sex. ness of his gesticulation was soon lost sight of in the interest menced even before his birth, since no one has yet been aroused by his eloquence. Notwithstanding his disadvan-able to track him to his first appearance in our world. tages, he was himself extremely vain of his personal appearance, and wished to encourage the belief that his face and figure had irresistible charms in the eyes of the fair Dunning married in 1780 Miss Elizabeth Baring, the daughter of a retail tradesman at Exeter, by whom he had two sons. The death of the eldest in April, 1783, is supposed to have given so great a shock to the already enervated frame of Lord Ashburton as to have hastened his death, which took place at Exmouth in the August fallowing. When on his journey to Exmouth he is said to have met Wallace, the attorney-general, at Bagshot, who was proceeding to London for medical advice, where he died in the following November. These equally celebrated lawyers, who had been competitors in Westminster Hall, and opponents in parliament, having expressed a strong wish to have a last interview, passed some time in conversation, resting on two sofas, and parted to meet no more. The title of Baron Ashburton having become extinct, was revived in the year 1834, in the person of the present. lord (formerly Mr. Baring), who is a descendant of the Miss Elizabeth Baring mentioned above. There are notices of Dunning in the 7th vol. of the Law Mag; and in Roscoe's Lives of Eminent Lawyers, from which this account is taken. DUNOIS, a district of Orléanois, in the old territorial division of France. It was bounded on the north by Perche and Chartrain, on the east by Orléanois Proper, on the south by Blaisois, and on the west by Vendômois. Its capital was Châteaudun, which had in 1832 a population of 6461. It is now comprehended in the departments of Eure et Loir, Loir et Cher, and Loiret. In the middle ages this district was a county united with that of Blois, without giving to its owner any separate title; but about the commencement of the fourteenth century Hugues, count of Blois, added to his title that of count of Dunois. Guy, count of Blois and Dunois, sold his counties to Louis, duke of Orléans (brother of Charles VI. of France), whose son Charles bestowed the county of Dunois upon his natural brother Jean, who took so eminent a part in the expulsion of the English from France, under the designation of the Bastard of Orléans, and through whom alone any historical interest attaches to the district. DUNS SCOTUS, JOHN, was born most probably about the year 1265. The English, the Scotch, and the Irish, have all claimed him as a countryman. According to one of the Irish accounts, he was born at Thathmon or Taghmon in Wexford; according to another, in the town of Down or Downpatrick. The Scotch say he was a native of Dunse in Berwickshire, and in that village they still pretend to show the house where he was born. The English story is, that he was born at a hamlet called Dunston or Dunstance, in the parish of Emilden or Embleton, not far from Alnwick in Northumberland. Camden (Britannia, 1096, Gibson's translation, 2nd edit.) affirms this on the authority of an inscription at the end of a manuscript copy of the works of Duns in the library of Merton College, Oxford. But Lord Hailes remarks (Annals of Scotland, ii. 324, edit. of 1819), 'This testimony is not sufficient to confute the received opinion; for, in its utmost latitude, it only implies, that an unknown and illiterate transcriber of the works of John Duns chose to make him a native of a place in Emilden in Northumberland called Dunstan, and by a fanciful abbreviation Duns.' In an English translation of one of his treatises ('Idiota's, or Duns' Contemplations of Divine Love,' 12mo., Paris, 1662), the translator, W. B., in a dedication to the Right Worshipful Edmund Duns, Esq.,' whom he affirms to be a descendant of the same family that produced Scotus, contends that Duns Scot is merely Dunscot, formed from cot, a cottage, in the same manner with Westcot, Southcot, &c. Mackenzie (Lives of Scottish Writers, i. 215) says that he was descended from the family of the Dunses in the Merse. Camden conceives he was called Scotus because descended from Scottish parents. Those who have written of Duns have delighted in allusions to this controversy about the place of his nativity. One of his biographers (Wadding) conceives that it places him above Homer, for the honour of having given birth to whom only cities contended, whereas kingdoms put in their several claims to Scotus. He observes also that the subtlety of the great Doctor may be said to have comP. Ć., No. 556 It seems, however, to be agreed on all hands that he was chiefly educated in England. He is said to have been found when a boy tending his father's cows by two Franciscans who were greatly struck with his intelligence; and by the monks of this order he was first instructed in the elements of learning, and then sent to Merton College, Oxford, of which in due course he became a fellow. Passing over various stories that are told of him of a legendary cast, we may enumerate in a few lines the authentic events of his life. While yet a student, he is said to have become