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Rh the continuation of Richter's autobiography by C. Otto and E. Forster (1826-33); H. Doring, J. P. F. Richters Leben und Charakteristik (1830-32); R. O. Spazier, J. P. F. Richter: ein biographischer Kommentar zu dessen Werken (5 vols., 1833): E. Forster, Denkimirdigkeiten aus dem Legen von J. P. F. Richter (1863); P. Nerrlich, Jean Paul und seine Zeitgenossen (1876);  Firmerg, Etude sur la vie et les aeuvres de J. P. F. Richter (1886);. Nerrlic, , Jean Paul, sein Leben und seine Werke (1889); F. J. Schneider, Jean Pauls Altersdichtung (1901); by the same, Jean Pauls Jugend und erstes Auftreten in der I/iteratur (1906). All Richter's more important works have been translated into English, Quintus Fixlein and Schmelzles Reise, by Carlyle; see also Carlyle's two admirable essays on Richter.

RICHTHOFEN, FERDINAND, BARON VON (1833-1905), German geographer and traveller, was born near Karlsruhe, Silesia, on the 5th of May 1833. He was educated at Breslau and Berlin, and in 1856 carried out geological investigations in the Tirol, subsequently extending them to Transylvania. In 1859 he accompanied as geologist the Prussian diplomatic mission to the Far East under Count von Eulenburg, and visited Ceylon, lapan, Formosa, the Philippines and ]ava, subsequently making an overland journey from Bangkok to Moulmein and reaching Calcutta in 1862. No important work resulted from these travels, for much of Richthofen's records and collections was lost. China was at the time inaccessible owing to the Taiping rebellion, but Richthofen was impressed with the desirability of exploring it, and after a visit to California, where he remained till 1868, he returned to the East. In a remarkable series of seven journeys he penetrated into almost every part of the Chinese Empire. He returned home in 1872, and a work comprising three large volumes and an atlas, which, however, did not cover the entire field or complete the author's plan, appeared at Berlin in 1877-85 under the title of China; Ergebnisse eigner Reisen und darauf gegritndeter Studien. In this standard work the author deals not only with geology but with every subject necessary to a general geographical treatise. Notably he paid close attention to the economic resources of the country he traversed; he wrote a valuable series of letters to the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, and first drew attention to the importance of the coalfields of Shantung, and of Kiaochow as a port. In 1875 Richthofen was elected professor of geology at Bonn, but being fully occupied with his work in China he did not take up professorial duties till 1879; in 1883 he became professor of geography at Leipzig, and in 1886 was chosen to the same office at Berlin, and held it till h is death. His lectures attracted who subsequently became eminent in

and in order to keep in touch with them

Weekly geographical “ colloquium.” Of

besides that on China, there may be men numerous students

geographical work,

he established his

his written works,

tioned “Die Kalkalpen von Voralberg und Nordtirol ”/ in Jahrbuch der geologischen Reichsanstalt (1859-1861); “ Die Metallproduktion Kaliforniens ” in Petermanns Mitteilungen (1865); Natural System of Volcanic Rocks (San Francisco, 1867); Aufgaben und Methoden' der heutigen Geographic (an address delivered at Leipzig, 1883); Fuhref für Forschungsreisende (Berlin, 1886); Triebkrafte und Richtungen der Erdkunde in neunzehnten Jahrhundert (address .on his election as rector, Berlin, 1903). He was for many years president of the German Geographical Society, and he founded the Berlin Hydrographical Institute. He died on the 16th of October 1905.

