DORPAT, DORPT (in Esthonian, TartLin); a city on the Embach, formerly an important commercial place, at present the chief town of the government of Riga (764 houses and 8450 inhabitants), about 175 miles S. W. of St. Petersburgh; lat. 58° 23′ N.; lon. 26° 46′ 15′′ E. The transit trade of Dorpat, in products of the interior, is still considerable, and will be increased when the Alexander canal is finished. The emperor Alexander established here, in 1802, a university for Finland, Esthonia, Livonia and Courland. The students (about 400) wear a uniform, and, after finishing their studies, have the rank of a commissioned officer. The library contains 40,000 vols. There are, besides, many scientific institutions. Dorpat is situated on the road from Petersburg to Germany. Its environs are agreeable and fertile.

DORSEY, John Syng, an eminent physician, was born in Philadelphia, Dec. 23, 1783, and received an excellent classical education, at a school in Philadelphia, of the society of Friends. He here manifested the same vivacity of genius, and mild and amiable disposition, for which he was subsequently conspicuous. At the age of 15 years, he applied himself to the study of medicine; and, in the spring of 1802, being then in his 19th year, was graduated doctor in physic, having previously defended an inaugural dissertation On the Powers of the Gastric Liquor as a Solvent of urinary Calculi. This work exhibits some original views, illustrated by a number of well conducted experiments. Not long after he received his degree, the yellow fever appeared in Philadelphia, and prevailed so extensively that an hospital was opened for those sick with this malady, to which he was pointed resident physician. He improved this opportunity of investigating the disease, elucidated some of the more intricate parts of its pathology, and aided in the establishment of a better system of practice. At the close of the same season, he visited Europe. He returned home in December, 1804, and entered or the practice of his profession. His reputation, amiable temper, popular manners, and fidelity and attention, soon introduced him to a large share of business. In 1807, he was elected adjunct professor of surgery, and held the office till he succeeded to the chair of materia medica. He delivered two courses of lectures on this subject, when, the chair of anatomy becoming vacant by the death of doctor Wistar, he was raised to that professorship. He

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opened the session by one of the finest exhibitions of eloquence ever heard within the walls of the university. But, on the evening of the same day, he was attacked with a fever, which in one week closed his existence. He had cultivated every department of medicine assiduously, but for surgery he evinced a decided predilection, and in this made the greatest proficiency. He was one of the most accomplished surgeons of this country, equally distinguished for the number, variety and difficulty of his operations, and the skill and boldness with which they were performed. As a teacher of medicine, his merits were great, and he was constantly resorted to in cases of emergency in the school. He has been known, in the same day, to lecture on surgery and the materia medica, the details of the anatomical structure and the laws of the animal economy. He contributed many valuable papers to the journals, and his Elements of Surgery (2 vols., 8vo.) is probably the best work on the subject. It embraces, in a narrow compass, a digest of surgery, with ' all the recent improvements which it had received in Europe and this country. It has been adopted as a text-book in the university of Edinburgh, and was the first American work on medicine reprinted in Europe.

DORT; a pleasant commercial town in South Holland (18,000 inhabitants, 3900 houses), on the Merwe and Biesbosch, situated on an island, which was formed by the inundation of 1421, when 72 villages and 100,000 persons were destroyed. Lat. 51° 48′ 54′′ N.; lon. 4° 39′ 42 E. Its great church is a fine building. Its harbor is spacious, and its commerce in Rhenish wines and lumber (which is brought down in rafts, and exported to Spain, England and Portugal) is important. Ship-building, the manufacture of salt, bleaching, and the salmon fisheries, are extensively carried on. Dort has an artillery and engineer school. It was formerly the residence of the counts of Holland, and is the native place of De Witt (q. v.), John Gerhard Vossius, the painter Varestag, and other distinguished persons. In 1618 and 1619, the Protestants held here the famous synod of Dort, the resolutions of which still constitute the laws of the Dutch reformed church. The synod declared the Arminians heretics, and confirmed the Belgic confession with the Heidelberg catechism. Since the navigation of the Rhine has not yet been regulated according to the promise of the congress of Vienna, Dort is still in possession

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of its ancient and unjust right of staple. (For a more particular account of the synod of Dort, see Arminians, and Arminius.) DORTMUND; a city on the Ems, in Prussian Westphalia (900 houses and 4500 inhabitants); lat. 51° 31′ 24′′ N.; lon. 52° 26′ 41′′ E. It was formerly a free, imperial and Hanseatic city. In 1803, it was bestowed on the prince of Orange; in 1808, Napoleon gave it to the grand-duke of Berg; in 1815, it was ceded to Prussia. Its archives contain interesting manuscripts and documents of the time when the chief tribunal of the Vehme (q. v.) was here.

