the Runic monuments) are the earliest specimens of this Danish-Swedish language, there are three dialects that of Skaane (the southmost province of Sweden) and those of Zealand and Jutland, the first of which is nearest the old language, while the last two have deviated from it by dropping the final consonants from the old inflexional endings and changing their vowels a, i, u to a less distinct e or a, retaining, however, the hard mutes p, k, t after vowels, as on the whole is still the case in Swedish and spoken Norwegian. The dialect of Zealand in the 14th and 15th centuries forms the foundation of modern Danish. The original vowels in almost all endings are there replaced by half-vowels, and the dental aspirate p by t or d; p, k, t, when following long vowels, are changed to b, g, d; masculine and feminine are merged in one common gender; nouns have no other case-ending than the possessive s for both numbers; verbs cease to indicate person (except in the imperative); and the singular number begins to supersede the plural, as it does everywhere in the spoken language from the 16th century. Danish, like Swedish, retains the suffixed definite article, which is characteristic of the Scandinavian languages. Its form is -et in the neuter, -en in the common gender, and -ne in the plural of both.

The influence of the Hanseatic League and the Oldenburg dynasty (from 1448) brought in a great number of Low-German words, especially relating to navigation and trade; while that of the order of St Bridget contributed a considerable Swedish element. In the first half of the 16th century the Danish language was chiefly used by religious writers, and the translation of the Bible (1550) is the first important monument of modern Danish. After this period Latin became once more the language of learning and culture, and for a century and a half there was no Danish writer of eminence. The influence of French was predominant in the 17th century, and that of HighGerman, which had been constant since the Reformation, culminated in the 18th century under the Struensee administration, when it was the language of government and public instruction. The result is, that Danish is indebted to German for fully one-third of its vocabulary. It was not till Holberg that the Danish written language began to be enriched from the stores of native expression in the spoken tongue. From the end of the 18th century revived study of Old Scandinavian and the development of a national poetic literature unfolded the language in a hitherto unsuspected richness and fullness, and since that time Danish prose has to a considerable extent worked itself out of its poverty and dependence. Danish is the softest of the Scandinavian languages, though less euphonious than Swedish. It is the language of the educated class in Norway, where it is considerably augmented from the native dialect, and is spoken with a somewhat harder pronunciation. The best histories of the language are by Petersen (2 vols. Copenhagen, 1829-30) and Molbech (b. 1846); grammars by Rask (2d ed. Lond. 1846), Lökke, Munch, Lyngby, Jessen, and Möbius (Kiel, 1871); and dictionaries by the Danish Academy (Copenhagen, 1793-1881), and Molbech (2d ed. 2 vols. ib. 1859), who also produced a Dansk-Dialekt-Lexikon (ib. 1841) and a Dansk Glossarium (ib. 1853-66) for antiquated words. Ferrall, Repp, and Rosing's Danish and English Dictionary, in 2 parts (4th ed. Copenhagen, 1873), is the best for English students.

Literature. After the Danish dialect had gradually separated itself from the Old Scandinavian as a softer and simpler speech, with a strong infusion of German ingredients, it was little used in writing down to the time of the Reformation. Saxo

