Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

DUCAS (15th cent.), Byzantine historian, flourished under Constantine XIII. (XI.) Dragases, the last emperor of the East, about 1450. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. He was the grandson of Michael Ducas (see above). After the fall of Constantinople, he was employed in various diplomatic missions by Dorino and Domenico Gateluzzi, princes of Lesbos, where he had taken refuge. He was successful in securing a semi-independence for Lesbos until 1462, when it was taken and annexed to Turkey by Sultan Mahommed II. It is known that Ducas survived this event, but there is no record of his subsequent life. He was the author of a history of the period 1341-1462; his work thus continues that of Gregoras and Cantacuzene, and supplements Phrantzes and Chalcondyles. There is a preliminary chapter of chronology from Adam to John Palaeologus I. Although barbarous in style, the history of Ducas is both judicious and trustworthy, and it is the most valuable source for the closing years of the Greek empire. The account of the capture of Constantinople is of special importance. Ducas was a strong supporter of the union of the Greek and Latin churches, and is very bitter against those who rejected even the idea of appealing to the West for assistance against the Turks.

The history, preserved (without a title) in a single Paris MS., was
first edited by I. Bullialdus (Bulliaud) (Paris, 1649); later editions
are in the Bonn _Corpus scriptorum Hist. Byz._, by I. Bekker (1834)
and Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, clvii. The Bonn edition contains a
15th century Italian translation by an unknown author, found by
Leopold Ranke in one of the libraries of Venice, and sent by him to
Bekker.

DUCASSE, PIERRE EMMANUEL ALBERT, BARON (1813-1893), French historian, was born at Bourges on the 16th of November 1813. In 1849 he became aide-de-camp to Prince Jerome Bonaparte, ex-king of Westphalia, then governor of the Invalides, on whose commission he wrote _Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la campagne de 1812 en Russie_ (1852). Subsequently he published _Memoires du roi Joseph_ (1853-1855), and, as a sequel, _Histoire des negociations diplomatiques relatives aux traites de Morfontaine, de Luneville et d'Amiens_, together with the unpublished correspondence of the emperor Napoleon I. with Cardinal Fesch (1855-1856). From papers in the possession of the imperial family he compiled _Memoires du prince Eugene_ (1858-1860) and _Refutation des memoires du duc de Raguse_ (1857), part of which was inserted by authority at the end of volume ix. of the _Memoires_. He was attache to Jerome's son, Prince Napoleon, during the Crimean War, and wrote a _Precis historique des operations militaires en Orient, de mars 1854 a octobre 1855_ (1857), which was completed many years later by a volume entitled _La Crimee et Sebastopol de 1853 a 1856, documents intimes et inedits_, followed by the complete list of the French officers killed or wounded in that war (1892). He was also employed by Prince Napoleon on the _Correspondance_ of Napoleon I., and afterwards published certain letters, purposely omitted there, in the _Revue historique_. These documents, subsequently collected in _Les Rois freres de Napoleon_ (1883), as well as the _Journal de la reine Catherine de Westphalie_ (1893), were edited with little care and are not entirely trustworthy, but their publication threw much light on Napoleon I. and his entourage. His _Souvenirs d'un officier du 2^e Zouaves_, and _Les Dessous du coup d'etat_ (1891), contain many piquant anecdotes, but at times degenerate into mere tittle-tattle. Ducasse was the author of some slight novels, and from the practice of this form of literature he acquired that levity which appears even in his most serious historical publications.

DUCAT, the name of a coin, generally of gold, and of varying value, formerly in use in many European countries. It was first struck by Roger II. of Sicily as duke of Apulia, and bore an inscription "_Sit tibi, Christe, datus, quem tu regis, iste ducatus_" (Lord, thou rulest this duchy, to thee be it dedicated); hence, it is said, the name. Between 1280 and 1284 Venice also struck a gold coin, known first as the ducat, afterwards as the zecchino or sequin, the ducat becoming merely a money of account. The ducat was also current in Holland, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark (see NUMISMATICS). A gold coin termed a ducat was current in Hanover during the reigns of George I. and George III. A pattern gold coin was also struck by the English mint in 1887 for a proposed decimal coinage. On the reverse was the inscription "one ducat" within an oak wreath; above "one hundred pence," and below the date between two small roses. There is a gold coin termed a ducat in the Austria-Hungary currency, of the value of nine shillings and fourpence.

DU CHAILLU, PAUL BELLONI (1835-1903), traveller and anthropologist, was born either at Paris or at New Orleans (accounts conflict) on the 31st of July 1835. In his youth he accompanied his father, an African trader in the employment of a Parisian firm, to the west coast of Africa. Here, at a station on the Gabun, the boy received some education from missionaries, and acquired an interest in and knowledge of the country, its natural history, and its natives, which guided him to his subsequent career. In 1852 he exhibited this knowledge in the New York press, and was sent in 1855 by the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia on an African expedition. From 1855 to 1859 he regularly explored the regions of West Africa in the neighbourhood of the equator, gaining considerable knowledge of the delta of the Ogowe river and the estuary of the Gabun. During his travels he saw numbers of the great anthropoid apes called the gorilla (possibly the great ape described by Carthaginian navigators), then known to scientists only by a few skeletons. A subsequent expedition, from 1863 to 1865, enabled him to confirm the accounts given by the ancients of a pygmy people inhabiting the African forests. Narratives of both expeditions were published, in 1861 and 1867 respectively, under the titles _Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the Chace of the Gorilla, Crocodile, and other Animals_; and _A Journey to Ashango-land, and further penetration into Equatorial Africa_. The first work excited much controversy on the score of its veracity, but subsequent investigation proved the correctness of du Chaillu's statements as to the facts of natural history; though possibly some of the adventures he described as happening to himself were reproductions of the hunting stories of natives (see _Proc. Zool. Soc._ vol. i., 1905, p. 66). The map accompanying _Ashango-land_ was of unique value, but the explorer's photographs and collections were lost when he was forced to flee from the hostility of the natives. After some years' residence in America, during which he wrote several books for the young founded upon his African adventures, du Chaillu turned his attention to northern Europe, and published in 1881 _The Land of the Midnight Sun_, in 1889 _The Viking Age_, and in 1900 _The Land of the Long Night_. He died at St Petersburg on the 29th of April 1903.

