RAPHANIA-RAPP. some as exemplifying his powers, freed from what they deem the rigid manner of Perugino, and untainted by the conventionalism of classic art. In all these different styles, he has left works of great excellence. The Coronation of the Virgin, in the gallery of the Vatican, and 'The Spozalizio,' or Marriage of the Virgin, in the Brera Gallery at Milan, belong to the first period. The St Catharine,' in the National Gallery, London; 'The Entombment,' in the Borghese Gallery, Rome; 'La Belle Jardinière,' in the Louvre, to his second period. While the 'St Cecilia,' at Bologna; the Madonna di San Sisto,' at Dresden; The Cartoons,' at Hampton Court; The Transfiguration;' and all the Vatican frescoes, except 'Theology, or the Dispute on the Sacrament,' the first he executed on his arrival from Florence, are in his third manner, or that which' peculiarly marks the Roman school in its highest development. R. died at Rome on April 6, 1520, the anniversary of his birthday. RAPHA'NIA, or ERGOTISM, is a disease which was much more prevalent some centuries ago than it is at present. It is defined as 'a train of morbid symptoms, produced by the slow and cumulative action of a specific poison peculiar to wheat and rye, and which gives rise to convulsions, gangrene of the extremities, and death' (Aitken's Science and Practice of Medicine, 1858, p. 332). It has been described under various names. From the 10th to the 14th c., it was known as St Anthony's Fire, a title which has been since associated with erysipelas. It was then described as epidemic gangrene. The name Raphania was first given to it by Linné, who thought the morbid symptoms were dependent upon the mixture of Raphanus Raphanistrum, or jointed charlock, with the wheat used as food. was suspected, as early as the end of the 16th c., that the disease was due to the development of a fungus on the grain, and this fact is now established beyond doubt, although some writers hold (like Linné) that this morbid state is also produced by the admixture of poisonous plants, especially Lolium temulentum, or darnel, being mingled with the grain. Although rye is the ordinary seat of the poisonous fungus, wheat, rice, and other grains are liable to be similarly affected, and to produce similar results. For an account of the fungus, see ERGOT. It There are two forms of the disease-the spasmodic and the gangrenous. The spasmodic form begins with tingling or itching of the feet and hands, and sometimes of the head. Violent contractions of the hands and feet, giving rise to intense pain in the joints, are a common symptom. The head is much affected, the patient complaining of drowsiness, giddiness, and indistinct vision. If coma or epileptic convulsions supervene, there is little hope of recovery. The appetite is usually enormous; spots like those of purpura appear on the face, and there are seldom any signs of improvement for some weeks. The gangrenous form begins with extreme lassitude, and is accompanied by some febrile disturbance. The extremities are painful, cold, almost insensible, and not readily moved; and after a varying time, gangrene supervenes. With regard to treatment, the first thing to do is to replace the poisonous flour by easily digested, nourishing, wholesome food. The pain must be relieved by opiates, the blood purified by the administration of chlorate of potash, and the general tone of the system improved by tonics, such as the preparations of iron, bark, &c. In the spasmodic form, warm baths and gentle friction would probably prove serviceable. Whatever be the form of treatment adopted, the mortality in the gangrenous form is usually 90 per cent. The spasmodic form is much less destructive to life. RA'PHIDÉS are crystals found in the interior of the cells of plants. The word is the plural of the Greek raphis, a needle, and was originally used to denominate crystals of an acicular form, which are often collected together in bundles. But crystals of various forms are found in the cells of plants, consisting chiefly of phosphate or of oxalate of lime. In many kinds of plants, they very much abound, and often in a particular manner in particular parts of plants. They are very minute, and are found in such delicate tissues as the petals of the Pelargonium. RA'PIDAN. See RAPPAHANNOCK. RA'PIER is said to have had distinct meanings at different times, and in ancient fencing to have been a long cutting broadsword; but for the last century at least, the rapier has been a light, highly-tempered, edgeless, thrusting weapon, finely pointed, and