numismatics, and his letters on Arabic coinage (in Eichhorn's
Repertorium, vols. ix.–xi.) form, according to De Sacy, the basis
of that branch of study. To comprehensive knowledge and very
wide reading he added a sound historical judgment. He was not,
like Schultens, deceived by the pretended antiquity of the Yemenite
Kasīdas.[1] Errors no doubt he made, as in the attempt to ascertain
the date of the breach of the dam of Marib.
Though Abulfeda as a late epitomator did not afford a starting point for methodical study of the sources, Reiske's edition with his version and notes certainly laid the foundation for research in Arabic history. The foundation of Arabic philology, however, was laid not by him but by De Sacy. Reiske's linguistic knowledge was great, but he used it only to understand his authors; he had no feeling for form, for language as language, or for metre.
In Leipzig Reiske worked mainly at Greek, though he continued to draw on his Arabic stores accumulated in Leiden. Yet his merit as an Arabist was sooner recognized than the value of his Greek work. Reiske the Greek scholar has been rightly valued only in recent years, and it is now recognized that he was the first German since Sylburg who had a living knowledge of the Greek tongue. His reputation does not rest on his numerous editions, often hasty or even made to booksellers' orders, but in his remarks, especially his conjectures. He himself designates the Animadversationes in Scriptores Graecos as flos ingenii sui, and in truth these thin booklets outweigh his big editions. Closely following the author's thought he removes obstacles whenever he meets them, but he is so steeped in the language and thinks so truly like a Greek that the difficulties he feels often seem to us to lie in mere points of style. His criticism is empirical and unmethodic, based on immense and careful reading, and applied only when he feels a difficulty; and he is most successful when he has a large mass of tolerably homogeneous literature to lean on, whilst on isolated points he is often at a loss. His corrections are often hasty and false, but a surprisingly large proportion of them have since received confirmation from MSS. And, though his merits as a Grecian lie mainly in his conjectures, his realism is felt in this sphere also; his German translations especially show more freedom and practical insight, more feeling for actual life, than is common with the scholars of that age.[2]
For a list of Reiske’s writings see Meusel, xi. 192 seq. His chief Arabic works (all posthumous) have been mentioned above. In Greek letters his chief works are Constantini Porphyrogeniti libri II. de ceremonies aulae Byzant., vols. i. ii. (Leipzig, X751-66), vol. iii. (Bonn, 1829); Animadv. ad Graecos auctores (5 vols., Leipzig, 1751–66) (the rest lies unprinted at Copenhagen); Oratorum Graec. quae supersunt (8 vols., Leipzig, 1770-73); App. crit. ad Demosthenem (3 vols., ib., 1774-75); Maximus Tyr. (ib., 1774); Plutarchus (11 vols., ib., 1774-79); Dionys Italic. (6 vols., ib., 1774–77); Libanius (4 vols., Altenburg, 1784-97). Various reviews in the Acta eruditorum and Zuverl. Nachrichten are characteristic and worth reading. Compare D. Johann Jacob Reiskens von ihm selbst aufgesetzte Lebensbeschreibung (Leipzig, 1783). (J. We.)
RÉJANE, GABRIELLE [Charlotte Réju] (1857–), French actress, was born in Paris, the daughter of an actor.
She was a pupil of Regnier at the Conservatoire, and took the
second prize for comedy in 1874. Her début was made the next
year, during which she played attractively a number of light—especially
soubrette—parts. Her first great success was in
Henri Meilhac’s Ma camarade (1883), and she soon became
known as an emotional actress of rare gifts, notably in Décoré,
Germinie Lacerteux, Ma cousine, Amoureuse and Lysistrata.
In 1892 she married M. Porel, the director of the Vaudeville
theatre, but the marriage was dissolved in 1905. Her performances
in Madame Sans Géne (1893) made her as well
known in England and America as in Paris, and in later years
she appeared in characteristic parts in both countries, being
particularly successful in Zaza and La Passerelle. She opened
the Théatre Réjane in Paris in 1906. The essence of French
vivacity and animated expression appeared to be concentrated
in Madame Réjane's acting, and made her unrivalled in the parts
which she had made her own.
