discovered by Columbus on a Sunday (Sp. _dominica_), constituting a
presidency of the united colony of the Leeward Islands between Martinique
on the south, and Guadeloupe on the north. It is about 29 miles in length,
north to south, and 12 miles in breadth, east to west; area, 186,436 acres,
about 65,000 being under cultivation. It is rugged and mountainous, but it
contains many fertile valleys and is well watered. The shores are but
little indented, and are entirely without harbours; but on the west side
there are several good anchorages and bays. The principal exports consist
of sugar, molasses, cocoa, and lime-juice. The imports and exports amount
to about L160,000 and L120,000 annually. Dominica was ceded by France to
Great Britain in 1763. Roseau is the capital. Pop. 33,863 (including about
420 aboriginal Caribs).
DOMIN'ICAL LETTER, in chronology, properly called Sunday letter, one of the
seven letters of the alphabet, A B C D E F G, used in almanacs,
ephemerides, &c., to mark the first seven days of the year and all
consecutive sets of seven days to the end of the year, so that the letter
for Sunday will always be the same. If the number of days in the year were
divisible by seven without remainder, then the year would constantly begin
with the same day of the week; but as it is the year begins and ends on the
same day, and therefore the next year will begin on the day following, and
on leap years two days following, so that the same series is not repeated
till after four times seven or twenty-eight years.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, or SAN DOMINGO. See _Santo Domingo_.
[Illustration: Dominican]
DOMIN'ICANS, called also _predicants_, or _preaching friars
(praedicatores)_, derived their name from their founder, St. Dominic. At
their origin (1215, at Toulouse) they were governed by the rule of St.
Augustine, perpetual silence, poverty, and fasting being enjoined upon
them; and the principal object of their institution was to preach against
heretics. Their distinctive dress consists of a white habit and scapular
with a large black mantle, and hence they have been commonly known as
_Black Friars_. They were almost from the first a mendicant order. They
spread rapidly not only in Europe, but in Asia, Africa, and America. In
England, where they founded their first house at Oxford, there were
fifty-eight Dominican houses at the dissolution of the monasteries, and the
Blackfriars locality in London took its name from one of their
establishments. Four Popes, Innocent V, Benedict XI, Pius V, and Benedict
XIII, were Dominicans, and the order produced some famous scholars, such as
Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. As fierce opponents and strenuous
combatants against any departure from the teaching of the Catholic Church,
the Dominicans were entrusted with the conduct of the Inquisition, and
became formidable as managers of this ecclesiastical institution, which was
committed exclusively to them in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. In 1425 they
obtained permission to receive donations, and ceased to belong to the
mendicant orders, paying more attention to politics and theological
science. With the Franciscans, their great rivals, they divided the honour
of ruling in Church and State till the sixteenth century, when the Jesuits
gradually superseded them in the schools and courts. They obtained new
importance in 1620 by being appointed to the censorship of books for the
Church. Amongst notable Dominicans we may mention Savonarola, Las Casas,
and Lacordaire, through whose efforts the order was revived in France in
the nineteenth century. There are still establishments of the Dominicans
both in England and Ireland, twenty-one houses for men and thirteen for
women.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Caro, _Saint Dominique et les Dominicains_; A. T.
Drane, _The Life of St. Dominic, with a Sketch of the Dominican Order_.
[Illustration: Dominoes.
Left, Priest wearing domino over surplice, from brass plate at Bury St.
Edmunds, 1514. Right, Lady wearing domino.]
DOM'INO, formerly a dress worn by priests in the winter, which, reaching no
lower than the shoulders, served to protect the face and head from the
weather. At present it is a masquerade dress worn by gentlemen and ladies,
consisting of a long silk mantle with wide sleeves and a masquing hood. The
name is also given to a half-mask formerly worn on the face by ladies when
travelling or at masquerades.
DOM'INOES, a game played with small flat rectangular pieces of ivory, about
twice as long as they are broad. They are marked with spots varying in
number. When one player leads by laying down a domino, the next must follow
by placing alongside of it another which has the same number of spots on
one of its sides. Thus if the first player lays down 6-4, the second may
reply with 4-8, or 6-7, &c.; in the former case he must turn in the 4,
placing it beside the 4 of the first domino, so that the numbers remaining
out will be 6-8; in the latter case he must turn in the 6 to the 6 in like
manner, leaving 4-7, to which his opponent must now respond. The player who
cannot follow suit loses his turn, and the object of the game is to get rid
of all the dominoes in hand, or to hold fewer spots than your opponent when
the game is exhausted by neither being able to play. The game was
introduced into Europe about the middle of the eighteenth century.
