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 214 RATTAN RATTLESNAKE RATTAN. See PALM, vol. xiii., p. 18. RATTiZZI. I. [Irbano, an Italian statesman, born in Alessandria, June 29, 1808, died in Fro- sinone, June 5, 1873. He became an advocate, and in 1848 was elected a member of the Sar- dinian parliament. For a short time in July he was minister of instruction. A steady op- ponent of peace with Austria, he joined in De- cember Gioberti's cabinet as minister of justice, and succeeded him in February, 1849, as its virtual head, with the portfolio of the interior. He retired on the abdication of Charles Albert after the disastrous battle of Novara at the end of March. His continued parliamentary oppo- sition to Austrian domination in Italy resulted in the election of a new parliament, in which he formed a middle party (il connubio) acting in concert with Oavour and the liberal conser- vatives. In Oavour's cabinet Rattazzi became minister of justice in October, 1853, and at the end of May, 1855, minister of the interior. Early in 1858 he withdrew on account of a considerable accession to the ranks of the cleri- cal party in the chamber, after having carried through the partial suppression of monasteries and other religious bodies. In January, 1859, he was elected president of the chamber, and after the peace of Villafranca replaced Cavour as head of the cabinet, but again gave way to the latter on Jan. 20, 1860. His unpopularity was increased by his refraining from voting on the question of the annexation of Nice and Savoy to France, and it was only in February, 1861, that Cavour could prevail upon the chamber to accept him again as president. After the death of Cavour he opposed Ricasoli, and took his place as premier in March, 1862. Against his former policy, he was obliged to combat the revolutionists at Sarnico, Aspromonto, and other places, without gaining any advantage in the Roman question, and had to resign in December. In 1863 he fought a duel with his political adversary Minghetti. From April to October, 1867, he was for the last time prime minister. By the Garibaldians, who were soon afterward defeated at Montana owing to the measures which he had taken, he was accused of subserviency to Napoleon III., while the cler- ical party charged him with encouraging the Garibaldians ; but in parliament he vindica- ted his course (Dec. 18, 19) by pleading the in- ternational obligations which the government was bound to observe. II. Marie Stndolmine, a French writer, wife of the preceding, born in London about 1830. Her mother was the princess Lsetitia, a daughter of Lucien Bona- parte, and her father was Sir Thomas Wyse, English minister at Athens. The separation of her parents left her without resources, and Louis Philippe placed her in a royal school at St. Denis. In 1850 she married M. Frederic Solins, a rich Alsatian, from whom she sepa- rated in 1852. Louis Napoleon objected to her residing in Paris on account of her polit- ical intrigues, and she afterward lived in Sa- Toy and at Nice under the name of the prin- cess Marie de Solms, engaged in literary labor, and intimately associating and corresponding with many eminent men. In 1860 she returned to Paris, and subsequently went to Florence, where in 1862 she married Rattazzi. Lately she has resided in Paris. The best known of her many novels are Les mariages de la creole (1866) and Si fetaig reine (1868). She has also published poems and dramas (often acting in the latter), and edited several journals. RATTLESNAKE, an American venomous ser- pent, the type of the family crotalida, which includes several species, all characterized by a deep pit lined with small plates on each side, beneath and usually a little behind the nostrils. In the genus crotalus (Linn.) the head is very Hood of Rattlesnake, showing Poison Fangs. large, flattened above and triangular, scaly on the crown, with small shields on its sides and the nose ; eyes large and brilliant ; teeth very small, but theHrue maxillaries, which are small and attached to the cranium by a small pedicel and by ligamentary union, have a single pair of long curved fangs, laid flat during inaction, but erected when the mouth is opened ; these fangs are channelled for the conveyance of the poison secreted by a gland on each side of the head, beneath and behind the eyes; behind the fangs are the rudiments of others, which are developed as occasion requires ; there are also two rows of small fixed teeth on the palate ; the belly is covered with broad shields; the trunk and tail are scaly above, and nearly all the subcaudal scutes simple. The last three to eight caudal vertebrae coalesce to form a Rattle and Section of Rattle. single terminal conical and compressed bone, covered by muscle and a thick spongy skin which secretes the pieces of the rattle, an ap- pendage of loosely articulated horny segments, whose rattling noise has given the popular name to this genus; the rattle may consist of 20 or 30 pieces, the smallest at the end ; they