wife shall not have dower in his lands or any part of them. In some of the United States in which a widow is given the right of inheritance, dower has been abolished.
In most of the older States, however, the common-law dower is still retained. In the absence of statutory changes there are several ways in which dower may be barred. These are: (1) By an absolute divorce. In the absence of statutory qualifications such a divorce bars dower whether it was obt^iined because of the misconduct of the husband or for that of the wife. But in some of the States if the wife obtain the divorce for the misconduct of the husband, she does not thereby lose her dower right. (2) If the wife join in the deed by which her husband conveys real estate, she will be thereby barred of dower. It is in order to secure this result that the wife commonly joins in her husband's conveyance. (3) If the wife induce any one to purchase her husband's real property by representing to him that she has no dower rights in such property, she will be estopped or precluded from subsequently claiming dower from that property against such purchaser or those who claim under him. (4) If the title of the husband be defeated, either while he lives or after his death, by one who claims under a paramount title, this will, in general, also defeat the wife's or widow's dower. (5) When, by the exercise of the right of eminent domain, the State takes real estate from the husband and makes compensation to him for it, the wife's right of dower in the property so taken is barred. But she may follow the proceeds or purchase money, and insist that her dower shall attach to that. So far as the right of dower is still recognized, it extends to equitable as well as to legal estates of inheritance. This has always been the rule in the United States and was made a part of the English law of dower by the Dower Act, above referred to. See Husband and Wife; Married Woman; and, for the corresponding right of the husband in the inheritable property of the wife, see Curtesy.
Bibliography. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England; Digby, An Introduction to the History of the Law of Real Property (5th ed., London, 1897); Jenks, Modern Land Law (Oxford, 1899); Kent, Commentaries on American Law (12th ed., Boston, 1873); Washburn, A Treatise on the American Law of Real Property (6th ed., Boston, 1902); Scribner, The Law of Dower; Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law (2d ed., London and Boston, 1899).
DO′WITCHER (corruption of Ger. deutsch, German, or Dutch duitsch, Dutch). A popular name for certain shore-birds, great favorites with gunners. They constitute the genus Macrorhamphus, are closely related to the snipes (q.v.), and are often called ‘gray snipe’ or ‘red-breasted’ or ‘red-bellied snipe.’ The bill is distinctly snipe-like, but the tail and feet are like those of sandpipers. Tvo species are recognized: both breed in high latitudes and winter in Mexico and South America, but during the migrations one species (Macrorhamphus griscus) is found along the Atlantic coast of the United States, while the other (Macrorhamphus scolopaceus) migrates through the Mississippi Valley and Western States. The dowitchers are about ten or twelve inches in length, with a bill two to two and a half inches long. The upper parts are chiefly black or blackish (in winter, brownish-gray), and the under parts dull pale rufous, more or less marked with black. These birds migrate in compact flocks which are easily attracted by decoys, to which the hunter calls them by imitating their notes. See Plate of Beach-Birds.
DOW′LAS (probably from Doullens, a town of France). A kind of coarse, strong unbleached linen, much used in the sixteenth century, and said to have been made at Doullens, France. It was largely manufactured in southern Scotland and in Yorkshire in the eighteenth century, and used by working people for shirts and aprons. Since the introduction of calico, the demand for dowlas has very much diminished, the article being little used.
DOW′LER, Bennet (1797-1879). An American physician. He was born in Moundsville, Va.; graduated at the medical school of the University of Maryland, and in 1836 settled in New Orleans, where he founded the Academy of Sciences, and for some years edited the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. His many experiments upon the condition of the human body immediately after death resulted in valuable discoveries in contractibility, calorification, and capillary circulation. He is the author of a Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853 (1854).
DOW′LING, John (1807-78). An American Baptist clergyman. He was born at Pevensey, Sussex, England; settled in the United States in 1832, and died at Middletown, N. Y., after forty-five years of ministerial service in different places. He is best known by his History of Romanism (1845, revised 1871).
DOWN. A maritime county in the southeast of Ulster Province, Ireland (Map: Ireland, F 2). Area, 957 square miles. It has a low, rocky coast-line of 67 miles, or 125 by the inlets, skirted by many islets. The Mourne Mountains cover 90 square miles in the south, and rise 2796 feet in Slieve Donard. The other parts of Down are mostly undulating and hilly, with plains and fine meadows along the rivers. The chief crops are oats, potatoes, turnips, wheat, flax, and barley. Many hogs are raised. The chief manufacture is linen, especially the finer fabrics, such as muslin, woven in the houses of the small farmers. Flax and cotton mills are common. Hosiery, leather, salt, thread, and woolens are also made. These, with corn, butter, pork, and hides, are the chief exports. Down is among the best cultivated of the Irish counties. Capital, Downpatrick. Population, in 1841, 368,200; in 1891, 269,734; in 1901, 289,330.
DOWNCAST. The name of a shaft used for ventilating mines. The foul air is made to ascend through a line, or in old-fashioned workings by a fire burning at the bottom or by a fan blower, while fresh air descends through the downcast.
DOWN′ING, Andrew Jackson (1815-52). An American nurseryman, landscape gardener, and pomologist, born at Newburgh, N. Y. His influence upon American horticultural development is probably unsurpassed. To him must be accredited the introduction and development of the free or English school of landscape garden-
