the bonds of marriage, the woman is not entitled to dower. But if the divorce be from bed and board only, her dower is not barred. The common law of England and the U. States respects the laws of other countries, so that a marriage, valid where it is contracted, is considered as valid by the common law, and entitles the wife to dower, in the countries just named. The wife of an idiot is not entitled to dower, because the marriage was not valid, from the want of the power of consent in the husband. By the ancient English law, the wife of a traitor was not entitled to dower. Some say the reason was, that the wife was presumed to be privy to the treason; others say, that it was intended to secure the loyalty of the subject, by an appeal to his affection for his wife and children. The statute of 1 Edward VI, c. 12, abated the rigor of the law, and allowed the widow of a traitor dower; a subsequent statute, however, passed five or six years afterwards, restored the old law in respect to most kinds of treason. According to an opinion, supported by very respectable authorities, the death of the husband is not necessary, in all cases, to entitle the wife to dower; as, if he is outlawed, banished, or transported for life, she is, according to this opinion, entitled to dower. So, in New York, the wife is endowed, if the husband is condemned to imprisonment for life. In one of Mr. Hargrave's notes to Coke's Littleton, it is said that an act of parliament of 8 Henry V, provides, that where an Englishman marries a foreigner, "by license of the king," she shall be endowed; and statutes of many of the U. States contain a similar provision, allowing to alien widows, who have resided in the U. States, the same rights of dower as if they had been born in the country. A seizin (q. v.) in law, no less than a seizin with actual possession, entitles the widow to dower. But if the husband is only seized for an instant, and the same transaction which gives him the fee passes it to another, the wife does not thereby gain the right of dower. This right of the wife is an inseparable incident to an estate in fee or in tail, so that, if such an estate be conveyed upon condition that it shall not be subject to this right, the condition will be void. A woman is not, by the common law, entitled to dower in lands held in trust for her husband; and, as a large part of the lands of England are so held, jointures were introduced instead, and, as it is usually expressed, in bar of dower. The statutes of some of the U. States, as

Pennsylvania, Virginia, Mississippi, provide for the wife's dower in trust estates In England, the wife is barred of her dower by a jointure, although she may be married under the age of 21, and so within the age requisite to make a valid contract to most other purposes. But, after her marriage, her acts are void, as she is then supposed to be under the authority, and subject to the coercion of her husband, and, accordingly, cannot release her right of dower, except by a fine or common recovery, which are acts done in court. (See Fine.) But, in the U. States, although the general rule as to the wife's inability to contract is the same as in England, yet one exception is made, in respect to the right of dower, in all those states which borrow this right from the common law of England; for the wife may, in all those states, release her right of dower, by joining her husband in the conveyance, or by endorsing upon the deed, or subjoining to it, an agreement to that effect; or, in a number of the states, by making a distinct agreement to this effect. But, to satisfy the rule that the wife cannot bind herself by any contract made by her during her coverture, and as a substitute for the English fine and common recovery, as far as the right of dower is concerned, the laws of many of the states, as Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and New Jersey, require that the wife shall be examined by a magistrate, separately from her husband, to ascertain whether she signs the deed freely, and without compulsion; and, on her acknowledging that it is a free act on her part, the magistrate certifies accordingly, and her right of dower is released. The rule of the English law, as to a married woman's incapacity to bind herself, would be exceedingly troublesome in the U. States, if applied to her right of dower, by embarrassing the conveyance of lands; and so the statutes or usages avoid the inconvenience, by this formality of a private examination, which, if the rule be literally well founded, is a very unsatisfactory compliance with it, or excuse for deviating from it; for if the wife be, in fact, under the coercion supposed by the rule, she would hardly be liberated from it by merely going into an adjoining room, or into open court; so that, if the theory of the law were true, she would be compelled to make a false declaration, as well as to lose her dower. But the theory

