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 LANKESTEE

LAEOMIGUIEEE

at Florence. He is a thorough Eationalist and a warm admirer of Mr. Bradlaugh.

LANKESTER, Sir Edwin Ray, K.C.B., M.D., LL.D., Sc.D., F.E.S., zoologist. B. May 15, 1847. Ed. St. Paul s School, Cambridge (Downing Coll.), and Oxford (Christ s Church Coll.). He became a fellow and lecturer of Exeter College in 1872, and was professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at London University College from 1874 to 1890, Linacre pro fessor of comparative anatomy at Oxford from 1891 to 1898, and Director of the National History Departments of the British Museum from 1898 to 1907. He has edited the Quarterly Journal of Micro scopic Science since 1869, and he edited the Oxford Treatise of Zoology (1900-1909). He was also Eegius professor of natural history at Edinburgh in 1882, and Fullerian professor of physiology and comparative anatomy at the Eoyal Institution 1898- 1900. Sir Bay (knighted in 1907) was President of the British Association in 1906. He holds the Eoyal Medal of the Eoyal Society, the Copley Medal, and the Darwin- Wallace medal ; and he is a mem ber or corresponding member of the Institut de France, the Petrograd, Bohemian, New York, and Philadelphia Academies of Science, the American Philosophical Society, the Accademia dei Lincei, etc. He is an Honorary Associate of the Eationalist Press Association.

LANSON, Professor Gustave, D. es L.,

French historian. B. Aug. 5, 1857. Ed. Lycee d Orleans, Lycee Charlemagne, and Ecole Norm ale Superieure. After some years of teaching experience, Lanson was appointed professor of French literature at the University of Paris. His valuable Histoire nationale de la litterature Franqaise (1896) is useful to Eationalists, and he has edited Voltaire s Lettres philosophiqiies (1908). He is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, Vice-President of the Soci6te d His- toire Litt6raire de la France, and President of the Societedes Textes Frangais Modernes. 423

LAREYEILLIERE - LEPAUX, Louis

Marie de, member of the French Direc- toire. B. Aug. 24, 1753. Ed. (by Ora- torian priests) Angers. Graduating in law and serving for some time in a procurator s, office, he adopted the ideas of Eousseau, and cultivated letters and philosophy. He accepted the Eevolution, and was in 1792. a member of the Convention ; but he resigned as a protest against the crimes- committed. In 1795 he returned to it, and was its last President. He passed to the Council of Ancients, and he was after wards a member of the Directoire. A severe and high-minded administrator, he zealously urged the substitution of Theo- philanthropy for Christianity. After Napo leon s seizure of power he refused office or pension. D. Mar. 27, 1824.

LARKIN, Professor Edgar Lucien,

American astronomer. B. Apr. 5, 1847. Ed. La Salle College (Illinois). He opened the New Windsor Observatory in 1880,. and directed it until 1888, when he passed to the Knox College Observatory. Since 1900 he has been Director of the Lowe Observatory, Echo Mountain, California. He is a Fellow of the American Astro nomical Society and the Illinois Natural History Society, and a member of th& Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America. In an article in the Truth- seeker (reproduced in the Freethinker,. Oct. 21, 1906) Professor Larkin says : &quot; Eeligion is totally useless in a universe based on law, and every creed and belief will be swept from the earth when men get- out of infantile stages of growth.&quot;

LAROMIGUIERE, Professor Pierre,

French philosopher. B. Nov. 3, 1756. Ed. College de Villefranche. Joining the- Congregation of the Christian Brothers, he taught philosophy in their schools from the^ age of seventeen until the Eevolution, when the Congregation was suppressed. He left, the Church and wrote a Projet d Elements de metaphysique (1793), which got him the. 424