[Illustration: Domitian]
DOMITIAN, or in full Titus Flavius Domitianus Augustus, Roman emperor, son
of Vespasian, and younger brother of Titus, was born A.D. 51, and in 81
succeeded to the throne. At first he ruled with a show of moderation and
justice, but soon returned to the cruelty and excesses for which his youth
had been notorious. He was as vain as he was cruel, and after an
ineffective expedition against the Catti, carried a multitude of his
slaves, dressed like Germans, in triumph to the city. He executed great
numbers of the chief citizens, and assumed the titles of Lord and God. He
established the most stringent laws against high treason, which enabled
almost anything to be construed into this crime. At length a conspiracy, in
which his wife Domitia took part, was formed against him, and he was
assassinated in his bedroom A.D. 96.
DOMR['E]MY LA PUCELLE (do[n.]-r[.e]-mi l[.a] p[.u]-s[=a]l), the birth-place
of Joan of Arc, a small French village, department of the Vosges, 7 miles
N. of Neufch[^a]teau. The house is still shown here in which the heroine
was born, and in the neighbourhood is the monument erected to her memory.
DON (ancient TANAIS), a river of Russia, which issues from Lake Ivan-Ozero,
in the government of Tula; and flows S.E. through the governments of
Riazan, Tambov, Voronej, and the Don Republic, to within 37 miles of the
Volga, where a railway connects the rivers. It now turns abruptly S.W. for
236 miles, and falls into the Sea of Azov; whole course nearly 900 miles.
The chief tributaries are: right bank, the Donetz and Voronej; left, the
Khoper and Manych. Although not admitting vessels of much draught, the Don
carries a large traffic, especially during the spring-floods, and a canal
connects it with the Volga system of navigation. It has productive
fisheries. The principal port is Rostov.
DON, a river, Scotland, Aberdeenshire, rising near the Banffshire border.
It flows tortuously east through the whole breadth of Aberdeenshire, and
falls into the North Sea a little to the north of Aberdeen, after a total
course of 82 miles. Its salmon fisheries are of considerable value.--Also,
a river of Yorkshire, England, which rises near Cheshire, and joins the
Ouse after a course of about 70 miles. It is navigable for small craft as
far as Sheffield.
DON (Lat. _dominus_, a lord or master), a Spanish title of honour,
originally given only to the highest nobility, afterwards to all the
nobles, and finally used indiscriminately as a title of courtesy. It
corresponds with the Portuguese Dom. During the Spanish occupation it was
introduced and became naturalized in some parts of Italy, and was
particularly applied to the priests.
DONAGHADEE (don-a_h_-a-d[=e]'), a seaport and market town, Ireland, County
Down, on the Irish Channel, 16 miles east by north of Belfast. Pop. 4878.
DON'ALDSON, Sir James, Scottish scholar, born in 1831 at Aberdeen, died in
1915. He was educated at Aberdeen University, and also at Manchester New
College, London, and Berlin University. After being rector of Stirling High
School, a classical master and rector of Edinburgh High School, he was
appointed in 1881 to the Chair of Humanity (Latin) in Aberdeen University.
In 1886 he became principal of the United College of St. Salvator and St.
Leonard in St. Andrews University, and in 1890 principal of the university.
He published a _Modern Greek Grammar for the use of Classical Students_
(1853); _Lyra Graeca: Specimens of Greek Lyric Poets, with Introduction and
Notes_ (1854); _History of Christian Literature and Doctrine from the Death
of the Apostles to the Nicene Council_ (1864-6); _The Ante-Nicene Christian
Library_ (24 vols., 1867-72, edited jointly with Professor A. Roberts);
_The Apostolical Fathers_ (1874); _Lectures on the History of Education in
Prussia and England_ (1874); _The Westminster Confession of Faith_ (1905);
_Woman: her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece and Rome, and among
the Early Christians_ (1907); _Addresses Delivered in the University of St.
Andrews from 1886 to 1910_ (1911). He was knighted in 1907.
DONALDSON, John William, a distinguished English philologist, was born in
London in 1811, died in 1861. He studied at London University, and at
Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected a fellow in 1835. His
first work was _The Theatre of the Greeks_, a work showing much erudition.
In 1839 he published _The New Cratylus_, which was amongst the earliest
attempts to bring the philological literature of the Continent within the
reach of the English student. In 1844 appeared the first edition of
_Varronianus_, a work on Latin similar in scope to the _Cratylus_. Amongst
his other writings are: _Christian Orthodoxy_ (1855), _History of the
Literature of Ancient Greece_, and grammars of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
languages.
