REINEKE FUCHS 



RELATIONS 



631 



It is common in Britain, growing in moors and on 

 mountains. It covers extensive tracts in Lapland 

 and otlier very northern countries, making them 

 even in summer as white as snow, and often thus 

 occupies the ground in pine forests. When pine 

 /nrcst-i are destroyed by fire it soon springs up in 

 its greatest luxuriance. It is a very variable 

 plant, but always consists of a much-branched erect 

 cylindrical tubular thallus, with small perforations 

 in the axils. It attains a height of two inches and 

 upwards. The branches of plants which grow 

 together usually mix very intricately into one 

 mass. The importance of this lichen was first 

 brought into notice by Linna-us. The reindeer 

 reach it by scraping, even when it is covered with 

 very deep snow. It is capable of being used for 

 human food, though its taste is slightly acrid. Its 

 nutritious qualities depend on Lichenin (q.v.). 



Reinckc Fuchs. See REYNARD THE Fox. 



Reinkens, JOSEPH HUBERT (1821-96), was 

 born near Aix-la-Chapelle, where he worked in a 

 factory before he studied for the priesthood. In 

 1853 he became professor at Breslau, and in 1873, 

 a strenuous opponent of the infallibility decrees, 

 was chosen bisnop by the Old Catholics (q.v.) 



Relapsing Fever (also known as famine- 

 /ewer and sereit-i/ay fecer) is one of the three great 

 species of continued fever, the two others l>eing 

 typhus and typhoid. It was first definitely dis- 

 criminated from these diseases by Dr Henderson 

 of Edinburgh and otlier Scottish physicians about 

 1842, but it can be traced back with certainty in 

 the records of disease a century farther, when it 

 was prevalent in Ireland and Scotland. During 

 the 19th century it has been met with in those 

 countries, in England, in central and eastern 

 Europe, the countries surrounding the Levant, 

 North Africa, India, China, and, though never 

 extensively, in North America. Relapsing fever 

 usually begins suddenly with rigors, a sense of 

 chilliness, and frontal headache. Fehrile reaction 

 soon sets in, with a temjierature of 104 or more, 

 and pulse usually over 100 per minute ; the tongue 

 is coated with a thick moist whitish fur ; and the 

 skin is often jaundiced (a phenomenon that never 

 occurs in typhus or typhoid fever). There is 

 severe aching pain in the joints and muscles, and 

 great sleeplessness ; but delirium, if present at all, 

 usually comes on only towards the end of the first 

 week. After the al)ove-descril>ed symptoms have 

 lasted for a period varying from five to eight days, 

 generally on the seventh day, a sudden change 

 takes place. This crisis commences with a copious 

 perspiration, which is followed by a rapid falling 

 of the pulse and temperature to or below the 

 normal, and the patient appeal's nearly well. But 

 from the fifth to the eighth day of this seeming 

 convalescence a sudden relapse occurs, and all the 

 primary symptoms return ; these often run a rather 

 shorter course than l>efore, and again terminate in 

 sweating ami in a second convalescence, which is 

 in most cases permanent. The relapse sometimes, 

 however, occurs three or even four times. Death 

 U a rare termination of relapsing fever ; and when 

 it does occur, it is usually before the seventh (lay 

 of the disease. No important anatomical lesion 

 i constantly olwerved in the bodies of those who 

 succumb to this disease, except enlargement of the 

 spleen. One form of the disease, however, is much 

 more severe, and very often fatal. It was origin- 

 ally described as a distinct disease under the name 

 of bilious typhoid, and is characterised by more 

 marked implication of the digestive organs, by the 

 constant presence of jaundice, and by absence or 

 incomplete development of the crisis and inter- 

 mission. It has now been shown to lie really 

 identical with relapsing fever proper. Relapsing 



fever is generally met with among those living 

 under unfavourable hygienic conditions ; it is 

 specially apt to attack a population suffering from 

 insufficient nourishment (hence the name famine- 

 fever), and is seldom met with among the upper 

 classes, or among Europeans residing in the tropics, 

 unless they are brought closely in contact with the 

 sick. At the same time it is very infectious, 

 spreading either directly from the patient to 

 doctors, nurses, &c., or from clothes and bedding 

 to washerwomen, who have suffered severely in 

 some epidemics. It was shown by Obermeier of 

 Berlin in 1873 that an organism (Spirillum, q.v.) 

 is constantly present in the blood of those suffering 

 from the disease, and his results have been con- 

 firmed by numerous other observers. Moreover, 

 a similar disease has been produced in monkeys 

 by inoculation with the organism, which has also 

 been found in their bodies after death. There 

 can be no doubt, therefore, that this spirillum is 

 the cause of the disease (see GERM THEORY OF 

 I tisEASE ). Though relapsing fever has teen abund- 

 antly proved to be distinct from typhus, they are 

 often associated in a curious way ; epidemics of 

 the two diseases have frequently teen observed to 

 occur in the same place either simultaneously or 

 successively. 



Treiitment. The patient, as in other febrile 

 diseases, must be kept in bed ; an emetic at the 

 commencement of the attack is often useful, and 

 aperients may l>e required ; a light but liberal diet 

 should be given. Opiates are frequently necessary 

 to relieve the pain and sleeplessness. No means 

 have yet l>een discovered for cutting short the 

 disease or preventing relapses. 



Relations, MAINTENANCE OF. According to 

 English law, a husband is bound to maintain his 

 wife ; if lie refuses or neglects to do so, or makes it 

 impossible for her to live with him, she has an 

 ' authority of necessity ' to pledge his credit for the 

 necessaries of life. Under the statutes relating to 

 the poor a husband may be punished for deserting 

 his wife, and compelled to provide for her main- 

 tenance ; the husband of a lunatic wife may be 

 compelled to contribute to her maintenance in an 

 asylum. Under the Mnrried Women's Property 

 Act, 1882, a woman who has property may l>e com- 

 pelled to contribute to the maintenance of her 

 husband. At the common law a parent is not 

 legally l>ound to maintain a child ; but he may be 

 indicted for not supplying an infant child with 

 necessaries. In like manner a child is not bound 

 at common law to maintain his parents. But the 

 poor-law of 1603 imposes a direct liability on the 

 father, grandfather, mother, grandmother, or 

 children of any person not able to work ; and by a 

 subsequent act a man who marries a woman having 

 children (legitimate or illegitimate) must maintain 

 such children. Bastard children are to be main- 

 tained by the mother ; but the father may be 

 summoned l>efore justices and ordered to pay a 

 weekly sum to the mother, or to a person appointed 

 by the justices. A grandchild is not liable to 

 maintain a grandparent, nor can a man be required 

 to maintain persons related to him only by affinity 

 (as e.g. a son's wife), or a collateral relation (as 

 e.g. a brother or nephew). In Scotland the father, 

 and failing him the mother, is bound to maintain 

 children until they are old enough to earn a liveli- 

 hood ; a father refusing to provide for his child is 

 punishable by fine or imprisonment. Parents have 

 a claim on their children, and a husband is bound 

 to maintain the indigent parents of his wife during 

 the subsistence of the marriage. The father of an 

 illegitimate child is bound to support it, and if the 

 child is unable to earn a livelihood the obligation 

 may last throughout its life. A husband is, of 

 course, bound to support his wife ; if he refuses to 