greatly distinguished for his proficiency in theology, in logic and metaphysics, in civil and canon-law, in mathematics, in natural philosophy, and in astronomy. In 1301, on the removal of William Varron to Paris, he was appointed to the theological chair. His prelections were attended by crowds of auditors, the number of students at Oxford at this time, it is affirmed, exceeding 30,000; but among these,' says Anthony Wood, a company of varlets, who pretended to be scholars, shuffled themselves in, and did act much villainy in the university by thieving, whoring, quarrelling, &c. They lived under no discipline, neither had any tutors; but only for fashion sake would sometimes thrust themselves into the schools at ordinary lectures; and when they went to perform any mischief, then would they be accounted scholars, that so they might free themselves from the jurisdiction of the burghers.' In 1307 Duns removed from Oxford to Paris, in which city he had on a visit some time before distinguished himself in an extraordinary manner by his defence, in a public disputation, of the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. He began, we are told, by demolishing two hundred objections to the doctrine, and concluded by establishing it with a cloud of arguments. A writer who was present, Pelbartus à Temeswar, says that he resolved the knottiest syllogisms of his adversaries as Samson did the bands of Dalilah. The result was the conversion of the whole university to the doctrine thus demonstrated, and the passing of a regulation that no person should afterwards be admitted to a degree without swearing to defend the immaculate conception. On this occasion, it is said, there was formally conferred on Scotus the title of the Subtle Doctor (Doctor vel Magister Subtilis), by which he is commonly distinguished among the schoolmen. He taught in his new chair with as much applause as at Oxford; but he was not allowed to remain long at Paris. In 1308 he was ordered by the general of his order to remove to Cologne to found a new university there. On reaching Cologne he was met by nearly the whole body of the citizens, and drawn into the city in a triumphal car. But his splendid career was now near its close. On the 8th of November, in this same year, he was carried off by a fit of apoplexy. Some accounts make him to have died in his 43rd, others in his 34th year. Paulus Jovius relates that he was buried before he was dead, and that it was afterwards found, upon inspection of the grave, that in his misery he had knocked out his brains against his coffin. Another version of the story is, that he was found to have gnawed the flesh from his arms. This termination of his life has furnished a point for several epigrammatic epitaphs. One by Jacobus Latomus has been thus translated by Dr. Kennet, in Gibson's Camden: 'What sacred writings or profane can show, All truths were, Scotus, call'd in doubt by you. Various separate treatises of Duns Scotus were sent to the press soon after the invention of printing, and several of them have been repeatedly printed. At length, in 1639, his collected works appeared at Lyon, in 12 volumes folio, under the title of R. P. F. Joannis Duns Scoti, Dectoris Subtilis, Ordinis Minorum, Opera omnia quæ hucusque reperiri potuerunt, collecta, recognita, notis, scholiis, et commentariis illustrata; à PP. Hibernis Collegii Romani S. Isidori Professoribus, Jussu et Auspiciis Rmi. T. F. Joannis Baptista à Campanca, Ministri Generalis.' A complete copy of this collection is exceedingly rare. dedicated to Philip IV. of Spain, and the editor is Luke Wadding, an Irishman by birth. It does not however, as has been often stated, contain all the works of Scotus, but only those designated his 'Opera Speculativa, the Post tiva,' if they should be completely recovered, having been VOL. IX.-2 D` It is intended to form a future publication. The principal pieces of which it is composed are Questions or Commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, and on the physical, logical, and metaphysical writings of Aristotle. There are also a treatise on Grammar; four books (forming a volume) entitled Reportatorum Parisiensium;' and a volume of Quæstiones Quodlibitales,' the authenticity of which, however, is doubted by Wadding. The following are enumerated by Wadding as the 'Opera Positiva' of Scotus: Tractatus de Perfectione Statuum' (of doubtful authenticity); 'Lectura in Genesim; Commentarii in Evangelia; Commentarii in Epistolas Pauli;' Sermones de Tempore;' and 'Sermones de Sanctis.' We are not aware that any of these treatises have ever been printed. The admirers of Scotus extol his acuteness and subtlety as unrivalled, and he has always been accounted the chief glory of the Franciscans, as Thomas Aquinas has been of their rivals the Dominicans. If in his short life he actually wrote all the works that are commonly attributed to him, his industry at least must have been prodigious. His fame during his lifetime, and long after his death, was not exceeded by that of any other of the scholastic doctors. From him and Aquinas two opposing sects in theology took the names of Scotists and Thomists, and divided the schools down almost to the last age. The