Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/539

Rh R H I R H I 521 a most prejudicial effect upon the district of the Rhine ; and the peace of Westphalia gave France a footing on the left bank of the hitherto exclusively German river by the acquisition of Alsace. The violent seizure of Strasburg by France in 1681 was ratified by the peace of Ryswick in 1697, which recognized the Rhine as the boundary between Germany and France from Basel to about Germersheim. It was an easy inference for the French mind that the Rhine should be the boundary .throughout and the Gaul of Cresar restored. This ideal was realized in 1801, when the whole of the left bank of the Rhine was formally ceded to France. The congress of Vienna (1815) restored the lower part of the Rhenish valley to Germany, but it was not till the war of 1870-71 that the recovery of Alsace and Lorraine made the Rhine once more "Germany's river, not Germany's frontier." In the military history of all these centuries constant allusion is made to the Rhine, its passages, and its fortresses. Every general who has fought in its neighbourhood has at one time or another had to provide for a crossing of the Rhine, from Julius Caesar, who crossed it twice, down to our own time. The wars carried on here by his Most Christian Majesty Louis XIV. are still remembered in the Rhine district, where the devastations of his generals were of the most appalling description ; and scarcely a village or town but has a tale to tell of the murder and rapine of this period. The Rhine has always exercised a peculiar sort of fascination over the German mind, in a measure and iu a manner not easily paralleled by the case of any other river. " Father Rhine " is the centre of the German's patriotism and the symbol of his country. In his literature it has played a prominent part from the Nibelungcnlied to the present day ; and its weird and romantic legends have been alternately the awe and the delight of his childhood. The Rhine was the classic river of the Middle Ages ; and probably the Tiber alone is of equal historical interest among European rivers. Victor Hugo has perhaps best described the mingled feelings which the Rhine awakens. " Le Rhin," he says, " reuuit tout. Le Rhin est rapide comme le Rhone, large comme la Loire, encaisse comme la Mouse, tortueux comme la Seine, limpide et vert comme la Sonime, historique comme le Tibre, royal comme le Danube, mysterieux comme le Nil, paillete d'or comme un ileuve d'Amerique, couvert de fables et de fantomes comme nn fieuve d'Asie." (J. F. M.). RHINOCEROS, a name applied by the ancients to an animal the most striking external peculiarity of which is certainly the horn growing above its nose (ptvoKepws, nose-horn). The various existing and extinct species are grouped into a family, Rhinocerotidx, which is a division of the Perissodactyle (odd-toed) section of the great order of Ungulata or hoofed mammals, of which section the tapirs and horses are the only other surviving members (see MAMMALIA, vol. xv. p. 428). The following are the general characters applicable to all the members of the family. First, as regards dentition. Incisors variable, generally reduced in number and often quite rudimentary, and early deciduous. Canines, in existing species, absent. Molar series, consisting of the full number of four premolars and three molars above and below, all in contact and closely resembling each other, except the first, which is A. B. dorsum) ; 5, antero-internal pillar or cusp ; 6, postt-ro-internal pillar or cusp ; 7, anterior sinus ; 8, median sinus ; 9, posterior sinus ; 10, accessory sinus or valley ; 11, crista (anterior combing plate); 12, crochet (posterior combing plate). much smaller than the rest and often deciduous. The others gradually increasing in size up to the penultimate. The upper molars have a very characteristic pattern of crown, having a much-developed flat or more or less sinuous outer wall, and two transverse ridges running obliquely inwards and backwards from it, terminating internally in conical eminences or columns, and enclosing a deep (middle) sinus between. The posterior sinus is formed behind the posterior transverse ridge, and is bounded externally by a backward continuation of the outer wall and behind by the cingulurn. The anterior sinus is formed in the same manner, but is much smaller. The middle sinus is often intersected by vertical laminae (" combing plates ") projecting into it from the anterior sur- face of the posterior transverse ridge or from the wall, the development of which is a useful guide in discriminating the species, especially those no longer existing and known only by the teeth and bones. The depressions between the ridges are not filled up with cernentum as in the horse. The lower molars have the crown formed by a pair of crescents ; the last has no third lobe or talon. Head large, skull elongated, elevated posteriorly into a transverse occipital crest. No post-orbital processes or any separation between orbits and temporal fossae. Nasal bones large and stout, co-ossified, and standing out freely above the premaxillas, from which they are separated by a deep and wide fissure ; the latter small, generally not meeting in the middle line in front, often quite rudimen- tary. Tympanics small, not forming a bulla. Brain cavity very small for the size of the skull. Vertebrae : cervical, 7 ; dorsal, 19-20 ; lumbar, 3 ; sacral, 4; caudal, about 22. Limbs stout, and of moderate length. Three completely developed toes, with distinct broad rounded hoofs on each foot. 1 Mammae two, inguinal. Eyes small. Ears of moderate size, oval, erect, prominent, placed near the occiput. Skin very thick, in many species thrown into massive folds. Hairy covering scanty. All existing species have one or two median horns on the face. When one is present it is situated over the conjoined nasal bones ; when two, the hinder one is over the frontals. These horns, which are of a more or less conical form and usually recurved, and often grow to a great length (three or even four feet), are composed of a solid mass of hardened epidermic cells growing from a cluster of long dermal papillse. The cells formed on each papilla consti- tute a distinct horny fibre, like a thick hair, and the whole are cemented together by an intermediate mass of cells which grow up from the interspaces between the papillae. It results from this that the horn has the appearance of a mass of agglutinated hairs, which, in the newly growing part at the base, readily fray out on destruction of the softer intermediate substance ; but the fibres differ from true hairs in growing from a free papilla of the derm, and not within a follicular involution of the same. The Rhinocerotidx are all animals of large size, but of little intelligence, generally timid in disposition, though ferocious when attacked and brought to bay, using the nasal horns as weapons, by which they strike and toss their assailant. Their sight is dull, but their hearing and scent are remarkably acute. They feed on herbage, shrubs, and leaves of trees, and, like so many other large animals which inhabit hot countries, sleep the greater part of the day, being most active in the cool of the evening or even during the night. They are fond of bathing and wallowing in water or mud. None of the species have been domesti- cated. Animals of the group have existed in both the Old and New Worlds since the beginning of the Miocene period. In America they all became extinct before the end of the Pliocene period. In the Old World their distribution has become greatly restricted, being no longer found in Europe and North Asia, but only in Africa and in portions of the Indian and Indo-Malayan regions. 1 In some extinct species a small outer toe is present on the forefoot. XX. 66