Rhone 



Ic 



P.:;. r. 



RIIO 



gret quantities, are the principal food of the country 

 people. The wino ol'the department are very abun- 

 dant, and in general highly esteemed. Those chiefly 

 teat, an- from the vineyards situated along the 

 Saone to the right of the Rhone, viz. .( 'uU - Untie, ('has* 

 agre, Millery, and Sainte Foix. The inhabitants of 

 tin- n oimtainous parts spin and weave cotton. Iron, 

 copper, lead, coal, marble, and freestone, are the seve- 

 ral productions of the department. The following are 

 the chief towns: 



Population, 



I.yon, - . . 109,.'"" 



Viilefranche, - - 5000 



Lyon is the chief town of the department, and has 

 already been fully described. At Villefranche there 

 is a manufacture of linen cloths .called Toiles de Beau- 

 jblois. There are only about 23,000 acres of wood in 

 this department. The contributions in the year 1803 

 were 4,391,838 francs. 



RHONE, MOUTHS op THE, BOUCHES DE RHONE, 

 is the name of a department in the south of France, 

 formed out of the dioceses of Aries, Aix, and Marseilles, 

 and bounded on the north by the department of Vau- 

 cluse, on the*west by that of the Card, on the south by 

 {lie sea, and on the east by that of the Var. Its area 

 is 5315 square kilometers, or 266 square miles. The 

 principal productions of the department are corn, rice, 

 olives, sumach, wool, and silk. In consequence of the 

 severe winters of 1788 and 1789, many of the olive 

 trees have been destroyed, so that the produce is only 

 one-fourth of what it was. The wines of Ciotat, five 

 leagues from Marseilles, are the most celebrated. 

 Wool is exported to the value of L.30,000, and silk to 

 the value of L.40,000. Corn is imported. Iron, alum, 

 vitriol, and marble, are among its mineral productions. 

 The chief towns are, 



Population. 



Marseilles, - - - 111,130 



Aix, - - - 23,686 



Tarascon, - - 18,300 



Marseilles is the chief place of the department. 

 There are only about 6'0,000 acres of wood. The con- 

 tributions in 1803 were 3,612,199 francs. 



RHUBARB. See MATERIA MEDICA, Vol. XIII. 

 p. 353. 



RICE PAPER, a name very improperly applied to 

 a beautiful white and soft vegetable membrane, be- 

 longing to the bread fruit tree, the Arlocarpus inchl- 

 fblia of Linneus. 



The following observations on its structure, made by 

 Dr. Brewster, are taken from the Edinburgh Journal 

 of Science, No. 3, to which the reader is referred for a 

 drawing of the structure. 



" The substance commonly known by the name of 

 llicc Paper is brought from China in small pieces, about 

 two inches square, and tinged with various colours. It 

 has been for some time used as an excellent substitute 

 for "drawing paper, in the representation of richly co- 

 loured insects, and other objects of natural history, 

 and has been employed in this city with still more suc- 

 cess in the manufacture of artificial flowers. 



" Although rice paper has a general resemblance to a 

 substance formed by art, yet a very slight examination 

 of it with the microscope is sufficient to indicate a ve- 

 getable organization. In order to observe and trace 

 the nature of its structure, it was necessary to give it 

 eome degree of transparency ; and I expected to ac- 

 complish this by the usual process of immersing it in 

 water or in oil of the same refractive power. This 



VOL. XVII. PART I. 



RIC 



operation, however, instead of increasing the trantpa- 

 rency rendered the film more opaque, and suggested 

 the probability that, like Tabasheer, it wa filled with 

 air ; and that the augmentation of ita opacity arose, at 

 in the case of that siliceous concretion, from the partial 

 absorption of the fluid. 



" In order to expel the air from the cells in which it 

 seemed to be lodged, I exposed a piece of the rice paper 

 to the influence of boiling olive oil. The heat immedi- 

 ately drove the air in small bubbles from the cells near 

 the margin ; but it was with some difficulty that it 

 was forced to quit the interior parts of the film. At 

 the olive oil had now taken the place of the air, and 

 filled all the cells, the film became perfectly transpa- 

 rent, and displayed its vesicular structure when placed 

 under a powerful microscope. 



' It will appear from the drawing executed by 

 Mr. Greville, that the rice paper consists of long 

 hexagonal cells, whose length is parallel to the sur- 

 face of the film ; that these cells are filled with air, 

 when the fi'm is in its usual state ; and that from this 

 circumstance it derives that peculiar softness which 

 renders it so well adapted for the purposes to which it 

 is applied. When the film is exposed to polarised 

 light, the longitudinal septa of the cells depolarise the 

 light like other vegetable membranes. 



" Among the three specimens of rice paper which I 

 have produced, there is one from which all the air has 

 been expelled by the boiling oil ; another in which some 

 of the air bubbles still appear in the vesicles, the air 

 having been only partially expelled by boiling water ; 

 and a third which is in contact with water without 

 having been deprived of any of its air bubbles. 



' Upon mentioning to Mr. Neill the preceding expe- 

 riments, he informed me that the lady in Edinburgh, 

 Miss Jack, who had employed rice paper with such 

 success in the manufacture of artificial flowers, had 

 learned from her brother, who was in China, that it 

 was a membrane of the bread fruit tree, the artocarpu* 

 incisij'olia of naturalists." 



RICHARDSON, SAMUEL, a celebrated novel wri- 

 ter, was born in the county of Derby, in the year 

 1689- His father, who was a joiner, intended his son 

 for the church ; but he was unable to give him any 

 more than an ordinary education at the grammar 

 school. Young Richardson seems to have had an ear- 

 ly turn for letter writing; and at an early period of 

 life, was fond of female society. At the age of thir- 

 teen, he is said to have been employed by three young 

 women to write their love letters; and to have ma- 

 naged these little transactions with so much discretion, 

 that none of them suspected him. 



In the year 1706, he was apprenticed to Mr. John 

 Wilde, a printer, whom he served with assiduity for 

 seven years, devoting the time which others employed 

 in rest and recreation, to the improvement of his mind. 

 When his apprenticeship was finished, he wrought as 

 a journeyman printer for six years ; and in 1719, he 

 began business on his own account in a court in Fleet 

 Street His unemployed time was now occupied in 

 drawing up indices for authors and booksellers, and in 

 writing prefaces and dedications, for which he seems 

 to have then possessed a peculiar talent. In the year 

 1723, when the Duke of Wharton had stirred up an 

 opposition in the city, Mr. Richardson, though of op- 

 posite principles, was intimately connected with him, 

 and even printed his " True Briton." When he saw, 

 however, the real object of the paper, he refused to 

 print it after No. 6 ; and in consequence of his name 

 2 x 



