepen the channel without having to resort to dredgers, the desired
minimum depth of 15 ft. was attained. Since that date a series of new
cuttings has been made. These have shortened the length of the Sulina
canal by 11 nautical m., eliminated all the difficult bends and shoals,
and provided an almost straight waterway 34 m. in length from Sulina to
St George's Chatal, with a minimum depth of 20 ft. when the river is at
its lowest.
In the early days of the commission, i.e. from 1857 to 1860, the money
spent on the works of improvement, amounting to about £150,000, was
advanced as a loan by the then territorial power, Turkey; but in 1860
the commission began to levy taxes on vessels frequenting the river, and
since then has repaid its debt to the Turkish government, as well as
various loans for short periods, and a larger one of £120,000 guaranteed
by the powers, and raised in 1868, mainly through the energy of the
British commissioner, Sir John Stokes. This last loan was paid off in
1882 and the commission became free from debt in 1887. It has now an
average annual income of about £80,000 derived from taxes paid by ships
when[3] leaving the river. The normal annual expenditure amounts to
about £56,000, while £24,000 is generally allotted to extraordinary
works, such as new cuttings, &c. Between 1857 and 1905 a sum of about
one and three quarter millions sterling was spent on engineering works,
including the construction of quays, lighthouses, workshops and
buildings, &c. Sulina from being a collection of mud hovels has
developed into a town with 5000 inhabitants; a well-found hospital has
been established where all merchant sailors receive gratuitous
treatment; lighthouses, quays, floating elevators and an efficient pilot
service all combine to make it a first-class port.
The result of all the combined works for the rectification of the Danube
is that from Sulina up to Braila the river is navigable for sea-going
vessels up to 4000 tons register, from Braila to Turnu Severin it is
open for sea-going vessels up to 600 tons, and for flat barges of from
1500 to 2000 tons capacity. From Turnu Severin to Orsova navigation is
confined to river steamers, tugs and barges drawing 6 ft. of water.
Thence to Vienna the draught is limited to 5 ft., and from Vienna to
Regensburg to a somewhat lower figure. Barges of 600 tons register can
be towed from the lower Danube to Regensburg. Here petroleum tanks have
been constructed for the storage of Rumanian petroleum, the first
consignment of which in 1898, conveyed in tank boats, took six weeks on
the voyage up from Giurgevo. The principal navigation company on the
upper Danube is the Société Impériale et Royale Autrichienne of Vienna,
which started operations in 1830. This company also owns the Fünfkirchen
mines, producing annually 500,000 tons of coal. The society transports
goods and passengers between Galatz and Regensburg. A less important
society is the Rumanian State Navigation Company, possessing a large
flotilla of tugs and barges, which run to Budapest, where they have
established a combined service with the South Danube German Company for
the transport of goods from Pest to Regensburg. A Hungarian Navigation
Company, subsidized by the state, has also been formed, and the
Hungarian railways, the Servian government and private owners own a
large number of tugs and barges.
But it is the trade of the lower Danube that has principally benefited.
Freights from Galatz and Braila to North Sea ports have fallen from 50s.
to about 12s. or even 10s. per ton. Sailing ships of 200 tons register
have given way to steamers up to 4000 tons register carrying a
deadweight of nearly 8000 tons; and good order has succeeded chaos. From
1847 to 1860 an average of 203 British ships entered the Danube
averaging 193 tons each; from 1861 to 1889, 486 ships averaging 796
tons; in 1893, 905 vessels of 1,287,762 tons, or 68% of the total
traffic, and rather more than two and a half times the total amount of
British tonnage visiting the Danube in the fourteen years between 1847
and 1860. The average amount of cereals (principally wheat) annually
exported from the Danube during the period 1901-1905 was 13,000,000
quarters, i.e. about five times the average annual exportation during
the period 1861-1867. It has been calculated that between 1861 and 1902
the total tonnage of ships frequenting the Danube increased five-fold,
while the mean size of individual ships increased ten-fold.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Marsiglius, _Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus_ (the Hague,
1726); Schulte, _Donaufahrten_ (1819-1829); Planche, _Descent of the
Danube_ (1828); Széchenyi, _Über die Donauschiffahrt_ (1836); A.
Müller, _Die Donau vom Ursprunge bis zu den Mündungen_ (1839-1841); J.
G. Kohl, _Die Donau_ (Trieste, 1853-1854); G. B. Rennie, _Suggestions
for the Improvement of the Danube_ (1856); Sir C. A. Hartley,
_Description of the Delta of the Danube_ (1862 and 1874); _Mémoire sur
le régime administratif établi aux embouchures du Danube_ (Galatz,
1867); Desjardins, _Rhône et Danube_, a defence of the canalization
scheme (Paris, 1870); _Carte du Danube entre Braïla et la mer_,
published by the European Commission (Leipzig, 1874); Peters, _Die
Donau und ihr Gebiet, eine geologische Studie_ (1876); A. F. Heksch,
_Guide illustré sur le Danube_ (Vienna, 1883); F. D. Millet, _The
Danube_ (New York, 1893); Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, _Die Donau als
Völkerweg, Schiffahrtsstrasse, und Reiseroute_ (Vienna, 1895); D. A.
Sturza, _La Question des Portes de Fer et des cataractes du Danube_
(Berlin, 1899); A. de Saint Clair, _Le Danube: étude de droit
international_ (Paris, 1899); D. A. Sturdza, _Recueil de documents
relatifs à la liberté de navigation du Danube_, pp. 933 (Berlin,
1904); A. Schroth-Ukmar, _Donausagen von Passau bis Wien_ (Vienna,
1904). (H. Tr.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Isakcea was 66 nautical m. from the sea measured by the Sulina
arm of the Danube, 37 m. below Braila and 26 m. below Galatz.
[2] Sir Charles Hartley became consulting engineer in 1872, when he
was succeeded as resident engineer by Mr Charles Kühl, C.E., C.M.G.
To those two gentlemen is mainly due the conspicuous success of the
engineering works.
[3] Ships pay no taxes to the commission on entering the river, but
on leaving it every ship of over 1500 tons register pays 1s. 5d. per
registered ton if loaded at Galatz or Braila, or 11d. per ton if
loaded at Sulina. This includes pilotage and light dues. Smaller
vessels pay less and ships of less than 300 tons are exempt.
DANVERS, a township of Essex county, on the coast of Massachusetts,
U.S.A., about 19 m. N. by E. of Boston. Pop. (1890) 7454; (1900) 8542,
of whom 1873 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 9407. Danvers includes an
area of 14 sq. m. of level country diversified by hills. There are
several villages or business centres, the largest of which, bearing the
same name as the township, is served by the Boston & Maine railway. In
the township are a state insane asylum, with accommodation for 1000
patients; St John's Preparatory College (Roman Catholic), conducted by
the Xavierian Brothers; and, in Peabody Park, the Peabody Institute,
with a good public library and museum, the gift (1867) of George
Peabody. The Danvers historical society has a valuable collection.
Although chiefly a residential town, Danvers has various manufactures,
the most important of which are leather, boots and shoes, bricks, boxes
and electric lamps. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was
$2,017,908, of which more than one half was the value of leather.
Danvers owns its water-works and its electric lighting and power plant.
A part of what is now Danvers was included in the grant made by the
court of assistants to Governor John Endecott and the Rev. Samuel
Skelton of the Salem church in 1632. Danvers was set off from Salem as a
district in 1752 and was incorporated as a township in 1757, but the act
of incorporation was disallowed in 1759 by the privy council on the
recommendation of the board of trade, in view of George II.'s
disapproval of the incorporation of new townships at that time,--hence
the significance of the words on the seal of Danvers, "The King
Unwilling"; in 1775 the district was again incorporated. Salem Village,
a part of the present township, was the centre of the famous witchcraft
delusion in 1692. In 1885 South Danvers was set off as a separate
township, and in 1868 was named Peabody in honour of George Peabody, who
was born and is buried there. In 1857 part of Beverly was annexed to
Danvers. Among distinguished natives of Danvers are Samuel Holton
(1738-1816), a member (1778-1780 and 1782-1787) of the Continental
Congress and (1793-1795) of the Federal Congress; Israel Putnam; Moses
Porter (1755-1822), who served through the War of Independence and the
War of 1812; and Grenville Mellen Dodge (b. 1831), a prominent railway
engineer, who fought in the Union army in the Civil War, reaching the
rank of major-general of volunteers, was a Republican member of the
national House of Representatives in 1867-1869, and in 1898 president of
the commission which investigated the management of the war with Spain.
See J. W. Hanson, _History of the Town of Danvers_ (Danvers, 1848);
Ezra D. Hines, _Historic Danvers_ (Danvers, 1894) and _Historical
Address_ (Boston, 1907), in celebration of the 150th anniversary of
the first incorporation; and A. P. White, "History of Danvers" in
_History of Essex County, Mass._ (Philadelphia, 1888).
DANVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Vermilion county, Illinois,
U.S.A., in the E. part of the state, near the Big Vermilion river, 120
m. S. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 11,491; (1900) 16,354, of whom 1435 were
foreign-born; (1910) 27,871. Danville is served by the Chicago & Eastern
Illinois (whose shops are here), the Wabash, the Chicago, Indiana &
Southern, and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis railways,
and by three interurban lines. There are three public parks (Lincoln,
Douglas and Ellsworth), a Carnegie library (1883), and a national home
for disabled volunteer soldiers (opened in 1898). Situated in the
vicinity of an extensive coalfield (the Grape Creek district), Danville
has a large trade in coal; it has also several manufacturing
establishments engaged principally in the construction and repair of
railway cars, and in the manufacture of bricks, foundry products, glass,
carriages, flour and hominy. The value of the factory products of the
city in 1905 was $3,304,120, an increase of 72.7% since 1900. Danville
was first settled about 1830 and was first incorporated in 1839; in 1874
it was chartered as a city under the general state law of 1872 for the
incorporation of municipalities. It annexed Vermilion Heights in 1905,
South Danville (pop. in 1900, 898) in 1906, and Germantown (pop. in
1900, 1782) and Roselawn in 1907.
DANVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Boyle county, Kentucky, U.S.A.,
113 m. S. by W. of Cincinnati. Pop. (1890) 3766; (1900) 4285 (1913
negroes) (1910) 5420. The city is served by the Southern and the
Cincinnati Southern railways, the latter connecting at Junction City (4
m. S.) with the Louisville & Nashville railway. Danville is an
attractive city, situated in the S.E. part of the fertile "Blue Grass
region" of Kentucky. In McDowell Park there is a monument to the memory
of Dr Ephraim McDowell (1771-1830), who after 1795 lived in Danville,
and is famous for having performed in 1809 the first entirely successful
operation for the removal of an ovarian tumour. Danville is the seat of
several educational institutions, the most important of which is the
Central University of Kentucky (Presbyterian), founded in 1901 by the
consolidation of Centre College (opened at Danville in 1823), and the
Central University (opened at Richmond, Ky., in 1874). The law school
also is in Danville. The classical, scientific and literary department
of the present university is still known as Centre College; the medical
and dental departments are in Louisville, and the university maintains a
preparatory school, the Centre College academy, at Danville. In 1908 the
university had 87 instructors and 696 students. Other institutions at
Danville are Caldwell College for women (1860; Presbyterian), and the
Kentucky state institution for deaf mutes (1823). The Transylvania
seminary was opened here in 1785, but four years later was removed to
Lexington (q.v.), and a Presbyterian theological seminary was founded
here in 1853, but was merged with the Louisville theological seminary
(known after 1902 as the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Kentucky)
in 1901. The municipality owns and operates its water-works and power
plant. From its first settlement in 1781 until the admission of Kentucky
into the Union in 1792 Danville was an important political centre. There
was an influential political club here from 1786 to 1790, and here, too,
sat the several conventions--nine in all--which asked for a separation
from Virginia, discussed the proposed conditions of separation from that
commonwealth, framed the first state constitution, and chose Frankfort
as the capital. Danville was incorporated in 1789. It was the birthplace
of James G. Birney and of Theodore O'Hara.
DANVILLE, a borough and the county-seat of Montour county, Pennsylvania,
U.S.A., on the N. branch of the Susquehanna river, about 65 m. N. by E.
of Harrisburg. Pop. (1890) 7998; (1900) 8042, of whom 771 were
foreign-born; (1910 census) 7517. It is served by the Delaware,
Lackawanna & Western, and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by
electric railway to Bloomsburg. The borough is built on an elevated bank
of the river at the base of Montour Ridge, where the narrow valley
appears to be shut in on every side by hills; the river is spanned by a
steel bridge, built in 1905. Iron, coal and limestone abound in the
vicinity, and the borough has large manufactories of stoves and
furnaces, and of iron and steel, in one of which in 1845 a "T"-rail,
probably the first in America, was rolled. It is the seat of a state
hospital for the insane (established in 1868). The water-works and
electric light plant are owned and operated by the municipality. A
settlement was founded here about 1776 by Captain William Montgomery and
his son Daniel; and a town was laid out in 1792 and called Dan's Town
until the present name was adopted a few years later. Growth was slow
until the discovery of iron ore on Montour Ridge, followed in 1832 by
the completion of the N. branch of the Pennsylvania Canal, which runs
through the centre of the borough. Danville was incorporated in 1849.
DANVILLE, a city in Pittsylvania county, Virginia, U.S.A., on the Dan
river about 140 m. (by rail) S.W. of Richmond. Pop. (1890) 10,305;
(1900) 16,520 (6515 negroes); (1910) 19,020. It is on the main line of
the Southern railway, and is the terminus of branches to Richmond and
Norfolk; it is also served by the Danville & Western railway, a road (75
m. long) connecting with Stuart, Va., and controlled by the Southern,
though operated independently. The city is built on high ground above
the river. It has a city hall, a general hospital, a Masonic temple, and
a number of educational institutions, including the Roanoke College
(1860; Baptist), for young women; the Randolph-Macon Institute (1897;
Methodist Episcopal, South), for girls; and a commercial college. The
river furnishes valuable water-power, which is utilized by the city's
manufactories (value of product in 1900, third in rank in the state,
$8,103,484, of which only $3,693,792 was "factory" product; in 1905 the
"factory" product was valued at $4,774,818), including cotton mills--in
1905 Danville ranked first among the cities of the state in the value of
cotton goods produced--a number of tobacco factories, furniture and
overall factories, and flour and knitting mills. The city is a jobbing
centre and wholesale market for a considerable area in southern Virginia
and northern North Carolina, and is probably the largest loose-leaf
tobacco market in the country, selling about 40,000,000 lb. annually. In
the industrial suburb of Schoolfield, which in 1908 had a population of
about 3000, there is a large textile mill. The city owns and operates
its water-supply system (with an excellent filtration plant installed in
1904) and its gas and electric lighting plants. Danville was settled
about 1770, was first incorporated as a town in 1792, and became a city
in 1833; it is politically independent of Pittsylvania county. To
Danville, after the evacuation of Richmond on the 2nd of April 1865, the
archives of the Confederacy were carried, and here President Jefferson
Davis paused for a few days in his flight southward.
DANZIG, or DANTSIC (Polish _Gdansk_), a strong maritime fortress and
seaport of Germany, capital of the province of West Prussia, on the left
bank of the western arm of the Vistula, 4 m. S. of its entrance, at
Neufahrwasser, into the Baltic, 253 m. N.E. from Berlin by rail. Pop.
(1885) 114,805; (1905) 159,088. The city is traversed by two branches of
the Mottlau, a small tributary of the Vistula, dredged to a depth of 15
ft., thus enabling large vessels to reach the wharves of the inner town.
The strong fortifications which, with ramparts, bastions and wet
ditches, formerly entirely surrounded the city, were removed on the
north and west sides in 1895-1896, the trenches filled in, and the area
thus freed laid out on a spacious plan. One portion, acquired by the
municipality, has been turned into promenades and gardens, the Steffens
Park, outside the Olivaer Tor, fifty acres in extent, occupying the
north-western corner. The remainder of the massive defences remain, with
twenty bastions, in the hands of the military authorities; the works for
laying the surrounding country under water on the eastern side have been
modernized, and the western side defended by a cordon of forts crowning
the hills and extending down to the port of Neufahrwasser.
Danzig almost alone of larger German cities still preserves its
picturesque medieval aspect. The grand old patrician houses of the days
of its Hanseatic glory, with their lofty and often elaborately
ornamented gables and their balconied windows, are the delight of the
visitor to the town. Only one ancient feature is rapidly
disappearing--owing to the exigencies of street traffic--the stone
terraces close to the entrance doors and abutting on the street. Of its
old gates the Hohe Tor, modelled after a Roman triumphal arch, is a
remarkable monumental erection of the 16th century. From it runs the
Lange Gasse, the main street, to the Lange Markt. On this square stands
the Artus- or Junker-hof (the merchant princes of the middle ages were
in Germany styled _Junker_, squire), containing a hall richly decorated
with wood carving and pictures, once used as a banqueting-room and now
serving as the exchange. There are twelve Protestant and seven Roman
Catholic churches and two synagogues. Of these the most important is St
Mary's, begun in 1343 and completed in 1503, one of the largest
Protestant churches in existence. It possesses a famous painting of the
Last Judgment, formerly attributed to Jan van Eyck, but probably by
Memlinc. Among other ancient buildings of note are the beautiful Gothic
town hall, surmounted by a graceful spire, the armoury (Zeughaus) and
the Franciscan monastery, restored in 1871, and now housing the
municipal picture gallery and a collection of antiquities. Of modern
structures, the government offices, the house of the provincial diet,
the post office and the palace of the commander of the 17th army corps,
which has its headquarters in Danzig, are the most noteworthy.
The manufacture of arms and artillery is carried on to a great extent,
and the imperial and private docks and shipbuilding establishments,
notably the Schichau yard, turn out ships of the largest size. The town
is famous for its amber, beer, brandy and liqueurs, and its transit
trade makes it one of the most important commercial cities of northern
Europe. Danzig originally owed its commercial importance to the fact
that it was the shipping port for the corn grown in Poland and the
adjacent regions of Russia and Prussia; but for some few years past this
trade has been slipping away from her. On the other hand, her trade in
timber and sugar has grown proportionally. Nevertheless energetic
efforts are being made to check any loss of importance--first, in 1898,
by a determined attempt to make Danzig an industrial centre,
manufacturing on a large scale; and secondly, by the construction and
opening in 1899 of a free harbour at Neufahrwasser at the mouth of the
Vistula. The industries which it has been the principal aim to foster
and further develop are shipbuilding (naval and marine), steel foundries
and rolling mills, sugar refineries, flour and oil mills, and
distilleries.
_History._--The origin of Danzig is unknown, but it is mentioned in 997
as an important town. At different times it was held by Pomerania,
Poland, Brandenburg and Denmark, and in 1308 it fell into the hands of
the Teutonic knights, under whose rule it long prospered. It was one of
the four chief towns of the Hanseatic League. In 1455, when the Teutonic
Order had become thoroughly corrupt, Danzig shook off its yoke and
submitted to the king of Poland, to whom it was formally ceded, along
with the whole of West Prussia, at the peace of Thorn. Although
nominally subject to Poland, and represented in the Polish diets and at
the election of Polish kings, it enjoyed the rights of a free city, and
governed a considerable territory with more than thirty villages. It
suffered severely through various wars of the 17th and 18th centuries,
and in 1734, having declared in favour of Stanislus Leszczynski, was
besieged and taken by the Russians and Saxons. At the first partition of
Poland, in 1772, Danzig was separated from that kingdom; and in 1793 it
came into the possession of Prussia. In 1807, during the war between
France and Prussia, it was bombarded and captured by Marshal Lefebvre,
who was rewarded with the title of duke of Danzig; and at the peace of
Tilsit Napoleon declared it a free town, under the protection of France,
Prussia and Saxony, restoring to it its ancient territory. A French
governor, however, remained in it, and by compelling it to submit to the
continental system almost ruined its trade. It was given back to Prussia
in 1814.
See J. C. Schultz, _Danzig und seine Bauwerke_ (Berlin, 1873);
Wistulanus, _Geschichte der Stadt Danzig_ (Danzig, 1891); _Défense de
Dantzig en 1813; documents militaires du lieutenant-général
Campredon_, pub. by Auriel (Paris, 1888); Daniel, _Deutschland_
(Leipzig, 1895).
DAPHLA (or DAFLA) HILLS, a tract of hilly country on the border of
Eastern Bengal and Assam, occupied by an independent tribe called
Daphla. It lies to the north of the Tezpur and North Lakhimpur
subdivisions, and is bounded on the west by the Aka Hills and on the
east by the Abor range. Colonel Dalton in _The Ethnology of Bengal_
considers the Daphlas to be closely allied to the hill Miris, and they
are akin to and intermarry with the Abors. They have a reputation for
cowardice, and as politically they are disunited, they are at the mercy
of the Akas, their less numerous but more warlike neighbours on the
west. Their clothing is scanty, and its most distinguishing feature is a
cane cap with a fringe of bearskin or feathers, which gives them a very
curious appearance. The men wear their hair in a plait, which is coiled
into a ball on the forehead, to which they fasten their caps with a long
skewer. In 1872 a party of independent Daphlas suddenly attacked a
colony of their own tribesmen, who had settled at Amtola in British
territory, and carried away forty-four captives to the hills. This led
to the Daphla expedition of 1874, when a force of 1000 troops released
the prisoners and reduced the tribe to submission. According to the
census of 1901 the Daphlas in British territory numbered 954, the tribal
country not being enumerated.
DAPHNAE (Tahpanhes, Taphne; mod. _Defenneh_), an ancient fortress near
the Syrian frontier of Egypt, on the Pelusian arm of the Nile. Here King
Psammetichus established a garrison of foreign mercenaries, mostly
Carians and Ionian Greeks (Herodotus ii. 154). After the destruction of
Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar in 588 B.C., the Jewish fugitives, of whom
Jeremiah was one, came to Tahpanhes. When Naucratis was given by Amasis
II. the monopoly of Greek traffic, the Greeks were all removed from
Daphnae, and the place never recovered its prosperity; in Herodotus's
time the deserted remains of the docks and buildings were visible. The
site was discovered by Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie in 1886; the name
"Castle of the Jew's Daughter" seems to preserve the tradition of the
Jewish refugees. There is a massive fort and enclosure; the chief
discovery was a large number of fragments of pottery, which are of great
importance for the chronology of vase-painting, since they must belong
to the time between Psammetichus and Amasis, i.e. the end of the 7th or
the beginning of the 6th century B.C. They show the characteristics of
Ionian art, but their shapes and other details testify to their local
manufacture.
See W. M. F. Petrie, _Tanis II., Nebesheh, and Defenneh_ (4th Memoir
of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1888). (E. Gr.)
DAPHNE (Gr. for a laurel tree), in Greek mythology, the daughter of the
Arcadian river-god Ladon or the Thessalian Peneus, or of the Laconian
Amyclas. She was beloved by Apollo, and when pursued by him was changed
by her mother Gaea into a laurel tree sacred to the god (Ovid, _Metam._
i. 452-567). In the Peloponnesian legends, another suitor of Daphne,
Leucippus, son of Oenomaüs of Pisa, disguised himself as a girl and
joined her companions. His sex was discovered while bathing, and he was
slain by the nymphs (Pausanias viii. 20; Parthenius, _Erotica_, 15).
DAPHNE, in botany, a genus of shrubs, belonging to the natural order
Thymelaeaceae, and containing about forty species, natives of Europe and
temperate Asia. _D. Laureola_, spurge laurel, a small evergreen shrub
with green flowers in the leaf axils towards the ends of the branches
and ovoid black very poisonous berries, is found in England in copses
and on hedge-banks in stiff soils. _D. Mezereum_, mezereon, a rather
larger shrub, 2 to 4 ft. high, has deciduous leaves, and bears fragrant
pink flowers in clusters in the axils of last season's leaves, in early
spring before the foliage. The bright red ovoid berries are cathartic,
the whole plant is acrid and poisonous, and the bark is used
medicinally. It is a native of Europe and north Asia, and found
apparently wild in copses and woods in Britain. It is a well-known
garden plant, and several other species of the genus are cultivated in
the open air and as greenhouse plants. _D. Cneorum_ (Europe) is a hardy
evergreen trailing shrub, with bright pink sweet-scented flowers. _D.
pontica_ (Eastern Europe) is a hardy spreading evergreen with
greenish-yellow fragrant flowers. _D. indica_ (China) and _D. japonica_
(Japan) are greenhouse evergreens with respectively red or white and
pinkish-purple flowers.
DAPHNEPHORIA, a festival held every ninth year at Thebes in Boeotia in
honour of Apollo Ismenius or Galaxius. It consisted of a procession in
which the chief figure was a boy of good family and noble appearance,
whose father and mother must be alive. Immediately in front of this
boy, who was called Daphnephoros (laurel bearer), walked one of his
nearest relatives, carrying an olive branch hung with laurel and flowers
and having on the upper end a bronze ball from which hung several
smaller balls. Another smaller ball was placed on the middle of the
branch or pole (called [Greek: kôpô]), which was then twined round with
purple ribbons, and at the lower end with saffron ribbons. These balls
were said to indicate the sun, stars and moon, while the ribbons
referred to the days of the year, being 365 in number. The Daphnephoros,
wearing a golden crown, or a wreath of laurel, richly dressed and partly
holding the pole, was followed by a chorus of maidens carrying suppliant
branches and singing a hymn to the god. The Daphnephoros dedicated a
bronze tripod in the temple of Apollo, and Pausanias (ix. 10. 4)
mentions the tripod dedicated there by Amphitryon when his son Heracles
had been Daphnephoros. The festival is described by Proclus (in Photius
_cod._ 239).
See also A. Mommsen, _Feste der Stadt Athen_ (1898); C. O. Müller,
_Orchomenos_ (1844); article in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire
des antiquités_.
DAPHNIS, the legendary hero of the shepherds of Sicily, and reputed
inventor of bucolic poetry. The chief authorities for his story are
Diodorus Siculus, Aelian and Theocritus. According to his countryman
Diodorus (iv. 84), and Aelian (_Var. Hist._, x. 18), Daphnis was the son
of Hermes (in his character of the shepherd-god) and a Sicilian nymph,
and was born or exposed and found by shepherds in a grove of laurels
(whence his name.) He was brought up by the nymphs, or by shepherds, and
became the owner of flocks and herds, which he tended while playing on
the syrinx. When in the first bloom of youth, he won the affection of a
nymph, who made him promise to love none but her, threatening that, if
he proved unfaithful, he would lose his eyesight. He failed to keep his
promise and was smitten with blindness. Daphnis, who endeavoured to
console himself by playing the flute and singing shepherds' songs, soon
afterwards died. He fell from a cliff, or was changed into a rock, or
was taken up to heaven by his father Hermes, who caused a spring of
water to gush out from the spot where his son had been carried off. Ever
afterwards the Sicilians offered sacrifices at this spring as an
expiatory offering for the youth's early death. There is little doubt
that Aelian in his account follows Stesichorus (q.v.) of Himera, who in
like manner had been blinded by the vengeance of a woman (Helen) and
probably sang of the sufferings of Daphnis in his recantation. Nothing
is said of Daphnis's blindness by Theocritus, who dwells on his amour
with Naïs; his victory over Menalcas in a poetical competition; his love
for Xenea brought about by the wrath of Aphrodite; his wanderings
through the woods while suffering the torments of unrequited love; his
death just at the moment when Aphrodite, moved by compassion, endeavours
(but too late) to save him; the deep sorrow, shared by nature and all
created things, for his untimely end (Theocritus i. vii. viii.). A later
form of the legend identifies Daphnis with a Phrygian hero, and makes
him the teacher of Marsyas. The legend of Daphnis and his early death
may be compared with those of Narcissus, Linus and Adonis--all beautiful
youths cut off in their prime, typical of the luxuriant growth of
vegetation in the spring, and its sudden withering away beneath the
scorching summer sun.
See F. G. Welcker, _Kleine Schriften zur griechischen
Litteraturgeschichte_, i. (1844); C. F. Hermann, _De Daphnide
Theocriti_ (1853); R. H. Klausen, _Aeneas und die Penaten_, i. (1840);
R. Reitzenstein, _Epigramm und Skolion_ (1893); H. W. Prescott in
_Harvard Studies_, x. (1899); H. W. Stoll in Roscher's _Lexikon der
Mythologie_; and G. Knaack in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopädie_.
DARÁB (originally DARÁBGERD), a district of the province of Fars in
Persia. It has sixty-two villages, and possesses a hot climate, snow
being rarely seen there in winter. It produces a great quantity of dates
and much tobacco, which is considered the best in Persia. The town
Daráb, the capital of the district, is situated in a very fertile plain,
140 m. S.E. of Shiraz. It has a population of about 5000, and extensive
orchards of orange and lemon trees and immense plantations of
date-palms. Legend ascribes the foundation of the city to Darius, hence
its name Daráb-gerd (Darius-town). In the neighbourhood there are
various remains of antiquity, the most important of which 3½ m. S., is
known as the Kalah i Daráb, or citadel of Darius, and consists of a
series of earthworks arranged in a circle round an isolated rock.
Nothing, however, remains to fix the date or explain the history of the
fortification. Another monument in the vicinity is a gigantic
bas-relief, carved on the vertical face of a rock, representing the
victory of the Sassanian Shapur I. (Sapor) of Persia over the Roman
emperor Valerian, A.D. 260.
DARBHANGA, a town and district of British India, in the Patna division
of Bengal. The town is on the left bank of the Little Baghmati river,
and has a railway station. Pop. (1901) 66,244. The town is really a
collection of villages that have grown up round the residence of the
raja. This is a magnificent palace, with gardens, a menagerie and a good
library. There are a first-class hospital, with a Lady Dufferin hospital
attached; a handsome market-place, and an Anglo-vernacular school. The
district of Darbhanga extends from the Nepal frontier to the Ganges. It
was constituted in 1875 out of the unwieldy district of Tirhoot. Its
area is 3348 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 2,912,611, showing an
increase of 4% in the decade. The district consists entirely of an
alluvial plain, in which the principal rivers are the Ganges, Buri
Gandak, Baghmati and Little Baghmati, Balan and Little Balan, and
Tiljuga. The land is especially fertile in the more elevated part of the
district S.W. of the Buri Gandak; rice is the staple crop, and it may be
noted that the cultivator in Darbhanga is especially dependent on the
winter harvest. The chief exports are rice, indigo, linseed and other
seeds, saltpetre and tobacco. There are several indigo factories and
saltpetre refineries, and a tobacco factory. The district is traversed
by the main line of the Bengal & North-Western railway and by branch
lines, part of which were begun as a famine relief work in 1874.
The maharaja bahadur of Darbhanga, a Rajput, whose ancestor Mahesh
Thakor received the Darbhanga raj (which includes large parts of the
modern districts of Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Monghyr, Purnea and
Bhagalpur) from the emperor Akbar early in the 16th century, is not only
the premier territorial noble of Behar but one of the greatest noblemen
of all India. Maharaja Lachhmeswar Singh Bahadur, who succeeded to the
raj in 1860 and died in 1898, was distinguished for his public services,
and especially as one of the most munificent of living philanthropists.
Under his supervision his raj came to be regarded as the model for good
and benevolent management; he constructed hundreds of miles of roads
planted with trees, bridged all the rivers, and constructed irrigation
works on a great scale. His charities were without limit; thus he
contributed £300,000 for the relief of the sufferers from the Bengal
famine of 1873-1874, and it is computed that during his possession of
the raj he expended at least £2,000,000 on charities, works of public
utility, and charitable remissions of rent. For many years he served as
a member of the legislative council of the viceroy with conspicuous
ability and moderation of view. As representative of the landowners of
Berar and Bengal he took an important part in the discussion on the
Bengal Tenancy Bill. He was succeeded by his brother, Maharaja Rameshwar
Singh Bahadur, who was born on the 16th of January 1860, and on
attaining his majority in 1878 was appointed to the Indian Civil
Service, serving as assistant magistrate successively at Darbhanga,
Chhapra and Bhagalpur. In 1886 he was created a raja bahadur, exempted
from attendance at the civil courts, and appointed a member of the
legislative council of Bengal. He was created a maharaja bahadur on his
succession to the raj in 1898. Like his brother, he was educated by an
English tutor, and his administration carried on the enlightened
traditions of his predecessor.
See Sir Roper Lethbridge, _The Golden Book of India_.
D'ARBLAY, FRANCES (1752-1840), English novelist and diarist, better
known as FANNY BURNEY, daughter of Dr Charles Burney (q.v.), was born at
King's Lynn, Norfolk, on the 13th of June 1752. Her mother was Esther
Sleepe, granddaughter of a French refugee named Dubois. Fanny was the
fourth child in a family of six. Of her brothers, James (1750-1821)
became an admiral and sailed with Captain Cook on his second and third
voyages, and Charles Burney (1757-1817) was a well-known classical
scholar. In 1760 the family removed to London, and Dr Burney, who was
now a fashionable music master, took a house in Poland Street. Mrs
Burney died in 1761, when Fanny was only nine years old. Her sisters
Esther (Hetty), afterwards Mrs Charles Rousseau Burney, and Susanna,
afterwards Mrs Phillips, were sent to school in Paris, but Fanny was
left to educate herself. Early in 1766 she paid her first visit to Dr
Burney's friend Samuel Crisp at Chessington Hall, near Epsom. Dr Burney
had first made Samuel Crisp's acquaintance about 1745 at the house of
Fulke Greville, grandfather of the diarists, and the two studied music
while the rest of the guests hunted. Crisp wrote a play, _Virginia_,
which was staged by David Garrick in 1754 at the request of the
beautiful countess of Coventry (née Maria Gunning). The play had no
great success, and in 1764 Crisp established himself in retirement at
Chessington Hall, where he frequently entertained his sister, Mrs Sophia
Gast, of Burford, Oxfordshire, and Dr Burney and his family, to whom he
was familiarly known as "daddy" Crisp.[1] It was to her "daddy" Crisp
and her sister Susan that Fanny Burney addressed large portions of her
diary and many of her letters. After his wife's death in 1767, Dr Burney
married Elizabeth Allen, widow of a King's Lynn wine-merchant.
From her fifteenth year Fanny lived in the midst of an exceptionally
brilliant social circle, gathered round her father in Poland Street, and
later in his new home in St Martin's Street, Leicester Fields. Garrick
was a constant visitor, and would arrive before eight o'clock in the
morning. Of the various "lyons" they entertained she leaves a graphic
account, notably of Omai, the Otaheitan native, and of Alexis Orlov, the
favourite of Catherine II. of Russia. Dr Johnson she first met at her
father's home in March 1777. Her father's drawing-room, where she met
many of the chief musicians, actors and authors of the day, was in fact
Fanny's only school. Her reading, however, was by no means limited.
Macaulay stated that in the whole of Dr Burney's library there was but
one novel, Fielding's _Amelia_; but Austin Dobson points out that she
was acquainted with the abbé Prévost's _Doyen de Killérine_, and with
Marivaux's _Vie de Marianne_, besides _Clarissa Harlowe_ and the books
of Mrs Elizabeth Griffith and Mrs Frances Brooke. Her diary also
contains the record of much more strenuous reading. Her stepmother, a
woman of some cultivation, did not encourage habits of scribbling.
Fanny, therefore, made a bonfire of her MSS., among them a _History of
Caroline Evelyn_, a story containing an account of Evelina's mother.
Luckily her journal did not meet with the same fate. The first entry in
it was made on the 30th of May 1768, and it extended over seventy-two
years. The earlier portions of it underwent wholesale editing in later
days, and much of it was entirely obliterated. She planned out
_Evelina_, or _A Young Lady's Entrance into the World_, long before it
was written down. _Evelina_ was published by Thomas Lowndes in the end
of January 1778, but it was not until June that Dr Burney learned its
authorship, when the book had been reviewed and praised everywhere.
