RHEA SILVIA 



RHEUMATIC FEVER 



Rhea Silvia OB ILIA. In Roman 

 legend, the mother of Romulus and 

 Remus by the god Mars. Being a 

 vestal virgin vowed to perpetual 

 chastity, she was thrown into the 

 Tiber by her uncle Amulius, but, 

 according to one tradition, she was 

 saved by, and became the wife of, 

 the river-god. How her sons 

 avenged the treatment of their 

 mother is told under the entry 

 Romulus. She is identified with 

 the Greek Rhea, whose epithet 

 Idaea, like the Latin Silvia, means 

 " of the forests." See Romulus. 



Rheims. Anglicised name of 

 the French city, Reims (q.v.). 



Rheine. Town of Westphalia, 

 Germany. It stands on the Ems, 

 29 m. from Osnabruck. An indus- 

 trial centre, it is also a rly. junction 

 and a river port, the Ems being 

 navigable from here. Since 1815 it 

 has been part of Prussia. Pop. 

 14,400. 



Rheingau. District of Germany, 

 in the prov. of Hesse-Nassau. It 

 stretches along a fairly broad 

 valley from Biebrich to Lorch on 

 the right bank of the Rhine. It 

 is one of the most beautiful dis- 

 tricts of Germany, and, owing to 

 its sheltered position among the 

 bills, it produces some of the most 

 excellent wines of the Rhine. Fruit 

 is also extensively cultivated. The 

 chief town is Rudesheim. 



Rheostat (Gr. rhein, to flow ; 

 statos, fixed). In electricity, an 

 adjustable resistance to control the 

 flow of electric energy through a 

 circuit. It is the electrical counter- 

 part of a steam or water valve. A 

 common form of rheostat used for 

 starting motors and controlling the 

 strength of a magnetic field is as 

 follows. An arm, moved by an 

 insulated handle, is mounted at 

 one end on a spindle in connexion 

 with the circuit. The other end 

 describes a circular path, and 

 sweeps a number of brass studs set 

 closely together. Each stud has 

 connexion with its neighbour 

 through a wire coil or bar of metal 

 of high resistance, and that at one 

 end of the series is joined up to the 

 circuit. In the zero position the 

 arm is off the studs ; when it 

 touches the first stud the current 

 is admitted through all the resist- 

 ances in series, and as it passes 

 from stud to stud the resistances 

 are cut out in succession until the 

 last stud is reached and all ob- 

 struction removed. 



The liquid rheostat has an insu- 

 lated plate dipping into a bath of 

 acidulated water or an alkaline 

 solution, such as common soda or 

 sal ammoniac and water, with a 

 low but sufficient conducting 

 power. A metallic lining to the 

 bath (or another plate at the 



bottom of the bath) and the mov- 

 able plate form the poles of the 

 circuit. Lifting the plate out of the 

 bath breaks the circuit altogether. 

 As it is lowered and a larger surface 

 is exposed to the liquid, the flow of 

 current increases. Finally, the 

 plate makes contact with a copper 

 stud in direct connexion with the 

 lining of the bath, and all resist- 

 ance is cut out. 



The starting switches of railway, 

 lift, and other motors are generally 

 provided with a time control, 

 which renders it impossible for the 

 full current to be admitted sud- 

 denly and burn out the windings. 

 See Electricity. 



Rhesus OR BENGAL MONKEY 

 (MacacuG rhesus). Small long-tailed 

 monkey of the family Cynopithe- 

 cidae, common throughout N. 

 India. It is usually nearly 2 ft. 

 long in body, with a tail varying 

 from 6 to 8 ins. Its fur is brown, 

 with a greyish or greenish tinge, 

 and the bare parts of the face are 

 red hi old specimens. Around 

 Simla it occurs at considerable ele- 



Rhesus or Bengal monkey, a semi- 

 sacred animal common in N. India 



W. S. Berridgt, F.Z.S. 



vations among the mountains. It 

 is regarded as a semi-sacred animal 

 by many of the Hindus, and may 

 be found in considerable numbers 

 in the precincts of certain temples. 

 It feeds mainly on fruit and seeds, 

 but will also eat insects. In cap- 

 tivity it displays great intelligence, 

 and is ia favour as a pet, while its 

 hardy constitution recommends it 

 to the street organ-grinder. 



Rhetoric (Gr. rhetorike). Origin- 

 ally the art of speaking effectively 

 in public, and later extended to 

 include the effective presentation 

 of words either in oratory or writ- 

 ing. It has been defined as " that 

 art or talent by which the dis- 

 course is adapted to its end." 



The earliest treatise on rhetoric 

 is that of Aristotle (4th century 

 B.C.), in which it is regarded as a 

 branch of logic, and as the means 

 of establishing the superiority of 



truth over falsehood. Earlier rhe- 

 toricians had claimed that the end 

 of rhetoric was to convince, whether 

 rightly or wrongly ; but the Aristo- 

 telian view came to be generally 

 accepted. The three chief elements 

 of rhetoric as applied to oratory 

 were regarded as invention, ar- 

 rangement, and elocution, though 

 some writers on the subject in- 

 cluded memory and utterance, both 

 of which might be supposed to 

 be included in the three named. 

 There have been many modern 

 works on rhetoric, such as Wilson's 

 Art of Rhetoric, 1553, new ed. 

 1909, which was long popular ; 

 Campbell's Philosophy of Rhe- 

 toric, 1776 ; Blair's Rhetoric and 

 Belles Lettres, 1817; Whately's 

 Elements of Rhetoric, 1828 ; Cope's 

 Introduction to the Study of Aris- 

 totle's Rhetoric, 1867; and Aris- 

 totle's Rhetoric, Eng. trans. Jebb 

 and Sandys, 1909. See Oratory. 



Rheumatic Fever. Acute dis- 

 ease due to an infective agent 

 which has not yet been isolated. 

 Children and young adults are 

 most commonly affected. There is 

 some hereditary tendency to the 

 disease, and exposure to cold or 

 wet may be the precipitating 

 factor. The symptoms generally 

 begin abruptly, but may have been 

 preceded by pains in the joints, sore 

 throat, and inflammation of the 

 tonsils. The temperature rises to 

 102 F. or more ; then in a few days 

 one or more of the joints become 

 swollen, hot, painful, and reddened. 

 Usually one of the large joints is 

 affected first. The knee and ankle 

 are the joints most frequently 

 affected, but any joint may be in- 

 volved. As the symptoms subside 

 in one joint they may appear in 

 another. There may be a reddish 

 rash on the skin. Involvement of 

 the heart is a frequent and serious 

 complication. In many cases small 

 nodules of about the size of a pea 

 appear under the skin. 



The course of the disease is very 

 variable, and the convalescence 

 may be delayed for a month or 

 more. A fatal termination is rare, 

 but permanent disease of the heart 

 is very apt to remain, and there 

 may also be changes in the joints 

 lasting for a long period. The 

 essential feature in the treatment 

 is to keep the patient absolutely at 

 rest, so as to diminish the strain on 

 the heart. The diet should be light. 

 The affected joints should be 

 wrapped in cotton-wool, and when 

 the pain is severe hot cloths satur- 

 ated with an anodyne lotion should 

 be applied to them. Fixation of 

 the joints with padded splints often 

 gives relief. As internal medicines, 

 salicin or salicylates and potassium 

 acetate and citrate are largely used. 