leading tenet of the Scotists was the immaculate conception of the Virgin; and they also differed from the Thomists on the subjects of free will and the efficacy of divine grace. In philosophy the Scotists are opposed to the Occamists, or followers of William Occam, who was himself a pupil of Scotus, but differed from his master on the subject of Universals or general terms, which the Scotists maintained to be expressive of real existences, while the Occamists held them to be nothing more than names. Hence the Scotists are called Realists, the Occamists Nominalists. It is a favourite opinion of Bayle's, that this doctrine of the Scotists was nothing less than an undeveloped Spinozism. (Dict. Crit., art. Abelard,' note C, and André Cisalpin,' note B.) It may be added that the English term dunce has been commonly considered to be derived from the name of the subtle doctor; perhaps,' says Johnson, a word of reproach first used by the Thomists, from Duns Scotus, their antagonist.' It is worth noting however that a dolt or blockhead appears to be a very modern meaning of the word Dunce or Duns. It does not seem to have been known in this sense, for instance, to Richard Stanihurst, the compiler of the Description of Ireland in Holinshed, who speaks of the name of Scotus being a term 'so trivial and common in all schools, that whoso surpasseth others either in cavilling sophistry or subtile philosophy is forthwith nicknamed a Duns.' This was no doubt the kind of reproach originally intended to be conveyed by the epithet. Wadding has prefixed to his edition of the works of Scotus an elaborate Life of the author, which was reprinted at Mons in 12mo. in 1644. There is also a Tractatus de Joannis Scoti Vita, &c. Auctore R. F. Joanne Colgano, ordinis Fratrum Minorum Hibernorum Padua,' 12mo. Antwerp, 1655. Both these works, the latter especially, are full of legendary matter, detailed with the most confiding gravity. market is on Wednesday, and fairs are held on Ash Wednesday, May 22nd, August 12th, and November 12th. The king is lord of the manor, and the duke of Bedford, as his lessee, holds courts leet and baron. The living is a rectory in the archdeaconry of Bedford and diocese of Lincoln. The parish church is now all that remains of the antient priory; the inside is chiefly Norman, and richly ornamented: over the altar is a large painting of the Lord's Supper, by Sir James Thornhill. There are two places of worship for Baptists, and one for Wesleyan Methodists. A charity school was founded by Mr. William Chew in 1727, and has since been endowed by various benefactors; forty boys and fifteen girls are clothed, educated, and apprenticed the boys are admitted at seven, and apprenticed at fourteen. Six almshouses were founded by Mrs. Cart for the residence of six poor widows; and six others were subsequently founded and endowed by Mrs. Ashton for a similar purpose. Near the church are six houses called the Maidens' Lodge,' founded in 1713 by Mrs. Blandina Marsh for six unmarried gentlewomen; their income now amounts to 1207. per annum. A number of coins of Antoninus and Constantine, as well as other Roman antiquities, have been dug up in the downs in the vicinity of Dunstable. DUNSTAN, SAINT, was born of noble parents at or near Glastonbury in Somersetshire, in the first year of the reign of Athelstan, A.D. 925. His father's name was Heorstan, his mother's Cynedryda. His earliest instruction in the learning of his time was received in the neighbouring monastery; but afterwards, under the patronage of his uncle, Aldhelm, archbishop of Canterbury, he was introduced at Athelstan's court, where he passed some years. Upon some disgust, he returned to Glastonbury, and having in early youth received the tonsure there, he built for himself a sort of cell or hermitage, with an oratory, employing his time partly in devotional austerities, and partly in the exercise of such manual arts as were useful to the service of the church, in the formation of crosses, vials, censers, vestments, &c. He is also reputed to have painted, and to have copied manuscripts. Glastonbury having by the successive incursions of the Danes been reduced nearly to ruin, Edmund, the successor of Athelstan, appointed Dunstan to be the abbot of that house, with full power to draw funds from the royal treasury for its restoration. This was in 942, and from a charter granted in 944 the work appears to have been soon accomplished. In his retreat at Glastonbury, Chalmers supposes that Dunstan's mind was somewhat deranged, and that he indulged chimeras, which being believed by himself and announced to the credulous multitude, established a universal character of sanctity for him among the people. He is said to have fancied that the devil, among frequent visits which he paid him, was one day more earnest than usual in his temptations; till Dunstan, provoked by his importunity, seized him by the nose with a pair of red-hot pincers, as he put his head into the cell, and held him there till the malignant spirit made the whole neighbourhood resound with his bellowings. The people credited and extolled this great exploit, which gained Dunstan so great a degree of reputaDUNSTABLE, or DUNSTAPLE, a market town