Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/86

RETENTION. Wundt maintains that the exercise o£ nervous eleiMciits h'uvcs a tendency toward repetition of the same function whenever the same elements are reexcited. The conditions under which retention takes phice are botli general and special. The general conditions are health, plasticity of the nervous system (retention is much easier in childhood and youth than in old age), mental disposition, attention, and the formation of associations. Among special conditions influencing retention stand emotion and mood: vividness, intensity, and duration of the impression; repetition and the conereteness or abstraetness of the material com- posing the experience. BlBLioc.iiAriiY. ^^^nldt, Physioloyical Psychol- ogy (Leipzig, 1S03) ; Kuelpe, Outlines of Psychol- uyy (New York, 1S05) ; Ribot, Diseases of Mem- ory (ib., 1882) ; Bain, Senses and Intellect (ib., 1888); Maudsley, Physiology of Mmd (ib., 1883); Ladd, Elements of Physiological Psy- chology (ib., 1892). See Memory; Mental Constitution ; RF.rRoDUCTioN of Ideas. RETENTION OF URINE. A lack of power to evacuate the bladder. This may be either com- plete or partial. It should be carefully distin- guished from suppicssion, in which there is a failure on the part of the kidneys to secrete urine, and consequently the bladder is empty. The causes of retention may be organic or func- tional. Among the chief organic causes are: (1) Urethral stricture, (2) injuries resulting in con- traction or rupture of the urethra, (3) tumors within the urethra or pressing upon it from without, (4) foreign bodies in the urin- ary canal, such as small calculi, clotted blood, pieces of bougies, catheters, etc., (5) enlarge- ment of the prostate gland, acute or chronic, especially in aged men, abscesses in the perinoeum, the pressure of a loaded rectum, the head of the child during labor, or pelvic tumors of any kind. The functional causes of retention are spasm of the urethra or the neck of the bladder, partial or complete paralysis of the bladder, and hys- teria. The symptoms of retention consist of an urgent desire to pass water, with partial or entire inability to accomplish the desire ; rest- lessness, discomfort, and even violent pain ac- company the straining efforts to evacuate the bladder. On percussion above the brim of the pelvis, the bladder is found to be distended in propmtion to the amount of accumulated urine. If relief is not speedily afforded the bladder may give way and discharge its contents into the peri- toneal cavity, in which case death soon follows; or the urethra behind the stricture may give way, and the urine be extravasated into the surround- ing tissues, provoking severe inflammation and gangrene. Treatment will depend in its details upon the cause*operative in each case. Only general prin- ciples can be given here. Spasmodic retention can nearly always be relieved by warm baths, heat to the perinaeum, purgation, sedatives, or in extreme cases by a few whiffs of chloroform. Attempts should be made to draw off the urine through a small catheter. If this measure fails, recourse must be had in a few hours to aspira- tion of the bladder, through a hollow needle thrust into it through the abdominal wall above the pubes. This measure, however, is rarely 70 RETIF DE LA BRETONNE. necessary. Paralysis of tlie bladder may arise from the general weakness of old age, from a de- jnx'ssed state of the nervous system in fevers of the typhoid type, in spinal disease, apople.K}', etc. Ketenlion from paralysis is often accompanied by a dribbling away of the urine, so that it may at first be mistaken for incontinence. In chronic prostatic cases the urine has to be regularly drawn off with the catheter. RETHEL, nVtel, Alfred (1816-59). A Ger- man historical painter. He was born near Aixla-Chapelle, May 15, 181G. Ills artistic training began at the age of thirteen under Sehadow in the Diisseldorf Academy ; but, dissatisfied, he repaired in 1836 to Frankfort to work under Philip Veit and Schwind. At Diis- seldorf he had earned reputation with episodes from the life of Saint Boniface, one of which (1832) is in the National Gallery in Berlin, and in Frankfort he painted a "Nemesis" (1837); a "Daniel in the Lions' Den" ( 1838, Stiidel Insti- tute) ; "Guardian Angel of Emperor Maximilian" (fresco, ib. ) ; "Resurrection" (Church of Saint Nicholas) ; the portraits of Emperors Maximilian I. and II., Charles V., and Philip of Suabia, for the Romer (1838); "Saints Peter and John Healing the Lame" (1840-41, Leipzig Jluseum) ; and "Finding of the Body of Gustavus Adolphus" (Stuttgart Museum). In the competition for a cycle of eight frescoes from the life of Charle- magne to adorn the city hall at Aix-la-Chapelle he carried off the first prize, and after a visit to Italy (1844-45), executed (1847-52) four of the subjects, to wit: "Otho III. in the Tomb of Charlemagne;" "Destruction of the Irminsul;" "Defeat of the Saracens at Cordova :" and "Con- quest of Pavia in 774." The cartoons for these are in the National Gallery, Berlin, and the cycle was afterwards completed from Rethel's designs by Josef Kehren. This monvunental work, im- bued with the spirit of grandeur and simplicity, was the greatest achievement of historical paint- ing in Germany during the first half of the nineteenth century. Attacked by a nervous dis- ease, Rethel in vain sought relief in a second visit to Italy in 1852-53, and died insane at Diissel- dorf, December I, 1859. A series of six water colors depicting the "Expedition of Hannibal Crossing the Alps" (1844-45), and his illustra- tions to the "Dance of Death" (1848, with poeti- cal text by Reinick, 13th ed. 1902), deserve spe- cial mention. His brother and pupil. Otto (1822- 92 ) , who also studied under Karl Sohn and Scliadow at the Diisseldorf Academy, painted at first Scriptural subjects, such as "IJoaz Jleeting Ruth" (1855, Leipzig Museum), and afterwards chiefly portraits and genre scenes. For Alfred Rethel's biography, consult: Miiller von KJinigs- winter (Leipzig, 1861) ; Valentin, in Aesthetische Schriften, i. (Berlin, 1892) ; Art Journal (London. 1865) ; and Pecht, Deutsche Kiinstler, ii. (Nordlingen, 1879). RETIF DE LA BRETONNE, ra'tef de lA bre-ton', Nicolas Edm6 (1734-1S06). A French novelist, nicknamed by Grimm the 'Gutter- Rousseau,' born in Sacy. The discovery of his love-letters to another woman than his wife in 1765 led to the first recognition of his literary talent. From the first his fiction was the work of observation and largely of personal experience. Its success was gradual, but steady. Le pied de Fanchette (1769) made him known, Le paysan I