621 



DORT, SYXOD OF. 



DOWER. 



622 



be advantageously substituted for it. Contrayerva signifies antidote, 

 and it was at one time supposed to be an antidote to all poisons, 

 whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, except mercury. 



Contrayerva is now properly omitted from the ' London Pharma- 

 copoeia.' It hag no place in the pharmacopoeia of the United States, 

 though it may be obtained there much fresher. The root of Dw- 

 alcnia Braziliewit is certainly powerful when fresh, and often acts as 

 an emetic a property rendering it useful in fevers. 



DORT, SYNOD OF, an assembly of Protestant divines convoked 

 at Dort (Dordrecht), in the year lb'18, by the States General, under 

 the influence of Prince Maurice of Nassau, by which the tenets of the 

 Arminians, in five points, relating to predestination and grace, were 

 condemned by the followers of Calvinism. 



At this synod ecclesiastical deputies were present from most of the 

 States of the United Provinces, and from the churches of England, 

 Hesse, Bremen, Switzerland, and the Palatinate. Those from England 

 were Dr. George Carleton, bishop of LandatF; Dr. John Davenant, 

 regius professor of divinity at Cambridge, and master of Queen's Col- 

 lege ; Dr. Samuel Ward, master of Sidney College ; and Dr. Joseph 

 Hall, then dean of Worcester, but afterwards bishop of Norwich. Dr. 

 Hall's health, after two months, requiring his return, he was replaced 

 by Dr. Thomas Goad. To these was afterwards added Walter Balcan- 

 qual, a Scots divine, deputed by King James on behalf of the churches 

 of that nation. The synod was opened on November 13, 1618 : it 

 consisted of thirty-eight Dutch and Walloon divines, five professors of 

 universities, and twenty -one lay-elders ; the. foreign divines amounted 

 to twenty-eight. Those from England had the precedence, after the 

 deputies of the States. 



Of the. disputes which had prevailed in Holland for some years, 

 between the Calvinists and Arminians, previous to the convocation of 

 this synod, we have already spoken in the Bioo. Drv., in the notices of 

 ARSCINIUS and of BABXEVELDT, the grand pensionary, whose fate was 

 sealed when it had been sanctioned by the decision of this assembly. 



In the sixth session, which was held on the 19th of November, 1618, 

 the synod of Dort proposed obtaining a translation of the Bible from 

 the original texts into Dutch, which was judged to be a necessary 

 work. In the seventh, and some of the succeeding sessions, the trans- 

 lation was finally agreed to, and rules laid down for the direction of 

 the translators. In the thirteenth session, on the 26th of November, 

 the translators were appointed, when the following were chosen by a 

 majority of votes : John Bogefnian, the president of the synod ; Wil- 

 liam Baudart and Gerson Bucer, for the Old Testament ; Jacobus 

 Roland. Herman Faukelius, and Peter Cornelius, for the New Testa- 

 ment and Apocrypha. The synod then chose sixteen supervisors of 

 the translation ; and also resolved, that in case any of the translators 

 should die or be disabled by sickness, the president, with the two 

 assessors, and the scribes of the synod, should be empowered to appoint 

 uccessors. 



After ft delay of nearly ten years, the translators of the Old Testa- 

 ment assembled at Lcyden, in 1628, and the next year, 1629, the 

 translators of the New Testament ; but as Herman Faukelius, pastor 

 of the church of Middleburg, and Peter Cornelius, pastor of the church 

 of Enchusan, had died previous to their meeting together, Anthony 

 WaUeus and Festus Hommius were chosen in their stead. When the 

 translation of the Old Testament had advanced as far as the first 

 chapter of Ezekiel, Gerson Bucer died, and was succeeded in his office 

 by Anthony Thyaius ; Jacobus Roland also died when the translation 

 of the New Testament had advanced to the Acts of the Apostles. The 

 translation of the entire Bible was completed in 1632. The super- 

 visors of the Old Testament met at Leyden, with the translators, in 

 1633 ; and those of the New Testament in 1634 : and the revision was 

 completed in October, 1635. The printing of the Bible was finished 

 in 1637, when it appeared in folio from the presses of Leyden and the 

 Hague, and in octavo from the press of Amsterdam. This is what is 

 called ' The Dort Bible.' Editions of it were soon rapidly multiplied 

 and extensively circulated. 



DOT, in Music, a point, or speck, placed after a note or rest, in 

 order to make such note or rest half as long again. Thus a semibreve 

 with a dot is equal to three minims : a crotchet rest with a dot is equal 

 to three quaver rests. In modern music a double dot is often used, 

 in which case the second is equal to half of the first. Thus a double 

 dotted minim is equal to three crotchets and a quaver; a double- 

 dotted quaver rest is equal to three semiquaver rests and one demi- 

 semiquaver rest. Examples : 



DOUAY BIBLE. [BIBLE.] 