DUCHENNE, GUILLAUME BENJAMIN AMAND (1806-1875), French physician, was born on the 17th of September 1806 at Boulogne, the son of a sea-captain. He was educated at Douai, and then studied medicine in Paris until the year 1831, when he returned to his native town to practise his profession. Two years later he first tried the effect of electro-puncture of the muscles on a patient under his care, and from this time on devoted himself more and more to the medical applications of electricity, thereby laying the foundation of the modern science of electro-therapeutics. In 1842 he removed to Paris for the sake of its wider clinical opportunities, and there he worked until his death over thirty years later. His greatest work, _L'Electrisation localisee_ (1855), passed through three editions during his lifetime, though by many his _Physiologie des mouvements_ (1867) is considered his masterpiece. He published over fifty volumes containing his researches on muscular and nervous diseases, and on the applications of electricity both for diagnostic purposes and for treatment. His name is especially connected with the first description of locomotor ataxy, progressive muscular atrophy, pseudo-hypertrophic paralysis, glosso-labio laryngeal paralysis and other nervous troubles. He died in Paris on the 17th of September 1875.

For a detailed life see _Archives generales de medicine_ (December
1875), and for a complete list of his works the 3rd edition of
_L'Electrisation localisee_ (1872).

DU CHESNE [Latinized DUCHENIUS, QUERNEUS, or QUERCETANUS], ANDRE (1584-1640), French geographer and historian, generally styled the father of French history, was born at Ile-Bouchard, in the province of Touraine, in May 1584. He was educated at Loudun and afterwards at Paris. From his earliest years he devoted himself to historical and geographical research, and his first work, _Egregiarum seu selectarum lectionum et antiquitatum liber_, published in his eighteenth year, displayed great erudition. He enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, a native of the same district with himself, through whose influence he was appointed historiographer and geographer to the king. He died in 1640, in consequence of having been run over by a carriage when on his way from Paris to his country house at Verriere. Du Chesne's works were very numerous and varied, and in addition to what he published, he left behind him more than 100 folio volumes of manuscript extracts now preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale (L. Delisle, _Le Cabinet des manuscrits de la bibliotheque imperiale_, t. L, 333-334). Several of his larger works were continued by his only son Francois du Chesne (1616-1693), who succeeded him in the office of historiographer to the king. The principal works of Andre du Chesne are--_Les Antiquites et recherches de la grandeur et majeste des rois de France_ (Paris, 1609), _Les Antiquites et recherches des villes, chateaux, &c., de toute la France_ (Paris, 1609), _Histoire d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse, et d'Irelande_ (Paris, 1614), _Histoire des Papes jusqu'a Paul V_ (Paris, 1619), _Histoire des rois, ducs, et comtes de Bourgogne_ (1619-1628, 2 vols. fol.), _Historiae Normanorum scriptores antiqui_ (1619, fol., now the only source for some of the texts), and his _Historiae Francorum scriptores_ (5 vols. fol., 1636-1649). This last was intended to comprise 24 volumes, and to contain all the narrative sources for French history in the middle ages; only two volumes were published by the author, his son Francois published three more, and the work remained unfinished. Besides these du Chesne published a great number of genealogical histories of illustrious families, of which the best is that of the house of Montmorency. His _Histoire des cardinaux francais_ (2 vols. fol. 1660-1666) and _Histoire des chanceliers et gardes des sceaux de France_ (1630) were published by his son Francois. Andre also published a translation of the _Satires_ of Juvenal, and editions of the works of Alcuin, Abelard, Alain Chartier and Etienne Pasquier.

DUCHESNE, LOUIS MARIE OLIVIER (1843- ), French scholar and ecclesiastic, was born at Saint Servan in Brittany on the 13th of September 1843. Two scientific missions--to Mount Athos in 1874 and to Asia Minor in 1876--appeared at first to incline him towards the study of the ancient history of the Christian churches of the East. Afterwards, however, it was the Western church which absorbed almost his whole attention. In 1877 he received the degree of _docteur es lettres_ with two remarkable theses, a dissertation _De Macario magnete_, and an _Etude sur le Liber pontificalis_, in which he explained with unerring critical acumen the origin of that celebrated chronicle, determined the different editions and their interrelation, and stated precisely the value of his evidence. Immediately afterwards he was appointed professor at the Catholic Institute in Paris, and for eight years presented the example and model, then rare in France, of a priest teaching church history according to the rules of scientific criticism. His course, bold even to the point of rashness in the eyes of the traditionalist exegetists, was at length suspended. In November 1885 he was appointed lecturer at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. In 1886 he published volume i. of his learned edition of the _Liber pontificalis_ (completed in 1892 by volume ii.), in which he resumed and completed the results he had attained in his French thesis. In 1888 he was elected member of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and was afterwards appointed director of the French school of archaeology at Rome. Much light is thrown upon the Christian origins, especially those of France, by his _Origines du culte chretien, etude sur la liturgie latine avant Charlemagne_ (1889; Eng. trans. by M.L. McClure, _Christian Worship: its Origin and Evolution_, London, 1902, 2nd ed. 1904); _Memoire sur l'origine des dioceses episcopaux dans l'ancienne Gaule_ (1890), the preliminary sketch of a more detailed work, _Fastes episcopaux dans l'ancienne Gaule_ (vol. i. _Les provinces du sud-est_, 1894, and vol. ii. _L'Aquitaine et les Lyonnaises_, 1899); and _Catalogues episcopaux de la province de Tours_ (1898). When a proposal was set on foot to bring about a reconciliation between the Roman Church and the Christian Churches of the East, the Abbe Duchesne endeavoured to show that the union of those churches was possible under the Roman supremacy, because unity did not necessarily entail uniformity. His _Autonomies ecclesiastiques; eglises separees_ (1897), in which he speaks of the origin of the Anglican Church, but treats especially of the origin of the Greek Churches of the East, was received with scant favour in certain narrow circles of the pontifical court. In 1906 he began to publish, under the title of _Histoire ancienne de l'eglise_, a course of lectures which he had already delivered upon the early ages of the Church, and of which a few manuscript copies were circulated. The second volume appeared in 1908. In these lectures Duchesne touches cleverly upon the most delicate problems, and, without any elaborate display of erudition, presents conclusions of which account must be taken. His incisive style, his fearless and often ruthless criticism, and his wide and penetrating erudition, make him a redoubtable adversary in the field of polemic. The _Bulletin critique_, founded by him, for which he wrote numerous articles, has contributed powerfully to spread the principles of the historical method among the French clergy.

