[1] Printed in _Collections a servir a l'etude de l'histoire_ (1891).
DUBOIS, a borough of Clearfield county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 129 m. by
rail N.E. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890) 6149, (1900) 9375, of whom 1655 were
foreign-born; (1910 census) 12,623. It is served by the Pennsylvania,
the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg, and the Buffalo & Susquehanna
railways. The borough is built on a small plateau surrounded by hills,
on the west slope of the Alleghany Mountains, nearly 1400 ft. above
sea-level. Its chief importance is as a coal and lumber centre; among
its manufacturing establishments are blast furnaces, iron works, machine
shops, railway repair shops, tanneries, planing mills, flour mills,
locomotive works and a glass factory. Dubois was first settled in 1872,
was named in honour of its founder, John Dubois, and was incorporated in
1881.
DUBOIS-CRANCE, EDMOND LOUIS ALEXIS (1747-1814), French Revolutionist,
born at Charleville, was at first a musketeer, then a lieutenant of the
_marechaux_, or guardsmen of the old regime. He embraced liberal ideas,
and in 1789 was elected deputy to the states-general by the third estate
of Vitry-le-Francois. At the Constituent Assembly, of which he was named
secretary in November 1789, he busied himself mainly with military
reforms. He wished to see the old military system, with its caste
distinctions and its mercenaries, replaced by an organization of
national guards in which all citizens should be admitted. In his report,
on the 12th of December 1789, he gave utterance for the first time to
the idea of _conscription_, which he opposed to the recruiting system of
the old regime. His report was not, however, adopted. He succeeded in
securing the Assembly's vote that any slave who touched French soil
should become free. After the Constituent, Dubois-Crance was named
_marechal de camp_, but he refused to be placed under the orders of
Lafayette and preferred to serve as a simple grenadier. Elected to the
Convention by the department of the Ardennes, he sat among the
_Montagnards_, but without following any one leader, either Danton or
Robespierre. In the trial of Louis XVI. he voted for death without delay
or appeal. On the 21st of February 1793 he was named president of the
Convention. Although he was a member of the two committees of general
defence which preceded that of public safety, he did not belong to the
latter at its creation. But he composed a remarkable report on the army,
recommending two measures which contributed largely to its success, the
rapid advancement of the lower officers, which opened the way for the
most famous generals of the Revolution, and the fusion of the volunteers
with the veteran troops. In August 1793 Dubois-Crance was designated
"representative on mission" to the army of the Alps, to direct the siege
of Lyons, which had revolted against the republic. Accused of lack of
energy, he was replaced by G. Couthon. On his return he easily justified
himself, but was excluded from the Jacobin club at the instance of
Robespierre, before whom he refused to bend. Consequently he was
naturally drawn to participate in the revolution of the 9th of Thermidor
of the year II., directed against Robespierre. But he would not join the
Royalist reaction which followed, and was one of the committee of five
which had to oppose the Royalist insurrection of Vendemiaire (see FRENCH
REVOLUTION). It was also during this period that Dubois-Crance was named
a member of the committee of public safety, then much reduced in
importance. After the Convention, under the Directory, Dubois-Crance was
a member of the Council of the Five Hundred, and was appointed
inspector-general of infantry; then, in 1799, minister of war. Opposed
to the _coup d'etat_ of the 18th of Brumaire, he lived in retirement
during the Consulate and the Empire. He died at Rethel on the 29th of
June 1814. His portrait stands in the foreground in J.L. David's
celebrated sketch of the "Oath of the Tennis Court."
Among the numerous writings of Dubois-Crance may be noticed his
_Observations sur la constitution militaire, ou bases du travail
propose au comite militaire_. See H.F.T. Jung, _Dubois de Crance.
L'armee et la Revolution, 1789-1794_ (2 vols., Paris, 1884).
DU BOIS-REYMOND, EMIL (1818-1896), German physiologist, was born in
Berlin on the 7th of November 1818. The Prussian capital was the place
both of his birth and of his life's work, and he will always be counted
among Germany's great scientific men; yet he was not of German blood.
His father belonged to Neuchatel, his mother was of Huguenot descent,
and he spoke of himself as "being of pure Celtic blood." Educated first
at the French college in Berlin, then at Neuchatel, whither his father
had returned, he entered in 1836 the university of Berlin. He seems to
have been uncertain at first as to the bent of his studies, for he sat
at the feet of the great ecclesiastical historian August Neander, and
dallied with geology; but eventually he threw himself into the study of
medicine, with such zeal and success as to attract the notice of the
great teacher of anatomy and physiology, who was then making Berlin
famous as a school for the sciences ancillary to medicine. Johannes
Muller may be regarded as the central figure in the history of modern
physiology. the physiology of the 19th century. Muller's earlier
studies had been distinctly physiological; but his inclination, no less
than his position as professor of anatomy as well as of physiology in
the university of Berlin, led him later on into wide studies of
comparative anatomy, and these, aided by the natural bent of his mind
towards problems of general philosophy, gave his views of physiology a
breadth and a depth which profoundly influenced the progress of that
science in his day. He had, about the time when the young Du
Bois-Reymond came to his lectures, published his great _Elements of
Physiology_, the dominant note of which may be said to be this:--"Though
there appears to be something in the phenomena of living beings which
cannot be explained by ordinary mechanical, physical or chemical laws,
much may be so explained, and we may without fear push these
explanations as far as we can, so long as we keep to the solid ground of
observation and experiment." Muller recognized in the Neuchatel lad a
mind fitted to carry on physical researches into the phenomena of living
things in a legitimate way. He made him in 1840 his assistant in
physiology, and as a starting-point for an inquiry put into his hands
the essay which the Italian, Carlo Matteucci, had just published on the
electric phenomena of animals. This determined the work of Du
Bois-Reymond's life. He chose as the subject of his graduation thesis
"Electric Fishes," and so commenced a long series of investigations on
animal electricity, by which he enriched science and made for himself a
name. The results of these inquiries were made known partly in papers
communicated to scientific journals, but also and chiefly in his work
_Researches on Animal Electricity_, the first part of which appeared in
1848, the last in 1884.
