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Shepherd's Dog, and the Mastiff, or Ban-dog. 3rd. Mon-
grels, viz. Wappe, Turnspit, and Dancer.

trate as far as Calcutta. On these occasions the women remain at home with the dogs, and the encampment is watched by the latter, which have an almost irreconcileable aversion to Europeans, and in general fly ferociously at a white face. A warmer climate relaxes all their energies, and they dwindle even in the valley of Nepaul.' Those which were in the Zoological Society's Garden in the Regent's Park died soon after their arrival. They were considered very great rarities, and were brought over to this country by Dr. Wallich. The Hon. Edward Gardner, British resident at the court of the Rajah of Nepal, never heard of any other instance of this variety being domesticated by Europeans.

Bewick enumerates the following:-The Shepherd's Dog, the Cur Dog, the Greenland Dog, the Bull-dog, the Mastiff, the Ban-dog, the Dalmatian, or Coach-dog, the Irish Greyhound, the Highland Greyhound, the Gazehound, the Greyhound, the Italian Greyhound, the Lyemmer, the Lurcher, the Tumbler, the Terrier, the Beagle, the Harrier, the Foxhound, the Old English Hound, the Kibble Hound, the Blood Hound, the Spanish Pointer, the English Setter, the Newfoundland Dog, the Rough Water Dog, the Large Water Spaniel, the Small Water Spaniel, the Springer, or Cocker, King Charles's Dog, the Pyrame Dog, the Shock Dog, the Lion Dog (a small and rare variety), the Comforter (a small spaniel), the Turnspit, and the Pug. We could add many more to this list, which is long enough. The French divide the dogs into three groups, viz., the Mâtins, the Spaniels (including the Hounds and Pointer), and the Dogues (the last containing the Mastiff, Bull-dog, &c.)

Skull of Chien Matin.

We give the gigantic Thibet Dog as a fine example of the
Mastiffs. Dr. Wallich gave to Mr. Broderip the data which

In all the varieties the period of gestation is sixty-three days. The litter is generally numerous, often as many as eight or nine. The whelps are born blind, and do not see till nine days are fully expired: they sometimes see on the tenth, and sometimes not till the twelfth day. At the fourth month the teeth begin to change, and at two years the growth of the animal is considered complete. A dog is considered old at the expiration of five years, and the limits of his existence rarely exceed twenty years.

It is confidently stated that in all the varieties, if a dog has any white on any part of his tail, that colour will invariably be found at the tip.

Those who would pursue their inquiries as to the varieties of breeds of dogs, should refer to The Sportsman's Cabinet (two quarto volumes entirely devoted to the subject, and beautifully illustrated); Daniel's Rural Sports; the chapter on Dogs' in The Menageries (Library of Entertaining Knowledge); and Sir John Sebright's interesting and welldigested little book, in addition to the works referred to in this article.

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FOSSIL DOGS.

It may be doubted whether any fossil remains of the Dog, properly so called, have ever been found. The occurrence of the bones of the wolf and the fox in the ossiferous caverns, &c., is well known; but in pursuing this part of the inquiry it should be remembered how difficult it is to distinguish the bones of the wolf from those of the matin, as Cuvier observes, and the Shepherd's Dog. The Canis Spelæus of Goldfuss, the remains of which were found at Gailenreuth, bears the strongest resemblance in the form of the cranium generally to the wolf, but the muzzle is shorter and the palate is wider. The Agnotherium of Kaup is described by him to have been as large as a lion, and to be allied to the dog,

