Landshut

LANDSHUT, chief town of a government district in Lower Bavaria, is situated on the right bank of the Isar, about 40 miles north-east of Munich. As the seat of government for the district, it contains all the appropriate administrative offices, and it is well supplied with educational and charitable institutions, besides having a convent and several nunneries. Of its numerous ecclesiastical buildin…

Landskrona

LANDSKRONA, one of the principal seaport and garrison towns in Sweden, is situated in the district of Malmo (in Skania) on the Sound- (Oresund), about 55 miles west of Christianstad and 15 miles by water from Copenhagen. It is connected by a branch line with the south Swedish railway system. The harbour, protected by the island of Grden, is the deepest and best on the Skanian coast, and possesses …

Lane, Edward William

LANE, EDWARD WILLIAM (1801-1876), one of the greatest of European Arabists, was the son of Dr Theophilus Lute, a prebendary of Hereford. He lost his father in boyhood, and his character was mainly formed by the influence of his mother, a woman of strong and beautiful nature He was designed for Cambridge and the church, and became proficient in mathematics, but, abandoning the purpose of proceeding…

Lane, Luigi

LANE, LUIGI (1732-1810), a writer on Etruscan antiquities and on the history of Italian painting, was born in 1732, and educated as a priest. In 1773 he was appointed keeper of the galleries of Florence, from which time his attention seems to have been divided between the study of Italian painting and the study of Etruscan antiquities and language. In the one field his labours are represented by h…

Lanfranc

LANFRANC (c. 1005-1089), thirty-fourth archbishop of Canterbury, and first after the Conquest, one of the ablest churchmen and scholars of his time, was the son of Hambald or Hanbald, one of the principal citizens of Pavia, and was born there about the year 1005. Deprived of his father at an early age, lie seems to have been educated at Pavia with a view to taking his hereditary place in the gover…

Lanfrey, Pierre

LANFREY, PIERRE (18'28-1877), the historian who has done the most to destroy the Napoleonic legend of M. Tillers, was born at Chambery, the capital of Savoy, on the 26th October 1828. His father came of a warlike race, which had been noble for four centuries, and had himself served in the army of Napoleon as a captain of hussars. On the fall of Napoleon he had left the French army, and retired to …

Langensalza

LANGENSALZA, chief town of a circle in the government district of Erfurt, in the province of Saxony, Prussia, is situated on the Salza, about 20 miles north-east of Erfurt.

Lang Land, Or Langley

LANG LAND, or LANGLEY, WILLIAM, the author of a remarkable poem belonging to the close of the 14th century, of which the full title is - Tire Vision of William concerning ? Piers the Plowman, together with Vita de Dowel, Do-bet, et Do-best, secumlam it et Resoun.1 Tlm author's name is not quite certain, and the facts c mcerning Ids life are few and scanty. As to his Christian name- we are sure, fr…

Langres

LANGRES, a town in the department of Haute-Marne, France, 186 miles south-cast from Paris, stands at a height of some 1550 feet, upon a jutting promontory of the table-laud to which it gives its name (Plateau de Langres), and overlooks, eastward and westward respectively, the valleys of the Marne and its tributary the Bonnelle. Its situation involves a rigorous climate, but also gives it strategic…

Langton, Stephen

LANGTON, STEPHEN (c. 1150-1228), cardinal, forty-fourth archbishop of Canterbury, was born about the middle of the 12th century; the place of his birth is unknown, but his family almost certainly belonged to -Yorkshire. He had already been made a prebendary of York, most probably at au early age, when he went to France and entered the university of Paris ; there lie soon rose to distinction alike …

Language

LANGUAGE. See PHILOLOGY. LA.NGUEDOC, a province of France, which lay between the Garonne on the west and the Rhone on the east, with the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean on the south. It was divided into the three senkhaussees of Toulouse, Carcassonne, and Deaucaire ; and it comprised, besides the province proper, the districts of Gevandan, Vellai, Vivarez, Cevennes, and Foix. It contained the impor…

Languet, Hubert

LANGUET, HUBERT (15l8-15S1), diplomatist, and one of the boldest political writers of the 16th century-, was born in 1518 at Viteaux, near Autun in Burgundy, where his father held a good official position. Ile early manifested an inclination for study, and his tastes were encouraged by able masters ; at Poitiers he devoted himself not only to law but also to natural science, history, politics, and…

Lannes, Jean

LANNES, JEAN (1769-1809), marshal of France, was born at Lectoure, 11th April 1769. He was the son of a livery stables keeper, and was himself in early life apprenticed to a dyer. He had had but little education, but not-withstanding this his great strength and proficiency in all manly sports caused him in 1792 to be elected sergeant-major of the battalion of volunteers of Gers, which he had joine…

Lansdowne, William Petty Fitzmaorice

LANSDOWNE, WILLIAM PETTY FITZMAORICE, FIRST MARQUIS OF (1737-1805), better known as a statesman while earl of Shelburne, was born at Dublin, May 20,1737. He was a descendant of the lords of Kerry, and his grandfather, who was created earl of Kerry, married a daughter of Sir William Petty. On the death without issue of Sir William Petty's son, the first earl of Shelburne, the estates passed to his …

Lansing

LANSING, a city in Ingham county, Michigan, U.S., and capital of the State, is situated at the confluence of the Grand and Cedar rivers, 85 miles W.N.W. of Detroit. In 1847, when it was made the seat of government, forests covered the site. The city has broad streets, arranged in the regular rectangular system ; and seven iron and three wooden bridges connect the parts of the city, which lies on b…

Lansingburgh

LANSINGBURGH, a village in Rensselaer county, New York, U.S., is situated on the east bank of the Hudson, close to Troy, and nearly opposite Waterford, to which a bridge extends.

Lantara, Simon Ma Thurin

LANTARA, SIMON MA THURIN (1729-1778), French landscape painter, was born at Oncy, 24th March 1729. His father was a weaver, and he himself began life as a herdboy ; but., having attracted the notice of M. Gille de Remnant, a son of his master, be was taken by him to Paris, and placed under a painter at Versailles. Endowed with great facility and real talent, his powers found ready recognition ; he…

Lantern-fly

LANTERN-FLY, a name applied to certain insects belonging to the Homopterous division of the order Hemipera, which may be broadly placed in the genus Fulgora, although this is now subdivided into many genera. They are mostly large insects, and gaily coloured, remarkable for the forehead being produced into the semblance of a snout or muzzle (often upturned at the tip), the so-called "lantern." This…

Lanthanum

LANTHANUM. It will be convenient to notice under this heading the group of closely allied metals - LANTHANUM, CERIUM, and DIDYMIUM. In an abandoned copper mine at Riddarhyttan, Westmanland, in Sweden, there occurs a heavy compact mineral, which, though pretty abundant there, is hardly met with anywhere else. This mineral was long mistaken for tungsten (syn. scheelite), until Klaproth of Berlin in …

Laocoon

LAOCOON, in Greek legend, was a brother of Anchises, and had been a priest of Apollo, but having married against the will of the god he and the two sons of this marriage were attacked by serpents while preparing to sacrifice a bull at the altar of Poseidon, in whose service Laocoou was then acting as priest.

Laodicea

LAODICEA (Greek Aao8L'Keta) is the name of at least eight cities, founded or renovated in the later Hellenic period. Most of them were founded by the Seleucid kings of Syria. Seleucus, founder of the dynasty, is said by Appian to have named five cities after his mother Laodiee. Many other women of the family bore the same name, which also passed by marriage into the family of the Politic kings. Th…

Laon

LAON, capital of the department of Aisne, France, is situated 87 miles N.E. of Paris, on an isolated and singularly buttressed hill, which rises some 330 feet above the surrounding plain and the little river of Ardon, which flows into the Lette, a tributary of tire Oise. From tire railway station, which is situated in the plain to the north, a straight staircase of several hundred steps leads up t…

Laos, Or Lawa

LAOS, or LAWA, a large Indo-Chinese nation, occupying the northern and eastern provinces of Siam known as the Laos states, mainly between 15? and 24? N. lat., 98? and 106? E. long. There are two main divisions - the Lau-pangkah, or "White Paunch" Laos, and the Lau-pang-dun, or "Black Paunch " Laos, the former between the DengPhya-Phai range and the river Mekong, the latter about the middle and upp…

Lao-tsz

LAO-TSZ E, or LAOU-TSZE, the designation of the author of the celebrated treatise called no Tch King, and the reputed founder of the religion called noism. The Chinese characters composing the designation may mean either the Old Son," which commonly assumes with foreigners the form of "the Old Boy," or "the Old Philosopher." The latter significance is attached to them by the Rev. Dr Chalmers in hi…

La Paz

LA PAZ, officially since 1825 Ln PAZ DE AYACUCHO, in memory of the battle of Bolivian independence, is the capital of Bolivia, at the head of a department of its own name. It lies in 160 30' S. lat. and 680 W. long., at the height of 11,970 feet above the sea, in the valley of the Chuquiapo or Rio de la Paz, at the base of the Cordillera Real, which rises with imposing cliffs another thousand feet…

La Peitouse, Jean-francois Galaup De

LA PEItOUSE, JEAN-FRANcOIS GALAUP DE (1741c. 1788), a French navigator, was born 'near Albi, August 22, 1741. His family name was Galaup, and La Perouse or La Peyrouse was an addition adopted by himself from a small family estate. As a lad of eighteen, he was wounded and made prisoner on board the " Formidable " when it was captured by Admiral Hawke in 1759 ; and during the war with England betwee…

Lapidary

LAPIDARY (lapidarius, from lapis, a stone), one who cuts, grinds, polishes, and engraves small pieces of stone, especially gems. The prehistoric stone implements found in cave deposits, peat-mosses, river-gravels, &c., may be regarded as the earliest examples of the chipping and grinding of stone. Small cylinders of serpentine and other soft stones, on which figures and inscriptions were engraved,…

Lapis Lazuli

LAPIS LAZULI, a mineral possessing usually a fine blue colour, whence it is much prized for decorative purposes. From the large number of Egyptian ornaments in this material, which have been preserved from the time of the Pharaohs, it is evident that it was a favourite stone with the ancient Egyptians. A few Assyrian seal-cylinders in lapis lazuli are also known. It appears to have been the Greek …

Lapithje

LAPITHJE, a mythic race whose contest with the Centaurs is one of the most famous events in Greek mythology and one of the most favourite subjects of Greek art. The home of the legend is the district round Mount Pelion in Thessaly ; it is not found in the other places where the Centaur legend has its home - Pholoe in Arcadia, and the river Evenus in /Etolia. It is impossible to write of the Lapith…

Lapl

LAPL, a city of Persia, capital of Laristan, in 27? 30' N. lat., 53? 58' E. long., 171 miles from Shiraz, and 127 from the coast at Mogu Bay.

Laplace, Pierre Simon

LAPLACE, PIERRE SIMON, MARQUIS DE (1749-1827), one of the greatest mathematicians and physical astronomers who ever lived, was born at Beaumont-en-Aug? in Normandy, March 28, 1749. His early years have remained in the obscurity with which poverty and some ignoble shame of poverty combined to cover them. It is known, however, that his father was a small farmer, and that he owed his education to the…

Lapland, Or Lappland

LAPLAND, or LAPPLAND, is the north-west portion of the continent of Europe, bounded W., N., and E. by the North Atlantic, the Arctic Ocean, and the White Sea, and S. partly by the White Sea, but mainly by a conventional ment of Archangel. A line drawn from the mouth of the Salten Fjord on the Norwegian coast to the mouth of the Ponoi on the White Sea, practically identical with the 61st parallel o…

Lappenberg, Johann Martin

LAPPENBERG, JOHANN MARTIN (1791-1865), a German historical writer, was born July 30, 1794, at Hamburg, where his father held a good official position ; early in life he began to study medicine, and afterwards history, at Edinburgh. The latter pursuit he continued in London and at the universities of Berlin and Gottingen, place on November 28, 1865. Lappenbergis most important contribution to liter…

Lapwing

LAPWING, Anglo-Saxon Illelpewince ( " one who turns about in running or flight," see Skeat's almost every suitable place from Ireland to Japan, - the majority migrating towards winter to southern countries, as the Punjab, Egypt, and Barbary, - though in the British Islands some are always found at that season, chiefly about estuaries. As a straggler it has occurred within the Arctic Circle (as on …

Larch

LARCH (from the German Lerche ; Latin, larix), a name applied to a small group of coniferous trees, of which the common larch of Europe is taken as the type. The members of the genus Larix are distinguished from the firs, with which they were formerly placed, by their deciduous leaves, scattered singly, as in "Wes, on the young shoots of the season, but on all older branchlets growing in whorl-lik…

Lard

LARD is the melted and strained fat of the common hog. The bulk of the lard of commerce is obtained from the abdominal fat of the animal ; but in the preparation of inferior qualities fatty scraps of all kinds which result from the preparation of pork are melted up, and occasionally entire flanks of pigs are treated for the fat they yield. Ordinary lard is a pure white fat of the consistency of bu…

Lardner

LARDNER, DloNrsma (1793-1859), a prolific scientific writer, was born at Dublin, April 3, 1793. His father was a solicitor, and intended his son to follow the same calling. After some years of uncongenial desk work, Lardner, determining on a university career, entered Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated RA. in 1817. In 1828 he became professor of natural philosophy and astronomy at University C…

Lardy Er, Natiuniel

LARDY ER, NATIUNIEL (1684-1768), author of the The Credibility of the Gospel History, was born at Hawkhurst, Kent, in 1684. After having studied for the Presbyterian ministry in London, and also at Utrecht and Leyden, he in 1709 took licence as a preacher ; but, failing to gain acceptance in the pulpit, he in 1713 entered the family of a lady of rank as tutor and domestic chaplain, and in this pos…

Larissa

LARISSA (in Turkish Yeni Sltehr), the most important town of Thessaly, is situated in a rich agricultural district on the right bank of the Salambria (Peneius), about 35 miles north-west of Volo. Up till 1881 it was the seat of a pasha in the vilayet of Janina ; it now ranks as the chief town of the new Greek province. Its long subjection to Turkey has left little trace of a nobler antiquity, and …

Laristan

LARISTAN, a province of Persia, bounded by Farsistdn on the W. and N.W. by Kirman on the E. and N.E., by the Persian Gulf on the S. It lies between 26' 30' and 28? 25' N. lat., 52? 30' and 55? 30' E. long., and has an extreme length and breadth of 210 and 120 miles respectively, with an area of 20,000 square miles. Laristan is one of the least productive provinces in Persia, consisting mainly of m…

Lark

LARK, Anglo-Saxon Laiverce, German Lerche, Danish Lturke, Dutch Leenwerik, a bird's name (perhaps always, but now certainly) used in a rather general sense, the specific meaning being signified by a prefix, as Skylark, Titlark, Woodlark, and so forth. It seems to be nearly conterminous with the Latin Alaetcla as used by older authors ; and, though this was to some extent limited by Linnaeus, sever…

La Salle

LA SALLE, chief city of La Salle county, Illinois, U.S., is situated on the right bank of the Illinois river, navigable up to this point, about 80 miles south-west of Chicago, with which it is connected by the Illinois and Michigan Canal as well as by rail.

La Salle, Robert Cavelier

LA SALLE, ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR DE (1643-1687), a French explorer in North America, was born at Rotten in November 1643. He became a settler in Canada, and about 1669, leaving his trading post at La Chine, above Montreal, he sought to reach China by way of the Ohio, supposing, from the reports of Indians, this river to flow into the Pacific. He made explorations of the country between the Ohio an…

Lascaris, Constantine

LASCARIS, CONSTANTINE ( 1 - 1493), an eminent Greek scholar, was a member of the family which in the 13th century had furnished three emperors of 1%.;ica:a, and was born at Constantinople, but in what year is unknown. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, he took refuge iu Italy, where Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, appointed him Greek tutor to his daughter Hippolyta, afterwards married to A…

Lascaris, Joannes Or Janus

LASCARIS, JOANNES or JANUS (c. 1445-1535), surnamed Rhyndacenus from the river Rhyndacus in Bithynia, his native province, was born about 1415. He was a member of the imperial family of Lascaris, and after the fall of Constantinople fled into Italy, where ultimately he found refuge at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, whose intermediary he was with the sultan Bajazet II. in the purchase of Greek MS…

Las Casas, Bartolom

LAS CASAS, BARTOLOM.6 DE (1474-1566), for some time bishop of Chiapa in Mexico, and known to posterity as "The Apostle of the Indies," was a native of Seville, where he was born in 1474. His father, one of the companions of Columbus in the voyage which resulted in the discovery of the New World, was rich enough to be able to send him to Salamanca, where he graduated. In 1498 he accompanied his fat…

Lassalle, Ferdinand

LASSALLE, FERDINAND (1825-1864), the originator of the social-democratic movement in Germany, was born at Breslau in 1825. Like Karl Marx, the chief of international socialism, he was of Jewish extraction. His father, a prosperous merchant in Breslau, intended Ferdinand for a business career, and with this view sent him to the commercial school at Leipsic ; but the boy, having no liking for that k…

Lassen, Christian

LASSEN, CHRISTIAN (1800-1876), an eminent Orientalist, was born on October 22, 1800, at Bergen in Norway. Having received his first university education at Christiania, only founded a few years previously (in 1818), had already become one of the chief centres of Oriental studies. The lectures of A. W. von Schlegel, the distinguished critic and leader of the German Romantic school, who shares with …

Latakia, Or Ladieiyeii

LATAKIA, or LADIEIYEII, a seaport town of Syria, situated opposite the island of Cyprus, about 72 miles north of Tripoli, and administratively dependent on the mutassarrif of that city. It is a rather poor-looking place ; but, besides being the most important town of a considerable district, the residence of several foreign consuls, and the seat of an American mission, it has considerable historic…

Lathe

LATHE. In its simplest form - a form which is still employed by the natives of India - the lathe consists of two upright posts each carrying a fixed pin or dead centre, between which the work in hand is caused to revolve by an assistant pulling alternately the two ends of a cord passed round it. A tool held firmly ou a bar which forms a "rest" then attacks in succession the projecting parts, and i…

Latimer

LATIMER, HuGn (c. 1490-1555), bishop of Worcester, and one of the chief promoters of the Reformation in England, was a native of Thurcaston, Leicestershire, and the son of a yeoman, who rented a farm "of three or four pounds by year at the uttermost." Of this farm he "tilled as much as kept half a dozen men," retaining also grass for a hundred sheep and thirty cattle. The year of Latimer's birth i…

