R U S 
454 
RUSK, s. Hard bread for stores.—The lady sent me 
divers presents of fruits, sugar, and rusk. Ralegh. 
RUSK, Al, a village of Koordistan; 18 miles south-east 
of Amidieb. 
RUSKINGTON, a parish of England, in Lincolnshire; 
2 5 miles north of Sleaford. Population 556. 
RU'SMA, s. A brown and light substance, with 
half as much quicklime steeped in water, of which the 
Turkish women make their psilothron, to take off their hair. 
This substance is called by the ancient Greeks, sory, and 
the Arabians nouret, and is similar to the drug for taking otf 
the hair, prepared in the Egyptian baths. The proportion is 
seven parts of lime to three of orpiment. It is necessary for 
the person who desires to use it, to keep in a very warm place, 
such as the hot baths of the East, in which a profuse sweat 
exudes from all parts of the body. The mixture is diluted 
with water, and lightly rubbed on the parts from which the 
hair is to be taken off. After a few moments, it will be seen 
if the hair be loosened; it can then be plucked out without 
pain, and the skin is afterwards washed with hot water. Care 
must be taken, however, thaUthis liniment does not remain 
on too long, because it would burn the skin. It does 
not prevent the hair from growing again, and at the end of 
some time, the operation must be repeated. 
Mr. Boyle tells us, he made a fine powder of equal parts 
of rusma and quick-lime, and letting them soak a little 
time in water, they became a soft paste, which he spread on 
the part he would free from hair; and after letting this paste 
lie on about three minutes, he wiped it otf with a wet cloth, 
and found the hair taken away by the roots without any in¬ 
convenience to the part. 
RUSPdS, She-ah, a town of Africa, on the gulf of 
Numidia, according to Ptolemy, situated between Achola 
and Brachodes Exterma; 6 miles south of Achola. Some 
ruins still remain. 
RUSPER, a parish of England, in Sussex; 5 miles north - 
north-east of Horsham. Population 450. 
RUSPINA, Sahaleel, a town of Africa, on the gulf of 
Numidia, between Leptis Minor and Adrumettium, accord¬ 
ing to Ptolemy. It was situated on the declivity of an 
eminence about a mile from the sea, south-east of Adrumet¬ 
tium. It is known by some ancient remains. 
RUSPONO, in Commerce, a .gold coin of Tuscany, 
which is a piece of 3 sequins, passing for 40 lire or 60 paoli. 
In our money, it is worth about 1 /. 8 .v. 6d. 
RUSS, a small town of East Prussia, on the Niemen; 28 
miles south-by-east of Memel, with 800 inhabitants. 
RUSS, a small island in the Eastern seas, near the west 
coast of Nassau. Lat. 2. 53. S. long. 99. 48. E. 
RUSSBACH, Great, a petty town of Lower Austria, to 
the north of the Danube, containing, with the surrounding 
parish, 1900 inhabitants; 20 miles north of Vienna. 
RUSSEL (Alexander), a physician and topographical 
writer, was a native of Edinburgh. After a grammatical 
education at the high-school, he was placed with a medical 
practitioner of that place; and from the year 1732 he began 
to attend the medical lectures of the University. He went 
to London in 1735, soon after which he visited Turkey; and 
in 1740 he settled at Aleppo, as physician to the English 
factory. In that capital of Syria he passed many years, 
making himself acquainted with the language and customs 
of the natives, and by his prudent and humane conduct 
ingratiating himself with all ranks and sects to such a degree, 
that no European appears to have been more generally re¬ 
spected and confided in. He was an intimate friend of the 
pashaw, who not only consulted him professionally, but 
took bis advice about matters of police, and was often in¬ 
duced by him to relax the rigour of criminal justice. After 
his return to England in 1755, he published the result of his 
observations in the East, in a work entitled “ The Natural 
History of Aleppo,” 4to., 1756, which, in point of authority 
and valuable information, stands high among books of a 
similar class. It is particularly valuable for its observations 
on the plague, which destructive pestilence he studied with 
great attention, both there, and at several lazarettos which he 
R U S 
visited on his journey home. A new and much enlarged 
edition of it has been published since his death, by his- 
brother, who succeeded him as physician to the factory 
there. Gen. Beog. 
