Ꭱ = is the sinking or degradation of an original s on a marshy plain at the confluence of the Raab THE eighteenth letter in the English and other Western alphabets, is one of the group of liquids. See LETTERS. Its name in Hebrew was Resh, meaning forehead, and the rude outline of a head is thought to be yet recognisable in the Phoenician form of the letter. Of all the consonants, R approaches most nearly to the vowels. In Sanscrit, there is an R-vowel, distinguished from the R-consonant by a different character. The Greek also had two varieties of R, one with the spiritus asper' (), or rough breathing, at the beginning of words, and when following another R; and another with the weaker breathing () in other positions. The Romans in spelling Greek words represented the former by rh, and hence we still write Rhodes, rheumatism, catarrh. This rh was probably of the guttural kind commonly called a 'burr. This pronunciation of r occurs as a peculiarity of individuals everywhere, but it is universal in Northumberland and Durham, and characterises the pronunciation of the letter in certain positions throughout Germany and Scandinavia. The normal pronunciation of R in English and in the Romanic tongues (and it appears to have been the same in Latin) is a vibratory sound produced by applying the tip of the tongue near the roots of the upper fore-teeth. From the resemblance to the growl of an angry dog, R was called by the ancients the dog's letter. In modern English, there is an increasing tendency to smooth down the roughness of the vibration, until, in such words as far, serf, world, ther has dwindled to a kind of nondescript vowel, modifying the preceding vowel. This emasculating process-for such it undoubtedly is-is in so far only the operation of the universal law of phonetic RAA'LTE, a cantonal town of the Netherlands, decay, arising from the natural tendency to spend in the province of Overyssel, 11 miles north-northas little energy as possible; but it has been acceler-east of Deventer. Pop. 5570, of whom one-fourth ated in this case by a fashion which is apt to belong to the Reformed Church, and the remainder, mistake languor and indifference for refinement. excepting 50 Jews, to the Roman Catholic. The This affectation goes so far as to turn words like trade is chiefly in agricultural produce, cattle, wool, very, rare, into vewy, waaw. R is one of the most wood, and bark for tanning. R. is one of the difficult articulations; children are long in learning prettiest places in the province, having many it, and some individuals never can pronounce it. beautiful houses, and in the neighbourhood, seats Whole nations (e. g., the Chinese and some 'Poly- of the nobility. Hans Willem, Baron van Bentinck, nesian tribes) have no such consonant in their the founder of the ducal house of Portland, was born at R. in 1651. language, using instead. The interchanges of r with are noticed under L. A more remarkable substitution is that of r for d, which was very prevalent in early Latin, as we learn from Priscian and from inscriptions. Ex. arvocatos for advocatos. The Latin of the literary period had returned from this corruption, except in arbiter (from an old verb, adbitere, to go to, to intervene), arcesso, and meridies (for medidies, from medius). The substitution is easily accounted for, when we consider that in both sounds the tongue is applied to the same part of the palate; only in the one it is applied firmly; in the other, loosely, so as to vibrate. A very common phenomenon, especially in Latin, RAA'SAY, one of the Western Isles, belongs to the group of the Inner Hebrides, and lies between the Isle of Skye and the mainland; the sound of Raasay separating it from the former, and Applecross Sound from the latter. It is 13 miles in length by 2 miles in greatest breadth. Pop., which is gradually decreasing, was, in 1861, 388. The western side of the island is bare and uninteresting. On the eastern and more sheltered side, there are numerous farms, some patches of plantation, and bold and striking scenery. Brochel Castle, on the east shore-now a mere ruin-is the chief object of interest in the island. It is perched on the summit of a lofty cliff, which beetles over the sea, RABAT-RABBIT. and is entirely inaccessible, save by a pathway It is not adapted, like hares, to seek safety by winding around the cliff. RABA'T, or RABATT, a seaport and manufacturing town in the kingdom of Fez, Morocco, stands at the mouth of the Bu-Regreb, 135 miles south-south-west of the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. It is surrounded by walls; protected by batteries, and by a citadel, called El-Mansur; and contains numerous mosques, minarets, bazaars, &c. Owing to the silting up of the mouth of the river, the commerce of R. has much declined. Manufactures, however, of