Fanny proudly told Mrs Thrale the secret. Mrs Thrale wrote to Dr Burney
on the 22nd of July: "Mr Johnson returned home full of the Prayes of the
_Book_ I had lent him, and protesting that there were passages in it
which might do _honour_ to Richardson: we talk of it for ever, and he
feels ardent after the denouement; he could not get _rid_ of the Rogue,
he said." Miss Burney soon visited the Thrales at Streatham, "the most
consequential day I have spent since my birth" she calls the occasion.
It was the prelude to much longer visits there. Dr Johnson's best
compliments were made for her benefit, and eagerly transcribed in her
diary. His affectionate friendship for "little Burney" only ceased with
his death.
_Evelina_ was a continued success. Sir Joshua Reynolds sat up all night
to read it, as did Edmund Burke, who came next to Johnson in Miss
Burney's esteem. She was introduced to Elizabeth Montagu and the other
bluestocking ladies, to Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and to the gay Mrs
Mary Cholmondeley, the sister of Peg Woffington, whose manners, as
described in the diary, explain much of _Evelina_. At the suggestion of
Mrs Thrale, and with offers of help from Arthur Murphy, and
encouragement from Sheridan, Fanny began to write a comedy. Crisp,
realizing the limitations of her powers, tried to dissuade her, and the
piece, _The Witlings_, was suppressed in deference to what she called a
"hissing, groaning, catcalling epistle" from her two "daddies."
Meanwhile her intercourse with Mrs Thrale proved very exacting, and left
her little time for writing. She went with her to Bath in 1780, and was
at Streatham again in 1781. Her next book was written partly at
Chessington and after much discussion with Mr Crisp. _Cecilia; or,
Memoirs of an Heiress_, by the author of _Evelina_, was published in 5
vols. in 1782 by Messrs Payne & Cadell (who paid the author £250--not
£2000 as stated by Macaulay). If _Cecilia_ has not quite the freshness
and charm of _Evelina_, it is more carefully constructed, and contains
many happy examples of what Johnson called Miss Burney's gift of
"character-mongering." Burke sent her a letter full of high praise. But
some of her friends found the writing too often modelled on Johnson's,
and Horace Walpole thought the personages spoke too uniformly in
character.
On the 24th of April 1783, Fanny Burney's "most judicious adviser and
stimulating critic," "daddy" Crisp, died. He was her devoted friend, as
she was to him, "the dearest thing on earth." The next year she was to
lose two more friends. Mrs Thrale married Piozzi, and Johnson died.
Fanny had met the celebrated Mrs Delany in 1783, and she now attached
herself to her. Mrs Delany, who was living (1785) in a house near
Windsor Castle presented to her by George III., was on the friendliest
terms with both the king and queen, and Fanny was honoured with more
than one royal interview. Queen Charlotte, soon afterwards, offered Miss
Burney the post of second keeper of the robes, with a salary of £200 a
year, which after some hesitation was accepted. Much has been said
against Dr Burney for allowing the authoress of _Evelina_ and _Cecilia_
to undertake an office which meant separation from all her friends and a
wearisome round of court ceremonial. On the other hand, it may be fairly
urged that Fanny's literary gifts were really limited. She had written
nothing for four years, and apparently felt she had used her best
material. "What my daddy Crisp says," she wrote as early as 1779, "'that
it would be the best policy, but for pecuniary advantages, for me to
write no more,' is exactly what I have always thought since _Evelina_
was published" (_Diary_, i. 258). Her misgivings as to her unfitness for
court life were quite justified. From Queen Charlotte she received
unvarying kindness, though she was not very clever with her
waiting-maid's duties. She had to attend the queen's toilet, to take
care of her lap-dog and her snuff-box, and to help her senior, Mrs
Schwellenberg, in entertaining the king's equerries and visitors at tea.
The constant association with Mrs Schwellenberg, who has been described
as "a peevish old person of uncertain temper and impaired health,
swaddled in the buckram of backstairs etiquette," proved to be the worst
part of Fanny's duties. Her diary is full of amusing court gossip, and
sometimes deals with graver matters, notably in the account of Warren
Hastings' trial, and in the story of the beginning of George III.'s
madness, as seen by a member of his household. But the strain told on
her health, and after pressure both from Fanny and her numerous friends,
Dr Burney prepared with her a joint memorial asking the queen's leave to
resign. She left the royal service in July 1791 with a retiring pension
of £100 a year, granted from the queen's private purse, and returned to
her father's house at Chelsea. Dr Burney had been appointed organist at
Chelsea Hospital in 1783, through Burke's influence.
In 1792 she became acquainted with a group of French exiles, who had
taken a house, Juniper Hall, near Mickleham, where Fanny's sister, Mrs
Phillips, lived. On the 31st of July 1793 she married one of the exiles,
Alexandre D'Arblay, an artillery officer, who had been adjutant-general
to La Fayette. They took a cottage at Bookham on the strength, it
appears, of Miss Burney's pension. In 1793 she produced her _Brief
Reflections relative to the Emigrant French Clergy_. Her son Alexandre
was born on the 18th of December 1794. In the following spring Sheridan
produced at Drury Lane her _Edwy and Elgiva_, a tragedy which was not
saved even by the acting of the Kembles and Mrs Siddons. The play was
never printed. Money was now a serious object, and Madame D'Arblay was
therefore persuaded to issue her next novel, _Camilla: or A Picture of
Youth_ (5 vols., 1796), by subscription. A month after publication Dr
Burney told Horace Walpole that his daughter had made £2000 by the book,
and this sum was almost certainly augmented later. It is interesting to
note that Jane Austen was among the subscribers. Unfortunately its
literary success was not as great. "How I like _Camilla_?" wrote Horace
Walpole to Miss Hannah More (August 29th, 1796), "I do not care to say
how little. Alas! she has reversed experience ... this author knew the
world and penetrated characters before she had stepped over the
threshold; and, now she has seen so much of it, she has little or no
insight at all: perhaps she apprehended having seen too much, and kept
the bags of foul air that she brought from the Cave of Tempests too
closely tied." Nevertheless _Camilla_ has found judicious persons to
admire it, notably Jane Austen in _Northanger Abbey_. A second play,
_Love and Fashion_, was actually put in rehearsal in 1799, but was
withdrawn in the next year. In 1801 Madame D'Arblay accompanied her
husband to Paris, where General D'Arblay eventually obtained a place in
the civil service. In 1812 she returned to England, bringing with her
her son Alexandre to escape the conscription. In 1814 she published _The
Wanderer; or Female Difficulties_. Possibly because readers expected to
find a description of her impressions of revolutionary France, it had a
large sale, from which the author realized £7000. Nobody, it has been
said, ever read _The Wanderer_. In the end of the year General D'Arblay
came to England and took his wife back to France. During the Hundred
Days of 1815 she was in Belgium, and the vivid account in her Diary of
Brussels during Waterloo may have been used by Thackeray in _Vanity
Fair_. General D'Arblay now received permission to settle in England.
After his death, which took place at Bath on the 3rd of May 1818, his
wife lived in Bolton Street, Piccadilly. There she was visited in 1826
by Sir Walter Scott, who describes her (_Journal_, November 18th, 1826)
as an elderly lady with no remains of personal beauty, but with a gentle
manner and a pleasing countenance. The later years of her life were
occupied with the editing of the _Memoirs of Dr Burney, arranged from
his own Manuscripts, from family papers and from personal recollections_
(3 vols., 1832). Her style had, as time went on, altered for the worse,
and this book is full of extraordinary affectations. Madame D'Arblay
died in London on the 6th of January 1840 and was buried at Walcot,
Bath, near her son and husband.
Madame D'Arblay is still read in _Evelina_, but her best title to the
affections of modern readers is the _Diary and Letters_. The small
egotisms of the writer do not alienate other readers as they did John
Wilson Croker. Dr Johnson lives in its pages almost as vividly as in
those of Boswell, and King George and his wife in a friendlier light
than in most of their contemporary portraits. Croker, in _The Quarterly
Review_, April 1833 and June 1842, made two attacks on Madame D'Arblay.
The first is an unfriendly but largely justifiable criticism on the
_Memoirs of Dr Burney_. In the second, a review of the first three
volumes of the _Diary and Letters_, Croker abused the writer's innocent
vanity, and declared that, considering their bulk and pretensions, the
_Diary and Letters_ were "nearly the most worthless we have ever waded
through." These pronouncements drew forth the eloquent defence by Lord
Macaulay, first printed in _The Edinburgh Review_, January 1843, which,
in spite of some inaccuracies and considerable exaggeration, has perhaps
done more than anything else to maintain Madame D'Arblay's constant
popularity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The _Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay_ was edited
by her niece, Charlotte Frances Barrett, in 7 vols. (1842-1846). The
text, covering the years 1778-1840, was edited with preface, notes and
reproductions of contemporary portraits and other illustrations, by Mr
Austin Dobson in 6 vols. (1904-1905). This _Diary_, which begins with
the publication of _Evelina_, was supplemented in 1889 by _The Early
Diary of Frances Burney_ (1768-1778), which was in the first instance
suppressed as being of purely private interest, edited by Mrs Annie
Raine Ellis, with an introduction giving many particulars of the
Burney family. Mrs Ellis also edited _Evelina_ for "Bohn's Novelist's
Library" in 1881, and _Cecilia_ in 1882. See also Austin Dobson's
_Fanny Burney_ (_Madame D'Arblay_) (1903), in the "English Men of
Letters Series."
FOOTNOTE:
[1] His letters to Mrs Gast and another sister, Anne, were edited
with the title of _Burford Papers_ (1906), by W. H. Hutton.
DARBOY, GEORGES (1813-1871), archbishop of Paris, was born at
Fayl-Billot in Haute Marne on the 16th of January 1813. He studied with
distinction at the seminary at Langres, and was ordained priest in 1836.
Transferred to Paris as almoner of the college of Henry IV., and
honorary canon of Notre Dame, he became the close friend of Archbishop
Affre and of his successor Archbishop Sibour. He was appointed bishop of
Nancy in 1859, and in January 1863 was raised to the archbishopric of
Paris. The archbishop was a strenuous upholder of episcopal independence
in the Gallican sense, and involved himself in a controversy with Rome
by his endeavours to suppress the jurisdiction of the Jesuits and other
religious orders within his diocese. Pius IX. refused him the cardinal's
hat, and rebuked him for his liberalism in a letter which was probably
not intended for publication. At the Vatican council he vigorously
maintained the rights of the bishops, and strongly opposed the dogma of
papal infallibility, against which he voted as inopportune. When the
dogma had been finally adopted, however, he was one of the first to set
the example of submission. Immediately after his return to Paris the war
with Prussia broke out, and his conduct during the disastrous year that
followed was marked by a devoted heroism which has secured for him an
enduring fame. He was active in organizing relief for the wounded at the
commencement of the war, remained bravely at his post during the siege,
and refused to seek safety by flight during the brief triumph of the
Commune. On the 4th of April 1871 he was arrested by the communists as a
hostage, and confined in the prison at Mazas, from which he was
transferred to La Roquette on the advance of the army of Versailles. On
the 27th of May he was shot within the prison along with several other
distinguished hostages. He died in the attitude of blessing and uttering
words of forgiveness. His body was recovered with difficulty, and,
having been embalmed, was buried with imposing ceremony at the public
expense on the 7th of June. It is a noteworthy fact that Darboy was the
third archbishop of Paris who perished by violence in the period between
1848 and 1871. Darboy was the author of a number of works, of which the
most important are a _Vie de St Thomas Becket_ (1859), a translation of
the works of St Denis the Areopagite, and a translation of the
_Imitation of Christ_.
See J. A. Foulon, _Histoire de la vie et des oeuvres de Mgr. Darboy_
(Paris, 1889), and J. Guillermin, _Vie de Mgr. Darboy_ (Paris, 1888),
biographies written from the clerical standpoint, which have called
forth a number of pamphlets in reply.
DARCY, THOMAS DARCY, BARON (1467-1537), English soldier, was a son of
Sir William Darcy (d. 1488), and belonged to a family which was seated
at Templehurst in Yorkshire. In early life he served, both as a soldier
and a diplomatist, in Scotland and on the Scottish borders, where he was
captain of Berwick; and in 1505, having been created Baron Darcy, he was
made warden of the east marches towards Scotland. In 1511 Darcy led some
troops to Spain to help Ferdinand and Isabella against the Moors, but he
returned almost at once to England, and was with Henry VIII. on his
French campaign two years later. One of the most influential noblemen in
the north of England, where he held several important offices, Darcy was
also a member of the royal council, dividing his time between state
duties in London and a more active life in the north. He showed great
zeal in preparing accusations against his former friend, Cardinal
Wolsey; however, after the cardinal's fall his words and actions caused
him to be suspected by Henry VIII. Disliking the separation from Rome,
Darcy asserted that matrimonial cases were matters for the decision of
the spiritual power, and he was soon communicating with Eustace Chapuys,
the ambassador of the emperor Charles V., about an invasion of England
in the interests of the Roman Catholics. Detained in London against his
will by the king, he was not allowed to return to Yorkshire until late
in 1535, and about a year after his arrival in the north the rising
known as the Pilgrimage of Grace broke out. For a short time Darcy
defended Pontefract Castle against the rebels, but soon he surrendered
to them this stronghold, which he could certainly have held a little
longer, and was with them at Doncaster, being regarded as one of their
leaders. Upon the dispersal of the insurgents Darcy was pardoned, but he
pleaded illness when Henry requested him to proceed to London. He may
have assisted to suppress the rising which was renewed under Sir Francis
Bigod early in 1537, but the king believed, probably with good reason,
that he was guilty of fresh treasons, and he was seized and hurried to
London. During his imprisonment he uttered his famous remark about
Thomas Cromwell:--"Cromwell, it is thou that art the very original and
chief causer of all this rebellion and mischief, ... and I trust that or
thou die, though thou wouldst procure all the noblemen's heads within
the realm to be stricken off, yet shall there one head remain that shall
strike off thy head." Tried by his peers, Darcy was found guilty of
treason, and was beheaded on the 20th of June 1537. In 1548 his barony
was revived in favour of his son George (d. 1557), but it became extinct
on the death of George's descendant John in 1635.
DARDANELLES (Turk. _Bahr-Sefed Boghazi_), the strait, in ancient times
called the Hellespont (q.v.), uniting the Sea of Marmora with the
Aegean, so called from the two castles which protect the narrowest part
and preserve the name of the city of Dardanus in the Troad, famous for
the treaty between Sulla and Mithradates in 84 B.C. The shores of the
strait are formed by the peninsula of Gallipoli on the N.W. and by the
mainland of Asia Minor on the S.E.; it extends for a distance of about
47 m. with an average breadth of 3 or 4 m. At the Aegean extremity stand
the castles of Sedil Bahr and Kum Kaleh respectively in Europe and Asia;
and near the Marmora extremity are situated the important town of
Gallipoli (Callipolis) on the northern side, and the less important
though equally famous Lamsaki or Lapsaki (Lampsacus) on the southern.
The two castles of the Dardanelles _par excellence_ are Chanak-Kalehsi,
Sultanieh-Kalehsi, or the Old Castle of Anatolia, and Kilid-Bahr, or the
Old Castle of Rumelia, which were long but erroneously identified with
Sestos and Abydos now located farther to the north. The strait of the
Dardanelles is famous in history for the passage of Xerxes by means of a
bridge of boats, and for the similar exploit on the part of Alexander.
It is famous also from the story of Hero and Leander, and from Lord
Byron's successful attempt (repeated by others) to rival the ancient
swimmer. Strategically the Dardanelles is a point of great importance,
since it commands the approach to Constantinople from the Mediterranean.
The passage of the strait is easily defended, but in 1807 the English
admiral (Sir) J. T. Duckworth made his way past all the fortresses into
the Sea of Marmora. The treaty of July 1841, confirmed by the Paris
peace of 1856, prescribed that no foreign ship of war might enter the
strait except by Turkish permission, and even merchant vessels are only
allowed to pass the castle of Chanak-Kalehsi during the day.
See Choiseul-Gouffier, _Voyage pittoresque_ (Paris, 1842); Murray's
_Handbook for Constantinople_ (London, 1900).
DARDANELLES (Turk. _Sultanieh Kalehsi_, or _Chanak Kalehsi_), the chief
town and seat of government of the lesser Turkish province of Bigha,
Asia Minor. It is situated at the mouth of the Rhodius, and at the
narrowest part of the strait of the Dardanelles, where its span is but a
mile across. Its recent growth has been rapid, and it possesses a
lyceum, a military hospital, a public garden, a theatre, quays and
water-works. Exclusive of the garrison, the population is estimated at
13,000, of whom one-half are Turkish, and the remainder Greek, Jewish,
Armenian and European. The town contains many mosques, Greek, Armenian
and Catholic churches, and a synagogue. There is a resident Greek
bishop. The civil governor, and the military commandants of the numerous
fortresses on each side of the strait, are stationed here. Many
important works have been added to the defences. The Ottoman fleet is
stationed at Nagara (anc. _Abydos_). The average annual number of
merchant vessels passing the strait is 12,000 and the regular commercial
vessels calling at the port of Dardanelles are represented by numerous
foreign agencies. Besides the Turkish telegraph service, the Eastern
Telegraph Company has a station at Dardanelles, and there are Turkish,
Austrian, French and Russian post offices. The import trade consists of
manufactures, sugar, flour, coffee, rice, leather and iron. The export
trade consists of valonia (largely produced in the province), wheat,
barley, beans, chickpeas, canary seed, liquorice root, pine and oak
timber, wine and pottery. Excepting in the items of wine and pottery,
the export trade shows steady increase. Every year sees a larger area of
land brought under cultivation by immigrants, and adds to the number of
mature (i.e. fruit-bearing) valonia trees. Vine-growers are discouraged
by heavy fiscal charges, and by the low price of wine; many have
uprooted their vineyards. The pottery trade is affected by change of
fashion, and the factories are losing their importance. The lower
quarters of the town were heavily damaged in the winter of 1900-1901 by
repeated inundations caused by the overflow of the Rhodius.
See V. Cuinet, _Turquie d'Asie_ (Paris, 1890-1900).
DARDANUS, in Greek legend, son of Zeus and Electra, the mythical founder
of Dardanus on the Hellespont and ancestor of the Dardans of the Troad
and, through Aeneas, of the Romans. His original home was supposed to
have been Arcadia, where he married Chryse, who brought him as dowry the
Palladium or image of Pallas, presented to her by the goddess herself.
Having slain his brother Iasius or Iasion (according to others, Iasius
was struck by lightning), Dardanus fled across the sea. He first stopped
at Samothrace, and when the island was visited by a flood, crossed over
to the Troad. Being hospitably received by Teucer, he married his
daughter Batea and became the founder of the royal house of Troy.
See Apollodorus iii. 12; Diod. Sic. v. 48-75; Virgil, _Aeneid_, iii.
163 ff.; articles in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopädie_ and Roscher's
_Lexikon der Mythologie_.
DARDISTAN, a purely conventional name given by scientists to a tract of
country on the north-west frontier of India. There is no modern race
called Dards, and no country so named by its inhabitants, but the
inhabitants of the right bank of the Indus, from the Kandia river to
Batera, apply it to the dwellers on the left bank. In the scientific use
of the appellation, Dardistan comprises the whole of Chitral, Yasin,
Panyal, the Gilgit valley, Hunza and Nagar, the Astor valley, the Indus
valley from Bunji to Batera, the Kohistan-Malazai, i.e. the upper
reaches of the Panjkora river, and the Kohistan of Swat. The so-called
Dard races are referred to by Pliny and Ptolemy, and are supposed to be
a people of Aryan origin who ascended the Indus valley from the plains
of the Punjab, reaching as far north as Chitral, where they dispossessed
the Khos. They have left their traces in the different dialects,
Khoswar, Burishki and Shina, spoken in the Gilgit agency.
The question of Dardistan is debated at length in Leitner's
_Dardistan_ (1877); Drew's _Jummoo and Kashmir Territories_ (1875);
Biddulph's _Tribes of the Hindu-Kush_ (1880) and Durand's _The Making
of a Frontier_ (1899). For further details see GILGIT.
DARES PHRYGIUS, according to Homer (_Iliad_, v. 9) a Trojan priest of
Hephaestus. He was supposed to have been the author of an account of the
destruction of Troy, and to have lived before Homer (Aelian, _Var.
Hist._ xi. 2). A work in Latin, purporting to be a translation of this,
and entitled _Daretis Phrygii de excidio Trojae historia_, was much read
in the middle ages, and was then ascribed to Cornelius Nepos, who is
made to dedicate it to Sallust; but the language is extremely corrupt,
and the work belongs to a period much later than the time of Nepos
(probably the 5th century A.D.). It is doubtful whether the work as we
have it is an abridgment of a larger Latin work or an adaptation of a
Greek original. Together with the similar work of Dictys Cretensis (with
which it is generally printed) the _De excidio_ forms the chief source
for the numerous middle age accounts of the Trojan legend. (See DICTYS;
and O. S. von Fleschenberg, _Daresstudien_, 1908.)
DAR-ES-SALAAM ("The harbour of peace"), a seaport of East Africa, in 6°
50´ S. 39° 20´ E., capital of German East Africa. Pop. (1909) estimated
at 24,000, including some 500 Europeans. The entrance to the harbor,
which is perfectly sheltered (hence its name), is through a narrow
opening in the palm-covered shore. The harbour is provided with a
floating dock, completed in 1902. The town is built on the northern
sweep of the harbour and is European in character. The streets are wide
and regularly laid out. The public buildings, which are large and
handsome, include the government and customs offices on the quay
opposite the spot where the mail boats anchor, the governor's house,
state hospital, post office, and the Boma or barracks. Adjoining the
governor's residence are the botanical gardens, where many European
plants are tested with a view to acclimatization. There are various
churches, and government and mission schools. In the town are the head
offices of the Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft, the largest trading
company in German East Africa. The mangrove swamps at the north-west end
of the harbour have been drained and partially built over.
Until the German occupation nothing but an insignificant village existed
at Dar-es-Salaam. In 1862 Said Majid, sultan of Zanzibar, decided to
build a town on the shores of the bay, and began the erection of a
palace, which was never finished, and of which but scanty ruins remain.
In 1871 Said Majid died, and his scheme was abandoned. In 1876 Mr
(afterwards Sir) William McKinnon began the construction of a road from
Dar-es-Salaam to Victoria Nyanza, intending to make of Dar-es-Salaam an
important seaport. This project however failed. In 1887 Dr Carl Peters
occupied the bay in the name of the German East Africa Company. Fighting
with the Arabs followed, and in 1889 the company handed over their
settlement to the German imperial government. In 1891 the town was made
the administrative capital of the colony. It is the starting point of a
railway to Mrogoro, and is connected by overland telegraph via Ujiji
with South Africa. A submarine cable connects the town with Zanzibar.
Dar-es-Salaam was laid out by the Germans on an ambitious scale in the
expectation that it would prove an important centre of commerce, but
trade developed very slowly. Ivory, rubber and copal are the chief
exports. The trade returns are included in those of German East Africa
(q.v.).
DARESTE DE LA CHAVANNE, ANTOINE ELISABETH CLÉOPHAS (1820-1882), French
historian, was born in Paris on the 28th of October 1820, of an old
Lyons family. Educated at the École des Chartes, he became professor in
the faculty of letters at Grenoble in 1844, and in 1849 at Lyons, where
he remained nearly thirty years. He died on the 6th of August 1882. His
works comprise: _Histoire de l'administration en France depuis
Philippe-Auguste_ (2 vols., 1848); _Histoire des classes agricoles en
France depuis saint Louis jusqu'à Louis XVI_ (2 vols., 1853 and 1858),
now quite obsolete; and a _Histoire de France_ (8 vols., 1865-1873),
completed by a _Histoire de la Restauration_ (2 vols., 1880), a good
summary of the work of Veil-Castel, and by a _Histoire du Gouvernement
de Juillet_, a dry enumeration of dates and facts. Before the
publication of Lavisse's great work, Dareste's general history of France
was the best of its kind; it surpassed in accuracy the work of Henri
Martin, especially in the ancient periods, just as Martin's in its turn
was an improvement upon that of Sismondi.
DARESTE DE LA CHAVANNE, RODOLPHE MADELEINE CLÉOPHAS (1824- ), French
jurist, was born in Paris on the 25th of December 1824. He studied at
the École des Chartes and the École de Droit, and starting early on a
legal career he rose to be counsellor to the court of cassation (1877 to
1900). His first publication was an _Essai sur François Hotman_ (1850),
completed later by his publication of Hotman's correspondence in the
_Revue historique_ (1876), and he devoted the whole of his leisure to
legal history. Of his writings may be mentioned _Les Anciennes Lois de
l'Islande_ (1881); _Mémoire sur les anciens monuments du droit de la
Hongrie_ (1885), and _Études d'histoire du droit_ (1889). On Greek law
he wrote some notable works: _Du prêt à la grosse chez les Athéniens_
(1867); _Les Inscriptions hypothécaires en Grèce_ (1885), _La Science du
droit en Grèce: Platon, Aristote, Thêophraste_ (1893), and _Étude sur la
loi de Gortyne_ (1885). He collaborated with Théodore Reinach and B.
Haussoullier in their _Recueil des inscriptions juridiques grecques_
(1905), and his name is worthily associated with the edition of Philippe
de Beaumanoir's _Coutumes de Beauvaisis_, published by Salmon (2 vols.,
1899, 1900).
DARFUR, a country of east central Africa, the westernmost state of the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It extends from about 10° N. to 16° N. and from
21° E. to 27° 30´ E., has an area of some 150,000 sq. m., and an
estimated population of 750,000. It is bounded N. by the Libyan desert,
W. by Wadai (French Congo), S. by the Bahr-el-Ghazal and E. by Kordofan.
The two last-named districts are _mudirias_ (provinces) of the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The greater part of the country is a plateau from
2000 to 3000 ft. above sea-level. A range of mountains of volcanic
origin, the Jebel Marra, runs N. and S. about the line of the 24° E. for
a distance of over 100 m., its highest points attaining from 5000 to
6000 ft. East to west this chain extends about 80 m. Eastward the
mountains fall gradually into sandy, bush-covered steppes. North-east of
Jebel Marra lies the Jebel Medob (3500 ft. high), a range much distorted
by volcanic action, and Bir-el-Melh, an extinct volcano with a crater
150 ft. deep. South of Jebel Marra are the plains of Dar Dima and Dar
Uma; S.W. of the Marra the plain is 4000 ft. above the sea. The
watershed separating the basins of the Nile and Lake Chad runs north and
south through the centre of the country. The mountains are scored by
numerous _khors_, whose lower courses can be traced across the
tableland. The khors formerly contained large rivers which flowed N.E.
and E. to the Nile, W. and S.W. to Lake Chad, S. and S.E. to the
Bahr-el-Ghazal. The streams going N.E. drain to the Wadi Melh, a dry
river-bed which joins the Nile near Debba, but on reaching the plain the
waters sink into the sandy soil and disappear. The torrents flowing
directly east towards the Nile also disappear in the sandy deserts. The
khors in the W., S.W. and S.,--the most fertile part of Darfur--contain
turbulent torrents in the rainy season, when much of the southern
district is flooded. Not one of the streams is perennial, but in times
of heavy rainfall the waters of some khors reach the Bahr-el-Homr
tributary of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. (For some 200 m. the Bahr-el-Homr marks
the southern frontier of the country.) In the W. and S. water can always
be obtained in the dry season by digging 5 or 6 ft. below the surface of
the khors.
The climate, except in the south, where the rains are heavy and the soil
is a damp clay, is healthy except after the rains. The rainy season
lasts for three months, from the middle of June to the middle of
September. In the neighbourhood of the khors the vegetation is fairly
rich. The chief trees are the acacias whence gum is obtained, and baobab
(_Adansonia digitata_); while the sycamore and, in the Marra mountains,
the _Euphorbia candelabrum_ are also found. In the S.W. are densely
forested regions. Cotton and tobacco are indigenous. The most fertile
land is found on the slopes of the mountains, where wheat, durra,
_dukhn_ (a kind of millet and the staple food of the people) and other
grains are grown. Other products are sesame, cotton, cucumbers,
water-melons and onions.
Copper is obtained from Hofrat-el-Nahas in the S.E., iron is wrought in
the S.W.; and there are deposits of rock-salt in various places. The
copper mines (in 9° 48´ N. 24° 5´ E.) are across the Darfur frontier in
the Bahr-el-Ghazal province. The vein runs N.W. and S.E. and in places
rises in ridges 2 ft. above the general level of ground. There is an
immense quantity of ore, (silicate and carbonate) specimens containing
14% of metal. Camels and cattle are both numerous and of excellent
breeds. Some of the Arab tribes, such as the Baggara, breed only cattle,
those in the north and east confine themselves to rearing camels. Horses
are comparatively rare; they are a small but sturdy breed. Sheep and
goats are numerous. The ostrich, common in the eastern steppes, is bred
by various Arab tribes, its feathers forming a valuable article of
trade.
_Inhabitants._--The population of Darfur consists of negroes and Arabs.
The negro _For_, forming quite half the inhabitants, occupy the central
highlands and part of the Dar Dima and Dar Uma districts; they speak a
special language, and are subdivided into numerous tribes, of which the
most influential are the Masabat, the Kunjara and the Kera. They are of
middle height, and have rather irregular features. The _For_ are
described as clean and industrious, somewhat fanatical, but generally
amenable to civilization, and freedom-loving. The _Massalit_ are a
negro tribe which, breaking off from the For some centuries back, have
now much Arab blood, and speak Arabic; while the _Tunjur_ are an Arab
tribe which must have arrived in the Sudan at a very early date, as they
have incorporated a large For element, and no longer profess
Mahommedanism. The _Dago_ (_Tago_) formerly inhabited Jebel Marra, but
they have been driven to the south and west, where they maintain a
certain independence in Dar Sula, but are treated as inferiors by the
For. The Zaghawa, who inhabit the northern borders, are on the contrary
regarded by the For as their equals, and have all the prestige of a race
that at one time made its influence felt as far as Bornu. Among other
tribes may be mentioned the Berti and Takruri, the Birgirid, the
Beraunas, and immigrants from Wadai and Bagirmi, and Fula from west of
Lake Chad. Genuine Arab tribes, e.g. the Baggara and Homr, are numerous,
and they are partly nomadic and partly settled. The Arabs have not,
generally speaking, mixed with the negro tribes. They are great hunters,
making expeditions into the desert for five or six days at a time in
search of ostriches.
Slaves, ostrich feathers, gum and ivory used to be the chief articles of
trade, a caravan going annually by the Arbain ("Forty Days") road to
Assiut in Egypt and taking back cloth, fire-arms and other articles. The
slave trade has ceased, but feathers, gum and ivory still constitute the
chief exports of the country. The principal imports are cotton goods,
sugar and tea. There is also an active trade in camels and cattle.
The internal administration of the country is in the hands of the
sultan, who is officially recognized as the agent of the Sudan
government. The administrative system resembles that of other Mahommedan
countries.
_Towns._--The capital is El-Fasher, pop. about 10,000, on the western
bank of the Wadi Tendelty in an angle formed by the junction of that
wadi with the Wadi-el-Kho, one of the streams which flow towards the
Bahr-el-Homr. Fasher is the residence of the sultan. There are a few
fine buildings, but the town consists mainly of tukls and box-shaped
straw sheds. It is 500 m. W.S.W. of Khartum. Dara, a small market town,
is 110 m. S. of El-Fasher. Shakka is in the S.E. of the country near the
Bahr-el-Homr, and was formerly the headquarters of the slave dealers.
_History._--The Dago or Tago negroes, inhabitants of Jebel Marra, appear
to have been the dominant race in Darfur in the earliest period to which
the history of the country goes back. How long they ruled is uncertain,
little being known of them save a list of kings. According to tradition
the Tago dynasty was displaced, and Mahommedanism introduced, about the
14th century, by Tunjur Arabs, who reached Darfur by way of Bornu and
Wadai. The first Tunjur king was Ahmed-el-Makur, who married the
daughter of the last Tago monarch. Ahmed reduced many unruly chiefs to
submission, and under him the country prospered. His great-grandson, the
sultan Dali, a celebrated figure in Darfur histories, was on his
mother's side a For, and thus was effected a union between the negro and
Arab races. Dali divided the country into provinces, and established a
penal code, which, under the title of _Kitab Dali_ or Dali's Book, is
still preserved, and shows principles essentially different from those
of the Koran. His grandson Soleiman (usually distinguished by the Forian
epithet _Solon_, the Arab or the Red) reigned from 1596 to 1637, and was
a great warrior and a devoted Mahommedan. Soleiman's grandson, Ahmed
Bahr (1682-1722), made Islam the religion of the state, and increased
the prosperity of the country by encouraging immigration from Bornu and
Bagirmi. His rule extended east of the Nile as far as the banks of the
Atbara. Under succeeding monarchs the country, involved in wars with
Sennar and Wadai, declined in importance. Towards the end of the 18th
century a sultan named Mahommed Terab led an army against the Funj, but
got no further than Omdurman. Here he was stopped by the Nile, and found
no means of getting his army across the river. Unwilling to give up his
project, Terab remained at Omdurman for months. He was poisoned by his
wife at the instigation of disaffected chiefs, and the army returned to
Darfur. The next monarch was Abd-er-Rahman, surnamed el-Raschid or the
Just. It was during his reign that Napoleon Bonaparte was campaigning
in Egypt; and in 1799 Abd-er-Rahman wrote to congratulate the French
general on his defeat of the Mamelukes. To this Bonaparte replied by
asking the sultan to send him by the next caravan 2000 black slaves
upwards of sixteen years old, strong and vigorous. To Abd-er-Rahman
likewise is due the present situation of the _Fasher_, or royal
township. The capital had formerly been at a place called Kobbé.
Mahommed-el-Fadhl, his son, was for some time under the control of an
energetic eunuch, Mahommed Kurra, but he ultimately made himself
independent, and his reign lasted till 1839, when he died of leprosy. He
devoted himself largely to the subjection of the semi-independent Arab
tribes who lived in the country, notably the Rizighat, thousands of whom
he slew. In 1821 he lost the province of Kordofan, which in that year
was conquered by the Egyptians. Of his forty sons, the third, Mahommed
Hassin, was appointed his successor. Hassin is described as a religious
but avaricious man. In the later part of his reign he became involved in
trouble with the Arab slave raiders who had seized the Bahr-el-Ghazal,
looked upon by the Darfurians as their especial "slave preserve." The
negroes of Bahr-el-Ghazal paid tribute of ivory and slaves to Darfur,
and these were the chief articles of merchandise sold by the Darfurians
to the Egyptian traders along the Arbain road to Assiut. The loss of the
Bahr-el-Ghazal caused therefore much annoyance to the people of Darfur.
Hassin died in 1873, blind and advanced in years, and the succession
passed to his youngest son Ibrahim, who soon found himself engaged in a
conflict with Zobeir (q.v.), the chief of the Bahr-el-Ghazal slave
traders, and with an Egyptian force from Khartum. The war resulted in
the destruction of the kingdom. Ibrahim was slain in battle in the
autumn of 1874, and his uncle Hassab Alla, who sought to maintain the
independence of his country, was captured in 1875 by the troops of the
khedive, and removed to Cairo with his family. The Darfurians were
restive under Egyptian rule. Various revolts were suppressed, but in
1879 General Gordon (then governor-general of the Sudan) suggested the
reinstatement of the ancient royal family. This was not done, and in
1881 Slatin Bey (Sir Rudolf von Slatin) was made governor of the
province. Slatin defended the province against the forces of the Mahdi,
who were led by a Rizighat sheik named Madibbo, but was obliged to
surrender (December 1883), and Darfur was incorporated in the Mahdi's
dominions. The Darfurians found Dervish rule as irksome as that of the
Egyptians had been, and a state of almost constant warfare ended in the
gradual retirement of the Dervishes from Darfur. Following the overthrow
of the khalifa at Omdurman in 1898 the new (Anglo-Egyptian) Sudan
government recognized (1899) Ali Dinar, a grandson of Mahommed-el-Fadhl,
as sultan of Darfur, on the payment by that chief of an annual tribute
of £500. Under Ali Dinar, who during the _Mahdia_ had been kept a
prisoner in Omdurman, Darfur enjoyed a period of peace.
