Chapter 14

See Francis Tiffany,Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix(Boston, 1892).

DIX, JOHN ADAMS(1798-1879), American soldier and political leader, was born at Boscawen, New Hampshire, on the 24th of July 1798. He studied at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1810-1811 and at the College of Montreal in 1811-1812, and as a boy took part in the War of 1812, becoming a second lieutenant in March 1814. In July 1828, having attained the rank of captain, he resigned from the army, and for two years practised law at Cooperstown, New York. In 1830-1833 he was adjutant-general of New York. He soon became prominent as one of the leaders of the Democratic party in the state, and for many years was a member of the so-called “Albany Regency,” a group of Democrats who between about 1820 and 1850 exercised a virtual control over their party in New York, dictating nominations and appointments and distributing patronage. From 1833 to 1839 he was secretary of state and superintendent of schools in New York, and in this capacity made valuable reports concerning the public schools of the state, and a report (1836) which led to the publication of theNatural History of the State of New York(1842-1866). In 1842 he was a member of the New York assembly. In 1841-1843 he was editor ofThe Northern Light, a literary and scientific journal published in Albany. From 1845 to 1849 he was a United States senator from New York; and as chairman of the committee on commerce was author of the warehouse bill passed by Congress in 1846 to relieve merchants from immediate payment of duties on imported goods. In 1848 he was nominated for governor of New York by the Free Soil party, but was defeated by Hamilton Fish. His acceptance of the nomination, however, earned him the enmity of the southern Democrats, who prevented his appointment by Pierce as secretary of state and as minister to France in 1853. In this year Dix was for a few weeks assistant U.S. treasurer in New York city. In May 1860 he became postmaster of New York city, and from January until March 1861 he was secretary of the treasury of the United States, in which capacity he issued (January 29, 1861) to a revenue officer at New Orleans a famous order containing the words, “if any one attempts to haul down the American flag,shoot him on the spot.” He rendered important services in hurrying forward troops in 1861, was appointed major-general of volunteers in June 1861, and during the Civil War commanded successively the department of Maryland (July 1861-May 1862), Fortress Monroe (May 1862-July 1863), and the department of the East (July 1863-July 1865). He was minister to France from 1866 to 1869, and in 1872 was elected by the Republicans governor of New York, but was defeated two years later. He had great energy and administrative ability, was for a time president of the Chicago & Rock Island and of the Mississippi & Missouri railways, first president of the Union Pacific in 1863-1868, and for a short time in 1872 president of the Erie. He died in New York city on the 21st of April 1879. Among his publications areA Winter in Madeira and a Summer in Spain and Florence(1850), andSpeeches and Occasional Addresses(1864). He wrote excellent English versions of theDies iraeand theStabat mater.

His son,Morgan Dix(1827-1908), graduated at Columbia in 1848 and at the General Theological Seminary in 1852, and was ordained deacon (1852) and priest (1853) in the Protestant Episcopalian church. In 1855-1859 he was assistant minister, and in 1859-1862 assistant rector, of Trinity Church, New York city, of which he was rector from 1862 until his death. He published sermons and lectures;A History of the Parish of Trinity Church, New York City(4 vols., 1898-1905); and a biography of his father.Memoirs of John Adams Dix(2 vols., New York, 1883).

DIXON, GEORGE(1755?-1800), English navigator. He served under Captain Cook in his third expedition, during which he had an opportunity of learning the commercial capabilities of the north-west coast of North America. After his return from Cook’s expedition he became a captain in the royal navy. In the autumn of 1785 he sailed in the “Queen Charlotte,” in the service of the King George’s Sound Company of London, to explore the shores of the present British Columbia, with the special object of developing the fur trade. His chief discoveries were those of Queen Charlotte’s Islands and Sound (the latter only partial), Port Mulgrave, Norfolk Bay, and Dixon’s Entrance and Archipelago. After visiting China, where he disposed of his cargo, he returned to England (1788), and published (1799)A Voyage round the World, but more particularly to the North-West Coast of America, the bulk of which consists of descriptive letters by William Beresford, his supercargo. His own contribution to the work included valuable charts and appendices. He is usually, though not with absolute certainty, identified with the George Dixon who was author ofThe Navigator’s Assistant(1791) and teacher of navigation at Gosport.

DIXON, HENRY HALL(1822-1870), English sporting writer over thenom de plume“The Druid,” was born at Warwick Bridge, Cumberland, on the 16th of May 1822, and was educated at Rugby and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1846. He took up the profession of the law, but, though called to the bar in 1853, soon returned to sporting journalism, in which he had already made a name for himself, and began to write regularly for theSporting Magazine, in the pages of which appeared three of his novels,Post and Paddock(1856),Silk and Scarlet(1859), andScott and Sebright(1862). He also published a legal compendium entitledThe Law of the Farm(1858), which ran through several editions. His other more important works wereField and Fern(1865), giving an account of the herds and flocks of Scotland, andSaddle and Sirloin(1870), treating in the same manner those of England. He died at Kensington on the 16th of March 1870.

