393 



DATA, DATUM. 



DAUPHIN. 



391 



even earlier than Darius the Mede, and might have been known to the 

 Jews prior to the Captivity. Daries were the gold coins best known 

 in Athens ; and when the supply became deficient, imitations of them 

 were made, and hence the existing darics are mostly of Greek manu- 

 facture. It would seem extraordinary, when we consider the great 

 number which are recorded to have been employed in presents and 

 bribes alone, exclusive of the purposes of traffic, that so few should 

 have reached modern times, if we did not know that upon the conquest 

 of Persia they were melted down, and re-coined with the type of Alex- 

 ander. Very few Persian darics are now to be seen in cabinets. There 

 is one in Lord Pembroke's, which weighs 129 grains ; and there are 

 three in the cabinets of the British Museum, weighing about 12Si 

 grains each. Mr. Young, the' eminent dealer in coins, also possessed 

 two, one weighing about 121} grains, the other 128|. The witticism 

 of Agesilaus (Plutarch, 'Apophthegm Lacon. ' xl.) is well known, who, 

 being forced to retire from an invasion of the Persian provinces by the 

 bribery used by the great king, said that 30,000 archers had defeated 

 him. 



The silver coins which go by the name of darics are in truth mis- 

 called. They had no such designation in ancient times. The earliest 

 of them, if we may rely upon Herodotus in a passage already referred 

 to (iv. 166), were struck by Aryandes, the Persian governor of Egypt, 

 in imitation of the darics. " This Aryandes was governor of Egypt, 

 and had been appointed by Cambyses. Some time after, presuming to 

 put himself on an equal footing with Darius, he lost his life in conse- 

 quence. Hearing by report, and seeing himself, that Darius was 

 desirous to leave some memorial behind him, such as no other king 

 had done, Aryandes followed his example, and met with his reward. 

 Darius took the best gold, and purifying it to the highest degree, 

 struck a coin. Aryandes, being governor of Egypt, did the same in 

 silver ; and the silver of Aryandes is now the purest. Darius being 

 informed of what he was doing, put him to death, under the pretence 

 that he was meditating a revolt." The coining of these darics or 

 Aryandics in silver, however, must have been continued after the time 

 of Aryandes. No fewer than eight specimens of this description are in 

 the cabinets of the British Museum. One, formerly Mr. R. P. Knight's, 

 bears the name of Pythagoras, as Mr. Knight conjectured, a king or 

 governor of Cyprus. Others, which have the figure of the archer 

 crowned on one side, have a mounted horseman on the other. They 

 are generally considered as ancient Persian coins, and are commonly, 

 though without any assignable reason, except as bearing the figure of 

 an archer, called darics. 



Grains. 



Daric of gold in the British Museum . . 128,V, 

 Do .......... 128^ 



Do ......... 128 T 5 



Daric of silver ....... 235^ 



Do. gmaller of silver 



84 



Gold Daric, magnified one-third. 



Silver Daric. British Museum. Actual Size. Weight, 235^ grains. 



DATA, DATUM. A datum is any quantity, condition, or other 

 mathematical premiss which is given in a particular problem. Thus 

 in the question " to draw a circle which shall have itg centre in a given 

 line, and shall touch two other straight lines," the data are as follows : 

 1, That the figure described is to be a circle ; 2, a certain straight line ; 



, that the centre of the circle is to be on that straight line ; 4, two 



>ther straight lines ; 5, that the circle is to touch those straight lines. 



i may be divided into two classes, the latter class being the re- 



BtnoUoai which it is necessary to place upon the class already described 



i order that the problem may be possible. Thus the preceding 

 problem becomes absurd when the three straight lines are parallel, 



unless the line on which the centre of the circle is to lie be midway 

 between the two others. Either then the problem must be proposed 

 with the limitation " if it be possible," or an express datum of exclu- 

 sion must be introduced, namely, that the three straight lines must 

 not be parallel, unless, &c. 



In the mere etymology of the word datum all legitimate conse- 

 quences are data when the premises are data. Thus, given two circles 

 which touch, there are also given two circles which have a common 

 point in the line joining their centres. The book of Euclid known by 

 the name of Data (SeSo/utVo) is the deduction of magnitudes from other 

 magnitudes, not as to what they are, but as to whether they are deter- 

 mined or not. Thus, one of the propositions is, " If a given magnitude 

 be cut in a given ratio, the segments are given." The preface 

 of Marinus to this book contains a dissertation on the meaning of 

 the term. 



