figuratively by Spencer, the "Survival of the Fittest." No country can be named where the native inhabitants are perfectly adapted to their conditions and competitors, for as some foreigners have taken firm possession in every country, we may safely conclude that the natives might have been modified with advantage to resist them. Human selection acts only for man's own good, on mere external and visible characters, and irregularly throughout a short period; natural selection acts for the good of the being itself, on the whole machinery of its whole life, and incessantly on the species, throughout almost infinite time. It leads to the improvement of each creature in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life, and consequently in most cases to what must be regarded as an advance in organization. The circumstances favorable to the production of new forms are great variability; large numbers of individuals; the complex effects of intercrossing; isolation in small areas; also extension over continental ones, especially if these vary in altitude; and considerable lapse of time. Rare species are shown to be in process of extinction. The divergence of character in domestic breeds, largely due to the fact that "fanciers do not, and will not, admire a medium standard, but like extremes," applies throughout nature from the circumstance that the more diversified the descendants from any one species become in structure, constitution and habits, by so much will they be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in nature, and SO to increase in numbers. A carnivorous animal which has reached the maximum numbers its territory can support, cannot succeed in increasing unless its varying descendants seize places hitherto occupied by other animals. This must hold equally true of all species, and is separately demonstrated for plants. The greatest amount of life can be supported by help of proportionally great diversification of structure; hence, in small areas where competition is severe, the inhabitants are extremely varied.

Sexual Selection.-Not merely do individuals struggle for existence, but the males struggle for the females, and the most vigorous tend to leave most progeny. Several weapons, offensive and defensive, like the cock's spurs, the stag's horns, or the lion's mane, are used in this struggle, and the most useful variations are those which are transmitted. Just as man can in a short time give beauty to his domestic birds, so there is no reason to doubt that female birds, in thousands of generations by selecting, as they are observed to do, the most melodious or beautiful males, might produce a marked result, and many sexual differences are thus explained.

Laws of Variation.-The same laws appear to have acted in producing the lesser differences between varieties of the same species, and the greater differences between species of the same genus. Specific characters are more variable than generic, and varietal than either. Rudimentary organs and secondary sexual characters are variable. Zebra-like stripes on horses, or woodpigeon's markings on fantails, tumblers, etc., may be explained as reversions toward their ancient progenitors.

Geological Succession of Organic Beings.— The most ancient forms differ widely from those now living, yet frequently present characters intermediate between groups now widely divergent, and resemble the embryos of the more recent and

more highly specialized animals belonging to the same classes. These, and the important law of the succession of the same types within the same areas during the later geological periods, and most notably between the Tertiary Period and the present time, cease to be mysterious, and become at once thoroughly intelligible on the principle of inheritance, and on that alone. Darwin's belief that the distinctness of birds from all other vertebrates was to be accounted for by the extinction of a long line of progenitors connecting them with reptiles, was in 1859 a mere assumption; but in 1862 the long-tailed and palpably reptilian bird Archæopteryx was discovered, while in 1875 the researches of Marsh brought to light certain cretaceous birds, one with teeth set in a groove, the other with teeth in sockets, and with bi-concave vertebræ. Besides these reptilian birds, bird-like reptiles have similarly been forthcoming, and the hypothesis of Darwin is thus admirably verified.

Geographical Distribution.-Neither the similarity nor the dissimilarity of the inhabitants of various regions, whether of land or of sea, can be accounted for by identity or differences of climate, or other physical conditions; but both are related in the most striking degree to the absence or presence of barriers to migration between those regions.

Morphological Arguments.-The physiological and distributional lines of argument furnished by morphology are mainly four, and are derived from (a) Classification, (b) Homologies, (c) Embryology, (d) Rudimentary Organs. The great fact of classification is that organic beings, throughout all time, are arranged in groups subordinated under other groups, individuals under varieties, and these again under species; species under genera; genera under sub-families, families, and orders; and all under a few grand classes. The nature of all these relationships established by naturalists receives a simple and natural explanation on the view of the common descent of allied forms with modification through variation and natural selection, no other explanation ever having been attempted. The element of descent is already used in linking all the sexes, ages, forms, and varieties of the same species, widely though these may differ from each other in structure.

The members of the same class, independently of their habits of life, resemble one another in their general plan of organization. Thus the hand of man, the digging-paw of the mole, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, are all constructed on the same pattern, bone corresponding to bone. This conformity to type is "powerfully suggestive of true relationship, of inheritance from a common ancestor"; and admits of a simple explanation in terms of the evolutionary theory, thus strengthening that theory.

