the large European edible dormouse, G. vulgaris (or G. glis), a grey species with black markings known in Germany as Siebenschläfer; the genus ranges from continental Europe to Japan. The common dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius, ranging from England to Russia and Asia, is of the size of a mouse and mainly chestnut-coloured. The third genus is represented by the continental lerot, or garden-dormouse, Eliomys guercinus, which is a large parti-coloured species, with several local forms—either species or races. Lastly, Graphiurus, of which the species are also large, is solely African. In their arboreal life, and the habit of sitting up on their hind-legs with their food grasped in the fore-paws, dormice are like squirrels, from which they differ in being completely nocturnal. They live either among bushes or in trees, and make a neat nest for the reception of their young, which are born blind. The species inhabiting cold climates construct a winter nest in which they hibernate, waking up at times to feed on an accumulated store of nuts and other food. Before retiring they become very fat, and at such times the edible dormouse is a favourite article of diet on the Continent. At the beginning of the cold season the common dormouse retires to its nest, and curling itself up in a ball, becomes dormant. A warmer day than usual restores it to temporary activity, and then it supplies itself with food from its autumn hoard, again becoming torpid till roused by the advent of spring. The young are generally four in number, and are produced twice a year. They are born blind, but in a marvellously short period are able to cater for themselves; and their hibernation begins later in the season than with the adults. The fur of the dormouse is tawny above and paler beneath, with a white patch on the throat. A second subfamily is represented by the Indian Platacanthomys and the Chinese Typhlomys, in which there are only three pairs of cheek-teeth; thus connecting the more typical members of the family with the Muridae. (R. L.*)
DORNBIRN, a township in the Austrian province of the Vorarlberg, on the right bank of the Dornbirner Ach, at the point where it flows out of the hilly region of the Bregenzerwald into the broad valley of the Rhine, on its way to the Lake of Constance. It is by rail 712 m. S. of Bregenz, and 15 m. N. of Feldkirch. It is the most populous town in the Vorarlberg, its population in 1900 being 13,052. The name Dornbirn is a collective appellation for four villages—Dornbirn, Hatlerdorf, Oberdorf and Haselstauden—which straggle over a distance of about 3 m. It is the chief industrial centre in the Vorarlberg, the regulated Dornbirner Ach furnishing motive power for several factories for cotton spinning and weaving, worked muslin, dyeing, iron-founding and so on. (W. A. B. C.)
DORNBURG, a town of Germany, in the grand-duchy of Saxe-Weimar, romantically situated on a hill 400 ft. above the Saale, on the railway Grossheringen-Jena and 7 m. N.E. of the latter. Pop. 700. Dornburg is an ancient town, but is chiefly famous for its three grand-ducal castles. Of these, the Altes Schloss is built on the site of an imperial stronghold (Kaiserpfalz), once a bulwark against the Slavs, often a residence of the emperors Otto II. and Otto III., and where the emperor Henry II. held a diet in 1005; the Neues Schloss in Italian style of architecture, built 1728–1748, with pretty gardens. Here Goethe was often a guest, “healing the blows of fate and the wounds of the heart in Dornburg.” The third and southernmost of the three is the so-called Stohmannsches Rittergut, purchased in 1824 and fitted as a modern palace.