DUCIS, JEAN FRANCOIS (1733-1816), French dramatist and adapter of Shakespeare, was born at Versailles on the 22nd of August 1733. His father, originally from Savoy, was a linen-draper at Versailles; and all through life he retained the simple tastes and straightforward independence fostered by his bourgeois education. In 1768 he produced his first tragedy, _Amelise_. The failure of this first attempt was fully compensated by the success of his _Hamlet_ (1769), and _Romeo et Juliette_ (1772). _Oedipe chez Admete_, imitated partly from Euripides and partly from Sophocles, appeared in 1778, and secured him in the following year the chair in the Academy left vacant by the death of Voltaire. Equally successful was _Le Roi Lear_ in 1783. _Macbeth_ in 1783 did not take so well, and _Jean sans peur_ in 1791 was almost a failure; but _Othello_ in 1792, supported by the acting of Talma, obtained immense applause. Its vivid picturing of desert life secured for _Abufas, ou la famille arabe_ (1795), an original drama, a flattering reception. On the failure of a similar piece, _Phedor et Vladimir ou la famille de Siberie_ (1801), Ducis ceased to write for the stage; and the rest of his life was spent in quiet retirement at Versailles. He had been named a member of the Council of the Ancients in 1798, but he never discharged the functions of the office; and when Napoleon offered him a post of honour under the empire, he refused. Amiable, religious and bucolic, he had little sympathy with the fierce, sceptical and tragic times in which his lot was cast. "Alas!" he said in the midst of the Revolution, "tragedy is abroad in the streets; if I step outside of my door, I have blood to my very ankles. I have too often seen Atreus in clogs, to venture to bring an Atreus on the stage." Though actuated by honest admiration of the great English dramatist, Ducis is not Shakespearian. His ignorance of the English language left him at the mercy of the translations of Pierre Letourneur (1736-1788) and of Pierre de la Place (1707-1793); and even this modified Shakespeare had still to undergo a process of purification and correction before he could be presented to the fastidious criticism of French taste. That such was the case was not, however, the fault of Ducis; and he did good service in modifying the judgment of his fellow countrymen. He did not pretend to reproduce, but to excerpt and refashion; and consequently the French play sometimes differs from its English namesake in everything almost but the name. The plot is different, the characters are different, the _motif_ different, and the scenic arrangement different. To _Othello_, for instance, he wrote two endings. In one of them Othello was enlightened in time and Desdemona escaped her tragic fate. _Le Banquet de l'amitie_, a poem in four cantos (1771), _Au roi de Sardaigne_ (1775), _Discours de reception a l'academie francaise_ (1779), _Epitre a l'amitie_ (1786), and a _Recueil de poesies_ (1809), complete the list of Ducis's publications.

An edition of his works in three volumes appeared in 1813; _Oeuvres
posthumes_ were edited by Campenon in 1826; and _Hamlet_, _Oedipe chez
Admete_, _Macbeth_ and _Abufar_ are reprinted in vol. ii. of Didot's
_Chefs-d'oeuvre tragiques_. See Onesime Leroy, _Etude sur la personne
et les ecrits de Ducis_ (1832), based on Ducis's own memoirs preserved
in the library at Versailles; Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, t.
vi., and _Nouveaux lundis_, t. iv.; Villemain, _Tableau de la litt. au
XVIII^e siecle_.

DUCK. (1) (From the verb "to duck," to dive, put the head under water, in reference to the bird's action, cf. Dutch _duiker_, Ger. _Taucher_, diving-bird, _duiken_, _tauchen_, to dip, dive, Dan. _dukand_, duck, and Ger. _Ente_, duck; various familiar and slang usages are based on analogy with the bird's action), the general English name for a large number of birds forming the greater part of the family _Anatidae_ of modern ornithologists. Technically the term duck is restricted to the female, the male being called drake (cognate with the termination of Ger. _Enterich_), and in one species mallard (Fr. _Malart_).

The _Anatidae_ may be at once divided into six more or less well marked subfamilies--(1) the _Cygninae_ or swans, (2) the _Anserinae_ or geese--which are each very distinct, (3) the _Anatinae_ or freshwater-ducks, (4) those commonly called _Fuligulinae_ or sea-ducks, (5) the _Erismaturinae_ or spiny-tailed ducks, and (6) the _Merginae_ or mergansers.