Latin Language

LATIN LANGUAGE, first appears in history as the language spoken in the plain of LATIUM (2.v.). In the 31 century B.C., at which date it first becomes known to us from extant inscriptions and contemporary history, its range as a vernacular was still limited to this district, although the arms of Rome had carried some knowledge of it to the utmost boundaries of the peninsula of Italy. Of the dialect…

Latitude

LATITUDE. See ASTRONOMY, GEODESY, and GEOGRAPHY (MATHEMATICAL). L ATIUM, in ancient geography, was the name given to the portion of central Italy which adjoined the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west, and was situated between Etruria and Campania. The name was, however, applied in a very different sense at different times, and the extent of country comprised under this appellation varied materially. Latiu…

Latona

LATONA is the Latin name of the Greek Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis. In Greece she belongs rather to the sphere of mythology than of religion ; she forms part of the surroundings of these two great deities, but is not usually a goddess to whom worship is paid or temples built. Different forms of the Latona legend are found in the various seats of Apolline religion. Of these seats the chief ar…

Latreille, Pierre

LATREILLE, PIERRE-ANDEt (1762-1833), French naturalist, was born in humble circumstances at Brives-laGaillarde, now in the department of Correze, France, on November 29, 1762. His abilities attracted the attention of the Baron d'Espagnac, who in 1778 placed him at the College Lemoine at Paris, where the Abbe Haiiy was at that time a teacher. Having chosen the ecclesiastical career, he was admitted…

Lauban

LAUBAN, chief town of a circle of the same name in the government of Liegnitz and province of Prussian Silesia, is situated in a picturesque valley, at the junction of the lines of railway from Gorlitz and Sorau, 39 miles west-south-west from Liegnitz, in 51? 7' N. lat., 15? 17' E. long. Lauban is the seat of a chamber of commerce, and has a Roman Catholic and three Lutheran churches, a conventual…

Lauder

LAUDER, Sin THOMAS DICK, BART. (1784-1848), was the only son of Sir Andrew Lauder, the sixth baronet, and was born at Edinburgh in 1784. He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1820. In early life he published two romances, Lochandhu and the Wolf of Badenoch and such were the merits of his style that his first contribution to Blctcku'ood's Magazine in 1817, entitled "Simon Roy, Gardener at Dunphail," was…

Laud, William

LAUD, WILLIAM (1573-1644), archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Reading on October 7, 1573. In 1590 he became a scholar of St John's, Oxford, and a fellow in 1593. In 1601 he entered the ministry of the church. In 1605 he married the earl of Devonshire to the divorced Lady Rich, an act which he never ceased to regret. In 1611 he became president of St John's. His career at Oxford brought him into…

Lauenburg

LAUENBURG, formerly a duchy belonging with Holstein to Denmark, but from 1865 to Prussia, was in July 1876 incorporated as a circle in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein. It lies on the right bank of the Elbe, between 53' 21' and 53? 48' N. lat., 10? 13' and 11? 3' E. long , is bounded by the territories of Hamburg, Liibeck, and Mecklenburg, the province of Hanover, and the circle of Olde…

Launceston

LAUNCESTON, the second town of Tasmania, is situated in the north of the island, at the point where the North and South Esk unite to form the river Tamar.

Launceston

LAUNCESTON, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of England, in the eastern division of the Charles I. For the grammar school originally established in the reign of Edward VI. a new building was erected in 1862. The trade of the town is chiefly in agricultural produce. The population of the municipal borough (area acres) from 5468 to 5675. The ancient name of Launceston was Dunneh…

Laurel

LAUREL. There are at least four shrubs or small trees which are called by this name in Great Britain, viz., the common or cherry laurel (Cerasus Laurocerasus, Lois.), the Portugal laurel (C. lusitanfca, Lois.), the bay or sweet laurel (Laurus nobilis, L.), and the spurge laurel (Daphne Laureola, L.). The first two belong to the rose family (llosacex), and are regarded by Bentham and Hooker as a su…

Laurens, Henry

LAURENS, HENRY (1724-1792), American statesman, was born at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1724, of Huguenot ancestry. After receiving a good education, he entered a counting-house in London by way of preparation for commercial pursuits, in which he engaged, after his return to Charleston, with such success as to amass rapidly a large fortune. He accepted ardently the advanced views of individual …

Laurens, John

LAURENS, JOHN (1756-1782), an American revolutionary officer of distinguished bravery, son of Henry Laurens noticed above, was born at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1756. He was educated in England, and on his return to America in 1777, in the height of the revolutionary struggle, he joined Washington's staff. He soon gained his commander's confidence, which he reciprocated with the most devoted …

Lauria, Or Loria

LAURIA, or LORIA, a city of Italy in the province of Potenza, 13 miles south of Lagonegro, consisting of a walled town on the steep side of a hill and another portion in the plain below.

Laurvik, Or Laurvig

LAURVIK, or LAURVIG, a seaport town of south-eastern Norway, in the amt of Jarlsherg, is situated at the head of a short fjord, near where the Lougen or Laagen Ely falls into the sea.

Lausanne

LAUSANNE, the chief town of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, lies about 27 miles N.E. of Geneva and 1 mile to the N. of the lake, which used not unfrequently to be called the Lake of Lausanne instead of the Lake of Geneva. It is the junction of the railways to Geneva from Bern and the Rhone valley, and has direct communication with Paris via Pontarlier. A railway worked by a cable connects the t…

Lavagna

LAVAGNA, a market-town of Italy, in the province of Genoa, situated on the sea-coast about a mile east of Chiavari, on the railway between Genoa and Pisa.

Laval

LAVAL, capital of the department of Mayenne, France, is situated on the Mayenne, 186 miles by railway west from Paris. On the right bank of the river stands the old feudal city, with its ancient castle, and its irregularly built houses whose slate roofs and pointed gables peep from the groves of trees which clothe the hill. On the left bank the regularly built new town extends far into the plain. …

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

LAVATER, JOHANN KASPAR (1741-1801), is a remarkable instance of a man who has obtained celebrity by following a bypath apart from the proper work of his life. As a preacher, theological writer, and spiritual director he occupied durilig his lifetime a position not very dissimilar to that held by Keble in our own day, but he survives for posterity chiefly as the author of a work on physiognomy. He …

Lavaur

LAVAUR, chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Tarn, Prance, 25 miles E.N.E. of Toulouse, stands at a height of 460 feet on the left bank of the Agout (a tributary of the Tarn), which is here crossed by a bold bridge of a single arch of 160 feet span.

Lavender

LAVENDER, botanically Lavandula, a germs of Labiatm distinguished by an ovate tubular calyx, a two-lipped corolla, of which the upper lip has two and the lower three lobes, and four stamens bent downwards. The plant to which the name of lavender is commonly applied, Lavandala vera, D.C., is a native of the mountainous districts of the countries bordering on the western half of the Mediterranean, e…

Lawes, Henry

LAWES, HENRY (1595-1662), a prominent member of the school of early English musicians, which culminated in Purcell, and was nipped in the bud by his early death, was born at Diuton in Wiltshire in December 1595, and received his musical education from John Cooper, better known under his Italian pseudonym Giovanni Coperario, a famous composer of the day. In 1626 he was received as one of the gentle…

Law, John

LAW, JOHN (1671-1729), best known as the originator of what is usually called the Mississippi scheme, was born at Edinburgh in April 1671. His father, a goldsmith and what we should now describe as banker, bought shortly before his death, which took place in his son's youth, the lands of Lauriston near Edinburgh. John lived at home till he was twenty, and then went to London. He had already studie…

Lawrence

LAWRENCE, Stu THOMAS (1769-1830), was born at Bristol on the 4th of May 1769. His father was an innkeeper first at Bristol and afterwards at Devizes, and at the age of six Thomas was already shown off to the guests of the Black Boar as an infant prodigy who could sketch their likenesses and declaim speeches from Milton. In 1779 the elder Lawrence had to leave Devizes, having failed in business, an…

Lawrence

LAWRENCE, a city of Massachusetts, U.S., one of the county seats of Essex county, 26 miles by rail north of Boston, on the Merrimack, about 35 miles from its mouth. The greater part lies on the north side of the river, to the west of the Spicket. Lawrence is emphatically a manufacturing town, and its rise and rapid development are mainly due to the abundant water-power supplied by the dam across t…

Lawrence

LAWRENCE, a city of Kansas, U.S., the capital of Douglas county, is situated on both sides of the Kansas river, about 40 miles above its junction with the Missouri. Founded in 1854 by the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society as a centre of the anti-slavery party, Lawrence was at first retarded in its development by the disturbed condition of the State ; but its population has rapidly increased from …

Lawrence, J0111

LAWRENCE, J0111`.,7 LAIRD MAIR LAWRENCE, thaw (1811-1879), viceroy and governor-general of India, was born at Richmond, Yorkshire, 24th March 1811. His father, Colonel Alexander Lawrence, volunteered the forlorn hope at Scringapatam in presence of Baird and of Wellington, whose friend he became. His mother, Letitia Knox, was a collateral descendant of John Knox. To this couple were born twelve chi…

Law, William

LAW, WILLIAM (16S6-1761). The events of the life of this remarkable man may be very briefly stated. He was born in 1686 at King's Cliffe ; in 1705 he entered as a sizar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge ; in 1711 be was elected fellow of his college and received holy orders, and in 1712 he took his M.A. degree. He resided at Cambridge, taking pupils and occasional duty until the accession of George I…

Layamon, Or Lawe1ean

LAYAMON, or LAWE1EAN, the author of a chronicle of Britain entitled Brut, a poetical semi-Saxon paraphrase of the Brut d'Angleterre of Wace, was as he himself informs us a priest who read the services of the church at Ernleye, on the banks of the Severn (now Lower Arley or Arley Regis, 3 miles south-east from Bewdley, Worcestershire).

Lazarites, Lazarists, Or Lazarians

LAZARITES, LAZARISTS, or LAZARIANS. The origin or the " Congregation of Priests of the Mission " may in some sense be traced back to 1617, the year of the successful labours of St Vincent de Paul, assisted by five other priests, for the evangelization of the common people in the parish of Chiltillon-sur-Chalaronne, near Bourg. More ins mediately it dates from 1625, when the little community acquir…

Lazarus, St, Order

LAZARUS, ST, ORDER. OF. This religious and military order dates its origin from the occupation of Jerusalem by the first crusaders, its primary object being the succour of the leprous, of whom Lazarus (Luke xvi. 20 sq.) was regarded as the patron. After the expulsion of the crusaders the hospitallers of St Lazarus established themselves in France, where Louis VII, (1253) gave them the lands of Boi…

Lead

LEAD. This metal was known to the ancients, and is mentioned in the Old Testament. The Romans used it largely, as it is still used, for the making of water pipes, and soldered these with an alloy of lead and tin. Pliny treats of these two metals as plumbum nigrunt and plumbum album respectively, which seems to show that at his time they were looked upon as being only two varieties of the same spec…

Leadville

LEADVILLE, a flourishing mining town of the United States, capital of Lake county, Colorado, is situated at a height of 10,200 feet above the sea, on a narrow plateau between the Saguache or Continental Divide and the Park Range of the Rocky Mountains, about 70 miles south-west and ltio Grande Railway (270 miles). Though a place of 14,820 inhabitants at the census of 1881, Leadville was then the c…

Leake, William Martin

LEAKE, WILLIAM MARTIN (1777-1860), antiquarian topographer, was born in London, January 14, 1777. After completing his education at the Royal Military Academy of Woolwich, and spending four years in the West Indies as lieutenant of marine artillery, he was sent by the Government to Constantinople to instruct the Turks in this branch of the service. A journey through Asia Minor in 1800 to join the …

Leamington

LEAMINGTON, anciently LEAMINGTON PRIORS, or, by licence, since 1838, ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA, is a municipal borough and watering-place of Warwickshire, England, situated 2 miles east from Warwick, on the Leam, near its junction with Shakespeare's Avon. Its rise dates from about 1786, when baths were first erected in connexion with saline springs which are held to possess various curative properties,…

Leather

LEATHER consists of the hides and skins of certain animals, prepared by chemical and mechanical means in such a manner as to resist influences to which in their natural condition they are subject, and also to give them certain entirely new properties and qualities. Skins in an unprepared moist condition are readily disintegrated and destroyed by putrefaction, and if they are dried raw they become …

Leather, Artificial

LEATHER, ARTIFICIAL. Under the name of artificial leather, or of American leather cloth, large quantities of a material having, more or less, a leather-like surface are used, principally for upholstery purposes, such as the covering of chairs, lining the tops of writing desks and tables, &c. There is considerable diversity in the preparation of the material, but most commonly it consists of a web …

Leavenworth

LEAVENWORTH, the largest city in the State of Kansas, and chief town of Leavenworth county, is situated. in an amphitheatre formed by the bluffs of the right bank of the Missouri, in the midst of a rich agricultural country. The distance from St Louis by river is 496 miles, and by rail 309 miles. In 1853 the site of the city was covered with thick hazel brush, without a trace of human habitation. …

Lebanon

LEBANON. The name of Mount Lebanon (Heb. 04?), from the Semitic root laban, "to be white, or whitish," probably refers, not to the perpetual snow, but to the bare white walls of chalk or limestone which form the characteristic feature of the whole range. Syria is traversed by a branch thrown off almost at right angles from Mount Taurus in Asia Minor, and Lebanon is the name of the central mountain…

Le Beau, Charles

LE BEAU, CHARLES (1701-1778), a French historical termination of his course as a pupil, until he obtained the chair of rhetoric in the College des Grassins. In 1748 he was adn itted a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and in 1752 he was nominated professor of eloquence in the College de France. From 1755 ho held the office of to the 39th inclusive) of the faqtoire of that institution. He died…

Lebedin

LEBEDIN, a district town of the Kharkoff government in European Russia, 102 miles north-west of the government town, near the Olshana and Buravka, two small tributaries of the Dnieper.

Lebedyan

LEBEDYAN, a district town of the Tamboff government in European Russia, situated 132 miles west of Tamboff, on the bluffs of the right bank of the Don.

Lebrija, Or Lebrixa

LEBRIJA, or LEBRIXA, a town of Spain, in the province of Seville, near the left bank of the eastern arm of the Guadalquivir, and on the eastern edge of the flat fluvial tract known as "Las Alarismas," formed by that river. It is 44 miles by rail from Seville, which lies north by east, and about 50 miles from Cadiz. The climate is somewhat unfavourably affected by the proximity of the marshes ; but…

Lecce

LECCE, one of most important cities of Southern Italy, and the administrative centre of the province of Lecce (formerly Terra d'Otranto), is situated on the railway between Brindisi and Otranto, about 8 miles from the coast of the Adriatic. Down to the middle of the 18th century it was defended by regular fortifications constructed in the 16t1m century, and it still preserves some of the gateways,…

Lecco

LECCO, a city of Italy, in the province of Como, situated near the southern extremity of the eastern branch of the Lake of Como, which is frequently distinguished as the Lake of Lecco. It is the meeting place of several important roads, and the terminus of a railway from Bergamo, which joins the line from Milan. To the south the Adda is crossed by a fine bridge originally constructed in 1335, and …

Le Clerc, Jean

LE CLERC, JEAN (1657-1736), or CLERICUS, theologian and man of letters, was born March 19, 1657 (o.s.), at Geneva, where his father Stephen Le Clerc was professor of Greek. The family bad originally belonged to the neighbourhood of Beauvais in France, and several of its members have acquired some name in literature. On the completion of his grammar school course (in which he made himself remarkabl…

Lection, Lectionary

LECTION, LECTIONARY, LEcTon. The Jewish custom of reading the books of Moses in the synagogues every Sabbath clay was already ancient in the apostolic age, and we learn from Luke iv. 16, 17, that portions were also read from the prophets, though the system of prophetic lessons at least had not yet reached the fixity of the later ritual. For obvious reasons the reading of Scripture at public worshi…

Lectschau

LECTSCHAU (Hungarian, Locse; Latin, Leutsovia ; Slovakian, Levocza), capital of the Cis-Tisian county of Szepes, Hungary, and until 1876 a royal free town, lies in an elevated position surrounded by mountains, and near the railway from Kassa (Kaschau) to Oderberg, about 120 miles north-east from Budapest, in 49? 1' N. let., 20? 35' F. long. Leutschau is the seat of the county administration, and o…

Ledru-rollin, Alexandre Auuuste

LEDRU-ROLLIN, ALEXANDRE AUUUSTE (1807-1874), was the grandson of a celebrated quack-doctor of the reign of Louis XV., who took the name of Comus, and made a large fortune in curing or attempting to cure epilepsy by magnetism. He himself was born in the house of Scarron at Fontenay-aux?Roses, on February 2, 1807, was educated at Paris, and had just been entered at the Paris bar, when the revolution…

Ledyard

LEDYARD, Joux (1751-1789), traveller, was born in Groton, Connecticut, U.S., in 1751. After vainly attempting to settle down to the study of law and theology, Ledyard adopted the life of a seaman, and, finding his way to London, was engaged in 1776 as a corporal of marinas by Captain Cook, for his third voyage of discovery. On his return in 1778 Ledyard had to give up to the Admiralty the copious …

Leech

LEECH. The medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis, L.) is a species grouped under the family Gnathobdellidw, (with a dental apparatus composed of armed muscular ridges) of the discophorous Annelida. The body of a leech is spindle-shaped, and flattened dorsally and ventrally so as to be elliptical in transverse section. It is somewhat pointed in front except when the mouth is in action, while posterio…

Leech, John

LEECH, JOHN (1817-1864), the most genial of the humorous draftsmen of our century, was born in London on the 29t11 of August 1817. His father, a native of Ireland, was the landlord of the London Coffee House on Ludgate Hill, "a man," on the testimony of those who knew him, "of fine culture, a profound Shakespearian, and a thorough gentleman." His mother was descended from the family of the famous …

Leeds

LEEDS, a town of England, in the West Riding of advantageous. It is distant from London by the Great Northern Railway 185 miles, from Edinburgh 225, from Liverpool 74, from Manchester 42r, and from Birmingham 113, and may be said to occupy a central position in the railway system of England. It has also communication with Liverpool by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and with Hull by the Aire and Ca…

Leek

LEEK, the Allium, Pontiac of botanists, a plant which is now considered as a mere variety of Allizint Ampelopraston produced by cultivation. It was formerly regarded as being a native of Switzerland, and the year 1582 has been set down as the date of its introduction to England. Both these assumptions are, however, erroneous. The plant is probably of Eastern origin, since it was commonly cultivate…

Leek

LEEK, a market-town of Staffordshire, England, is situated on a fine eminence above the river Churnet, and on the Churnet Valley branch of the North Staffordshire Railway, 24 miles east-north-east of Stafford. Its streets are wide and regular, and its sanitary and water arrangements are very complete. The church, dedicated to Saint Edward the Confessor, is in the Early English style. Much of the o…

Lee, Nathaniel

LEE, NATHANIEL (c. 1650-1692), dramatist, was the son of Dr Lee, incumbent of Hatfield, Hertfordshire. He studied at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. After essaying the profession of an actor with very slight success, he wrote several tragedies, the best known of which are The Rival Queens, 1677, and Theodosius, 1680. He also assisted Dryden in producing CEdipus and 7'/ D fike of…

Leer

LEER, a seaport and the chief town of a circle in the province of Hanover, Prussia, lies on the right bank of the Leda near its confluence with the Ems, 161 miles south of Aurich in 53? 13' N. lat., and 7? 27' E. long.

