of an hour without signs of life, after they had been taken out of the water. The society was instituted at Amsterdam in 1767: and, by an advertisement, informed the inhabitants of the United Provinces of the methods proper to be used on such occasions, offering rewards at the same time to those who should, with or without success use these methods for recovering persons drowned and seemingly dead. The laudable and humane example of the Dutch was followed, in 1768, by the magistrates of health in Milan and Venice; afterwards by the magistrates of Haniburg in 1771, by those of Paris in 1772, and by those of London in 1774. Similar societies have since been instituted at Leith, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and many other places.

its, rum, or geneva. D. Fothergill of Bath, advises mustard moistened with spirits. A warming-pan heated (the body being surrounded with flannel) may be lightly moved up and down the back. Fo mentations of hot brandy are to be applied to the pit of the stomach, loins, &c. and often renewed. Bottles filled with hot water, heated tiles covered with flannel, or hot bricks, may be efficaciously applied to the soles of the feet, palms of the hands, and other parts of the body. The temples may be rubbed with hartshorn, and the nostrils now and then tickled with a feather; and snuff, or eau de luce, should be occasionally applied. VIII. Tobacco fumes should be thrown up the fundament; if a fumigator be not at hand, the common pipe may answer the purpose. The operation should be frequently performed, as it is of importance; for the good effects of this process have been experienced in a variety of instances of suspended animation. But should the application of tobacco smoke in this way not be immediately convenient, or other impediments arise, clysters of this herb, or other acrid infusions with salt, &c. may be thrown up with advantage. IX. When these means have been employed a considerable time without success, and any brewhouse or warm bath can be readily obtained, the body should be carefully conveyed to such a place, and remain in the bath, or surrounded with warm grains, for three or four hours. If a child has been drowned, its body should be wiped perfectly dry, and immediately placed in bed between two healthy persons. The salutary effects of the natural vital warmth, conveyed in this manner, have been proved in a variety of successful cases. X. While the various methods of treatment are employed, the body is to be well shaken every ten minutes, in order to render the process of animation more certainly successful; and children, in particular, are to be much agitated, by taking hold of their legs and arms frequently and for a continuance of time. In various instances, agitation has forwarded the recovery of boys who have been drowned, and continued for a considerable time apparently dead. XI. If there be any signs of returning life, such as sighing, gasping, or convulsive motions, a spoonful of warm liquid may be administered; and if the act of swallowing is returned, then a cordial of warm brandy or wine may be given in small quantities, and frequently repeated. XII. Electricity may be tried by the judicious and skilful, as its application neither prevents nor retards the various modes of recovery already recommended; but, on the other hand, will most probably tend to render the other means employed more certainly and more expeditiously efficacious. This stimulus bids fair to prove an important auxiliary in cases of suspended animation; and therefore deserves the serious regard and attention of the faculty.

The Royal Humane Society of London, has circulated the following directions on this important subject. I. As soon as the patient is taken out of the water, the wet clothes, if the person is not naked at the time of the accident, should be taken off with all possible expedition on the spot (unless some convenient house be very near), and a great coat or two, or some blankets if convenient, should be wrapped round the body. II. The patient is to be thus carefully conveyed in the arms of three or four persons or on a bier, to the nearest public or other house, where a good fire, if in the winter season, and a warm bed, can be made ready for its reception. As the body is conveying to this place, great attention is to be paid as to the position of the head; it must be supported in a natural and easy posture, and not suffered to hang down. III. In cold or moist weather, the patient is to be laid on a mattrass or bed before the fire, but not too near, or in a moderately heated room: in warm or sultry weather on a bed only. The body is then to be wrapped as expeditiously as possible with a blanket, and thoroughly dried with warm coarse cloths or flannels. IV. In summer or sultry weather, too much air cannot be admitted. For this reason it will be necessary to set open the windows and doors, as cool refreshing air is of the greatest importance in the process of resuscitation. V. Not more than six persons are to be present to apply the proper means; a greater number will be useless, and may retard, or totally prevent, the restoration of life, by rendering the air of the apartment unwholesome. It will be necessary, therefore, to request the absence of those, who attend merely from motives of curiosity. VI. It will be proper for one of the assistants, with a pair of bellows of the common size, applying the pipe a little way up one nostril, to blow with some degree of force, in order to introduce air into the lungs; at the same time the other nostril and the mouth are to be closed by another assistant, while a third person gently presses the chest with his hands, after the lungs are observed to be inflated. By pursuing this process, the noxious and stagnated vapors will These methods are to be employed with vigor be expelled, and natural breathing imitated. If the for three hours or upwards, although no favorable pipe of the bellows be too large, the air may be circumstances should arise; for it is a dangerous blown in at the mouth, the nostrils at the same opinion to suppose that persons are irrecoverable, time being closed, so that it may not escape that because life does not soon make its appearance; way but the lungs are more easily filled, and nat- an opinion that has consigned to the grave an imural breathing better imitated, by blowing up the mense number of the seemingly dead, who might nostril. VII. Let the body be gently rubbed with have been restored to life by resolution and persecommon salt, or with flannels, sprinkled with spir-verance. Bleeding is never to be employed in such

