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RATTANY-RATTLESNAKE.

resinous exudation. Various methods are employed different species. All the species are American, for collecting it.

and are much dreaded for their deadly venom, although they seldom assail man, unless molested, and the rattle often gives timely warning of danger. The R. is often found at rest in a coiled form, with the rattle somewhat erected from the centre of the

The canes of commerce are usually imported in bundles of 100 canes, each cane from 15 to 20 feet in length. Rattans and reeds were imported into the United States, in 1870, to the value of $3793. RAʼTTANY, or RHATANY (Krameria trian-coil; and when it begins to be irritated, the rattle dra), a half-shrubby plant, of the natural order Polygaleæ, a native of the cold sterile table-lands of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia. It is called Ratanhia in Peru. It is valued for the medicinal properties of the root, which are shared more or less by other species of the same genus, also natives of South America. The dried root is a powerful astringent, and a useful tonic; and is employed in mucous discharges, passive hæmorrhages, and cases of relaxation and debility. It is also used as a tooth-powder, often mixed with orris root and charcoal. R. root is imported from different parts of South America, but chiefly from Lima. It is extensively imported into Portugal in order to

communicate a rich red colour to wines.

The recovers.

peculiar properties of R. root are supposed to be chiefly owing to an acid called Krameric Acid.

RATTAZZI, URBANO, an Italian statesman, was born in the middle ranks of life, at Alessandria (Piedmont), in 1810. He was an advocate at Casale, where, in 1847, he was President of the Agricultural Committee. After the proclamation of the constitution in 1848, he was elected member for Alessandria, and began his political career as a democrat. His knowledge, eloquence, and liberal principles raised him to the ministry, and his first act was to write to the bishops, threatening to have them arrested, if they should preach against liberty: He resisted his chief, Gioberti, who wished to send Piedmontese soldiers into Tuscany and Rome, to prevent the occupation of these places by the Austrians and French; urged Charles Albert into a new war with Austria, and after the defeat of Novara, was obliged to retire from the ministry. After Napoleon's coup d'état, the liberty of Piedmont was threatened, and Cavour, R., and their parties joined together to defend it. This union was called connubio. R. took the portfolio of Minister of Justice in the Cavour Ministry in 1854, and presented the bill for the abolition of convents. The priests were up in arms against him, and he was strenuously opposed by the Catholic party. After the Mazzinian movement in 1857, being accused of weakness in suppressing it, he retired. After the peace of Villafranca, he returned to the ministry. He did not wish to accept definitively the annexation of the Duchies, because he knew that the price of it was Savoy and Nice, which he was unwilling to give up; and being, as is alleged, secretly undermined by Cavour and Sir James Hudson, he fell. He returned to the ministry in 1862, after having made an agreement with Garibaldi to give the assistance and support of the government for an expedition into Turkey. It is alleged that Sir J. Hudson knew it, and in order to dissuade Garibaldi from the enterprise, instigated him to go to Rome. The result was Aspromonte. After that tragedy, R. retired from the ministry, but was again in office from April to October, 1867. He was an able administrator, an eloquent orator, and much liked by the king.

shakes. Rattlesnakes are generally rather sluggish in their movements, but they are most active and most dangerous in the warmest weather, their bite being more formidable at such a time, as well as more readily inflicted. The effects of the bite are various, according not only to the condition of the serpent, but also according to the constitution of the person bitten, and the place into which the fangs have been inserted, the worst case being when the poison immediately enters a large vein, and so is carried at once to the most vital parts. Death to human beings has been known to ensue in a few minutes, whilst in other cases, hours or days have elapsed, and sometimes the sufferer Almost all animals shew what may be deemed an instinctive dread of the R., and a great unwillingness to approach it. Hogs and peccaries, however, are so far from regarding it with dread, that they kill and eat it, finding safety from its venom probably not in any peculiarity of constitution, but in their thickness of skin, and the thickness of the layer of fat under the skin. Rattlesnakes are viviparous, and exhibit attachment to their young. Seventeen species of the restricted genus are known, of which 3 are from Brazil, 4 from Mexico, and the remainder from North America. Ten of the latter are found in the Sonoran and Arizonian regions, 1 in California, 3 in the plains, and 2 in the Atlantic States. One of the Arizonian species (C. cerastes) lives in the desert, and, like the horned viper of the Sahara, has horns above the eyes.

