on account of the sweetness of their flesh. The Indians likewise make baskets, boxes, &c., of the shells which cover their heads. Linnæus enumerates six species of dasypus, principally distinguished by the number of their moveable belts. Mr. Kerr, who prefers the arrangement of Buffon to that of Linnæus, enumerates ten species of this genus.

DATA, among mathematicians, a term for such things or quantities, as are given, or known, in order to find other things thereby that are unknown. Euclid uses the word data (on which he has a particular tract) for such spaces, lines, and angles as are given in magnitude, or to which we can assign others equal. From the use of this word in mathematics, it has been transplanted into other arts, as philosophy, medicine, &c.; where It expresses any quantity which, for the sake of a present calculation, is taken for granted to be such, without requiring an immediate proof for its certainty; called also the given quantity, number, or power.

DATCHET, a town in Buckinghamshire, near Windsor, with a bridge over the Thames, built in the reign of queen Anne, and noted for its frequent horse-races. It is situated in a valley surrounded on every side with steep hills.

DATE, v. a. & n. s. ) Fr. date, from Ital. DATE LESS, adj. S dato; Lat. datum. To note a particular time; a time noted or appointed; the time and place at which a letter is writ

ten.

date;

And monuments, like men, submit to fate. Pope. The accession of Elizabeth, from which we date the golden age of our language. Johnson. Plan of Dictionary. DATE, is derived from the Latin datum, given, and implies the place from whence, as well as the time when. Our ancient deeds had no dates, but only the month and year, to signify that they were not made in haste, or in the space of a day, but upon longer and more mature deliberation. The king's grants began with these words, præsentibus et futuris, &c.; but the grants of private persons, with omnibus præsentes literas inspecturis, &c.

DATE, n. s. DATE-TREE, n. s. of palm. Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, nurse, -They call for dates and quinces in the pastry. Shakspeare.

} Lat. dactylus. A species

DATE, in botany. See PHŒNIX

DATE, in law. A deed is good, though it mentions no date or has a false, or even an impossible date, as the 30th of February; provided the real day of its being dated or given, that is, delivered, can be proved. Blackstone's Commentary, vol. ii. p. 304.

DATI (Carlo), professor of polite learning at Florence, his native country, and the private friend of the poet Milton. The chief work tc which Dati applied himself, was Della Pittur Antica, of which he published an essay in 1667. He died in 1675.

DATISCA, in botany, a genus of the dodecandria order, and diœcia class of plants; natural order thirty-fourth, miscellaneæ. Male, CAL. pentaphyllous: COR. none: the antheræ are sessile, long, and fifteen in number. Female, CAL. bidented: the STYLES three: CAP. triangular, three-horned, unilocular, pervious, polyspermous, inferior. Species two: 1. D. Cannabina, a native of Canada with a smooth stem; 2. D. hirta, a native of Pennsylvania with a rough hairy stem.

DATISI, in logic, a mode of syllogisms in the third figure, wherein the major is a universal affirmative, and the minor and conclusion particular affirmative propositions. Thus, DA- All who serve God are kings;

TI

SI.

Some who serve God are poor;

Therefore, some who are poor are kings. The DATIVE, in Latin and Greek grammar, is the third case, and is used to express the state or relation of a person or thing to whose advantage or disadvantage some other thing is referred. In the English language, which has no dative, this relation is expressed by the prepositions to or for. In the Greek language, which has no ablative, the dative is used instead of it. See ABLA

TIVE.

DATUM, or DATUS, in ancient geography, a town of Thrace, situated between Neapolis and the river Nessus, built by a colony of Thracians, according to Eustathius; who places it on the sea-coast, near the Strymon, in a rich and fruitful soil, famous for ship-building and miues of gold ; hence the proverb Δατος Αγαθων, denoting prosperity and plenty. It was taken by Philip of Macedon, who changed its name to Philippi. It was afterwards famous for the defeat of Brutus and Cassius by Augustus and Antony.

