RET 



of Luneburg Zell, on the AUer ; 32 miles W. of Zelle. 

 N. lat. 52° 51'. E. long. 9 18'. 



RETHONDES, a town of France, in the department 

 of the Oife ; 5 miles N.E. of Compeigne. 



RETHWISCHE, a town of the duchy of Holfte'in ; 

 25 miles N.E. of Hamburg. 



RETI, in Hindoo Mythology, a perfonification of Affec- 

 tion, and the fabled confort of Kama, the god of love. She 

 is reprefented in pictures as a beautiful woman, on horfe- 

 back fometimes, and in the aft of throwing a lance. Allu- 

 fions to this goddefs, proverbial for beauty, occur very fre- 

 quently in Hindoo writings. Under the article Radha, 

 that lovely goddefs defcribes the glances of her eye as 

 " keener than the arrows darted by the hufband of Reti." 

 She fometimes is ftyled " mother of Kama." That appel- 

 lation occurs in the article RuNEKA of this work. Kama 

 is often called " he who loveft the goddefs Reti." On the 

 occafion of the combuftion of the god of love, as noticed 

 under Kama, the lamentations of the afflifted Reti are very 

 touchingly related by the celebrated Kalidafa, author of 

 Sakuntala. A whole book of his poem, entitled " Kumara- 

 fambhava, or the Birth of Kumera," is occupied with her 

 tender forrows. This book iir W. Jones's teacher, a learned 

 Vaidya (fee Vaidya), was retrained from reading ; con- 

 fidering the ceremonies of a marriage, that of Kama and 

 Reti, at which Brahma himfelf officiated as father of the 

 bridegroom, as too holv to be known by any but Brahmans. 

 An inftance fomewhat iimilar, of a book being too holy to 

 be read by individuals of an inferior clafs, is given under 

 Ramayana. Farther particulars connefted with the in- 

 tereiting goddefs, the fubjeft of this article, will be found 

 under Kama, Krishna, and Pradyamn \. 



RETIARII, in Antiquity, a kind of gladiators, thus 

 denominated from a net which they made ufe of againft their 

 antagonills, who were called fectitores, and fometimes my'r- 

 millones. See Gladiator. 



The word is formed from the Latin, rete, net ; or per- 

 haps from retejaculum ; for they call their net jaculum, and 

 fometimes in one word retejaculum. 



This net they carried under their buckler, and, when op- 

 portunity ferved, caft it over the head of their antagonift, 

 and, in this condition, killed him with a trident, or three- 

 grained fpear, which they bore in the other hand. 



Lipfius and others obferve, that they fought in tunics, 

 and were furnifhed with fponges to wipe off the fweatj 

 blood, &c. and to Hop their wounds. 



RETICENCY, Reticentia, a figure in Rhetoric, by 

 which we make oblique mention of a thing, in pretending to 

 pafs it over unmentioned. 



Thus : tsfay nothing of the nobility of his anceflors : I for- 

 bear to fpeak of his courage, and pafs over the feveri/y of his 

 morals. See Aposiopesis and Preterition*. 



RETICULA, Reticule, in Aflronomy, a contrivance for 

 the exaft meafuring of the quantity of eclipfes, introduced 

 feveral years ago by the Royal Academy of Paris. See 

 Eclipse. 



The reticule is a little frame, confifting of thirteen fine 

 filken threads, equidittant from each other, and parallel ; 

 placed in the focus of objeft-glaffes of telefcopes ; that is, 

 in the place where the image of the luminary is painted in 

 its full extent. Of confequence, therefore, the diameter 

 of the fun and moon is by this feen divided into twelve equal 

 parts or digits ; fo that, to find the quantity of the eclipfe, 

 there is nothing to do but to number the luminous and the 

 dark parts. 



As a fquare reticule is only proper for the diameter, not 

 for the circumference of the luminary, it is fometimes 



RET 



made circular, by drawing fix concentric equidiflant cir- 

 cles. This reprefents the phafes of the eclipfe perfectly. 



But it is evident, that the reticule, whether fquare or 

 circular, ought to be perfeftly equal to the diameter or 

 circumference of the fun or ftar, inch as it appears in the 

 focus of the glafs, otherwife the divifion cannot bejuft. 

 Now this is no eafy matter to effeft, becaufe the appa- 

 rent diameter of the fun and moon differ in each eclipfe ; 

 nay, that of the moon differs from itfelf in the progrefs 

 of the fame eclipfe. 



Another imperfeftion in the reticule is, that its bignefs 

 is determined by that of the image in the focus ; and of 

 confequence it will only fit one certain magnitude. 



But M. de la Hire has found a remedy for all thefe in- 

 convemencies, and contrived that the fame reticule fhall 

 ferve for all telefcopes, and all magnitudes of the luminary 

 in the fame eclipfe. The principle on which his invention 

 Hands is, that two objeft-glaffes applied againft each other, 

 having a common focus, and there forming an image of a 

 certain magnitude, this image will increafe in proportion as 

 the diftance between the two glafles is increafed as far as a 

 ccrtr.iu limit. 



If, then, a reticule be taken of fuch a magnitude, as juft 

 to comprehend the greateft diameter the fun or moon can 

 ever have in the common focus of two objeft-glaffes applied 

 to each other, there needs nothing but to remove them 

 from each other, as the ftar comes to have a lefs diameter, 

 to have the image itill exaftly comprehended in the fame 

 reticule. 



Another improvement is, that whereas the filken thread* 

 are fubjeft to fwerve from the parallelifm, &c. by the dif- 

 ferent temperature of the air ; a reticule may be' made of 

 a thin looking-glafs, by drawing lines or circles on it with 

 the fine point of a diamond ; which fhall be fafe from any 

 alteration of the air. See Micrometer. 



RETICULAR Body, corpus reticulare, in Anatomy, a 

 body of veflels lying immediately under the cuticle or fcarf- 

 fkin. See Integuments. 



Reticular Plexus, plexus reticularis, fometimes denotes 

 the choroides, which is thus called, becaufe its fibres are 

 interwoven like a net. 



RETICULARIA, in Botany, a genus of Fungi, named 

 by Bulliard, from the reticulated appearance of its ftruc- 

 ture when ripe. It is the Lycogala of Micheli, Perfoon, 

 and others ; fee that article. 



RETICULARIS MeMBRANA, in Anatomy, a name 

 fometimes given to the cellular fubflance. Dr. Hunter 

 fpeaks of the cellular fubftance. which .contains no fat, 

 under this name, giving the appellation of adipous cellular 

 fubftance to the other. 



RETICULUM, in Comparative Anatomy, one of the 

 divifions of the ftomach in ruminating animals, fo called 

 from the reticulated arrangement of the folds of its internal 

 membrane. See Mammalia. 



RETIERS, in Geography, a town of France, in the de- 

 partment of the Ille and Vilaine, and chief place of a can- 

 ton, in the diftrift of Vitre ; fix miles W.S.W. of La 

 Guerche. The place contains 2384, and the canton 

 14,638 inhabitants, on a territory of 237X kiliometres, in 

 10 communes. 



RETIMO, a town of the ifland of Candia, built on 

 the ruins of the ancient Rithymna. The environs of 



this town afford profpefts that are very pifturefque : 



gardens planted with orange-trees, among which rife fome 

 date-trees; fields covered with olive-trees and kitchen-garden 

 plants ; rifing grounds, on which the vine, the fio-.tree, 

 the mulberry -tree, and the almond-tree grow together ; and 



farther 



