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* DEVRIENT. 185 DEW. sina. The next year lie secured an engagement in Dessau, and in ISd'J lie went to Breslau. In 1815, having made the acquaintance of Iffland (q.v.), he appeared for the lirst time on the stage in Berlin, as Franz Moor in Schiller's Rauivr. He won distinction also in the roles of Talbot, Schewa, Lorenz Kindlein, the Moor in Ficsai, and the Shakespearean parts of Sliylock, Lear, Richard III., and Mcrcitio. His .icting was characterized by great originality and he ex- celled alike in patlios and humor. His power , was due more, it is .said, to liis natural gifts than to study. His habits of life were dissipated, and his premature death, which occurred in Berlin, December .SO. 1832, was hastened by the use of stimulants. DEVRIENT, Otto (18,S8-94). A German actor and dramatist, son of Philipp Eduard ppvrient (q.v.). He was horn October 3, 1838, in Berlin, and made his di'hut on the stage in Karlsruhe in 185(i. He had engagements in Stuttgart, Berlin, and Leipzig; then returned to Karlsruhe in 1SG3 and remained till 1873, after which he was manager successively of tlieatres in Weimar, ilannheim, and Frankfort. In 1879 he retired to .Jena, and there produced his Luther, a play written on the occasion of the Luther jubilee in 1S83. The next year he became director of the Court Theatre in Oldenliurg, and in 1889 was called to a similar pcjsition in Berlin, from which he retired in ISIIO. He died June 23, 1894. He is the author of several dramas, among them Zicei Koiiific (1867) ; Tibe- rius Gracchus (1871); and Was tcir bieten (1873) ; and other works, including Zu-ei Shake- siirari Vortrage (1869) ; and an edition of letters of Iffland and Schroder (1881). DEVRIENT, Phiiipp Ediard (1801-77). A • u-niian actor and dramatist, brother of Karl . gust and Gustav Emil Devrient (q.v.). He made his debut as an opera singer in Berlin when eighteen years old. but after 183.5 devoted him- self to the drama, and was manager for a time of the Dresden Theatre. From 1852 to 1870 he directed that of Karlsruhe. He wrote a number of dramatic pieces, among them the libretto for the opera Hans Heiling (1827), and the plays Dns qraue iliinnlein (1833), Die Tcrirrungen (18.37), and Trfue Liebe (1841): and also sev- eral historical and critical works upon the drama, notably his Geschichte der deutschen Schauspiel- Icunst (1848-74). DE VRIES, dcvres. Davio Pieterszen. A Dutch colonist. Nothing is known of his early history except that he served for a time as master artilleryman in the Dutch Army. He was a memtier of an association or compan_v which was organized in 1630 for the purpose" of settling the tract of land in the present State of Dela- ware bought from the Dutnd its palisades, half consimied by fire, and here and there the bones of colonists!" He left a portion of his party there, while he himself spent some time in Virginia : but concluding that the colony would never be a commercial success, he carried the colonists back to Holland in 1634. He visit- ed Manhattan several times thereafter; attempt- ed to establish a patroonsliip on Staten Islaiul, where in 1640 his settlement was destroyed tiy the Indians; and for some time lived on a plan- tation, Vriessendael, about 25 miles north of New Amsterdam, on the site of the present Tap- pan, X. Y. He puldished a volume entitled Korte hisforiaal endc journaels Acnieyckciiiiigc r<in vcr- scheyden Voyagien in der vier Teelen des M'ereldfs Rondc (1655) (A Short History and Xotcs of a Journal Kept During Several Voyages in the Four Quarters of the World), wliieh eon- tains a valuable account of conditions in Xew Xetherland during the administration of Van Twillcr and Kieft. The [)arts of it relating to America have been translated into English. "and may be found in vols. i. and iii., second series, of the Collections of the Neio York Historical Society. DEW (AS. deau; Ger. Thau; cf. Skt. dhav, dhCir, to flow). Dew is said to be formed when atmosi)heric moisture is condensed by cold into drops of water upon grass, trees, rocks, roofs of buildings, or other solid surfaces, while the ■ adjacent air remains clear. The moisture which gathers on the outside of a vessel containing cold water is also termed dew. A thermometer placed in the cold water within this vessel so as to give the temperature of the external sur- face on which the dew is deposited, indicates the so-called temperature of the dew-point, or the temperature to which the free air must be cooled in order to begin depositing dew, and this combination of thermometer and vessel is a dew-point apparatus. JIany fonns of such apparatus have been devised iii order to obtain the highest accuracy in Uie determination of this important meteorological datum and are de- scribed in Al)he's Meteorological Apparatus and Methods (Washington, 1888). The ajjiiaratus usually preferred is that of Regnault. which, with occasional slight modifications, is used in all fundamental determinations of atmosjiheric moisture. This apparatus consists essentiallv of a very sensitive thermometer, whose bulb dips into a thimble of polished gold or silver, while the upper end of the graduated stem protrudes beyond this thimble. If the thimble is filled with ether and a current of air blown thi-oiigh it in order to evaporate the ether, the latter socm cools down to the dew-point. When this is reached a slight deposit of dew is seen on the outside of the polished thimble. At this moment the reading of the thennometer is to be noted, and as the temperature of the ether has probably already fallen below the dew-point, one waits a minute until the dew on the polished tube evaporates and disappears, when another reading of the ther- mometer is made. The mean of these two read- ings should give the temperature of the dew- point to within a tenth of a degree. When dew is thus deposited it indicates that the air from which the moisture comes has been cooled to what is known as the point of satura- tion and all the vapor associated with the air can no longer remain as vapor. This cooling process takes place naturally every clear night, so that in the course of the early morning not only are the grass and other exposed objects often covered