DARK AGES

DARMSTADT

681

Dark Ages. See AGE.

Darley, FELIX O. C., an eminent American artist, was born at Philadelphia, June 23, 1822. He early gave himself to drawing with such success as to encourage him to devote himself exclusively to art, especially in the form of book illustration. His earliest important work was a series of drawings for the Library of Humorous American Works, after producing which he went to New York (1848), where his outline drawings to Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle soon spread wide his reputation. Later works, not less popular, are his illustrations of Judd's Margaret, and to Cooper's, Dickens's, and Simms's novels. In 1868, after some years' residence in Europe, he published both illustrations and letterpress of Sketches Abroad with Pen and Pencil. Died March 27, 1888.

Darling, a name applied to a river, a mountainrange, and two districts in Australia, is derived from Lieutenant-general Sir Ralph Darling (1775-1859), who was governor of New South Wales (1825-31). (1) The river Darling, a tributary of the Murray River, is formed by the union of several head-streams, all of which rise in the great Dividing Range. The chief of these head-streams are the Barwon and Gwydir. Farther down, the Darling receives the Culgoa and the Warrego from the north, and the Bogan from the south. Its length, with affluents, is stated at 1160 miles, and it and its tributaries are estimated to drain an area of 198,000 sq. m. It joins the Murray at Wentworth, on the border between New South Wales and South Australia, having received no tributary in its lower course. Much of the district traversed by it is an arid plain, save near the river-bank; the river is subject to floods. (2) The Darling Range, in Western Australia, runs parallel to the west coast, at a distance of 10 to 25 miles inland, from the southwest corner of the colony to a point some 250 miles farther north. The range has a height of from 1500 to 2000 feet; and in Mount William attains an elevation of 3000 feet. (3) The Darling district at the south-western corner of New South Wales, scantily watered, has an area of 50,000 sq. m. (4) The Darling Downs form the richest pastoral district of Queensland, in the southern part of the colony. This is an upland district on and about the summit of the Dividing Range. It was discovered by Allan Cunningham, the botanist, in 1827, and has an area of 6080 sq. m. There is also much fine agricultural land in which the cereals, potatoes, and all kinds of vegetables grow well. The western railway traverses the north, and the southern line the extreme east of this district.

Darling, GRACE, a name famous in the annals of heroism, was the daughter of William Darling (1795-1860), lighthouse-keeper on Longstone, one of the Farne Islands, and was born at Bamborough, 24th November 1815. On the morning of the 7th September 1838, the Forfarshire, bound from Hull to Dundee, with sixty-three persons on board, struck the Harker's Rock, among the Farne Islands, and in fifteen minutes forty-three persons were drowned. The vessel was seen by Grace Darling from the lighthouse at a quarter to five lying broken on the rocks. Darling and his daughter agreed that if they could get to her, some of the shipwrecked crew would be able to assist them in getting back. By wonderful strength and skill, they brought their boat to where the sufferers (nine in number) crouched. The solitary woman and four men were safely taken to the Longstone; two of the men returned with Darling, and succeeded in bringing the remainder

daring in itself, and so successfully carried out, filled every one with the warmest admiration. The lighthouse at Longstone, solitary and unknown no more, was visited by many of the wealthy and the great. Presents, testimonials, and money did not long survive her change of circumstances. were heaped at the feet of Grace Darling; but she She died of consumption, after a year's illness, on 20th October 1842. See Grace Darling, by E.

Hope (1876), and the Journal of William Darling

(1886).

Darlington, a parliamentary and municipal borough in the south of the county of Durham, on a slight elevation overlooking the Skerne near its junction with the Tees, 23 miles S. of Durham, and 45 NNW. of York. The chief industry of the place is connected with the extensive locomotive works, which give employment to many workers. There are iron and steel works in the north end of the town; brewing and tanning are carried on; and there are wool-mills. Pop. (1821) 6551; (1851) 11,228; (1871) 27,730; (1881) 35,102; (1891) 38,060, of whom many belong to the Society of Friends, long a prominent and influential element amongst the inhabitants. Darlington was created a parliamentary borough, sending one member to parliament, in 1867. Its prosperity dates from the opening, on 27th September 1825, of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which was the first passengerline on which a locomotive-engine was employed; and that locomotive now stands on a pedestal outside the station. From the 11th century onwards the town belonged to the bishops of Durham, and till 1867 a borough bailiff, appointed by the bishop, managed its affairs; in that year it obtained a charter of incorporation. St Cuthbert's collegiate church, a very fine specimen of Early English, was founded in 1160 by Bishop Pudsey, and was restored by Sir G. G. Scott in 1869. It has three beautiful sedilia, and a tower 180 feet high. Among the

chief modern erections are the other churches

(Anglican, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and Nonconformist), the spacious new railway station (1887), a grammar-school, a high school for girls, a Britishi and Foreign School Society's college for female teachers, and the banks of Backhouse & Co., and Pease & Co. A free library was opened in 1885, for which Mr Edward Pease had bequeathed £10,000. At Oxen-le-field, 3 miles from Darlington, are curious cavities of unknown origin, called Hell Kettles; and near Darlington was the seat of George Allan the antiquary (1736-1800).

