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 Metabolic Diseases.
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