in the tion that he was called again into the world. Edred, the hundred of Manshead in the county of Bedford, eighteen successor of Edmund, in 948, surrendered his conscience, miles south-by-west from Bedford, and thirty-three miles his treasures, and his authority into the hands of Dunstan. north-west-by-north from London, situated at the point of Taking advantage of the implicit confidence reposed in him contact of the Iknield and Watling Streets. It was in very by the king, Dunstan imported into England a new order early times a place of considerable importance. Its modern of monks, the Benedictines, who, by changing the state of name is supposed by many etymologists to be derived from ecclesiastical affairs, excited, on their first establishment, Dun or Dunning, a famous robber in the time of Henry I., the most violent commotions. Finding also that his adwho with his band became so formidable in the neighbour-vancement had been owing to the opinion of his austerity, hood that Henry cut down a large forest in order to destroy their haunts, and built a royal mansion called Kingsbury on part of its site. He also founded a priory of black canons, on whom he bestowed the town of Dunstable and all its privileges in 1131. The priors had a gaol, possessed power of life and death, and sat as judges with the king's justices in Eyre. In 1290 the corpse of Queen Eleanor rested at the market-place, and a handsome cross was erected to commemorate the event; but it was pulled down in the reign of Charles I. as a relic of popery. Dunstable is situated at the southern extremity of the county, in the centre of the Dunstable chalk downs. It is chiefly celebrated for the manufacture of straw hats, called 'Dunstable hats,' and for its whiting manufactory. The he professed himself a partisan of the rigid monastic rules; and he introduced that reformation into the monasteries of Glastonbury and Abingdon. This conduct, however, incurred the resentment of the secular clergy, who, joining with such of the courtiers as had become indignant at the haughty demeanor of Dunstan, formed a powerful party against him. Upon the death of Edred, and succession of Edwy, Dunstan was accused of malversation in his office, was deprived of his abbacy, and banished the kingdom in 955. Edgar, however, who succeeded in the following year, restored him to Glastonbury, having promoted him first to the see of Worcester; he then made him bishop of London; and in 959 advanced him to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury. Dunstan repaired to Rome to receive the papal DUODE'NUM (from a Latin word signifying twelve, because it is twelve inches in length), the first of the small intestines in immediate connexion with the stomach. It commences at the pyloric end of the stomach, and terminates at the distance of twelve inches in the second portion of the small intestines called the jejunum. Though it is the straightest of the small intestines, yet the duodenum describes in its course various turns. From the pylorus it turns backwards and upwards by the neck of the gallbladder, with which it is in contact; it then passes obliquely downwards on the right side, immediately before the great vessels which enter the liver. Opposite to the under part of the kidney it makes a turn to the left side, across the lumbar vertebræ, and is lodged in the common root of the mesocolon and mesentery, below the pancreas, and behind the superior mesenteric vessels; it now makes a turn forwards and obtains the name of jejunum. The duodenum is much more capacious than the jejunum or ilium, and is indeed so larget hat it has been regarded as a second stomach, and obtained the name of ventriculus succenturiatus. It is fixed much more closely to the spinal column than the other intestines, and does not, like them, float loosely in the abdomen. It is of a redder colour than the rest, has a thicker muscular coat, and a greater number of valvulæ conniventes. sanction to his appointment, and not only obtained that, but DUNWICH. [SUFFOLK.] DUODECIMALS, a term applied to an arithmetical method of ascertaining the number of square feet and square inches in a rectangular space whose sides are given in feet and inches. For instance, to find the content of 6 feet 7 inches by 2 feet 5 inches, proceed as follows: Feet. Iuches. 11 11 In the answer, 15 means 15 square feet; 10 means 10 strips of one foot by one inch, or 10-twelfths of a square foot; 11 means 11 square inches, or 11-144ths of a square foot. The result is obtained as follows:12 square feet. 2 feet by 6 feet gives foot, 2-twelfths, 13 square feet, 2-twelfths. 