RUM 



RUM 



tation, the ftomach becomes diflended with air, and death 

 frequently enfues. See Cud and Hoven. 



Great care is therefore to be taken with all thefe forts of 

 animals when they are firfl turned into rich full graded paf- 

 tures, to fee that they do not ftay in them too long at a time, 

 or fill themfelves too full of fuch rich food. They are beft 

 and fafeft when only put into them for a fliort period at any 

 one time, on being firft turned upon them. And the pro- 

 pereft feafon for them, as well as the grafs, is probably to 

 confume it when it is in the dry ftate, as when eaten while 

 very wet, there may be injurious confequences in both ways. 



RUMINATIO, in Medicine, which literally fignifies 

 chetuing the cud, is applied by analogy to exprefs one of the 

 fymptoms of indigeftion, nearly allied to nidation, when 

 the ftomach, by repeated fpafmodic efforts, throws up into 

 the mouth, not only flatus and fome of its fecretions, but 

 portions of the undigefted food. Dr. Cullen defines dyf- 

 fepfia, or indigeftion, by enumerating this among other 

 fymptoms by which it is, in different inftances, characterized. 

 " Anorexia, naufea, vomitus, inflatio, ructus, ruminatio, 

 kc." See his Synopf. Nofolog. Method, Gen. 45. See 

 Ructation, Indigestion, &c. 



RUMINATION, in Comparative Phyfiology,* technical 

 term equivalent to the common phrafe of "chewing 1 the cud." 

 It denotes the alcent of the food from the paunch, or firft 

 ftomach, into the mouth, and the fecond maftication which it 

 there undergoes ; a procefs confined to thofe mammalia 

 which have complicated itomachs. When this fecond mafti- 

 cation has been accomplifhed, the food defcends, not into 

 the paunch, which receives it when it is firft fwallowcd, but 

 into the fecond ftomach ; and thence fucceflively into the 

 third and fourth. The mechanifm, by which the animal has 

 the power of conveying its food either into the paunch or the 

 fecond ftomach at will, as well as the ftructure of the fto- 

 mach of ruminating animals altogether, is defcribed in the 

 article Mammalia. It is a fingular example of voluntary 

 power over the motions of an organ, which in other refpects 

 and in other animals are completely involuntary. " The in- 

 fluence of the will," fays Blumenbach, "in the whole affair of 

 rumination, is inconteftible. It is not confined to any par- 

 ticular time, fince the animal candelay it accordingto circum- 

 ftances, when the paunch is quite fulL It has been cxprefsly 

 ftated of foine men, who have had the power of ruminating 

 (inftances of which are not very rare), that it was quite vo- 

 luntary with them. I have known two men who have ru- 

 minated their vegetable food : both allured me that they had 

 a real enjoyment in doing this, which has alfobeen oblerved 

 of others : and one of them had the power of doing it or 

 leaving it alone, according to circumilances." Comparative 

 Anatomy, p. 138, note. 



The final purpofe of rumination, fays the fame author, as 

 applicable to all the animals in which it takes place, and the 

 chief utility of this wonderfully complicated function in the 

 animal economy, are ft ill completely unknown : what has 

 been already fuggefted on thefe points is quite unfatisfadtory. 

 Fabricius ab Aquapendente lias fufficiently refuted the 

 old dream of Arillotle and Galen, that rumination fup- 

 plied the place of incifor teeth, the materials of which 

 are applied in thefe animals to the formation of horns. Per- 

 rault and others fuppofed that it contributed to their fecu- 

 rity ; as they eat much, and are timid, they fuppoled it re- 

 moved the neceflity of their remaining long employed in 

 chewing in an open pailure. But the Indian buffalo rumi- 

 nates, although it docs not fly even from a lion, but rather 

 attacks, and often vanquifhes that animal. And the wild 

 goatdwellsin alpine countries, which arc inacccilible to beaftl 

 of prey. Comparat. Anat. loc. cit. 



Vol. XXX. 