DATISCIN. This name appears to have been given to two distinct 

 substances, 1st, to a variety of starch [!NULIX] ; and, 2nd, to a yellow 

 colouring matter contained in the leaves of the datisca. 



DATURA STRAMONIUM. [STRAMONIUM.] 



DATURINE. [ATROPINE.] 



DAUCUS CARO'TA, Medical Properties of. The carrot has been 

 sufficiently described. [CARROT ; DAUCUS, NAT. HIST. Div.] For 

 medical purposes the root of the cultivated plant, and the fruit (called 

 improperly seeds) of the wild plant, are used. The former rasped 

 down into a fine pulp is sometimes applied raw to chapped nipples, 

 and even cancerous ulcers; but more commonly it is boiled, and 

 beaten into a uniform mass, and applied as a poultice to fetid, slough- 

 ing, and other ill-conditioned sores, which it cleanses, and otherwise 

 improves. Upon what its power depends is not well ascertained : the 

 juice of the root, analysed by Wackenroder, gave the following con- 

 stituents : 



Uncrystallisable sugar, with starch and malic acid 



Albumen 



Filed oil (along with some volatile oil) 



Carotin ...... . . 



Ashes containing alumina, lime and iron 



93-71 

 4-35 

 1-00 

 0-34 

 0-60 



100-00 



A little pectic acid is found. 



Carotin is a ruby-coloured substance occurring in four-sided plates. 

 It is tasteless, odourless, insoluble in water, soluble in alcohol, and 

 in ether, more so if fat be present, also in fatty or fixed oils, which it 

 colours yellow. 



The volatile oil is colourless, of a peculiar penetrating odour, and 

 disagreeable taste. Thirty-four pounds of the fresh root yield only 

 half a drachm of oil. Probably the oil of the seeds is similar. (Pereira.) 

 The fruits of the wild carrot are about one line and a half long, oval, 

 flat, and clothed along the ridges with hairs. The odour is peculiar, 

 aromatic ; the taste aromatic and bitter. Their primary action is 

 warming and carminative; and hi their secondary effects, they are 

 occasionally diuretic. They are seldom used. The root of the wild 

 carrot is said to produce injurious effects, and should be avoided. 



The cultivated carrot, particularly the yellow kind, contains in the 

 root a large quantity of starch. This is greatest when it is raised 

 on unmanured ground, exactly as wheat when raised on undunged 

 ground has more starch and less gluten than when manured. The 

 quantity in the carrot seems greatest about the end of September. 

 One hundred pounds (troy weight) of the fresh root then yield four 

 and a half ounces of starch. It has been proposed to separate this 

 starch in the same manner as starch from potatoes, to employ it medi- 

 cinally as a very soothing and demulcent article of food for persons 

 with pulmonary irritation and the cough which remains after the 

 influenza. It is most likely a very digestible form of starch, but not 

 more so than arrow-root. It may be raised at a cheap rate, however, 

 as any light soil will answer, and as no manure is needed it cannot be 

 expensive. The refuse after the starch is extracted is good for cattle, 

 and should not be wasted. The white or Flemish carrot is a valuable 

 food for cattle. 



(Rham's Flemish Farming.) 



DAUPHI'N, the title given to the eldest son of the king of 

 France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties. The origin of the 

 word has been a matter of some dispute. The Counts of Albon and 

 Grenoble are mentioned first in the 9th century as feudatories of the 

 kingdom of Aries; they afterwards assumed the title of Counts of 

 Vienne, and became independent, like other great feudatories. Guy 

 VIII., Count of Vienne, is said to have been sumamed Le Dauphin, 

 because he wore a dolphin as an emblem on his helmet or shield. 

 The surname remained to his descendants, who were styled Dauphins, 

 and the country which they governed was called Dauphine'. It in- 

 cluded the present departments of Iscre, Dr6me, Hautes Alpes, and 

 Basses Alpes. Humbert II., de la Tour du Pin, the last of the Dau- 

 phin dynasty, having lost his only son, gave up his sovereignty by 

 treaty to King Philippe de Valois in 1349, after which he retired to a 

 Dominican convent. (Moreri, and the French historians.) From that 

 tune the eldest son of the king of France has been styled Dauphin, in 

 the same manner as the eldest son of the king of England is styled 

 Prince of Wales. Since the dethronement of the elder branch of the 



