Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 8, DIA-England

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D O I
Dogger any disorder happen where he was, it belonged not to
,11 him, but to the podesta, as being invested with the public
Doig- authority, to put it down.
The children and brothers of the doge were excluded
from all the chief offices of state. They could not receive
any benefice from the court of Rome, but were allowed
to accept of the cardinalate, as being no benefice, nor in¬
cluding any jurisdiction. The doge could not divest him¬
self of his dignity for his ease; and after his death his
conduct was examined by three inquisitors and five correc¬
tors, who sifted it with great severity. The office of tjoge
ceased even to have a nominal existence when Venice,
“ sunk in its glory, decayed in its worth,” yielded, almost
without a struggle, to the ascendency of republican France.
DOGGER, a Dutch fishing vessel navigated in the
German Ocean. It is generally employed in the herring
fishery, being equipped with two masts, namely, a main¬
mast and mizen-mast, and somewhat resembling a ketch.
DOGGERS, in the English alum works, a name given
by the workmen to a sort of stone found in the same mines
with the true alum rock, and containing some alum, though
not nearly so much as the right kind. The county of
York, which abounds greatly with the true alum rock, af¬
fords also a considerable quantity of these doggers; and
in some places they approach so much to the nature of
the true rock, that they are wrought to advantage.
DOGMA, a principal maxim, tenet, or settled opinion,
particularly with regard to matters of faith and philosophy.
DOGMATICAL, something belonging to a doctrine
or opinion. A dogmatical philosopher is one who asserts
things positively, in opposition to a sceptic, who doubts of
every thing.
DOGMATISTS, a sect of ancient physicians, of which
Hippocrates was the first author. They are also called
logici, or logicians, from their using the rules of logic in
subjects of their profession. They laid down definitions
and divisions; reduced diseases to certain genera, and
these genera to species, furnishing remedies for them all;
supposed principles, drew conclusions, and applied these
to the particular diseases under consideration. In this
sense the dogmatists were contradistinguished from empi¬
rics and methodists. They rejected all medicinal virtues
which they thought not reducible to manifest qualities;
but Galen long ago observed of them, that they must either
deny plain matter of fact, or assign but poor causes and
reasons for many effects which they pretended to explain.
DOGMELL, St, a town in the county of Pembroke, in
South Wales, 238 miles from London, on a promontory
on the northern shore of the county. The inhabitants
amounted in 1801 to 1379, in 1811 to 1620, in 1821 to
2107, and in 1831 to 2109.
DOHO, a small town of Hindustan, in the province of
Agra, tributary to the Mahrattas, and twenty-one miles
south-west from Gwalior. Long. 79. 50. E. Lat. 26. 9. N.
DOIG, David, the most learned of Scotish schoolmas¬
ters in modern times, was born in the year 1719. His fa¬
ther, who w'as a small fanner in the county of Forfar, died
when he was yet in his infancy; and his mother contract¬
ed a second marriage with a worthy man, who, though by
no means in affluent circumstances, and soon burdened
with children of his own, treated him with the tenderness
of a parent. A constitutional defect in his sight prevent¬
ed him from learning to read till he was twelve years of
age, but his subsequent progress was uncommonly rapid.
Having for the space of three years attended a parochial
school, where he was instructed in writing, arithmetic,
D o I 9]
and Latin, he became a successful competitor for a bursary, Doig.
or exhibition, in the university of St Andrews. Here he
completed the usual course with great approbation; and,
having taken the degree of A. B. he enrolled himself as a
student of divinity, but his scruples respecting some arti¬
cles in the Confession of Faith prevented him from enter¬
ing the church. What those articles were, we have not
discovered; but it appears sufficiently evident that his
scruples had no reference to the essential doctrines of
Christianity. Reconciling himself to the more humble
avocations of a parochial schoolmaster, he for a considera¬
ble number of years taught the schools of Monifieth in
his native county, and of Kennoway and Falkland in the
county of Fife. He was afterwards appointed master of
the grammar school of Stirling; and this office, as a late
writer remarks, he discharged for forty years with the
greatest ability, and with the respect and esteem of all
who knew him.
His accomplishments, not only as a classical scholar, but
as a man of general erudition, procured him no mean re¬
putation long before he was known as an author. Of his
extensive knowledge of languages, the earliest specimen
which he imparted to the public is to be found in about
twenty pages of annotations on the Gaberlunzie-man, in¬
serted in an edition published by his learned friend and
neighbour Mr Callander.1 His contribution is introduced
in the following terms: “ For the following elucidations
of the general principles laid down in the preface, and ex¬
emplified in the notes on the foregoing ballad, the public
and I are indebted to a learned and worthy friend of the
author, whose extensive erudition is only equalled by the
modesty and candour conspicuous in his whole deport¬
ment. I am sure our learned readers will regret with me,
that he has not pushed his researches further than he has
done. But from the little he has here given us, the gene¬
ral principles of etymology I have endeavoured to esta¬
blish will derive new force, and our readers new entertain¬
ment.” Although his learning did not procure him any
academical preferment, it at least procured him a due
share of academical honours. On the same day he re¬
ceived a diploma of A. M. from St Andrews, and another
of LL. D. from Glasgow.
After an interval of ten years, he published “ Two Let¬
ters on the Savage State, addressed to the late Lord
Kaims.” Lond. 1792, 8vo. This work, which consists
of 157 crown pages, is dedicated to Dr Horne, bishop of
Norwich, and is introduced by a preface written by the
author’s friend Dr Gleig, a learned episcopalian clergy¬
man of Stirling. The first letter, written in 1775, was sent
to Lord Karnes, who was passing his Christmas vacation at
Blair-Drummond, and who was much struck with the learn¬
ing and ability of his anonymous correspondent. Having
without much difficulty detected the author, he invited
him to dine with him next day; when they met and part¬
ed with mutual satisfaction, but with no abatement of the
confidence of either party in the correctness of his own
views as to the primitive condition of the human race.
After a very copious and free discussion of the savage
state, each of the disputants retained his own opinion ; but
they nevertheless laid the foundation of a cordial friend¬
ship, which continued uninterrupted during the lifetime
of the judge, who survived till the year 1782. It was
scarcely to be anticipated that his lordship should aban¬
don the favourite paradox which pervades his Sketches of
the History of Man; namely, that the tribes of mankind
were originally placed in the condition of savages, from
1 Two ancient Scottish Poems, the Gaberlunzie-man, and Christ’s Kirk on the Green : with notes and observations, by John Cal¬
lander, Esq. of Craigforth. Edinb. 1782, 8vo.