RUMMAGE, probably derived from the Saxon raum, 

 room, or /pace, in the Sea Language, fignifies to clear a (hip's 

 hold, or to remove goods or luggage from one place to 

 another. 



RUMMEL, in Geography, a river of Algiers, which 

 paffes by Conftantina, and afterwards joins the Wed el Kib- 

 beer, 18 miles N.W. of Conftantina. 



RUMMELSBURG, a town of Farther Pomerania, 

 fituated on the Wipper ; 25 miles S. of Rugenwalde. N. 



!*• 53° 55'- E - ]o "S- 6 5° 53'- 



RUMNEY. See Romney. 



Rumney, or Romney Marjh, a tract of land in the 

 county of Kent, (fee Romney,) governed by certain ancient 

 and equitable laws of fewers, compofed by Henry de Bathe, 

 a venerable judge in the reign of king Henry III. who 

 granted a charter to this dillrict, impowering twenty-four 

 men, thereunto chofen, to make diftreflcs equally upon all 

 thofe which have lands and tenements in the iaid marfh, to 

 repair the walls and water-gates of the fame, againft the 

 dangers of the fea. The commiflioners of fewers, in other 

 parts of England, may act according to the laws and cuf- 

 toms of Rumney Marfh, or otherwife, at their own difcre- 

 tion ; fubject to the difcretionary revilion of the court of 

 king's bench. 



Rumney, or Romney, a townfhip of New Hampfhire, 

 America, in Grafton county, on a north branch of Baker's 

 river, about 7 or 8 miles N.W. of Plymouth, on the W. 

 fide of the Pemigewaffet, incorporated in 1767, and con- 

 taining 765 inhabitants. 



RUMOUR, in Law. Spreading falfe rumours is crimi- 

 nal, and punifhable at common law. 



RUMP of a Bird. See Uroiugium, and Anatomy of 

 Birds. 



RUMPHIA, in Botany, was inferibed by Linnxus to 

 the memory of George Everard Rumph, M.D. counfellor 

 to the Dutch Eaft India Company, whofe remembrance 

 muft ever be dear to all ftudents of tropical botany, for the 

 fake of his Herbarium Amboincnfe. This work, of feven 

 volumes folio, was the fruit of his long refidence, and great 

 authority, in Amboyna, nor does it, as a (lore of faithful 

 practical information, fall fliort of any performance of the 

 kind. It has indeed fome of the faults, or rather misfor- 

 tunes, of a pofthumous publication ; and the reader muft 

 always keep in mind that the figures, far inferior to thofe of 

 the Hortus Aiilabaricus, are generally not more than half 

 the fize of nature. The original drawings, ftill in exiftence, 

 are faid to be very fine. The author was born at Hanau 

 in 1637, and died in 1706. His ardour for natural fcience 

 rofe above the moft formidable obftacles, fuch as the 

 lofs of fight, at forty-three years of age, and the deflruc- 

 tion by fire of all his papers and collections, feven years af- 

 terwards. He publifhed at Amfterdam, in 1706, a fplendid 

 and excellent work on fhells in Dutch, and is faid to have 

 left behind him, in manufcript, a political hillory of Am- 

 boyna. Happy were it if his gentle and benevolent fpirit 

 tended, in any way, to meliorate the cruel and fordid policy 

 of his countrymen there, or any where elfe ! He was a 

 member of the Imperial Academy Nature Curioforum, and 

 well defignated by that body, according to their cuftomary 

 mode, as the Indian Pliny. — Linn. Gen. PI. 23. Selireb. 31. 

 Willd. Sp. PI. v. 1. 1S7. Mart. Mill. Diet. v. 4. Vahl. 

 Enum. v. 2. 36. .luff. 370. Lamarck lllultr. t. 25. — 

 Clafs and order, Triandria Mtnogynia. Nat. Old. Tricoccf, 

 Linn. Tircbintace,t? Jufl. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth inferior, of one leaf, three-cleft, 



erect, flat. Cor. Petals three, oblong, obtufc, equal, much 



exceeding the calvx. Stam. Filaments three, awi-fhaped, 



4 X the 



