HKVilLVERa 



RHETORIC. 



Thu, however . even when the bullet wa* almort unservireably small 

 a* a heavy clumsy pun. The adoption of revolving chamber* 

 and ooe barrel overcame this diftctilty. f>g. 1 show* the outline 



i: ...:.,... ,.-. n b 



England at the Greet Kxhibition of 1841. where it excited a good dea 

 of attention. It had been far some year* much nsed in America, am 

 found of mat sanriee in buab-ftghUng and in the backwoods. This 

 adonbudry *et English gunmaken to work in the same direction, for 

 mmerous revolving pistol* have since been invented in KngUnd. 

 There are three ai*e* of Colt's pistol, the smaller containing five 

 essimber*. The btdleta may b* either spherical or conical, and are 

 made slightly larger than the chamber, into which they are forced by 

 the lever ramrod, and fit s.. tightly that the pistol can b* carried in the 

 bolster, mnole downward*, without their being shaken from their 

 place*. Tb* chamber i* again slightly larger than the barrel, which 

 bring rifled, the ballets on being forced through them take the rifling 



fif S m>.ss*uU Adams'* revolver, which, since it* invention, has 

 received numerous improvements (especially the lever-ramrod, wliich 

 the earlier pistol* were not provided with), and may now be considered 

 the moat efficient arm of this description. In Colt 1 * pistol it i* necea- 

 airy to cock the piece with the thumb before each discharge, while 

 Adams's pistol can be fired with only a continuous pull of the trigger ; 

 this gives th*r latter a great advantage in rapidity, an important [point 

 with a pistol which is not so much required for long accurate ihot* as 



Wick shouting in a moire. By another improvement in Adams's 

 however, we are enabled to cock it for accurate shooting with the 

 trigger or the thumb, when a further alight pull fire* the pistol. Pvj. 

 9, lock of Adams'* revolver, and. Jig. 4, of Colt's revolver, which are 



Tig. . *, U (b* banner ; , the nrivel ; c, the mainspring ; n, the thort 

 Mar; a, tb* thort Mar spring ; r, the Iriirger ; o, the trigger spring ; a, 

 tke Ufter mad > P rU ( ; i, the long ear. The pnitlon of the action i> tht 

 la whkb the hanuncr U down on toe nipple. 



arm ,- guod (hooting may be made with them at 100 or 200, and fair 

 even at 800 yard*. For cavalry, on board ship, or at close quarters 

 generally, they are a most formidable weapon. Killes and Urge fire- 

 arm* have btwn made on the same principle, and for some purposes 

 they may be very useful ; but they labour under the disadvantage of 

 reduced penetrative power and range from the escape of gas at the 

 junction of the chamber and barrel, which has never yet been com- 

 pletely overcome. 



Ml! AM MX. A yellow crystalline substance obtained from the 

 buckthorn (Jihamnui calhartictu), and apparently identical with 

 ' 



rig. 4. 4, b tb* b**>BWr ; , Uw band or lifter, which glvM motion to the 

 chanter ; t. to* bolt, nhich Mcoret the chamber while the hammer falls ; 

 , Ib* trigger ; , tb* scar snd trigger spring ; r, the mln.s prlng. 



taken from ' StnithV Artillery,' by Cook and Hyde, will explain the 

 action of the lock* in the two pi*tol*. Revolving or repeating pistols 

 will undoubtedly supersede all others, a* being far the most efficient 



RHAMNOXANTHIN. A yellow crystalline body found in the 

 seeds and bark of the /lhamntu frangula, and of the A'/.",,/,,...- '.<//,./,-. 

 tieui. It is volatile, slightly soluble in water, aud very soluble in 

 alcohol and ether. 



HHAPONT1CIN. Synonymous with CHUVSOPHANIC ACID. 



RHAPSODY (^aij.yo'fa) was a poem sung by a rhapsodist, generally 

 applied to detached parts of the Homeric poems, the Iliad and the 

 Odyssey. But the word rhapsodist properly signifies one who sews 

 or fatten* thing* together; and it was specially appli, -,l t.> (hose who 

 arranged or are supposed to have arranged the parts of the Homeric 

 poems and of other old poems, so as to make one entire work of them, 

 and who went about from place to place-to sing and recite these poems. 