DOGE was the title of the first magistrate of the republic of Venice. The first settlers on the islands of the lagune were governed by magistrates sent from Padua. After Padua was devastated by the Huns and other barbarians, A. D. 452-60, the colonists of the lagune being left to themselves, each island elected a magistrate called tribune. An annual selection was made of seven from among these tribunes, who constituted the government of the whole community. A council of forty persons chosen by the general assembly of the people had the legislative and judicial powers. As population and wealth increased, and the community was threatened by hostile neighbours, it was found necessary to concentrate and strengthen the executive, and a chief magistrate for life was elected by the assembly of the people, and was called doge, a corruption of dux, as he was also general of the armed force. The first doge, Paolo Luca Anafesto, was elected in 697. The third doge in succession, Orso Ippato, elected in 724, made war against the Longobards, and took Ravenna, which he restored to the Byzantine emperor, who, as a reward for this service, granted to the republic a tract on the coast of the mainland as far south as the Adige. This first continental possession of Venice, being afterwards enlarged, was The Thibet Dog, Canis familiaris, var. Molossus Thibetanus. called Dogado. The successes of Orso inspired the people enabled the latter to write the following account for the late with jealousy, and he was assassinated in 737. The office lamented Mr. Bennett. These noble animals are the of doge was at the same time abrogated, and an annual mawatch-dogs of the table-land of the Himalaya mountains, gistrate was substituted, but the fifth of these was imprisoned about Thibet. Their masters, the Bhoteas, to whom they on some charge, and his eyes were put out, after which the are most strongly attached, are a singular race, of a ruddy people again elected a doge for life in 742. From that time copper colour, indicating the bracing air which they breathe, till 1172 about forty doges ruled in succession, nearly one rather short, but of an excellent disposition. Their clothing half of whom died a violent death or were deposed, exiled, is adapted to the cold climate they inhabit, and consists of or had their eyes put out, sometimes by regular trial before fur and woollen cloth. The men till the ground and keep the council of forty, and sometimes by popular insurrection. sheep, and at certain seasons come down to trade, bringing The Quarantia, or Council of Forty, which exercised the borax, tincal, and musk, for sale. They sometimes pene-government during the interregna, assumed by degrees the

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Ons the women encampment is irreconcileable ferociously at a their energies, epaul.' Those Garden in the al. They were Tought over to ward Gardner, f Nepal, never being domes

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commands of Admirals Parker and Zoutman. The disabled condition of the ships on both sides put an end to the battle, in which neither side could claim a victory.

DOGMA (dóyμa), a word borrowed from the Greek, means an established principle, a fundamental article of belief derived from undisputed authority, and is generally applied to the essential doctrines of Christianity which are drawn from the Scriptures, or from the authority of the Fathers. Hence that branch of divinity called dogmatic theology is an exposition and assertion of the various articles of the Christian faith as founded upon authority acknowledged by Christians in general, and is distinguished from scholastic theology, which assumes to establish the truth of the Christian doctrines by argument. John Damascenus was one of the first who wrote an exposition of Christian dogmatics. [DAMASCENUS.] But although the authority of the Scriptures and of the early fathers is acknowledged by all Christians, there are other authorities which are acknowledged only by one communion, and not by others. Thus the Greek church acknowledges the authority of the earlier councils only, while the Roman Catholics look upon the later councils and the bulls and decretals of the Popes as equally positive authority in matters of faith; and the Protestant and reformed churches, rejecting the latter, recur to their respective Synods and confessions of faith. Melancthon wrote a concise exposition of the dogmas of the Protestant or Lutheran church. Among the numerous Roman Catholic writers on dogmatic theology, Bellarmine is one of the most distinguished. Dogmatic theology, as distinct from scholastic as well as from moral theology and Biblical divinity, constitutes a separate chair in several Roman Catholic universities in continental Europe.

power of electing a doge in order to put a stop to the fre-
quently recurring tumult and anarchy; the choice however
was subject to confirmation by the assembly of the people.
The first doge thus elected was Sebastiano Ziani in 1172, and
the Forty made him swear to a new constitution, or funda-
mental law, by which, instead of the general assembly of
the people, the sovereign power was vested in a great
council of 470 citizens, elected for one year, but capable of
indefinite re-election. These were chosen by twelve elec-
tors, two for each sestiere, or district, of the city of Venice
alone, who were themselves appointed by the inhabitants
of their respective districts, the other islands and terri-
tories of the republic having no part in the elections. The
Great Council was to appoint six individuals who were to
be the doge's counsellors, without whose concurrence no
act of the doge should be valid. This council was after-
wards called 'la Signoria.' In important cases the doge
was to consult with another council of sixty members, called
Pregadi, or requested,' taken also from the Great Council.
This is the body which in course of time became invested
with all the powers of the state, and is generally known by
the name of the Venetian Senate. The citizens of Venice,
weary of tumult, and being secured in the exclusive right of
furnishing the members of the Great or Sovereign Council,
seem to have willingly acquiesced in these constitutional
changes, and a distribution of golden pieces made by the
new doge served to gratify the populace. About a century
after, another organic change took place. Pietro Gradenigo
being elected doge in 1289, by the influence of the old or
aristocratic families, proposed a law which passed the Great
Council in 1298 after much opposition and delays, that
no one should in future be eligible to sit in that assembly
except those who then had a seat in it, or whose fathers,
grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, had been members of
it. The number of the members of the Great Council was
no longer limited to 470. Lastly, in 1319 a new law passed
the Great Council, by which that assembly declared itself
permanent and hereditary, all the members who were then
sitting in it (about 600 in number) remaining for life in pos-
session of their seats, their sons who were above twenty-five
years of age being likewise admitted, and their descendants
after them, to the exclusion of all other families. This
decree, known in history as 'la serrata del maggior con-
siglio,' established an hereditary and exclusive aristocracy
at Venice, which lasted till the end of that republic. The
confirmation of the doge by the people was henceforth dis-
pensed with. The doge himself became merely a state
pageant, the servant of the councils, which had the power
of trying and deposing him, and even sentencing him to
death. They took away from him the command of the
military and naval forces, his children were excluded from
every office of state, and he had no patronage except the
prebendal stalls of the cathedral of St. Mark. The doge
was president by right of all the councils, with a double, or
casting vote. He was simply addressed by the title of
Messer Doge. (Memori Venete di Giovanni Gallicioli,
Venice, 1826; Daru, Histoire de Venise, books 6 and 39;
and an article in the Edinburgh Review, No. 91, June,
1827.)

