Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/725

 LUNAR CAUSTIC LUNDY 719 LUNAR CAUSTIC, or Nitrate of Silver. See Ni- TEATES. LUNAR CYCLE, or Metpnic Cycle, a period of 19 solar years, containing 235 lunar months and 6,940 days. This astronomical period was adopted by the Greeks in 432 B. 0., at the motion of Meton and Euctemon, but it is a matter of doubt whether they were its inven- tors. It was the first exact calendar in general use, and in using the moon for measuring months nothing could be better. The calen- dar was, according to Ideler, as follows: Hecatombaeon Metageitnion Boedromion Pyanepsion Maemacterion Poseideon Poseideon II. (in leap years) Gamelion Anthesterion Elaphebolion Munychion Thargelion Sciorphorion Number of days in a year. . YEAE OF THE CYCLE. 29 iii) 29 29 354 384 866 884 29 30 29 354 29 J355 J3S4 30 29 29 In this manner the differences from the exact periods of the celestial bodies are everywhere reduced to a minimum, and at the end of the cycle there is a difference of only -j-9 hours 35 minutes from 19 solar years, and of 7 hours 29 minutes from 235 lunar months. Calippus attempted to overcome these inaccuracies by taking four Metonic cycles, and omitting one day in the fourth, which rendered his calendar similar to the subsequent Julian calendar. With this correction the lunar cycle is the best cal- endar except the Gregorian, over which it has the advantage that each month agrees with the cycle of phases within less than a day. The lunar cycle was in use in Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor, and other countries. The Jews also adopted it, but they changed the leap years to the 3d, 6th, 8th, llth, 14th, 17th, and 19th years of the cycle, and introduced a Veadar after Adar, or the sixth month. See Madler, Ge- schichte der HimmelsTcunde (Brunswick, 1873). LUND, a town of Sweden, in the laen of Malmo, on an extensive plain about 6 m. from the Sound, and 21 in. E. of Copenhagen ; pop. in 1869, 10,526. There are several tanneries and woollen manufactories in the town. The cathedral is a large irregular edifice, said to have been founded in the llth century and en- larged at different periods. In size it is the third church in Sweden. The chief object of interest at Lund is the university, opened in 1668, the only one in Sweden besides that at Upsal. It has a library of 100,000 volumes, and several museums and collections of natural history and mineralogy. Pufendorf was pro- fessor of the law of nature and of nations in this university in 1670. Lund fs a place of great antiquity, and in pagan times is said to have had 80,000 inhabitants. In the middle ages it was the seat of an archbishop, who was considered the primate of the north, but the archbishopric was abolished under Gustavus I. A great battle was fought here, between the 513 VOL. x. 46 Danes and Swedes in December, 1676, in which 10,000 men were killed. A treaty concluded here terminated the war in 1679. LUNDY, Benjamin, an American abolitionist, born at Handwich, N". J., Jan. 4, 1789, died at Lowell, 111., Aug. 22, 1839. His parents were members of the society of Friends. When about 19 years of age he removed to Wheeling, Va., where his attention was first directed to the subject of slavery. He after- ward resided at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, and then settled in St. Clairsville, Va., where in 1815 he originated an anti-slavery association called the "'Union Humane Society," and wrote an appeal on the subject of slavery. He then visited St. Louis, where he remained nearly two years engaged in a newspaper exposition of the slavery question. Returning to Mt. Pleasant, he commenced in January, 1821, the publication of the " Genius of Universal Eman- cipation," the office of which was soon re- moved to Jonesboro, Tenn., and thence to Baltimore in 1824. In 1825 he visited Hayti to make arrangements for the settlement of emancipated slaves. In 1828 he visited the eastern states, where he formed the acquain- tance of William Lloyd Garrison, and after- ward became associated with him in editing his journal. Shortly after he was assaulted for an alleged libel, and indirectly censured by the court, and in 1829 removed to Washing- ton. In 1830-'31 he travelled in Canada and Texas to obtain subscribers to his paper, and to continue his observations on the condition of the blacks. He made a second trip to Texas in 1833, returned the following year, and im- mediately afterward undertook another jour- ney to Texas and Mexico. He was the first to establish anti-slavery periodicals and deliver anti-slavery lectures, and probably the first to induce the formation of societies for the en- couragement of the produce of free labor. " The Life, Travels, and Opinions of Benjamin