about 3 feet in length. It was for long the favourite weapon in duelling, and was worn by every gentleman. At present, it is worn only on occasions of court ceremonial, and answers no other purpose than to incommode the wearer. war, a rapier could never have been of any service. In RAPIN DE THOYRAS, PAUL DE, a French historian of England, was descended from a Protestant Savoyard family, which settled in France in the 16th c., and was born at Castres, in Languedoc, March 25, 1661. He studied at the Protestant college of Saumur, and passed as advocate in 1679, but had no liking for the profession; and when the Edict of Nantes (1685) forced him to leave France, he sought employment first in England (where he was unsuccessful), and afterwards in Holland, where he enlisted in a corps of volunteers at Utrecht, formed by his cousingerman, Daniel de Rapin. With his company, he followed the Prince of Orange to England in 1688, was made ensign in the following year, and distinguished himself by his bravery at the siege of Carrickfergus, the battle of the Boyne, and the siege of Limerick, where he was shot through the shoulder by a musket-ball. In 1693, he was appointed tutor to the Earl of Portland's son, with whom he travelled in Holland, Germany, and Italy, after which he took up his residence at the Hague; but in 1707, withdrew with his family to Wesel, in the duchy of Cleves, where he devoted the remaining 17 years of his life to the composition of his great work. The severity of his labours is believed to have shortened his days. He died May 16, 1725. R.'s Histoire d'Angleterre was published at the Hague in 8 vols., the year before his death. It was undoubtedly, as Voltaire has said, the best work on English history that had until then appeared: full, minute, careful in citing authorities, clear, rapid and accurate in narration, methodical in the arrangement of its materials, comparatively impartial in spirit, and yet betraying on the part of the author an honourable reverence for law and liberty. R. begins with the invasion of Britain by the Romans, and ends with the death of Charles I. The work was continued to the death of William III. by David Durant (Hague, 2 vols., 1734). The best edition of the Histoire in its augmented form is by Lefebvre de Saint-Marc (Hague, 16 vols., 1749 et seq.). The original was translated into English by the Rev. Nicholas Tindal, M.A. (Lond. 15 vols., 1725-1731), and subsequently by John Kelly, barrister (in 2 vols. fol.). RAPP, JEAN, Count, a French general, was born at Colmar, in the department of Haut-Rhin, France, 27th April 1773. He was intended for the church, but his taste for a military life led him to enrol himself (1788) in the mounted chasseurs' of the French RAPPAHANNOCK-RASHI. But army. R. distinguished himself by dashing gallantry RAPPAHA'NNOCK, a river of Virginia, formed by the union of the North Fork and the Rapidan, which rise in the Blue Ridge of the Alleghany Mountains, and flow eastwardly to their point of union, 40 miles above Fredericksburg, where the falls afford water-power. The river is navigable from this point south-east to Chesapeake Bay, which it enters by a broad estuary, 70 miles long. The R. and Rapidan have been the scenes of some of the most sanguinary battles of the War of Secession, at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and the Wilder ness. RAPPAREE', a wild Irish plunderer, so called from his being generally armed with a rapary, or half-pike. The term was in common use in the 17th century. See Notes and Queries, August 17, 1861. RAPPEE', a coarse-grained species of SNUFF (q. v.). The word is of French derivation, and arose from this species of snuff, being manufactured from dried tobacco by means of the rape or raspe, an instrument by which the thin parts of the leaf were cut from the veins and fibres, the latter alone being used in the manufacture of rappee. RAPPEN, a small Swiss coin, made of an alloy of copper and tin, forming the th part of the modern Franc (q. v.), and therefore equivalent to the French centime. The old Swiss franc (= about 1s. 2d. sterling) was also divided into 100 rappen. The rappen was first coined at Freiburg, and took its name from the head of a raven (Ger. rabe, pronounced in some parts rape) impressed upon it. RAPTO'RÉS. See ACCIPITRES. RARATO'NGA. See COOK ISLANDS. RAS (Heb. rosh), an Arabic word, signifying 'head,' 'promontory,' occurs in the names of many capes on the Arabian and North African coasts, and also in Sicily and Malta; as Rasigelbi (corrupted from Rasi-calbo) 'the dog's