Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/372

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whereby the number of parts is increafed, and the har- mony made fuller. Thus in pieces where in ftriiStnefs two trebles, and bafs, and thorough bal's are fufHcient, becaufe thefe parts are difpofed in fuch a manner, as that their har- mony is complete when played all together ; yet, in order to render the piece more perfect, "and to give it more grandeur, a counter tenor, tenor, and often two violins are added, whofe parts are entirely different from the other ; and the harmony then has feven parts inftead of three, and is coufe- quently' more complete and full. The parts thus added are properly called ripieni. Brojfard. RIPIERS, ripiarii, in our old writers, thofe that bring fiih from the fea coaft to the inner parts of the lands. (Jamb.

- Brit. 234. Bkunt) Cowel, They were thus called a fifcdla, qua in deuehendh pifdbus utuntur, angVice a rip.

RIPOSTE, in the manege, is the vindictive motion of ahorfe that anfwers the fpur with a kick of his foot.

RIPPERS, in the wire works, are the people who attend in the mills, take -the prepared fmall rods of iron, and work at the barrels where they are drawn into wire. Ray's Englifh word.?, p. 133.

RISCUS, among the Romans, fometimes fignifies a cheft or trunk covered with fkins ; fometimes it is ufed for a hamper made of twigs or rufhes to hold lint; and fometimes for ; hollow place in the wall of a houfe, ufed likewife for hold ing lint, or the like. Pitifc. in voc.

KlSENTITO, in the Italian mufic, a brifk, lively, or ex- prefiive manner of playing.

RISIGALLUM, in the materia medica, a fubftance of a red colour, generally placed among the kinds of arfenic or orpi- ment of the antients. Some of the later writers under- ftand by it the fandarach, and others the factitious red arfe- nic ; that it was looked upon to be poifonous is plain from Avifenna, who recommends it for killing rats, mice, and other vermin ; and this feems to refer it to the factitious kind, or fomething of that fort, known in thofe times ; for the native fandarach, does not ftand in the rank of poifons with them, nor indeed is fuch.

Diofcoridcs feems to diftinguifh the red orpiment from fan- darach, in that he fays, it approaches to the fandarach in colour ; he would never fay that a thing was of the like co- lour with itfelf; and therefore it appears, that he knew two kinds of red fubftances, under the names of red orpi- ment and fandarach. Avifenna mentions a red, a yellow, and a green zarnicle. We find thefe writers called the lapis armenus by the fame name zarnicle with the orpiment ; and it is probable, that this author confounding the two different fubftances togethei;, means real orpiment by the red and yellow, and a poor greenifh blue lapis armenus by the green.

RISING (Cycl.) — Rising timbers, in a fhip, are the hooks placed on her keel ; and are fo called, becaufe as they rife in proportion, fo her rake and her run rife on her flat floor by degrees.

RISORIUS nwus, in anatomy, a name given bySantorini to a mufcle, farmed of that part of the quadratic gena, which ariles from the check.

RISVIGLIATO, in the Italian mufic, is ufed to fignify, that after having played or fung a doleful and lamenting ftrain, a gay and lively air is to follow.

RI1HER, or RIDER, in mining, is a ftone or thin clift that lies in the vein ; the ore fometimes runs on both fides it. Sometimes the rither is i'o thick, it parts the vein, and makes one vein two. Houghton's compl. Miner in the Explan. of the Terms.

KIT. UALES libri, among the antients. See Aruspici lihri.

RIVERS {Cycl.) — It has been held by many, that all fprings and rivers owe their origin to rains and dews ; but there are fome fprings which cannot be accounted for on this prin- ciple, though others very well may. The intermitting fprings, which flow violently in rainy feafons, and are drv in rummer, are probably owing to rains ; but there are fome fprings, which difcharge more water annually, than all that falls in rain and" dews in the neighbouring country. The great perennial 'fprings at Willowbrig in Stafrordfhire is of this kind, and that of the Sorgne in France is much more eminently fo ; the river of that name, being, according to Ganendus, navigable up to the very fprings which are its fourcc.

But if fuch fprings, as thefe, difcharge too great a quantity of water for the fupply of rains and dews ; how is it pof- fible, that fuch final 1 fupplies of water as thefe, can afford the conftant currents of the larger rivers? The Vol^a alone, according to Ricciolus, pours forth as much water in a year's time into the Cafpian Sea, as would fuffice to drown the furface of the whole earth. The river of St. Lawrence, in the Weft Indies, pours forth nearly as much as this. If either of thefe rivers alone do, as has been affirmed, from calculations, difcharge annually as much water, as falls in the fame time in rains and mills upon the furface of the whole earth; from whence are all the reft to be fupplied, according to the fyftem of their all being made

