RIFLED ARMS-RIFLEMEN.

instead of 11 in the Enfield, while he obtained a steady and accurate flight of 2000 yards and upwards. Mr Lancaster, by other reasoning, had previously abandoned grooves for a uniform elliptical bore with a spiral (see LANCASTER RIFLE).

Various other systems have from time to time been proposed by Mr Westley Richards, Mr Terry, and other eminent gunmakers; but the Enfield grooves, the Whitworth polygon, and the Lancaster ellipse, will probably remain the representative guns of the different classes, and between them the ultimate victory will probably lie.

canister, which would destroy the grooves. In the Whitworth, the shot is constructed to pass freely through the spiral hexagonal bore, windage being

ARMSTRONG.

WHITWORTH

LANCASTER.

Fig. 4.

the principle.)

FRENCH.

prevented by a greased wad, which is said to foul the piece considerably. Lancaster's shot are elliptical, to correspond with the bore; they are simple and accurate; but there is some danger that they will jam in the gun, and cause it to burst. The French projectiles have ribs of projecting metal to correspond to the grooves, and are very effective, the system having the concomitant advantage of being able to fire ordinary shot without material injury to the gun. To sum up: the Armstrong gun is the most accurate, that and the Whitworth have the longest range, each having attained 5 miles; the Lancaster fouls least; the French is simplest, and can fire ordinary cannon-balls, canister, or case.

As with small-arms, so with cannon, rifling is no new discovery. In the Museum at St Petersburg is a cannon which was rifled in nine grooves as early as 1615. In 1661, the Prussians experimented with a gun rifled in 13 shallow grooves. By 1696, the Germans had tried elliptical bores. From thence till 1833, many attempts were made to rifle cannon, with more or less success; but although the firing of smooth-bore guns was as aberrant as that of smooth-bore muskets, and from greater range even more so, yet, since the gunners were safe from musketry-fire at 200 yards, and the cannon could be (The Ellipse of the bore in the Lancaster is exaggerated to shew directed against masses of men with tolerable certainty up to 600, there was no special inducement to improve their powers. But the introduction of rifled small-arms changed the relative advantages; for an Enfield rifle might pick off the gunners of a smooth-bore cannon before their weapon could come into effective play. In 1833 and 1836, Monsieur Montigny of Brussels tried rifled guns with considerable success. In 1845, Colonel Cavalli of the Sardinian service commenced experiments with his rifled cannon: two Swedish officers-Baron Wahrendorf and Lieutenant Engstroem-next produced rifled cannon; but none of these systems were permanently adopted. The Crimean war set inventors vigorously at work, and many admirable guns have resulted from their attempts, the great difficulty of the day being to decide which is most effectual. The first point was the metal; and here cast-iron was found quite useless, being incapable of resisting the explosion of the large charges necessary to force closely fitting projectiles through rifled barrels. Several plans were resorted to. Sir William Armstrong welds coils of wrought-iron round a mandrel into one homogeneous mass of extraordinary tenacity, which he again strengthens by similar rings round the breech. Mr Whitworth forces rings of wrought iron over the barrel by hydraulic pressure: Captain Blakely strengthens a barrel of longitudinal bars welded together by shrinking wrought-iron bands over it. The French rifle brass guns and use small charges; having also guns of wrought-iron. Austrians have made a new bronze alloy, which has proved extremely strong; the Belgians have tried Bessemer's steel. The system of rifling was the next important matter. Mr Lancaster adhered to his oval bore; Sir William Armstrong produced a bore rifled in a great number of small sharp grooves (this gun was adopted by the British government); Mr Whitworth retained a hexagonal bore; and the French government adopted a bore with two, and subsequently three rather deep spiral grooves. After careful experiments, the Austrian, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian governments have concurred in the French system. These several bores are shewn below in section. In the Armstrong, the rotation is communicated to the projectile by the latter being cased with lead, which the explosion forces into the grooves. The numerous fine grooves impart a very correct centering to the shot, and give extreme accuracy of range; but they render the gun a delicate weapon, and they preclude the occasional firing of round shot or

The

In

Although the Armstrong gun was officially adopted into the British service in 1859, as the best weapon then known, the competition is still open, and it is uncertain at this moment (1865) whether it may not be superseded by the Whitworth. 1864, Mr Mackay of Liverpool produced a gun on quite a new principle, called his " 'windage-gun,' the effects of which, as regards range, precision, and penetration, have been very remarkable. His bore is rifled with small.grooves, but the projectile is not made to fit into the grooves, a rapid revolution being imparted to it by the rush of gas through the grooves, and therefore around its circumference during the explosion.

