Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/976

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1?tne laferpitium. 1 1 . The great large leave J Idferpilium with curled feeds. 12. The low laferpitium with fmallage leaves, and purple flowers. 13. The low hftrpitium with fmallage leaves and white flowers. 14. The laferphium with long and divided lobes. Tourn. Inft. p. 324.

"LASHED, a fea term fignifying made fajl. Thus they fay the carpenter ought to take care that there be fpare yards lafned faft to the (hips fides ; i. e. fattened there to ufe on occafion,

LASKETS, or Latches, in a fhip, are fmall lines, like loops, fattened, by fowing into the bonnets and drablers, in order to lace the bonnets to the courfes, or the drablers to the bonnets. ,

LAST, (Cycl.) in the marfhes of Kent, a court held by the twenty four jurats, and fummoned by the bailiffs; wherein orders are made to lay and levy taxes, impofe penalties, t9V. for the prefervation of the faid marfnes. H'ifi. of im- banhing and draining, fol. 54. Blount.

LATERALIS morbus, a name given by fome writers to the pleurify.

Lateralis naris mufculus, in anatomy, a name given by many authors to that mufclc of the face which Albinus has called, from its office, the levator labii fuperioris alesquc naft. It is alfo called the obliquus naft.

LATERCULUM, among the Romans, was ufed for a roll or lift of all the magistrates and military officers under the Roman emperors, with an account of their refpeitive offices and fees. Pitife. in voc.

LATEX, in chemiftry, a name by which Van Helmont has, in fome of his writings, called the famous menftruum, which he boafts Paracelfus and himfclf to have been pof- fefled of, and which he ufually calls alkahejl. See Alka- hest.

LATH brieh, a particular fort of bricks made in fome parts of England of twenty two inches long, and fix inches broad, which are ufed in the place of laths, or fpars, fupported by pillars in cajls, for the drying of malt. This is an excel- lent contrivance ; for, befide that they are not liable to fire as the wooden laths are, they retain the heat vaftly better ; fo that being once heated, a very fmall quantity of fire will keep them fo. Plot's Oxfordfhirc, p. 257.

LATHR.EA, in botany, the name given by Linna?us to the plant called by Tournefort clandejlina. This, in the Lin- nasan fyftem of botany, is alfo a diftin& genus of plants ; the charaflers of which are : That the cup is compofed of one leaf, ftanding ereft, and reprefenting a bell, with its rim deeply divided into four fegments. The flower is com- pofed of a fingle petal, in form of a tube, longer than the

. cup, with a gaping and bellied mouth. The upper lip of the flower is hooded, and is broad and concave, with a nar- row crooked extremity ; the under one is fmaller, crooked, obtufe, and divided into three parts. The ftamina are two pointed filaments, of the length of the flower, hid beneath the upper lip. The anthers are two on each filament, obtufe above, and narrower below. The piftillum has a roundifh gerrnen, a thread-like ftyle of the fame length with the ftamina, and placed in the fame manner with them, and a truncated ftigma. The fruit is a roundifh, obtufe, but pointed capfule, divided into two cells, having two valves, and is very elaftic. Linnet Gen. Plant, p. 9.

. See Clandestina.

LATHYRIS, in botany, a name given by many authors to a fpecies of tithymal, or fpurge, commonly known by the name of tithymalus latifolius, the broad leaved fpurge, and called by fome alfo cataputia.

LATHYRUS, in botany, the name of a genus of plants ; the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the papilionaceous kind. The piftil arifes from the cup, and finally becomes a pod, in fome fpecies, of a cylindric, and in others of a flatted form, containing fometimes cylindric, and fometimes angular feeds. To this it is to be added, that the ftalks are flat and ridged, and have on each fide a foliaceous wing, and the leaves ftand only two on each rib ; thefe are placed oppofite to one another, and the rib itfelf ends in a tendril.

The fpecies of lathyrus enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are

thefe. I. The cultivated lathyrus with a white flower and

. white fruit. 2. The purple flowered garden lathyrus. 3. The

common large wild lathyrus. 4. The greater wild lathyrus

■ with a blackifh purple flower. 5. The broad leaved lathy- rus. 6. The broad leaved lathyrus with white flowers. 7. The great narrow leaved french lathyrus. 8. The narrow leaved lathyrus with a fpotted feed. 9. The orobus podded lathyrus with a very beautiful large red flower. 10. The

■ American variegated lathyrus with very narrow leaves. 11. The creeping tuberofe rooted field lathyrus. 12. The vetch leaved yellow flowered wild lathyrus. 13. The blue flowered annual lathyrus. 14. The yellow flowered bcetic lathyrus. 15. The yellow flowered Spanifh lathyrus. 16. The

-broad leaved yellow lathyrus. 17. The hairy podded nar- row leaved lathyrus. 18. The broad leaved annual lathyrus

.with a hairy jointed pod. 19. The lathyrus with extremely narrow leaves and round feeds. 20. The lathyrus with ex- tremely narrow leaves, and angular feeds. 21. The nar-

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row leaved red flowered lathyrus. And 22. The ftarlct flowered lathyrus with grafs like leaves.. Tournefort^ Inft. p. 396.