Lee, Richard Henry

LEE, RICHARD HENRY (1732-1794), an American statesman and orator, born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, U.S., January 20, 1732, was one of six distinguished sons of Thomas Lee, a descendant of an old Cavalier family. After obtaining the foundation of a liberal education in England, and spending a little time in travel, he returned to Virginia in 1752, coming into possession of a fine property lef…

Lee, Robert Edward

LEE, ROBERT EDWARD (1807-1870), general of the Confederate States army, and one of the greatest of modern commanders, was horn at Stratford, in Westmoreland county, Virginia, on January 19, 1807. His father, General Harry Lee, better known in the War of Independence as " Light-florse Harry Lee," and afterwards governor of Virginia, was the son of a cousin of the subject of last article. Robert Lee…

Leeuwarden, Or Leuwarden

LEEUWARDEN, or LEUWARDEN (in Frisian Liewerd, and Latinized as Leovardia), a town of Holland, at the head of the province of Friesland, 17 miles inland from Harlingen and 32 west of Groningen. It is one of the most prosperous of the secondary towns in the country, and, thanks in great measure to the opening of the railway to Harlingen (1863) and Groningen (1866), full of life and enterprise. To th…

Leeuwenhoek, Or Leitivenhoek

LEEUWENHOEK, or LEITIVENHOEK, ANTHONY VAN (1632-1723), a microscopist of remarkable scientific ability, was born at Delft, in Holland, in 1632. He does not seem to have had the advantage of a liberal education, but was probably brought up as a glass-grinder, early acquiring a reputation for the excellent lenses with which lie furnished the microscopists who were then turning their attention to the…

Legate

LEGATE, one of the special names of a messenger or ambassador of the pope. The first four centuries present us with no actual recorded instances of recognized delegation of the papal authority ; for that Hosius acted as papal legate at the council of Nice is nothing more than an assertion of Gelasius of Cyzicus, who wrote about the end of the 5th century, and no Western prelate took any part, eith…

Legendre, Adrien Marie

LEGENDRE, ADRIEN MARIE (1752-1833), French mathematician, a contemporary of Laplace and Lagrange, with whom he deserves to be ranked,' was born at Paris (or, according to some accounts, at Toulouse) in 1752. He was brought up at Paris, where lie completed his studies at the College, Mazarin. His first published writings consist of some articles forming part of the Traite de .31ecanigue (1774) of t…

Legerdemain, Prestidigitation, Or Sleight Of Hand

LEGERDEMAIN, PRESTIDIGITATION, or SLEIGHT OF HAND, as it is variously called, is the art of deceiving the eye of the spectator by adroit movements of the hand of the operator so as apparently to cause an object either to be changed, produced, or made to disappear. The term " legerdemain " is extended in meaning to include all sorts of" conjuring " by means of mechanical and other contrivances, alt…

Leghorn

LEGHORN (Italian, Livorno), a city of Italy-, the chief town of the province of Leghorn (which includes the island of Elba), the see of a bishop, and next to Genoa and Naples the greatest commercial port in the kingdom, is situated on the coast of the Ligurian Sea, in 430 33' N. lat. and 10? 16' E. long., 15 miles south-west of Pisa, with which it is connected by a branch from the main west coast …

Leicester

LEICESTER, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of England, and the chief town of the county of Leicester, is situated at the intersection of several railway lines, in a gentle hollow on the river Soar, 97 miles north-north-west of London, and 27 south of Nottingham. The town is well built, the streets are spacious and regular, and the sanitary and water arrangements are very sati…

Leicester

LEICESTER, an inland county of England, is bounded N. by Nottinghamshire, E. by Lincolnshire and Rutland, S.E. by Northamptonshire, S.W. by Warwickshire, and N.W. by Derbyshire. It lies between 52? 24' and 52? 59' N. let., and between 0? 39' and 1? 37' W. long. It has the form of an irregular hexagon, its greatest length being about 41 miles, and its greatest breadth about 40 miles. The area compr…

Leicester, Simon De Montfort

LEICESTER, SIMON DE MONTFORT, EARL OF. See MONTFORT. LEICESTER, ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF (c. 15311588). This favourite of Queen Elizabeth came of an ambitious family. They were not, indeed, such mere upstarts as their enemies loved to represent them ; for Leicester's grandfather - the notorious Edmund Dudley who was one of the chief instruments of Henry V1I.'s extortions - was descended from a young…

Leigh

LEIGH, a market and manufacturing town of Lancashire, England, is situated on several branch railway lines, 7,4 miles south-west of Bolton.

Leigh, Edward

LEIGH, EDWARD (1602-1671), Puritan linguist and theologian, was born in 1602 at Shawell, Leicestershire, was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, from 1616, and subsequently became a member of the Middle Temple. In 1636 he entered parliament as member for Stafford, and during the civil war he held a colonelcy in the parliamentary army. He has sometimes been confounded with John Ley, and so represent…

Leighton-buzzard

LEIGHTON-BUZZARD, a market-town of Bedfordshire, is situated on the river Ouse, which there divides Bedford from Bucks, and on the North-Western Railway, 40 miles north of London. The town, which is generally well built, contains a spacious market-place, and of late great improvement has taken place in the appearance of the shops. The church of All Saints, in the Early English style of architectur…

Leighton, Robert

LEIGHTON, ROBERT (1611-1684), bishop of Duublane, and afterwards archbishop of Glasgow, was the eldest son of Dr Alexander Leighton, the author of Zion's Plea against the Prelacie, whose terrible sufferings for having dared to question the divine right of Episcopacy, under the persecution of Laud, form one of the most disgraceful incidents of the reigu of Charles I. Dr Leighton is said to have bee…

Leipsic

LEIPSIC (in German, Leipzig), the second town of the kingdom of Saxony in size, and the first in commercial importance, is situated in a large and fertile plain, in 51' 20' 6" N. lat. and 12? 23' 37" E. long., about 65 miles northwest of Dresden and 6 miles from the Prussian frontier. It stands just above the junction of three small rivers, the Pleisse, the Parthe, and the Elster, which flow in va…

Leith

LEITH, a municipal and parliamentary burgh of Midlothian, the chief seaport of the east coast of Scotland, 11 miles north by east of Edinburgh, with which it is connected by Leith Walk and other lines of street. It is built on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, at the mouth of the Water of Leith, which, crossed by seven bridges, divides it into North and South Leith. Stretching along the c…

Leitmeritz

LEITMERITZ (Bob., Litonice), an episcopal see and chief town of Leitmeritz district, Bohemia, is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, crossed there by an iron bridge 1700 feet in length, and on the Austrian Northseveral other Roman Catholic churches and ecclesiastical following table shows the number of acres under the various crops in 1855 and 1881 : - The acreage under crops is thus less tha…

Leitrim

LEITRIM, a maritime county of Ireland in the province of Connaught, is bounded on the N. W. by Donegal Bay, N.E. by Fermanagh, E. by Cavan, S.E. by Longford, and S.W. by Roscommon and Sligo. Its shape resembles that of an hour-glass. From about 20 miles at the extremities it narrows in the centre to a breadth of only 7 miles, and its greatest length from south-east to north-west is 52 miles. The t…

Leland, John

LELAND, JOHN (1691-1766), a polemical theologian of the 18th century, was born at Wigan, Lancashire, in he continued to fill until his death on January 16, 1766. behind's first publication was A Defence of Christianity (1733), in reply to Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation; it was succeeded by his Divine Authority of the Old and New Testaments asserted (1738), in answer to The Moral Phil…

Leleges

LELEGES was the name applied to an early race or set of races around the tEgean Archipelago. The name occurs in Leucadia, Acarnania, ./Etolia, Phocis, Locris, Bceotia, Megara, Laconia, Elis, the islands of the 2Egean, the Troad, and Caria. It is hardly possible to suppose that a single race was to be found in so many widely separated localities. Herodotus identifies the Leleges with the Carians, s…

Lelewel

LELEWEL, Joacnim (1786-1861), Polish historian, was born at Warsaw in 1786. His family came from Prussia in the early part of the 18th century ; his grandfather was appointed physician to the Polish king then reigning, and his father caused himself to be naturalized as a Polish citizen. The original form of the name appears to have been Loelheffel. From his earliest childhood the future historian …

Lely, Sir Peter

LELY, SIR PETER (1617-1680), a celebrated painter, was born at Soest, Westphalia, in 1617. His father, a military captain and a native of Holland, was originally called Van der Vaes ; the nickname of Le Lys or Lely, by which he was generally known, was adopted by his son as a proper surname. After studying for two years under Peter de Grebber, an artist of some note at Haarlem, Lely, induced by th…

Lemberg

LEMBERG (i.e., Lemberg; also Lembitrg or L6wenburg ; Polish, Lwow ; Lat., Leopolis), the capital of the Austrian crown-land of Galicia, and according to its population the third city of Austria-Hungary, lies 180 miles east of Cracow and GO miles from the Russian frontier. The hollow of the Sarmatian plateau, in which the town is situated, is about 1000 feet above the sea-level, and, as drained by …

Lemming

LEMMING, a small animal belonging to the order Rodentia, family Hurithe, and subfamily Arvicolinx, or voles, of which the common water-rat and short-tailed field mouse of England are members. It is the illyodes lemnals (Linn.) of most modern zoological systems, the Lentnzus norvegicus of Desmarest and some other authors. In both size and colour different specimens vary considerably, but its usual …

Lemnos

LEMNOS was an island in the northern part of the iEgean Sea, now called by the inhabitants Limnos. The Italian form of the name, Stalimene, i.e., ES 141V Acii2V0V, is not used in the island itself, but is commonly employed in geographical works. The island, which belongs to Turkey, estimated at 150 square miles. Great part of it is and fruit trees grow, but no olives. The inhabitants coast, with a…

Lemon

LEMON, the fruit of Citrus Limoninn, Risso, which valleys of Kumaon and Sikkim in the North-West Provinces of India, ascending the mountains to a height of 4000 feet, and occurring under several forms. The lemon seems to have been unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and to have been introduced by the Arabs into Spain between the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1494 the fruit was cultivated in th…

Lemonnier, Pierre Charles

LEMONNIER, PIERRE CHARLES (1715-1799), a distinguished astronomer, was born in Paris, November 23, 1715, where his father combined the practice of astronomy with the profession of philosophy. His first recorded. observation was made before he was sixteen, and the presentation of an elaborate lunar map procured for him admission to the Academy, April 21, 1736, at the early age of twenty. He was cho…

Lemur

LEMUR, a term applied by Linnaeus to a group of mammals, and suggested by the nocturnal habits and strange ghost-like appearance of some of its members. As they had previously no vernacular appellation in English, it has been generally adopted, and is now completely anglicized, making "lemurs" in the plural. The French call them Makis, the Germans Halbafen, in allusion to their forming, in appeara…

Lenclos, Ninon De

LENCLOS, NINON DE (1615-1705), was the daughter of a gentleman of good position in Touraine. Her long and eventful life divides into two periods, during the former of which she was the typical Frenchwoman of the gayest and most licentious society of the 17th century, during the latter the recognized leader of the fashion in Paris, and the friend of wits and poets. Of her earlier life the less said…

Lenfant, Jacques

LENFANT, JACQUES (1661-1728), author of numerous works, chiefly in ecclesiastical history, was born at Bazoche (Eure-et-Loir) on April 13, 1661. His father, Paul Lenfant, was Protestant pastor at Bazoche and afterwards at Chatillon-sur-Loing until the revocation of the edict of Nantes, when he removed to Cassel. After studying at Saumur and Geneva, Lenfant completed his theological course at Heide…

Lenkor An

LENKOR AN, a town in Trans-Caucasia, on the Caspian, at the mouth of a small stream of its own name, and close to a great lagoon. The lighthouse stands in 38? 45' 38? N. lat., and 48? 50' 18" E. long. Taken by storm on New Year's day 1813 by General Kotliareski, Lenkoran was in the same year surrendered by Persia to Russia by the treaty of Gulistan along with the khanate of Talysh, of which it was…

Lennep

LENNEP, a small town of Rhenish Prussia in. the district of Dusseldorf, is situated 18 miles east of Diisseldorf and 9 miles south of Barmen, at a height of 1050 feet above the level of the sea.

Lennep, Jacob Van

LENNEP, JACOB VAN (1802-1868), Dutch poet and novelist, was born March 24, 1802, at Amsterdam, where his father, David Jacob van Lennep, who also became known as a scholar and poet, was professor of eloquence and the classical languages in the Athenaeum. Lennep received his education partly in his native city and partly at Leyden, studying jurisprudence at the latter, and ultimately obtaining the …

Lent

LENT (lenten, lente, from A. S. lencten, spring ; comp, Du. lente, Germ. lens), the ecclesiastical season known in the early Greek Church as reo-o-apalcoo-Tii (afterwards as urlo-r-cia), and in the Latin Church, from at least the 4th century, as Quaclragesima.1 Tremens, in a passage which, though not free from difficulties, is yet clear enough in its general scope (?pnd Euseb., 11. E., v. 24), men…

Lentil

LENTIL, the seed of Lens esculenta-, Month, a small annual of the vetch tribe. The plant varies from 6 to 18 inches in height, and has many long ascending branches. The leaves are alternate, with six pairs of oblong-linear, obtuse, mucronate leaflets. The flowers, two to four in number, are of a pale blue colour, and are borne in the arils of the leaves, on a slender footstalk equalling the leaves…

Lentini

LENTINI. See LEONTINI. LEO I., who alone of Roman pontiffs shares with Gregory I. the surname of THE GREAT, pope from 440 to 461, was a native of Rome, or, according to a less probable account, of Volterra in Tuscany. Of his family or of his early education nothing is known ; that he was highly cultivated according to the standards of his time is obvious, but it does not appear that he could write…

Leo Ii

LEO II., pope from August 682 to July 683, was a Sicilian by birth, and succeeded Agatho I. Agatho had been represented at the sixth oecumenical council (that of Constantinople in 680), where Pope Honorius I. was anathematized for his views in the Monothelite controversy as a favourer of heresy, and the only fact of permanent historical interest with regard to Leo is that he wrote once and again i…

Leo Iii

LEO III., ilavics, surnamed THE ISAURIAN, a native of Isauria, born about 680, was originally called Conon, a name which he dropped after he had risen to military distinction. In 713 he received from Anastasius II. the command of the eastern army ; and, when that emperor was deposed by Theodosius III. in 716, Leo, marching to Constantinople, compelled the usurper to resign, and was himself made em…

Leo Iii

LEO III., whose pontificate (795-816) covered the last eighteen years of the reign of Charlemagne, was a native of Rome, and having been unanimously chosen successor of Adrian I. on December 26, 795, was consecrated to the office on the following day. His first act was to send to Charles as patrician the standard of Rome along with the keys of the sepulchre of St Peter and of the city ; gracious a…

Leo Iv

LEO IV., pope from 847 to 855, was a Roman by birth, and was unanimously chosen to succeed Sergius II. His pontificate was chiefly distinguished by his efforts to repair the damage done by the Saracens during the reign of his predecessor to various churches of the city, especially those of St Peter and St Paul. It was he who built and fortified the suburb on the right bank of the Tiber still known…

Leo Ix

LEO IX., pope from 1049 to 1054, was a native of Upper Alsace, where he was born June 21, 1002. His proper name was Bruno ; the family to which he belonged was of noble rank, and through his father he was related to the emperor Conrad II. He was educated at Tcul, where he successively became canon and (1026) bishop ; in the latter capacity he rendered important political services to his relative C…

Leominster

LEOMINSTER, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of England in the county of Hereford, is situated in a rich agricultural country on the Lug, 150 miles west-north-west of London and 12 north of Hereford. The town has regular and spacious streets, and some fine old timber houses lend picturesqueness to its appearance. The parish church, which is of mixed architecture, including the…

Leon

LEON, the chief city of a department of the same name in the republic of Nicaragua, situated in an extensive plain about midway between the great inland lake of Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean. It is connected by rail (1881) with Corinto on the coast (which has taken the place of Roalejo, its former port) ; and the line is being extended to Leon Viejo on Lake Managua and thence to Granada. The cit…

Leon

LEON, the capital of the above province, is pleasantly situated upon a rising ground in the angle formed by the Torio and Bernesga, which here unite to form the Leon, a tributary of the Esla ; its distance north-west from Madrid is 258 miles, The town, which is surrounded by old and dilapidated walls, everywhere presents an aspect of ruin and decay. Many of the buildings are fine. Of these the mos…

Leon

LEON, one of the forty-nine provinces of Spain, is bounded on the N. by Oviedo, on the E. by Palencia, on the S. by Valladolid and Zamora, and on the W. by Orense and Lugo, and has an area of 6166 square miles, with a population (in 1877) of 350,210. Its boundaries on the north and west, formed respectively by the central ridge and southerly offshoots of the great Cantabrian chain, are strongly ma…

Leon

LEON, a city of Mexico, in the state of Guanajuato, the chief town of a department, and in population second only to the capital of the republic, from which it is distant Mexico as the national capital.

Leon

LEON, Lris PONCE DE (1528-1591), usually known as Fray Luis de Leon, Spanish religious writer, was born about 1528, most probably at Granada, entered the university of Salamanca, where Melchior Cano was a few years his senior, at the age of fourteen, and in 1544 became a member of the Augustinian community there. His academical promotion was comparatively rapid ; in 1561 he obtained by public comp…

Leonardo

LEONARDO (or LIONARDO) DA VINCI was born in 1452 and died in 1519, having during his life excelled in almost every honourable human attainment and pursuit, the commercial and political excepted. Considering the range of his speculative as well as that of his practical powers, he seems certainly the man whose genius has the best right to be called universal of any that have ever lived. In the fine …

Leonidas

LEONIDAS (" Son of the Lion") was a very common Greek name. The most famous person who bore it was a king of Sparta, seventeenth of the Agid line. He had been king for one year when Xerxes invaded Greece, 480 n.c. The congress of the Greek states bent on resistance, which met at the isthmus of Corinth, sent Leonidas with a force of at least 8000 men to hold the narrow pass of Thermopylre against t…

Leontini

LEONTINI, a town in the south-east of Sicily, was founded by the Chalcidians from Naxos (730 n.c.).