Darlingtonia, a genus of remarkable American Pitcher-plants, belonging to the family of Sarraceniacere (q.v.); and like its congeners, is insectivorous. See INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS.

Darmstadt, a town of Germany, capital of the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, is situated on the small river Darm, 15 miles S. of Frankfort-on-Main. The streets of the old town are narrow, but those of the new town exhibit many imposing specimens of architecture. Darmstadt has several public squares, and fine public gardens and promenades. Besides the arsenal, the barracks, and the various religious edifices, it possesses two palaces. One of these, the old ducal palace, contains museums of painting, natural history, and archæology, and a library of 500,000 volumes; in the other, Prince Charles's palace, is Holbein's famous 'Meyer Madonna.' The handsome post-office dates from 1881, the theatre from 1871. There are manufactures of chemicals, hats, machinery, tobacco, playing-cards, carpets, and beer; and a trade in iron, petroleum, fruit, flour, and wine. But the place depends more on its ducal court and government offices than on

DARTMOUTH

of the granite. The largest china-clay works in England are at Lee Moor, and are connected by a tramway with wharves at Plymouth.

The fauna and flora of Dartmoor have many points of interest. Trees are very rare; but there is a very singular group of gnarled and stunted oaks on a slope overlooking the West Dart, near Crockern Tor, of high antiquity and weird aspect, which has been called one of the wonders of the moor' "Wistman's Wood.'

The chief rivers rise at a height of over 1800 feet above the sea, in a wide stretch of peat-bog around Cranmere Pool-the Dart, Teign, Taw, Okement, Lyd, Tavy, and Walkham. From the morasses of the southern quarter spring the Plym, Yealm, Erme, and Avon.

Dartmoor is unrivalled in England in the extent and character of its prehistoric and rude stone antiquities-earthworks, barrows, kistvaens, menhirs, lines or avenues, cyclopean bridges, circles, cromlechs, trackways, and pounds or inclosures of stones, sometimes containing the remains of villages. Many stone implements have been found. On several of the tors there are rock basins, formerly called Druidical, but now assigned to the operation of natural causes.

The chief centre of population is Prince Town, named after George IV. when Prince Regent. Here a prison was built (1806) during the war with Napoleon, for the reception of prisoners of war. When the war ended it was abandoned, and was at one time used for the manufacture of naphtha from peat, which failed, as all attempts to utilise the Dartmoor peat beyond the supply of local wants have done. In 1855 the buildings were adapted to their present purpose of a convict prison. Attached is a fertile reclaimed farm. A very picturesque railway runs to Prince Town. See the Rev. S. Rowe's Perambulation of Dartmoor (1856).

Dartmouth, a seaport and municipal borough (till 1867 also parliamentary) in the south of Devonshire, 32 miles S. by W. of Exeter. It is built in picturesque terraces on a steep slope 300 to 400 feet high, on the right bank of the romantic estuary of the river Dart, at a short distance from the sea. The streets are narrow, and many of the houses very old, with overhanging stories, projecting gables, and wood-carvings. St Saviour's Church (circa 1372) has a richly sculptured, painted, and gilt stone pulpit, and a beautifully carved rood-loft. A battery, and the remains of a castle built during the reign of Henry VII., stand at the entrance to the harbour. Pop. (1891) 6038. Dartmouth is a quarantine port of the Eng lish Channel, and has a considerable trade with the Mediterranean, and in the Newfoundland fisheries. It is the port of departure of the 'Castle' line of mail steamers to South Africa, and a favourite yachting station—the harbour being deep and landlocked. At Dartmouth, in 1190, the Crusaders, under Richard Coeur-de-Lion, embarked for the Holy Land. The French burned it in Richard's reign, but were repulsed, chiefly by the women, in an attack in 1404. In 1346 Dartmouth furnished 31 ships for the siege of Calais. In 1643 Prince Maurice besieged and garrisoned it; but in 1646 Fairfax stormed and took it. Newcomen, the inventor of the steam-engine, was born here; Sir Humphrey Gilbert was born at Greenway, on the opposite side of the Dart; and another great Elizabethan worthy, John Davis, at Sandridge.