cape,' on the north coast of Sicily; Ras-el-Abyad, white cape,' on the coast of Palestine; Ras Bab-el-Mandeb, 'cape of the gate of tears,' at the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb; Ras-el-Jezirah, 'cape of the peninsula ;' Ras-el-Had, the eastern point of Arabia. RASHES, affections of the skin, characterised by a red superficial efflorescence, diffused or in patches, disappearing under pressure, and usually To this division of ending in desquamation. cutaneous disorders belong Rubeola (or Measles), Scarlatina (or Scarlet Fever), Erysipelas (or St Anthony's Fire), Erythema, Roseola (or Scarlet Rash), and Urticaria (or Nettle Rash). Of these rashes, Rubeola, Scarlatina, and Erysipelas are rather to be regarded as fevers or blood diseases, than as cutaneous diseases, in the true sense of the phrase. RASHI (i. e., Rabbi Solomon [Shelomo] Izaaki, or Ben Izaak, often erroneously called Jarchi), the greatest Jewish commentator and exegete, was born about 1040, in Troyes, in France. The range of his studies was as extraordinarily wide as were his early developed faculties brilliant, and his industry and perseverance enormous. Philology, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, civil and canonical law, exegesis, were the chief branches of his learning; and to a rare proficiency in them, he united a complete mastery over the whole range of Scripture and the Talmudical sources. In order further to perfect himself for his gigantic task, he travelled for seven years, visiting the academies of Italy, Greece, Germany, Palestine, Egypt, where he sat at the feet of the great masters of the age, collecting their sayings and legal decisions. His chief work-and one universally recognised as the principal work of all Scriptural exegesis is his Commentary to the whole of the Old Testament. up to this day, it has not been superseded by any other, although in the province of philology and antiquities, investigation has been much furthered since his time. R.'s style is extremely brief and concise, yet clear and pregnant; obscure and abstruse (as it has been pronounced by some) only to those who lack the necessary preliminary knowledge. According to the fashion of its day, it is replete with allegorical or rather poetical illustrations, gathered from the wide fields of the Midrash within and without the Talmud; and many a passage is thus preserved to us, which, in the disordered state of those manuscripts, would This Comprobably otherwise have been lost. mentary-entirely translated into Latin by Breithaupt, and partly also into German-was the first has since been reprinted with almost every combook ever printed in Hebrew (Reggio, 1474), and plete edition of the Hebrew Bible. Of his numerous other works is first to be mentioned his Commentary to 23 treatises of the Talmud, supple. mented after his death by his grandson, Samuel ben Meier; further, a Commentary to the Pirke Aboth; the Pardes, treating of Laws and Ceremonies; a Collection of Legal Votes and Decisions; RASK-RASKOLNIK. a Commentary to Midrash Rabbah; a Book of Medicine; a Poem on the Unity of God, &c., &c. He died about 1105; and such was his piety and his surpassing eminence, that later generations wove a shining garland of legends around his head. The confusion of R. with two Jarchis, who lived long after him, has not hitherto been properly accounted for. They bore that surname because they were born at Lunel, Jerach being the Hebrew for moon, Lune in French. RASK, RASMUS CHRISTIAN, a distinguished Danish philologist, was born at Brendekilde, near Odense, in the island of Fünen, 22d November 1787, studied at Copenhagen, and in 1808 published his first work, Vejledning til det Islandske eller gamle nordiske Sprog (Rules of the Icelandic Language or the Ancient Language of the North). During the years 1807-1812, he occupied himself with drawing up grammatical systems for most of the Germanic, Slavic, and Romanic tongues, and in comparing them with those of India. He then visited Sweden, where he commenced to study Finnish; and in 1813 proceeded to Iceland, where he lived for two or three years, perfecting his knowledge of the language, the history, and the sagas of the inhabitants. On his return to Copenhagen, he was appointed sub-librarian to the university; and in 1818 published a splendid work, Undersaegelse om det gamle nordiske eller Islandske Sprogs Oprindelse (Researches concerning the Origin of the Icelandic or Ancient Language of the North), which led Grimm to his famous discovery of the displacement of consonants in