See Hon. Francis Lawley,Life and Times of “The Druid”(London, 1895).

DIXON, RICHARD WATSON(1833-1900), English poet and divine, son of Dr James Dixon, a Wesleyan minister, was born on the 5th of May 1833. He was educated at King Edward’s school, Birmingham, and on proceeding to Pembroke College, Oxford, became one of the famous “Birmingham group” there who shared with William Morris and Burne-Jones in the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He took only a second class in moderations in 1854, and a third inLiterae Humanioresin 1856; but in 1858 he won the Arnold prize for an historical essay, and in 1863 the English Sacred Poem prize. He was ordained in 1858, was second master of Carlisle high school, 1863-1868, and successively vicar of Hayton, Cumberland, and Warkworth, Northumberland. He became minor canon and honorary librarian of Carlisle in 1868, and honorary canon in 1874, he was proctor in convocation (1890-1894), and received the honorary degree of D.D. from Oxford in 1899. He died at Warkworth on the 23rd of January 1900. Canon Dixon’s first two volumes of verse,Christ’s CompanyandHistorical Odes, were published in 1861 and 1863 respectively; but it was not until 1883 that he attracted conspicuous notice withMano, an historical poem interza rima, which was enthusiastically praised by Mr Swinburne. This success he followed up by three privately printed volumes.Odes and Eclogues(1884),Lyrical Poems(1886), andThe Story of Eudocia(1888). Dixon’s poems were during the last fifteen years of his life recognized as scholarly and refined exercises, touched with both dignity and a certain severe beauty, but he never attained any general popularity as a poet, the appeal of his poetry being directly to the scholar. A great student of history, his studies in that direction colour much of his poetry. The romantic atmosphere is remarkably preserved inMano, a successful metrical exercise in the difficultterza rima. His typical poems have charm and melody, without introducing any new note or variety of rhythm. He is contemplative, sober and finished in literary workmanship, a typical example of the Oxford school. Pleasant as his poetry is, however, he will probably be longest remembered by the work to which he gave the best years of his life, hisHistory of the Church of England from the Abolition of the Roman Jurisdiction(1878-1902). At the time of his death he had completed six volumes, two of which were published posthumously. This fine work, covering the period from 1529 to 1570, is built upon elaborate research, and presents a trustworthy and unprejudiced survey of its subject.

Dixon’sSelected Poemswere published in 1909 with a memoir of the author by Robert Bridges.

DIXON, WILLIAM HEPWORTH(1821-1879), English author and traveller, was born at Great Ancoats, Manchester, on the 30th of June 1821, a member of an old Lancashire family. Beginning life as a clerk at Manchester, he decided, in 1846, to take up literature as a career. After gaining some journalistic experience at Cheltenham he settled in London, on the recommendation of Douglas Jerrold, and contributed to theAthenaeumandDaily News. His series of papers—“The Literature of the Lower Orders”—in the last-named journal, and a further series, “London Prisons,” were widely noticed. In 1849 appeared hisJohn Howard and the Prison World of Europe, which proved a great popular success. These were followed by aLife of William Penn(1851), in which he replied to Macaulay’s attack on Penn;Life of Blake(1852); andPersonal History of Lord Bacon(1861), supplemented byThe Story of Lord Bacon’s Life(1862). From 1853 to 1869 he was editor of theAthenaeum. In 1863 he visited the East, and on his return helped to found the Palestine Exploration Fund, and published (1865)The Holy Land. In 1866 he travelled through the United States, publishing, in 1867,New America, and, the following year,Spiritual Wives, two supplementary volumes. In the autumn of 1867 he journeyed through the Baltic Provinces, publishing an account of his trip inFree Russia(1870). In 1871 he was in Switzerland, and in 1872 in Spain, where he wrote the greater part of hisHistory of Two Queens. In 1874 he revisited the United States, giving the impressions of his tour inThe White Conquest(1875). His other works, besides some fiction, wereBritish Cyprus(1879) andRoyal Windsor. He died on the 26th of December 1879. His daughter, Ella N. Hepworth Dixon, became known as a journalist and novelist.

DIXON,a city and the county seat of Lee county, Illinois, U.S.A., on the Rock river, in the N.W. part of the state. Pop. (1890) 5161; (1900) 7917 (879 foreign-born); (1910) 7216. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western and the Illinois Central railways, and is connected with Sterling by an electric line; freight is shipped over the Hennepin Canal. The cityhas two parks of 159 and 6 acres respectively, and there is a Chautauqua Park, where an annual Chautauqua Assembly is held. Dixon is the seat of the Northern Illinois normal school (incorporated in 1884), and of the Rock River military academy. The river furnishes water power for the street railways, electric lighting and a number of manufacturing establishments. Among the manufactures are condensed milk, boxes, wire screens and wire cloth, lawn mowers, gas engines, cement, agricultural implements, shoes and wagons. The place was laid out in 1835 by John Dixon (1784-1876), the first white settler of Lee county. A bronze tablet in the Howells Building, at the intersection of First and Peoria Streets, marks the site of his cabin, and in the city cemetery a granite shaft has been erected to his memory. Dixon was chartered as a city in 1859.