RELAND, ADRIAN (1676–1718), Dutch Orientalist, was
born at Ryp, studied at Utrecht and Leiden, and was professor
of Oriental languages successively at Harderwijk (1699) and
Utrecht (1701). His most important works were Palaestina ex
veteribus monumentis illustrata (Utrecht, 1714), and Antiquitates
sacrae veterum Hebraeorum. (See also Burman, Traj. Erud.,
P.z96 seq.).
RELAPSING FEVER (Febris recurrent), the name given to
a specific infectious disease occasionally appearing as an epidemic
in communities suffering from scarcity or famine. It is characterized
mainly by its sudden invasion, with violent febrile
symptoms, which continue for about a week and end in a
crisis, but are followed, after another week, by a return of the
fever.
This disease has received many other names, the best known of which are famine fever, seven-day, bilious relapsing fever, and spirillum fever. As in the case of typhoid, relapsing fever was long believed to be simply a form of typhus. The distinction between them appears to have been first clearly established in 1826, in connexion with an epidemic in Ireland.
Relapsing fever is highly contagious. With respect to the nature of the contagion, certain important observations have been made (see also Parasitic Diseases). In 1873 Obermeier discovered in the blood of persons suffering from relapsing fever minute organisms in the form of spiral filaments of the genus Spirochaete, measuring in length 1500 to 11000 inch and in breadth 140000, to 150000 inch, and possessed of rotatory or twisting movements. This organism received the name of Spirillum obermeieri. Fritz Schaudinn has brought forward evidence that it is an animal parasite. The most constantly recognized factor in the origin and spread of relapsing fever is destitution; but this cannot be regarded as more than a predisposing cause, since in many lands widespread and destructive famines have prevailed without any outbreak of this fever. Instances, too, have been recorded where epidemics were distinctly associated with overcrowding rather than with privation. Relapsing fever is most commonly met with in the young. One attack does not appear to protect from others, but rather, according to some authorities, engenders liability.
The incubation of the disease is about one week. The symptoms of the fever then show themselves with great abruptness and violence by a rigor, accompanied with pains in the limbs and severe headache. The febrile phenomena are very marked, and the temperature quickly rises to a high point (105°–107° Fahr.), at which it continues with little variation, while the pulse is rapid (100–140), full and strong. There is intense thirst. a dry brown tongue, bilious vomiting, tenderness over the liver and spleen, and occasionally jaundice. Sometimes a peculiar bronzy appearance of the skin is noticed, but there is no characteristic rash as in typhus. There is much prostration of strength. After the continuance of these symptoms for a period of from five to seven days, the temperature suddenly falls to the normal point or below it, the pulse becomes correspondingly slow, and a profuse perspiration occurs, while the severe headache disappears and the appetite returns. Except for a sense of weakness, the patient feels well and may even return to work, but in some cases there remains a condition of great debility, accompanied with rheumatic pains in the limbs. This state of freedom from fever continues for about a week, when there occurs a well-marked relapse with scarcely less abruptness and severity than in the first attack, and the whole symptoms are of the same character, but they do not, as a rule, continue so long, and they terminate in a crisis in three or four days, after which convalescence proceeds satisfactorily. Second, third and even fourth relapses, however, may occur in exceptional cases. The mortality in relapsing fever is comparatively small, about 5% being the average death-rate in epidemics (Murchison). The fatal cases occur mostly from the complications common to continued fevers. The treatment is essentially the same as that for typhus fever. Lowenthal and Gabritochewsky by using the sgrum of an immune horse succeeded in averting the relapse in 40% of cases.
RELATIVITY OF KNOWLEDGE, a philosophic term which
was much used by the philosophers of the middle of the 19th
century, and has since fallen largely into disuse. It deserves
explanation, however, not only because it has occupied so large
a space in the writings of some great British thinkers, but also
because the main question for which it stands is still matter of
eager debate. We get at the meaning of the term most easily
by considering what it is that “ relativity ” is opposed to.
“ Relativity ” of knowledge is opposed to absoluteness or
positiveness of knowledge. Now there are two senses in which
knowledge may claim to be absolute. The knower may say, “ I
know this absolutely,” or he may say, “ I know this absolutely.”
With the emphasis upon the “ know ” he asserts that his knowledge
of the matter in question cannot be affected by anything
whatever. “ I know absolutely that two and two are four”
makes an assertion about the knower's intellectual state: he is
convinced that his certain knowledge of the result of adding two
to two is independent of any other piece of knowledge. With
