Alexandria. His ship proving unseaworthy put into Taranto, and as Naples was then at war with France, all the French passengers were made prisoners. On May 22, they were carried by ship to Messina, whence, with the exception of Dolomieu, they embarked for the coast of France. Dolomieu had been an object of the hatred of the Neapolitan court since 1783, when he revealed to the grand master of his order its designs against Malta, and the calumnies of his enemies on that island served now as a pretext for his detention. He was confined in a pestilential iungeon, where, clothed in rags, and having nothing but a little straw for a bed, he languished during 21 mouths. To the complaint that if unsupplied with sorns necessary he should die, his jailer replied, " What does it matter to me if you do ] I have to give account to the king of nothing but your bones." Dolomieu, however, did not abandon himself to despair. Deprived of writing materials, he made a piece of wood his pen, and with the smoke of his lamp for ink he wrote upon the margins of a Bible, the only book he still possessed, his Traite de philosophic miner a- logique and Jfemoire sur I espece minerale. Friends entreated, but in vain, for his liberty; it was with difficulty that they succeeded in furnishing him with a little assistance, and it was only by virtue of a special clause in the treaty between France and Naples that, on March 15, 1801, he was released. On his arrival in France he commenced the duties of the chair of mineralogy at the museum of natural history, to which, after the death of Daubenton, he had been elected in January 1799. His course of lectures concluded, he revisited Switzerland. Returning thence he reached the residence of bis brother- in-law at Chateau-Neuf, in the department of Saone-et- Loire, where he was seized with a fever, to which in a few days he succumbed, November 25, 1801. Dolomieu s geological theories are remarkable for originality and bold ness of conception. The materials constituting the primordial globe he held to have arranged themselves according to their specific gravities, so as to have constituted a fluid central sphere, a solid crust external to this, next a stratum of water, and lastly the atmosphere. Where water penetrated through the crust, solidification took place in the underlying fluid mass, which enlarging iu consequence produced rifts iu the superincumbent rocks. Water rushing down through the rifts became decomposed, and the resulting effervescence occasioned submarine volcanoes. The crust of the earth he believed to be continually in creasing in thickness, owing to the deposition of aqueous rocks, and to the gradual solidification of the "molten in terior, so that the volcanic eruptions and other geological phenomena of former must have been of far greater mag
nitude and frequency than those of recent times.
Lacepede, "]&oge historique de Dolomieu," in Memoircs de In classe des sciences de V Institut,?>()$ ; Thomson, in Annals of Philo sophy, vol. xii., p. 161, 1808.
DOLPHIN (Delpkinus delphis), the common name of a species of whale belonging to the family Delphinidce. It usually measures from 6 to 8 feet in length, and is thickest near the centre, where the dorsal fin rises to a height of 9 or 10 inches, and whence the body tapers towards both extremities. The forehead descends abruptly to the base of the slightly flattened beak, which is about 6 inches long, and is separated from the forehead by a transverse depres sion. The mouth is armed with sharp, slightly curved teeth, of uniform size, varying in number from 40 to 50 on each side of either jaw, and those above locking exactly with the teeth below. The aperture of the ear in dolphins is exceedingly minute ; the eyes ara of moderate size and the blow-hole is crescent-shaped. The colour of the upper surface is black, becoming lighter on the flanks, and per fectly white on the parts beneath. Like many other cetaceans, the dolphin is gregarious, and large herds are often seen following ships in full sail, and disporting them selves on the surface of the water as if delighted at the near proximity of man. In such exercises they exhibit the most remarkable agility, individuals having been known to leap to such a height out of the water as to fall upon the deck. Their aquatic gambols and apparent relish for human society have attracted the attention of mariners iu all ages, and have probably given rise to the many fabulous stories told of dolphins by ancient historians. Their appearance at sea was formerly regarded as a good omea by sailors, for although it presaged a tempest, yet by thus giving warning of its approach, it enabled them, in those days when the mariner s compass was unknown, and navigators had consequently to keep within sight of the coast, to steer for a place of safety. The dolphin is exceedingly voracious, feeding on fish, cuttlefishes, and crustaceans. On the south coast of England it is said to live chiefly on pilchard and mackerel, and when in pursuit of these it is often taken in the fishermen s nets. The female brings forth a single young one, which she nurses with the greatest care. Her milk is both abundant and rich, and during the operation of suckling the mother floats in a slightly sidelong position, so as to allow of the necessary respiration in herself and her young. The dolphin was formerly supposed to be a fish, and as such was allowed to be eaten by Roman Catholics on those occasions when the use of flesh was prohibited, and it seems to have been esteemed as a great delicacy by the French. It is said to show great fondness for music, and according to tho ancient fable, Arion was said to have escaped on the back of a dolphin which he had first charmed by his music. It is an inhabitant of the temperate regions of the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, and has been observed as far north as the coast of Greenland. It is much more common in English than in Scottish waters. Among the seafaring population of Britain the name " dolphin " is most usually given to the beautifully coloured fish Coryphcena hippuris the dorado of the Portuguese, and it is to the latter the poet is alluding when he speaks of " the dying dolphin s changing hues " while the true dolphin is usually spoken of as the " bottlenose " or " bottlehead." This species occurs as a fossil in the sandy downs of tho French coast.
DOMAT, or Daumat, Jean (1625-1696), a celebrated French jurisconsult, born at Clermont in Auvergne, on the 30th November 1625. He was closely in sympathy with the Port-Royalists, was intimate with Pascal, and at the death of that celebrated philosopher was intrusted with his private papers. He is principally known from his elaborate legal digest, in four volumes 4to, under the title of Lois Civiles dans leur Ordre Naturel Suivies Ju Droit Pitblique (1689), an undertaking for which Louis XIV. settled on him a pension of two thousand livres. This is one of the most important works on the science of law that Franca has produced. Domat endeavours to found all law upon ethical or religious principles, his motto being L homme eft fait par Dieu et pour Dieu. An English translation of the Lois Civiles by Strahan, was published in 1722, and passed through several editions. Besides the Lois Civiles, Domat made in Latin a selection of the most common laws in the collections of Justinian. This work, however, did not appear until after his death, when it was published separately (Paris, 1700, Amsterdam, 1703) under the title of Legum Delectus, and was subsequently appended to the Lois Civiles. It was translated into English by Strahan. Domat died at Paris on the 14th March 1696.
See in the Journal des Savants for 1843 several papers on Domnt by Victor Cousin, giving much information not otherwise accessible.