DONATELLO (properly, _Donato di Betto Bardi_), one of the revivers of the
art of sculpture in Italy, was born at Florence between 1382 and 1387, died
at Florence in 1466. His first great works in marble were statues of St.
Peter and St. Mark, in the church of St. Michael in his native town, in an
outside niche of which is also his famous statue of St. George. Along with
his friend Brunelleschi he made a journey to Rome to study its art
treasures. On his return he executed for his patrons, Cosmo and Lorenzo de'
Medici, a marble monument to their father and mother, which is of high
merit. Statues of St. John, St. George, Judith, David, John the Evangelist,
and St. Cecilia are amongst his leading works.
DONA'TI'S COMET, so called from the Italian astronomer Donati, who first
observed it on 2nd June, 1858. Next to the comet of 1811 it was the most
brilliant that appeared last century. It was nearest the earth on the 10th
Oct., 1858, and was seen until March, 1859. See _Comets_.
DON'ATISTS, one of a body of African schismatics of the fourth century, so
named from their founder Donatus, Bishop of Casae Nigrae, in Numidia, who
taught that though Christ was of the same substance with the Father yet
that he was less than the Father, that the Catholic Church was not
infallible, but had erred in his time and become practically extinct, and
that he was to be the restorer of it. All joining the sect required to be
rebaptized, baptism by the impure Church being invalid.
DONA'TUS, Aelius, a Roman grammarian and commentator, born A.D. 333. He was
the preceptor of St. Jerome, wrote notes on Virgil and Terence, and a
grammar of the Latin language so universally used in the Middle Ages that
'Donat' became a common term for grammar or primer of instruction.
DONAUW[:O]RTH (don'ou-v_eu_rt), a town, Bavaria, at the confluence of the
W[:o]rnitz and Danube. It was formerly a free Imperial town, and was
stormed by the Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War,
1632. Pop. 5500.
DON BENI'TO, a town, Spain, province of Badajoz. It has manufactures of
woollens, and a trade in cattle, grain, and melons. Pop. 19,212.
DON'CASTER (_Danum_ of the Romans, and _Dona Ceaster_ of the Saxons), a
municipal borough and market town, England, West Riding of Yorkshire, on
the River Don, well built, with straight, broad streets. The parish church
with its tower 170 feet high, Christ Church, the town hall, the theatre,
are amongst the chief public buildings. It has railway workshops,
manufactures of ropes, canvas, and machinery. It has been long celebrated
for its annual races, begun in 1615, and held in September. Doncaster was
originally a Roman station on the line of Watling Street. Pop. 30,520. It
gives its name to a parliamentary division.
DONDRAH HEAD, the southern extremity of the Island of Ceylon. It was the
site of the Singhalese capital during part of the seventh century, numerous
remains of which are still to be found.
DON'EGAL (_Dun-na-n Gal_, Fort of the Stranger), a maritime county,
Ireland, province of Ulster, bounded north and west by the Atlantic Ocean;
area, 1,197,154 acres, of which about a fifth is under crops. The coast is
indented with numerous bays; the most remarkable being Lough Swilly. It is
the most mountainous county in Ireland, but has some fine fertile valleys.
Mount Errigal, the loftiest summit, is about 2460 feet high. The streams
and lakes are small, but numerous and abounding in fish. The climate is
moist, the subsoil chiefly granite, mica-slate, and limestone, and the
principal crops oats, potatoes, and flax. Agriculture generally is in a
very backward state. The manufactures are limited, and consist chiefly of
linen cloth, woollen stockings, and worked muslin. The fisheries are
extensive and valuable, and form the chief employment of the inhabitants of
the coast and islands. Grain, butter, and eggs are exported. The minerals
include marble, lead, and copper, but are not wrought to advantage. Donegal
returns four members to Parliament. Pop. 168,530.
DONETZ', a Russian river which rises in the government of Kursk, flows
south and east, forming the boundary of several governments, and joins the
Don; length, 400 miles. Its basin is rich in coal.
DON'GOLA, a province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan extending on both sides of
the Nile from about lat. 18deg to lat. 20deg N. After having belonged to
Egypt, the rebellion under the Mahdi caused its evacuation by the Egyptian
Government, leaving it in the hands of the dervishes, but the
Anglo-Egyptian forces under Lord Kitchener again occupied it in 1896. Its
chief products are dates, cotton, indigo, and maize. The population is a
mixture of Arabs and indigenous Nubians. Its chief town is New Dongola, or
El-Ordi, on the Nile. Pop. 20,000.
