Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/988

 LEG

fnuft be again cautioufly purfued ; but if thefe fail of fuccefs there is little hope of life. Hei/ler's Surgery, p. 253.

Legs of flies. Thefe furnifh us with feveral diftinctions for this HrgS clafs of infefls. All flies have indeed fix legs, but though"they are the fame in number, they differ fufficiently in many other refpefls. Some flies have very long legs, and others as remarkably fhort ones.

The gnats and tipulac feem mounted on flilts, and by that differ from other flies, whofe form of body is the fame ; but what is yet more obfervable, in regard to the legs of thefe infects is, that though they are ufually all fixed to the cor- telet, there are fome fpecies of flies which have the hinder pair fattened to the rings of their body. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. Tom. 4. p. 143.

The legs of flies are often not only large or fmall according to the fize of the creature, but every portion of them comprized between two of the articulations, differs often from the other in length and thicknefs. What they all have in com- mon, is, that the foot, or bottom part of them, on which the creature refts itfelf, is always provided with at leaft two claws, or hooks, which terminate in points fo extremely fine, that they are able to lay hold of what appear to us the moft fmooth and polifhed bodies.

The blue flefh fly, and feveral other fpecies, have alfo as it were two foles of feet ; thefe are each of them nearly of a boat figure, and refemble two fmall balls ; thefe touch at the part where they are connected to the foot, and leave between therri an angular fpace afterwards. Their external inferior furface is fomewhat convex, and covered with very fhort hairs very clofely arranged ; thefe hairs, like the points of the two claws, can find themfelves a paffage into the pores of what appear to us the moft polifhed furfaces, and are of great ufe to the creatures, in their placing themfelves on vertical planes of glafs.

Mr. Homberg has fometimes found flies which could not walk upon glafs in this polition ; and is of opinion, that thefe are fuch, as by age had loft the hairs from thefe balls on their feet. Thofe alfo whofe claws or hooks were become foft of blunt muft find themfelves in the fame fituation : yet there are feveral fpecies of flies which have not thefe balls ; fuch as the bee clafs, which yet are able to walk up our window ghuTes with great eafe. Reaumur, Hift. Inf. V. 4. p. 259. Leg, in the manege, the member that fupports a horfe's body, and performs the motion when he goes. Of the four legs, the two before have feveral parts, each of which has a pecu- liar name : fo that by the name of fore-/^, we commonly underftand that part of the fore-quarters that extends from the hough to the pattern joint, and call it the fhank ; the part that correfponds to this in the hind-quarters is called the inftep. But in common difcourfe we confound the fore, and the hind-quarters ; and without any diftinction fay the fcur legs of a horfe.

The French call a horfe droit fur les jamles, i. e. ftraight membered, or ftraight upon his legs, when the fore part of the paftern falls perpendicularly upon the cronet, and the fliank and the pattern are in a ftraight line. See Straight and ho^G-jointed.

The horfeman's legs are likewife of fingular concern in the ma- nege, for the action of thefe given feafonably, and with judgment, conftitutes one of the principal aids, which con ttfts in approaching more or lefs with the calf of the leg to the horfe's flank, and in bearing it more or lefs off as there is occafion. This aid a horfeman ought to give very nicely, in order to animate a horfe : and it is fo much the finer, that it is hidden and private : for in ftretching the ham he makes the horfe dread the (pur, and this fear has as much effect as the fpur itfelf. See Aid.

Legs of the martinets, in a fhip, is ufed for thofe fmall ropes, which are put through the bolt ropes of the main and fore fail, in the leetch of each. They are above a foot in length, and at either end are fpliced into themfelves : they have alfo a fmall eye, into which the martinets are fattened by two hitches, and the end is feized into the ftanding part of the martinets.

LEGATE-iVoff, in the Italian mufic. Notes are faid to be legate when this *■ — *, or this — ^ mark is found over or under the heads of them. This is what we call tying them,

■ and is done when they are properly but one note, but obliged to be feparated into two, becaufe part is found at the end of one bar, and the other part in the beginning of the following bar ; or becaufe the two halves of a note are in different parts of the meafure. See Syncope.

LEGATO, in the Italian mufic, fignifies confined or con- ftrained by certain rules for fome defign ; thus they fay, eanone legato, Sec. See Canon.

LEGATORY, or Legatary, the fame with legatee of a will. 27 Eliz. c. 16. Blount. It is derived from the Latin le- gatarius.

LEGER-Zme, in mufic, is ufed to fignify a line, added to the ftaff of five lines ; when the afcending and defcending notes run verv high or very low. We often meet with feveral of thefe lines both above and below the ftaff.

LEGGIARDO, or Legciardamente, in the Italian m»

L E M •

fie, is ufed to intimate, that the mufician is to fing or play in a gay s brifk, and lively manner. See Allegro.

