RISO. 



1UVKU. 



104 



Kr*W ami 21 inchm in circumference, lie f.uinil Hint the weight* 



mUto to urwcwnr the rigidity, when the ropes passed over ft pulley 

 timlttnm-'- "' * "trained by weight* equal to 25 Ibs., 12S llw., 

 and 4ii Ibs.. won S lu . 84 Ibs., and S3 Ib*. respectively. 



|Mo( <x|ual dimriiiiiiiiM <lill'.-r much in rigidity, so 

 ^ t uuif (bpeudence can be placed on the renults of general formula 

 n trt t 1~ ll "fr iu value. White r..[.< when wet are more stiff than 

 those which an dry. and the rigidity of rope* U greatly increased by 

 tarring them. la general, the weight* necessary to overcome tlio 

 isssilTiiii of Urrad rope* U proportional to the number of the threads 

 of which they are computed General Morin luu latterly revised the 

 ulaumlioii of Coulomb ami of Xavier on th subject of the rigidity 

 of cordage, sad has published the results of his inquiry in liin ' Aide 

 femoire de kWoanique Pratique.' and in his ' l-reons do Mecank|ue 

 Pratique.' These essays have been translated and printed in the 

 Engineer'*. Architect's, and Contractor's Pocket-Book,' and from 

 them it appears that Coulomb's rules, tables, nnd t'onimlic were pre- 

 pared oo a rather confined view of the case. Morin's own tables and 

 formal* are given in the translation thus quoted. 



KIXC. [ANMLPi.] 



RIXG WORM is the term applied to many cutaneous eruptions, and 

 more particularly to those ou the head. It is not now possible to 

 determine to which of these the name was first applied; but it is 

 probable that the species of llcrpa which appear in the form of rings 

 were thus designated, especially that which nosologbts call II ,,,' 

 cinimmalia. This disease is still often called ringworm, when it 

 appears upon the forehead or scalp ; but the same name is still more 

 generally applied to the different forms of Porriyo, especially P. larralit 

 and P. tcxtttlala. The descriptions of the diseases thus confounded 

 under tlii mine will be found in the articles HF.RFKS and Ponnioo. 



UIX<:s. col.ol'UKU. H.TNDI-I.ATISH THEORY.] 



RIXMAX'S GHKKX. [COBALT.] 



KIUT. A riot is a misdemeanor at common law ; and is defined 

 l.y Hawkins to be " a tumultuous disturbance of the peace by three 

 persons or more, assembling together of their own authority, with an 

 intent mutually to assist one another against any one who snail oppose 

 them in the execution of some enterprise of a private nature, and 

 afterwards executing the same in a violent and turbulent manner, to 

 the u-rror of the people, whether the act intended were of itself lawful 

 or unlawful." The assembling together therefore in a cose where the 

 law authorises parties to meet and use force in concert, as for the 

 purpose of suppressing rebellion or opposing the king's enemies, or as 

 part of the posse comitatus, will not constitute a riot Neither will a 

 midden quarrel occurring among a number of persons who have met 

 together at a fair, or on similar occasions, constitute a riot. But if on 

 the occasion of a meeting, lawful in itself, some act of violence in dis- 

 turbance *of the peace is afterwards proposed, and executed in concert 

 by thorn who are assembled, they will be guilty of a riot The enter- 

 prise must be of a private nature, not necessarily relating to an 

 individual, but still having in view some minor and special, and not 

 a general public object. The object may be, for instance, to redress 

 a grievance said to be suffered by some particular person, or to pull 

 down inclosures on lands where the inhabitants claim a right of 

 common. For if the enterprise be for the purpose of redressing 

 grievance* throughout the kingdom, or pulling down all inclosures, the 

 offence is not riot, but amounts to a levying of war against the crown, 

 and become* high treason. 



Violence, if not of actual force, yet in gesture or Language, and of 

 such a nature as to cause terror, is a necessary ingredient in the offence 

 i if riot. The lawfulness of th<- enterprise operates no further than as 

 justifying a mitigation of the punishment. It does not in anyway 

 alter the legal character of the offence. 



Two minor offence* of rout and unlawful assembly, which are similar 

 to riot, are generally treated of under th.it head. 



A rout is where parties have commenced but nut accomplished an 

 enterprise, ami iu such a way that if the enterprise had been executed, 

 they would have committed a riot. 



It is an unlit ir/vt aaembly when great numbers of people meet 

 together with such circumstances of behaviour as to raise the fears of 

 their fellow-subjects, and endanger the public peace. An assembly 

 therefore of a man's friends to defend hu person against violence 

 threatened to him if be appear in a public place is unlawful, as such 

 conduct tends to produce a breach of the peace. But an assembly in a 

 man's own house to protect him while there, or to defend the posses- 

 sion of it, U not considered an unlawful assembly. At common law 

 the sheriff and all peace officers are bound themselves to make every 

 effort and to command all others to assist them to suppress a riot. It 

 emu also that where the emergency is great and immediate, private 

 person* on their own authority may act, and even use arms for the 

 same purpose. On such occasions it has not been usual for the 

 military t<> take any part except in the presence and under the direc- 

 tion of a civil authority. They are not however by law disqualified 

 for any duty or relieved from any responsibility which under the same 

 circumstance* attaches to other classes of their fellow-subject*. 



