DAN 
DAN 
in honour of Jacobus Dalecliainpius, ,a ge- 
nii'- of tJie Monoecia Moiiadelphia class and 
ordfr. Natural order of Tricoecie. . Eu- 
pliorhide, Jussieu. Essential character : ou- 
ter common involucre with four leaflets; 
inner with two trifid leaves; male, umbel- 
lule ten-flowered ; involucre twoleaved, 
with numerous chaffs; proper perianth five- 
leaved; corolla none; filaments very many, 
connate ; female floscules three ; iuvolucel 
three-letvved ; proper perianth with eleven 
leaflets ; corolla none ; style filiform ; cap- 
sule tricoccous. There are two species, 
ih. D. colorata, coloured dalechampia, 
found in New Granada; and D. scandens, 
climbing dalechampia, is a native of the 
West Indies. 
DAMA. See Cervus. 
DAMASKEENING, or Damasking, 
the art or operation of beautifying iron, 
steel, &c. by making incisions therein, and 
filling them up with gold and silver wire ; 
chiefly used for adorning sword blades, 
guards, and gripes, locks of pistols, &c. 
DAMASONIUM, in botany, a genus of 
the Hexaudria liexagynia class and order. 
Essential character: spathe one-leafed, 
perianth one-leafed, three-parted; petals 
three ; berry ten-celled, inferior. There is 
but one species, viz. D. alismoides, with 
heart-shaped leaves, nerved, floating, un- 
armed ; scape naked, quadrangular, one- 
flovyered. There are only six stamens in the 
flower, with six bifid styles. Native of the 
East Indies, Malabar, Ceylon, &c. 
DAMPS, in natural history, noxious 
steams and exhalations, frequently found in 
mines, pits, wells, and other subterraneous 
places. See Gas. 
DANCE, or Dancing. The causes 
which produce the active operation of danc- 
ing, are as completely inherent in the hu- 
man system, as any of those which are 
generally called involuntary affections of 
the nerves. A review of the history of 
mankind will serve to prove that the pas- 
sions are expressed by the same disposition 
of the muscles in every quarter of the globe, 
and that joy has produced an inclination 
to dance throughout the individuals of na- 
tions, who knovy not of each others exis- 
tence. In the very eprly ages of the world, 
before civilization had polished the ideas, 
sudden joy may be supposed to have been 
almost the only stinwhis to dancing, and 
this supposition is corroborated by present 
observation ; the moderns have, indeed, so 
far refined their feelings, that their dispo- 
sition to leap or skip with joy is confined 
to the minuet step in walking, which may 
he frequently discovered when the features 
express pleasure. On the contrary, the 
rude child of nature endued wifli nerves of 
exquisite sensibility, having obtained some 
desired object, received tliat inexplicable 
shock, which the Divinity hath decreed 
man shall not fully comprehend ; imme- 
diately the subtle pleasure extended to 
every fibre of his frame, and the convulsive 
motion became a dance; as joy is com- 
municable, his family were inspired, his 
neighbours caught the infection, and the 
manner of this first dance necessarily as- 
sumed some degree of method to prevent 
collision. Sncii may have been the prin- 
cipal cause of dancing, another arises from 
certain combinations of sounds, which vi- 
brating strongly upon the air, communi- 
cates an impulse to the delicately sensible 
something residing in the nervous system 
when the sounds are musical, the limbs are 
compelled to answer to them, and whether 
they are merely sufficient to produce a 
march, or measured steps, or powerful 
enougli to excite violent action, they equally 
belong to dancing. In order to demon- 
strate the truth of the above remarks, it 
may be necessary to mention the present 
state of dancing in savage life ; the natives 
of Africa, particulariy, carry it to the most 
extravagant excess, a few strinsts stretched 
across a dried calabash struck by the fin- 
gers, producing a set of deep discordant 
tones, is a sufficient stimulus for the inlia- 
bitanls of a village to weary nature com- 
pletely, and this passion never leaves even 
the unhappy slaves conveyed ihence to the 
West Indies and America, who dance away 
tliose hours granted them for repose. The 
Indians of North America, more ferocious 
in their manners, have their war dances, 
and others suited to tlie dreadful operation 
of torturing their prisoners. The natives 
of the places discovered by Captain Cook, 
entertained him witli well contrived move- 
ments by their experienced dancers, and 
he witnessed otliers locally festive and fune- 
real ; and tile Mexicans dance in a barba- 
rous style to the sounds of drums and pipes, 
similar to those of Otaheite. 
Having thus shewn that dancing is less 
an art, than a natural effect of joy and 
lively musical sounds, it will be necessary 
to trace its history when polished and im- 
proved by art, some indeed consider it as 
a branch of the tine arts, and closely allied 
to dramatic poetry. Dancing was used 
by the refined nations of antiquity gs a 
