EECLUS
EEGNARD
returned to France, and took part in the
Commune, for which he was again pro
scribed. Besides collaborating in many
works with his more famous brother Elisee,
he wrote a number of important volumes
on ethnology and comparative religion. His
first book, Les Primitifs (1885), was trans
lated into English (Primitive Folk, 1891),
and his Rationalism is mainly developed in
his L dme comme souffle (1896), Les croy-
ances populaires (1908), and La doctrine de
Luther (1908). His brother Elisee has
given us a fine sketch of Professor Elie
(Elic Reclus, 1905). D. Feb. 12, 1904.
RECLUS, Professor Jean Jacques
Elisee, French geographer, brother of pre ceding. B. Mar. 15, 1830. Ed. Protestant Seminary, Montauban, and Berlin Uni versity. Forced to fly from France for his resistance to the coup d etat of 1851, he travelled for some years in north and south America, and was permitted to return to his country in 1858. His works on travel and geography (notably La Terre, 2 vols., 1867-68) laid the foundation of his high scientific reputation ; but Reclus continued to struggle ardently against religious and political reaction. He joined the Inter national in 1869, and in 1871 he was sen tenced to transportation for life for his share in the Commune. His scientific distinction was already so great that the scholars of Europe saved him by a petition to the French Government. He was banished, and lived at Geneva until 1879, when he returned to Paris. Three years later he incurred a fresh sentence, and in 1893 he was appointed professor at Brussels University. His great work, Nouvelle Geo- graphie Universelle (19 vols., 1876-94), was translated into English (The Earth and its Inhabitants, 19 vols., 1878-94). His con temptuous rejection of all religion is plain enough in La Terre and other works, but is most pointedly expressed in his preface to Bakunin s God and the State (1883) and L Anarchic et I Eglise (1901). There is an admirable sketch of Reclus in A. Brisson s Portraits Intimes, and Prince Kropotkin 641
has written a biography of him (1905).
As even the Annual Register says (1905),
he was a man of " charming amiability and
simplicity of character, of lofty ideals and
singular generosity." D. July 5, 1905.
RECLUS, Professor Paul, M.D., French surgeon. B. Mar. 7, 1847. Paul Reclus was the youngest and least aggressive of the sons of Pastor Reclus. He studied medicine at Paris, and in 1879 became a hospital surgeon. In 1895 he was ap pointed professor of clinical surgery at the Paris University ; and he was a member of the Academy of Medicine and a Com mander of the Legion of Honour. His writings deal only with his science, in which he had considerable distinction, particularly in connection with the intro duction of anassthetics. He shared the Rationalist views, though not the Anarchist philosophy, of his brilliant brothers. D. 1914.
REGHILLINI, Professor Mario, Italian chemist. B. 1767. He was professor of chemistry and mathematics at Venice during the Napoleonic period, and adopted the views of the French Rationalists. When Venice was restored to the Austrians in 1815, hefled to Brussels, and then to Paris, where he published a number of books on Freemasonry. At the Revolution of 1848 he returned to Venice, but he was again compelled to fly to Brussels when it failed. D. 1853.
REGNARD, Albert Adrien, French writer. B. Mar. 20, 1836. Regnard was one of the spirited Rationalist writers of France during the second Empire. In his Essais d histoire et de critique scien- tifique (1865) he advocated Materialism, and he was one of the founders of the Revue Encyclopedique and the Libre Pensee. In 1867 he got four months in prison for one of his articles in the Libre Pensee. He was general secretary to the Prefecture of Police during the Commune, and at its fall he fled to London, where he 642 z
