Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/326

Rh 308 R E A R E B which finally superseded the native law in James I.'s reign, as modified by subsequent legislation. The main difference is in the law of LANDLORD AND TENANT (q.v.) and the operation of the Landed Estates Court, merged in the High Court of Justice in Ire- land by the Supreme Court of Judicature (Ireland) Act, 1877. United Skttes.lhe law of real estate in the United States is the law of England modified to suit a different state of circumstances. The main point of difference is that in the United States the occupiers of laud are generally wholly or in part owners, not tenants, as in England. This is to a great extent the effect of the home- stead laws (see HOMESTEAD). The traces of the feudal origin of the law are, as might be expected, considerably less prominent than in England. Thus estates tail are practically obsolete ; in some States they are specially forbidden by the State constitutions. The law of descent is the same in real and personal estate (see INHERIT- ANCE). Manors do not exist, except in the State of New York, where they were created by the crown in colonial days (Bouvier, Law Diet., "Manor"). Registration of deeds is general (see REGISTRATION). In some States forms of deed are prescribed by statute. Conveyancing is for the most part simpler than in Eng- land. The holding of real estate by religious or charitable corpora- tions is generally restricted by the Act creating them rather than by anything like the English law of mortmain. In Pennsylvania such a corporation cannot hold land without an Act of the legisla- ture, and in Territories of the United States it cannot hold real estate of a greater value than $50,000 (Act of Congress of 1st July 1862, c. 126). Perpetuities are forbidden in most States. The right of eminent domain is at once acknowledged and limited by the constitution of the United States. By art. 5 of the Amendments private property is not to bo taken for public use without just com- pensation. A similar provision is found in many of the State con- stitutions. By an Act of Congress of 9th April 1866, c. 31, all citizens of the United States have the same right in every State and Territory as is enjoyed by white citizens thereof to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property. In most States aliens may hold land ; but in some States they cannot do so without becoming naturalized or at least filing in the specified manner a declaration of intention to become naturalized. For the State laws affecting the capacity of aliens to hold land, see Wash- burn, Real Property, vol. i. p. 64. ." International Law. The law of the place where real estate is situated (lex loci rei sitse) governs its tenure and transfer. The laws of England and of the United States are more strict on this point than the laws of most other countries. They require that the for- malities of the locus rei sitx must be observed, even if not necessary to be observed in the place where the contract was made. The lex loci rei sites determines what is to be considered real estate. A foreign court cannot as a general rule pass title to land situated in another country. The English and United States courts of equity have to a certain extent avoided the inconvenience which this in- ability to deal with land out of the jurisdiction sometimes causes by the use of the theory that equity acts upon the conscience of the party and not upon the title to the foreign land. Thus in the leading case of Penn v. Lord Baltimore in 1750 (1 Vesey's Reports, 444) the Court of Chancery on this ground decreed specific per- formance of articles for settling the boundaries of the provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland. The difficulty always arises that, although the court professes to act upon the conscience, it must indirectly act upon the property, and that it cannot carry its decision into execution without the aid of the local tribunals. (J. Wf.) REALISM. See SCHOLASTICISM. REAUMUR, REN ANTOINE FERCHAULT DE (1683- 1757), the eldest son of a French, nobleman, was born on 28th February 1683 at La Rochelle and received his early education there. He was taught philosophy in the Jesuits' college at Poitiers, and in 1699, when "hardly seventeen, but already possessed of the prudence of a grown man," went to Bourges to study civil law and mathematics under the charge of an uncle, canon of La Sainte Chapelle. In 1703 he came to Paris, where he continued the study of mathematics and physics. He soon made his presence felt in the highest circles, and in 1708, at the remarkably early age of twenty-four, was elected a member of the Academic des Sciences. From this time onwards for nearly half a century hardly a year passed in which the Memoires de I' Academic did not contain at least one paper by Reaumur. At first his attention was occupied by mathematical studies, especially in geometry. In 1710 he was appointed to the