DAMMARIC A011>. 



runic. 



DAMMARIC ACIDtC^H^O.^HOn. A re*inou* acid found, along 

 with a neutral min, damwutrant, in mrrlie-ffum, the product of a Urge 

 tree of the oonifcrou* apodes growing in New Zealand. When the 

 cowdie-gum U submitted to dutillation it yield* two oiU lighter than 

 water, to which the name* rlammarol and liammanmt hare been given ; 

 they are, however, probably not deftniU compounds, but mere mixture* 

 of oily nyclrooAnxMM. 



DAMMAKOL. [DAMMARIC Aero.] 



DAMMARONE. [DAMMAHIC Arm.] 



I'AMoI.lr ACII'. 1 VMAU-IUC Aero.] 



DAMP, CHOKE. [Mixixo.] 



DAMPER. Then are two or three different mode* in which this 

 term i* applied to email mechanical contrivance*. The damper of a 

 furnace or fire-place is a door or screen which, if drawn partially or 

 wholly across a particular channel, lessens the passage for air, and 

 diminishes the intensity of the heat in the furnace ; this damper is 

 therefore a check. A* a check, also, doe* the damper of a pianoforte 

 act ; it is a small lever, which presses against a string soon after it 

 begins to vibrate, in order that the vibration* should not continue too 

 long, thereby injuring the completeness and effect of other sounds 

 which are to come after ; the damper checks the vibration. There are 

 other pieces of mechanism known in the arts which check a particular 

 action at a particular time, and which are on that account called 

 dampers. A wholly different apparatus is called a damper because it 

 communicates dampness or moisture. When adhesive postage stomps 

 came extensively into use, it was felt by many persons that the 

 method of moistening the liquid gum by licking it with the tongue is 

 both an unsightly and an unpleasant one, and is even injurious to 

 health if often repeated. Hence the invention of damping-machines, or 

 dampers, for moistening the gum of adhesive stamps or label*. Such 

 machines have not come extensively into use, possibly because the 

 requisite simplicity and cheapness have not been attained ; but it is 

 an attempt in the right direction, which may meet with ultimate 

 success. Phelp's damper contains a cup or vessel of water, with a pipe 

 extending from thence to a small tray on which a flat piece of sponge 

 i* placed, open at the top. Rowland's damper comprises a small 

 vulcanised India-rubber bag or vessel, and a piece of sponge fixed in a 

 holder inserted in the mouth of the bag. Baddeley's damper is an 

 attempt to meet the wants of those who consider that postage stamps 

 ought to be moistened on both side*. Schofer's and other patented 

 dampers have, in like manner, ingenious appliances for moistening the 

 adhesive composition without the aid of the tongue. 



DANCING. [BALLET.] 



DAJf EGELD, sometime* called simply the GELD, was a tax origi- 

 nally imposed, in order, says Thierry (' History of the Norman Conquest '), 

 to maintain a coast-guard against the incursions of the Scandinavian 

 pirates. He adds, that it was this identical fund that was offered to 

 the invaders by way of tribute. The ordinary revenues of the crown 

 were quite inadequate to the expense of either maintaining a force to 

 fight, or to produce the means of bribing their ferocious enemies ; and 

 therefore it was found necessary, with the consent of the Wittenagemot, 

 to impose a tax, first of one Saxon shilling, and afterwards of two or 

 more shillings, on every hide of land in the kingdom. In the laws of 

 Edward the Confessor, who abolished the tax, it is spoken of a* 

 follow* : De Danegeldo Danegeldo redditio propter pyratas primitus 

 statuta ect. Patriam enim infestante* vastationi ejus pro posse quo 

 incutebant. Ad corum quidem iiwolentiam reprimendam statutum 

 est, Danegeldum annuatim reddit ; scilicet, 12 denarios ex unaquaque 

 hida totius patriic, ad conducendo* eos qui piratorum irruptioni re- 

 sistendo obviarent. (Wilkins's ' Leges Anglo-Saxonicae.') It is known 

 that " in 991 they were bribed and bought off with ten thousand pounds 

 of silver; in 994 with sixteen thousand; in 1001 with twenty- four 

 thousand; in 1007 with thirty-six thousand; and in 1012 with forty- 

 eight thousand. A pound of silver was worth about three pounds of 

 modern money, and would have purchased eight oxen, or fifty sheep." 

