184 ROE 
able part of bis wife’s fortune. So that when he died, his 
widow was left without any provision for her immediate or 
future support, and without the smallest advantage from the 
extraordinary exertions and meritorious industry of her 
husband. 
Dr. Roebuck departed this life on the 17th of July, 1794, 
retaining all his faculties, spirit, and good humour, to the last. 
Dr. Roebuck was the author of a few compositions, viz.l, A 
Paper read in 1784, to the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 
fV.e “ Ripening of Corn," wherein he shewed that corn can 
ripen at a temperature of 43°, and therefore that fanners should 
not cut their com down in a cold autumn on the supposition 
that it cannot perfectly fill. (This error might have been 
practised formerly, but is by no means the case at present.) 2, 
“ Account of certain phenomena observed in the air-vault 
of the furnaces of the Devon iron works, together with some 
practical remarks on the management of blast furnaces,” 
published in the Edinburgh Transactions, vol. v. p. 31. 
3, A Paper in the Royal Society of London (Phi/. Trans. 
1775.) entitled, “ A comparison of (the heat of London and 
Edinburgh.” 4, “ Experiments on ignited bodies,” Phil. 
Trans. 1776. 
Dr. Roebuck also published two political pamphlets, but 
their names have not reached us. 
ROEBUCK ISLAND, a small island at the eastern extre¬ 
mity of Lake Ontario. 
ROEBUCK ISLAND, a small island in the gulf of 
Mexico, near the coast of West Florida. Lat. 30. 17. N. 
long. 88. 44. W. 
ROEBURN, a small river of England, in Lancashire. 
ROEDERER (Jolm-George), an anatomist and eminent 
writer on midwifery, was born in 1726, at Strasburg. He 
studied’ physic, and afterwards travelled for improvement to 
Paris, England, and Holland. The illustrious -Haller in¬ 
vited him, in 1754, to Gottingen to be his assistant, and 
resigned to him the anatomical chair. He also gave 
lectures on the theory and practice of midwifery, which 
greatly improved that art as administered by practitioners of 
'both sexes in that part of Germany. 
This physician wrote a number of works, many of which 
were theses, programs, dissertations, &c., on anatomical and 
obstetrical topics, to which he applied great exactness of ob¬ 
servation, with respect to measure, weight, and other parti¬ 
culars. He also published “ Elementa Artis Obstetric® ad 
Usurn Prelectionum Academicarum,” 8vo., 1752 ; and 
“ leones Uteri humani Observationibus illustrate,•” fob, 
1759; “ Opuscula Medica, sparsim prius edita,” 4to. 
R.OEHAMPTON, a pleasant hamlet of England, in Surry, 
between tire Heath and East Sheen, where are several elegant 
villas’; 8| miles south-west-by-south from St. Paul’s, 
London. 
ROELL (Hermann-Alexander), a celebrated Protestant 
divine and theological professor in Friesland and Utrecht 
during the latter part of the 17th and at the commencement 
of the 18th century. He was born in 1653, at Doelberg, in 
the county of Marck, in Westphalia. He became chaplain 
to Elizabeth, Abbess of Hervorden, and daughter of Fre- 
'deric-King of Bohemia, and he retained that post till the 
death of the Princess, in 3 680. Not long after that event he 
was appointed preacher to Albertine, Princess of Orange, and 
widow of William of Nassau ; in whose household, and at 
Deventer, he exercised the ministry till the year 1686, when 
he accepted the offer of a professorship in divinity from the 
University of Franeker. About this time a controversy began 
to be warmly agitated in the united provinces concerning the 
following questions: “Whether the divine origin and au¬ 
thority of the Holy Scriptures can be demonstrated by reason 
alone, or whether an inward testimony of the Holy Spirit in 
the'■hearts of Christians be necessary in order to the firm 
belief of this fundamental point ?” and “ Whether the sacred 
writings propose to us, hs an object of faith, any thing that 
is repugnant to the dictates of right reason ?” Professor Roell 
took an active part in this controversy, and was at the 
head of those doctors and other learned men who answered 
the former question in the affirmative, and the latter in the 
ROE 
negative. As the flame excited by this controversy increased 
from day to day, the states of Friesland thought proper to 
interpose their authority, and attempted to restore peace to 
the church,- by imposing silence on the contending parties. 