The first European traveller known to have visited Darfur was William
George Browne (q.v.), who spent two years (1793-1795) at Kobbé. Sheik
Mahommed-el-Tounsi travelled in 1803 through various regions of Africa,
including Darfur, in search of Omar, his father, and afterwards gave to
the world an account of his wanderings, which was translated into French
in 1845 by M. Perron. Gustav Nachtigal in 1873 spent some months in
Darfur, and since that time the country has become well known through
the journeys of Gordon, Slatin and others.
AUTHORITIES.--Browne's account of Darfur will be found in his _Travels
in Africa, Egypt and Syria_ (London, 1799); Nachtigal's _Sahara und
Sudan_ gives the results of that traveller's observations. The first
ten chapters of Slatin Pasha's book _Fire and Sword in the Sudan_
(English edition, London, 1896) contain much information concerning
the country, its history, and a full account of the overthrow of
Egyptian authority by the Mahdi. See also _The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan_
(London, 1905), edited by Count Gleichen, and the bibliography given
under SUDAN.
DARGAI, the name of a mountain peak and a frontier station in the
north-west Frontier Province of India. The mountain peak is situated on
the Samana Range, and the Kohat border, and is famous for the stand made
there by the Afridis and Orakzais in the Tirah Campaign. (See TIRAH
CAMPAIGN.) Dargai station is situated on the Peshawar border, and is the
terminus of the frontier railway running from Nowshera to the Malakand
Pass.
DARGOMIJSKY, ALEXANDER SERGEIVICH (1813-1869), Russian composer, was
born in 1813, and educated in St Petersburg. He was already known as a
talented musical amateur when in 1833 he met Glinka and was encouraged
to devote himself to composition. His light opera _Esmeralda_ was
written in 1839, and his _Roussalka_ was performed in 1856, but he had
but small success or recognition either at home or abroad, except in
Belgium, till the 'sixties, when he became one of Balakirev's circle.
His opera _The Stone Guest_ then became famous among the progressive
Russian school, though it was not performed till 1872. Dargomijsky died
in January 1869. His compositions include a number of songs, and some
orchestral pieces.
DARIAL, a gorge in the Caucasus, at the east foot of Mt. Kasbek, pierced
by the river Terek for a distance of 8 m. between vertical walls of rock
(5900 ft.). It is mentioned in the Georgian annals under the names of
Ralani, Dargani, Darialani; the Persians and Arabs knew it as the Gate
of the Alans; Strabo calls it _Porta Caucasica_ and _Porta Cumana_;
Ptolemy, _Porta Sarmatica_; it was sometimes known as _Portae Caspiae_
(a name bestowed also on the "gate" or pass beside the Caspian at
Derbent); and the Tatars call it _Darioly_. Being the only available
passage across the Caucasus, it has been fortified since a remote
period--at least since 150 B.C. In Russian poetry it has been
immortalized by Lermontov. The present Russian fort, Darial, which
guards this section of the Georgian military road, is at the northern
issue of the gorge, at an altitude of 4746 ft.
DARIEN, a district covering the eastern part of the isthmus joining
Central and South America. It is mainly within the republic of Panama,
and gives its name to a gulf of the Carribbean Sea. Darien is of great
interest in the history of geographical discovery. It was reconnoitred
in the first year of the 16th century by Rodrigo Bastidas of Seville;
and the first settlement was Santa Maria la Antigua, situated on the
small Darien river, north-west of the mouth of the Atrato. In 1513 Vasco
Nuñez de Balboa stood "silent upon a peak in Darien,"[1] and saw the
Pacific at his feet stretching inland in the Gulf of San Miguel; and for
long this narrow neck of land seemed alternately to proffer and refuse a
means of transit between the two oceans. The first serious attempt to
turn the isthmus to permanent account as a trade route dates from the
beginning of the 18th century, and forms an interesting chapter in
Scottish history. In 1695 an act was passed by the Scottish parliament
giving extensive powers to a company trading to Africa and the Indies;
and this company, under the advice of one of the most remarkable
economists of the period, William Paterson (q.v.), determined to
establish a colony on the isthmus of Darien as a general emporium for
the commerce of all the nations of the world. Regarded with disfavour
both in England and Holland, the project was taken up in Scotland with
the enthusiasm of national rivalry towards England, and the
"subscriptions sucked up all the money in the country." On the 26th of
July 1698 the pioneers set sail from Leith amid the cheers of an almost
envious multitude; and on the 4th of November, with the loss of only
fifteen out of 1200 men, they arrived at Darien, and took up their
quarters in a well-defended spot, with a good harbour and excellent
outlook. The country they named New Caledonia, and two sites selected
for future cities were designated respectively New Edinburgh and New St
Andrews. At first all seemed to go well; but by and by lack of
provisions, sickness and anarchy reduced the settlers to the most
miserable plight; and in June 1699 they re-embarked in three vessels, a
weak and hopeless company, to sail whithersoever Providence might
direct. Meanwhile a supplementary expedition had been prepared in
Scotland; two vessels were despatched in May, and four others followed
in August. But this venture proved even more unfortunate than the
former. The colonists arrived broken in health; their spirits were
crushed by the fate of their predecessors, and embittered by the harsh
fanaticism of the four ministers whom the general assembly of the Church
of Scotland had sent out to establish a regular presbyterial
organization. The last addition to the settlement was the company of
Captain Alexander Campbell of Fonab, who arrived only to learn that a
Spanish force of 1500 or 1600 men lay encamped at Tubacanti, on the
river Santa Maria, waiting for the appearance of a Spanish squadron in
order to make a combined attack on the fort. Captain Campbell, on the
second day after his arrival, marched with 200 men across the isthmus to
Tubacanti, stormed the camp in the night-time, and dispersed the Spanish
force. On his return to the fort on the fifth day he found it besieged
by the Spaniards from the men-of-war; and, after a vain attempt to
maintain its defence, he succeeded with a few companions in making his
escape in a small vessel. A capitulation followed, and the Darien colony
was no more. Of those who had taken part in the enterprise only a
miserable handful ever reached their native land.
See J. H. Burton, _The Darien Papers_ (Bannatyne Club, 1849);
Macaulay, _History of England_ (London, 1866); and A. Lang, _History
of Scotland_, vol. iv. (Edinburgh, 1907).
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Keats, in his famous sonnet beginning:--"Much have I travelled in
the realms of gold," of which this is the concluding line,
inaccurately substitutes Cortez for Balboa.
DARIUS (Pers. _Darayavaush_; Old Test. _Daryavesh_), the name of three
Persian kings.
1. DARIUS THE GREAT, the son of Hystaspes (q.v.). The principal source
for his history is his own inscriptions, especially the great
inscription of Behistun (q.v.), in which he relates how he gained the
crown and put down the rebellions. In modern times his veracity has
often been doubted, but without any sufficient reason; the whole tenor
of his words shows that we can rely upon his account. The accounts given
by Herodotus and Ctesias of his accession are in many points evidently
dependent on this official version, with many legendary stories
interwoven, e.g. that Darius and his allies left the question as to
which of them should become king to the decision of their horses, and
that Darius won the crown by a trick of his groom.
Darius belonged to a younger branch of the royal family of the
Achaemenidae. When, after the suicide of Cambyses (March 521), the
usurper Gaumata ruled undisturbed over the whole empire under the name
of Bardiya (Smerdis), son of Cyrus, and no one dared to gainsay him,
Darius, "with the help of Ahura-mazda," attempted to regain the kingdom
for the royal race. His father Hystaspes was still alive, but evidently
had not the courage to urge his claims. Assisted by six noble Persians,
whose names he proclaims at the end of the Behistun inscription, he
surprised and killed the usurper in a Median fortress (October 521; for
the chronology of these times cf. E. Meyer, _Forschungen zur alten
Geschichte_, ii. 472 ff.), and gained the crown. But this sudden change
was the signal for an attempt on the part of all the eastern provinces
to regain their independence. In Susiana, Babylon, Media, Sagartia,
Margiana, usurpers arose, pretending to be of the old royal race, and
gathered large armies around them; in Persia itself Vahyazdata imitated
the example of Gaumata and was acknowledged by the majority of the
people as the true Bardiya. Darius with only a small army of Persians
and Medes and some trustworthy generals overcame all difficulties, and
in 520 and 519 all the rebellions were put down (Babylon rebelled twice,
Susiana even three times), and the authority of Darius was established
throughout the empire.
Darius in his inscriptions appears as a fervent believer in the true
religion of Zoroaster. But he was also a great statesman and organizer.
The time of conquests had come to an end; the wars which Darius
undertook, like those of Augustus, only served the purpose of gaining
strong natural frontiers for the empire and keeping down the barbarous
tribes on its borders. Thus Darius subjugated the wild nations of the
Pontic and Armenian mountains, and extended the Persian dominion to the
Caucasus; for the same reasons he fought against the Sacae and other
Turanian tribes. But by the organization which he gave to the empire he
became the true successor of the great Cyrus. His organization of the
provinces and the fixing of the tributes is described by Herodotus iii.
90 ff., evidently from good official sources. He fixed the coinage and
introduced the gold coinage of the Daric (which is not named after him,
as the Greeks believed, but derived from a Persian word meaning "gold";
in Middle Persian it is called _zarig_). He tried to develop the
commerce of the empire, and sent an expedition down the Kabul and the
Indus, led by the Carian captain Scylax of Caryanda, who explored the
Indian Ocean from the mouth of the Indus to Suez. He dug a canal from
the Nile to Suez, and, as the fragments of a hieroglyphic inscription
found there show, his ships sailed from the Nile through the Red Sea by
Saba to Persia. He had connexions with Carthage (i.e. the _Karka_ of the
Nakshi Rustam inscr.), and explored the shores of Sicily and Italy. At
the same time he attempted to gain the good-will of the subject nations,
and for this purpose promoted the aims of their priests. He allowed the
Jews to build the Temple of Jerusalem. In Egypt his name appears on the
temples which he built in Memphis, Edfu and the Great Oasis. He called
the high-priest of Saïs, Uzahor, to Susa (as we learn from his
inscription in the Vatican), and gave him full powers to reorganize the
"house of life," the great medical school of the temple of Saïs. In the
Egyptian traditions he is considered as one of the great benefactors and
lawgivers of the country (Herod. ii. 110, Diod. i. 95). In similar
relations he stood to the Greek sanctuaries (cf. his rescript to "his
slave" Godatas, the inspector of a royal park near Magnesia, on the
Maeander, in which he grants freedom of taxes and forced labour to the
sacred territory of Apollo. See Cousin and Deschamps, _Bulletin de
corresp. hellén._, xiii. (1889), 529, and Dittenberger, _Sylloge inscr.
graec._, 2); all the Greek oracles in Asia Minor and Europe therefore
stood on the side of Persia in the Persian wars and admonished the
Greeks to attempt no resistance.
About 512 Darius undertook a war against the Scythians. A great army
crossed the Bosporus, subjugated eastern Thrace, and crossed the Danube.
The purpose of this war can only have been to attack the nomadic
Turanian tribes in the rear and thus to secure peace on the northern
frontier of the empire. It was based upon a wrong geographical
conception; even Alexander and his Macedonians believed that on the
Hindu Kush (which they called Caucasus) and on the shores of the
Jaxartes (which they called Tanais, i.e. Don) they were quite near to
the Black Sea. Of course the expedition undertaken on these grounds
could not but prove a failure; having advanced for some weeks into the
Russian steppes, Darius was forced to return. The details given by
Herodotus (according to him Darius had reached the Volga!) are quite
fantastical; and the account which Darius himself had given on a tablet,
which was added to his great inscription in Behistun, is destroyed with
the exception of a few words. (See R. W. Macan, _Herodotus_, vol. ii.
appendix 3; G. B. Grundy, _Great Persian War_, pp. 48-64; J. B. Bury in
_Classical Review_, July 1897.)
Although European Greece was intimately connected with the coasts of
Asia Minor, and the opposing parties in the Greek towns were continually
soliciting his intervention, Darius did not meddle with their affairs.
The Persian wars were begun by the Greeks themselves. The support which
Athens and Eretria gave to the rebellious Ionians and Carians made their
punishment inevitable as soon as the rebellion had been put down. But
the first expedition, that of Mardonius, failed on the cliffs of Mt.
Athos (492), and the army which was led into Attica by Datis in 490 was
beaten at Marathon. Before Darius had finished his preparations for a
third expedition an insurrection broke out in Egypt (486). In the next
year Darius died, probably in October 485, after a reign of thirty-six
years. He is one of the greatest rulers the east has produced.
2. DARIUS II., OCHUS. Artaxerxes I., who died in the beginning of 424,
was followed by his son Xerxes II. But after a month and a half he was
murdered by his brother Secydianus, or Sogdianus (the form of the name
is uncertain). Against him rose a bastard brother, Ochus, satrap of
Hyrcania, and after a short fight killed him, and suppressed by
treachery the attempt of his own brother Arsites to imitate his example
(Ctesias _ap._ Phot. 44; Diod. xii. 71, 108; Pausan. vi. 5, 7). Ochus
adopted the name Darius (in the chronicles called _Nothos_, the
bastard). Neither Xerxes II. nor Secydianus occurs in the dates of the
numerous Babylonian tablets from Nippur; here the dates of Darius II.
follow immediately on those of Artaxerxes I. Of Darius II.'s reign we
know very little (a rebellion of the Medes in 409 is mentioned in
Xenophon, _Hellen._ i. 2. 19), except that he was quite dependent on his
wife Parysatis. In the excerpts from Ctesias some harem intrigues are
recorded, in which he played a disreputable part. As long as the power
of Athens remained intact he did not meddle in Greek affairs; even the
support which the Athenians in 413 gave to the rebel Amorges in Caria
would not have roused him (Andoc. iii. 29; Thuc. viii. 28, 54; Ctesias
wrongly names his father Pissuthnes in his stead; an account of these
wars is contained in the great Lycian stele from Xanthus in the British
Museum), had not the Athenian power broken down in the same year before
Syracuse. He gave orders to his satraps in Asia Minor, Tissaphernes and
Pharnabazus, to send in the overdue tribute of the Greek towns, and to
begin war with Athens; for this purpose they entered into an alliance
with Sparta. In 408 he sent his son Cyrus to Asia Minor, to carry on the
war with greater energy. In 404 he died after a reign of nineteen years,
and was followed by Artaxerxes II.
3. DARIUS III., CODOMANNUS. The eunuch Bagoas (q.v.), having murdered
Artaxerxes III. in 338 and his son Arses in 336, raised to the throne a
distant relative of the royal house, whose name, according to Justin x.
3, was Codomannus, and who had excelled in a war against the Cadusians
(cf. Diod. xvii. 5 ff., where his father is called Arsames, son of
Ostanes, a brother of Artaxerxes). The new king, who adopted the name of
Darius, took warning by the fate of his predecessors, and saved himself
from it by forcing Bagoas to drink the cup himself. Already in 336
Philip II. of Macedon had sent an army into Asia Minor, and in the
spring of 334 the campaign of Alexander began. In the following year
Darius himself took the field against the Macedonian king, but was
beaten at Issus and in 331 at Arbela. In his flight to the east he was
deposed and killed by Bessus (July 330).
The name Darius was also borne by many later dynasts of Persian
origin, among them kings of Persis (q.v.), Darius of Media Atropatene
who was defeated by Pompeius, and Darius, king of Pontus in the time
of Antony. (Ed. M.)
DARJEELING, a hill station and district of British India, in the
Bhagalpur division of Bengal. The sanatorium is situated 367 m. by rail
north of Calcutta. In 1901 it had a population of 16,924. It is the
summer quarters of the Bengal government and has a most agreeable
climate, which neither exceeds 80° F. in summer, nor falls below 30° in
winter. The great attraction of Darjeeling is its scenery, which is
unspeakably grand. The view across the hills to Kinchinjunga discloses a
glittering white wall of perpetual snow, surrounded by towering masses
of granite. There are several schools of considerable size for European
boys and girls, and a government boarding school at Kurseong. The
buildings and the roads suffered severely from the earthquake of the
12th of June 1897. But a more terrible disaster occurred in October
1899, when a series of landslips carried away houses and broke up the
hill railway. The total value of the property destroyed was returned at
£160,000.
The district of Darjeeling comprises an area of 1164 sq. m. It consists
of two well-defined tracts, _viz._ the lower Himalayas to the south of
Sikkim, and the _tarai_, or plains, which extend from the south of these
ranges as far as the northern borders of Purnea district. The plains
from which the hills take their rise are only 300 ft. above sea-level;
the mountains ascend abruptly in spurs of 6000 to 10,000 ft. in height.
The scenery throughout the hills is picturesque, and in many parts
magnificent. The two highest mountains in the world, Kinchinjunga in
Sikkim (28,156 ft.) and Everest in Nepal (29,002 ft.), are visible from
the town of Darjeeling. The principal peaks within the district
are--Phalut (11,811 ft.), Subargum (11,636), Tanglu (10,084), Situng and
Sinchal Pahai (8163). The chief rivers are the Tista, Great and Little
Ranjit, Ramman, Mahananda, Balasan and Jaldhaka. None of them is
navigable in the mountain valleys; but the Tista, after it debouches on
the plains, can be navigated by cargo boats of considerable burthen.
Bears, leopards and musk deer are found on the higher mountains, deer on
the lower ranges, and a few elephants and tigers on the slopes nearest
to the plains. In the lowlands, tigers, rhinoceroses, deer and wild hogs
are abundant. A few wolves are also found. Of small game, hares, jungle
fowl, peacocks, partridges, snipe, woodcock, wild ducks and geese, and
green pigeons are numerous in the _tarai_, and jungle fowl and pheasants
in the hills. The mahseer fish is found in the Tista.
In 1901 the population was 249,117, showing an increase of 12% since
1891, compared with an increase of 43% in the previous decade. The
inhabitants of the hilly tract consist to a large extent of Nepali
immigrants and of aboriginal highland races; in the _tarai_ the people
are chiefly Hindus and Mahommedans. The Lepchas are considered to be the
aboriginal inhabitants of the hilly portion of the district. They are a
fine, frank race, naturally open-hearted and free-handed, fond of change
and given to an out-door life; but they do not seem to improve on being
brought into contact with civilization. It is thought that they are now
being gradually driven out of the district, owing to the increase of
regular cultivation, and to the government conservation of the forests.
They have no word for plough in their language, and they still follow
the nomadic form of tillage known as _jum_ cultivation. This consists in
selecting a spot of virgin soil, clearing it of forest and jungle by
burning, and scraping the surface with the rudest agricultural
implements. The productive powers of the land become exhausted in a few
years, when the clearing is abandoned, a new site is chosen, and the
same operations are carried on _de novo_. The Lepchas are also the
ordinary out-door labourers on the hills. They have no caste
distinctions but speak of themselves as belonging to one of nine septs
or clans, who all eat together and intermarry with each other. In the
upper or northern _tarai_, along the base of the hills, the Mechs form
the principal ethnical feature. This tribe inhabits the deadly jungle
with impunity, and cultivates cotton, rice and other ordinary crops, by
the _jum_ process described above. The cultivation of tea was introduced
in 1856, and is now a large industry. Cinchona cultivation was
introduced by the government in 1862, and has since been taken up by
private enterprise. There is a coal mine at Daling. The Darjeeling
Himalayan railway of 2 ft. gauge, opened in 1880, runs for 50 m. from
Siliguri in the plains on the Eastern Bengal line.
The British connexion with Darjeeling dates from 1816, when, at the
close of the war with Nepali, the British made over to the Sikkim raja
the _tarai_ tract, which had been wrested from him and annexed by Nepal.
In 1835 the nucleus of the present district of British Sikkim or
Darjeeling was created by a cession of a portion of the hills by the
raja of Sikkim to the British as a sanatorium. A military expedition
against Sikkim, rendered necessary in 1850 by the imprisonment of Dr A.
Campbell, the superintendent of Darjeeling, and Sir Joseph Hooker,
resulted in the stoppage of the allowance granted to the raja for the
cession of the hill station of Darjeeling, and in the annexation of the
Sikkim _tarai_ at the foot of the hills and of a portion of the hills
beyond. In August 1866 the hill territory east of the Tista, acquired as
the result of the Bhutan campaign of 1864, was added to the jurisdiction
of Darjeeling.
DARLEY, GEORGE (1795-1846), Irish poet, was born in Dublin in 1795. His
parents, who were gentle folks of independent means, emigrated to
America, leaving the boy in charge of his grandfather at Springfield,
Co. Dublin. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in
1820; but an unfortunate stammer prevented him from going into the
church or to the bar, and he established himself in London, where he
published his first volume of poems, the _Errors of Ecstasie_, in 1822,
and became a regular contributor to _The London Magazine_. He was
intimate with Cary, the translator of Dante, and with Charles Lamb. In
1826 he published under the name of "Grey Penseval" a volume of prose
tales and sketches, _Labour in Idleness_ (1826), one of which, "The
Enchanted Lyre," is plainly autobiographical. _Sylvia, or the May Queen_
(1827, reprint 1892), a fairy opera, met with no success, but about 1830
he became dramatic and art critic to the _Athenaeum_. His other works
are: _Nepenthe_ (1835, reprint 1897), his most considerable poem;
introduction to the works of Beaumont and Fletcher (1840); with two
plays, _Thomas à Becket_ (1840), and _Ethelstan_ (1841). He died in
London on the 23rd of November 1846.
_Selections from the Poems of George Darley_, with an introduction by
R. A. Streatfield, appeared in 1904. See also the edition by Ramsay
Colles in the "Muses' Library" (1906).
DARLING, GRACE HORSLEY (1815-1842), British heroine, was born at
Bamborough, Northumberland, on the 24th of November 1815. Her father,
William Darling, was the keeper of the Longstone (Farne Islands)
lighthouse. On the morning of the 7th of September 1838, the
"Forfarshire," bound from Hull to Dundee, with sixty-three persons on
board, struck on the Farne Islands, forty-three being drowned. The wreck
was observed from the lighthouse, and Darling and his daughter
determined to try and reach the survivors. They recognized that though
they might be able to get to the wreck, they would be unable to return
without the assistance of the shipwrecked crew, but they took this risk
without hesitation. By a combination of daring, strength and skill, the
father and daughter reached the wreck in their coble and brought back
four men and a woman to the lighthouse. Darling and two of the rescued
men then returned to the wreck and brought off the four remaining
survivors. This gallant exploit made Grace Darling and her father
famous. The Humane Society at once voted them its gold medal, the
treasury made a grant, and a public subscription was organized. Grace
Darling, who had always been delicate, died of consumption on the 20th
of October 1842.
See _Grace Darling, her true story_ (London, 1880).
DARLING, a river of Australia. It rises in Queensland and flows into New
South Wales, forming for a considerable distance the boundary of the two
colonies; in its upper reaches it is known as the Barwon, but from
Bourke to its junction on the Victorian border with the river Murray, it
is called the Darling. Its length is 1160 m., and with its affluents it
drains an area of about 200,000 sq. m. During the dry season its course
is marked by a series of shallow pools, but during the winter, when it
is subject to sudden floods, it is navigable as far as Bourke for
steamers of light draft. Excepting a narrow strip on the banks of the
river, the country through which it passes is, for the most part, an
arid plain.
DARLINGTON, a market town and municipal and parliamentary borough of
Durham, England, 232 m. N. by W. of London, on the North-Eastern
railway. Pop. (1891) 38,060; (1901) 44,511. It lies in a slightly
undulating plain on the small river Skerne, a tributary of the Tees, not
far from the main river. Its appearance is almost wholly modern, but
there is a fine old parish church dedicated to St Cuthbert. It is
cruciform, and in style mainly transitional Norman. It has a central
tower surmounted by a spire of the 14th century, which necessitated the
building of a massive stone screen across the chancel arch to support
the piers. Traces of an earlier church were discovered in the course of
restoration. Educational establishments include an Elizabethan grammar
school, a training college for school-mistresses (British and Foreign
School Society), and a technical school. There is a park of forty-four
acres. The industries of Darlington are large and varied. They include
worsted spinning mills; collieries, ironstone mines, quarries and
brickworks; the manufacture of iron and steel, both in the rough and in
the form of finished articles, as locomotives, bridge castings, ships'
engines, gun castings and shells, &c. The parliamentary borough returns
one member. The town was incorporated in 1867, and the corporation
consists of a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors. Area, 3956
acres.
Not long after the bishop and monks of Lindisfarne had settled at Durham
in 995, Styr the son of Ulf gave them the vill of Darlington
(Dearthington, Darnington), which by 1083 had grown into importance,
probably owing to its situation on the road from Watling Street to the
mouth of the Tees. Bishop William of St Carileph in that year changed
the church to a collegiate church, and placed there certain canons whom
he removed from Durham. Bishop Hugh de Puiset rebuilt the church and
built a manor house which was for many years the occasional residence of
the bishops of Durham. Boldon Book, dated 1183, contains the first
mention of Darlington as a borough, rated at £5, while half a mark was
due from the dyers of cloth. The next account of the town is in Bishop
Hatfield's Survey (c. 1380), which states that "Ingelram Gentill and his
partners hold the borough of Derlyngton with the profits of the mills
and dye houses and other profits pertaining to the borough rendering
yearly four score and thirteen pounds and six shillings." Darlington
possesses no early charter, but claimed its privileges as a borough by a
prescriptive right. Until the 19th century it was governed by a bailiff
appointed by the bishop. The mention of dyers in the Boldon Book and
Hatfield's Survey probably indicates the existence of woollen
manufacture. Before the 19th century Darlington was noted for the
manufacture of linen, worsted and flax, but it owes its modern
importance to the opening of the railway between Darlington and Stockton
on the 27th of September 1825. "Locomotive No. 1," the first that ever
ran on a public railway, stands in Bank Top station, a remarkable relic
of the enterprise. As part of the palatinate of Durham, Darlington sent
no members to parliament until 1862, when it was allowed to return one
member. The fairs and markets in Darlington were formerly held by the
bishop and were in existence as early as the 11th century. According to
Leland, Darlington was in his time the best market town in the bishopric
with the exception of Durham. In 1664 the bishop, finding that the
inhabitants of the town had set up a market "in the season of the year
unaccustomed," i.e. from the fortnight before Christmas to Whit Monday,
prohibited them from continuing it. The markets and fairs were finally
in 1854 purchased by the local authority, and now belong to the
corporation.
DARLINGTONIA (called after William Darlington, an American botanist), a
Californian pitcher-plant, belonging to the order Sarraceniaceae. There
is only one species, _D. californica_, which is found at 5000 ft.
altitude on the Sierra Nevadas of California, growing in sphagnum-bogs
along with sundews and rushes. The pitcher-like leaves form a cluster,
and are 1 to 2 ft. high, slender, erect, and end in a rounded hooded
top, from which hangs a blade shaped like a fish-tail which guards the
entrance to the pitcher. Insects are attracted to the leaves by the
bright colouring, especially of the upper part; entering they pass down
the narrow funnel guided by downward pointing hairs which also prevent
their ascent. They form a putrefying mass in the bottom of the pitcher,
and the products of their decomposition are presumably absorbed by the
leaf for food.
[Illustration: _Darlingtonia californica._]
DARLY, MATTHIAS, 18th-century English caricaturist, designer and
engraver. This extremely versatile artist not only issued political
caricatures, but designed ceilings, chimney-pieces, mirror frames,
girandoles, decorative panels and other mobiliary accessories, made many
engravings for Thomas Chippendale, and sold his own productions over the
counter. He was apparently an architect by profession. The first
publication which can be attributed to him with certainty is a coloured
caricature, "The Cricket Players of Europe" (1741). In 1754 he issued _A
new Book of Chinese Designs_, which was intended to minister to the
passing craze for furniture and household decorations in the Chinese
style. It was in this year that he engraved many of the plates for the
_Director_ of Thomas Chippendale. He published from many addresses, most
of them in the Strand or its immediate neighbourhood, and his shop was
for a long period perhaps the most important of its kind in London. In
his book _Nollekens and his Times_, J. T. Smith, writing of Richard
Cosway, says:--"So ridiculously foppish did he become that Matth. Darly,
the famous caricature print seller, introduced an etching of him in his
window in the Strand as the 'Macaroni Miniature Painter.'" Darly was for
many years in partnership with a man named Edwards, and together they
published many political prints, which were originally issued separately
and collected annually into volumes under the title of _Political and
Satirical History_. Darly was a member both of the Incorporated Society
of Artists and the Free Society of Artists, forerunners of the Royal
Academy, and to their exhibitions he contributed many architectural
drawings, together with a profile etching of himself (1775). Upon one of
these etchings, published from 39 Strand, he is described as "Professor
of Ornament to the Academy of Great Britain." Darly's most important
publication was _The Ornamental Architect or Young Artists' Instructor_
(1770-1771), a title which was changed in the edition of 1773 to _A
Compleat Body of Architecture, embellished with a great Variety of
Ornaments_. He also issued _Sixty Vases by English, French and Italian
Masters_ (1767). In addition to his immense mass of other productions
Darly executed many book plates, illustrated various books and
cabinet-makers' catalogues, and gave lessons in etching. His skill as a
caricaturist brought him into close personal relations with the
politicians of his time, and in 1763 he was instrumental in saving John
Wilkes, whose partisan he was, from death at the hands of James Dunn,
who had determined to kill him. Darly, who described himself as
"Liveryman and block maker," issued his last caricature in October 1780,
and as his shop, No. 39 Strand, was let to a new tenant in the following
year, it is to be presumed that he had by that time died, or become
incapable of further work. As a designer of furniture Darly travelled in
a dozen years or so from the extremes of pseudo-Chinese affectation to
classical severity of the type popularized by the brothers Adam.
DARMESTETER, JAMES (1849-1894), French author and antiquarian, was born
of Jewish parents on the 28th of March 1849 at Château Salins, in
Alsace. The family name had originated in their earlier home of
Darmstadt. He was educated in Paris, where, under the guidance of Michel
Bréal and Abel Bergaigne, he imbibed a love for Oriental studies, to
which for a time he entirely devoted himself. He was a man of vast
intellectual range. In 1875 he published a thesis on the mythology of
the _Zend Avesta_, and in 1877 became teacher of Zend at the École des
Hautes Études. He followed up his researches with his _Études
iraniennes_ (1883), and ten years later published a complete translation
of the _Zend Avesta_, with historical and philological commentary (3
vols., 1892-1893), in the _Annales du musée Guimet_. He also edited the
Zend Avesta for Max Müller's _Sacred Books of the East_. Darmesteter
regarded the extant texts as far more recent than was commonly believed,
placing the earliest in the 1st century B.C., and the bulk in the 3rd
century A.D. In 1885 he was appointed professor in the Collège de
France, and was sent to India in 1886 on a mission to collect the
popular songs of the Afghans, a translation of which, with a valuable
essay on the Afghan language and literature, he published on his return.
His impressions of English dominion in India were conveyed in _Lettres
sur l'Inde_ (1888). England interested him deeply; and his attachment to
the gifted English writer, A. Mary F. Robinson, whom he shortly
afterwards married (and who in 1901 became the wife of Professor E.
Duclaux, director of the Pasteur Institute at Paris), led him to
translate her poems into French in 1888. Two years after his death a
collection of excellent essays on English subjects was published in
English. He also wrote _Le Mahdi depuis les origines de l'Islam jusqu'à
nos jours_ (1885); _Les Origines de la poésie persane_ (1888);
_Prophètes d'Israël_ (1892), and other books on topics connected with
the east, and from 1883 onwards drew up the annual reports of the
_Société Asiatique_. He had just become connected with the _Revue de
Paris_, when his delicate constitution succumbed to a slight attack of
illness on the 19th of October 1894.
His elder brother, ARSÈNE DARMESTETER (1846-1888), was a distinguished
philologist and man of letters. He studied under Gaston Paris at the
École des Hautes Études, and became professor of Old French language and
literature at the Sorbonne. His _Life of Words_ appeared in English in
1888. He also collaborated with Adolphe Hatzfeld in a _Dictionnaire
général de la langue française_ (2 vols., 1895-1900). Among his most
important work was the elucidation of Old French by means of the many
glosses in the medieval writings of Rashi and other French Jews. His
scattered papers on romance and Jewish philology were collected by James
Darmesteter as _Arsène Darmesteter, reliques scientifiques_ (2 vols.,
1890). His valuable _Cours de grammaire historique de la langue
française_ was edited after his death by E. Muret and L. Sudre
(1891-1895; English edition, 1902).
There is an _éloge_ of James Darmesteter in the _Journal asiatique_
(1894, vol. iv. pp. 519-534), and a notice by Henri Cordier, with a
list of his writings, in _The Royal Asiatic Society's Journal_
(January 1895); see also Gaston Paris, "James Darmesteter," in
_Penseurs et poètes_ (1896, pp. 1-61).
DARMSTADT, a city of Germany, capital of the grand-duchy of
Hesse-Darmstadt, on a plain gently sloping from the Odenwald to the
Rhine, 21 m. by rail S.E. from Mainz and 17 m. S. from Frankfort-on-Main.
Pop. (1905) 83,000. It is the residence of the grand-duke and the seat of
government of the duchy. Darmstadt consists of an old and a new town, the
streets of the former being narrow and gloomy and presenting no
attractive features. The new town, however, which includes the greater
part of the city, contains broad streets and several fine squares. Among
the latter is the stately Luisenplatz, on which are the house of
parliament, the old palace and the post office, and in the centre of
which is a column surmounted by the statue of the grand-duke Louis I.,
the founder of the new town. The square is crossed by the Rhein-strasse,
the most important thoroughfare in the city, leading directly from the
railway station to the ducal palace. This last, a complex of buildings,
dating from various centuries, but possessing few points of special
interest, is surrounded by grounds occupying the site of the old moat.
Opposite to it, on the north side, and adjoining the pretty palace
gardens, are the court theatre and the armoury, and a little farther west
the handsome buildings of the new museum, erected in 1905 and containing
the valuable scientific and art collections of the state, which were
formerly housed in the palace: a library of 600,000 volumes and 4000
MSS., a museum of Egyptian and German antiquities, a picture gallery with
masterpieces of old German and Dutch schools, a natural history
collection and the state archives. To the right of the entrance to the
palace gardens is the tomb of the "great landgravine," Caroline
Henrietta, wife of the landgrave Louis IX., surmounted by a marble urn,
the gift of Frederick the Great of Prussia, bearing the inscription
_femina sexu, ingenio vir_. To the south of the castle lies the old town,
with the market square, the town hall (lately restored and enlarged) and
the town church. Of the eight churches (seven Evangelical) only the Roman
Catholic is in any way imposing. There are two synagogues. The town
possesses a technical high school, having (since 1900) power to confer
the degree of doctor of engineering, and attended by about 2000 students,
two gymnasia, a school of agriculture, an artisans' school and a
botanical garden. The chemist, Justus von Liebig, was born in Darmstadt
in 1803. Among the chief manufactures are the production of machinery,
carpets, playing cards, chemicals, tobacco, hats, wine and beer.
The surroundings of Darmstadt are attractive and contain many features
of interest. To the east of the town lies the Mathildenhöhe, formerly a
park and now converted into villa residences. Here are the Alice
hospital and the pretty Russian church, built (1898-1899) by the emperor
Nicholas II. of Russia in memory of the empress Maria, wife of Alexander
II. In the vicinity is the Rosenhöhe, with the mausoleum of the ducal
house, with the tomb of the grand-duchess Alice, daughter of Queen
Victoria of England.
Darmstadt is mentioned in the 11th century, but in the 14th century it
was still a village, held by the counts of Katzenelnbogen. It came by
marriage into the possession of the house of Hesse in 1479, the male
line of the house of Katzenelnbogen having in that year become extinct.