Leopard

LEOPARD, a name now commonly given to a well-known animal, called pard (7dpSos and 7rci.p8aXts) or panther (rcivOlp) by the ancients. Leopard (leo-pcirclus) was a later term, originally applied, it is believed, to the animal now known as the cheetah or hunting leopard, upon the supposition that it was a creature intermediate between the lion and the true pard. If so it has been completely transfer…

Leopardi, Giacomo

LEOPARDI, GIACOMO (1798-1837), the one Italian poet of the 19th century who has taken an uncontested place among the classics of the language, was born at Recanati in the March of Ancona, June 29, 1798. All the circumstances of his parentage and education conspired to foster his precocious and sensitive genius at the expense of his physical and mental health. His family was ancient and patrician, …

Leopold

LEOPOLD I. (1790-1865), king of the Belgians, was the fourth son of Francis, duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and thus the uncle of Queen Victoria of England.

Leopold

LEOPOLD I. (1676-1747), duke of Anhalt-Dessau, der alte Dessauer, a famous Prussian general, was born at Dessau, July 3,1676. Possessing great physical energy and an absorbing interest in military affairs, he at an early age displayed capacity for commands of high responsibility. On the death of his father in 1693 be succeeded him as colonel of a regiment in the service of Brandenburg, and, having…

Leopold

LEOPOLD I. (1640-1705), Holy Roman emperor, the second son of the emperor Ferdinand III. and Maria Alma of Spain, was born June 9, 1640. He became king of Hungary in 1655, and king of Bohemia in 1658, in which year he also received the imperial crown, the electors having chosen him in preference to Louis XIV. of France. Leopold had been educated for the church, and throughout life he had the taste…

Leopold Il

LEOPOLD IL, Holy Roman emperor, was born on the 5th of May 1747. After the death of his father, the emperor Francis I., in 1765, lie became grand-duke of Tuscany, a country which he ruled for twenty-five years in a thoroughly enlightened spirit. Earlier thou his brother, Joseph II., he saw the necessity of ecclesiastical reform, but he effected with moderation and good sense the changes which he c…

Leo Vii

LEO VII., pope from 93G to 939, was preceded by John XI., and followed by Stephen IX. LEO.VIII., pope from 963 to 965, a Roman by birth, held the lay office of " protoscrinius " when he was elected to the papal chair at the instance of Otho the Great by the Roman synod which deposed John XII. in December 963. Having been hurried with unseemly haste through all the intermediate orders, he received …

Leo Xii

LEO XII. (Annibale della Genga), pope from 1823 to 1829, a native of Romagna, was born on August 22, 1760. In 1790 he first gained public recognition of his t dents by the success with which he accomplished the delicate task laid upon him by Pius VI. of pronouncing a funeral discourse over the emperor Joseph H. ; in 1793 he was sent as nuncio to Lucerne with the title of archbishop of Tyre ; in th…

Lepanto

LEPANTO (the Italian form of the modern Greek Epakto), known in ancient times as Naupactus, a name which has recently been revived in official documents, is a town in the nomarchy of Aearnania and iEtolia, Greece, situated on a bay on the north side of the straits of Lepanto, by which the gulf of the same name is connected with that of Patras. It stands on the south-eastern and southern slopes of …

Lepidosiren

LEPIDOSIREN is the name of one of the most remarkable genera of fishes, of which one species (Lepidosircw puradoxa) has been found in tributaries of the river Amazon, and the other (Lepidosiren annectens) occurs in the systems of all the large rivers of tropical Africa. The latter species differs in some points, notably in having six instead of five branchial arches, from L. paracloxa, and therefo…

Lepidus

LEPIDUS, M. ./Emnaus, a member of the second Roman triumvirate, was a son of M. /Emilius Lepidus, who had been consul in 137 B.C. He joined the party of Czesar in the civil wars, and was by the dictator thrice nominated magister equitum and raised to the consulship 46 R C. He was a man of great wealth and influence, and it was probably more on this ground than on account of his ability that Caesar…

Leprosy

LEPROSY (Lepra Arabum, Elephantiasis arleCOP2011, Middle Ages exists in a picture at Munich by Holbein, painted at Augsburg in 1516; St Elizabeth gives bread and wine to a prostrate group of lepers, including a bearded man whose face is covered with large round reddish knobs, an old woman whose arm is covered with brown blotches, the leg swathed in bandages through which matter oozes, the bare kne…

Leptis

LEPTIS, now LEBDA, the leading city of the ancient Tripolis, Northern Africa, extensive ruins of which exist on the coast, about 50 miles east of Tripoli. Leptis Magna, as it is usually called to distinguish it from Leptis Parva (now Lemta) in Byzacium, was a Phoenician colony, probably superimposed on an old Libyan settlement. The old town, of which the massive quays and docks are still extant, i…

Lerida

LERIDA, one of the forty-nine provinces of Spain, is bounded on the N. by France (and the " republic " of Andorra), on the E. by Gerona and Barcelona, on the S. by Tarragona, and on the W. by Saragossa and .Huesca, and has an area of 4772 square miles, with a population (in 1877) of 285,297.

Lermontoff, Mikhail Yurevitch

LERMONTOFF, MIKHAIL YUREVITCH (1814-1841), often styled the poet of the Caucasus, was born in Moscow, but belonged to a respectable family of the Tula government, and was brought up in the village of Tarkhanui (in the Penzensk government), which now preserves his dust. By his grandmother - on whom the whole care of his childhood was devolved by his mother's early death and his father's military se…

Leroux

LEROUX, Pitutau (1798-1871), a French writer on philosophy- and politics, commonly recognized as the chief of the (so-called) Humanitarian school, was born at Paris in 179S. He was the son of an artisan. He received his early education at the Lycde Charlemagne, and continued his studies at Rennes. Having obtained an admission to the Polytechnic school, he renounced it in order to support by the la…

Le Sage, Alain Re Ne

LE SAGE, ALAIN RE NE (1668-1747), novelist and dramatist., was born at Sarzeau in the peninsula of Rhuys, between the Morbihan and the sea, on the 8th of May 1663, and died on the 17th of November 1747, at Boulogne-sur-Mer. Rhuys was a legal district, and Claude Le Sage, the father of the novelist, held the united positions of advocate, notary, and registrar of its royal court. His wife's name was…

Lesbos

LESBOS was the name applied by the Greeks to the island now called Metilin - the ancient name of the chief city on the island, Mytilene, having been in the Middle Ages applied to the whole island. It lies along the coast of Mysia, north of the entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna. Strabo estimates its circumference as 1100 stadia, about 138 miles, and Scylax reckons it seventh in size of the islands in …

Lesg Hians, Or Lesghis

LESG HIANS, or LESGHIS (from the Persian Leksi, called Leki by the Grusinians or Georgians, Armenians, and Ossetians), a number of tribes in the Caucasus forming along with the Tchetchenians (about 165,000) the East Caucasus group, and spreading southward over the borders of Daghestan, the country which they have occupied from time immemorial, into the Transcaucasian circles Kuba, Shemakha, Nukha,…

Leslie, Charles Robert

LESLIE, CHARLES ROBERT (1794-1859), one of the most popular of English genre-painters, was born in London on the 19th of October 1794. His parents were American, and when lie was five years of age he returned with them to their native country. They settled in Philadelphia, where their son was educated and afterwards apprenticed to a bookseller. He was, however, mainly interested in painting and th…

Leslie, Or Lesley

LESLIE, or LESLEY, CHARLES (1650-1722), a prominent nonjuror, famous as the author of A Short and Easy lfethod with the Deists, was born in 1650 in Ireland, where Ids father, Dr John Leslie, was bishop of Raphoe and subsequently of Clogher. His early education was received at Inniskilling, Fermanagh, and in 1664 he was admitted a fellow commoner in Trinity College, Dublin, where he continued until…

Leslie, Sir John

LESLIE, SIR JOHN (1766 - 1832), geometrician and physicist, was born of humble parentage at Largo, Fifeshire, on April 16, 1766, received his early education there and at Leven, aml in his thirteenth year, encouraged by friends who had even then remarked his aptitude for mathematical and physical science, entered the university of St Andrews.

Leslie, Thomas Edward Cliffe

LESLIE, THOMAS EDWARD CLIFFE (1827-1882), one of the ablest and most original English economists of the present century, was born in the county of Wexford in (as is believed) the year 1827. He was the second son of the Rev, Edward Leslie, prebendary of Dromore, and rector of Annahilt, in the county of Down. His family was of Scotch descent, but had been connected with Ireland since the reign of Ch…

L'estiiange

L'ESTIIANGE, San ROGER (1616-1704), an indefatigable pamphleteer on the royalist and court side during the Restoration epoch, but principally remarkable as the first English man of letters of any distinction who made journalism a profession, was born at Hunstanton in Norfolk, December 17, 1616. In 1641, during the civil war, lie headed a conspiracy to seize the town of Lynn for the king, under cir…

Lesueur, Jean Francois

LESUEUR, JEAN FRANcOIS (1763-1 837), was born near Abbeville in 1763, and studied music under Reze at the college of Amiens. Appointed choirmaster of a church in Paris in 1784, he completed his musical education under Saechini. In 1786 Lesueur obtained by open competition the musical directorship of Notre-Dame, where he gave successful performances of sacred music with a full orchestra. This place…

Lethe

LETHE (Vies), oblivion) is sometimes used as the name of a river in the infernal regions. It seems to have been an idea current in the religion of the mysteries that there were in the lower world two streams, one of memory and one of oblivion. The initiated were taught to distinguish between them, and directions for this purpose written on a gold plate have been found in a tomb at Petilia, buried …

Letrointne, Jean

LETROINTNE, JEAN A. (1787-1818), French archologist, was born at Paris on January 2, 1787. His father, a poor engraver, having chosen the profession of an artist for him, sent him to the studio of David, but his own tastes drew him towards literature, and he became a student in the College de France, where it is said he used to exercise his already strongly developed faculty of critical divination…

Lettres De Cachet

LETTRES DE CACHET are really lettres closes, that is, letters sealed in such a way that they cannot be opened without breaking the seal, and which were originally always addressed to individuals, in contradistinction to lettres patentes, or letters patent, beginning " know all men by these presents." Lettres closes interfering with the administration of justice or the liberty of the subject were f…

Leucippus

LEUCIPPUS, the founder of Atomism in Greek philosophy, flourished about the middle or latter half of the 5th century B.C. Almost nothing is known of his life. His birthplace is variously given as Elea, Abdera, or Miletus. It is disputed whether he left any writings. Empedocles of Agrigentum and Anasagoras of Clazomenfe were his contemporaries, while Zeno the Eleatic is said to have been his teache…

Leuk, Or Loeche La Ville

LEUK, or LOECHE LA VILLE, a village of Switzerland, at the head of a district in the canton of Valais, 15 miles by rail east of Sion, on the right bank of the Rhone. The population has increased from 1220 in 1870 to 1411 in 1880. About 5 miles to the north, in the valley of the Dala, at a height of 4642 feet above the sea, and overshadowed by the immense cliffs of the Gemmi, lie the Baths of Leuk,…

Leven, Alexander Leslie

LEVEN, ALEXANDER LESLIE, EARL OF, one of the most distinguished soldiers of his time, was burn about the close of the 16th century. He was descended from a younger son of the ancient Scottish family of Balquhain. His father was George Leslie of Balgonie, commander of the castle of Blair, and his mother was Anne, daughter of Stewart of Ballechin. At his first outset in life he acted as a volunteer …

Lever, Charles

LEVER, CHARLES, novelist, was born at Dublin on the 31st of August 1806 (not 1809 as usually stated), and died at Trieste on the 1st of June 1872. The accounts of the earlier part of his life are, considering the time at which he lived, singularly meagre, confused, and conflicting. His father was an architect, and he entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1822, taking his degree in 1827. Many of the …

Leverrier, Urbain Jean Joseph

LEVERRIER, URBAIN JEAN JOSEPH (1811-1877), one of the greatest astronomers of modern times, was born at St LO in Normandy, March 11, 1811. His father, who held a small post under Government, made great efforts to send him to Paris, where a brilliant examination gained him, in 1831, admittance to the Ecole Polytechnique. The distinction of his career there was rewarded with a free choice amongst th…

Levis

LEVIS, formerly POINTE LEVI or POINT LEVIS, the chief town of a county of the same name in Canada, on the other side of the St Lawrence from Quebec, with which it communicates by a ferry.

Levites

LEVITES (n".r?), or sons of Levi (1'2 'a), are defined according to the usual methods of Hebrew genealogical history as the descendants of Levi, the third son of Jacob by Leah (Gen. xxix. 34).1 But in Hebrew genealogies we are not necessarily entitled to look upon the eponymue of a tribe as more than an ideal personality, and, without entering into the large question how far the patriarchal histor…

Lew-chew Islands

LEW-CHEW ISLANDS. The Lew-chew, Looehoo, Liu Kiu, or Riu Kiu Islands] include, in the wider application of the name, the whole series extending in a northeast and south-west direction from the southern end of Kiushiu in Japan proper to the north-east of Formosa. Within the northern group lies the intersection of 130? to the north of 29? are not unfrequently considered, of the Linschotens, Shichi-t…

Lewes

LEWES, a market-town and parliamentary borough, and the county town of Sussex, England, is situated on the river Ouse, at the junction of a number of railway lines, 50 miles south of London, and 7 north of Newhaven, which is its port. It occupies the slope of one of the chalk hills, and consists principally of one main street with smaller and narrower ones at right angles. St Michael's church, res…

Lewes, George Henry

LEWES, GEORGE HENRY (1817-1878), a prolific and versatile writer, born in London in 1817, was a grandson of Charles Lee Lewes, a comedian who had a considerable reputation in his day. He was educated in London, Jersey, and Brittany, and began active life by attempting business and afterwards medicine. Later he appears to have had serious thoughts of making the stage his profession. He finally fixe…

Lewis And Harris

LEWIS AND HARRIS form together an island of the Outer Hebrides, nearly separated into two parts by the inlets of Loch Reasort and Seaforth, - the northern part, feet, but there is also a large breadth of peat and swamp, with remains of an ancient forest. The coast is much indented by bays. The climate is very moist and unsuitable for tillage. Agriculture is in a backward condition, but much has be…

Lewis, Matthew Gregory

LEWIS, MATTHEW GREGORY (1775-1818), of ten referred to as " Monk " Lewis, was born in London on July 9, 1775. He was educated for a diplomatic career at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford, spending most of his vacations abroad in the study of modern languages; and in 1794 he proceeded to the Hague as attach6 to the British embassy. His stay there lasted only a few months, but was mark…

Lewis, Mereivether

LEWIS, MEREIVETHER (1774-1809), American explorer, was born near Charlottesville, Virginia, August 18, 1774. In 1794 lie volunteered with the troops called out to suppress the " whisky insurrection," was commissioned as ensign in the regular army in 1795, and as captain in 1800, and was President Jefferson's private secretary from 1801 to 1803. On Jefferson's recommendation he was appointed by Con…

Lewis, Sir George Cornewall

LEWIS, SIR GEORGE CORNEWALL, BART. (1800-1803), statesman and man of letters, was born in London on 21st April 180G. Ws father, Thomas F. Lewis of Harptou Court, Radnorshire, after holding subordinate office in various administrations became a poor-law commissioner. He was made a baronet in 1816. Lewis was educated at Eton, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where in 1828 he took a first-class in class…

Lewiston

LEWISTON, a city of the United States, in Androscoggin county, Maine, is situated 36 miles north of Portland, on the left bank of the Androscoggin, and is connected by several bridges with Auburn, a city of 9556 inhabitants, and the capital of the county. As the river at this point breaks over a ledge of mica schist and gneiss, and the natural fall of 40 feet has been raised to 50 feet by a strong…

Lexicon

LEXICON. ---$.6vD, part ii. :-(1 ) withoutplace and date, but before 1480, folio ; (2) with a Biblical index on the margin, Naples, 1490, folio ; (3) with a Biblical index inserted, Naples, 1491, folio ; (4) without pagination, Constantinople, 1513, folio; ? (5) Venice, 1529, ; folio ? (6) with corrections from MSS., Salonika, 1532-33, folio ; (7) Venice, 1516, folio ; (8) with notes by Elias Levita, Venice, 1546-48, folio ; (9) with Latiu translation of the roots, -Venice) 1546-48, folio ; (10) the text revised from three MSS., Berlin, 1847, 4to.

Lexington

LEXINGTON, capital of Fayette county, Kentucky, is situated near the centre of the State, in the midst of a table-land 1100 feet above the sea, known as the Blue Grass region. It stands on a small subtributary of the Kentucky river, 79 miles south of Cincinnati, and 94 miles east by south of Louisville. The population (:3584 in 1850, 7424 in 1860, and 13,600 in 1874) in 1880 was 16,656, including …

Leyden, John

LEYDEN, JOHN (1775-1811), was born on the 8th of September 1775, at Denholm on the Teviot, not far from Amick. Like most Scottish villages, Denholm is commonplace and uninteresting, but Leyclen's upbringing was in a wilder part of the country, at the foot of Ruberslaw, whither his father had gone as shepherd to a relation of the family. Though he did not attend school till he was nine years old, l…

Leyden, Or Leiden

LEYDEN, or LEIDEN, a city of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, about 20 miles south-west of Amsterdam, and 6 miles inland from the German Ocean. The Old Rhine, on which it is situated, enters at the eastern side by two arms which unite near the middle of the town so as to divide the western half into two nearly equal portions. Though the boundaries, which now include about 467 acr…

Lhasa

LHASA, often written LASSA, for many centuries the chief city of Tibet. Though the place is of great celebrity, the accounts of it are scanty, and information has to be sifted from authorities differing considerably in age. Tilt recently the latitude even of Lhasa has been stated with variations extending over LA- degrees, whilst the longitude has naturally been still more uncertain. The Jesuit Gr…

L'hopital, Or L

L'HOPITAL, or L'HghPiTAr., MICIIEL DE (r. 1505-1573), chancellor of France from 1560 to 1568, was born near Aigueperse in Auvergne (now Puy-de-Dome) about the year 1505. His father, who was physician and comptroller of accounts to the constable Charles de Bourbon, sent him to study at Toulouse, whence at the age of eighteen be was driven by the evil fortunes of the family patron, after suffering a…

Liau-yang, Or Lea0u-yang

LIAU-YANG, or LEA0U-YANG, a city of China, formerly the chief town of the province of Liau-tung or Slung-king (southern Manchuria), and still a place of considerable mark, 35 miles south of Moukden.

