ance of Sirius followed a few days after the summer solstice: it was a sign of the rising of the Nile, and of the beginning of the agricultural year in Egypt. This reference to the beginning of the agricultural year adds great force to this supposition. The accompanying hieroglyphics, as the child on the lotus flower near Aries, the rising sun, the point of the vernal equinox, are additional arguments. Considerations drawn from astronomy and the progress of the arts, induced E. G. Visconti to believe this planisphere and the whole temple, which undoubtedly were executed at the same time, to be of a far more recent origin. He assigned this building to the time when the uncertain Thoth, the commencement of the uncertain Egyptian year, coincided with the sign of Leo, which was the case from the year 12 to the year 132 of our era. (See Notice sommaire des deux Zodiaques de Tentyra, in the 2d volume of Larcher's Herodote, page 567 et seq.) To this date, belonging to the first years of the Roman dominion, the authors of the great description of Egypt have opposed strong reasons. In case this hypothesis should not be approved, Visconti had another ready. Proceeding on the theory of De la Nauze, who took an Egyptian Normal year as the basis of his calculation, he assigned these monuments to the period of the Ptolemies. A single Greek inscription, in an obscure place in the Isæum, was not a very conclusive argument in favor of this hypothesis, which, besides, is exposed to strong objections, if we compare the architecture of these buildings with other monuments of that period. They are executed in so They are executed in so pure an Egyptian style, that they exclude every idea of foreign influence hostile to the religion of the country. No one, therefore, can think of ascribing them to the old enemies of the Egyptian worship, the Persians, those destroyers of temples. There is, then, no alternative but to refer their origin to a period when the country was under its native kings. Putting out of view the astronomical representations, the authors of the description of Egypt are inclined to assign the building of the temple, whose execution harmonizes so accurately with the original plan as to be evidently the creation of the same time, to that period when the Egyptian art appears to have reached its highest perfection, the period between Necho and Amasis, when magnificent edifices were erected in the Delta, and Memphis was in its splendor. The dispute concerning the antiquity of this monument is not yet fin

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ished, and was by no means brought nearer to a decision by mutilating the whole, and carrying a piece of it to Europe. Preconceived opinions have affected the discussion of this subject. Thus an essay of Dupuy on this zodiac was suppressed by the police of Paris, as tending to promote infidelity (August, 1822). A young Frenchman, S. Saulnier, whose ambition was excited by the rich spoils carried off by the English, conceived the idea of procuring this zodiac for his native country. As he was prevented from going to Egypt personally, he left the transportation of it to his friend H. Lelorrain, who embarked, in 1820, for Alexandria, provided with the necessary instruments. Mohammed Ali showed a deplorable readiness to permit the sacred monuments of Tentyra to be mutilated. Upon the roof of the temple Arabians had, in earlier times, fixed their abodes; it was necessary to remove their deserted huts; and their rubbish, together with that already accumulated, formed a plane upon which the blocks of sandstone could slide down to the banks of the Nile. A vehicle of the invention of M. Lelorrain was used for this purpose. Lelorrain selected the small circular zodiac in the upper apartment. As the whole stone on which the zodiac was represented was too large to be carried off, extending, as it did, the whole width of the ceiling, and resting on the walls on each side, M. Lelorrain contented himself with the portion covered by the zodiac, a small part of which, projecting over the main stone, and contained on a contiguous one, he left, not thinking it worth the trouble of removing. The removal was effected by means of chisels, saws and gunpowder. The stone was exceedingly well preserved, only blackened by soot, perhaps of the time when the mysteries and the worship of animals were solemnized in these sanctuaries. This smoke may also have destroyed the colors by which, it is probable, the hieroglyphics were formerly distinguished. The stone is of the same kind of sand-stone of which all the monuments between Phyle and Denderah are composed. Scarcely was this work of destruction finished, when another explorer, Mr. Salt, the English consul, laid claims to the booty, asserting prior rights to every thing dug up at Tentyra. The bashaw of Egypt decided for the Frenchman, because the zodiac was taken from the roof. Lelorrain at length arrived safe with his booty at Marseilles. Here a comparison with the plates in the great work on