carpets, bournus, woollen fabrics, waterproofs, mixed linen and silk goods, saddlery, &c., are actively carried on. R. was formerly the centre of the European trade with Morocco, and it still exports olive oil, wool, almonds, wax, maize, &c. In 1863, 85 vessels, of 7170 tons, entered and cleared the port. Pop. 28,000, of whom 7000 are Jews. RA'BBA, a flourishing town of Africa, in the kingdom of Gando, stands on the left bank of the Niger, 80 miles above Egga, in lat. 9° 16'. The district by which it is surrounded is beautiful and highly cultivated. R. carries on an extensive general trade; is the most notorious slave-market in this part of Africa, and is said to contain 40,000 inhabitants. RA'BBI (Heb., My Master), an honorary title of the Jewish Masters of the Law, which is first found applied after the time of Herod, subsequently to the disputes between the two schools of Shammai (q. v.) and Hillel (q. v.). It was in common use at the time of Christ, who is addressed as such by his disciples and the common people. Other forms of the same title are Rab, Rabban, Rabbon, (Rabbuni")-the first, like rabbi, being more a general term for a certain recognised authority, the latter applying more strictly to a head of an academy. The title Rabban, was first given to the grandson of Hillel, Gamaliel (q. v.), and was only borne by seven other exalted chiefs of schools. Properly speaking, the following dignities alone were of old considered official: 1. Sopher, scribe, one who occupied himself with copying and commenting on the Scriptures, and who, when elected to the Sanhedrim (q. v.), received the title of Chacham (Sage); 2. Rabban, Nomodidaskalos, one who held popular orations, homiletically or otherwise treating of the Law. Out of the number of the regular disciples (Talmidim) were chosen the Chaberim (Colleagues), who, again, were elected to the dignity of a rabbi by the Semichah,' or imposition of hands by three members of the Sanhedrim. At present, nothing but the degree of 'Morenu,' our Teacher, bestowed upon a candidate who proves his erudition in the written and oral Law and all its bearings before a college of rabbis, is wanted to render him eligible for the post of a rabbi, which, however, carries no authority whatsoever with it, save on a very few ritual points. We need hardly allude to the popular fallacy of the rabbi of our day being a kind of priest' in the sense of the Old Testament. He is simply the teacher of the young, delivers sermons, assists at marriages and divorces, and the like, and has to decide on some ritual questions. Up to the times of the removal of the Disabilities' in Europe, he had on some occasions also to give judgment in civil matters, in accordance with the Choshen Mishpat,' a legal text-book, derived from the Talmudical and post-talmudical authoritative decisions. 6 RABBIT (Lepus cuniculus), an animal of the same genus with the hare, but of smaller size, and with shorter limbs, the hind-legs shorter in proportion. rapid and continuous running, but by retreating to burrows, which it excavates with great dexterity. tication, the ears are only about as long as the head. Except in some varieties, which result from domesThe wild R. is of a grayish-brown colour, paler or whitish on the under parts; the ears not tipped with black, like those of the common hare; the tail rather larger and more conspicuous-brown above, white beneath. The R. exhibits a remarkable difference from the hare in its gregarious habits; and another in the comparatively imperfect state of the young at their birth, which are blind for some days, and are almost destitute of hair. It delights in sandy heaths, dry grounds covered with scattered furze or juniper, and other such situations; to which, however, it is by no means restricted, and is often very troublesome by its depredations on crops in the finest fields, having its abode in burrow in a wet soil. Although now very abundant some neighbouring wood, but it never makes its in most parts of Britain, and generally throughout Europe, the R. is said to have been introduced into Britain from Spain, and even to have been originally brought to Europe from the north of Africa. In a wild state, the R. is monogamous, and the attachment of a pair is said to continue during life; but in a state of domestication, it ceases to pair. The fertility of rabbits is proverbial; they begin to breed when six months old, and are capable of producing several litters in a year, of 4 to 12 or more in a litter; so that, in favourable prodigious circumstances, they multiply with rapidity; and although they have many natural able pest to farmers, were not means adopted to enemies, would in many places become an intolerreduce their numbers. Rabbits often inflict great injury on plantations by barking young trees, seeming to take