DIZFUL,orDiz-Pul(“fort-bridge”), a town of Persia, in the province of Arabistan, 36 m. N.W. of Shushter, in 32° 25′ N., 48° 28′ E. Pop. about 25,000. It has post and telegraph offices. It is situated on the left bank of the Dizful river, a tributary of the Karun, crossed by a fine bridge of twenty-two arches, 430 yds. in length, constructed on ancient foundations. Dizful is the chief place of a small district of the same name and the residence of the governor of Arabistan during the winter months. The district has twelve villages and a population of about 35,000 (5000 Arabs of the Ali i Kethīr tribe), and pays a yearly tribute of about £6000. The city was formerly known as Andamish, and in its vicinity are many remains of ancient canals and buildings which afford conclusive proof of former importance. 16 m. S.W. are the ruins of Susa, and east of them and half-way between Dizful and Shushter stood the old city of Junday Shapur.

DJAKOVO(sometimes writtenDjakovar, HungarianDiakovár), a city of Croatia-Slavonia, Hungary; in the county of Virovitica, 100 m. E. by S. of Agram. Pop. (1900) 6824. Djakovo is a Roman Catholic episcopal see, whose occupant bears the title “Bishop of Bosnia, Slavonia and Sirmium.” During the life of Bishop Strossmayer (1815-1905) it was one of the chief centres of religious and political activity among the Croats. The cathedral, a vast basilica built of brick and white stone, with a central dome and two lofty spires above the north entrance, was founded in 1866 and consecrated in 1882. Its style is Romanesque, chosen by Strossmayer as symbolical of the position of his country midway between east and west. The interior is magnificently decorated with mosaics, mural paintings and statuary, chiefly the work of local artists. Other noteworthy buildings are the nunnery, ecclesiastical seminary and episcopal palace. Djakovo has a thriving trade in agricultural produce. Many Roman remains have been discovered in the neighbourhood, but the earliest mention of the city is in 1244, when Béla IV. of Hungary confirmed the title-deeds of its owners, the bishops of Bosnia.

For a full description of the cathedral, in Serbo-Croatian and French, see the finely illustrated folioStolna Crkva u Djakovu, published by the South Slavonic Academy (Agram, 1900).

DLUGOSZ, JAN[Johannes Longinus] (1415-1480), Polish statesman and historian, was the son of Jan Dlugosz, burgrave of Bozeznica. Born in 1415, he graduated at the university of Cracow and in 1431 entered the service of Bishop Zbygniew Olesnicki (1389-1455), the statesman and diplomatist. He speedily won the favour of his master, who induced him to take orders and made him his secretary. His preferment was rapid. In 1436 we find him one of the canons of Cracow and the administrator of Olesnicki’s vast estates. In 1440, on returning from Hungary, whither his master had escorted King Wladislaus II., Dlugosz saved the life of Olesnicki from robbers. The prelate now employed Dlugosz on the most delicate and important political missions. Dlugosz brought Olesnicki the red hat from Rome in 1449, and shortly afterwards was despatched to Hungary to mediate between Hunyadi and the Bohemian condottiere Giszkra, a difficult mission which he most successfully accomplished. Both these embassies were undertaken contrary to the wishes of King Casimir IV., who was altogether opposed to Olesnicki’s ecclesiastical policy. But though he thus sacrificed his own prospects to the cardinal’s good pleasure, Dlugosz was far too sagacious to approve of the provocative attitude of Olesnicki, and frequently and fearlessly remonstrated with him on his conduct. In his account, however, of the quarrel between Casimir and Olesnicki concerning the question of priority between the cardinal and the primate of Poland he warmly embraced the cause of the former, and even pronounced Casimir worthy of dethronement. Such outbursts against Casimir IV. are not infrequent in Dlugosz’sHistoria Polonica, and his strong personal bias must certainly be taken into consideration in any critical estimate of that famous work. Yet as a high-minded patriot Dlugosz had no sympathy whatever with Olesnicki’s opposition to Casimir’s Prussian policy, and steadily supported the king during the whole course of the war with the Teutonic knights. When Olesnicki died in 1455 he left Dlugosz his principal executor. The office of administering the cardinal’s estate was a very ungrateful one, for the family resented the liberal benefactions of their kinsman to the Church and theuniversity, and accused Dlugosz of exercising undue influence, from which charge he triumphantly vindicated himself. It was in the year of his patron’s death that he began to write hisHistoria Polonica. This great book, the first and still one of the best historical works on Poland in the modern sense of the word, was only undertaken after mature consideration and an exhaustive study of all the original sources then available, some of which are now lost. The principal archives of Poland and Hungary were ransacked for the purpose, and in his account of his own times Dlugosz’s intimate acquaintance with the leading scholars and statesmen of his day stood him in good stead. The style is modelled on that of Livy, of whom Dlugosz was a warm admirer. As a proof of the thoroughness and conscientiousness of Dlugosz it may be mentioned that he learned the Cyrillic alphabet and took up the study of Ruthenian, “in order that this our history may be as plain and perfect as possible.” The first of the numerous imprints of theHistoria Polonicaappeared in 1614, the first complete edition in 1711.

