Daniel, one of the most distinguished of modern philologists, was born at Bern in 1746. His father, the clergyman of the town, was a good theologian, and superintended his early education with care. After a careful domestic education, he was sent to study philology at the universities of Marburg, Gottingen, and Leyden, where he was a pupil of the famous Ruhnken. So high was his reputation as a critical scholar, that, in his twenty-fifth year, he was appointed professor of Greek and philosophy in the college of the Arminians at Amsterdam, and subsequently in the Atheneum of the same city, which out of compliment to him was afterwards styled the Wytenbach Atheneum. In 1779, he was advanced to the chair of eloquence at Leyden, a position which he held till blindness and old age rendered him incapable of discharging its duties, when he resigned, and went to live at Heidelberg. It was in 1816, in his seventieth year, that he removed to Heidelberg; and two years afterwards he took the extraordinary step of marrying the famous Johanna Galien. For this eccentric proceeding an excuse may be found partly in the advanced age of Wytenbach, and principally, perhaps, in the fact that the object of his affections was a distinguished philologist, the only lady, in all probability, in Europe, who could appreciate the studies by which the professor had obtained his reputation. In acknowledgment of her acquirements in philology, the degree of Ph.D. was conferred on her, in 1827, by the University of Marburg. Wytenbach did not long survive his marriage, as he died at Oegs in 1820. He was a man of great learning, and possessed in perfection the discriminating skill of the critic. He wrote always in Latin, and his Latinity is considered the purest which has been written in recent times; that of his Vita Ruhnkenii, being usually reckoned the best. He was the author or editor of numerous other works, including an excellent edition of the Opera Moralia of Plutarch; Precepta Philosophiae Logicae, which has been very generally adopted as a text-book on the science of which it treats; Selections from Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, and Plutarch, with Notes; and the Bibliotheca Critica, which was published under his superintendence from 1779 to 1808. X, or x, is the twenty-fourth letter of our alphabet, and a double consonant. It was not used by the Hebrews or ancient Greeks; for, as it is a compound letter, the ancients, who used great simplicity in their writings, expressed this letter by its component letters e s. Neither have the Italians this letter, but express it by ss. X scarcely begins any word in our language but such as are of Greek origin; and is in few others but what are of Latin derivation, as perplex, reflexion, deflusion, &c. We often express this sound by single letters, as eks in backs, necks; by ks, in books, breaks; by ce in access, accident; by ct, in action, unction, &c. The English and French pronounce it like ex, ks; the Spaniards like e before a,—viz., Alejandro, as it were Alejandro. In numerals it expresses 10, whence in old Roman manuscripts it is used for denarius. When a dash is added over it, thus, X, it signifies 10,000. (See ABBREVIATIONS.)