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The rattle is a very peculiar appendage. It consists of a number of thin horny cells, jointed together; each, except the terminal one, of conical form, and in great part covered by that next to it, against the sides of which its apex strikes when the rattle is shaken, so as to produce a rustling or rattling noise.

It is known

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that the number of joints in the rattle increases with the age of the serpent, one being added at RATTLESNAKE (Crotalus), a genus of serpents each casting of the skin. One species of R. of the family Crotalida, distinguished from the (Crotalus durissus), sometimes called the CASCArest of that family by the rattle at the end of the VELA, is found in the warm parts of South Amertail. They are also characterised by having only ica. Its muzzle is covered by three or four pairs one row of plates under the tail. The genus is of plates. Its scales have a sharp elevated keel. subdivided by many authors according to the scales It attains the length of eight feet, although it is and shields with which the head is covered in seldom found of so great a size. Its colour is yel

RATZ BOSZORMENY-RAUMER.

In his works, R. has the merit of having surmounted the difficulties which modern costume opposes to the ideal representation of personages of the present age; and while he preserved the salient points of his model, he possessed the art of sacrificing the less important details to the exigences of the beautiful. He died at Dresden on December 3, 1857.

lowish-brown above, with a broad dark streak on was designed by R. in conjunction with Professor each side of the neck, and a series of broad lozenge- Schinkel, the architect, in 1830; and after 20 years' shaped spots on the back. Another species, Cro- labour, the statue was finished in 1850, and was talus horridus, extends further northward, as far inaugurated with great pomp in May 1851. as the southern shores of the great lakes. It is of a pale brown colour, with a dark streak across the temples, and dark spots on the body, often assuming the form of bands; the keel of the scales not so strongly developed, and the muzzle with fewer shields than in the former species, which it resembles in size. A third species, Crotalus or Crotalophorus miliaris, having the head completely covered with large shields, is also common in many parts of North America, and is as much dreaded as either of those already named, notwithstanding its much smaller size, because the sound of its rattle is so feeble as not readily to attract attention. It is of a brownish-olive colour, with brown spots on the back and sides, the belly black. In the colder countries which they inhabit, rattlesnakes spend the winter in a torpid state, retiring for that purpose into holes, or hiding themselves among moss.

RATZ BOSZORMENY. See BöszORMENY.

RAU'HÉS HAUS is the name of a great institution founded and hitherto managed by Wichern at Horn, near Hamburg, in connection with the German Home Mission (Innere Mission). It is partly a refuge school for the moral and intellectual education for morally neglected children; partly a boardingof children of the higher classes; lastly, a trainschool for the moral and intellectual education ing-school for those who wish to become teachers or officials in houses of correction, hospitals, &c., in promotion of the objects of the Home Mission. The first foundation of this model institution-for

such it has become for Germany as well as for France-was laid by a wealthy citizen of Hamburg, who made over to it a piece of land. It was opened on November 1, 1831, by Wichern with 12 morally neglected children. By the addition of new houses, the whole has, however, been very much enlarged, and has of late almost grown into a colony. A