Dlugosz’s literary labours did not interfere with his political activity. In 1467 the generous and discerning Casimir IV. entrusted Dlugosz with the education of his sons, the eldest of whom, Wladislaus, at the urgent request of the king, he accompanied to Prague when in 1471 the young prince was elected king of Bohemia. Dlugosz refused the archbishopric of Prague because of his strong dislike of the land of the Hussites; but seven years later he accepted the archbishopric of Lemberg. His last years were devoted to his history, which he completed in 1479. He died on the 19th of May 1480, at Piatek.

See Aleksander Semkowicz,Critical Considerations of the Polish Works of Dlugosz(Pol.; Cracow, 1874); Michael Bobrzynski and Stanislaw Smolka,Life of Dlugosz and his Position in Literature(Pol.; Cracow, 1893).

(R. N. B.)

DMITRIEV, IVAN IVANOVICH(1760-1837), Russian statesman and poet, was born at his father’s estate in the government of Simbirsk. In consequence of the revolt of Pugachev the family had to flee to St Petersburg, and there Ivan was entered at the school of the Semenov Guards, and afterwards obtained a post in the military service. On the accession of Paul to the imperial throne he quitted the army with the title of colonel; and his appointment as procurator for the senate was soon after renounced for the position of privy councillor. During the four years from 1810 to 1814 he served as minister of justice under the emperor Alexander; but at the close of this period he retired into private life, and though he lived more than twenty years, he never again took office, but occupied himself with his literary labours and the collection of books and works of art. In the matter of language he sided with Karamsin, and did good service by his own pen against the Old Slavonic party. His poems include songs, odes, satires, tales, epistles, &c., as well as the fables—partly original and partly translated from Fontaine, Florian and Arnault—on which his fame chiefly rests. Several of his lyrics have become thoroughly popular from the readiness with which they can be sung; and a short dramatico-epic poem on Yermak, the Cossack conqueror of Siberia, is well known.

His writings occupy three volumes in the first five editions; in the 6th (St Petersburg, 1823) there are only two. His memoirs, to which he devoted the last years of his life, were published at Moscow in 1866.

DNIEPER,one of the most important rivers of Europe (theBorysthenesof the Greeks,Danaprisof the Romans,UziorUzuof the Turks, Eksi of the Tatars,Eliceof Visconti’s map (1381),Lereneof Contarini (1437),Luosenof Baptista of Genoa (1514), andLussemin the same century). It belongs entirely to Russia, and rises in the government of Smolensk, in a swampy district (alt. 930 ft.) at the foot of the Valdai Hills, not far from the sources of the Volga and the Dvina, in 55° 52’ N. and 33° 41’ E. Its length is about 1410 m. and it drains an area of 202,140 sq. m. In the first part of its course, which may be said to end at Dorogobuzh, it flows through an undulating country of Carboniferous formation; in the second it passes west to Orsha, south through the fertile plain of Chernigov and Kiev, and then south-east across the rocky steppe of the Ukraine to Ekaterinoslav. About 45 m. S. of this town it has to force its way across the same granitic offshoot of the Carpathian mountains which interrupts the course of the Dniester and the Bug, and for a distance of about 25 m. rapid succeeds rapid. The fall of the river in that distance is 155 ft. The Dnieper, having got clear of the rocks, continues south-west through the grassy plains of Kherson and Taurida, and enters the Black Sea, or rather alimanor bay of the Black Sea, by a considerable estuary in 46° 30′ N. and 32° 20′ E. On this ramifyingliman, into which the Bug also pours its waters, stand Nikolaiev and the fortified town of Ochakov. Navigation extends as far up as Dorogobuzh, where the depth is about 12 ft., and rafts are floated down from the higher reaches. The banks are generally high, more particularly the left bank. About the town of Smolensk the breadth is 455 ft., at the confluence of the Pripet 1400, and in some parts of the Ekaterinoslav district more than 1¼ m. In the course above the rapids the channel varies very greatly in nature and depth, and it is not infrequently interrupted by shallows. The rapids, orporogs, form a serious obstacle to navigation; it is only for a few weeks when the river is in flood that they are passable, and even then the venture is not without risk and can only be undertaken with the assistance of special pilots. It is from these falls that the Cossacks of the Ukraine came to be known as Zaporogian Cossacks. As early as 1732 an attempt was made to improve the channel. A canal, which ultimately proved too small for use, was constructed at Nenasitets in 1780 at private expense; blastings were carried out in 1798 and 1799 at various parts; in 1805 a canal was formed at Kaindatski, and the channel straightened at Sursk; by 1807 a new canal was completed at Nenasitets; in 1833 a passage was cleared through the Staro-kaindatski porog; and in the period 1843 to 1853 numerous ameliorations were effected. The result has been not only to diminish greatly the dangers of the natural channel, but also to furnish a series of artificial canals by which vessels can make their way when the river is low. Of the tributaries of the Dnieper the following are navigable,—the Berezina and the Pripet from the right, and the Sozh and the Desna from the left. By means of the Dnieper-Bug (King’s) canal, and the Berezina and Oginski canals, this river has a sort of water connexion with the Baltic Sea. In the estuary the fisheries give employment to large numbers of people. At Kiev the river is free from ice on an average of 234 days in the year, at Ekaterinoslav 270 and at Kherson 277.