LATIBULUM, a word ufed by fome medical writers fur the fomes, or latent matter, which is the cccafion ol fevers and other diforders.

LATION, is ufed by fome for the tranflation, or motion of a body from one place to another.

LATI-'f ENDINIS mufculus^ in anatomy^ a name given by Spigelius and others to a mufcle called, by Winflow, mufiu- lus fafciee iatte, and by Albinus the mufculus vagina femoris. SeeMEMBRANosus, Cycl

LATOMIA, x-Mo^ct, in antiquity, a famous prifon or dun- geon at Syracufe, cut out of the folid rock. It was the work of the tyrant Dionyfius. Cicero calls it a vaft magnificent work, funk into the folid rock to a won- derful depth; and fays, that nothing could even be imagined more fecure for the confinement of prifoners. Pitife. Lex. Ant. in voc.

The word latomia fignifies a quarry, from *u,c, a ftonc, and Tfpw, to cut.

Latomia was alfo the name of a dungeon at Rome near the prifon called Tullianum. Pitife. 1. c.

LATTIMO, in the glafs trade, a name for a fine milk white glafs. There are feveral ways of making it, but the beft of all others is this. Take four hundred weight of cryftal fritt, and fixty pound of calcined tin, and two pound and a half of prepared manganefe; mix thefe well with the fritt, and fet them in a pot in a furnace to melt and refine. At the end of eighteen hours this will be purified ; then caft it into water, purify it again afterwards in the furnace, and make a proof of it. If it be too clear, add fifteen pound more of calcined tin ; mix it well with the metal, and let it ftand one day to purify ; it will then be of 2 whitenefs furpaffing even that of fnow, and is fit to work into vellels. Nerfs Art of Glafs, p. 98.

LATTIN, a name by which we ufed to call the plates of iron covered with tin, and now ufually called tin, of which our mugs, and fuch other things, are made. The method of preparing thefe plates of tin, as they are called, is as follows. Plates of iron are prepared of a proper thinnefs; thefe are cut into fquares fitted to receive the tinning, but it is not every kind of iron that will ferve to this purpofe, but only fuch as is moft of all diftenfible, eafily' ' beating out to any degree of thinnefs when hot, and malleable even when cold, without danger of flying to pieces. Of this the Ger- mans have large quantities, which they always fele£t for this purpofe. This fort of iron is firft formed into fquare bars of an inch in diameter ; thefe they beat out a little into flat- nefs, and then cut into pieces, which they call Jemelles, or files. They fold thefe together, and having made them in- to parcels, containing forty pieces each, they beat them all at once with a hammer, which weighs fix or feven hun- dred weight. When they have done this, the principal part of the whole work is to prepare the leaves, now beat out to a proper thinnefs, fo as that they lhall readily receive the tin ; for if there be but the fmalleff particle of duff, oil them, or only the flighteft ruff, in any part, the tin will never fix there.

This fmoothing of the plates may be brought about by filing them, but that would be too expenfive, wherefore they da it by fteeping them in acid Waters. Thus preparing a great number at a time, they leave them in this liquor till the 'fur- face is a little preyed upon by it, and then they are fcower— ed with fand, which makes them very fmooth and fine. By this means a woman cleans more plates in an hour, than the moft expert workman can do in many days. Mr. Reaumur, to whom the world owes the difcovery of this procefs, mentions feveral waters, any one of which will fuc- ceed, but the Germans themfelves ufe nothing but common water, made eager with rye. This they make a great fe- cret of, but the preparation is very eafy. After they have ground the rye grofsly, they leave it to ferment in common water for fome time ; and they are thus fure of a fharp and eager menftruum, excellently fitted for their pur- pofe. With this liquor they fill certain troughs, or tuns, and into thefe they put feveral bundles of the plates of iron: and to make the liquor be more eager, and act the better on them, they keep it in ftoves, where it has little air, and is kept warm with fmall charcoal fires. The workmen go into thefe vaults once or twice a day, to turn the plates, that they may be the better wrought upon by the acid, and to take out thofe which are moft wrought upon, and put in others in their room. The more acid the liquor is, and the warmer the ftove, the fooner the plates are cleanfed : it re- quires, however, at leaft two days to effect this, and oftener fomething more.

This was the method which the German labourers, em- ployed in the tin works in f ranee, always made ufe of, in order to prepare the iron to receive the covering of tin; but the authors finding that this was a very laborious em- ploy, and that the heat in the ftoves was fo great, that they could hardly bear it, propofed fome other methods in the place of this, which were attended with ijiuch Iefs trouble* 3 an«t