The _Anatinae_ are the typical group, and it is these only that are considered here. We start with the _Anas boschas_ of Linnaeus, the common wild duck, which from every point of view is by far the most important species, as it is the most plentiful, the most widely distributed, and the best known--being indeed the origin of all the British domestic breeds. It inhabits the greater part of the northern hemisphere, reaching in winter so far as the Isthmus of Panama in the New World, and in the Old being abundant at the same season in Egypt and north-western India, while in summer it ranges throughout the Fur-Countries, Greenland, Iceland, Lapland and Siberia. Most of those which fill British markets are no doubt bred in more northern climes, but a considerable proportion of them are yet produced in the British Islands, though not in anything like the numbers that used to be supplied before the draining of the great fen-country and other marshy places. The wild duck pairs very early in the year--the period being somewhat delayed by hard weather, and the ceremonies of courtship, which require some little time. Soon after these are performed, the respective couples separate in search of suitable nesting-places, which are generally found, by those that remain with us, about the middle of March. The spot chosen is sometimes near a river or pond, but often very far removed from water, and it may be under a furze-bush, on a dry heath, at the bottom of a thick hedge-row, or even in any convenient hole in a tree. A little dry grass is generally collected, and on it the eggs, from 9 to 11 in number, are laid. So soon as incubation commences the mother begins to divest herself of the down which grows thickly beneath her breast-feathers, and adds it to the nest-furniture, so that the eggs are deeply imbedded in this heat-retaining substance--a portion of which she is always careful to pull, as a coverlet, over her treasures when she quits them for food. She is seldom absent from the nest, however, but once, or at most twice, a day, and then she dares not leave it until her mate, after several circling flights of observation, has assured her she may do so unobserved. Joining him the pair betake themselves to some quiet spot where she may bathe and otherwise refresh herself. Then they return to the nest, and after cautiously reconnoitring the neighbourhood, she loses no time in reseating herself on her eggs, while he, when she is settled, repairs again to the waters, and passes his day listlessly in the company of his brethren, who have the same duties, hopes and cares. Short and infrequent as are the absences of the duck when incubation begins, they become shorter and more infrequent towards its close, and for the last day or two of the 28 necessary to develop the young it is probable that she will not stir from the nest at all. When all the fertile eggs are hatched her next care is to get the brood safely to the water. This, when the distance is great, necessarily demands great caution, and so cunningly is it done that but few persons have encountered the mother and offspring as they make the dangerous journey.[1] If disturbed the young instantly hide as they best can, while the mother quacks loudly, feigns lameness, and flutters off to divert the attention of the intruder from her brood, who lie motionless at her warning notes. Once arrived at the water they are comparatively free from harm, though other perils present themselves from its inmates in the form of pike and other voracious fishes, which seize the ducklings as they disport in quest of insects on the surface or dive beneath it. Throughout the summer the duck continues her care unremittingly, until the young are full grown and feathered; but it is no part of the mallard's duty to look after his offspring, and indeed he speedily becomes incapable of helping them, for towards the end of May he begins to undergo his extraordinary additional moult, loses the power of flight, and does not regain his full plumage till autumn. About harvest-time the young are well able to shift for themselves, and then resort to the corn-fields at evening, where they fatten on the scattered grain. Towards the end of September or beginning of October both old and young unite in large flocks and betake themselves to the larger waters. If long-continued frost prevail, most of the ducks resort to the estuaries and tidal rivers, or even leave these islands almost entirely. Soon after Christmas the return-flight commences, and then begins anew the course of life already described.

For the farmyard varieties, descending from _Anas boschas_, see POULTRY. The domestication of the duck is very ancient. Several distinct breeds have been established, of which the most esteemed from an economical point of view are those known as the Rouen and Aylesbury; but perhaps the most remarkable deviation from the normal form is the so-called penguin-duck, in which the bird assumes an upright attitude and its wings are much diminished in size. A remarkable breed also is that often named (though quite fancifully) the "Buenos-Ayres" duck, wherein the whole plumage is of a deep black, beautifully glossed or bronzed. But this saturation, so to speak, of colour only lasts in the individual for a few years, and as the birds grow older they become mottled with white, though as long as their reproductive power lasts they "breed true." The amount of variation in domestic ducks, however, is not comparable to that found among pigeons, no doubt from the absence of the competition which pigeon-fanciers have so long exercised. One of the most curious effects of domestication in the duck, however, is, that whereas the wild mallard is not only strictly monogamous, but, as Waterton believed, a most faithful husband, remaining paired for life, the civilized drake is notoriously polygamous.

Very nearly allied to the common wild duck are a considerable number of species found in various parts of the world in which there is little difference of plumage between the sexes--both being of a dusky hue--such as _Anas obscura_, the commonest river-duck of America, _A. superciliosa_ of Australia, _A. poecilorhyncha_ of India, _A. melleri_ of Madagascar, _A. xanthorhyncha_ of South Africa, and some others.

Among the other genera of _Anatinae_, we must content ourselves by saying that both in Europe and in North America there are the groups represented by the shoveller, garganey, gadwall, teal, pintail and widgeon--each of which, according to some systematists, is the type of a distinct genus. Then there is the group _Aix_, with its beautiful representatives the wood-duck (_A. sponsa_) in America and the mandarin-duck (_A. galericulata_) in Eastern Asia. Besides there are the sheldrakes (_Tadorna_), confined to the Old World and remarkably developed in the Australian Region; the musk-duck (_Cairina_) of South America, which is often domesticated and in that condition will produce hybrids with the common duck; and finally the tree-ducks (_Dendrocygna_), which are almost limited to the tropics. (For duck-shooting, see SHOOTING.) (A. N.)

