Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/261

 L A M L A M 249 an opening belovr by which the deposit of lamp-black is removed, and in the last of the series the best quality is obtained. The finest lamp-black is procured by the com bustion of oil in a special form of lamp, the deposit from this being finely divided and lustrous in hue. Lamp black so collected contains traces of oil, which may be removed by heating to redness in a covered crucible. The oil present, however, is not detrimental to its employment for printing ink and as a pigment for oil painting, which are its principal uses. Further, lamp-black is largely used for &quot; ebonizing &quot; cabinet-work, and in the waxing and lacquering of leather. It is the principal constituent of China ink, and it has numerous other applications. LAMPEDUSA, a small island in the Mediterranean, about 90 miles east of Mahadia in Tunis, and 100 miles west of Malta, in 35 28 N. lat. and 12 25 E. long. Situated on the edge of the submarine platform which extends along the eastern coast of Tunis, it must be con sidered as attaching itself physically to the African continent, but politically it belongs to the kingdom of Italy, and forms part of the commune of Licata in Sicily. In its 19 miles of coast it presents a great number of bays, of which the largest serves as a harbour, and is capable of admitting vessels of from 300 to 400 tons burden. The highest point of the island is about 330 feet above the sea. There are no springs, and the water obtained from the artificial wells is usually brackish. The soil is mostly calcareous ; beds of marl occur here and there on the surface. Vines, fig-trees, carob-trees, and sumach are successfully grown, and the wild olive flourishes luxuriantly. Firewood used to be obtained from the island for Malta. Eabbits swarm in all directions. The population in 1871 was 946. Lamped lisa is the Lopadussa of Strabo. In 1555 Andrew Doria anchored the vessels of Charles V. at Lampedusa, after an engage ment with the Turks. Alphonso of Aragon made the island a fief of one of his courtiers, who sold it in 1677 to the prince Ferdi nand Tommasi. But no permanent settlement seems to have been effected ; tin; place, according to popular belief, was too terribly haunted by apparitions. Sir Kenelm Digby relates (1628) that his in j n told him &quot; there dwelt no persons in Lampedusa, but there is a lamp perpetually burning. The Turks have great reverence to the place, and always leave oil or bread or something behind them through devotion, but they know not for whom, and it hath proved very fatal to carry away anything from thence as well to Christians as to Turks.&quot; Dumont, who personally visited the island, mentions a &amp;lt;: little chapel dedicated to the Virgin, in which there is an altar with a turban laid upon it, which is usually called Mohammed s tomb,&quot; and adds the popular belief that any one attempting to carry oil the gifts would be miraculously prevented escaping the island. The earl of Sandwich (1737) found Lampedusa with but a solitary inhabitant; and Captain Smyth states that about 1815 it was leased by an Englishman, Fernandez, who lived alone with Ids family. Ferdinand II. of Bourbon claimed it as Government property, and from 1843 attempts were made to establish a regular colony at the national expense. About 17,000 per annum was expanded on the project, but the result was far from satisfactory. The population, introduced from Sicily, remained stationary during twenty years. Catherine II. at one time proposed to purchase Lampedusa for the purpose of making it a Russian naval station. If it could be shown that Shakespeare derived the material of The Tempest from an Italian original, Lampedusa would have very strong claims to be considered the first prototype of the enchanted isle. It is theLipadosa of Orlando Furioso, the scene of the ship wreck of Roger of Sicily and of his conversion by the hermit. A Sicilian legend which forms the subject of Wieland s poem Klclia u/id Sinibald, od-:r die Becolkerung von Lampcdusc, tells how two ladies of Palermo were cast ashore on the island, and found there two hermits who fell so deeply in love with them as to renounce their ascetic life. In Sicilian the &quot; hermit of Lampedusa &quot; corre sponds to the English Vicar of Bray, lighting up the chapel near his cell with equal readiness for the Crescent or the Cross. See Crusius, Tareo-Grxcia, Ba&amp;lt;el. 1584: Digby, Journal of a Voyage into the Mediterranean, Cumlen Society, 18*58 : Dumont, yourelle Voyage a u Levant, The Hacuc, IfiiH. London. 