Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/1018

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remainder, but to take the veflel out of the fire. When the whole is cool, the veflel muft be broke-, and at the bottom there will be found a fmall quantity of a regu- lu5 of lead, revived by means of the fait j in the middle the glafs of lead, which muft be kept for ufe ; and at the top a faline cm ft, which is to be thrown away.
 * fli-nole ; and in this cafe> there is no way to preferve 'the

X-ITHIDIA, in natural hiftory, the name of a large clafs of foffils, including the flint and pebble kinds. The lithidia are defined to be ftones of a debafed cryftallinc matter, covered by, and unrounded with an opake cruft, -and frequently of great beauty, and confiderable bright nefs within, though of but a flight degree of tranfparencc, ap- proaching to the nature of the femipellucid gems, and like them found in not very large mafles.

Th? bodies of this clafs are divided into two general orders, and under thofe into three genera. The firft order of the lithidia contains thofe compofed of a cryftalline matter, but -ftightly debafed, and that ever by one and the fame earth, though diffufed through them in different degrees, and al- ways free from veins. The fecond order is of thofe of a more debafed cryftalline matter, blended with different portions of differently coloured earths.

Of the firft of thefe orders there is only one genus, which is that of the common flint. See the article Silex. Of the fecond order there are two genera. i.The homo- chroa, which are of one plain and Ample colour; and 2, the calculi^ which arc compofed of crufts of feveral different co- lours. Both thefc genera are comprifed under the common Englifh name of pebbles. Hill's Hift. of Fofl". p. 505. See I-Iomochroa and Pebbles.

LITHOBOLIA, Atfo&fc«) in antiquity, a feftival celebrated by the "Fnezenians in memory of Lamia and Auxefia, two virgins, that coming from Crete to Trsezene, in a time of tumult and fedition, became a Sacrifice to the fury of the people, by whom they were ftoned to death. Potter, Archseol. Gra^c. 1. 2. c. 20. Tom. I. p. 412.

Lithobolia, or lapidation, was alfo a common punifhment inflicted by the primitive Greeks upon fuch as were taken in adultery. Potter, 1. 1. c. 25. Tom. I. p. 135.

LITHOD/EMON, or Lapis damonian, a name given by fome authors to jet. See Gacates.

LITHODENDRON, a name by which, according to Diof- corides, many of the antients exprefs the common red co- ral. Dale's Pharm. p. 54.

LITHOGENESIA, a term ufed by fome authors to exprefs the formation and origin of ftones. See Stone. Henkell has thrown together fome very ingenious thoughts on this abftrufe fubject, in a treatife publifhed in the year 1734, where he builds no opinions on any other bafis than that of facts, pbfervations of nature, and experiments. "He had lived twenty years in the neighbourhood of the mines in Mifnia, and had in that time perhaps {ten. more of the entrails of the earth opened, than any other man who ever viewed it withaphilolophic eye ; and loving chemiftry, had matte experiments greatly more numerous than thofe of any other writer on this fubject : this may give fome weight to his opinions, which differ greatly from thofe of the generality of writers, and with which he modeftly ac- knowledges himfelf not to be perfectly fatisfied, as to all the operations of nature in this abftrufe and hidden myftery. He fuppofes that the earth was at firft every where foft on the furface, and that this foft matter, by degrees, hardened, . and formed ftones of feveral kinds. He feems to imagine, that the furface of the earth was a fecond time all reduced to this foft ftate by the univerfal deluge at the time of Noah, . and that this matter, afterwards hardening into ftones of various kinds, included the fhells of fea fifties, and other animal remains of the produce of the feas, in flints, in lime- ftone, or in whatever other fubftance the matter amonc which they lay, chanced to harden. Thus may the fea fhells, found fingly in the middle of hard flints, or lodged in vaft numbers in the ftrata of earth, limeftone, or marble, be accounted for.

of ftony matter, and lodge them fo in other bodies, as to form compleat hard and folid ftones : this is frequently done at this day in the common petrifactions of wood, and in the ftones generated in the bladders of animals. If this be al- lowed a property common to feveral fluids, and to water 1 in feveral ftates, there is no reafon why it fhould be denied - to have exifted in that of the univerfal deluge $ and if that be acknowledged to have had a power of forming ftones of various kinds, there is no wonder that ftones of various kinds fhould be found in the ftrata, and on the furface of . this earth, which was all covered by that water ; or that the . ftones formed in that immenfe body of water fhould mew, as they do in many inftances, the feveral crufts or coats laid one upon another, by the fucceflive applications of the matter of which they were formed.
 * "Waters of other kinds we are very fenfiblemay carry particles

If we confider alfo the immenfe quantity of animal and ve- getable bodies ; fome entire, others only feparated into parts which muft have been mixed with, floating anions, or lying upon the bottom of this immenfe bed of water, and that