The doges at Genoa were at first magistrates for life
[BOCCANERA], as at Venice, but the frequent contentions
and civil factions among the aspirants to that dignity in-
duced Andrea Doria, in his reform of 1528, to make the
office of doge to last only two years. [DORIA.]

a

In the Protestant Universities of Germany there is a chair for the history of dogmas. The business of the professor is to examine the doctrines of the various sects which have divided Christianity, their sources, and the arguments by which they are supported. Such a course of lectures forms an important addition to the study of Ecclesiastical History.

DOG'S-BANE, the English name of the poisonous plant called by botanists Apocynum.

DOG'S-TAIL GRASS. [CYNOSURUS.] DOGWOOD, the English name of various deciduousleaved shrubs belonging to the genus Cornus. [CORNACEE.] They are cultivated as ornamental plants, for the sake of their bright red shoots, which are an embellishment of plantations in the winter; and also for the sake of the charcoal obtained from them, which is one of the best sorts for the manufacture of gunpowder.

DOIT or DUYT, a small Dutch copper coin, being the eighth part of a stiver, in value half a farthing. Doit is also division of the English grain Troy. See Snelling's ' View of the Coins of Europe,' 8vo. London: 1766. Kelly's 'Complete Cambist,' i. 219; ii. 278. The word is used by Shakspeare, Coriolanus, act. i., sc. 5.

DOL. [ILLE ET VILAINE.]

DOLABELLA. (Malacology.) [TECTIBRANCHIATA.] DOLABRIFORM, a term applied in botany to certain fleshy leaves, which are straight at the front, taper at the base, compressed, dilated, rounded, and thinned away at the upper end at the back, so as to bear some resemblance to an old fashioned axe-head.

DOLCI, CARLO, an excellent painter, was born at DOGGERBANK, a very extensive sand-bank in the Florence, on Thursday, May 25, 1616. His father Andrew, North Sea, lying between the east coast of England and the and his mother's father and brother, Pietro and Bartolomeo west coast of Holland, and situated between the Well-bank Marinari, were all painters, and much esteemed and reand the Broad-fourteen. The western part of the Dogger- spected in their native city. At the age of four years, bank is about twelve leagues east from Flamborough head, in Carlo had the misfortune to lose his father, and his mother the east riding of Yorkshire, whence the bank extends in a was obliged to maintain a numerous family by her indirection nearly E.N.E. to within twenty leagues of Jut- dustry. At the age of nine she placed him with Jacopo land. In some places this bank is twenty leagues broad, Vignali, a pupil of Roselli, who was famous for his powers but it is contracted towards the east, and terminates nearly of teaching. In four years Carlo could paint. His first in a point. The shoalest part is that nearest the English efforts attracted the notice of Piero de' Medici, an amateur, coast, where it has nine fathoms water, so that it presents no who procured him the notice of the court, and he soon bedangers or difficulties to navigators; in other parts the sur- came very busily and profitably employed. In 1654, by the face rises generally towards the centre: in some places the advice of his friends, he married Theresa Bucherelli, by depth of water is as great as twenty-seven fathoms. whom he had a numerous family. About 1670 he was inThe Doggerbank is a noted station for the cod-fishery, and vited to paint the likeness of Claudia, the daughter of is much frequented by both English and Dutch fishermen. Ferdinand of Austria, at Innspruck, which place he visited It is also known in history as the scene of an obstinate naval for a short time. After his return he was afflicted with engagement which took place in the summer of 1781 be- melancholy, and he died on Friday, January 17, 1686, lear tween the English and Dutch fleets under the respective ing one son in holy orders, and seven daughters, of whom

Agnese, married to Carlo Bacı, a silk merchant, painted in the manner of her father.