6 feet by 5 inches gives At the distance of from three to four fingers' breadth from the pylorus, the duodenum is perforated by the biliary and pancreatic ducts, by which tubes the bile and the pancreatic juice flow into the intestine. The duodenum is probably an organ accessary to the stomach. There is evidence that it carries on the digestion commenced in the stomach. It is certain that alimentary substances which have escaped solution in the stomach are dissolved in the duodenum. The chyme formed from the food in the stomach and received by the duodenum, retains the name of chyme until it reaches that portion of the duodenum where the biliary and pancreatic ducts pierce the intestine. At this point, and by the admixture of the biliary and pancreatic juices, the chyme is changed into two portions, into a nutritive portion, which receives the name of chyle, and which flows into the blood [CHYLE], and into an excrementitious portion, which is carried along the small into the large intestines, where it receives the name of fæces, and is ex On the surface of the duodenum the lacteal vessels begin to make their appearance for the absorption of the chyle. [LACTEALS.] The duodenum is likewise provided with a great number of mucous glands, which more especially abound near the pylorus. (Philosophy of Health.) DUPLEX QUERE'LA (double querele or complaint), a process in ecclesiastical causes, in the nature of an appeal from the ordinary to his next immediate superior, as from a bishop to an archbishop, or from the archbishop to the king in council. [DELEGATES, COURT OF.] It seems to have been called double querele because in its form it is a complaint both against the judge and against the party at whose suit justice is delayed. (Burn, Eccles. Law.) DUPLICATE RATIO (Móyoç dınλasiwv), a term used by Euclid, and defined as follows: If A be to B in the same proportion as B to C, then the ratio of A to C is called the duplicate ratio of A to B. When A, B, and C are lines, the duplicate ratio of A to B is that of the square on A to the square on B: when numbers, that of A times A to B times B. [RATIO, EXPONENT.] DUPLICATION OF THE CUBE, the solution of the following problem: to find the side of a cube which shall be double that of another cube. This question, which is insoluble with perfect exactness by the methods of ordinary geometry, attained such a degree of notoriety among the Greek geometers that its origin was the subject of a my2-12ths, 11 sq. in. thologic fable. Eutocius, in his commentary on the sphere and cylinder of Archimedes, has preserved a letter of Eratosthenes to Ptolemy (Euergetes) in which it is said that one of the tragedians (Euripides, according to Valckenaer, cited by Montucla's editor) had introduced Minos erecting a sepulchre to Glaucus. The architect proposed one hundred palms every way, on which Minos declared that such a size would be too small for a royal sepulchre, and required that it should be doubled in size; and thereupon arose the difficulty. Eratosthenes also states another fable, namely, that the Delians, during a pestilence, had been ordered by the oracle to produce a cubical altar double of one which 2 sq. ft. 8-12ths, 11 sq. in. The following instances are perfectly similar: Feet Inches. 3 4 8 6 26 8 8 Feet Inches. 28 2 D 2 then existed. They applied to the school of Plato at Athens, who found that the problem eluded all their efforts. Other writers make mention of the latter story, and Valerius Maximus, in particular, adds that Plato referred the querists to Euclid; which must be an anachronism. How ever this may be, the problem continued to furnish an unceasing object of research; and such was the importance of its solution in the eyes of Eratosthenes, that he hung up his own solution in a temple as an offering, and composed an epigram, of which the principal value now is the proof which it affords that he considered Menæchmus as the first inventor of the conic sections. Hippocrates of Chios (known as the first who could find the area of a curvilinear figure) perceived, according to Eratosthenes, that this problem could be solved as soon as two mean proportionals could be found between the side of the given cube and twice its length: that is, A being the length of the given cube, and X and Y two lines such that A X X . Y and X: Y :: Y: 2 A, this geometer saw that X was the side of the cube double of that on A. But the new problem presented exactly the same difficulty as before: various mechanical curves (as they were called) were invented for the purpose it was found that the conic sections were sufficient, but no solution appeared consistent with the restrictions implied in the postulates of Euclid. Eutocius has mentioned the solution of Eudoxus, and has preserved those of Plato, Hero, Philo, Apollonius, Diocles, Pappus, Sporus, Menæchmus, Archytas, Eratosthenes, and Nicomedes. Pappus himself (in the third book, the first of those which remain entire) has preserved the solutions of Eratosthenes, Nicomedes, and Hero. In several instances these notices are the only clue which we have to the dates of the investigators, as there is strong presumption that those who are named by Eutocius and not by Pappus lived between the two. The trisection of the angle [TRISECTION] offered difficulties of a similar kind, and engaged the attention of several of the individuals above mentioned. That of the quadrature of the circle is altogether of another kind. For the various solutions of the problem of the duplication, see Montucla, Histoire des Recherches sur la Quadrature du Cercle, 2nd edition, Paris, 1831; or Reimer, Historia Problematis de Cubi Duplicatione, Göttingen, 1798; or the works of Eutocius and Pappus already cited. The importance of this problem declined with the rise of the decimal arithmetic. Many different attempts