Daru, PIERRE ANTOINE, COMTE, a French writer and financier, was born at Montpellier, 12th January 1767. At sixteen he entered the army, and rose rapidly, but was flung into prison during the Terror, where he amused himself by translating Horace. Under Napoleon he was Intendant

general in Austria and Prussia, and a councillor of state, while in 1818 Louis XVIII. made him a peer. Thenceforth he devoted himself exclusively to letters. He died a member of the Institute and of the Academy of Sciences, 5th September 1829. Of his many books the chief are Cléopédie, ou Théorie des Réputations Littéraires (1800), spirited poem; Histoire de la République de Venise (7 vols. 1819-1821); and Histoire de la Bretagne (3 vols. 1826).-His son, NAPOLÉON DARU, born in 1807, opposed the coup d'état, and was proscribed; but became a member of the National Assembly in 1871, of the senate in 1876. Died in 1890.

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Darwen, a municipal borough of Lancashire, on the river Darwen, 3 miles S. of Blackburn, and 9 N. of Bolton. Cotton is the staple manufacture; then come paper-making and paper-staining; and to these and other industries, with its water facilities, and the neighbouring coal-mines and stone quarries, Darwen owes its rapid growth and its well-being. It was incorporated in 1878. Among the chief buildings are the free library, the market erected in memory of Sir Robert Peel. Pop. (1851) hall, the co-operative hall, and the public baths, 7020; (1881) 29,744; (1891) 34,192.

Darwin, CHARLES ROBERT, F.R.S., naturalist, the discoverer of the principle of natural selection, was born at Shrewsbury, February 12, 1809. His grandfather was Dr Erasmus Darwin, and his father Dr Robert W. Darwin, F.R.S. His mother was a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the celebrated potter. Darwin was educated at Shrewsbury grammarschool, studied at Edinburgh University for two sessions in 1825-6-7, and entered at Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1828. Already at Edinburgh he had become a member of the local Plinian Society; he took part in its natural history excursions, and read before it his first scientific paper-a new contribuIt was at Cambridge, however, that his biological tion to our knowledge of the Flustra or sea-mats. studies seriously began. Here he became acquainted with Professor Henslow, the well-known botanist, who encouraged his interest in botany and zoology. His chief taste at this time was for geological research. In 1831 he took his degree of B.A., and shortly after was recommended by Beagle, under Captain (afterwards Admiral) FitzHenslow as naturalist to the expedition of H.M.S. roy, R.N., then about to start for a scientific survey of South American waters. He sailed on December 27, 1831, and did not return to England from his long cruise till October 2, 1836. Meanwhile he visited Teneriffe, the Cape de Verde Islands, the Brazilian coast, Monte Video, Tierra del Fuego, Buenos Ayres, Valparaiso, and the New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Keeling Islands, Chilian region, the Galapagos Archipelago, Tahiti, in which last he laid the foundation for his famous theory of coral reefs. It was during this long expedition that Darwin obtained that intimate knowledge of the fauna, flora, and geological conditions of many tropical, subtropical, and temperate climates which so admirably equipped him at last for the great task he was afterwards to perform in settling the factors of biological evolution.

On his return to England in 1836, he set to work to co-ordinate the results obtained during his voyage. other scientific leaders, by whose aid he was apHe formed the friendship of Sir Charles Lyell and pointed secretary of the Geological Society in 1838. A year later, he was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society, and early in 1839 he married his cousin, Miss Wedgwood. In the same year he published his Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the various Countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle. From 1840 to 1843 Darwin was occupied with the publication of the Zoology of the

Voyage of the Beagle, under government auspices, to which great work (compiled by the leading specialist authorities of the day) he himself contributed an introduction and many notes. In 1842 appeared his work on The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs; in 1844, Geological Observations Volcanic Islands; and in 1846, Geological Observations on South America. These works placed him at once in the front rank of contemporary scientific thinkers. In 1851-53 appeared his valuable treatise on barnacles, A Monograph of the Cirripedia.