(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)

DNIESTER(TyrasandDanasterorDanastrisof classical authors,Nistrulof the Rumanians, andTurlaof the Turks), a river of south-eastern Europe belonging to the basin of the Black Sea. It rises on the northern slope of the Carpathian mountains in Austrian Galicia, and belongs for the first 350 m. of its course to Austrian, for the remaining 515 m. to Russian, territory. It drains an area of 29,670 sq. m., of which 16,500 sq. m. belong to Russia. It is excessively meandering, and the current in most parts even during low water is decidedly rapid as compared with Russian rivers generally, the mean rate being calculated at 17⁄11m. per hour. The average width of the channel is from 500 to 750 ft., but in some places it attains as much as 1400 ft.; the depth is various and changeable. The principal interruption in the navigable portion of the river, besides a sprinkling of rocks in the bed and the somewhat extensive shallows, is occasioned by a granitic spur from the Carpathians, which gives rise to the Yampol Rapids. For ordinary river craft the passage of these rapids is rendered possible, but not free from danger, by a natural channel on the left side, and by a larger and deeper artificial channel on the right; for steamboats they form an insuperable barrier. The river falls into the sea by several arms, passing through a shallowlimanor lagoon, a few miles S.W. of Odessa. There are two periodical floods,—the earlier and larger caused by the breaking up of the ice, and occurring in the latter part of February or in March; and the later due to the melting of the snows in the Carpathians, and taking place about June. The spring flood raises the level of the water 20 ft., and towards the mouth of the river submerges the gardens and vineyards of the adjacent country. In some years the general state of the water is so low that navigation is possible only for three or four weeks, while in other years it is so high that navigation continues without interruption; but in recent years considerable improvements have been effected at government expense. In consequence the traffic has increased, the Dniester tapping regions of great productiveness, especially in cereals and timber, namely, Galicia, Podolia and Bessarabia. Steamboat traffic was introduced in the lower reaches in 1840. The fisheries of the lower course and of the estuary are of considerable importance; and these, together with those of the lakes which are formed by the inundations, furnish a valuable addition to the diet of the people in the shape of carp, pike, tench, salmon, sturgeon and eels. Its tributaries are numerous, but not of individual importance, except perhaps the Sereth in Galicia.

(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)

DOAB,DuaborDooab, a name, like the Greek Mesopotamia, applied in India, according to its derivation (do, two, andab, river), to the stretch of country lying between any two rivers, as the Bari Doab between the Sutlej and the Ravi, the Rechna Doab between the Ravi and the Chenab, the Jech Doab between the Chenab and Jhelum, and the Sind Sagar Doab between the Jhelum and the Indus, but frequently employed, without any distinctive adjunct, as the proper name for the region between the Ganges and its great tributary the Jumna. In like manner the designation of Doab canal is given to the artificial channel which breaks off from the Jumna near Fyzabad, and flows almost parallel with the river till it reunites with it at Delhi.

DOANE, GEORGE WASHINGTON(1799-1859), American churchman, Protestant Episcopal bishop of New Jersey, was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on the 27th of May 1799. He graduated at Union College, Schenectady, New York, in 1818, studied theology and, in 1821, was ordained deacon and in 1823 priest by Bishop Hobart, whom he assisted in Trinity church, New York. With George Upfold (1796-1872), bishop of Indiana from 1849 to 1872, Doane founded St Luke’s in New York City. In 1824-1828 he was professor of belles-lettres in Washington (now Trinity) College, Hartford, Connecticut, and at this time he was one of the editors of theEpiscopal Watchman. He was assistant in 1828-1830 and rector in 1830-1832 of Christ church, Boston, and was bishop of New Jersey from October 1832 to his death at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 27th of April 1859. The diocese of New Jersey was an unpromising field, but he took up his work there with characteristic vigour, especially in the foundation of St Mary’s Hall (1837, for girls) and Burlington College (1846) as demonstrations of his theory of education under church control. His business management of these schools got him heavily into debt, and in the autumn of 1852 a charge of lax administration came before a court of bishops, who dismissed it. The schools showed him an able and wise disciplinarian, and his patriotic orations and sermons prove him a speaker of great power. He belonged to the High Church party and was a brilliant controversialist. He publishedSongs by the Way(1824), a volume of poems; and his hymns beginning “Softly now the light of day” and “Thou art the Way” are well known.

