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ENCYCLOPÆDIA

AMERICANA.

A

POPULAR DICTIONARY

OF

ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE, HISTORY, POLITICS AND
BIOGRAPHY,

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SOLD IN PHILADELPHIA BY E. L. CAREY AND A. HART-IN NEW YORK
BY G. & C. & H. CARVILL-IN BOSTON BY

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EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the tenth day of August, in the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1829, Carey, Lea & Carey, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

"Encyclopædia Americana. A Popular Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, History, Politics and Biography, brought down to the present Time; including a copious Collection of Original Articles in American Biography; on the Basis of the seventh Edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon. Edited by Francis Lieber, assisted by E. Wigglesworth."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned;" and also to the act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled, An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints."

D. CALDWELL,

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

ENCYCLOPÆDIA AMERICANA.

LINNEUS. (See Linné.)

LINNÉ, Charles, but more generally designated by his Latinized name, Linnæus, the most celebrated naturalist of his age, was a native of Sweden. He was the son of a clergyman, and was born May 13, old style, 1707, at Roshult, in the province of Smaland. His father was fond of gardening, and his little domain was stocked with plants not commonly cultivated--a circumstance to which the prevailing taste of the son may be fairly attributed. He was sent to the grammar-school, and afterwards to the gymnasium of Wexio, to be educated for the ministry; but, as he disliked the studies of the school, and preferred to collect plants and catch butterflies, he remained behind his fellow-pupils in Latin and Greek, and the teachers declared to his father that he was only fit for a mechanic. The father sent him to a shoemaker; but the physician Rothmann, having discovered talents in the boy, induced his parents to let him study. As botany afforded him no prospect of a support, Linné was obliged to study medicine. In 1727, he entered at the university of Lund in Scania, whence he removed, the following year, to Upsal. During his early residence there, the narrowness of his father's circumstances exposed him to great difficulties, from which he was relieved by the patronage of Celsius, the theological professor, an eminent naturalist, who had become acquainted with him in the botanical garden at Upsal, and through whose recommendation he obtained some private pupils. He also formed a friendship with Artedi, a medical student like himself, devoted to the cultivation of natural history. He now, in his 24th year, conceived the idea of a new

arrangement of plants, or the sexual sys-
tem of botany, relative to which he wrote
a memoir, which was shown to Rudbeck,
the botanical professor, who was so struck
with its ingenuity, that he received the
author into his house, as tutor to his sons,
and made him his assistant in the office of
delivering lectures. Forty years before,
Rudbeck had made a journey to Lapland,
which excited the curiosity of the learned.
A new journey was now concluded upon,
and, in 1732, Linné was sent, by the acad-
emy of sciences at Upsal, to make a tour
through Lapland, from which he returned
towards the close of the year. Fifty
Swedish dollars were thought sufficient
by Linné to defray his expenses, and with
this small sum he made a journey of more
than 3500 miles, unaccompanied. In
1733, he visited the mining district around
Fahlun, and gave lectures on mineralogy,
having formed a system of that science,
afterwards published in his Systema Natu-
ra. While he was thus adding to his repu-
tation at Upsal, he became involved in a
violent quarrel with the medical professor,
Nicholas Rosen, who seems to have acted
with a great deal of illiberality, and found
means to prevent Linné from continuing
his private lectures. He therefore engaged
in a scientific tour through the province
of Dalecarlia, and remained for some
time at Fahlun, lecturing and practis-
ing medicine with considerable
cess. He again went to Lapland on a
mineralogical tour, with seven young men ;
and, in 1735, published a complete Flora
of this country-a classical work. In the
same year, he went to the university of
Harderwyck, in Holland, and took the de-
gree of M. D. He then visited Leyden,
where the first sketch of his Systema Natu-