Grammaticus (i.e. the learned') in the second half of the 12th century wrote in Latin his Historia Danica, the only literary production of medieval Denmark that retains any interest. The earliest writings in Danish are the church laws of Skaane (1162) and Zealand (1170), and the civil laws of Skaane (1160), Zealand (1170), and Jutland (1241); and after these a number of chronicles, partly in verse, of which the best known is the Riimkrönike, which was the first Danish book printed (in 1495). It is essentially an abridgment of Saxo. The famous Danish ballads called Kæmpeviser ('hero-songs'), some of which are said to belong to the latter part of the 11th century, were handed down orally from generation to generation, and were first collected, to the number of 100, by A. S. Vedel in 1591. In 1695 Peder Syv published a new edition with 100 more, and in 1812-14 appeared a selection of 222, edited by Abrahamson, Nyerup, and Rahbek. The most complete collection is in Svend Grundtvig's unfinished Gamle Folkeviser (5 vols. 1853-77). They are about 500 in number, and treat of the adventures of heroes, love, enchantment, spectres, and historical events. Doubtless they were sung to the dance, as is still the case in the Faroe Islands. They must have suffered much by their not being written down till the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Reformation only emancipated Danish culture from Latin to bind it fast to German, which at the death of Frederick I. in 1533 was the language of the upper classes. About that time Christian Pedersen set up a printing-press at Malmö, at which he published a great number of popular books, and finally in 1550 the first complete translation of the Bible. Pedersen (14801554) is justly called the father of Danish literature. The hymns and translations of the Psalms by his contemporary Tausen (1494-1561), as also by Kingo (1634-1703), Vormondsen (1491-1551), and Arrebo (1587-1637), and the national history (10 vols. Copenhagen, 1595-1604) of Hvitfeld (1549-1609) were well received; but the Danish language was still banished from higher society till the advent of the Norwegian Holberg (1684-1754), the founder of Danish comedy. He found Denmark on the point of being absorbed in Germany. The common people,' he says, 'had no histories but dry lists of dates; no poetry but congratulatory verses; no theology but homilies and funeral sermons; and for plays, nothing but old stories about Adam and Eve.' He wrote histories of Denmark, of the Jews, and of the Church; and the irresistible humour of his comedies and satires covered with ridicule the imitators of foreign speech and manners. What Holberg did for Danish prose, another Norwegian, Tullin (1728-65), did for Danish poetry. Equally dissatisfied with the current imitations of the 17th century court-poetry of France, and with the poetic reform of Klopstock (at Copenhagen from 1751), Tullin followed the guidance of the English poets Pope, Young, and Thomson, and in this was followed by most of his countrymen who were settled at Copenhagen, while the Danes clung to German models. Ewald (1743-81), an ardent disciple of Klopstock, was Denmark's first great lyric poet and tragic dramatist. His verse shows an unsurpassed mastery of form, and is expressed in pure, clear, and noble language. Wessel (1742-85), by his 'tragedy,' Love without Stockings (1772), a humorous parody of the Danish imitations of the classical French drama, succeeded in laughing them off the stage. Nordahl Brun (1745-1816), preacher and poet, Claus Frimann (1746-1829), the Burns of the Norwegians,' Claus Fasting (1746-91), Jonas Rein (1760-1821), Jens Zetlitz (1761-1821), and

Sweden at Paris, the artists of Denmark have been especially attracted to Rome. The sculptor Thorwaldsen (q.v.) has left a great monument of his genius in the works contained in the Thorwaldsen Museum at Copenhagen. Of later artists may be mentioned the painters Marstrand, Carl Bloch, Exner, Kroyers, Henningsen, and Otto Bache. Of music, the chief composers in the 19th century have been Hartmann, Gade, and Heise.

See Nyerup and Rahbek, Den danske Digtekunsts Historie, 4 vols. (1800-8), and Udsigt over den danske Digtekunst under Frederik V. og Christian VII. (1819-28); Nyerup and J. E. Kraft, Almindeligt Litteraturlexikon for Danmark, Norge og Island (Copenhagen, 1818-20); Petersen, Den danske Literaturs Historie, 6 vols. (185364); Overskou, Den danske Skueplads i dens Historie (1859-74); G. Brandes, Ludvig Holberg og hans Tid (1884); the general treatises in Danish by Thortsen (1814; 6th ed. 1866), Heiberg (1831), Molbech (1839), Ström (1871), Erikson (Christiania, 1878), Winkel-Horn (1880), and Hansen (1884 et seq.); and in German by Strodtmann (1873), Wollheim de Fonseca (1874-77), and Winkel-Horn (1880). See also a part of Edmund W. Gosse's Studies in the Literature of Northern Europe (1879).

Dennery, ADOLPHE PHILIPPE, a French dramatic writer of Jewish extraction, was born at Paris on June 17, 1811. His first employment was that of clerk to a notary; but he soon became a successful dramatic author, and was so prolific that between 1831 and 1881 he produced, by himself or in concert with others, about two hundred pieces in one style or another, including regular dramas, vaudevilles, and operatic texts. One of the most successful was the drama, Marie Jeanne (1845). He was the. creator of the now wellknown Norman watering-place, Cabourg.

Dennewitz, a small village in the province of Brandenburg, Prussia, 42 miles SSW. of Berlin. Here was fought, on the 6th of September 1813, a battle in which 70,000 French, Saxons, and Poles, under Ney, were routed, after obstinate fighting, by 50,000 Prussians, under Bulow.

