617 



DOMINANT. 



DONATIO MORTIS CAUSA. 



613 



sued in them. In Scotland, when the subject of dispute is within the 

 jurisdiction of the courts, an action regarding it may proceed there, 

 and any one who has property within their jurisdiction may be made 

 amenable to the extent of that property. But actions of personal 

 status, as for divorce, establishing a marriage, &c., can only proceed 

 when the parties have established a domicile there by residence for 

 forty days. 



(On this subject, see Phillimore on Domicile, and Story's Commen- 

 taries on the Convict of Laid, c. iii.) 



DOMINANT, in music, the fifth of the key. Thus, if the key be c, 

 the dominant is G. 



DOMINICAL LETTER (dies domi'nica, Sunday). To every day in 

 the year is attached one of the first seven letters, A, B, C, D, E, F, G ; 

 namely, A to the first of January, B to the second, &c. ; A again to 

 the eighth of January, and so on. The consequence is, that all days 

 which have the same letter fall on the same day of the week. The 

 dominical letter for any year is the letter on which all the Sundays fall. 

 Thus, the first of January, 1854, being Sunday, the dominical letter 

 for 1854 is A. In a common year, the first and last days have the 



same letters, whence the dominical letter of the succeeding year is one 

 earlier in the list : that is, the dominical letter for 1855 is G. But in 

 leap-year, it is to be remembered that the 29th of February has no 

 letter attached to it : whence every leap-year has two dominical letters, 

 the first for January and February, the second for all the rest of the 

 year, the second being one earlier than the first. The following will 

 now be easily understood ; each year is followed by its dominical letter; 

 1853, B; 1854, A; 1855, G; 1856, F, E; 1857, D; 1858, C ; 1859, B; 

 1860, A, G. 



As it is convenient in historical reading to be able to find the day of 

 the week-on which a given day in a distant year fell, we subjoin the 

 following tables. The middle column of figures contains the tens and 

 units of the year in question, while the figures at the head contain the 

 hundreds and tens of hundreds. Thus for the years 536 and 1772, 

 look for 36 and 72 in the middle column, and for 5 and 17 at the head. 

 On the left of the middle column is all that relates to the old style ; 

 on the right all that relates to the new style. The Urge letters on 

 the left refer to years after Christ, the small letters to years before 

 Christ. 



Example 1. What was the dominical letter of the year 763, before 

 Christ, old style ? Look on the left, opposite to 63, in the column 

 which hag 7 among the headings, and the small letter there found is e. 

 Hence E was the dominical letter of 763 B.C., or the fifth of January 

 was a Sunday. 



t Example 2. What is the dominical letter of 1819, after Chriit, old 

 style ? Look on the left, opposite to 19, in the column which has 18 

 among its headings, and the large letter there found in E. Hence E 

 is the dominical letter of 1819 (old style), or the fifth of January was 

 a Sunday. 



Example 3. What will be the dominical letters of the year 1896, 

 new style .' Look on the right, opposite to 96, in the column which 

 has 18 among the headings, and E D is found. Hence in this leap- 

 year E is the dominical letter for the opening of the year, or the fifth 

 of January will be a Sunday, and after February the dominical letter 

 will,be D. 



Having found the dominical letter for a given year, the following 

 table wiU assist in finding the day of the week upon which a given 

 day of the month falls. It is the list of days which have A for their 

 letter. 



January 

 February 

 March . 

 April 

 May . 

 June 

 July . 

 August . 

 September 

 October . 

 November 

 December 



30 



31 

 29 



31 



Thus the dominical letter being E, we ask on what day the 20th of 

 July falls. The E being Sunday, the A is Wednesday, and July 16 is 

 Wednesday, whence July 20 is Sunday. 



DOMINICANS. [BLACK FRIARS.] 



DONATIO MORTIS CAUSA, a gift made in prospect of death. 

 The doctrine is derived from the civil law, and a donation of this 

 kind is defined in the ' Institutes ' (lib. ii. tit. 7) as " a gift which is 

 made under an apprehension of death, as when a thing is given upon 



