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DUTENS, LOUia 



DWIGHT, TIMOTHY. 



elected him a member of their body. He then published in 1842 his 

 ' Essai comparatif sur la formation et la distribution du Reveuu de la 

 France en 1815 et 1835,' a work which contains the best statistical 

 resume of the productive riches of France, and has received and 

 deserves high praise. In his last issued work, 'Des pretendues 

 erreurs dans lesquelles, au jugemeut des modernes economistes, 

 seraient tombc's le& anciens economistes relativement au principe de 

 la richesse nationale,' in which he defends the theory of Quesnay, 

 Turgot, and their followers, that manufactures and commerce do not 

 constitute the wealth of a country, but that this advantage is only due 

 to agriculture. M. Dutens died in 1848. 

 (Nourdle Biographic Generate.) 



DUTENS, LOUIS, was born at Tours, of a Protestant family, 

 January 16, 1730. When about eighteen years of age he wrote a 

 tragedy, the ' Return of Ulysses,' which met with success at Orleans, 

 where it was played after being rejected by the managers of Paris. 

 But Dutena did not repeat his dramatic venture. About this time a 

 sister some six or seven years younger than himself was taken by order 

 of the Archbishop of Tours and was shut up in a convent hi order to 

 force her to become a Roman Catholic, and Dutens disgusted with 

 this tyranny left his country and came to England, where he found 

 patrons, studied the oriental languages and mathematics, and travelled 

 with several noblemen in succession over the Continent. Ho also 

 acted for a time as secretary to the English minister at the court of 

 Turin. On his return to England he was presented to the living of 

 Elsdon in Northumberland. He wan made member of th : Royal 

 Society of London, and of the Acade'mie des Inscriptions et Belles 

 Lettres of Paris. Being well versed in ancient and modern philology, 

 and in archaeology and numismatics, he wrote many works, the prin- 

 cipal of which are : 1. ' Recherches sur 1'Origine des Ue'couvertes 

 attributes aux Modemes, oil 1'on deuioutre que uos plus celebres 

 Philosophes ont puisu la plupart de leurs Connoissances dans les 

 Ouvrages des Anciens, et que plusieurs ve'rite's importautes sur la 

 Religion ont etc" connues des Sages du Pagauisme,' Svo, Paris, 1776. 

 This work went through several editions, revised by the author, to the 

 last of which, 1812, he added his 'Recherches sur le terns le plus 

 recule" de 1' Usage des Voutes,' which he had previously published 

 separately. In his zeal to vindicate the often-overlooked claims of the 

 ancients to several discoveries which have been reproduced in modern 

 times, Dutens oversteps at tunes the boundaries of sound criticism, 

 and seems to wish to attribute almost every invention to the nations 

 of antiquity. 2. 'Explication de quelques Mud.iilles Greques et 

 I'hinicie&nes, avec une Palcographie Numiamatique,' 4to, 1776, to 

 which are added several previously-written dissertations on numis- 

 matics. 3. ' Itinuraire des Routes lea plus froquent&s du 1'Europe,' a 

 work often reprinted. 4. ' Guide Moral, Physique, et Politique des 

 Etrangers qui voyagent en Angleterre.' 5. 'Appel au Bons Sens,' a 

 defence of Christianity against Voltaire and the Encyclope'dUtes. 

 6. ' Des Pierres prdcieuses et des Pierres fines, avec les Moyeus de les 

 connoitre et de les e'valuer,' Paris, 1776. 7. ' Histoire de ce qui s'est 

 passe* pour I'etablissement d'une Re'geuce en Augleterre,' Svo, 1789. 

 8. ' Nouveaux Inte'ruts de 1'Europe depuis la Revolution Fram,-:iise,' 

 1798. 9. 'Considerations Thcologiques eur les Muyeus de reunir 

 toutes les Eglises Chretiennes,' Svo, 1798, a well meaning speculation 

 towards a hopeless object. 10. ' Me'moires d'un Voyageur qui Be 

 repose,' 3 vols. Svo, Paris, 1806, which contain anecdotes of Dutens's 

 life and travels. Dutens died in London, May 23, 1812. 



DUTROCHET, RENfi-JOACHIM-HENRI, a distinguished French 

 botanist and natural philosopher. Ho was born at the Chateau de 

 N'l-'tn, Poitou, on the 14th of November 1776, and died at Paris on 

 the 4th of February 1847- He was the son of a military officer, 

 who emigrated, and whose property was confiscated. Young Dutrochet 

 in 1799 entered as a private the military marine, but afterwards 

 deserted. In 1802 he commenced at Paris the study of medicine. 

 He made a brilliant career as a student, was created Doctor in 1 806, 

 and in 1808 was appointed physician to Joseph Bonaparte, king ol 

 Spain. He became principal physician to the Hospital of Burgos, 

 which was then devastated witli typhus. He displayed here great 

 energy and skill. In 1809 he returned to France, and gave himself up 

 to the study of those natural sciences for which his medical education 

 fitted him. The tendency of Dutrochet's mind was to develope the 

 laws which regulated the existence of organic beings, and many of his 

 researches have had a permanent influence on the development of the 

 departments of science to which they relate. His name is best known 

 to physiologists from his researches on the passages of fluids through 

 animal and vegetable membranes. The laws which he observed to 

 regulate these phenomena he applied to the explanation of the 

 functions of absorption and excretion in the animal and vegetable 

 body. The passage of a fluid from without inwards he callec 

 ' endogmosis,' and the passage from within outwards ' exosmosis. 

