RICINTJS 46 RIDDLES America in the World War, he accom- panied General Pershing to France as a member of the Motor Car Staff, and in August, 1917, was transferred at his own request to the Air Service. He became commanding officer of the 94th Aero Pur- suit Squadron, the first American aero unit to participate actively on the western front. As a member of this unit he was credited with 26 victories. At the end of the war he retired with the rank of major, having received the Distinguished Service Cross with 9 palms, the Legion of Honor, and the Croix de Guerre. He wrote "Fighting the Flying Circus" (1919). RICINTJS, a genus of plants, order Euphorbiacese. R. communis is the palma christi, or castor-oil plant, a native of the East and West Indies and Florida. Castor oil is obtained from the seeds, either by expression with or without the aid of heat, or by decoction, or sometimes by the aid of alcohol. Castor seeds, when taken whole, are extremely acrid, and have produced death; but the expressed oil is a mild and most efficient non-irri- tating laxative. The palma christi has been cultivated in Algeria for the pur- pose of feeding silk worms on the leaves. RICKETS, a disease peculiar to in- fancy, chiefly characterized by changes in the texture, chemical composition, and outward form of the bony skeleton, and by altered functions of the other organs. The chief external features are the legs bent outward, chest unduly projecting, head large and forehead projecting, spine often curved, joints large and prominent, general form stunted, etc. Rickets is chiefly a disease of large cities, and its development is favored by want of nour- ishing food, overcrowding, and neglect of sanitary and hygienic precautions gen- erally. RICKETTS, JAMES BREWERTON, an American military officer; born in New York City, June 21, 1817; was grad- uated at the United States military acad- emy, in 1839 ; was a captain in the regular army in 1852; and gained a record for excellent service during the Mexican War. In 1861 he was appointed a Brigadier- General of volunteers, and commanded a division at the battle of Antietam, in September, 1862. He was in the thick of the battle of the Wilderness, May 5 and 6, 1864 ; was severely wounded at the battle of Cedar Creek, Oct. 19, 1864; and was brevetted Major-General, U. S. A., in 1865. He served in the Army of the Potomac from the first battle of Bull Run till Petersburg was besieged in 1864. He died in Washington, D. C, Sept. 22, 1887. RIDDER, HERMAN, an American newspaper publisher and editor, born in New York City in 1851, of German par- ents. His boyhood was spent in various lines of industry, including life insurance, and in 1878 he established the "Katho- lisches Volksblatt." He founded the "Catholic News" in 1886. In 1890 he became trustee and manager, and in 1907 president of the New York "Staats-Zei- tung," the largest and most influential daily paper, printed in the German lan- guage, in the United States. He came into conflict with the Federal authorities following the outbreak of the World War for an alleged pro-German campaign which he was charged with having car- ried on in his papers. In 1908 he was treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. He was an official of several important financial institutions. He died in 1915. RIDDLES, or QUESTION PUZZLES. They were widely popular in dim an- tiquity, as today they are popular among many half-civilized races — not absolute savages, for to perceive an analogy de- mands some measure of culture. They may be broadly divided into two classes — riddles admitting of more or less easy solution, and riddles whose solution is beyond any wit of man, unless indeed, as is very often the. case, the answer is known already. To the former class be- long the enigma propounded by the Sphinx to CEdipus, and that which, according to Plutarch, Homer died of chagrin at not being able to answer. It seems to us easy now, for it was the one about the two boys who went hunting: all they caught they flung away, and all they could not catch they carried home. Propound- ing of riddles for wagers meets us fre- quently. Josephus relates how Solomon and Hiram, King of Tyre, once had a contest, in which Solomon first won a large sum of money from Hiram, but presently lost it all back to Hiram's sub- ject Abdemon. The riddle is found in the Koran, and several collections of riddles exist in Ara- bic and Persian. They were, it seems, also known to the ancient Egyptians, while among the Greeks they were allied in the earliest times with the oracular responses. But in Greece they first came into vogue about the time of the "Seven Sages," one of whom, Cleobulus, was cele- brated for the composition of metrical griphoi. Apuleius wrote a "Bock of Jokes and Riddles," but it is lost. The riddle was much cultivated during the Middle Ages. Many French, Eng- lish, and German riddle-books exist in MS., and some were printed at an early period. Wynkyn de Worde's "Joyous