Libanius

LIBANIUS, a Sophist, was the most distinguished Greek writer of the 4th century A.D. He was born at Antioch beween 314 and 316. He studied at Athens, and spent most of his earlier manhood in Constantinople and Nicomedia. His private classes at Constantinople were much more popular than those of the public professors ; and their jealousy found means of having him expelled from Constantinople in 346…

Libau

LIBAU (Leepaja of the Letts), a port of Russia, on the Baltic Sea, in the government of Courland and district of Grobin, 143 miles by rail south-west of Riga. It is situated at the northern extremity of a narrow sandy peninsula which separates Lake Libau (12 miles long and 2 miles wide) from the Baltic Sea. The town is well built of stone, with good gardens, and has a gymnasium and more than twent…

Libel And Slander

LIBEL AND SLANDER are the terms employed in English law to denote injurious attacks upon a man's reputation or character by words written or spoken, or by equivalent signs. In most early systems of law we find verbal injuries treated as a criminal or quasi-criminal offence, the essence of the injury lying not in pecuniary loss, which may be compensated by damages, but in the personal insult which …

Liber And Libera

LIBER AND LIBERA, among the Romans, were a pair of deities, male and female, in whose worship two very different phases exist side by side. In the country feast of the vintage, and the city festival of March 17th called Liberalia, we find purely Italian ceremonial unaffected by Greek religion. The country festival was a great merrymaking, where the first-fruits of the new must were offered to the …

Liberia

LIBERIA, a Negro republic on the Grain Coast of West Africa. Founded in 1822 by American philanthropists for the settlement of freedmen who wished to return to their native land, or to enjoy political and social privileges then denied them in the United States, it remained for twenty-five years under the tutelage of the mother country, but on the 26th July 1847 it was declared independent. In 1848…

Libraries

LIBRARIES, in our modern sense of collections of printed or written literature, imply an advanced and elaborate civilization. If the term be extended to any considerable collection of written documents, they must be nearly as old as civilization itself. The earliest use to which the invention of inscribed or written signs was put was probably to record important religious and political transaction…

Library Management

LIBRARY MANAGEMENT, library Buildings.' - The conditions of no two libraries being I precisely alike, it is impossible to lay down rules to suit all, but certain principles of general application may be stated. In the first place the internal arrangements ought to be devised by a person thoroughly acquainted with the practical working of such a library as the building is intended to accommodate. T…

Liburnians

LIBURNIANS were a people who at different times were prominent on the Adriatic coasts. They were originally, one cannot doubt, one of the homogeneous Illyrian tribes (see It.t.val.k). Living in a barren rocky country along the north-eastern coast of the Adriatic, they devoted themselves to the sea, and were the chief navigators of the Adriatic in the early period. They settled on the coast of Pice…

Libya

LIBYA was a geographical name by which the Greeks usually designated Africa., with the exception of Egypt, although sometimes the continent was thought to be divided between Libya and Ethiopia. Libya enters into the sphere of ancient history only in so far as it came into contact with the civilized races of antiquity, and the present article will touch this point only ; the natural features and th…

Lichens

LICHENS (Lichenes) may briefly be defined as cellular perennial plants, furnished with a vegetative system containing gonidia, and with a reproductive system consisting of female thecasporous fruits and male spermogonous organs. They constitute a distinct class of cellular oryptogams, intermediate between a]gm and fungi, to both of which in some respects they present certain affinities. By the ear…

Lichfield

LICHFIELD, a city and municipal and parliamentary borough of Staffordshire, England, is situated in a pleasant and fertile valley, on a small tributary of the Trent, and on the South Staffordshire Railway, 16 miles north from Birmingham. The town is well built, and contains many handsome houses. Of the old Norman cathedral there are now no remains. The present building is supposed to belong to the…

Lichtenberg

LICHTENBERG, formerly a small German principality on the west bank of the Rhine, enclosed by the Nahe, the Blies, and the Glan, now forms the circle of St Wendel in the government district of Treves, Rhenish Prussia.

Lichtenberg, Georg

LICHTENBERG, GEoRG CnRhTOPII (1744-1799), physicist and satirical writer, was born at Oberramstadt, near Darmstadt, July 1, 1741. In 1763 he entered Gottingen university, where in 1770, after spending several years in England, he because extraordinary professor of physics, and five years later ordinary professor. This post he continued to hold till his death, February 24, 1799. As a physicist he i…

Licinius

LICINIUS. Publius Flavius Galerius Valerius Licinianus Licinius, Boman emperor, of Dacian peasant origin, was born probably about 250 A.D., and was elevated after the death of Severus to the rank of Augustus by Galerius, his former friend and companion in arms, on November 11, 307, receiving as his immediate command the provinces of Illyricum. On the death of Galerius in May 311, lie shared the en…

Lieber, Francis

LIEBER, FRANCIS (1800-1872), a distinguished publicist and writer on political science, was by birth a German, by adoption a citizen of the United States. He was the son of Frederick William Lieber, and was born at Berlin, March 18, 1800. Upon the return of Napoleon Bonaparte from Elba, young Lieber, then only fifteen years of age, volunteered as a soldier, and served with his two brothers under M…

Liechtenstein

LIECHTENSTEIN, a sovereign and independent principality, the smallest in Germany, is bounded on the N.E and E. by the Austrian Vorarlberg, on the S. by the Swiss canton of Grisons, and on the W. by the Rhine, while on the north it tapers almost to a point. The state, consisting of the lordships of Vaduz and Schellenberg, is only 15 miles in length, hardly over 5 miles in its average breadth, and c…

Liege

LIEGE (Germ., Liittielt; Dutch, Luih ; Walloon, Lige; usually Latinized as Leodium), a city of Belgium, the chief town of the province of Lidge, is situated in 50? 39' N. lat. and 5? 31' E. long., 56 miles east of Brussels (621- by rail), and 16 miles south-southwest of Maestricht. It occupies a remarkably fine position on the banks of the Meuse, which at this point is joined by the Ourthe. On th…

Lien

LIEN, in English and American law, properly means a right of detaining goods of another in your possession until a debt due to you from the owner of the goods is paid. To the original or common law conception of a lien it would appear to be necessary that the goods over which lien is claimed should be actually in the possession of the creditor, and further that the debt should have been incurred w…

Lier1te, Or Lieu

LIER1tE, or LIEU, a town of Belgium, in the province of Antwerp, 9.;. miles south-east of Antwerp (on the railway to Malines), at the junction of the Great and Little Neethe. It is a busy place of 15,659 inhabitants (1874), and manufactures silk, lace, and shoes, beetroot sugar, and a peculiar kind of white beer known as cavesse. The church of St Gommarius (in plan a Latin cross with a lofty tower…

Lifeboat

LIFEBOAT. It will be convenient to consider here, not the lifeboat simply, but also other means of saving life at sea. When it is borne in mind that the vast commerce of such a country as Great Britain extends to every part of the world, that the arrivals and departures from the ports of the country in one year average six hundred thousand vessels, that these are manned by more than two hundred th…

Lifts

LIFTS may properly be held to include all sorts of apparatus whose object is the lifting of weights. When tho apparatus consists of comparatively small, separate, and portable pieces, it is called lifting tackle. When the lifting apparatus reaches that degree of size and complication that entitles it to be called machinery, there seems to be no general technical term that will include all kinds, b…

Light

LIGHT, sound may be defined as any effect on the sense of hearing, and in the same way Light may be defined ' as any effect on the sense of sight. This is the purely subjective use of the terms. But both terms are quite as the air in the cavity of the external ear, mechanically affecting the tympanum, so Light may be defined by the mechanical effect produced upon the extension of the optic nerve w…

Lightfoot, John

LIGHTFOOT, JOHN (1602-1670, an eminent rabbinical scholar, was the son of Thomas Lightfoot, vicar of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, and was born at Stoke-upon-Trent in that county, on March 29, 1602. His school education was received at Morton Green near Congleton, Cheshire, and in June 1617 he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, where he made great progress in Latin and Greek, and was reckoned the be…

Lighthouse

LIGHTHOUSE, the primary and most important consideration relating to the design and construction of a lighthouse tower which is to be built within the tide mark is the force of the waves which may be expected to assail it, and the directions and heights at which that force will act on the building. The great waves which are found in the open ocean cannot be generated in smaller seas, and, with a d…

Lighting

LIGHTING. - From 1416 the citizens of London were under an obligation to hang out candles between certain hours on dark nights for the illumination of the streets ; and in 1661 a special Act of Parliament was passed to enforce the custom. The corporation in 1684 granted a licence to Edward Heming, the inventor of oil lamps, for the sole supply of the public lights for twenty-one years, but the dut…

Lighting, Electric

LIGHTING, ELECTRIC. Artificial light is generally produced by raising sonic body to a high temperature. If the temperature of a solid body be greater than that of surrounding bodies it parts with some of its energy in the form of radiation. Whilst the temperature is low these radiations are not of a kind to which the eye is sensitive ; they are exclusively radiations less refrangible and of greate…

Lightning Conductor, Or Lightning Rod

LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR, or LIGHTNING ROD (Paratonnerre, 131itz-ableiter), is the name usually given to apparatus designed to protect buildings or ships from the destructive effects of lightning. The title, alike in English, French, and German, is misleading ; for, when properly constructed, lightning rods serve rather to prevent the occurrence than to ward off the effects of a flash of lightning. Dam…

Liguori, Liguoria

LIGUORI, LIGUORIA.NISM. The name Liguorianism has been popularly given in the present century to a particular school of moral and devotional theology in the Roman Catholic Church by the controversial opponents of that school, whether themselves Roman Catholics or not. It is derived from the name of one of its principal and most influential exponents, Alfonso Maria de' Liguori, a theologian, saint,…

Liguria

LIGURIA, in ancient geography, was the name given to a portion of the north-west of Italy, including the districts, on both sides of the Maritime Alps and the Apennines, which border on the Tyrrhenian Sea from the frontiers of Gaul to those of Etruria. Along the sea-coast it extended from the river Varus or Var, which separated it from Gaul, to the Macra (Magra), which formed its limit on the side…

Lilac

LILAC, Syringa vulgaris, L., belongs to the olive family, Oleacex. The common lilac is said to have come from Persia in the 16th century, but according to Heuffel it is indigenous in Hungary, the borders of Moldavia, &c. (De Candolle, Prod., viii. p. 282). Two kinds of Syringct, viz., alba and cxrulea, are figured and described in Gerard's Herball (1597), which he calls the white and the blue pipe…

Lilburne, John

LILBURNE, JOHN (1618-1657), an English sectary and prolific pamphleteer, was the younger son of a gentleman of good family in the county of Durham, and was born in 1618. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a clothier in London, but lie appears to have paid only slight attention to business, and to have early addicted himself to the" contention, novelties, opposition of government, and viole…

Lille

LILLE, capital of the department of Nord, France, and the ancient capital of Flanders, is situated about 155 miles by rail north of Paris, and at an elevation of 75 feet, in a low plain on the Deule, which flows to the Scheldt by the Lys. It is the chief fortress of the north of France, and headquarters of the first army corps, and is defended by a rampart and by a pentagonal citadel situated to t…

Lillebonne

LILLEBONNE, capital of a canton in the department of Seine-Inferieure, France, 131 miles west-north-west by are cotton-spinning and the manufacture of calico. The population in 1876 was 5400. Lillebonne was the capital of the Caletes, or inhabitants of the Pays de Caux, in the time of Cusar, by whom it was destroyed. It was afterwards rebuilt by Augustus, who called it Juliobona after his daughter…

Lilly

LILLY, WILLIAm (1602-1681), an astrologer somewhat famous in his day, was born in 1602, at Diseworth in Leicestershire, his family having been settled as yeomen in taught logic." In his eighteenth year, in consequence of his father having fallen into great poverty, he went to London, and was employed in a sort of menial situation in attendance on an old citizen and his wife, with whom foundest aut…

Lily

LILY, Litium, the typical genus of Liliaceie, embraces nearly fifty species, all confined to the northern hemisphere, about fifteen being natives of Japan and China, six of the mountains of India, eight of south Europe, five of the east and nine of the west coasts of North America. The earliest in cultivation were described in 1597 by Gerard many new species have been added. The latest authorities…

Lilye, William

LILYE, WILLIAM (c. 146G 1523), one of the introducers of a knowledge of the Greek language into England, was born at Odiliam, in or about the year 1466. He entered the university of Oxford in 1484, became a decoy of Magdalen in 1486, and after taking his first degree in arts went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On his return lie put in at Rhodes, which was still occupied by the Knights, under whose …

Lima

LIMA, capital of the republic of Peru, as also of the department and province of Lima, is situated on an extensive plain, 500 feet above the sea-level, and 7 miles east from its port Callao on the Pacific coast, in 12? 2' 34" S. lat., 77? 7' 36" W. long. The general configuration of the main portion of the city, previous to 1870 surrounded by walls, is that of an irregular triangle, whose base res…

Lima

LIMA, capital of Allen county, Ohio, U.S., on the Ottawa river, and at the intersection of four railway lines, 130 miles north of Cincinnati.

Limborch, Philip Van

LIMBORCH, PHILIP VAN (1633-1712), a prominent Remonstrant theologian, was born June 19, 1633, at a Remonstrant pastor at Gouda, and in 1667 he was seminary was added to his pastoral charge. He died there on April 30, 1712. His most important work, Institutiones theologia Christiana, ad praxin pietatis et pronzotionent pads christiana unice direda (Amsterdam,1686,5th ed.1735), remains unrivalled as…

Limburg

LIMBURG, a town in the circle of Unterlahn and district of Wiesbaden, Prussia, is situated 360 feet above the sea-level, on the Lahn, here crossed by a bridge dating from 1315, and on the Nassau Railway midway between Coblentz and Wetzlar. A local branch line connects it with Hadamar, It is the seat of a Catholic bishop, and has one evangelical and four Catholic churches. The only prominent archit…

Limburg, Or Limbourg

LIMBURG, or LIMBOURG, one of the nine provinces of Belgium, is bounded on the N. and E. by Holland, on the S. by the province of Liege, and on the W. by those of Brabant and Antwerp ; the area is 932 square miles, with a population, in 1880, of 211,694. The surface is for the most part flat., but rising somewhat towards the south-east. Most of the province is included in the barren and marshy dist…

Limburg, Or Limbo Urg

LIMBURG, or LIMBO URG, one of the eleven provinces of Holland, is bounded on the W. by Belgium (Limburg) and North Brabant, on the N. by North Brabant and Guelderland, on the E. by Rhenish Prussia, and on the S. by Belgium (Liege), and has an area of 851 square miles, with a population in 1876 of 235,135 (97 per cent. being Roman Catholics). The surface, which is flat, is partly covered with heath…

Limbus

LIMBUS. The Limbus Infantum or Pueroruni in medival theology is the " margin " or "border " (limbos) of hell to which human beings dying without actual sin, but with their original sin unwashed away by baptism, were held to be consigned ; the category included, not unbaptized infants merely, but also idiots, cretins, and the like. Thu word "limbos," in the theological application, occurs first in …

Lime

LIME is the name of the strongly basic monoxide Ca0 of the metal calcium. This base is widely diffused throughout the three kingdoms of nature in the form of salts, of which the carbonate CaCO3 and the hydrated sulphate CaSO4.2H20 are by far the most abundant. Both are found in the mineral kingdom in a variety of forms. Of native carbonates of lime., calc-spar (Iceland spar), though comparatively …

Lime, Or Linden

LIME, or LINDEN. The lime trees, species of Tilia, are familiar timber trees with mellifluous flowers, rarely if ever maturing their fruit in England, which are borne on a common peduncle proceeding from the middle of a long bract. T. europzea, L., is indigenous to Europe, excepting the extreme north, and extends eastwards across Russian Asia to the Altai. The lime is much planted in Britain, and …

Limerick

LIMERICK, a maritime county of Ireland, in the province of Munster, is bounded on the N. by the estuary of the Shannon and the counties of Clare and Tipperary, on the E. by Tipperary, on the S. by Cork, and on the W. by Kerry. Its greatest length from north to south is 35 miles, and its greatest breadth east and west 51 miles. The total area comprises 662,973 acres, or 1036 square miles. The great…

Limitation, Statutes Of

LIMITATION, STATUTES OF, are Acts of Parliament by which rights of action are limited to a fixed period after the occurrence of the events giving rise to the cause of action. This is one of the devices by which lapse of time is employed to settle disputed claims. There are mainly two modes by which this may be effected. We may say that the active enjoyment of a right - or possession - for a determ…

Limit-us

LIMIT-US, pope from 352 to 366, the successor of Julius I., was consecrated according to the Catalogus Liberianus on May 22. Ills first recorded act was, after a synod had been held at Rome, to write to Constantius, then in quarters at Arles (353-54), asking that a council might be called at Aquileia with reference to the affairs of Athanasius ; but his messenger Vincentius of Capua, so far from b…

Limoges

LIMOGES, capital of the department of Haute Vienne, France, and the ancient capital of Limousin, lies in the form of an amphitheatre on the right bank of the Vienne, 248 miles by rail south-south-west from Paris, on the Paris and Toulouse Railway, at its junction with the Charente line. It has also direct railway communication by Bellac with Poitiers. The population in 1876 was 59,011. In spite. o…

Linacre, Or Lynaker

LINACRE, or LYNAKER, THOMAS (1460-1524), a distinguished humanist and physician, was born at Canterbury about the year 1460. Of ids parentage or descent nothing certain is known. He received his early education at ?the cathedral school of Canterbury, then under the direction of William of Selling, afterwards prior of Canterbury. Selling was an ardent scholar, and one of the earliest in England who…

Linares

LINARES, an important mining town in the province of Jaen, Spain, is situated in an arid plain, near the foot of the Sierra Morena, 21 miles north-north-east from the town of Jaen, 12 north-east from that of Baeza, and half an hour by rail from the Vadollano station of the Madrid and Cordova line. The streets are ill paved, irregular, and ugly, and, apart from a fine fountain of Roman origin, the …

Lincoln

LINCOLN, one of the four eastern maritime counties of England, lies between 52? 39' and 53? 43' N. lat., and 0? 22' E. and 0? 56' W. long. It is bounded on the N. by the Humber, E. by the German Ocean and the Wash, S.E. for 3 miles by Norfolk, S. by Cambridge and Northampton, S.W. by Rutland, W. by Leicestershire and Notts, and N.W. by Yorkshire. Its greatest length north and south, from Barton-on…

Lincoln

LINCOLN, a city of the United States, capital of Logan eonnty, Illinois, is situated near Salt Creek, at the junction of three railways, 145 miles south-west of Chicago.

