RUB 



RUB 



correfpondents were father Merfenne, Hugo Grotius, and 

 De Bergius. 



RUATUN, or Rattan, in Geography, an ifland in the 

 bay of Honduras, about 30 miles in length and 12 in 

 breadth, furrounded with rocks and fhoals ; with a harbour 

 capable of containing a large fleet of (hips. The Englifh, 

 in the year 1742, formed a fettlement here for the purpofe 

 ©f carrying on the logwood trade, but it was foon abandoned. 

 N. lat. 1 6° 24'. W. long. 87 10'. 



RUBASS, a town of Hindooftan, in the fubah of 

 Agra ; 14 miles W. of Fattipour. 



RUBBER, a large coarfe file. 



Rubber of Pencil Strokes. See Caoutchouc. 



Rubber, in Eleclricity. See Electrical Machine. 



Rubbers, among Shepherds, a difeafe in fheep. See 

 Scab. 



RUBBING-Post, a poft fet up for the purpofe of 

 cattle, hogs, or other animals, rubbing themfelves upon. 

 Mr. Marlhall, in his " Rural Economy of Norfolk," fays, 

 it is an excellent cuftom of the Norfolk farmer to erect, 

 rubbing-pofts in the different parts of the inclofure he is 

 feeding or teathing ; they keep the (lock from the fences, 

 and furnifh them, no doubt, with an agreeable, and per- 

 haps a falutary, amufement. Some he faw draw the crown 

 of a tree, with the lower part of the boughs left on, into 

 the middle of the clofe : this is lefs trouble than putting 

 down a poft, is eafily rolled out of the way of the plough, 

 and feems to be flill more agreeable to the cattle. They 

 are alfo ufeful in hog-fties. 



Thefe forts of polls may probably be found of great 

 fervice in the feeding pafture, for the purpofe cf the fatten- 

 ing ftock rubbing themfelves upon, as they tend to keep 

 them eafy and quiet, as well as to afford them that kind of 

 agreeable feeling which may be of utility in promoting their 

 progrefs towards a ftate of fatnefs. 



RUBBIO, in Commerce, a meafure for corn in Italy, 

 containing 8 lappa, which are equal to 7f Englifh bufhels. 



RUBBLE Stone, Grawwacie of Werner, Gres gris of 

 the French, is a particular kind of fand-itone, containing 

 not only grains of quartz, filiceous fchiftus, or horn-llone, 

 but alfo fcraps of blueifh argillite in a clayey cement, of 

 which there is often no more than is barely fufficient to 

 hold the grains together, fometimes with and fometimes 

 without mica ; commonly compact, fometimes flaty in the 

 grofs. Its colour is yellowifh, or blueifh-grey, or dark 

 reddifh-brown mixed with grey. Fra&ure, in the fmall, 

 fine fplintery, or earthy ; hardnefs from 7 to 9, rarely 10. 

 Sp. grav. from 2.64 to 2.685, Dut when withered only 

 2.6o. See Tranjilion RecKS. 



RUBECULA, in Ornithology, a fpecies of Motacilla ; 

 which fee. 



RUBEFACIENT, in Medicine, from rubor, rednefs, 

 and facto, I make, or produce, a term which is ufed to denote 

 thofe fubftances which, when applied externally, by fric- 

 tion or otherwile, excite the adtion of the iuperficial veifels, 

 and, by filling them with red blood, occafion a fuffufion of 

 rednefs in the part. 



The operation of a rubefacient is, therefore, analogous to 

 that of a blifter, but confiderably lefs efficient as a remedy ; 

 fince it produces, in fatt, but a fmall degree of the incipient 

 effect of a blifter, viz.. a very flight and fuperficial diftenfion 

 of the blood-vellels, fcarcely amounting to inflammation. 

 Rubefacients are employed under the lame indications as 

 bliftcrs, and are intended, like them, to relieve fome internal 

 pain or inflammation, by exciting a counter-irritation, or, 

 as fome explain it, by revulfion ; i. e. by drawing the fluids 

 from the difeafed to the external parts. The friction, by 



means of which the rubefacient is ufually applied, contri- 

 butes alfo to the fame effect. 



The fubftances, by which this effect is produced, are of 

 an acrid or ftimulating nature, fuch as ammonia, turpentine, 

 camphor, vinegar, the effential oils, fpirits, &c. : and the 

 difeafes, which they are ordinarily ufed to relieve, are the 

 flighter degrees of local internal inflammation. Thus, for 

 the relief of a flight fore-throat, or inflammation of the 

 tonfils, it is cuftomary to rub the front of the neck with hot 

 vinegar, or ammonia and oil ; and the more external rednefs 

 it produces, the more effectual is the internal relief. Slight 

 pains in the cheft are often materially alleviated by the ufe of 

 a warm liniment or plafler, or by the ufe of the ointment of 

 tartarized antimony, which excites not only rednefs, but 

 puilules. And rheumatic affections of the joints are often 

 more effectually removed by friction with a rubefacient, than 

 by any other means. See Revulsion. 



RUBELLIO, in Ichthyology, a name given by fome au- 

 thors to a fmall fea-fifh of a red colour, caught in the Me- 

 diterranean, and more ufually called by writers on thefe fub- 

 jects the erythrinifs. 



RUBELLITE, in Mineralogy, is confidercd as a fub- 

 fpecies of tourmaline, of a reddilh-violet colour. It differ^ 

 from tourmaline, being infufible under the blowpipe, but it 

 lofes its colour and tranfparency. Its fpecilic gravity is 3.1. 

 It contains, according to Klaproth, 



Silex - - 43.5 



Alumine - - 42.25 



Soda - - 9 



Oxyd of iron and mangancfe 1.5 



A fpecimen analyfed by Vauquelin gave 7 parts in the 

 100 of oxyd of iron and manganefe. This ftone is fome- 

 times ufed in jewellery. In the Greville collection of mine- 

 rals in the Britifh Mufeum, there is a magnificent fpecimen 

 of the red rubellite, originally preiented to Col. Symes by 

 the king of Ava. It has been valued at 1000/. 



RUBELLUS, in Ichthyology, a name given by fome 

 authors to the common roach, and by others to the rudd 

 or finfcale. 



RUBENACH, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Rhine and Mofelle, and chief place of a 

 canton, in the diitrict of Coblentz. The place contains 567, 

 and the canton 6935 inhabitants, in 19 communes. 



RUBENS, Sir Peter Paul, in Biography. This moll 

 Angularly accomplifhed man, and extraordinary painter, was 

 the fon of John Rubens and Mary Pipelings, both defend- 

 ants of diftinguifhed families of the city of Antwerp. His 

 father was one of the principal magistrates of that place, 

 when civil war defolated Flanders ; and its calamities ap- 

 proaching the precincts of his abode, he left it for Cologne, 

 in which city our artift was born in 1577. The day of his 

 nativity was the fealt of St. Peter and St. Paul, and from 

 thence he received, at the baptifmal font, the names of thefe 

 apoflles. From his infancy he difcovered prompt and lively 

 talents, which were cultivated by his parents with great care, 

 in every branch of polite and claflical literature ; and he 

 amply repaid their care by the high degree of fuccefs he 

 attained. 



The views of his parents were otherwife directed than 

 to the arts, and Rubens was placed, when his education was 

 completed, as a page to the countefs of Lalain ; a fitua- 

 tion too humble, and attended with occupation too trivial, 

 to engage or detain long, in its obfequious frivolities, fuch 

 a mind as he polleffed : and on the death of his father, which 

 happened loon after, he obtained permiffion of his mother 

 to purfue the bent of his inclination, and became a painter. 



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