Serial Homology is that unity of type which is found on. comparing the different parts and organs in the same individual. The complex and varied jaws and legs of a lobster, or the different leaves, sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils of a flower, are all found to be modifications of a simple limb and a simple leaf-organ respectively. Not only are such metamorphoses apparent on comparison, but they can be actually observed during the development of each individual. So closely do the embryos of the most distinct species belonging to the same class resemble each

other, that even Von Baer was unable to decide whether two unlabelled specimens were lizards, birds, or mammals. The process of development goes from the general to the special; thus there is generally an advance in organization. In peculiar conditions degeneration may occur. All these facts are explained on the principle of successive slight variations not necessarily or generally supervening very early in life, and inherited at a corresponding period; hence it is in the highest degree probable that most embryonic stages show us more or less completely the progenitor of the group in its adult state; and embryology thus rises greatly in interest. Darwin points out that the theory of evolution by natural selection is no more inimical to religion than is that of gravitation, to which the same objection was raised. JOHN FISKE.

Darwinian Tubercle, a small raised portion, or tubercle, that may be found on the pinna of the ear. It is said to be present in a number of the primates and by many scientists has been regarded as an evidence of degeneracy in mankind. Different forms of Darwinian tubercles are described by anthropologists, but they have no real special significance.

Dasent, dă'sĕnt, SIR George Webbe, English philologist and novelist: b. St. Vincent, West Indies, 1820; d. near Ascot, Berkshire, I June 1896. He was for a while one of the editors of the London Times, and was one of the civil service commissioners. He was eminent as a

scholar in the Norse languages, particularly Icelandic, and translated the Younger Edda, besides many other ancient stories and legends of Iceland, and wrote "The Norseman in Iceland' (1858) The Story of Burnt Njal) (1861). Among his original stories are: Annals of an Eventful Life'; 'Three to One'; 'Half a Life.'

Dash, Countess, pseudonym of Gabrielle

Anne Cisterne de Courtiras, VICOMTESSE DE SAINT-MARS. French novelist: b. Poitiers, 2 Aug. 1804; d. 11 Sept. 1872. She was a very prolific writer, producing often five or six stories in the course of a year. Life in high society is her theme, and especially wayward love in high society, as the titles of most of her novels indicate: Bussy-Rabutin's Amours); Gallantries of the Court of Louis XV.'; 'Last Amours of Mme. du Barry); Adventures of a Young Mar

ried Woman.'

Dashkoff, däsh'kof, Princess Ekaterina Romanov'na, Russian scholar: b. St. Petersburg 22 March 1743; d. 16 Jan. 1810. She married Prince Dashkoff when only 15 years old, but was left a widow three years after. She was an intimate friend of the Empress Catharine II., and one of the heads of the conspiracy formed against Peter III., the success of which secured the throne to Catharine. Soon afterward quarreling with Catharine, she obtained permission to travel, and visited Germany, England, France, and Italy, making the acquaintance of many eminent men. On her return the princess was appointed director of the Academy of Arts and Sciences; and in 1783, president of the Russian Academy, established at her own suggestion in imitation of the French Académie. Besides writing several comedies and occasional papers, the Princess Dashkoff was mainly instrumental in inducing the Russian Academy to draw up a dictionary

of the Russian language, and herself executed part of the work. See her very interesting autobiography (trans. 1840).

Daskam, Josephine Dodge, American writer: b. Stamford, Conn., 17 Feb. 1876. She was educated at Smith College and in addition to frequent contributions to magazines has published in book form Smith College Stories? (1900); A Sister's Vocation and Other Girls' Stories (1900); The Imp and the Angel' (1901); The Madness of Philip' (1900); The Best Nonsense Verses' (edited; 1902).

He

Dass, dass, Peder, pä'der, or Petter, Norwegian poet: b. Nord-Hero, parish of Alstahoog, Nordland, 1647; d. Aug. 1708. studied at the University of Copenhagen, became pastor of the parish of Alstahoog in 1689 and grew rich from commerce and fisheries, buying for himself the royal domain of Vefsen. He became the most popular poet in Norway, leaving 127 poems of which only 24 are now extant, his masterpiece being a descriptive poem: The Trumpet of the Nordland,' written in the Dano-Norwegian dialect.

