The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 176

DURWARD, QUENTIN, a Scottish archer in the service of Louis XI., the hero of a novel of Scott's of the name.

DuSSELDORF (176), a well-built town of Rhenish Prussia, on the right bank of the Rhine; it is a place of manufactures, and has a fine picture-gallery with a famous school of art a.s.sociated.

DUTENS, JOSEPH, a French engineer and political economist (1763-1848).

DUTENS, LOUIS, a French savant, born at Tours; after being chaplain to the British minister at Turin, settled in England, and became historiographer-royal; was a man of varied learning, and well read in historical subjects and antiquities (1730-1812).

DUTROCHET, a French physiologist and physicist, known for his researches on the pa.s.sage of fluids through membranous tissues (1776-1847).

DUUMVIRS, the name of two Roman magistrates who exercised the same public functions.

DUVAL, CLAUDE, a French numismatist, and writer on numismatics; keeper of the imperial cabinet of Vienna; was originally a shepherd boy (1695-1775).

DWIGHT, TIMOTHY, an American theologian, grandson of Jonathan Edwards, and much esteemed in his day both as a preacher and a writer; his "Theology Explained and Defended," in 5 vols., was very popular at one time, and was frequently reprinted (1752-1817).

DWINA, a Russian river, distinguished from the DuNA (q. v.), also called Duna, and an important, which flows N. to the White Sea.

DYAKS, the native name of tribes of Malays of a superior cla.s.s aboriginal to Borneo.

DYCE, ALEXANDER, an English literary editor and historian, born in Edinburgh; edited several of the old English poets and authors, some of them little known before; also the poems of Shakespeare, Pope, &c.; was one of the founders of the Percy Society, for the publication of old English works (1798-1869).

DYCE, WILLIAM, a distinguished Scottish artist, born in Aberdeen, studied in Rome; settled for a time in Edinburgh, and finally removed to London; painted portraits at first, but soon took to higher subjects of art; his work was such as to commend itself to both German and French artists; he gave himself to fresco-painting, and as a fresco-painter was selected to adorn the walls of the Palace of Westminster and the House of Lords; his "Baptism of Ethelbert," in the latter, is considered his best work (1806-1864).

DYCK, VAN. See VANDYCK.

DYER, JOHN, English poet; was a great lover and student of landscape scenery, and his poems, "Grongar Hill" and the "Fleece," abound in descriptions of these, the scenery of the former lying in S. Wales (1700-1758).

DYNAM, the unit of work, or the force required to raise one pound one foot in one second.

DYNAMITE, a powerful explosive substance, intensely local in its action; formed by impregnating a porous siliceous earth or other substance with some 70 per cent. of nitro-glycerine.

DYNAMO, a machine by which mechanical work is transformed into powerful electric currents by the inductive action of magnets on coils of copper wire in motion.

E

EACUS. See aeACUS.

EADMER, a celebrated monk of Canterbury; flourished in the 12th century; friend and biographer of St. Anselm, author of a History of His Own Times, as also of many of the Lives of the Saints; elected to the bishopric of St. Andrews in 1120; resigned on account of Alexander I.

refusing to admit the right of the English Archbishop of Canterbury to perform the ceremony of consecration.

EADRIC, a Saxon, notorious for his treachery, fighting now with his countrymen against the Danes and now with the Danes against them, till put to death by order of Canute in 1017.

EADS, JAMES BUCHANAN, an American engineer, born in Laurenceburg, Indiana; designed ingenious boats for floating submerged s.h.i.+ps; built with remarkable speed wars.h.i.+ps for the Federalists in 1861; constructed a steel bridge spanning the Mississippi at St. Louis, noteworthy for its central span of 520 ft. (1820-1887).

EAGLE, the king of birds, and bird of Jove; was adopted by various nations as the emblem of dominant power, as well as of n.o.bility and generosity; in Christian art it is the symbol of meditation, and the attribute of St. John; is represented now as fighting with a serpent, and now as drinking out of a chalice or a communion cup, to strengthen it for the fight.

EAGLE, ORDER OF THE BLACK, an order of knighthood founded by the Elector of Brandenburg in 1701; with this order was ultimately incorporated the ORDER OF THE RED EAGLE, founded in 1734 by the Markgraf of Bayreuth.

EAGLE OF BRITTANY, DU GUESCLIN (q. v.).

EAGLE OF MEAUX, BOSSUET (q. v.).

EAGRE, a name given in England to a tidal wave rus.h.i.+ng up a river or estuary on the top of another, called also a BORE (q. v.).

EARL, a t.i.tle of n.o.bility, ranking third in the British peerage; originally election to the dignity of earl carried with it a grant of land held in feudal tenure, the discharge of judicial and administrative duties connected therewith, and was the occasion of a solemn service of invest.i.ture. In course of time the t.i.tle lost its official character, and since the reign of Queen Anne all ceremony of invest.i.ture has been dispensed with, the t.i.tle being conferred by letters-patent. The word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon _eorls_ which signified the "gentle folk,"

as distinguished from the _ceorls_, the "churls" or "simple folk."

EARL MARSHAL, a high officer of State, an office of very ancient inst.i.tution, now the head of the college of arms, and hereditary in the family of the Dukes of Norfolk; formerly one of the chief officers in the court of chivalry, a court which had to do with all matters of high ceremonial, such as coronations.

EARLOM, RICHARD, a mezzotint engraver, born in London; celebrated for his series of 200 prints after the original designs of Claude de Lorraine (1743-1822).

EARLSTON or ERCILDOUNE, a village in Berwicks.h.i.+re, with manufactures of ginghams and other textiles. In its vicinity stand the ruins of the "Rhymer's Tower," alleged to have been the residence of Thomas the Rhymer.

EARLY ENGLISH, a term in architecture used to designate that particular form of Gothic architecture in vogue in England in the 13th century, whose chief characteristic was the pointed arch.