RUSSELEI, a village of Diarbekir, in Asiatic Turkey; 
58 miles south of Mosul. 
RUSSELIA [so named by Jacquin, in honour of Alex¬ 
ander Russel, M. D. F. R. S. author of the “ Natural History 
of Aleppo”], in Botany, a genus of the class didynamia, 
order angiospermia, natural order of personate, scrophulariae 
(Juss.) —Generic Character. Calyx: perianth, five-leaved, 
permanent; leaflets ovate, concave, acuminate, small, erect. 
Corolla: one-petalled ; tube cylindric, compressed a little, 
erect, very long, internally under the lower lip hairy; border 
two-lipped; upper-lip roundish, flat, emargiuate, spreading, 
with the tip reflexed: lower-lip trifid; segments oblong, 
obtuse, flat, spreading very much, a little longer than the 
upper. Stamina: filaments four, filiform, erect, a little 
shorter than the tube; two of them longer; anthers ovate. 
Pistil: germ ovate; style filiform, erect, the length of the 
shorter stamens; stigma globular. Pericarp: capsule, round¬ 
ish, pointed by part of the style which is permanent, one- 
celled, two-valved; the length of the calyx. Seeds nume¬ 
rous, very small.— Essential Character. Calyx five-leaved, 
setaceous at the end. Corolla tube very long, hairy at the 
throat; border two-lipped ; lower-lip trifid. Capsule acu¬ 
minate, one-celled, two-valved, mauy-seeded. 
Russelia sarmentosa.—Stems shrubby, four-cornered, wand¬ 
like, smooth, very long and weak, numerous, supported on 
neighbouring shrubs three or four feet in height, and then 
bending down again. Leaves ovate, serrate, acute, some¬ 
what hirsute on the upper surface and at the edge, smooth 
on the under surface, on very short petioles, opposite, an 
inch long, and placed at two or three inches’ distance from 
each other. Peduncles axillary, opposite, three-flowered 
or two-flowered, only half the length of the leaves, in the 
direction of the the stem; the pedicels reflexed after the flow¬ 
ers fall. At the base of each pedicel a lanceolate bracte. 
Flowers handsome, of a fine red colour, but without scent; 
almost an inch over.—Found about Havana, in close woods 
and coppices. 
RUSSELL (Lord William), a distinguished patriot and 
martyr to the cause of liberty, was the third son of William, 
the first Duke of Bedford, by a daughter of the Earl of 
Somerset. He was born about 1641. Being in the fervour 
of youth at the time of the Restoration, he joined in the 
gaities of the court; till his marriage in 1667 with Rachel,• 
second daughter and co-heiress of the Earl of Southampton 
(then widow of Lord Vaughan), reclaimed him from any 
irregularities into which he had fallen, and he thenceforth 
maintained a wholly unblemished character. He repre¬ 
sented the county of Bedford in the parliament which was 
dissolved in January, 1678-9, and continued to be a member 
in the three subsequent ones of that reign, highly regarded for 
his patriotism and independence, and considered as one of 
the heads of the Whig party. His life and death are narrated 
in the article England, p. 690. 
RUSSELL, a county of the United States, in the south¬ 
west part of Virginia, bounded north by Kentucky, east-north¬ 
east by Tazewell county, south-south-east by Washington 
county, and west by Lee county. Population 6316, in¬ 
cluding 386 slaves. 
RUSSELL ISLAND, one of the Bahamas, near Harbour 
island, at the north-west extremity of Eleuthera. It contains 
one or two families, who have sei led there. 
RUSSELLED, aelj. A provincial term for shrivelled. 
RUSSELLVILLE, a town of the United States, and capi¬ 
tal of Logan county, Kentucky. It contains a court-house, 
a jail, a bank, an academy, a meeting-house, two printing 
offices, and had, in 1817, about 170 houses. It is nearly 
equi-distant from Green and Cumberland rivers, about 85 
miles from each, and situated in a very fertile country. A 
vineyard has lately been planted about two miles from Rus¬ 
sellville. Population 532 ; 200 miles south-west of Lexing¬ 
ton, and 85 south of Louisville. 
RUSSELSHEIM, 