DORTRECHT. (See Dort.)

DORY, OF JOHN DORY; a fish belonging to the genus zeus of Linnæus, and celebrated for the delicacy of its flesh. The species is distinguished by having the spinous portions of the dorsal and anal fins separated by a deep emargination from the soft-rayed portion, and having the base of all the vertical fins, and the carina of the belly anterior to the anal fin, furnished with spines or serratures; color, yellowish-green, with a blackish spot on each side; dorsal and anal with furcate spines, and a long filament produced from behind each dorsal spinous ray. Tradition has rendered this fish famous on several accounts. First, it is said to derive the mark on each side of its body, from the impression of the fore finger and thumb of the apostle Peter. There is a schism among the superstitious in relation to this story, as the haddock also enjoys a similar distinction, it is affirmed, from the same cause. Another fable is, that the impression was produced by the foot of St. Christopher, which, it is fair to say, is equally probable. The dory obtains its food very much by stratagem, and its exceedingly protractile jaws enable it to capture small fish, &c., in its vicinity with ease, when lying concealed in the ooze or weeds. Torbay, in England, is distinguished as the locality from whence the greatest number of these fish is obtained. They are also found on the coasts of France, on the Atlantic shores of Europe, and in the Mediterranean.

Dosso Dossi; a painter of Ferrara, much honored by duke Alfonso, and immortalized by Ariosto (whose portrait he executed in a masterly manner) in his OrJando, canto 23. His manner approaches to that of Titian, with whom he painted some apartments in the ducal castle. His paintings there represent bacchanalians, fauns, satyrs and nymphs. In other paintings he imitated Raphael. Among eight

of Dossi's pictures in Dresden, the Dispute of the four Fathers of the Church is distinguished as a masterpiece by accurate delineation and peculiar power of coloring, and is entirely in the style of Titian. His brothers are less celebrated. He was born 1479, and died 1560.

DOTATIONS OF NAPOLEON; gifts from the national domains, which Napoleon bestowed on his generals in the conquered countries, as the ancient Lombard kings made grants to their vassals, on the division of the countries which they subdued. These gifts, sometimes connected with a title of nobility, formed a sort of fief, and, both in respect to possession and inheritance, had the character of majorats (q. v.); and the donees stood, as such, under the general superintendents of the extraordinary domains, so called, to whom was committed the care of all those portions of land, capitals, or other sources of revenue, which the emperor was accustomed to reserve to himself (chiefly with a view to making such dotations), in the conquered countries, and those transferred by him to other princes. It was the duty of the above-mentioned officers of state to see that all who had received from the emperor dotations in foreign countries, should sell their estates, one half within the first 20 years, and the remainder within a second period of the same length; so that, in the course of 40 years, all these estates were to be alienated and changed, either into landed or other property, in France. Deeds of investiture were prepared for these donees, by the arch-chancellor of the kingdom, as president of the conseil du sceau des titres; but within three months after the death of the donee, documents of confirmation must be applied for by the heirs. By this officer, many dotations owned by the same man might be thrown into one mass, or the amount might be augmented out of the other property of the donee, if the dotation alone did not afford income enough to enable it to be raised to a majorat, with the title of knight, baron, count or duke annexed. If the attorney-general of the council was informed of the extinction of the male line of the descendants of the owner of a majorat, received wholly or in part from the emperor, he was obliged to make a report of it to the superintendent of the extraordinary imperial domains, or of the imperial private domains, according as the estate had been granted from one or the other; upon which the intendant immediately took possession, in order to secure the property to the treasury. A

decree of May 13, 1809, established in countries not belonging to the French imperial states, where the emperor had raised such grants to majorats, particular officers (agens conservateurs), whose principal duty was to see that the owners of the majorats managed them well, and that, if any lapse of such property took place, it should be united again, entirely and without delay, to the French crown. All gifts of this sort, so far as they had not been alienated, became null and void on the death of the giver.