were made, some avowedly mechanical (as opposed to geometrical), others by those who imagined they could overcome the original difficulty. Any process for the solution was called mesolabum (a term as old as Vitruvius). One of the last was that of the celebrated Vieta, containing an error, which is the more remarkable, that little, if any, notice has ever been taken of it. (See his works, Schooten's edition, page 273.) DUPUIS, THOMAS SAUNDERS, Mus. D., the composer of much good music for the chapels-royal, and a very distinguished organist, was born in London in 1733, and received his education in the royal chapel, of which he became organist and composer on the death of Dr. Boyce in 1779. In 1790 he was admitted to the degree of doctor in music by the university of Oxford, and died in 1796. After his death a selection from his works was published in two volumes, by his pupil, John Spencer, Esq., nephew and son-in-law of the late duke of Marlborough; but many of his best productions still continue in manuscript, and remain buried in the books of the king's chapel, among several other compositions of the most undisputed merit. DUPUIS, CHARLES-FRANCOIS, was born of poor parents, at Fryé-Château, between Gisors and Chaumont, on the 26th of October, 1742. His early instructions were due to his father, who, though in very humble circumstances, appears to have been a man of some learning and considerable intelligence; and the early turn of mind in young Dupuis was very decidedly to mathematics and astronomy. It was his good fortune to become known while yet a boy to the Duc de Rochefoucault, who procured him an exhibition to the college of Harcourt. His studies here took a new direction, and he made such rapid progress in them as to secure the highest opinion of the professors of the college, and give promise of distinction in future life. Before the age of twenty-four, he was appointed professor of rhetoric in the college of Lisieux; and having sufficient leisure allowed him by his duties, he completed his course of law studies, and in 1770 was admitted an advocate of the parliament. Being directed by the rector of his univer sity to pronounce the discourse on the distribution of the prizes, this led also to his being nominated to deliver the funeral oration, in the name of the university, on the queen Marie-Thérèse. With these his literary reputation commenced, and they are considered good specimens of purity and elegance in Latin composition. The nature of his literary pursuits again led him into contact with the subjects of his early study; and profiting by the lessons and the friendship of Lalande, he entered upon the study of astronomical history with a zeal which never abated to the close of his life. His attention was especially directed in the first place to the probable signification of the astronomical symbols which constituted the signs of the zodiac; and thence to all the other antient constellations. His active mind, however, even in the midst of these deeply interesting speculations, was alive to other objects; and among his amusements was the construction of a telegraph, founded on the suggestions of Amontons, by means of which, from 1778 to the commencement of the Revolution, he carried on a correspondence with his friend M. Fortin, who was resident at Bagneux, he himself being located at Belleville. This mode of correspondence he however very prudently laid aside, lest it should lay him open to suspicion from the factions that then governed France. In 1777 and 1778 he published in the Journal des Savans' the first sketches of the theory at which he had arrived; and shortly after, both in the astronomy of his friend Lalande, and in a separate 4to. volume under the title of Mémoire sur l'Origine des Constellations et sur l'explication de la Fable par l'Astronomie,' 1781. The sceptical tendency of the views entertained by Dupuis led Condorcet to recommend him to Frederick the Great, as professor of literature in the College of Berlin, and successor to Thiébault; and the offer was accepted by Dupuis. The death of Frederick, however, prevented the arrangement from being carried into effect; but the chair of Latin eloquence in the College of France becoming then vacant by the death of Bejot, he was appointed to fill it. In the same year (1778) he was named a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and was appointed one of the four commissioners of public instruction for the department of Paris. The danger of his residence in the capital now induced him to seek a retreat at Evreux. He was, notwithstanding his retirement, named member of the Convention for the department of Seine-et-Oise; and was remarkable for the moderation of his views. Caution was the characteristic of his political career. secretary of the Assembly; and in the following year a In the year II. he was elected member of the Council of Five Hundred. He was elected one of the forty-eight members of the French Institute, though after much determined and discreditable opposition from the ultra-revolution party. On the 18th Brumaire, year IV., he was elected by the department of Seine-et-Oise their member of the legislative body, and soon after president of that