pleasure in tearing off far more than from trees. The flesh of rabbits is in high esteem, they can eat. An infusion of tobacco repels them and the fur being used for various purposes, rabbitwarrens are found profitable in lands not suited for agriculture. See RABBIT-SKINS. Instances have occurred of the R. and hare breeding together, but they are very rare, and the creatures seem rather to regard one another with antipathy. Tame rabbits exhibit great variety of coloursgray, brown, reddish-black, more or less mixed with white, and often white with all the characters of albinism. Peculiarities of other kinds also appear in some of the varieties, among which excessively long and drooping ears are one of the most remarkable. Fancy rabbits are prized and tended like fancy pigeons. But when rabbits are kept for economical purposes, those which differ less widely RABBIT-SKINS-RABELAIS. from the original type are preferred. Rabbits eat The Angora R. is a remarkable variety, with very long silky hair, which is easily stripped off in summer, and is of considerable value. The rearing of this kind of R. is extensively practised in some parts of France, in order to the manufacture of gloves, &c. An old English name for the R. is cony, and its name in many other languages is similar to this, as Lat. cuniculus, Ital. coniglio, Ger. Kaninchen, Welsh Cwningen; but the R. is not the Cony (q. v.) of Scripture. stopped on the highway by a constable (and he value in consequence of the hair being well adapted At the The Gray R. (Lepus sylvaticus) of North America is the most plentiful species of the genus Lepus in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the more southern states; but although it somewhat resembles the common R. in colour, and is rather inferior to it in size, its habits are intermediate between those of the R. and of the hare. It does not burrow, although, when hard pressed by a pursuer, it with the rabbit-hair. When a sufficient thickretreats into any accessible hole, and sometimes digs, in order to escape from or enter an enclosure. ness is obtained, the smooth copper cone is easily RABBITS, in point of law, give rise to many drawn out, leaving a cone of wool, which is felted nice questions, which in practical life are of no by the usual processes of wetting, beating, &c. small importance, for they form a branch of the Another ingenious contrivance in this machine is Game Laws (q. v.). In England and Ireland, who-to make the draft of air caused by the fan blow ever is owner of the soil is entitled to catch and the rabbit-fur forward to the cone, so as to diskill all the rabbits he finds upon it, without any tribute it with an evenness which could not otherwise be attained. game licence; but if he is not the owner or tenant The skins, after the hair has been removed from of the lands, nor acting by their express direction or permission, then he must have a licence. As them, are sold to the glue-makers, and are used— between landlord and tenant, the rule is, that unless mixed with shreds of other skins-in the manufacthe lease expressly say that the rabbits shall belong of rabbits are dressed as furs, in various ways, to ture of glue and size. Besides these uses, the skins to the landlord, they belong to the tenant, who can kill and catch them at discretion. A tenant, how supply the demand for cheap articles; and so ever, though having a right to kill rabbits on his skilfully is this branch of trade carried on, that farm, cannot give leave to strangers to come on admirable imitations of the rarer and more costly his farm and enjoy a day's sport there, though from white rabbit-skins, the black ones furnishing furs are made. Thus, ermine and miniver are made nothing but rabbits are killed, the privilege of killing the rabbits being personal to the tenant. Neverthe- the spots; and the common variety is dressed and less, the tenant may employ his servant or a rabbit-dyed various ways, to represent the furs of darkcatcher to kill the rabbits if they exist in excessive quantities, for in that case he deals with them as vermin. Though rabbits are not game, still they are protected against poachers in precisely the same way; for if any one trespass on land to kill rabbits, he is liable to be fined £5; and he may be arrested, if caught in the act on the lands, and detained, provided he do not tell his name and address, and quit the lands. The rabbits which he has poached cannot, however, be taken from him by any person, except, only, when he is on the highway and then only by a constable, who suspects he has poached them. In the latter case, viz., where the poacher is coloured animals. In the reign of Henry VIII, rabbit-fur was valued very highly, and was worn by the nobles of the realm; this is referred to in the charter of the Skinners' Company. There