Among other anomalous effects of light, we may observe that it tends strongly to decompose liquid oxymuriatic acid, experience having shown that to preserve it long, it must be kept in a dark place, or in opake bottles. It renders pale nitric acid again ruddy and fuming to a certain degree, even though inclosed in vessels hermetically sealed. Many of the vegetable acid salts, particularly the acetits, appear to be strongly affected by it, to become brown, turbid, and at last considerably decomposed. A very great proportion of the natural dyes and colouring materials from the vegetable and animal kingdoms (when removed from their natural sources) instead of being heightened by exposure to light, have their brilliance of hue much impaired, and often entirely faded; whence the necessity of keeping fine tapestry, carpets, pictures, &c. as possible out of the sun-shine. The mode in which light operates here has been theorised upon, but nothing more, for it is still totally unknown. much as The crystallization of saline substances, takes place much more freely towards the side in which light is chiefly admitted, than towards the opposite side, and not unfrequently the whole mass will radiate towards the luminous point. All solids and dense liquids (not evaporable) become luminous at a certain point, which temperature is therefore described usually as being a red heat. Gases, however, are not luminous at a very high heat, at which solids immersed in them, readily glow with a very bright red. Whether any intensity of heat could communicate such redness to gases is doubtful. Light is obtained from the sun and stars: by combustion, by heat, by friction, and by percussion. See the article CALORIC. It is also emitted by certain bodies during decomposition, and by others in full vigour. See LUMINOUS ANIMALS and PнOS PHORUS. LIGHTFINGERED. a. (light and finger.) Nimble at conveyance; thievish. LIGHTFOOT. a. (light and foot.) Nimble in running or dancing; active (Spenser); LIGHTFOOT. 8. Venison. A cant word. LIGHTFORTIA. In botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order monogynia. Calyx five leaved; corol five-petalled; stamens standing on five valves, closing the bottom of the corol; stigma from five to threecleft; capsule from three to five-celled, from three to five-valved, partly superior. Two species, both natives of the Cape; one of which, however, L. subulata, is supposed to be the same as the campanula capillacea. See CAMPANULA. LIGHTHE ADED. a. (light and head.) 1. Unsteady; loose; thonghtless, weak (Clar.) 2. Delirious; disordered in the mind by dis ease. LIGHTHE'ADEDNESS. 8. Deliriousness; disorder of the mind. LIGHTHEARTED. a. (light and heart.) Gay; merry; airy; cheerful. LIGHT-HORSE, an ancient term in our Eng. lish customs, signifying an ordinary cavalier, or horseman lightly armed, and so as to enter a corps or regiment; in opposition to the men at arms, who were heavily accoutred, and armed at all points. or LIGHT-HOUSE, a building erected upon a cape or promontory on the sea-coast, upon some rock in the sea, and having on light formed by candles, which is constantly its top in the night-time a great fire, or attended by some careful person, so as to be seen at a great distance from the land. It is used to direct the shipping on the coast, that might otherwise run ashore, or steer an improper course, when the darkness of the night, and the uncertainty of currents, &c. might render their situation, with regard to the shore, extremely doubtful. Lamp-lights are, on many accounts, prefer able to coal-fires or candles; and the effect of these may be increased, by placing them either behind glass-hemispheres, or before properly disposed glass or metal reflectors, which last method is now very generally A adopted. LIGHT. In the manage, a horse is said to be light that is swift in his paces. We likewise call a horse light that is well made, though neither swift nor active: for, in this last expression, we consider only the shape and make of a horse, without regard to his qualities. LIGHT UPON THE HAND. A phrase applied to a horse that has a good mouth, and does not rest too heavily on the bit. LIGHT-BELLIED; LIGHT-CARCASSED. term applied to a horse that has flat, narrow, and contracted sides, which makes the flanks turn up like that of a greyhound. To LIGHTEN. v. n. (lit, ligt, Saxon.) 1. To flash, with thunder (Shakspeare). 2. To shine like lightning (Shakspeare). 3. To fall; to light (from light.) (Com. Pr.) To LIGHTEN. v. a. (from light.) 1. To illuminate; to enlighten (Davies). 2. To exonerate; to unload (Jonah). 3. To make less heavy (Milton). 4. To exhilarate; to cheer (Dryden). LIGHTER. s. (from light, to make light.) A heavy boat into which ships are lightened or unloaded (Pope). LIGHTERMAN. 