cases, unless by the direction of one of the medical assistants, or some other gentleman of the faculty who has paid attention to the resuscitating art. The Royal Humane Society of London has, for a series of years, offered premiums for machines and other inventions to save mariners and other persons from drowning in cases of shipwreck, or other accidents at sea. The committee of the society, have also recommended several inventions for enabling persons to swim from a wreck to the shore; particularly the cork or marine spencer, (described in another article,) and the Life Preserver, invented by Mr. Daniel, of Wapping. This last is a sort of bag made of water proof leather, which wraps round the body just under the armpits, and may be inflated like a bladder in the space of half a minute, by blowing with the breath through a silver tube, furnished with a stop-cock, which is to be turned when the machine is full of air.

DRUG. The general name of substances used in medicine, sold by the druggist, and compounded by apothecaries and physicians; any substance, vegetable, animal, or mineral, which is used in the composition or preparation of medicines. It is also applied to dyeing materials. Any commodity that lies on hand, or is not saleable; an article of slow sale, or in no demand in the market, is frequently called a drug.

DRUIDS. The priests or ministers of religion of the ancient Britous, and Gauls. The druids were chose out of the best families; and were held, both by the honors of their birth and their office, in the greatest veneration. They are said to have understood astrology, geometry, natural history, politics, and geography: they had the administration of all sacred things, were the interpreters of religion, and the judges of all affairs indifferently.

DRUNKENNESS. A well known disorder of the human system, strongly affecting the mental faculties, and brought on by the immoderate use of liquors containing alcohol.

It is stated in the book of Genesis, that Noah, soon after the flood, having manufactured wine, "drank of it, and was drunken." This is the first instance of intoxication any where on record. Some have even thought that it is the first that ever occurred; and that Noah was the inventor of wine. But it is more likely, from the manner in which the sacred historian introduces the circumstance, as well as from the nature of the thing itself, that the practice of making wine was known to the antediluvians. It must, however, be confessed, that no mention is made of its use among them. But ever since the time of Noah, in all countries where fermented liquors have been known, the practice of drunkenness has been more or less prevalent.

Alcohol is the chief of the intoxicating substances; but there are others besides it which produce a similar effect. Such are opium and bangue, hemlock, nightshade, henbane, and tobacco. Nitrous oxide gas, applied for a few seconds to the lungs by means of breathing, induces a transitory sort of intoxication. Opium and bangue are used in Mahometan countries, where the laws of the prophet prohibit the use of wine. Bangue induces a sort of folly and forgetfulness, gaiety, and delirious joy. It and opium are, in truth, succedanea for wine; for, in all countries, men constantly seek after something or other to rouse and exhilarate their spirits, and bring on that mental state which relieves them from every care. This disposition, however, prevails most in cold climates; for drunkenness is observed to increase in proportion as we recede from the equator. The stimulus of heat being deficient, it would appear, in cold climates, men feel more strongly the want of another stimulus, and are thus led to the excessive use of intoxicating liquors.