Dassy, or Dassie, the name given in South Africa to the rock-rabbit (Procavia capensis), the Dutch name for which is klip-das. The name dassy is merely a diminutive in local use, especially in Cape Colony. See HYRAX. Dasyproc'ta, a genus of agoutis (Dasyproctide), a familiar group of rodent mammals inhabiting Central and South America, and some of the West India Islands. The agoutis are a little larger than the common rabbit, have a rabbit-like head, but with short ears, hooped, in the woodland, and search for food by night in pig-like claws, and are swift-footed. They live the open country.

Australasia; and belonging to the family DasDasyure, dǎs'i-ur, a marsupial native to yurida. It is the survivor of the fossil forms elsewhere; and is allied to the opossum. The found in Tertiary strata in South America, and hind and fore legs are about equal in length, and the toes are furnished with claws; the long hairy tails are not prehensile. The dasyures are chiefly strong, fierce creatures of cat-like prolosses in farming and ranching districts, so that pensities, whose depredations have caused heavy the colonists of Australasia, more especially those of Tasmania, have nearly exterminated them, by persistent effort. Among them we find the Tasmanian zebra-wolf (Thylacinus cynocephalus), a wolf-like creature, rather smaller than the common wolf, with short fur, a long smooth tail, and rounded ears. Its color is brownish, and it is barred at the hinder portion of the back and the roots of the tail with dark stripes. It prowls about by night, making raids upon unguarded sheep-folds. By day, it skulks in caverns among the rocks. Another foe to the flocks is the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus ursinus). This creature, in size like a badger, in appearance like a bear, is ponderous, powerful, darkcolored, and covered with a coat of long fur. It sleeps by day; and, like the zebra-wolf, seeks its prey by night. It is very strong and ferocious; but despite this, has been successfully put down by the colonists; in fact, it has been nearly exterminated. Another species is the Australian "native cat," a spotted creature, almost as large as a house-cat. It belongs to the genus Dasyurus,

in which are also several other and smaller species. Perhaps the most interesting of the small Dasyures, is the banded ant-cater (Myrme cobius fasciatus) found in western and southern Australia. It is a reddish brown in color, banded posteriorly with white; is about the size of a squirrel, and has a long protrusile tongue for gathering its insect food. It is considered as a practically unmodified representative of certain extinct marsupials found in the Secondary rocks of Europe. It lives in sandy plains, where it finds food in plenty. Other species, small as rats and mice, and living chiefly on insects, birds, eggs, etc., are found in the genus Phasco gale, and allied genera; and the jerboa-like creature (Antechinomys laniger) constitutes another genus, of a single species. It is native to Queensland and New South Wales, but is very rare. See MARSUPIALS.

Data'ria, an office of the Curia Romana (q.v.) from which are sent forth certain classes of papal documents, as dispensations and appointments to Church benefices. The word had its origin in the formula of subscription of letters, for example, Data Kalendis Martiis, given (or sent) I March; that is the date of the document; and it is the duty of the Dataria to guard against possible errors of either dating or addressing documents, or in the tenor of the documents themselves.

Date, any given, fixed, or settled time; the time when any event happened; period; era; age; epoch; as, the date of the Christian era, the date of a historical occurrence, etc. Also, that addition to a writing which specifies the year, month, and day when it was given or executed; the number which marks the time when any writing, instrument, coin, picture, etc., was executed. Under the Romans the word datum was used to signify the day on which the bearers of imperial despatches received them at Rome, or delivered them in the provinces. It was also employed in documents in the time of the French Merovingian kings. See EPOCH; CHRONOLOGY.

Date Line. See INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE. Date, or Date Palm (Phonix dactylifera) a tall tree of the natural order Palmacea. It is most notable for its fruit, which is an important part of the daily food of the natives of western Asia and northern Africa, where the tree is indigenous and from whence large quantities of dried dates (the fruits), are exported to other countries. The tree is also cultivated in some other warm countries, including China, Italy, France, Spain and parts of the United States, - Florida, New Mexico, Arizona and California, in the last three of which a promising industry seems to be becoming started. The tree, which attains a height of 100 feet, and bears fruit for one or two centuries, is, like other palms, useful in many ways; nearly all its parts are used for something. Date seeds are roasted and used as a substitute for coffee, or ground and pressed for oil and the pomace used for stock food. The leaves are used for matting, baskets, thatch, etc.; the terminal bud as a vegetable; the wood for fence making and other purposes where great strain is not expected; the fibre of the bark for making rope; but the fruit, which contains proteids, gum, and pectin, and is particularly rich in sugar, is the most important part. It is one

of the principal sources of wealth in the coun tries where the date is indigenous. It is believed that the leaves of this palm are the ones referred to in biblical writings, and at the present time the leaves of this palm are largely used upon Palm Sunday among Christians living where the trees abound. The leaves were also symbolical of victory, beauty, etc., among the ancient Greeks and Jews.

