nary education in the town of Dundee, he was sent on board the Shoreham frigate, for the purpose of prosecuting his naval studies under Captain Haldane. Three years afterwards he joined the Mediterranean fleet as midshipman in the Centurion; and in 1755 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and transferred to the Norwich, which was then under orders to accompany the transports with the division of General Braddock to America. On his return he obtained the second-lieutenancy of the Torbay, seventy-four; and took part with that vessel in the attack on Goree, where he received a slight wound. Soon afterwards he was promoted to the first-lieutenancy of the Torbay, and in 1761 he attained the rank of post-captain, and joined the expedition against Belleisle; after which he sailed to Havannah, and distinguished himself greatly in the siege of that town. In 1780 Duncan was appointed to the command of the Monarch, of seventy-four guns, under Admiral Rodney, and contributed greatly to the victory over the Spanish fleet under Admiral Langara. He also distinguished himself in the engagement with the combined fleets of France and Spain off the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar. His reputation as an officer was now firmly established, and he was rapidly promoted from one rank to another; but he was unable to obtain active employment till 1795, when he was appointed commander-in-chief of the North Sea fleet. During the first two years of his command no event of importance occurred. He was occupied chiefly in maintaining a strict blockade of the Dutch ports, with the view of destroying their trade, and in watching the movements of the hostile fleet in the harbour of Texel. It was not till towards the close of the year 1797 that an opportunity of attacking the Dutch fleet presented itself; but on October 12th of that year an important engagement took place near Camperdown, in which the Dutch under Admiral de Winter suffered a total defeat. Admiral Duncan was rewarded for his distinguished services with the titles of Lord Viscount Duncan of Camperdown and Baron Lundie; and he received a pension of two thousand pounds per annum. Soon after his return to England he retired from public life. The excellence of his private character was not less remarkable than the success of his professional career. He is said to have been peculiarly gentle and unobtrusive in disposition, simple in habits, and sincere in piety. He died in 1804.—W. M.
DUNCAN, Daniel, a distinguished physician, was born at Montauban in 1649. He was the son of Dr. Peter Duncan, professor of medicine in that city, and grandson to William Duncan, an English gentleman of Scottish origin who crossed over from London to the south of France about the beginning of the eighteenth century. He lost both his parents while still an infant, and owed his careful education to the attention of his maternal uncle, Daniel Paul, a learned counsellor of Toulouse. This man was a staunch protestant, and had his nephew well instructed in the doctrines of the reformed faith. After a course of eight years' study at Montpellier, he took his doctor's degree at the age of twenty-four. After this he resided seven years in Paris, and in 1679 visited London, partly on business, and partly also to inquire into the effects of the plague. His return to France two years afterwards was caused by the declining health of his friend and patron Colbert, on whose death he retired to Montauban, with the intention of selling his property and settling in London. He remained, however, in his native town till the severe measures against the protestants drove him to Geneva, from which he soon afterwards removed to Berne, where he became professor of anatomy. Nine years afterwards he accepted an invitation from Philip, landgrave of Hesse, to become his domestic physician. It was while there that he wrote his popular treatise on the abuse of hot liquors—particularly tea, coffee, and chocolate—which his friend Boerhaave afterwards persuaded him to publish. While at Cassel he showed an admirable generosity in assisting the poor French refugees who passed that way to Brandenburg. He himself afterwards went to Prussia, on the invitation of the king, but neither did he settle there. After a twelve years' residence at the Hague, he went to London in 1714, and died in that city, April 30, 1735. He was the author, among other things, of "La Chimie Naturelle, ou explication de la nourriture de l'animal."—R. M., A.