■ by brains i and particularly where is left the fupply for the

Kio cle la Plata ; which Ricciolus attrms to be large? v : ;r- the Nile, the Ganges, and the Euphrates put together ' its mouth being ninety miles wide, and running with that violence into the fea, that it makes it freih tor two hundred miles together. Thefe, and the other rivers of the feveral parts of the globe, upon a very moderate calcula- tion, difcharge at leaft five hundred times as much water in- to the fea, as falls upon the whole furface of the earth, in rains, mifts, dews, fnows, £sV. In a like fpace of time. As it is evident, therefore, that thefe cannot be fupplied by rains, fo neither is it polfible that the feveral hot fprings, and the fait fprings can be fupplied that way : the origin of Iprirurs alfo in places where there falls little or no rain, and where the confervatories muft needs be too finall to contain a fupply, are great proofs that rain and mills are not the ori- gin of fprings, at leaft not in all places. The ifles of Mago, Rotunda, and the Strophades, and the rock whereon the maiden tower ftands in the Thracian Bofphorus, cannot be fupplied with, or retain a fufficiency of rain water to fupply conftant fprings, yet fuch are always found running there. It cannot be otherwife but that there are fubterrauean com- munications between the fea and the fources of fountains, rivers, and the larger fprings, by which thefe are fupplied ; and there are certainly chary bdes which fwallow the fea for thefe purpofes ; and when thefe happen to be flopped, the largefc rivers have been dried up, and wholly ceafed to run for aconfiderable time : this we have accounts in hiftory has happened to the Thames, the Trent, and Medway in Eng- land ; the Elve, the Motala, and Gulfpang in Sweden, and other rivers in other countries. If, on the other hand, thefe charybdes happen to be too open, frefh water fprings depending upon them will become fait. This we have in- ftances of in hiftory alfo; and even fo old a writer as" Pliny hasfaid, that this once happened in Caria near Neptune's Temple. Plot, de Origine Fontium. See Penuaria. It is pretended, by fome writers of voyages, that there are two rivers in China, the Chiemo and Jo, both in the pro- vince of Henfi, the water of both which is fo light that the final left ftraw cannot fwim in them, but finks to the bot- tom ; but we have no authentic teftimony of this wonderful thing. Redi's Efperience.

River horfc, in zoology. See Hippopotamus.

RIVET, in the manege, is the extremity of the nail that refts or leans upon the horn when you fhoc a horfe. See the articles Nail and Shoe.

RIVINIA, in the Linnsean fyftem of botany, a genus of plants, the characters of ■ which are thefe. The cup is a perianthium, divided into four fegments, of a different colour from the reft of the plant, and remaining till the feed ripens. Its fegments are oblong, oval, and obtufe. It has no petals. The ftamina are four filaments ftiorter than the calyx {landing in pairs, and remaining with the cup ; the anthers are very finall. The germen of the ptftillum is, large and roundifh, the ftyle is very ihort, and the ftigma fimple and obtufe. The fruit is a round berry, Handing on the cup, the leaves of which are bent back; 'this berry con- tains only one cell, in which is contained one roundifh, but flatted, rough feed. Limiesus's Gen. Plant, p. 52.

RIVOLGIMENTO, in the Italian mufic, is the placing a treble or upper part in the place of the bafs, or any low part, or vice verfa. This often happens in double coun- terpoint, where the treble ferves for the bafs, or the bafs for the treble ; and that in fuch a manner, that the har- mony, though different, remains as correct after this change, as it was in the natural order of the parts.

RIZIUM, in botany, a name given by the antients to a pe- culiar kind of red root brought from Syria, and ufed by the Grecian women to paint their checks red. The Latin writers, who have mentioned this, have called it radicula ; and Pliny, who has more than once mentioned it, calls it herba lanaria, or radix lanaria. This, however, is a very great error, confounding it with the Jhuth'ium of the Greeks. It is probable, that the rizium was no other than the ancufa, or alkanet root, which grows very plentifully in the countries from whence the Greeks had their ri%'1*m, and which will anfwer all the purpofes for which they ufed it. See Ancusa.

ROACH, (Cyd) in ichthyology, the Englifli name of a fifh, called by the generality cf authors the rutilus and rubiculus, by fome the ruhellio. It is a fpecics of the cyprinus, accord- ing to the new fyftem of Artedi. See the articles Rutilus and Cyprinus.

RO ACHING of alum, one of the Iaft procefies ufed in the alum making, and is what renders it fit for the market. After the alum liquor has been left four days' in the cooler, and is fufliciently fhot, they drain it out; and taking out the alunty they warn it in a ciftern of alum water fo ftrong, that it can fcarce take up any more of that fait, but only clean fes it of its accidental foulncfles. After this wafting the alum is put into large pans, and a quantity of water added to it. It is fet over the fire to melt in this water and boil a little ; then it is fcooped into a great cafit, where it is fullered to ftand about ten days ; and it is then fit for the market under the name of roatb 'alum^ or road-.ed.alum ; the 2 liquor