DOUANE; in France, the name given to the custom-houses on the borders.-DOUANIERS; the officers who received the customs. During the wars of France with England (1793-1814), and particularly while the continental system was in operation, the French douaniers were of much political importance. They were divided into bodies of six men each, had a military organization, and were well armed. Thus they guarded, in three lines, the boundaries of France, against the introduction of all prohibited articles, including not only English produce and manufactures, but also those of nearly all other countries. They likewise collected the export duties. Their number, in 1812, was 80,000, and the expense to the French government amounted, in 1809, to 50,000,000 francs. The severity with which the French revenue system was executed; the interruptions it caused to almost all classes, particularly in the conquered provinces, and the arbitrary extortions of the douaniers, exasperated the people, especially in the newly acquired provinces. In the insurrections, in 1813, in Germany and Holland, against the French, the people attacked, in the first instance, the customofficers and custom-houses, tearing down and burning the latter, in Hamburg and Amsterdam.

DOUBLE ENTENTE (French). Mots à double entente are words which have two different meanings; entente being, properly, the interpretation given to a word. Double entendre is often used for a phrase which has a covert as well as an obvious meaning.

DOUBLING a cape is to sail round or pass beyond it, so that the point of land shall separate the ship from her former situation, or lie between her and any distant observer.

DOUBLING upon, in a naval engagement; the act of enclosing any part of a hostile fleet between two fires, or of cannonading it on both sides. It is usually performed by the van or rear of the fleet

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which is superior in number, taking the advantage of the wind, or of its situation and circumstances, and tacking or running round the van or rear of the enemy, who are thereby exposed to great danger. DOUBLOON; a Spanish coin of the value of two pistoles. (See Coin.)

DOUGLAS, Gawin; an early Scottish poet of eminence. He was the son of Archibald, earl of Angus, and was born at Brechin, in 1474-5. He received a liberal education, commenced at home, and completed at the university of Paris. On returning to Scotland, he took orders in the church, and was made provost of the church of St. Giles's, at Edinburgh, afterwards abbot of Aberbrothick, and, at length, bishop of Dunkeld. Political commotions, after a time, obliged him to seek a retreat in England, where he was liberally treated by Henry VIII. He died of the plague, in London, in 1522, and was interred in the Savoy church. Gawin Douglas translated the poem of Ovid, De Remedio Amoris; also, the Eneid of Virgil, and the supplementary book of Maphæus, in heroic verse. This work, in the Scottish dialect of the English language, is executed with great spirit; and, considering the age of the author, with extraordinary elegance of diction, far surpassing, in that respect, the succeeding productions of Phaer, Swyne, and even of lord Surrey. It was written about 1512, and is said to have been completed in 16 mouths. To each book is prefixed a highly poetical prologue. It was first published in 1553 (London, 4to.); and reprinted at Edinburgh (1710, folio).

DOUGLAS, John, a learned divine and critic, was born in Scotland in 1721. After some education at a grammar-school in his native country, he was sent to the university of Oxford in 1736, and in 1743 he took the degree of M. A. Soon after, he was appointed chaplain to the 3d regiment of foot-guards. He was afterwards a travelling tutor to lord Pulteney, with whom he visited several parts of the continent, but quitted him and returned to England in 1749, when his patron, the earl of Bath, presented him with several benefices. His first literary production was a letter to the earl of Bath, entitled Milton vindicated from the Charge of Plagiarism, brought against him by Mr. Lauder (1751, 8vo.). (See Lauder, W.) In 1754, he published a tract, entitled the Criterion, or a Discourse on Miracles. In 1762, he was made canon of Windsor, which benefice he exchanged with doctor Barrington for a residentiary canonry of

St. Paul's. His next preferment was the deanery of Windsor. In 1777, he was employed in preparing for the press the journal of captain Cook's second voyage, to which he prefixed a well-written introduction, and added notes. He assisted lord Hardwicke in arranging and publishing his Miscellaneous Papers, which appeared the following year. In 1778, he was elected a fellow of the royal and antiquarian societies; and, in 1781, he edited the account of captain Cook's third voyage. In 1787, he was raised to the see of Carlisle, and, in 1792, was made bishop of Salisbury. He died May 18, 1807.

