Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/562

 556 LOADSTONE LOAN ventral fins far back, placed under the single small dorsal ; gill openings small, and branchi- ostegous rays three. It is common in shallow clear streams, where it delights to lurk under stones, and is very restless and active when disturbed. Like other species with barbules, it is a ground fish, feeding on worms and aquatic insects ; a common name for it is mud creeper ; it is very prolific, spawning in Marc,h or April, and its flesh is considered a great delicacy. The air bladder is contained in a bony cavity attached to the anterior vertebrae, and is supposed by Weber to be connected with the organ of hearing ; there is also said by Yarrell to be a deficiency in the upper wall of the skull between the parietal bones. The spined loach (0. tania, Linn.; genus lotia, Gray) is rather smaller and more slender, with- out barbules, but with a forked and movable spine behind each nostril on the suborbital bone ; this is a rarer fish in Europe, but sev- eral allied species are found in the Ganges. The color in both these species is yellowish white above, clouded and spotted with brown, but unspotted beneath. The lake loach of Eu- rope (C.fossilis, Linn.) is about the same size. All the species of loach are peculiarly restless during stormy weather, especially when accom- panied by thunder and considerable electrical changes in the air; they have been regarded as a kind of living barometers, which, from their being ground fish with a low degree of respi- ration and consequent great muscular irrita- bility, may be explained on philosophical prin- ciples ; the peculiarity of the air bladder may enable them to perceive thunder either by the sense of hearing or feeling. According to some writers the lake loach, which is very tenacious of life, comes to the surface in order to swallow air, from which it extracts the oxygen, giving out carbonic acid by the vent, performing a kind of supplementary intestinal respiration. The four-eyed loach or peeper, ranked by Linnaeus in the genus cobitis, but now placed in the genus anableps (Artedi), has been described under the latter title. LOADSTONE, magnetic oxide of iron, or the native magnet. See IRON OEES, vol. ix., p. 412. LOAN, in law, the delivery of an article to a borrower, who is to use it without paying there- for. The rights and obligations of the lender and of the borrower may be considered sepa- rately. I. Rights of the Borrower. He has a right to receive and hold the thing borrowed, but only as the property of the lender. For many purposes his possession is, in the eye of the law, the possession of the owner, the bor- rower being for this purpose the agent of the owner. Still the possession of the borrower would confer upon him some of the rights of an owner as against every one but the owner. Thus he might maintain in his own name an action against a wrong doer. The bor- rower has a right to use the article borrowed, but he can no more lend it than he can give or sell it; and if he should do either of these, the owner may take it as his own property from the hands of the person to whom the borrower has delivered it. Neither can the borrower pawn the thing borrowed, nor, it is believed, can he hold it as a security for a debt due to him from the lender ; nor can he use it except for purposes for which he borrowed it, or for those which naturally belong to it, or, as it is expressed in the code of Louisiana, for its "natural destination." It is important to determine what degree of care a borrower must take of the article borrowed ; or, in other words, for what loss of or injury to it he is responsible. A loan is a bailment, but it is one for the sole and exclusive benefit of the bor- rower; therefore it is one which binds the borrower to the utmost care of the thing, and to a responsibility for even slight negligence. How this care may be precisely defined, it would not be easy to say. The best definition, or that most generally accepted, is, such care as any person not fatuous would take of the thing if it were his own property under 'like circumstances. But he is not bound to take the greatest possible care, and therefore is not liable if the borrowed property were lost by robbery or violence, or theft, or any cause not reasonably to be anticipated, provided no imprudence or negligence of his own enters as a cause into the loss. If the thing is lost, and the borrower pays for it to the satisfac- tion of the lender, and the thing is afterward found, we should say that the lender may elect to keep the money (always supposing no fraud) or to return it and demand the thing lent. But it has been thought that this elec- tion lay with the borrower. As the borrow- er takes the thing to use, and the lender con- sents to this, the borrower is not liable for such injury as naturally results from the use of it; or, to use a common phrase, from the natural wear and tear of use. But, on the other hand, he is bound to pay all the ex- penses or charges which naturally result from or accompany the use. So he is bound to pay, in the first place, all extraordinary charges which become unexpectedly necessary to the preservation of the thing. But of these ex- penses he may demand repayment from the lender, and he has a lien on the thing borrowed as his security for them. Thus, if A borrows a horse of B, A must see that he is properly fed, shod, and groomed, and all this at his own ex- pense. So if the horse becomes suddenly ill, A must provide all proper medical advice and med- icines, and for these also he must pay ; but he may demand them of B, whether the horse lives or dies ; ancl if he lives, A may keep the horse until B repays him these expenses, in the same way he would if it were pledged to him for the sum. II. Rights of the Lender. If a borrower keeps the thing borrowed after it is his duty to return it, his relation to the owner is changed at once ; and it is therefore necessary to deter- mine when he is bound to return it. Upon the important right of redemanding the thing lent