of the common law is by no means true: that of the civil law is much more just, namely, that the wife is capable of volition, and of making contracts, as far as her own rights are concerned; and so is the rule as to the conveyance of real estate in some of the U. States; for in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, although, in general, the law supposes a married woman to have no discretion or liberty as to contracting about other things, yet it allows her to release her dower in her husband's lands, and to convey those which she holds in her own right, by merely joining in the deed with the husband, and without any private examination as to her being under compulsion. In other states, the difficulty is avoided by altering the law of dower, and giving it only in the lands of which the husband "dies seized." This is the law of Vermont, Connecticut, N. Carolina, S. Carolina and Tennessee. The civil law being the common law of Louisiana, the wife is there a partner of the husband, and, accordingly, instead of being entitled to dower, she is, on the dissolution of the copartnership, by his decease, entitled to her share of the joint stock. The laws of the other U. States, generally, agree with the English in giving the wife, for dower, a life estate in one third part of the lands and tenements of which the husband was seized, in fee simple or fee tail, during the coverture, or, in some of the states, as before mentioned, at the time of his decease. In some states, as Alabama and Tennessee, the widow has the right to occupy the principal mansion-house of her husband during her life, unless, in the opinion of the court, this would be too great a share; and much discretion appears to be given to the court in judging whether this is an excessive proportion of the husband's estate. As to the particular modes of proceeding in assigning or setting off the widow's dower, in England and the different U. States, it would too much extend this article to go into the detail of them. Besides dower, the widow is generally entitled to a greater or smaller portion of her husband's personal property, not, as in case of the dower, merely to receive the income of it for her life, but she has it absolutely. The laws of some of the U. States provide, that lands sold by the sheriff, to pay the debts of the husband, shall be discharged of the wife's dower; in others, it is set off to the creditor, or sold under a judgment obtained by him, subject to this right, and is, accordingly,

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set off at a lower appraisement, or sold at a lower price.

DOWNING STREET, Westminster, London; a street from which many important state papers are dated, because here are the offices of the ministers of the foreign and home departments. Business with foreign ministers is generally transacted in Downing street. The two offices are not far from Westminster abbey and St. Stephen's, where parliament assembles.

Downs; banks or elevations of sand, which the sea gathers and forms along its shores, and which serve it as a barrier. The term is also applied to large tracts of naked, poor land, on which sheep usually graze.

Downs; a celebrated road for ships, extending six miles along the east coast of Kent, in England, between North and South Foreland, where both the outward and homeward bound ships frequently make some stay, and squadrons of menof-war rendezvous in time of war. It affords excellent anchorage, and is defended by the castles of Deal, Dover and Sandwich, as well as by Goodwin sands.

DOXOLOGY (from doğa, praise, glory, and oyos, the word). This name is given to hymns in praise of the Almighty, distinguished by the title of greater and lesser. Both the doxologies have a place in the church of England, the former being repeated after every psalm, and the latter used in the communion service. Doxology the greater, or the angelic hymn, was of great rote in the ancient church. It began with the words which the angels sung at our Savior's birth, "Glory be to God on high," &c. It was chiefly used in the communion service, and in private devotions. Doxology the lesser was anciently only a single sentence, without response, in these words-" Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end: amen." Part of the latter clause, " as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,” was inserted some time after the first composition. Some read this ancient hymn, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, with the Holy Ghost"; others, "Glory be to the Father, in or by the Son, and by the Holy Ghost." This difference of expression occasioned no disputes in the church, till the followers of Arius began to make use of the latter as a distinguishing characteristic of their party, when it was entirely laid aside by the Catholics, and the use of it was sufficient to bring any one under suspicion of heterodoxy. The doxology was used at the close of every

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solemn office. The Western church repeated it at the end of every psalm. Many of the prayers were also concluded with it, particularly the solemn thanksgiving or consecration prayer, at the celebration of the eucharist. It was also the ordinary conclusion of the sermons.