DOUSA, or VAN DER DOES; born 1545, at Noordwyk, in Holland; a statesman, philologist, historian and poet. He studied at Delft and Louvain, resided some time at Paris, and then lived in domestic retirement, devoted to literary pursuits, till 1572, when he went ambassador to England to obtain the support of queen Elizabeth for the cause of the Dutch. As chief commande:, during the siege of Leyden by the Spaniards, he conducted with prudence and unshaken courage, in the midst of the horrors of famine, plague and civil dissensions. He kept up an intercourse with the expected deliverers by means of trained pigeons; and to these faithful messengers he has expressed his gratitude in some of his poems. The stadtholder, William I, compensated the city for its sufferings, by the establishment of the university, of which Dousa was the first curator. His extensive connexions with the literary men of other countries enabled him to procure for the new institution that most distinguished instructer, Joseph Scaliger. After the assassination of William I, Dousa secretly visited London to seek the protection of queen Elizabeth, for the freedom of his country, of which he was always the faithful defender; and during the period when the government of the earl of Leicester proved oppressive to the Dutch nation (see Dudley), he conducted with prudence and moderation. Domestic misfortunes, particularly the death of his eldest son, Janus Dousa, a youth of great promise, afflicted the last years of his life, and he died 1604. The many works which he left show how true he Was to his motto-Dulces ante omnia Musa. His best known work is Batavia Hollandiæque Annales, extending to 1606, which had been commenced by his son. It was published both in verse and in

DOVE. (See Turtle Dove, and Pigeon.) DOVER; a post-town of New Hampshire, capital of Strafford county, 12 miles N. W. by N. Portsmouth, 40 E. Concord, 50 S. W. Portland, 60 N. Boston; lon. 70° 54′ W.; lat. 43° 13′ N.; population, in 1820, 2871; in 1826, 4160. It is situated on the west side of the Piscataqua, and the Cochecho flows through it. This river has several falls, the largest of which, upwards of 40 feet perpendicular, are at the centre of the town, and afford waterpower equal to any in New England. The supply of water is abundant, and the river never rises so high as to endanger the buildings on it. These falls are 15 miles from the sea, at the head of tide water. Gondolas come up to the mills, and sloops within a quarter of a mile. Large iron and cotton manufactories have been erected on these falls, and others two miles higher up the river. Dover is one of the most considerable and flourishing towns in the state. It contains a courthouse, a jail, a bank, a printing-office, an academy, and three houses of public worship. The greatest part of the timber exported from the state, is brought to this town. Considerable shipping is also owned here. Dover is the oldest town in New Hampshire, having been settled in 1623, by Edward and William Hilton. The part first settled is in the south of Dover, an elevated and beautiful neck of land, called by the Indians Winnichahannat, and by the first settlers Northam.

DOVER; a post-town of Delaware, the seat of the government of the state, in the county of Kent, on Jones's creek, 7 miles above its entrance into Delaware bay; 36 S. Newcastle; lon. 75° 30′ W.; lat. 39° 10′ N. It contains a handsome statehouse, a jail, an academy, a bank, &c. The town is well built, chiefly of brick, and carries on a considerable trade with Philadelphia in flour.

DOVER; a seaport of England, in the county of Kent, situated on a small stream which falls into the harbor. It consists chiefly of three long streets, converging to one point. Dover is defended by a strong and spacious castle, and all the neighboring heights are fortified. The castle occupies a lofty eminence, steep and rugged towards the town and harbor, and presents a precipitous cliff, 320 feet higher than the sea. Subterraneous works and casemates have been added, since the alarm of French invasion, capable of accommodating 2000 men. Dover is one of the Cinque ports, and a borough returning two members to parliament, who are elected

by about 2000 voters. The harbor can receive vessels of 400 or 500 tons, and is defended by strong batteries. It is the principal place of embarkation to France, and steam-packets ply daily to Calais and Boulogne. Population, 10,327; 8 miles from Deal, 72 E. S. E. London; lon. 1° 19′ E.; lat. 51° 6' N.