Dolci's biographer, Baldinucci, attributes his excellence in painting to the goodness of Heaven, as a just reward for his singular piety, in illustration of which numerous anecdotes are told. When invited to take Claudia's portrait, he declined for fear of the length of the journey, never having lost sight of the cathedral dome and campanile of his favourite city since his birth; and his assent was only procured by obtaining the commands of his confessor, which he obeyed at once. In like manner he was recovered from his first fit of melancholy by the command of his confessor to proceed with a picture of the Virgin. He appears to have been extremely good and amiable, but singularly timid. His last illness was brought on by a remark which Luca Giordano uttered in joke, according to his intimate friend Baldinucci, that his slowness would never allow him to amass 150,000 dollars as the expeditious Giordano had done, | but that he must starve. Upon this, poor Carlo seems to have grown bewildered; he decried the works of the other, whom he thought to be taking the bread out of his mouth, and refused food for some time. In the midst of his troubles, his excellent and beloved wife died, and death soon released him from his grief. In all his insanity he was never violent, but dejected and helpless, and as obedient as a child to his ghostly adviser.

From his first attempts at painting, Carlo determined to paint none but sacred subjects, and he almost literally observed this rule. His style is pleasing, and full of gentle and tender expressions; his drawing for the most part, but not always, correct; his colouring varied, soft, bright, and harmonious; sometimes too pearly in its tint. Lanzi traces in his painting something of the manner of Rosselli, who was, as it were, his grandfather in art. He elaborated all he did with the most consummate patience and delicacy. His pictures are numerous, and found in many collections, for he painted many duplicates, and many copies were made by his pupils Alessandro Lomi and Bartolomeo Mancini, and Agnese, his daughter. Onorio Marinari, his cousin and scholar, gave great promise, but died young. (Baldinucci.)

DOLCIGNO, or DULCIGNO, in the Albanian tongue DULTZUNE, and in the Turkish OLGUN, a town in Upper Albania, near Scutari. [ALBANIA.] This town is on the coast, and has a good harbour. The inhabitants, who amount to about 6000, are engaged partly in commerce, but chiefly in piracy. They were regarded till of late as the most formidable pirates of the Gulf of Venice. Some of their seamen enter into the service of the Barbary States. This town, or perhaps Dulcigno Vecchie, which Mr. Hobhouse (in the map prefixed to his Travels) places on the coast, five or six miles more to the north, was antiently called Olcinium, a name containing the same elements as the modern Albanian and Turkish names; the Illyrians of Olcinium followed the same piratical course as the modern Dulcignotes. (Hobhouse, Travels in Albania.)

DOLE, a town in France, in the department of Jura, on the north-west bank of the Doubs, a feeder of the Saône, and on the road from Paris to Geneva. It is about 190 miles in a straight line south-east of Paris, in 47° 7' N. lat. and 5° 28′ E. long.

Dole is not clearly identified with any Roman site; but in the town and its environs vestiges of the Romans have been traced. In the middle ages, while Besançon was yet a municipal republic, Dole was considered as the capital of La Comté de Bourgogne, or La Franche Comté. It was taken and almost destroyed by the French in 1479. It was again attacked by the French, under the Prince of Condé, in 1536. In 1668, La Franche Comté having been conquered by the French, the ramparts of Dole were rased, but repaired by the Spaniards, to whom the town was restored by a treaty of peace the same year. At a subsequent period, after La Franche Comté had come finally into the hands of the French, they were finally demolished.

The town is pleasantly situated, but its streets are steep, and the houses poor and irregularly built. The church of Nôtre Dame is worthy of notice, and there is a pleasant promenade. The population, in 1832, was 7304 for the town, or 9927 for the whole commune. The inhabitants carry on a trade in corn, wood, and iron; they manufacture hosiery and glass. There are iron-works and coal-mines in or near the town.

There are a library, a high school, an agricultural society, and a theatre. There is also a prison at Dole. Dole is the capital of an arrondissement, which had in 1832 a population of 72,992.

DOLGELLY. [MERIONETHSHIRE.]