The imperial army took it in the Schmalkaldic War, and destroyed the old
castle. In 1567, after the death of Philip the Magnanimous, his youngest
son George received Darmstadt and chose it as his residence. He was the
founder of the line of Hesse-Darmstadt. Its most brilliant days were
those of the reign of Louis X. (1790-1830), the first grand-duke, under
whom the new town was built.
See Walther, _Darmstadt wie es war und wie es geworden_ (Darms. 1865);
and Zernin und Wörner, _Darmstadt und seine Umgebung_ (Zürich, 1890).
DARNLEY, HENRY STEWART or STUART, LORD (1545-1567), earl of Ross and
duke of Albany, second husband of Mary, queen of Scots, was the eldest
son of Matthew Stewart, earl of Lennox (1516-1571), and through his
mother Lady Margaret Douglas (1515-1578) was a great-grandson of the
English king Henry VII. Born at Temple Newsam in Yorkshire on the 7th of
December 1545, he was educated in England, and his lack of intellectual
ability was compensated for by exceptional skill in military exercises.
After the death of Francis II. of France in 1560 Darnley was sent into
that country by his mother, who hoped that he would become king of
England on Elizabeth's death, and who already entertained the idea of
his marriage with Mary, queen of Scots, the widow of Francis, as a means
to this end. Consequently in 1561 both Lady Margaret and her son, who
were English subjects, were imprisoned by Elizabeth; but they were soon
released, and Darnley spent some time at the English court before
proceeding to Scotland in February 1565. The marriage of Mary and
Darnley was now a question of practical politics, and the queen, having
nursed her new suitor through an attack of measles, soon made up her
mind to wed him, saying he "was the properest and best proportioned long
man that ever she had seen." The attitude of Elizabeth towards this
marriage is difficult to understand. She had permitted Darnley to
journey to Scotland, and it has been asserted that she entangled Mary
into this union; but on the other hand she and her council declared
their dislike of the proposed marriage, and ordered Darnley and his
father to repair to London, a command which was disobeyed. In March 1565
there were rumours that the marriage had already taken place, but it was
actually celebrated at Holyrood on the 29th of July 1565.
Although Mary had doubtless a short infatuation for Darnley, the union
was mainly due to political motives, and in view of the characters of
bride and bridegroom it is not surprising that trouble soon arose
between them. Contrary to his expectations Darnley did not receive the
crown matrimonial, and his foolish and haughty behaviour, his vicious
habits, and his boisterous companions did not improve matters. He was on
bad terms with the regent Murray and other powerful nobles, who disliked
the marriage and were intriguing with Elizabeth. Scotland was filled
with rumours of plot and assassination, and civil war was only narrowly
avoided. Unable to take any serious part in affairs of state, Darnley
soon became estranged from his wife. He believed that Mary's relations
with David Rizzio injured him as a husband, and was easily persuaded to
assent to the murder of the Italian, a crime in which he took part.
Immediately afterwards, however, flattered and cajoled by the queen, he
betrayed his associates to her, and assisted her to escape from
Holyrood to Dunbar. Owing to these revelations he was deserted and
distrusted by his companions in the murder, and soon lost the queen's
favour. In these circumstances he decided to leave Scotland, but a
variety of causes prevented his departure; and meanwhile at Craigmillar
a band of nobles undertook to free Mary from her husband, who refused to
be present at the baptism of his son, James, at Stirling in December
1566. The details of the conspiracy at Craigmillar are not clear, nor is
it certain what part, if any, Mary took in these proceedings. The first
intention may have been to obtain a divorce for the queen, but it was
soon decided that Darnley must be killed. Rumours of the plot came to
his ears, and he fled from Stirling to Glasgow, where he fell ill,
possibly by poisoning, and where Mary came to visit him. Another
reconciliation took place between husband and wife, and Darnley was
persuaded to journey with Mary by easy stages to Edinburgh. Apartments
were prepared for the pair at Kirk o' Field, a house just inside the
city walls, and here they remained for a few days. On the evening of the
9th of February 1567 Mary took an affectionate farewell of her husband,
and went to attend some gaieties in Edinburgh. A few hours later, on the
morning of the 10th, Kirk o' Field was blown up with gunpowder.
Darnley's body was found at some distance from the house, and it is
supposed that he was strangled whilst making his escape. The remains
were afterwards buried in the chapel at Holyrood.
Much discussion has taken place about this crime, and the guilt or
innocence of Mary is still a question of doubt and debate. It seems
highly probable, however, that the queen was accessory to the murder,
which was organized by her lover and third husband, Bothwell (q.v.). As
the father of King James I., Darnley is the direct ancestor of all the
sovereigns of England since 1603. Personally he was a very insignificant
character and his sole title to fame is his connexion with Mary, queen
of Scots.
For further information, and also for a list of the works bearing on
his life, see the article MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS.
DARRANG, a district of British India, in the province of Eastern Bengal
and Assam. It lies between the Bhutan and Daphla Hills and the
Brahmaputra, including many islands in the river. The administrative
headquarters are at Tezpur. Its area is 3418 sq. m. It is for the most
part a level plain watered by many tributaries of the Brahmaputra. The
two subdivisions of Tezpur Mangaldai differ greatly in character. Tezpur
is part of Upper Assam and shares in the prosperity which tea
cultivation has brought to that part of the valley. In this portion of
the district there are still large areas of excellent land awaiting
settlement, and the cultivator finds a market for his produce in the
flourishing tea-gardens, to which large quantities of coolies are
imported every year. In Mangaldai, on the other hand, most of the good
rice land was settled about 1880-1890 when the subdivision had a
population of 146 to the square mile, as against 42 for Tezpur; the soil
is not favourable for tea, and the population is stationary or receding.
In 1901 the population of the whole district was 337,313, showing an
increase of 10% in the decade. The principal grain-crop is rice. The
principal means of communication is by river. A steam tramway of 2½ ft.
gauge has been opened from Tezpur to Balipara, a distance of 20 m.
Darrang originally formed, according to tradition, part of the
dominions of Bana Raja, who was defeated by Krishna in a battle near
Tezpur ("the town of blood"). The massive granite ruins found near by
prove that the place must have been the seat of powerful and civilized
rulers. In the 16th century Darrang was subject to the Koch king of
Kamarupa, Nar Narayan, and on the division of his dominions among his
heirs passed to an independent line of rajas. Early in the 17th
century the raja Bali Narayan invoked the aid of the Ahoms of Upper
Assam against the Mussulman invaders; after his defeat and death in
1637 the Ahoms dominated the whole district, and the Darrang rajas
sank into petty feudatories. About 1785 they took advantage of the
decay of the Ahom kingdom to try and re-establish their independence,
but they were defeated by a British expedition in 1792, and in 1826
Darrang, with the rest of Assam, passed under British control.
DARTFORD, a market town in the Dartford parliamentary division of Kent,
England, on the Darent, 17 m. E.S.E. of London by the South-Eastern &
Chatham railway. Pop. of urban district (1891), 11,962; (1901) 18,644.
The town lies low, flanked by two chalky eminences, called East and West
Hills. It possesses a town hall, a grammar school (1576), and a Martyr's
Memorial Hall. The most noteworthy building, however, is the parish
church, restored in 1863, which contains a curious old fresco and
several interesting brasses, and has a Norman tower. The prosperity of
the town depends on the important works in its vicinity, including
powder works, paper mills, and engineering, iron, chemical and cement
works. One of the first attempts at the manufacture of paper in England
was made here by Sir John Spielman (d. 1607), jeweller to Queen
Elizabeth. Dartford was the scene, in 1235, of the marriage, celebrated
by proxy, between Isabella, sister of Henry III., and the Emperor
Frederick II.; and in 1331 a famous tournament was held in the place by
Edward III. The same monarch established an Augustinian nunnery on West
Hill in 1355, of which, however, few remains exist. After the
Dissolution it was used as a private residence by Henry VIII., Anne of
Cleves and Elizabeth. The chantry of St Edmund the Martyr which stood on
the opposite side of the town was a part of Edward III.'s endowment to
the priory, and became so famous as a place of pilgrimage, especially
for those on their way to Canterbury, that the part of Watling Street
which crossed there towards London was sometimes called "St Edmund's
Way." It was here also that Wat Tyler's insurrection began in 1377, and
the house in which he resided is shown. On Dartford Heath is a lunatic
asylum of the London County Council, and, at Long Reach, the infectious
diseases hospital of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. Stone church, 2 m.
E. of Dartford, mainly late Early English (1251-1274), and carefully
restored by G. E. Street in 1860, is remarkable; the richness of the
work within increases from west to east, culminating in a choir arcade
decorated with work among the finest of its period extant; the period is
that of the choir of Westminster Abbey, and from a comparison of
building materials, choir arcades and sculpture of foliage, a common
architect has been suggested. Greenhithe, on the banks of the Thames,
has large chalk quarries in its neighbourhood, from which lime and
cement are manufactured.
DARTMOOR, a high plateau in the south-west of Devonshire, England. Its
length is about 23 m. from N. to S. and its extreme breadth 20 m., the
mean altitude being about 1500 ft. The area exceeding 1000 ft. in
elevation is about 200 sq. m. It is the highest and easternmost in a
broken chain of granitic elevations which extends through Cornwall to
the Scilly Isles. The higher parts are open, bleak and wild, strongly
contrasting with the more gentle scenery of the well-wooded lowlands
surrounding it. Sloping heights rise from the main tableland in all
directions, crested with broken masses of granite, locally named _tors_,
and often singularly fantastic in outline. The highest of these are Yes
Tor and High Willhays in the north-west, reaching altitudes of 2028 and
2039 ft. Large parts of the moor, especially in the centre, are covered
with morasses; and head-waters of all the principal streams of
Devonshire (q.v.) are found here. Two main roads cross the moor, one
between Exeter and Plymouth, and the other between Ashburton and
Tavistock, intersecting at Two Bridges. Both avoid the higher part of
the moor, which, for the rest, is traversed only in part by a few rough
tracks. The central part of Dartmoor was a royal forest from a date
unknown, but apparently anterior to the Conquest. Its woods were
formerly more extensive than now, but a few small tracts in which dwarf
oaks are characteristic remain in the lower parts. Previous to 1337, the
forest had been granted to Richard, earl of Cornwall, by Henry III., and
from that time onward it has belonged to the duchy of Cornwall. The
districts immediately surrounding the moor are called the Venville or
Fenfield districts. The origin of this name is not clear. The holders of
land by Venville tenure under the duchy have rights of pasture, fishing,
&c. in the forest, and their main duty is to "drive" the moor at certain
times in order to ascertain what head of cattle are pastured thereon,
and to prevent trespassing. The antiquarian remains of Dartmoor are
considered among those of Devonshire.
Dartmoor convict prison, near Princetown, was adapted to its present
purpose in 1850; but the original buildings were erected in 1809 for
the accommodation of French prisoners. A tract of moorland adjacent to
the prison has been brought under cultivation by the inmates.
See S. Rowe, _Perambulation of the ... forest of Dartmoor_ (Plymouth,
1848); J. L. W. Page, _Exploration of Dartmoor_ (London, 1889); S.
Baring-Gould, _Book of Dartmoor_ (London, 1900).
DARTMOUTH, a town in Halifax county, Nova Scotia, Canada, on the
north-eastern side of Halifax harbour, connected by a steam ferry with
Halifax, of which it is practically a suburb. Pop. (1901) 4806. It
contains a large sugar refinery, foundries, machine shops, saw mills,
skate, rope, nail, soap and sash factories.
DARTMOUTH, a seaport, market town, and municipal borough in the Torquay
parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, 27 m. E. of Plymouth.
Pop. (1901) 6579. It is beautifully situated on the west bank and near
the mouth of the river Dart, which here forms an almost land-locked
estuary. The town is connected by a steam ferry with Kingswear on the
opposite bank, which is served by a branch of the Great Western railway.
The houses of Dartmouth, many of which are ancient, rise in tiers from
the shore, beneath a range of steep hills. An embankment planted with
trees fronts the river. The cruciform church of St Saviour is of the
14th and 15th centuries, and contains a graceful rood-screen of the 16th
century, an ancient stone pulpit and interesting monuments. Dartmouth
Castle, in part of Tudor date, commands the river a little below the
town. Portions of the cottage of Thomas Newcomen, one of the inventors
of the steam-engine, are preserved. Dartmouth is a favourite yachting
centre, and shipbuilding, brewing, engineering and paint-making are
carried on. Coal is imported, and resold to ships calling at the
harbour. The borough is under a mayor, four aldermen and twelve
councillors. Area, 1924 acres.
_History._--Probably owing its origin to Saxon invaders, Dartmouth
(_Darentamuthan_, _Dertemue_) was a seaport of importance when Earl
Beorn was buried in its church in 1049. From its sheltered harbour
William II. embarked for the relief of Mans, and the crusading squadron
set sail in 1190, while John landed here in 1214. The borough, first
claimed as such in the reign of Henry I., was in existence by the middle
of the 13th century, since a deed of Gilbert Fitz-Stephen, lord of the
manor, mentions the services due from "his burgesses of Dertemue," and a
borough seal of 1280 is extant. The king in 1224 required the bailiffs
and good men of Dartmouth to keep all ships in readiness for his
service, and in 1302 they were to furnish two ships for the Scottish
expedition, an obligation maintained throughout the century. The men of
the vill were made quit of toll in 1337, and in 1342 the town was
incorporated by a charter frequently confirmed by later sovereigns.
Edward III. in 1372 granted that the burgesses should be sued only
before the mayor and bailiffs, and Richard II. in 1393 granted extended
jurisdiction and a coroner; further charters were obtained in 1604 and
1684. A French attack on the town was repulsed in 1404, and in 1485 the
burgesses received a royal grant of £40 for walling the town and
stretching a chain across the river mouth. Dartmouth fitted out two
ships against the Armada, and was captured by both the royalists and
parliamentarians in the Civil War. It returned two representatives to
parliament in 1298, and from 1350 to 1832. In the latter year the
representation was reduced to one, and was merged in that of the county
in 1868. Manorial markets were granted for Dartmouth in 1231 and 1301.
These were important since as early as 1225 the fleet resorted there for
provisions. During the 14th and 15th centuries there was a regular trade
with Bordeaux and Brittany, and complaints of piracies by Dartmouth men
were frequent.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, an American institution of higher education, in
Hanover, New Hampshire. It is Congregational in its affiliations, but is
actually non-sectarian. The college is open only to men except during
the summer session, when women also are admitted. Dartmouth embraces, in
addition to the original college, incorporated in 1769, a medical
school, dating from the establishment of a professorship of medicine in
the college in 1798; the Thayer school of civil engineering, established
in 1867 by the bequest of Gen. Sylvanus Thayer; and the Amos Tuck
school of administration and finance, established in 1900 by Edward
Tuck--a remarkable feature, as it was the first, and, until the
establishment at Harvard of a similar graduate school, the only
commercial school in the country whose work is largely post-graduate.
The Chandler school of science and the arts was founded by Abiel
Chandler in 1851, in connexion with Dartmouth, and was incorporated into
the collegiate department in 1893 as the Chandler scientific course in
the college. From 1866 to 1893 the New Hampshire college of agriculture
and the mechanic arts, now at Durham, was connected with Dartmouth. The
medical school offers a four years' course, and each of the other two
professional schools a two years' course, the first year of which may,
under certain conditions, be counted as the senior year of the
undergraduate department. The college has a beautiful campus or "yard";
a library of more than 100,000 volumes, housed in Wilson Hall (1885);
instruction halls, residence halls--Thornton and Wentworth (1828),
Hallgarten (1874), Richardson (1897), and Fayerweather (1900); a
gymnasium (Bissell Hall, built in 1867); an athletic field, known as
Alumni Oval; Bartlett Hall (1890-1891), the house of the College Young
Men's Christian Association; Rollins Chapel (1885); College Hall (1901),
a social headquarters; an astronomical and meteorological observatory
(Shattuck Observatory, 1854); the Mary Hitchcock hospital (1893),
associated with the medical college; museums (especially the Butterfield
Museum); Culver Hall (1871), the chemical laboratory; and Wilder Hall
(1899), the physical laboratory. The college in 1908 had 100 officers of
administration and instruction and 1219 students. It is maintained
chiefly by the proceeds of a productive endowment fund amounting to
$2,700,000 and by tuition fees ($125 a year for each student). The
government is entrusted to a board of twelve trustees, five of whom are
elected upon the nomination of the alumni.
Dartmouth is the outgrowth of Moor's Indian charity school, founded by
Eleazer Wheelock (1711-1779) about 1750 at Lebanon, Connecticut; this
school was named in 1755 in honour of Joshua Moor, who in this year gave
to it lands and buildings. In 1765 Samson Occom (c. 1723-1792), an
Indian preacher and former student of the school, visited England and
Scotland in its behalf and raised £10,000, whereupon plans were made for
enlargement and for a change of site to Hanover. In 1769 the school was
incorporated by a charter granted by George III. as Dartmouth College,
being named after the earl of Dartmouth, president of the trustees of
the funds raised in Great Britain. The first college building, Dartmouth
Hall (closely resembling Nassau Hall at Princetown and the University
Hall of Brown University), was built in 1784-1791 and is still standing,
as are the typical college church, built in 1796 and enlarged in 1877
and 1889, and Moor Hall, the second building for Moor's charity school,
since 1852 called the Chandler building. During the War of Independence
the support from Great Britain was mostly withdrawn. In 1815 President
John Wheelock (1754-1817), who had succeeded his father in 1779, and was
a Presbyterian and a Republican, was removed by the majority of the
board of trustees, who were Congregationalists and Federalists, and
Francis Brown was chosen in his place. Wheelock, upon his appeal to the
legislature, was reinstated at the head of a new corporation, called
Dartmouth University. The state courts upheld the legislature and the
"University," but in 1819 after the famous argument of Daniel Webster
(q.v.) in behalf of the "College" board of trustees as against the
"University" board before the United States Supreme Court, that body
decided that the private trust created by the charter of 1769 was
inviolable, and Dr Francis Brown and the old "College" board took
possession of the institution's property. This was one of the most
important decisions ever made by the United States Supreme Court.
See Frederick Chase, _A History of Dartmouth College and the Town of
Hanover_ (Cambridge, 1891). For the Dartmouth College Case see
Shirley, _The Dartmouth College Causes_ (St Louis, Missouri, 1879);
Kent, _Commentaries on American Law_ (vol. i. Boston, 1884); and
Joseph Story, _Commentaries on the Constitution_ (vol. ii., Boston,
1891).
DARTMOUTH, EARL OF, an English title borne by the family of Legge from
1710 to the present day.
WILLIAM LEGGE (c. 1609-1670), the eldest son of Edward Legge (d. 1616),
vice-president of Munster, gained some military experience on the
continent of Europe and then returning to England assisted Charles I. in
his war against the Scots in 1638. He was also very useful to the king
during the months which preceded the outbreak of the Civil War, although
his attempt to seize Hull in January 1642 failed. During the war Legge
distinguished himself at Chalgrove and at the first battle of Newbury,
and in 1645 he became governor of Oxford. However, he only held this
position for a few months, as he shared the disgrace of Prince Rupert,
to whom he was very devoted; but he was largely instrumental in putting
an end to the quarrel between the king and the prince. Legge helped
Charles to escape from Hampton Court in 1647, and after attending upon
him he was arrested in May 1648. He was soon released, but was again
captured in the following year while proceeding to Ireland in the
interests of Charles II. Regaining his freedom in 1653, he spent some
years abroad, but in 1659 he was once more in England inciting the
royalists to rise. Legge enjoyed the favour of Charles II., who offered
to make him an earl. The old royalist died on the 13th of October 1670.
Legge's eldest son, GEORGE, BARON DARTMOUTH (1647-1691), served as a
volunteer in the navy during the Dutch war of 1665-1667, and quickly won
his way to high rank. He was also a member of the household of the duke
of York, afterwards James II.; was governor of Portsmouth and
master-general of the army; in 1678 he commanded as colonel the troop at
Nieuport, and in 1682 he was created Baron Dartmouth. In 1683 as
"admiral of a fleet" he sailed to Tangiers, dismantled the
fortifications and brought back the English troops, a duty which he
discharged very satisfactorily. Under James II. Dartmouth was master of
the horse and governor of the Tower of London; and in 1688, when William
of Orange was expected, James II. made him commander-in-chief of his
fleet. Although himself loyal to James, the same cannot be said of many
of his officers, and an engagement with the Dutch fleet was purposely
avoided. Dartmouth, however, refused to assist in getting James Edward,
prince of Wales, out of the country, and even reproved the king for
attempting this proceeding. He then left the fleet and took the oath of
allegiance to William and Mary, but in July 1691 he was arrested for
treason, and was charged with offering to hand over Portsmouth to France
and to command a French fleet. Macaulay believed that this accusation
was true, but there are those who hold that Dartmouth spoke the truth
when he protested his innocence. Further proceedings against him were
prevented by his death, which took place in the Tower of London on the
25th of October 1691.
Lord Dartmouth's only son, WILLIAM, 1st EARL OF DARTMOUTH (1672-1750),
succeeded to his father's barony in 1691. In 1702 he was appointed a
member of the board of trade and foreign plantations, and eight years
later he became secretary of state for the southern department and joint
keeper of the signet for Scotland. In 1711 he was created viscount
Lewisham and earl of Dartmouth; in 1713 he exchanged his offices for
that of keeper of the privy seal, which he held until the end of 1714.
After a long period of retirement from public life he died on the 15th
of December 1750. Dartmouth's eldest son George, viscount Lewisham (c.
1703-1732), predeceased his father. Other sons were: Heneage Legge
(1704-1759), judge of the court of exchequer; Henry Legge (q.v.),
afterwards Bilson-Legge; and Edward Legge (1710-1747), who served for
some time in the navy and died on the 19th of September 1747.
WILLIAM, 2nd EARL OF DARTMOUTH (1731-1801), was a son of George,
viscount Lewisham, and a grandson of the 1st earl, whom he succeeded in
1750. For a few months in 1765 and 1766 he was president of the board of
trade and foreign plantations; in 1772 he returned to the same office
holding also that of secretary for the colonies; and in 1775 he became
lord privy seal. With regard to the American colonies Dartmouth advised
them in 1777 to accept the conciliatory proposals put forward by Lord
North, but in 1776 he opposed similar proposals and advocated the
employment of force. In March 1782 he resigned his office as lord privy
seal and in 1783 he was lord steward of the household; he died on the
15th of July 1801. Dartmouth was a friend of Selina, countess of
Huntingdon, and his piety and his intimacy with the early Methodists won
for him the epithet of the _Psalm-singer_. Dartmouth College was named
after him, and among his papers preserved at Patshull House,
Wolverhampton, are many letters from America relating to the struggle
for independence. His sixth son, Sir Arthur Kaye Legge (d. 1835), was an
admiral of the blue, and his seventh son, Edward Legge (d. 1827), was
bishop of Oxford.
GEORGE, 3rd EARL OF DARTMOUTH (1755-1810), the eldest son of the 2nd
earl, was lord warden of the stannaries and president of the board of
control; later he was lord steward and then lord chamberlain of the
royal household. He died on the 1st of November 1810, when his eldest
son, William (1784-1853), became 4th earl. William's son, William Walter
(1823-1891), became 5th earl in 1853 and was succeeded in 1891 by his
son William Heneage Legge (b. 1851) as 6th earl of Dartmouth. As Lord
Lewisham this nobleman was a member of parliament from 1878 to 1891, and
was vice-chamberlain of the household in 1885-1886, and again from 1886
to 1892.
DARU, PIERRE ANTOINE NOËL BRUNO, COUNT (1767-1829), French soldier and
statesman, was born at Montpellier on the 12th of January 1767. He was
educated at the military school of Tournon, conducted by the Oratorians,
and entered the artillery at an early age. His fondness for literature,
however, soon made itself felt, and he published several slight pieces,
until the outbreak of the French Revolution called him to a sterner
occupation. In 1793 he became commissary to the army, protecting the
coasts of Brittany from projected descents of the British, or of French
royalists. Thrown into prison on a frivolous charge of friendliness to
the royalists and England, he was released after the fall of Robespierre
in the summer of 1794, and rose in the service until, in 1799, he became
chief commissary to the French army serving under Masséna in the north
of Switzerland. In that position he won repute for his organizing
capacity, great power of work and unswerving probity--the last of which
qualities was none too common in the French armies at that time. These
exacting tasks did not absorb all his energies. He found time, even
during the campaign, to translate part of Horace and to compose two
poems, the _Poème des Alpes_ and the _Chant de guerre_. The latter
celebrated in indignant strains the murder of the French envoys to the
congress of Rastadt.
The accession of Napoleon Bonaparte to power in November 1799 led to the
employment of Daru as chief commissary to the Army of Reserve intended
for North Italy, and commanded nominally by Berthier, but really by the
First Consul. Conjointly with Berthier and Dejean, he signed the
armistice with the Austrians which closed the campaign in North Italy in
June 1800. Daru now returned, for a time, mainly to civil life, and
entered the tribunate, where he ably maintained the principles of
democratic liberty. On the renewal of war with England, in May 1803, he
again resumed his duties as chief commissary for the army on the
northern coasts. It was afterwards asserted that, on Napoleon's resolve
to turn the army of England against Austria, Daru had set down at the
emperor's dictation all the details of the campaign which culminated at
Ulm. The story is apocryphal; but Napoleon's confidence in him was
evinced by his being appointed to similar duties in the Grand Army,
which in the autumn of 1805 overthrew the armies of Austria and Russia.
After the battle of Austerlitz, he took part in the drafting of the
treaty of Presburg. At this time, too, he became intendant-general of
the military household of Napoleon. In the campaigns of 1806-1807 he
served, in his usual capacity, in the army which overthrew the forces of
Russia and Prussia; and he had a share in drawing up the treaty of
Tilsit (7th of July 1807). After this he supervised the administrative
and financial duties in connexion with the French army which occupied
the principal fortresses of Prussia, and was one of the chief agents
through whom Napoleon pressed hard on that land. At the congress of
Erfurt, Daru had the privilege of being present at the interview
between Goethe and Napoleon, and interposed tactful references to the
works of the great poet. Daru fulfilled his usual duties in the campaign
of 1809 against Austria. Afterwards, when the subject of the divorce of
Josephine and the choice of a Russian or of an Austrian princess came to
be discussed, Daru, on being consulted by Napoleon, is said boldly to
have counselled his marriage with a French lady; and Napoleon, who
admired his frankness and honesty, took the reply in good part.
In 1811 he became secretary of state in succession to Maret, duc de
Bassano, and showed his usual ability in the administration of the vast
and complex affairs of the French empire, including the arrangements
connected with the civil list and the imperial domains. But neither his
devotion to civic duty nor to the administration of the affairs of the
Grand Army could ward off disaster. Late in the year 1813 he took up the
portfolio of military affairs. After the first abdication of Napoleon in
1814, Daru retired into private life, but aided Napoleon during the
Hundred Days. After the second Restoration he became a member of the
Chamber of Peers, in which he ably defended the cause of popular liberty
against the attacks of the ultra-royalists. He died at Meulan on the 5th
of September 1829.
Few men of the Napoleonic empire have been more generally admired and
respected than Daru. On one occasion when he expressed a fear that he
lacked all the gifts of a courtier, Napoleon replied, "Courtiers! They
are common enough about me; I shall never be in want of them. What I
want is an enlightened, firm and vigilant administrator; and that is why
I have chosen you." At another time Napoleon said, "Daru is good on all
sides; he has good judgment, a good intellect, a great power for work,
and a body and mind of iron." The only occasion on which he is known to
have sunk beneath the weight of his duties was in the course of writing
letters at the emperor's dictation for the third night in succession.
Of Daru's literary works may be mentioned his _Histoire de Venise_,
published at Paris in 7 vols. in 1819; the _Histoire de Bretagne_, in 3
vols. (Paris, 1826); a poetical translation of Horace (of which Le Brun
remarked: "Je ne lis point Daru, j'aime trop mon Horace"); _Discours en
vers sur les facultés de l'homme_ (Paris, 1825), and _Astronomie_, a
didactic poem in six cantos (Paris, 1820).
See the "Notice" by Viennet prefixed to the fourth edition of Daru's
_Histoire de la république de Venise_ (9 vols., 1853), and three
articles by Sainte-Beuve in _Causeries du lundi_, vol. ix. For the
many letters of Napoleon to Daru see the _Correspondance de Napoléon
I^er_ (32 vols., Paris, 1858-1870). (J. Hl. R.)
DARWEN, a municipal borough in the Darwen parliamentary division of
Lancashire, England, 20 m. N.W. from Manchester by the Lancashire &
Yorkshire railway. Pop. (1891) 34,192; (1901) 38,212. It lies on the
river Darwen, which traverses a densely populated manufacturing
district, and is surrounded by high-lying moors. Darwen is a centre of
the cotton trade and has also blast furnaces, and paper-making,
paper-staining and fire-clay works. In the neighbourhood are collieries
and stone quarries. The market hall is the chief public building; there
are technical schools, a free library, and two public parks. Darwen was
incorporated in 1788. The corporation consists of a mayor, six aldermen
and eighteen councillors.
DARWIN, CHARLES ROBERT (1809-1882), English naturalist, author of the
_Origin of Species_, was born at Shrewsbury on the 12th of February
1809. He was the younger of the two sons and the fourth child of Dr
Robert Waring Darwin, son of Dr Erasmus Darwin (q.v.). His mother, a
daughter of Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), died when Charles Darwin was
eight years old. Charles Darwin's elder brother, Erasmus Alvey
(1804-1881), was interested in literature and art rather than science:
on the subject of the wide difference between the brothers Charles wrote
that he was "inclined to agree with Francis Galton in believing that
education and environment produce only a small effect on the mind of
anyone, and that most of our qualities are innate" (_Life and Letters_,
London, 1887, p. 22). Darwin considered that his own success was chiefly
due to "the love of science, unbounded patience in long reflecting over
any subject, industry in observing and collecting facts, and a fair
share of invention as well as of common sense" (_l.c._ p. 107). He also
says: "I have steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to give up
any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on
every subject), as soon as facts are shown to be opposed to it" (_l.c._
p. 103). The essential causes of his success are to be found in this
latter sentence, the creative genius ever inspired by existing knowledge
to build hypotheses by whose aid further knowledge could be won, the
calm unbiassed mind, the transparent honesty and love of truth which
enabled him to abandon or to modify his own creations when they ceased
to be supported by observation. The even balance between these powers
was as important as their remarkable development. The great naturalist
appeared in the ripeness of time, when the world was ready for his
splendid generalizations. Indeed naturalists were already everywhere
considering and discussing the problem of evolution, although Alfred
Russel Wallace was the only one who, independently of Darwin, saw his
way clearly to the solution. It is true that hypotheses essentially the
same as natural selection were suggested much earlier by W. C. Wells
(_Phil. Trans._, 1813), and Patrick Matthew (_Naval Timber and
Arboriculture_, 1831), but their views were lost sight of and produced
no effect upon the great body of naturalists. In the preparation for
Darwin Sir Charles Lyell's _Principles of Geology_ played an important
part, accustoming men's minds to the vast changes brought about by
natural processes, and leading them, by its lucid and temperate
discussion of Lamarck's and other views, to reflect upon evolution.
Darwin's early education was conducted at Shrewsbury, first for a year
at a day-school, then for seven years at Shrewsbury School under Dr
Samuel Butler (1774-1839). He gained but little from the narrow system
which was then universal. In 1825 he went to Edinburgh to prepare for
the medical profession, for which he was unfitted by nature. After two
sessions his father realized this, and in 1828 sent him to Cambridge
with the idea that he should become a clergyman. He matriculated at
Christ's College, and took his degree in 1831, tenth in the list of
those who do not seek honours. Up to this time he had been keenly
interested in sport, and in entomology, especially the collecting of
beetles. Both at Edinburgh, where in 1826 he read his first scientific
paper, and at Cambridge he gained the friendship of much older
scientific men--Robert Edmond Grant and William Macgillivray at the
former, John Stevens Henslow and Adam Sedgwick at the latter. He had two
terms' residence to keep after passing his last examination, and studied
geology with Sedgwick. Returning from their geological excursion
together in North Wales (August 1831), he found a letter from Henslow
urging him to apply for the position of naturalist on the "Beagle,"
about to start on a surveying expedition. His father at first disliked
the idea, but his uncle, the second Josiah Wedgwood, pleaded with
success, and Darwin started on the 27th of December 1831, the voyage
lasting until the 2nd of October 1836. It is practically certain that he
never left Great Britain after this latter date. After visiting the Cape
de Verde and other islands of the Atlantic, the expedition surveyed on
the South American coasts and adjacent islands (including the
Galapagos), afterwards visiting Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia,
Tasmania, Keeling Island, Maldives, Mauritius, St Helena, Ascension; and
Brazil, de Verdes and Azores on the way home. His work on the geology of
the countries visited, and that on coral islands, became the subject of
volumes which he published after his return, as well as his _Journal of
a Naturalist_, and his other contributions to the official narrative.
The voyage must be regarded as the real preparation for his life-work.
His observations on the relation between animals in islands and those of
the nearest continental areas, near akin and yet not the same, and
between living animals and those most recently extinct and found fossil
in the same country, here again related but not the same, led him even
then to reflect deeply upon the modification of species. He had also
been much impressed by "the manner in which closely allied animals
replace one another in proceeding southwards" in South America. On his
return home Darwin worked at his collections, first at Cambridge for
three months and then in London. His pocket-book for 1837 contains the
words: "In July opened first note-book on Transmutation of Species. Had
been greatly struck from about the month of previous March [while still
on the voyage and just over twenty-eight years old] on character of
South American fossils, and species on Galapagos Archipelago. These
facts (especially latter) origin of all my views." From 1838 to 1841 he
was secretary of the Geological Society, and saw a great deal of Sir
Charles Lyell, to whom he dedicated the second edition of his _Journal_.
On the 29th of January 1839 he married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, the
daughter of Josiah Wedgwood of Maer. They lived in London until
September 1842, when they moved to Down, which was Darwin's home for the
rest of his life. His health broke down many times in London, and
remained precarious during the whole of his life. The immense amount of
work which he got through was only made possible by the loving care of
his wife. For eight years (1846 to 1854) he was chiefly engaged upon
four monographs on the recent and fossil Cirripede Crustacea (_Roy.
Soc._, 1851 and 1854; _Palaeontograph. Soc._, 1851 and 1854). Towards
the close of this work Darwin became very wearied of it, especially of
the synonymy. For a time he hoped to start a movement which should
discourage the habit of appending the name of the describer to the name
of the species, a custom which he thought led to bad and superficial
work. From this time he was engaged upon the numerous lines of inquiry
which led to the great work of his life, the _Origin of Species_,
published in November 1859.