DOUBLE-BASE, the largest musical instrument of the viol kind. 

 [VioL.] In England, Italy, and France, the double-base has three 

 strings, which are tuned in fourths : 



(An Delate lower. 



In Germany a fourth string is used, tuned a fourth below the deep- 

 est of the above. 



The double-base, in full orchestral pieces, takes the notes written for 

 the violoncello, when not otherwise directed, and if these are not too 

 rapid, but always gives them an octave lower. It may be considered 

 as the foundation of the baud, for a want of firmness in this instru- 

 ment is more fatal in its consequences than unsteadiness in any other. 



In our concerts the Italian name of this instrument, Cjnlra-bassu 

 (or, more strictly, Contrab-baaso), is as frequently employed as its 

 English appellation. 



DOUBLE STARS. [STARS, DOUBLE.] 



DOUBLETS. In optical instruments where high powers are re- 

 quired there is much practical inconvenience in forming single lenses 

 of short focal length. The difficulty has been obviated by the use of 

 magnifiers formed of two or more lenses combined. The most efficient 

 are two or three plano-convex lenses, with their convex sides towards 

 the eye, and are hence called doublets or triplets. 



DOUBLOON. [MONEY.] 



DOUCHE. [BATHING.] 



DOVETAIL, a term in construction. A dovetail is the end of ;i 

 piece of wood or metal fashioned into the fan-like form of a dove's 

 tail, and let into a corresponding hollow of another piece of wood, 

 stone, or metal. Dovetails are either exposed or concealed ; " con- 

 cealed dovetailing is of two kinds, lapped and mitred." Dovetailed 

 metal cramps are much used in masonry. 



DOWER (Law) is that part of the husband's lands, tenements, or 

 hereditaments which come to the wife upon his death, not by force of 

 any contract expressed or implied between the parties, but by operation 

 of law, to be completed by an actual assignment of particular portions 

 of the property. 



Prior to the reign of Charles II., five, and until the passing of the 

 Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., c. 105, four kinds of dower were known to the 

 English law. 



1. Dower at the common law. 



2. Dower by custom. 



3. Dower ad ostium ecclesue. 



4. Dower ex assensu patris. 



5. Dower de la plus beale. 



This last was merely a consequence of tenure by knight's service, 

 and was abolished by stat. 12 Charles II. c. 24 ; and the 3rd and 4th, 

 having long become obsolete, were finally abolished by the above- 

 mentioned statute. 



By the old law, dower attached upon the lands of which the husband 

 was seised at any time during the marriage, and which a child of the 

 husband and wife might by possibility inherit ; and they remained 

 liable to dower in the hands of a purchaser, though various ingenious 

 modes of conveyance were contrived, which in some cases prevented 

 the attaching of dower; but this liability was productive of great 

 inconvenience, and frequently of injustice. The law too was incon- 

 sistent, for the wife wai not dowable out of her husband's equitable 

 estates, although the husband had his courtesy in those to which the 

 wife was equitably entitled. [COURTESY.] To remedy these incon- 

 veniences the statute above mentioned was passed, and its objects may 

 be stated to be : 1, to make equitable estates in possession liable to 

 dower ; 2, to take away the right to dower out of lands disposed of by 

 the husband absolutely in his life or by will ; 3, to enable the husband, 

 by a simple declaration in a deed or will, to bar the right to dower. 

 This could always have been done by levying a fine, an expensive and 

 inconvenient remedy : while the increase of personal property, and the 

 almost universal custom of securing a provision by settlement, afforded 

 effectual and convenient means of providing for a wife. 



Dower at the common law is the only species of dower which affects 

 lands in England generally ; dower by custom is only of local appli- 

 cation, as dower by the custom of gavelkind and Borough English ; 

 and freebench applies exclusively to copyhold lands. 



In order to describe dower at the common law clearly, it will be 

 advisable to follow the distribution of the subject made by Black- 

 stone. 



1. Who may be endowed. 



2. Of what a wife may be endowed. 



3. How she shall be endowed. 



4. How dower may be barred or prevented. 



1. Who may be endowed. Every woman who has attained the age of 

 nine years is entitled to dower by common law, except aliens, and 

 formerly Jewesses, so long as they continued in their religion. From 

 the disability arising from alienage, a queen, and also an alien licensed 

 by the sovereign, are exempt. 



2. Of what a wife may be endowed. She is now by law entitled to be 

 endowed, that is, to have an estate for life" in the third part of the 

 lands and tenements of which the husband was solely seised either in 

 deed or in law, or in which he had a right of entry, at any time during 

 the coverture, of a legal or equitable estate of inheritance in possession, 

 to which the issue of the husband and wife (if any) might by possi- 

 bility inherit. 



3. How the shall be endowed. By Magna Charta it is provided, that 

 the widow shall not pay a fine to the lord for her dower, and that she 