 (' Popular Hi*t. of Eng.,' by C. Knight.) According to the ' Saxon 

 Chronicle ' (edit. Gibs., p. 116), this tax was first imposed in 991 ; it 

 was noon after raised to two and at last to seven shillings on every hide 

 of land, and continued to be levied long after the original occasion of 

 imposing it had ceased. 



Whilst the invasions of the Danes were almost annual, our kings 

 derived little profit from this tax, which was all expended in bribing or 

 fighting these invaders ; but after the accession of the Doniah prince* 

 to the throne of England, it became one of the chief branches of the 

 royal revenue. This tax was raised so high, and collected with HO 

 much severity by King Canute in 1018, that it amounted to the pro- 

 digious sum of 71.000J., besides 11,0001. paid by the city of London. 

 (' Chmn. Sax.,' ut *upr., p. 151.) 



Edward the Confessor, who succeeded Hardicnut in 1042, and put a 

 stop to all future payment* from the English to the Danes, as well 

 tributary as stipendiary, continued nevertheless to collect danegeld 

 from the subject until the year 1051, when, as Ingulphu* and other 

 authors sav, he absolutely repealed it. It was revived at an early 

 period of William the Conqueror's reign, and, according to \\Yl.l". 

 in hi* ' Short Account of Danegeld ' (4to, Land. 1 756, p. 2), continued 

 to be collected as low as 21 Hen. II., if not later. In the Domesday 

 Survey, danegeld occurs but once by it* own name (torn, i., fol. 336 b.), 

 under Stamford, in Lincolnshire. It i* mentioned as one of the Jura 



regalia in the Laws of Henry I., chap. 10. Stephen, at his coronation, 

 took an oath that he would remit this tax. (Compare Bpelman'* and 

 Du Gauge's ' Glossarie*,' v. ' Danigeldum.') 



HANKS is the general appellation given to the Scandinavian tribe* 

 which in the 9th and 10th centuries became so formidable by their 

 predatory expeditions, and invaded and occupied a great part of Britain 

 and France. The early history pf the Scandinavian nations is in 

 in great obscurity, though Danish and Swedixh chroniclers i/ 

 deduce their genealogy from Japhet and hi* son Gog, and relate their 

 early migration from Asia. But coining to more historical time*, 

 there is a poem on the exploit* of the Dane* in the 3rd and 

 4th centuries, which refer* to their wan among themselves, and in 

 which the Danes, properly *o called, or Western Danes, appear as the 

 inhabitant* of Jutia, who are also called Scyldingi ; while the Sveone* 

 (perhaps the same as the Suiones), mentioned by Tacitus (' German ') 

 a* living near the shore* of the Baltic, are called also Eastern Dane*, or 

 inhabitants of part of the country now called Sweden. Next to these 

 are mentioned the Geata, or Goth* ; and in the islands of the Baltic, 

 the 8sj Geata, or Sea Goth*, called also Scylfingi. We find also men- 

 tion of the Northern Danes, probably the Norwegian*. (' De Danorum 

 Rebus gestis Seculia III. et IV. Poema Danicum dialecto Anglo- 

 Saxonica ex bibliotheca Cottoninna Muna?i Britannici.' edited by G. J. 

 Thorkclin, 4to, 1815.) The common language of all these people was 

 the Norse or Donsk Tunga, which is still spoken in Iceland. (P. 

 Vidalini, ' De Appellations Lingua: Septentrionalis, 1775.) 



Scandinavian migrations had taken place to North Britain in very 

 remote times; and it appears probable that some of the tribes which 

 inhabited Caledonia in the Roman period hod come originally from 

 that quarter. The Jutes and Angli, who, with the Saxons, conquered 

 Britain, came from Jutia, the country of the Western Danes. Hut 

 after the Saxon conquest, the connection between the migrated tribe* 

 and the Dane* who had remained in Scandinavia became obliterated, 

 until the end of the 8th century, when the Dane* began to make war 

 upon their old kinsmen with all the fierceness of inveterate enemies. 