assembly, and ultimately was nominated a candidate for the senate. Hopeless of the regeneration of France, he retired at once from public life, and devoted the remainder of his days to the investigations of the questions which arose out of his early speculations. We have hence to trace his progress only as a man of letters and a man of science, and to give some general idea of the views which are contained in his several works. On the publication of the 'Mémoire sur les Constellations' a new course of erudite inquiry was opened; and though the arguments and conclusions were contested by Bailly, he gave Dupuis full credit for the ability and learning displayed in the work. He afterwards renewed his researches, and made them the subject of a course of lectures delivered from his chair in the college of Lisieux. In 1794 he published his great work entitled 'Origine de tous les Cultes, ou la Religion Universelle,' 3 vols. 4to. with an Atlas; and also, slightly abridged in one of its parts (the 'Justification'), in 12 vols. 8vo. This work gave rise to much discussion, often conducted with a sectarian bitterness little creditable to philosophical or theological investigation. In 1798 he published an abridgment of the 'Origine' in one vol. 8vo., or rather a series of extracts from his large work, under the same title; but a much more methodical abridgment was shortly after given to the world by Destutt-de-Tracy. The wildly displayed hatred towards Christianity which so strongly developed itself during the eventful period of the French revolution was well calculated to create deep interest in the work of Dupuis. He had been led to conclude that the earliest traces of the general mythology of the southern climates would be found in Upper Egypt, if indeed they had not their origin there. In this celebrated work, therefore, originated the Commission' to explore the ruins of that country, which was undertaken by Napoleon after his return from Italy. Nothing indeed can show so clearly the influence which this work had exercised over the regenerated nation,' as that the most ambitious of all the men of his time should leave the scene of the most glittering hopes to a daring spirit like his, to lead an expedition such as this. Out of that expedition what new and unexpected results have arisen! The very phraseology of history has been changed; and the sacred rites and domestic manners of antient Egypt are now scarcely, if at all, less understood than those of Greece and Rome. The Zodiac of Tentyra (or Denderah) engaged much of the attention of Dupuis, upon which he published a mémoire and an explication, in the Revue Philosophique' for May 1806, which he afterwards published in an enlarged and separate form in one volume 4to, under the title of Mémoire explicatif du Zodiaque Chronologique et Mythologique.' In this curious dissertation he compares the Greek and Egyptian Zodiacs with those of the Chinese, the Persians, the Arabs, and all the others of which he could obtain any distinct notices. He afterwards read to his class of the Institute a Mémoire sur le Phénix,' which, as he contended, signified the reproduction of the cycle of 1461 common (vague) Egyptian years. In the 'Nouvel Almanach des Muses' for 1805 he also published a fragment of the poem of Nonnius; it is indeed said that his astronomical system was suggested by this poem originally, and it is certain that his Origine des Cultes' is but a voluminous commentary on the ideas contained in that poem. Dupuis died at Is-sur-Tille, on September 29, 1809, aged 67. He was a member of the Legion of Honour. He was a man of strict probity, and much esteemed by his friends for his personal qualities. He amassed no fortune, being satisfied to expend his income upon the materials for his researches. He left in MS. a work on cosmogonies and theogonies, intended as a defence and illustration of the doctrines of the Origine des Cultes. In this work Leblond considered that Dupuis had at last discovered the interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics-a conclusion that few, since the researches of Dr. Young and Champollion, will feel disposed to admit, even though they may not adopt the views of Champollion to any great extent. There is also reason to believe that it was in consequence of conversations with Dupuis that Volney composed his celebrated work on the Ruins of Empires. Dupuis has been often stigmatized as a paradoxical writer. Bold and speculative he was, but there is certainly little cause to call him paradoxical. His conjectures are often plausible, though his deductions from them are frequently inconsequential. Whatever might have been the immediate effect of his scepticism, there can be little doubt that the ultimate effect has been alike favourable to early history and to the Christian religion. He was a sincere and candid man, and always appeared to be fully impressed with the truth of the conclusions at which he had arrived. It was indeed that earnestness of character that gave so much weight to his opinions and so much influence to his suggestions. Had this feature been wanting in the character of Dupuis, the expedition to Egypt had never been undertaken, nor, consequently, would the brilliant