Soon after opening his note-book in July 1837 he began to collect facts
bearing upon the formation of the breeds of domestic animals and plants,
and quickly saw "that selection was the keystone of man's success. But
how selection could be applied to organisms living in a state of nature
remained for some time a mystery to me." Various ideas as to the causes
of evolution occurred to him, only to be successively abandoned. He had
the idea of "laws of change" which affected species and finally led to
their extinction, to some extent analogous to the causes which bring
about the development, maturity and finally death of an individual. He
also had the conception that species must give rise to other species or
else die out, just as an individual dies unrepresented if it bears no
offspring. These and other ideas, of which traces exist in his Diary,
arose in his mind, together with perhaps some general conception of
natural selection, during the fifteen months after the opening of his
note-book. In October 1838 he read _Malthus on Population_, and his
observations having long since convinced him of the struggle for
existence, it at once struck him "that under these circumstances
favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones
to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new
species. Here, then, I had a theory by which to work." In June 1842 he
wrote out a sketch, which two years later he expanded to an essay
occupying 231 pages folio. The idea of progressive divergence as an
advantage in itself, because the competition is most severe between
organisms most closely related, did not occur to him until long after he
had come to Down. During the growth of the _Origin_ Sir Joseph Hooker
was his most intimate friend, and on the 11th of January 1844 he wrote:
"At last gleams of light have come, and I am almost convinced (quite
contrary to the opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like
confessing a murder) immutable" (_l.c._ ii. 13). In 1855 he began a
correspondence with the great American botanist Asa Gray, and in 1857
explained his views in a letter which afterwards became classical. In
1856, urged by Lyell, he began the preparation of a third and far more
expanded treatise, and had completed about half of it when, on the 18th
of June 1858, he received a manuscript essay from A. R. Wallace, who was
then at Ternate in the Moluccas. Wallace wanted Darwin's opinion on the
essay, which he asked should be forwarded to Lyell. Darwin was much
startled to find in the essay a complete abstract of his own theory of
natural selection. He forwarded it the same day, writing to Lyell, "your
words have come true with a vengeance--that I should be forestalled." He
placed himself in the hands of Lyell and Hooker, who decided to send
Wallace's essay to the Linnean Society, together with an abstract of
Darwin's work, which they asked him to prepare, the joint essay being
accompanied by a preface in the form of an explanatory letter written by
them to the secretary. The title of the joint communication was "On the
Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of
Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection." It was read on the
1st of July 1858, and appears in the _Linn. Soc. Journal_ (Zoology) for
that year. In this statement of the theory of natural selection,
Darwin's part consisted of two sections, the first being extracts from
his 1844 essay, including a brief account of sexual selection, and the
second an abstract of his letter to Asa Gray dated the 5th of September
1857. This latter, probably his first attempt to expound natural
selection, cannot be surpassed as a clear statement of the theory.
Darwin explained at the outset, what he insisted on elsewhere, that the
facts of adaptation or contrivance in nature are the real difficulty to
be explained by a theory of evolution, the stumbling-block of every
previous suggestion. Until he could explain "the mistletoe, with its
pollen carried by insects, and seed by birds--the woodpecker, with its
feet and tail, beak and tongue, to climb the tree and secure insects,"
he was "scientifically orthodox." Nevertheless he was led to believe in
evolution, apart from any possible motive-cause, by "general facts in
the affinities, embryology, rudimentary organs, geological history, and
geographical distribution of organic beings." He then proceeds to
describe the manner in which he met the difficulty of adaptation by "his
notions on the means by which Nature makes her species." The essentials
of the statement are as follows:--I. Man has made his domestic breeds of
animals and plants by selection, conscious or unconscious, of very
slight or greater variations. II. The material for selection exists in
nature, namely, slight variations of all parts of the organism. III. The
"unerring power" which sifts these variations is "_natural selection_
... which selects exclusively for the good of each organic being." The
rate of increase is such that only a few in each generation can live:
hence the never sufficiently appreciated struggle for life. "What a
trifling difference must often determine which shall survive and which
perish!" The remaining heads explain the complex nature of the struggle,
the reasons for deficient direct evidence, the advantage of divergence,
&c. In the joint essay the phrases "natural selection" and "sexual
selection" were first made public by Darwin, the "struggle for
existence" by Wallace. Darwin and Wallace had met only once before the
departure of the latter for the East. Their rivalry in the discovery of
the great principle of natural selection was the beginning of a lifelong
friendship. Wallace was lying ill with intermittent fever at Ternate in
February 1858 when he began to think of Malthus's _Essay on Population_,
read several years before: suddenly the idea of the survival of the
fittest flashed upon him. In two hours he had "thought out almost the
whole of the theory," and in three evenings had finished his essay.
Darwin, also inspired after reading Malthus, in October 1838, did not
publish until nearly twenty years had elapsed, and then only when
Wallace sent him his essay. Canon H. B. Tristram was the first to apply
the new theory, explaining by its aid the colours of desert birds, &c.
(_Ibis_, October 1859).
Acting under the advice of Lyell and Hooker, Darwin then began to prepare
what was to become the great work of his life. It appeared on the 24th of
November 1859, with the full title, _On the Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle
for Life_. The whole edition of 1250 copies was exhausted on the day of
issue. The first four chapters explain the operation of artificial
selection by man and of natural selection in consequence of the struggle
for existence. The fifth chapter deals with the laws of variation and
causes of modification other than natural selection. The five succeeding
chapters consider difficulties in the way of a belief in evolution
generally as well as in natural selection. The three remaining chapters
(omitting the recapitulation which occupies the last) deal with the
evidence for evolution. The theory which suggested a cause of evolution
is thus given the foremost place, and the evidence for the existence of
evolution considered last of all. This method of presentation was no
doubt adopted because it was just the want of a reasonable motive-cause
which more than anything else prevented the acceptance of evolution. But
the other side of the book must not be eclipsed by the brilliant theory
of Darwin and Wallace. The evidence for evolution itself had never before
been thought out and marshalled in a manner which bears any comparison
with that of Darwin in the _Origin_, and the work would have been in the
highest degree epoch-making had it consisted of the later chapters alone.
In the fifth chapter Darwin incorporated a certain proportion of the
doctrines of Buffon,--modifications due to the direct influence of
environment; and of Lamarck,--the hereditary effects of use and disuse.
Lyell for a long time hesitated to accept the new teaching, and Darwin
carried on a long correspondence with him. His public confession of faith
was made at the anniversary dinner of the Royal Society in 1864. A storm
of controversy arose over the book, reaching its height at the meeting of
the British Association at Oxford in 1860, when the celebrated duel
between T. H. Huxley and Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford took place.
Throughout these struggles Huxley was the foremost champion for evolution
and for fair play to natural selection, although he never entirely
accepted the latter theory, holding that until man by his selection had
made his domestic breed sterile _inter se_, there was no sufficient
evidence that selection accounts for natural species which are thus
separated by the barrier of sterility. The theory of natural selection
was at first greatly misunderstood. Thus some writers thought it implied
conscious choice in the animals themselves, others that it was the
personification of some active power. By many it was thought to be
practically the same idea as Lamarck's. Herbert Spencer's alternative
phrase, "the survival of the fittest," probably helped to spread a clear
appreciation of Darwin's meaning.
The history of opinion since 1859 may be summed up as follows. Evolution
soon gained general acceptance, except among a certain number of those
of middle or more advanced age at the time when the _Origin_ appeared.
Although natural selection had been an essential force in producing this
conviction, there gradually grew up a tendency to minimize its
importance in relation to the causes originally suggested by Buffon and
Lamarck, which were ably presented and further elaborated by Herbert
Spencer. In America a school of Neo-Lamarckians appeared, and for a time
flourished under the inspiration of the vigorous personality of E. D.
Cope. The writings of August Weismann next raised a controversy over the
scope of heredity, assailing the very foundation of the hypotheses of
Buffon, Lamarck and Herbert Spencer by demanding evidence that the
"acquired characters" upon which they rest are capable of hereditary
transmission. The quantitative determination of heredity has been the
subject of much patient investigation under the leadership of Francis
Galton. The question of isolation as a factor in species-formation has
been greatly discussed, G. J. Romanes proposing, in his hypothesis of
"Physiological Selection," that the barrier of sterility may arise
spontaneously by variation between two sets of individuals as the
beginning instead of the climax of specific distinction. Others have
fixed their attention upon the variations, which provided the material
for natural selection, and have advocated the view that evolution
proceeds by immense strides instead of the minute steps in which Darwin
and Wallace believed. Others, again, have found significance in the
artificial production of "monstrosities" or huge modifications during
individual development. All through the period a varying proportion of
naturalists, probably larger now than at any other time, has followed
the founders of the theory, and has sought the motive-cause of evolution
in "the accumulative power of natural selection," which Darwin, as his
first public statement indicates, looked upon "as by far the most
important element in the production of new forms." They hold, with
Darwin and Wallace, that although variation provides the essential
material, natural selection, from its accumulative power, is of such
paramount importance that it may be said to create new species as truly
as a man may be said to make a building out of the material provided by
stones of various shapes, a metaphor suggested and elaborated by Darwin,
and forming the concluding sentences of _The Variation of Animals and
Plants under Domestication_. This, probably the second in importance of
all his works, was published in 1868, and may be looked upon as a
complete account of the material of which he had given a very condensed
abstract in the first chapter of the _Origin_, together with the
conclusions suggested by it. He finally brought together an immense
number of apparently disconnected sets of observations under his
"provisional hypothesis of pangenesis," which assumes that every cell in
the body, at every stage of growth and in maturity, is represented in
each germ-cell by a gemmule. The germ-cell is only the meeting-place of
gemmules, and the true reproductive power lies in the whole of the
body-cells which despatch their representatives, hence "pangenesis."
There are reasons for believing that this infinitely complex conception,
in which, as his letters show, he had great confidence, was forced upon
Darwin in order to explain the hereditary transmission of acquired
characters involved in the small proportion of Lamarckian doctrine which
he incorporated. If such transmission does not occur, a far simpler
hypothesis based on the lines of Weismann's "continuity of the
germ-plasm" is sufficient to account for the facts.
The _Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex_, was published in
1871; as the title implies, it really consists of two distinct works.
The first, and by far the shorter, was the full justification of his
statement in the Origin that "light would be thrown on the origin of man
and his history." In the second part he brought together a large mass of
evidence in support of his hypothesis of sexual selection which he had
briefly described in the 1858 essay. This hypothesis explains the
development of colours and structures peculiar to one sex and displayed
by it in courtship, by the preferences of the other sex. The majority of
naturalists probably agree with Darwin in believing that the explanation
is real, but relatively unimportant. It is interesting to note that only
in this subject and those treated of in the _Variation under
Domestication_ had Darwin exhausted the whole of the material which he
had collected. The _Expression of the Emotions_, published in 1872,
offered a natural explanation of phenomena which appeared to be a
difficulty in the way of the acceptance of evolution. In 1876 Darwin
brought out his two previously published geological works on _Volcanic
Islands_ and _South America_ as a single volume. The widely read
_Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms_ appeared in
1881. He also published various volumes on botanical subjects. The
_Fertilization of Orchids_ appeared in 1862. The subject of
cross-fertilization of flowers was in Darwin's mind, as shown by his
note-book in 1837. In 1841 Robert Brown directed his attention to
Christian Conrad Sprengel's work (Berlin, 1793), which confirmed his
determination to pursue this line of research. _The Effects of Cross-
and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom_ (1876) contained the
direct evidence that the offspring of cross-fertilized individuals are
more vigorous, as well as more numerous, than those produced by a
self-fertilized parent. _Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the
Same Species_ appeared in 1877. It is here shown that each different
form, although possessing both kinds of sexual organs, is specially
adapted to be fertilized by the pollen of another form, and that when
artificially fertilized by its own pollen less vigorous offspring,
bearing some resemblance to hybrids, are produced. He says, "no little
discovery of mine ever gave me so much pleasure as the making out the
meaning of heterostyled flowers" (_Autobiography_). _Climbing Plants_
was published in 1875, although it had, in large part, been communicated
to the Linnean Society, in whose publications much of the material of
several of his other works appeared. This inquiry into the nature of the
movements of twining plants was suggested to him in a paper by Asa Gray.
_The Power of Movement in Plants_ (1880) was produced by him in
conjunction with his son Francis. It was an inquiry into the minute
power of movement possessed, he believed, by plants generally, out of
which the larger movements of climbing plants of many different groups
had been evolved. The work included an investigation of other kinds of
plant movement due to light, gravity, &c., all of which he regarded as
modifications of the one fundamental movement (circumnutation) which
exists in a highly specialized form in climbing plants. _Insectivorous
Plants_ (1875) is principally concerned with the description of
experiments on the Sun-dew (_Drosera_), although other insect-catching
plants, such as _Dionaea_, are also investigated.
Charles Darwin's long life of patient, continuous work, the most
fruitful, the most inspiring, in the annals of modern science, came to
an end on the 19th of April 1882. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on
the 26th. It is of much interest to attempt to set forth some of the
main characteristics of the man who did so much for modern science, and
in so large a measure moulded the form of modern thought. Although his
ill-health prevented Darwin, except on rare occasions, from attending
scientific and social meetings, and thus from meeting and knowing the
great body of scientific and intellectual workers of his time, probably
no man has ever inspired a wider and deeper personal interest and
affection. This was in part due to the intimate personal friends who
represented him in the circles he was unable frequently to enter, but
chiefly to the kindly, generous, and courteous nature which was revealed
in his large correspondence and published writings, and especially in
his treatment of opponents.
In a deeply interesting chapter of the _Life and Letters_ Francis Darwin
has given us his reminiscences of his father's everyday life. Rising
early, he took a short walk before breakfasting alone at 7.45, and then
at once set to work, "considering the 1½ hours between 8.0 and 9.30 one
of his best working times." He then read his letters and listened to
reading aloud, returning to work at about 10.30. At 12 or 12.15 "he
considered his day's work over," and went for a walk, whether wet or
fine. For a time he rode, but after accidents had occurred twice, was
advised to give it up. After lunch he read the newspaper and wrote his
letters or the MS. of his books. At about 3.0 he rested and smoked for
an hour while being read to, often going to sleep. He then went for a
short walk, and returning about 4.30, worked for an hour. After this he
rested and smoked, and listened to reading until tea at 7.30, a meal
which he came to prefer to late dinner. He then played two games of
backgammon, read to himself, and listened to music and to reading aloud.
He went to bed, generally very much tired, at 10.30, and was often much
troubled by wakefulness and the activity of his thoughts. It is thus
apparent that the number of hours devoted to work in each day was
comparatively few. The immense amount he achieved was due to
concentration during these hours, also to the unfailing and, because of
his health, the necessary regularity of his life.
The appearance of Charles Darwin has been made well known in numerous
portraits and statues. He was tall and thin, being about six feet high,
but looked less because of a stoop, which increased towards the end of
his life. As a young man he had been active, with considerable powers of
endurance, and possessed in a marked degree those qualities of eye and
hand which make the successful sportsman.
Charles Darwin was, as a young man, a believer in Christianity, and was
sent to Cambridge with the idea that he would take orders. It is
probable, however, that he had merely yielded to the influences of his
home, without thinking much on the subject of religion. He first began
to reflect deeply on the subject during the two years and a quarter
which intervened between his return from the "Beagle" (October 2nd,
1836) and his marriage (January 29th, 1839). His own words are,
"disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete.
The rate was so slow that I felt no distress." His attitude was that of
the tolerant unaggressive agnostic, sympathizing with and helping in the
social and charitable influences of the English Church in his parish. He
was evidently most unwilling that his opinions on religious matters
should influence others, holding, as his son, Francis Darwin, says,
"that a man ought not to publish on a subject to which he has not given
special and continuous thought" (_l.c._ i. p. 305).
In addition to the personal qualities and powers of Charles Darwin,
there were other contributing causes without which the world could never
have reaped the benefit of his genius. It is evident that Darwin's
health could barely have endured the strain of working for a living, and
that nothing would have been left over for his researches. A deep debt
of gratitude is owing to his father for placing him in a position in
which all his energy could be devoted to scientific work and thought.
But his ill-health was such that this important and essential condition
would have been insufficient without another even more essential.
Francis Darwin, in the _Life and Letters_ (i. pp. 159-160), writes these
eloquent and pathetic words:--"No one indeed, except my mother, knows
the full amount of suffering he endured, or the full amount of his
wonderful patience. For all the latter years of his life she never left
him for a night; and her days were so planned that all his resting hours
might be shared with her. She shielded him from every avoidable
annoyance, and omitted nothing that might save him trouble, or prevent
him becoming over-tired, or that might alleviate the many discomforts of
his ill-health. I hesitate to speak thus freely of a thing so sacred as
the lifelong devotion which prompted all this constant and tender care.
But it is, I repeat, a principal feature of his life, that for nearly
forty years he never knew one day of the health of ordinary men, and
that thus his life was one long struggle against the weariness and the
strain of sickness. And this cannot be told without speaking of the one
condition which enabled him to bear the strain and fight out the
struggle to the end."
Charles Darwin was honoured by the chief societies of the civilized
world. He was made a knight of the Prussian order, "Pour le Mérite," in
1867, a corresponding member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1863,
a fellow in 1878, and later in the same year a corresponding member of
the French Institute in the botanical section. He received the Bressa
prize of the Royal Academy of Turin, and the Baly medal of the Royal
College of Physicians in 1879, the Wollaston medal of the Geological
Society in 1859, a Royal medal of the Royal Society in 1853, and the
Copley medal in 1864. His health prevented him from accepting the
honorary degree which Oxford University wished to confer on him, but his
own university had stronger claims, and he received its honorary LL.D.
in 1877.
Two daughters and five sons survived him, four of the latter becoming
prominent in the scientific world,--Sir George Howard (b. 1845), who
became professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge
in 1883; Francis (b. 1848), the distinguished botanist; Leonard (b.
1850), a major in the royal engineers, and afterwards well known as an
economist; and Horace (b. 1851), civil engineer.
See _The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, including an
autobiographical chapter_, edited by his son Francis Darwin (3 vols.,
London, 1887); _Charles Darwin and the Theory of Natural Selection_,
by E. B. Poulton (London, 1896); _Life and Letters of Thomas Henry
Huxley_, by Leonard Huxley (2 vols., London, 1900); A. R. Wallace,
_Darwinism_ (1889); G. J. Romanes, _Darwin and after Darwin_ (1895).
Also the article on T. H. HUXLEY. (E. B. P.)
DARWIN, ERASMUS (1731-1802), English man of science and poet, was born
at Elton, in Nottinghamshire, on the 12th of December 1731. After
studying at St John's College, Cambridge, and at Edinburgh, he settled
in 1756 as a physician at Nottingham, but meeting with little success he
moved in the following year to Lichfield. There he gained a large
practice, and did much, both by example and by more direct effort, to
diminish drunkenness among the lower classes. In 1781 he removed to
Derby, where he died suddenly on the 18th of April 1802. The fame of
Erasmus Darwin as a poet rests upon his _Botanic Garden_, though he also
wrote _The Temple of Nature, or the Origin of Society, a Poem, with
Philosophical Notes_ (1803), and _The Shrine of Nature_ (posthumously
published). The _Botanic Garden_ (the second part of which--_The Loves
of the Plants_--was published anonymously in 1789, and the whole of
which appeared in 1791) is a long poem in the decasyllabic rhymed
couplet. Its merit lies in the genuine scientific enthusiasm and
interest in nature which pervade it; and of any other poetic
quality--except a certain, sometimes felicitous but oftener ill-placed,
elaborated pomp of words--it may without injustice be said to be almost
destitute. It was for the most part written laboriously, and polished
with unsparing care, line by line, often as he rode from one patient to
another, and it occupied the leisure hours of many years. The artificial
character of the diction renders it in emotional passages stilted and
even absurd, and makes Canning's clever caricature--_The Loves of the
Triangles_--often remarkably like the poem it satirizes: in some
passages, however, it is not without a stately appropriateness. Gnomes,
sylphs and nereids are introduced on almost every page, and
personification is carried to an extraordinary excess. Thus he describes
the _Loves of the Plants_ according to the Linnaean system by means of a
most ingenious but misplaced and amusing personification of each plant,
and often even of the parts of the plant. It is significant that
botanical notes are added to the poem, and that its eulogies of
scientific men are frequent. Erasmus Darwin's mind was in fact rather
that of a man of science than that of a poet. His most important
scientific work is his _Zoonomia_ (1794-1796), which contains a system
of pathology, and a treatise on generation, in which he, in the words of
his famous grandson, Charles Robert Darwin, "anticipated the views and
erroneous grounds of opinions of Lamarck." The essence of his views is
contained in the following passage, which he follows up with the
conclusion "that one and the same kind of living filaments is and has
been the cause of all organic life":--
"Would it be too bold to imagine that, in the great length of time
since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the
commencement of the history of mankind,--would it be too bold to
imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living
filament, which the great First Cause endued with animality, with the
power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed
by irritations, sensations, volitions and associations, and thus
possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent
activity, and of delivering down these improvements by generation to
its posterity, world without end!"
In 1799 Darwin published his _Phytologia, or the Philosophy of
Agriculture and Gardening_ (1799), in which he states his opinion that
plants have sensation and volition. A paper on _Female Education in
Boarding Schools_ (1797) completes the list of his works.
Robert Waring Darwin (1766-1848), his third son by his first marriage, a
doctor at Shrewsbury, was the father of the famous Charles Darwin; and
Violetta, his eldest daughter by his second marriage, was the mother of
Francis Galton.
See Anna Seward, _Memoirs of the Life of Dr Darwin_ (1804); and
Charles Darwin, _Life of Erasmus Darwin, an introduction to an essay
on his works by Ernst Krause_ (1879).
DASENT, SIR GEORGE WEBBE (1817-1896), English writer, was born in St
Vincent, West Indies, on the 22nd of May 1817, the son of the
attorney-general of that island. He was educated at Westminster school,
King's College, and Oxford, where he was a contemporary of J. T. Delane
(q.v.), whose friend he had become at King's College. On leaving the
university in 1840 he was appointed to a diplomatic post in Stockholm.
Here he met Jacob Grimm, and at his suggestion first interested himself
in Scandinavian literature and mythology. In 1842 he published the
results of his studies, a version of _The Prose or Younger Edda_, and in
the following year he issued a _Grammar of the Icelandic or Old-Norse
Tongue_, taken from the Swedish. Returning to England in 1845, he became
assistant editor of _The Times_ under Delane, whose sister he married;
but he still continued his Scandinavian studies, publishing translations
of various Norse stories. In 1853 he was appointed professor of English
literature and modern history at King's College, London. In 1861-1862 he
visited Iceland, and subsequently published _Gisli the Outlaw_ and other
translations from the Icelandic. In 1870 he was appointed a civil
service commissioner and consequently resigned his post on _The Times_.
In 1876 he was knighted. He retired from the public service in 1892, and
died at Ascot on the 11th of June 1896. In addition to the works
mentioned above, he published _The Story of Burnt Njal_, from the
Icelandic of the _Njals Saga_ (1861).
See the _Life of Delane_ (1908), by Arthur Irwin Dasent.
DASHKOV, CATHERINA ROMANOVNA VORONTSOV, PRINCESS (1744-1810), Russian
_littérateur_, was the third daughter of Count Roman Vorontsov, a member
of the Russian senate, distinguished for his intellectual gifts. (For
the family see VORONTSOV.) She received an exceptionally good
education, having displayed from a very early age the masculine ability
and masculine tastes which made her whole career so singular. She was
well versed in mathematics, which she studied at the university of
Moscow, and in general literature her favourite authors were Bayle,
Montesquieu, Boileau, Voltaire and Helvetius. While still a girl she was
connected with the Russian court, and became one of the leaders of the
party that attached itself to the grand duchess (afterwards empress)
Catherine. Before she was sixteen she married Prince Mikhail Dashkov, a
prominent Russian nobleman, and went to reside with him at Moscow. In
1762 she was at St Petersburg and took a leading part, according to her
own account _the_ leading part, in the _coup d'état_ by which Catherine
was raised to the throne. (See CATHERINE II.) Another course of events
would probably have resulted in the elevation of the Princess Dashkov's
elder sister, Elizabeth, who was the emperor's mistress, and in whose
favour he made no secret of his intention to depose Catherine. Her
relations with the new empress were not of a cordial nature, though she
continued devotedly loyal. Her blunt manners, her unconcealed scorn of
the male favourites that disgraced the court, and perhaps also her sense
of unrequited merit, produced an estrangement between her and the
empress, which ended in her asking permission to travel abroad. The
cause of the final breach was said to have been the refusal of her
request to be appointed colonel of the imperial guards. Her husband
having meanwhile died, she set out in 1768 on an extended tour through
Europe. She was received with great consideration at foreign courts, and
her literary and scientific reputation procured her the _entrée_ to the
society of the learned in most of the capitals of Europe. In Paris she
secured the warm friendship and admiration of Diderot and Voltaire. She
showed in various ways a strong liking for England and the English. She
corresponded with Garrick, Dr Blair and Principal Robertson; and when in
Edinburgh, where she was very well received, she arranged to entrust the
education of her son to Principal Robertson. In 1782 she returned to the
Russian capital, and was at once taken into favour by the empress, who
strongly sympathized with her in her literary tastes, and specially in
her desire to elevate Russ to a place among the literary languages of
Europe. Immediately after her return the princess was appointed
"directeur" of the St Petersburg Academy of Arts and Sciences; and in
1784 she was named the first president of the Russian Academy, which had
been founded at her suggestion. In both positions she acquitted herself
with marked ability. She projected the Russian dictionary of the
Academy, arranged its plan, and executed a part of the work herself. She
edited a monthly magazine; and wrote at least two dramatic works, _The
Marriage of Fabian_, and a comedy entitled _Toissiokoff_. Shortly before
Catherine's death the friends quarrelled over a tragedy which the
princess had allowed to find a place in the publications of the Academy,
though it contained revolutionary principles, according to the empress.
A partial reconciliation was effected, but the princess soon afterwards
retired from court. On the accession of the emperor Paul in 1796 she was
deprived of all her offices, and ordered to retire to a miserable
village in the government of Novgorod, "to meditate on the events of
1762." After a time the sentence was partially recalled on the petition
of her friends, and she was permitted to pass the closing years of her
life on her own estate near Moscow, where she died on the 4th of January
1810.
Her son, the last of the Dashkov family, died in 1807 and bequeathed his
fortune to his cousin Illarion Vorontsov, who thereupon by imperial
licence assumed the name Vorontsov-Dashkov; and Illarion's son, Illarion
Ivanovich Vorontsov-Dashkov (b. 1837), held an appointment in the tsar's
household from 1881 to 1897.
The _Memoirs of the Princess Dashkoff written by herself_ were
published in 1840 in London in two volumes. They were edited by Mrs W.
Bradford, who, as Miss Wilmot, had resided with the princess between
1803 and 1808, and had suggested their preparation.
DASS, PETTER (1647-1708), the "father" of modern Norwegian poetry, was
the son of Peter Dundas, a Scottish merchant of Dundee, who, leaving his
country about 1630 to escape the troubles of the Presbyterian church,
settled in Bergen, and in 1646 married a Norse girl of good family.
Petter Dass was born in 1647 on the island of Nord Herö; on the north
coast of Norway. Seven years later his father died, and his mother
placed him with his aunt, the wife of the priest of another little
island-parish. In 1660 he was sent to school at Bergen, in 1665 to the
university of Copenhagen, and in 1667 he began to earn his daily bread
as a private tutor. In 1672 he was ordained priest, and remained till
1681 as under-chaplain at Nesne, a little parish near his birthplace;
for eight years more he was resident chaplain at Nesne; and at last in
1689 he received the living of Alstahoug, the most important in the
north of Norway. The rule of Alstahoug extended over all the
neighbouring districts, including Dass's native island of Herö, and its
privileges were accompanied by great perils, for it was necessary to be
constantly crossing stormy firths of sea. Dass lived here in quietude,
with something of the honours and responsibilities of a bishop, brought
up his family in a God-fearing way, and wrote endless reams of verses.
In 1700 he asked leave to resign his living in favour of his son Anders
Dass, but this was not permitted; in 1704, however, Anders became his
father's chaplain. About this time Petter went to Bergen, where he
visited Dorothea Engelbrechtsdatter, with whom he had been for many
years in correspondence. He continued to write till 1707, and died in
August 1708. The materials for his biography are very numerous; he was
regarded with universal curiosity and admiration in his lifetime; and,
besides, he left a garrulous autobiography in verse. A portrait, painted
in middle age, now in the church of Melhus, near Trondhjem, represents
him in canonicals, with deep red beard and hair, the latter waved and
silky, and a head of massive proportions. The face is full of fire and
vigour. His writings passed in MS. from hand to hand, and few of them
were printed in his lifetime. _Nordlands Trompet_ (The Trumpet of
Nordland), his greatest and most famous poem, was not published till
1739; _Den norska Dale-Vise_ (The Norwegian Song of the Valley) appeared
in 1696; the _Aandelig Tidsfordriv_ (Spiritual Pastime), a volume of
sacred poetry, was published in 1711. _The Trumpet of Nordland_ remains
as fresh as ever in the memories of the inhabitants of the north of
Norway; boatmen, peasants, priests will alike repeat long extracts from
it at the slightest notice, and its popularity is unbounded. It is a
rhyming description of the province of Nordland, its natural features,
its trades, its advantages and its drawbacks, given in dancing verse of
the most breathless kind, and full of humour, fancy, wit and quaint
learning. The other poems of Petter Dass are less universally read; they
abound, however, in queer turns of thought, and fine homely fancies.
The collected writings of Dass were edited (3 vols., Christiania,
1873-1877) by Dr A. E. Eriksen.
DASYURE, a bookname for any member of the zoological family
_Dasyuridae_. (See MARSUPIALIA.) The name is better restricted to
animals of the typical genus _Dasyurus_, sometimes called true Dasyures.
These are mostly inhabitants of the Australian continent and Tasmania,
where in the economy of nature they take the place of the smaller
predaceous Carnivora, the cats, civets and weasels of other parts of the
world. They hide themselves in the daytime in holes among rocks or in
hollow trees, but prowl about at night in search of the small living
mammals and birds which constitute their prey, and are to some extent
arboreal in habit. The spot-tailed dasyure (_D. maculatus_), about the
size of a cat, inhabiting Tasmania and Southern Australia, has
transversely striated pads on the soles of the feet. These organs are
also present in the North Australian dasyure (_D. hallucatus_) and the
Papuan _D. albopunctatus_, and are regarded by Oldfield Thomas as
indication of arboreal habits; in the common dasyure (_D. viverrinus_)
from Tasmania and Victoria, and the black-tailed dasyure (_D.
geoffroyi_) from South Australia, these feet-pads are absent, whence
these species are believed to seek their prey on the ground. The ursine
dasyure (_Sarcophilus ursinus_), often called the "Tasmanian Devil,"
constitutes a distinct genus. In size it may be compared to an English
badger; the general colour of the fur is black tinged with brown, with
white patches on the neck, shoulders, rump and chest. It is a burrowing
animal, of nocturnal habits, intensely carnivorous, and commits great
depredations on the sheepyards and poultry-lofts of the settlers. In
writing of this species Krefft says that one--by no means a large
one--escaped from confinement and killed in two nights fifty-four fowls,
six geese, an albatross and a cat. It was recaptured in what was
considered a stout trap, with a door constructed of iron bars as thick
as a lead pencil, but escaped by twisting this solid obstacle aside.
DATE PALM. The dates[1] of commerce are the fruit of a species of palm,
_Phoenix dactylifera_, a tree which ranges from the Canary Islands
through Northern Africa and the south-east of Asia to India. It has been
cultivated and much prized throughout most of these regions from the
remotest antiquity. Its cultivation and use are described on the mural
tablets of the ancient Assyrians. In Arabia it is the chief source of
national wealth, and its fruit forms the staple article of food in that
country. The tree has also been introduced along the Mediterranean
shores of Europe; but as its fruit does not ripen so far north, the
European plants are only used to supply leaves for the festival of Palm
Sunday among Christians, and for the celebration of the Passover by
Jews. It was introduced into the new world by early Spanish
missionaries, and is now cultivated in the dry districts of the
south-western United States and in Mexico. The date palm is a beautiful
tree, growing to a height of from 60 to 80 ft., and its stem, which is
strongly marked with old leaf-scars, terminates in a crown of graceful
shining pinnate leaves. The flowers spring in branching spadices from
the axils of the leaves, and as the trees are unisexual it is necessary
in cultivation to fertilize the female flowers by artificial means. The
fruit is oblong, fleshy and contains one very hard seed which is deeply
furrowed on the inside. The fruit varies much in size, colour and
quality under cultivation. Regarding this fruit, W. G. Palgrave
(_Central and Eastern Arabia_) remarked: "Those who, like most Europeans
at home, only know the date from the dried specimens of that fruit shown
beneath a label in shop-windows, can hardly imagine how delicious it is
when eaten fresh and in Central Arabia. Nor is it, when newly gathered,
heating,--a defect inherent to the preserved fruit everywhere; nor does
its richness, however great, bring satiety; in short it is an article of
food alike pleasant and healthy." In the oases of Sahara, and in other
parts of Northern Africa, dates are pounded and pressed into a cake for
food. The dried fruit used for dessert in European countries contains
more than half its weight of sugar, about 6% of albumen, and 12% of
gummy matter. All parts of the date palm yield valuable economic
products. Its trunk furnishes timber for house-building and furniture;
the leaves supply thatch; their footstalks are used as fuel, and also
yield a fibre from which cordage is spun.
_Date sugar_ is a valuable commercial product of the East Indies,
obtained from the sap or toddy of _Phoenix sylvestris_, the toddy palm,
a tree so closely allied to the date palm that it has been supposed to
be the parent stock of all the cultivated varieties. The juice, when not
boiled down to form sugar, is either drunk fresh, or fermented and
distilled to form arrack. The uses of the other parts and products of
this tree are the same as those of the date palm products. _Date palm
meal_ is obtained from the stem of a small species, _Phoenix
farinifera_, growing in the hill country of southern India.
For further details see Sir G. Watt, _Dictionary of the Economic
Products of India_ (1892); and _The Date Palm_, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 53 (W. T.
Swingle), 1904.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Lat. _dactylus_, finger, hence fruit of the date palm, gave O.
Fr. _date_, mod. _datte_; distinguish "date," in chronology, from
Lat. _datum_, _data_, given, used at the beginning of a letter, &c.,
to show time and place of writing, e.g. _Datum Romae_.
DATIA, a native state of Central India, in the Bundelkhand agency. It
lies in the extreme north-west of Bundelkhand, near Gwalior, and is
surrounded on all sides by other states of Central India, except on the
east where it meets the United Provinces. The state came under the
British government after the treaty of Bassein in 1802. Area, 911 sq. m.
Pop. (1901) 173,759. Estimated revenue, £70,000; tribute to Sindhia paid
through the British Government, £1000. The chief, whose title is
maharaja, is a Rajput of the Bundela clan, being descended from a
younger son of a former chief of Orchha. The state suffered from famine
in 1896-1897, and again to a less extent in 1899-1900. It is traversed
by the branch of the Indian Midland railway from Jhansi to Gwalior. The
town of Datia has a railway station, 16 m. from Jhansi. Pop. (1901)
24,071. It is surrounded by a stone wall, enclosing handsome palaces,
with gardens; the palace of Bir Singh Deo, of the 17th century, is "one
of the finest examples of Hindu domestic architecture in India"
(_Imperial Gazetteer of India_, 1908).
DATIVE (Lat. _dativus_, giving or given, from _dare_, to give), the
name, in grammar, of the case of the "indirect object," the person or
thing to or for whom or which anything is given or done. In law, the
word signifies something, such as an office, which may be disposed of at
will or pleasure, and is opposed to perpetual. In Scots law the term is
applied to persons, duties or powers, appointed or granted by a court of
law; thus an "executor-dative" is an executor appointed by the court and
not by a testator. It answers, therefore, to the English administrator
(q.v.). In Roman law, a _tutor_ was either _dativus_, if expressly
nominated in a testament, or _optivus_, if a power of selection was
given.
DATOLITE, a mineral species consisting of basic calcium and boron
orthosilicate, Ca(BOH)SiO4. It was first observed by J. Esmark in 1806,
and named by him from [Greek: dateisthai], "to divide," and [Greek:
lithos], "stone," in allusion to the granular structure of the massive
mineral. It usually occurs as well-developed glassy crystals bounded by
numerous bright faces, many of which often have a more or less
pentagonal outline. The crystals were for a long time considered to be
orthorhombic, and indeed they approach closely to this system in habit,
interfacial angles and optical orientation; humboldtite was the name
given by A. Lévy in 1823 to monoclinic crystals supposed to be distinct
from datolite, but the two were afterwards proved to be identical. The
mineral also occurs as masses with a granular to compact texture; when
compact the fractured surfaces have the appearance of porcelain. A
fibrous variety with a botryoidal or globular surface is known as
botryolite. Datolite is white or colourless, often with a greenish
tinge; it is transparent or opaque. Hardness 5-5½; specific gravity 3.0.
