Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/381

 LEU LEUCIPPUS 375 the spring. Dietetically, lettuce can hardly be considered as nutritive, but it is probably a .bland corrective of grosser food. When its milky juice becomes developed it is no doubt a sedative, and it may act as such on very sus- ceptible persons before the principle becomes Cos Lettuce. sufficiently abundant to make the lettuce un- pleasantly bitter. It is a little singular that a plant which contains little or no nutriment should be of such general consumption over the greater part of the world. Lactucarium or lettuce opium is the name given to the inspis- sated juice of the lettuce. The soporific effects of lettuce were known in early times, but Dr. J. R. Coxe of Philadelphia was the first to call the attention of the medical profession to the dried juice as a remedial agent. It has had a variable reputation, probably on account of the uncertain character of the lactucarium found in the market. If prepared, as is the practice in some parts of Europe, by express- ing the juice from the lettuce and evaporating it, it is of doubtful efficacy. The best -is col- lected by cutting the flower stalks and receiv- ing the milk as it exudes upon pieces of cotton cloth ; these when fully charged are placed in a vessel of water until the juice is dissolved out, and the solution then evaporated to the con- sistence of an extract. Lactucarium has a pe- culiar and a bitter taste. It has the anodyne properties of opium, but in a much less degree, and does not like that drug derange the diges- tion and produce constipation. On account of its uncertain quality as found in commerce, the dose varies from 5 to 20 grains. LEU, August Wilhelm, a German painter, born in Mtinster in 1819. He studied in Diisseldorf, and became distinguished as a landscape painter and as a professor in the Dtisseldorf academy. His works include admirable specimens of the mountain scenery of Norway, where he spent some time. He also collected rich materials in the picturesque regions of Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. He is alike success- ful in delineating the sombre winter and the bright summer aspects of northern scenery. LEUCADIA. See SANTA MAUKA. LEUCHTEOERG, a mediatized principality of Bavaria, in the district of the Upper Palati- nate; area, about 80 sq. m. ; pop. about 6,500. Capital, Pfreimdt (pop. 1,600). It took its name from a lofty castle still existing in the village of the same name, which was the cra- dle of landgraves whose male line became ex- tinct in 1646 with the death of Adam Maxi- milian. His brother-in-law, Duke Albert, suc- ceeded to the domain in 1647, but relinquish- ed it in favor of his brother the elector Maxi- milian of Bavaria, who ceded it to his second son Maximilian Philip. After various changes it was reunited with Bavaria in 1714. In 1817 King Maximilian Joseph ceded it for 5,000,000 francs, together with a portion of the principality of Eichstadt, to his son-in-law Eugene de Beauharnais, conferring upon him the titles of duke of Leuchtenberg and prince of Eichstadt, with the right of succession to the sovereignty in the event of the extinction of the male line of Bavarian kings. (See BEAUHARNAIS, EUGENE DE.) The successor of Eugene, his elder son CHAELES AUGUSTE EU- GENE NAPOLEON (1810-'35), dying two months after his marriage with Queen Maria of Portu- gal, Leuchtenberg reverted to his brother MAX EUGENE JOSEPH NAPOLEON (born in Munich, Oct. 2, 1817, died in St. Petersburg, Nov. 1, 1852). He married in 1839 the grand duchess Maria, daughter of the emperor Nicholas of Russia. He received the title of imperial high- ness, and his four sons that of Princes Roma- novski. The eldest of the latter, Duke NICHO- LAS MAXIMILIAN (born in St. Petersburg, Aug. 4, 1843), is the present head of the house of Leuchtenberg and the owner of the Russian domain of Tambov, which his family acquired in 1845 after the sale of their property in the Papal States for 20,000,000 francs to the Ro- man see. The mother of Duke Nicholas, the grand duchess Maria, contracted a second mar- riage with the Russian count Grigori Strogo- noff, Nov. 16, 1856. The duke is a major gen- eral on the staff of the emperor Alexander II., and was in attendance on him when attempts upon Alexander's life were made in St. Peters- burg in 1866, and in Paris in 1867. In 1873 he was aide-de-camp to Gen. Kaufmann in Khiva. LEUCIPPIS, a Greek philosopher, who prob- ably lived in the 5th century B. C. Elea, Abdera, and Miletus alike claimed to be his birthplace. He is said to have been the disci- ple of Pythagoras, Melissus, and Zeno, and the teacher of Democritus, who learned from him the first principles of the atomic theory, of which he is generally recognized as the origi- nator. No details concerning his life have been preserved, and none of his writings have come down to us, with the exception of a few fragments of a treatise " On Mind," preserved by Stobaaus.