1702; Captain Smyth, Memoir Descriptive of the Resources of Sicily, 18-&amp;gt;4; Joseph Hunter, New Illtutnations of Shakipeare, vol. i., 1845. LAMPREY, a fish belonging to the family Petromyzon- tidx (from 7^17309 and //.vto ; literally, stone-suckers), which with the hag-fishes or Myxinidse, forms a distinct subclass of fishes, the Cydostomata, rlistinguished by the low organization of their skeleton, which is cartilaginous, without vertebral segmentation, without ribs or real jaws, and without limbs. The lampreys are readily recognized by their long, eel-like, scaleless body, terminating anteriorly in the circular, suctorial mouth which is characteristic of the whole subclass. On each side, behind the head, there is a row of seven branchial openings, through which the water is conveyed to and from the gills. By means of their mouth they fasten themselves to stones, boats, &c., as well as to other fishes, their object being to obtain a resting place on the former, whilst they attach themselves to the latter for the purpose of deriving nourishment from them. The inner surface of their cup-shaped mouth is armed with pointed teeth, with which they perforate the integuments of the fish attacked, scraping off particles of the flesh and sucking the blood. Mackerel, cod, pollack, and flat-fishes are the kinds most frequently attacked by them in the sea ; of river-fish the migratory Salmonidx and the shad are sometimes found with the marks of the teeth of the lamprey, or with the fish actually attached to them. About ten species are known from the coasts and rivers of the temperate regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. In Great Britain and Europe generally, three species occur, of which the two larger, if not all three, are met with also in North America, viz., the large spotted Sea- larnprey (Petromyzon marimis) the River-lamprey or Lampern (P. fluviatUis) ; and the Small Lampern or &quot; Pride&quot; or &quot;Sand-Piper&quot; (P. branchialis). The first two are migratory, entering rivers in the spring to spawn ; of the river-lamprey, however, specimens are met with in fresh water all the year round. Lampreys, especially the sea- lamprey, are esteemed as food, and were formerly even more so than at present; but their flesh is not easy of digestion. Henry I. is said to have fallen a victim to this, his favourite dish. The species of greatest use is the river-lamprey, which as bait is preferred to all others in the cod and turbot fisheries of the North Sea. Yarrell states that formerly the Thames alone supplied from 1,000,000 to 1,200,000 lamperns annually, but their number lias so much fallen off that, for instance, in 1876 only 40,000 were sold to the cod-fishers. That yenr, however, was an unusually bad year : the lamperns, from their scarcity, fetched 8, 10s. a thousand, whilst in ordinary years 5 is considered a fair price. The season for catching lamperns closes in the Thames about the middle of March. The origin of the name lamprey is obscure ; its Latinized form Lampetra, which occurs in all ichthyological works of the Middle Ages, was unknown in classical times ; and its derivation from lambere petras is a specimen of etymological ingenuity. The development of lampreys has received much attention on the part of naturalists, since Aug. Miiller discovered that they undergo a metamorphosis, and that the minute worm-like lamperns previously known under the name of Ammoccetes, and abundant in the sand ancl mud of many streams, were nothing but the undeveloped young of the river-lampreys and small lamperns. See ICHTHY OLOGY. LAMPRIDIUS, ^Emus. See AUGUSTAN HISTORY, vol. iii. p. 74. LAMPSACUS, an ancient Greek colony in Mysia, Asia Minor, known as Pityusaor Pityussa before its colonization by Ionian Greeks from Phocrca and Miletus, was situated on the Hellespont, opposite Callipolis in Thrace. It possessed a good harbour ; and the neighbourhood was famous for its wine, so that, having fallen into the hands of the Persians during the Ionian revolt, it was assigned by their king to Themistocles to provide him with wine, as Percote did with meat, and Magnesia with bread. After the battle of Mycale (479 B.C.), Lampsacus joined the Athenians, but, having revolted from them soon afterwards, XIV. 32