Datolite is a mineral of secondary origin, and in its mode of occurrence
it resembles the zeolites, being found with them in the amygdaloidal
cavities of basic igneous rocks such as basalt; it is also found in
gneiss and serpentine, and in metalliferous veins and in beds of iron
ore. At Arendal in Norway, the original locality for both the
crystallized and botryoidal varieties, it is found in a bed of
magnetite. In amygdaloidal basaltic rocks it is found at Bishopton in
Renfrewshire and near Edinburgh; and as excellent crystallized specimens
at several localities in the United States, e.g. at Westfield in
Massachusetts, Bergen and Paterson in New Jersey, and in the
copper-mining region of Lake Superior. At St Andreasberg in the Harz it
occurs both in diabase and in the veins of silver ore. Fine specimens
have recently been obtained from Tasmania.
Large crystals of datolite completely altered to chalcedony were
formerly found with magnetite in the Haytor iron mine on Dartmoor in
Devonshire; to these pseudomorphs the name haytorite has been applied.
(L. J. S.)
DAUB, KARL (1765-1836), German Protestant theologian, was born at Cassel
on the 20th of March 1765. He studied philosophy, philology and theology
at Marburg in 1786, and eventually (1795) became professor ordinarius of
theology at Heidelberg, where he died on the 22nd of November 1836. Daub
was one of the leaders of a school which sought to reconcile theology
and philosophy, and to bring about a speculative reconstruction of
orthodox dogma. In the course of his intellectual development, he came
successively under the influence of Kant, Schelling and Hegel, and on
account of the different phases through which he passed he was called
the Talleyrand of German thought. There was one great defect in his
speculative theology: he ignored historical criticism. His purpose was,
as Otto Pfleiderer says, "to connect the metaphysical ideas, which had
been arrived at by means of philosophical dialectic, directly with the
persons and events of the Gospel narratives, thus raising these above
the region of ordinary experience into that of the supernatural, and
regarding the most absurd assertions as philosophically justified. Daub
had become so hopelessly addicted to this perverse principle that he
deduced not only Jesus as the embodiment of the philosophical idea of
the union of God and man, but also Judas Iscariot as the embodiment of
the idea of a rival god, or Satan." The three stages in Daub's
development are clearly marked in his writings. His _Lehrbuch der
Katechetik_ (1801) was written under the spell of Kant. His
_Theologumena_ (1806), his _Einleitung in das Studium der christl.
Dogmatik_ (1810), and his _Judas Ischarioth_ (2 vols., 1816, 2nd ed.,
1818), were all written in the spirit of Schelling, the last of them
reflecting a change in Schelling himself from theosophy to positive
philosophy. Daub's _Die dogmatische Theologie jetziger Zeit oder die
Selbstsucht in der Wissenschaft des Glaubens_ (1833), and _Vorlesungen
über die Prolegomena zur Dogmatik_ (1839), are Hegelian in principle and
obscure in language.
See Rosenkranz, _Erinnerungen an Karl Daub_ (1837); D. Fr. Strauss,
_Charakteristiken und Kritiken_ (2nd ed., 1844); and cf. F.
Lichtenberger, _History of German Theology_ (1889); Otto Pfleiderer,
_Development of Theology_ (1890). (M. A. C.)
DAUBENTON, LOUIS-JEAN-MARIE (1716-1800), French naturalist, was born at
Montbar (Côte d'Or) on the 29th of May 1716. His father, Jean Daubenton,
a notary, destined him for the church, and sent him to Paris to learn
theology, but the study of medicine was more to his taste. The death of
his father in 1736 set him free to follow his own inclinations, and
accordingly in 1741 he graduated in medicine at Reims, and returned to
his native town with the intention of practising as a physician. But
about this time Buffon, also a native of Montbar, had formed the plan of
bringing out a grand treatise on natural history, and in 1742 he invited
Daubenton to assist him by providing the anatomical descriptions for
that work. The characters of the two men were opposed in almost every
respect. Buffon was violent and impatient; Daubenton, gentle and
patient; Buffon was rash in his judgments, and imaginative, seeking
rather to divine than to discover truths; Daubenton was cautious, and
believed nothing he had not himself been able to see or ascertain. From
nature each appeared to have received the qualities requisite to temper
those of the other; and a more suitable coadjutor than Daubenton it
would have been difficult for Buffon to obtain. In the first section of
the natural history Daubenton gave descriptions and details of the
dissection of 182 species of quadrupeds, thus procuring for himself a
high reputation, and exciting the envy of Réaumur, who considered
himself as at the head of the learned in natural history in France. A
feeling of jealousy induced Buffon to dispense with the services of
Daubenton in the preparation of the subsequent parts of his work, which,
as a consequence, lost much in precision and scientific value. Buffon
afterwards perceived and acknowledged his error, and renewed his
intimacy with his former associate. The number of dissertations on
natural history which Daubenton published in the memoirs of the French
Academy is very great. Zoological descriptions and dissections, the
comparative anatomy of recent and fossil animals, vegetable physiology,
mineralogy, experiments in agriculture, and the introduction of the
merino sheep into France gave active occupation to his energies; and the
cabinet of natural history in Paris, of which in 1744 he was appointed
keeper and demonstrator, was arranged and considerably enriched by him.
From 1775 Daubenton lectured on natural history in the college of
medicine, and in 1783 on rural economy at the Alfort school. He was also
professor of mineralogy at the Jardin du Roi. As a lecturer he was in
high repute, and to the last retained his popularity. In December 1799
he was appointed a member of the senate, but at the first meeting which
he attended he fell from his seat in an apoplectic fit, and after a
short illness died at Paris on the 1st of January 1800.
DAUBENY, CHARLES GILES BRIDLE (1795-1867), English chemist, botanist and
geologist, was the third son of the Rev. James Daubeny, and was born at
Stratton in Gloucestershire on the 11th of February 1795. In 1808 he
went to Winchester, and in 1810 he was elected to a demyship at Magdalen
College, Oxford, where the lectures of Dr Kidd first awakened in him a
desire for the cultivation of natural science. In 1814 he graduated with
second-class honours, and in the next year he obtained the prize for the
Latin essay. From 1815 to 1818 he studied medicine in London and
Edinburgh. He took his M.D. degree at Oxford, and was a fellow of the
College of Physicians. In 1819, in the course of a tour through France,
he made the volcanic district of Auvergne a special study, and his
_Letters on the Volcanos of Auvergne_ were published in _The Edinburgh
Journal_, 1820-21. He was elected F.R.S. in 1822. By subsequent journeys
in Hungary, Transylvania, Italy, Sicily, France and Germany he extended
his knowledge of volcanic phenomena; and in 1826 the results of his
observations were given in a work entitled _A Description of Active and
Extinct Volcanos_ (2nd ed., 1848). In common with Gay Lussac and Davy,
he held subterraneous thermic disturbances to be probably due to the
contact of water with metals of the alkalis and alkaline earths. In
November 1822 Daubeny succeeded Dr Kidd as professor of chemistry at
Oxford, and retained this post until 1855; and in 1834 he was appointed
to the chair of botany, to which was subsequently attached that of rural
economy. At the Oxford botanic garden he conducted numerous experiments
upon the effect of changes in soil, light and the composition of the
atmosphere upon vegetation. In 1830 he published in the _Philosophical
Transactions_ a paper on the iodine and bromine of mineral waters. In
the following year appeared his _Introduction to the Atomic Theory_,
which was succeeded by a supplement in 1840, and in 1850 by a second
edition. In 1831 Daubeny represented the universities of England at the
first meeting of the British Association, which at his request held
their next session at Oxford. In 1836 he communicated to the Association
a report on the subject of mineral and thermal waters. In 1837 he
visited the United States, and acquired there the materials for papers
on the thermal springs and the geology of North America, read in 1838
before the Ashmolean Society and the British Association. In 1856 he
became president of the latter body at its meeting at Cheltenham. In
1841 Daubeny published his _Lectures on Agriculture_; in 1857 his
_Lectures on Roman Husbandry_; in 1863 _Climate: an inquiry into the
causes of its differences and into its influence on Vegetable Life_; and
in 1865 an _Essay on the Trees and Shrubs of the Ancients_, and a
_Catalogue of the Trees and Shrubs indigenous to Greece and Italy_. His
last literary work was the collection of his _Miscellanies_, published
in two volumes, in 1867. In all his undertakings Daubeny was actuated by
a practical spirit and a desire for the advancement of knowledge; and
his personal influence on his contemporaries was in keeping with the
high character of his various literary productions. He died in Oxford on
the 12th of December 1867.
See Obituary by John Phillips in _Proceedings of Ashmolean Soc._,
1868.
DAUBIGNY, CHARLES FRANÇOIS (1817-1878), French landscape painter, allied
in several ways with the Barbizon School, was born in Paris, on the 15th
of February 1817, but spent much time as a child at Valmondois, a
village on the Oise to the north-west of Paris. Daubigny was the son of
an artist, and most of his family were painters. He began to paint very
early in life, and at the age of seventeen he took a studio of his own.
Within twelve months he had saved enough to go to Italy, where he
studied and painted for nearly two years; he then returned to Paris, not
to leave it again until, in 1860, he took a house at Auvers on the Oise.
By 1837 Daubigny had become famous as a river and landscape painter,
although he had been devoting himself as well to drawing in
black-and-white, to etching, wood engraving, and lithography. In 1855
his picture, "Lock at Optevoz," now in the Louvre, was purchased by the
state; four years later Daubigny was created knight of the Legion of
Honour, and in 1874 he was promoted to be an officer. In 1866, at the
invitation of Lord, then Mr Leighton and others, he visited London,
where, however, he was hurt by his now famous "Moonlight" being badly
hung in the Old Royal Academy. But the personal encouragement of his
admirers in England made up for the disappointment, and the sale of his
picture to a Royal Academician greatly pleased him. In 1870-1871 he
again visited London, and subsequently Holland, where he painted a
number of river scenes with windmills. In 1874, having returned to
Paris, he fell ill, and from that time until he died (on the 19th of
February 1878) his work won less distinction than before. In 1904 the
municipality of Auvers-sur-Oise decided to erect a bronze monument to
Daubigny's memory.
Daubigny's finest pictures were painted between 1864 and 1874, and these
for the most part consist of carefully completed landscapes with trees,
river and a few ducks. It has curiously been said, yet with some
appearance of truth, that when Daubigny liked his pictures himself he
added another duck or two, so that the number of ducks often indicates
greater or less artistic quality in his pictures. One of his sayings
was, "The best pictures do not sell," as he frequently found his finest
achievements little understood. Yet although during the latter part of
his life he was considered a highly successful painter, the money value
of his pictures since his death has increased nearly tenfold. Daubigny
is chiefly preferred in his riverside pictures, of which he painted a
great number, but although there are two large landscapes by Daubigny in
the Louvre, neither is a river view. They are for that reason not so
typical as many of his smaller Oise and Seine pictures.
The works of Daubigny are, like Corot's, to be found in many modern
collections. His most ambitious canvases are: "Springtime" (1857), in
the Louvre; "Borde de la Cure, Morvan" (1864); "Villerville sur Mer"
(1864); "Moonlight" (1865); "Andrésy sur Oise" (1868); and "Return of
the Flock--Moonlight" (1878).
His followers and pupils were his son Karl (who sometimes painted so
well that his works are occasionally mistaken for those of his father,
though in few cases do they equal his father's mastery), Oudinot, Delpy
and Damoye.
See Fred Henriet, _C. Daubigny et son oeuvre_ (Paris, 1878); D. Croal
Thomson, _The Barbizon School of Painters_ (London, 1890); J. W.
Mollett, _Daubigny_ (London, 1890); J. Claretie, _Peintres et
sculpteurs contemporains: Daubigny_ (Paris, 1882); Albert Wolff, _La
Capitale de l'art: Ch. François Daubigny_ (Paris, 1881). (D. C. T.)
DAUBRÉE, GABRIEL AUGUSTE (1814-1896), French geologist, was born at
Metz, on the 25th of June 1814, and educated at the École Polytechnique
in Paris. At the age of twenty he had qualified as a mining engineer,
and in 1838 he was appointed to take charge of the mines in the Bas-Rhin
(Alsace), and subsequently to be professor of mineralogy and geology at
the Faculty of Sciences, Strassburg. In 1859 he became engineer in chief
of mines, and in 1861 he was appointed professor of geology at the
museum of natural history in Paris and was also elected member of the
Academy of Sciences. In the following year he became professor of
mineralogy at the École des Mines, and in 1872 director of that school.
In 1880 the Geological Society of London awarded to him the Wollaston
medal. His published researches date from 1841, when the origin of
certain tin minerals attracted his attention; he subsequently discussed
the formation of bog-iron ore, and worked out in detail the geology of
the Bas-Rhin (1852). From 1857 to 1861, while engaged in engineering
works connected with the springs of Plombières, he made a series of
interesting observations on thermal waters and their influence on the
Roman masonry through which they made their exit. He was, however,
especially distinguished for his long-continued and often dangerous
experiments on the artificial production of minerals and rocks. He
likewise discussed the permeability of rocks by water, and the effects
of such infiltration in producing volcanic phenomena; he dealt with the
subject of metamorphism, with the deformations of the earth's crust,
with earthquakes, and with the composition and classification of
meteorites. He died in Paris on the 29th of May 1896.
His publications were: _Études et expériences synthétiques sur le
métamorphisme et sur la formation des roches cristallines_ (1860);
_Études synthétiques de géologie expérimentale_ (1879); _Les Eaux
souterraines à l'époque actuelle_ (2 vols., 1887); _Le Eaux souterraines
aux époques anciennes_ (1887).
DAUDET, ALPHONSE (1840-1897), French novelist, was born at Nîmes on the
13th of May 1840. His family, on both sides, belonged to the
_bourgeoisie_. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer--a
man dogged through life by misfortune and failure. The lad, amid much
truancy, had but a depressing boyhood. In 1856 he left Lyons, where his
schooldays had been mainly spent, and began life as an usher at Alais,
in the south. The position proved to be intolerable. As Dickens declared
that all through his prosperous career he was haunted in dreams by the
miseries of his apprenticeship to the blacking business, so Daudet says
that for months after leaving Alais he would wake with horror thinking
he was still among his unruly pupils. On the 1st of November 1857 he
abandoned teaching, and took refuge with his brother Ernest, only some
three years his senior, who was trying, "and thereto soberly," to make a
living as a journalist in Paris. Alphonse betook himself to his pen
likewise,--wrote poems, shortly collected into a small volume _Les
Amoureuses_ (1858), which met with a fair reception,--obtained
employment on the _Figaro_, then under Cartier de Villemessant's
energetic editorship, wrote two or three plays, and began to be
recognized, among those interested in literature, as possessing
individuality and promise. Morny, the emperor's all-powerful minister,
appointed him to be one of his secretaries,--a post which he held till
Morny's death in 1865,--and showed him no small kindness. He had put his
foot on the road to fortune.
In 1866 appeared _Lettres de mon moulin_, which won the attention of
many readers. The first of his longer books, _Le petit chose_ (1868),
did not, however, produce any very popular sensation. It is, in its main
feature, the story of his own earlier years told with much grace and
pathos. The year 1872 produced the famous _Aventures prodigieuses de
Tartarin de Tarascon_, and the three-act piece _L'Arlésienne_. But
_Fromont jeune et Risler aîné_ (1874) at once took the world by storm.
It struck a note, not new certainly in English literature, but
comparatively new in French. Here was a writer who possessed the gift of
laughter and tears, a writer not only sensible to pathos and sorrow, but
also to moral beauty. He could create too. His characters were real and
also typical; the _ratés_, the men who in life's battle had flashed in
the pan, were touched with a master hand. The book was alive. It gave
the illusion of a real world. _Jack_, the story of an illegitimate
child, a martyr to his mother's selfishness, which followed in 1876,
served only to deepen the same impression. Henceforward his career was
that of a very successful man of letters,--publishing novel on novel,
_Le Nabab_ (1877), _Les Rois en exil_ (1879), _Numa Roumestan_ (1881),
_Sapho_ (1884), _L'Immortel_ (1888),--and writing for the stage at
frequent intervals,--giving to the world his reminiscences in _Trente
ans de Paris_ (1887), and _Souvenirs d'un homme de lettres_ (1888).
These, with the three _Tartarins_,--Tartarin the mighty hunter, Tartarin
the mountaineer, Tartarin the colonist,--and the admirable short
stories, written for the most part before he had acquired fame and
fortune, constitute his life work.
Though Daudet defended himself from the charge of imitating Dickens, it
is difficult altogether to believe that so many similarities of spirit
and manner were quite unsought. What, however, was purely his own was
his style. It is a style that may rightly be called "_impressionist_,"
full of light and colour, not descriptive after the old fashion, but
flashing its intended effect by a masterly juxtaposition of words that
are like pigments. Nor does it convey, like the style of the Goncourts,
for example, a constant feeling of effort. It is full of felicity and
charm,--_un charmeur_ Zola has called him. An intimate friend of Edmond
de Goncourt (who died in his house), of Flaubert, of Zola, Daudet
belonged essentially to the naturalist school of fiction. His own
experiences, his surroundings, the men with whom he had been brought
into contact, various persons who had played a part, more or less
public, in Paris life--all passed into his art. But he vivified the
material supplied by his memory. His world has the great gift of life.
_L'Immortel_ is a bitter attack on the French Academy, to which august
body Daudet never belonged.
Daudet wrote some charming stories for children, among which may be
mentioned _La Belle Nivernaise_, the story of an old boat and her crew.
His married life--he married in 1867 Julia Allard--seems to have been
singularly happy. There was perfect intellectual harmony, and Madame
Daudet herself possessed much of his literary gift; she is known by her
_Impressions de nature et d'art_ (1879), _L'Enfance d'une Parisienne_
(1883), and by some literary studies written under the pseudonym of Karl
Steen. In his later years Daudet suffered from insomnia, failure of
health and consequent use of chloral. He died in Paris on the 17th of
December 1897.
The story of Daudet's earlier years is told in his brother Ernest
Daudet's _Mon frère et moi_. There is a good deal of autobiographical
detail in Daudet's _Trente ans de Paris_ and _Souvenirs d'un homme de
lettres_, and also scattered in his other books. The references to him
in the _Journal des Goncourt_ are numerous. See also L. A. Daudet,
_Alphonse Daudet_ (1898), and biographical and critical essays by R.
H. Sherard (1894); by A. Gerstmann (1883); by B. Diederich (1900); by
A. Hermant (1903), and a bibliography by J. Brivois (1895); also _The
Works of Alphonse Daudet_, translated by L. Ensor, H. Frith, E. Bartow
(1902, etc.). Criticism of Daudet is also to be found in F.
Brunetière, _Le Roman naturaliste_ (new ed., 1897); J. Lemaître, _Les
Contemporains_ (vols. ii. and iv.); G. Pellissier, _Le Mouvement
littéraire au XIX^e siècle_ (1890); A. Symons, _Studies in Prose and
Verse_ (1904). (F. T. M.)
DAULATABAD, a hill-fortress in Hyderabad state, India, about 10 m. N.W.
of the city of Aurangabad. The former city of Daulatabad (Deogiri) has
shrunk into a mere village, though to its earlier greatness witness is
still borne by its magnificent fortress, and by remains of public
buildings noble even in their decay. The fortress stands on a conical
rock crowning a hill that rises almost perpendicularly from the plain to
a height of some 600 ft. The outer wall, 2¾ m. in circumference, once
enclosed the ancient city of Deogiri (Devagiri), and between this and
the base of the upper fort are three lines of defences. The fort is a
place of extraordinary strength. The only means of access to the summit
is afforded by a narrow bridge, with passage for not more than two men
abreast, and a long gallery, excavated in the rock, which has for the
most part a very gradual upward slope, but about midway is intercepted
by a steep stair, the top of which is covered by a grating destined in
time of war to form the hearth of a huge fire kept burning by the
garrison above. Besides the fortifications Daulatabad contains several
notable monuments, of which the chief are the Chand Minar and the Chini
Mahal. The Chand Minar, considered one of the most remarkable specimens
of Mahommedan architecture in southern India, is a tower 210 ft. high
and 70 ft. in circumference at the base, and was originally covered with
beautiful Persian glazed tiles. It was erected in 1445 by Ala-ud-din
Bahmani to commemorate his capture of the fort. The Chini Mahal, or
China Palace, is the ruin of a building once of great beauty. In it Abul
Hasan, the last of the Kutb Shahi kings of Golconda, was imprisoned by
Aurangzeb in 1687.
Deogiri is said to have been founded c. A.D. 1187 by Bhillama I. the
prince who renounced his allegiance to the Chalukyas and established the
power of the Yadava dynasty in the west. In 1294 the fort was captured
by Ala-ud-din Khilji, and the rajas, so powerful that they were held by
the Mussulmans at Delhi to be the rulers of all the Deccan, were reduced
to pay tribute. The tribute falling into arrear, Deogiri was again
occupied by the Mahommedans under Malik Kafur, in 1307 and 1310, and in
1318 the last raja, Harpal, was flayed alive. Deogiri now became an
important base for the operations of the Mussulman conquering
expeditions southwards, and in 1339 Mahommed ben Tughlak Shah determined
to make it his capital, changed its name to Daulatabad ("Abode of
Prosperity"), and made arrangements for transferring to it the whole
population of Delhi. The project was interrupted by troubles which
summoned him to the north; during his absence the Mussulman governors of
the Deccan revolted; and Daulatabad itself fell into the hands of Zafar
Khan, the governor of Gulbarga. It remained in the hands of the Bahmanis
till 1526, when it was taken by the Nizam Shahis. It was captured by the
emperor Akbar, but in 1595 it again surrendered to Ahmad Nizam Shah of
Ahmednagar, on the fall of whose dynasty in 1607 it passed into the
hands of the usurper, the Nizam Shahi minister Malik Amber, originally
an Abyssinian slave, who was the founder of Kharki (the present
Aurangabad). His successors held it until their overthrow by Shah
Jahan, the Mogul emperor, in 1633; after which it remained in the
possession of the Delhi emperors until, after the death of Aurangzeb, it
fell to the first nizam of Hyderabad. Its glory, however, had already
decayed owing to the removal of the seat of government by the emperors
to Aurangabad.
DAUMIER, HONORÉ (1808-1879), French caricaturist and painter, was born
at Marseilles. He showed in his earliest youth an irresistible
inclination towards the artistic profession, which his father vainly
tried to check by placing him first with a _huissier_, and subsequently
with a bookseller. Having mastered the technique of lithography, Daumier
started his artistic career by producing plates for music publishers,
and illustrations for advertisements; these were followed by anonymous
work for publishers, in which he followed the style of Charlet and
displayed considerable enthusiasm for the Napoleonic legend. When, in
the reign of Louis Philippe, Philipon launched the comic journal, _La
Caricature_, Daumier joined its staff, which included such powerful
artists as Devéria, Raffet and Grandville, and started upon his
pictorial campaign of scathing satire upon the foibles of the
bourgeoisie, the corruption of the law and the incompetence of a
blundering government. His caricature of the king as "Gargantua" led to
Daumier's imprisonment for six months at Ste Pélagie in 1832. The
publication of _La Caricature_ was discontinued soon after, but Philipon
provided a new field for Daumier's activity when he founded the
_Charivari_. For this journal Daumier produced his famous social
caricatures, in which bourgeois society is held up to ridicule in the
figure of Robert Macaire, the hero of a then popular melodrama. Another
series, "_L'histoire ancienne_," was directed against the
pseudo-classicism which held the art of the period in fetters. In 1848
Daumier embarked again on his political campaign, still in the service
of _Charivari_, which he left in 1860 and rejoined in 1864. In spite of
his prodigious activity in the field of caricature--the list of
Daumier's lithographed plates compiled in 1904 numbers no fewer than
3958--he found time for flight in the higher sphere of painting. Except
for the searching truthfulness of his vision and the powerful directness
of his brushwork, it would be difficult to recognize the creator of
_Robert Macaire_, of _Les Bas bleus_, _Les Bohémiens de Paris_, and the
_Masques_, in the paintings of "Christ and His Apostles" at the Ryks
Museum in Amsterdam, or in his "Good Samaritan," "Don Quixote and Sancho
Panza," "Christ Mocked," or even in the sketches in the Ionides
Collection at South Kensington. But as a painter, Daumier, one of the
pioneers of naturalism, was before his time, and did not meet with
success until in 1878, a year before his death, when M. Durand-Ruel
collected his works for exhibition at his galleries and demonstrated the
full range of the genius of the man who has been well called the
Michelangelo of caricature. At the time of this exhibition Daumier,
totally blind, was living in a cottage at Valmondois, which was placed
at his disposal by Corot, and where he breathed his last in 1879. An
important exhibition of his works was held at the École des Beaux-Arts
in 1900.
His life and art were made the subject of an important volume by
Arséne Alexandre in 1888; see also Gustave Geffroy, _Daumier_ (Paris,
Libraire de l'Art), and Henri Frantz and Octave Uzanne, _Daumier and
Gavarni_ (London, _The Studio_, 1904), with a large selection of the
artist's work.
DAUN (DHAUN), LEOPOLD JOSEF, COUNT VON (1705-1766), prince of Thiano,
Austrian field marshal, was born at Vienna on the 24th of September
1705. He was intended for the church, but his natural inclination for
the army, in which his father and grandfather had been distinguished
generals, proved irresistible. In 1718 he served in the campaign in
Sicily, in his father's regiment. He had already risen to the rank of
colonel when he saw further active service in Italy and on the Rhine in
the War of the Polish Succession (1734-35). He continued to add to his
distinctions in the war against the Turks (1737-39), in which he
attained the rank of a general officer. In the War of the Austrian
Succession (1740-42), Daun, already a lieutenant field marshal in rank,
distinguished himself by the careful leadership which was afterwards his
greatest military quality. He was present at Chotusitz and Prague, and
led the advanced guard of Khevenhüller's army in the victorious Danube
campaign of 1743. Field Marshal Traun, who succeeded Khevenhüller in
1744, thought equally highly of Daun, and entrusted him with the
rearguard of the Austrian army when it escaped from the French to attack
Frederick the Great. He held important commands in the battles of
Hohenfriedberg and Soor, and in the same year (1745) was promoted to the
rank of _Feldzeugmeister_. After this he served in the Low Countries,
and was present at the battle of Val. He was highly valued by Maria
Theresa, who made him commandant of Vienna and a knight of the Golden
Fleece, and in 1754 he was elevated to the rank of field marshal.
During the interval of peace that preceded the Seven Years' War he was
engaged in carrying out an elaborate scheme for the reorganization of
the Austrian army; and it was chiefly through his instrumentality that
the military academy was established at Wiener-Neustadt in 1751. He was
not actively employed in the first campaigns of the war, but in 1757 he
was placed at the head of the army which was raised to relieve Prague.
On the 18th of June 1757 Daun defeated Frederick for the first time in
his career in the desperately fought battle of Kolin (q.v.). In
commemoration of this brilliant exploit the queen immediately instituted
a military order bearing her name, of which Daun was nominated first
grand cross. The union of the relieving army with the forces of Prince
Charles at Prague reduced Daun to the position of second in command, and
as such he took part in the pursuit of the Prussians and the victory of
Breslau. Frederick now reappeared and won the most brilliant victory of
the age at Leuthen. Daun was present on that field, but was not held
accountable for the disaster, and when Prince Charles resigned his
command, Daun was appointed in his place. With the campaign of 1758
began the war of manoeuvre in which Daun, if he missed, through
over-caution, many opportunities of crushing the Prussians, at least
maintained a steady and cool resistance to the fiery strategy of
Frederick. In 1758 Major-General Loudon, acting under Daun's
instructions, forced the king to raise the siege of Olmütz, and later in
the same year Daun himself surprised Frederick at Hochkirch and
inflicted a severe defeat upon him (October 14th). In the following year
the war of manoeuvre continued, and on the 20th and 21st of November he
surrounded the entire corps of General Finck at Maxen, forcing the
Prussians to surrender. These successes were counterbalanced in the
following year by the defeat of Loudon at Liegnitz, which was attributed
to the dilatoriness of Daun, and Daun's own defeat in the great battle
of Torgau (q.v.). In this engagement Daun was so severely wounded that
he had to return to Vienna to recruit.
He continued to command until the end of the war, and afterwards worked
with the greatest energy at the reorganization of the imperial forces.
In 1762 he had been appointed president of the _Hofkriegsrath_. He died
on the 5th of February 1766. By the order of Maria Theresa a monument to
his memory was erected in the church of the Augustinians, with an
inscription styling him the "saviour of her states." In 1888 the 56th
regiment of Austrian infantry was named after him. As a general Daun has
been reproached for the dilatoriness of his operations, but wariness was
not misplaced in opposing a general like Frederick, who was quick and
unexpected in his movements beyond all precedent. Less defence perhaps
may be made for him on the score of inability to profit by a victory.
See _Der deutsche Fabius Cunctator, oder Leben u. Thaten S. E. des H.
Leopold Reichsgrafen v. Dhaun K.K.F.M._ (Frankfort and Leipzig,
1759-1760), and works dealing with the wars of the period.
DAUNOU, PIERRE CLAUDE FRANÇOIS (1761-1840), French statesman and
historian, was born at Boulogne-sur-Mer, and after a brilliant career in
the school of the Oratorians there, joined the order in Paris in 1777.
He was professor in various seminaries from 1780 till 1787, when he was
ordained priest. He was already known in literary circles by several
essays and poems, when the revolution opened a wider career. He threw
himself with ardour into the struggle for liberty, and refused to be
silenced in his advocacy of the civil constitution of the clergy by the
offer of high office in the church. Elected to the Convention by
Pas-le-Calais, he associated himself with the Girondists, but strongly
opposed the death sentence on the king. He took little part in the
struggle against the Mountain, but was involved in the overthrow of his
friends, and was imprisoned for a year. In December 1794 he returned to
the Convention, and was the principal author of the constitution of the
year III. It seems to have been due to his Girondist ideas that the
Ancients were given the right of convoking the _corps législatif_
outside Paris, an expedient which made possible Napoleon's _coup d'état_
of the 18th and 19th Brumaire. The creation of the Institute was also
due to Daunou, who drew up the plan for its organization. His energy was
largely responsible for the suppression of the royalist insurrection of
the 13th Vendémiaire, and the important place he occupied at the
beginning of the Directory is indicated by the fact that he was elected
by twenty-seven departments as member of the Council of Five Hundred,
and became its first president. He had himself set the age qualification
of the directors at forty, and thus debarred himself as candidate, as he
was only thirty-four. The direction of affairs having passed into the
hands of Talleyrand and his associates, Daunou turned once more to
literature, but in 1798 he was sent to Rome to organize the republic
there, and again, almost against his will, he lent his aid to Napoleon
in the preparation of the constitution of the year VIII. His attitude
towards Napoleon was not lacking in independence, but in this
controversy with the pope, the emperor was able again to secure from him
the learned treatise _Sur la puissance temporelle du Pape_ (1809). Still
he took little part in the new régime, with which at heart he had no
sympathy, and turned more and more to literature. At the Restoration he
was deprived of the post of archivist of the empire, which he had held
from 1807, but from 1819 to 1830 (when he again became archivist of the
kingdom) he held the chair of history and ethics at the Collège de
France, and his courses were among the most famous of that age of public
lectures. During the reign of Louis Philippe he received many honours.
In 1839 he was made a peer. He died in 1840.
In politics Daunou was a Girondist without combativeness; a confirmed
republican, who lent himself always to the policy of conciliation, but
whose probity remained unchallenged. He belonged essentially to the
centre, and lacked both the genius and the temperament which would
secure for him a commanding place in a revolutionary era. As an
historian his breadth of view is remarkable for his time; for although
thoroughly imbued with the classical spirit of the 18th century, he was
able to do justice to the middle ages. His _Discours sur l'état des
lettres au XIII^e siècle_, in the sixteenth volume of the _Histoire
littéraire de France_, is a remarkable contribution to that vast
collection, especially as coming from an author so profoundly learned in
the ancient classics. Daunou's lectures at the Collège de France,
collected and published after his death, fill twenty volumes (_Cours
d'études historiques_, 1842-1846). They treat principally of the
criticism of sources and the proper method of writing history, and
occupy an important place in the evolution of the scientific study of
history in France. All his works were written in the most elegant style
and chaste diction; but apart from his share in the editing of the
_Historiens de la France_, they were mostly in the form of separate
articles on literary and historical subjects. Personally Daunou was
reserved and somewhat austere, preserving in his habits a strange
mixture of bourgeois and monk. His indefatigable work as archivist in
the time when Napoleon was transferring so many treasures to Paris is
not his least claim to the gratitude of scholars.
See Mignet, _Notice historique sur la vie et les travaux de Daunou_
(Paris, 1843); Taillandier, _Documents bibliographiques sur Daunou_
(Paris, 1847), including a full list of his works; Sainte-Beuve,
_Daunou_ in his _Portraits Contemporains_, t. iii. (unfavourable and
somewhat unfair).
DAUPHIN (Lat. _Delphinus_), an ancient feudal title in France, borne
only by the counts and dauphins of Vienne, the dauphins of Auvergne, and
from 1364 by the eldest sons of the kings of France. The origin of this
curious title is obscure and has been the subject of much ingenious
controversy; but it now seems clear that it was in the first instance a
proper name. Among the Norsemen, and in the countries colonized by them,
the name Dolphin or Dolfin (_dolfr_, "a wound") was fairly common, e.g.
in the north of England; thus a Dolfin is mentioned among the
tenants-in-chief in Domesday Book, and there was a Dolphin, lord of
Carlisle, towards the end of the 11th century. It has thus been
conjectured by some that the dauphins of Vienne derived their title from
Teutonic sources through Germany. But in the south, too, the name--not
necessarily derived from the same root--was not unknown, though
exceedingly rare, and was moreover illustrated by two conspicuous
figures in the Catholic martyrology: St Delphinus, bishop of Bordeaux
from 380 to 404, and St Annemundus, surnamed Dalfinus, bishop of Lyons
from c. 650 to 657. Whatever its origin, this name was borne by Guigo,
or Guigue IV. (d. 1142), count of Albon and Grenoble, as an additional
name, during the lifetime of his father, and was also adopted by his son
Guigue V. Beatrice, daughter and heiress of Guigue V., whose second
husband was Hugh III., duke of Burgundy, bestowed the name on their son
André, to recall his descent from the ancient house of the counts of
Albon, and in the charters he is called sometimes Andreas Dalphinus,
sometimes Dalphinus simply, but his style is still "count of Albon and
Vienne." His successors Guigue VI. (d. 1270) and John I. (d. 1282) call
themselves sometimes Delphinus, sometimes Delphini, the name being
obviously treated as a patronymic, and in the latter form it was borne
by the sons of the reigning "dauphin." But even under Guigue VI.
foreigners had begun to confuse the name with a title of dignity, an
imperial diploma of 1248 describing Guigue as "Guigo Dalphinus
Viennensis."
It was not until the third dynasty, founded by the marriage of Anne,
heiress of John I., with Humbert, lord of La Tour du Pin, that "dauphin"
became definitely established as a title. Humbert not only assumed the
name of Delphinus, but styled himself regularly Dauphin of the Viennois
(Dalphinus Viennensis), and in a treaty concluded in 1285 between
Humbert and Robert, duke of Burgundy, the word _delphinatus_ (Dauphiné)
appears for the first time, as a synonym for _comitatus_ (county). In
1349 Humbert II., the last of his race, sold Dauphiné to Charles of
Valois, who, when he became king of France in 1364, transferred it to
his eldest son. From that time the eldest sons of the kings of France
were always either actual or titular dauphins of the Viennois. The
"canting arms" of a dolphin, which they quartered with the royal _fleurs
de lys_, were originally assumed by Dauphin, count of Clermont, instead
of the arms of Auvergne (the earliest extant example is appended to a
deed of 1199), and from him they were borrowed by the counts of the
Viennois. Guigue VI. used this device on his secret seal from his
accession, the earliest extant example dating from 1237, but, though no
specimens have survived, M. Prudhomme thinks it probable that the
dolphin was also borne by André Dauphin. It was also assumed by Guigue
V., count of Forez (1203-1241), a descendant of Guigue Raymond of the
Viennois, count of Forez, in right of his wife Ida Raymonde. It is thus
abundantly clear that the name of Dauphin was not assumed from the
armorial device, but vice versa.
