ulcerated. Similar lesions are seen in the small intestine, caecum and rectum. The membrane lining the air passages is congested throughout, and the lungs are emphysematous.
In recent years much has been done in Russia and India towards the prevention of rinderpest by inoculation and the use of immunizing sera. In South Africa the bile method (or the injection of bile obtained from cattle dead of rinderpest), discovered by Koch, in 1896; bile with admixture of glycerin, recommended by Edington; the simultaneous injection of serum and rinderpest blood, introduced by Turner and Kolle in 1897, and repeated injection of fortified serum alone, have been employed, more or less successfully, in conferring immunity. But elsewhere the main line of action has been in the direction of preventing the introduction of the disease by prohibiting the importation of cattle from infected countries.
RING (O.E. hring, a word common to Teutonic languages)[1]
and probably cognate with the Lat. circus, Gr. κίρκος or κρίκος,
Skt. chakra, wheel, circle, cf. also “harangue”), in art, a band
of circular shape of varying sizes, made of any material and used
for various purposes, but, particularly, a circular band of gold,
silver or other precious or decorative material used as an ornament,
not only for the finger, but also for the ear” (see Earring),
or even for the nose, where it is still worn by certain races in
India and Africa. The word is also used of many objects which
in structure take the shape of a circle or hoop, such as the tracheal
rings, the circular-shaped bands of cartilage in the walls of the
windpipe, the “annual rings,” or concentric layers of wood
produced each year in the trunks of trees, &c. In transferred
senses “ring” is also applied to an enclosed space, whether
circular, oval or otherwise: hence to the arena of a circus or
hippodrome, the enclosure for a boxing contest, or to the place
on a racecourse reserved for the bookmakers for the purpose of
betting. A particular application in a transferred sense is that
to a combination of persons in, trade for the purpose of controlling
markets, prices, etc.
In the art sense (see also Gems), the English and German “ring” corresponds to the Gr. δακτύλιος, Lat. annulus, Fr. anneau. The enlarged part of a ring on which the device is engraved is called the “bezel,” the rest of it being the “hoop.” To decorate the human finger with a ring, if possible with one combining beauty, value and a distinctive character, was a widely spread natural impulse. At an early period, when the art of writing was known to but very few, it was commonly the custom for men to wear rings on which some distinguishing sign or badge was engraved (ἐπίςημον), so that by using it as a seal the owner could give a proof of authenticity to letters or other documents. Thus, when some royal personage wished to delegate his power to one of his officials, it was not unusual for him to handover his signet ring, by means of which the full royal authority could be given to the written commands of the subordinate (cf. Gen. xli. 42; Esth. viii. 2). Among the Battas of Sumatra rings of a certain form are used to this day as passports.
The earliest existing rings are naturally those found in the tombs of ancient Egypt. The finest examples date from about the XVIIIth to the XXth Dynasty; they are of pure gold, simple in design, very heavy and massive, and have usually the name and titles of the owner deeply sunk in hieroglyphic characters on an oblong gold bezel. Rings worn in Egyptian rings. Egypt by the poorer-classes were made of less costly materials, such as silver, bronze, glass or pottery covered with a siliceous glaze and coloured brilliant blue or green with various copper oxides. Some of these had hieroglyphic inscriptions impressed while the clay was moist. Other examples have been found made of ivory, amber and hard stones, such as Carnelian. Another form of ring used in the XIIth and subsequent dynasties of Egypt had a scarab in place of the bezel, and was mounted on a gold hoop which passed through the hole in the scarab and allowed it to revolve.
In ancient Babylonia and Assyria finger rings do not appear to have been used. In those countries the signet took a different form, namely, that of a cylinder cut in crystal or other hard stone, and perforated from end to end. A cord was passed through it, and it was worn on the wrist like a bracelet. This way of wearing the signet is more than Cylinders. once alluded to in the Old Testament (Gen. xxxviii, 18, R.V., and Cant. viii. 6).
Within the limits necessarily imposed by its purpose the finger ring assumed a considerable variety of form, according to its date and place of origin.
In the Cretan and Mycenaean periods a characteristic form of ring had a broad flat bezel, not organically connected with the hoop, and having an incised design in the gold. The use of inset stones hardly occurs, but rings from Enkomi and Aegina of the late Mycenaean period have inset paste decorations.
The Phoenician type of ring was primarily intended to carry a scarab or scarabaeoid, usually in a box setting on a swivel, called for by the fact that the flat base of the scarab would be wanted for sealing purposes, but in wear would be most conveniently turned inwards. Strength being necessary, the hoop became massive. A similar arrangement of the signet-scarab is found attached to a twisted ring, which, from its shape, must have been meant to be suspended, and which is shown thus worn on some of the Cypriote terra-cottas.
The Greek ring of an early period has a characteristic flattened bezel, for an intaglio design in the gold. Such engravings attained great freedom and beauty in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. An alternative form was a swivel ring for a scarab or scarabaeoid, imitating the Phoenician shape. When the stone was flat and inset the bezel became a mass of metal to hold it securely.
Among the Greeks signet rings were very largely worn. In Sparta a sumptuary law was passed at an early time to forbid any substance more valuable than iron to be used for signet rings; but in other parts of the Hellenic world there appears to have been no restriction of this sort. In some of the numerous tombs of Etruria and Kertch (Panticapacum) Greek rings. in the Cimmerian Bosphorus gold rings of great magnificence have been discovered, apparently of the finest Greek workmanship.
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| Fig. 1.[2] | Fig. 2. |
Fig. 1 shows a ring from the Crimea with a finely engraved scarabaeus in gold, with an intaglio engraving on the base.
Fig. 2, also from the Crimea, has a cornelian carved in lion form in place of the scarab, and has an intaglio figure on the base of a running lion.
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| Fig. 3. | Fig. 4. |
Fig. 3 shows a Greek ring with an incised design in a plain bezel.
Fig. 4 is a ring from which the idea of a signet is entirely wanting.