2 (Probably derived from the Dutch _doeck_, a coarse linen material, cf. Ger. _Tuch_, cloth), a plain fabric made originally from tow yarns. The cloth is lighter than canvas or sailcloth, and differs from these in that it is almost invariably single in both warp and weft. The term is also used to indicate the colour obtained at a certain stage in the bleaching of flax yarns; it is a colour between half-white and cream, and this fact may have something to do with the name. Most of the flax ducks (tow yarns) appear in this colour, although quantities are bleached or dyed. Some of the ducks are made from long flax, dyed black, and used for kit-bags, while the dyed tow ducks may be used for inferior purposes. The fabric, in its various qualities and colours, is used for an enormous variety of purposes, including tents, wagon and motor hoods, light sails, clothing, workmen's overalls, bicycle tubes, mail and other bags and pocketings. _Russian duck_ is a fine white linen canvas.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] When ducks breed in trees, the precise way in which the young get
to the ground is still a matter of uncertainty. The mother is
supposed to convey them in her bill, and most likely does so, but
they are often simply allowed to fall.

DUCKING and CUCKING STOOLS, chairs used for the punishment of scolds, witches and prostitutes in bygone days. The two have been generally confused, but are quite distinct. The earlier, the Cucking-stool[1] or Stool of Repentance, is of very ancient date, and was used by the Saxons, who called it the _Scealding_ or _Scolding Stool_. It is mentioned in Domesday Book as in use at Chester, being called _cathedra stercoris_, a name which seems to confirm the first of the derivations suggested in the footnote below. Seated on this stool the woman, her head and feet bare, was publicly exposed at her door or paraded through the streets amidst the jeers of the crowd. The Cucking-stool was used for both sexes, and was specially the punishment for dishonest brewers and bakers. Its use in the case of scolding women declined on the introduction in the middle of the 16th century of the Scold's Bridle (see BRANKS), and it disappears on the introduction a little later of the Ducking-stool. The earliest record of the use of this latter is towards the beginning of the 17th century. It was a strongly made wooden armchair (the surviving specimens are of oak) in which the culprit was seated, an iron band being placed around her so that she should not fall out during her immersion. Usually the chair was fastened to a long wooden beam fixed as a seesaw on the edge of a pond or river. Sometimes, however, the Ducking-stool was not a fixture but was mounted on a pair of wooden wheels so that it could be wheeled through the streets, and at the river-edge was hung by a chain from the end of a beam. In sentencing a woman the magistrates ordered the number of duckings she should have. Yet another type of Ducking-stool was called a tumbrel. It was a chair on two wheels with two long shafts fixed to the axles. This was pushed into the pond and then the shafts released, thus tipping the chair up backwards. Sometimes the punishment proved fatal, the unfortunate woman dying of shock. Ducking-stools were used in England as late as the beginning of the 19th century. The last recorded cases are those of a Mrs Ganble at Plymouth (1808); of Jenny Pipes, "a notorious scold" (1809), and Sarah Leeke (1817), both of Leominster. In the last case the water in the pond was so low that the victim was merely wheeled round the town in the chair.

See W. Andrews, _Old Time Punishments_ (Hull, 1890); A.M. Earle,
_Curious Punishments of Bygone Days_ (Chicago, 1896); W.C. Hazlitt,
_Faiths and Folklore_ (London, 1905); Llewellynn Jewitt in _The
Reliquary_, vols. i. and ii. (1860-1862); _Gentleman's Magazine_ for
1732.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Probably from "cuck," to void excrement; but variously connected
with Fr. _coquin_, rascal.

DUCKWEED, the common botanical name for species of _Lemna_ which form a green coating on fresh-water ponds and ditches. The plants are of extremely simple structure and are the smallest and least differentiated of flowering plants. They consist of a so-called "frond"--a flattened green more or less oval structure which emits branches similar to itself from lateral pockets at or near the base. From the under surface a root with a well-developed sheath grows downwards into the water. The flowers, which are rarely found in Britain, are developed in one of the lateral pockets. The inflorescence is a very simple one, consisting of one or two male flowers each comprising a single stamen, and a female flower comprising a flask-shaped pistil. The order Lemnaceae to which they belong is regarded as representing a very reduced type nearly allied to the Aroids. It is represented in Britain by four species of _Lemna_, and a still smaller and simpler plant, _Wolffia_, in which the fronds are only one-twentieth of an inch long and have no roots.

1, _Lemna minor_ (Lesser Duckweed) nat. size.
2, Plant in flower.
3, Inflorescence containing two male flowers each of one stamen, and a
female flower, the whole enclosed in a sheath.
4, _Wolffia arrhiza._

(2, 3, 4 enlarged.)]

DUCKWORTH, SIR JOHN THOMAS (1748-1817), British admiral, was born at Leatherhead, in Surrey, on the 28th of February 1748. He entered the navy in 1759, and obtained his commission as lieutenant in June 1770, when he was appointed to the "Princess Royal," the flagship of Admiral Byron, in which he sailed to the West Indies. While serving on board this vessel he took part in the engagement with the French fleet under Count D'Estaing. In July 1779 he became commander, and was appointed to the "Rover" sloop; in June of the following year he attained the rank of post-captain. Soon afterwards he returned to England in charge of a convoy. The outbreak of the war with France gave him his first opportunity of obtaining marked distinction. Appointed first to the "Orion" and then to the "Queen" in the Channel Fleet, under the command of Lord Howe, he took part in the three days' naval engagement with the Brest fleet, which terminated in a glorious victory on the 1st of June 1794. For his conduct on this occasion he received a gold medal and the thanks of parliament. He next proceeded to the West Indies, where he was stationed for some time at St Domingo. In 1798 he commanded the "Leviathan" in the Mediterranean, and had charge of the naval detachment which, in conjunction with a military force, captured Minorca. Early in 1799 he was raised to the rank of rear-admiral, and sent to the West Indies to succeed Lord Hugh Seymour. During the voyage out he captured a valuable Spanish convoy of eleven merchantmen. In March 1801 he was the naval commander of the combined force which reduced the islands of St Bartholomew and St Martin, a service for which he was rewarded with the order of the Bath and a pension of L1000 a year. Promoted to be vice-admiral of the blue, he was appointed in 1804 to the Jamaica station. Two years later, while cruising off Cadiz with Lord Collingwood, he was detached with his squadron to pursue a French fleet that had been sent to the relief of St Domingo. He came up with the enemy on the 6th February 1806, and, after two hours' fighting, inflicted a signal defeat upon them, capturing three of their five vessels and stranding the other two. For this, the most distinguished service of his life, he received the thanks of the Jamaica assembly, with a sword of the value of a thousand guineas, the thanks of the English parliament, and the freedom of the city of London. In 1807 he was again sent to the Mediterranean to watch the movements of the Turks. In command of the "Royal George" he forced the passage of the Dardanelles, but sustained considerable loss in effecting his return, the Turks having strengthened their position while he was being kept in play by their diplomatists and Napoleon's ambassador General Sebastiani. He held the command of the Newfoundland fleet for four years from 1810, and at the close of that period he was made a baronet. In 1815 he was appointed to the chief command at Plymouth, which he held until his death on the 14th of April 1817. Sir John Duckworth sat in parliament for some time as member for New Romney.