Lincoln

LINCOLN, the capital of the county of that name, is a city and county in itself, and is also a municipal and parliamentary borough. It is picturesquely situated on river Witham, at its confluence with the Foss Dyke, to an altitude of 200 feet above the banks of the river. It is 132 miles north-west from London by road, and 138 miles by rail ; 53a 15' N. lat., 32' W. long. Lincoln is one of the mo…

Lincoln

LINCOLN, a city of the United States, county seat:of Lancaster county, Nebraska, and capital of the State. It is pleasantly situated about 50 miles west of the Missouri river, at the junction of several railroads, in the midst of a highly fertile and healthful region of undulating prairie, and near rich salt springs. Lincoln is the seat of the following State institutions : - university, State pri…

Lindau

LINDAU, a town in the government district of Swabia and Neuburg, Bavaria, and the central point of the transit trade between that country and Switzerland, is situated on two islands off the north-eastern shore of Lake Constance, in 47? 34' N. lat., 9? 43' E. long. The town is a terminus of the Vorarlberg Railway, and of the Munich-Lindau line of the Bavarian State Railway, and is connected with th…

Lindley, John

LINDLEY, JOHN (1799-1865), botanist, was born on February 5, 1799, at Catton near Norwich, where his father, George Lindley, author of A Guide to the Orchard and Kitchen Garden, owned a nursery garden. He was educated at Norwich grammar school, and early manifested a taste for the studies in which he afterwards gained distinction. His first publication, iu 1819, a translation of the Analyse du Fru…

Lindsey, Theophilus

LINDSEY, THEOPHILUS (1723-1808), an English theological writer, was born in Middlewich, Cheshire, on June 20, 1723, was educated at the Leeds Free School, and in 1741 entered St John's College, Cambridge, of which, after graduating with distinction, he became a fellow in 1747. For some time he held a curacy in Spitalfields, London, and from 1754 to 1756 he travelled on the Continent in the capacit…

Linen Manufactures

LINEN MANUFACTURES. Under this term are comprehended all yarns spun and fabrics woven from flax fibre. The cultivation and preparation of the fibre, and its treatment till it reaches the market as a commercial product-, are dealt wills under FLAX, Vol. ix. p. 293. From the earliest periods of human history till almost the close of the 18th century the linen manufacture was one of the most extensiv…

Ling

LING (Ifolva vu)yari,$), a fish of the cod-fish family (Gatlidtc), readily recognized by its long body, two dorsal fins (of which the anterior is much shorter than the posterior), single long anal fin, separate caudal fin, a barbel on the chin, and large teeth in the lower jaw and on the palate. Its usual length is from 3 to 4 feet, but larger individuals of 5 or 6 feet in length, and some seventy…

Lingard, John

LINGARD, JOHN (1771-1851), the Roman Catholic historian of England, was born of humble parentage at Winchester on February 5, 1771. His intellectual abilities began to manifest themselves at a very early age, and in 1782 he was sent to the English college at Douay, where he continued until shortly after the declaration of war by England (1793). For some time after his return to England he lived as…

Linkoping

LINKOPING, a city of Sweden, the see of a bishop, and the chief town of the province of East Gothland, is situated in a fertile plain 21 miles by rail south-west of Stockholm, and communicates with Lake Roxen (!--1 mile to the north) and the Gata and Kinda, canals by means of the now navigable Stangii. Most of the houses are of wood. The cathedral (1150-1499), a Romanesque building with a Gothic c…

Linlithgow

LINLITHGOW, the county town of the above county, and of suburban residences have been erected. In the a proverbial expression ; and the cross well in the public grotesque carved work in stone, originally erected, it is believed, in the reign of James V., but rebuilt in 1807. The burgh school goes back to the pre-Reformation times. Shoemaking and tanning are the leading industries ; but a large dis…

Linlithgow, Or West

LINLITHGOW, or WEST Loiamoi, a county of Scotland, stretching for 17 miles along the south coast of the Firth of Forth, and bounded E. and S E. by Edinburzhshire or Midlothian, S.W. by Lanarkshire, and W. by Stirlingshire. It lies between 55? 49' and 56? 1' N. let., and 3? 18' and 3? 51' W. long. According to the ordnance survey the area is 127 square miles, or 81,114 acres, a considerable increas…

Linnell, John

LINNELL, JOHN (1792-1882), a richly gifted English painter, was born in London on the 16th of June 1792. His father being a carver and gilder, Linnell was early brought into contact with artists, and when he was ten years old he was already drawing and selling his portraits in chalk and pencil. His first artistic instruction was received from Benjamin West, and lie spent a year in the house of Joh…

Linnet

LINNET, Anglo-Saxon Lfnete and Linet-wiye, whence eems to have been corrupted the old Scottish "Lintquhit," and the modern northern English "Lintwhite," - originally a somewhat generalized bird's name, but latterly specialized for the Prinyilla cannabina of Linnaeus, the Linota cannabina of recent ornithologists. This is a common and well-known song-bird, frequenting almost the whole of Europe sou…

Linoleum

LINOLEUM is a kind of floor-cloth, invented and introduced by Mr F. Walton, who in 1860 obtained a patent for its manufacture. It consists of a preparation of linseed oil and ground cork intimately mixed and spread in a uniform layer over a sheet of rough jute canvas. Under the name of kamptulicon, a material similar in appearance and properties, but in which prepared indiarubber took the place of…

Linseed

LINSEED is the seed of the common flax or lint, Linum usitatissi2num., from which also the well-known fibre flax is obtained. The plant itself is figured and described under FLAX, vol. ix. p. 293. The fruit of the flax plant consists of a globose capsule which splits into five cocci, each containing two seeds. These seeds, the linseed of commerce, are of a lustrous brown colour externally, and a c…

Linus

LINUS, one of the saints of the Gregorian canon, was, according to the Breviarium. _Romanian, the immediate successor of Peter in the see of Rome. He was a native of Volterra, who had attained a high degree of sanctity, and by his prevailing faith was able, not only to cast out devils, but to raise the dead. He wrote an account of the res gestre of Peter, especially of his controversy with Simon M…

Linus

LINUS is one of a numerous class of heroic figures in Greek legend, of which other examples may be found under HYACINTHUS, ADONIS. The connected legend is always of the same character : a beautiful youth, fond of hunting and rural life, the favourite of some god or goddess, suddenly perishes by a terrible death in spite of the ter of the Linus myth was best preserved : the secret child of Psamathe…

Linz

LINZ, capital of Upper Austria, and see of a bishop, in 48? 19' N. lat., 14? 16' E. long., lies upon the right bank of the Danube, 98 miles west of Vienna, at the junction of the Kaiserin-Elizabeth Western Railway with a line from Prague and Budweis. The market-town of Urfahr, on the opposite side of the river, is connected with the city by an iron bridge 700 feet in length, constructed in 1872. …

Lipetsk

LIPETSK, a district town of Russia, in the government of Tamboff, 95 miles west of the chief town of the government, and 23 miles north-west of Gryazi railway junction, at the confluence of Lyesnoy Voronesh and Lipovka rivers.

Lippe

LIPPE is the name of a territory in north-western Germany, now divided into two small sovereign principalities, but formerly united under the same ruler. The name is derived from the river Lippe, which rises in the Tontoburgiatt Forest, and flows into the Rhine at Wesel. I. LIPPE proper, also called LIPPE-DETMOLD, is bounded on three sides by the Prussian province of Westphalia, and on the E. and …

Lippi

LIPPI, the name of three celebrated Italian painters. I. FR A. FILIPPO LIPPI (1412-1469), commonly called Lippo Lippi, one of the most celebrated painters of the Italian quatrocento, was born in Florence,---his father, Tommaso, being a butcher. His mother died in his earliest infancy, and his father two years later. His aunt, a poor woman named Molina Lapaccia, then took charge of him ; and in 142…

Lipsius, Justus

LIPSIUS, JUSTUS (1517-1606), the Latinized form of Joest Lips, an eminent humanist of the 16th century, born 18th October 1547, at Overyssche, a small village in Brabant, about half way between Brussels and Ottignies. Sent early to the Jesuit college in Cologne, he was removed at seventeen to the university of Louvain by his parents, who had some reason for fearing that he might be induced to beco…

Liqueurs

LIQUEURS are perfumed and sweetened spirits prepared for drinking, and for use as a flavouring material in confectionery and cookery. The term liqueur is also applied to certain wines and spirits remarkable for their amount of bouquet, such as tokay and liqueur brandy, &c. Ordinary liqueurs consist of certain mixtures of pure spirit with essential oils and vegetable extracts, and with syrup of ref…

Liquidambar, Liquid Amber

LIQUIDAMBAR, LIQUID AMBER, or SWEET GUM, is a product of Liquidainbar styracijlua, L., order /Lin/cone/Vex, a deciduous tree of from 30 to 50 feet high and attaining 15 feet in circumference in Mexico, of which country it is a native, as well as of the greater portion of the United States. It bears palmately-lobed leaves, somewhat resembling those of the maple, but larger. The male and female infl…

Liquorice

LIQUORICE. The hard and semi-vitreous sticks of paste, black in colour and possessed of a sweet somewhat astringent taste, known as liquorice paste or black sugar, are the inspissated juice of the roots of a leguminous plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra, the radix glycyrrltizx of the pharmacopoeia. The plant is cultivated throughout the warmer parts of Europe, especially on the Mediterranean shores, and it…

Liquor Laws

LIQUOR LAWS may be divided into the three great systems of free trade, restriction, and prohibition. The system of free trade may mean either that no special licence is required by law for carrying on a traffic in intoxicating liquors, or that such a licence is required, but that the licensing authority is bound to grant it in every case in which certain conditions are complied with. Wherever the …

Lisbon

LISBON (Portuguese, Lisboa), the capital of the kingdom of Portugal, is situated in 38? 42' N. lat. and 9? 5' W. long., on the northern bank of the Tagus (Tejo), at the spot where the river broadens to a width of 9 miles, some 8 or 9 miles from the point where it enters the Atlantic. Standing on a range of low hills, backed by the lofty granite range of Cintra, and extending along the margin of th…

Lisburn

LISBURN, a market-town, cathedral city, and municipal and parliamentary borough of Ulster, Ireland, partly in Antrim and partly in Down, is situated in a beautiful and fertile district on the Logan, and on the Ulster Railway, S miles south-south-west of Belfast. It is substantially built, and consists principally of one long and irregular street, in the centre of which there is a large open space …

Lisieux

LISIEUX, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Calvados, France, 113 miles by rail west-northwest from Paris, and 24 miles as the crow flies east from Caen, is prettily situated on the Touques, at the point where it is joined by the Orbiquet, 24 miles above Trouville. The Paris and Caen Railway has a branch from Lisieux to lionfleur and Trouville, and another to Orbec. The cathedral ch…

Liskeard

LISKEARD, anciently LISCARRET, a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough in the county of Cornwall, England, is picturesquely situated, partly in a hollow and partly on a rocky eminence, 12 miles east of Bodmin, and 265 west-south-west of London by rail. The church of St Martin, in the Perpendicular style, with a tower of earlier date which possesses a Norman arch, is the largest eccle…

Lisle, Joseph Nicolas De

LISLE, JOSEPH NICOLAS DE (1683-1768), astronomer, was born at Paris on April 4, 1688, and was educated at the College Mazarin. His devotion to astronomy dates from 1706, in which year he carefully observed an eclipse of the sun. In 1714 he was admitted to the Academy of Sciences, and in 1720 he made the proposals for determining the figure of the earth, which were carried out under the auspices of…

Lis-more

LIS-MORE, an island of 9600 acres, about 10 miles long and averaging miles broad, with a population in 1881 of 630, lying south-west and north-east at the entrance of the Linnhe Loch in Argyllshire, Scotland. The name means the great enclosure (whether " garden," as the Scotch, or "fort," as the Irish authorities suppose, is uncertain), and occurs in Ireland in the Waterford Lismore and ten other …

Lismore

LISMORE, a market-town and seat of a diocese, partly in Cork but chiefly in Waterford, Ireland, is beautifully situated on a steep eminence rising abruptly from the Blackwater, 40 miles west-south-west of Waterford. At the verge of the rock on the western side is the old baronial castle, erected by King John in 1185, which was the residence of the bishops till the 16th century. It was besieged in …

Lissa

LISSA (Lat., Issa ; Slay., Iris), an Austrian island in the Adriatic, 9 miles long, with a greatest breadth of 4 miles, is lat. and 16* 6' E. long. " The shape is a long parallelogram with two breaks, the Porto di S. Giorgio (one of the finest harbours of refuge in the Adriatic) on the eastern short side, and the Vallone di Comisa contained between two long prongs stretching due west and south-wes…

Lissa

LISSA (in Polish, Leszna), a manufacturing town in the circle of Fraustadt, district of Posen, Prussia, is situated on the Breslau and Posen Railway, near the frontier of Silesia.

Liston

LISTON, Joux (1776-1846), comedian, was the son of a watchmaker in Soho, London, where he was born in 1776. While the teacher of a day school near Leicester Square, he began to take part in private theatricals, and soon conceived a passion for the stage. He made his &but at a small theatre in the Strand, and shortly afterwards obtained an engagement at Dublin theatre, where, although he adopted tr…

Liston, Robert

LISTON, ROBERT (1794-1847), an eminent Scottish surgeon, was born on the 28th of October 1794, at Ecclefechan, where his father was parish minister. He commenced the study of anatomy under Dr Barclay in Edinburgh University in 1810, and soon became a skilful anatomist. After eight years' study, he began his career as a lecturer on anatomy and surgery in the Edinburgh School of Medicine ; and in 18…

Litany

LITANY. This word (Xiraveta), like Xtrrj (both from Xtrotcat), is used by Eusebius and Chrysostom, most commonly in the plural, in a quite general sense, to denote a prayer, or prayers, of any sort whatever, whether public or private ; it is similarly employed in the law of Arcadius (Cod. Theod., xvi. tit. 5, leg. 30), which forbids heretics to hold assemblies in the city " ad litaniam faciendam."…

Lithgow, William

LITHGOW, WILLIAM (c. 1583 - c. 1660), a noted Scottish traveller, was born in Lanark, where his father was a burgess, possessed of considerable heritable property. The date generally assigned to his birth is 1583 ; and he was educated at the grammar school of his native town, then celebrated as a seminary of learning. His natural disposition was probably active and restless, as even in his boyhood…

Lithium

LITHIUM, one of the rarer metallic elements, intermediate in its character between sodium and barium. It was discovered in 1817 by Arfvedson in the course of an analysis of petalite in Berzelius's laboratory. He recognized the presence in this mineral of a new kind of alkali, which his master subsequently named "lithia," to denote its mineral origin. Lithia, though widely disseminated throughout t…

Lithography

LITHOGRAPHY. The principle upon which the art of lithography is based is very simple - the antagonistic qualities of grease and water. An unctuous composition is made to adhere to a peculiar kind of limestone ; the parts thus covered acquire the power of receiving printing ink ; the other parts are prevented from receiving it by the interposition of a film of water ; and then by pressing paper str…

Lithuanians

LITHUANIANS, a people (about 3,000,000 in number) of Indo-European origin, which inhabits several western provinces of Russia and the north-eastern parts of Poland and Prussia, on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and in the basins of the Niemen and of the Duna. Very little is known about their origin, and nothing about the time of their appearance in the country they now inhabit. Ptolemy mentions (li…

Litmus

LITMUS (German, Lackinus ; French, Tournesol), a colouring matter which occurs in commerce in the form of small blue tablets, which, however, consist mostly, not of the pigment proper, but of carbonate and sulphate of lime and other matter devoid of tinctorial value. Litmus is never used as a dye, but is extensively employed by chemists as a reagent for the detection of free acids and free alkalie…

Little Falls

LITTLE FALLS, a village and township in Herkimer county, New York, on the Erie canal, 733- miles west-north-west of Albany by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, at a point where the Mohawk river passes by a series of rapids through a picturesque defile.