the Teutonic languages. Previous to this, however, he had resolved to visit Asia; and after spending a year (1817) in Stockholm, where he published his admirable Angelsaksik Sproglaere (Anglo-Saxon Grammar), and the first critical and complete edition of the two great monuments of Scandinavian mythology, the Snorra Edda and the Edda Saemundar, he went to St Petersburg, where he devoted himself for two years, with intense eagerness, to the study of the oriental languages, principally Sanscrit, Persian, and Arabic, but not failing to acquire, at the same time, a competent knowledge of Russian and Finnish. Thus equipped, he proceeded to Astrakhan, where he stayed six weeks, to study the language of the Tartars, and then commenced a journey through the country of the Turkomans, the Caucasus, Persia (where he added the Mongol and Mantchu dialects to his already enormous linguistic acquisitions), Hindustan (cultivating in the last-mentioned country the society of learned Brahmans, and visiting all their great schools), and finally Ceylon, where he made himself acquainted with Cingalese and Pali, and wrote his Singalesisk Skriftlaere (Colombo 1822). In 1823, R. returned to Copenhagen, laden with learning and rare manuscript treasures, of which the greatest part was presented to the university. In 1825, he was appointed Professor of 'Literary History,' and in 1828, of Oriental Languages. Next year, he was made chief custodier of the university library; and in 1831, Professor of Icelandic. But his immense labours had exhausted his energies, and he died 14th November 1832, at the early age of 45, a victim of hard work. Besides the productions already mentioned, R. wrote Frisisk Sproglaere (Cop. 1825); Den gamle Aegyptiske Tidsregning (The Ancient Egyptian Chronology, 1827); Den aeldeste Hebraiske Tidsregning (The Oldest Hebrew Chronology, 1828); besides grammars of several languages, and a great number of miscellaneous articles in the learned journals of the North, which were collected after his death, and published (Cop. 3 vols. 1834-1838), together with a life by Petersen. RASKO'LNIK (Russ. separatist), the name of a variety of sects in the Russian Church, which date from an early period, and must be regarded rather as a general designation of dissenters from the established church of Russia, than as a description of any specific form of doctrinal belief. Such dissent is traceable from the very earliest period of the distinct organisation of the Russian Church. A monk, named Andrew, in 1003; another, called Demitry (Demetrius), in the 12th c.; an Armenian monk, named Martin, who was burned as a heretic at Constantinople in the end of the same century; Leo, Bishop of Rostow in the beginning of the 14th, and Strigolnik and Nikita towards its close -are all mentioned as having originated or propagated heresies of various kinds. A still more remarkable and more formidable organisation-a form of Crypto-Judaism-was introduced in the 15th c. by a concealed Jew, called Zacharias, who succeeded in gaining many followers. One of these, called Zosima, is particularly noticeable, as having obtained much popularity, and even managed to have himself elected metropolitan of Moscow. His sect, which studiously concealed itself wherever this concealment seemed necessary, was condemned by a synod (1490), and repressed with great rigour; but it continued to maintain a concealed and precarious footing, and is said to possess disciples even to this day, especially in the government of Irkutsk, under the name of Selesnewschschina. A sect, whose leading principles were borrowed from the German reformers, was founded in 1553 by Matthias Baschkin; but it was condemned at a synod in Moscow, and does not appear to have taken much hold on the people. But it is from the middle of the 17th c. that-the separation of the sects from the national church having become more tangible, from its involving nonconformity with the established worship-the designation of R. finds its fullest application. At that period, a complete revision of the ancient Slavonic liturgical and ritual books, which had suffered grievously from the ignorance, and probably also from the heterodoxy of transcribers, was undertaken by the Patriarch Nikon. See PHILIPPINS. The revised books were introduced into the churches by the authority of the czar as well as of the patriarch; but many of the clergy and people resisted the innovation, and refused the new liturgies. Foremost among the recusants, or nonconformists, were those who had already been sectaries upon other