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DONALDSON 1870, 5,864. The Rio Pecos intersects the E. part, and the Rio Grande flows through the W. portion. Several mountain ridges cross the country. The chief productions in 1870 were 23,324 bushels of wheat, 98,590 of In- dian corn, and 14,000 Ibs. of wool. The value of live stock was $71,740. Capital, Dona Ana. DONALDSON, John William, an English scholar, born in London, June 10, 1811, died there, Feb. 10, 1861. He was educated at the uni- versity of London and at Trinity college, Cam- bridge, where he graduated in 1834, and was made a fellow in 1835. After being some time assistant tutor there, he took orders and be- came head master of the grammar school of Bury St. Edmund's. In 1855 he resigned, and removed to Cambridge, where he gave a course of lectures on Latin synonymes, and occupied himself with private teaching and writing. In 1856 he was appointed one of the classical examiners of the university of London. In 1860 he travelled for his health in Germany, but returned without improvement, and re- moved to London, where he resided until his death. His most celebrated work is "The New Cratylus " (1839 ; 3d and enlarged ed., 1859), which was the first attempt on a large scale in England to bring out the principles of comparative philology established by German scholars. His Varronianus (1844) undertook to accomplish for Latin philology what " The New Cratylus" had done for Greek. "The Theatre of the Greeks," his earliest work, is still used as a college text book. He also pub- lished grammars of the Greek, Latin, and He- brew languages, editions of Pindar, and the " Antigone " of Sophocles, and was engaged on a new Greek lexicon when his health failed. He also wrote Jashar, Fragmenta ArcJietypa Carminum Hebraicorum (Berlin, 1854 ; Lon- don, 1860), an attempt to restore the "Book of Jasher," alluded to in the Scriptures, and " Christian Orthodoxy " (London, 1857). DONATELLO, or properly Donato dl Betto di Bardi, one of the revivers of sculpture in Italy, born in Florence in 1383, died in 1466. Ilis parents were poor, and he was brought up by a rich relative. He at first applied himself to painting, but subsequently to sculpture, and found in Cosmo de' Medici, the chief of the Florentine republic, a patron able to perceive and to reward his merits. The " St. Peter " and " St. Mark " which adorn the church of St. Michael in his native city were his first great works. He afterward studied in Rome, and occupied himself with repairing the inju- ries to the ancient sculptures. He particularly excelled in works in rilievo, among which were the " Nativity and Burial of Christ " and the "Assumption of the Virgin." His group of " Judith and Holofernes," executed in bronze for the community of Florence, that of " St. George," the finest ornament of the church of St. Michael, and his "Zuccone," representing an old man in the costume of a senator, have met with the approbation of succeeding times. 270 VOL. vi. 14 DONATISTS 207 He was buried in the church of San Lorenzo, by the side of Cosmo de' Medici. Nothing irritated him more than to see his works sold to persons unable to appreciate them, and he sometimes broke a finished piece to save it from such a destiny. DONATI, Giovanni Battista, an Italian astrono- mer, born in Pisa in 1826, died in Florence, Sept. 20, 1873. In 1852 he became an assist- ant in the observatory of Florence, where he soon gained distinction, especially by his dis- covery, on June 2, 1858, of the comet which bears his name. He had been anticipated in a similar discovery made in 1854 ; but he estab- lished his claims of priority in those seen by him on June 3, 1855, Nov. 10, 1857, and July 23 and Sept. 9, 1864. He also made impor- tant investigations on the spectra of comets, the solar disk, and the stars, and in 1862 pub- lished /Spectra di quindici stelle. In 1864 he visited England, and in the same year succeed- ed Prof. Ami as director of the observatory of Florence. Through his exertions was in- augurated in 1872 the royal observatory on the hill of Arcetri, near Florence, memorable as the site of Galileo's tower. He was direc- tor of this and professor of astronomy in the royal institution of Florence at the time of his death, just previous to which he had repre- sented Italy in the international meteorological congress at Vienna. DONATISTS, a party in the ancient north African church, so called from two of their leaders named Donatus. In 311 Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, died, and the majority of the clergy and people hastened to choose in his stead his archdeacon, Csecilian. This elec- tion was ratified by the bishops of the province of Carthage, one of whom, Felix of Aptungis, acted as consecrator. All this haste both in the election and consecration was to avoid the interference of the bishops of the neighboring province of Numidia, between whom and Men- surius a bitter strife had existed on the treat- ment of the lapsed and the validity of all priestly acts performed by an unworthy min- ister. As Csecilian had been a strong support- er of Mensurius throughout his administration, Secundus, the primate of Numidia, and Dona- tus, bishop of Casse Nigrse, his counsellor, were particularly anxious to exclude him from the succession. No sooner had Csecilian been consecrated than Secundus and Donatus arrived at the head of 70 Numidian prelates. Two deacons, competitors of Csecilian, now became his accusers before this assemblage of bishops, to which none of the suffragans of Carthage were admitted. The validity of Csecilian's or- dination was impugned, because Felix of Ap~ tungus, they said, was a traditor, that is, one who had given up the Scriptures and sacred vessels to the pagans during the late persecu- tion of Diocletian. As Csecilian, though will- ing to submit to a new election, refused to ac- knowledge the Numidian bishops as his lawful judges, he was deposed and the lector Majo-