Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/817

 LADISLATTS

737

L^TARE

versies probably occasioned the composition of "La Critiea d'oggidi" by Laderclii (Rome, 1726). He was also the autlior of the following works: "De Basilicis SS. Martyrum Petri et Marcellini dissertatio histor- ica" CRome, 1705); "Acta S. Csecilise et transtiberina basilica illustrata" (Rome, 1722); "Acta SS. Christi martyrum vindicata" (Rome, 1723); "Sanctorum pa- triarcharum et prophetarum, confessorum . . . cultus perpetuus in Ecclesia catholica assertus et illustratus" (Rome. 1730).

HvRTEHt Nomenclator,2tid ed., II, 1128-30: Jcngmann in Kirchenlejr, a. v.; Reusch. Der Index der verbotenen Biicher, II (Bonn, 1883-85), 430-588.

N. A. Weber.

Ladislaus, Saint, King of Hungary, b. 1040; d. at Neutra, 29 July, 1095; one of Hungary's national Christian heroes. He was the son of B^la I; the nobles, after the death of Geisa I, passed over Solo- mon, son of .Vndrew I, and chose Ladislaus to be their king in 1077. It is true that he made peace with Solomon, when the latter gave up all claims to the throne of Hungary; however, later on he rebelled against Ladislaus, who took him prisoner and held him in the fortress of Visegrad. On the occasion of the canonization of Stephen I, Ladislaus gave Solomon his freedom, but in 1086 Solomon, with the aid of the heathen Cumans, revolted against Ladislaus a second time; the latter, however, vanquished them, and in 1089 gained another victory over the Turkish Cumans. In 1091 Ladislaus marched into Croatia, at the request of his sister, the widowed Queen Helena, and took possession of the kingdom for the crown of Himgary, where, in 1092, he founded the Bishopric of .\gram (Zagrdb). In the same year (1092), he also founded the Bishopric of Grosswardein (Nagy-Varad), in Hun- gary, which, however, some trace back to Stephen I. Ladislaus governed the religious and civil affairs of his kingdom with a firm hand, particularly at the great assembly of the Imperial States at Szabolcs, that might almost be called a synod. He tried vigorously to suppress the remaining heathen customs. He was buried in the cathedral of Grosswardein. He still lives in the sagas and poems of his people as a chivalrous king. In 1192 he was canonized by Celestine III.

Endlicher, Rerum Huri'jar. Monumenta Arpttdiana, I (Siiint Gall, 1849), ^20s(i(i.:Vejer, Codex diplomalicus Hurigar. (]3ada, 182S). I, 440 sqq.; Acta SS., June, V, 317 sqq.; Marczali, Ungarns Geschichtsquellen (Berlin, 1882), 33 sq.; Csuday, Geschirhle der Ungarn (Berlin, 1899), I, 151-68: Kaindl in Archiv fiiT (Esterreichische Geschichte (Vienna, 1902), XCI, 46- 53; PoTTHAST, Bibl. Hist, medii an, 1415, I, 2; Chevalier, Bio- Bib;.

Michael Bihi,.

Ladrone Islands. See Mariana Islands, Pre- FEi'TriiK .VriisTOLii; of the.

Lady Day. See Annunciation, Feast of the.

Laennec,RENE-THEOPHiLE-HYACiNTHE,b.atQuim- per, in Brittany, France, 17 February, 1781 ; d. at Ker- louanec, 13 August, 1826, a French physician, discov- erer of auscultation,and father of ourmodern knowledge of pulmonary diseases. He was the son of a lawyer of literary instincts who wrote poems which are said to recall those of his better known compatriot De Forges Maillard. His mother died when he was six, and the boy went to live with his grand-uncle the Abb6 Laennec. At the age of twelve he proceeded to Nantes where his uncle. Dr. Laennec, was professing in the faculty of medicine at the university. He was wonderfully successful in his studies and obtained a number of f>rizes, learned English and German very thoroughly, and began his medical studies under his uncle's direction. At nineteen (1800) he went to Paris and almost within a year obtained there the first prizes in both medicine and surgery at the med- ical school of the university. He became a pupil of Corvisart, Napoleon's great physician, who had re- introiiuced into medicnie Auenbrugger's neglected VTIL— 47

method of diagnosis by percussion of the chest. Laennec followed up the idea, so readily suggested by this, of listening to the sounds produced within the chest and, after twelve years of careful study and observation, laid the foimdation of the modern knowledge of diseases of the chest. He also invented the stethoscope, the original employment of the in- strument being suggested by his desire to save a young woman's modesty from the shock of having him listen directly to her chest. Roger sums up what Laennec hacl thus accomplished when he says that Laennec's ear opened to man a new world in medical science (Roger, "Les MiJdecins Bretons"). Laennec published his book on the subject in 1819, with the modest motto in Greek "the most important part of an art is to be able to observe properly." Prof. Benjamin Ward Richardson declared (Disciples of .^<;.sculapius) that "the true student of medicme reads Laennec's treatise on mediate auscultation and the use of the stethoscope once in two years at least as long as he is in practice. It ranks with the original work of Vesalius, Harvey and Hippocrates." Practically nothing of importance has been added to our knowledge of auscultation since Laennec wrote this book. Besides this he made very careful studies in pathology, especially on diseases of the liver. He was the first to study hyatids exhaustively, and it is to him we owe the name cirrhosis of the liver. Alco- holic cirrhosis is often spoken of as Laennec's cir- rhosis. He threw much light on sclerotic conditions generally. Unfortunately while studying tubercu- losis over assiduously at a time when its contagion was scarcely suspected, he contracted the disease and died at the early age of forty-five.

Laennec was noted for his kindness and was beloved by his colleagues and his students. He showed him- self especially obliging towards his English-speaking pupils. As might be expected from his Breton birth and training, he was intensely religious and was a devout Catholic all his life. A characteristic story illustrates this: On his way to Paris with his wife he was thrown from his carriage. When the vehicle was righted and they had once more been seated he said to her; " Well, we were at the third decade "; then they went on with the rosary they had been reciting just before the accident. His charity to the poor became proverbial and his principal solicitude towards the end of his life was to keep as far as possible from giving trouble to others. Dr. Austin Flint in his lecture on Laennec said: "Laennec's life affords a striking instance among others disproving the vulgar error that the pursuit of science is unfavourable to religious faith. " He was one of the greatest clini- cal students of medicine of the nineteenth century. His principal work is "De I'auscultation mediate", Paris, 1819.

Saintignon, Laennef, Sa vie el son osuvre (Palis, 1904) ; Rich- ardson, Disciples of^'Esculapius (London, 1898); Roger, Lea Medecins Bretons (Paris, 1900); Walsh, Makers of Modern Medicine (New York, 1907).

Jambs J. Walsh. Laetare Medal. See Holy Cross, Congregation

OF.

Laetare Sunday, the fourth, or middle, Sunday of Lent, so called from the first words of the Introit at Mass, " La>tare Jerusalem" — " Rejoice, O Jerusalem". During the first six or seven centuries the season of Lent commenced on the Sunday following Quinqua- gesima, and thus comprised only thirty-six fasting days. To these were afterwards added the four days preceding the first Sunday, in order to make up the forty days' fast, and one of the earliest liturgical no- tices of these extra days occurs in the special Gospels assigned to them in a Toulon MS. of 714. Strictly speaking, the Thursday before Laetare Sunday is the middle day of Lent, and it was at one time observed as such, l)ut afterwards the special signs of joy per-