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Egypt showed that every thing was in its right place, but that the drawing had been embellished in a way which was not confirmed by the monument. In January, 1822, he arrived at Paris, where the proprietors caused a drawing to be taken by Gau, containing all the discernible figures. The French government purchased the planisphere for 150,000 francs. The disputes relative to the epoch of its origin were renewed with fresh ardor. St. Martin, in his Notice sur le Zodiaque de Denlerah, etc., maintains that the monument was erected as early as 569, and not earlier than 900 B. C.; but his opinion is not satisfactorily proved; nor is that of Mr. Biot, which Jomard has controverted in the Rev. Encycl. (1822). On the other hand, Letronne, in his Critical and Archæological Observations on the Signs of the Zodiac (Paris, 1823), maintains that there is no monument among the signs of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman zodiacs older than the common era. With this opinion agrees also that of the abbé Halma, in his Examen et Explication du Zodiaque de Denderah, etc. (3_vols., Paris, 1822, with copper-plates). Letronne considers the zodiacs of Esné and Denderah as astrological curiosities of the times of the Roman emperors. The weight of opinion at present is, that these figures are inscriptions of about the same antiquity as the Christian era.

DENDRITES, or ARBORIZATIONS; an appellation given to figures of vegetables observed in fossil substances, and which are of two kinds, the one superficial, the other internal. The first are chiefly found on the surface of stones, and between the strata and the fissures of those of a calcareous nature. They are mostly brown, changing gradually to reddish-yellow. The internal dendrites are of a deep black. The most esteemed sorts are those found in agates, and particularly in the sardonyx, cornelian, and other precious stones brought from the East, and which are commonly denominated Moka slones.

DENGUE FEVER. (See Fever.) DENHAM, Dixon, lieutenant-colonel, well known by his expedition into Central Africa, was born at London, in 1786, and, after finishing his studies at school, was placed with a solicitor, but, in 1811, entered the army as a volunteer, and served in the peninsular campaigns. After the general peace, he was reduced to half pay on the peace establishment, and, in 1819, was admitted into the senior department of the royal military college at Farnham. In 1823-4, he was engaged, in com

pany with captain Clapperton and doctor Oudney, in exploring the central regions of Africa. (For an account of their expeditions, see Clapperton.) His courage, address, firmness, perseverance and moderation, his bold, frank, energetic disposition, and his conciliating manners, peculiarly fitted him for such an undertaking. The narrative of the discoveries of the travellers was prepared by Denham. In 1826, he went to Sierra Leone, as superintendent of the liberated Africans, and, in 1828, was appointed lieutenant-governor of the colony; but, on the 9th of June of the same year, he died of a fever, after an illness of a few days.

DENHAM, Sir John, a poet, was born at Dublin, in 1615, the son of sir John Denham, chief baron of the exchequer in Ireland. He was educated in London and at Oxford. Although dissipated and irregular at the university, he passed his examination for a bachelor's degree, and then removed to Lincoln's Inn to study law. In 1641, he first became known by his tragedy of the Sophy. This piece was so much admired, that Waller observed, "Denham had broken out like the Irish rebellion, 60,000 strong, when no person suspected it." At the commencement of the civil war, he received a military command; but, not liking a soldier's life, he gave it up, and attended the court at Oxford, where, in 1643, he published the first edition of his most celebrated poem, called Cooper's Hill. He was subsequently intrusted with several confidential commissions by the king's party, one of which was to collect pecuniary aid from the Scottish residents in Poland. He returned to England in 1552; but how he employed himself until the restoration, does not appear. Upon that event, he obtained the office of surveyor of the king's buildings, and was created a knight of the Bath, and a fellow of the newly-formed royal society. A second marriage, at an advanced age, caused him much disquiet, and a temporary derangement; but he recovered, and retained the esteem of the lettered and the courtly until his death, in 1688, when his remains were interred in Westminster abbey.