SeeLife and Writings of George Washington Doane(4 vols., New York, 1860-1861), edited by his son, William Croswell Doane (b. 1832), first bishop of Albany.

DOBBS FERRY,a village of Westchester county, New York, on the E. bank of the Hudson river 2 m. N. of Yonkers. Pop. (1890) 2083; (1900) 2888; (1910 U. S. census) 3455. DobbsFerry is served by the Hudson River division of the New York Central railway. There are many fine country places, two private schools—the Mackenzie school for boys and the Misses Masters’ school for girls—and the children’s village (with about thirty cottages) of the New York juvenile asylum. The name of the village was derived from a Swede, Jeremiah Dobbs, whose family probably moved hither from Delaware, and who at the beginning of the last quarter of the 18th century had a skiff ferry, which was kept up by his family for a century afterwards. Because Dobbs Ferry had been a part of Philipse Manor all lands in it were declared forfeit at the time of the War of American Independence (seeYonkers), and new titles were derived from the commissioners of forfeitures. The position of the village opposite the northernmost end of the Palisades gave it importance during the war. The region was repeatedly raided by camp followers of each army; earthworks and a fort, commanding the Hudson ferry and the ferry to Paramus, New Jersey, were built; the British army made Dobbs Ferry a rendezvous, after the battle of White Plains, in November 1776, and the continental division under General Benjamin Lincoln was here at the end of January 1777. The American army under Washington encamped near Dobbs Ferry on the 4th of July 1781, and started thence for Yorktown in the following month. In the Van Brugh Livingston house on the 6th of May 1783, Washington and Governor George Clinton met General Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, to negotiate for the evacuation by the British troops of the posts they still held in the United States. In 1873 the village was incorporated as Greenburgh, from the township of the same name which in 1788 had been set apart from the manor of Phillipsburgh; but the name Dobbs Ferry was soon resumed.

DOBELL, SYDNEY THOMPSON(1824-1874), English poet and critic, was born on the 5th of April 1824 at Cranbrook, Kent. His father was a wine merchant, his mother a daughter of Samuel Thompson (1766-1837), a London political reformer. The family moved to Cheltenham when Dobell was twelve years old. He was educated privately, and never attended either school or university. He refers to this in some lines on Cheltenham College in imitation of Chaucer, written in his eighteenth year. After a five years’ engagement he married, in 1844, Emily Fordham, a lady of good family. An acquaintance with Mr (subsequently Sir James) Stansfeld and with the Birmingham preacher-politician, George Dawson (1821-1876), which afterwards led to the foundation of the Society of the Friends of Italy, fed the young enthusiast’s ardour for the liberalism of the day. Meanwhile, Dobell wrote a number of minor poems, instinct with a passionate desire for political reform.The Romanappeared in 1850, under thenom de plumeof “Sydney Yendys.” Next year he travelled through Switzerland with his wife; and after his return he formed friendships with Robert Browning, Philip Bailey, George MacDonald, Emanuel Deutsch, Lord Houghton, Ruskin, Holman Hunt, Mazzini, Tennyson and Carlyle. His second long poem,Balder, appeared in 1854. The three following years were spent in Scotland. Perhaps his closest friend at this time was Alexander Smith, in company with whom he published, in 1855, a number of sonnets on the Crimean War, which were followed by a volume onEngland in Time of War. Although by no means a rich man he was always ready to help needy men of letters, and it was through his exertions that David Gray’s poems were published. In 1869 a horse, which he was riding, fell and rolled over with him. His health, which had for several years necessitated his wintering abroad, was seriously affected by this accident, and he was from this time more or less of an invalid, until his death on the 22nd of August 1874.

As a poet Dobell belongs to the “spasmodic school,” as it was named by Professor Aytoun, who parodied its style inFirmilian. The epithet, however, was first applied by Carlyle to Byron. The school includes George Gilfillan, Philip James Bailey, John Stanyan Bigg (1826-1865), Dobell, Alexander Smith, and, according to some critics, Gerald Massey. It was characterized by an under-current of discontent with the mystery of existence, by vain effort, unrewarded struggle, sceptical unrest, and an uneasy straining after the unattainable. It thus faithfully reflected a certain phase of 19th century thought. The productions of the school are marked by an excess of metaphor and a general extravagance of language. On the other hand, they exhibit freshness and originality often lacking in more conventional writings. Dobell’s poem,The Roman, dedicated to the interests of political liberty in Italy, is marked by pathos, energy and passionate love of freedom, but it is overlaid with monologue, which is carried to a dreary excess inBalder, relieved though the latter is by fine descriptive passages, and by some touching songs. Dobell’s suggestive, but too ornate prose writings were collected and edited with an introductory note by Professor J. Nichol (Thoughts on Art, Philosophy and Religion) in 1876. In his religious views Dobell was a Christian of the Broad Church type; and socially he was one of the most amiable and true-hearted of men. His early interest in the cause of oppressed nationalities, shown in his friendship with Kossuth, Emanuel Deutsch and others, never lessened, although his views of home politics underwent some change from the radical opinions of his youth. In Gloucestershire Dobell was well known as an advocate of social reform, and he was a pioneer in the application of the co-operative system to private enterprise.

