QUIRK

QUIRK. In Architecture, a piece of ground cut off from a square plot. QUIRKED MOULDIKG. In Architecture, one whose convexity is sudden, being in the form of a conic section. QUI TAM. (Lat. ivhoas well ) In Law, a penal action, in which half the penalty is given to the crown and the rest to the informer. The plaintiff describes liim as A. B. " qui tarn pro domino rege quam pro icipso," — who sues as well for the king as himself. QUIT RENT. (Lat. quietus redditus.) In Law, a small rent payable by tenants of manors in token of subjection. See Rent. QUO'DLIBET. (Lat. what you please.) In the language of the schoolmen, questions on general subjects within the range of their inquiries were termed qvestiones quodlibetic(E, or miscellaneous. In French the word quodlibet, or quolibet, is retained, in the sense of a slight jeu d'esprit, pun, . What is termed in music a " pot-pourii"was also called in Germany a qnodlibct. QUOIN. (Fr.com.) In Architecture', the corner or internal and external angle of a building, or of any part of a building. Quoin. In Artillery, a loose wedge of wood put below the breech of a cannon, for the purpose of adjusting its elevation. QUO'RUM. A term derived from the words used in the Latin form of the commi ion i ued to justices of the peace; in which the expre ion occurred, "quorum unum A. B. e e volumus," — " of whom we will tnat A. B. be one;" thus rendering it nece ary that certain individuals (said to be of the quorum) should be present at the transaction of busine . Hence when in an a embly, committees, . it is nece ary that a certain number should be present to give validity to its acts, that number is eenerally said to constitute a quorum. QUO'TA. (Lat. quot, how many.) That part which each member of a society has to contribute or receive in making up or dividing a certain sum. QUOTI'DIAN. (Lat.quotidian us.) That form of ague which returns daily. QUO'TIENT (Lat. quoties, how often), iu Arithmetic, is the result of the operation of division; and may be either a magnitude of any denomination, or an abstract number. When a magnitude of any kind is proposed to be divided into any number of parts, and the divisor is consequently an abstract number, the quotient is of the same kind with the dividend or quantity proposed to be divided; but when the dividend and divisor are both things of the same denomination, or both magnitudes of any kind, the quotient is an abstract number, and is the ratio of the one magnitude to the other. QUO WARRAN TO. In Law, a writ, filed in the Court of King's Bench by the attorney general, or an individual in his name, calling upon the person informed against to show by what title he holds any oflBce, franchise, or liberty. The proceedings on a writ of quo warran to presenting many difficulties, it has been superseded in modern times by what is termed an information in the nature of a quo warran to. R. R. One of those letters belonging to the series called liquids or semivowels. It was called the liter a can in a by the Latins, from some fancied resemblance it bears in sound to the snarling of a dog. At the commencement of English words derived from the Greek through the medium of the Latin r is usually followed by A, to represent the force of j5, as in rhetoric, rhapsody; and the game observation applies to this letter when it occurs in the middle of an English word derived from a Greek compound, as in diarrhoea, from J«b and piot. This letter is susceptible of numerous interchanges, more especially in Latin; for a complete list of which see the Penny Cyclopedia. As an abbreviation, R. among ourselves stands for re.v or regina, and in ancient times for Roma; R. P. for respulilica, . In medicinal prescriptions, R. stands for recipe or take. RA'BBI. A Hebrew term for doctor or teacher; the termination being properly the first pronoun po e ive. This word, which is frequently found in the New Testament, is in use at the present day, the rabbis being the expounders of the law, "and more particularly of the Talmud or commentaries of later doctors. See Talmud. RA'BDOMANCY. See Rhabdomancy. RACA. An ancient Syriac word, signifying vanity or folly, and pronounced by the Jews with certain gestures of mdignation. Our Saviour, in using the word (Malt, v. 22 ), intimates that whoever should apply this word to his neighbour, should be condemned by the council of the sanhedrim. RACE'ME. (Lat. racemus, a bunch of grapes.) In Botany, a form of inflorescence, in which the flowers are stalked along a common unbranched axis, as in the hj'acinth. 