DO'LICHONYX. [BOB-O-LINK; EMBERIZIDE.] DO'LICHOS. Under this name Linnæus included the greater part of those tropical twining leguminous plants which bear eatable fruit like the kidney-beans cultivated in Europe A large number of species, ill distinguished from each other, and differing materially in the structure of their fructification, were for so long a time collected under this name that, although they are now broken up into several genera, we shall briefly notice the more remarkable in this place. Dolichos itself is confined to the species with a compressed linear pod, having incomplete cellular dissepiments and ovate seeds with a small oval hilum. Of these D. Catjang, the pulse of which is called Boberloo in India, is an annual, and has somewhat deltoid leaves angular at the back, few-flowered peduncles, and erect pods; it is cultivated in the fields in many parts of India during the dry season, and its seeds are extensively consumed by the poorer natives. D. lignosus, a perennial, with long racemes of flowers, broad heart-shaped leaflets, and linear sharp-pointed pods, is extremely common all over India, where it is cultivated during the cold season in gardens and about the doors of the natives, forming not only cool shady arbours, but furnishing them with an excellent pulse for their curries,' &c. There are several varieties of it constituting the commonest kidney-beans of India. biflorus, an annual, with oblong pointed leaflets and scimitar-shaped hairy pods, furnishes the pulse called in India horse-gram; and D. sphærospermus produces the Calavana or black-eyed peas of Jamaica.

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D.

Lablab has a compressed scimitar-shaped pod, rough with tubercles at the sutures, and furnished with transverse imperfect cellular partitions, and ovate seeds with a fungous callous linear scar. Lablab vulgaris, the old Dolichos Lablab, is a common plant in the hedges in many parts of India, whence it has travelled into the tropical parts of America. It is a smooth perennial with showy white or purple flowers, and large horizontal pods, containing from three to four seeds. It has a heavy disagreeable bug-like smell, prefers a rich black soil that cannot be flooded by rains, and produces a coarse but wholesome pulse, much eaten by the lower classes in India.

Pachyrhizus has a long compressed pod, with kidneyshaped seeds and no dissepiments, and is remarkable for its principal species, P. angulatus (formerly Dolichos bulbosus), producing a root of the size and substance of a turnip. It is reported to have been carried to the Philippines from South America, and thence to have been introduced into the west of Asia. The side leaflets are nearly triangular, that in the middle lozenge-shaped, slightly toothed, and shaggy on both sides. The flowers are very beautiful, of a violet blue colour, and arranged in axillary nearly erect racemes, from one to two feet long. Its root is a common article of food in the Malay archipelago, but no other part of the plant is eaten.

In Psophocarpus the pods are oblong, and have four longitudinal wings; the seeds are roundish. It comprehends the Dolichos tetragonolobus, a twining annual, the pods or tuberous roots of which are a common Indian esculent.

Canavalia, with long straightish compressed pods, having
three short wings at the lower suture, cellular dissepiments,
and oblong seeds with a narrow hilum, comprehends the
South American Lima beans and the Sword beans of India.
The species have a handsomer and firmer foliage than the
other genera, and the flowers are usually large and showy
C. gladiata, the common cultivated species, has often pods
as much as two feet long, and varies with red, grey, and
white seeds.

Finally, the genus Mucuna, known by its oblong puck-
ered compressed hispid pods, includes all the species from
which Cowhage is obtained. [CowHAGE or COWITCH.]
DOLI'OLŮM. [DIPHYDES, vol. ix., p. 11.]
DO'LIUM. [ENTOMOSTOMATA.]
DOLLAR. [MONEY.]

DOLLOND, JOHN, an eminent optician, was descended
from a French refugee family, settled in Spitalfields, and
born on the 10th of June, 1706.

His parents were in humble circumstances, his father being an operative silk weaver; and the man who was des

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p. 103

3. A description of a Contrivance for measuring Small Angles; Phil. Trans., 1753, p. 178.

tined to add so important a discovery to our knowledge of | Improvement in Reflecting Telescopes; Phil. Trans., 1753,
the laws of light was compelled to spend his boyhood in
the drudgery of a manufactory, and in a capacity which had 2. Letter to James Short, A.M., F.R.S., concerning a
nothing congenial to his tastes. The little leisure however mistake in Mr. Euler's Theorem for correcting the Aber-
which he had was spent in the acquisition of a varied ration in the Object Glasses of Refracting Telescopes; Phil
circle of knowledge. Besides the study of mathematics Trans., 1753, p. 287.
and physics, to the latter of which his reputation is chiefly
due, he studied anatomy and natural history in general, on
one hand, and theology and ecclesiastical history on the
other. In furtherance of this diversified class of subjects,
which, considering the toil to which the day was devoted,
was sufficiently extensive, he undertook the Greek and
Roman classics; he was partially acquainted with several
of the modern languages, but with French, German, and
Italian, he was intimately conversant. It is very rare
to see the happy union of great powers of reasoning, of me-order of Malta, but in consequence of a quarrel with one of
mory, and of observation, that was displayed by this eminent

man.

