RHEUMATISM 



659O 



RHINE-HANOVER 



Rheumatism (Gr. rheuinatis- 

 mos, flux or rheum). Term popu- 

 larly used for painful affections of 

 the muscles or joints. -It embraces, 

 from the physician's point of view, 

 several distinct conditions, among 

 them arthritis. Acute rheumatism 

 is equivalent to rheumatic fever 

 (q.v. ). Originally, the word denoted 

 a catarrh or flow of rheum. See 

 Arthritis ; Fibrositis, etc. 



Rheumatoid Arthritis OR AR- 

 THRITIS DEFORMANS. Disease of the 

 joints, the exact cause of which is 

 unknown, but is probably infec- 

 tion. Exposure to cold and 

 wet, and dyspepsia are possibly 

 sometimes precipitating causes. 

 The onset may be acute or chronic. 

 In the acute form the symptoms 

 resemble those of rheumatic fever, 

 the joints becoming swollen and 

 painful. The chronic form is more 

 common, the first symptoms being 

 pain and swelling in a joint. Gradu- 

 ally other joints become involved. 

 As the disease progresses, the tis 

 sues of the joints undergo various 

 changes, with the formation of 

 bony out-growths. Ultimately the 

 joint may become stiff and the 

 muscles atrophy. In many cases 

 the disease appears to become ar- 

 rested after a certain stage has 

 been reached, and life may be pro 

 longed for years. 



Treatment consists in maintain- 

 ing the general health and giving a 

 nourishing diet. Massage and 

 medicinal baths are often useful. 

 Salicylates or potassium iodide 

 may be prescribed. Counter-irrita- 

 tion of the joints by the applica- 

 tion of blisters, mustard, and 

 iodine is often serviceable. Fixa- 

 tion of the joints for short periods 

 or during the night may be useful, 

 but care should be taken to main- 

 tain tne mobility of the joints by 

 exercises and massage. 



Rheydt. Town of Prussia, ID. 

 the Rhine province. It stands on 

 the Niers, 20 m. from Dusseldorf, 

 and is a rly. junction. It is an in- 

 dustrial town, chiefly engaged in 

 the making of textiles, with dyeing 

 and other attendant industries. 

 There are also distilleries and 

 breweries. The town was only a 

 village until the 19th century, 

 when its position near the coal 

 mines of Westphalia made it a 

 manufacturing centre. Pop. 44,000. 



Rhine OR RHEIN. European 

 river. It rises in Switzerland, flows 

 between France and Germany, then 

 through Germany and Holland to 

 the North Sea, after a course of 800 

 m. The headstreams, Vorder Rhein 

 and Hinter Rhein, originate close to 

 the sources of the Rhdne and Reuss, 

 and the combined stream passes 

 between Switzerland and Liech- 

 tenstein N. to Lake Constance. 



Below the lake it flows W., and 

 plunges over the falls near Schaff- 

 hausen and at Zurzach, and receives 

 the Aar before it reaches Basel. 

 Here it is 190 yards wide, and 

 navigable, and turns sharply N. to 

 the wide plain of the rift valley, 

 where it separates Alsace from 

 Baden. In this plain section it 

 receives the 111, Neckar, and Main, 

 and passes Strasbourg, Mannheim, 

 and Mainz. 



Between Mainz and Bingen 

 the Rhine flows W., and between 

 Bingen and Bonn it flows N.W. 

 through the romantic scenery of 

 the Rhine gorge, between vine- 

 clad, castle-crowned slopes, which 



Rhine. 



Map of the territory drained by the river, in- 

 cluding part of the basin of the Maas 



are so close as to leave bare room 

 on either bank for a road and a 

 railway ; in this section the chief 

 city is Coblenz, at the mouth of 

 the Moselle. Below Bonn the river 

 enters the great European plain, 

 and bears gradually W. to the sea ; 

 Cologne and Dusseldorf are the chief 

 German cities, and Rotterdam is 

 the great Dutch port on the delta. 

 The Ruhr and the Lippe are the 

 chief lower tributaries. The dis- 

 tributaries of the delta leave the 

 main stream almost as soon as 

 Holland is reached ; these are 

 Waal, Yssel, Lek, Crooked or Old 

 Rhine, and Vecht. The Meuse 

 joins the Waal distributary. 



The Rhine is in many respects 

 the greatest river on the Conti- 

 nent ; no other river carries so much 



traffic, has so many people in its 

 valley, or such important manu- 

 factures. Steamers tow large cargo 

 barges upstream from the docks at 

 Rotterdam to Strasbourg, whence 

 the Rhine-Rhone canal is pre- 

 ferred to the swift river as far as 

 Basel. Canals connect the Rhine 

 navigation with the Meuse, Seine, 

 Saone, Danube, and Ems. 



At the beginning of the historic 

 period the Rhine valley was being 

 gradually wrested from the Celts 

 by the Germans. Julius Caesar 

 stemmed the invasion, and he and 

 his successors made the middle 

 and lower Rhine the military 

 frontier of the Roman Empire. 



The river was a 

 great trade route, 

 and many small 

 princes built their 

 castles on its 

 banks, and exact- 

 ed shipping dues, 

 a practice not en- 

 tirely abolished 

 till 1869. France 

 gained a footing 

 on the upper 

 Rhine by the 

 Peace of West- 

 phalia in 1648, 

 and her possession 

 of Alsace, con- 

 firmed by the 

 Peace of Ryswick 

 in 1697, gave her 

 a Rhine frontier, 

 extended by 

 Napoleon I to the 

 sea in 1801,though 

 in 1814 all the left 

 bank, except 

 Alsace-Lorraine, 

 was given up. The 

 Germans made 

 it wholly German 

 from the Swiss 

 to the Dutch 

 frontier in 1871. 

 France recovered 

 the upper Rhine 



frontier by the treaty of Versailles. 

 The treaty contained various pro- 

 visions dealing with the control of 

 the Rhine, which, it was decided, 

 should be a free waterway under 

 an international commission. See 

 Bingen ; Bonn ; Ehrenbreitstein ; 

 Germany ; Lorelei ; Versailles, 

 Treaty of ; consult also The Rhine : 

 Its Valley and History. H. J. 

 Mackinder, 1908; The Navigable 

 Rhine, E. J. Clapp, 1911. 



Rhine-Hanover Canal. Pro- 

 jected canal system across the N. 

 German plain to connect the water- 

 ways of the Rhine, Ems, Weser, 

 and Elbe. These waterways lead 

 N. to the North Sea, and the pro- 

 posed route is to provide an E.-W. 

 passage for barges from Magdeburg 

 to Dusseldorf. 