The ancient Germans were remarkable for their excess in drinking. And the celebrated modern traveller, Von Buch, gives us a most revolting picture of the propensities of the Laplanders to intox

Whoever refused obedience to them, was declared impious and accursed; they held the immortality of the soul, and the metempsychosis; they are divided by some into several classes; they had a chief, or arch-druid in every nation: he was a sort of high-priest, having an absolute authority over the rest, and was succeeded by the most considera-ication. ble among his survivors. The youth used to be instructed by them, retiring with them to caves and desolate forests, where they were sometimes kept twenty years. They preserved the memory and actions of great men by their verses; but are said to have sacrificed men to Mercury. Cæsar imagined that the druids came from Britain into Gaul, but several among the modern writers are of a different opinion.

The power of resisting cold and contagion, and a want of sensibility to pain, has been often observed to be surprisingly great in persons intoxicated. In this respect they resemble maniacs.

It is, however, during the first stage of the drunken paroxysm only that this resistance to cold takes place; and the same may be said with respect to contagion. This we know to be always strongly resisted by that firmness and resolution of mind which necessarily accompanies a vigorous circulation of the blood.

DRUM. A martial instrument of music, in form of a hollow cylinder, and covered at the ends with The insensibility of the inebriate to pain, is strikvellum, which is stretched or slackened at pleasure.ingly remarkable. Drunk people fall off their own In machinery, drum is a short cylinder revolving feet and off their horses, with greatly less injury on an axis, generally for the purpose of turning than others usually do. Sailors, says Dr. Trotter, several small wheels, by means of straps passing round its periphery. In anatomy a portion of the ear is called the drum, or tympanum, or barrel of the ear. The membrane of the tympanum is tense, and closes the external passage of the ear, receiving the vibrations of the air.

whose heedless revels expose them to more disasters than other men, frequently receive the most frightful wounds and bruises, without the smallest signs of feeling, and without any recollection afterwards of the manner in which they were inflicted.

The effects of inebriating liquors will be very different at different times. They will vary with the habit of intoxication, the fulness or emptiness of the stomach, the time of the day, the heat of the climate, the season of the year, the temperature of the room, and in short with whatever tends to vary the excitability of the system. Every person knows, that less liquor will produce intoxication in the forenoon than after dinner; and we learn from Captain Bligh's narrative, that when he and his companions in an open boat in their passage to Timor, were, from a scarcity of provisions, reduced to a state of almost continued fasting, a single teaspoonful of rum produced inebriation. This state of the system has been called accumulated excitability. But in typhus fever it seems to be in a state directly opposite; for then two or even three bottles of wine will sometimes be used in the four-andtwenty hours, and that too by delicate females, without inconvenience.

the house in which they happened to be, became so fully persuaded that they were on board a ship, and in danger of suffering shipwreck, that they threw all the furniture out of the windows, under the idea that they were lightening the ship. A drunken man has been known to whip a post, because it would not move out of his way; and an old gentleman of eighty, when intoxicated, once took a lamp-post for a lady, and addressed her in all the impassioned and flattering language of love. "I have myself," says Junius, in his Character of Drunkards, "seen a scholar and a witty man, somewhat gone in drink, take up a sand barrel instead of a bowl of beer, in a grocer's shop, and having said, 'Here, cousin, to all our friends,' hold it to his mouth till a great part of the sand ran in between his teeth." He mentions another drunk man who was stopped in his progress by the shadow of a sign-post, which he thought it impossible to get over; and a third, who, seeing the moon shine through a small hole in the wall, attempted to light his candle at it. Another, he says, fell down drunk in Fleet Street, and when people of fered to help him up, he exclaimed, "What, can't I be quiet in my own room?"

When the stimulus of fermented liquors is frequently resorted to, the efficiency of it is gradually diminished; and to produce the same effect on the system, a larger quantity of the same sort of liquor, or else a similar quantity of a stronger sort, must be applied. For it is a law of the animal economy, that all stimuli, whether mental or corporeal, lose their effect by repetition. We may herce account for the charm of novelty in our gratifications, and how it comes to pass, that men of pleasure, who have exhausted every source of enjoyment by frequent repetition, are the most miserable of mortals, and exclaim in the bitterness of their hearts, that "all is vanity." They are seized by an ennui which nothing can relieve; and go about seeking gratifi-pelled. Many a drunkard has the author of this cation, without finding it.

