RAMUS 



6485 



RAND 



much damage being done. Rams- 

 gate belonged for many years to 

 the Cinque Port of Sandwich, and 

 with a market and a pier was a 

 place of some importance in the 

 17th century. In the 19th century 

 it became a popular watering-place. 

 In 1884 it was made a borough. 

 Market days, lues., Thurs., Sat. 

 Pop. 30,000. See Frith, W. P. 



Ramus, PETKUS OR PIERRE DK 

 LA RAMEE (1515-1572). French 

 humanist, mathematician, and 

 philosopher. Although his attacks 

 on Aristotle made him unpopular, 

 he was appointed professor of elo- 

 quence and philosophy at the 

 College of France. He was assassin- 

 ated during the massacre of St. 

 Bartholomew. In supporting the 

 claims of reason against dogma he 

 anticipated the tendency of modern 

 philosophy. See Ramus, sa vie, 

 ses ecrits, C. Waddington, 1 855. 



Ran aval ona Manjaka III 

 (1864-1917). Queen of Mada- 

 gascar, 1883-96. After her acces- 

 sion, in accord- 

 ance with the 

 custom of the 

 island, she mar- 

 ried her prime 

 minister, Rai 

 nilaiarivony. 

 She led a mean 

 and secluded 

 life in her pal- 

 ace at Anta- 

 nanarivo, but 

 made several efforts to assert her 

 power against that of her consort. 

 When Madagascar became a 

 French colony, in 1896, she was 

 dethroned and interned in Algeria. 

 She died May 23, 1917. 



Ranee. River of N. France, in 

 the dept. of Cotes du Nord. It 

 rises near the peak of Bel Air, and 

 flows first E., and then N., to a 

 long estuary at the mouth of 

 which stands St. Malo. Small 

 steamers ascend to Dinan ; the 

 picturesque lower course is canal- 

 ised, and is connected by canal 

 from Evran with the Vilaine at 

 Rennes. Its length is 50 m. 



Ranavalona, 

 Queen of Madagascar 



Armand de Ranee, 



Founder of the 



Trappists 



Ranee, ARMAND JEAN LE 



BOUTHILLIER DE (1626-1700). 



Founder of the Reformed Trappist 

 Order. He 

 was born in 

 Paris, and be- 

 came a pro- 

 tege of Car- 

 dinal Riche- 

 lieu, who made 

 him canon of 

 Notre Dame 

 and later prior 

 o f Boulogne. 

 He was after- 

 wards in high 

 favour with Cardinal Mazarin, and 

 spent his time at court till in 

 1662 he retired to the monastery of 

 La Trappe in Normandy, where he 

 reformed the order and instituted 

 a severe regime of discipline. He 

 was the author of various religious 

 works, including an Explanation of 

 the Rule of St. Benedict, and Moral 

 Reflections on the Four Gospels. 

 See Trappists ; consult also L'Abbe 

 de Ranee et Bossuet, M. L. Ser- 

 rant, 1904 ; La Vie de Ranee, F. 

 R. de Chateaubriand, Introduction 

 et Notes de J. Benda, 1920. ' 



Ranch (Span, rancho, mess- 

 room). Cattle farm on a large 

 scale, for utilising the extensive 

 natural pastures found in various 

 parts of the world. The industry 

 began with the Spanish settlers in 

 the New World, and gradually 

 spread into the prairie region of the 

 U.S.A., and also into Canada. The 

 estancia of S. America and the 

 station of Australia and New 

 Zealand are precisely the same 

 thing. The improvement of stock 

 has contributed greatly of late 

 years to the success of the industry, 

 and the raising of pedigree bulls for 

 S. America has proved profitable 

 to British breeders. The perfect- 

 ing of methods of refrigeration 

 has been a potent factor in de- 

 velopment. See Argentina; Re- 

 frigeration. 



Ranch! . Dist. and town of 

 Chota Nagpur, Bihar and Orissa, 

 India. The dist. adjoins the 



Central Provinces. Paddy fields 

 cover most of the tilled area. 



The town is 2,169 ft. alt. and is 

 the hot-weather capital of the 

 province, the headquarters of a 

 Church of England diocese, and a 

 missionary centre. Area 7,104 sq. 

 m. Pop., dist., 1,388,000, of whom 

 177,000 are Christians and 607,000 

 primitive animists ; town, 33,000. 



Rancidity. Condition which 

 obtains in oils and fats upon keep- 

 ing, characterised by a rank un- 

 pleasant taste and smell. The 

 change is due to the formation of 

 free fatty acids in the presence of 

 moisture, the process being acceler- 

 ated by enzymes or organic matter. 

 The rancidity of butter is greatly 

 assisted by the casein left in the 

 fat. The change which takes place 

 in olive oil results in the formation 

 of oleic acid. If fats and oils are 

 protected from light, air, and 

 moisture, they retain indefinitely 

 their state of neutrality. 



Rand OR WITWATERSRAND. Gold- 

 mining district in the Transvaal, 

 British S. Africa. The ridge ex- 

 tends roughly E. and W. for some 

 40 m., and its reefs or mineralised 

 beds of conglomerate (banket) 

 consist of quartz pebbles cemented 

 by gold-impregnated silica, iron 

 oxides, etc., and contain, it is 

 estimated, the largest reserve of 

 auriferous ores in the world. 

 Johannesburg is the centre of the 

 goldfield, which was proclaimed in 

 1886. Gold had been found in the 

 locality in 1854 ; 30 years later a 

 small battery was erected, and 

 quartz mining begun by the 

 brothers Struben. The gold ores are 

 low grade, and future success de-' 

 pends upon the facts that the reefs 

 spread more or less horizontally.and 

 that the extensive deposits of the 

 E. Rand have yet to be developed. 

 Deep mining is facilitated by the 

 small rise in temperature which 

 occurs as the mines become deeper, 

 which is only 1 F. for 255 ft. It 

 is not anticipated that the yield of 

 over 38,000,000, obtained in 1916, 

 will ever be surpassed. The Trans. 



Rand. Map of the gold-mining district of the Transvaal, estimated to contain the greatest reserve of gold in 

 the world ; its total yield had amounted in 1921 to nearly 700,000,000 