Notwithstanding the cares of a family and the duties
which it imposed upon him, Dollond still found means to
cultivate the sciences; and having apprenticed his eldest
son, Peter, to an optical instrument maker, he was in due
time able to establish him in business in Vine Court,
Spitalfields. In this business he finally joined his son, for
the especial purpose, it would seem, of being able to unite
his tastes with his business more perfectly than silk weaving
enabled him to do.

Immediately on this arrangement being completed, Dol-
lond commenced a series of experiments on the dispersion
of light, and other subjects connected with the improvement
of optical instruments, and especially of telescopes and mi-
croscopes, the results of which were communicated to the
Royal Society in a series of papers. Three of them were
printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1753, one in
1754, and the last in 1758, the titles of which are given
below. It was about 1755 that he entered upon a syste-
matic course of experiments on dispersion, and after, to use
his own words, a resolute perseverance' for more than a
year and a half, he made the decisive experiment which
showed the error of Newton's conclusions on this subject.
[LIGHT.]

The memoir in which the series of investigations was
detailed appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, and
was the last which he gave to the world. It was rewarded
by the council of the Royal Society with the Copley medal
It was the lot of Dollond to undergo considerable annoy.
ance on account of the claims set up for this discovery in
favour of others, especially of Euler; but there is not a
shadow of a doubt of Dollond's priority as well as
originality, in this very important discovery, left on the
minds of the scientific world. The discrepancies which
followed the application of Newton's doctrine to the varied
cases that presented themselves in the course of different
experiments might, in speculative minds, have created a
suspicion of the accuracy of that doctrine; yet there does
not appear to have been the least hesitation among sci-
entific men in attributing these discrepancies to errors of
observation exclusively, and consequently not the least
ground for honestly attempting to deprive Dollond of the
honour of the discovery.

In the beginning of the year 1761 Dollond was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and appointed optician to the king. He did not long survive to enjoy the honour or advantages of his discoveries; as, on the 30th of September of that year, he was attacked by a fit of apoplexy, brought on by a too close and long continued application to a paper which he was studying. This attack immediately deprived him of speech, and in a few hours of life itself.

Besides his eldest son Peter, already mentioned, he left another son and three daughters. The two sons carried on the business jointly with great reputation and success; and upon the death of the younger, it went into the hands of a nephew, who took the family name, and who still carries it on without diminution of the high character attached to the name of Dollond.

Mr. Dollond's appearance was somewhat stern, and his
address and language impressive; but his manners were
cheerful, kind, and affable. He adhered to the religious

doctrines of his father, and regularly attended the French
Protestant Church, of which his life and conversation ren-
dered him a bright ornament.

The following is the list of Dollond's published papers: -
1 A letter to Mr. James Short, F. R. S., concerning an
P. C., No. 559.

4. An Explanation of an Instrument for measuring Small Angles; Phil. Trans., 1754, p. 551.

5. An account of some experiments concerning the different Refrangibility of Light; Phil. Trans., 1758, p. 733. DOLOMIEU, DEODAT-GUY-SILVAIN TANCRE DE DE, was born at Grenoble on the 24th of June, 1750. In early youth he was admitted a member of the religious his companions, which ended in a duel fatal to his adversary, he received sentence of death, but, after imprisonment, he was pardoned, and went to France. After some hesitation whether he should devote himself to classical literature or to natural history, he decided in favour of the latter. While at Metz with the regiment of carbineers, in which he had obtained a commission, he formed an acquaintance with the celebrated and unfortunate La Rochefoucault, which ceased but with his existence; and the attachment for science, by which this nobleman was distinguished probably contributed to confirm Dolomieu in the choice of the pursuit which he had previously made. He was soon afterwards elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, and quitted the military profession.

At the age of twenty-six he went to Sicily, and his first labour was an examination of the environs and strata of Etna. He next visited Vesuvius, the Appenines, and the Alps, and in 1783 published an account of his visit to the Lipari islands.

