Page:EB1911 - Volume 08.djvu/471

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DOUMER—DOUSA
  

was begun at Lambeth, and in 1877 works were opened at Burslem, where almost every variety of china and porcelain, as well as artistic earthenware, has been produced. Works have since been opened at Rowley Regis, Smethwick, St Helens, Paisley and Paris. After the Paris exhibition of 1878 Henry Doulton was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In 1872 the “Art department” was instituted in the Doulton works, giving employment to both male and female artists, amongst whom such workers as George Tinworth and the Misses Barlow have obtained a reputation outside their immediate sphere. In 1887 Doulton received the honour of knighthood, and a few years later was awarded the Albert medal by the Society of Arts. He married in 1849 the daughter of Mr J. L. Kennaby; she died in 1888. Sir Henry Doulton took an active interest, as almoner, in St Thomas’s hospital. He died in London on the 18th of November 1897.


DOUMER, PAUL (1857–  ), French politician, was born at Aurillac. He studied law and made his debut in politics as chef de cabinet to Floquet, when president of the chamber in 1885. In 1888 he was elected Radical deputy for the department of the Aisne. Defeated in the general elections of September 1889, he was elected again in 1890 by the arrondissement of Auxerre. As minister of finance in the Bourgeois cabinet (from the 3rd of November 1895 to the 21st of April 1896) he tried without success to introduce an income-tax. In January 1897 he became governor of Indo-China, where he carried out important public works. In 1902 he returned to France and was elected by Laon to the chamber as a Radical. He refused, however, to support the Combes ministry, and formed a Radical dissident group, which grew in strength and eventually caused the fall of the ministry. Doumer became a prominent personage in Paris and was elected president of the chamber in January 1905, being re-elected in January 1906. At the presidential election of the 17th of January 1906 he was a candidate in opposition to M. Fallières and obtained only 371 votes against 449; and the new chamber passed him over as its new president in favour of Henri Brisson. As an author he is known by his L’Indo-Chine française (1904), and Le Livre de mes fils (1906).


DOUMIC, RENÉ (1860–  ), French critic and man of letters, was born in Paris, and after a distinguished career at the École Normale began to teach rhetoric at the Collège Stanislas. He was a contributor to the Moniteur, the Journal des Débats and the Revue bleue, but was best known as the independent and uncompromising literary critic of the Revue des Deux Mondes. His works include: Éléments d’histoire littéraire (1888); Portraits d’écrivains (1892); De Scribe à Ibsen (1893); Écrivains d’aujour-d’hui (1894); Études sur la littérature française (5 vols., 1896–1905); Les Jeunes (1896); Essais sur le théâtre contemporain (1897); Les Hommes et les idées du XIXᵉ siècle (1903); and an edition of the Lettres d’Elvire à Lamartine (1905).


DOUNE, a police burgh of Perthshire, Scotland, 83/4 m. N.W. of Stirling by the Caledonian railway. Pop. (1901) 930. It is situated on the left bank of the Teith, here crossed by the bridge built in 1535 by Robert Spittal, tailor to James IV. The town was once famous for its pistols and sporrans (as the purses worn with the kilt are called), which were in great request by the clansmen of the Highlands. Doune Castle, now in ruins, occupies a commanding position on the Teith, at the point where it is joined by the Ardoch. It is believed to have been built by Murdoch, 2nd duke of Albany (d. 1425), and was sometimes a residence of the sovereigns, among them James V. and Queen Mary. A nephew of Rob Roy held it for Prince Charlie, and it figures in Scott’s Waverley. It belongs to the earl of Moray (Murray), who derives from it his title of Lord Doune, and was the home of James Stewart, the “bonnie earl” of Moray, murdered at Donibristle in Fife by the earl of Huntly (1592). The braes of Doune lie to the north-west of the town and extend towards Uam Var. Deanston (pop. 652), 1 m. S.W. of Doune, on the right bank of the Teith, was the scene of the labours of James Smith (1789–1850), the agricultural engineer, who was also manager of the cotton mills established there in 1785. On his farm Smith carried out his experiments in deep and thorough draining, and also invented a reaping machine, the subsoil plough and numerous other valuable appliances.


