ROSTOPCHINR, FEODOR VASSILEVITCH, Count, a Russian gen., directly descended from Genghis Khan, was h. in the province of Orel, Mar. 23, 1765; and, after having filled for some time the office of page to Catharine II., entered the Russian military service as a lieut. in the imperial guard. In 1784 he set out on a course of foreign travel, returning to St. Petersburg in 1792, and obtaining, through the powerful influence of some friends, the post of gentleman-of-the-chamber. Having the good fortune to be the first messenger to Paul. of his accession to the throne, he was immediately (1796) created gen., a rise in rank speedily followed by the successive appointments of grand marshal of the court, minister of foreign affairs, count (1799), and chevalier of all the Russian orders. Rostopchine possessed extraordinary influence over the mind of the half-witted monarch, and succeeded in preventing his vagaries from seriously affecting the government or religion of the empire; but he was repeatedly banished from coi;rt and almost immediately recalled, and it was during the last of these banishments (to Moscow) that the czar was murdered. The emperor Alexander seems to have dislike 1 Lim, for Rostopehine remained in a state of banishment till May, 1812, whey, havieg need of the services of all his subjects, and knowing Rostopchine's distinguished patriot ism, Alexander appointed him governor of Moscow.' On the approach of the French Rostopehine, by extraordinary exertions, raised an army of 122,000 men fully equipped, but to his great chagrin was ordered to evacuate Moscow. Rostopchine has been unanimously branded by the French writers as the burner of Moscow, and for a long time this was generally credited in the west, till, in 1823, he published in his defense, La VeriM sun l'Incendie de Moscow (Paris, 1823), in which he rebuts the charge, affirming that this barbarous action was due in part to the fervid patriotism of a few of the inhabitants, and in part to the violence and negligence of the French. At the same time he showed that the damage done to Moscow was much less than the estimate given by French and English writers, and that the Kremlin, which the French had attempted to blow up, had been in reality little injured. Rostopchine certainly set fire to his own mansion-house in the neighborhood, but no other act of incendiarism has, been proved against him, the accusations published in the British Monitor (1822) having been triumphantly rebutted. He had succeeded in repairing much of the damage done to the city, and in re-collecting many of its former inhabitants, when, through a court intrigue, his dismissal from office was effected (August 30, 1814). Rostopehine accom panied the emperor Alexander to the congress of Vienna, and subsequently (1817) retired to Paris, where he occupied himself in literary pursuits, and in forming a fine collection of pictures and books. lu 1825 he returned to Russia, and died Jan. 30, 1826, at Mos
cow. His wire and one of his sons have made for themselves names in literature, and his daughter-in-law, the countess EuDoxirA ROSTOPCIIINE, is considered as one of tho first poets of Russia. Rostopchine's works, which include a number of historical memoirs, comedies, etc., in Russian and French, were collected and published at St. Petersburg in 1853.
ROT is known in the south-western counties of England under the provincial names of bane, coa, or coathe. It consists in the maturation within the liver and biliary ducts of an entozoon, the distoma hepaticum, or fluke (q.v.). Although most -frequent among sheep, it also occasionally attacks rabbits, hares, deer, and cattle. Until of lateyears, the annual losses amongst the flocks of Great Britain were estimated at a million; but in 1809, 1824, 1830. and 1833 this large mortality is believed to have been doubled. Dur-: ing the wet winter of 1852-53, and again in the autumn of 1860, and early months of 1861, rot was extensively prevalent. Autumn and early winter are the periods of its most frequent occurrence. Close damp weather, inducing a rapid growth of soft, luxu riant herbage, favors its development. The rising of the Nile is said to rot annually 16,000 sheep. Low, damp, marshy situations, wnter-rnealows, undrained lands, espe cially when of a clayey, retentive consistence, furnish a large proportion of cases. The ay from such localities induces rot almost as readily as the fresh grass. Sheep grazed even for a few hours upon laud subject to rot, or taking a single draught front azi infected stagnant pool, may contract the disorder, most probably by swallowing the young flukes. Front 15 to 40 days usually elapse before any serious consequences follow from the presence of the parasite. At first, indeed, digestion appears to be stimulated, and the sheep thrive rather better than before; but by and by they rapidly waste, their wool becomes dry, and easily detached, their bowels irregular, their skin and mucous membranes yellow. as is usually conveniently observed by examining the eye and its pearly caruucle, which in rot loses the brilliancy of health, and exhibits a dingy yellow hue. The body, after death, is soft, flaccid, and indifferently nourished; watery effusions are discovered underneath the jaws and in other dependent part's; the small quantities of unabsorbed fat have a dirty yellow color; the liver is soft and enlarged, and usually mottled with patches of congestion. In the thick and muddy bile, the flukes, with their myriads of spawn, float in variable numbers.