charge of a great Government work the official descrip- tion of the useful arts and manufactures which led him to many practical researches that resulted in the establish- ment of manufactures new to France and the revival of neglected industries. For discoveries regarding iron and steel the regent Orleans awarded him a pension of 12,000 livres ; but, being content with his ample private income, he requested that the money should be secured to the Academic des Sciences for the furtherance of experiments on improved industrial processes. In 1731 he became greatly interested in meteorology, and invented the thermo- meter which bears his name. In 1735 family arrange- ments obliged him to accept the post of commander and intendant of the royal and military order of Saint Louis ; he discharged his duties in connexion with it with scru- pulous attention, but declined to receive any of the emoluments. Whatever his other occupations were, he always found time for the systematic study of natural history, in which he took great delight. He was a born naturalist, gifted with rare powers of observation and de- scription, indeed his frien4s often called him the Pliny of the 18th century. He loved retirement and lived much at his country residences, at one of which, La Bermondiere (Maine), he met with an accident, a fall from horseback, the effects of which proved fatal on 17th October 1757. He bequeathed his manuscripts, which filled 138 port- folios, and his natural history collections to the Academic des Sciences. Reaumur was a man of wide attainments and great industry. His writings, sometimes on trivial topics, were frequently diffuse, yet always interesting. His mind was original and intensely practical. As a rule he avoided theoretical questions, but when he took them up his manner of treatment was remarkably clear, chiefly on account of an ingenious use of metaphor, often expanding into allegory. His memory was retentive, his information immense, and his kindliness of disposition such that his knowledge and wealth seemed to be amassed only for the benefit of his friends. He always bore a high character, was a great favourite in society, and associated on terms of intimacy with the principal great men of the time in Europe. Reaumur's scientific papers are too numerous to be recapitulated ; they deal with nearly all branches of science. His first paper, in 1708, was on a general problem in geometry, his last, in 1756, on the forms of birds' nests. He proved experimentally the fact, afterwards demonstrated theoretically by Du Hamcl, that the strength of a rope is less than the sum of the strengths of its separate strands. He examined and reported on the auriferous rivers, the turquoise mines, the forests, and the fossil beds of France. He devised the method of tinning iron that is still employed, and investigated the differences between iron and steel, correctly showing that the amount of combustible matter (sulphur in the language of the old chemistry) is greatest in cast iron, less in steel, and least in wrought iron. His book on this subject (1722) was translated into English and German. The thermo- meter by which he is now best remembered was constructed on the principle of taking the freezing-point of water as 0, and graduating the tube into degrees each of which vas one -thousandth of the volume contained by the bulb and tube up to the zero mark. It was purely an accident dependent on the dilatability of the parti- cular quality of alcohol employed which made the boiling-point of water 80 ; and mercurial thermometers the stems of which are graduated into eighty equal parts between the freezing and boiling points of water are not Reaumur thermometers in anything but name. Reaumur wrote much on natural history. Early in life he described the locomotor system of the Echinodermata, and showed that the supposed vulgar error of Crustaceans replacing their lost liinbs was an actual fact. In 1710 he wrote a paper on the possi- bility of spiders being used to produce silk, which was so celebrated at the time that the Chinese emperor Kang-he caused a translation of it to be made. He treated also of botanical and agricultural matters, and devised processes for preserving birds and eggs. He elaborated a system of artificial incubation, and made important observations on the digestion of carnivorous and graminivorous birds ; but his greatest work is the Memoires pour servir A I'Histoire des Insectes, 6 vols., with 267 plates, Amsterdam, 1734-49. It describes the appearance, habits, and locality of all the known insects except the beetles, and is a marvel of patient and accurate observation. Amongst other important facts stated in this work are the experiments which enabled Reaumur to prove the correct- ness of Peyssonel's hypothesis, that corals were animals and not plants, as was previously supposed. REBUS, an enigmatical representation of some name or thing, by using figures or pictures instead of words or