DONI, a clumsy kind of boat used on the coast of Coromandel and Ceylon;
sometimes decked, and occasionally furnished with an outrigger. The donis
are about 70 feet long, 20 feet broad, and 12 feet deep, have one mast and
a lug-sail, and are navigated in fine weather only.
DONIZET'TI, Gaetano, Italian composer, born in 1797 at Bergamo, died 8th
April, 1848. He studied music at Bologna under the distinguished Abb['e]
Mattei. His first opera, _Enrico di Borgogna_, was represented at Venice in
1818. In 1822 his _Zoraide di Granata_ gained him the honour of being
crowned on the Capitol. In 1830 appeared his _Anna Bolena_, which first,
along with _Lucrezia Borgia_ and _Lucia di Lammermoor_--the latter his
masterpiece--acquired for him a European fame. In 1835 Donizetti was
appointed professor of counterpoint at the Royal College of Naples, but
removed in 1840 to Paris, bringing with him three new operas, _Les
Martyrs_, _La Favorita_, and _La Fille du R['e]giment_, of which the last
two are amongst his most popular productions. Of his other operas none
except _Linda di Chamounix_ (1842) and _Don Pasquale_ (1843) achieved any
special triumph. He wrote in all as many as seventy operas.
DONJON, the principal tower of a castle, situated in the innermost court or
bailey, which the garrison could make the last line of defence. Its lower
part was commonly used as a prison.
DON JUAN (Sp. pron. _h_[u:]-[.a]n'), the hero of a Spanish legend which
seems to have had some historical basis in the history of a member of the
noble family of Tenorio at Seville. According to the legend, Don Juan was a
libertine of the most reckless character. An attempt to seduce the daughter
of the Governor of Seville brought the indignant father and the profligate
don into deadly conflict, in which the former was slain. Don Juan
afterwards, in a spirit of wild mockery, goes to the grave of the murdered
man and invites the statue of him erected there to a revel. To the terror
of Don Juan the 'stony guest' actually appears at the table to bear him
away to the infernal world. The legend has furnished the subject for many
dramas and operas. The most famous of the latter is Mozart's _Don
Giovanni_, which has made the story familiar to everybody. Amongst the
former are _Burlador de Sevilla_ by Tellez, _Don Juan, ou Le Festin de
Pierre_ by Moli[`e]re (1665), and _The Libertine_ by Shadwell. The _Don
Juan_ of Byron bears no relation to the old story but in name and in the
libertine character of the hero. Among the modern authors who have made use
of the theme are: Prosper M['e]rim['e]e, in _Les [^a]mes du purgatoire_; A.
Dumas, in _Don Juan de Marana_; Bernard Shaw, in _Man and Superman_; and
Jos['e] Zorilla, in _Don Juan Tenorio_.--Cf. Gendarme de B['e]votte, _La
L['e]gende de Don Juan_.
DONKEY-ENGINE, a small engine used in various operations where no great
power is required. Thus a donkey-engine is often stationed on the deck of a
ship to work a crane for loading and unloading.
DONNAY, Maurice Charles, French dramatist, born in Paris in 1859. His first
work, _Phryn['e]_, was produced in 1891, and was followed by an adaptation
of Aristophanes' _Lysistrata_. His later works include: _Douloureuse_
(1897), _Le Torrent_ (1898), _L'Affranchie_ (1898), _L'Autre Danger_
(1901), _Le Retour de J['e]rusalem_ (1903), _Le M['e]nage de Moli[`e]re_
(1912). He was elected to the Acad['e]mie Francaise in 1907.
DONNE, John, a celebrated poet and dean of St. Paul's, was the son of a
merchant of London, in which city he was born in 1573. He studied both at
Oxford and Cambridge. In his nineteenth year he abjured the Catholic
religion, and became secretary to the Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, but
finally lost his office by a clandestine marriage with his patron's niece,
a daughter of Sir George More. The young couple were in consequence reduced
to great distress, till his father-in-law relented so far as to give his
daughter a moderate portion. In 1610 he wrote for the king the
_Pseudo-Martyr_, and in 1612 he published a philosophical poem, _The
Progress of the Soul_. By the desire of King James, Donne took orders, and,
settling in London, was made preacher of Lincoln's Inn. In 1621 he was
appointed Dean of St. Paul's. He was chosen prolocutor to the Convocation
from 1623-4. He died in March, 1631, and was interred in St. Paul's. As a
poet, Donne stands extremely high, and may be deemed the founder of what
Dr. Johnson calls the _metaphysical_ class of poets. Abounding in thought,
this school generally neglected versification, and that of Dr. Donne was
peculiarly harsh and unmusical. His style is quaint and pedantic; but he
displays sound learning, deep thinking, and originality of manner. A
collection of his poems appeared in 1633, and they include: _The Storm_,
_The Calm_, _The Blossom_, and _Upon Parting with his Mistress_. He also
wrote _Letters, Sermons, Essays on Divinity_, and other pieces.--Cf. E.