He returned to France at the commencement of the Revolution, and early ranged himself on the side of liberty. He had however no public employment until the third year of the republic, when he was included in the Ecole de Mines, then established; and he was one of the original members of the National Institute, founded about the same time. He was indefatigable in the pursuit of geological and mine ralogical science, and in less than three years he published twenty-seven original memoirs; among which were those on the nature of leucite, peridot, anthracite, pyroxene, &c

When Bonaparte undertook the conquest of Egypt, Dolo mieu accompanied the expedition; on the arrival of which he visited Alexandria, the Delta, Cairo, the Pyramids, and a part of the mountains which bound the valley of the Nile He proposed also to explore the more interesting parts of the country; but before he could carry his plan into execution his health became so deranged that he was compelled to return to Europe. On his passage home he was, with his friend Cordier, the mineralogist, and many others of his countrymen, made prisoner after being driven into the Gulf of Tarentum, and confined in a miserable dungeon. His companions were soon set at liberty, but the remembrance of the disputes which had existed between him and the members of the Order of Malta led to his removal and subsequent imprisonment at Messina, where he was con fined in a dungeon lighted only by one small opening, which, with barbarous precaution, was closely shut every night. The heat, and the small quantity of fresh air admitted by the window of his prison, compelled him to spend nearly the whole of his time in fanning himself with the few tattered remnants of his clothes, in order to increase the circulation of the air.

Great exertion and urgent demands were made by the scientific men of various countries to obtain his enlargement; and when, after the battle of Marengo, peace was made with Naples, the first article of the treaty was a stipu lation for the immediate release of Dolomieu. On the death of Daubenton he was appointed professor of mineralogy, and soon after his return to France he delivered a course of lectures on the philosophy of mineralogy at the Museum of Natural History.

In a short time he again quitted Paris, visited the Alps, and returned to Lyon by Lucerne, the glaciers of Grindelwald and Geneva, and from thence to Châteauneuf, to visit his sister and his brother-in-law De Drée: here he was unfortunately attacked by a disorder which proved fatal in the 53rd year of his age.

He had projected two journeys for adding to his vast store

VOL. IX.-K

1

of geological knowledge, the first through Germany, and the second through Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. He also proposed to publish a work which he had planned in his prison at Messina; of this he printed a fragment on Mineral Spectes, which is a monument at once of his misfortunes and his genius, being written in his dungeon in Sicily, on the margin of a few books with a bone sharpened against his prison walls for a pen, and the black of his lamp smoke mixed with water for ink. In this work the author proposes that the integral molecule shall be regarded as the principle by which the species is to be determined, and that no other specific characters should be admitted than those which result from the composition or form of the integral molecule. It must however be admitted as an objection to this proposal that the integral molecule is not always easily ascertained or characterized.

From a careful perusal of the works of Dolomieu,' observes Dr. Thomson, Annals of Philosophy, vol. xii., p. 166, 'especially his later ones, the following appear to be the results of his observations and the bases of his geological system:

It appears highly probable, from geometrical considerations and from the theory of central forces, that the earth at the time when it received its spheroidal shape was in a state of fluidity. This fluidity was probably neither the result of igneous fusion nor of aqueous solution, but of the intermixture of a substance or substances with the earthy particles fusible, like sulphur, at a moderate heat, capable of entering into more rapid combustion when exposed to the air, decomposing water, and involving the gas thus produced so as to enter into strong effervescence when the superincumbent pressure does not exceed a given quantity.

The surface of this fluid, by the action of the air on the
combustible ingredient which occasioned its fluidity, would
at length become consolidated, and would envelop the
whole spheroid with a shell of less specific gravity than the
fluid part, and therefore floating securely on its surface;
this latter essential condition being rendered extremely pro-
bable from the well-known fact, that the mean specific gra-
vity of the globe is considerably greater than that of any
natural rock hitherto known.

