36 



RUPERT RUSH. 



the Charta de Foresta. (Sec John.") It is five miles 

 east of Windsor, in Surrey, ana is now divided 

 into several enclosures. 



RUPERT OR ROBERT OF BAVARIA, prince , 

 the third son of Frederic V., elector palatine and 

 titular king of Bohemia, by the princess Elizabeth 

 ut' England, daughter of James I., was born in 

 I '< i!>, and, becoming an exile through the misfortunes 

 oi hi- father, at the commencement of the civil war 

 in England, he offered his services to his uncle, 

 Charles I., and had the command of a corps of 

 cavalry, at the head of which he distinguished him- 

 M-lf at" the kittle of Edgehill, in 1642, and at Chal- 

 grave Field, in 1643. Soon after, he took Bristol, 

 and obliged the enemy to raise the sieges of Newark 

 and of York He displayed his courage at Marston 

 Moor and at Naseby; but his impetuosity and im- 

 prudence contributed to the disastrous result of 

 those engagements. He afterwards shut himself up 

 in Bristol ; but, having surrendered that place, after 

 a short siege, to Fairfax, his conduct so much dis- 

 pleased the king, that he dismissed the prince from 

 his service. He then went abroad, and, after the 

 death of Charles I., he was made commander of 

 that part of the fleet which adhered to Charles II., 

 in 1648. Prince Rupert for some time carried on a 

 predatory warfare against the English, and at length 

 sailed to France, and joined Charles II. at the court 

 of Versailles. His time was chiefly devoted to 

 scientific studies, till the restoration, when he re- 

 turned to England. In 1666, he was appointed, 

 in conjunction with Monk, to the command of a 

 fleet against the Dutch; and, in the next war with 

 Holland, in 1673, was made admiral of the fleet. 

 In 1679, he was nominated a member of the new 

 privy council ; but from that period he interfered 

 but little in public affairs, leading a retired life, and 

 spent much of his time at Windsor castle, of which 

 he was governor. Many useful inventions resulted 

 from his studies, among which are the invention of 

 prince's metal, and the discovery of the method of 

 engraving in mezzo-tinto. The prince died in 

 London, 1682. 



RUPERT'S DROPS, oa GLASS TEARS. 

 See Annealing. 



RUPTURE. See Hernia. 



RURAL WAR. See Peasants' War. 



RUSCSUCK, ALSO RUSTSCHUK, in Bulgaria, 

 in the sangiacat of Nicopolis, is situated on the 

 right bank of the Danube, at the confluence of the 

 Lorn, and almost opposite Giorgiev, The city, for- 

 merly an important fortress, has extensive works 

 and a castle. It is the see of an archbishop, and 

 has 30,000 inhabitants ; partly Turks, partly Greeks, 

 Armenians, Gypsies and Jews; and carries on an 

 active trade, manufactures silk, wool, cotton, leather, 

 tobacco, &c. Ruscsuck is of the highest importance 

 in a military point of view, as the wars between 

 Russia and the Porte, in 1809, 1810, and 1811, 

 have proved. 



RUSH. This term is, strictly speaking, applied 

 to the different species ofjuncus, sedge-like plants, 

 chiefly growing in marshes, with inconspicuous 

 greenish flowers, though belonging to the class hex 

 andria of Linnaeus. The J. eff'usus, or soft rush, 

 is a common plant, in low grounds, in the more 

 northern parts of the eastern and western continents, 

 and is rendered conspicuous by its tufts of long awl- 

 shaped leaves and stems, somewhat resembling the 

 spines of a porcupine. The flowers are in loose, 

 lateral panicles. The leaves and stems are used for 

 making mats, baskets, and children's ornaments, 



and their pith is used for wicks to burn in lamps. 

 The species ofjuncim are herbaceous plants, inhabi- 

 ting the northern hemisphere, with librous and 

 usually perennial roots; their leaves are cylindrical 

 or a little compressed, often containing transverse 

 internal partitions, which give them a jointed ap- 

 pearance ; their flowers are small, greenish or brown- 

 ish, terminal or lateral, and generally disposed in 

 panicles or corymbs. The different species of *<;/- 

 pus, or club-rush, are common in marshes. Tiiev 

 are distinguished by havingtheir flowers disp.,- 

 little solid oval spikelets; in some species, terminal 

 and solitary; in others, forming wide-spreading 

 panicles. The bull-rush (S. lacustris') is aquatic. 

 crowing in deep water throughout the northern 

 hemisphere. It is used for the bottoms of chairs, 

 and, for the finer sort, is cut when a year old. Cot- 

 tages are sometimes thatched, and pack-saddle. 

 stuffed with it. The Chinese cultivate the S. tube- 

 rosus, or water chestnut, hi tanks, the bottoms of 

 which are manured and exposed for a time to dry 

 in the sun. The tubers of the roots are eaten either 

 boiled or raw, and are esteemed both as food and 

 medicine. This plant has not yet been introduced 

 into Europe. 



RUSH, BENJAMIN, M. D., was born on the 24th 

 December, 1745 (old style), near Philadelphia, and, 

 in 1759, entered the college of Princeton, where he 

 graduated, in 1760, before he had completed his 

 fifteenth year. The next six years of his life were 

 devoted to the study of medicine. During his 

 novitiate, he translated the aphorisms of Hippocrates 

 into English, and also began to keep a note-book of 

 remarkable occurrences, which he continued through 

 life. From a part of this record, written in the 

 seventeenth year of the author's age, we derive the 

 only account of the yellow fever of 1762, in Phila- 

 delphia. In 1766, he went to Edinburgh to study 

 at the university in that city, and took his degree 

 of M. D. there in 1768. The next winter he spent 

 in London; in the spring, he went to France; in 

 the autumn, he returned to Philadelphia, and com- 

 menced the practice of his profession. In 1769, he 

 was elected professor of chemistry in the college of 

 Philadelphia, and when, in 1791, the college was 

 merged in the university of Pennsylvania, he was 

 appointed professor of the institutes and practice of 

 medicine, and of clinical practice. In the previous 

 year, he had begun to publish his new principles of 

 medicine, depending chiefly for the cure of diseases 

 upon bleeding and cathartics; and these were more 

 or less developed by him in his successive annual 

 courses of lectures, for the subsequent twenty-three 

 years of his life. In the year 1793, when Philadel- 

 phia was desolated by the yellow fevei to an extent 

 almost equal to that of the ravages of the plague in 

 the old world, the theories and the active strength 

 of doctor Rush's genius were put to the test. All 

 the physicians, for some time after the commence- 

 ment of this disease, were unsuccessful in its treat- 

 ment. Doctor Rush adopted a new mode of treat- 

 ment, to which he was led by a manuscript of doc- 

 tor Mitchell of Virginia, respecting the yellow 

 fever which prevailed there in 1741. His success 

 was great, and naturally brought him a great increase 

 of practice. He had scarcely a moment of repose. 

 Whilst at his meals, his house was filled with per- 

 sons, chiefly the poor, waiting for his ad vice; every 

 day he was obliged to refuse numerous applications, 

 and in riding through the streets, he was often 

 forced to tear himself away from persons who at- 

 tempted to stop him, and to drive his chair as 