Gosse, _Life and Letters of John Donne_.
DONNYBROOK, formerly a village, Ireland, now a suburb of Dublin. Its famous
fair, instituted under King John in 1204, and which seldom passed off
without riot and bloodshed, was abolished in 1855.
DON REPUBLIC, a republic in south-eastern Russia, formerly a government of
imperial Russia, and known as the Don Cossacks' Territory. The republic was
proclaimed in Jan., 1918; its capital is Novo-Tscherkask.
DOOMBOOK, a code of laws compiled by King Alfred from the West-Saxon
collection of his ancestor Ina, and comprising small portions of the
Mercian laws of Offa, and of the Kentish collection of Ethelbert. The code
begins with the words: "The Lord spake these words to Moses, and thus said:
I am the Lord thy God".--Cf. B. Thorpe, _Ancient Laws and Institutes of
England_.
DOON, a river in Ayrshire, Scotland, which issues from the long, narrow
Loch Doon, and falls into the Firth of Clyde; length, 27 miles.
DOPPLER'S PRINCIPLE, the principle by which the motions of heavenly bodies
in the line of sight can be determined spectroscopically. When the distance
between a body and the observer is being diminished, the number of waves of
light of any definite colour received from it per second is increased, just
as a swimmer meets more waves in the same time if he swims to meet them.
Each colour of light is, therefore, slightly shifted towards the violet end
of the spectrum. Thus any radiation or absorption lines seen are shifted
towards the violet. If the body's distance is increasing, they are shifted
towards the red. By investigation of such displacements, the motions of
stars, nebulae, &c., in the line of sight can be measured, the dimensions
of the orbits of double-stars gauged, the motions of gases in the solar
atmosphere determined, and the rotational velocity of the sun's surface
found for latitudes where sun-spots are rarely or never visible. The speed
and direction of the sun's motion through space, viz. 12 miles per second
towards a point in the constellation Hercules, has also been determined by
this means.
DOR, or DORR, the black-beetle, _Geotr[=u]pes stercorarius_, one of the
most common British beetles, of a stout form, less than 1 inch long, black
with metallic reflections, not to be confounded with the cockroach,
commonly but erroneously called black-beetle. It may often be heard droning
through the air towards the close of the summer twilight.
DORA, the name of two rivers in Northern Italy, both tributaries of the Po.
The Dora Baltea rises on the southern slopes of the Mont Blanc group, and
falls, after a course of about 100 miles, into the Po below Chivasso; the
Dora Riparia, about 75 miles long, rises in the Cottian Alps, and joins the
Po below Turin.
DO'RAN, John, English writer, born 1807, died 1878. He began writing when a
mere youth, and produced a great number of books, among them being _Lives
of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover_, _Monarchs retired from
Business_, _History of Court Fools_, _The Book of the Princes of Wales_,
_Their Majesties' Servants_ (a history of the English stage from Betterton
to Kean), _Saints and Sinners_, _A Lady of the Last Century_ (Mrs.
Montague), _London in Jacobite Times_, and _Memories of Our Great Towns_.
_In and about Drury Lane_ was published after his death. He was editor of
_Notes and Queries_ at the time of his death.
DORCAS SOCIETY (from _Dorcas_ mentioned in _Acts_, ix, 36-42), an
association generally composed of ladies for supplying clothes to the poor.
Frequently the members of the society meet at stated times and work in
common. Partial payment is generally required from all recipients except
the very poor. Most of these societies are connected with churches of one
denomination or another.
DOR'CHESTER, a municipal borough of England, chief town of Dorsetshire, 118
miles S.W. of London. There are large cavalry and infantry barracks a
little to the west of the town. The trade consists chiefly in agricultural
produce. Dorchester was an important Roman station (Durnovaria), and many
interesting Roman remains, such as the 'Maumbury Rings' (a Roman
amphitheatre), are still to be found in the vicinity. It was a
parliamentary borough till 1885, when it was merged in the county. Pop.
9842.