suc

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re was printed in the form of tables, filling 12 folio pages. He became acquainted with John Frederic Gronovius, Boerhaave, and Jolin Burman of Amsterdam; and he then published a work, entitled Fundamenta Botanica, exhibiting the basis of his botanical system. Mr. Clifford, a rich merchant of Amsterdam, made him superintendent of his garden at Hartecamp, near Haerlem, rich in curious exotics, of which Linné drew up a systematic catalogue. In 1736, he made a visit to England. He returned to Holland with many new plants for Mr. Clifford's garden, his description of which, entitled Hortus Cliffortianus, with 37 plates, was now published in a most splendid form. He also published the first edition of his Genera Plantarum. In 1738, he made an excursion to Paris, and, towards the end of that year, returned to his native country, and settled as a physician at Stockholm. At first, he experienced neglect; but, through the influence of count Tessin, he was appointed physician to the navy, and had a salary for giving public lectures on botany in the summer, and on mineralogy in the winter. The establishment of the royal academy of Stockholm, of which he was one of the first members, contributed to the advancement of his reputation, by the opportunities which it afforded for the display of his abilities. In 1741, he succeeded Roberg in the professorship of medicine at Upsal, to which was added the superintendence of the botanic garden, to the new arrangement and augmentation of which he devoted much of his time and attention. In 1745, appeared his Flora Suecica, and the next year his catalogue of Swedish animals, entitled Fauna Suecica. He was elected to the post of secretary of the academy of sciences at Upsal. În 1746, an honorary medal of him was struck at the expense of some noblemen; and, in 1747, he was nominated royal archiater. Through his influence, many young naturalists were sent to explore various countries; and to his zeal in the cause of science we owe the discoveries in natural history made by Kalm, Osbeck, Hasselquist and Loefling. He was employed by the queen of Sweden to describe her museum at Drottningholm, when he made a new scientific arrangement of the shells contained in it. About 1751, he published his Philosophia Botanica, and, in 1753, his Species Plantarum, containing a description of every known plant, arranged according to the sexual system. This work of Linné, which Haller terms his Maximum Opus et Æternum,

appeared originally in two volumes, 8vo. ; but the edition published by Willdenow at Berlin, 1799-1810, is extended to ten volumes. In 1753, this great naturalist was created a knight of the polar star-an honor never before bestowed on a literary man. In 1761, he was elevated to the rank of nobility. Literary honors were also conferred on him by scientific societies in foreign countries. In 1768, he completed the plan of his Systema Natura, which, through successive editions, had been enlarged to three octavo volumes. Linné acquired a moderate degree of opulence, sufficient to enable him to purchase an estate and mansion at Hammarby, near Upsal, where he chiefly resided during the last 15 years of his life. There he had a museum of natural history, on which he gave lectures, and to which he was constantly making additions, from the contributions of travellers and men of science in various parts of the world. His health, during a great part of his life, enabled him to pursue his researches with vigor and activity; but in May, 1774, he had an apoplectic attack, which obliged him to relinquish the most laborious part of his professorial duties, and close his literary labors. A second attack occurred in 1776, and he afterwards experienced a third; but his death did not take place till January 11, 1778. Besides his works on natural history, he published a classified Materia Medica, and a systematic treatise on nosology, entitled Genera Morborum. Few men in the history of science have shown such boldness, zeal, activity and sagacity as Linné: natural science is under unspeakable obligations to him, though the different systems established by him may be superseded by more perfect ones. Charles XIV, king of Sweden, in 1819, ordered a monument to be erected to him in his native place. By his wife, the daughter of a physician at Fahlun, he had a son and four daughters. The former, Charles von Linné, jun. was joint-professor of botany, and afterwards professor of medicine at Upsal. He was well acquainted with science, but distinguished himself by no discoveries of importance. On his death, without issue, in 1783, the family became extinct.

Elizabeth Christina von Linné, one of the daughters of the great naturalist, studied botany, and became known by her discovery of the luminous property of the flower of the tropaolum, of which

an

account was communicated to the academy of Stockholm.

LINSEED OIL. (See Flax.)

LINT-LION.

