DONALDSON, JOHN WILLIAM English philologist and biblical critic, was born in London on June 7, 181 i. He was educated at University College, London, and Trinity Col lege, Cambridge, of which he became fellow. Headmaster of King Edward's school, Bury St. Edmunds from 1841 to 1855, he spent the last years of his life at Cambridge; and died on Feb. io, 1861. The New Cratylus (1839), the book on which his fame mainly rests, was an attempt to apply to Greek the principles of com parative philology; it was founded mainly on the comparative grammar of Bopp, but a large part of it was original, Bopp's grammar not being completed till ten years after the first edition of the Cratylus. In the Varronianus (1844) the same method was applied to Latin, Umbrian and Oscan.