DATURA, the thorn apple, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and pentandria class of plants; natural order twenty-eighth, luridæ : COR. funnel-shaped, and plaited: CAL. tubular, angulated, and deciduous; CAPS. quadrivalved. There are seven species. D. stramonium, the common thorn-apple, rises about a yard high, with an erect, strong, round, hollow, green stalk, branching luxuriantly on every side: large, oval, irregularly angulated, dark green leaves; and from the divisions of the branches, large white flowers singly succeeded by oval, prickly capsules, growing erect, commonly called thorn apples. At night the upper leaves rise up and enclose the flowers. The blossoms have sometimes a tinge of purple or violet. The flowers consist of one large, funnel-shaped petal, having a long tube, and spreading pentagonal limb, succeeded by large roundish capsules of the size

of middling apples, closely beset with sharp spines. An ointment prepared from the leaves gives ease in external inflammations, and in the hæmorroids. Cows, horses, sheep, and goats, refuse this plant.

DAVAL (Peter Esq.) F. R.S., an eminent English mathematician. He was bred a barrister at law; was afterwards master in chancery; and at last accountant general of that court. He translated the Memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz, printed in 12mo. 1723. In the dispute concerning elliptical arches, when Blackfriars bridge was built, his opinion was applied for by the committee. His answer may be seen in the London Magazine for March 1760. He died January 8th, 1763.

DAVALLIA, in botany, a genus of the cryptogamia class, and order filices. Fructification in roundish distinct dots near the margin: INVOLUCRUM membranaceous, from the surface half-hooded, distinct, somewhat truncate, opening towards the margin. Species nineteen.

DAVANGIRI, a town of the south of India, province of Mysore, district of Chittledroog. It consists of 500 houses, with a small fort in the centre, and has an extensive manufac ture of blankets. It carries on a good trade with the Carnatic and its vicinity. DAUB, v. a.v.n. & n. s.- Fr. dauber; Belg. DAUBER, N. S. dabben; Irish diob, DAUBERY, n. s. (mortar). To smear; DAUBING, n. s. cover with something DAUB'Y, adj. adhesive, and gross, as mortar. Hence, to paint coarsely and vilely; to cover with gaudy or showy ornaments; to flatter. As a neuter verb, to play the hypocrite. Daubery and daubing are both used in the sense of the substantive daub; and dauby is an adjective, signifying viscous, adhesive..

She took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch.

Exodus.

DAUBENTON (Louis-Jean Marie), an eminent French anatomist and naturalist, born at Montbar in Burgundy, on the 29th of May, 1716. His father designed him for the church; but on his death, in 1736, Daubenton relinquished that pursuit for the study of physic and natural history; and in three years after took his degree at Rheims; after which he returned to his own country with the design of following the practice of medicine. But the celebrated Buffon, who was also a native of Montbar, having shortly before succeeded Dufay in the superintendance of the botanic garden, selected Daubenton to assist him in his improvements and arrangements. In 1742 Buffon procured for him the place of demonstrator of the cabinet of natural history, with a salary of only 500 francs, which was afterwards raised to 2000. The cabinet of natural history, which was of immense service, was arranged and in a great measure collected by his means. The appearance of the History of Quadrupeds, wherein he gave the dissection and description of 182 species, gained him a very high reputation, but raised the jealousy of Reaumur, who then considered himself at the head of natural history. About this time Buffon was persuaded to separate himself from Daubenton; but their intimacy afterwards revived, and continued till Buffon's death. Daubenton was admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1744; and contributed many valuable dissertations on natural history to its memoirs. his service to science was not confined to his pen and the press: from 1775 he gave lectures on natural history in the college of medicine; and in 1783 on rural economy. In 1784 he published his Instructions to Shepherds, a work of great excellence. In 1794, when France was ruled by a lawless rabble, it became a matter of necessity with Daubenton to make application to the section of Sans-culottes for a certificate of civism, to enable him to hold his place in the garden of plants. His request was made under the title of Shepherd Daubenton; and it was granted to him under that name with the greatest facility. At the garden of plants the Convention appointed him professor of mineralogy; and he gave lectures during the ephemeral existence of the Normal School. He was also the author of a Methodical View of Minerals, and a contributer to both the French encyclopædias. In 1799 he was elected a member of the conservative senate; but the first meeting he attended he fell from his seat in an apoplectic fit. Speedy assistance being procured, he was restored to his senses, and calmly pointed out, in different parts of his body, the progress of the paralysis, which terminated his life on the 1st of January 1800, in his eighty-third year.