See _Naval Chronicle_, xviii.; Ralfe's _Naval Biography_, ii.

DUCLAUX, AGNES MARY F. (1856- ), English poet and critic, who first became known in England under her maiden name of Mary F. Robinson, was born at Leamington on the 27th of February 1856. She was educated at University College, London, devoting herself chiefly to the study of Greek literature. Her first volume of poetry, _A Handful of Honeysuckle_, was published in 1879. Her next work was a translation from Euripides, _The Crowned Hippolytus_ (1881). Monographs on Emily Bronte (1883) and on Marguerite of Angouleme (1886) followed; and _The New Arcadia and other Poems_ (1884) and _An Italian Garden_ (1886) contain some of her best verses. Her poems attracted the attention of the orientalist, James Darmesteter (q.v.), then in Peshawur, and he made an admirable translation of them in French. The acquaintance led to their marriage in 1888, and from that time a large part of her work was done in French. Madame Darmesteter translated her husband's _Etudes anglaises_ into English (1896). Her most considerable prose work is the _Life of Ernest Renan_ (1897). She also wrote the _End of the Middle Ages_ (1888); the volume on _Froissart_ (1894) in the _Grands ecrivains francais_; essays on the Brontes, the Brownings and others, entitled _Grands ecrivains d'Outre-Manche_ (1901). After Darmesteter's death, she married in 1901 Emile Duclaux, the associate of Pasteur, and director of the Pasteur institute. He died in 1904. She published _Retrospect and other Poems_ in 1893, and in 1904 appeared The _Return to Nature, Songs and Symbols_. The qualities of Mary Robinson's work, its conciseness and purity of expression, were only gradually recognized. Her _Collected Poems, Lyrical and Narrative_ were published in 1902.

DUCLOS, CHARLES PINOT (1704-1772), French author, was born at Dinan, in Brittany, in 1704. At an early age he was sent to study at Paris. After some time spent in dissipation he began to cultivate the society of the wits of the time, and became a member of the club or association of young men who published their joint efforts in light literature under the titles of _Recueil de ces messieurs_, _Etrennes de la St-Jean_, _Oeufs de Paques_, &c. His romance of _Acajou and Zirphile_, composed to suit a series of plates which had been engraved for another work, was one of the fruits of this association, and was produced in consequence of a sort of wager amongst its members. Duclos had previously written two other romances, which were more favourably received--_The Baroness de Luz_ (1741), and the _Confessions of the Count de***_ (1747). His first serious publication was the _History of Louis XI._, which is dry and epigrammatical in style, but displays considerable powers of research and impartiality. The reputation of Duclos as an author was confirmed by the publication of his _Considerations sur les moeurs de ce siecle_ (1751), a work justly praised by Laharpe, as containing a great deal of sound and ingenious reflection. It was translated into English and German. The _Memoires pour servir a l'histoire du dix-huitieme siecle_, intended by the author as a sort of sequel to the preceding work, are much inferior in style and matter, and are, in reality, little better than a kind of romance. In consequence of his _History of Louis XI._, he was appointed historiographer of France, when that place became vacant on Voltaire's retirement to Prussia. His _Secret Memoirs of the Reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV._ (for which he was able to utilize the _Memoires_ of Saint Simon, suppressed in 1755), were not published until after the Revolution.

Duclos became a member of the Academy of Inscriptions in 1739, and of the French Academy in 1747, being appointed perpetual secretary in 1747. Both academies were indebted to him not only for many valuable contributions, but also for several useful regulations and improvements. As a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, he composed several memoirs on trial by combat, on the origin and revolutions of the Celtic and French languages, and on scenic representations and the ancient drama. As a member of the French Academy, he assisted in compiling the new edition of the _Dictionary_, which was published in 1762; and he made some just and philosophical remarks on the _Port Royal Grammar_. On several occasions he distinguished himself by vindicating the honour and prerogatives of the societies to which he belonged, and the dignity of the literary character in general. He used to say of himself, "I shall leave behind me a name dear to literary men." The citizens of Dinan, whose interests he always supported with zeal, appointed him mayor of their town in 1744, though he was resident at Paris, and in this capacity he took part in the assembly of the estates of Brittany. Upon the requisition of this body the king granted him letters of nobility. In 1763 he was advised to retire from France for some time, having rendered himself obnoxious to the government by the opinions he had expressed on the dispute between the duc d'Aiguillon and M. de la Chalotais, the friend and countryman of Duclos. Accordingly he set out first for England (1763), then for Italy (1766); and on his return he wrote his _Considerations on Italy_. He died at Paris on the 26th of March 1772. The character of Duclos was singular in its union of impulsiveness and prudence. Rousseau described him very laconically as a man _droit et adroit_. In his manners he displayed a sort of bluntness in society, which frequently rendered him disagreeable; and his caustic wit on many occasions created enemies. To those who knew him, however, he was a pleasant companion. A considerable number of his _bons mots_ have been preserved by his biographers.