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Three years after his marriage Darwin settled at Down, near Beckenham, in Kent, where for the rest of his days he passed his time as a country gentleman among his conservatories, his pigeons, his garden, and his fowls. The practical information thus gained (especially as regards variation and interbreeding) was of invaluable use to him in his later researches. Private means enabled him to devote himself unremittingly henceforth, in spite of continuous and distressing ill-health, to the pursuit of science. It was at Down that Darwin began to occupy himself with the great work of his life-the problem of the origin of species. In 1837 he had already set out to accumulate facts and observations for this purpose. After five years' unremitting work, he allowed himself to speculate' on the subject, and drew up some short notes, which he enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of conclusions for his own use. These conclusions embodied in embryo the famous principle of natural selection, the germ of the celebrated Darwinian Theory (q.v.). With constitutional caution, however, Darwin delayed publication of his hypothesis, which was only at length precipitated many years later by an accidental circumstance of a romantic character. In 1858 Mr Alfred Russell Wallace, the distinguished explorer, sent home from the Malay Archipelago a memoir addressed to Darwin himself, for presentation to the Linnean Society. On opening this packet, Darwin found to his surprise that it contained in essence the main idea of his own theory of natural selection. Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker, to whom he communicated the facts, persuaded Darwin to read a paper of his own concomitantly with Wallace's before the Linnean Society, which was accordingly done on July 1, 1858. Urged forward by this strange coincidence, Darwin set to work seriously at once to condense his vast mass of notes-the labour of a lifetime and put into shape his great work on The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, published in November 1859. For an account of the main ideas there promulgated, see DARWINIAN THEORY. The book itself, an epoch-making work, was received throughout Europe with the deepest interest, was violently attacked and energetically defended, but in the end succeeded in obtaining recognition (with or without certain reservations) from almost all competent biologists. From the day of its publication Darwin continued to work on unremittingly at a great series of supplemental treatises, in which his main principles were still further enforced and enlarged, while minor corollaries were brought prominently into view. The Fertilisation of Orchids appeared in 1862, The Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication in 1867, and The Descent of Man in 1871. The lastnamed work, hardly less famous than the Origin of Species, derives the human race from a hairy quadrumanous animal belonging to the great anthropoid group, and related to the progenitors of the orangutan, chimpanzee, and gorilla. In this book Darwin also developed his important supplementary theory of sexual selection, which on the whole has been received by scientific thinkers with less favour than his other ideas. His later works are The

Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1873), Insectivorous Plants (1875), Climbing Plants (1875), The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom (1876), Different Forms of Flowers in Plants of the same Species (1877), and The Power of Movement in Plants (1880). His last work, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of Worms, appeared in 1881. In it Darwin showed grounds for believing that the vegetable mould which covers a large part of the globe is mainly due to the castings of earth-worms, without which the greater portion of the land surface of the world must necessarily consist of barren rock or thirsty sand.

It is, however, as the great leader of evolutionary biology that Darwin will be mainly remembered among men. Though not (as is commonly, but erroneously, believed) himself the originator of the evolution hypothesis, nor even the first to apply the conception of descent with modification to plant and animal organisms, Darwin was undoubtedly the first thinker to gain for that conception a wide acceptance among biological experts. By adding to the crude evolutionism of Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, and others, his own specific idea of natural selection, he supplied to the idea a sufficient cause, which raised it at once from the level of a hypothesis to the grade of a verifiable theory. His kindliness of character, honesty of purpose, devotion to truth, and attachment to his friends, rendered him no less remarkable on the moral and emotional than on the purely intellectual side of his nature. For many years his health had been extremely feeble, and he had worked under the severest physical disadvantages. He died suddenly, after a very short illness, April 19, 1882, and was buried with unusual honours in Westminster Abbey. See his Life and Letters by his son, Francis Darwin (1887).

Darwin, ERASMUS, physician, natural philosopher, and didactic poet, was born 12th December 1731, at Elston Hall, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire; entered St John's College, Cambridge, in 1750, graduated B.A. in 1754, and afterwards studied medicine at Edinburgh. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a practice at Nottingham, he removed to Lichfield, where he married and became a popular physician and prominent figure from his ability, his radical and free-thinking opinions, his poetry, his eight-acre botanical garden, and his imperious advocacy of temperance in drinking. After his second marriage in 1781, he settled in Derby, and then at Breadsall Priory, where he died suddenly 18th April 1802. Darwin had once a great reputation as a physiologist, but his system is, for the most part, inconsequential, baseless, and untenable. At the same time, many of his ideas are original, suggestive, and contain within them the germs of important truths. His strength and his weakness lay in his faculty for seeing analogies in nature. Sometimes he is exceedingly happy in his discoveries; at other times he is quite fantastical. The same remarks hold good as regards his verse, where, amid the frequent extravagance and incomprehensibility of his notions, there burst forth strains of genuine poetry. The Loves of the Plants (1789), a part of his chief poem, the Botanic Garden, was happily burlesqued in the 'Loves of the Triangles' in the Anti-Jacobin. Interest in Darwin's speculations has been revived by the recognition of his partial anticipation of Lamarck's views on evolution, and so of his own famous grandson's. His chief works are Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life (1794-96); and his Phytologia, or Philosophy of Agriculture (1799). See his Life by Krause, trans. by Dallas (1879). By his first wife he was grandfather of Charles Darwin; by his second, of Francis Galton.