638 



DENDR1TES DENINA. 



A young Frenchman, S. Saulnier, whose ambition 

 <vas excited by the rich spoils carried off by the 

 English, conceived the idea of procuring this zodiac 

 for his native country. As he was prevented from 

 going to Egypt personally, he left the transportation 

 of it to his friend H. Lelorrain, who embarked, in 

 1820, for Alexandria, provided with the necessary 

 in-iruments. Mohammed Ali showed a deplorable 

 readiness to permit the sacred monuments of Tentyra 

 to be mutilated. Upon the roof of the temple Arabi- 

 ans had, in earlier times, fixed their abodes ; it was 

 necessary to remove their deserted huts ; and their 

 rubbish, together with tliat already accumulated, 

 formed a plane upon which the blocks of sandstone 

 could slide down to the banks of the Nile. A vehicle 

 of "the invention of M. Lelorrain was used for this 

 purjKBe. Lelorrain selected the small circular zodiac 

 in the upper appartment. As the whole stone on 

 which the zodiac was represented was too large to be 

 carried off, extending, as it did, the whole width of 

 the ceiling, and resting on the walls on each side, 

 M. Lelorrain contented himself with the portion 

 covered by the zodiac, a small part of which, pro- 

 jecting over the main stone, and contained on a con- 

 tiguous one, he left, not thinking it worth the trouble 

 of removing. The removal was effected by means 

 of chisels, saws, and gunpowder. The stone was 

 exceedingly well preserved, only blackened by soot, 

 perhaps of the time when the mysteries and the 

 worship of animals were solemnized in these sanctu- 

 aries. This smoke may have, also destroyed the 

 colours by which, it is probable, the hieroglyphics 

 were formerly distinguished. The stone is of the 

 same kind of sandstone of which all the monuments 

 between Phylae and Denderah are composed. 



Scarcely was this work of destruction finished, 

 when another explorer, Mr Salt, the English consul, 

 laid claims to the booty, asserting prior rights to 

 everything dug up at Tentyra. The bashaw of 

 Egypt decided for the Frenchman, because the zodiac 

 was taken from the roof. Lelorrain at length arrived 

 safe with his booty at Marseilles. Here a comparison 

 with the plates in the great work on Egypt showed 

 that everything was in its right place, out that the 

 drawing had been embellished in a way which was 

 not confirmed by the monument. In January, 1822, 

 he arrived at Paris, where the proprietors caused a 

 drawing to be taken by Gau, containing all the dis- 

 cernible figures. The French government purchased 

 the planisphere for 150,000 Francs. The disputes 

 relative to the epoch of its origin, were renewed 

 with fresh ardour. St Martin, in his Notice sur le 

 Zodiaque de Denderah, etc., maintains that the monu- 

 ment was erected as early as 569, and not earlier 

 than 900 B.C. ; but his opinion is not satisfactorily 

 proved ; nor is that of M. Biot, which Jomard has 

 controverted in the Rev. Encycl. (1822). On the 

 other hand, Letronne, in his Critical and Archaeolo- 

 gical Observations on the Signs of the Zodiac (Paris, 

 1823), maintains that there is no monument among 

 the signs of 'the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman zodiacs 

 older than the common era. With this opinion 

 agrees also that of the abbe Halma, in liis Examen et 

 Explication du Zodiaque de Denderah, etc. (3 vols., 

 Paris, 1822, with copper-plates). Letronne considers 

 the zodiacs of Esne and Denderah as astrological 

 curiosities of the times of the Roman emperors. The 

 weight of opinion at present is, that these figures are 

 inscriptions of about the same antiquity as the Chris- 

 tian era. 



DENDRITES, or ARBORIZATIONS; an ap- 

 pellation given to figures of vegetables, observed in 

 fossil substances, and which are of two kinds, the 

 one superficial, the other internal. The first are 

 cliiefly found on the surface of stones, and between 



the strata and the fissures of those of a calcareous 

 nature. They are mostly brown, changing gradually 

 to reddish yellow. The internal dendrites are of a 

 deep black. The most esteemed sorts are those founc 

 in agates, and particularly in the sardonyx, cornelian, 

 and other precious stones brought from the East, and 

 which are commonly denominated Moka sl&neg. 

 DENGUE FEVER. See Fever. 

 DENHAM, DIXON, lieutenant-colonel, well known 

 by his expedition into Central Africa, was born at 

 London, in 1786, and, after finishing his studies at 

 school, was placed with a solicitor, but, in 1811, 

 entered the army as a volunteer, and served in tlic 

 peninsular campaigns. After the general peace, he 

 was reduced to half pay on the peace establishment, 

 and, in 1819, was admitted into the senior department 

 of the royal military college at Farnham. In 1823-4, 

 he was engaged, in company with captain Clapper, 

 ton and doctor Oudney, in exploring the central 

 regions of Africa. (For an account of their expedi- 

 tions, see Clapperton.) His courage, address, firm- 

 ness, perseverance, and moderation, his bold, frank, 

 energetic disposition, and his conciliating manners, 

 peculiarly fitted him for such an undertaking. The 

 narrative of the discoveries of the travellers was pre- 

 pared by Denham. In 1826, he went to Sierra 

 Leone, as superintendent of the liberated Africans, 

 and, in 1828, was appointed lieutenant-governor of 

 the colony; but, on the ninth of June of the same 

 year, he died of a fever, after an illness of a few days. 

 DENHAM, SIR JOHN, a poet, born at Dublin, in 

 1615, was the son of Sir John Denham, chief baron 

 of the exchequer in Ireland. He was educated in 

 London and at Oxford. Although dissipated and irre- 

 gular at the university, he passed his examination for a 

 bachelor's degree, and then removed to Lincoln's 

 Inn to study law. In 1641, he first became known 

 by his tragedy of The Sophy. This piece was so 

 much admired, that Waller observed, " Denham had 

 broken out like the Irish rebellion, 60,000 strong, 

 when no person suspected it." At the commence- 

 ment of the civil war, he received a military com- 

 mand ; but, not liking a soldier's life, he gave it up, 

 and attended the court at Oxford, where, in 1643, he 

 published the first edition of his most celebrated 

 poem, called Cooper's Hill. He was subsequently 

 intrusted with several confidential commissions by the 

 king's party, one of which was to collect pecuniary 

 aid from the Scottish residents in Poland. He re- 

 turned to England in 1552 ; but how he employed 

 himself until the restoration, does not appear. Upon 

 that event, he obtained the office of surveyor of the 

 king's buildings, and was created a knight of the 

 Bath, and a fellow of the newly formed royal society. 

 A second marriage, at an advanced age, caused him 

 much disquiet, and a temporary derangement ; but 

 he recovered, and retained the esteem o? the lettered 

 and the courtly until his death, in 1688, when his 

 remains were interred in Westminster abbey. 



DENINA, GIACOMO CARLO, an Italian historian, 

 born in 1731, at Revel, in Piedmont, studied belles- 

 lettres at Turin, and received the professorship of 

 humanity at the royal school at Pignerol. When 

 the chair of rhetoric at the superior college of Turin 

 was vacant, Denina was made professor in the col- 

 lege and university. He now published the three 

 first volumes of his History of the Italian Revolutions 

 (Turin, 1769, 3 vols., quarto), containing a general 

 history of Italy, which subjected him to some incon- 

 veniences, by exciting the ill will of the defenders of 

 the privileges of the clergy. In 1777, he travelled, 

 on account of his health, to Rome, made a stay at 

 Florence, received an invitation to Prussia, went to 

 Berlin in September, 1782, was presented to the king 

 by the marquis Lucchesini, and appointed a member 