LINT, in surgery, is the scrapings of fine linen, used by surgeons in dressing wounds. It is made into various forms, which have different names, according to the difference of the figures. Lint, made up in an oval or orbicular form, is called a pledgit; if in a cylindrical form, or in shape of a date or olive stone, it is called a dossil. These different forms of lint are required for many purposes; as, 1. to stop blood in fresh wounds, by filling them up before the application of a bandage; though, if scraped lint be not at hand, a piece of fine linen may be torn into small rags, and applied in the same manner: in very large hemorrhages, the lint or rags should be first dipped in some styptic liquor, as alcohol, or oil of turpentine, or sprinkled with some styptic powder: 2. to agglutinate or heal wounds; to which end lint is very serviceable, if spread with some digestive ointment, balsam, or vulnerary liquor: 3. in drying up wounds and ulcers, and forwarding the formation of a cicatrix: 4. in keeping the lips of wounds at a proper distance, that they may not hastily unite before the bottom is well digested and healed: 5. they are highly necessary to preserve wounds from the injuries of the air.-Surgeons of former ages used compresses of sponge, wool, feathers, or cotton, linen being less plentiful than in later times; but lint is far preferable to all these, and is, at present, universally used. LINTZ, capital of Upper Austria, on the Danube, at the influx of the Traun, is well built, with a bridge 400 paces long, and has, exclusive of the garrison, a population of 18,700 inhabitants; houses, 1000. Here is the largest woollen manufactory in Austria, in which fine carpets are made. Much gunpowder is also manufactured here. In 1784, Lintz was made a bishop's see. In 1674, the lyceum was founded by Leopold, and, in 1824, institutions for the deaf and duinb, and one for the blind, were erected. The Northern Institute is a college for the Catholics of the north of Germany. Lon. 14° 16′ 45′′ E.; lat. 48° 18′ 54′′ N.

LINUS; the name of a celebrated musician of antiquity, to whom Diodorus Siculus, quoting Dionysius of Mitylene, attributes the introduction of verse and music into Greece. He was a native of Chalcis, and to him are ascribed a poem on the exploits of Bacchus in India, a treatise on mythology, the addition of a string to the lyre then in use, and the invention of melody and rhythm. Suidas also joins in giving him credit for the last

mentioned improvements, and calls him the first lyric poet. A few fragments of poetry, under his name, are to be found in Stobæus.

LION (felis leo). The lion, like all other cats, is armed, in each jaw, with six strong and exceedingly sharp cutting teeth, two formidable canine, and six others, occupying the usual place of the molars, but differing from these by terminating in sharp protuberances. Besides these, there is a small tooth, or tubercle, on each side of the upper jaw, immediately posterior to all the others. The tongue is covered with rough and elevated papillæ, with their points directed backwards. The claws, which are five in number on the fore feet, and four on the hinder, are of great length, extremely powerful, and much curved; like those of the other cats, they are retractile within a sheath enclosed in the skin covering the paws. The lion is distinguished from his kindred species by the uniformity of his color, which is pale tawny above, becoming somewhat lighter beneath, and never, except while very young, exhibiting any markings; and also by the long and flowing mane of the old male, which, covering the whole head, extends backwards over his shoulders. Notwithstanding the praises that have, from time immemorial, been bestowed on this animal, for grateful affection, dauntless courage, and merciful forbearance, he is nothing more, in moral and intellectual faculties, than a cat of immense size and strength, and endowed with all the guileful and treacherous qualities of that treacherous tribe. His dauntless courage is a mere consciousness of superiority over the animals by which he is surrounded, and wholly disappears in the neighborhood of man; his merciful forbearance is nothing more than that he never destroys more than satiates his hunger or revenge, and that, when under the dominion of man, he suffers his keeper to approach him without injury. The lion is only met with in the warmer regions of the old world, and more particularly of Africa, in whose vast forests and arid deserts he reigns supreme and uncontrolled. He is met with, but rarely, in parts of India, Arabia and Persia, but his range in these countries is becoming very limited. From Libya, whence the Romans obtained so many, he has almost disappeared; and in classic Greece, where, we are informed by Aristotle, he once occurred, none are to be found. In America, this species never occurred, its place being supplied by the puma. Naturalists have

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