8. (lighter and man.) One who manages a lighter (Child). ་་ In the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, under the wrod REFLECTOR, it is stated, that " Mr. Thomas Smith, tin-plateworker, Edinburgh, seems to have conceived the idea of illuminating light-houses by means of lamps and reflectors, instead of coal-fires, without knowing that something of the same kind had been long used in France; he has therefore all the merit of an inventor, and what he invented, he has carried to a high de gree of perfection.” The writer of this article has certainly been misinformed, for reflectors, such as he describes, were invented by Mr. Ezekiel Walker, of Lynn Regis; they were also made, and fixed up, under his direction, in a light-house on the coast of Norfolk, in the year 1782. And in the year 1787, at the request of the trustees appointed by act of parliament for erecting four light-houses on the northern parts of Great Britain, he instructed the above-mentioned Mr. Thomas Smith, in this method of constructing light-houses. The parabolic moulds used by Mr. Walker, and Mr. Smith, are from 3 to 5 or 6 feet in diameter; and in the centre or apex of each, is placed a long shallow lamp of tinplate, filled with white oil. In each lamp, are six cotton wicks, almost contiguous to each other, which are so disposed, as to bara without trimming for about six hours. The light of these is reflected from each mirror spread over the concave surface, and is thus multiplied, as it were, by the number of mirrors. The stucco moulding is covered on the back with tin plate, from which a tube, immediately over the lamp, proceeds to the roof of the light room, and serves as a funnel, through which the smoke escapes without sullying the faces of the mirrors. The light-room is a cupola or lantern of from eight to twelve sides, composed entirely of glass, fixed in cast iron frames or sashes, and roofed with copper. On circular benches passing round the in. side of this lantern, at about eighteen inches from the glass frames, are placed the reflector with their lamps, so as that the concave surfaces of two or three of the reflectors front every point of the compass, and throw a blaze of light in all directions. In the roof immediately over the centre of the room is a hole, through which pass all the funnels already mentioned, and which serves likewise to admit fresh air to the lamps. This light-room is firmly fixed on the top of a round tower, so as to be immoveable by the weather; and the number of the reflectors, and the height of the tower, are less or greater, according as it is the intention that the light should be seen at a less or a greater distance. A man, judging from mere theory, would be very apt to condemn light-houses of this kind; because the firmest building shakes in a violent storm, and because such shaking, he might think, would sometimes throw the whole rays of light into the air, and thas mislead the bewildered seamen. This opinion, we know, was actually entertain ed of them by one of the profoundest philosophers and most scientific mechanicians of the age. Experience, however, convinced him, as well as the public at large, that such apprehensions are groundless, and that light-houses with lamps and reflectors are, in every point of view, preferable to those with fires burning in the open air. They are supported at much less expense; their light is more brilliant, and seen at a greater distance, whilst it can never be obscared by smoke, or beaten down on the lee side by a violent gust of wind; and what is perhaps of still greater importance, the reflectors with their lamps may be so vari ously placed, that one light-house cannot be mistaken for another. If we add to all this, that the lamps do not stand in need of trimming so often as open fires require fuel, and that the light-man is never exposed either to cold or to wet, by attending to his duty, we must be convinced that light-houses with reflectors are much less liable to be neglected in stormy weather, than those with open fires, and that this circumstance alone would be enough to give the former a preference, almost incalculable, over the latter. For more on the subject of Light-houses, see EDDY STONE. LIGHTLE'GGED. a. (light and leg.) Nimble; swift (Sidney). LIGHTLESS. a. Wanting light; dark. LIGHTLY. ad. (from light.) 1. Without weight (Ben Jonson). 2. Without deep impression (Prior). 3. Easily; readily; without difficulty; of course (Hooker). 4. Without reason (Taylor). 5. Without dejection; cheerfully (Shaks.). 6. Not chastely (Swift). 7. Nimbly, with agility; not heavily or tardily (Dryden). 8. Gayly; airily; with levity. LIGHT MINDED. a. (light and mind.) Unsettled; unsteady. LIGHTNESS. 8. (from light.) 1. Want of weight; not heaviness (Burnet). 2. Inconstancy; unsteadiness (Shakspeare). 3. Unchastity; want of conduct in women (Sidney). 4. Agility; nimbleness. LIGHTNING and Thunder. See THUN DER. LIGHTS. 8. The lungs; the organs of breathing (Hayward). LIGHTSOME. a. (from light.) 1. Luminous: not dark; not obscure; not opake (Raleigh). 2. Gay; airy; having the power to exhilarate (South). LIGHTSOMENESS. 8. (from lightsome.) 1. Luminousness; not opacity; not obscurity; not darksomeness (Cheyne). 