Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/135

* LEMMING. 110 LE MOINE. American rodents known as 'lemmings' are Lem- mus trimucroitiittis and Dicrostoiiyx Richardsoni. I'or these Anieriuuii miee. consult Preble, "A Bio- logical Investigation of the Hudson Bay Region," Nortli Amcricmi Fnnnd, No. 22 (Washington, 1902), :ind other jnililications in the same series. LEM'NIAN EARTH. A soft, yellowish- gray, hydrous aluminum silicate that is found in amorphous masses on the island of Lenmos, now Stalimeno. It was valued as a medicine among the ancients, who stamped it with the head of Diana, the tutelary goddess of Lemnos; whence it acquired the name of terra sigiUiitit (sealed earth), and was used as an antidote for poison and the plague. It corresponds to the mineral cimolite. LEMNIS'CATE (Xeo-Lat. lemniscata, from Lat. lemniticdliis, ribboned, from lemniscus, from Gk. rifj.vi<7Kot, ICmniskos, ribbon, from ijms, linos, w ool ). A curve defined as the locus of a point which moves so that the product of its dis- tances from tw'o ti-ed points is constant and equal to the square of half the distance between the fixed points. It may also lie defined as the locus of the intersection of the normals from the origin with the tangents to an equilateral hyper- LEMNISCATE. bola. If the equation of the hyperbola is x- — y' = a", the equation of the leniniscate is (,r- + 2/")" = (''( JT — ;/-). The lemniscate is a special case of the Cassinian ovals (q.v. ), and its shape resembles that of the figure 8. Its polar equation isp' = o'(cos-fl — sin" 9) = o-eos 26. The curve is .symmetric with respect to both coordinate a.xes. tangent to the asymptotes of the hyperlmla of the origin, and lies be- tween the lines x = — a, x = a. and is of the fourth order and of the eighth class. (See Curve.) The lemniscate was invented by Jakob Bernoulli {Acta Eruditorum, 1694). Fagnano (1750) discovered its principal properties, but the analytic theory is due chielly to Euler. The curves obtained Ijy tracing the loci of the intersection of the normals from the origin with the tangents of curves, other than hyperbolas, are also sometimes called leniniscates ; e.g. the curve resulting in case the ellipse is taken as the base is called an elliiitic lemniscate. For an ex- tensive bibliography of the lemniscate. consult Brocard. yotrs de hihliofjrnphie dcs courhcs gco- m(^triiiiirs (Bar-le-Duc, 1897). LEMNIUS, leni'ni-(H3s, Simon (c.1.510-50). A German humanist, whose real name was Simon Lemm Margadant ; from this family name he was sometimes called Emporicus or Mercatorius. He was born at Miinsterthal : prolialily studied at Munich and Ingolstadt and under JMelanchtlion at Wittenberg. His earliest work, published at Wittenberg in 1538, Epigrammnfon Lihri Duo, united invective against many of Luther's followers with eulogy of Luther's enemy, the Archbisliop and Elector All)recht. lycmnius had to leave Wittenberg; but in 15.'58 he puljlislicd, probablj- at Halle, a third book of Epigraiiiiiuila. This was answered by Camerarius's Elegicc, i/Sotto- piKat, and that in turn by an Apologia from Lem- nius (1542). But liis bitterest attack was in lh» poem Lata PiswiJuuenalis Uonachopornomiichia, which is of uncertain date. In 1540 he was ap- pointed teacher in the new Xikolaischule at Chur, where he died in 1550. His writings, besides those already mentioned, are: liuvolicorum .Eclogae QuiiHjue and Amorum Libri Quutuor (1542); Hoiiieri Odyssea Heroico Versu Facta, Accedit liul rachotnyomachia (1549) ; and another version ill Latin of Dionysius's Pcriegesis (154.3) and a Rliwtc'is, printed first in 1874. Consult: Lessing, Kritischc liriefe (Berlin, 175.3) ; Plattner, in his edition of the Rhwte'is (1874) ; and Strobel, A'ewe licHriige ::ur Litteratur (Nuremberg, 1792). LEM'NOS (Gk. Xfi^ms). One of the four Thracian islands in the northern part of the Grecian Archipelago, about forty miles west of the entrance to the Dardanelles. It is irregular in shape, and is nearl3- divided by two deep bays — Port Paradise on the north and Port Saint An- thony on the south. Area, 150 square miles. Population, about 30,000. It is hilly, rather bare of wood, but produces grain, tobacco, and fruits. The inhabitants are peaceable and prosperous. The island has been for some time used as a place of e.xile for political offenders in Turkey. The prin- cipal product of Lemnos was formerly the Lem n ian earth (q.v.), used in ancient and mediseval times as a cure for wounds and serpent-bites, and until recently highly valued by both Turks and Greeks, but the ceremonies with which the earth was ex- tracted have been discontinued, and even the knowledge of the earth is likely to be forgotten. The chief town, Kastro ( on the site of the ancient jMyrina). has a population of 3000. It furnishes excellent sailors. Owing to its situation, Lemnos long remained but little influenced by the Greeks. Judging from an inscription found on the isl- and, the pre-Hellenic population were akin to the Etruscans. It was conquered for Athens by Jliltiades, the tyrant of the Chersonese, oc- cupied by the Persians, and again seized by the Athenians along with Imbros, and settled by Athenian colonists. The island was of great importance to Athens, as its possession secureil control of the trade from the Black Sea, and it was recognized as Athenian territory Ijy the Peace of Antalcidas. During the Hellen- istic and Roman periods the island was not prom- inent, and it continued under the rule of the em- perors of Constantinople until the capture of that city by the Latin crusaders, when it passed under the control of the Genoese [irinces of Mitylene. Later it fell into the hands of the Venetians, and in 1478 was surrendered to the Turks. The an- cient writers speak of the island as volcanic and ilount Jloschylos as active, and the place was a centre of the worship of Hephaestus. At present there seem to be no evidences of volcanic action, and it is probable that the volcano has sunk in the sea, and is now represented by a shoal olT tlic eastern coast. Consult: Conze. Rriscit auf den fnsein des thrakischen .Ifcfrcs (Hanover. ISfiO) ; Tozer, Islands of the .Egean (Oxford, 1890) : de Lauiiay, Chc~ les (Irecs de Turquie (Paris. 1897). LE MOINE, le niwan. The name of several French-Canadian pioneers. See Le Motne.