1011 RADIANT. RACE'MIC ACID. (Lat. racemus, a bunch of grapes.) An acid found, together with the tartaric acid, in the tartar obtained from certain vineyards on the Rhine. It is the paratarlaric acid of Befzeliiis. It is le soluble in water than tartaric acid, and differs in the form of its crystals and in its salts; yet it appears to be isomeric, and to have the same equivalent with the tartaric acid. RACHI'LLA. (Gr. ga;^;/?, rt spme.) A branch of inflorescence; the zigzag centre upon which the florets are arranged in the spikelets of gra es. RA'CHIS. {Gr. ^a-xn.) A branch which proceeds in nearly a straight line from the base to the apex of the inflorescence of a plant. It is also applied to the petioles of the leaves of ferns. Rachis. a term applied by llliger and other zoologists to the vertebral column of mammals and birds. RACHI'TIS. {Gr.^(x,x.'i, the spine, the part principally affected.) The rickets. A disease generally confined to childhood, known by a large head, protruded breast bone, flattened ribs, tumid belly, emaciated limbs, and great general debility; the bones in general, and especially the spine, are variously distorted and deficient in bony matter: the system occasionally rallies from this state as growth advances, but there is more or le deformity left. Tonics, cold bathing, regular and proper exercise, very careful nursing, and occasionally rhubarb and tonic aperients, are the principal remedies; and where particular bones are inclined to bend, attempts must be made to throw the weight off them. This disease is frequently symptomatic of a scrofulous state of the glands and viscera; the stomach and bowels are always greatly deranged; and as there appears to be a deficiency of the hardening matter of the bones, various salts of lime, and even phosphate of lime, have been prescribed: the only apparent use of some of these remedies is to render the gastric iuice le acrid and acid. RACK. (Sax. wroccan, to strain, tor^tient. Sec.; evidently of the same origin as the Germ, rachen, Ang. to wrealc.) An instrument of torture formerly used in England. According to Coke (who, however, merely reports the story on traditional authority) the rack was first introduced into the Tower by the Duke of Exeter, constable of the Tower in 1447; and thence called " the Duke of Exeter's daughter." C^Inst.^.M.) Stowe, in his Chronicle, says that the duke's daughter herself invented it. The earliest mention of the use of the " rack or brake " is by Holinshed, under the year 14G7. But it first became common in the reign of Henry VIII. Under that prince, the remaining Tudors, James I., and Charles I., down to 1640, the rack was a common implement of torture for prisoners confined in the Tower, and inflicted by the warrant of the council or under the sign manual. The rack consisted of an oblong frame of wood, composed of four beams, a little raised above the ground; the sufferer was fastened by the hands and feet to the corners, where two cro beams joined the longer ones, sometimes by small cords attached to each finger and toe; and the cords were twisted by means of rollers, so as to raise him from the ground, and stretch his body with extreme violence, dislocating the limbs, and, according to the Jesuit writers, who have left the most vivid representations of the sufferings of their companions under the state-persecution of Elizabeth, sometimes extending the sufferer " more than a palm beyond his usual stature! " ( Jenner, Societas Europcsa, p. 12.; see also Jardine's Reading on the Use of Torttire in England, 1837.) The Roman equuleus is often translated rack by English writers; but whether the equuleus was something similar to the English engine, or a wooden horse (as the derivation of the word implies), or, in short, what was its form and description, antiquaries have not been able to discover. ( See among other authorities the learned treatise of Magius, De Equuleo.) Rack. A railed convenience formed above the manger in a stable for the reception of the hay. It should be constructed with openings at the bottom for the seed or dust to pa through. RACK. In Machinery, a rectilinear sliding piece, having teeth cut on its edge so that they may work with those of a wheel or pinion which drives or follows the rack. The rack may be regarded as a toothed wheel whose radius is infinite. RACK RENT. S(fe Rent. RACO'VIANS. In Ecd. History, the Unitarians of Poland are sometimes so called; from Racow, a small city of that country, where Jacobus a Sienna, its head, erected a public seminary for their church in IGOO. Here the " Racovian Catechism," originally composed by Socinus, and revised by his most eminent foUowers, was published. (Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. cent. 16. sec. 3.) RA'DIANT. In (^.eometry, a straight line proceeding from a given point, or fixed pole, about which it is conceived to revolve. When several radiants forming a system are constrained to revolve in such a manner that 'all the intersections excepting one are carried along given 3T 2 Page 1025