The projectiles used with the various guns will be described under SHELL and SHOT.

RIFLEMEN are troops armed with rifles, and employed more or less as sharpshooters. The name now has nearly lost all meaning, for the whole infantry are now riflemen; but a few years agoi. e., as late as 1854, the riflemen were quite the exception, the army generally having the smoothbore Brown Bess.' There were at that time only two line regiments of Rifles, the 60th and the Rifle Brigade, with 2 colonial regiments of infantry (Canadian Rifles and Ceylon Rifles), and one Hottentot regiment of mounted infantry (the Cape Mounted Rifles). The establishment of Rifle regiments was taught to the British by the Americans and French, from the sharpshooters of both of which nations our armies suffered severely. During the French war, the 60th and 95th Regiments were armed as riflemen, taught light infantry drill, and clothed in dark green, to be as invisible as possible. The 95th became the Rifle Brigade. Experiment has since shewn that gray is

RIGA-RIGGING.

RIGGING.

Fig. 3.

Spars, &c.-A, Mast; B, Topmast; C, Topgallantmast; D, Royal-mast; E, Yard; F, Topsailyard; G, Topgallantsail-yard; H, Royal-yard; K, Truck; L, Bowsprit; M, Jib-boom; N, Flying Jib-boom; 0, Martingale; P, Chains; Q, Top; R, Cap; S, Crosstrees; T, Topmast Cap; U, Gaff; V, Boom, or Spanker-boom.

Sails.-a, Mainsail; b, Topsail; c, Topgallantsail; d, Royal; e, Spanker.

Standing Rigging.-1. Shrouds; II. Topmast Shrouds, crossed by Ratlings; IL Topgallant Shrouds; Iv. Stay; v. Topmast Stay; VI. Topgallantmast Stay; VII. Royal Stay; VIII. Topmast Backstay; Ix. Topgallantmast Backstay; x. Royal Backstay xI. Flying Jib-boom Martingale Stays; XII. Jib-boom Martingale Stays; XIII. Martingale Backstays; XIV. Bobstays. Running Rigging.-1, Lifts; 2, Topsail Lifts; 3, Topgallantsail Lifts; 4, Royal Lifts; 5, Braces; 6, Topsail Braces; 7, Topgallant Braces; 8, Royal Braces; 9, Signal Halyards; 10, Jib-stay; 11, Flying Jib-stay; 12, Sheet; 13, Peak Halyards; 14, Vangs; 15, Topping Lifts.

RIGHI-RIGHTS.

RIGHTS OF MAN-RIGOR MORTIS.

on coming to the throne, in full parliament or at the to all such problems, and removes the necessity coronation, to repeat and subscribe the declaration against transubstantiation, and that a king or queen who should marry a papist would be incapable of reigning in England, and his subjects would be absolved from their allegiance.

RIGHTS OF MAN, a famous statement of rights, principally drawn up by Dumont, author of the Souvenirs de Mirabeau, and solemnly adopted by the French National Assembly on the 18th August 1789. It declares that all mankind are originally equal; that the ends of the social union are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression; that sovereignty resides in the nation, and that all power emanates from it; that freedom consists in doing everything which does not injure another; that law is the expression of the general will; that public burdens should be borne by all the members of the state in proportion to their fortunes; that the elective franchise should be extended to all; and that the exercise of natural rights has no other limit than their interference with the rights of others. Mirabeau endeavoured in vain to induce the Assembly to postpone publishing any declaration of rights until after the formation of the constitution; but the deputies, feeling that a contrary course might imperil their popularity, issued the declaration -a proceeding which Dumont himself afterwards compared to placing a powder-magazine under a building, which the first spark of fire would blow into the air. Louis XVI., under the pressure of the events of the 5th of October, after first refusing, was induced to yield his adhesion to it. The dogma of the equality of mankind on which the declaration rests, had before been set forth in the American Declara tion of Independence of 1776. Thinkers are now much less inclined than they were in the age of Rousseau to build social theories on such abstract, a priori assumptions; and the truth of this doctrine of original equality is directly impugned. Dumont himself asks: Are all men equal? Where is the equality? Is it in virtue, talents, fortune, industry, situation? Are they free by nature? So far from it, they are born in a state of complete dependence on others, from which they are long of being emancipated.'