Dennis, JOHN, critic, was born in London in 1657, the son of a prosperous saddler. He had his education at Harrow, and Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated B. A. in 1679. After a tour through France and Italy, he took his place among the wits and men of fashion, and brought a sufficiently rancorous pen to the assistance of the Whig party. His acquaintance with Dryden and Wycherley and other distinguished wits, as well as his native bent, made him a playwright. His plays had but little success. Of the nine, the two most famous were Liberty Asserted (1704) and Appius and Virginia (produced 1709). Pope's Essay on Criticism (1711) contained a contemptuous allusion to the latter, answered by Dennis next month in Reflections, Critical and Satirical, which was the commencement of a long and embittered feud between the poet and the critic. Pope's Narrative of Dr Robert Norris, concerning the Strange and Deplorable Frenzy of John Dennis, an officer in the Custom-House (1713), was a virulent, vulgar, and officious attack made on Addison's behalf, but in which that genial author, through Steele, disavowed any complicity. Dennis was poor and blind during his last years. weeks after a theatrical performance, got up for his benefit by Pope and some others, he died, 6th January 1734. Dennis was embroiled in controversy all his life, and his naturally impatient temper became completely soured. He made many enemies, and his name, which his own writings could scarce preserve, will live for ever in their contempt and hate. He is one of the bestabused men in English literature. Swift lampooned him, and Pope not only assailed him in

A few

DENTALIUM

the Essay on Criticism, but finally 'damned him to everlasting fame' in the Dunciad. Yet he was no fool, and his Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry (1701) and The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry (1704) will still repay perusal. 'Spite of the growling of poor old Dennis,' says Mr Lowell, 'his sandy pedantry was not without an oasis of refreshing sound judgment here and there.'

Dénouement (Fr. dénouer, 'to untie'), a French term naturalised in England, applied generally to the termination or catastrophe of a play or romance; but, more strictly speaking, to the train of circumstances solving the plot, and hastening the catastrophe.

Dens, PETER, a well-known Roman Catholic theologian, was born in 1690, at Boom, near Antwerp. Little is known of his early life; but from the epitaph on his tomb in the chapel of the archiepiscopal college of Malines, it appears that he was reader in theology at Malines for twelve years, plebanus or parish priest of St Rumold's, and president of the College of Malines for forty years. He died 15th February 1775, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. The work which has rendered Dens's name familiar, even to the Protestant public, is his Theologia Moralis et Dogmatica. It is a systematic exposition and defencein the form of a catechism-of every point of ethics and doctrine maintained by Roman Catholics, and is extensively adopted as the text-book of theology in their colleges. It appears to owe its popularity more to its being a handy and usable compilation than to any great talent exhibited by its author. The casuistical parts of the work have been severely criticised by Protestant moralists. An edition was published at Dublin in 1832.

Density. When of two bodies of equal bulk, one contains more matter than the other, it is said to have greater density than that other. Since weight is proportional to mass, the same numbers may be and are used to represent specific gravity and density. Lithium is the least dense metal known, its density being 0:59 if that of water be called unity. Ordinary air may be easily comIridium pressed so as to be denser than lithium. is probably the densest substance known, its density being 22.4 times that of water. Osmium, however, is very nearly if not quite as dense. The more ordinary metals stand in the following order as regards density: Aluminium, antimony, zinc, iron ( (wrought), copper, bismuth, silver, lead, gold, platinum.

Dental Formula. See TEETH.

Dentalium (Lat. dens, 'a tooth'), or Elephant's Tusk Shell, a remarkable genus of molluscs, type of a small class called Scaphopoda. The shell is tubular, like an elephant's tusk, open at both ends, and lined by an almost completely tubular 'mantle."

Dentalium, in natural position in sand.

The animal has an indistinct cylindrical head with a mouth at its extremity, surrounded by a circle of tentacles. Two pads at the base of the head and above the foot bear ciliated contractile filaments, possibly respiratory. The 'foot' is long and divided into three at the end. The mouth includes

DENTARIA

a rasper. There are no eyes, but an ear-sac is present. Neither heart nor gills are developed. The sexes are similar and separate. The larva is ciliated and free-swimming. The type is of much zoological interest, but its affinities are still uncertain. The animal lives with the anterior end plunged into the sand on the sea-coast, at depths of ten to a hundred fathoms. By means of the foot they can creep slowly. They feed on minute animals, and have an almost cosmopolitan distri"bution. The class includes two or more other genera. D. entale occurs off British coasts; and about forty living species are known. The genus occurs as a fossil from Carboniferous strata (or perhaps earlier) onwards. The shells are used for currency and for ornament by the Indians of the northern Pacific coast of America. See LacazeDuthiers, Histoire des Dentales (1856-58).

Dentaria, or CORAL-ROOT (both names due to knobbed root-stock), is a small genus of Cruciferæ, represented in Britain by the rare D. bulbifera, in which the upper leaves bear Bulbils (q.v.), while the pods rarely ripen. The root-stock being pungent, was formerly dried as a remedy for toothache. D. diphylla, a North American species, is called Pepper-root from the same property. The name Coral-root is also applied to the orchid Corallorhiza, while the true Toothwort (q.v.) is Lathrœa squamaria.