has been a very large market in the United States for the imitation furs prepared from rabbit-skins, to which country British manufacturers have largely exported. RABELAIS, FRANÇOIS, the greatest of French humorists, was born, according to the general statement of biographers, in 1483, but more probably towards 1495, at Chinon, a small town in Touraine. His father, Thomas Rabelais, was proprietor of a RABELAIS-RABIES. interest of Du Bellay and others, a bull was obtained, absolving him, and permitting his return to the order of St Benedict. But he continued the exercise of his profession of medicine at Montpellier and other towns till 1538, when he withdrew as canon into Du Bellay's own abbey of St Maur des Fosses, near Paris, and resumed his monastic habit. The death of Francis I. in 1547, was followed by the fall of Cardinal du Bellay, the new monarch, Henry II., favouring the Cardinal de Lorraine. R. shared for a time in the disgrace of his old protector, whom he appears to have followed to Rome, but his tact and irresistible humour won him friends among the Lorraines, and in 1551 he obtained the curacy of Meudon, in the occupancy of which the remainder of his life was passed. So far as record remains of it, his life here was happy and blameless. He was exemplary in the fulfilment of duty, profuse of charity, sedulous in the relief of suffering, for which his medical knowledge afforded him unusual facilities; and always specially delighted to cultivate, as occasion served, the society of those any way noted as eminent in learning or science. He died at Paris, in 1553, in the Rue des Jardins, in the parish of St Paul, in the cemetery of which he was buried. farm in the neighbourhood, celebrated for the accompany him, in fulfilment of a desire long quality of its wine, the sale of which he perhaps cherished. While at Rome, he petitioned Paul IIỈ combined with the business of an apothecary. His for a remission of the penalties still attached to his prosperous circumstances enabled him to give to his misdemeanour before mentioned; and through the son every advantage of education, and at an early age, the boy was sent as a pupil to the neighbouring Abbey of Seully. His progress in his studies being found by no means satisfactory, he was thence removed to the university of Angers. Herethough as a scholar he still remained quite undistinguished-he was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of Jean (afterwards the celebrated Cardinal) Du Bellay, to whose steady and helpful friendship he was subsequently much indebted. At the desire of his father he consented to embrace the monastic state, and after passing through the preliminary novitiate, became a brother of the order of St Francis, in the convent of Fontenay le Comte, according to the annalist, Pierre de St Romuald, in 1511, but the discovery of a document by M. B. Fillon (Poitou et Vendée, Fontenay, 1861), renders the date 1519 more probable. R. now devoted himself with the utmost ardour and perseverance to the prosecution of his hitherto neglected studies. Aiming at the widest culture attainable, he ranged the whole circle of the sciences as then understood. To medicine, in particular, he seems to have been strongly attracted; and in the sphere of language, in addition to Latin and Greek, he is said to have attained a competent mastery of Italian, Spanish, German, English, The scientific treatises of R. are-almost in the Hebrew, and Arabic. Meantime, with his brother-nature of the case—long since utterly forgotten; but monks, he was much the reverse of a favourite. They hated him for his devotion to the new learning, and suspected his Greek to be only a cover for heresy. About 1523, a search was made in his cell for suspicious books; the whole were confiscated, and to save himself from further and sharper persecution he fled. But though only a poor monk, the wit and learning of R. had gained him several influential friends, through whose exertions he obtained from Pope Clement VII. an indulgence to transfer himself from the order of St Francis to that of St Benedict, and became an inmate of the monastery of Maillezais. For the calumny afterwards circulated, that his removal was Cleanse the foul body of the infected world, necessitated by the odium attached to a life of profligate indulgence, there seems no reason to it is the whim of the writer to infect himself with suppose that there ever was the smallest ground. not a little of its foulness; and such is the We must infer that in his new abode he found riotous licence of the buffoonery, from behind which, himself not much more comfortable than before, as a stalking-horse, he shoots the arrows of his wit, as after a few years he quitted it abruptly, without that few books are less fitted for general perusal in the sanction of his