 In modern use the ward has an entirely different signification. A 

 rhapsody is a discourse or writing in which the parts have no necessary 

 dc|>endence on each other. 



H11EA, one of the divinities of ancient Greece and Rome. RUea 

 \._as the daughter of Uranus and Gsca, and the sister and wife of 

 Kronos, by whom she had several children who were successively 

 swallowed by Kronos, till she succeeded in imposing on him a stone 

 for the new-born Zeus. [K.RONO6; ZKUS.] Rhea became early 

 identified with the Phrygian mother-goddess Cybele ; and also by some 

 of the Greek races, with her daughter DEMBTEH. Besides the names 

 Rhea, Cybele, Ac., she was called " the mother of the gods," " the 

 great mother," ftc. The original seat of her worship appears to have 

 been Crete, but it soon spread through Greece. As the great goddess 

 of the eastern nations, her worship was however far more widely 

 extended. The rites of Rhea were in some places mingled with those of 

 Dionysos ; and her priests, the Corybautes, leapt, danced, sung, and per- 

 formed various frenzied orgies in the wilds of Phrygia. As the mother 

 of Jupiter, under the name of Ops, she was worshipped by the Romans 

 from the earliest times. Her festival at Rome was called the 

 Megalesia; her priests were eunuchs, and named Galli. The oak 

 and the lion were sacred to her. In Greek art Rhea is represented 

 wearing a crown with towers, and she carries hi her hand a key or a 

 branch. She is usually seated on a throne with lions beside her or 

 in a car drawn by lions ; sometimes she is riding on a lion ; in bassi- 

 relievi, tc., she is sometimes seen attended by dancing Corybantes with 

 cymbals. 

 RHEADIC ACID. [PAPA VEnic ACID.] 



1SHEIC ACID. [CHBYSOPHANIC AciD.T 



[CHRYSOPHANIC ACID.] 



HHEOMETER. A number of instruments, &c., used in GALVANISM 

 e named by French physicists rheometer, rkeophoie, rheotrope, rheostat, 

 from the Greek fa .to flow. The words have only been to a limited 

 extent adopted in this country. [GALVANOMETER./ 



)RIC (**) i Greek word of similar import to the Latin 

 oratory ; but a rhetorician is a teacher of or writer on oratory, and an 

 orator is one who practises the art ; Demosthenes was an orator, Aria- 

 totle was a rhetorician, and Cicero was both. 



English writers, in treating of rhetoric, appear generally to consider 

 tL LT 8 a ?,, 0rato 7,-. aUll ,P erha P 3itisd 'ffl c ^ g to rnaife a T- 

 Uon between them. Qcerrf. 'Orator,' < De Oratore,' and De Claris 

 Oratonbus are always called rhetorical works. Quinctilian ( Inst 

 1.14) speaks of persons who translated the Greek word " rhetont" 

 ntoLatmby"oratomand"oratrix;" but he objects to the use of 

 oth these words, and adopts the Greek word, which, he says Cicero 

 himself employed to designate certain books (probably the two boo 

 Delnventione 1 ) which he had written on this art Ms^uatof 

 Qumctihan s work on the same subject will be found under OUIXCTI 

 LU.NUS, in Bioo. Div. In the article ORATORY it b stated that tile 

 !5 2 ^!! .^f * oldest extant treatte ontis art! 



im ancient times. The 

 a short 



-* j o v 4 ucwru; is the counterpart 

 - logic, and he defines it to be the faculty fowuA) O f 

 perceiving on any grven subject what is best adapted to persuade He 

 divide, rhetoric into three parts : Persuasion OrW or rather L-.f 

 c^nrisUrf thre^boT 100 (JU H Bnd Arrangement (rd^ Hit work 

 .Ton"^d theTird^r^ts ore^re^onTnd^arVa^emenr 11 * ' PeWUa - 

 Uter premising some general remarks on rhetoric, he treats of tier 



^^^*S^rf*SS 



persuasion 



bjec 



