RULE OF THREE RUM. 



33 



so narrow a space. This work was sufficient to 

 give Ruhnken a rank among the first philologists of 

 his times. As he had become fond of his easy life 

 in Holland, he declined several honourable offers of 

 professorships in foreign countries, and devoted his 

 leisure to a literary tour, with the intention of con- 

 sulting the principal libraries of Europe. For a 

 year, he laboured amid the treasures of the royal 

 library of Paris, where, with unwearied industry, 

 he transcribed and collated manuscripts, and made 

 excerpts from them. Hemsterhuys had, meanwhile, 

 found opportunity, as he was now oppressed with 

 age and sickness, to get Ruhnken appointed assist- 

 ant lecturer on the Greek language ; and, on the 

 death of Ouderdorp, he was appointed professor of 

 history and eloquence. Of his numerous works, 

 among which are his Memoir of Hemsterhuys, his 

 edition of Muretus, the most distinguished is his 

 Velleius Paterculus (Leyden, 1779) a true model 

 for the treatment of Latin classics. In 1780, he 

 published a hymn of Homer to Ceres, which Mathai 

 had discovered in Moscow, and communicated to 

 him in a letter. In his intended edition of Plato 

 he had only finished the scholia, when death put an 

 end to his activity, in 1798. His life has been 

 written in a masterly manner by his scholar Daniel 

 Wyttenbach. 



RULE OF THREE, in arithmetic, called by 

 some authors the golden rule, is an application of 

 the doctrine of proportion to arithmetical purposes, 

 and is divided into two cases, simple and. compound; 

 now frequently termed simple and compound propor- 

 tion Simple rule of three, or simple proportion, is 

 when, from three given quantities, a fourth is re- 

 quired to be found, that shall have the same pro- 

 portion to the given quantity of the same name, as 

 one of the other quantities has to that of the same 

 name with itself. This rule is, by some authors, 

 divided into two cases; viz. the rule of three direct, 

 and the rule of three inverse; but this distinction is un- 

 necessary, and the two cases are now generally given 

 under one head by the best modern authors ; but as 

 they are still retained by others, it will not be 

 amiss to point out the distinction. The rule of 

 three direct, is when more requires more, or less 

 requires less, as in this example: "If three men 

 will perform a piece of work, as, for instance, dig a 

 trench forty-eight yards long, in a certain time, how 

 many yards will twelve men dig in the same time?" 

 where it is obvious, that the more men there are 

 employed, the more work will they perform, and 

 therefore, in this instance, more requires more. 

 Again, " If six men dig forty-eight yards in a given 

 time, how much will three men dig in the same 

 time?" Here less requires less, for the less men 

 there are employed, the less will be the work that 

 is performed by them; and all questions that are 

 in this class are said to be in the rule of three direct. 

 The rule of three inverse, is when more requires 

 less, or less requires more; as in this case "If six 

 men dig a certain quantity of trench in fourteen 

 hours how many hours will it require for twelve 

 men to dig the same quantity?" or thus, "If six 

 men perform a piece of work in seven hours, how 

 long will three men be in performing the same 

 work?" These oases are both in the inverse rule ; 

 for in the first more requires less, that is, twelve 

 men being more than six, they will require less time 

 to perform the same work ; and in the latter, the 

 number of men being less, they will require a longer 

 time. All questions of this class are said to belong 

 to the rule of three inverse. These two cases 



VI. 



however, as we before observed, may be brought 

 under one general rule, as follows -.Rule. Of the 

 three given terms, set down that which is of the 

 same kind with the answer towards the right hand ; 

 and then consider, from the nature of the question, 

 whether the answer will be more or less than this 

 term. Then, if the answer is to be greater, place 

 the less of the other two terms on the left, and the 

 remaining term in the middle ; but if it is to be less, 

 place the greater of these two terms on the left, 

 and the less in the middle; and in both cases, 

 multiply the second and third terms together, and 

 divide the product by the first term for the answer, 

 which will always be of the same denomination as 

 the third term. Note 1. If the first and second 

 terms consist of different denominations, reduce 

 them both to the same ; and if the third term be a 

 compound number, it is generally more convenient 

 to reduce it to the lowest denomination contained in 

 it Note 2. The same rule is applicable whether the 

 given quantities be integral, fractional or decimal. 



RULES OF LEGISLATIVE BODIES. For 

 those of England, see the article Parliament ; also 

 the Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Com- 

 mons, 4th ed., 1818, 4 vols., 4to, by Hatsel.) The 

 French chamber of deputies, June 23, 1814, received 

 a full system of rules of ninety-four articles. But' 

 there is hardly a session in which the course of the 

 deliberations is not interrupted by violent exclama- 

 tions, and the hubbub of the majority. In their 

 leading features, the French rules are the same with 

 the British and American. Some of the principal 

 peculiarities are, that, for preliminary investigations, 

 the whole chamber is divided, by lot, into nine 

 committees (bureaux), of which the chairmen, or 

 reporters, as they are called, in every case form a 

 committee of nine members, which appoints one of 

 their number to report to the chamber. Private 

 petitions are either wholly rejected (la chambre 

 passe a I'ordre du jour}, or delivered to the minis- 

 ters for consideration. It may, however, happen 

 that they give rise to serious discussions in the 

 chamber. Motions must be put in writing, read, 

 and a day fixed for their discussion. Such a mo- 

 tion, moreover, must, as in other parliamentary 

 bodies, be seconded; and its discussion may be 

 prevented by a call for the previous question. If 

 the further discussion is resplved on, all who wish 

 to speak give in their names to the clerk, and, after 

 the report of the committee, the speakers are heard, 

 in turn, from the tribune. The members do not 

 speak in their places, but from a sort of pulpit. 

 No deputy can speak twice on the same subject. 

 Most of the speeches are still read, and few of the 

 members are able to speak without preparation. 

 The chamber commonly votes by the members on 

 one side of a question rising, and the others remain- 

 ing seated, and the secretary decides on which side 

 is the majority. But on the passage of laws, the 

 main vote is always taken by balls (scrutin secret}, 

 in which all the members are called by name (appel 

 nominal}, every one receives a black and a white 

 ball, and votes by casting one of them in an urn. 

 The chamber of peers, on the contrary, votes by 

 written yeas and nays. Propositions from the king 

 may be submitted to the chambers by the ministers 

 (who, by virtue of their oflice, have a seat and voice 

 in both chambers), or by special commissioners. 



RUM; the distilled liquor obtained from the fer- 

 mented juice of the sugar cane or molasses. The 

 following is the process employed in Jamaica: The 

 materials for fermentation are molasses, scummings 

 c 



