Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/311

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DUIDA DUKE 303 1845-'6), and Des methodes dans Us sciences de raisonnement (1866 et seq.}. DUIDA, a remarkable and nearly isolated mountain in the state of Guayana, Venezuela, about 20 m. N. E. of the junction of the Casi- quiare and the Orinoco; lat. 3 10' N., Ion. 66 12' W. Although it is only about 8,000 ft. in height, it is so nearly perpendicular that its summit has never yet been reached by man. Its S. and W. sides are bare and stony to the top ; the others, which are less steep, are cov- ered with dense forests. At the beginning and end of the rainy season small shifting flames are seen to play about the highest peaks, inducing the belief that the mountain is a volcano ; but they are probably due to gaseous exhalations. Its rock crystals and quartzes were once taken for diamonds and emeralds, to which error the mission of Esme- ralda, a few miles from its base, owes its name. The mountain serves as a landmark to the traveller on the Orinoco for a great distance. 1) II LI IS, Caius Nepos, consul of Kome in 260 B. C., noted for his naval victory over the Carthaginians, the first success ever obtained by the Eomans on the sea. The battle was fought oif Mylae in Sicily, and the triumph of Duilius is attributed to his invention of grap- pling irons, which enabled his men to fight the enemy hand to hand. On his return to Kome he was honored with a magnificent tri- umph, and a column was raised to commemo- rate the event. DUISBURG, a town of Prussia, in the province of the Rhine, 15 m. N. by E. of Diisseldorf, near the confluence of the Ruhr with the Rhine, on the railway from Cologne to Minden ; pop. in 1871, 30,520. It is surrounded with dilapi- dated walls, has a gymnasium, a female high school, a library, a botanic garden, and man- ufactories of woollens, cotton, velvet, leather, tobacco, and porcelain. In the vicinity are extensive sugar refineries and iron forges. DUJARDIN, Felix, a French naturalist, born in Tours, April 5, 1801, died April 8, 1860. He was the son of a poor watchmaker, and was dependent on his own exertions for his educa- tion. From 1827 to 1834 he had charge of the public course of lectures in Tours on geom- etry and chemistry as applied to the arts. In the latter year he went to Paris to prepare a geological description of Touraine, but was persuaded by Dutrochet to turn his attention to zoology. He devoted himself chiefly to in- vestigations among the infusoria, and arrived at conclusions which led him to oppose the theories of Ehrenberg and to make a new clas- sification. In 1839 he was appointed professor of mineralogy at Toulouse, and afterward of botany and zoology at Rennes. His principal works are: Observations sur les rhizopodes (1835); Promenades (Fun naturaliste (1837) ; Histoire naturelle des zoophytes infusoires (1841); Manuel complet de Vobservatewr au microscope (1842) ; and Histoire naturelle des Tielminthes (1844). He left unfinished a work 276 VOL. vr. 20 entitled Histoire naturelle des zoophytes echi- nodermes, which was edited and published by M. Hupe in 1861. He founded in 1839 a sci- entific journal entitled Hermes. DUJARDIN, Earel, a Dutch painter, born in Amsterdam about 1640, died in Venice, Nov. 20, 1678. He was a pupil of Berghem ; studied in Italy, where his pictures were very popular ; went to Lyons, got into debt, and married his landlady, whom he soon deserted, and returned to Amsterdam. To escape from his wife he again went to Italy. On his death the Vene- tian senate paid him unusual honors. In spite of dissipation, he left a great number of paint- ings, principally of pastoral scenes and animals. DUKE (Lat. dux, a leader ; Fr. duc a title belonging originally to the commanders of ar- mies. In the later periods of the Roman em- pire it designated the military governor of a district, and until the time of Theodosius the rank of dukes was esteemed inferior to that of counts. Subsequently their dignity greatly in- creased, several provinces often became sub- ject to a single duke, and the title was not disdained by conquerors such as Alaric and Attila. The northern barbarians who invaded the territories of declining Rome adopted, if they had not before borrowed, the titles of duke and count; but among these martial tribes the dukes, as military chieftains, acquired a decided preeminence over the counts, who both in the Byzantine and western empires had been employed chiefly in civil offices. Under the successors of Charlemagne, the governors of provinces generally assumed the title of duke, and achieved an almost absolute inde- pendence. The kings of France finally re- united to the crown the dukedoms which had been severed from it; and the ducal sover- eignty being extinguished, the name has re- mained in France only as a hereditary title of dignity. Prior to the revolution dukes were created by letters patent of the king, and were of three kinds, of which those designated as dukes and peers held the first rank, and had a seat in parliament, and certain honors and pre- rogatives at court. The dignity of the second class or hereditary dukes was transmissible to their male children, but that of the dukes by brevet ceased with themselves. The ducal and all other titles of nobility, abolished at the com- mencement of the revolution, were reestab- lished in 1806. The rank of duke in the royal family of France was superior to that of prince, inferior sometimes to that of count, and always to that of dauphin. In other great families also the title was higher than that of prince. In Germany, where the idea of sovereignty is inseparable from the ducal dignity, this title (Ger. Herzog) comes immediately after that of royalty. Under the emperor Henry IV. dukes began to usurp those sovereign rights which they have since exercised, and six dukedoms were then established. Several of the primi- tive dukes have exchanged their title for that of grand duke. The princes of the house of