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 RHAMADAN RHEUMATISM 285 itants were divided into tribes. Their de- scendants in Tyrol speak Romansh, which is a corruption of Latin intermixed with German and Celtic elements, and a number of words of a different origin, considered Etruscan. (See ETRUEIA, and ROMANSH.) During the latter years of the empire the province became al- most depopulated, but after the death of The- odoric it was settled by the Boioarii. KUAN Aim. See RAMADAN. RHE. See RE. RHEA, in Greek mythology. See CTBELE. RIIEA, a S. E. county of Tennessee, bordered S. E. by the Tennessee river, drained by its branches, and intersected by a range of the Cumberland mountains ; area, about 500 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 5,538, of whom 531 were colored. The chief productions in 1870 were 32,639 bushels of wheat, 187,970 of Indian corn, 36,034 of oats, 1,332 tons of hay, 10,276 Ibs. of tobacco, 9,088 of wool, and 9,041 gal- lons of sorghum molasses. There were 1,152 horses, 1,455 milch cows, 3,026 other cattle, 5,306 sheep, and 9,239 swine; and 3 wool- carding and cloth -dressing establishments. Capital, Washington. RHEA SILVIA. See ROMULUS. RHEGIU9I. See REGGIO DI CALABRIA. RHEIMS. or Reims (anc. Durocortorum, after- ward Remi), a city of Champagne, France, in the department of Marne, on the Vesle, a tributary of the Aisne, near the Marne and Aisne canal, 82 m. E. a. E. of Paris ; pop. in 1872, 71,994 (in 1851, 45,754). The cathedral, built in the early part of the 13th century, and completed in the 15th, is one of the finest Gothic edifices in Europe; in it the French kings were crowned for many centuries, the last coronation being that of Charles X., when the oil in the fragment of the holy ampulla was exhausted. (See AMPULLA.) Among the many other noteworthy buildings are the arch- bishop's palace and the hotel de ville. There are several schools of high grade, a museum, and a library. A university existed here from 1547 to 1793. Rheims is a centre of the trade in Champagne wine, and of woollen, cotton, and other manufactures. The annual transac- tions in woollen goods are estimated at 75,- 000,000 francs. Under the Romans Rheims was the capital of Belgica Secunda. Its bish- ops, dating from the 4th century, and its arch- bishops, from the 8th, were down to the revo- lution among the primates of France. After many sieges during the middle ages, it with- stood one by the English under Edward III. (1359), but was occupied by them from 1421 to 1429, when they were expelled by Joan of Arc. The Germans occupied the city on Sept. 4, 1870. See Rheims, la mile de sacres, by Baron Taylor (1854 ; new ed., 1860). RHENISH CONFEDERATION (Ger. Rheinlund), a confederacy formed in 1806 by the kings of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, the elector arch chancellor of the empire, the elector of Baden, the duke of Berg, the landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, the princes of Nassau-Usingen, Nassau - Weilburg,. Hohenzollern - Hechingen, Hohenzollern - Sigmaringen, Salm - Salm, and Salm-Kyrburg, the duke of Arenberg, the princes of Isenburg-Birstein and of Liechten- stein, and the count von der Leyen. They communicated to the federal diet their with- drawal from the empire, Aug. 1, 1806, assign- ing as the reason for the separation the defects of the imperial constitution. At the same time Napoleon, the instigator of this movement, officially declared to the diet that he would no longer acknowledge a German empire. Francis II. consequently, on Aug. 6, abdicated as emperor of Germany, and took the title of emperor of Austria. Napoleon constituted himself " protector of the Rhenish confedera- tion," the members of which bound themselves to take up arms against the enemies of France. The confederacy was subsequently joined by the elector of Wiirzburg, the king (former- ly elector) of Saxony, the five Saxon dukes, the two princes of Schwarzburg, the three dukes of Anhalt, the new king of Westphalia, and many minor princes; so that by the end of 1808 the confederacy extended over 125,000 sq. m., with a population of nearly 15,000,000. The reverses of Napoleon in 1813 put an end to its existence, and its members were soon after merged in the Germanic confederation. RHENISH PRUSSIA. See RHINE, PEOVINCE OF THE. . RHENISH WINES. See GERMANY, WINES OF. RHEUMATISM (Gr. pApa, a flow, discharge). Acute rheumatism is an inflammation of the joints, characterized by general fever, by pain, heat, redness, and swelling of the joints affect- ed, and by a tendency to leave one joint sud- denly and fasten upon another. The affection sometimes commences by chills and fever, and general uneasiness ; and these symptoms (rheu- matic fever) may last for 24 hours or more be- fore the local manifestations show themselves. More frequently the local symptoms make their appearance at the same time with the fever, and occasionally they are present some little time before it supervenes. The pain in the joint or joints affected, commonly but little felt while the patient is perfectly quiet, be- comes intense on the slightest motion, so that he is rendered completely helpless. The super- ficial joints become swollen and tense, they are hotter than natural, and the skin covering them is generally more or less reddened. The swelling is sometimes mainly caused by effu- sion within the capsular ligament of the joint itself, at others by the inflammation and thick- ening of the fibrous tissues external to the joint. The pulse is generally full, strong, and moderately frequent, rarely rising over 100 beats in a minute ; the skin is warm, and co- pious sour perspirations are commonly pres- ent ; sweating was present in rather more than four fifths of the cases noted by M. Louis. The tongue is thickly coated, the bowels some- what constipated, and the appetite completely