The standard edition of his poems (1875) by Professor Nichol includes a memoir.

DÖBELN,a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the (Freiberg) Mulde, two arms of which embrace the town as an island, 35 m. S.E. from Leipzig by rail, and at the junction of lines to Dresden, Chemnitz, Riesa and Oschatz. Pop. (1905) including the garrison, 18,907. It has two Evangelical churches, of which the Nikolai-kirche, dating in its present form from 1485, is a handsome edifice; a medieval town hall, a former Benedictine nunnery and a monument to Luther. There are an agricultural and a commercial school. The industries include wool-spinning, iron-founding, carriage, agricultural implement, and metal-printing and stamping works.

DOBERAN,orDobberan, a town of Germany, in the grand-duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, about 2 m. from the shores of the Baltic and 7 W. of Rostock by rail. Pop. 5000. Besides the ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded by Pribislaus, prince of Mecklenburg, in 1173, and secularized in 1552, it possesses an Evangelical Gothic church of the 14th century, one of the finest in north Germany, a grand-ducal palace, a theatre, an exchange and a concert hall. Owing to its delightful situation amid beech forests and to its chalybeate waters, Doberan has become a favourite summer resort. Numerous villa residences have been erected and promenades and groves laid out. In 1793 Duke Frederick Francis caused the first seaside watering-place in Germany to be established on the neighbouring coast, 4 m. distant, at the spot where the Heiligen-Damm, a great bank of rocks about 1000 ft. broad and 15 ft. high, stretches out into the sea and forms an excellent bathing ground. Though no longer so popular as in the early part of the 19th century, it is still frequented, and is connected with Doberan by a tramway.

DÖBEREINER, JOHANN WOLFGANG(1780-1849), German chemist, was born near Hof in Bavaria on the 15th of December 1780. After studying pharmacy at Münchberg, he started a chemical manufactory in 1803, and in 1810 was appointed professor of chemistry, pharmacy and technology at Jena, where he died on the 24th of March 1849. The Royal Society’sCatalogueenumerates 171 papers by him on various chemical topics, but his name is best known for his experiments on platinum in a minute state of division and on the oxidation products of alcohol. In 1822 he showed that when a mass of platinum black, supplied with alcohol by a wick is enclosed in a jar to which the air has limited access, acetic acid and water are produced; this experiment formed the basis of the Schützenbach Quick Vinegar Process. A year later he noticed that spongy platinum in presence of oxygen can bring about the ignition of hydrogen, and utilized this fact to construct his “hydrogen lamp,” the prototype of numerous devices for the self-ignition of coal-gas burners. He studied the formation of aldehyde fromalcohol by various methods, also obtaining its crystalline compound with ammonia, and he was the discoverer of furfurol. An early observation of the diffusion of gases was recorded by him in 1823 when he noticed the escape of hydrogen from a cracked jar, attributing it to the capillary action of fissures. His works included treatises on pneumatic chemistry (1821-1825) and the chemistry of fermentation (1822).

A correspondence which he carried on with Goethe and Charles August, grand-duke of Saxe-Weimar, was collected and published at Weimar by Schade in 1856.

DOBREE, PETER PAUL(1782-1825), English classical scholar and critic, was born in Guernsey. He was educated at Reading school under Richard Valpy and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected fellow. He was appointed regius professor of Greek in 1823, and died in Cambridge on the 24th of September 1825. He was an intimate friend of Porson, whom he took as his model in textual criticism, although he showed less caution in conjectural emendation. After Porson’s death (1808) Dobree was commissioned with Monk and Blomfield to edit his literary remains, which had been bequeathed to Trinity College. Illness and a subsequent journey to Spain delayed the work until 1820, when Dobree brought out thePlutusof Aristophanes (with his own and Porson’s notes) and all Porson’sAristophanica. Two years later he published theLexiconof Photius from Porson’s transcript of the Gale MS. in Trinity College library, to which he appended aLexicon rhetoricumfrom the margin of a Cambridge MS. of Harpocration. James Scholefield, his successor in the Greek professorship, brought out selections from his notes (Adversaria, 1831-1833) on Greek and Latin authors (especially the orators), and a reprint of theLexicon rhetoricum, together with notes on inscriptions (1834-1835). The latest edition of theAdversariais by William Wagner (in Bohn’sCollegiate Series, 1883).

An appreciative estimate of Dobree as a scholar will be found in J. Bake’sScholica hypomnemata, ii. (1839) and in thePhilological Museum, i. (1832) by J. C. Hare.