"The interposition of this solid shell of stony matter, a bad
conductor of heat, between the liquid and gaseous portions
of the globe, would enable the aqueous and other easily-con-
densible vapours to separate themselves from the perma-
nently-elastic gases, and thus the matter of the globe would
be arranged in four concentric spheroids according to their
respective gravities: namely, the liquid central portion, the
solid stony, the liquid aqueous, and the permanently elastic.
As the water penetrated through the stony portion to the
nearest fluid part, it would be gradually decomposed, the
consolidation would proceed downwards, the newly consoli-
dated part would enlarge in bulk, and thus, aided by the
elastic expansion of the hydrogenous base of the decom-
posed water, would occasion rifts of greater or less magni-
tude in the superincumbent mass. Some of the larger of
these rifts would open a free communication between the
ocean and the fluid central mass, a torrent of water would
rush down, and the effervescence occasioned by its decom-
position would produce the first submarine volcanos. The
lava thus ejected would in time raise the mouth of the vol-
cano above the surface of the water, when it would either
become quiescent, or, if supplied laterally with a sufficient
quantity of water, would assume the character of a proper
volcano, or burning mountain. The secondary rocks, i. e. all
those which either themselves contain organic remains or
are associated with those which do, were deposited from so-
lution or suspension in water. By the deposition of these,
and the increase by consolidation of the primitive rocks, the
thickness of the mass incumbent above the central fluid is
continually increasing; and those causes which antiently
broke through the solid crust of the globe are now rarely
able to produce the same effect; hence the greater magni-
tude and frequency of volcanic eruptions in the earliest ages
of the earth; for the same reason the elevation of large
mountainous or continental tracts above the general level
no longer takes place; and thus the surface of the globe has
become a safe and proper habitation for man and other ani-
mals. If the land animals were created as early as possible,
that is, while the great changes of the earth's surface above-
mentioned were still in process, many of the most antient tra-
ditions of deluges and other catastrophes may be founded on
fact.

'The fluidity of the central part of the globe, and its connection with the active volcanos, affords a plausible theory of earthquakes, and particularly accounts for the propagation of the shock, with diminishing intensity, to great distances.

"The crystals of hornblende, of felspar, &c., which occur so abundantly in most lavas, are, according to this theory, not those component ingredients of rocks which have re sisted the heat while the other substances associated with them have been melted; nor are they the result of the slow cooling of a vitreous mass, but are produced by crystallization in the central fluid, and are accumulated, on account of their inferior specific gravity, about its surface, together with the peculiar inflammable matter in which they float, whence they are disengaged during volcanic eruptions.'

DOLOMITE, a variety of magnesian limestone first noticed by Dolomieu. It occurs mostly massive, and in mountain masses; it is usually white, sometimes greyish or yellowish; its structure is sometimes slaty; it is frequently translucent on the edges. It is softer than common limestone.

The Apennines are partly composed of dolomite, and it occurs at Iona. Sometimes it is met with in veins accompanied by quartz, carbonate of lime, &c. The dolomite of the Apennines consists of 59 carbonate of lime and 40 carbonate of magnesia: it contains a variable quantity of oxide of iron.

Compact Dolomite or Gurhoffian is snow white, and very compact. The surface, when newly broken, is scarcely shining, and the fragments, which are sharp, are translucent on the edges; the fracture is flat conchoidal, and its hardness is considerable. It occurs in veins traversing serpentine between Gurhoff (whence its name) and Aggsbach, in Lower Austria. According to Klaproth, it consists of carbonate of lime 70.50, and carbonate of magnesia 29.50. DOLPHIN. [WHALES.]

DOMBES, a principality in France, to the east of the river Saône; one of the divisions existing before the Revolution. It consisted of two portions separated from each other by an intervening part of the district of Bresse by which the eastern portion was entirely surrounded. The western portion was bounded on the west by Lyonnois, Beaujolais, and Maconnois, from which it was separated by the river Saône; on the south, by the districts of Franc-Lyonnois and Bresse; and on the north and east by Bresse. It is now comprehended in the department of the Ain. It contained seven towns, among which were Trévoux, the capital, and Thoissey. Dombes was governed by sovereign princes of its own, who derived a considerable revenue from it, until the year 1762, when the reigning prince exchanged his principality for the duchy of Gisors in Normandy, and other lands. Dombes was united to the crown; but retained its 'parlement,' or local civil court.

The

DO'MBEYA, a name given by botanists to a Sterculiaceous genus of shrubs or trees inhabiting the East Indies and the Isles of France, Bourbon, and Madagascar. They have a five-parted persistent calyx, surrounded by a threeleaved unilateral involucel. The petals are five. stamens are from fifteen to twenty, scarcely monadelphous, five of them being sterile, with from two to three fertile ones between each sterile stamen. The name Dombeya was also applied to the plant now called Araucaria excelsa.

DOME. The mathematical theory of a dome, so far as considerations requisite for security are concerned, is more

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