DOYEN, Gabriel François, born at Paris, in 1726, a pupil of the painter Vanloo. At the age of 20, he gained the first prize for painting. He went to Rome, in 1748, where the works of those painters, who were distinguished for boldness of design and strength of expression, as Annibal Carracci, Pietro di Cortona, Giulio Romano, Polidore, and Michael Angelo, were the particular objects of his study and enthusiastic emulation. After his return to Paris, he remained a long time without employment, occupied solely with his art. He spent two years in the execution of his Virginia, which procured him admission into the academy of painting, in 1758. The picture La Peste des Ardents, for the church of St. Roch, increased his reputation. To give his works more truth, he visited the hospitals, and studied the expression and appearances of the sick and dying. He executed several works for the court. In the beginning of the revolution, Catharine II invited him to Russia, gave him a pension of 1200 rubles, with a residence in one of the palaces, and appointed him professor in the academy of painting at Petersburg. After the death of the empress, Paul II continued to treat him with equal favor. He painted much for the imperial palaces, and died at Petersburg, June 5, 1806.

DRACHM (pax), the unit of weight and of money among the ancient Greeks, both as a weight and a coin, contained six oboli (8ẞoo), and was itself the 100th part of a mina (va), and the 60C0th part of a talent (ráavrov). 1. According to the calculations of Wurm (De Pond. Nummorumque rat., Stuttgard, 1821), the weight of the Attic drachm is 67.383 grains English Troy weight, and the Attic talent 70 lbs. 6 oz. The calculation of M. Letronne differs slightly from this. There were several other kinds of drachm and talent in use: those of Ægina were the heaviest, the Æginetic talent being equal to 10,000 Attic drachms; the Euboic talent was nearly the same as the Attic; the Rhodian and Egyptian talents were each about one third of the Attic. Whenever no particular kind is designated, the Attic talent is meant. 2. The principal Grecian coin was the drachm: it was of silver it was divided, like the weight, into

six oboli (silver). The tetradrachm (of four drachms) was called the stater. These coins differed much in value in different countries in Greece, and in different ages in the same country. The Attic drachm and stater occur most frequently. Those coined previous to the time of Pericles were worth about 17.05 cents, the talents (silver), of course, $1023; the value of the later drachms (during the two centuries before and after the Christian era), was 15.20 cents; of the talents, $912.50. The stater, in the former period, was worth 68.2 cents; in the latter, 60.8 cents. Besides these silver coins, there were also the stater of gold, equal in value to 20 drachms, and the talent of gold, which was used sometimes to designate a quantity of gold equal in value, sometimes a quantity of gold equal in weight, to the silver talent. It sometimes, also, designates a gold coin, weighing six drachms. In the time of Solon, a sheep could be bought for one drachm, an ox for five. In the time of Demosthenes, a fat ox cost 80 drachms, a lamb, 10.

DRACO; an archon and legislator of Athens, about 600 B. C., celebrated for the extraordinary severity of his laws. The slightest offence, such as stealing fruit, and even idleness, he punished with death, no less than sacrilege, murder or treason. Hence his laws were said to be written in blood. Nothing was more natural than that this rigor should render them odious, and prevent their execution, especially as the people became more civilized and refined. Solon was therefore commissioned to compose a new code. (See Attica.) Tradition relates that Draco, on his appearance in the theatre at Ægina, where he is said to have carried his laws, was suffocated amidst the applauses of the people, who, according to their custom, threw their garments and caps upon him. He was buried under the theatre.

DRACUNCULI, in medicine; small, long worms, which breed in the muscular parts of the arms and legs, called Guineaworms, common among the natives of Guinea. The worm is white, round and uniform, resembling white, round tape. It is lodged between the interstices and membranes of the muscles, where it insinuates itself, sometimes exceeding five ells in length. It occasions no great pain in the beginning; but, at such times as it is ready to go out, the part adjoining to the extremity of the worm, where it attempts its exit, begins to swell, throb, and become inflamed: this generally happens about the ankle, leg, or thigh, and rarely higher.

The countries where this distemper is observed are hot and sultry, subject to great droughts, and the inhabitants make use of stagnating and corrupted water, in which it is very probable that the ova of these animalculæ may be contained; for the white people who drink this water are liable to the disease as well as the Negroes.

