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* LAWTON. 36 LAY. tiago. In December, 1898, he was assigned to the Philippines as second in command to General Otis, and was actively engaged through the year 1899 until he fell in battle at San Mateo. Luzon, on Dcecember 19th. LAWTON, William Cranston (1853—). An American author and educator, born at New Bedford, Mass. A graduate of Harvard, he taught the classics in his native town, then stud- ied abroad (1880-83), taught in Boston, and finally took a chair of the classics in Adelphi College, Brooklyn. N. Y. Among his works are: Three Dreans if Eyruoudes (1889); Art of Hu- manity in Homer (1896); New England Poets (1898): Successors of Homer (1898); and a volume of poems, Folia Dispersa (1895). LAWYER. A generic term applicable to all persons who have made a special study of the law and who are entitled to the privilege of advising and representing clients. It includes advocate (q.v.), attorney (q.v.), counselor (q.v.), barrister (q.v.), proctor (q.v.), solicitor (q.v.), and even the judicial officers who collectively make up the bench (q.v.) and bar (q.v.). In primitive communities the lawyer is also a priest. There is but one set of rules of human conduct, and these are at once religious tenets and civil codes. As the State develops, mu- nicipal law becomes separated from religion, the usual division of labor takes place, and law- yers who are only laymen form a class distinct and apart from those who are avowedly priests. In some stages of political development, and in some countries to-day. the canonist plays almost as large a part in legal affairs as the secular legist or civilian. At Rome, the era of civil lawyers begins about three hundred years before Christ with Coruneanius. the first plebeian pontifix maximus. From his time prudentes, persons learned in the law of the State, were a recognized class, acting as professional counsel and public expositors of legal principles. In some respects their work and influcnce differed widely from those of the English lawyer. In the first place, they were called on by the magistrates for opinions in litigated cases. Oftentimes these magistrates, such as praetors and eurulc ædiles, had no legal learning, and hence were forced to seek advice from others. But it was also customary for those who had enjoyed a legal training and ex- perience to call in the assistance of other prudenites. In this way it happencd that the Roman lawyer exercised an influence over judicial decisions which has never belonged to the Eng- lish bar. See Civil Law : .Jurisconsult. The first official recognition of lawyers as a professional class in England appears in the reign of Edward I., when the Statute of West- minster 1 declares the penalty for certain misconduct by 'serjeant-counters.' Its evolu- tion had undoubtedly been slow, but the statute just referred to is evidence that 'serjeant-advo- cates' had gained a foothold in English courts prior to 1275. Apparently the King was the first to employ professional counsel, for their earliest title is serjeants or servants of the King. Having asserted this privilege for himself, he conceded it to others. For a time private litigants are forced to obtain a special license from the King as a condition of employing coun- sel to appear for them in court. Later the King licenses the counsel, and litigants are free to employ any of such favored students of the law. The bar now becomes an integral part of the judicial system, having rights, duties, and functions as distinct and almost as important as those of the bench. From this time on, the opinion of the legal profession "is among the most powerful of the forces that shape the law" of England. See Legal Education. According to the census of 1900, the profes- sional lawyers of the United States numbered 113,450, thus constituting one in every three hundred and fifty of our male population. Two- thirds of our Presidents have been lawyers. A like proportion has obtained among our United States Senators, while more than half of our Representatives in Congress, as well as of our State legislators, have been members of the legal profession. Consult: Maine, Ancient Law (New York, 1878) ; Muirhead, Roman Law (Edinburgh, 1886) : Pollock and Maitland. History of Egn- lish Law (Cambridge, 1895). LAWYER. A local name in the middle parts of the United States for (1) the bowtin (q.v.), and (2) the gray snapper (Neomenis). The burbot is sometimes called 'lake lawyer.' LAXATIVE (from Lat. laxativus, loosening, from laxare, to loosen, from laxus, loose). A medicine which simply unloads the bowels, and is not able to cause active purgation, even if given in large doses. Purgatives are stronger, purging actively, while not capable of acting as poisons, even when used in large amount. There are two qualities by virtue of which food is laxative. The principal one is bulk. All ali- ment which contains a large amount of innu- tritions material affords a large residiuim. It therefore distends the intestines, and stimulates the onward propulsion of the intestinal contents. Articles of diet which are very largely assimila- ble and afford but little residuum are constipat- ing. Flesh-eating carnivora are habitually constipated, while herbivora are the opposite. While 'cracked wheat' is a laxative, fine wheat flour, from which the wheat-husk, constituting bran, has been removed, favors costiveness. Un- bolted flour, Indian meal, and oatmeal are laxative. Molasses, brown sugar, ripe fruits, especially those of the citrus family, as well as prunes, figs, tamarinds, etc., are among the substances exerting a decided laxativeness. Cassia fistula, manna, magnesia, and sulphur are the drugs usually included under the sub- division laxatives of the group cathartics. See Cathartic: Purgative. LAXENBURG, läx’en-bōōrg. A village of Lower Austria, nine miles south of Vienna. Pop- ulation, in 1890, 1126. It is noted for its hand- some Imperial park and gardens, in which are the old castle (founded in 1377). the new castle (begun in 1600), and the Franzensburg in a mediaeval style of architecture. built on an islet in the lake, between 1799 and 1836, and contain- ing fine art collections. LAY, Benjamin (1677-1759). A British- American philanthropist, and one of the earliest opponents of slavery, born of Quaker parentage at Colchester, England. At the age of eighteen he became a sailor, but subsequently, after his marriage in 1710, lived for a time at Colchester. A few years later he settled as a merchant in the island of Barbados, where he soon became