But

DAUCUS, the carrot, in botany: a genus of the digynia order, and pentandria class of plants; natural order forty-fifth, umbellatæ : ÇOR. a little radiated, hermaphrodite. The fruit bristly with short hairs. There are six species; but the one which chiefly merits attention is the D. carota, or common carrot. There are several varieties, as the white, the orange, and the purple carrot; but of these the orange is the most esteemed. Carrots are propagated by seeds, sown at different seasons of the year, to afford a supply for the table at all times. The season for sowing for the earliest crop is soon after Christmas. The situation should be open, and in a warm sandy light soil, well dug to a good depth, that the roots may meet with no obstruction in running down, so as to make them forked. The next crop should be sown in February, and the third in July for autumn; and lastly in the end of August, for those which are to stand the winter. These last will be fit for use in March, before any of the spring ones; but they are seldom so tender or well tasted. Carrots were first introduced into England by the Flemings, in the reign of queen Elizabeth.

DAVENANT (Charles), LL.D., an eminent author and civilian, eldest son of Sir William Davenant, was born in 1656, and educated in Cambridge. He wrote several political tracts, and some plays. He was in 1685 empowered, with the master of the revels, to inspect the plays designed for the stage, that no immoralities might be presented; and was also inspector general of exports and imports. His Essays on Trade were reprinted in 5 vols. 8vo in 1771. He died in 1714.

DAVENANT (John), bishop of Salisbury, the son of an eminent merchant in London, where he was born in 1570. He took his degree of A.M. in Queen's College, Cambridge, in 1587, and that of D. D. in 1609, when he was elected professor of divinity, and is chiefly known as having been sent by James I. to the synod of Dort, in 1618.

DAVENANT (Sir William), an eminent poet, born at Oxford in 1606. After some stay at the university, he entered into the service of Frances first duchess of Richmond, and afterwards of Fulke Greville, lord Brooke. Upon the death of Ben Jonson he was created poet laureat. He wrote his poem Gondibert at Paris, where he formed a design for carrying over a considerable number of artificers, especially weavers, to Virginia; but he and his company were seized by some parliament ships, and he was carried prisoner first to the Isle of Wight, and then to the Tower of London, where, by the mediation of Milton, he was allowed to be a prisoner at large. At this time tragedies and comedies being prohibited, he set up an opera, to be performed by declamation and music. This Italian opera began in Rutland-house in Charter-house yard, 1656; but was afterwards removed to the cockpit in Drury-Lane, and was much frequented for many years. His Madagascar, and other poems, were printed in 1648. He died in 1668.

DAVENTRY, an incorporate town of Northamptonshire, situated near the sources of the Avon and Nen, which flow into opposite seas.