RAUCH, CHRISTIAN DANIEL, one of the most RAUCH, CHRISTIAN DANIEL, one of the most distinguished German sculptors, was born at Arolsen, the capital of the principality of Waldeck, in 1777. He early began the study of sculpture; but on the death of his father, in 1797, he was obliged to go to Berlin, where he became valet to Frederick-William II., king of Prussia. On the death of that prince, R. determined to follow printing-office, a bookbinder's shop, and bookselling form part of the institution. Recently, about 100 the bent of his inclination for the fine arts. In this he was assisted by the new king Frederick-neglected children (one-third are girls) receive their William III., who afforded him facilities for design- of twelve, each family being under the paternal education in the establishment. They live in families ing and modelling statues, and recommended him superintendence of a young artisan, who employs as a pupil in the Academy of the Fine Arts. A as a pupil in the Academy of the Fine Arts. A the children according to their capabilities, partly statue of Endymion and a bust of Queen Luise in indoor, partly in outdoor, manual labour. The of Prussia executed at this time, convinced the king watching and care of these children devolve on of R.'s abilities, and he gave him the means of assistants, who also take part in the instruction of proceeding to Rome for his further improvement. the institution, with a view to prepare themselves R. spent six years in that city, working at his for the work of the Home Mission in other instituprofession with much assiduity, to render himself tions. These instructors receive board and clothing, worthy of the friendship of Thorwaldsen and Canova. At Rome, he also enjoyed the friend- but no salary. In connection with the R. H., there ship of William Humboldt, at that time Prussian was founded in 1845 a kind of conventual institute minister there. for the education of young men, with a view to become heads or superintendents of similar institutions. Entrance into this institution is limited and good character, freedom from military duties, to the age of 20--30. Besides religious belief bodily and mental health, some scholastic acquirements, and a knowledge of some craft or of agriculture, are required. The boarding-school was established in 1851, and at the same time a seminary was founded, in which 12 brethren of the R. H are especially prepared for school-work.

Among his works at this time were bassi-rilievi of Hippolytus and Phædra,' a 'Mars and Venus wounded by Diomedes,' a colossal bust of the king of Prussia, and busts of Raphael Mengs and the Count de Wengersky. In 1811, he was called by the king of Prussia to Berlin to execute a monumental statue of Queen Luise. This great work obtained for R. a European reputation. It is placed in the mausoleum of the queen in the garden of Charlottenburg. R. was not, however, quite satisfied with this triumph of his art, but commenced a new statue of the queen, which he finished 11 years afterwards, and which is allowed to be a masterpiece of sculpture. It is placed in the palace of Sans Souci, near Potsdam. R., after this, lived principally at Berlin, but occasionally visited Rome, Carrara, and Munich. He laboured indefatigably in his profession, and by 1824, had executed 70 busts in marble, of which 20 were of colossal size.

R.'s principal works, besides those above mentioned, are two colossal bronze statues of Fieldmarshal Blücher, one of which was erected, with great solemnity, at Breslau in 1827; a bronze statue of Maximilian of Bavaria, erected at Munich in 1835; and statues of Albert Dürer, Goethe, Schiller, and Schleiermacher, erected in various places in Germany. His greatest work is the magnificent monument of Frederick the Great, which adorns Berlin. The model for this statue

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RAUMER, FRIED. LUDW. GEORG VON, a noted German historical writer, was born on May 14, 1781, in Wörlitz, near Dessau; studied law and political economy at Halle and Göttingen; filled different law appointments (1806-1811); and in the last-mentioned year was named Professor at Breslau. In 1819, he was called to Berlin as Professor of History and Political Economy. Among his writings may be mentioned-Sechs Dialoge über Krieg und Handel (1806); Das Brittische Besteuerungssystem (Berl. 1810); The Orations of Eschines and Demosthenes de Corona (Berl. 1811); CCI Emendationes ad Tabulas Genealogicas Arabum et Turcarum (Heidelb. 1811); Handbuch merkwürdiger Stellen aus den lat. Geschichtschreibern des Mittelalters (Handbook of Remarkable Passages in the Latin Historians of the Middle Ages, Bresl. 1813); Vorlesungen über die alte Geschichte (Lectures on Ancient History

RAUMER-RAVELIN.