discoveries to which it finally led have been made. DURA MATER. [BRAIN.] DURA'MEN, the name given by physiologists to the central wood or heart-wood in the trunk of an exogenous tree. It is the oldest part of the wood, and is filled by the secretions of the tree, so that fluid can no longer ascend through its tubes, which are choked up by the deposition of solid matter; otherwise it is of the same nature as the alburnum. It is only where plants form solid hard secretions that heart-wood is distinguishable from sap-wood: in the poplar, willow, lime, &c., no secretions of this kind are formed; the two parts of the wood are both nearly alike, and consequently the timber of such trees is uniformly perishable. Ship carpenters call the duramen the spine: it is always distinguishable from sap-wood by its deeper colour, and sometimes, as in the yew, the sandarach, and certain kinds of deal, the limits of the two are clearly defined. But in most cases the heart-wood and sap-wood gradually pass into each other, so that no certain line can be drawn between them. DURANCE, a river in the south of France, belonging to the basin of the Rhône. The source of the Durance is marked in the maps near Briançon; but the sources of the Guisane and the Claret, which flow from the ridge of the Alps that separates the department of Hautes Alpes from Savoy, have each a better title to be considered the true head of the Durance. These streams unite at Briançon, about 20 miles from their respective sources, and just after their junction receive the Servières, another small stream. From Briançon the Durance flows south-south-west above 25 miles to Embrun, receiving by the way the Gyronde (which receives the Gy and the Boude) and the Guil (which receives the Aigue-blanche, the Melesen, and the Rioube), and several small mountain streams, as the Crevoux, the Vachere, &c. The Ubaye, from Barcelonette (which receives the Ubayete, and the Bachelard), joins the Durance 10 miles below Embrun. From the junction of the Ubaye the Durance flows first south-west, then south, and then west by north 135 miles, into the Rhône below Avignon, receiving a great number of tributaries, of which the principal are the Buech (which joins it at Sisteron), the united streams of the Bes and the Bleone from Digne, the Asse, the Verdon from Castellane, and the Calavon from Apt. In the lower part of its course the bed of the Durance is full of islands. The stream is very rapid, and its inundations frequent. It is not navigable, but is used for floating timber. Many of its tributaries are used for floating. It was known to the Romans by the name Druentia. DURANGO, a town in the Mexican United States, the capital of the state of the same name, is situated in about 24° 28' N. lat. and near 105° W. long. in a wide plain, 6848 feet above the sea, and at no great distance from the Sierra Madre, which rises to the west of the town. Its population amounts to upwards of 22,000 souls, and it carries on a considerable commerce in the agricultural produce of the country lying about it, and in that of the numerous and rich mines, partly situated in the Sierra Madre and partly east of the town. Iron ore is found within a quarter of a league from the town, but the attempts to turn it to advantage have, so far as we know, not succeeded to any extent. Not far from Durango is the Breña, a tract more than 30 miles in length and about half that width, which is occupied by hills composed of basalt and covered with scoria; among them is a crater of considerable dimensions. (Humboldt; Ward.) DURANTE, FRANCESCO, a celebrated Italian composer, was born in Naples, in 1693, and educated under Alessandro Scarlatti. His works are not numerous, and chiefly of the sacred kind. The duets, on which his reputation now mainly rests, are, Dr. Burney states, the cantatas of his master, arranged for two voices! Hence the fame of this much-vaunted composer will hereafter depend on that of his disciples, Pergolesi, Piccini, Sacchini, Paisiello, &c., who received instructions from him at the Neapolitan Conservatorios of St. Onofrio, and the Poveri di Gesu Cristo, of both of which Durante was the principal. DURAʼZZO, DURA'S, the antient Epidamnus, afterwards called Dyrrachium, is a town on the coast of Albania, in 41° 22′ N. lat., and 19° 27' E. long., situated on the south coast of a peninsula which projects into the Adriatic, and forms the south boundary of the gulf of Drin. Epidamnus was a colony of Corcyra [COLONY], but it afterwards changed its name into Dyrrachium. It fell under the Romans at the time of the conquest of Macedonia, and its harbour became the principal means of communication between Italy and the north parts of Greece, Macedonia, and Thrace. The Romans embarking at Brundisium, which is nearly opposite, landed at Dyrrachium, and thence by the Via Egnatia they reached Thessalonica, on the Egean sea. Pompey defended Dyrrachium with success against Cæsar before the battle of Pharsalia. After the fall of the Roman empire Dyrrachium came successively into the hands of the Goths, Bulgarians, and the Norinans from Sicily, who made it their stronghold in their wars with the Byzantine emperors. It afterwards fell into the hands of |