RASKOLNIKS 



RAT 



585 



Danish, anil Icelandic grammars. See the Lives 

 by Petersen (1870) and Ronning (1887). 



Raskollliks, the name of a variety of sects in 

 the Russian Church. See RUSSIA. 



Raspail, FRANCOIS VINCENT (1794-1878), a 

 French chemist, doctor, and revolutionist, whose 

 camphor-system (1845) was a forerunner of anti- 

 septic surgery. See a monograph on him by Saint- 

 Martin (Paris, 1877). 



Raspberry (Rubus Idceus), the most valued 

 f all the species of Rubns (q.v. ). The characters 

 of the leaves, flowers, and fruit of raspberry are well 



Raspberry (Rubut Idceut). 



illustrated in the accompanying figure. The wild 

 raspberry has scarlet fruit, and is found in thickets 

 ana woods throughout the whole of Europe and 

 the north of Asia, It is common in Britain. The 

 raspberry has long l>een in cultivation for its fruit. 

 There are many cultivated varieties, with red, 

 yellow, and white fruit, much exceeding the wild 

 kind in size. The root is creeping, perennial ; the 

 stems only biennial, (tearing fruit in the second 

 year, woody, but with very large pith. Planta- 

 tions of rasplterries are most easily made by means 

 of suckers. The raspberry loves a light rich soil, 

 and in rather partial to a shady situation. The 

 tall kinds are unsuitable in situations much 

 exposed to winds, as the stems are easily broken. 

 The rows are generally about 4 feet apart, the 

 plants 3 to 4 feet apart in the rows. The young 

 stems are thinned out to allow free access of air 

 to those which are left. Stakes are often used to 

 support the stems, or they are variously tied 

 together. The fruit is used for dessert ; for jams, 

 jellies, &c. ; for making or flavouring many kinds 

 of sweetmeats; and, mixed with brandy, wine, or 

 vinegar, for the preparation of Raspberry Syrup, 

 Ras/iberry Vinegar, <Vc. Different preparations of 

 it are used in medicine in cases of fever, inflam- 

 mation. &c. Raspberry vinegar is a particularly 

 grateful and cooling drink in fevers. Rasplterries, 

 fermented either alone or along with currants and 

 cherries, yield a strong and very agreeable wine, 

 'from which a very powerful spirit can be made. 

 Some of the other species of Rubus most nearly 

 rmembling the rasplwrry produce also agreeable 

 fruits. H. mliiriitii* i- a highly ornamental shrub, 

 a native of Canada and the northern states of 

 America, is frequent in European and American 

 gardens, but rarely produces fruit in Britain. 



Raspc. 3. E. See MUNCHAUSEN. 



Rassaill. HoRMl'ZD, Assyriologist, was born, 

 the son of Cha! lean Christian parents, at Mosul 

 in Mesopotamia in 1826. He gained the friend- 

 ship of Layard, and assisted him in his excava- 

 tions at Nineveh in 1845-47 and 1849-51, and then 



succeeded him, until 1854, as British agent for 

 conducting Assyrian explorations. His grandest 

 success was the finding of the palace of Assur- 

 bani-Pal (Sardanapalus). After holding in the 

 following years political offices at Aden and 

 Muscat, he was sent ( 1864) by the British govern- 

 ment to Abyssinia, to demand the release of the 

 Europeans kept in prison by King Theodore ; but 

 that potentate cast mm also into prison, and only 

 released him with the rest of his captives after his 

 army had been defeated by Sir R. Napier in 1868. 

 From 1876 to 1882 Rassam was employed by the 

 trustees of the British Museum in making explora- 

 tions in Mesopotamia, and discovered Sepharvaim 

 (Sippara) and Kuthah. He published The British 

 Mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia ( 1869). 



Rastatt, or RASTADT, a town and first-class 

 fortress in Baden, stands on the Murg, 3 miles 

 from its junction with the Rhine, and 15 miles 

 SW. of Carlsruhe. Steel wares, beer, and tobacco 

 are manufactured. From 1725 to 1771 the town 

 was the residence of the Margraves of Baden- 

 Baden. The present fortifications were erected in 

 1840-48 by Austrian engineers to protect the 

 northern entrance to the Black Forest. Rastatt 

 is memorable for two congresses the first 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 second in 1797-99. On the breaking up 

 of this latter congress without any definite result 

 the three French plenipotentiaries set out for 

 Straslnirg ; but they had scarcely got beyond the 

 gates of Rastatt when they were attacked by 

 Austrian hussars, and two of the three slain, whilst 

 the third was left for dead in a ditch. Their papers 

 were carried off, but no further spoil was taken. 

 It seems that the Archduke Charles gave orders 

 to the hussars to drive the French representatives 

 out of Riistatt ant l take away their papers ; the 

 killing was the work of the officers, misunder- 

 standing their order*. The town played a promi- 

 nent part in 1 849 as the stronghold of the revolu- 

 tionists in Baden. Pop. (1890) 11,570. 



Rat, a name applied to the larger species of the 

 rodent genus Mils, but especially to the Brown Rat 

 (M. dci-HHHiiiits) and the Black Rat (M. raltus). 

 Like the mice, which are included in the same 

 genus, rats are agile and graceful animals, skil- 

 ful in burrowing, predominantly nocturnal. The 

 bright eyes, large ears, naked muzzle, soft fur, and 

 long scaly tail are familiar external characteristics. 

 The brown or Norway rat measures about eight 

 inches in length, not including the tail, which is 

 usually shorter than the body. It is grayish-brown 

 in colour, with flesh-coloured ears, feet, and tail. 

 Black varieties sometimes occur. It is believed to 

 have travelled gradually westwards, perhaps from 

 China, and did not reach France or Britain till to- 

 wards the middle of the last century. In 1727 

 swarms swam across the Volga, and rapidly spread 

 over Europe, dispossessing the black rat which 

 had arrived some centuries before. According to 

 some, the black rat was brought to Britain in 1732 

 in ships from the East Indies. As a common 

 stowaway in ships, it has been distributed over the 

 world, reaching America about 1775. The black 

 rat is smaller and slimmer than the brown rat. 

 The head and body measure six or seven inches 

 in length ; the tail is an inch or two longer. 

 The head is more slender than in the brown 

 rat, and the ears are rather larger. In most 

 the colour is glossy black, but white and piebald 

 varieties may occur. It is less fierce than the 

 brown rat, and seems to be less distinctively a 

 burrowing rodent, preferring the upper parts of 

 houses to the cellars. Its original home seems to 



