R I C 



but have no prickles ; the feeds are fmall and brown. This 

 is a native of both the Indies. 



Farther, the red-ftalked palma-Chrifti, which rifes with 

 a large reddifh ftalk to the height of ten or twelve feet, 

 with many joints, and dividing into feveral branches ; the 

 leaves are very large, fome meafuring more than two feet 

 and a half in diameter ; are of a dark green, unequally fer- 

 rate, and not fo deeply cut as in fome of the varieties ; the 

 fpikes of flowers are large, and brown, with whitifh anthers ; 

 capfules large, oval, and clofely fet with foft prickles ; the 

 feeds are very large, and beautifully ftriped. This fort is a 

 native of Africa and both the Indies. 



And the fmall American palma-Chrifti, of which there are 

 two fub-varieties, one with a red, the other with a pale-green 

 ftalk, diftinguifhed in America by the names of red and 

 white oil-feed : the ftem feldom rifes more than three feet 

 high, fometimes dividing at the top into two or three 

 branches ; the leaves are much fmaller and more deeply 

 divided than in the other varieties ; their borders are une- 

 qually ferrate, and the fegments of the leaves are frequently 

 cut on the fides ; the fpikes of flowers are fmaller and more 

 compact ; the capfules are alfo fmaller, rounder, of a light 

 green, and clofely fet with foft prickles ; the feeds fmall, and 

 finely ftriped. This is a native of Carolina, and fome other 

 places. 



Laftly, the livid leaved palma-Chrifti, which is an ever- 

 green tree, ten feet in height, and more ; the trunk, during 

 the firft year, is blood-red and very ftiining ; afterwards it 

 becomes woody, as thick as the wrift, hollow with tranf- 

 verfe fepta, pithy, with circular warts at the joints from 

 fallen ftipulas, alh-coloured, interruptedly and (lightly 

 flreaked : before the leaves come out, they are wrapped up 

 in red ftipulas like (heaths, that fall off foon after ; the 

 leaves are divided half way into eight, fometimes ten lobes, 

 which are ferrate and acute, and the petiole is long ; they 

 are of a dark blood-red colour on the upper furface, and 

 livid on the lower, with blood-red veins, the largeft lefs than 

 a foot in diameter, quite fmooth, without any hairinefs what- 

 ever ; the fruit of a livid colour, with long loft prickles ; 

 the feed (hining, variegated with black and brown. This is 

 a native of the Eaft Indies. 



Method of Culture. — All thefe forts of plants are capable 

 of being increafed by feeds, which fhould be fown upon a 

 hot -bed in the fpnng, and when the plants are come up, be 

 each planted into a feparate pot filled with light freih earth, 

 and plunged into a frefh hot-bed, watering and (hading them 

 until they have taken root ; after which they mull have a 

 great (hare of free air when the feafon is mild, otherwife they 

 draw up tall and weak. As the plants grow fait, and their 

 roots in a lhort time fill the pots, they (hould be drifted into 

 larger pots, filled as above ; and about the end of Mav, 

 when the feafon is warm, be hardened to endure the open air 

 by degrees ; when, if fome of the plants be fliaken out of 

 the pots, and planted out into a very rich border, and in dry 

 weather duly watered, they grow to a large fize, and produce 

 a great quantity of flowers and feeds. If it be intended to 

 preferve any of the plants through the winter, they muft not 

 be planted out in the full ground, but be (hifted into larger 

 pots occafionally, as their roots require, placing them in 

 the open air during the fummer feafon in fome warm fitna- 

 tion, where they may remain until October, when they muft 

 be removed into the green-houfe with other exotic plants, 

 watering them lparingly in winter, and admitting free air 

 in mild weather, as they only require to be protected from 

 frolt and cold winds. 



In common, they have a fine ornamental effeft in their 

 leaves among other potted green-houfe plants, and alfo in 



IUC 



the large open border or clumps, when cultivated as annuals ; 

 but they require room. 



Ricinu.s Communis, or common Palma-Chrifti, in the 

 Materia Medica. See Castor Oil. 



R1CITOSA, in Geography, a town of Moldavia ; 20 

 miles W. of Birlet. 



RICK, in Rural Economy, a term applied to a pile of 

 corn, hay, llraw, &c. regularly heaped up in the open air, 

 and flickered from wet by thatch. See Stack, and 

 Stand, Corn. 



RlCK-Tard, a term fometimes given to that part of the 

 farm-yard in which the flacks are placed. They fhould be 

 fufficiently large, well fheltered from winds-, and perfectly 

 fecured from all lorts of vermin, efpecially rats and mice. 



RICKBAD, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in 

 Oude ; 20 miles N.W. of Lucknow. 



RICKETS, in Medicine, a difeafe affeCling children, 

 and principally charaCterifed by enlargement and flexure, 

 or diftortion of the bones. 



The origin and etymology of this word are equally un- 

 known. It has occurred in this, as in feveral other in- 

 itaiices, that the vulgar had recognized and given a name 

 to the difeafe, before medical men had difcriminated its 

 nature, or at leaft had taken the pains to point out its 

 peculiarities by any written document. The firft account 

 of the difeafe is that of Dr. Gliflon, publiftied in the year 

 1650, which was the refult of fome communications on the 

 iubjetl in a private medical fociety. In this treatife we 

 are informed, that the rickets had firft been noticed in the 

 counties of Dorfet and Somerfet, about thirty years before, 

 where it was vulgarly known by this name, and that it 

 fpread from thence over all the fouthern and weftern parts 

 of the kingdom, but was not yet commonly known in the 

 north. The rapidity of its progrefs, and the extent and 

 fatality of its prevalence, are fcarcely lefs extraordinary 

 than its general and fpeedy difappearance in later times, 

 as no aflignable caufe has ever been pointed out either for 

 its origin or its ceffation. Its firft appearance, as a caufc 

 of death, in the bills of mortality of London, was in the 

 year 1634, when the total number of deaths under this 

 head was only 14 ; but an extraordinary increafe foon took 

 place. For, in 1649, tne deaths from rickets amounted to 

 190; in 1650, to 260 ; in the following year, to 329; 

 and in 1660, 521 perfons died of this difeafe. At the 

 commencement of the 18th century, the mortality from this 

 diforder was 393 (A. D. 1700) ; and it fubfequently de- 

 creafed rapidly; for in the year 1750, the number of 

 deaths, recorded in the bills under the head of rickets, is 

 only 21 j and at the end of the century (1799), the deaths, 

 under the head of " evil and rickets" conjoined, do not 

 exceed 7. (See Ann. Medical Regillcr, vol. i. for 1808, 

 p. 324.) At prefent, indeed, the difeafe is almoft un- 

 known to medical practitioners, except by name. 



With the view of accommodating a claffical name both 

 to the vulgar appellation and to the fymptoms of the difeafe, 

 Gliflon invented the term rachitis, gxxfru '• e - fpinal difeafe ; 

 fince the curvature of the fpine, which enfues, is one of the 

 moft prominent fymptoms. This appellation has been adopted 

 by the nofologilts, and all fubfequent writers, who have 

 uled a Latin nomenclature. (See Gliflon, de Rachitide, 

 cap. i. ) Whether the difeafe was really unknown, or did 

 not exift, until modern times, is a queilion which it would 

 be very unprofitable to difeufs ; fince there are few fatij- 

 fadlory documents to be found on the fubjedl. We (hall 

 therefore proceed to deliver a hiftory of the fymptoms. 



This difeafe feldom commences before the ninth month, 

 and rarely after the fecond year, of a child's age; but it 



may 