LEGNA, Ae>v«, among the antients, a name given to the borders of the Toga and Pallium^ that were on each hand ; the extremities above and below being called Ora. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. See Ora.

LEGUME, among botanifts, z pericarp} um of an oblong com- preffed figure, formed of two valves, joined by a vifible future, both on the upper and under part, and having the feeds af- fixed to the upper limbs of the two valves in an alternate order. See Pericarpium.

LEIOBATUS, in ichthyology, a name given by Ariftotle and Athen^us to a fpecies of the ray fifh, called by many of the old authors bos marinus, and by the later authors lavi- raia-, or rata oxyrynchus. It is accurately di/linguifhed by Artedi, by the name of the variegated ray, with ten prickly tubercles on the middle of the back.

LEIQPODES, an epithet ufed by the old medical writers, to exprefs fuch perfons who had feet perfectly fmooth and even at the bottom, without the ufual hollow between the heel and the fore part of the foot.

LEITURGI, Asifogy*** among the Athenians, perfons of con- fiderable eftates j who, by their own tribe, or the whole people, were ordered to perform fome public duty, or fup- ply the commonwealth with necefiaries at their own ex- penses. Potter, Archreol. Grasc. 1. i. c. 15.

LEMING, in zoology, the name of a creature of the rat kind, called by authors nuts Norwegiats y the Norway rat, Olaus is the firft author who has mentioned and defctibed this creature, and from him Gefner, Scaliger, Johnfon, and the reft, took their defcriptions of it down to the time of Wormius, who took fingular pains in giving its true hif- tory from his own obfervations. Ray's Syn. *<uad. p. 227. It is a creature of the figure of the dormoufe, but has a fmaller tail ; it is ufually about five inches long, and its hair is very fine, and variegated with feveral colours ; the lower part of the head is black j the crown yellow, and the neck and fhoulders black again. The body is of a reddifh tawney colour, but variegated with a great number of black fpots of different figures, but ufually fmall. The tail is fcarce half an inch long, and very flender, and covered with a yellowifh black hair.

It varies extremely in the order and difpofition of its fpots ; its nofe is fharp, and its mouth fui rounded by a great num- ber of ftiff hairs; among thefe there are twelve, which are much longer than the reft, and are fet at diftances from oiie another j its mouth is fmall, and the upper lip fplit, and there are (ecu in this flit two very long teeth which are bent, and very fharp ; the eyes are fmall and black, the ears are obtufe and lie on the head, not ftanding ere£t. The legs are fhort, and the fore ones much fhorter than the hinder pair ; the creature is very fwift in running, the toes of each foot are four in number.

LEMMA, in pharmacy, a term ufed to exprefs the hufk or fhell of certain fruits, as the almond, and the like j and ia general, whatever is taken off in decortication. Thus the hufks of oats, barley, C3V. are the lemmata of thofe feeds.

Lemma is alfo a name given by fome of the lower clafs of writers, in natural hiftory, to an imaginary animal, which they defcribe, as living in the woods of Afia, and having the face of a woman and the body of a beaft of prey.

Lemma, in natural hiftory, is alfo the name of a fmall water plant well known to the antients, and called by Theo- phraftus by this diftindt name ; but very improperly con- founded by late writers among the duck weed kinds, and called by Bauhine, Ray, Parkinfon, and others, hnikula palujirh quadrifolia, the four leaved duck weed ; and by Petiver, in his gazophyladum naturae & artis, Jlratiotes palu- jirisfoliis lujida:> or the water foldier, with leaves like thofe of wood forrel. Memoirs de l'Acad. Sc. Par. 1740. Mr. Barnard Juffieu has been at the pains of thoroughly en- quiring into the nature and fructification of this plant, and to him alone we owe its true hiftory. Its flowers having never been feen or regarded, till that gentleman gave an account of them in the memoirs of the academy of fciences of Paris ; and many of the more eminent botanifts, from its different appearance when in the water and when out of it, having miftaken it for two different plants. It indeed differs extremely from itfelf in three different fituations in which it is found. It is fometimes found in the middle of large ponds of frefh. water, and is then very large, fair, and full ; fometimes it is found in fhallow water, and is then confiderably poorer, and fometimes it is found on dry land, in which cafe it makes an extremely different figure ; arid is fo ftarved, and poor, as fcarce to be known for the fame herb.

The middle ftate of thefe, that is when it grows in fhallow water, feems its moft natural appearance,. and is the only condition in which it is found to produce its flowers and feeds. It is a fpreading plant, its branches extend a great way far and wide ; thefe fend from their under part roots at certain diftances, and from their upper four leaves fuftained by a long and flender ftalk, and ufualiy there are feveral of thefe ftalks from the fame part of the plant, from 2. the