DOURO (Span. Duero, Port. Douro, anc. Durius), a river of the Iberian Peninsula. The Douro rises south of the Sierra de la Demanda, in the Pico de Urbion, an isolated mountain mass 7389 ft. high. It describes a wide curve eastwards past Soria, then flows westward across the Castilian table-land, passing south of Valladolid, with Toro and Zamora on its right bank; then from a point 3 m. E. of Paradella to Barca d’Alva it flows south-west and forms the frontier between Spain and Portugal for 65 m. It crosses Portugal in a westerly direction through a narrow and tortuous bed, and enters the Atlantic 3 m. below Oporto at São Jõao da Foz. The length of the Douro, which is greater than that of any other Iberian river except the Tagus and Guadiana, is probably about 485 m.; but competent authorities differ widely in their estimates, the extremes given being 420 and 507 m. In Spain the Douro receives from the right the rivers Pisuerga, Valderaduey and Esla, and from the left several small streams which drain the Sierra Guadarrama, besides the more important rivers Adaja, Tormes and Yeltes; in Portugal it receives the Agueda, Côa and Paiva from the left, and the Sabor, Túa and Tamega from the right. The area drained by the Douro and its tributaries is upwards of 37,500 sq. m., and includes the greater part of the vast plateau of Old Castile, between the watersheds of the Cantabrian Mountains, on the north, and the Guadarrama, Gredos, Gata and Estrella ranges, on the south. The lower stream is beset with numerous rapids, called pontos, and is subject to swift and violent inundations. On this account navigation is attended with difficulties and risks between its mouth and Barca d’Alva; but a railway, running for the most part along the right bank, skirts the river during the greater part of its course through Portugal. The mouth of the river is partly blocked by a sandy bar; only ships of light draught can enter, while those of greater burden are accommodated at the harbour of Leixões, an artificial basin constructed about 3 m. N. On its way through Portugal the Douro traverses the Paiz do Vinho, one of the richest wine-producing territories in the world; large quantities of wine are conveyed to Oporto in sailing boats. The Douro yields an abundance of fish, especially trout, shad and lampreys.


DOUROUCOULI, apparently the native name (perhaps derived from their cries) of a small group of American monkeys ranging from Nicaragua to Amazonia and eastern Peru, and forming the genus Nyctipithecus. In addition to the absence of prehensile power in their tails, douroucoulis, also known as night-apes, are distinguished by their large eyes, the sockets of which occupy nearly the whole front of the upper part of the skull, the partition between the nostrils being in consequence narrower than usual. The ears are short, and the hair round the eyes forms a disk. Douroucoulis live in parties, and are purely nocturnal, sleeping during the day in hollow trees, and coming out at night to feed on insects and fruits, when they utter piercing cat-like screams.


DOUSA, JANUS [Jan van der Does], lord of Noordwyck (1545–1604), Dutch statesman, historian, poet and philologist, and the heroic defender of Leiden, was born at Noordwyck, in the province of Holland, on the 6th of December 1545. He began his studies at Lier in Brabant, became a pupil of Henry Junius at Delft in 1560, and then passed on in succession to Louvain, Douai and Paris. Here he studied Greek under Pierre Dorat, professor at the Collège Royal, and became acquainted with the chancellor L’Hôpital, Turnebus, Ronsard and other eminent men. On his return in 1565 he married Elizabeth van Zuylen. His name stands in the list of nobles who in that year formed a league against Philip II. of Spain, but he does not appear to have taken any active part in public affairs till 1572, when he was sent as a member of an embassy to England. He was not, however, at first very eager to commit himself to the fortunes of William the Silent, prince of Orange, but having once chosen his side, he threw himself heart and soul into the struggle for freedom from the Spanish yoke. Fortunately for Leiden he was residing in the town at the time of the famous siege. He held no post in the government, but in the hour of need he, though not trained to