The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 152

DALAI-LAMA, chief priest of Lamaism, reverenced as a living incarnation of deity, always present on earth in him. See LAMAISM.

DALAYRAC, celebrated French composer; author of a number of comic operas (1753-1809).

DALBERG, BARON DE, an eminent member of a n.o.ble German family; trained for the Church; was a prince-bishop; a highly cultured man, held in high esteem in the Weimar Court circles, and a friend of Goethe and Schiller; an ecclesiastic, as one might suppose, only in name (1744-1817).

DALBERG, DUC DE, nephew of the preceding; contributed to political changes in France in 1814, and accompanied Talleyrand to the Congress of Vienna (1773-1833).

D'ALBRET, JEANNE, queen of Navarre, and mother of Henry IV. of France; came to Paris to treat about the marriage of her son to Charles IX.'s sister; died suddenly, not without suspicion of foul-play, after signing the treaty; she was a Protestant (1528-1572).

D'ALEMBERT, a French philosopher, devoted to science, and especially to mathematics; along with Diderot established the celebrated "Encyclopedie," wrote the Preliminary Discourse, and contributed largely to its columns, editing the mathematical portion of it; trained to quiet and frugality, was indifferent to wealth and honour, and a very saint of science; no earthly bribe could tear him away from his chosen path of life (1717-1783).

DALGARNO, LORD, a heartless profligate in the "Fortunes of Nigel."

DALGETTY, DUGALD, a swaggering soldier of fortune in the "Legend of Montrose," who let out his services to the highest bidder.

DALHOUSIE, JAMES ANDREW BROUN-RAMSAY, MARQUIS OF, Governor-General of India, third son of the ninth Earl; as Lord Ramsay served in Parliament as member for Haddingtons.h.i.+re; on his father's death in 1838 entered the House of Lords; held office under Sir Robert Peel and Lord Russell; went to India as Governor-General in 1848; ruled vigorously, annexed territory, developed the resources of the country, projected and carried out important measures for its welfare; his health, however, gave way at the end of eight years, and he came home to receive the thanks of the Parliament, elevation in the peerage, and other honours, but really to end his days in pain and prostration; dying without male issue, he was succeeded in the earldom by Fox Maule, Lord Panmure (1812-1860).

DALKEITH (7), a grain-market town in Midlothian, 6 m. SE. of Edinburgh, with a palace adjoining, a seat of the Duke of Buccleuch.

DALLAS, GEORGE MIFFLIN, an American diplomatist, born in Philadelphia; represented the United States as amba.s.sador at St.

Petersburg and at London, and was from 1844 to 1849 Vice-President (1792-1864).

DALMATIA (527), a crownland of Austria, lying along the NE. coast of the Adriatic, and bounded on the land side by Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina; half the land is pasture, only one-ninth of it arable, which yields cereals, wine, oil, honey, and fruit.

DALRI'ADS, a Celtic race who came over from Ireland to Argylls.h.i.+re, and established a kingdom in the SW. of Scotland, till King Kenneth Macalpin succeeded in 843, who obtained rule both over it and the northern kingdom of the Picts, and became the first king of Scotland.

DALRYMPLE, ALEXANDER, hydrographer to the Admiralty and the East India Company, born at New Hailes, and brother of Lord Hailes; produced many good maps (1737-1808).

DALTON, JOHN, chemist and physicist, born near c.o.c.kermouth, of a Quaker family; took early an interest in meteorology, and kept through life a record of meteorological observations; taught mathematics and physics in Manchester; made his first appearance as an author in 1793 in a volume of his observations and essays, and in 1808 published "A New System of Chemical Philosophy," which he finished in 1810; famous for his experiments on the elastic force of steam, for his researches on the proportional weights of simple bodies, for his discovery of the atomic theory, as also for his investigations on colour-blindness by experimenting on himself and his brother, who along with himself was colour-blind (1766-1844).

DALTONISM, COLOUR-BLINDNESS (q. v.). See DALTON, JOHN.

DALZIEL, THOMAS, general, born in Linlithgows.h.i.+re; being hand-idle at home, entered the Russian service against the Turks; returning at the request of Charles II., was appointed commander-in-chief in Scotland; suppressed a rising of the Covenanters at Pentland in 1666; never once shaved his beard after the execution of Charles I. (1599-1685).

