was further subdivided by Sir Henry Sydney, and was assigned its present limits. All the old proprietors were dispossessed at the Cromwellian settlement, except the O'Conor family headed by the O'Conor Don. The most interesting antiquarian remains within the county are the ruins of Crogan, the ancient palace of the kings of Connaught. The principal ancient castles are the old stronghold of the M'Dermotts on Castle Island, Lough Key, the dismantled castle of the M'Donoughs at Ballinafad, and the extensive fortress at Roscommon rebuilt by John d'Ufford, justiciary of Ireland in 1268. There are fragments of a round tower at Oran. The abbey of Boyle is in remarkably good preservation, and exhibits fine specimens of the Norman arch. The other monastic remains within the county, with the exception of the abbey of Roscommon, are of comparatively small importance. The Irish bard Carolan, who died in 1738, is buried by the ruined church of Kilronan, in the extreme-north of the county. The bishopric of Elphin was united with Kilmore and Ardagh in 1833, and the former cathedral and episcopal buildings are largely modernized.
ROSCOMMON, a market town and the county town of Co.
Roscommon, Ireland, situated on rising ground in a bare plain
in the centre of the county, on the Mayo line of the Midland
Great Western railway, 18¼ m. N.W. by N. from Athlone. Pop.
(1901) 1891. It contains the county buildings, and has
Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, the latter of which
is a ine building completed in 1903. An extensive trade is
carried on in agricultural produce and live stock. A castle,
dating from 1268, when it was founded by John d'Ufford,
justiciary of Ireland, stands, an imposing mass of ruins, but far
gone in decay, overlooking the plain. It fell to besiegers in
1566, 1642 and 1652, and was partially burned after the battle of
Aughrim in 1691. There are also remains of a Dominican priory
of the middle of the 13th century, founded by Felim O'Conor,
king of Connaught, and exhibiting fine, though mutilated,
details of the style of that period. The name of the town,
signifying St Coman's wood, is derived from the saint who
founded the monastery of Canons Regular here in the 6th
century. The town received charters from Edward I. and James
I. Two m. N.E. are small remains of the abbey of Deerane.
ROSCREA, a market town near the north-western border
of Co. Tipperary, Ireland, pleasantly situated on undulating
ground connecting the Devil's Bit and the Slieve Bloom mountains.
Pop. (1901) 2325. It is 77 m. W.S.W. from Dublin
on the Ballybrophy and Limerick branch of the. Great Southern
& Western railway. A branch liner runs northward to Birr
or Parsonstown. Flour-milling and tanning are industries,
and monthly cattle fairs are held. There is a branch here of
the Trappist Monastery of Mount Melleray in Co. Waterford.
The antiquarian remains are of interest. These include portions
of an Augustinian abbey, founded by St Cronan, early in the
7th century, which are incorporated into the church. Out of
this abbey a diocese grew, to be united with that of Killaloe
in the 12th century. Here also was produced the Book of
Dimma, consisting of the gospels and accompanied by a brazen
shrine, ornamented with silver and tracery, and preserved in
the library of Trinity College, Dublin. A cross and a shrine
of St Cronan are in the churchyard. There are also a round
tower, 80 ft. in height, but lacking the upper storeys, and a
Franciscan friary (1490); while a circular tower, and a square
keep (occupied as barracks), mark strongholds, the one built
by King John and the other by the Ormondes, and testify to
the former importance of the town, which was doubtless accentuated
by its physical position in a passway between the
neighbouring mountain ranges. Leap Castle, about 4 m. N., is
another fortihed mansion, which is still inhabited.
ROSE, the name of a distinguished family of German chemists. Valentine Rose the elder was born on the 16th of August 1736 at Neu-Ruppin, and died on the 28th of April 1771 at Berlin, where he was an apothecary and for a short time before his death assessor of the Ober Collegium Medicum. He was the discoverer of “Rose's fusible metal” (see Fusible Metal). His son, Valentine Rose the younger, born on the 31st of October 1762 at Berlin, was also an apothecary in that city and assessor of the Ober Collegium Medicum from 1797. It was he who in 1800 proved that sulphuric ether contains no sulphur. He
died in Berlin on the 10th of August 1807, leaving four sons, one of whom, Heinrich, Was a distinguished chemist, and another, Gustav, a crystallographer and mineralogist. Heinrich Rose, born at Berlin on the 6th of August 1795, began to learn pharmacy in Danzig, where, during the siege of 1807, he nearly lost his life from typhus. Like his brother he served
in the campaign of 1815. During the summer of the following year he studied at Berlin under M. H. Klaproth, a devoted friend of the family, and in the autumn entered a pharmacy at Mitau. In 1819 he went to Stockholm, where he spent a year and a half with T. I. Berzelius, and in 1821 he graduated at Kiel (Returning to Berlin he became a Privatdozent in the university in 1822, extraordinary professor of chemistry in 1823
and ordinary professor in 1835, and there he died on the 27th of January 1864. He devoted himself especially to inorganic chemistry and the development of analytical methods, and the results of his work are summed up in the successive issues of his classical work, Ausführliches Handbuch der analytischen Chemie,
of which he published the first edition at Berlin in 1829, and the sixth, practically a new work in French, at Paris in 1861. He was the discoverer of antimony pentachloride, and mention may also be made of his researches on the influence of the mass-action of water in many reactions, carried out before the investigations of Guldberg and Waage in 1867. Gustav Rose, born at Berlin on the 18th of March 1798, began his career as a mining engineer, but soon turned his attention to
theoretical studies. A pupil of Berzelius like his brother, he graduated in 1820 at Berlin University where he became successively Privatdozent (1823), extraordinary professor of mineralogy (1826) and ordinary professor (1839). In 1856 he succeeded to the directorship of the Royal Mineralogical Museum at Berlin, and he helped to found the German Geological Society, of which he was president from 1863 until the end of his life. He made many journeys in different parts of Europe for the sake of mineralogical study, and in 1829 with A. von Humboldt and C. G. Ehrenberg (1795–1876), professor of medicine at Berlin, took part in an expedition to the Ural and Altai mountains and the Caspian Sea, which yielded information of primary
importance concerning the mineralogy of the Russian Empire. His Work covered every branch of mineralogy, including crystallography and the artificial formation of minerals. The science of petrography, according to Gerhard vom Rath, originated with him. He was the first in his own country to use the reflecting goniometer for the measurement of the angles of crystals, and to teach the method of studying rocks by means of microscopic sections. He also devoted special attention to meteorites and to the problem presented by the different structure of the stony matter in them and in the crust of the earth, and just before his death, which took place at Berlin on the 15th. of July 1873, he was engaged in investigating the formation of the diamond. In addition to many scientific memoirs he published
Elemente der Krystallographie (1830); Mineralogischgeognostische Reise nach dem Ural, dem Altai und dem Kaspische Meere (1837) vol. i.; (1842) vol. ii.; Das Krystallo-chemische Mineralsystem (1852); and Beschreibung und Eintheilung der Meteoriten (1863).
ROSE, GEORGE (1744–1818), British politician, was born on the 17th of June 1744, and was educated at Westminster school, afterwards entering the navy, a service which he left in 1762 after he had taken part in some fighting in the West Indies. He then obtained a position in the Civil Service, becoming joint keeper of the records in 1772 and secretary to the board of taxes in 1777. In 1782 he gave up the latter appointment to become one of the secretaries to the treasury under Lord Shelburne, though he did not enter parliament. He left office with his colleagues in April 1783, but in the following December he returned to his former position at the treasury in Pitt's ministry, being henceforward one of this minister's most steadfast supporters. He entered parliament as member for Launceston