 Their predatory descents on the coast of Britain became formidable 

 during the reign of Egbert ; and under his successors the Danes 

 obtained possession of great part of the island, until Alfred the Great 

 defeated them, and obliged the Danish chieftains to submit. [ALFRED, 

 in Bioo. Drv.] The eastern part of England retained long after the 

 name of Danelagh, or Danish Law, and the population was in great 

 measure of Danish stock, especially to the north of the HumlxT. 

 After the death of Alfred fresh incursions took place, until, at the 

 beginning of the llth century, Canute, or Knut, having established 

 himself as sovereign of all the Scandinavian nations, added Britain also 

 by conquest to his sceptre. [CANUTE, in Bioo. Drv.] After Canute'* 

 death his successors Harold and Hardicnut held the sway of Britain 

 for a few years longer, after which the line of the Saxon kings was 

 restored in the person of Edward the Confessor. The Norman con- 

 quest, which followed close upon the death of the latter, put an end to 

 the Danish invasions on the coasts of Britain. But the Normans them- 

 selves were originally of Danish stock in the general sense of the name, 

 having settled in North France under Rollo the Ganger in Alfred's 

 time ; and those Norman pilgrim* and knight* who conquered the 

 kingdoms of Sicily and Apulia in the llth century were likewi 

 progeny. 



DAPHNINE. Vauquelin first pointed out, in the 'Aunale* de 

 Chimie," t. Ixxiv., the existence of a peculiar acrid principle in the 

 mezereon (Daphne Atczereon). Ite properties have been niiice more 

 particularly examined by Gmelin and Bar. It i prepared by pre- 

 cipitating a decoction of mezereon bark by subacetate of le.vl, and 

 decomposing the washed precipitate by sulphuretted hydrogen : t ho 

 solution is then filtered, evaporated, and the residue digested in << M 

 anhydrous alcohol, from which daphnine crystallises. 



When it has been purified by washing with cold alcohol, solution in 

 water, and recrystallisation, it forms colourless bitter crystals, whieh 

 possess neither alkaline nor acid reaction : in cold water they are 

 sparingly soluble, but more so in hot, and also in alcohol and ether. 

 Nitric acid converts it into oxalic acid. It doe* not appear to have 

 been analysed. 



DAR1C (Aopiicos, />arfou), a Persian coin of pure gold, stamped on 

 one side with the figure of an archer crowned, and kneeling upon one 

 knee, upon the other with a sort of quadrata incuxn, or deep cleft. 

 Harpocration (in roe. AofHixat ) ascribes its origin and name to a Darin* 

 of a remote jHTicxl ; but Wesseling (' Observat. Varies,' 8vo, Ti 

 Rhen.,p. 241) and other later writers, upon the authority of Herodotus, 

 give it to Darius Hystaspis, the father of Xerxes, who tx 

 B.C. 521. The done wo* equivalent in value to the Attic Chrysu* 

 (Xfvaovi), and was worth twenty drachma: of silver : five darics were 

 consequently equal to an Attic mna of silver (Harpocration). X.no- 

 plum, in his 'Cyropjcdia' (vii.), informs us that the daric was o month'* 

 pay for a common soldier. Prideaux (' Connect, of Old and New Test.,' 

 8vo, Lond. 1725, 1 183) observes, that in those parts of Seripture 

 whieh were written after the Babylonish captivity (he refers to Chron. 

 xxix. 7, and Ezra viii. L'7). these piece* are mentioned by the n 

 A,l,irb>nim ; and in the Tuhnudiitt* (see Buxtorfs ' Lexicon RaUiini- 

 runi,' p. 577) by the name of Darkemon, both from the Orwk tuftueh, 



It lias been suggested, however, that the name is deriv.'l li > the 



Persian door, a king, and in that case the done may have had an 