DAMAN, a Portuguese settlement with a port of the same name in Gujarat, India, 100 m. N. of Bombay.

DAM'ARALAND, a territory on the W. coast of South Africa, N. of Namaqualand; the chief industry is pastoral; the mountain districts, which are rich in minerals, particularly copper, are inhabited by Damaras, who are nomads and cattle-rearers; it is a German protectorate since 1890.

DAMAS, COLONEL COMTE DE, a devoted adherent of Louis XVI., and one of his convoys on his attempt at flight.

DAMASCUS (220), the capital of Syria, one of the oldest cities in the world; stands 2260 ft. above the sea-level; is a great centre of the caravan trade; is embosomed in the midst of gardens and orchards, hence its appearance as the traveller approaches it is most striking; its history goes as far back as the days of Abraham; it was the scene of two great events in human destiny--the conversion of St. Paul, and, according to Moslem tradition, a great decisive moment in the life of Mahomet, when he resolutely turned his back once for all on the pleasures of the world.

DAMASUS, ST., Pope from 366 to 384, a Spaniard; a zealous opponent of the Arians and a friend of St. Jerome, who, under his sanction, executed his translation of the Bible into the Vulgate; there was a Damasus II., Pope in 1048.

DAME AUX CAMeLIAS, LA, a romance and a drama by Alexander Dumas _fils_, one of his best creations.

DAMIEN, FATHER, a French priest, born at Louvain; devoted his life to nurse and instruct the lepers in an island of the Hawaian group, and, though after 12 years infected with the disease himself, continued to minister to them till his death (1841-1889).

DAMIENS, ROBERT FRANcOIS, the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin of Louis XV., born near Arras; aimed at the king as he was entering his carriage at Trianon, but failed to wound him mortally; was mercilessly tortured to death; was known before as _Robert le Diable_; his motive for the act was never known (1715-1757).

DAMIETTA (36), a town, the third largest, in Egypt, on an eastern branch of the Nile, 8 m. from its mouth; has a trade in grain, rice, hides, fish, &c.; was taken by St. Louis in 1249, and restored on payment of his ransom from captivity.

DAMOCLES, a flatterer at the court of the elder Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, whom, after one day extravagantly extolling the happiness of kings, Dionysius set down to a magnificent banquet, but who, when seated at it, looked up and saw a sword hanging over his head suspended by a single hair; a lesson this which admonished him, and led him to change his views of the happiness of kings.

DAMON AND PYTHIAS, two Pythagoreans of Syracuse of the days of Dionysius I., celebrated for their friends.h.i.+p; upon the latter having been condemned to death, and having got leave to go home to arrange his affairs beforehand, the former pledged his life for his return, when just as, according to his promise, he presented himself at the place of execution, Pythias turned up and prepared to put his head on the block; this behaviour struck the tyrant with such admiration, that he not only extended pardon to the offender, but took them both into his friends.h.i.+p.

DAMPIER, WILLIAM, an English navigator and buccaneer; led a roving and adventurous life, and parting company with his comrades, set off on a cruise in the South Seas; came home and published a "Voyage Round the World"; this led to his employment in further adventures, in one of which Alexander Selkirk accompanied him, but was wrecked on Juan Fernandez; in his last adventure, it is said, he rescued Selkirk and brought him home (1652-1715).

DANA, CHARLES ANDERSON, American journalist, member of BROOK FARM (q. v.), and became editor of the _New York Tribune_, the _Sun_, and a cyclopaedia: _b_. 1829.

DANA, JAMES DWIGHT, American mineralogist and geologist, born at Utica, New York State; was a.s.sociated as scientific observer with Commodore Wilkes on his Arctic and Antarctic exploring expeditions, on the results of which he reported; became geological professor in Yale College; author of works on mineralogy and geology, as also on South Sea volcanoes (1813-1895).

DANA, RICHARD HENRY, an American poet and critic; editor of the _North American Review_, author of the "Dying Raven," the "Buccaneer,"

and other poems (1787-1879).

DANA, RICHARD HENRY, a son of the preceding, lawyer; author of "Two Years before the Mast" (1815-1882).