RICIMER (d. 472), master of the Roman Empire in the West during part of the 5th century, was the son of a prince of the Suebi and the daughter of Wallia, king of the Visigoths. His youth was spent at the court of Valentinian III., and he won distinction under Aetius. In 456 he defeated the Vandals in a sea-fight near Corsica, and on land near Agrigentum in Sicily, and backed by the popularity thus acquired, Ricimer then gained the consent of the Roman senate to an expedition against the e1nperor, Avitus, whom he defeated in abloody battle at Piacenza on the 16th of October 456. Avitus was taken prisoner and made bishop of Piacenza, and shortly afterwards sentenced to death. Ricimer then obtained from Leo I., emperor at* Constantinople, the title patrician, but in 457 set up Majorianus as his own emperor in the West, and induced Leo to give his consent. .When, however, Majorianus tried to rule by himself, ' Ricimer forced him .to abdicate and caused his assassination on the 7th of August 461. The successor whom Ricimer placed upon the throne was Libius Severus, who provedto be more docile than Majorianus, but had to face the rivalry of Leo in the East and Aegidius in Gaul. Upon his death in 46 5-said to be due to the poison of Ricimer -this emperor-maker ruled the West for eighteen months without an emperor, and then accepted Leo's candidate Anthemius, diplomatically married his daughter, and for some time lived in peace with him. Before long, however, Ricimer moved to Milan, ready to declare war upon Anthemius. St Epiphanius, bishop of Milan, patched up a truce, but in 472 Ricimer was again before Rome with an army of Germans, proclaimed as emperor Olybrius, whom Leo had sent to pacify the two enemies, and after three months' siege took the city, on the 1st of July 472. Anthemius was massacred and Rome was a prey to Ricimer's soldiers. He himself, however, died on the 18th of August 472, of malignant fever.

RICINA, an ancient town of Picenum, Italy, 3 m. N.W. of the modern Macerata, on the banks of the river Potenza, in a fertile valley. It was probably a municipium until it was re founded by Pertinax and Septimius Severus, after which it bore the name Colonia Helvia Ricina Pertinax. The site is now deserted, but considerable ruins of a theatre and remains of baths and other buildings (all in brickwork of the imperial period) still exist; also the fragments of an ancient bridge over the Potenza.

 RICKETS, a constitutional disease of childhood characterized chiefly by a softened condition of the bones and by other evidences of perverted nutrition. It was first described in 1649 by Arnold de Boot, a Frisian physician practising in Ireland. Its nature and causation are discussed under. The name “ rickets” is from the Old English wrickken, to twist; the more technical medical term, rachitis, which comes from Greek ῥάχις, the spine, was suggested by Francis Glisson in 1650, both from similarity of sound and from the part of the body which is one of the first to be affected.

Rickets can seldom be recognized until several months after birth, and it most commonly attracts attention at about the end of the first year. The symptoms which precede the outward manifestation of the disease are marked disorders of the digestive and alimentary functions. The child's appetite is diminished, and there is frequent vomiting, together with diarrhoea or irregularity of the bowels, the evacuations being clay-coloured and unhealthy. Along with this there is a falling away in flesh. Importance is to be attached to certain other symptoms present in the early stages, namely, profuse sweating of the head and upper parts of the body, particularly during sleep, with at the same time dry heat of the lower parts and a tendency in the child to kick off all coverings and expose the limbs. At the same time there is great tenderness of the bones, as shown by the pain produced on moving or handling the child. Gradually the changes in the shape of the bones become visible, at first chiefly noticed at the ends of the long bones, as in those of the arm, causing enlargements at the wrists, or in the ribs, producing a knobbed appearance at the junction of their ends with the costal cartilages. The bones also from their softened condition tend to become distorted and misshapen, both by the action of the muscles and by the superincumbent weight of the body. Those of the limbs are bent outwards and forwards, and the child' becomes “ bowlegged ” or “ in-kneed ” often to an extreme degree. The trunk of the body likewise shows various alterations and deformities owing to curvatures of the spine, the flattening of the lateral curves of the ribs, and the projection forwards of the sternum. The cavity of the chest may thus be contracted and the development of the thoracic organs interfered with as well as their functions more or less embarrassed. The pelvis undergoes distortion, which may reduce its capacity to a