It is seventy-two miles N. N. W. from London, and ten from Northampton. The manor formerly belonged to John of Gaunt who had a castle here. The ancient priory is in ruins, but parts of it are inhabited by the poor. On a hill in the neighbourhood are some strong entrenchments occupied by Charles I. before the battle of Naseby. The ground formerly was used as a race course. The town is very narrow and badly paved, and the church but a poor piece of architecture. The affairs of the corporation are managed by thirteen burgesses, one of whom is annually chosen bailiff, a recorder, town clerk, two head wardens, and twenty common councilmen. The bailiff acts as justice of the peace and coroner of the inquest, and the bailiff and ex-bailiff, with the recorder, constitute a quorum of the corporation, and can attach for debts under £100, or, in criminal cases, commit the accused to the county-gaol. Daventry has a considerable manufacture of whips, and a good market for provisions on Wednesday. DAUGHTER, n. s. Į Sax. dohren; Goth. DAUGHTERLY, adj. S dauhtar; Runick dotter ; Germ. dohter; Dut. dochter. A female child; the wife of a son; in the plural, the females of a country. A female taken into the relation of a child, or addressed tenderly. Any female deity or imaginary personage. Daughterly is like, or behaving with the duty of, a daughter.

Jacob went out to see the daughters of the land.

Genesis.
Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith bath made
thee whole.
Matt. ix. 22.

A doughter hadden they betwix hem two
Of twenty yere, withouten any mo,
Saving a child that was of half yere age
In cradle it lay and was a propre page.

Chaucer. Cant. Tales.

DAVID,, Heb. i. e. beloved, king of Israel, and Hebrew poet, was born at Bethlehem A.A.C. 1085, and died A.A.C. 1015, after having reigned seven years and a half in Hebron, and thirty-three in Jerusalem. We have a complete and faithful portrait of this great prince and poet of the Jews in Scripture; and while in this portrait no friend of revelation will pretend that we can exhibit a faultless character, the infidel Bayle allows hin. to have been a great and justly distin

guished monarch and poet; and we may refer to his Historical and Critical Dictionary, for a full and tolerably impartial disquisition on the subject.

DAVID

−), a celebrated modern French painter, was born about the middle of the last century, and became the pupil of Vien, an artist of considerable eminence. He was painter to the unfortunate Louis XVI. and in September, 1790, presented to the legislative body a picture, representing his entrance into the national assembly. He was afterwards a deputy from Paris to the national convention, where he voted for his royal master's death. With perfect consistency he became a member of the committee of Public Safety during the reign of terror, and closely connected himself with Robespierre. In January, 1794, he was president of the convention. On the fall of Robespierre, he contrived to elude the danger for some time; but at length, in May, 1795, he was committed to the Luxembourg. His professional friends, however, procured his liberation; but during the following winter he joined a new society of terrorists, assembled near the pantheon, and became their first president; and in 1799 attempted to reestablish the jacobin club. About this time he was made a member of the National Institute for the class of painting; and Buonaparte, in 1800, appointed him painter to the government. During the imperial domination, David enjoyed his highest reputation as a painter, and exercised considerable influence over the measures adopted by the government for the cultivation of the fine arts. On the restoration of the Bourbons he was exiled to Brussels, where he continued to employ his talents till the time of his death, which took place December the 29th, 1825. His best paintings are The Rape of the Sabines; The Oath of the Horatii; The Death of Socrates; Napoleon presenting the Imperial Eagles to his Troops; Mars Disarmed by Venus and the Graces, a work executed at Brussels; and The Coronation of Napoleon, exhibited in London in 1822, and said to be the largest painting ever made on canvass. David was clearly of a most cruel and sanguinary disposition in the height of his political career, and it seems to have infected at one time the efforts of his genius. The deputy Reboul found him, in 1792, in the prison of La Force, calmly sketching the prisoners who were going to execution: What are you about,' said Reboul, 'I am catching the last impulses of nature in these rascals,' replied David. He will be thought by some of our readers a characteristic painter of Napoleon presenting the Imperial Eagles.

DAVID I, king of Scots, succeeded his brother Alexander I., A. D. 1124, and died at Carlisle, A. D. 1153. See SCOTLAND.

DAVID II., king of Scots, succeeded his father Robert Bruce, A. D. 1320, when only seven years of age. His nonage proved disastrous to Scotland, and afforded Edward Baliol the opportunity of usurping the crown, by the aid of the English. See SCOTLAND.

