Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/672

 DANIEL the book was written by a Jew at the time of the greatest oppression of -the Jews by the Syrians, in or about the year 167 B. C. The last of the four empires, according to them, is that of Alexander the Great, the he goat with the great horn which is replaced by small horns ; and the terrible small horn that grew out of these is the cruel oppressor of Israel, Antiochus Epiphanes. The Greek and Latin translations contain several pieces which are not in the Hebrew, and which therefore belong to the parts of the Old Testament called by the Catholics deutero-canonical, and by the Protes- tants apocryphal. They are contained in the Apocrypha of the English Bible under the ti- tles, " The Song of the Three Holy Children," " The History of Susannah," and " The History of Bel and the Dragon." DANIEL, Hermann Adalbert, a German theolo- gian and geographer, born in Kothen, Nov. 18, 1812, died in Leipsic, Sept. 13, 1872. He studied in Halle, and was a professor there till 1870, when he retired to Dresden. As a geog- rapher he is one of the most eminent followers of Ritter, whose life he sketched in the Preus- sische JahrMcher. His works include Thesau- rus Hymnologicus (5 vols., 1841-'56), Codex Liturgicus (3 vols., 1847-'54),. Lehrluch der Geographic (31st ed., 1872), Leitfaden der Ge- ographic (68th ed., 1872), and Handbuch der Geographic (3d ed., 4 vols., 1870-'72). DANIEL, Samuel, an English author, born near Taunton, Somersetshire, in 1562, died at Beck- ington, Oct. 14, 1619. He was the son of a music master, and was educated at Magdalen hall, Oxford. He devoted himself while in the university to the study of poetry and history, and left it in 1582 without taking his degree. He resided for some time with the earl of Pem- broke, and after the death of Spenser was vol- untary laureate to Queen Elizabeth, but was superseded by Ben Jonson. During the reign of James he was appointed gentleman extraor- dinary and groom of the privy chamber to Queen Anne. His poems are numerous, com- prising an epic in six books on the wars of the Roses, dramatic pieces, and short poems. He wrote in prose a "Defence of Rhyme," and a history of England from the Norman conquest to the end of the reign of Edward III. DAMELL, John Frederick, an English physicist, born in London, March 12, 1790, died there, March 13, 1845. He was a pupil of Brande, and afterward began business as a sugar refiner. In 1816 he founded, in connection with Prof. Brande, the "Quarterly Journal of Science," of which they published the first 20 vol- umes. In 1820 he published a description of a new hygrometer, by which for the first time regular and accurate observations on the dry- ness and moisture of the air were made prac- ticable. His great work, " Meteorological Es- says " (1 823), was the first attempt to explain the principles of meteorology by the general laws regulating the temperature and constitu- tion of gases and vapors. One of the most in- DANIELL teresting of his theories was that by which he accounted for the horary oscillations or peri- odic daily rise and fall of the barometer, and predicted a fall near the poles coincident with the rise at the equator, a conjecture afterward confirmed by observation. In 1824 he pub- lished an essay on "Artificial Climate," and about the same time became managing director of the continental gas company. He also in- vented a process for extracting inflammable gas from resin. On the establishment of King's college in 1831 he was appointed professor of chemistry, which office he held until his death. About 1831 he published an account of his new pyrometer for measuring high tempera- tures, such as are employed in fusing metals, in furnaces, &c. Thenceforth he gave his at- tention principally to voltaic electricity. In 1836, in a paper communicated to the royal society, he described his improvement in the voltaic battery, by which he showed how a powerful and continuous current may be kept up for an unlimited period. In 1839 appeared his " Introduction to Chemical Philosophy," a treatise on the molecular forces. He was the only person who ever received the three medals in the gift of the royal society, of which he was a zealous member, and for the last six years of his life foreign secretary. He ex- pired suddenly of apoplexy. DAMELL, Samuel, an English artist and trav- eller, born in 1777, died in the island of Cey- lon in 1811. He spent three years at the Cape of Good Hope, and then visited the interior of Africa, making sketches of the scenery and people, which he brought to England in 1804, when they were published, with an account of the animals of southern Africa. He afterward went to the island of Ceylon, and during a residence of six years collected a large amount of similar materials, one volume of which was published, with a description of that country and its inhabitants, in 1808. DAMELL, Thomas, an English landscape paint- er and engraver, born in 1749, died in 1840. In company with his nephew, William, he made an extraordinary journey through India, preparing sketches and illustrations of the scenery, which were afterward published. He was originally a heraldry painter, and became fellow of the royal, Asiatic, and antiquarian so^ cieties. He published several works on India. DAMELL, William, an English painter and en- graver, born in 1769, died in 1837. He set out at the age of 14, in company with his uncle Thomas, on an artistic exploration of the pen- ninsula of Hindostan. They commenced their journey at Cape Comortn, and sketched almost everything beautiful or interesting in the coun- try between that point and Serinagur, in the Himalaya mountains. They were occupied ten years in this undertaking. Of their immense number of sketches, they selected and published a portion in a great work entitled " Oriental Scenery" (6 vols. folio, 1808). Five of these volumes were engraved by William, or under