A complete edition of the works of Duclos, including an unfinished
autobiography, was published by Auger (1821). See also Saint-Beuve,
_Causeries du lundi_, t. ix.; Rene Kerviler, _La Bretagne et
l'Academie francaise du XVIII^e siecle_ (1889); L. Mandon, _De la
valeur historique des memoires secrets de Duclos_ (1872).

DUCOS, PIERRE ROGER (1754-1816), French politician and director, was born at Dax. He was an advocate when elected deputy to the Convention by the department of the Landes. He sat in the "Plain," i.e. in the party which had no opinion of its own, which always leaned to the stronger side. He voted for the death of Louis XVI., without appeal or delay, but played no noticeable part in the Convention. He was a member of the Council of the Five Hundred, over which he presided on the 18th of Fructidor in the year V. (see FRENCH REVOLUTION). At the end of his term he became a judge of the peace, but after the parliamentary _coup d'etat_ of the 30th of Prairial of the year VIII. he was named a member of the executive Directory, thanks to the influence of Barras, who counted on using him as a passive instrument. Ducos accepted the _coup d'etat_ of Bonaparte on the 18th of Brumaire, and was one of the three provisional consuls. He became vice-president of the senate. The Empire heaped favours upon him, but in 1814 he abandoned Napoleon, and voted for his deposition. He sought to gain the favour of the government of the Restoration, but in 1816 was exiled in virtue of the law against the regicides. He died in March 1816 at Ulm, from a carriage accident. In spite of his absolute lack of talent, he attained the highest of positions--an exceptional fact in the history of the French Revolution.

DUCTLESS GLANDS, in anatomy. A certain number of glands in the body, often of great physiological importance, have no _ducts_ (Lat. _ductus_, from _ducere_, to lead, i.e. vessels, tubes or canals for conveying away fluid or other substance); and their products, known as internal secretions, are at once carried away by the veins or lymphatics which drain them. Among these structures are the _spleen_, the _adrenals_, the _thyroid gland_, the _parathyroids_, the _thymus_ and the _carotid_ and _coccygeal_ bodies. In addition to these the lymphatic glands are described in the article on the lymphatic system (q.v.), and the pineal and pituitary bodies in the article on the brain (q.v.).

From D.J. Cunningham, Cunningham's _Text-book of Anatomy_.]

THE SPLEEN

The human _spleen_ (Gr. [Greek: splen]) is an oval, flattened gland, of a dull purple colour, and about 5 in. long by 3 broad, situated in the upper and back part of the left side of the abdominal cavity. If the right hand is passed round the left side of its owner's body, as far as it will reach, it approximately covers the spleen. The long axis of the organ is obliquely placed so that the upper pole is much nearer the vertebral column than the lower pole. For practical purposes the long axis of the left tenth rib corresponds with that of the spleen. There is an external or parietal surface and an internal or visceral, the latter of which is again subdivided; these surfaces are limited by ventral and dorsal borders. The external, parietal, or phrenic surface is convex to adapt it to the concavity of the diaphragm, against the posterior part of which it lies; external to the diaphragm is the pleural cavity, and more externally still, the ninth, tenth and eleventh ribs. The internal or visceral surface is divided by a prominent ridge into a gastric or anterior and a renal or posterior surface. Sometimes a triangular impression called the basal surface is formed at the lower part of the visceral surface by the left end of the transverse colon, though at other times no such impression is seen. It is probable that the exact shape of the spleen depends a good deal on the amount of distension of the surrounding hollow viscera at the time of death. (For details of the basal surface see D.J. Cunningham, _Journ. Anat. and Phys._ vol. xxix. p. 501.) The gastric surface is concave and adapts itself to the fundus of the stomach, while just in front of the ridge separating the gastric and renal surfaces is the hilum, where the vessels enter and leave the organ; in front of this the tail of the pancreas usually touches the spleen. The renal surface is as a rule smaller than the gastric and, like it, is concave; it is moulded on to the upper part of the outer border of the left kidney and just reaches the left adrenal body. The anterior or ventral border of the spleen has usually two or more notches in it, though these are often also seen on the dorsal border. The whole spleen is surrounded by peritoneum, which is reflected off on to the stomach as the gastro-splenic omentum, and on to the kidney as the lieno-renal ligament; occasionally the lesser sac reaches it near its connexion with the pancreas. Small accessory spleens are fairly often found in the neighbourhood of the spleen, though it is possible that some of these may be haemo-lymph glands (see LYMPHATIC SYSTEM).

Microscopically the spleen has a fibro-elastic coat in which
involuntary muscle is found (fig. 2). This coat sends multitudes of
fine trabeculae into the interior of the organ, which subdivide it
into numbers of minute compartments, in which the red, highly
vascular, spleen pulp is contained. This pulp contains small spherical
masses of adenoid tissue, forming the Malpighian corpuscles, situated
on the terminal branches of the splenic blood-vessels, together with
numerous cells, some of which are red blood corpuscles, others lymph
corpuscles, others contain pigment granules or fat, while others have
in their interior numerous blood corpuscles. The arteries of the
spleen in part end in capillaries from which the veins arise, but more
frequently they open into lacunae or blood spaces, which give origin
to the veins.

_Embryology._--The spleen is developed in the dorsal mesogastrium (see
COELOM AND SEROUS MEMBRANES) from the mesenchyme, or that portion of
the mesoderm, the cells of which lie scattered in a matrix. Large
lymphoid cells are early seen among those of the mesenchyme, but
whether these migrate from the coelomic epithelium, or are originally
mesenchymal is doubtful, though the former seems more probable. The
network of the spleen seems certainly to be derived from cells of the
mesenchyme which lose their nuclei.

