REPRESENTATION 



of feudal times had represented 

 their vassals before the king or 

 other overlord. 



Most European nations, begin- 

 ning with France and Spain, fol- 

 lowed England in making use of 

 political representation, while the 

 system was carried by Britishers 

 into all the countries in which they 



1 settled. 



| The word is also used in other 

 senses. One allied to the main one 



I is for an ambassador or envoy of 



i any kind who goes to act for his 

 country abroad. Representation 

 is used for an image or picture ; 

 also for a dramatic performance, 

 and for a statement, usually in the 

 nature of a remonstrance. See 

 Democracy ? Election ; Govern- 

 ment ; Politics. 



Representation of the People 

 Act. Official designation of the Act 

 passed in 1918 amending and ex- 

 tending parliamentary suffrage in 

 the United Kingdom, and effecting 

 a redistribution of seats. Its chief 

 provisions are outlined with those 

 of the other Reform Acts. See 

 Redistribution ; Reform Acts. 



Representatives, HOUSE OF. 

 Lower house, or popularly elected 

 house, of the Congress of the 

 U.S.A. Its membership varies in 

 number from time to time, being 

 settled every ten years on a popu- 

 lation basis. In 1910, by the census, 

 it was fixed at 435, or one for every 

 212,407 inhabitants. An election 

 takes place every two years, the 

 qualifications of the voters varying 

 from state to state, women voting 

 in some of them, while the neces- 

 sary period of residence varies. 

 Members of the House must not be 

 under 25 years old, and mi st reside 

 in the state which chooses them. 



The House is presided over by a 

 Speaker, and all legislation must 

 be approved by it ; but it differs 

 from the British House of Com- 

 mons in excluding from member- 

 ship all who hold ministerial office. 

 Members receive a salary of 7,500 

 dollars (1,500) a year and travell- 

 ing expenses. They are divided 

 into parties, mainly democrats and 

 republicans. 



The elected chamber in the Pat 

 1 lament of the Australian Common- 

 wealth is also called the House of 

 Representatives. It consists of a 

 varying number of members, regu- 

 lated according to the most recent 

 census, but no state can have fewer 

 than five. In 1911 the members 

 were : New South Wales, 27, 

 Victoria 21, Queensland 10, South 

 Australia 5, Western Australia and 

 Tasmania 5 each. They are elected 

 for three years unless the House is 

 dissolved earlier. Some of the re- 

 presentative assemblies set up in 

 New England states in the 17th 



6566 



century were called by this name. 

 See United States. 



Reprieve. In law, withdrawal 

 of the sentence on a prisoner for an 

 interval of time whereby the exe- 

 cution is suspended (Blackstone). 

 This may be done by the judge 

 when he is not satisfied with the 

 verdict or with the legality of the 

 conviction. A reprieve is granted 

 as of right to a woman who is 

 capitally convicted, and who, on 

 pleading pregnancy, is found by a 

 jury of matrons to be quick with 

 child. It is also granted in all cases 

 where the prisoner becomes non 

 compos mentis between the judge- 

 ment and the award of execution. 

 There is another form of reprieve, 

 by the royal grace, which is part of 

 the king's prerogative of pardon, 

 and in every country the head of 

 the state has the power of reprieve 

 by way of grace. See Pardon. 



Reprisals (Fr. represailles, ulti- 

 mately from Lat. reprehendere, to 

 take again). Retaliation or ven- 

 geance taken upon an enemy. The 

 law of retaliation or lex talionis, 

 which demands an eye for an eye 

 and a tooth for a tooth, is as old as 

 human history, and when the pas- 

 sions of war are aroused it is still 

 operative, though repudiated, in 

 theory at least, by all thoughtful 

 minds as futile in the long run. 

 Reprisals take many forms. They 

 may consist of confiscation or de- 

 struction of enemy property on 

 land or sea (see Letter of Marque), 

 ill-treatment or deliberate exposure 

 to danger of prisoners of war, bomb- 

 ing of towns from the air, shooting 

 of civilians in cold blood, etc. 



Civilization is a flimsy barrier to 

 the employment of reprisals, as the 

 experience of the belligerent coun- 

 tries during the Great War and 

 succeeding years proved, though 

 how far, in certain circumstances, 

 they may be effectual in checking 

 the commission of atrocious crimes 

 by the enemy is a point which has 

 raised considerable discussion. 



Reproduction. Biological term 

 expressing the act or process by 

 means of which new organisms are 

 produced from pre-existing indi- 

 viduals. It also includes the whole 

 chain of events as the result of 

 which life is continued from one 

 generation to another. In all the 

 higher animals reproduction is 

 sexual, the individuals of each 

 species falling into two groups 

 having very different character- 

 istics, male and female respectively. 



It is quite obvious that this divi- 

 sion of the individuals of a species 

 has reference to the process of re- 

 production. The mental instincts 

 in the sexes after adolescence is 

 reached result in actions by means 

 of which there takes place the 



REPRODUCTION 



union of a sperm from the male 

 with an ovum from the female, and 

 this being followed under suitable 

 conditions of nourishment and pro- 

 tection for the fertilized ovum in 

 the body of the female, reproduc- 

 tion is the result. This method of 

 the continuation of life from one 

 generation to another is so obvious 

 in all the higher animals that other 

 methods of reproduction are apt to 

 escape notice. It is important, 

 therefore, to realize at once that 

 this conjugation of the sexes is by 

 no means necessary in order that 

 new individuals may be produced. 



In some cases, in both plants and 

 animals, the process of reproduc- 

 tion is entirely parthenogenetic, no 

 males having ever been observed. 

 In most uni-cellular organisms con- 

 jugation does not seem to occur, 

 and even when it does it is ap- 

 parently an exceptional case, there 

 being always long intervals in 

 which the reproduction takes place 

 asexually. When the process of re- 

 production is parthenogenetic the 

 offspring reproduce the parental 

 characters with some slight varia- 

 tions ; but when reproduction is 

 sexual the process is much more 

 complicated, and the problems of 

 inheritance of characters much 

 more complex. It must be remem- 

 bered in this connexion that the 

 male and female individuals of the 

 higher orders of animals, even 

 though they have a certain number 

 of characteristics in common, have 

 others in which they differ greatly. 



Inasmuch as the new individual 

 which results from the process of 

 reproduction is either male or fe- 

 male, it follows that it will have 

 the characters of only one of the 

 sexes, in so far as those characters 

 are sexual. The other set of charac- 

 ters, if present, will be rudimentary. 

 Thus, for example, in human male 

 individuals the sexual develop- 

 ment of the breast is absent, though 

 the structure is present in a rudi- 

 mentary form. When only one of 

 two possible characters or set of 

 characters is produced in reproduc- 

 tion the process is termed alterna- 

 tive reproduction. 



Most biologists believe that the 

 function of sex in the process of 

 reproduction is to mingle the 

 characteristics of both parents. As 

 to the nature and effect of this 

 mingling, however, there is much 

 room for argument. See Abiogene- 

 sis ; Agamogenesis ; Alternation of 

 Generations ; Biogenesis ; Biology ; 

 Gemmation ; Life ; Mendelism ; 

 Pangenesis; Parthenogenesis; Re- 

 capitulation ; consult also The 

 Cell, O. Hertwig, Eng. trans. M. 

 Campbell, 1895; Problems of 

 Life and Reproduction, M. M. 

 Hartog, 1913. 