DUNCAN, Mark, a learned physician and professor of philosophy, who lived in the seventeenth century. He was a native of Scotland, and was the son of Thomas Duncan, laird of Maxpoffle in Roxburghshire. The exact date of his birth is unknown. He was appointed professor of philosophy in the university of Saumur, the chief seminary of the French protestants; he and other distinguished pupils, was the instructor of the learned Daillé. Professor Duncan also turned his attention to the study of medicine, obtained the degree of M.D., and acquired such high reputation for medical skill, that James I. invited him to England, and sent him a patent appointing him his own physician. But he declined the office in consequence of the reluctance of his wife, who was a French lady, to quit her native country. He was subsequently promoted to the office of principal of the college. He wrote a work entitled "Institutio Logica," which greatly extended his reputation; and he had the sagacity to detect, and the courage to expose, the disgraceful imposture of the pretended possession of the Ursuline nuns of Loudon, who brought Urbain Grandier to the stake on the charge of sorcery. Duncan's exposure of this infamous conspiracy would have drawn upon him the vengeance of the priestly party, but for the protection of marshal de Breze, to whose wife he was physician. Principal Duncan died in 1650. His eldest son assumed the name of Cerisantes.—J. T.
DUNCAN, William, a writer of considerable erudition, and for several years professor of philosophy in the Marischal college of Aberdeen, was born within a stone-throw of that alma mater in 1717. He was educated with a view to the church, and graduated as a master of arts in 1737. He, however, preferred the press to the pulpit, and pens to psalms, and repaired to London, where he devoted himself with much ardour and success to literature. In 1752 George II. appointed him professor of philosophy, and soon after he published his "Elements of Logic," which has since held its ground as a work of high authority, perspicuity, and utility. As an introduction to the study of philosophy no work has since surpassed it. It was originally designed to form a part of Dodsley's Preceptor. As a translator Mr. Duncan was equally happy. His select orations of Cicero, as they occur in the ordinary dauphin edition, are effectively done; and the explanatory notes appended to them are judicious and erudite. He also produced a faithful and vigorous version of Cæsar's Commentaries, the value of which is much enhanced by a learned disquisition on the Roman art of war prefixed to it. He also contributed anonymously to the public press a number of papers and fugitive pieces. He died in 1760.—W. J. F.
* DUNCKER, Maximilian Wolfgang, a German historian, was born at Berlin in 1812. Whilst pursuing his studies at Bonn, he became embroiled in the proceedings against the so-called Burschenschaft, of which he had been a member, and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment, but released after six months. Since 1839 he has lectured at Halle, where he was appointed professor extraordinary. During the revolution of 1848-49 he acted a prominent part as a member of the national assembly, and as a writer on the politics of the day. In 1857 he was called to the chair of history at Tubingen. Amongst other writings he published "Origines Germanicæ;" "Die Krisis der Reformation;" "Zur Geschichte der deutschen Reichsversammlung;" "Vier Monate auswärtiger Politik." His most important work is his "History of Antiquity."—K. E.
DUNCOMBE, Thomas Slingsby, long M.P. for Finsbury, and a noticeable ultra-liberal politician, was born about the beginning of the present century, the eldest son of Thomas Duncombe, Esq., of Copgrove, Boroughbridge. By the father's side, Mr. Duncombe was a nephew of the first Lord Feversham, and by the mother a grandson of a bishop. With these connections, Mr. Duncombe was gladly accepted as one of its leaders, some forty years ago, by the ultra-liberal party, and onward from the era of the reform bill, "Tommy" Duncombe, as he was familiarly called, combined the apparently not very harmonious positions of a man of pleasure and fashion and a tribune of the people. Mr. Duncombe's liberalism did not subside with the reform bill. He patronized the people's charter, and though latterly his voice was not heard so frequently as of yore in the house of commons, he was ever ready to be the parliamentary mouth-piece of a popular grievance, and to state it to an assembly where his consistency, wit, and tact always secured him attention. For a number of years Mr. Duncombe occupied the post of president of a large trade organization, which has a central committee in London to watch over the interests of the working classes. Mr. Duncombe sat for Hertford from 1824 to 1832, and from that year till his death in 1861 he uninterruptedly represented the populous metropolitan borough of Finsbury.—F. E.
