DOWLER, Bennet, physician, b. in Elizabeth (now Moundsville), Ohio co., Va., 16 April, 1797; d. in New Orleans in 1879. He was graduated M. D. at the University of Maryland in 1827, and settled in Clarksburg, Harrison co., Va., where he was postmaster for four years, but in 1836 he removed to New Orleans, and was for a few years editor of the New Orleans “Medical and Surgical Journal.” Early in his career he began experimenting upon the human body, immediately or soon after death, and the results of his investigations, comprising some important discoveries relative to contractibility, calorification, capillary circulation, etc., were published in 1843-'4. Since then these and other original experiments have been extended and generalized by him. His researches on animal heat, in health, in disease, and after death, which have been published in various medical journals, have disclosed the fact that post-mortem calorification after death from fever, cholera, sunstroke, etc., rises in some cases much higher than its antecedent maximum during the progress of the trouble. Dr. Dowler began in 1845 a series of experiments in comparative physiology on the alligator of Louisiana, which led him to conclude that, after decapitation, the head and, especially, the trunk afford evidences of possessing the faculties of sensation and motion for hours, and that the headless trunk, deprived of all the senses but that of feeling, still retains the powers of perception and volition, and may act with intelligence in avoiding an irritant. As the result of those discoveries, he held that the functions and structure of the nervous system constitute a unity inconsistent with the assumption of four distinct and separate sets of nerves, and a corresponding four-fold set of functions. He was a fellow and founder of the Royal society of northern antiquities, Copenhagen, a permanent member of the American medical association, and founded the New Orleans academy of sciences. He is the author of a “Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853” (1854), and various other contributions to medical science.
DOWLING, John, clergyman, b. in Pavensey, Sussex, England, 13 May, 1807; d. in Middletown, N. Y., 4 July, 1878. In an irregular way he acquired a classical education, and became a tutor in a classical institution in London in 1826. Three years later he established a boarding-school a few miles from Oxford, where he taught until 1832. In that year he emigrated to the United States and united with the Baptist church in Catskill, N. Y., where he was ordained. In 1834 he removed to Newport, R. I., and two years later was called to a church in New York. He afterward preached in Providence, Philadelphia, Newark, and other places. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Transylvania university. Dr. Dowling's published works include “Vindication of the Baptists” (New York); “Exposition of the Prophecies” (1840); “Defence of the Protestant Scriptures” (1843); “History of Romanism” (1845), of which 30,000 copies were sold in less than ten years; “Power of Illustration”; “Nights and Mornings”; and “Judson Offering.” He edited a Conference hymn-book (1868); Noel's work on “Baptism,” the works of Lorenzo Dow, Conyer's “Middleton, on the Conformity of Popery and Paganism”; “Memoir of the Missionary Jacob Thomas”; and a translation from the French of Dr. Cote's work on “Romanism.” His son John W. died in 1892.
DOWNER, Samuel, manufacturer, b. in Dorchester, Mass., 8 March, 1807; d. there, 20 Sept., 1881. He left school at fourteen, spent six years in a shipping house in Boston, and was received into partnership by his father, a West India merchant. He afterward engaged in the manufacture of sperm oil and candles, and in 1854 directed a series of experiments in producing hydro-carbon oils by distillation from various substances. From a kind of bituminous coal known as Albertite he obtained what is now called kerosene. The demand for this oil increased rapidly, and it was obtained from the Albertite till the discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania in 1861. Another result of these experiments, made principally by Mr. Joshua Merrill, superintendent of the Downer works, was the discovery in 1869 of “mineral sperm oil,” and these and other products of the distillation of crude petroleum are manufactured by the company under Mr. Merrill's patents.
DOWNES, John, author, b. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 4 Sept., 1799; d. in Washington, D. C., 30 Sept., 1882. His father, John Downes, of New Haven, Conn., a descendant of one of the regicides of that name, died when his son was a few months old, and the mother removed to Shrewsbury, Mass. After his marriage, John removed to Boston and adopted music as a profession. He afterward became proficient as a wood-engraver and as a mathematician. After serving for a time on the board of the U. S. commission for the northeast boundary survey, he resided for a year or two in Worcester, and was engaged in making wood engravings for John W. Barber's historical collections. In 1842 Mr. Downes removed to Philadelphia, where he published the “U. S. Almanac,” and other astronomical and mathematical works. He removed to Washington, D. C., in 1856, and for more than twenty years was employed as a computer for the U. S. coast survey. When the “U. S. Nautical Almanac” was established, Mr. Downes was the first to receive an appointment as a computer, and retained it till his death. He collected many rare books. He was the author of “Peter Parley's Almanacs for Old and Young” (1836-'7); “Botany” (Boston, 1840); United States “Almanac Complete, or Ephemeris” (Philadelphia, 1843-'4). He also calculated mathematical tables, but only a part of them have been published.
DOWNES, John, naval officer, b. in Canton, Mass., in 1786; d. in Charleston, S. C, 11 Aug., 1855. He entered the navy as a midshipman in June, 1802; was in the frigate “New York” during the war with Tripoli, and distinguished himself in a boat attack upon Tripolitan feluccas. In March, 1807, he was made a lieutenant, and in the war of 1812 he served as executive officer of the frigate “Essex,” Capt. Porter, during her cruise in the Pacific. Among her numerous prizes was the whale-ship “Georgiana,” which Capt. Porter fitted as a cruiser, with sixteen guns, named the “Essex Junior,” and placed under the command of Lieut. Downes, who retained this place until the capture of the “Essex” and the conversion of the “Essex Junior” into a cartel, 28 March, 1814. He was promoted to the rank of master commandant in 1813, and two years later commanded the brig “Epervier” in the squadron employed against Algiers under Decatur, and captured, 17 June, 1815, the Algerine frigate “Nashouda.” Two days afterward the “Epervier” and three of the smaller vessels of the squadron captured the Algerine brig of war “Estido,” twenty-two guns and 180 men, off Cape Palos. After the conclusion of peace with Algiers, Decatur transferred Downes to his own ship, the “Guerrière.” He became captain in March, 1817, and from 1819 till 1821 commanded the frigate “Macedonia” in the Pacific. In 1828-'9 he commanded the “Java”