This great work may be regarded under two aspects. On the one hand, it
is a record of the exact determination and approximative analysis of the
electric phenomena presented by living beings. Viewed from this
standpoint, it represents a remarkable advance of our knowledge. Du
Bois-Reymond, beginning with the imperfect observations of Matteucci,
built up, it may be said, this branch of science. He did so by inventing
or improving methods, by devising new instruments of observation or by
adapting old ones. The debt which science owes to him on this score is a
large one indeed. On the other hand, the volumes in question contain an
exposition of a theory. In them Du Bois-Reymond put forward a general
conception by the help of which he strove to explain the phenomena which
he had observed. He developed the view that a living tissue, such as
muscle, might be regarded as composed of a number of electric molecules,
of molecules having certain electric properties, and that the electric
behaviour of the muscle as a whole in varying circumstances was the
outcome of the behaviour of these native electric molecules. It may
perhaps be said that this theory has not stood the test of time so well
as have Du Bois-Reymond's other more simple deductions from observed
facts. It was early attacked by Ludimar Hermann, who maintained that a
living untouched tissue, such as a muscle, is not the subject of
electric currents so long as it is at rest, is isoelectric in substance,
and therefore need not be supposed to be made up of electric molecules,
all the electric phenomena which it manifests being due to internal
molecular changes associated with activity or injury. Although most
subsequent observers have ranged themselves on Hermann's side, it must
nevertheless be admitted that Du Bois-Reymond's theory was of great
value if only as a working hypothesis, and that as such it greatly
helped in the advance of science.
Du Bois-Reymond's work lay chiefly in the direction of animal
electricity, yet he carried his inquiries--such as could be studied by
physical methods--into other parts of physiology, more especially into
the phenomena of diffusion, though he published little or nothing
concerning the results at which he arrived. For many years, too, he
exerted a great influence as a teacher. In 1858, upon the death of
Johannes Muller, the chair of anatomy and physiology, which that great
man had held, was divided into a chair of human and comparative anatomy,
which was given to K.B. Reichert (1811-1883), and a chair of
physiology, which naturally fell to Du Bois-Reymond. This he held to his
death, carrying out his researches for many years under unfavourable
conditions of inadequate accommodation. In 1877, through his influence,
the government provided the university with a proper physiological
laboratory. In 1851 he was admitted into the Academy of Sciences of
Berlin, and in 1867 became its perpetual secretary. For many years he
and his friend H. von Helmholtz, who like him had been a pupil of
Johannes Muller, were prominent men in the German capital. Acceptable at
court, they both used their position and their influence for the
advancement of science. Both, from time to time as opportunity offered,
stepped out of the narrow limits of the professorial chair and gave the
world their thoughts concerning things on which they could not well
dwell in the lecture room. Du Bois-Reymond, as has been said, had in his
earlier years wandered into fields other than those of physiology and
medicine, and in his later years he went back to some of these. His
occasional discourses, dealing with general topics and various problems
of philosophy, show that to the end he possessed the historic spirit
which had led him as a lad to listen to Neander; they are marked not
only by a charm of style, but by a breadth of view such as might be
expected from Johannes Muller's pupil and friend. He died in the city of
his birth and adoption on the 26th of November 1896. (M. F.)
DUBOS, JEAN-BAPTISTE (1670-1742), French author, was born at Beauvais in
December 1670. After studying for the church, he renounced theology for
the study of public law and politics. He was employed by M. de Torcy,
minister of foreign affairs, and by the regent and Cardinal Dubois in
several secret missions, in which he acquitted himself with great
success. He was rewarded with a pension and several benefices. Having
obtained these, he retired from political life, and devoted himself to
history and literature. He gained such distinction as an author that in
1720 he was elected a member of the French Academy, of which, in 1723,
he was appointed perpetual secretary in the room of M. Dacier. He died
at Paris on the 23rd of March 1742, repeating as he expired the
well-known remark of an ancient, "Death is a law, not a punishment." His
first work was _L'Histoire des quatre Gordiens prouvee et illustree par
des medailles_ (Paris, 1695, 12mo), which, in spite of its ingenuity,
did not succeed in altering the common opinion, which only admits three
emperors of this name. About the commencement of the war of 1701, being
charged with different negotiations both in Holland and in England, with
the design to engage these powers if possible to adopt a pacific line of
policy, he, in order to promote the objects of his mission, published a
work entitled _Les Interets de l'Angleterre mal entendus dans la guerre
presente_ (Amsterdam, 1703, 12mo). But as this work contained indiscreet
disclosures, of which the enemy took advantage, and predictions which
were not fulfilled, a wag took occasion to remark that the title ought
to be read thus: _Les Interets de l'Angleterre mal entendus par l'abbe
Dubos_. It is remarkable as containing a distinct prophecy of the revolt
of the American colonies from Great Britain. His next work was
_L'Histoire de la Ligue de Cambray_ (Paris, 1709, 1728 and 1785, 2 vols.
12mo), a full, clear and interesting history, which obtained the
commendation of Voltaire. In 1734 he published his _Histoire critique de
l'etablissement de la monarchie francaise dans les Gaules_ (3 vols.
4to)--a work the object of which was to prove that the Franks had
entered Gaul, not as conquerors, but at the request of the nation,
which, according to him, had called them in to govern it. But this
system, though unfolded with a degree of skill and ability which at
first procured it many zealous partisans, was victoriously refuted by
Montesquieu at the end of the thirtieth book of the _Esprit des lois_.
His _Reflexions critiques sur la poesie et sur la peinture_, published
for the first time in 1719 (2 vols. 12mo), but often reprinted in three
volumes, constitute one of the works in which the theory of the arts is
explained with the utmost sagacity and discrimination. Like his history
of the League of Cambray, it was highly praised by Voltaire. The work
was rendered more remarkable by the fact that its author had no
practical acquaintance with any one of the arts whose principles he
discussed. Besides the works above enumerated, a manifesto of
Maximilian, elector of Bavaria, against the emperor Leopold, relative to
the succession in Spain, has been attributed to Dubos, chiefly, it
appears, from the excellence of the style.