Not long afterwards, Roell alarmed the orthodoxy of his 
colleagues, more particularly of the learned. Vitringa, by 
using language when explaining the doctrines of tlie 
generation of the son, the satisfaction of Christ, the divine 
decrees, and the penal effects of original sin, which they pro¬ 
nounced to differ essentially from the meaning of those 
doctrines as received and established in the Dutch church. 
To prevent any controversy on these points in their province, 
the magistrates of Friesland again interfered, and published 
an edict enjoining silence, forbidding&t the same time all pro¬ 
fessors, pastors, &c. from teaching the particular opinions of 
Roell; and this pacific divine sacrificed the propagation of 
his notions to the love of peace and concord. But in other- 
provinces, the explanations of our author and his disciples 
were condemned, both in private and in public synods, as 
heresies and corruptions of divine truth. Dr. Maclaine, in a 
note to his version of Mosheim’s “ Ecclesiastical History,” 
observes, that Roell’s “ notion concerning the Trinity 
did not essentially differ from the doctrine generally 
received upon that mysterious and unintelligible sub¬ 
ject; and his design seemed to be no more than to pre¬ 
vent Christians from humanizing the relation between the 
Father and theiSow. But this was wounding his brethren, the 
rigorous systematic divines, in a tender point; for if Anthro¬ 
pomorphism, or the custom of attributing to the deity; the 
kind of procedure in acting and judging that is usual among 
men (who resemble him only as imperfection resembles per¬ 
fection), was banished from theology, orthodoxy would be 
deprived of some of its most precious phrases, and our con¬ 
fessions of faith and systems of doctrine would be reduced 
within much narrower bounds.” However, notwithstanding 
that our author’s particular opinions were proscribed, he was 
continued in the exercise of the functions of his professorship 
at Franeker, for several years afterwards. In 1704, he ac¬ 
cepted an invitation to fill the divinity chair at the Univer¬ 
sity of Utrecht, upon the most honourable and advantageous 
terms; and he retained that post with great credit till his 
death, in 1718, when he was in the 66th year of his age. 
Among several of his publications, the most important are, 
“ Theological Theses on the Generation of the Son, and the 
temporal Death of the Faithful,” 1689, 4to.; “Two Philo¬ 
sophical Dissertations on Natural Religion, and one on innate- 
ideas,” 1700, 4to. 
ROELLA, [so named in honour of William Roell, pro¬ 
fessor of anatomy at Amsterdam.] in botany, a genus of the 
class pentandria, order monogynia, natural order of cam- 
panacese, campanulaceaa, (Juss.) Generic Character.— 
Calyx: perianth one-leaved, turbinate, five-parted, perma¬ 
nent, superior; segments lanceolate, acute, toothed, large. 
Corolla; one-petal led, funnel-form, deciduous; tube a little 
shorter than the calyx; border from upright-spreading, five- 
parted, longer than the calyx; nectary of five converging 
scales, at the bottom of the corolla. Stamina: filaments 
five, awl-shaped, placed on the nectary; anthers awl-shaped, 
converging, the length of the filaments, the height of the 
calyx. Pistil: germ oblong, inferior; style filiform, the 
length of the stamens; stigmas two, oblong, depressed, 
spreading. Pericarp: capsule cylindrical, shorter than the 
calyx, crowned with the calyx which spreads and is become 
larger, two-celled (according to Bergius sub-bilocular—to 
Geertner, unilocular, opening at top by a large round hole:) 
Seeds very many, angular.—Allied to Campanula. 
Essential Character. —Corolla : funnel-form, with the; 
bottom closed by stamiaiferous valves. Stigma bifid. Cap¬ 
sule two-celled (one-celled, G.) cylindrical, inferior. 
1. Roella ciliata or ciliate roella. —Leaves lanceolate, 
ciliate, flowers solitary, terminating. This is a low shrubby 
plant, somewhat like a heath when not in flower. The nar¬ 
row ciliate leaves are clustered about the flower-bud like 
bractes. A single flower terminates each branch, differing 
from that of the campanula, .to which it is very nearly related, 
in 