DAVID'S (St.), an episcopal town of South Wales, in Pembrokeshire, seated in a barren soil on the river Ilen, not a mile from the sea. It

was once a considerable place, and had walls, which are now demolished. The cathedral is a fine structure. The see has a bishop, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, four arch-deacons, nineteen prebendaries, eight vicars choral, &c.: near the church formerly stood a college. St. Nun's Well, near this place, is occasionally resorted to on account of its medicinal virtues. From the cape, near it, there is a prospect into Ireland. It is twenty-four miles north-west of Pembroke, and 266 west by north of London.

DAVIDSON, a county of the United States, in Mero district, in Tennessee, bounded on the north by the state of Kentucky, on the east by Sumner, and on the south by the Indian territory. Its chief town, Nashville, lies on the great bend of Cumberland River.

DAVIES (Sir John), a distinguished statesman, and poet, born at Tisbury, in Wiltshire, in 1570, received his academical education at Queen's College, Oxford, and removed thence to the Middle Temple to study the law; but, after being called to the bar, was expelled from that society, for an insult which he publicly offered to the recorder of London. He now retired to Oxford, where he wrote his celebrated Nosce Teipsum, a poem, and courted the patronage of queen Elizabeth by writing, under the title of Hymns of Astrea, twenty-six acrostics in her praise. In 1601 he was restored to the Temple, and in the same year was chosen member of parliament for Corfe Castle, and took a distinguished part in the suppression of monopolies. He was sent to Ireland as solicitor-general, on the accession of James I., and became successively attorney-general, and justice of the assize; was made a sergeant of law, and knighted. In 1607 he accompanied the chief justice of Ireland on a progress through the counties of Monaghan, Fermanagh, and Cavan, and drew up an account of the circuit. He soon after visited England, to lay before the king an account of that country, in which he seems to have exercised his judicial function with great impartiality and public spirit; and on his return assiduously recommenced his labors. In 1612 he published A Discovery of the true Causes why Ireland has never been entirely subdued and brought under Obedience to the Crown of England, until the Beginning of His Majesty's happy Reign. During this year the first parliament was convoked for Ireland, formed by a general representation of Catholics and Protestants, and Sir John was chosen speaker of the house of commons. He published, in 1614, A Declaration concerning the title of Prince of Wales; and the year following his Reports of Cases adjudged in the King's Courts in Ireland. Soon after, returning to England, he went several circuits as a judge, and was elected member for Newcastle-under-Line. was subsequently raised to the office of chief justice of England, but almost immediately cut off by a fit of apoplexy, in December, 1626. His poems were reprinted in 1773, 8vo., and form a part of various modern collections. His prose works were collected in one vol. 8vo. 1786, under the title of Historical Tracts, by Sir John Davies. This acute lawyer and politician married a daughter of lord Audley, but was most

He

unhappy in his family, his son proving an ideot, and one of his daughters of a remarkably flighty disposition. His second daughter married lord Hastings.

DAVILA (Henry Catherine), a celebrated historian, the youngest son of Antonio Davila, grand constable of Cyprus. He was born in 1576, at an ancient castle in Padua, but was brought early into France. At the age of eighteen he signalized himself in the military scenes of that country; and at the siege of Amiens, where he fought under Henry IV., received a wound in the knee. After peace was established in France, he withdrew into Italy, and entered into the service of the Venetians. While at Venice, he wrote his admirable History of the Civil Wars of France, from the death of Henry II. in 1559, to the peace of Vervins in 1598. He continued to serve the republic of Venice with great reputation, till he was murdered, in 1631, by a brutal Veronese, called Il Turco, who entered the room of an hotel where he and his family were at supper, and, being reprimanded for his intrusion by Davila, discharged a pistol at the historian, and shot him dead in an instant. His eldest son Antonio, a youth of eighteen, revenged the death of his father by killing the murderer on the spot.