In attempting to prevent or cure the drunken habit, go not into temptation, is a most valuable maxim. Let every individual who has the least regard for his safety beware. Scarcely any thing can equal the danger of his once giving way. If he indulges ever so little the desire he may feel for the stimulus of vinous liquors, he is in the utmost peril of being ultimately undone. The enemy once admitted, will scarcely ever be afterwards ex

article had occasion to observe; and among all the Some of the strongest symptoms of the drunken number who have fallen under his notice, he does habit, are a neglect of dress and cleanliness; a not remember to have seen one of them in whom slovenly, sallow, or bloated appearance; and not the habit was cured. Some, from external conunfrequently a sort of convulsive or paralytic mo-straint, or the powerful influence of the fear of a tion in the gait, well known to most people. When any person once begins to show these symptoms, we may fairly put him down as nearly in a hopeIt may indeed almost be said to be a "country from whose bourne no traveller returns." One perhaps in a thousand may escape the devouring gulf. Nowhere is the elegant allusion of the Jewish prophet more completely verified than here; "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" The habit of drunkenness is scarcely ever got the better of.

less state.

It is not uncommon to hear people say that they have known many hard drinkers live to a great age; and that if spirituous liquors be a poison, as physicians and moralists tell them that they are, they must indeed be a very slow poison, for such a person of their acquaintance has now attained his 80th year, for example, and yet has drunk hard all his life. This, however, is a very gross and most pernicious deception, much resembling the lists of remarkable cures said to be performed by quacks. You hear of those that have survived their prescriptions, but nothing of those who have perished. We shall here put down a few of the most curious instances of mental hallucination, that have been ascertained to proceed from excess in drinking. Athenæus tells us, that a drunken crew at Agrigentum in Sicily, hearing the winds roar on

superior, have been induced to remain sober for a considerable time, for months perhaps together; but universally did they relapse when the restraining cause ceased to operate. He once knew a gentleman of good family, so lost by the habit of ebriety, that he has seen him cry like a child when the lady of the house refused to give him a glass of whiskey in the forenoon. Wine he little valued, as the sensibility of the nerves of his palate and stomach were so much blunted by excessive stimulation, that he could hardly distinguish it from water. If denied pocket money to procure whis key, he constantly pawned his shirts or other parts of dress whenever he had an opportunity. He died miserably at the age of 51, so dropsical, that for the last six weeks of his life he could not be removed from the sitting posture.

The cure of a confirmed habit of drunkenness, is, as we already said, hardly to be expected. It is so much a disease of the mind, that "herein the patient must," in a great degree," minister to himself." But then so debased is the mind, so enfeebled, so enslaved, that it is altogether incapable of making the necessary efforts. It becomes the willing slave and victim of the foe.

DUCKING. Plunging in water, a diversion anciently practised among the Goths by way of

exercise; but among the Celae, Franks, and ancient Germans, it was a sort of punishment for persons of scandalous lives. At Marseilles and Bourbon, before the revolution, men and women|od of making them: there are two workmen emof scandalous life were condemned to the cage; i. e. to be shut up in an iron cage fastened to the yard of a shallop, and ducked several times in the river. The same was done at Toulouse to blas-to the metal thus in fusion; and, withdrawing the phemers.

dence seems to be interwoven with the principles | justice was impeded by the force of private ani of the human constitution, since it has clearly mau- mosities, while every domineering chief not only ifested itself in every age of the world. But till made himself the determiner of his own cause, revelation threw light upon this interesting doctrine, but claimed the sole power of judgment over his it was the general opinion, that adequate rewards vassals. These he protected and defended in all and punishments were distributed in the present their depredations on others, but held them himself life. The prosperous were regarded as the objects in the most abject slavery. A powerful baron of the divine favor, while the afflicted were looked seldom appeared abroad in those times, but with upon as suffering the punishment of their crimes. the view of plunder or freebooty, or to execute Hence the single combat was viewed as a direct some purpose of revenge or lust. And having acappeal to heaven, and he on whose side victory complished his purpose, he retired within the gloom declared was believed to have the juster cause. It and intrenchment of his impregnable castle, which was employed either for discovering the truth, or was equally fortified against the admission of his settling disputes among public enemies. rival baron, or his lawful sovereign.

