RAPHANIA 



RAPP 



583 



*nd the Ezechiel of the Pitti. The labours sub- 

 sequently completed were immense, including the 

 Spasimo at Madrid, the Holy Family and St 

 Michael, which the pope sent to the king of France 

 in 1518, and the likeness of the vice-queen of 

 Aragon, followed by the celebrated portrait of the 

 Violin-player of the Sciarra collection at Koine. 

 Wall-painting, with help from the assistants, was 

 diligently carried on, and produced the cycle of 

 the Psyche legend at the Farnesina, the gospel- 

 scenes of the Loggie of the Vatican, and the frescoes 

 of the Hall of Constantino. The last work done in 

 the master's painting- room was the Transfiguration, 

 which was nearly finished when Raphael died of a 

 pernicious fever caught in the excavations of 

 Rome. He expired on the 6th of April 1520, after 

 a week's illness. 



See Castiglione, Cortifiia.no (Padua, 1766); Pungileoni, 

 Eloffio Storico di Raffaello Santi ( Urbino, 182*2 ) ; Knmobr, 

 fortchunnen (Berlin, 1827); Passavant, Raphael ( Paris, 

 I860); Cam|pori, Notizic e Documeiiti (Modena, 1870); 

 Yuan, Vile (ed. Lemonnier, Florence, 1846); Miintz, 

 Raphael ( Paris, 1881 ) ; Cngnoni's Life of Chiyi( Home, 

 1881); Grimm, Dot Leben Raphaett (Berlin, 1886; 

 Eng. trans. 1889); Springer, Raffael und Michelangelo 

 <2d ed. Leip. 18*5); Luhke, Rafael* Leben and Werke 

 (Dresden, 1881); Von Liitzow, Ra/ael Bildunyt- und 

 Entwickelungigang (Vienna, 1890); Malvasia, Felrina 

 Pittrict ( Bologna, 1678 ) ; Paris de Grassi's Diaries ( MS. 

 in the Vatican); and Raphael, hit Life and Work, by 

 the present writer and G. B. Cavalcaselle (1882). 



Kapliauia. or ERGOTISM, is a disease which 

 was much more prevalent some centuries ago than 

 it is at present. The name raphania was first 

 .given to it by Linmens, who thought the morbid 

 symptoms were dependent upon the mixture of 

 lUiphanwi liap/ianistrum, or jointed charlock, with 

 the wheat used as food. It was suspected, as 

 early as the end of the 16th century, that the 

 disease was due to the development of a fungus in 

 the grain, and this fact is now established beyond 

 doubt, although MIIIIC writers hold (as Limiieus 

 diil ) that tliis morbid state is also produced by the 

 presence of poisonous plants, especially Lolium 

 t- in nil nt a in. or darnel, among the grain. Deficiency 

 of proper food probably contributes to cause the 

 disease, for it rarely occurs when ergot is used 

 medicinally. Although rye is the ordinary seat of 

 the poisonous fungus, wheat, rice, and other grains 

 *re liable to be similarly affected, and to produce 

 similar results. See ERGOT. 



There are two forms of the disease the spas- 

 modic and the gangrenous. In both, symptoms <>f 

 irritation of the digestive organs are the first to 

 appear. In the spasmodic form tingling or itching 

 of various parts or the body, with loss of sensation 

 in the feet and hands, are the most constant 

 symptom.-. Violent contractions of the muscles 

 may occur, giving rise to intense pain, and some- 

 times epileptic convulsions supervene. In the gan- 

 grenous form the extremities are painful, red but 

 cold, and not easily moved ; and after a varying 

 time gangrene supervenes. With regard to treat 

 ment, the main tiling is to replace the pdconoai 

 flour by easily digested, wholesome food. Whatever 

 be the form of treatment adopted, the mortalitv in 

 the gangrenous form is usually 90 per cent. The 

 spasmodic form is much less destructive to life. 



Kapllia. the name of a group of palms (gee 

 Vul. VII. p. 722), the leaves, bark, and pith of 

 which (ire used for various purposes. The bast 

 of one South American species, R. tir.digem or 

 Jiipati-palm, is largely used by gardeners every- 

 where for tying up plants, in fastening grafts, &c. 

 And the midribs of the leaves (if another species, 

 found in Madagascar, &c., are supposed to be what 

 was taken for ' roc's quills,' the feathers of the 

 fabled Koclq.v.). 



Raphoe, a market-town of Donegal, 15 miles 

 SSW. of Londonderry. Its former see was united 

 to Derry in 1835. Pop. 986. 



Rapidan, a river of Virginia, and tributary of 

 the Rappahannock (q.v.). 



Rapids. See WATERFALLS, RIVER, NIAGARA, 

 NILE, PARANA, &c. 



Rapier, 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. Instructions for Fencing 

 (q.v.) are for fencing with the rapier or foil. See 

 SWORD. 



Rapin de Thoyras, PAUL DE, a French his- 

 torian of England, was descended from a Pro- 

 testant Savoyard family, which settled in France 

 in the 16th century, and was born at Castres, in 

 Languedoc, March 25, 1661. He studied at the 

 Protestant college at Saumur, and passed as advo- 

 cate in 1679, but had no liking for the profession ; 

 and when the revocation of the Edict of Nantes 

 (1685) forced him to leave France he sought em- 

 ployment without success in England, and after- 

 wards in Holland, where he enlisted in a corps 

 of volunteers at Utrecht, formed by his cousin- 

 german, Daniel de Rapin. With his company he 

 followed the Prince of Orange to England in 1688, 

 was made ensign in the following year, and dis- 

 tinguished 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, where he devoted the remaining seventeen 

 years of hi- 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. 

 Rapin 's Hmtuire d'Angleterre was published at the 

 Hague in K vuls. 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 the citation of 

 authorities, clear, rapid, and accurate in narration, 

 methodical in the arrangement of its materials, 

 comparatively impartial in spirit, and yet betray- 

 ing on the part of the author an Honourable 

 reverence for law and liberty. 



Rapin begins with the invasion of Britain by the 

 Romans, and ends with the accession of William III. 

 The work was continued to the death of William III. by 

 David Dnrant ( Hague, 2 vols. 1734). The best edition 

 of the Hiittaire in its augmented form is by Lctebvre de 

 Saint-Marc ( Hague, 16 vols. 1749 et eq.). Tlic original 

 was translated into English by tl.e Kev. Nicholas Tindal 

 (Lond. l.'i vols. 1"'25 31 ), and subsequently by John Kelly 

 (in '2 vols. fol. ). 



Rapp, <;EORGE, founder of the Harmonists, 

 also known as the sect of Economites, was born 

 in Wiirtemberg in 1770, and, after an attempt to 

 restore the church of New Testament days in (!er- 

 many, emigrated with his followers to America in 

 1803 ami settled in Butler county, Pennsylvania. 

 There he established a settlement which he named 

 Harmony. In 1815 the community removed to In- 

 diana and founded New Harmony (q.v.); but this 

 was sold in 1824 to Robert Owen, and Rapp and his 

 followers returned to Pennsylvania, where, on a 

 tract of 2400 acres forming Harmony township, in 

 He.-iver county, they built the village of Economy, 

 on the right bank of the Ohio, 17 miles N. W. of 

 Pittsburg. There they engaged in manufactures 

 and agriculture, and there Rapp died 7th August, 