DUBUQUE, a city and the county-seat of Dubuque county, Iowa, U.S.A., on
the Mississippi river, opposite the boundary line between Wisconsin and
Illinois. Pop. (1890) 30,311; (1900) 36,297; (1905, state census) 41,941
(including 6835 foreign-born, the majority of whom were German and
Irish); (1910 U.S. census) 38,494. Dubuque is served by the Illinois
Central, the Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul (which has repair shops
here), the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Chicago Great Western
railways; it also has a considerable river traffic. The river is spanned
here by a railway bridge and two wagon bridges. The business portion of
the city lies on the low lands bordering the river; many of the
residences are built on the slopes and summits of bluffs commanding
extensive and picturesque views. Among the principal buildings are the
Carnegie-Stout free public library (which in 1908 had 23,600 volumes,
exclusive of the valuable Senator Allison collection of public
documents), the public high school, and the house of the Dubuque Club.
Dubuque is a Roman Catholic archiepiscopal see, and is the seat of St
Joseph's College (1873), a small Roman Catholic institution; of Wartburg
Seminary (1854), a small Evangelical Lutheran theological school; of the
German Presbyterian Theological School of the North-west (1852); of St
Joseph's Ladies' Academy; and of Bayless Business College. Fifteen miles
from Dubuque is a monastery of Trappist monks. Among the city's
charitable institutions are the Finley and the Mercy hospitals, a home
for the friendless, a rescue home, a House of the Good Shepherd, and an
insane asylum. In 1900 Dubuque ranked fourth and in 1905 fifth among the
cities of the state as a manufacturing centre, the chief products being
those of the planing mills and machine shops, and furniture, sashes and
doors, liquors, carriages, wagons, coffins, clothing, boots and shoes,
river steam boats, barges, torpedo boats, &c., and the value of the
factory product being $9,279,414 in 1905 and $9,651,247 in 1900. The
city lies in a region of lead and zinc mines, quantities of zinc ore in
the form of black-jack being taken from the latter. Dubuque is important
as a distributing centre for lumber, hardware, groceries and dry-goods.
As early as 1788 Julien Dubuque (1765-1810), attracted by the lead
deposits in the vicinity, which were then being crudely worked by the
Sauk and Fox Indians, settled here and carried on the mining industry
until his death. In June 1829 miners from Galena, Illinois, attempted to
make a settlement here in direct violation of Indian treaties, but were
driven away by United States troops under orders from Colonel Zachary
Taylor. Immediately after the Black Hawk War, white settlers began
coming to the mines. Dubuque was laid out under an act of Congress
approved on the 2nd of July 1836, and was incorporated in 1841.
DU CAMP, MAXIME (1822-1894), French writer, the son of a successful
surgeon, was born in Paris on the 8th of February 1822. He had a strong
taste for travel, which his father's means enabled him to indulge as
soon as his college days were over. Between 1844 and 1845, and again, in
company with Gustave Flaubert, between 1849 and 1851, he travelled in
Europe and the East, and made excellent use of his experiences in books
published after his return. In 1851 he was one of the founders of the
_Revue de Paris_ (suppressed in 1858), and was a frequent contributor to
the _Revue des deux mondes_. In 1853 he was made an officer of the
Legion of Honour. He served as a volunteer with Garibaldi in 1860, and
gave an account of his experiences in his _Expedition des deux Siciles_
(1861). In 1870 he was nominated for the senate, but his election was
frustrated by the downfall of the Empire. He was elected a member of the
French Academy in 1880, mainly, it is said, on account of his history of
the Commune, published under the title of _Les Convulsions de Paris_
(1878-1880). His writings include among others the _Chants modernes_
(1855), _Convictions_ (1858); numerous works on travel, _Souvenirs et
paysages d'orient_ (1848), _Egypte, Nubie, Palestine, Syrie_ (1852);
works of art criticism, _Les Salons de 1857, 1859, 1861_; novels,
_L'Homme au bracelet d'or_ (1862), _Une Histoire d'amour_ (1889);
literary studies, _Theophile Gautier_ (1890). Du Camp was the author of
a valuable book on the daily life of Paris, _Paris, ses organes, ses
fonctions, sa vie dans la seconde moitie du XIX^e siecle_ (1869-1875).
He published several works on social questions, one of which, the
_Moeurs de mon temps_, was to be kept sealed in the Bibliotheque
Nationale until 1910. His _Souvenirs litteraires_ (2 vols., 1882-1883)
contain much information about contemporary writers, especially Gustave
Flaubert, of whom Du Camp was an early and intimate friend. He died on
the 9th of February 1894. Du Camp was one of the earliest amateur
photographers, and his books of travel were among the first to be
illustrated by means of what was then a new art.
DU CANGE, CHARLES DU FRESNE, SIEUR (1610-1688), one of the lay members
of the great 17th century group of French critics and scholars who laid
the foundations of modern historical criticism, was born at Amiens on
the 18th of December 1610. At an early age his father sent him to the
Jesuits' college at Amiens, where he greatly distinguished himself.
Having completed the usual course at this seminary, he applied himself
to the study of law at Orleans, and afterwards went to Paris, where in
1631 he was received as an advocate before the parliament. Meeting with
very slight success in his profession, he returned to his native city,
and in July 1638 married Catherine Dubois, daughter of a royal official,
the treasurer in Amiens; and in 1647 he purchased the office of
treasurer from his father-in-law, but its duties did not interfere with
the literary and historical work to which he had devoted himself since
returning to Amiens. Forced to leave his native city in 1668 in
consequence of a plague, he settled in Paris, where he resided until his
death on the 23rd of October 1688. In the archives of Paris Du Cange was
able to consult charters, diplomas, manuscripts and a multitude of
printed documents, which were not to be met with elsewhere. His industry
was exemplary and unremitting, and the number of his literary works
would be incredible, if the originals, all in his own handwriting, were
not still extant. He was distinguished above nearly all the writers of
his time by his linguistic acquirements, his accurate and varied
knowledge, and his critical sagacity. Of his numerous works the most
important are the _Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae
latinitatis_ (Paris, 1678), and the _Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et
infimae graecitatis_ (Lyons, 1688), which are indispensable aids to the
student of the history and literature of the middle ages. To the three
original volumes of the Latin _Glossarium_, three supplementary volumes
were added by the Benedictines of St Maur (Paris, 1733-1736), and a
further addition of four volumes (Paris, 1766), by a Benedictine, Pierre
Carpentier (1697-1767). There were other editions, and an abridgment
with some corrections was brought out by J.C. Adelung (Halle,
1772-1784). The edition in seven volumes edited by G.A.L. Henschel
(Paris, 1840-1850) includes these supplements and also further additions
by the editor, and this has been improved and published in ten volumes
by Leopold Favre (Niort, 1883-1887). An edition of the Greek
_Glossarium_ was published at Breslau in 1889.