Dentex, a genus of acanthopterous fishes near perches. One species (D. vulgaris), the Dentex of the ancient Romans, abounds in the Mediterranean,

Dentex.

and has occasionally been taken on the southern shores of Britain. It is an excessively voracious fish, with large sharp teeth, and attains a large size, sometimes three feet in length, and 20 to 30 pounds weight. Great numbers are taken in the mouths of rivers in Dalmatia and the Levant, where they are cut in pieces, and packed in barrels with vinegar and spices, just as the ancients used

to treat them.

Dentifrice. See TOOTH-POWDER. Dentine, or IVORY, the principal constituent of mammalian teeth. See TEETH.

Dentirostres, a somewhat old-fashioned title for one of the subdivisions of singing Passerine birds or Oscines. The term, as equivalent to 'toothedbilled,' is used in opposition to Conirostres (conebilled') and Tenuirostres ('slender-billed'). It would include warblers, thrushes, chatterers, crows, &c., but the character is purely adaptive to the better securing of the prey and the like, and is of little significance in classification.

Dentistry, the art of the dentist, or that of treating disease in the teeth (Dental Surgery), and of replacing these organs when lost (Mechanical Dentistry). The art is a very ancient one. The Laws of the Twelve Tables (5th century B. C.) provided for the case of teeth bound with gold,' it being lawful in this connection to burn or bury gold with the dead person. An Etruscan skull found in 1885 had a set of animal's teeth artificially fixed in it. The dentistry of the United States has in recent times become specially celebrated.

(1) Dental Surgery.-The disorders to which the teeth are liable are those arising from defective development, such as imperfections in form or structure, irregularity of position, &c.; those, again, constituting diseases more properly so called, such as caries or dental decay, necrosis or death of a tooth, inflammation of the soft tissues, such as the gum, the central pulp or nerve, as it is popularly called, neuralgic affections, &c. ; lastly, those arising from accidents of various kinds, such as blows, falls, and the like. For the constitution and diseases of the teeth, see TEETH.

The object of the dentist, in treating decayed teeth, is twofold: he either attempts to arrest the decay, and repair its ravages; or he removes the diseased tooth altogether. These operations, along with supplying artificial teeth when the natural ones are lost, constitute the main offices of dentistry.

Scaling. This is a little operation, by which the accumulation of a substance termed 'tartar' is removed from the teeth. Tartar or salivary calculus is of different densities and colours, and is a deposit from the saliva. It is most frequently found at the necks of the teeth, and lodges in greatest quantity most commonly behind the lower front-teeth. Where it accumulates it is generally accompanied by absorption of the gums, whereby the necks of the teeth are exposed, and they become loosened. Its removal is effected by little hoeshaped steel instruments, bent in a manner to reach more easily those situations in which the tartar is found. Their mode of use is by inserting the point of any one of them under the free edge of the mass of tartar, at the gum, and lifting it away from the backs of the teeth to which it is adherent. The teeth are then freed from any particles still sticking about them, and their surface smoothed by being rubbed with pumice-powder or chalk. In certain diseased conditions of the structures about the necks of the teeth, considerable purulent discharges occur, and tartar frequently becomes largely deposited.

Regulating. The teeth of the second, or permanent or adult set, are very liable to be crowded and misplaced, one overlapping the other, or those of the upper jaw falling behind those of the lower when the mouth is closed, thus producing the prominent condition of the under jaw denominated 'under-hung.' To remedy these defects, a variety of means have been adopted by dentists; the principle upon which all of them act, however, being that of pressing the displaced tooth or teeth into the natural position. This, of course, requires that room or space should exist for them to be thus adjusted; and where this is not the case, the usual procedure is to remove one or more of the backteeth, or any others which it is less desirable to preserve. In other cases the dental arch itself is malformed, and may be enlarged by regulated pressure so as to afford more accommodation for the teeth, as well as to improve its contour. Some considerable time is necessary to complete the regulation of misplaced teeth; and even after they have assumed their proper position, they require to be carefully maintained there, otherwise a tendency to resume their former irregularity soon

manifests itself.

Stopping or Filling.-This is one of the most important and delicate operations the dentist has to perform. The first step to be taken in filling or 'stopping' a tooth, is to clear away all decayed and decaying substance. For this purpose, number of slender digging and excavating steel instruments, termed excavators,' are required. The dental-engine' is another valuable means of preparing the cavity for filling, and acts by means of small drills and file-headed points rapidly rotating, so as to cut away what is desired of