DRAG; a machine consisting of a sharp, square frame of iron, encircled with a net, and commonly used to rake the mud off from the platform or bottom of the docks, or to clean rivers.

DRAGGING THE ANCHOR; the act of trailing it along the bottom, after it is loosened from the ground, by the effort of the wind or current.

DRAGOMAN; an interpreter, employed in the East, and especially at the Turkish court. The dragoman of the Porte, who is in the service of the court, and through whom the sultan receives the communications of the Christian ambassadors, was formerly a Christian, by birth a Greek, and often attained the rank of a prince (hospodar) of Moldavia or Wallachia.

DRAGON; 1. One of the northern constellations. Fable says that Juno translated to the heavens the dragon which kept the golden apples in the chamber of the Hesperides, and was slain by Hercules. 2. The dragon of fable. The fabulous stories of this monster reach back almost as far as history. His form is described as most terrible, and his residence has been assigned to almost all countries, particularly that part of India and Africa that was formerly unknown. His length is represented from 20 to 70 ells. Of the latter sort was the dragon which lived in India, according to Ælian, in the time of Alexander the Great, and was venerated as a god. The dragon is described as having no feet, but as crawling like a serpent, his body covered with scales, and his neck, according to some accounts, adorned with a mane. These relations are almost all contradictory, and agree only in this-that the dragon had very acute senses, especially a piercing vision. His strength was so great that he could easily strangle an elephant.

His food consisted of the blood and flesh of all sorts of animals, and of various fruits. Notwithstanding his ferocity, however, the dragon might be confined and tamed, which the old authors represent as having happened in various cases. The animal which gave occasion to these fables is probably no other than the great boa constrictor. (See Boa.) The fabled dragon of the middle ages had four lion's

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feet, a long, thick, serpent's tail, and an immense throat, from which streamed flames of fire. This dragon played a distinguished part in the ages of chivalry: he is one of those monsters whom it was the business of the heroes of romance to destroy. The idea of the dragon of the middle ages probably grew out of indistinct and exaggerated accounts of the crocodile of the Nile, which were brought to Europe by means of the crusades, and from similar descriptions of the largest land serpents. Even at the present day, the existence of dragons is fully believed in by the inhabitants of certain countries. 3. The researches of modern naturalists have served to explode this and many other fictions connected with the history of animals; and, at the present day, the curious inquirer, who seeks for the celebrated dragon, will be disappointed in discovering that the animal to which the name properly belongs, is not an untamable and ferocious monster, but an inoffensive lizard, a few inches long, formidable to nothing but the small insects on which it feeds. The love of gain often makes the natives of warm climates guilty of the most ingenious frauds on the credulity of strangers, for whom they prepare, with great art, fictitious animals, which are purchased by the ignorant, as genuine dragons, mermaids, &c. In this way, ill-informed travellers are led occasionally to revive the fable of the existence of the dragon. Two species of dragon-lizard are described by naturalists, but it is most probable that the second is merely a variety of the first (D. volans), which is said to inhabit Asia, Africa, and South America. Length, seldom exceeding 12 inches; body lacertiform; sides furnished with peculiar productions of the skin, supported by internal cartilaginous rays, which, when expanded, enable it to support itself in the air for a few seconds, in springing from branch to branch, among the lofty trees in which it resides; body and wings covered by small scales; back slightly carinate; throat with the skin produced into a pouch-shaped expansion, which is inflated with air, at the pleasure of the animal. The food consists almost exclusively of insects. Color varied with blackish, brown and whitish. The proportions of the animal are delicate, and it is very active. Dried specimens, preserved in the cabinets of the curious, do not give a good idea of the animal, as the process of drying destroys the proportions; and it is also to be regretted that few engraved figures are commendable for their fidelity.