grounds; but all differences were to some extent merged in this common ground of protest, and all were known under the common appellative Raskolniks. In later Russian history, the Raskolniks are sometimes called by the name, which they themselves affect, of Starowierzi (Men of the Old Faith'), or Prawaslawnüje (orthodox'). Each sect has its specific doctrinal peculiarities; but most of them follow certain common observances, in which lies their tangible difference from the national church. They cross themselves with the first and middle finger, and not with the first three fingers; they use only the unrevised service-books; they repeat Halleluiah only twice; in church ceremonies, they turn from left to right, and not from right to left; they use seven and not five altar-breads in the Eucharistic offering; they pay worship only to ancient pictures, or those painted by themselves; they use an eight-pointed instead of the ordinary cross; they attend only their own churches, and hold no communion of worship with the members of the national church; they never shave or cut their hair, and adhere strictly to the old Russian costume. RASPBERRY-RASTADT. They may be divided, in general, into two classes wild kind in size. The stem in a wild state is 3-4 -those which have popes (priests), and those who feet high; in cultivation, 6-8 feet or upwards. do not recognise the priestly order. The former are Some of the cultivated varieties are also more in every respect more moderate and more free from branching than is common in a wild state, the stem fanaticism than the Raskolniks who discard the of the wild plant being simple or nearly so. The ministry of priests. Their priests, however, have root is creeping, perennial; the stems only biennial, often been outcasts of the orthodox church, who bearing fruit in the second year, woody, but with betook themselves to the rival communion. The very large pith. Plantations of raspberries are most most notable among the Raskolniks of this class easily made by means of suckers. The R. loves a are those called the Peremasanowschtina, who light rich soil, and is rather partial to a shady re-ordain all popes joining their communion; the situation. The tall kinds are unsuitable in situaJewlewschtschina, who are said to permit freedom tions much exposed to winds, as the stems are easily of divorce and exchange of wives; Dositheowsch- broken. The rows are generally about 4 feet apart, tschina, so called from their founder, a monk the plants 3 to 4 feet apart in the rows. The young named Dositheus; and Tschernobolzi, whose stems are thinned out to allow free access of air to chief distinction consists in refusing to take an those which are left. Stakes are often used to supoath, and to say the prayer for the emperor port the stems, or they are variously tied together. prescribed in the liturgy. Of the non-popish The fruit is used for dessert; for jams, jellies, Raskolniks, the chief are the Philippins (q. v.), the &c.; for making or flavouring many kinds of Pomorænians or Rebaptisers, the Theodosians-an sweetmeats; and mixed with brandy, wine, or offshoot of the Pomoranians-and a sect of mystic vinegar, for the preparation of R. Syrup, R. Vinespiritualists with strong Protestant and rationalistic gar, &c. Different preparations of it are used in leanings, called Duchoborzen. A curious develop- medicine in cases of fever, inflammation, &c. R. ment of the R. movement is found in the Samo- vinegar is a particularly grateful and cooling drink krischtchina (Self-baptisers) and the Samostrigolsch- in fevers. Raspberries, fermented either alone or tschina (Self-ordainers), among whom each one along with currants and cherries, yield a strong and administers baptism to himself, each priest ordains very agreeable wine, from which a very powerful himself, and each monk or nun performs the cere- spirit can be made.-Some of the other species of mony of his own consecration without the interposi-Rubus, most nearly resembling the R., produce also tion of the regular ministry. It may be added, in agreeable fruits. R. odoratus is a highly ornaconclusion, that with a considerable proportion of mental shrub, a native of Canada and the northern these various sectaries, there is found largely mixed states of America, is frequent in gardens both in up with religious fanaticism an element of communism Europe and America, but rarely produces its fruit and of disaffection towards the reigning dynasty, in Britain. or, more properly, towards the established order of things. The latter may be in part