·

The principles laid down in the Rights of Man were attacked by Edmund Burke in his Reflections on the French Revolution, who represented the declaration as a digest of anarchy. It was in reply to Burke's Reflections that Thomas Paine published in London his Rights of Man, an apology for, and commentary on, the principles of the French constitution, for which he was prosecuted for libel on an information by the attorney-general, and found guilty.

RIGID DYNAMICS is that portion of theoretical Dynamics (q. v.) which, based on the theory of the free and constrained motion of points, applies the principles thence deduced to a system of points rigidly connected, so as to bear throughout the whole continuance of their motion the same invariable position with relation to each other; in other words, as no body in nature can be considered as a point, but is truly a system of points, rigid dynamics has for its aim to apply the abstract theory of dynamics to the cases actually occurring in nature. For a long time, problems of this sort were not resolved by any general and adequate method, but each class was worked out according to a method specially applicable to its particular circumstances. The great general principle discovered by the French geometer, commonly known as D'Alembert's principle, which applies equally

for specially investigating each particular case, was an inestimable boon to mechanical science. It is thus stated in his Traité de Dynamique : In whatever manner a number of bodies change their motions, if we suppose that the motion which each body would have in the following moment, if it were perfectly free, is decomposed into two others, one of which is the motion which it really takes in consequence of their mutual actions, then the other component will be such, that if each body were impressed by a force which would produce it alone, the whole system would be in equilibrium. In this way every dynamical problem can be compelled to furnish an equation of equilibrium, and so be changed into a problem of Statics (q. v.); and thus the solution of a difficult and complex problem is effected by means of the resolution of a much easier problems on the motions and actions of fluids, the D'Alembert applied his principle to various precession of the equinoxes, &c.; and subsequently, in a modified form, the same general property was made the basis of a complete system of dynamics, by La Grange, in his Mécanique Analytique.

one.

RIGOR MO'RTIS is the term usually given to the peculiar temporary rigidity of the muscles that occurs shortly after death. It begins immediately after all indications of irritability (see MUSCLE) have ceased, but before the commencement of putrefaction. In the human subject it most commonly begins to shew itself about seven hours after death, although cases are occasionally met with in which 20, or even 30, hours may have elapsed before it begins to appear. This condition of rigidity usually lasts for about 30 hours; but it may pass off in ten hours or less, or may be prolonged to four or six days. The muscles of the neck and lower jaw are first affected, then those of the trunk, then those of the upper extremities, and lastly those of the lower extremities. In its departure, which is immediately followed by decomposition, the same order is followed.

This subject has been admirably discussed by Dr Brown-Sequard in the Croonian Lecture' for 1861, and contained in The Proceedings of the Royal Society for that year. In this lecture he examines successively the relations existing between muscular irritability, post-mortem rigidity, and putrefaction, in a variety of cases. The following are his chief conclusions: 1. Paralysed muscles are endowed veric rigidity sets in late, and lasts long; and with more irritability than healthy muscles; cadaputrefaction appears late, and progresses slowly. 2. when muscular irritability is increased by a diminuExperiments made on numerous animals shew that tion of temperature, the increase has the same effect upon rigidity and putrefaction as when it is caused by paralysis. As a general rule, when there was a difference of 14° to 18° F. in the temperature of two animals of the same age and species, irritability and rigidity lasted twice or three times longer in the cooler animal than in the other, and putrefaction in the former was much less rapid. 3. It was maintained by John Hunter that cadaveric rigidity does not take place after death by lightning; but it is now known that this view is not generally true. When lightning destroys life by producing such a violent convulsion of every muscle in the body that muscular irritability at once ceases, the ensuing rigidity may be of such short duration as to escape notice; but if it causes death by fright, hæmorrhage, or concussion of the brain, cadaveric rigidity will appear as usual. 4. In animals that have been over-driven, hunted to death, &c., rigidity comes on very quickly, lasts for a very short time, and is rapidly succeeded by putrefaction; and various facts quoted by Brown