The eldest son of the French king was sometimes called "the king
dauphin" (_le roy daulphin_), to distinguish him from the dauphin of
Auvergne, who was known, since Auvergne became an appanage of the royal
house, as "the prince dauphin." The dauphinate of Auvergne, which is to
be distinguished from the county, dates from 1155, when William VII.,
count of Auvergne, was deposed by his uncle William VIII. "the Old."
William VII. had married a daughter of Guigue IV. Dauphin, after whom
their son was named Dauphin (Delphinus). The name continued, as in
Viennois, as a patronymic, and was not used as a title until 1281, when
Robert II., count of Clermont, in his will, styles himself for the first
time Dauphin of Auvergne (_Alvernie delphinus_) for the portion of the
county of Auvergne left to his house. In 1428 Jeanne, heiress of the
dauphin Béraud III., married Louis de Bourbon, count of Montpensier (d.
1486), thus bringing the dauphinate into the royal house of France. It
was annexed to the crown in 1693.
See A. Prudhomme, "De l'origine et du sens des mots dauphin et
dauphiné" in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, liv. an. 1893
(Paris, 1893).
DAUPHINÉ, one of the old provinces (the name being still in current use
in the country) of pre-Revolutionary France, in the south-east portion
of France, between Provence and Savoy; since 1790 it forms the
departments of the Isère, the Drôme and the Hautes Alpes.
After the death of the last king of Burgundy, Rudolf III., in 1032, the
territories known later as Dauphiné (as part of his realm) reverted to
the far-distant emperor. Much confusion followed, out of which the
counts of Albon (between Valence and Vienne) gradually came to the
front. The first dynasty ended in 1162 with Guigue V., whose daughter
and heiress, Beatrice, carried the possessions of her house to her
husband, Hugh III., duke of Burgundy. Their son, André, continued the
race, this second dynasty making many territorial acquisitions, among
them (by marriage) the Embrunais and the Gapençais in 1232. In 1282 the
second dynasty ended in another heiress, Anna, who carried all to her
husband, Humbert, lord of La Tour du Pin (between Lyons and Grenoble).
The title of the chief of the house was Count (later Dauphin) of the
Viennois, _not_ of Dauphiné. (For the origin of the terms Dauphin and
Dauphiné see DAUPHIN.) Humbert II. (1333-1349), grandson of the heiress
Anna, was the last independent Dauphin, selling his dominions in 1349 to
Charles of Valois, who on his accession to the throne of France as
Charles V. bestowed Dauphiné on his eldest son, and the title was borne
by all succeeding eldest sons of the kings of France. In 1422 the Diois
and the Valentinois, by the will of the last count, passed to the eldest
son of Charles VI., and in 1424 were annexed to the Dauphiné. Louis
(1440-1461), later Louis XI. of France, was the last Dauphin who
occupied a semi-independent position, Dauphiné being annexed to the
crown in 1456. The suzerainty of the emperor (who in 1378 had named the
Dauphin "Imperial Vicar" within Dauphiné and Provence) gradually died
out. In the 16th century the names of the reformer Guillaume Farel
(1489-1565) and of the duke of Lesdiguières (1543-1626) are prominent in
Dauphiné history. The "States" of Dauphiné (dating from about the middle
of the 14th century) were suspended by Louis XIII. in 1628, but their
unauthorized meeting (on the 21st of July 1788) in the tennis court
(_Salle du Jeu de Paume_) of the castle of Vizille, near Grenoble, was
one of the earliest premonitory signs of the great French Revolution of
1789. It was at Laffrey, near Grenoble, that Napoleon (March 7th, 1815)
was first acclaimed by his old soldiers sent to arrest him.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--J. Brun-Durand, _Dictionnaire topographique du
département de la Drôme_ (Paris, 1891); Jules Chevalier, _Essai
historique sur l'église et la ville de Die_, Montélimar and Valence (2
vols., 1888 and 1896); W. A. B. Coolidge, H. Duhamel and Félix Perrin,
_Climbers' Guide to the Central Alps of the Dauphiny_ (a revision of a
French work by the same, issued at Grenoble in 1887), London, 1892
(new ed. 1905); J. J. Guiffrey, _Histoire de la réunion du Dauphiné à
la France_ (Paris, 1868); Joanne, _Dauphiné_ (Paris, 1905); A.
Prudhomme, _Histoire de Grenoble_ (Grenoble, 1888); Ib., "De l'origine
des mots 'Dauphin' et Dauphiné" (article in vol. liv. (1893) of the
_Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_); A. Rochas, _Biographie du
Dauphiné_ (2 vols., Paris, 1856); J. Roman, _Dictionnaire
topographique_ (Paris, 1884); _Tableau historique_ (Paris, 2 vols.,
1887 and 1890); and _Répertoire archéologique du département des
Hautes-Alpes_ (Paris, 1888); J. Roman, _Histoire de la ville de Gap_
(Gap, 1892); A. De Terrebasse, _Notice sur les Dauphins de Viennois_
(Vienne, 1875); J. M. De Valbonnais, _Histoire de Dauphiné_ (2 vols.,
Geneva, 1722); J. A. Félix Faure, _Les Assemblées de Vizille et de
Romans_, 1788 (Paris, 1887); O. Chenavas, _La Révolution de 1788 en
Dauphiné_ (Grenoble, 1888); C. Lory, _Description géologique du
Dauphiné_ (Paris, 1860). (W. A. B. C.)
DAURAT (or DORAT), JEAN (in Lat. AURATUS), (1508-1588), French poet and
scholar, and member of the Pléiade, was born at Limoges in 1508. His
name was originally Dinemandy. He belonged to a noble family, and, after
studying at the college of Limoges, came up to Paris to be presented to
Francis I., who made him tutor to his pages. He rapidly gained an
immense reputation as a classical scholar. As a private tutor in the
house of Lazare de Baïf, he had J. A. de Baïf for his pupil. His son,
Louis, showed great precocity, and at the age of ten translated into
French verse one of his father's Latin pieces; his poems were published
with his father's. Jean Daurat became the director of the Collège de
Coqueret, where he had among his pupils, besides Baïf, Ronsard, Remy,
Belleau and Pontus de Tyard. Joachim du Bellay was added by Ronsard to
this group; and these five young poets, under the direction of Daurat,
formed a society for the reformation of the French language and
literature. They increased their number to seven by the initiation of
the dramatist Étienne Jodelle, and thereupon they named themselves La
Pléiade, in emulation of the seven Greek poets of Alexandria. The
election of Daurat as their president proved the weight of his personal
influence, and the value his pupils set on the learning to which he
introduced them, but as a writer of French verse he is the least
important of the seven. Meanwhile he collected around him a sort of
Academy, and stimulated the students on all sides to a passionate study
of Greek and Latin poetry. He himself wrote incessantly in both those
languages, and was styled the Modern Pindar. His influence extended
beyond the bounds of his own country, and he was famous as a scholar in
England, Italy and Germany. In 1556 he was appointed professor of Greek
at the Collège Royale, a post which he continued to hold until, in 1567,
he resigned it in favour of his nephew, Nicolas Goulu. Charles IX. gave
him the title of _poeta regius_. His flow of language was the wonder of
his time; he is said to have composed more than 15,000 Greek and Latin
verses. The best of these he published at Paris in 1586 as _J. Aurati
Lemovicis poëtae et interpretis regii poëmata_. He died at Paris on the
1st of November 1588, having survived all his illustrious pupils of the
Pléiade, except Pontus de Tyard. He was a little, restless man, of
untiring energy, rustic in manner and appearance. His unequalled
personal influence over the most graceful minds of his age gives him an
importance in the history of literature for which his own somewhat vapid
writings do not fully account.
The _Oeuvres poétiques_ in the vernacular of Jean Daurat were edited
(1875) with biographical notice and bibliography by Ch. Marty-Laveaux
in his _Pléiade française_.
DAVENANT, CHARLES (1656-1714), English economist, eldest son of Sir
William Davenant, the poet, was born in London, and educated at Cheam
grammar school and Balliol College, Oxford, but left the university
without taking a degree. At the age of nineteen he had composed a
tragedy, _Circe_, which met with some success, but he soon turned his
attention to law, and having taken the degree of LL.D., he became a
member of Doctors' Commons. He was member of parliament successively for
St Ives, Cornwall, and for Great Bedwyn. He held the post of
commissioner of excise from 1683 to 1689, and that of inspector-general
of exports and imports from 1705 till his death in 1714. He was also
secretary to the commission appointed to treat for the union with
Scotland. As an economist, he must be classed as a strong supporter of
the mercantile theory, and in his economic pamphlets--as distinct from
his political writings--he takes up an eclectic position, recommending
governmental restrictions on colonial commerce as strongly as he
advocates freedom of exchange at home. Of his writings, a complete
edition of which was published in London in 1771, the following are the
more important:--_An Essay on the East India Trade_ (1697); _Two
Discourses on the Public Revenues and Trade of England_ (1698); _An
Essay on the probable means of making the people gainers in the balance
of Trade_ (1699); _A Discourse on Grants and Resumptions and Essays on
the Balance of Power_ (1701).
DAVENANT (or D'AVENANT), SIR WILLIAM (1606-1668), English poet and
dramatist, was baptized on the 3rd of March 1606; he was born at the
Crown Inn, Oxford, of which his father, a wealthy vintner, was
proprietor. It was stated that Shakespeare always stopped at this house
in passing through the city of Oxford, and out of his known or rumoured
admiration of the hostess, a very fine woman, there sprang a scandalous
story which attributed Davenant's paternity to Shakespeare, a legend
which there is reason to believe Davenant himself encouraged, but which
later criticism has cast aside as spurious. In 1621 the vintner was made
mayor of Oxford, and in the same year his son left the grammar school of
All Saints, where his master had been Edward Sylvester, and was entered
an undergraduate of Lincoln College, Oxford. He did not stay at the
university, however, long enough to take a degree, but was hurried away
to appear at court as a page, in the retinue of the gorgeous duchess of
Richmond. From her service he passed into that of Fulke Greville, Lord
Brooke, in whose house he remained until the murder of that eminent man
in 1628. This blow threw him upon the world, not altogether without
private means, but greatly in need of a profitable employment.
He turned to the stage for subsistence, and in 1629 produced his first
play, the tragedy of _Albovine_. It was not a very brilliant
performance, but it pleased the town, and decided the poet to pursue a
dramatic career. The next year saw the production at Blackfriars of _The
Cruel Brother_, a tragedy, and _The Just Italian_, a tragi-comedy. Inigo
Jones, the court architect, for whom Ben Jonson had long supplied the
words of masques and complimentary pieces, quarrelled with his great
colleague in the year 1634, and applied to William Davenant for verses.
The result was _The Temple of Love_, performed by the queen and her
ladies at Whitehall on Shrove Tuesday, 1634, and printed in that year.
Another masque, _The Triumphs of the Prince D'Amour_, followed in 1636.
The poet returned to the legitimate drama by the publication of the
tragi-comedy of _The Platonic Lovers_, and the famous comedy of _The
Wits_, in 1636, the latter of which, however, had been licensed in 1633.
The masque of _Britannica Triumphans_ (1637) brought him into some
trouble, for it was suppressed as a punishment for its first performance
having been arranged for a Sunday. By this time Davenant had, however,
thoroughly ingratiated himself with the court; and on the death of Ben
Jonson in 1637 he was rewarded with the office of poet-laureate, to the
exclusion of Thomas May, who considered himself entitled to the honour.
It was shortly after this event that Davenant collected his minor
lyrical pieces in a volume entitled _Madagascar and other Poems_ (1638);
and in 1639 he became manager of the new theatre in Drury Lane. The
civil war, however, put a check upon this prosperous career; and he was
among the most active partisans of royalty through the whole of that
struggle for supremacy.
As early as May 1642, Davenant was accused before the Long Parliament of
being mainly concerned in a scheme to seduce the army to overthrow the
Commons. He was accordingly apprehended at Faversham, and imprisoned for
two months in London; he then attempted to escape to France, and
succeeded in reaching Canterbury, where he was recaptured. Escaping a
second time, he made good his way to the queen, with whom he remained in
France until he volunteered to carry over to England some military
stores for the army of his old friend the earl of Newcastle, by whom he
was induced to enter the service as lieutenant-general of ordnance. He
acquitted himself with so much bravery and skill that, after the siege
of Gloucester, in 1643, he was knighted by the king. After the battle of
Naseby he retired to Paris, where he became a Roman Catholic, and spent
some months in the composition of his epic poem of _Gondibert_. In 1646
he was sent by the queen on a mission to Charles I., then at Newcastle,
to advise him to "part with the church for his peace and security." The
king dismissed him with some sharpness, and Davenant returned to Paris,
where he was the guest of Lord Jermyn. In 1650 he took the command of a
colonizing expedition that set sail from France to Virginia, but was
captured in the Channel by a parliamentary man-of-war, which took him
back to the Isle of Wight. Imprisoned in Cowes castle until 1651, he
tempered the discomfort and suspense of his condition by continuing the
composition of _Gondibert_. He was sent up to the Tower to await his
trial for high treason, but just as the storm was about to break over
his head, all cleared away. It is believed that the personal
intercession of Milton led to this result. Another account is that he
was released by the desire of two aldermen of York, once his prisoners,
whom he had allowed to escape. Davenant, released from prison,
immediately published _Gondibert_, the work on which his fame mainly
rests, a chivalric epic in the four-line stanza which Sir John Davies
had made popular by his _Nosce teipsum_, the influence of which is
strongly marked in the philosophical passages of _Gondibert_. It is a
cumbrous, dull production, but is relieved with a multitude of fine and
felicitous passages, and lends itself most happily to quotation.
During the civil war one of his plays had been printed, the tragedy of
_The Unfortunate Lovers_, in 1643. One of his best plays, _Love and
Honour_, was published in 1649, but appears to have been acted long
before. He found that there were many who desired him to recommence his
theatrical career. Such a step, however, was absolutely forbidden by
Puritan law. Davenant, therefore, by the help of some influential
friends, obtained permission to open a sort of theatre at Rutland House,
in Charterhouse Yard, where, on the 21st of May 1656, he began a series
of representations, which he called _operas_, as an inoffensive term.
This word was then first introduced into the English language. The
opening piece was a kind of dialogue defending the drama in the
abstract. This was followed by his own _Siege of Rhodes_, printed the
same year, which was performed with stage decorations and machinery of a
kind hitherto quite unthought of in England. Two other innovations in
its production were the introduction of recitative and the appearance of
a woman, Mrs Coleman, on the stage. He continued until the Restoration
to produce ephemeral works of this kind, only one of which, _The Cruelty
of the Spaniards in Peru_, in 1658, was of sufficient literary merit to
survive. In 1660 he had the infinite satisfaction of being able to
preserve the life of that glorious poet who had, nine years before,
saved his own from a not less imminent danger. The mutual relations of
Milton and Davenant do honour to the generosity of two men who,
sincerely opposed in politics, knew how to forget their personal anger
in their common love of letters. In 1659 Davenant suffered a short
imprisonment for complicity in Sir George Booth's revolt. Under Charles
II. Davenant flourished in the dramatic world; he opened a new theatre
in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which he called the Duke's; and he introduced a
luxury and polish into the theatrical life which it had never before
known in England. Under his management, the great actors of the
Restoration, Betterton and his coevals, took their peculiar French style
and appearance; and the ancient simplicity of the English stage was
completely buried under the tinsel of decoration and splendid scenery.
Davenant brought out six new plays in the Duke's Theatre, _The Rivals_
(1668), an adaptation of _The Two Noble Kinsmen_, which Davenant never
owned, _The Man's the Master_ (1669), comedies translated from Scarron,
_News from Plymouth_, _The Distresses_, _The Siege_, _The Fair
Favourite_, tragi-comedies, all of which were printed after his death,
and only one of which survived their author on the stage. He died at his
house in Lincoln's Inn Fields on the night of the 7th of April 1668, and
two days afterwards was buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, with
the inscription "O rare Sir William Davenant!" In 1672 his writings were
collected in folio. His last work had been to travesty Shakespeare's
_Tempest_ in company with Dryden.
The personal character, adventures and fame of Davenant, and more
especially his position as a leading reformer, or rather debaser, of the
stage, have always given him a prominence in the history of literature
which his writings hardly justify. His plays are utterly unreadable, and
his poems are usually stilted and unnatural. With Cowley he marks the
process of transition from the poetry of the imagination to the poetry
of the intelligence; but he had far less genius than Cowley, and his
influence on English drama must be condemned as wholly deplorable.
(E. G.)
DAVENPORT, EDWARD LOOMIS (1816-1877), American actor, born in Boston,
made his first appearance on the stage in Providence in support of
Junius Brutus Booth. Afterwards he went to England, where he supported
Mrs Anna Cora Mowatt (Ritchie) (1819-1870), Macready and others. In 1854
he was again in the United States, appearing in Shakespearian plays and
in dramatizations of Dickens's novels. As Bill Sykes he was especially
successful, and his Sir Giles Overreach and Brutus were also greatly
admired. He died at Canton, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of September 1877.
In 1849 he had married Fanny Vining (Mrs Charles Gill) (d. 1891), an
English actress also in Mrs Mowatt's company. Their daughter FANNY (LILY
GIPSY) DAVENPORT (1850-1898) appeared in America at the age of twelve as
the king of Spain in _Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady_. Later (1869) she
was a member of Daly's company; and afterwards, with a company of her
own, acted with especial success in Sardou's _Fédora_ (1883),
_Cleopatra_ (1890), and similar plays. Her last appearance was on the
25th of March 1898, shortly before her death.
DAVENPORT, ROBERT (fl. 1623-1639), English dramatist, is mentioned as
the author of a play licensed in 1624 under the title of _Henry I._ In
1653 _Henry I. and Henry II._ was entered at Stationers' Hall by
Humphrey Moseley with a second part said to be the work of Davenport and
Shakespeare. Of this play or plays nothing has been discovered, but
_King John and Matilda_ (printed 1655), which probably dates from about
the same time, has survived. Throughout the play, as in its closing
scene quoted by Charles Lamb in his _Dramatic Specimens_, there is much
"passion and poetry" which saves the piece from being classed as pure
melodrama. _The City-Night-Cap_ was licensed in 1624, but not printed
until 1661. The underplot of this unsavoury play was borrowed from
Cervantes and Boccaccio, and Mrs Aphra Behn's _Amorous Prince_ (1671) is
an adaptation from it. _A New Tricke to Cheat the Divell_ (printed 1639)
is a farcical comedy, which contains among other things the idea of the
popular supper story which reappears in Hans Andersen's _Little Claus
and Big Claus_. As told by Davenport the story closely resembles the
_Scottish Freires of Berwick_, which was printed in 1603. Three other
plays entered in the Stationers' Register as Davenport's are lost, and
he collaborated in two plays with Thomas Drue.
Davenport's plays were reprinted by A. H. Bullen in _Old English
Plays_ (new series, 1890). The volume includes two didactic poems,
which first saw the light in 1623.
DAVENPORT, a city and the county seat of Scott county, Iowa, U.S.A., on
the Mississippi river, opposite Rock Island, Illinois, with which it is
connected by two fine bridges and by a ferry. It is the third largest
city in the state. Pop. (1890) 26,872; (1900) 35,254, including 8479
foreign-born (6111 German), and 19,230 of foreign parentage (13,294
German); (1905, state census) 39,797; (1910) 43,028. Davenport is served
by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul,
the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Iowa & Illinois (interurban),
and the Davenport, Rock Island & North Western railways; opposite the
city is the western terminus of the Illinois and Mississippi, or
Hennepin, Canal (which connects the Mississippi and Illinois rivers).
Davenport lies on the slope of a bluff affording extensive views of
landscape and river scenery. In the city are an excellent public
library, an Academy of Sciences, several turn-halls and other German
social organizations, the Iowa soldiers' orphans' home, Brown business
college, and several minor Roman Catholic institutions. Davenport is an
episcopal see of the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Episcopal
churches. The city has a large commerce and trade by water and rail in
coal and grain, which are produced in the vicinity, is of special
importance. With Rock Island and Moline it forms one great commercial
unit. Among Davenport's manufactures are the products of foundries and
machine shops, and of flouring, grist and planing mills; glucose syrup
and products; locomotives, steel cars and car parts, washing machines,
waggons, carriages, agricultural implements, buttons, macaroni, crackers
and brooms. The value of the total factory product for 1905 was
$13,695,978, an increase of 38.7% over that of 1900. Davenport was
founded in 1835, under the leadership of Colonel George Davenport; it
was incorporated as a town in 1838, and was chartered as a city in 1851.
DAVENTRY, a market town and municipal borough in the Southern
parliamentary division of Northamptonshire, England, 74 m. N.W. from
London by the London & North Western railway. Pop. (1901) 3780. It is
picturesquely situated on a sloping site in a rich undulating country.
On the adjacent Borough Hill are extensive earthworks, and the discovery
of remains here and at Burnt Walls, immediately south, proves the
existence of a considerable Roman station. The chief industry of the
town is the manufacture of boots and shoes. The borough is under a
mayor, four aldermen and twelve councillors. Area, 3633 acres.
In spite of the Roman remains on Borough Hill, nothing is known of the
town itself until the time of the Domesday Survey, when the manor
consisting of eight hides belonged to the countess Judith, the
Conqueror's niece. According to tradition, Daventry was created a
borough by King John, but there is no extant charter before that of
Elizabeth in 1576, by which the town was incorporated under the name of
the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty of the borough of Daventry. The
bailiff was to be chosen every year in the Moot Hall and to be assisted
by fourteen principal burgesses and a recorder. James I. confirmed this
charter in 1605-1606, and Charles II. in 1674-1675 granted a new
charter. The "quo warranto" rolls show that a market every Wednesday and
a fair on St Augustine's day were granted to Simon son of Walter by King
John. The charter of 1576 confirms this market and fair to the
burgesses, and grants them two new fairs each continuing for two days,
on Tuesday after Easter and on the feast of St Matthew the Apostle.
Wednesday is still the market day. The town was an important coaching
centre, and there was a large local industry in the manufacture of
whips. During the civil wars Daventry was the headquarters of Charles I.
in the summer of 1645, immediately before the battle of Naseby, at which
he was defeated. A Cluniac priory founded here shortly after the
Conquest has left no remains.
DAVEY OF FERNHURST, HORACE DAVEY, BARON (1833-1907), English judge, son
of Peter Davey, of Horton, Bucks, was born on the 30th of August 1833,
and educated at Rugby and University College, Oxford. He took a double
first-class in classics and mathematics, was senior mathematical scholar
and Eldon law scholar, and was elected a fellow of his college. In 1861
he was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, and read in the chambers of
Mr (afterwards Vice-Chancellor) Wickens. Devoting himself to the
Chancery side, he soon acquired a large practice, and in 1875 became a
Q.C. In 1880 he was returned to parliament as a Liberal for
Christchurch, Hants, but lost his seat in 1885. On Gladstone's return to
power in 1886 he was appointed solicitor-general and was knighted, but
had no seat in the House, being defeated at both Ipswich and Stockport
in 1886; in 1888 he found a seat at Stockton-on-Tees, but was rejected
by that constituency in 1892. As an equity lawyer Sir Horace Davey
ranked among the finest intellects and the most subtle pleaders ever
known at the English bar. He was standing counsel to the university of
Oxford, and senior counsel to the Charity Commissioners, and was engaged
in all the important Chancery suits of his time. Among the chief leading
cases in which he took a prominent part were those of _The Mogul
Steamship Company_ v. _M'Gregor_, 1892, _Boswell_ v. _Coaks_, 1884,
_Erlanger_ v. _New Sombrero Company_, 1878, and the _Ooregum Gold Mines
Company_ v. _Roper_, 1892; he was counsel for the promoters in the trial
of the bishop of Lincoln, and leading counsel in the Berkeley peerage
case. In 1862 he married Miss Louisa Donkin, who, with two sons and four
daughters, survived him. In 1893 he was raised to the bench as a lord
justice of appeal, and in the next year was made a lord of appeal in
ordinary and a life peer. He died in London on the 20th of February
1907. Lord Davey's great legal knowledge was displayed in his judgments
no less than at the bar. In legislation he took no conspicuous part, but
he was a keen promoter of the act passed in 1906 for the checking of
gambling.
DAVID (a Hebrew name meaning probably _beloved_[1]),
Source.
in the Bible, the son of Jesse, king of Judah and Israel, and founder of
the royal Judaean dynasty at Jerusalem. The chronology of his period is
uncertain: the usual date, 1055-1015 B.C., is probably thirty years to
half a century too early. The books of Samuel (strictly, 1 Sam. xvi.-1
Kings ii.), which are our principal source for the history of David,
show how deep an impression the personality of the king, his character,
his genius and the romantic story of his early years had left on the
mind of the nation. Of no hero of antiquity do we possess so life-like a
portrait. Minute details and traits of character are portrayed with a
vividness which bears all the marks of contemporary narrative. But the
record is by no means all of one piece or of one date. This history, as
we now have it, is extracted from various sources of unequal value,
which are fitted together in a way which offers considerable
difficulties to the critic. In the history of David's early adventures,
for example, the narrative is not seldom disordered, and sometimes seems
to repeat itself with puzzling variations of detail, which have led
critics to the unanimous conclusion that the First Book of Samuel is
drawn from at least two sources. It is indeed easy to understand that
the romantic incidents of this period were much in the mouths of the
people--to whom David was a popular hero--and in course of time were
written down in various forms which were not combined into perfect
harmony by later editors, who gave excerpts from several sources rather
than a new and independent history. These excerpts, however, have been
so pieced together, that it is often impossible to separate them with
precision, and to distinguish accurately between earlier and later
elements. It even appears from a study of the Greek text that some
copies of the books of Samuel incorporated narratives which other copies
did not acknowledge. For the literary problems of these books, see also
SAMUEL (BOOKS).
The parallel history of David in 1 Chron. xi.-xxix. contains a great
deal of additional matter, which can rarely be treated as of equal
historical value with the preceding. Where it follows the chapters in
Samuel it is important for textual and other critical problems, but it
omits narratives in which it is not interested (David's youth,
persecution by Saul, Absalom's revolt, &c.), and adds long passages
(David's arrangements for the temple, &c.) which reflect the views of a
much later age than David's. The lists of officers, &c., are fuller than
those in Samuel, and here and there contain notices of value. A
comparison of the two records, however, is especially important for its
illustration of the later tendency to idealize the figure of David, and
the historical critic has to bear in mind the possibility that this
tendency had begun long before the Chronicler's time, and that it may be
found in the relatively older records preserved in Samuel.
Introduction to Saul.
David's father, Jesse, was a citizen of Bethlehem in Judah, 5 m. south
of Jerusalem; the polite deprecation in 1 Sam. xviii. 18 means little
(cf. Saul in ix. 21). Tradition made him a descendant of the ancient
nobles of Judah through Boaz and the Moabitess Ruth, but the tendency to
furnish a noble ancestry for a noble figure--especially one of obscure
birth--is widespread (cf. GENEALOGY). He was the youngest of eight
sons,[2] and spent his youth in an occupation which the Hebrews as well
as the Arabs seem to have held in low esteem. He kept his father's sheep
in the desert steppes of Judah, and there developed the strength,
agility, endurance and courage which distinguished him throughout life
(cf. 1 Sam. xvii. 34, xxiv. 2; 2 Sam. xvii. 9). There, too, he acquired
that skill in music which led to his first introduction to Saul (1 Sam.
xvi. 14-23, and the apocryphal Psalm of David, Ps. cli. in the
Septuagint). He found favour in the king's eye, and became his
armour-bearer.[3] But traditions varied. In 1 Sam. xvii. he does not
follow his master to the field against the Philistines; he is an obscure
untried shepherd lad sent by his father with supplies for his brothers
in the Israelite camp. He does not even present himself before the king,
and his brothers treat him with a petulance hardly conceivable if he
stood well at court, and it appears from the close that neither Saul
nor his captain Abner had heard of him before (vv. 55-58). There is,
indeed, a flat contradiction between the two accounts, but a family of
Greek MSS. represented by the Vatican text omit xvii. 12-31, xvii.
55-xviii. 5, and thus the difficulty is greatly lessened. Characteristic
of the omitted portions are the friendship which sprang up between
Jonathan and David and the latter's appointment to a command in the
army. A further difficulty is caused by 2 Sam. xxi. 19, which makes
Elhanan the slayer of Goliath. David's exploit is not referred to in 1
Sam. xxi. 10-15, xxix., and on this and other grounds the simpler
tradition in 2 Sam. is usually preferred. (See GOLIATH.) But it must
have been by some valiant deed that Saul was led to notice him (cf. xiv.
52), and David soon became both a popular hero and an object of jealousy
to Saul. According to the Hebrew text of 1 Sam. xviii., Saul's jealousy
leaped at once to the conclusion that David's ambition would not stop
short of the kingship. Such a suspicion would be intelligible if we
could suppose that the king had heard something of the significant act
of Samuel, which now stands at the head of the history of David in
witness of that divine election and unction with the spirit of Yahweh on
which his whole career hung (xvi. 1-13). But this passage is the sequel
to the rejection of Saul in xv., and Samuel's position agrees with that
of the late writer in vii., viii. and xii.[4]
Conflicts with Saul.
The shorter text, represented by the Septuagint, gives an account of
Saul's jealousy which is psychologically more intelligible.[5] According
to this text Saul was simply possessed with such a personal dislike and
dread of David as might easily occupy his disordered brain. To be quit
of his hateful presence he gave him a military command. In this charge
David increased his reputation as a soldier and became a general
favourite. Saul's daughter Michal loved him; and her father, whose
jealousy continued to increase, resolved to put the young captain on a
perilous enterprise, promising him the hand of Michal as a reward of
success, but secretly hoping that he would perish in the attempt.
David's good fortune did not desert him; he won his wife, and in this
new advancement continued to grow in the popular favour, and to gain
fresh laurels in the field. At this point it is necessary to look back
on the proposed marriage of David with Saul's eldest daughter Merab
(xviii. 17-19; cf. xvii. 2-5). When the time came for Saul to fulfil his
promise, Merab was given to Adriel of Abel-Meholah (perhaps an
Aramaean). What is said of this affair interrupts the original context
of chap. xviii., to which the insertion has been clumsily fitted by an
interpolation in the second half of ver. 21 (LXX omits). We have here,
therefore, a notice drawn from a distinct source which connects itself
with the other omitted passage, xvii. 12-31, where Saul had promised his
daughter to the one who should overthrow Goliath (ver. 25). Since Merab
and Michal are confounded in 2 Sam. xxi. 8, the whole episode of Merab
and David perhaps rests on a similar confusion of names.
As the king's son-in-law, David was necessarily again at court. He
became chief of the bodyguard, as Ewald rightly interprets 1 Sam. xxii.
14, and ranked next to Abner (xx. 25), so that Saul's insane fears were
constantly exasperated by personal contact with him. On at least one
occasion the king's frenzy broke out in an attempt to murder David with
his own hand.[6] At another time Saul actually gave commands to
assassinate his son-in-law, but the breach was made up by Jonathan,
whose chivalrous spirit had united him to David in a covenant of closest
friendship (xix. 1-7). The circumstances of the final outburst of Saul's
hatred, which drove David into exile, are not easily disentangled. The
narrative of 1 Sam. xx., which is the principal account of the matter,
cannot originally have been preceded by xix. 11-24; in chap. xx. David
appears to be still at court, and Jonathan is even unaware that he is in
any danger, whereas the preceding verses represent him as already a
fugitive. It may also be doubted whether the narrative of David's escape
from his own house by the aid of his wife Michal (xix. 11-17) has any
close connexion with ver. 10, and does not rather belong to a later
period.[7] David's daring spirit might very well lead him to visit his
wife even after his first flight. The danger of such an enterprise was
diminished by the reluctance to violate the apartments of women and
attack a sleeping foe, which appears also in Judges xvi. 2, and among
the Arabs.[8]
According to chap. xx. David was still at court in his usual position
when he became certain that the king was aiming at his life. He betook
himself to Jonathan, who thought his suspicions groundless, but
undertook to test them. A plan was arranged by which Jonathan should
draw from the king an expression of his feelings, and a tremendous
explosion revealed that Saul regarded David as the rival of his dynasty,
and Jonathan as little better than a fellow-conspirator. After a final
interview (xx. 40-42), which must be regarded as a later expansion, they
parted and David fled. He sought the sanctuary at Nob, where he had been
wont to consult the priestly oracle (xxii. 15), and here, concealing his
disgrace by a fictitious story, he also obtained bread from the
consecrated table and the sword of Goliath (chap. xxi. i-9).[9] His
hasty flight--without food and weapon--suggests that the narrative
should follow upon xix. 17.
Outlaw life.
It was perhaps after this that David made a last attempt to find a place
of refuge in the prophetic circle of Samuel at Ramah (xix. 18-24). The
episode now stands in another connexion, where it is certainly out of
place. It might, however, fit into the break that plainly exists in the
history at xxi. 10 after the affair at Nob. Deprived of the protection
of religion as well as of justice, David tried his fortune among the
Philistines at Gath. Recognized and suspected as a redoubtable foe, he
made his escape by feigning madness, which in the East has inviolable
privileges (xxi. 11-16).[10] The passage anticipates chap. xxvii., and
it is hardly probable that the slayer of Goliath or of any other
Philistine giant fled to the Philistines with their dead hero's sword.
He returned to the wilds of Judah, and was joined at Adullam[11] by his
father's house and by a small band of outlaws, of which he became the
head. Placing his parents under the charge of the king of Moab, he took
up the life of a guerilla captain, cultivating friendly relations with
the townships of Judah (xxx. 26), which were glad to have on their
frontiers a protector so valiant as David, even at the expense of the
blackmail which he levied in return. A clear conception of his life at
this time, and of the respect which he inspired by the discipline in
which he held his men, and of the generosity which tempered his fiery
nature, is given in chap. xxv. His force gradually swelled, and he was
joined by the prophet Gad (note his message xxii. 5) and by the priest
Abiathar, the only survivor of a terrible massacre by which Saul took
revenge for the favours which David had received at the sanctuary of
Nob. He was even able to strike at the Philistines, and to rescue Keilah
(south of Adullam and to the east of Beit Jibrin) from their attack
(xxiii. 1-13). Forced to flee by the treachery of the very men whom he
had succoured, he lived for a time in constant fear of being captured by
Saul, and at length took refuge with Achish king of Gath and established
himself in Ziklag. Popular tradition, as though unwilling to let David
escape from Saul, told of that king's continual pursuit of the outlaw,
of the attempt of the men of Ziph (S.E. of Hebron) to betray him, of
David's magnanimity displayed on two occasions, and of Jonathan's visit
to console his bosom friend (xxiv.-xxvi.).[12] The situation was one
which lent itself to the imagination.
The site of Ziklag is unknown. It hardly lay near Gath (probably Tell
es-Safi, 12 m. E. of Ashdod), but rather to the south of Judah (Josh.
xix. 5). Here he occupied himself in chastening the Amalekites and other
robber tribes who made raids on Judah and the Philistines without
distinction (xxvii.). The details of the text are obscure, and seem to
imply that David systematically attacked populations friendly to Achish
whilst pretending that he had been making forays against Judah. If this
were an attempt to steer a middle course his true actions could not have
been kept secret long, and as it is implied that the Philistines
subsequently acquiesced in David's sovereignty in Hebron, it is not easy
to see what interest they had in embroiling him with the men of Judah.