In several countries, too, to avoid the shedding Duelling is founded upon the principles of honor. of blood, the accused were allowed to clear them- These principles, when properly directed, exalt selves by oath. This oath, in important cases, was and adorn the character, and animate us in the made to extend to a number of witnesses, who pursuit of what is noble and excellent. But, like were all obliged to swear to the innocence of the all the other principles of our nature, when not accused person. In this way, considerable care properly directed, they are productive of the worst was taken to arrive at the truth. But as the most consequences. The object which the duelfist proturbulent and wicked are always least restrained poses is altogether of a personal nature, being either by the sanctions of religion, the guilty were often to gratify some passion, which every good man led to vindicate themselves by swearing falsely. ought to restrain, or to avoid the imputation of On which account, this mode of trial gradually went into disuse, and the single combat gained ground.

Tacitus informs us, that when one German nation intended to declare war against another, they endeavored to take some person prisoner, whom they obliged to fight with one of their people; and by the event of this combat they judged of the success of the war. They considered it, whatever it was, as a decree of heaven, ever attentive to punish the guilty.

This summary mode of obtaining justice accorded with the character of the people among whom it prevailed; and having once gained ground, it was reduced to regular form, and inade part of the legal jurisprudence. Magistrates appointed the place where the combatants were to fight, the weapons they were to employ, and all the circumstances connected with it. Both the accuser and accused gave pledges to the judges that they would abide by the issue of the trial. And so far did the custom prevail among the Germans, Danes, and Franks, that none were exempted from it but women, sick people, cripples, and such as were under twenty-one years of age, or above sixty. Even ecclesiastics, priests, and monks, were obliged to find champions to fight in their stead. The punishment of the vanquished was either death, or mutilation of members, according to the circumstances of the case.

This practice, originally adopted for discovering truth, and preventing perjury, gradually degenerated into a species of self-avenging power, not only tacitly permitted, but publicly authorised; and its laws and regulations were accurately defined in most kingdoms of Europe.

Under the feudal system, the duel was warmly patronised. The haughty barons, regardless of the principles of law and justice, considered their sword as the avenger of their wrongs, and disdained to submit to any thing but their own strength and prowess for obtaining satisfaction. They were ignorant and untractable. They were fierce, cruel, and oppressive. The administration of public

cowardice, of which, perhaps, he was never suspected. His object therefore is selfish; and the means by which he attains this object are contrary to law, reason, and religion. He takes the law, indeed, in his own hand, and acts as judge in his own cause. On account of some unguarded word, or some trifling offence, he wantonly risks his own life, and involves, perhaps in wretchedness, a wife and family who depend upon him for subsistence. Religion enjoins forgiveness of injuries,—the duellist thinks only of revenge. Religion recommends patience and forbearance,-the duellist declares, that he who does not resent his own wrongs, is not fit to live in society. Humility is a fundamental principle of the christian religion,-duelling is supported and nourished by pride: for honor, in the fashionable sense of the word, is nothing else than pride modified by certain rules.

DUET. Duetto, in Music, a composition expressly written for two voices or instruments, with or without accompaniments. In good duets the execution is pretty equally distributed between the two parts, and the melodies so dependent on each other, as to lose every effect when separated, but to be perfectly related and concinnous when heard together.

DUKE. In Great Britain, one of the highest order of nobility; a title of honor or nobility next below the princes; as the Duke of Bedford or of Cornwall. In some countries, a sovereign prince, without the title of king; as the Duke of Holstein, of Savoy, or of Parma.

DUNNING. The operation of curing codfish, in such a manner as to give it a particular color and quality. Fish for dunning are caught early in spring, and often in February. At the Isles of Shoals, off Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, the cod are taken in deep water, split and slack-salted; then laid in a pile for two or three months, in a dark store, covered, for the greatest part of the time, with salt-hay or eel-grass, and pressed with some