Du Cange took considerable interest in the history of the later empire,
and wrote _Historia Byzantina duplici commentario illustrato_ (Paris,
1680), and an introduction to his edition and translation into modern
French of Geoffrey de Villehardouin's _Histoire de l'empire de
Constantinople sous les empereurs francais_ (Paris, 1657). He also
brought out editions of the Byzantine historians, John Cinnamus and John
Zonaras, as _Joannis Cinnami historiarum de rebus gestis a Joanne et
Manuele Comnenis_ (Paris, 1670) and _Joannis Zonarae Annales ab exordio
mundi ad mortem Alexii Comneni_ (Paris, 1686). He edited Jean de
Joinville's _Histoire de St Louis, roi de France_ (Paris, 1668), and his
other works which may be mentioned are _Traite historique du chef de St
Jean Baptiste_ (Paris, 1666); _Lettre du Sieur N., conseiller du roi_
(Paris, 1682); _Cyrilli, Philoxeni, aliorumque veterum glossaria_, and
_Memoire sur le projet d'un nouveau recueil des historiens de France,
avec le plan general de ce recueil_, which has been inserted by Jacques
Lelong in his _Bibliotheque historique de la France_ (Paris,
1768-1778). His last work, _Chronicon Paschale a mundo condito ad
Heraclii imperatoris annum vigesimum_ (Paris, 1689), was passing through
the press when Du Cange died, and consequently it was edited by Etienne
Baluze, and published with an _eloge_ of the author prefixed.
His autograph manuscripts and his large and valuable library passed to
his eldest son, Philippe du Fresne, who died unmarried in 1692. They
then came to his second son, Francois du Fresne, who sold the
collection, the greater part of the manuscripts being purchased by the
abbe du Champs. The abbe handed them over to a bookseller named
Mariette, who resold part of them to Baron Hohendorf. The remaining part
was acquired by a member of the family of Hozier, the French
genealogists. The French government, however, aware of the importance of
all the writings of Du Cange, succeeded, after much trouble, in
collecting the greater portion of the manuscripts, which were preserved
in the imperial library at Paris. Some of these were subsequently
published, and the manuscripts are now found in various libraries. The
works of Du Cange published after his death are: an edition of the
Byzantine historian, Nicephorus Gregoras (Paris, 1702); _De imperatorum
Constantinopolitanorum seu inferioris aevi vel imperii uti vocant
numismatibus dissertatio_ (Rome, 1755); _Histoire de l'etat de la ville
d'Amiens et de ses comtes_ (Amiens, 1840); and a valuable work _Des
principautes d'outre-mer_, published by E.G. Rey as _Les Familles
d'outre-mer_ (Paris, 1869).
See H. Hardouin, _Essai sur la vie et sur les ouvrages de Ducange_
(Amiens, 1849); and L.J. Feugere, in the _Journal de l'instruction
publique_ (Paris, 1852).
DUCANGE, VICTOR HENRI JOSEPH BRAHAIN (1783-1833), French novelist and
dramatist, was born on the 24th of November 1783 at the Hague, where his
father was secretary to the French embassy. Dismissed from the civil
service at the Restoration, Victor Ducange became one of the favourite
authors of the liberal party, and owed some part of his popularity to
the fact that he was fined and imprisoned more than once for his
outspokenness. He was six months in prison for an article in his journal
_Le Diable rose, ou le petit courrier de Lucifer_ (1822); for
_Valentine_ (1821), in which the royalist excesses in the south of
France were pilloried, he was again imprisoned; and after the
publication of _Helene ou l'amour et la guerre_ (1823), he took refuge
for some time in Belgium. Ducange wrote numerous plays and melodramas,
among which the most successful were _Marco Loricot, ou le petit Chouan
de 1830_ (1836), and _Trente ans, ou la vie d'un joueur_ (1827), in
which Frederick Lemaitre found one of his best parts. Many of his books
were prohibited, ostensibly for their coarseness, but perhaps rather for
their political tendencies. He died in Paris on the 15th of October
1833.
DUCAS, DUKAS or DOUKAS, the name of a Byzantine family which supplied
several rulers to the Eastern Empire. The family first came into
prominence during the 9th century, but was ruined when Constantine
Ducas, a son of the general Andronicus Ducas, lost his life in his
effort to obtain the imperial crown in 913. Towards the end of the 10th
century there appeared another family of Ducas, which was perhaps
connected with the earlier family through the female line and was
destined to attain to greater fortune. A member of this family became
emperor as Constantine X. in 1059, and Constantine's son Michael VII.
ruled, nominally in conjunction with his younger brothers, Andronicus
and Constantine, from 1071 to 1078. Michael left a son, Constantine,
and, says Gibbon, "a daughter of the house of Ducas illustrated the
blood, and confirmed the succession, of the Comnenian dynasty." The
family was also allied by marriage with other great Byzantine houses,
and after losing the imperial dignity its members continued to take an
active part in public affairs. In 1204 Alexius Ducas, called Mourzoufle,
deposed the emperor Isaac Angelus and his son Alexius, and vainly tried
to defend Constantinople against the attacks of the Latin crusaders.
Nearly a century and a half later one Michael Ducas took a leading part
in the civil war between the emperors John V. Palaeologus and John VI.
Cantacuzenus, and Michael's grandson was the historian Ducas (see
below). Many of the petty sovereigns who arose after the destruction of
the Eastern Empire sought to gain prestige by adding the famous name of
Ducas to their own.
