RHEUMATISM 



4993 



RHINE 



Climax 



Figure of Speech 



Grammar 



Language 



Metaphor 

 Metonymy 

 Personification 

 Simile 



RHEUMATISM, roo'matiz'm, a term which 

 covers a number of physical disorders charac- 

 terized by severe inflammation of the joints or 

 muscles. The most painful form is that known 

 as inflammatory rheumatism, rheumatic fever 

 or acute articular rheumatism. It begins with 

 high fever and headache, extreme tenderness 

 in one or more of the joints and profuse sweat- 

 ing. As the disease progresses the joint or 

 joints attacked become red, hot and swollen, 

 and the victim is doomed to a period of excru- 

 ciating pain, during which the slightest move- 

 ments in the diseased parts cause intense suf- 

 fering. This distressing condition may last for 

 a week or ten days, or it may endure for weeks 

 or months. An attack does not as a rule end 

 fatally; deaths that do occur generally result 

 from inflammation of the heart. There are 

 many authorities who believe that rheumatic 

 fever is caused by a specific germ, but the more 

 generally accepted theory is that it results from 

 poisons produced in the system by diseased 

 tonsils and other infections. One attack pre- 

 disposes to another, and the disease may be- 

 come chronic. Persons past middle age who 

 are exposed constantly to cold and dampness 

 sometimes acquire the chronic form, as a result 

 of which their joints become so misshapen as 

 to make them almost helpless. 



The term muscular rheumatism is applied to 

 inflammation of various muscles. Muscular 

 rheumatism, too, may be acute or chronic, but 

 r is not usually present, and there are no 

 heart complications. Specific forms are lum- 

 bago, in which the muscles of the lower part 

 of the back are affected; intercostal, which at- 

 tacks the muscles between the ribs; and lorti- 

 collis, or stiff neck. Acute attacks of rheuma- 

 tism are treated by complete rest in bed, and 

 the application of such hygienic and relief 

 measures as the physician in charge may pre- 

 scribe. A prominent medical authority (Hutch- 

 inson) gives this advice : 



The Important single fact for rheumatics of all 

 sorts to remember Is that they must avol.i 

 posure to colds, In the sense of Infections of all 

 sorts, as they would a pestilence ; t must 



tat plenty of sound, nourishing food ; live in well- 

 ventilated rooms; take plenty of exercise In the 

 open air; dress lightly but warmly, and treat 

 every cold or mild Infection which they may b 

 unfortunate enough to catch, according to the 



st rigor of the antiseptic law. 

 313 



RHINE, rine, the stream which might be 

 called Germany's national river, written of by 

 Lord Byron as the 



wide and winding Rhine, 

 Whose breast of waters broadly swells 



Between the banks which bear the vine. 

 And hills all rich with blossom'd trees. 



And fields which promise corn and wine, 

 And scatter'd cities crowning these, 



Whose far white walls along them shine. 



To Germans, the Rhine is the symbol of their 

 national existence and strength. Thus, in Wag- 

 ner's operas, the possession of the Nibelungen 

 ring, fashioned from the gold guarded by the 

 maidens deep down in the clear Rhine waters, 

 gave to its possessor power over all the world. 

 So, too, in the legends from which Wagner 

 drew his story, the hero Siegfried made himself 

 invulnerable by bathing in the blood of the 

 dragon who had his abode in the Dragon Rock 

 (Drachenfels), a hill still pointed out to trav- 

 elers down the Rhine as they approach the 

 famous university city of Bonn. But the mean- 

 ing of the Rhine to Germans is best shown in 

 their national anthem, The Watch on the 

 Rhine: 



Rest, Fatherland, for sons of thine 



Shall steadfast keep the Wacht am Rhein. 



The Rhine in History. The Rhine has figured 

 in German history ever since Caesar built his 

 timber bridge and wrote that description of it 

 which tries the patience of so many boys and 

 girls. For four centuries the Rhine was the 

 boundary between the Romans and the bar- 

 barian tribes, except for a short time when the 

 emperor's legions pushed on to the Main. On 

 the west bank grew up Roman cities, Cologne 

 (Colonia Agrippina), Bonn (Bonna), Coblenz 

 (Confluentes), 

 Mainz (Magun- 

 tiacum), Worms 

 (Borbetomagus), 

 Speyer (Novio- 

 magus), Strass- 

 burg (Argentora- 

 tum), all in Ger- 

 many, and Basel 

 (Basilia) in Swit- 

 zerland, but the 

 east bank re- 

 mained thor- COURSE OF THE RHINE 



oughly German. In the Middle Ages, the 

 Rhine from Basel to the Netherlands was un- 

 der German rule, but when France gained a 

 meager foothold on its western shore at the 

 close of the Thirty Years' War, in 1648, a strug- 

 gle began which has lasted to our own time. 



