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LAVAL UNIVERSITY  of vicar-apostolic of New France and bishop of Petræa in 1658. He was consecrated at Paris, and arrived at Quebec in 1659. The seminary of Quebec was founded by him in 1659. Laval consecrated the church of Notre Dame, Montreal, in 1666, and was made titular bishop of Quebec in 1674, thus becoming the first Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec. Laval University in Quebec was named after him. See his Life by Louis Bertrand de la Tour (Cologne, 1751) and by an anonymous author (Quebec, 1845).  Laval University, the first institution for higher education in Lower Canada, was founded in 1852. The Seminary of Quebec, the pioneer institute, secured a charter from Queen Victoria which conferred the privileges of a university. Pius IX in 1853 gave the Quebec archbishops the right to confer theological degrees on divinity graduates from the new university. They are the visitors, a proof of the broadmindedness of the British government in permitting the Roman Catholic French of Canada to organize a university controlled only by archbishops of their own faith and blood. The visitor appoints the professors of theology nominated by the council of the university, and may veto all nominations and regulations. The rector, the superior of Quebec Seminary, is the highest officer. The rector and council administer affairs. The faculties are those of theology, law, medicine and the arts, each having its own council. It was not until 1866 that the theological faculty was organized. That of medicine opened in 1853, six professors of the Quebec School of Medicine becoming professors in the university. The faculty of law was the one for which most need existed, for there was no school of law in Quebec. It opened in 1854, but for several years teaching was limited to civil and Roman law. The faculty of arts, though outlined in 1855, was not opened for years. Laval has power to confer degrees in law, medicine and the arts, but not in theology, and did not receive all the rights of a canonical university until 1876. In 1870 the faculty of medicine was affiliated to the Royal College of Surgeons, London, England. In 1897-8 a bacteriological laboratory was installed, in 1899 one for experimental chemistry. The cabinet of physics contains thousands of instruments. The university has eight large and valuable museums. The library contains 150,000 volumes. The faculty consists of 50 professors, and the students number 444. Theology claims over 120, law 84, medicine and arts 140. There is a branch at Montreal, the statistics of which are not included here.  Lav′ender, a family of plants having the stamens and style surrounded by a two-lipped corolla, the upper lip two-lobed and the lower three-lipped. The common lavender grows wild on the mountains and hills of southern Europe, and is generally cultivated in gardens further north. It has a delightfully fragrant odor, and contains a great quantity of oil. The spikes and flowers are used in medicine as a tonic and nerve stimulant. The flowers are much used to scent wardrobes and in perfumery, and are blue-gray in color. The oil of the broad-leaved lavender is used by artists on porcelain and in making varnishes. It is made by distilling the flower with water; spirits of lavender by distilling them with spirits; and lavender water, the toilet preparation, by dissolving oil of lavender with other oils in spirits. Lavender gets its name from Latin lavare, to wash, because it was used in bathing.  Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, the founder or modern chemistry, was born at Paris, Aug. 26, 1743. He devoted himself particularly to the study of chemistry, and was made an academician. To obtain means to carry on his researches, he became farmer-general (tax-gatherer) in 1769. While a director of the government powder-mills, in 1776, he discovered a way of improving the quality of the powder, and in 1791 was made a commissioner of the treasury. His most important contribution to science was the explanation of combustion and of the part that oxygen plays in the composition of substances. The popular hatred of farmers of taxes during the reign of terror was not tempered by his services to science and learning, and he died by the guillotine on May 8, 1794. His principal work is Traitè Elementaire de Chimie.  Law is a term of somewhat ambiguous meaning. One may speak of a law of nature, of a moral law or of the law of a state. In each of these cases, however, it is clear that the word relates to the prescription of a certain uniform kind of conduct. The notion of a law of nature may either imply a reference to a conscious being as lawgiver, or refer merely to the fact that a certain order has been observed in the occurrence of physical events. A moral law denotes a truth which is used to control human conduct. But law means especially the injunction of a certain kind of conduct upon the citizens of a state. In this sense law seems to have originated from the felt necessity of enforcing uniform customs upon the people of a state. Laws are not generally oppressive, because they usually represent customs rather than innovations. But so far as a government becomes distinguished from the people, it becomes possible for laws to represent innovations as well as customs.

Law is generally subdivided into public law and private law. Public law includes criminal law and constitutional law. Private law covers personal and family 