Spirit of the Time); Das Sonnett; and the farces, Denk an Cäsar (Remember Cæsar), and Schelle im Monde. Of his posthumous works, the principal are-Jacobine von Holland (1852); Der Kegelspieler (The Player at Nine-pins); the tragi-comedy, Mulier taceat in Ecclesia (1853); and Seed and Fruit (1854). R.'s writings display great knowledge of stage-effect, a happy talent for the invention of new and interesting situations, a power of vivid dramatic diction, and a fine play of verbal wit.

2 vols. Leip. 1847); Geschichte der Hohenstaufen may be mentioned-Critic und Anticritic, Die und ihrer Zeit (History of the Hohenstaufen dynasty Schleichhändler (The Smugglers); Der Zeitgeist (The and their Time, 6 vols. Leip. 1823-1825); Ueber die geschichtliche Entwickelung der Begriffe von Recht, Staat und Politik (On the Historical Development of the Ideas of Law, State, and Politics, 2d ed. Leip. 1832); Prussian Municipal Law (Leip. 1828); Briefe aus Paris und Frankreich, 1830 (2 vols. Leip. 1831); Briefe aus Paris zur Erläuterung des Geschichte des 16th und 17th Jahrh. (2 vols. Leip. 1831); Geschichte Europas seit dem Ende des 15 Jahrh. (History of Europe from the End of the 15th Century, vols. 1-8, Leip. 1832-1850); RAVAILLAC, FRANÇOIS, a native of the French England, 1835 (2 vols. Leip. 1836); England, 1841 province of Angoulême, where he was born in (3 vols. Leip. 1842); Beiträge zur Neuern 1578, has acquired an obnoxious reputation as the Geschichte aus dem Brit. Museum, &c. (5 vols. Leip. murderer of Henri IV. of France. In early life, 1836-1839); Italie: Beiträge zur Kenntniss dieses R. was in turn clerk to a notary and master Landes (2 vols. Leip. 1840); Die Vereinigten Staaten of a school; but having fallen into debt, he was von Nordamerika (2 vols. Leip. 1845); Anti-thrown into prison, the confinement and restraint quarische Briefe (Leip. 1851). The unfavourable reception of an oration of R. in honour of King Frederick II. compelled him, in 1847, to resign the secretaryship and membership of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, in consequence of which he was elected town-councillor of Berlin, and member of the Frankfurt Parliament, where he belonged to the right centre. From Frankfurt, he went as ambassador to Paris. Subsequently, he became a member of the first chamber at Berlin. In 1853, he was nominated, at his own request, Professor Emeritus at the university of Berlin.

RAUMER, KARL GEORG VON, brother of the preceding, was born April 9, 1783, in Wörlitz, studied from 1801-1805 at Göttingen and Halle, then at the Mining Academy at Freiberg, and was appointed Professor of Mineralogy at Breslau University in 1811. He took part as a volunteer in the War of Liberation (1813-1814), was translated in 1819 to the university of Halle; and finally, in 1827, was appointed Professor of Mineralogy and Natural History in the university of Erlangen. R. has obtained a wide and welldeserved reputation by his geographical and geological writings, among which are Geognostiche Fragmente (Geognostic Fragments, Nürnb. 1811); Der Granit des Riesengebirges (The Granite of the Riesengebirge, Berl. 1813); Das Gebirge Niederschlesiens (The Mountains of Lower Silesia, Berl. 1819); A B C Buch der Krystallkunde (The A B C of Crystallography, 2 vols. Berl. 1817; supplem. His interest in literary and scholastic education is evinced in his valuable Geschichte der Pädagogik (History of Pedagogy, 4 vols. Stuttg. 1846-1855). Other works of more or less consequence are his Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Geographie (Manual of Universal Geography, Leip. 1848); Palestine (Leip. 1850); Der Zug der Israeliten aus Aegypten nach Canaan (Leip. 1837); and Kreuzzüge (Stuttg. 1840).

1821).

