DENSITY DEODAND. 



645 



French embassy at Naples. His residence in the city, 

 and repeated visits to Sicily and Malta, gave him an 

 opportunity of exercising his talent for drawing and 

 engraving, Denon had the principal direction of the 

 artists engaged in preparing the abbe St Non's Voy- 

 age pittoresque de Naples et de Sidle, and the text was 

 chiefly taken from his journal. This elegant work 

 appeared at Paris, in 1788. The remainder of 

 Denon's journal, relating to Sicily and Malta, ap- 

 peared separately, in 1788. His career at Naples 

 was interrupted by the death of the minister Vergen- 

 nes, his patron, or, according to some, by the dis- 

 pleasure of the queen, Maria Caroline. But still his 

 love for the study of the great masters detained him 

 in Italy. He resided at Venice during several years, 

 where he shone in the circles of the countess Albrizzi, 

 who was distinguished for her amiable and intelligent 

 character, and loved to be surrounded by men of 

 talent. Denon was not forgotten in her Rittrati, 

 where she bestows the greatest praise on his charac- 

 ter, his passion for the arts, his cheerfulness and 

 amiable disposition, and excuses the raillery with 

 which he attacked the foibles of others. The ob- 

 servation and restraint, to which the revolution sub- 

 jected Frenclimen in foreign countries, compelled him 

 to leave Venice. After a short stay in Florence and 

 Switzerland, he was obliged to return to France dur- 

 ing the reign of terror ; but he made himself agree- 

 able to Robespierre, and was, in consequence, subse- 

 quently accused of devotion, at that time, to Jacobin 

 principles. During this period, he exercised himself 

 in engraving. At last, he became acquainted with 

 Bonaparte, and immediately united himself with him. 

 He accompanied the general in his campaigns to Italy 

 and Egypt, and Desaix to Upper Egypt. The work 

 which was the result of this journey, was an addition 

 to Denon's fame, particularly the engravings which 

 ornament it (Paris, 1802, 2 vols. fol., and 3 vols. 

 12mo., without engravings). Denon, in this, has 

 shown himself a very able artist. Nature, animate 

 and inanimate, the monuments of centuries, and the 

 Arabian flying through the Desert, are represented 

 with great fidelity. When he returned to Paris with 

 Bonaparte, he was appointed general director of the 

 museums, and all the works of art executed in honour 

 of the French successes monuments, coins, the erec- 

 tion of the triumphal pillar in the Place de Vendome, 

 &c. He accompanied Napoleon in all his campaigns, 

 and employed himself in drawing, and in selecting 

 those masterpieces in the conquered countries, which 

 were taken to Paris as trophies. In 1815, he was 

 compelled to witness the restoration of the spoils. 

 After the abdication of the emperor, he retained his 

 office, but was deprived of it in 1815, in consequence 

 of having joined Napoleon on his return from Elba. 

 He retained, however, his place in the institute. 

 From that time he lived retired, and the preparation 

 of engravings and lithographs of his splendid collec- 

 tion of works of art, formed the occupation of his last 

 years. He died at Paris, April 28, 1825. His mind 

 was active to the last. Denon much resembled Vol- 

 taire in his old age. In 1826 appeared at Paris the 

 Description des Obj'ets d'drt composant le Cabinet de 

 feu M. le Bar. V, Denon, in 3 vols. (Monumens anti- 

 ques, tableaux et estampes). The cabinet was sold by 

 auction. 



DENSITY, strictly speaking, denotes vicinity or 

 closeness of particles ; but in mechanical science, it is 

 used as a term of comparison, expressing the propor- 

 tion of the number of equal moleculce, or the quantity 

 of matter in one body to the number of equal molecules 

 in the same bulk of another body. Density, there- 

 fore, is directly as the quantity of matter, and in- 

 versely as the magnitude of the body. Since it may 

 be shown experimentally, that the quantities of mat- 



ter, or the masses in different bodies, are proportional 

 to their weight ; of consequence, the density of any 

 body is directly as its weight, and inversely as its 

 magnitude ; or the inverse ratio of the magnitudes of 

 two bodies, having experimentally equal weight (in 

 the same place), constitutes the ratio of their densi- 

 ties. No body is absolutely or perfectly full of mat- 

 ter, so as to have no vacuity or interstices : on the 

 contrary, it is the opinion of Newton, that even the 

 densest bodies, as gold, &c., contain but a small por- 

 tion of matter, and a great portion of vacuity ; or that 

 ,hey contain a great deal more pores or empty space 

 than real substance. 



Density of the Earth. The determination of the 

 density of the earth, as compared with that of water, 

 or any other known body, is a subject which has 

 excited considerable interest amongst modern ma- 

 thematicians ; and nothing can, at first sight, seem 

 more beyond the reach of human science, than the 

 due solution of this problem ; yet this has been de- 

 termined, and on such principles, that, if it be not cor- 

 rectly true, it is probably an extremely near approxi- 

 mation. The first idea of determining the density 

 of the earth was suggested by M. Bouguer, inconse- 

 quence of the attraction of Chimborazo, which affected 

 his plumb-line while engaged with Condamine in 

 measuring a degree of the meridian, near Quito, in 

 Peru. This led to the experiments on the mountain 

 Schehallien, in Scotland, which were carried on under 

 the direction of doctor Maskelyne, and afterwards 

 submitted to calculation by doctor Hutton, who de- 

 termined the density of the earth to be to that of 

 water as 4 to 1. But, in consequence of the 

 specific gravity of the mountain being assumed rather 

 less than it ought to have been, the above result is 

 less than the true density, as has since been shown 

 by doctor Hutton and professor Playfair, the former 

 of whom makes it, in his corrected paper, as ninety- 

 nine to twenty, or nearly as five to one. The same 

 problem has been attempted on similar principles, 

 but in a totally different manner, by the late Mr 

 Cavendish, who found the density of the earth to be 

 to that of water, as 5-48 to 1. Taking a mean of all 

 these, we liave the density of the earth to that of 

 water, as 5 - 24 to 1, and which, as we before ob- 

 served, is probably an extremely near approxima- 

 tion. 



DENTIFRICE; a preparation for cleaning the 

 teeth, of which there are various kinds : generally, 

 however, they are made of earthy substances mixed 

 with alum. Those formed of acids are very pernici- 

 ous. 



DEODAND (Deo dandum) ; a thing to be given 

 or dedicated to God. Persons who have attended 

 trials for homicide will have observed that the indict- 

 ment, in setting forth the manner of the death, al- 

 leges it to have been occasioned by a blow with a 

 certain weapon, &c., "of the value of," &c. This 

 allegation of the value of the thing which caused the 

 death, arose from the English law of deodands. It is 

 provided in the Mosaical law (Exod. xxi. 28), that 

 " If an ox gore a man, that he die, the ox shall be 

 stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten." So, by the 

 law of Athens, whatever was the cause of a man's 

 death, by falling upon him, was destroyed, or cast 

 out of the territory of the republic. This, says Mr 

 Christian, in his notes upon Blackstone's Commen- 

 taries, was one of Draco's laws ; and perhaps wo 

 may think the judgment that a statue should be 

 thrown into the sea for having fallen upon a man, less 

 absurd, when we reflect that there is sound policy hi 

 teaching the mind to contemplate with horror the 

 privation of human life, and that familiarity even with 

 an insensible object, which has been the occasion of 

 death, may lessen that sentiment. This reflection, 