At length, in the second year, he was called to join his master in a
great campaign against Saul. The Philistines for once directed their
forces towards the plain of Jezreel (Esdraelon) in the north; and Saul,
forsaken by Yahweh, already gave himself up for lost. David accompanied
the army as a matter of course. But his presence was not observed until
they reached their destination, when the jealousy of the Philistines
overrode his protestations of fidelity and he was ordered to return. He
reached Ziklag only to find the town pillaged by the Amalekites.
Pursuing the foes, he inflicted upon them a signal chastisement and took
a great booty, part of which he spent in politic gifts to the leading
men of the towns in the south country.[13]
King at Hebron.
Meantime Saul had fallen in battle, and northern Israel was in a state
of chaos. The Philistines took possession of the fertile lowlands of
Jezreel and the Jordan, and the shattered forces of Israel were slowly
rallied by Abner in the remote city of Mahanaim in Gilead, under the
nominal sovereignty of Saul's son Ishbaal. David now took the first
great step to the throne. He was no longer an outlaw with a band of
wandering companions, but a petty chieftain, head of a small colony of
men, allied with families of Caleb and Jezreel (in Judah), and on
friendly footing with the sheikhs south of Hebron. In response to an
oracle he was bidden to move northwards to Judah and successfully
occupied it with Hebron as his capital. Here he was anointed king, the
first ruler of the southern kingdom. If the chronological notice may be
trusted, he was then thirty years of age, and he reigned there for seven
and a half years (2. Sam. ii. 1-4a, 11, v. 4 sq.). The noble elegy on
the death of Saul and Jonathan, quoted from the Book of Jashar (2 Sam.
i.), is marked by the absence both of religious feeling and of allusions
to his earlier experiences with Saul which David might have been
expected to make. It was deemed only natural that he should sympathize
deeply with the disasters of the northern kingdom. His vengeance on the
Amalekite who slew Saul--the account is a doublet of 1 Sam. xxxi.--is
consistent with his generous treatment of his late adversary in his
outlaw life, and with this agrees his embassy of thanks to the men of
Jabesh-Gilead for their chivalrous rescue of the bodies of the fallen
heroes (2 Sam. ii. 4b-7). The embassy threw out a hint,--their lord was
dead and David himself had been anointed king over Judah; but the
relation between Jabesh-Gilead and Saul had been a close one, and it was
not to be expected that its eyes would be turned upon the king of Judah
when Saul's son was installed at the not distant Mahanaim. The interest
of the narratives is now directed away from the Philistines to the
decaying fortunes of Saul's house. (See ABNER and SAUL.) Abner had taken
Saul's son Ishbaal and his authority was gradually consolidated in the
north. War broke out between the two parties at Gibeon a few miles north
of Jerusalem. A sham contest was changed into a fatal fray by the
treachery of Ishbaal's men; and in the battle which ensued Abner was not
only defeated, but, by slaying Asahel, drew upon himself a blood-feud
with Joab. The war continued. Ishbaal's party became weaker and weaker;
and at length Abner quarrelled with his nominal master and offered the
kingdom to David. The king seized the opportunity to demand the return
of Michal, his wife. The passage (iii. 12-16) is not free from
difficulties, but it is intelligible that David should desire to ally
himself as closely as possible with Saul's family (cf. xii. 8). The base
murder of Abner by Joab did not long defer the inevitable issue of
events. Ishbaal lost hope, and after he had been foully assassinated by
two of his own followers, all Israel sought David as king.
The biblical narrative is admittedly not so constructed as to enable us
to describe in chronological order the thirty-three years of David's
reign over all Israel. It is possible that some of the incidents
ascribed to this period properly belong to an earlier part of his life,
and that tradition has idealized the life of David the king even as it
has not failed to colour the history of David the outlaw and king of
Hebron.
Critical considerations.
In the preceding account the biblical narratives have been followed as
closely as possible in the light of the critical results generally
accepted. That they have been affected by the growth of popular
tradition is patent from the traces of duplicate narratives, from the
difficulty caused, for example, by the story of Goliath (q.v.), and
from a closer study of the chapters. The later views of the history of
this period are represented in the book of Chronicles, where
immediately after Saul's death David is anointed at Hebron king over
all Israel (1 Chron. xi.). It is quite in harmony with this that the
same source speaks of the Israelites who joined David at Ziklag (1
Chron. xii. 1-22), and of the host which came to him at Hebron to turn
over to him Saul's kingdom (xii. 23-40). This treatment of history can
be at once corrected by the books of Samuel, but it is only from a
deeper study of the internal evidence that these, too, appear to give
expression to doubtful and conflicting views. It is questionable
whether David could have become king over all Israel immediately after
the death of Ishbaal. The chronological notices in ii. 10 sqq. allow
an interval of no less than five and a half years, and nowhere do the
events of these years appear to be recorded. But David's position in
the south of Judah is clear. He is related by marriage with south
Judaean clans of Caleb, Jezreel, and probably Geshur. (See ABSALOM.)
He was at the head of a small colony (1 Sam. xxvii. 3), and on
friendly terms with the sheikhs south of Hebron (xxx. 26-31).[14] His
step forward to Hebron is in every way intelligible and is the natural
outcome of his policy. It is less easy to trace his previous moves.
There are gaps in the narratives, and the further back we proceed the
more serious do their difficulties become. These chapters bring him
farther north, and they commence by depicting David as a man of
Bethlehem, high in the court of Saul, the king's son-in-law, and a
popular favourite with the people. But notwithstanding this, the
relation is broken off, and years elapse before David gains hold upon
the Hebrews of north Israel, the weakness of the union being proved by
the ease with which it was subsequently broken after Solomon's death.
Much of the life of Saul is obscure, and this too, it would seem,
because tradition loved rather to speak of the founder of the ideal
monarchy than of his less successful rival. (See SAUL.) It is not
impossible that some traditions did not bring them together. If
Jerusalem and its immediate neighbourhood were first conquered by
David (2 Sam. v.), it is probable that Beeroth and Gibeon (2 Sam. iv.
2, xxi. 2), Shaalbim, Har-heres and Aijalon (Judg. i. 35), Gezer (ib.
i. 29), Chephirah and Kirjath-jearim (Josh. ix. 17) had remained
Canaanite. The evidence has obviously some bearing upon the history of
Saul, as also upon the intercourse between Judah and Benjamin which
David's early history implies. It has been conjectured, therefore,
that David's original home lay in the south. Since the early
historical narrative (1 Sam. xxv. 2) finds him in Maon, Winckler has
suggested that he was a Calebite chief, while a criticism of the
details relating to David's family has induced Marquart[15] to
conjecture that he was born at Arad (Tell 'Arad) about 17 m. S.E. of
Hebron. Once indeed we find him in the wilderness of Paran 1 (Sam.
xxv. 1, LXX reads Maon), and a more southerly origin has been thought
of (Winckler). This is involved with other views of the early history
of the Israelites; see further below.
Capture of Jerusalem.
David owed his success to his troop of freebooters (1 Sam. xxii. 2), now
an organized force, and absolutely attached to his person. The valour of
these "mighty men" (_gibborim_) was topical. The names of the most
honoured are preserved, and we have some interesting accounts of their
exploits in the days of the giants (2 Sam. xxi., xxiii.). We hear of two
great battles with the "Philistines" in the valley of Rephaim, near
Jerusalem, at a time when David's base was Adullam (v. 17-25). In one
conflict a giant thought to slay him, but he was saved by Abishai, the
brother of Joab, and the men took an oath that David should no more go
to battle lest he "quench the light of Israel." On another occasion,
Elhanan of Bethlehem slew the giant Goliath of Gath, and David's own
brother Shimei (or Shammah) overthrew a monster who could boast of
twenty-four fingers and toes. In yet another incident the Philistines
maintained a garrison in Bethlehem, and David expressed a wish for a
drink from its well. The wish was gratified at the risk of the lives of
three brave men, and he recognized the solemnity of the occasion by
pouring out the water as an offering unto Yahweh.
From a later summary (viii. 1) it seems that the Philistines were at
length vanquished, and the unknown Metheg-Ammah taken out of their
hands.[16] Not until the district was cleared could Jerusalem be taken,
and the capture of the almost impregnable Jebusite fortress furnished a
centre for future action. Here, in the midst of a region which had been
held by aliens, he fortified the "city of David" and garrisoned it with
his men. Meanwhile the ark of Yahweh, the only sanctuary of national
significance, had remained in obscurity since its return from the
Philistines in the early youth of Samuel. (See ARK.) David brought it up
from Baalah of Judah with great pomp, and pitched a tent for it in Zion,
amidst national rejoicings. The narrative (2 Sam. vi.) represents the
act as that of a loyal and God-fearing heart which knew that the true
principle of Israel's unity and strength lay in national adherence to
Yahweh; but the event was far from having the significance which later
times ascribed to it (1 Chron. xiii., xv. sqq.); even Solomon visited
the sanctuary at Gibeon, and Absalom vowed his vow unto Yahweh at
Hebron. It was not unnatural that the king who had his palace built by
Tyrian artists should have proposed to erect a permanent temple to
Yahweh. Such, at least, was the thought of later writers, who have given
effect to the belief in chap. viii. It was said that the prophet Nathan
commanded the execution of this plan to be delayed for a generation; but
David received at the same time a prophetic assurance that his house and
kingdom should be established for ever before Yahweh.
Internal policy.
What remains to be said of his internal policy may be briefly detailed.
In civil matters the king looked heedfully to the execution of justice
(viii. 15), and was always accessible to the people (xiv. 4). But he
does not appear to have made any change in the old local administration
of justice, or to have appointed a central tribunal (xv. 2, where,
however, Absalom's complaint that the king was inaccessible is merely
factious). A few great officers of state were appointed at the court of
Jerusalem (viii. 16-18, xx. 23-26), which was not without a splendour
hitherto unknown in Israel. Royal pensioners, of whom Jonathan's son
Mephibosheth was one, were gathered round a princely table. The art of
music was not neglected (xix. 35). A more dangerous piece of
magnificence was the harem. Another innovation was the census; it was
undertaken despite the protests of Joab, and was checked by the rebukes
of the prophet Gad and the visitation of a pestilence (xxiv.). Striking,
too, is the conception of the national God who incites the king to do an
act for which he was to be punished.[17] To us, the proposal to number
the people seems innocent and laudable, and the latest sources of the
Pentateuch contain several such lists. This new procedure, we may
imagine, was resented by the northern Hebrews as an encroachment upon
their liberties. We learn that the destroying angel was stayed at the
threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite,[18] and the spot thus
sanctified was made a sanctuary, and commemorated by an altar. It was
the very place upon which Solomon's temple was supposed to be founded.
The census-taking may have been a preliminary to the great wars, but the
latter, on the other hand, are obviously presupposed by the extent of
his kingdom. For his wars a larger force than his early bodyguard was
required, and the Chronicler gives an account of the way in which an
army of nearly 300,000 was raised and held by David's thirty heroes (1
Chron. xxvii.). It is certain at all events that no small body of
soldiers would be needed, and this alone would imply that all Israel was
by this time under his entire control.
Wars and conquests.
Apart from the Ammonite war, our sources are confined to a mere summary
(viii.), which includes even the Amalekites (viii. 12, cf. i Sam. xxx.).
After the defeat of the Philistines came the turn of Moab. It was under
the care of the king of Moab that David placed his parents when he fled
from Saul (1 Sam. xxii. 3 sqq.), and what led to the war is unknown. The
severity with which the land was treated may pass for a gentle reprisal
if the Moabites of that day were not more humane than their descendants
in the days of King Mesha.[19] A deadly conflict with the Ammonites was
provoked by a gross insult to friendly ambassadors of Israel;[20] and
this war, of which we have pretty full details in 2 Sam. x. i-xi. 1,
xii. 26-31, assumed unexpected dimensions when the Ammonites procured
the aid of their Aramean neighbours. The defeat of Hadadezer brought
about the submission of other lesser kings. The glory of this victory
was increased by the complete subjugation of Edom in a war conducted by
Joab with characteristic severity (2 Sam. viii. 13; 1 Kings xi. 15-17;
Ps. lx., title). The fall of Rabbah concludes David's war-like exploits;
he carried off the jewelled crown of their god (Milcom), and subjected
the people, not to torture (1 Chron. xx. 3), but to severe menial labour
(xii. 26-31).
The Aramean states, Beth-rehob, Maacah, Tob, &c., lay partly to the
north of Gilead and partly in the region which was the scene of the
fight with Jabin (Josh. xi. 1-9, Judg. iv.; see DEBORAH). Apparently
it was here, too, that the Danites found a settlement (Judg. xviii.
28); the migration has perhaps been ante-dated. (See DAN, TRIBE.) The
account of David's wars is remarkable for the inclusion of the Syrians
of Damascus and beyond the Euphrates; some exaggeration has been
suspected (cf. 2 Sam. viii. 5 with x. 16). Some misunderstanding has
been caused by the confusion of Edom ([Hebrew: Edom]) and Aram
([Hebrew: Aram]) in viii. 13. A more moderate idea of David's power
has been found in Ps. lx. 6-12, or, preferably, in the description of
the boundaries (2 Sam. xxiv. 5 sqq.). To the east of the Jordan he
held rule from Aroer to Gad and Gilead; on its west his power extended
from Beersheba in the south to Dan and Ijon at the foot of Hermon.
Moab, Ammon and Edom would appear to have been merely tributary,
whilst in the north among his allies David could number the king of
Hamath. To the north-west Israel bordered upon Tyre, with whom its
relations were friendly. The king of Tyre, who recognized David's
newly won position (v. 11 seq.), is called Hiram; possibly--unless the
notice is an anticipation of 1 Kings v.--his father Abibaal is
meant.[21]
Internal troubles.
As the birth of Solomon is placed before the capture of Rabbah of Ammon
(xii.), it would appear that David's wars were ended within the first
half of his reign at Jerusalem, and the tributary nations thus do not
seem to have attempted any revolt during his lifetime (see 1 Kings xi.
14 sqq. and 25). It was only when the nation was no longer knit
together by the fear of danger from without that the internal
difficulties of the new kingdom became more manifest. Such at least is
the impression which the narratives convey.[22] So, after David had
completed a series of conquests which made Palestine the greatest of the
petty states of the age, troubles arose with the Israelites, who in
times past had sought for him to be king (iii. 17, v. 1-3), with his old
subjects the men of Judah, and with the members of his own household.
The northern tribes, who appear to have submitted willingly to his rule,
were not all of one mind. There were men of stronger build than the weak
Ishbaal and the crippled son of Jonathan, the survivors of Saul's house,
and it is only to be expected that David's first care must have been to
cement the union of the north and south. The choice of Jerusalem,
standing on neutral ground, may be regarded as a stroke of genius, and
there is nothing to show that the king exercised that rigour which was
to be the cause of his grandson's undoing. (See REHOBOAM.) On the other
hand, when Sheba, probably one of Saul's clan, headed a rising and was
promptly pursued by Joab to Abel-beth-maacah on the west of Dan, honour
was satisfied by the death of the rebel, and no further steps were taken
(xx.).[23] This policy of leniency towards Israel is characteristic of
David, and may well have become a popular theme in the tales of
succeeding generations. This same magnanimity towards the survivors of
Saul's house has left its mark upon many of the narratives, and helps to
a truer understanding of the stories of his early life. Thus it was
quite in keeping with the romantic attachment between David and Saul's
son Jonathan that when he became king of Israel he took Jonathan's son
Meribbaal under his care (ix.).[24] The deed was not merely generous, it
was politic to have Saul's grandson under his eyes. The hope of
restoring the lost kingdom had not died out (cf. xvi. 3). But from
another source we gain quite a different idea of the relations. A
disastrous famine ravaged the land for three long years, and when Yahweh
was consulted the reply came that there was "blood upon Saul and upon
his house because he put the Gibeonites to death." The unavenged blood
was the cause of divine anger, and retribution must be made. This David
recognized, and, summoning the injured clan, inquired what expiation
could be made. Bloodshed could only be atoned by blood-money or by
shedding the blood of the offender or of his family. The Gibeonites
demanded the latter, and five sons of Merab (the text by a mistake reads
Michal) and two sons of Saul's concubine were sacrificed. The awful deed
took place at the beginning of harvest (April-May), and the bodies
remained suspended until, with the advent of the autumn rains, Yahweh
was once more reconciled to his land (xxi. 1-14). The incident is a
valuable picture of crude ideas of Yahweh, and, if nothing else were
needed, it was sufficient to involve David in a feud with the
Benjamites.[25] Here, too, we learn of the tardy burial of the bones of
Saul and Jonathan which had remained in Jabesh-Gilead since the battle
of Gilboa;--the history of David's dealings with the family of Saul has
been obscured. That he took over his harem is only in accordance with
the Eastern policy (cf. xii. 8).
Absalom's revolt.
The harem, an indispensable part of Eastern state, was responsible for
many fatal disorders, although it is clear from 2 Sam. xvi. 21 that the
nation at large was not very sensitive to the enormities which flow from
this system. David's deep fall in the matter of Bathsheba (xi.) was too
great an iniquity to be passed over lightly, and the base murder of her
husband Uriah the Hittite could not go unavenged. Bathsheba's influence
added a new element of danger to the usual jealousies of the harem, and
two of David's sons perished in vain attempts to claim the throne, which
she appears to have viewed as the rightful inheritance of her own child.
This, at least, is certain in the revolt of Adonijah (see SOLOMON), and
it was probably believed that the action of the impulsive Absalom arose
from the suspicion that the birth of Solomon was the death-blow to his
succession.
As a piece of writing the vivid narratives are without an equal. David's
sons were estranged from one another, and acquired all the vices of
Oriental princes. The severe impartiality of the sacred historian has
concealed no feature in this dark picture,--the brutal passion of Amnon,
the shameless counsel of the wily Jonadab, the "black scowl"[26] that
rested on the face of Absalom through two long years of meditated
revenge, the panic of the court when the blow was struck and Amnon was
assassinated in the midst of his brethren. Not until five years had
elapsed was Absalom fully reconciled with his father. Then he meditated
revolt. As heir-apparent he collected a bodyguard, and studiously
courting personal popularity by a pretended interest in the
administration of kingly justice, ingratiated himself with the mass.
Four years later (so read in xv. 7) he ventured to raise the standard of
revolt in Hebron, with the malcontent Judaeans as his first supporters,
and the crafty Ahithophel as his chief adviser. Arrangements had been
made for the simultaneous proclamation of Absalom in all parts of the
land. The surprise was complete, and David was compelled to evacuate
Jerusalem, where he might have been crushed before he had time to rally
his faithful subjects. He was warmly received by the Gileadites, and the
first battle destroyed the party of Absalom, who was himself captured
and slain by Joab. Then all the people repented except the men of Judah,
who were not to be conciliated without a virtual admission of
prerogative of kinship to the king. This concession involved important
consequences. The precedence claimed by Judah was challenged by the
northern tribes even on the day of David's victorious return to his
capital, and a rupture ensued, headed by Sheba, which but for the energy
of Joab might have led to a second and more dangerous rebellion.
Several indications suggest that the revolt was one in which the men
of Judah originally took the leading if not the only part. The unruly
clans which David knew how to control when he was at Ziklag or Hebron
were doubtless ready to support the rebellious son. The removal of the
court to Jerusalem provided a suitable opportunity, and an element of
jealousy even may not have been wanting. If Geshur be the district in
Josh. xiii. 2, 1 Sam. xxvii. 8, it is significant that the scene of
Absalom's exile lay to the south, that Ahithophel was a south Judaean,
and that Amasa probably belonged to the Jezreel[27] with which David
was connected through his wife Ahinoam. The eleven years which elapsed
between the murder of Amnon and the revolt would seem to disprove any
connexion between the two; the chronology may rest upon the tradition
that Solomon was twelve years old when he came to the throne. David's
hurried flight, attended only by his bodyguard, indicates that his
position was not a very strong one, and it is difficult to connect
this with the fact that he had already waged the wars mentioned in 2
Sam. viii. and x. If his reason for taking refuge in Ishbaal's capital
Mahanaim is not obvious, it is even more remarkable that he should
have been received kindly by the Ammonites whom he had previously
decimated. On the theory that the revolt of Absalom chronologically
should precede the great wars, a slight correction of the already
corrupt text in xvii. 27 makes Nahash himself David's ally, and
accounts for David's eagerness to repay to Hanun, the son of Nahash,
the kindness which he had received from the father (x. 2). That the
revolt of Sheba is in an impossible position is obvious. Tradition has
probably confused Benjamite risings with Absalom's misguided
enterprise; the parts played by Shimei and Meribbaal, at all events,
are extremely suggestive. See ABSALOM, AHITHOPHEL.
David's life-work.
The Appendix ascribes to David a song of triumph and some exceedingly
obscure "last words" (xxii.-xxiii. 7) which cannot be used as historical
material. The history of his life is immediately continued in 1 Kings
i., where his old age and weakness are for the first time vividly
emphasized. The events of the remaining years after 2 Sam. xx. are left
untold, but the Chronicler omits the revolt of Absalom and represents
the king as busily occupied with schemes concerning the future temple.
The last spark of his old energy was called forth to secure the
succession of Solomon against the ambition of Adonijah. It is noteworthy
that, as in the case of Absalom, the pretender, though supported by Joab
and Abiathar, found his chief stay among the men of Judah (1 Kings i.
9). (See SOLOMON.)
To estimate the work of David it is necessary to take into account the
situation before and after his period. According to the prevailing
traditions, Saul at his death had left North Israel disunited and
humiliated. From this condition David raised the land to the highest
state of prosperity and glory, and by his conquests made the united
kingdom the most powerful state of the age. To do this other qualities
than mere military capacity were required. David was not only a great
captain, he was a national hero in whom all the noblest elements of the
Hebrew genius were combined. His talent enabled him to weld together the
mixed southern clans which became incorporated under Judah, and to build
up a monarchy which represented the highest conception of national life
possible under the circumstances. The structure, it is true, was not
permanent. Under his successor it began to decay, and in the next
generation it fell asunder and lived only in the hearts of the people as
the proudest memory of past history and the prophetic ideal of future
glory.[28] Opinion will differ, however, as to the extent to which later
ideals have influenced the narratives upon which the student of Hebrew
history and religion is dependent, and how far the reigns of David and
Solomon altered the face of Hebrew history. The foundation of the united
monarchy was the greatest advance in the whole course of the history of
the Israelites, and around it have been collected the hopes and fears
which a varied experience of monarchical government aroused. Many of the
narratives furnish a vivid picture of the life of David with a
minuteness of personal detail which has suggested to some that their
author was intimately acquainted with the events, and, if not a
contemporary, belonged to the succeeding generation, while to others it
has seemed more probable that these reflect rather "the plastic mould of
popular tradition." It cannot be doubted that the three types of David,
represented by the books of Samuel, of Chronicles, and the
superscriptions of the Psalms, are irreconcilable, and that they
represent successive developments of the original traditions. That the
oldest of these three does not contain earlier attempts to idealize him
is unlikely. "Political circumstances naturally led to an
ever-increasing appreciation of his person and his work as the unifier
of Israel. In the eyes of posterity he became more and more completely
the model of an Israelitish king and the natural consequence was that he
was idealized. The hope of the regeneration of his dynasty, and, at a
later period, of its restoration to the throne--the Messianic
expectation--must have worked powerfully in the same direction. And
meanwhile the religious convictions of the highest minds in Israel were
undergoing a marked change. The conceptions of Yahweh and of the
religion which was acceptable to him were constantly being elevated and
purified. This could not but have an influence on the current ideas
concerning David. He, too, must be remodelled as the conceptions of God
were changed."[29] But what is lost as regards historical material is a
distinct gain to the study of the development of Hebrew thought and
philosophy of history.
David's character must be judged partly in the light of the times in
which he lived and partly in connexion with the great truths which he
represents, truths whose value is not impaired should they prove to be
the convictions of later ages. Accordingly, David is not to be condemned
for failing to subdue the sensuality which is the chief stain on his
character, but should rather be judged by his habitual recognition of a
generous standard of conduct, by the undoubted purity and lofty justice
of an administration which was never stained by selfish considerations
or motives of personal rancour,[30] and finally by the calm courage
which enabled him to hold an even and noble course in the face of
dangers and treachery. His great sin in the matter of Uriah would have
been forgotten but for his repentance: the things at which modern ideas
are most offended are not always those that would have given umbrage to
early writers. That he did not reform at a stroke all ancient abuses
appears particularly in relation to the practice of blood revenge; to
put an end to this deep-rooted custom would have been an impossibility.
But it is clear from 2 Sam. iii. 28 sqq., xiv. 1-10, that his sympathies
were against the barbarous usage. Nor is it just to accuse him of
cruelty in his treatment of enemies. As it was impossible to establish a
military cordon along the borders of Canaan, it was necessary absolutely
to cripple the adjoining tribes. From the lust of conquest for its own
sake David appears to have been wholly free.
The generous elevation of David's character is seen most clearly in
those parts of his life where an inferior nature would have been most at
fault,--in his conduct towards Saul, in the blameless reputation of
himself and his band of outlaws in the wilderness of Judah, in his
repentance under the rebuke of Nathan and in his noble bearing on the
revolt of Absalom. His touching love for his worthless son is one of the
most beautiful descriptions of paternal affection. His unfailing insight
into character, and his power of winning men's hearts and touching their
better impulses, appear in innumerable traits (e.g. 2 Sam. xiv. 18-20,
iii. 31-37, xxiii. 15-17), and here, as elsewhere, the charm which the
life of David has upon its readers is entirely unaffected by technical
questions of literary and historical criticism.
Growth of tradition.
To the later generations David was pre-eminently the Psalmist and the
founder of the Temple service. The Hebrew titles ascribe to him
seventy-three psalms; the Septuagint adds some fifteen more; and later
opinion, both Jewish and Christian, claimed for him the authorship of
the whole Psalter (so the Talmud, Augustine and others). That the
tradition of the titles requires careful sifting is no longer doubted,
and the results of recent criticism have been to confirm the view that
"it is no longer possible to treat the psalms as a record of David's
spiritual life through all the steps of his chequered career" (W. R.
Smith, _Old Test. in Jew. Church_², p. 224). Nor can it be maintained
that the elaborate ritual ascribed to David by the chronicler has any
historical value. See further CHRONICLES, PSALMS.
On the other hand, these traditions, however unhistorical in their
present form, cannot be pure imagination. The male and female singers
(if the reading be correct) whom Sennacherib carried off from
Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time, may well have belonged to an old
foundation (A. Jeremias, _Alte Test. im Lichte d. Alten Orients_², p.
527), and though David's skill referred to in Amos vi. 5 may be due to
a gloss, it is a Judaean narrative which tells of the invention of
music, ascribing it possibly to a Judaean legendary hero (Gen. iv.
21). And although the Levitical organization, as ascribed to David, is
manifestly post-exilic, it is at least certain that many of the
Levitical families were of southern origin. It is in David's history
that the clans of the south first attained prominence, and some of
them are known to have been staunch upholders of a purer worship of
Yahweh, or to have been associated with the introduction of religious
institutions among the Israelites. (See LEVITES.)
The difficulty of the historical problems increases when the
narratives of David are more closely studied: (_a_) 2 Sam. iii. 18,
xix. 9 show that according to one view David delivered _Israel_ (not
Judah) from the Philistines. This is in contradiction to ii. 8 sqq.
(from another source), where Saul's son recovers Israelite territory,
but is supported by ix., where Mephibosheth is found at Lo-debar. This
historical view has probably left its trace upon the present
traditions of Saul, whose defeat by the "Philistines" (here found in
the north and not as usual in the south) left Israel in much the same
position as when he was anointed king (cf. 1 Sam. xxxi. 7 with xiii.
7). Again (_b_) the primitive stories of conflicts with "Philistine"
giants between Hebron and Jerusalem (2 Sam. v. 17 sqq., xxi. 15 sqq.
and xxiii.) find their analogy in Caleb's overthrow of the sons of
Anak (Judg. i. 10; Josh. xv. 14), and in the allusion to the same
prehistoric folk in the account of the spies (Num. xiii. 28). From a
number of points of evidence there appears to have been a group of
traditions of a movement from the south (probably Kadesh, Num. xiii.
26) associated with Caleb, David and the Levites. If the clans of
Moses' kin which moved into Judah bore the ark (Num. x. 29 sqq.; see
Kenites), and if Abiathar carried it before David (1 Kings ii. 26),
there were traditions of the ark distinct from those which associate
it with Joshua and Shiloh (cf. 2 Sam. vii. 6). But the stories of
conflicts in a much larger area than the few cities in the immediate
neighbourhood of Jerusalem (see above) can scarcely be read with the
numerous narratives which recount or imply relations between the young
David of Bethlehem and Saul or the Israelites. It is possible,
therefore, that one early account of David was that of an entrance
into the land of Judah, and that round him have gathered traditions
partly individual and partly tribal or national. See further S. A.
Cook, _Critical Notes on O.T. History_, pp. 122 sqq., and art. JEWS
(_History_), §§ 6-8.
LITERATURE.--Robertson Smith's later views subsequent to 1877 (when he
wrote the article on David for this _Encyclopaedia_) were expressed
partly in the _Old Test. in Jewish Church_ (1881 and 1892), _passim_,
and partly in the article on the Books of Samuel in the _Ency. Brit._
(9th ed.); on David's character see especially his criticism of Renan,
_Eng. Hist. Rev._, 1888, pp. 134 sqq. Mention may be made of
Stähelin's _Leben Davids_ (Basel, 1866), still valuable for the
numerous parallels adduced from oriental history; Cheyne's _Aids to
Devout Study of Criticism_ (1892), a criticism of David's history in
its bearing upon religion; Marcel Dieulafoy, _David the King_ (1902),
full, but not critical; H. A. White, Hastings' _Dict._ art. "David";
Cheyne, _Ency. Bib._ art. "David"; and (on the romantic element in the
narratives) Luther in Ed. Meyer, _Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstämme_
(1906), pp. 181 sqq. (W. R. S.; S. A. C.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See further the third edition of Schrader's _Keilinschr. u. das
Alte Test._ pp. 225, 483.
[2] But four in xvii. 13 sqq., and seven in 1 Chron. ii. 13-15.
[3] An armour-bearer was not a full warrior but a sort of page or
apprentice-in-arms, whose most warlike function is to kill outright
those whom his master has struck down--an office which among the
Arabs was often performed by women.
[4] See SAMUEL. The older history repeatedly indicates that David's
kingship was predicted by a divine oracle, but would hardly lead us
to place the prediction so early (1 Sam. xxv. 30; 2 Sam. iii. 9, v.
2).
[5] The LXX omits xviii. 1-6 (to "Philistine"), the first and last
clauses of 8, 10-11, the reason given for Saul's fear in 12, 17-19,
the second half of 21. It also modifies 28, and omits the second half
of 29 and the whole of 30.
[6] 1 Sam. xix. 9. The parallel narrative, xviii. 10 sqq., is wanting
in the Greek, and in the light of subsequent events is improbable.
Its aim is to paint Saul's character as black as possible.
[7] The close of ver. 10 in the Hebrew is corrupt, and the words
"(and it came to pass) that night" seem to belong to the next verse
(so the Greek). H. P. Smith suggests that the passage originally
followed upon xviii. 27.
[8] Wellhausen cites a closely parallel case from Sprenger's _Leben
Muhammad_, vol. ii. p. 543.
[9] On the meaning of this difficult passage, see the discussions by
W. R. Smith, _Religion of the Semites_(²), p. 455 sqq., and Schwally
_Semit. Kriegsalterthümer_, p. 60 sqq.
[10] Interesting parallels in Barhebraeus _Chron._, ed. Brun and
Kirsch, p. 222, and Ewald, _Hist. Israel_, iii. p. 84.
[11] The cave of Adullam has been traditionally placed (since the
12th century) at Khareitun, two hours' journey south of Bethlehem.
But the town of Adullam, which has not been identified with any
certainty, lay in the low country of Judah (Josh. xv. 35). The "cave"
is also spoken of as a "hold" or fortress, and this is everywhere the
true reading. The name has been identified with '_Id-el-ma_ (or
-_miye_) about 12 m. S.W. of Bethlehem.
[12] According to a late Rabbinical story, David, like Bruce of
Scotland, was once saved by a spider which spun its web over the cave
wherein he was concealed.
[13] The law of the distribution of booty after war enacted by David
(xxx. 24 sqq.) is given as a Mosaic precedent in the post-exilic
priestly legislation (Num. xxxi. 27). On the importance of this
explicit statement, see W. R. Smith, _Old Test. in Jewish Church_(²),
386 sq.
[14] Bethel (ver. 27) is probably the Bethuel near Ziklag (1 Chron.
iv. 30). David's friendly relations with the Philistines find a
parallel in Isaac's covenant with Abimelech (q.v.). In Ps. xxxiv. the
latter name actually appears in place of Achish.
[15] _Fundamente Israel. u. jüd. Gesch._ (1896), pp. 23 sqq.; see
also Winckler, _Gesch. Isr._ i. 24; _Keilinschr. u. d. Alte
Test._(³), p. 228 sqq.
[16] 1 Chron. xviii. 1 reads "Gath and her dependent villages"; the
original reading is a matter for conjecture.
[17] Cf. the idea in 1 Kings xxii. 19-23; Ezek. xiv. 9; contrast 1
Chron. xxi. 1.
[18] This un-Hebraic name, which is not unlike _aron_, "ark," should
possibly be corrected to Adonijah (Cheyne, _Ency. Bib. s.v._).
[19] David destroyed two-thirds of the Moabites--presumably of their
fighting men (2 Sam. viii. 2); Mesha destroys the inhabitants of the
captured cities in honour of his god Chemosh.
[20] It finds a parallel in the fate of the heralds of Orchomenus
(Frazer, _Pausan_. v. 135) and in an Arabian story (Ibn Athir, viii.
360; Nöldeke in Budde, _Hand-Commentar, ad loc._); cf. also Ewald,
iii. 152.
[21] On the questions raised see the commentaries upon 2 Sam. viii.
and x. and the _Ency. Biblica, s.vv._ "David," "Merom," "Zobah." The
main problem is whether the account of David's rule has been
exaggerated, or whether the attempt has been made to throw back to
the time of the first king of all Israel later political conditions.
[22] Viz. the present position of 2 Sam. ix.-xx. after the
miscellaneous collection of details in v.-viii. See, on the other
hand, the view of 1 Kings v. 3, 4.
[23] The present position of this incident, immediately after
Absalom's rebellion was quelled, is almost inconceivable (Winckler,
H. P. Smith, B. Luther, Ed. Meyer). See next page.
[24] He was five years of age at the battle of Gilboa (iv. 4), and is
now grown up and with a young child (ix. 12). But the narrative loses
its point unless David's kindness "for Jonathan's sake" comes at an
early date soon after he became king, and although the youth is found
at Lo-debar (east of the Jordan) under the protection of Machir, the
independent fragment in ii. 8 sqq. implies that the Israelites had
recovered the position they had lost at the battle of Gilboa.
[25] There is an unmistakable reference to the occurrence in the
episode of Shimei, who hovers in the background of Absalom's revolt
with a large body of men at his command (xvi. 7 sqq.).
[26] If Ewald's brilliant interpretation of an obscure word in 2 Sam.
xiii. 32 be correct.
[27] "Israelite" (2 Sam. xvii. 25) is a very unnecessary designation;
1 Chron. ii. 17 would make him an Ishmaelite.
[28] See HEBREW RELIGION, MESSIAH, PROPHET.
[29] Kuenen, "The Critical Method," _Modern Review_, 1880, p. 701
(_Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, Germ. ed. by Budde, p. 33).
[30] His charges to Solomon in 1 Kings ii. 5-9 do not arise
necessarily from motives of revenge; a young and untried sovereign
could not afford to continue the clemency which his father was strong
enough to extend to dangerous enemies. Apart from this, it is
possible that the words have been written to shift from Solomon's
shoulders the bloodshed incurred in establishing his throne.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 9 - "Dagupan" to "David"" ***
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