'{tones were continually forming out of this water at this time, we cannot wonder that thefe ftcnes fhould take uu thefe parts of plants or animals, or concrete about them, or that we fhould find fhells and teeth of fifties, or pieces of wood, or leaves of plants preferved in them. Nor is water alone the agent that may have made thefe changes in the once foft parts of the earth's furface ; we can by fire reduce the pooreft earths into a fort of glafs, a hard tranfparent body, not a little refembling the nature of flint or the other femi-pellucid ftones. Fire is of power to do great things in the bowels of the earth, and the way to learn what changes it may there make in ftones, is to try- its effect upon the feveral different kinds of ftones and earths here. By experiments of this kind we learn, that of the feveral fpecies of ftones in their prefent ftate fome are re- duced to a friable mafs, and finally to powder by the force of fire, others are hardened by it, others are melted, and be- come a kind of glafs : and by experiments, on the other foffile fubftances, it appears, that the original matter of all ftones has been earth, either of the nature of chalk, marl, or^lay; and that many of them have been greatly altered by receiving metallic or other mineral matter into their earthy- matter, at the time of their formation j and all feem to have owed their change into their hard ftate, either to fire alone, or to faline, oily, metallic or faline fulphureous matters, ei- ther conjunctly with the force of this agent, or alone. Hetifoll's Lithogenefia.

Thofe ftones, which were formed in their prefent ftate, immediately out of fluids, have been produced either by- congelation, a rude coalition, or cryftallization ; and that all the gems have been once fluid, is plain, from their im- perfections in certain inftances, as from their containing grains of fand, or the like extraneous fubftances, firmly em- bodied in them. If thefe, the hardeft of all ftones, have been once fluid, there is no reafon to difpute, but that all the other kinds may have been fo, which are lefs hard and lefs perfect:.

LITHOLABON, a name given by fome chirurgical writers to an inftrument ufed in the operation of lithotomy, it is a forceps intended for taking hold of the ftone.

LITHOMANTIA, Atflopoftio, i n antiquity, a fpecies of di- vination performed with ftones. Sometimes the ftone, called ftderites, was ufed: this they waihed in fpring- water in the night by candle-light ; the perfon that confulted it, was to be purified from all manner of pollution, and to have' his face covered : this done, he repeated divers prayers, and placed certain characters in an appointed order ; and then the ftone moved of itfelf, and in a foft, gentle, murmur, (or as fome fay) in a voice like that of a child, returned an anfwer. By a ftone of this nature, Helena is reported to have foretold the deftruction of Troy. Potter, Archaol. Graec. I. 2. c. 18. T. 1. p. 351.

LITHOMARGA, {CycL) Stone marie, a name given by fome authors to a fparry fubftance highly debafed by' earth, which is found in great plenty in the caves of the Hart's foreft in Germany, and ufed there in medicine, under the name of the unicormt foffile, or foffile unicorn's horn, from its fometimes emulating that figure. Hill's Hift. of Foil. p. 360.

LITHONTRIPTICON Tulpii, the name of a famous diuretic medicine, invented by Tulpius, and given with great fuc- cefs in cafes of the ftone, but requiring great judgment and caution in the adminiftring it.

The preparation is this : take a dram of cantharldes without their wings, and a dram of leffer cardamoms without their hufks, powder them fine, and pour upon them an ounce of rectified fpirit of wine, and half an ounce of fpirit of nitre: fet them to infufe, without "heat, for five or fix days, ftir- ring them from time to time. The vial muft not be flopped dole; becaufe, if it be, the continual fermentation will burft it. The dofe is from fourteen to fifteen, or twenty drops, in a glafs of wine and water, it is to be taken in a morning, an hour after the eating a mefs of broth, and may- be repeated for three or four days.

It is remarkable, that this mixture never ceafes fermenting for many years ; but if it be too faft corked will break the glafs ; if but flightly flopped, it only throws out the cork with an explofion. Mem. Acad. Par. 1709. p. 358. Edit. Par.

LITHOPAEDION, a word ufed by fome medical writer^ to exprefs a recent calculous concretion in the bladder. The ftone, in this ftate, is fuppofed to be more eafily worked upon by medicines, than when of longer Handing ; but the cruftated ftructure of thefe ftones, when examined plainly, fhews that they arrive at their bignefs only by flow degrees, and therefore, that there is properly no fuch thing as a recent calculous concretion capable of givino- pain.

L1THOPHYTON, Coral, in botany, the name'of a genus of fea plants, the characters of which are thefe. They are of a fort of homey texture, or of a middle degree of hardnefs between that of ftone and wood, and have ufually a fort of bark, either compofed of fibres, and refembling the bark of trees, or elfe merely cruftaceous, and refembling a tarta- rous cruft. See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 17. The fpecies of litkophyton, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort,

are

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