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DRAGON'S BLOOn; a resinous juice obtained by incision from several different plants, found between the tropics;-from the trunk of the pterocarpus draco, a tree of the natural order leguminosa, growing in the East Indies, which yields Oriental dragon's blood; from the pterocarpus santalinus, inhabiting tropical America, which affords it in less quantity and more impure; from the calamus draco, a palm of the East Indies, from which it is obtained, according to Kämpfer, by boiling the fruit; from a dalbergia in Guiana, and a croton in South America; from the dracana draco, the native country of which is not known with certainty, but is supposed to be Africa. A single tree of this last species, which was introduced into the Canaries at the time of the conquest, acquired enormous dimensions, and has been visited and celebrated by every traveller, but was destroyed by a storm, in 1822. Dragon's blood is obtained, in commerce, in three principal forms-in that of oval masses, of the size of a pigeon's egg, enveloped with leaves of the pandanus; in cylinders, covered with palm leaves; and in irregular masses, marked with impressions of leaves: that in oval masses is the most esteemed. It is often very much adulterated, and other substances are substituted; particularly gum Arabic and gum Senegal, colored with logwood, &c. Several of these substances may be detected by their dissolving in water, while dragon's blood is nearly insoluble; others require to be submitted to some chemical tests. Madagascar furnishes this resin of a good quality, but so much mixed with foreign substances, that it is little used. Dragon's blood is opaque, of a deep reddish-brown color, brittle, and has a smooth and shining conchoidal fracture; when in thin laminæ, it is sometimes transparent; when burnt, it gives out an odor somewhat analogous to ben::oin; its taste is a little astringent; it is soluble in alcohol, and the solution will permanently stain heated marble, for which purpose it is often used, as well as for staining leather and wood. It is also soluble in oil, and enters into the composition of a very brilliant varnish, which is much esteemed by artists. Its quality may be proved by making marks on paper: the best leaves a fine red trace, and commands a pretty high price. It was formerly in high repute as a medicine, but at the present time is very little used. An astringent resin, obtained from the eucalyptus resinifera of New Holland, bears the name of dragon's blood in the English settlements in that country.

DRAGON-SHELL, in natural history; a name given to a species of concamerated patella or limpet. It has a top very much bent, and is of an ash-color on the outside, but of an elegant and bright fleshcolor within. It has been found sticking to the back of a tortoise, as the common limpets do to the sides of rocks, and some have been affixed to large shells of the pinna marina.

DRAGOON; a kind of light-horseman, of French origin, trained to fight either in or out of the line, in body, or singly, chiefly on horseback, but, if necessary, on foot also. The dragoons were mounted, armed and exercised as these objects require. They probably took the name of dragoons from the Roman draconarii, whose lances were adorned with figures of dragons. Experience proving that they did not answer the end designed, they were hardly ever used in infantry service, and now form a useful kind of cavalry, mounted on horses too heavy for the hussars, and too light for the cuirassiers. -Dragoonades, dragoon-conversions; i. e. conversions which are compelled by force of arms; forced conversions. Louis XIV, for instance, sent dragoons for this purpose to the Cevennes, in 1684, to chastise the Huguenots.

DRAKE, Sir Francis, a distinguished English navigator, was born at Tavistock, in Devonshire, 1545, and served as a sailor in a coasting-vessel, which sometimes made voyages to France and Ireland. He gained the favor of his master, who, on his death, left his vessel to him. Sir John Hawkins, one of his relations, then took him under his care, and, at the age of 18, he served as purser of a ship which traded to Biscay. At 20, he made a voyage to the coast of Guinea; at 22, received the command of a ship, and distinguished himself by his valor in the unfortunate expedition of sir John Hawkins against the Spaniards, in the harbor of Vera Cruz. In this affair, however, he lost all which he possessed. Hereupon he conceived an inveterate hatred against the Spaniards, and projected new expeditions against them. He had no sooner made his plans known in England, than a multitude of adventurers joined him. He now made two cruises to the West Indies, but avoided an engagement with the Spaniards. The result of these voyages, however, was so successful, that he received the command of two vessels, in 1572, for the purpose of attacking the commercial ports of Spanish America. One of them was commanded by his