DORNER, ISAAC AUGUST (1809–1884), German Lutheran divine, was born at Neuhausen-ob-Eck in Württemberg on the 20th of June 1809. His father was pastor at Neuhausen. He was educated at Maulbronn and the university of Tübingen. After acting for two years as assistant to his father in his native place he travelled in England and Holland to complete his studies and acquaint himself with different types of Protestantism. He returned to Tübingen in 1834, and in 1837 was made professor extraordinarius of theology. As a student at the university, one of his teachers had been Christian Friedrich Schmid (1794–1852), author of a well-known book, Biblische Theologie des Neuen Testamentes, and one of the most vigorous opponents of F. C. Baur. At Schmid’s suggestion, and with his encouragement, Dorner set to work upon a history of the development of the doctrine of the person of Christ, Entwicklungsgeschichte der Lehre von der Person Christi. He published the first part of it in 1835, the year in which Strauss, his colleague, gave to the public his Life of Jesus; completed it in 1839, and afterwards considerably enlarged it for a second edition (1845–1856). It was an indirect reply to Strauss, which showed “profound learning, objectivity of judgment, and fine appreciation of the moving ideas of history” (Otto Pfleiderer). The author at once took high rank as a theologian and historian, and in 1839 was invited to Kiel as professor ordinarius. It was here that he produced, amongst other works, Das Princip unserer Kirche nach dem innern Verhältniss seiner zwei Seiten betrachtet (1841). In 1843 he removed as professor of theology to Königsberg. Thence he was called to Bonn in 1847, and to Göttingen in 1853. Finally in 1862 he settled in the same capacity at Berlin, where he was a member of the supreme consistorial council. A few years later (1867) he published his valuable Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie (Eng. trans., History of Protestant Theology, 2 vols.; 1871), in which he “developed and elaborated,” as Pfleiderer says, “his own convictions by his diligent and loving study of the history of the Church’s thought and belief.” The theological positions to which he ultimately attained are best seen in his Christliche Glaubenslehre, published shortly before his death (1879–1881). It is “a work extremely rich in thought and matter. It takes the reader through a mass of historical material by the examination and discussion of ancient and modern teachers, and so leads up to the author’s own view, which is mostly one intermediate between the opposite extremes, and appears as a more or less successful synthesis of antagonistic theses” (Pfleiderer). The companion work, System der christlichen Sittenlehre, was published by his son August Dorner in 1886. He also contributed articles to Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie, and was the founder and for many years one of the editors of the Jahrbücher für deutsche Theologie. He died at Wiesbaden on the 8th of July 1884. One of the most noteworthy of the “mediating” theologians, he has been ranked with Friedrich Schleiermacher, J. A. W. Neander, Karl Nitzsch, Julius Müller and Richard Rothe.
His son, August (b. 1846), after studying at Berlin and acting as Repetent at Göttingen (1870–1873), became professor of theology and co-director of the theological seminary at Wittenberg. Amongst his works is Augustinus, sein theologisches System und seine religionsphilosoph. Anschauung (1873), and he is the author of the article on Isaac Dorner in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.
See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie; Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (1904); Otto Pfleiderer, The Development of Theology in Germany since Kant (1890); F. Lichtenberger, History of German Theology in the Nineteenth Century (1889); Carl Schwarz, Zur Geschichte der neuesten Theologie (1869). (M. A. C.)
DORNOCH, a royal and police burgh and county town of Sutherlandshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 624. It lies on the north shore of Dornoch Firth, an arm of the North Sea, 734 m. S.S.E. of Mound station on the Highland railway by light railway. Its dry and bracing climate and fine golf course have brought it into great repute as a health and holiday resort. Before the Reformation it was the see of the bishopric of Caithness and Sutherland. The cathedral, built by Bishop Gilbert de Moravia (Moray) (d. 1245), the last Scot enrolled in the Calendar of Scottish saints, was damaged by fire in 1570, during the raid of the Master of Caithness and Mackay of Strathnaver, and afterwards neglected till 1837, when it was restored by the 2nd duke of Sutherland, and has since been used as the parish church. Noticeable for its high roof, low tower and dwarf spire, the church consists of an aisleless nave, chancel (adorned with Chantrey’s statue of the 1st duke) and transepts. It is the burying-place of the Sutherland family and contains the remains of sixteen earls. Of the ancient castle, which was also the bishop’s palace, only the west tower exists, the rest of the structure having been destroyed in the outrage of 1570. The county buildings adjoin it. Dornoch became a royal burgh in 1628, and, as one of the Wick burghs, returns a member to parliament. It was the scene of the last execution for witchcraft in Scotland (1722). At Embo, 2 m. N.N.E., a