Since the male and female flowers are borne on separate trees, enough specimens of staminate flowering trees must be planted to fertilize the blossoms on the others which alone produce fruit. Since the plants obtained from seeds are of unknown sex until they flower, and since the proportion of inferior seedlings to seedlings which bear superior fruit is very large, the date is propagated by means of suckers, since these retain the characteristics of the parent. The young plants are set in sunny situations, in almost any kind of soil where water is within reach of the roots or can be supplied by irrigation. The sandy, alkaline soils of deserts seem more satisfactory than the richer soils necessary for the growth of general crops. The trees are very difficult to make grow after transplanting, because they demand special attention especially as to watering. A loss of 50 per cent is not uncommon even with the best of attention. The surviving trees should commence to bear when about eight years old. The thick crown of large pinnate leaves. Individual fruit is borne in clusters which hang from the trees produce from 300 to 500 pounds or more of fruit in a season. Consult: Bulletin No. 29, Arizona Experiment Station, Phoenix, Arizona.

Date-plum, a common name for plants of the genus Diospyros, of the ebony family (Ebenacea). The genus has about 160 species and is most abundantly represented in Asia. In America two species are known, the most common being the persimmon (q.v.), D. virginiana. The common date-plum or pishamin, also called the European lotus and the date of Trebizond (D. lotus), is a tree 18 to 30 feet high, with oblong shining leaves and small reddish-white flowers, a native of the coasts of vated and naturalized in the south of England. the Caspian Sea, northern Africa, etc., but cultiIts fruit is of the size of a cherry, and in favorable climates larger, yellow, sweet, and tringent. It is eaten when overripe, like the medlar, or is used for preserves. This fruit has been supposed by some to be the lotus (q.v.) of the Lotophagi. D. mabola is cultivated as a fruit-tree in Mauritius. D. kaki, sometimes called the keg-fig, is a native of Japan, and occasionally is kept in greenhouses in France and England. The sweetmeat called figues-caques is made from this fruit in France. The fruit of some other species is also edible, as, for example, that of D. decandra of CochinChina. See EBONY; PERSIM MON.

as

Date-shell, or Date Fish, a bivalve shell or its inhabitant of the genus Pholas, a kind of mollusk. They bore holes in clay, peat, and soft rocks, and in some instances in hard stone, as in columns from the Temple of Serapis, which were brought from Africa to Italy. Species of the date-shell are found in the Mediterranean and its arms, on the coast of California and in a few places on the west shore of the Pacific. Some are edible.

ing the Reign of Terror, when every one was required to give some evidence of patriotic spirit, he was represented to his section as employed in introducing the Spanish sheep into France.

Daubeny, dâ'bē-nĩ or dōb'ni, Charles Giles Bridle, English scientist: b. Stratton, Gloucestershire, 11 Feb. 1795; d. Oxford 12 Dec. 1867. He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford, and practised for some years as a physician in Oxford. In 1818 he visited Auvergne, and in 1837 made a scientific visit to the United States. In 1822 he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society, and from 1822 to 1855 was professor of chemistry in the University of Oxford. In 1834 he became professor of botany, and in 1840 of rural economy in the same university. He held the last appointment till his death. His principal works are: A Description of Active and Extinct Volcanoes) (1826); 'An Introduction to the Atomic Theory' (1831; with a supplement, 1840); Report to the British Association on Mineral and Thermal

Waters (1836); 'Lectures on Agriculture (1841); Sexuality of Plants (1860); Climate (1863).

D'Aubigné, Jean Henri Merle, zhon on-re měrl dō-ben-yā, Swiss ecclesiastical historian: b. Eaux-Vives, near Geneva, Switzerland, 16 Aug. 1794; d. Geneva 21 Oct. 1872. In 1818 he became pastor of the French Protestant Church in Hamburg. In 1823 he was appointed courtpreacher at Brussels; but after the revolution of 1830 returned to Geneva, and filled the chair of Church history in its theological seminary until his death. The work which has given him a widespread reputation is his 'Histoire de la Réformation au Seizième Siècle (1835-53); it has been translated into most European tongues, and has attracted more notice abroad than at home; it is written with a devout, fervid sympathy that is often eloquent, although the narrative is too graphic to be everywhere exact. Its popularity has been very great. Among his other writings are: "Germany, England, and Scotland (1848); a vindication of Cromwell (1848); Trois Siècles de Lutte en Ecosse' (1849); and 'Histoire de la Réformation en Europe au Temps de Calvin' (1862–78). D'Aubigné, Merle. See D'AUBIGNÉ, JEAN

HENRI MERLE.

