Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/190

 182 DOG DAYS fossils of the true dog, evidently belonging to two distinct varieties, differing in size from those of the wolf and fox found in the same locality. Cuvier says of the bones of a fossil canis from the cave of Gailenreuth, that they resemble those of the dog more than the wolf, yet he does not positively declare them to belong to the former. Marcel de Serres has described two species of dogs found in a ma- rine tertiary limestone, one resembling the pointer, the other much smaller. The frontal elevation in the skull of the dog is greater than that of the wolf, and the skull of a small canine with this character strongly marked, from a bone cave in England, was pronounced by Mr. Clift that of a small bulldog or a large pug. Distinct traces of at least four types of dogs have been found in a fossil state, the Canary dog, the pointer, the hound, and the bulldog, with a smaller one classed by Schmerling with the turnspit ; and as many of these are known to be hybrids, the list must probably be further enlarged. The certain antiquity of these bones, whether they have been referred to the proper race of dogs or not, is sufficient to destroy the claims of the wolf, jackal, or fox to the exclu- sive paternity of the domestic dogs. As there are undoubted wild canines which are true dogs, there is no improbability that some of these fossil remains may have belonged to such prior to their subjugation and domestication by man ; and there is no more necessity of re- ferring the fossil canines to a single species than the domesticated ones. The size of the fossil dogs is no greater than that of some liv- ing races mentioned in the text. Those de- sirous of pursuing the subject of dogs more fully are referred to the writings of Buffon, Frederic Cuvier, and Col. Hamilton Smith. See also BEAGLE, BLOODHOUND, BULLDOG, GREY- HOUND, HOUND, MASTIFF, POINTER, SPANIEL, and TERRIER. DOG DAYS (Lat. dies caniculares), among the ancients, the period of greatest heat in sum- mer, so named because in the latitudes of the Mediterranean this period nearly corresponded with that in which the dog star rose at the same time with the sun. To this conjunction all antiquity, and all the later followers of ju- dicial astrology, ascribed a malignant influence. The heliacal rising of the dog star is a very indefinite phenomenon ; its precise dates can- not be determined, and owing to the precession of the equinoxes it does not now occur till about Aug. 10, when the greatest heat of the season is often over. So uncertain is the time that the ancients indiscriminately ascribe the evil influence to Sirius and Procyon (the lar- gest stars respectively of Canis Major and Minor), though there is several days' differ- ence in their heliacal risings. The modern almanac makers sometimes reckon the dog days from July 24 to Aug. 24, and sometimes from July 3 to Aug. 11. DOGE (Lat. dux, a leader), the title of the elective chief magistrate in the republics of DOGE Venice and Genoa. The dignity or office was called dogato. The doges of Venice were elect- ed for life. The first of them was called to the dignity in the year 697, when Venice had scarcely risen to the importance of a city, and he and his successors ruled it as sovereigns, with nearly absolute power. But when the state grew mightier both on land and sea, through commerce and conquests, its nobles continually strove to check the power and influence of their elective head, and the government became more and more oligarchical, its form more and more republican, the dogate a magistracy, and finally a mere title. A change in the constitu- tion toward the end of the 12th century put the whole legislative power into the hands of the council of 470 ; this elected the executive council of 6 and the 60 pregadi, and the doge was elected by 12 electors, chosen by 24 mem- bers of the great council. The first chief ma- gistrate thus elected was Sebastiano Ziani (1173), who, in order to make his dignity, now stripped of every power, at least popular, dis- tributed money among the people at his instal- lation ; an act adopted by his successors as one of the ceremonies of inauguration. Another ceremony introduced by the same doge was that of marrying the sea by a ring thrown into the waves of the Adriatic, which emblem of power over the mighty element was bestowed upon him with many other marks of dignity by Pope Alexander III., whom he supported in his long and bloody struggle against the em- peror of Germany, Frederick Barbarossa. A new council of 40, established in 1179, and vested with supreme judicial power, also served to circumscribe the prerogatives of the doge. It was in vain that many a chief magistrate covered his office and the state with glory ; in vain that Enrico Dandolo, the nearly blind nonogenarian, led the victorious fleet of the fourth crusade to Constantinople (1202-'4), that he was, at both attacks, among the first to storm it, that he refused the conquered impe- rial crown ; the nobility were incessantly bent on the humiliation of the so-called chief of the state, which was completed in the second half of the 13th century, and at the beginning of the next, by the new and last election law, the most complicated instrument of indirect exer- cise of sovereignty that has ever been framed, by the introduction under Gradenigo of the hereditary nobility and its golden book, and the establishment of the terrible council of ten, supreme in power, irresponsible, and judges of the doge himself. Stripped of nearly all his prerogatives, the power of the doge was con- fined to the command of the army and the op- portunity of profiting by the frequent strifes and contentions of the different councils and classes ; and the office became so burdensome that a law had to be enacted (1339) prohibiting any one from laying it down, and that in 1367 Contarini had to be forced to accept it. The doge received ambassadors, but could give them no answer of his own, and their letters he