RAUPACH, ERNST BENJ. SAL., a German dramatist, born on May 21, 1784, in Straubitz (Silesia), received his education in the Gymnasium at Liegnitz, studied theology at Halle, was for ten years tutor in Russia, held lectures at St Petersburg University, and was subsequently (1816) appointed there Professor of Philosophy, German Literature and History. R. left Russia in 1822, and died at Berlin, March 18, 1852. Among his early plays, the following are noteworthy The Princes Chawansky (1818); Die Gefesselten (The Enchained, 1821); Der Liebe Zauberkreis (The Magic Ring of Love, 1824); Die Freunde (The Friends, 1825); Isidor und Olga (1826); Rafaele (1828); Die Tochter der Luft (The Daughter of the Air), after Calderon (1829). Among his comedies

of which preyed upon his health, and produced
hallucinations of mind. Under the influence of
this mental excitement, he renounced all secular pur-
suits; and on his release from prison, after having
served for a time in the order of the Feuillants, he
fell under the influence of the Jesuits, through
whose instrumentality it is believed that his insane
hatred of the Huguenots, as the enemies of the
church, was directed more especially against Henri
of Navarre, their former leader. Having resolved
to assassinate the king, he eagerly watched his
opportunity, and on the 14th of May 1610, as the
king was passing in his coach through the narrow
street of Laferronnerie, got upon the right hinder-
wheel of the carriage at the moment that its
further advance was hindered by a heavy wagon
in front of it, and leaning forward, he plunged a
knife into the breast of the king. The first blow
glanced aside, but at the second thrust, the knife
entered the heart. R. escaped in the confusion, but
being soon captured with the knife still in his hand,
he admitted his guilt; and having been formally
tried and condemned, he was put to the torture;
and suffered death on May 27, in the Place de Grève,
under circumstances of great cruelty, his body being
torn asunder by horses. R. refused to the last to
acknowledge whether he had had instigators or
abettors, and hence the widest scope was given to
conjecture, suspicion being in turn directed to the
queen, Marie de' Medici, and her favourites, the
Concini, to the Duc d'Epernon, and to the Spanish
court and their Jesuit advisers, but there is no good
ground for such suspicions. M. Henri Martin
(Histoire de France) and M. Poirson (Histoire de
Henri IV., tome II.) have examined the particulars
of the process instituted against R. with scrupulous
impartiality, and have come to the conclusion

that the real cause of the crime was fanaticism

degenerated into monomania.

RAVAN'A (from the causal of the Sanscrit ru cry, alarm, hence literally he who causes alarm) is the name of the Rakshasa (q. v.) who, at the time of Râma, ruled over Lanka or Ceylon, and having carried off Sîtâ, the wife of Râma, to his residence, was ultimately conquered and slain by the latter. Ravan'a is described as having been a giant with ten faces, and in consequence of austerities and devotion, as having obtained from S'iva a promise which bestowed upon him illimited power, even over the gods. As the promise of S'iva could not be revoked, Vishn'u evaded its efficacy in becoming incarnate as Râma, and hence killed the demongiant. See under VISHN'U and RAKSHASA.

RA'VELIN, in Fortification, is a triangular work of less elevation than the main defences, situated with its salient angle to the front before the curtain,

RAVEN-RAVENSCROFT.

which with the shoulders of the adjoining bastions, it serves to protect. It is open at the rear, so as to be commanded by the curtain, if taken, and is separated from that work by the main ditch, while in its own front the ditch of the ravelin intervenes between itself and the covert-way. The guns of the ravelin sweep the glacis, and perform a very important function in commanding the space immediately before the salient angles of the two next bastions, ground which the guns of the bastions themselves cannot cover. The bastions, on the other hand, flank the ravelin. In the fortifications of Alessandria, designed by Bousmard in 1803, the ravelins are placed in front of the glacis. See the diagrams in art. FORTIFICATION.

their eyes as its first point of assault. It generally makes its nest of sticks, coarse weeds, wool, hair, &c., in rocky places, on a narrow ledge of a precipice, or in some similar situation. Ravens are occasionally captured when young, and become interesting pets, being remarkable for their impudence and cunning, their look of sage thoughtfulness, their inquisitiveness, their mischievous propensities, which prompt them to destroy everything that can be destroyed, and always as if the fact of its destruction afforded them pleasure, their thievishness, their love of glittering things, and their power of imitating human speech, which is almost equal to that of parrots. The R. is celebrated for its longevity, and instances are on record of ravens which have certainly lived for seventy or eighty years. The R. has been generally reckoned a bird of ill

The original name of the ravelin was rivellino, which indicates a derivation from vegliare, to watch, the ravelin having probably been at first a watch-omen, probably on account both of its colour and tower, answering to the still earlier barbacan.