DOVER, STRAITS OF; the narrow channel between Dover and Calais, which separates Great Britain from the French coast. Britain is supposed by many to have been once a peninsula, the present straits occupying the site of the isthmus, which joined it to Gaul. "The correspondency of strata," says Mr. Pennant, in his Arct. Zoology, "on part of the opposite shores of Britain and France, leaves no room to doubt that they were once united. The chalky cliffs of Blancnez, between Calais and Boulogne, and those to the westward of Dover, exactly tally: the last are vast and continued, the former short, and the termination of the immense bed. Between Bologne and Folkstone (about six miles from the latter) is another memorial of the junction of the two countries-a narrow submarine hill, called the Rip-raps, about a quarter of a mile broad, and ten miles long, extending eastward, towards the Goodwin sands. Its materials are boulder-stones, adventitious to many strata. The depth of water on it, in very low spring tides, is only 14 feet. The fishermen from Folkstone have often touched it with a 15 feet oar; so that it is justly the dread of navigators. Many a tall ship has struck on it, and sunk instantly into 21 fathoms of water." In July, 1782, the Belleisle, of 64 guns, struck and lay on it during three hours; but, by starting her beer and water, got clear off. These celebrated straits are only 21 miles wide, in the narrowest part; from the pier at Dover to that of Calais, 24 miles. It is said that their breadth is diminishing, and that they are two miles narrower than they were in ancient times. An accurate observer for fifty years remarks that the increased height of water, from a decrease of breadth, has been apparent, even in that space. The depth of the channel, at a medium, in the highest spring tides, is about 25 fathoms; the bottom is either coarse sand or rugged sears, which have, for ages unknown, resisted the attrition of the currents.

DOVE-TAILING, in carpentry, is the fastening boards together, by letting one piece into another, in the form of the tail of a dove. The dove-tail is the strongest of jointings, because the tenon, or piece of

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wood which is put into the other, goes widening to the end, so that it cannot be drawn out again.

Dow (also written Douw), Gerard; born at Leyden, 1613, son of a glazier. He studied under Rembrandt, and was distinguished for the excellence of his coloring and chiaro scuro. He surpassed his master in diligence, and nothing can be more finished than his small pieces. They are so delicate that a magnifying glass is necessary to see distinctly the work in them. His softest figures are full of life, and he never neglected, in his representations, the almost invisible minutiae of nature. Still, his paintings do not appear artificial nor forced. He is regarded as the inventor of the ingenious mode of painting large pictures on a reduced scale, by covering the original with a frame, including a space divided into small quadrangular parts, by means of threads, and then transferring the parts into an equal number of similar divisions, drawn on the canvass. He made use of the convex mirror, to represent objects on a reduced scale. Dow died in 1680, leaving a large property. His works brought high prices, and are still among the dearest of the Dutch school. In 1809, a picture, painted by him for the royal museum of Holland, was sold for 17,000 guilders; and at the auction of Peter de Smith in Amsterdam, in 1810, Dow's pictures brought from 5 to 10,000 guilders. His scholars, Metzű, Schalken and Mieris, are worthy of their master.

DOWER is the portion which a widow has in the lands of her husband, after his decease, by the operation of law, and without any special provision, by will or marriage settlement. There are three species of dower enumerated in the books of the common law, which are now obsolete. A fourth kind of dower, in England, includes several sorts. It is dower by custom, as distinguished from dower at common law. In some particular manors and districts in England, the widow is endowed, not according to common right, but according to the practice or custom in that particular district or manor; as of half her husband's lands, by the custom of gavel-kind, or of the whole of them, for her life, where she is entitled to her free bench.

But the general kind of dower, or that by the common law, is the third part, for life, of the lands or tenements whereof the husband was seized, in fee simple or fee tail, during the time of the marriage. If the parties have been divorced from