D'Aubigné, AUBIGNE, D'.

Daubigny, Charles François, shär fränswä dō-ben-ye, French landscape painter and etcher: b. Paris 15 Feb. 1817; d. there 19 Feb. 1878. He studied under his father, who was a miniature painter, Paul Delaroche, and others; and from 1838 exhibited in the Salon, though his full recognition came only after the artist had reached his 50th year. He devoted himself to close and sympathetic study from nature, working much on the Seine in a house-boat, and developed a style of landscape art marked by singularly unaffected fidelity and originality. In 1853 he gained a first-class medal with his Pool of Gylien. In 1857 he produced his Springtime; in 1861 The Banks of the Oise; in 1872 Windmills at Dordrecht'; and in 1877 his large and very impressive 'Rising Moon. His Sluice in the Valley of Optevoz (1855), and his 'Vintage) (1863), are in the

Luxembourg Gallery. His is also known as a book-illustrator and as a vigorous etcher, having produced over 100 plates, some reproductions, others direct from nature, marked by great frankness of method and free painter-like quality. See Henriet, 'Daubigny et son œuvre (1878); Van Dyke, Modern French Masters' (1896); Stranahan, 'History of French Art' (1900).

D'Aubusson, Pierre. See AUBUSSON, PIERRE D'.

Umbellifera or carrot family. The genus has Daucus, dâ'kus, the typical genus of the about 25 species, two of them growing wild in America. Wild carrot, crow's-nest, or Queen Anne's lace (D. carota), is generally a pernicious and abundant weed throughout the Union. It is a native of Asia, naturalized from Europe. It is the original of the cultivated carrot. See CARROT.

Daudet, Alphonse, äl fôns dō-dā, French novelist: b. Nimes 13 May 1840; d. Paris 16 Dec. 1897. He was educated at the Lyons

Lycée, and for two years after leaving it supported himself as an usher at Alais. Going to Paris in 1857 he took to writing verse, his which met with some success. This was folfirst volume being 'Les Amoureuses' (1858), lowed by other poems, including 'La Double Conversion (1859), and at this time he also contributed to the Figaro,' and other journals. About 1862 he began writing for the stage, and during the succeeding 10 years or so several dramas by him were represented, but with only moderate success. These included: 'La Dernière Idole (1862); L'Eillet Blanc (1865), and Le Frère Ainé (1868). Greater public favor was accorded to his 'Lettres de Mon Moulin,' which appeared in 1866 in a Parisian journal. In 1872 he produced his celebrated 'Les Aventures Prodigieuses de Tartarin de Tarascon, an amusing satire on the boastfulness so characteristic of the south of France. From this time he published numerous works, some of the best being: Fromont Jeune et Risler Ainé (1874); Jack) (1876); Le Nabab' (1877); Les Rois en Exil (1879); Numa Roumestan (1881); L'Evangéliste' (1883); (Sapho (1884); Tartarin sur les Alpes (1885), a sequel to Les Aventures Prodigieuses; Trente Ans à Paris' (autobiographical), (1887); 'Souvenirs d'un Homme de Lettres (1889); Port Tarascon, dernières Aventures d'Illustre Tartarin' (1890); Rose et Ninette (1892); 'La Menteuse' (1893); Entre les Frises et la Rampe (1894); La Petite Paroisse (1895); Contes d'Hiver (1896); L'Enterrement d'une Etoile (1896); Les Mères (1896); Le Trésor d'Arlatan' (1897); La Fédor) (1897); and Soutien de Famille) (1897). M. Daudet has often been compared with Dickens in his mastery of pathos and humor. Some of his principal works rely mainly on his great powers of caricature for their success. His chief works have been translated into English and in this dress have been very popular. See Brunetière, 'Le naturaliste) (1896).

roman

Daudet, Ernest Louis Marie, èr-nā loo-ē mä-re, French novelist: b. Nimes 31 May 1837. He is a brother of Alphonse Daudet (q.v.). His most notable novels are: The Venus of Gordes'; 'The Bloom of Sin'; 'Martha.' He