DUCAS (15th cent.), Byzantine historian, flourished under Constantine
XIII. (XI.) Dragases, the last emperor of the East, about 1450. The
dates of his birth and death are unknown. He was the grandson of Michael
Ducas (see above). After the fall of Constantinople, he was employed in
various diplomatic missions by Dorino and Domenico Gateluzzi, princes of
Lesbos, where he had taken refuge. He was successful in securing a
semi-independence for Lesbos until 1462, when it was taken and annexed
to Turkey by Sultan Mahommed II. It is known that Ducas survived this
event, but there is no record of his subsequent life. He was the author
of a history of the period 1341-1462; his work thus continues that of
Gregoras and Cantacuzene, and supplements Phrantzes and Chalcondyles.
There is a preliminary chapter of chronology from Adam to John
Palaeologus I. Although barbarous in style, the history of Ducas is both
judicious and trustworthy, and it is the most valuable source for the
closing years of the Greek empire. The account of the capture of
Constantinople is of special importance. Ducas was a strong supporter of
the union of the Greek and Latin churches, and is very bitter against
those who rejected even the idea of appealing to the West for assistance
against the Turks.
The history, preserved (without a title) in a single Paris MS., was
first edited by I. Bullialdus (Bulliaud) (Paris, 1649); later editions
are in the Bonn _Corpus scriptorum Hist. Byz._, by I. Bekker (1834)
and Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, clvii. The Bonn edition contains a
15th century Italian translation by an unknown author, found by
Leopold Ranke in one of the libraries of Venice, and sent by him to
Bekker.
DUCASSE, PIERRE EMMANUEL ALBERT, BARON (1813-1893), French historian,
was born at Bourges on the 16th of November 1813. In 1849 he became
aide-de-camp to Prince Jerome Bonaparte, ex-king of Westphalia, then
governor of the Invalides, on whose commission he wrote _Memoires pour
servir a l'histoire de la campagne de 1812 en Russie_ (1852).
Subsequently he published _Memoires du roi Joseph_ (1853-1855), and, as
a sequel, _Histoire des negociations diplomatiques relatives aux traites
de Morfontaine, de Luneville et d'Amiens_, together with the unpublished
correspondence of the emperor Napoleon I. with Cardinal Fesch
(1855-1856). From papers in the possession of the imperial family he
compiled _Memoires du prince Eugene_ (1858-1860) and _Refutation des
memoires du duc de Raguse_ (1857), part of which was inserted by
authority at the end of volume ix. of the _Memoires_. He was attache to
Jerome's son, Prince Napoleon, during the Crimean War, and wrote a
_Precis historique des operations militaires en Orient, de mars 1854 a
octobre 1855_ (1857), which was completed many years later by a volume
entitled _La Crimee et Sebastopol de 1853 a 1856, documents intimes et
inedits_, followed by the complete list of the French officers killed or
wounded in that war (1892). He was also employed by Prince Napoleon on
the _Correspondance_ of Napoleon I., and afterwards published certain
letters, purposely omitted there, in the _Revue historique_. These
documents, subsequently collected in _Les Rois freres de Napoleon_
(1883), as well as the _Journal de la reine Catherine de Westphalie_
(1893), were edited with little care and are not entirely trustworthy,
but their publication threw much light on Napoleon I. and his entourage.
His _Souvenirs d'un officier du 2^e Zouaves_, and _Les Dessous du coup
d'etat_ (1891), contain many piquant anecdotes, but at times degenerate
into mere tittle-tattle. Ducasse was the author of some slight novels,
and from the practice of this form of literature he acquired that levity
which appears even in his most serious historical publications.
DUCAT, the name of a coin, generally of gold, and of varying value,
formerly in use in many European countries. It was first struck by Roger
II. of Sicily as duke of Apulia, and bore an inscription "_Sit tibi,
Christe, datus, quem tu regis, iste ducatus_" (Lord, thou rulest this
duchy, to thee be it dedicated); hence, it is said, the name. Between
1280 and 1284 Venice also struck a gold coin, known first as the ducat,
afterwards as the zecchino or sequin, the ducat becoming merely a money
of account. The ducat was also current in Holland, Austria, the
Netherlands, Spain and Denmark (see NUMISMATICS). A gold coin termed a
ducat was current in Hanover during the reigns of George I. and George
III. A pattern gold coin was also struck by the English mint in 1887 for
a proposed decimal coinage. On the reverse was the inscription "one
ducat" within an oak wreath; above "one hundred pence," and below the
date between two small roses. There is a gold coin termed a ducat in the
Austria-Hungary currency, of the value of nine shillings and fourpence.
DU CHAILLU, PAUL BELLONI (1835-1903), traveller and anthropologist, was
born either at Paris or at New Orleans (accounts conflict) on the 31st
of July 1835. In his youth he accompanied his father, an African trader
in the employment of a Parisian firm, to the west coast of Africa. Here,
at a station on the Gabun, the boy received some education from
missionaries, and acquired an interest in and knowledge of the country,
its natural history, and its natives, which guided him to his subsequent
career. In 1852 he exhibited this knowledge in the New York press, and
was sent in 1855 by the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia on
an African expedition. From 1855 to 1859 he regularly explored the
regions of West Africa in the neighbourhood of the equator, gaining
considerable knowledge of the delta of the Ogowe river and the estuary
of the Gabun. During his travels he saw numbers of the great anthropoid
apes called the gorilla (possibly the great ape described by
Carthaginian navigators), then known to scientists only by a few
skeletons. A subsequent expedition, from 1863 to 1865, enabled him to
confirm the accounts given by the ancients of a pygmy people inhabiting
the African forests. Narratives of both expeditions were published, in
1861 and 1867 respectively, under the titles _Explorations and
Adventures in Equatorial Africa, with Accounts of the Manners and
Customs of the People, and of the Chace of the Gorilla, Crocodile, and
other Animals_; and _A Journey to Ashango-land, and further penetration
into Equatorial Africa_. The first work excited much controversy on the
score of its veracity, but subsequent investigation proved the
correctness of du Chaillu's statements as to the facts of natural
history; though possibly some of the adventures he described as
happening to himself were reproductions of the hunting stories of
natives (see _Proc. Zool. Soc._ vol. i., 1905, p. 66). The map
accompanying _Ashango-land_ was of unique value, but the explorer's
photographs and collections were lost when he was forced to flee from
the hostility of the natives. After some years' residence in America,
during which he wrote several books for the young founded upon his
African adventures, du Chaillu turned his attention to northern Europe,
and published in 1881 _The Land of the Midnight Sun_, in 1889 _The
Viking Age_, and in 1900 _The Land of the Long Night_. He died at St
Petersburg on the 29th of April 1903.