explained by the rigorous measures of repression under which the Raskolniks have suffered for many successive generations. The former is an ordinary accompaniment of the sectarianism of the poor, especially those of the peasant class, and still more of the serf population. RA'SPBERRY (Rubus Idaus), the most valued of all the species of Rubus (q. v.). It has pinnate leaves, with 5 or 3 leaflets, which are white and Raspberry (Rubus Idæus). very downy beneath, stems nearly erect, downy, and covered with very numerous small weak prickles; drooping flowers, and erect whitish petals as long as the calyx. The wild R. has scarlet fruit, and is found in thickets and woods throughout the whole of Europe and the north of Asia. It is common in Britain. The R. has long been in cultivation for its fruit. There are many cultivated varieties, with red, yellow, and white fruit, much exceeding the and RASPBERRY VINEGAR, a culinary preparation, consisting of raspberry juice, vinegar, and sugar. It is best made by putting carefully gathered full as they will hold of the fruit, fill up the jar very ripe raspberries into jars, and when as with good vinegar; after eight or ten days, pour off the vinegar, and let the fruit drain for some hours. The mixture of vinegar and juice thus obtained is added to another quantity of fruit, and treated in the same way. This is sometimes repeated a third time, and then the liquid is gently boiled for about five minutes with its own weight of refined sugar. Added to water, it forms a most refreshing summer drink, and is a useful cooling drink in sickness. RA'STADT, a town of Baden, and, since 1840, a strong fortress of the Germanic Confederation, stands on the river Murg, 3 miles from its junction with the Rhine, and 15 miles south-west of Karlsruhe. It is a station on the Mannheim, Basel, and Waldshut Railways. From 1725 to 1771, the town was the residence of the Markgrafs of BadenBaden. Steel wares, weapons, and tobacco are manufactured. R. is memorable for two congresses -the former in 1714, when a treaty of peace, which brought the war of the Spanish Succession to a close, was signed between Marshal Villars and Prince Eugene; and the latter in 1799. On the breaking up of the congress of 1799 without any definite result, the three French plenipotentiaries set out for Strasbourg on the evening of April 19; but they had scarcely got beyond the gates of R., when they were attacked by a number of Austrian hussars; two of the three were slain, and the third sabred, and left for dead in a ditch. The papers of the legation were carried off, but no further spoil was taken. This flagrant violation of the law of nations roused the indignation and horror not only of France, but of all Europe. The instigator and conductor of the assault remains still unknown. Pop. 9000. RAT-RATCH. RAT, the popular name of all the larger species of the genus Mus. See MOUSE. Two species are particularly deserving of notice, the only species found in Britain, or, indeed, in any part of Europe, and both very widely distributed over the world: the BLACK RAT (M. rattus) and the BROWN RAT (M. decumanus). Extremely abundant as these animals now are, their introduction into Europewhich, if at all through human agency, was unintentionally so-took place within recent times. Neither of them was known to the ancients. Both appear to be natives of the central parts of Asia, where other nearly allied species are also found. The black rat found its way to Europe about the beginning of the 16th c.; the brown rat first appeared at Astrakhan in the beginning of the 18th c., and reached Britain and the western countries of Europe about the middle of the century. The Jacobites of Britain were accustomed to delight themselves with the notion that it came with the Black Rat (Mus rattus); Brown Rat (Mus decumanus). House of Hanover, and chose to call it the Hanoverian Rat. It also received the name of Norway Rat, from a belief, unquestionably erroneous, that it was introduced from Norway, a country which it did not reach until long after it was fully established in Britain. as well as in its lighter colour and shorter hair. The tails of both are covered with a multitude of rings of small scales. Both species are extremely prolific, breeding at a very early age, several times in a year, and producing from 10 to 14 at a birth. The excessive increase of their numbers, where abundant food is to be found, and there are few enemies to interfere with them, is thus easily accounted for. They sometimes multiply amazingly in ships; and perhaps