Little Rock

LITTLE ROCK, capital of the State of Arkansas, United States, as well as of Pulaski county, is situated on the south bank of the Arkansas river, about 250 miles from its mouth, and near the centre of the State. It derives it name from occupying the top of a rocky cliff about 50 feet in height, which is much less conspicuous than the precipitous cliffs that line the river just above the city. The r…

Littleton, Thomas De

LITTLETON, THOMAS DE, of Frankley in Worcestershire, judge of the court of common pleas in the reign of Edward IV., and author of the well-known work on Tenures. Littleton's surname was that of his mother, who was the sole daughter and heiress of Thomas de Littleton, lord of Frankley. She married one Thomas Westcote. Thomas was the eldest of four sons of the marriage, and took the name of Littleto…

Littre, Paul Maximilien Emile

LITTRE, PAUL MAXIMILIEN EMILE (1801-1881), the compiler of the best dictionary of any living language, and the Frenchman of most encyclopmdic knowledge since Diderot, was born at Paris on February 1, 1801. His father had been a gunner, and afterwards sergeant-major of marine artillery, in the French navy, and was deeply imbued with the revolutionary ideas of the day. Settling down as a collector o…

Liturgy

LITURGY. The word "Liturgy " technically denotes the " Order for the Celebration and Administration of the Eucharist." It has come to be used in a more popular sense to denote any or all of the various services of the Christian church, whether contained in separate volumes or bound up together in the form of a Book of Common Prayer. We propose to treat of "the liturgy" chiefly, but not exclusively…

Liutpr And

LIUTPR AND (c. 922-972), Italian chronicler, was born towards the beginning of the 10th century, of a good to a high position at the court of Hugo's successor Berengarius, having become chancellor, and having been sent (949) on an embassy to the Byzantine court. Falling into disgrace with Berengarius, he attached himself to the emperor Otto I., whom in 961 lie accompanied into Italy, two occasions…

Liverpool

LIVERPOOL, a city and seaport of England, in the hundred of Wrest Derby, in the county palatine of Lancaster, situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Mersey, about three miles from the open sea. The form of the city is that of an irregular semicircle, having the base line formed by the docks and quays extending about six miles along the east bank of the estuary, which here runs nearly nor…

Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson

LIVERPOOL, ROBERT BANKS JENKINSON, SECOND EARL OF (1770-1828), son of the above by his first wife Amelia, daughter of Mr Watts, governor of Bengal, was born June 7, 1770. He was educated at Charterhouse and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he had Canning, afterwards his close political associate, for a contemporary. In 1791 he entered parliament as member for Rye, but he first held office in 1801 a…

Liverworts

LIVERWORTS. The Liverworts or hepatica; constitute a group of the higher Cryptoganzia, allied to the mosses. Their shoots are either tlialloid, in some genera (Marchaania) highly differentiated in structure, in others (.dntleoceros) of simple homogeneous texture, with an upper and lower surface, the latter fixed to the ground by capillary rootlets, and generally margined with minute scales ; or th…

Livingstone, David

LIVINGSTONE, DAVID (1813-1873), missionary and explorer, was born on March 19, 1813, at the village of Blantyre Works, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. David was the second child of his parents Neil Livingston (for so lie spelled his name, as did his son for many years) and Agnes Hunter. His parents were poor and self-respecting, typical examples of all that is best among the humbler families of Scotland…

Livingston, Edward

LIVINGSTON, EDWARD (1764-1836), American jurist and statesman, was born in Clermont, Columbia county, New York, May 26, 1764. He was a great-grandson of Robert Livingston, the first possessor under royal patent of "Livingston Manor," a tract of land on the Hudson, comprising the greater part of the present counties of Dutchess and Columbia. Having graduated at Princeton in 1781, he began to practi…

Livingston, Robert

LIVINGSTON, ROBERT R. (1746-1813), American statesman, brother of Edward Livingston noticed above, was born at New York, November 27, 1746. He graduated at King's College, New York, at the age of nineteen, became a practitioner of law, and, in 1773, recorder of the city, but was soon displaced by loyalist influence because of his sympathies with the revolution. In 1776 he was a member of the commi…

Livius Andronicus

LIVIUS ANDRONICUS occupies the position of the oldest among the recognized poets of Rome. He determined the course which Roman literature followed for more than a century after his time. The imitation of Greek comedy, tragedy, and epic poetry, which produced great results in the hands of N'ivius, Plautus, Ennius, and their successors, received its first impulse from him. To judge, however, by the …

Livny

LIVNY, a district town of Russia, in the government of Orel, 87 miles east-south-east of the chief town of the government, at the confluence of the rivers Livenka and Sosna. It has railway connexion with the line between Orel and Gryazi. The town is an important centre for trade in grain, hemp, tallow, skins, and cattle. A large amount of grain is purchased in the neighbouring governments, and the…

Livonia, Or Livland

LIVONIA, or LIVLAND (Liflandia of the Russians), one of the three Baltic provinces of Russia, is bounded by the Gulf of Riga on the W., Esthonia on the N., the governments of St Petersburg, Pskov, and -Vitebsk on the E., and Courland on the S. A group of islands, situated at the entrance of the Gulf of Riga, of which Osel, Mohn, Runo, and Paternoster are the largest, belong to this government. It …

Livy

LIVY, the Roman historian, belonged by birth to those regions of northern Italy.which had already given to Roman literature Catullus, Cornelius Nepos, and Virgil. He was born in 59 B.C., the year of Caesar's first consulship, and was thus eleven years younger than Virgil and six years younger than Horace. His native city Padua (Patavium) could challenge comparison, in the days of Augustus, even wi…

Lizard

LIZARD. The name Lizard (Lat., lacerta) originally referred only to the small European species of four-legged reptiles, but is now applied to a whole order (Lacertilia) which is represented by extremely numerous species in all temperate and tropical parts of the globe. Lizards may be described as reptiles with a more or less elongate body terminating in a tail, and with the skin either folded into…

Llama

LLAMA, sometimes spelt Lama, a word by which the Peruvians designated one of a small group of closely allied animals, which, before the Spanish conquest of America, were the only domesticated hoofed mammals of the country, being kept, not only for their value as beasts of burden, but also for their flesh, hides, and wool, - in fact, supplying in the domestic economy of the people the place of the …

Llandudno

LLANDUDNO, a watering-place in Carnarvonshire, North Wales, situated on the Irish Sea, and at the mouth of the Conway, in a finely sheltered bay, 50 miles west of Chester by rail. It lies between Great Ormne's Head and Little Orme's Head, two lofty promontories which rise precipitously from the sea to the height of several hundred feet. Round Great Orme's Head a public drive has been made, from wh…

Llanelly

LLANELLY, a market-town, parliamentary borough, and seaport town of Carmarthenshire, South Wales, is situated on a creek of Carmarthen Bay, on the river Lougher, and on several railway lines, 11 miles west of Swansea, and 225 west-north-west of London. It is a prosperous manufacturing town. The church of St Elli or Llanelly is in the Early English style, with a square embattled tower. The other pr…

Llangollen

LLANGOLLEN-, a picturesque market-town of Denbighshire, North Wales, and a favourite summer resort, is beautifully situated in a fine vale surrounded by lofty mountains, on the right bank of the Dee, and on a branch line of the Great Western Railway, 9 miles south-west of Wrexham, and 22 south-west of Chester. The river is crossed by a peculiarly constructed bridge of five arches built in 1345. Th…

Llo Rent

LLO RENT E, JUAN ANTONIO (1756-.1823), the historian of the Spanish Inquisition, was born March 30, 1756, at Bincon de Soto, near Calahorra, Aragon, studied at Tarragona and Saragossa, received (by dispensation) priest's orders in 1779, and became vicar-general to the bishop of Calahorra in 1782. in 1785 he became commissary of the Holy Office at Logroilo, and in 1789 its general secretary at Madr…

Lloyd's

LLOYD'S, an association of merchants, shipowners, underwriters, and ship and insurance brokers, having its headquarters in a suite of rooms in the north-east corner of the Royal Exchange, London. Originally a mere gathering of merchants for business or gossip in a coffeehouse kept by one Edward Lloyd in Tower Street, London, the earliest notice of which occurs in the London Gazette of 18th Februar…

Loach

LOACH. The leaches (Cobitidina) are small fishes of the Carp family (Cyprinida?), with a generally cylindrical body, with very small or without any scales, with six or more barbels round the mouth, with a short dorsal and anal fin, and with the pharyngeal teeth in a single series. The air-bladder is double, as in other carps, the two divisions lying side by side, or one behind the other ; but it i…

Loanda

LOANDA, or in full Sao Paulo de Loanda, the capital of the Portuguese settlements in western Africa, and the principal municipality of the Loanda district, one of the three into which Angola is divided, is situated on the mainland in 8? 48' S. lat. and 13? 7' E. long. The beautiful bay, protected from the surf by the long narrow island of pure sand from which the town takes its name, is backed by …

Loango

LOANGO, in the wider signification of the name, is a region on the west coast of southern Africa, which extends from the mouth of the Congo (Zaire) river in 6? S. lat. northwards through about two degrees, with no very definite limit in this direction, unless we adopt the Numbi river which falls into Chilunga Bay in 4? 9' S. lat., and was formerly considered the northern boundary of the Loango kin…

Lobelia

LOBELIA, L., the typical genus of the tribe Lobeliem, of the order Campanulacex, named after Matthias de Lobel, a native of Lille, botanist and physician to James I. It numbers about two hundred species, natives of nearly all the temperate and warmer regions of the world, excepting central and eastern Europe as well as western Asia. For the sections into which the genus is divided, see Genera Plan…

Lobo

LOBO, ha:to-six? (1593-1678), a Jesuit missionary, was born in Lisbon in 1593, and entered the Order of Jesus at the age of sixteen. In 1621 he was ordered to repair as a missionary to India, and in 1622 he arrived at Goa. With the intention of proceeding to Abyssinia as a missionary, he left India in 1624, but after disembarking on the coast of Mombas, and attempting to reach his destination by l…

Lock

LOCK - not being a canal lock - means the fastening of ' a door, or box, or drawer, which requires a key, or else some secret contrivance or manipulation, to open it. It is generally fixed to the door, but it may also be loose, and then it is called a padlock, which is internally like other locks, but externally has a half link or tow turning on a hinge at one end, while the other, after being put…

Locke, John

LOCKE, JOHN (1632-1704). Some idea of the man and his surroundings is more needed for the interpretation of what Locke has written than in the case of most philosophers. His youth was spent amidst the war of principles of which England was the scene in the middle of the 17tb. century. In later life he mixed much with the chief actors in the political drama that followed the Restoration. In his adv…

Lockhart, John Gibson

LOCKHART, JOHN GIBSON (1794-1854), was born in the manse of Cambusnethan in Lanarkshire, where his father, Dr Lockhart, was minister. His mother was daughter of the Bev. John Gibson, minister of St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh. In 1796 his father was transferred to Glasgow, where John Lockhart was reared and educated. He derived his rare abilities from his mother, and his first regular teaching from the …

Lockport

LOCKPORT, capital of Niagara county, New York, about 21 miles east of Niagara Falls, at the point where the New York Central Railroad crosses the Erie canal.

Locle, Le

LOCLE, LE, a large town-like village of Switzerland, in the canton of Neuchatel, 10 miles W.N.W. from Neuchatel.

Locri

LOCRI, a people of Greece who are found in two different districts, on the YEgean coast opposite Eubrea and on the Corinthian Gulf between Phocis and iEtolia. The former are divided into the northern Locri Epicnemidii, so called from Mount Cnemis, and the southern Locri Opuntii, whose chief town was Opus ; but the name Opuntii is applied to the whole district by Thucydides, Herodotus, &c. Homer kn…

Locus

LOCUS, in Greek r(i7ros, a geometrical term, the invention of the notion of which is attributed to Plato. It occurs in such statements as these : - the locus of the points which are at the same distance from a fixed point, or of a point which moves so as to be always at the same distance from a fixed point, is a circle; conversely a circle is the locus of the points at the same distance from a fix…

Locust

LOCUST. In its general acceptation this term is strictly applicable only to certain insects of the order Orthoptera, family Acrydadic (see INSECTS) ; and it is advisable to reiterate that according to modern classification the family Locustithe is now viewed in a sense that does not admit of what are popularly termed "locusts" being included therein. We universally associate with the term the idea…

Locust-tree

LOCUST-TREE, Ceratonia SiUlna, L., the carob-tree, of the tribe Cassiae of the order Leguminom, is the sole species, widely diffused spontaneously and by cultivation from Spain to the eastern Mediterranean regions, and from Egypt to 13ornou in Central Africa (Hogg, Hooker's Journ. of not., i. 113), and imported to Hindustan (Graham, p. 254). It differs from all leguminous plants by the dilated dis…

Lodeve

LODEVE, capital of an arrondissement of the department of Henault, France, lies at an elevation of 674 feet, under a range of hills rising to 2790 feet, in a small valley where the Soulondre joins the Lergue, a tributary of the Hdrault, 34 miles east-north-east from Montpellier. A bridge over the Lergue connects the town with the faubourg of Carmes on the left bank of the river, and two bridges ov…

Lodge, Thomas

LODGE, THOMAS (c. 1556-1625), dramatist, novelist, pamphleteer, poet, - but not player, - was born about the year 1556 at West Ham, and was possibly the son of a namesake, shortly afterwards lord mayor of London. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and then entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn, where, as in the other Inns of Court, a love of letters, and a crop of debts and difficulties, …

Lodi

LODI, a city of Italy, in the province of Milan, lies rather plain and ungainly cathedral (1158) with a huge lateral tower, the church dell' Incoronata erected by Bramaute in 1476, the Palazzo Modegnani with a fine gateway in the style of Bramante, the episcopal palace dating from 1202, and the great hospital with its cloistered quadrangle, are the most noteworthy buildings. Besides an extensive t…

Lodz

LODZ (Lodzi), a town of Russian Poland, in the manufactures were first introduced by Germans, it is now which are situated alike the factories, the houses of the merchants, and the dwellings of the working men.

Lofoten

LOFOTEN D VESTERAAL EN, a " fogderi " or bailiwick in the " amt " of Nordland, Norway, consists of a large and picturesque group of islands lying north-east and southwest off the north-west coast of Norway, between 67?30' and 69? 20' N. lat., and between 12? and 16? 35' E. long. The extreme length of the group from Andenms, at the north of Ando, to Rost, is about 130 English miles ; the aggregate …

Log An, John

LOG AN, JOHN (1748-88), a Scottish poet of some reputation, was born in 1748, and was son of George Logan, a farmer at Soutra, in East Lothian. Being destined for the church, he was in 1762 sent to study at the university of Edinburgh. After finishing his course, Logan was in 1768-69 tutor at Ulbster to the well-known Sir John Sinclair, and in 1770 he edited some of the poems of his college friend…

Logansport

LOGANSPORT, capital of Cass county, Indiana, U.S., is situated at the confluence of the Wabash and the Eel rivers, and on the Wabash and Erie canal, 75 miles north-west of Indianapolis.

Logarithms

LOGARITHMS. The definition of a logarithm is as follows i - if a, x, m are any three quantities satisfying the equation az= 771, then a is called the base, and x is said to be the logarithm of M. to the base a. This relation between x, a, m, may be expressed also by the equation x=1084 ft. Properties. - The principal properties of logarithms are given by the equations log (inn)-log. m+logo TL, log…

Logic As Metaphysical

LOGIC AS METAPHYSICAL, to understand the peculiarities of this, the final conception of logic, we must take into account the ultimate view of knowledge as that in which thought and reality are united, and of philosophy generally as the attempt to develop the whole system of these abstract determinations of thought by which coherence and intelligibility are given to knowledge. In it there is carrie…

Logic As Theory Of Knowledge

LOGIC AS THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE, the position assigned to logic as theory of knowledge and the range of problems included in it are determined by the general philosophic view of the distinction between the reality to be apprelizndctl thought and the subjective nature of thought itself. There may be, therefore, numberless variations in the mode of treating logic with general adherence to the one point…

Logic From Aristotle To Bacon

LOGIC FROM ARISTOTLE TO BACON, the long history of philosophic thought from Aristotle to the beginning of the modern period furnishes no new conception of logic so complete and methodical as to require detailed treatment, but exhibits alterations in special doctrines, additions, and new points of view numerous enough to account for a certain radical change in the mode of regarding logic which is, …

Logic Of Bacon And Descartes

LOGIC OF BACON AND DESCARTES, modern reform of logic, by which may be understood the attempt to place logical theory in a more close and living relation to actual scientific method, begins with Bacon and Descartes. To both the scholastic logic presented itself as the essence of a thoroughly false and futile method of knowledge. Neither had the acquaintance with the genuine Aristotelian system requ…

Logic Of Leibnitz And Herbert

LOGIC OF LEIBNITZ AND HERBERT, one development from the psychology of Locke has thus appeared as an extreme formalism, which if carried out consistently must needs assume the aspect of a numerical or mechanical system of computation.2 It is remarkable that a very similar result was reached by Leibnitz, a thinker who proceeded from a quite opposed psychological conception. The similarity is due to …

Logic Of Locke

LOGIC OF LOCKE, the universal element in thought which is recognized by Bacon as present received from him no special treatment. His theory of the nature of knowledge offered no explanation of the origin, significance, and validity of the notions involved in inductive procedure. Tbe Essay on the Human Understanding, which carries out in the domain of inner experience the practical tendency of the …

Logos

LOGOS. This term is one of the most constant factors in ancient speculation. As it is double-sided, however, expressing both reason and word, the conceptions which it covers differ widely. Taken broadly the doctrine of the Logos may be said to have run in two parallel courses - the one philosophical, the other theological ; the one the development of the Logos as reason, the other the development …

Logros

LOGROS.0, capital of the above province, is situated on the right bank of the Ebro, which is here crossed by a handsome stone bridge of twelve arches, dating from 1138 ; the surrounding plain is well cultivated and fertile, producing the rich Rioja wine. The city is the seat of the usual provincial authorities, civil and military. It has a theatre, and several hospitals and convents. The parish ch…

Logros-0

LOGROS-0, an inland province of Spain, the smallest of the eight modern divisions of Old Castile, is bounded on the N. by Burgos, Alava, and Navarre, on the E. by Navarre and Zaragoza, on the S. by Soria, and on the W. by Burgos. The area is 1945 square miles, with a population in 1877 of 174,425. It belongs entirely to the basin of the river Ebro, which forms its northern boundary except for a sh…

Logwood

LOGWOOD is a valuable dye-wood, the product of a leguminous tree, Hxnzatoxylolt canzpechianuni, native of Central America, and grown also in the West Indian Islands. The tree attains a height not exceeding 40 feet, and is said to be ready for felling when about ten years old. The wood, deprived of its bark and the sap-wood, is sent into the market in the form of large blocks and billets. It is ver…

Lohardaga, Or Lohardugga

LOHARDAGA, or LOHARDUGGA, a district in the lieutenant-governorship of Bengal, India, between 22? 20' and 24? 39' N. lat. and 83? 22' and 85? 56' E. long., is hounded on the N. by Hathribagh and Gaya, on the N.W. and W. by Mirthpur district and Sargnja, and Jaslipur states, and on the S.E. and E. by Sinhbhdm and Manblnim districts. It comprises Chutia Nagpur proper, and the Palaman subdivision. Ch…

Loire

LOIRE (Lat., Liger), the first of the rivers of France in plateau, and is considered to take its rise in the Gerbier de source about 30 miles west, in the department of Lozere, at the foot of Maure de la Gardille, 4668 feet above the sea, has an almost equal course. The two streams continue to run parallel till the upper Loire turns westward and is joined by the Allier in the neighbourhood of Neve…

Loire

LOIRE, a department of central France, made up of the old district of Forez and portions of Beaujolais and Lyonnais, all formerly included in the province of Lyonnais, lies between 15? 15' and 46? 15' N. lat. and between 3? 40' and 4? 45' E. long., and is bounded on the N. by the department of Saone-et-Loire, on the E. by those of Rh6ne and Isere, on the S. by Ardeche and Haute-Loire, and on the W…

Loire, Haute

LOIRE, HAUTE-, a department of central France, made and Ardeche, on the S. by Ardeche and Louvre, and on having an extreme length of 68 miles, a maximum breadth Mezenc, on the borders of Ardeche, is 5745 feet ; it altitude of 2950 feet. Reckoning from east to west are the Boutieres, the Megal or Meygal, the Velay hills, those of La Margeride, and finally the Luguet. The first mentioned ridge separ…

Loire-inferieure

LOIRE-INFERIEURE, a maritime department of western France, is made up of a portion of Brittany on the right and of the district of Retz on the left of the Loire, and lies between 46? 45' and 47? 40' N. lat. and between 55' and 2? 32' W. long., being bounded on the W. by the ocean, on the N. by Morbihan and Ille-et-Vilaine, on the E. by Maine-et-Loire, and on the S. by Vendee. Its greatest length f…

Loiret

Loja, Or Loxa

LOJA, or LOXA, a town of Spain, in the province of Granada, lies in a beautiful valley through which flows the Genii, here crossed by a Moorish bridge, about 33 miles by rail west from Granada.