DUCHENNE, GUILLAUME BENJAMIN AMAND (1806-1875), French physician, was
born on the 17th of September 1806 at Boulogne, the son of a
sea-captain. He was educated at Douai, and then studied medicine in
Paris until the year 1831, when he returned to his native town to
practise his profession. Two years later he first tried the effect of
electro-puncture of the muscles on a patient under his care, and from
this time on devoted himself more and more to the medical applications
of electricity, thereby laying the foundation of the modern science of
electro-therapeutics. In 1842 he removed to Paris for the sake of its
wider clinical opportunities, and there he worked until his death over
thirty years later. His greatest work, _L'Electrisation localisee_
(1855), passed through three editions during his lifetime, though by
many his _Physiologie des mouvements_ (1867) is considered his
masterpiece. He published over fifty volumes containing his researches
on muscular and nervous diseases, and on the applications of electricity
both for diagnostic purposes and for treatment. His name is especially
connected with the first description of locomotor ataxy, progressive
muscular atrophy, pseudo-hypertrophic paralysis, glosso-labio laryngeal
paralysis and other nervous troubles. He died in Paris on the 17th of
September 1875.
For a detailed life see _Archives generales de medicine_ (December
1875), and for a complete list of his works the 3rd edition of
_L'Electrisation localisee_ (1872).
DU CHESNE [Latinized DUCHENIUS, QUERNEUS, or QUERCETANUS], ANDRE
(1584-1640), French geographer and historian, generally styled the
father of French history, was born at Ile-Bouchard, in the province of
Touraine, in May 1584. He was educated at Loudun and afterwards at
Paris. From his earliest years he devoted himself to historical and
geographical research, and his first work, _Egregiarum seu selectarum
lectionum et antiquitatum liber_, published in his eighteenth year,
displayed great erudition. He enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal
Richelieu, a native of the same district with himself, through whose
influence he was appointed historiographer and geographer to the king.
He died in 1640, in consequence of having been run over by a carriage
when on his way from Paris to his country house at Verriere. Du Chesne's
works were very numerous and varied, and in addition to what he
published, he left behind him more than 100 folio volumes of manuscript
extracts now preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale (L. Delisle, _Le
Cabinet des manuscrits de la bibliotheque imperiale_, t. L, 333-334).
Several of his larger works were continued by his only son Francois du
Chesne (1616-1693), who succeeded him in the office of historiographer
to the king. The principal works of Andre du Chesne are--_Les Antiquites
et recherches de la grandeur et majeste des rois de France_ (Paris,
1609), _Les Antiquites et recherches des villes, chateaux, &c., de toute
la France_ (Paris, 1609), _Histoire d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse, et
d'Irelande_ (Paris, 1614), _Histoire des Papes jusqu'a Paul V_ (Paris,
1619), _Histoire des rois, ducs, et comtes de Bourgogne_ (1619-1628, 2
vols. fol.), _Historiae Normanorum scriptores antiqui_ (1619, fol., now
the only source for some of the texts), and his _Historiae Francorum
scriptores_ (5 vols. fol., 1636-1649). This last was intended to
comprise 24 volumes, and to contain all the narrative sources for French
history in the middle ages; only two volumes were published by the
author, his son Francois published three more, and the work remained
unfinished. Besides these du Chesne published a great number of
genealogical histories of illustrious families, of which the best is
that of the house of Montmorency. His _Histoire des cardinaux francais_
(2 vols. fol. 1660-1666) and _Histoire des chanceliers et gardes des
sceaux de France_ (1630) were published by his son Francois. Andre also
published a translation of the _Satires_ of Juvenal, and editions of the
works of Alcuin, Abelard, Alain Chartier and Etienne Pasquier.
DUCHESNE, LOUIS MARIE OLIVIER (1843- ), French scholar and
ecclesiastic, was born at Saint Servan in Brittany on the 13th of
September 1843. Two scientific missions--to Mount Athos in 1874 and to
Asia Minor in 1876--appeared at first to incline him towards the study
of the ancient history of the Christian churches of the East.
Afterwards, however, it was the Western church which absorbed almost his
whole attention. In 1877 he received the degree of _docteur es lettres_
with two remarkable theses, a dissertation _De Macario magnete_, and an
_Etude sur le Liber pontificalis_, in which he explained with unerring
critical acumen the origin of that celebrated chronicle, determined the
different editions and their interrelation, and stated precisely the
value of his evidence. Immediately afterwards he was appointed professor
at the Catholic Institute in Paris, and for eight years presented the
example and model, then rare in France, of a priest teaching church
history according to the rules of scientific criticism. His course, bold
even to the point of rashness in the eyes of the traditionalist
exegetists, was at length suspended. In November 1885 he was appointed
lecturer at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. In 1886 he published
volume i. of his learned edition of the _Liber pontificalis_ (completed
in 1892 by volume ii.), in which he resumed and completed the results he
had attained in his French thesis. In 1888 he was elected member of the
Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and was afterwards
appointed director of the French school of archaeology at Rome. Much
light is thrown upon the Christian origins, especially those of France,
by his _Origines du culte chretien, etude sur la liturgie latine avant
Charlemagne_ (1889; Eng. trans. by M.L. McClure, _Christian Worship:
its Origin and Evolution_, London, 1902, 2nd ed. 1904); _Memoire sur
l'origine des dioceses episcopaux dans l'ancienne Gaule_ (1890), the
preliminary sketch of a more detailed work, _Fastes episcopaux dans
l'ancienne Gaule_ (vol. i. _Les provinces du sud-est_, 1894, and vol.
