Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/970

 LAM

keeps time to his halting with the motions of his head for all lamehortes do not keep time in that manner.

Lame of the bridle, is ufed by way of raillery to fignify the fame thing.

LAMIA, in zoology, a name ufed by forne authors for the jhark. Rondclet, de Pifc. See Shark.

LAMIODONTES, in natural hiftory, the name given by Dr. Hill to the foffile teeth of Iharks, called by the generality of authors gleffopetres, or ftony tongues, a name founded on an erroneous opinion, of their having been the tongues of ferpents turned into ftone.

. The feveral fizes of the teeth of the fame fpecies, and thofc of the feveral different fpecies of iharks afford us a van- variety of thefe foffile ones. Their ufual colours are black, blueifh, whitiih, yellowifh, or brown, and in fhape they ufually approach to a triangular figure. Some of them are fimple, others are tricufpidate, having a fmall point on each fide the large one. Some of them are very long, others fhorter, and fome very broad in proportion to their length ; others as remarkably flender and narrow. Many of them alfo are quite ftrait, though feveral are found crooked. Thefe laft are not bent any one particular way, but all ways and in all directions, fome inward, fome outward, others fide- ways, and of thefe fome to the right and others to the left. Many of them alfo have their edges plain, others ferrated, and that more or lefs deeply ; and fome are undulated, or waved in the manner of a flaming fword at their edges, and flightly ferrated on thefe undulations. They areas various alfo in fize as figure, fome being found of four or five inches long, and the fmaller of lefs than a quarter of an inch, See Tab. of Foffils, Clafs 8. HiH'sHiQ:. of Foff. p. 644. They are moil ufually found with us in the ftrata of blue clay, though fometimes alfo in other fubftances, and are frequent in the clay pits of Richmond and other places, They are very frequent alfo in Germany, but no where fo plentiful as in the ifland of Malta. Ibid. p. 643. The Germans attribute many virtues to thefe foffile teeth they call them cordials, fudorifics, and alexipharmics : and the people of Malta, where they are extremely plentiful, hang them about their childrens necks to promote dentition. They may poffibly be of as much fervice this way as an anodyne necklace ; and if fufpended in fuch a manner, that the child can get them to its mouth, may by their hardnefs and fmoothnefs be of the fame ufe as a piece of coral.

LAMIOLA, in ichthyology, a name by which fome authors have called the maltha or firrat, a kind of ihark. Wil- , lughby's Hilt. Pifc. p. 50. See Maltha.

Lamiola is alfo the name given by the modern Italians to a fiih, called in Cornwal the tope. It is a fpecies of the fquaius, called by the generality of authors galeus canis, and by Artedi the fquaius, with the noftrils placed near the mouth, and with the fmall foramina near the eyes.

LAMIUM, deadncttle, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower con- lifts of one leaf, and is of the labiated kind. The upper lip is hollowed in form of a fpoon, and the lower is divided only into two fegments, and refembles the figure of a heart; both of them are alfo marginated, and refemble thi jaws of fome animal. The cup of the flower is tubular, and is divided into five fegments j from this arifes the piftil which is fixed in the manner of a nail into the hinder part of the flower, and is furrounded by four embryos, which afterwards become four triangular ihaped feeds, which ripen in the cup. Tourn. Inft. p. 183.

The fpecies of lamium enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. 1. The roundifh leaved ftinking deadnettle, which is the galeopfis of Diofcorides. 2. The leffer red flowered roundifh and ftinking lamium. 3. The red flowered long leaved lamium. 4. The common white flowered lamium, called archangel and white deadnettle. 5-The la?nium with leaves marked round with white lines. 6. Thepellitory leaved lamium. J. The purple flowered mountain lamium with deeply di- vided leaves. 8. The common little red lamium with jagged leaves. 9. The lamium with leaves furrounding the ftalks, called henbit.

Thefe are all the fpecies which this author can allow to be genuine lamiums, but others have accounted many more, reckoning feveral of the caffida?, the galeopfis, and baum kind, as of this genus. See Galeopsis, c3V. The flowers of dcadnettles have been greatly recommended in the fluor albus in women, and againft floodings of the menfes. It is alfo faid to be a great vulnerary, and good in obftru£tions of the vifcera.

TuAmivm exoti cum, in botany, a name given to a fpecies of caffida. See Cassida.