DAVIS (John), a famous navigator in the sixteenth century, was born at Sandridge, near Dartmouth in Devonshire; and distinguished himself by making three voyages to the northern parts of America, in order to find out a northwest passage to the East Indies; in which he discovered the Straits which bear his name. He afterwards performed five voyages to the East Indies; in the last of which he was slain in a desperate encounter with some Japanese, near the coast of Malacca, on the 27th of December, 1605. He wrote an account of a second voyage for the discovery of the north-west passage; a voyage to the East Indies; and other tracts. DAVIS'S STRAIT, a narrow sea, lying between the north main of America, and the western coast of Greenland; running north-west from Cape Farewell. Lat. 60° N. to Baffin's Bay in 80°. It extends to long. 75° W. communicating with Baffin's Bay, which lies to the north of this strait, and of the North Main, or James's Island DAVISON (William), a statesman of Scottish origin, who became secretary of state to queen Elizabeth. His early life is little known, but in 1575 he was employed on a mission to Brabant and Flanders; and commissioned, in a similar way, in 1579, to the states of Holland. In 1583 employed confidentially in Scotland; and, acquiring considerable fame as a diplomatist, was made clerk of the council. On his return from a second embassy into the Low Countries, he was made secretary. of state. Camden supposes that he was raised to this office in order to involve him in the mysterious transaction which now proved his ruin. When the commission was opened to bring Mary queen of Scots to trial, the name of secretary Davison was inserted in it, but it does not seem that he was present when it was opened, or ever assisted at Fotheringay Castle. The unhappy princess's death being resolved upon, it only remained to decide upon the manner of it, and here Davison

he was

differed with Walsingham, being of opinion that it should be open; upon which the latter pretended sickness, which threw the business of drawing up the warrant and bringing it to the queen for signature, on Davison. If Davison's apology, indeed, may be believed, he acted throughout under dictation; but he was tried in the Star Chamber for revealing the secrets of the queen's council, fined 10,000 marks, and sentenced to imprisonment during her majesty's pleasure; a copy of the proceedings being sent to king James to account for the death of his mother. The fine was rigorously levied; but he was assisted from time to time with small sums of money, and recommended to king James by the friendship of the earl of Essex. His final fortunes and time of death are not known. DAVIT, in a ship, a long beam of timber, used as a crane whereby to hoist the flukes of the anchor to the top of the bow, without injuring the sides of the ship as it ascends; an operation which, by mariners, is called fishing the anchor. The anchors being situated on both the bows, the davit may be occasionally shifted, so as to project over either side of the ship, according to the position of that anchor on which it is employed. The inner end of the davit is secured by being fixed in the fore channels b, and upon the outer end is hung a large block c, through which a strong rope traverses, called the fish pendent d; to the foremost end of which is fitted a large iron hook e, and to the after end a tackle or complication of pullies f; the former of which is called the fish-hook, and the latter the fish tackle. The anchor being previously raised to the cat head, the fish-hook is fastened upon its flukes; and the effort of the tackle being transmitted to the hook, by means of the fish-pendent, draws up that part of the anchor sufficiently high upon the how to fasten it. There is also a davit of a smaller kind occasionally fixed in the long-boat, and employed to weigh the anchor therein.

DAULE, a large navigable river of Quito, in the province of Guayaquil, which, after a course of sixty miles, falls into the Guayaquil, in lat. 2° 8' S., on the west side. Its shores are covered with estates and gardens belonging to the inhabitants of Guayaquil, and abound in delicious fruits. It gives name to a small district. DAUNT, v. a.

Fr. domter; Lat. domiter; DAUNTLESS, adj. but perhaps more immeDAUNTLESSNESS. diately derived to our language from Goth. and Swed. dana, signifying to make faint, amazed. To affright, discourage, intimidate. A dauntless man is he who cannot readily be intimidated.

Metellius, the foule cherle, the swine
That with a staf beraft his wif hire lif,
For she drank wine, though I had ben his wif,

Ne shuld he nat have daunted me fra drink.

Chaucer. Cant. Tales.