ii. _L'Aquitaine et les Lyonnaises_, 1899); and _Catalogues episcopaux
de la province de Tours_ (1898). When a proposal was set on foot to
bring about a reconciliation between the Roman Church and the Christian
Churches of the East, the Abbe Duchesne endeavoured to show that the
union of those churches was possible under the Roman supremacy, because
unity did not necessarily entail uniformity. His _Autonomies
ecclesiastiques; eglises separees_ (1897), in which he speaks of the
origin of the Anglican Church, but treats especially of the origin of
the Greek Churches of the East, was received with scant favour in
certain narrow circles of the pontifical court. In 1906 he began to
publish, under the title of _Histoire ancienne de l'eglise_, a course of
lectures which he had already delivered upon the early ages of the
Church, and of which a few manuscript copies were circulated. The second
volume appeared in 1908. In these lectures Duchesne touches cleverly
upon the most delicate problems, and, without any elaborate display of
erudition, presents conclusions of which account must be taken. His
incisive style, his fearless and often ruthless criticism, and his wide
and penetrating erudition, make him a redoubtable adversary in the field
of polemic. The _Bulletin critique_, founded by him, for which he wrote
numerous articles, has contributed powerfully to spread the principles
of the historical method among the French clergy.
DUCIS, JEAN FRANCOIS (1733-1816), French dramatist and adapter of
Shakespeare, was born at Versailles on the 22nd of August 1733. His
father, originally from Savoy, was a linen-draper at Versailles; and all
through life he retained the simple tastes and straightforward
independence fostered by his bourgeois education. In 1768 he produced
his first tragedy, _Amelise_. The failure of this first attempt was
fully compensated by the success of his _Hamlet_ (1769), and _Romeo et
Juliette_ (1772). _Oedipe chez Admete_, imitated partly from Euripides
and partly from Sophocles, appeared in 1778, and secured him in the
following year the chair in the Academy left vacant by the death of
Voltaire. Equally successful was _Le Roi Lear_ in 1783. _Macbeth_ in
1783 did not take so well, and _Jean sans peur_ in 1791 was almost a
failure; but _Othello_ in 1792, supported by the acting of Talma,
obtained immense applause. Its vivid picturing of desert life secured
for _Abufas, ou la famille arabe_ (1795), an original drama, a
flattering reception. On the failure of a similar piece, _Phedor et
Vladimir ou la famille de Siberie_ (1801), Ducis ceased to write for the
stage; and the rest of his life was spent in quiet retirement at
Versailles. He had been named a member of the Council of the Ancients in
1798, but he never discharged the functions of the office; and when
Napoleon offered him a post of honour under the empire, he refused.
Amiable, religious and bucolic, he had little sympathy with the fierce,
sceptical and tragic times in which his lot was cast. "Alas!" he said in
the midst of the Revolution, "tragedy is abroad in the streets; if I
step outside of my door, I have blood to my very ankles. I have too
often seen Atreus in clogs, to venture to bring an Atreus on the stage."
Though actuated by honest admiration of the great English dramatist,
Ducis is not Shakespearian. His ignorance of the English language left
him at the mercy of the translations of Pierre Letourneur (1736-1788)
and of Pierre de la Place (1707-1793); and even this modified
Shakespeare had still to undergo a process of purification and
correction before he could be presented to the fastidious criticism of
French taste. That such was the case was not, however, the fault of
Ducis; and he did good service in modifying the judgment of his fellow
countrymen. He did not pretend to reproduce, but to excerpt and
refashion; and consequently the French play sometimes differs from its
English namesake in everything almost but the name. The plot is
different, the characters are different, the _motif_ different, and the
scenic arrangement different. To _Othello_, for instance, he wrote two
endings. In one of them Othello was enlightened in time and Desdemona
escaped her tragic fate. _Le Banquet de l'amitie_, a poem in four cantos
(1771), _Au roi de Sardaigne_ (1775), _Discours de reception a
l'academie francaise_ (1779), _Epitre a l'amitie_ (1786), and a _Recueil
de poesies_ (1809), complete the list of Ducis's publications.
An edition of his works in three volumes appeared in 1813; _Oeuvres
posthumes_ were edited by Campenon in 1826; and _Hamlet_, _Oedipe chez
Admete_, _Macbeth_ and _Abufar_ are reprinted in vol. ii. of Didot's
_Chefs-d'oeuvre tragiques_. See Onesime Leroy, _Etude sur la personne
et les ecrits de Ducis_ (1832), based on Ducis's own memoirs preserved
in the library at Versailles; Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, t.
vi., and _Nouveaux lundis_, t. iv.; Villemain, _Tableau de la litt. au
XVIII^e siecle_.
DUCK. (1) (From the verb "to duck," to dive, put the head under water,
in reference to the bird's action, cf. Dutch _duiker_, Ger. _Taucher_,
diving-bird, _duiken_, _tauchen_, to dip, dive, Dan. _dukand_, duck, and
Ger. _Ente_, duck; various familiar and slang usages are based on
analogy with the bird's action), the general English name for a large
number of birds forming the greater part of the family _Anatidae_ of
modern ornithologists. Technically the term duck is restricted to the
female, the male being called drake (cognate with the termination of
Ger. _Enterich_), and in one species mallard (Fr. _Malart_).
The _Anatidae_ may be at once divided into six more or less well marked
subfamilies--(1) the _Cygninae_ or swans, (2) the _Anserinae_ or
geese--which are each very distinct, (3) the _Anatinae_ or
freshwater-ducks, (4) those commonly called _Fuligulinae_ or sea-ducks,
(5) the _Erismaturinae_ or spiny-tailed ducks, and (6) the _Merginae_ or
mergansers.