_Comparative Anatomy._--The spleen is regarded as the remains of a
mass of lymphoid tissue which, in a generalized type of vertebrate,
stretched all along the alimentary canal. It is absent as a distinct
gland in the Acrania and Cyclostomata. In the fishes it is closely
applied to the U-shaped stomach, and in some of the Elasmobranchs,
e.g. the basking and porbeagle sharks (Selache and Lamna), it is
divided into small lobules. In Protopterus among the Dipnoi it is
enclosed within the walls of the stomach. In the Anura (frogs and
toads) among the Amphibia it is a spherical mass close to the rectum,
and this may be explained by regarding it as derived from a different
part of the original mass, already mentioned, to that which persists
in other vertebrates. In the Iguana among the reptiles the organ has
many notches, and each one corresponds to the point of entrance of a
vessel. In Mammals the notches, when they are present, so frequently
correspond to the points of entrance of arteries at the hilum that the
present writer believes that the former are determined by the latter
in many cases (see F.G. Parsons on the Notches of the Spleen, _J.
Anat. and Phys._ vol. 35, p. 416; also Charnock Bradley, _Proceedings
of R. Soc. Edin._, vol. 24, pt. 6, p. 521). The Monotremata and
Marsupialia have curious Y-shaped spleens. As a rule flesh-eating
animals have larger and more notched spleens than vegetable feeders,
though among the Cetacea the spleen is relatively very small.

[Illustrtion: FIG. 2.--Section of the Spleen seen under a low power.

A, Fibrous capsule. d, Blood-vessels.
b, Trabeculae. e, Spleen pulp.
c, Malpighian corpuscles.]

ADRENAL GLANDS

The adrenal glands or suprarenal capsules are two conical bodies, flattened from before backward, resting on the upper poles of the kidneys close to the sides of the vertebral column; each has an anterior and posterior surface and a concave base which is in contact with the kidney. When viewed from in front the right gland is triangular and the left crescentic. On the anterior surface there is a transverse sulcus or hilum from which a large vein emerges. The arteries are less constant in their points of entry, and are derived from three sources, the phrenic, the abdominal aorta and the renal arteries. The glands are entirely retro-peritoneal, though the right one, even on its anterior surface, is very little covered by peritoneum. In a vertical transverse section each gland is seen to consist of two parts, cortical and medullary. The cortical substance is composed of bundles of cells, separated by a stroma, which have a different appearance in different parts. Most superficially is the zona glomerulosa, then the zona fascicularis, and most deeply the zona reticularis. These names convey a fair idea of the appearance of the bundles. To the naked eye the cortical part is yellow while the medullary is red. The medullary part consists of small islets of cells, which resemble columnar epithelium lying among venous sinuses; these cells are said to be in close connexion with the sympathetic nerve filaments from the great solar plexus.

From D.J. Cunningham, Cunningham's _Text-book of Anatomy_.]

_Embryology._--The generally accepted opinion at present is that the
cortical substance is derived from the coelomic epithelium covering
the mesoderm of the upper (cephalic) portion of the Wolffian body, and
corresponds to the nephrostomes of mesonephridial tubules (see URINARY
SYSTEM), while the medullary part grows out from the sympathetic
ganglia and so is probably ectodermal in origin. J. Janosik, however
(_Archiv. f. mikrosk. Anat._ bd. xxii. 1883 and _Sitzungsber. d.
Wiener Akad._, 1885), thinks that the cortical part is derived from
the germ epithelium covering the upper part of the genital ridge. C.
S. Minot (_Human Embryology_, 1897) believes that the original cells
which grow in from the sympathetic disappear later, and that the adult
medullary cells are derived from the cortical.

In the early human embryo the adrenals are larger than the kidneys,
and at birth they are proportionately much larger than in the adult.
(For literature see. _Development of the Human Body_, J.P. McMurrich,
London, 1906; and _Handbuch der Entwickelungslehre_, by O. Hertwig,
Jena.)

_Comparative Anatomy._--Adrenals are unknown in Amphioxus and the
Dipnoi (mud fish). In the Cyclostomata (hags and lampreys) they are
said by some to arise in connexion with the cephalic part of the
pronephros, though other writers deny their presence at all (see W.E.
Collinge and Swale Vincent, _Anat. Anz._ bd. xii., 1896). In the
Elasmobranchs and Holocephali the medullary and cortical parts are
apparently distinct, the former being represented by a series of
organs situated close to the intercostal arteries, while the latter
may be either median or paired, and, as they are placed between the
kidneys, are often spoken of as interrenals. In the Amphibia the
glands are sunk into the surface of the kidney. In reptiles and birds
they are long lobulated bodies lying close to the testis or ovary and
receiving an adrenal portal vein. In the lower mammals they are not as
closely connected with the kidneys as they are in man, and their shape
is usually oval or spherical.

THE THYROID GLAND

The thyroid body or gland is a deep red glandular mass consisting of two lobes which lie one on each side of the upper part of the trachea and lower part of the larynx; these are joined across the middle line by the isthmus which lies in front of the second and third rings of the trachea. Occasionally, from the top of the isthmus, a nearly but not quite median pyramidal lobe runs up toward the hyoid bone, while in other cases the isthmus may be absent. The gland is relatively larger in women and children than in the adult male. It is enclosed in a capsule of cervical fascia and is supplied by the superior and inferior thyroid arteries on each side, though occasionally a median thyroidea ima artery is present. On microscopical examination the gland shows a large number of closed tubular alveoli, lined by columnar epithelial cells, unsupported by a basement membrane, and filled with colloid or jelly-like material. These are supported by fibrous septa growing in from the true capsule, which is distinct from the capsule of cervical fascia. The lymphatic vessels are large and numerous, and have been shown by E.C. Baber (_Phil. Trans._, 1881) to contain the same colloid material as the alveoli. Accessory thyroids, close to the main gland, are often found.