DÖBRENTEI, GABOR[Gabriel] (1786-1851), Hungarian philologist and antiquary, was born at Nagyszöllös in 1786. He completed his studies at the universities of Wittenberg and Leipzig, and was afterwards engaged as a tutor in Transylvania. At this period he originated and edited theErdélyi Muzeum, which, notwithstanding its important influence on the development of the Magyar language and literature, soon failed for want of support. In 1820 Döbrentei settled at Pest, and there he spent the rest of his life. He held various official posts, but continued zealously to pursue the studies for which he had early shown a strong preference. His great work is theAncient Monuments of the Magyar Language(Régi Magyar Nyelvemlékek), the editing of which was entrusted to him by the Hungarian Academy. The first volume was published in 1838 and the fifth was in course of preparation at the time of his death. Döbrentei was one of the twenty-two scholars appointed in 1825 to plan and organize, under the presidency of Count Teleki, the Hungarian Academy. In addition to his great work he wrote many valuable papers on historical and philological subjects, and many biographical notices of eminent Hungarians. These appeared in the Hungarian translation of Brockhaus’sConversations-Lexikon. He translated into HungarianMacbethand other plays of Shakespeare, Sterne’s letters from Yorick to Eliza (1828), several of Schiller’s tragedies, and Molière’sAvare, and wrote several original poems. Döbrentei does not appear to have taken any part in the revolutionary movement of 1848. He died at his country house, near Pest, on the 28th of March 1851.

DOBRITCH,orHajiolupazarjik, the principal town in the Bulgarian Dobrudja. Pop. (1901) 13,436. The town is noted for itspanaïror great fair, chiefly for horses and cattle, held annually in the summer, which formerly attracted a large concourse from all parts of eastern Europe, but has declined in importance.

DOBRIZHOFFER, MARTIN(1717-1791), Austrian Roman Catholic missionary, was born at Gratz, in Styria. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1736, and in 1749 proceeded to Paraguay, where for eighteen years he worked devotedly first among the Guaranis, and then among the Abipones. Returning to Europe on the expulsion of the Jesuits from South America, he settled at Vienna, obtained the friendship of Maria Theresa, survived the extinction of his order, composed the history of his mission, and died on the 17th of July 1791. The lively if rather garrulous book on which his title to remembrance rests, appeared at Vienna in 1784, in the author’s own Latin, and in a German translation by Professor Krail of the university of Pest. Of its contents some idea may be obtained from its extended title:—Historia de Abiponibus, Equestri Bellicosaque Paraguariae Natione, locupletata Copiosis Barbararum Gentium, Urbium, Fluminum, Ferarum, Amphibiorum, Insectorum, Serpentium praecipuorum, Piscium, Avium, Arborum, Plantarum aliarumque ejusdem Provinciae Proprietatum Observationibus. In 1822 there appeared in London an anonymous translation sometimes ascribed to Southey, but really the work of Sara Coleridge, who had undertaken the task to defray the college expenses of one of her brothers. A delicate compliment was paid to the translator by Southey in the third canto of hisTale of Paraguay, the story of which was derived from the pages of Dobrizhoffer’s narrative:—

“And if he could in Merlin’s glass have seenBy whom his tomes to speak our tongue were taught,The old man would have felt as pleased, I ween,As when he won the ear of that great Empress Queen.”

“And if he could in Merlin’s glass have seen

By whom his tomes to speak our tongue were taught,

The old man would have felt as pleased, I ween,

As when he won the ear of that great Empress Queen.”

DOBROWSKY, JOSEPH(1753-1829), Hungarian philologist, was born of Bohemian parentage at Gjermet, near Raab, in Hungary. He received his first education in the German school at Bischofteinitz, made his first acquaintance with Bohemian at the Deutschbrod gymnasium, studied for some time under the Jesuits at Klattau, and then proceeded to the university of Prague. In 1772 he was admitted among the Jesuits at Brünn; but on the dissolution of the order in 1773 he returned to Prague to study theology. After holding for some time the office of tutor in the family of Count Nostitz, he obtained an appointment first as vice-rector, and then as rector, in the general seminary at Hradisch; but in 1790 he lost his post through the abolition of the seminaries throughout Austria, and returned as a guest to the house of the count. In 1792 he was commissioned by the Bohemian Academy of Sciences to visit Stockholm, Abo, Petersburg and Moscow in search of the manuscripts which had been scattered by the Thirty Years’ War; and on his return he accompanied Count Nostitz to Switzerland and Italy. His reason began to give way in 1795, and in 1801 he had to be confined in a lunatic asylum; but by 1803 he had completely recovered. The rest of his life was mainly spent either in Prague or at the country seats of his friends Counts Nostitz and Czernin; but his death took place at Brünn, whither he had gone in 1828 to make investigations in the library. While his fame rests chiefly on his labours in Slavonic philology his botanical studies are not without value in the history of the science.

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