Lokeren

LOKEREN, a town of Belgium, in the provinca of East Flanders and district of Termonde, on the Durme (a small but navigable stream by which it communicates with the Scheldt), and 11 miles from Ghent on the railway to Antwerp, which is there joined by the lines to Termonde and Alost, and to Selzaete.

Lokman

LOKMAN, a name famous in Arabian tradition. The Arabs distinguish two persons of this name. The older Lokinam was an `Adite, and is said to have built the famous dyke of Ma'rib. He not only escaped the destruction sent on his nation for their refusal to hear the prophet Hild, but received the gift of a life as long as that of seven vultures, each of which is said to have lived eighty years.] The o…

Lollards, The

LOLLARDS, THE, were the English followers of John Wickliffe, and were the adherents of a religious movement which was widespread in the end of the 14th and begin ning of the 15th centuries, and which to some extent maintained itself on to the Reformation. The name is of uncertain origin : it has been traced to a certain Walter Lollard, but be was probably a mythical personage ; some derive it from…

Lombard, Peter

LOMBARD, PETER (c. I100-1160), bishop of Paris, better known as liagister Sententiarm, the son of obscure parents, was born about the beginning of the 12th century, at Novara (then reckoned as belonging to Lombardy). After receiving his education in jurisprudence and the liberal arts at Bologna, he removed to France, bearing a recommendation to Bernard of Clairvaux, who first placed him under Loto…

Lombards

LOMBARDS. The history of the Lombards falls into three divisions : - (1) The period before the invasion in 568 A.D. ; (2) the Lombard kingdom in Italy between 568 and 771 ; (3) the period of their incorporation with the Italian population, and the history of Lombardy and its cities as one of the great provinces of Italy - (a) from the restoration of the empire under Charles the Great (800) to the …

Lombok

LOMBOK (called Tanah Sasak by the natives, and Saliparan or Selaparang by the Balinese, Lombok being properly the name only of a village on the north-east side), an island of the East Indian Archipelago, belonging to the Lesser Sunda group, and separated from Bali by the Strait of Lombok, from Sumbawa by the Strait of Alas. It stretches from about 115? 41' to 116? 40' E. long. and from 8' 12' to 9…

Lomonosoff, Mikhail Vas1lievicii

LOMONOSOFF, MIKHAIL VAS1LIEVICII (1711-1765), was born in the year 1711, in the village of Denisovka, (which in later times has had its name changed in honour of the poet), situated on an island not far from Kholmogori, in the government of Archangel. His father, a fisherman, took the boy as soon as he was ten years of age to assist him in the labours of his calling ; but his eagerness for knowled…

Lomza

LOMZA, capital of the above province, on the Nareff, 80 miles north-east from Warsaw, and 30 miles north from the Chizheff station of the railway between Warsaw and Grodno, had a population in 1872 of 13,860.

Lomza, Or Lo3izlia

LOMZA, or LO3IZLIA, a government of Russian Poland, is bounded on the N. by Prussia and the Polish government of Suwalki, on the E. by the Russian government of Grodno, on the S. by the Polish governments of Siedlce and Warsaw, and on the W. by that of Flock. It covers an area of 4670 square miles, or per cent. of all Poland. It is mostly flat or undulating, with a few tracts in the north and sout…

London

LONDON, a city and port of entry in the Dominion of Canada, the chief town of the county of Middlesex, Ontario, and the see both of a Roman Catholic bishop and of the Anglican bishop of Huron, lies 25 miles north of Lake Erie and 32 miles south-east of Lake Huron, in the midst of a fine agricultural country in the angle made by the confluence of the two branches of the Thames. It is a station on t…

Londonderry

LONDONDERRY, a maritime county in the province of Ulster, Ireland, is bounded on the N. by the Atlantic, on the W. by Lough Foyle and Donegal, on the E. by Antrim and Lough Neagh, and on the S. by Tyrone. It has an irregular oval form, its greatest length being about 50 miles, and it greatest breadth about 40. The area comprises 513,388 acres, or about 802 square miles. The county consists chiefly…

Londonderry, Or Derry

LONDONDERRY, or DERRY, a county of a city, parliamentary borough, and the chief town of the county of Londonderry, is situated on an eminence rising abruptly from the west side of the river Foyle to the height of about 120 feet, =I miles from the junction of the river with Lough Foyle, and SO miles north-north-west of Belfast. It is still surrounded by an ancient rampart about a mile in circumfere…

Londonderry, Robert Stewart

LONDONDERRY, ROBERT STEWART, SECOND MARQUIS or (1769-1822), better known by his courtesy title Of Viscount Castlereagh, which he held until the last year of his life, the statesman who brought about the union with Ireland, who was foreign minister for ten eventful years, who represented England at the congress of Vienna, and who was the recognized leader of the aristocratic and reactionary party w…

London History

LONDON HISTORY, (To 449 A.D.). - Bishop Stillingfleet, writing of London, stated that after the fullest inquiry he was inclined "to believe it of a Roman foundation, and no older than the time of Claudius" (Origines Brit., 1685, p. 43); and several antiquaries and historians hold the same opinion.' Although Geoffrey of Monmouth's vision of a great British city of Troynovant, founded by Brut, a des…

Long Branch

LONG BRANCH, a fashionable seaside resort of the United States, in Ocean township, Monmouth county, New Jersey.

Longevity

LONGEVITY is a term that may be applied to express either the length or duration of life of any organism, or the prolongation of life to an advanced age. The first meaning is the more scientific of the two, as it may be applied to the duration of the life of any organism, although that duration may be relatively short ; thus, we may contrast the longevity of the mould which lives only a few hours …

Longford

LONGFORD, an inland county of Leinster, Ireland, is bounded on the N.W. by Leitrim, N.E. by Cavan, E. by Westmeath, S. by Westmeath and Meath, and W. by Lough Ree and Roscommon. With the exception of Carlow, Louth, and Dublin, it is the smallest county in Ireland, its greatest length being about 28 miles, its greatest breadth about 20, and the total area comprising 269,409 acres, or about 421 squa…

Longford

LONGFORD, the chief town of the above county, is situated on the river Camlin, and on a branch of the Midland Great Western Railway, 75 miles west-north-west of Dublin.

Long, George

LONG, GEORGE, an English scholar (1800-1879), was born at Poulton in Lancashire, on the 4th of November 1800. From Macclesfield grammar school he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1818. He was elected Craven university scholar in 1821, together with Lord Macaulay and Professor Malden, took his degree in 1822 as wrangler and senior chancellor's medallist, and the next year gained a fellowship …

Longinus

LONGINUS, a philosophical critic of great eminence, and one of the brightest spirits of antiquity, uniting Greek subtlety with Roman fervour, flourished in the 3d century, and is known to have perished under sentence of the emperor Aurelian in 273 A.D. He forms one of the last brilliant cluster of pagan literati ; and Porphyry, round whom it centred, was the pupil of Longinus. As Porphyry is known…

Long Island

LONG ISLAND, an island with an area of 1682 square miles lying off the coast of the United States, between 40? 33' and 41. 10' N. lat., and forming part of the State of New York. While the length from east to west is about 120 miles, the width nowhere exceeds 24 miles, and in some places falls to 12 or 15. The western end is separated from the city and State of New York by the East River, which is…

Long Island City

LONG ISLAND CITY, a city of tire United States, the capital of Queen's County, New York, situated on the west coast of Long Island, and separated from New York by the East River and from Brooklyn by the Newtown Creek.

Longueville, Anne

LONGUEVILLE, ANNE GENEVa:VE, DUCH ESSE DE (1619-1679), who played the greatest part in the troubles of the Fronde, and whose name has come down to posterity as the brilliant intriguer in polities in her early and the pious protectress of the nuns of Port Royal in her later years, was the only daughter of Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Condo, and his wife Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, and the o…

Lyestrygones

LYESTRYGONES, a mythic race of giants, mentioned in the Odyssey. After leaving the island of YEolus, Ulysses reached in six days the coast of the Lrestrygonians and the city of Lanus, where the paths of clay and night approach so close that a sleepless man might make double wages by herding continuously, watching one flock while the other rested. This feature of the tale obviously contains some hi…

Markets And Food Supply

MARKETS AND FOOD SUPPLY. - A regulation passed in 1277 ordained that no market should be kept on London Bridge or elsewhere except in places specially appointed for the purpose, and that no person should buy wares in Southwark that were to be bought in the City. In 1322 a decree was issued by the mayor that none should sell fish or flesh "out of the markets appointed, to wit, Bridge Street, East C…

Medieval Period Libraries

MEDIEVAL PERIOD LIBRARIES, during the first few centuries after the fall of the Western empire, literary activity at Constantinople had fallen to its lowest ebb. In the West, amidst the general neglect of learning and literature, the collecting of books, though not wholly forgotten, was cared for by few. Sidonius Apollinaris tells us of the libraries of several private collectors in Gaul. Publius …

Miscellaneous

MISCELLANEOUS "WORKS. -(1) Et Sopher on the Massoreth and the Accents, Lye-I:, 1864, 8vo. (2) Antiehristiana :-(a) in the Icbilehemeth Chobah, Constantinople, 1710, 8vo; and (I) in the Nitzzaehon, Nuremberg, 1644, 4to ; Amsterdam, 1709, 16mo ; Amsterdam, 1711, 16mo ; Amsterdam, 1827, 16mo ; Konigsberg, 1848I As, e. g . , the commentary On Isaiah.,by Malaninaeus, Florence, 1774, 4to ; On Hosea, by …

Modern Libraries

MODERN LIBRARIES, these are most conveniently described in geographical order, and a general survey on this method will be found in the tables at the end of this article. The following sketch supplies additional details. The United Kin/do?.. The British Museum ranks in importance before all the great libraries of the world, with the single exception of the Bibliothe.que Nationale at Paris, and far…

New Kuldja

NEW KULDJA, Manchu Kuldja, or 11a, which lies lower down the valley on the same side of the stream, has been a pile of ruins whitened with bleaching bones since the terrible massacre of all its inhabitants by the insurgent Dungans in 1868.

Niapl

NIAPL lort,,Tilr:/).,N PAUL ROCH YVES GILBERT , MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE (1757-183 0, was born at the ch?teau of Chavagniac in intyhe arg ukc'erlayn France, r tSueniet September the 6' 1 d7e5r7.ageLoeff tthaintteoertiphlat lie married at sixteen a daughter ofthe Due d'Ayen 'and granddaughter of the Due de Noailles, then one of the most influential families in the kingdom. In selecting a career, the c…

Nineteenth Century

NINETEENTH CENTURY.-It is impossible to give here anything like a full account of the history of London during the 19th century-. Since 1800 the City itself has been almost entirely rebuilt, and the suburbs on all sides hare been vastly extended. Russell Square was built about 1804, and the district north of Bloomsbury was laid out at the same time. Bloomsbnry Square had been built in 1665, and Be…

Open Spaces

OPEN SPACES. - London owes the possession of its finest parks rather to accident than to intention. Eastwards and northwards no effort was made to preserve any part of the "delightful plain of meadow land interspersed with flowing streams " mentioned by Pitzstephen, or of the "immense forest of densely wooded thickets," or of the "common fields" rights by enclosure. Westward, however, the inroads …

Ou Ov P-17

OU OV P-17 el.F-17 ? If, as before, the breadth of the surface be small compared with its radius of curvature, we may approximate (sufficiently for many important practical purposes) by writing A for P. Thus we have Retaining the same notation as in the case of reflexion, we get u - r v - r v A 1 1 (1) r Notice that, if we put ,u,= - 1, this becomes the formula for reflexion at a concave mirror. …

Painting, Sculpture, And Tiie Applied Arts

PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND TIIE APPLIED ARTS. - The most influential and the oldest institution in London connected with painting and sculpture is the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1768, which, besides its annual exhibition of art in its new buildings in Burlington Gardens, Burlington Douse, erected in 1868-69, in the Dalian Renaissance style from the designs of Smirke, has also organized c…

Period

PERIOD I. The Celtic Church. - Until recently almost nothing was known of the character of the liturgical service of the vast Celtic Church which existed in these islands before the Anglo-Saxon conquest, and which continued to exist in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall for very considerable though varying periods of time after that event. But recently a good deal of light has been thrown on t…

Period Iii

PERIOD III. Anglo-Norman Church. - The influx of numerous foreigners, especially from Normandy and Lorraine, which preceded, accompanied, and followed the Conquest, and the occupation by them of the highest posts in church as well as state, had a distinct effect on the liturgy of the English Church. These foreign ecclesiastics brought over with them a preference for and a habit of using certain fe…

Plantagenet

PLANTAGENET (1154-1485). - Henry II. appears to have been to a certain extent prejudiced against the citizens of London on account of their attitude towards his mother, and he treated them with sane severity. On several occasions he exacted large sums from the city, which, although they were euphemistically styled dona, cannot be considered as free gifts. The severity appears to have been necessar…

Reflexion Of Light

REFLEXION OF LIGHT. - If light be reflected from a plane surface bounding two dissimilar isotropic media, the incident and reflected rays are in one plane with, and are equally inclined (on opposite sides) to, the perpendicular to the reflecting surface at the point of incidence. This is sometimes stated in the form - The angles of incidence and of reflexion are equal to one another, and in one pl…

Refraction

REFRACTION. - If homogeneous light be refracted at a C plane surface separating two homogeneous isotropic media, I.! the incident and refracted rays are in one plane with the ti normal to the surface, and the sines of their inclinations to it are in a constant ratio. The law of single refraction was put in a form equivalent to this (all but one word) for the first time by Snell in Leyden, some tim…

Roe Itsa, Goritsa

ROE ITSA, GORITSA, GEORTCHA, or GHIORGHIA, a town of Albania, in the Turkish vilayet of Janina, situated in a spacious plain 45 miles east of Berat and 30 miles west of Kastoria.

Royal Palaces And Government Buildings

ROYAL PALACES AND GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS. - SLOW mentions that in his time there was a large building called the Old Wardrobe in the Old Jewry, very ancient, but of which all that he knew was that it had been alluded to by Henry VI. as his principal palace in the Old Jewry. The palace of 'Westminster existed at least as early as the reign of Canute, but the building spoken of by Fitzstephen as an " …

Sanitary Arrinc

SANITARY ARRINC: EMENTS. - Until 1531 no provision was made for the construction of underground main sewers, notwithstanding that in 1290 the exhalations from the Fleet overcame the incense burnt at the altars in the neighbouring churches, and that in 1307 the river, on account of the accumulation of filth, had become inaccessible for ships. The Act of Henry III. in 1531, which provided for the ap…

Saxon

SAXON (449-1066). - At the beginning of the 50 century the Roman legions left Britain. From this period to the arrival of the Saxons there was a space of time when the Briton was left alone, and there is no reason to believe that London ceased to be the important commercial town which it had grown to be. After the Saxon invasion we do not hear of the city being ravaged, and it possibly held its ow…

Site

SITE - A great part of London is built on sands and gravels belonging to the Drift period, marking the ancient bed of a much larger river than the present Thames. This formation, resting immediately on the London Clay, extends along both banks of the present river, with an average breadth of about 2 miles ; but in some parts there is immediately adjoining the banks a considerable breadth of alluvi…

Sources Of Light

SOURCES OF LIGHT. - This subject will be fully treated in other parts of this work under various heads : from the purely scientific point of view under RADIATION ; from the more practical side under LIGHTING (ELECTRIC), &c. For our present purpose a very brief summary of the question will suffice ; and we do not require to investigate the process by which, in any case, the light is produced. (a) T…

Streets, Bridges

STREETS, BRIDGES, &c. - By the non-adoption of Wren's plans the opportunity afforded through the great fire was for ever lost of constructing a model capital, and within the City limits the streets are still in many cases confused and intricate. The total absence of plan in the construction of the nucleus of London has doubtless tended to aggravate the confusion outside the old boundaries. The gro…

Stuart

STUART (1603-1714). - The Stuart period, from the accession of James I. to the death of Queen Anne, extends over little more than a century, and yet greater changes occurred during those years than at any previous period. The early years of Stuart London may be said to be closely linked with the last years of Elizabethan London, for the greatest men such as Raleigh, Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson liv…

Taondon

TAONDON, the metropolis of England, and the chief town of the British empire, is situated on both banks of the river Thames, about 50 miles from its mouth, St Paul's Cathedral being in 51? 30' 48" N. lat. and 0? 5' 48" W. long.

Tiieories Of Propagation Of Light

TIIEORIES OF PROPAGATION OF LIGHT. - We may begin by assuming that the sensation of light is due to a. mechanical action on the retina (see EYE). Now such a mechanical action must have a mechanical cause, and, as far as we can judge with our present knowledge, the latter must consist of impacts on the retina, due to moving matter. This matter may have travelled all the way from the source of light…

Tudor

TUDOR (1485-1603). - It was during this period that the first maps of London were drawn. No representation of the city earlier than the middle of the 16th century has been discovered, although it seems more than probable that some plans must have been produced at an earlier period.' The earliest known view is the drawing of Van den Wyngaerde in the Bodleian Library (dated 1550). The so-called Agga…

Undulatory Theory Of Light

UNDULATORY THEORY OF LIGHT, the explanation of the fundamental laws of Geometrical Optics by the wave-theory requires some preliminary remarks. As the subject will be more fully discussed in a special article, we confine ourselves to what is strictly necessary for the immediate purposes of the present article. The essential characteristic of wave-motion is that a I disturbance of some kind is hand…

Va, 29

VA, 29:A., 32/A, Ev.c. The mean wave-length of visible rays in air is about -.,,-?th of an inch. Thus a grating with 5000 equidistant lines per inch will give with such light an angular deviation of about 60 for the first bright diffraction line. If we notice that the sine of the deviation is proportional to the wave-length, it will be obvious that when white light is used the result will be a ser…

Velocity Of Light

VELOCITY OF LIGHT. - Light moves with a velocity of nearly 186,000 miles per second. Of this we have four distinct kinds of proof, on each of which depends a method which is capable of giving pretty accurate results. provided with an accurate watch travels about in the surrounding district. When he first hears the cannon let him note the time by his watch, then on account of the non-instantaneous …

Water Supply

WATER SUPPLY. - For two centuries after the Conquest; London obtained a sufficient supply of pure water partly from the rivers or streams which passed through it and partly from wells sunk into the sands above the chalk. Holywell, Clerk's Well (Clerkenwell), and St Clement's Well (near St Clement's Inn) are mentioned by Fitzstephen as those "of most note." In 1236 the magistrates purchased from Gi…