The _Anatinae_ are the typical group, and it is these only that are
considered here. We start with the _Anas boschas_ of Linnaeus, the
common wild duck, which from every point of view is by far the most
important species, as it is the most plentiful, the most widely
distributed, and the best known--being indeed the origin of all the
British domestic breeds. It inhabits the greater part of the northern
hemisphere, reaching in winter so far as the Isthmus of Panama in the
New World, and in the Old being abundant at the same season in Egypt and
north-western India, while in summer it ranges throughout the
Fur-Countries, Greenland, Iceland, Lapland and Siberia. Most of those
which fill British markets are no doubt bred in more northern climes,
but a considerable proportion of them are yet produced in the British
Islands, though not in anything like the numbers that used to be
supplied before the draining of the great fen-country and other marshy
places. The wild duck pairs very early in the year--the period being
somewhat delayed by hard weather, and the ceremonies of courtship, which
require some little time. Soon after these are performed, the respective
couples separate in search of suitable nesting-places, which are
generally found, by those that remain with us, about the middle of
March. The spot chosen is sometimes near a river or pond, but often very
far removed from water, and it may be under a furze-bush, on a dry
heath, at the bottom of a thick hedge-row, or even in any convenient
hole in a tree. A little dry grass is generally collected, and on it the
eggs, from 9 to 11 in number, are laid. So soon as incubation commences
the mother begins to divest herself of the down which grows thickly
beneath her breast-feathers, and adds it to the nest-furniture, so that
the eggs are deeply imbedded in this heat-retaining substance--a portion
of which she is always careful to pull, as a coverlet, over her
treasures when she quits them for food. She is seldom absent from the
nest, however, but once, or at most twice, a day, and then she dares not
leave it until her mate, after several circling flights of observation,
has assured her she may do so unobserved. Joining him the pair betake
themselves to some quiet spot where she may bathe and otherwise refresh
herself. Then they return to the nest, and after cautiously
reconnoitring the neighbourhood, she loses no time in reseating herself
on her eggs, while he, when she is settled, repairs again to the waters,
and passes his day listlessly in the company of his brethren, who have
the same duties, hopes and cares. Short and infrequent as are the
absences of the duck when incubation begins, they become shorter and
more infrequent towards its close, and for the last day or two of the
28 necessary to develop the young it is probable that she will not stir
from the nest at all. When all the fertile eggs are hatched her next
care is to get the brood safely to the water. This, when the distance is
great, necessarily demands great caution, and so cunningly is it done
that but few persons have encountered the mother and offspring as they
make the dangerous journey.[1] If disturbed the young instantly hide as
they best can, while the mother quacks loudly, feigns lameness, and
flutters off to divert the attention of the intruder from her brood, who
lie motionless at her warning notes. Once arrived at the water they are
comparatively free from harm, though other perils present themselves
from its inmates in the form of pike and other voracious fishes, which
seize the ducklings as they disport in quest of insects on the surface
or dive beneath it. Throughout the summer the duck continues her care
unremittingly, until the young are full grown and feathered; but it is
no part of the mallard's duty to look after his offspring, and indeed he
speedily becomes incapable of helping them, for towards the end of May
he begins to undergo his extraordinary additional moult, loses the power
of flight, and does not regain his full plumage till autumn. About
harvest-time the young are well able to shift for themselves, and then
resort to the corn-fields at evening, where they fatten on the scattered
grain. Towards the end of September or beginning of October both old and
young unite in large flocks and betake themselves to the larger waters.
If long-continued frost prevail, most of the ducks resort to the
estuaries and tidal rivers, or even leave these islands almost entirely.
Soon after Christmas the return-flight commences, and then begins anew
the course of life already described.
For the farmyard varieties, descending from _Anas boschas_, see POULTRY.
The domestication of the duck is very ancient. Several distinct breeds
have been established, of which the most esteemed from an economical
point of view are those known as the Rouen and Aylesbury; but perhaps
the most remarkable deviation from the normal form is the so-called
penguin-duck, in which the bird assumes an upright attitude and its
wings are much diminished in size. A remarkable breed also is that often
named (though quite fancifully) the "Buenos-Ayres" duck, wherein the
whole plumage is of a deep black, beautifully glossed or bronzed. But
this saturation, so to speak, of colour only lasts in the individual for
a few years, and as the birds grow older they become mottled with white,
though as long as their reproductive power lasts they "breed true." The
amount of variation in domestic ducks, however, is not comparable to
that found among pigeons, no doubt from the absence of the competition
which pigeon-fanciers have so long exercised. One of the most curious
effects of domestication in the duck, however, is, that whereas the wild
mallard is not only strictly monogamous, but, as Waterton believed, a
most faithful husband, remaining paired for life, the civilized drake is
notoriously polygamous.
Very nearly allied to the common wild duck are a considerable number of
species found in various parts of the world in which there is little
difference of plumage between the sexes--both being of a dusky hue--such
as _Anas obscura_, the commonest river-duck of America, _A.
superciliosa_ of Australia, _A. poecilorhyncha_ of India, _A. melleri_
of Madagascar, _A. xanthorhyncha_ of South Africa, and some others.
Among the other genera of _Anatinae_, we must content ourselves by
saying that both in Europe and in North America there are the groups
represented by the shoveller, garganey, gadwall, teal, pintail and
widgeon--each of which, according to some systematists, is the type of a
distinct genus. Then there is the group _Aix_, with its beautiful
representatives the wood-duck (_A. sponsa_) in America and the
mandarin-duck (_A. galericulata_) in Eastern Asia. Besides there are the
sheldrakes (_Tadorna_), confined to the Old World and remarkably
developed in the Australian Region; the musk-duck (_Cairina_) of South
America, which is often domesticated and in that condition will produce
hybrids with the common duck; and finally the tree-ducks
(_Dendrocygna_), which are almost limited to the tropics. (For
duck-shooting, see SHOOTING.) (A. N.)
2 (Probably derived from the Dutch _doeck_, a coarse linen material, cf.
Ger. _Tuch_, cloth), a plain fabric made originally from tow yarns. The
cloth is lighter than canvas or sailcloth, and differs from these in
that it is almost invariably single in both warp and weft. The term is
also used to indicate the colour obtained at a certain stage in the
bleaching of flax yarns; it is a colour between half-white and cream,
and this fact may have something to do with the name. Most of the flax
ducks (tow yarns) appear in this colour, although quantities are
bleached or dyed. Some of the ducks are made from long flax, dyed black,
and used for kit-bags, while the dyed tow ducks may be used for inferior
purposes. The fabric, in its various qualities and colours, is used for
an enormous variety of purposes, including tents, wagon and motor hoods,
light sails, clothing, workmen's overalls, bicycle tubes, mail and other
bags and pocketings. _Russian duck_ is a fine white linen canvas.