RAVEN (Corvus carnivorus), a species of crow, remarkable for its large size. It is more than two feet in length from the tip of the bill to the extremity of the tail. The bill is thick and strong, compressed at the sides, the mandibles sharp at the edges; the upper mandible curved at the tip, and exceeding the lower in length. The base of the

Raven (Corvus carnivorus).

its extremely harsh croaking voice, which may from the sky, the R. being a bird of powerful wing, sometimes be heard in fine weather as if coming and often soaring very high in the air.

RAVENNA, an important city of Central Italy, 43 miles east-south-east from Bologna, and 41⁄2 miles from the Adriatic; lat. 44° 24′ N., long. 12° 12′ E. Pop. (1862) of the commune, 57,303; of the town proper, 19,118. It is situated in the midst of a well-watered, fertile, and finely-wooded plain. R. is surrounded by old bastions, and by walls where may still be seen the iron rings to which the cables of ships were formerly fastened; the sea is now at the distance of about 4 miles from the city. The streets are wide; the squares are adorned with statues of the popes, and the houses have a gloomy appearance. R. is an ancient city, rich in monuments of art. The cathedral was built in the 4th c.; it has five naves, supported by 24 marble pillars, and in the sacristy there are preserved the ivory chair of St Massimino and the Calendario Pasquale, both of the 4th century. San Francesco possesses the tomb of Dante, erected in the 15th century. The library of R. contains 50,000 volumes. It has an archæological museum, and many educational institutions. There are manufactures of silk, linen, paper, glass, and kitchen utensils.

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R. was probably of Umbrian origin; it was at least an Umbrian city when it passed into the hands of the Romans. Augustus made it a firstclass seaport and naval station; 400 years later, bill is surrounded with feathers and bristles. The the Emperor Honorius took refuge there, and made tail is rounded, but the middle feathers are con- R. the capital of the empire. The city was taken siderably the longest. The wings are long-extend- by Odoacer, then by Theodoric and by Totila; ing from tip to tip to 52 inches the fourth quillfeather being longest. The colour is a uniform black, with more or less of metallic lustre, which is particularly conspicuous in the elongated throat-feathers of the male, and is wanting in the whole plumage of the female and young.

the latter was conquered by Narses, who made it the residence of the exarchs in 553. In 1218, it became a republic. In 1275, Guido da Polenta conquered it, and there established his court, where he received Dante. R. was afterwards taken by the Venetians, who kept it till 1509. Under Charles V., it passed into the hands of the popes.

life.

The R. is a bird of wide geographic distribution. It is found in almost all parts of North AmerUnder the walls of R., a great battle was fought ica, but most abundantly in the more northern in 1512 between the French and the Spaniards, in and the mountainous parts of it. In other parts which Gaston de Foix purchased victory with his of the world, and within the northern hemisphere itself, however, other closely allied species exist; C. corax is the European R. There are several species of crow very similar to the R. in colour, size, and habits.

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RAVENSCROFT, THOMAS, an eminent English musical composer. He was born in 1592, received his musical education in St Paul's choir, and had the degree of Bachelor of Music conferred on him when only 15 years of age. In 1611, appeared his Melismata, Musical Plansies, &c., a collection of 23 part-songs, some of them of great beauty; and three years later, he brought out another collection of part-songs under the title of Brief Discourses, with an essay on the old musical modes. Turning his attention to psalmody, he published, in 1621, a

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