LAMNE, in ichthyology, a name given by Appian, and fome other of the old Greek authors, to the common Jhark, or as we ufually call it the white Jl)ark, the lamia and canis carcharias of authors, This is properly a fpecies of fquaius, and is accurately diftinguifhed by Artedi under the name of the fquaius, with a flat back, and with numerous teeth fer-

■ rated at the edges. See Squalus. LAMP (Cycl.) — The flame in a lamp never confumes the wick, till the wick be expofed to the air by the fames

LAM.

falling downward ; and from ence it may be inferred, that a way found out to keep the fuel, and confequently the flame at the fame height upon the wick would make it laft: a long time. Many ways have been devifed to arrive at this, but it feems only poffible to be done, in any degree of perfection, by hydroftatics. Thus, let a lamp be made two or three inches deep, with a pipe coming from the bottom almofl as high as the top of the vefTel ; let it be filled fo high with water as to cover the hole of the pipe at the bot- tom to the end, that the oil may not get in at the pipe, and fo be loft. Then let the oil be poured in, fo as to fill the veffel almoft brim full, which muft have a cover pierced with as many holes as there are wicks defigned. When the vefTel is thus filled, and the wicks are lighted, if water falls in by drops at the pipe, it will always keep the oil at the fame height, or very near ; the weight of the water being to that of the oil as 20 -V to 19, which in two or three inches make no great difference. If the water runs fafter than the oil wafles, it will only run over at the top of the pipe, and what does not run over will come under the oil, and keep it at the fame height. Phil. Tranf. N° 245, p. 388. Perpetual Lamp. The teftimonies of Pliny, St. Auflin and others, have led many to believe, that the antients had the invention of perpetual lamps : and fome moderns have at- tempted to find out the fecret, but hitherto in vain. Indeed it feems no eafy matter to find out, either a perpetual wick^ or a perpetual oil. The curious may read Or. Plot's con- je£turesonthefubjecT:inthePhilofophicarrranfaclions,N i66, or in Lowthorp's abridgment, Vol. 3. p. 636. But few, we believe, will give themfelves the trouble of fearching for the fecret, when they confider, that the credulity of Pliny and St. Auftin was fuch, that their teftimony does not feem a fufficient evidence to induce us to believe, that a lamp was ever contrived to burn for 1000 or 1500 years ; much lefs is it credible, that the antients had the fecret of making one burn for ever. LAMPERN, a river fifh of the lamprey kind found in many parts of England, particularly in Oxfordfhire and the neigh- bouring counties, and there called the pride of the lfis. The Latin authors call it the lampetra parva and mujle la fluvial ills. It is a fmall fifh, of a brownifh or blueifh black upon the back, and a fine filver white on the belly. Its mouth, is circular or elliptic, and furnifhed with fix or feven teeth, and over thefe a fmall femi-circular bone. In the middle of the head it has a hollow or fmall tube, like the whale \ the ufe of this is to admit the water and air, while the mouth is applied clofe to the rocks ; its gills are feven holes on each fide, and has two fins on the back, Willughby's Hift. Pifc. p. 104. Gefner, p. 706.

The word lampern is ufed by the common people in England for one fpecies of the lampetra, and is not to be Confounded with the other called the lamprey, or the lamprey eel. The near alliance in found between the two words lampern and lamprey has deceived feveral, to fuppofe they meant the fame fifh ; and even fome authors have not diftinguifhed them, but the determinate fenfe of the words is this : they are the names of two fifh, both of the genus of the lampetra, according to the generality of writers, and of the petromyzon, according to the new fyftem of Artedi. The lampern is that fpecies of the genus, which is called by Gefner and Willue;hby the fmall river lampetra, the lampetra parva fumatilis. It is the lampetra fubcinerea, or the greyifh lampetra, and muftela of the old Latin authors, as Pliny, &c. Caf- fiodore has called it exormtjtos ; and Albertus, mnrmna. Dr. Plot calls this fpecies the pride of the lfis, from its being found in great plenty and perfection in that river. It i§. the neunaugen of the Germans.

The lamprey is the fiih called, by the fame authors, -either limply the lampetra, or the lampetra major, lampetra marina, or lampetra maculofa.

The lampern has many other names among writers, fuch as pricka and pryk, from the German name pryk ; and nattingus, from the natting of the Swedes. But with all thefe variety of names, there were none that could diftinguifh the two fifh from one another, till Artedi adapted names to them, and called the firft, or lampern, the petromyzon, with only one row of very fmall teeth in the verge of the mouth, be- fide the lower larger ones ; and the other, or the lamprey, the fpotted petromyzon, with about twenty rows of teeth. -rfrtedi,Gen.Pifc. p. 90. See Petromyzon and Lampetra. LAMPETRA, the lamprey, in zoology, a fifh of the an- guilliform kind, diftinguifhed from all the reft by having a round or oval mouth, placed at the end of the fnout, and having no fins either at the gills or belly. This is the cha- racter of the lampetra genus, of which there are feveral fpe- cies. The lampern, lamprey eel, brick, ?nucu, &g, Ray's Ichthyog. p. 104. See Lampern"* &c. Lampetra Jndica, in zoology, the name ©f an Eaft-Indian fiih of the lamprey kind, caught in flandifig waters, and called by the Dutch there bont ael, and neegen oog, or nine eyes. Ray's Ichthyogr. Append, p. 4. See the article Bont- ael LAMPREY-^/, the Englifh name of the common lamprey, or lampetra, Its back is of a blackifh hue, with fome an- 3 gukur