K I- D 



329 



REI 



Reaumur memoirs on various useful and important suljects 

 written by our author. The improvement of the ma- 

 mifacturr.'i of France was a constant object of hia at* 

 trillion, and lie made many important discoveries re- 

 .in; the conversion of soft iron into steel, ami tlit- 

 boftrning of rast iron so as to make the cast ai line 

 as in wrought iron. These labours were rewarded by 

 the Dukt of Orleans, the regent of the kingdom, who 

 linn a pension of 12,000 livres, or about 500 

 sterling ; but he refused to accept of it unless it was 

 granted in name of the Academy, and continued to 

 that body after his death. An account of these in- 

 vestigations he published in 1722, in a work entitled, 

 L'Art de Converter U fer Forge en Acier, et L' Art 

 li'Adoitcir le Fer Fondu. Reaumur also introduced into 

 France the manufacture of tinned plates, and he made 

 many experiments on the manufacture of porcelain, 

 which contributed greatly to the advancement of that 

 art in France. 



Our author made numerous experiments on the me- 

 thod practised in Egypt of hatching chickens by arti- 

 ficial heat, of which he has given an account in a work 

 published in 1752, in 2 vols. under the title of L' Art 

 de Faire Eclore, et d'Elever en Toute Saiton des Oiseanx 

 Domestiques. Of the methods described in this work, 

 we have already given some account in our article 

 HATCHING, Vol. X. p. 658, 659. 



In natural history, our author is chiefly celebrat- 

 ed for his entomological writings. Besides many 

 papers on that subject, printed among the Memoirs 

 of the Academy of Sciences, he published an elabo- 

 rate work, entitled Mcmoires pour servir a Histoire 

 Naturelle des Insectes, in 6 vols. 4to ; the first of which 

 was published at Paris in 1734, and the other five be- 

 tween that year and 1742. This work contained many 

 original observations, made with the greatest care, on 

 the physiology of insects of all kinds. Reaumur like- 

 wise made many curious experiments on the digestive 

 powers of the stomach in graminivorous and carnivorous 

 animals, and he established the different modes of ac- 

 tion in those two classes, viz. that of trituration and 

 solution. 



The name of Reaumur has been rendered popular by 

 his method of graduating the thermometer. He always 

 used spirit of wine, and placed the freezing point at 0*, 

 and the boiling point at 80. 



Reaumur was a man of excellent private character, 

 correct in his morals, and agreeable and amiable in his 

 manners. He died at Bermondiere in the Maine from 

 a hurt in his head, received from a fall in 1757* at the 

 age of seventy-five, leaving his MSS. and his cabinet 

 of natural history to the Academy of Sciences. 



RECREATIONS PHILOSOPHICAL. See SCIENTIFIC 

 Recreations. 



RED SEA, or the ARABIAN GULPH. See ASIA, 

 Vol. II. p. 54-8 ; EGYPT, Vol. VIII. p. 393. See also 

 HODEIDA, Vol. XI. p. 71 ; JIDDA, Vol. XI. p. 753; 

 LOIIEIA, Vol. XIII. p. 149; and MOCHA, Vol. XIV. 

 p. 590. 



REDRUTH, a market town of England, in the 

 county of Cornwall, is situated in a bleak exposure, on 

 the road from Launcestown to the Land's End. It con- 

 sists of one long street, occupying the declivity of an emi- 

 nence in the centre of the mining district. The parish 

 church, about half a mile from the town, and erected in 

 1770, is a neat building, consisting of a nave, with a flat 

 ceiling, supported by pillars. There are also meeting- 

 houses for the Quakers, Anabaptists, and Methodists. 

 In 1807, a large school-house was built by subscrip- 



VOL. XVII. PART I. 



tion ; but as the subscriptions have been ducontinued, Rtflexio* 

 it is used by the master on hit own account. A Sun- H 

 day School for 200 boys and girls ii taught gratis. ^*jf* ^ 

 This town is supported entirely by the mines in the ~*^ T ^ 

 neighbourhood, the principal of which are the Owen- 

 nap Mines, which lie to the louth-eatt of Redruth, in 

 a part of the country where the tin and copper lodes 

 intersect each other. 



Itedruth it a place of great antiquity, and is a cor- 

 ruption of Dre-Druith, or Druid's Town. About a 

 mile and a half to the west of the town is Carn-breh- 

 hil 1, which is thought to have been the centre of Druid. 

 ical worship in the county. On its summit is a circular 

 fortification, called the Old Castle, which seems to have 

 been once surrounded with a strong wall. The popu- 

 lation of the parish in 1811 was 5903, and in 1821, 

 66'07. See the Beauties of England and Walet, vol. ii. 



REFLEXION. See OPTICS, Vol. XV. p. 426, 533, 

 623. 



REFORMATION. See ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, 

 Vol. VIII. p. 317. 



REFRACT1OV. See OPTICS, VoL XV. p. 499, 

 522. 



REFRACTION, DOUBLE. See OPTICS, Vol. XV. 

 p. 571. 



REFRACTIVE POWERS, TABLE OF. See OPTICS, 

 Vol. XV. p. 501. 



REFRANGIBILITY OF LIGHT. See OPTICS, 

 Vol. XV. p. 535. 



REGGIO, the RHEGION of the Greeks, and the RE- 

 GIUM JULII of the Romans, is a considerable town of 

 Naples, and the capital of Calabria Ultra. It is situated 

 upon a hill on the straits of Messina, in a delightful 

 country, abounding in oranges, citrons, mulberries, 

 vines, and palm trees. The town is tolerably well 

 built, many of the houses being composed of the re- 

 mains of ancient buildings. It has a cathedral, eleven 

 churches, seven convents, and two colleges. The in- 

 habitants manufacture stockings, gloves, and waistcoats 

 of thread or silk. The silk is partly raised in the vici- 

 nity, from the silk worm, and a substance like it is 

 procured from the shell-fish called the Pinna marina. 

 Wax, oil, and fruit, are exported from the place. Po- 

 pulation about 17,000. East Long. 16 53', North 

 Lat. 38, 6'. 



REGIMEN. See ALIMENTS, Vol. I. p. 511. 



REID, THOMAS, D.D. a celebrated Scotch metaphy- 

 sician, was born at Strachan, in the county of Kincar- 

 dine, in April 1710. His father, Lewis Reid, was minis- 

 ter of that parish ; and his mother, who was the daugh- 

 ter of Mr. Gregory of Kinnairdie, in Banffshire, was 

 the sister of David, James, and Charles Gregory, who 

 were at the same time professors at Oxford, Edinburgh, 

 and St. Andrews. After receiving the elements of 

 education at the parish school of Kincardine, he was 

 sent to a classical school in Aberdeen, and, at the age 

 of thirteen, he was entered a student of Marischal Col- 

 lege. 



After studying theology, and taking his degree of 

 master of arts, he was appointed to the office of libra- 

 rian to the college, and in that situation he formed an 

 intimate acquaintance with Mr. John Stewart, after- 

 wards Professor of Mathematics in Marischal College. 

 In the year 1736, Mr. Reid resigned the office of libra- 

 rian, and accompanied Mr. Stewart in a tour through 

 England, during which they visited London, Oxford, 

 and Cambridge, and became acquainted with many 

 gentlemen of the first distinction in literature and 

 science. In the metropolis, his connexion with Dr. 

 2x 