ecclesiastical superiors, thereby the present more decorous times. On the publication incurring the severest censures of the church. But of his work, the charge of irreligion and atheism it was not persecution that induced this second was freely preferred against R., and certain other flight from the monastic state. It was the incurable scandals were circulated, for which there seems to aversion of the grotesque humorist to the restraints have been in his life no foundation, except as the of the 'regular' clergy. And nobody seems to have free tone assumed by the writer might suggest a really blamed him for his professional apostacy-precarious inference to defective morality in the his own bishop, among others, receiving him at his table in the most friendly manner! During 15241530 he appears to have frequented the universities of Paris and Bourg; which may account for the intimate knowledge of university manners and opinions shewn in his great work. In the year 1530, he settled himself at Montpellier, and taking a medical degree at the university, was appointed to the post of lecturer. In 1532 he went as hospital physician to Lyon, where he published several works on medical science, besides other miscellaneous matter bearing on archæology, jurisprudence, &c. In the beginning of 1534, his old friend, Jean Du Bellay, then Bishop of Paris, and shortly after to be Cardinal, passed through Lyon, on an embassy to Rome, whither, in the capacity of travelling physician, R. was delighted to his romance, in which are narrated the wonderful adventures of Garagantua and Pantagruel, continues to take rank as one of the world's masterpieces of humour and grotesque invention. In the form of a sportive and extravagant fiction, it is, in fact, a satirical criticism of the corrupt society of the period, the prevalent follies and vices of which are parodied with surprising effect and ingenuity. The difficulty of its allegorical form, however, and the quantity of recondite allusion it embodies, tend somewhat to impair the effect of the work for most modern readers. Also, it must be said, that in his attempt to man. The religious corruptions of the time, and the vices of the priestly class, had formed one favourite theme of his satire, and he simply paid the usual penalty in thus incurring the easy retort calumnious. See Delécluze, François Rabelais (Par. 1841), and P. Lacroix, Rabelais sa Vie et ses Ouvrages (Par. 1859), in the latter of which works the incidents of his career are for the first time clearly and correctly narrated. RA'BIES, the name given to a disease affecting the dog and other animals, was known to the ancients, and is spoken of by Aristotle, Pliny, and Horace; but it does not seem to have been then so virulent in its nature, or alarming in its consequences, and Aristotle, perhaps in ignorance, states that man was not subject to its attacks. It was very prevalent on the continent two or three RABINET-RACCONIGI. centuries ago, but was comparatively rare in this country until the last century. This malady stands almost alone in this, that all animals seem liable to its attacks. It is a matter of dispute among some of our best authorities whether rabies be occasionally spontaneous in the carnivora-the only animals in which it is undoubtedly inherent-or communicated solely by inoculation. Looking simply at the history of the disease, the facts would seem to be against the spontaneity theory. Rabies is not known in some countries, such as the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, Egypt, Syria, the South Sea Islands, Lisbon, where dogs swarm; and in Constantinople, where they go at large, and support themselves on offals of all kinds and qualities, the disease is of very rare occurrence. John Hunter relates that it was not known in Jamaica for forty years previous to 1783, when it was introduced by an affected dog from America; and Dr Hamilton says that curs of the most wretched description abound in the island of Madeira-that they are affected with almost every disease, tormented by flies, by heat, thirst, and famine, yet no rabid dog was ever seen there. There is often, no doubt, great difficulty in tracing the cause of rabies from inoculation. The owner may feel convinced that his diseased dog had almost never been out of his sight, or exposed to an affected animal; but when we consider the predatory habits of the dog, and his love of association, and how easily he can steal away unobserved by night or by day for a longer or shorter time, we can readily account for the most vigilant eye being occasionally off its guard. It has been asked, as an objection to the exclusiveness of contagion or inoculation, How was rabies at first originated? But the same difficulty attends the case of small-pox and other diseases which now arise only from