DENINA, Giacomo Carlo, a historian, born in 1731, at Revel, in Piedmont, studied belles-lettres at Turin, and received the professorship of humanity at the royal school at Pignerol. When the chair of rhetoric at the superior college of Turin was vacant, Denina was made professor in the college and university. He now published the three first volumes of his History of the Italian Revolutions (Turin,

Gothland and Oesel, provinces which it had retained ever since the union; besides putting Halland in her hands for 30 years. The faults of the Danish form of government, and the restraints on the crown, had principally contributed to make the Danish arms unsuccessful. The same misfortune attended them also in the new war, begun with Sweden by king Frederic III, in 1657. In the peace of Roschild, in 1658, and that of Copenhagen, in 1660, he lost Schonen, Bleckingen, Bohus and Halland. This caused the abolition, in 1660, of the constitution of the states: the nation itself granted the king absolute power, and rendered the crown hereditary. Norway did the same in 1661. The Danish nobility, however, retained the most important offices of state, and the result did not answer the expectations which had been entertained of the new arrangement. Christian V and Frederic IV were conquered in the war with Charles XII. Denmark, however, after the fall of Charles XII, gained by the peace of 1720, at Fredericsburg, the toll on the Sound, and maintained possession of Sleswic. After this, the state enjoyed a long repose; but the wounds inflicted by its ill successes and its defective form of government, could not be healed by the peaceful system now adopted. Denmark, having but few resources, can prosper only by wise moderation and careful manage ment. The political machine, once disordered, requires a long time for restoration. In 1726, Denmark united with the crown the county of Ranzau; in 1761, Holstein-Plőn; and, in 1773, Holstein-Gottorp. In return for the latter, by a treaty with Russia, it ceded the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, which were acquired in 1667. In 1730, Christian VI succeeded Frederic IV, and left his crown, in 1746, to his son Frederic V. Christian VII (q. v.) received the sceptre in 1766. He governed entirely by his ministers. (See the article Struensee.) The present king, Frederic VI (q. v.) was declared of age at 16 years, and, in April 14, 1784, was appointed regent on account of the insanity of his father, whom he succeeded, after his death, A. D. 1808. In consequence of the defensive alliance with Russia, in 1788, a Danish auxiliary corps marched into Sweden without opposition; but, on the representations of England and Prussia, an armistice was concluded a fortnight after the commencement of hostilities. Thus ended this fruitless campaign, which imposed on the impoverished finances a burden of 7,000,000 rix dollars. Denmark

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maintained her neutrality with more success, in 1792, when the allied powers wished her to take part in the war against France. But, by her accession to the Northern confederacy, in 1800, she was involved in a war with Great Britain, in which the Danish fleet was defeated at Copenhagen, April 2, 1801. The courage of the Danes, however, obtained for them a truce, upon which Denmark acceded to the treaty of Russia with England, completed July 20, evacuated Hamburg and Lübeck, of which she had possession, and received back her own colonies. A: length, in 1807, this state was included in Napoleon's continental policy. A French army stood on the borders of Denmark, Russia had adopted the continental system at the peace of Tilsit, and England thought it her duty to prevent the accession of Denmark to this alliance. A fleet of 23 ships of the line was sent up the Sound, August 3, which demanded of Denmark a defensive alliance, or the surrender of her fleet, as a pledge of her neutrality. Both were denied. Upon this, a British army landed, consisting of 25,000 men, under lord Cathcart; and, after an unsuccessful resistance on the part of the Danes, who were unprepared for such an attack, Copenhagen was surrounded August 17. As the government repeatedly refused to yield to the British demands, the capital was bombarded for three days, and 400 houses laid in ashes, in the ruins of which 1300 of the inhabitants perished. September 7, Copenhagen capitulated, and the whole fleet, completely equipped, and including 18 ships of the line, 15 frigates, &c., was delivered up to the British, and carried off in triumph. The crews, who had fought on those days with distinguished bravery, were made prisoners of war. Great Britain now offered the crownprince neutrality or an alliance. If he accepted the first, the Danish fleet was to be restored in three years after the general peace, and the island of Heligoland was to be ceded to the British crown. The crown-prince, however, rejected all proposals, declared war against Great Britain in October, 1807, and entered into a treaty with Napoleon, at Fontainebleau, October 31. Upon this, Bernadotte occupied the Danish islands with 30,000 men, in order to land in Sweden, against which Denmark had declared war in April, 1808. This plan was defeated by the war with Austria, in 1809, and the hostilities against Sweden in Norway ceased the same year. The demand made by the court of Stockholm, in 1813, of a transfer of Norway to