RACINE 



4911 



RADIOACTIVITY 



tragedy, was an event of great moment in the 

 history of the French drama. Racine was born 

 at La Ferte-Milon, and received a good educa- 

 tion. The outstanding features of his college 



were the religious impressions he recei 

 from his puritanic teachers and the thorough- 

 ness with which he studied the Greek clas- 

 sics. Sophocles and Euripides were to him the 

 ideal dramatists. In 1662 he settled in Paris, 

 was presented to the king and became a poet 

 of the fashionable element. At the same time 

 he formed friendships with Boileau, Moliere 

 and other notables in the literary world. His 

 ^edies Andromaque, Britannicus, 

 Bajazct, Mithridate, Iphigenie and 

 produced between 1667 and 1677. 

 In the lam r year he ceased writing for the 

 stage, partly i is incensed at the 



criticism of a hostile theatrical clique, and 

 partly from religious motives. Esther and 

 Athcdic, two Biblical dramatic poems, were 

 written several years afterward, but neither 

 was publicly produced before his death. Racine 

 was primarily a poet of the cultured and fas- 

 tidious; he has never appealed to the masses. 

 In his plays the dramatic element always stands 

 out clearly, and character portrayal is subor- 

 dinate to the development of the plot. 



RACINE, Wis., the county seat of Racine 

 County, situated in the southeastern corner of 

 the state, on Lake Michigan, at the mouth of 

 Root River. Next to Milwaukee it is the 

 : ng manufacturing city in the state. The 

 population in 1910 was 38,002, and had in- 

 creased to 46,486 (Federal estimate) in 1916. 

 area is nearly six square miles. Racine 

 is twenty-four miles south of Milwaukee, sixty- 

 miles north of Chicago, on the Chicago & 

 h Western and the Chicago, Milwaukee 

 & St. Paul railroads and on interurban lines, 

 harbor is good and the city has steam- 

 .-lnj> lines to other lake ports. 

 The features of the city are its fine parks, 

 College and Racine Coll.-, iprotes- 

 Saint Catherine's Academy 

 (Roman Catholic), the Federal building, Car- 

 negie Library and Y. M. C. A. building Promi- 

 it ut ions are Saint Luke's and Saint 

 hospitals and the Taylor Orphan Asy- 

 lum. There are important manufactures of 

 I, automobile part*, farm im- 

 aenta, malted i ulk and electric:.! 



and machine-shop pro<i -her. 



boots and shoes, trunks and valises. 



product* are also manufuct 

 factory 



$43,600,000 a year. The place was founded in 

 1834, incorporated in 1S43 and became a city 

 in 1848. W.H.R. 



RACK, an ancient instrument of torture, 

 used to extort confessions from criminals and 

 heretics. It was an oblong, wooden frame with 

 rollers on each end. On this frame the victim 

 was bound and questions were put to him ; if 

 he remained stubborn and refused to answer 

 the rollers were gradually turned by means of 

 levers, stretching the victim until the joints 

 became dislocated. 



Tire rack was used by the Romans, especially 

 for the torture of Christians, and was in fre- 

 quent demand during the Inquisition. Its use 

 was introduced into England in 1447, but in 

 1628 its legality was contested, and the instru- 

 ment fell into disuse. 



RADCLIFFE, rad'klif, COLLEGE, a college 

 for women which has been officially connected 

 with Harvard University since 1894. It is the 

 outgrowth of the Society for the Colle^ 

 Instruction of Women, which was organized in 

 1882. The name Radcliffe College, adopted 

 by act of the General Court of Massachusetts 

 in 1894, is in honor of Ann Radcliffe, the first 

 woman to give a money endowment to Har- 

 vard University. The buildings of the college, 

 which include administration and lecture build- 

 ings, a library containing about 32,000 volumes, 

 a gymnasium and several residence halls, are 

 located about three blocks from the Harvard 

 campus, in Cambridge, Mass. Tuition is $200 a 

 year, and board and lodging in the college dor- 

 mitories range from $288 to $540. 



The requirements for admission are the 

 same as those adopted by the university for 

 men, and the courses of study, which are in 

 charge of Harvard professors, are practically 

 identical with tin i by the men's in- 



stitution. The university mu>eums and 1 

 ries are open to the students of Radcliffe. The 

 enrolment is about 675. and the faculty num- 

 bers about 150. See HAKYAKD [JNIYDBITT. 



RADIATION g J7I" 



RADIOACTIVITY, ra'dioak tir'i ' ti. Alter 

 the of Roentgen rays, or X 



1805, physicists experiim -ntel with a number 

 of substances for the purpose of ascertaining 

 whether or not they possessed the propcrt 

 giving off M: i. In 1896 H 



us wrapped a photographic plate 

 in black paper and laid a eom on the paper 



o, suspending 



ab<> niuni ore. After several 



i the plate and obtained an 