 HM views on this subject were published in a work which appearec 

 both in London and Paris in 1828, with the title ' Nouvelles recherches 

 sur "Kndosmose et I'Exosmose, suivies de 1' application expe'rimeutale 

 de ces actions physiques a la solution du probleme de I'irritabilitt 

 vege'tale et a la determination de la cause de 1'asceusion des tiges, de 

 la descente des raciues.' The phenomena comprehended under the 

 terms endosmose and exosmose were rightly described by Dutrochet 

 but he was hasty in tracing their cause to electricity, and failed to 



ee that they were parts of a much more general set of phenomena 



han he had described. His other papers are very numerous, and 



were on a variety of subjects not immediately related. Thus we find 



lis inquiries embraced amongst other things the following subjects : 



a New Theory of Voice ; a New Theory of Harmony ; on the Family of 



>Vheel-AnimaleuIes ; History of the Egg of the Bird ; on the Envelopes 



>f the Fcotus ; Researches on the Metamorphosis of the Alimentary 



Canal in Insects ; on the Structure and Regeneration of Feathers ; 



n the Height of the Meteor which projected Aerolites at Charsonville 



a 1810 ; on the Growth and Reproduction of Plants ; on the Special 



Jirections taken by certain parts of Plants. The results of all his 



abours and a connected view of the subjects to which he devoted 



lis attention, he gave in a volume entitled 'Me'moires pour servir 



1'Histoire Anatomique et Phvsiologique des VtSgetaux et des 

 Animaux.' 



DUVERNOY, GEORQES-LOUIS, a distinguished anatomist and 

 zoologist. He was born at Montbelliard, then a dependency of the 

 duchy of Wurtemburg, now an arrondisseinent in the department of 

 Joubs hi France, on the 6th of August 1777, and died at Paris on the 

 1st of March 1855. His father practised as a physician at Montbelliard, 

 and he was brought up to' the same profession. He commenced his 

 studies at Stutgardt in 1792 ; but the principality of Montbelliard 

 laving been ceded to the French in 1793, he was compelled to finish 

 lis studies at Strasbourg. He subsequently went to Paris, where he 

 ;raduated in 1801. In 1802 he was associated with M. C. Dumeril in 

 reporting the lectures of Georges Cuvier, then in the zenith of his 

 reputation. The ' Lecons d'Anatomie companies' were concluded 

 and published in 1805. On the completion of this labour he married, 

 and, as natural science afforded him little hope of support for a family, 

 ii! retired to his native town to practise his profession. In 1809 he 

 was recalled to Paris, and named by De Fontanes joint professor of 

 zoology in the faculty of science. Again however he returned to 

 practise his profession in Montbelliard, and for nearly twenty years 

 this distinguished zoologist pursued its harassing and laborious duties. 

 [n 1827 the chair of natural history in the faculty of science in 

 Strasbourg was offered him : this he accepted ; and from this time 

 to his death we find him pursuing with unwearied industry zoological 

 researches. In 1837 he was offered the chair of natural history in 

 the College of France, vacated by the death of his great master, 

 Cuvier. This chair he accepted, and held till 1850, when the death of 

 De Blainville having created a vacancy in the chair of comparative 

 anatomy he was appointed to it, and held it for four years. Duvernoy's 

 contributions to zoological science are extremely numerous. In his 

 writings and lectures he was more remarkable for the accuracy and 

 extent of his knowledge than for the novelty and originality of his 

 views. He was an industrious compiler, and was an extensive con- 

 tributor to the ' Dictionnaire dea Sciences Naturelles,' and also to the 

 Dictionnaire Universelle d' Histoire Nature-lie.' 



DWIGHT, TIMOTHY, an eminent American Presbyterian divine, 

 was born at Northampton in Massachusetts, May 14, 1752. His father 

 was a merchant ; his mother was daughter of the celebrated American 

 theologian and metaphysician Jonathan Edwards. From infancy he 

 made rapid progress in general and scholastic learning; insomuch 

 that, at the age of seventeen, very soon after taking the degree of 

 B.A. at Yale College, Newhaven, he was appointed master of a 

 grammar-school in that town, and, before he was twenty, one of the 

 tutors of Yale College. He was licensed to preach in 1777, in which 

 year, the sessions of the college having been stopped by the war of the 

 revolution, he offered his services as chaplain in the American army. 

 The death of his father in the following year rendered it desirable 

 that he should return to Northampton, and the rest of his life was 

 principally occupied in discharging the duties of tuition, first as 

 master of a private seminary, next as president of Yale College, to 

 which office he was appointed in 1795. He also held the professorship 

 of theology. He died January 11, 1817. 



His early life was extremely laborious. It is stated that while he 

 kept school at Newhaven his time was regularly divided : six hours of 

 each day in school, eight hours in close and severe study, and the 

 remaining ten hours in exercise and sleep. (' Life,' p. 20.) Over- 

 exertion nearly brought on blindness ; from the age of twenty-three 

 ho was continually subjected to acute pain behind the eyes, and was 

 unable for the space of forty years to read longer than fifteen minutes 

 in the day. This makes the extent and variety of his knowledge, 

 which was acquired almost entirely through the ear, the more remark- 

 able ; and the mastery which he acquired over his mental powers by 

 discipline was so complete that he could dictate two or three letters 

 to different amanuenses at once, and he seldom forgot or found diffi- 

 culty in producing any fact which was once stored in his memory. In 

 1774 he resorted to a severe system of abstinence in food and exercise, 

 which had nearly proved fatal. He recovered a vigorous state of 

 health, chiefiy by returning to a daily course of strong exercise, and 

 the benefit thus derived led him in after-life to devote his recreations 

 regularly to a series of excursions, of which we have the fruits in his 

 ' Travels in New England and New York,' 4 vols. Svo, 1823. These 

 contain a great quantity of statistical and topographical information, 

 which, considering Dr. Dwight's mental habits and opportunities, 

 there is every reason to presume represent accurately the condition of 

 the country during the first quarter of the present century. The 