contagion. There is another important peculiarity in this disease on which medical men are divided-viz., whether the virus of a rabid animal, other than of the carnivorous species, can communicate the disease. Experiments to test this were made by some foreign surgeons of eminence, by Drs Vaughan and Babington of London, and at the Royal Veterinary College; and it is reported that in every instance they failed in producing the disease. It is certain, however, that others have not so failed in their object. MM. Majendie and Brechet in 1823 inoculated two dogs with the saliva of a hydrophobic man, and it resulted in one of the dogs becoming rabid, which in turn communicated the disease to other dogs and some sheep. Mr Earl, the wellknown London surgeon, in administering medicine to a hydrophobic woman, was bitten by her, and he immediately excised the bitten part. Being accused of unnecessary fear and cowardice, he determined to justify his fears, and having inoculated several rabbits with the woman's saliva, some of them became rabid. Mr King of Bath succeeded in producing the disease in a common hen by the virus of a cow. Several other cases could be related, but it may serve our purpose to quote the following remarks of Mr Youatt: 'I can imagine that the disease shall not be readily communicated by the saliva of a graminivorous animal; but I have once produced it in the dog with the saliva of an ox, and twice with that of the horse, but I have failed to do it in very many cases. While on this point, it may be remarked, that the writer once saw a rabid horse bite a young man's hand rather severely, while incautiously giving it a ball of medicine, and he accompanied him to Sir Astley Cooper, who, according to his invariable practice, as he told us, applied nitrous acid to the injured part, and he assured us that no bad effects would accrue; and neither there did.' We shall briefly notice some of the leading symp toms of rabies in the dog and horse. These may be exhibited in the dog in a few days, or it may be, and often is, weeks, and even months after he has been bitten. At first he loses his appetite, becomes sullen, fidgety, has a vacant gaze, licks or gnaws the injured part, laps any liquid that comes in his way-for he has, unlike man, no dislike for water, although he has a difficulty in swallowing it-eats wood, straw, hair, and other indigestible substances; and in a day or two he becomes quarrelsome, bent on mischief, bites at anything that comes in his way, and his bark is more like a howl; his lower jaw often becomes pendulous, and general paralysis sometimes precedes death; and as a rule, on the fifth or sixth day he dies. The principal post-mortem appearances are these-enlargement and increased vascularity of the salivary glands, inflamed condition of the base of the tongue and fauces, epiglottis, and stomach, which last organ almost invariably contains such indigestible substances as straw, hair, offal, &c. The symptoms in the horse, which become apparent in a few weeks, are those of extreme irritability. He trembles, heaves, and paws, staggers, and falls; and after a severe struggle, he suddenly rises again, and appears settled and collected, when he will again exhibit the usual distressing symptoms. He is sometimes mischievous, bites, foams, and snorts; and generally in three days he dies paralysed and exhausted. The disease seems primarily to be one of bloodpoisoning, and not, as some have represented it, an affection of the nervous system. We know that some instances of blood-poisoning terminate with coma, or convulsions, but are not, on that account, to be considered as proceeding from nervous disease. Whatever may be the precise nature of the disease, it is certain that no cure has been discovered for it. The writer has seen many dogs, some horses, and an ox in all the different stages of it, and many attempts at a cure tried, without producing even any palliative effects, and every one of the patients died in the ordinary course, whether anything or nothing was done. As the disease is so rare, andcontrary to popular belief-is not more prevalent at one period of the year than another, no anticipatory precautionary measures can be taken. Preventive measures, however, when it is known, or even suspected, that the disease has manifested itself, should not for an instant be neglected. All dogs known to have been bitten, or been in the company of the rabid animal, should be immediately destroyed, and every other dog in the town and district confined, or closely muzzled, for several weeks, or even months. As to the measures to be taken when a human being is bitten by a rabid animal, see HYDROPHOBIA. RA'BINET, a small piece of ordnance formerly in use. It weighed but 300 pounds, and fired a small ball of 13 inch diameter, with a very limited |