RATNAGIRI 



RAUCH 



589 



remarkable is the noble Gothic cathedral, begun in 

 1275, but not completed till 1534, and restored in 

 the 19th century. The Church of St James, for- 

 merly belonging to tlie Irish (Scoti) Benedictines, 

 dates from the 12th century, and is built in the 

 pnre Byzantine style. The old town-hall was 

 used for a century and a half (1645-1806) as the 

 place of meeting for the imperial diet. At the 

 Golden CroHs Inn Charles V. met the mother of his 

 son Don John of Austria. There are numerous 

 interesting private dwellings, as the Thurn and 

 Taxis Palace, with library (40,000 vols.), picture- 

 gallery, &c. , the royal vifla, and others. A stone 

 bridge (1135-46), 1024 feet long, connects Ratislxm 

 with the busy trailing suburb of Stadt am Hof. 

 The manufactures include porcelain and stoneware, 

 brass and steel wares, leather, tobacco, lead-pencils, 

 chemicals, &c. ; and there is an active trade, espe- 

 cially in corn and salt. Pop. (1875)31,487; (1890) 

 37,365. Originally a Celtic town, Radasbona 

 ( whence Ratislxm ), this place was made by the 

 Romans a frontier fortress. Later it was the 

 capital of the Dukes of Bavaria. Frederick II. 

 declared it (1245) a free imperial city. During 

 the 14th century it was the chief seat of the Indo- 

 Levantine trade, and was one of the nm-t popu- 

 lous cities of southern ( lermany. Here were signed 

 the Ratisbon Interim (q.v.) in 1541 and the armis- 

 tice between France and Austria in 1684. The 

 city was stormed by Duke Bernhard of Weimar 

 in 1633, and by both the Austrian* and the French 

 in 1809. It was ceded to Bavaria in 1810. See 

 works by Weininger (7th ed. 1884) and Janner (3 

 vols. 18X3-86). 



Ratlia'ffiri. a coast-town of India, 136 miles S. 

 by E. of Bombay, with a fort and sardine-fishery. 

 Pop. 12,616. The district has an area of 392*2 sq. 

 m. and a pop. ( 1S91) of 1,105,926. 



Rattan, a walking-stick made from the stem of 

 a palm that grows in Sumatra. See PALM, p. 722. 



Rattany. See RHATANV. 



Ra(ta/./i. I "HHAXO, an Italian statesman, was 

 horn at Alessandria, June 29, 1808. He studied 

 law at Turin and practised as an advocate with 

 great success at Casale. After the proclamation 

 of the constitution in 1848 he was elected member 

 of the Second Chamber for Alessandria, and began 

 bis political career as a democrat. His eloquence 

 and liberal principles raised him to the ministry : 

 (Jiol>erti made him minister of the Interior ami 

 later of Justice ; but after the defeat of Novara he 

 was obliged to retire along with the rest of the 

 ministry. When Napoleon III. threatened the 

 liberty of Piedmont, Cavour, Rattazzi, and their 

 parties joined together to defeat his schemes, anil 

 in 18.J3 Rattazzi took the portfolio of Justice under 

 Cavonr, and presented the bill for the aUilition of 

 convents. IJeing accused of weakness in suppres- 

 sing the Mazzinian movement in 1857, he retired 

 from office early in the following year. In Is.Vi. 

 however, he was back again in office as minister of 

 the Interior. The threatened cession of Savoy and 

 Nice, which he opposed, led to his retirement in 

 1860. Having changed his views on this point, he 

 was in March 1862 entrusted with the formation of 

 a new ministry, but had to resign at the end of the 

 year in consequence of his opposition to Garibaldi ; 

 and once more prime-minister for six months in 

 1867, he lost the post for the same reason. He 

 died at Frosinone, June 5, 1873. A want of 

 stability was his chief drawback as a statesman. 



Hi Speeches were edited by Scovazzi (8 vein. Rome, 

 1876-80 f See a Life by Morelli (Padua, 1874), and Rat- 

 tazzi rt ion Tempt ( Paris, 1881 ). 



Rattlesnake (Crotalm), a genus of highly 

 specialised venomous snakes, with a rattle of horny 

 rings at the end of the tail. A long fang is borne 



on each maxilla, and is perforated by a canal, down 

 which the venomous secretion of a modified salivary 

 gland flows when the rattler strikes. Beliind 

 each fang are several reserve fangs, which replace 

 it after breakage a not unfrequent result of 

 the bite. There are about fifteen species, exclu- 

 sively American. Of these the Bandeu Rattlesnake 

 ( C. horridvs) is abundantly distributed from Maine 

 to Texas. Its maximum length seems to be about 

 four feet, and the rattles nave been known to 

 consist of twenty-three rings, but forms and rattles 

 so large are very rare. The predominant colour of 

 the body varies from yellow to almost black. 

 Among the other species are C. tfurissus (Mexico 

 to Brazil), C. molossns (Mexico and Arizona), C. 

 lucifer (California and other western regions), the 

 Diamond Rattier C. adamanteus (California and 

 Mexico), the Horned Rattler C. cerastes (Cali- 

 fornia, Arizona, and Mexico). 



Rattlesnakes are naturally sluggish and prefer 

 defen.-ive to offensive tactics, except when on the 

 track of their natural prey rabbits, rats, squirrels, 

 and other small nuumnals. Not a few ideas al>out 

 rattlesnakes must ! dismissed as false : they do 

 not fascinate or charm mammals or birds, though 

 these may lie overcome by an almost paralysing 



Kattlesnake ( Crotalut horridtu) in act of striking. 



fear ; the rattling does not lure prey nor attract 

 mates, but is rather a retlex expression of excite- 

 ment, apparently warning off molesters on whom 

 the snake is doubtless unwilling to expend energy 

 in the exhausting act of striking ; finally, the 

 uumlier of rings docs not necessarily indicate the 

 age of the animal, though new rings seem to be 

 added at successive sloughings. Rattlesnakes are 

 generally nocturnal. The young are brought forth 

 alive. The poison is very deadly, rapidly paralys- 

 ing the nerve-centres and affecting the respiratory 

 and circulatory functions. When a man is bitten 

 it is customary to ligature above the wound, to 

 suck out the poison, to use stimulants freely, and 

 to inject antidotes such as permanganate of potash. 

 Often, however, the result of the bite is fatal (see 

 SNAKES). 



Rattray. a police burgh of Perthshire, on the 

 Ericlit, opi>osite Blairgowrie. Pop. 2227. 



Ranch, CHRISTIAN DANIF.L, sculptor, was born 

 at Arolsen, in Waldeck, 2d January 1777. In 

 1797 he bcramo valet to Frederick-William III., 

 king of Prussia, but, resolving to devote himself to 

 art, was enabled by the generosity of a nobleman to 

 study at Rome, where he enjoyed the friendship 

 of Thorwaldsen, Canova, and Wilhelm von Huni- 

 1 icildt. the Prussian minister. In 1811 he was called 

 by the king of Prussia to Berlin to execute the monu- 

 mental statue of Queen Louisa now at Cliarlotten- 

 burg. Ranch was not, however, quite satislied 

 with this triumph of his art, but commenced a new 

 statue of the queen, which he finished eleven years 

 afterwards, a masterpiece of sculpture, now in the 

 palace of Sans Souci. After this he lived princi- 

 pally at Berlin, but occasionally visited Rome, 

 Carrara, and Munich. He laboured indefatigably 