nowhere more than in the sewers of towns. But in the latter situation, they really render good service to the promotion of public health, acting as scavengers, and devouring animal and vegetable substances, the putrefaction of which would otherwise be productive of pestilence. Such, indeed, seems to be the great use of the rat in the economy of nature; and it is perhaps worthy of notice, that the visits of the plague to Western Europe and to Britain have ceased from the very time when rats became plenti. ful. The brown rat, inhabiting sewers, is generally larger, fiercer, and of coarser appearance than the same species in houses or barns. Rats are also often found inhabiting burrows in dry banks, near rivers, &c. They feed indiscriminately on almost any kind of animal or vegetable food; they make depredations in fields of grain and pulse, from which they often carry off large quantities to be stored in their holes; they devour eggs; they kill poultry, partridges, &c.; they make most unwelcome visits to dairies and store-closets; and they multiply enormously in the vicinity of slaughter-houses and knackers' yards, which afford them great supplies of food. Their strong rodent teeth enable them to gnaw very hard substances, such as wood and ivory, either for food, or in order to make their way to more tempting viands. They are creatures of no little intelligence. Many curious stories are told of the arts which they employ to attain desired objects, of the readiness with which they detect the approach of danger, and the skill with which they avoid it. Their sense of smell is very acute, and the professional rat-catcher is very careful that the smell of his hands shall not be perceived on the trap. They are very capable of being tamed, and have in some instances proved interesting pets. The flesh of rats is eaten, but only by rude tribes, or when food is scarce. The skin is used for making a fine kind of glove-leather. The name rat is often popularly given, not only to species nearly allied to these, but to other species of Muridae, now ranked in different genera, some of which are noticed in other articles. RAT, WATER. See VOLE. These two species are like one another, and very similar in their habits. The brown rat is the larger and more powerful of the two, and has waged war against the other with such success as to cause its total, or almost total, disappearance from many places where it was once very abundant; so that in many parts of Britain, where the black rat was once plentiful and troublesome, it would now be difficult, perhaps impossible, to obtain a single specimen. Rats, when pressed by hunger, do not scruple to devour the weaker even of their own RATAFI'A, the generic name of a series of kind. The extirpation of the black rat does not, cordials, prepared usually by mixing an alcoholic however, always follow from the introduction of the liquor with the juice of some fruit or some flavourbrown rat, each probably finding situations more French origin, and is said to have been given in ing material, and sugar or syrup. The name is of particularly suited to itself. In their native regions, consequence of the former habit of preparing a they exist together; and in some parts of Europe choice drink to be used at the ceremony of ratifythe black rat is still the more plentiful of the two. Both infest ships, and are thus conveyed to the ing a treaty. A favourite flavouring for ratafias is most distant parts of the world, some of them the almond-hence, bitter almonds, cherry, peach, getting ashore at every port, and establishing new colonies, so that they are now common-and particularly the brown rat-almost wherever commerce extends. The black rat is nearly seven inches and a half in length, exclusive of the tail, which is almost eight inches long. The brown rat attains a length of more than ten inches and a half, with a tail little more than eight inches long. Besides its larger size and comparative shortness of tail, it differs from the black rat in its smaller ears and less acute muzzle, apricot, plum, and other similar kernels, are much called ratafia cakes; but many other flavours are used, and hence small almond-flavoured cakes are used, as orange flowers, gooseberries, raspberries, aniseed, angelica stalks; chocolate; black currants, coffee, &c. RATCH, or RATCHET, in Machinery, is a small piece of metal, so placed with one end on a pivot, that the other can fall into the teeth of a wheel, as in the fig. Being perfectly free to move up and down, its own weight makes it drop into tooth after |