Various act* of parliament have been passed for the purpose of 

 giving atuhority to magistrate* sod others in suppressing riots, and 

 restraining, arresting, ami punishing riuters. The most important 

 U 1 0<o. I., st. ii . c. 5, commonly called the Riot Act, which provides 



that " if any persons to the number of twelve or more, being unlaw- 

 fully, riotously, and tumulUiously assembled together to the dis- 

 turbance of the public peace, shall continue so assembled for the space 

 of an hour after the magistrate has commanded them by proclama- 

 tion to disperoo, they shall be considered felons." 



The form of proclamation is given iu the Act, and is to be read with 

 a luiid voice and as near as possible to the rioters. Persons who do 

 not disperse may be seized and apprehended by any .magistrate or 

 peace-ollicer or any private person who has been commanded by a 

 magistrate or an officer to assist. In cose of resistance, those who are 

 attempting to disperse or apprehend the rioters will be justified in 

 wounding or killing them. It is felony to oppose the reading of the 

 proclamation ; and if the reading should be prevented, those who do 

 not disperse are still guilty of felony, if they know that the reading of 

 the proclamation has been prevented. 



A prosecution under this Act must be commenced within a year 

 after the offence has been committed. By 7 & 8 Geo. IV., c. 30, s. 8, 

 rioters who demolish or begin to demolish a church or a chapel, a 

 dwelling-house, or any other of the various buildings or machinery 

 mentioned in that Act, are to be considered felons, and by 7 & 8 

 Geo. IV. c. 31, provision is made for remedies against the hundred in 

 such coses, if to the amount of 80i; but if the damage d"< 

 amount to SOL, before justices at a petty sessions. 



The action must be commenced within three months after commis- 

 sion of the offence ; and to entitle the party injured to bring it, he 

 must, within seven days after the injury done, go before a magistrate 

 and give on oath all the information relative to the matter which he 

 possesses, and also be bound over to prosecute the offenders. 



With respect to unlawful assemblies of a seditious character, see 

 SEDITION ; TREASON. 



RISK. In the theory of PROBABILITIES the risk of loss or gain 

 means such a fraction of the sum to be lost or gained as expresses the 

 chance of losing or gaining it : thus an even chance of losing 401. is 

 considered as a positive loss of one-half of 4()l., or of '201. ; and 2 to 1 

 for gaining 60/. is counted as two-thirds of 601., or 401. If both these 

 risks were encountered at the same time, the whole transaction would 

 be .considered as a gain of 401. 201., or 201., since this is the sum 

 which would be netted by every such transaction in the long run, and 

 one with another. 



The following is the method of ascertaining the effect of the division 

 of risks. Let there be an adventure in which the chance of success is 

 p, and that of failure 1 p. Let failure produce the loss of . n and 

 success the gain m : then p m (\ p) n is the result of every such 

 transaction one with another. Let this last be called M ; it is required 

 to estimate the probability that in s transactions the average effect 

 (gain or loss, according as 11 is positive or negative) shall lie between 

 M +/ and M 1. Calculate the square root of s divided by 2/j (lp) ; 

 multiply this square root by I, and divide the result bym + . Take 

 the table in MEAN (using it as in PROBABILITY, col. 774), let the last 

 result be A. then the corresponding B is the probability required. 

 | \V V.ICH ; WKIUHT OF OBSERVATIONS.] 



RITUAL (from rltus, in the sense of consuetudo), the book which 

 directs the rites and ceremonies to be observed in celebrating divine 

 service in any particular church. 



UIVKH. In a legal sense rivers are divisible into fresh and salt- 

 water rivers. Salt-water rivers are those rivers or parts of rivers in 

 which the tide ebbs and flows. Rivers are also divisible into public or 

 navigable rivers and private rivers. 



The property in fresh-water rivers, whether public or private, ia 

 presumed to belong to the owners of the adjacent land ; the owner on 

 each side being entitled to the soil of the river and the right of fishing 

 as far as the middle of the stream. But this presumption may be 

 rebutted by evidence to the contrary. If a fresh-water river between 

 the lands of two owners gains on one side by insensibly shifting its 

 course, each owner continues to retain half the river, and the insensible 

 addition by alluvium belongs to the land to which it attaches itself ; 

 unless the lands of the proprietors on each side has been marked out 

 by other known boundaries, such as stakes, &c. in the river. (Bracton 

 ' De acquirendo rerum dominio,' ' Dig.' 41, tit. 1, s. 7.) But if the course 

 of the river is changed suddenly and sensibly, then the boundaries of the 

 lands will be, as they were before, in the midst of the deserted channel 

 of the river. Special custom may also alter this general presumption 

 of law. Though fresh-water rivers are presumed to be the property of 

 adjacent landowners, yet no such owner can set up a ferry and .!, 

 a toll unless by prescription or by charter from the king. In early 

 times also the king by his prerogative might prevent all persons from 

 fishing or fowling in any river until he had first taken his pleasure 

 there. This was effected by directing a precept to the sheriff com- 

 manding him to cause all persons to abstain from approaching the 

 bank*. By Magna Charta this prerogative was restricted to such 

 streams as it hod been exercised upon in the time of Henry I. 

 Subsequently the custom was to name the rivers in the precept to the 

 sheriff; among these was the Avon, at least that part which flows 

 through Worcestershire. Eventually the prerogative fell into disuse. 

 In those rivers which are navigable, and in which the public have a 

 common right to passage, the king is said to have "an interest in 

 jurisdiction," and tlu's is so not only in those parts of them which are 

 the Mng's property, but also where they are come to be private 