2. Cheerfulness; merriment; levity. LIGNEOUS ACID. Pyroligneous acid: Empyreumatic acid of wood. This is in reality nothing more than an empyreumatic acetous acid; and ought rather perhaps to be ranked under that genus than under a distinct article. To procure it, put into a large glass retort any quantity of shavings of any kind of wood, as box, guaiacum, or beech, so as to fill only one-eighth of it; as the material is apt to swell, adapt to it a large receiver, not closely luted, and heat it on a sand-bath: an extremely strongsmelling dark-coloured, empyreumatic acid liquor will ascend nearly equal to one-third of the weight of the wood. This acid of wood is obtained in a large quantity near London, from the preparation of charcoal for gunpowder, by distilling wood in cast-iron cylinders. It stains wood indelibly, and the hands deeply. All the acetous empyreumatic acids are capable of very considerable purification by very easy methods; and in proportion as they become purer they lose their empyreuma, their peculiar taste and smell (and consequently their characteristic differences), till at last, when brought into the most concentrated state by some of the methods by which vinegar is dephlegmated, they all exhibit the characters of acetous acid in so unequivocal a manner that no doubt can now be entertained of their identity. The The varieties in the empyreumatic vegetable acids, were long ago thought to be accidental, and they had been referred to a common origin of a vegetable nature: but it is to one of the many valuable series of experiments with which MM. Foureroy and Vauquelin have enriched the chemistry of orga nized bodies, that we owe the complete elucidation of this question. Simple rectification or re-distillation in a very gentle heat, and stopping the process when the liquor at last becomes over much coloured, will purify to a very great degree, both the pyromneous and pyroligneous acids. latter, by this process, from being a dark coffee colour, assumes the hue of very pale clear brandy. However, on long exposure to light, it becomes brown again; for it retains its empyreumatic character more obstinately than the other acid. Charcoal newly burnt and powdered, has a great effect in purifying all these acids; they may be either gently distilled off it, or even merely filtered through a stratum of it. But the most effectual method of purification is by uniting these acids with lime at a fixed alkali, evaporating to dryness, and then expelling the acid by means of the sulphuric, in the same manner as the concentrated vinegar is prepared. The acid vapour that rises in this process has now lost its empyreuma almost entirely; has both the strength and potent odour of radical vinegar; when united to potash, forms acetited potash, which may be obtained white by repeated crystallization, or by charcoal-powder, and in short is perfect acetous acid. The purified acid of wood has been employed by M. Goetling, for the preparation of an acetous ether. This acid is sometimes employed as an object for manufacture. That obtained from distilled charcoal for gun-powder, near London, is employed by calico-printers in forming the acetited iron, used as a mordant; as here the colour and smell of the acid are in no way detrimental. Acids added to the watery decoction, turn it yellow, but alkalis give it a deep purple colour, without its forming any precipitate. Alum added to the decoction, causes a violet precipitation or lake, and the supernatant liquor also remains violet, and gives a fresh portion of lake on the affusion of an alkali. The salts of iron give an inky black, with all the solutions of logwood, under the same circumstances as with galls, whence the presence of gallic acid in logwood is abundantly proved. The solutions of tin form a very ne vio let or plum-colour, with the decoctions of logwood, and totally precipitate the colouring matter, so that the supernatant liquor is quite clear and colourless. Logwood is used for various purposes in dyeing: either to give its own natural purple (with several shades or variations, according to the mordant used) or to heighten and improve the common black with iron and galls. In this latter method, it is found to give a peculiar gloss and lustre, which renders it a very valuable dyeing material. LIGNEOUS. a. (ligneus, Latin.) Made of wood wooden; resembling wood (Grew). LIGNOSE. In botany (lignosus) woody, applied to the stem. Opposed to herbaceous. LIGNUM. In botany, the wood, or woody part of the trunk. Liber præcedentis anni, nunc exsuccus, induratius agglut natus. The liber, or inner bark of the preceding year, deprived of its juice, hardened, and agglutinated. See Lignum LIGNUM AGALLOCHI VERI. aloes. LIGNUM ALOES. Lignum agallochi veri. Lignum calambac. Lignum aspalathi. Xyloalas. The tree whose wood bears this name is not yet scientifically known. It is generally supposed to be the excoccaria agallocha of Linneus; but this does not correspond altogether with the aloexylon of Lourciro, who asserts it to be the latter. The first is a native of China, the second of Mysore. There is a third wood of the same kind, and possessing the same marketable name, which is obtained from Mexico, but which has not been hitherto philologically arranged. That we obtain from China and Cochinchina, is imported in small, compact, ponderous pieces, of a yellow rusty brown colour, with black or purplish veins, and sometimes of a black colour. It has a bitterish resinous taste, and a slight aromatic smell. It is used to fumigate rooms in eastern countries. LIGNUM ASPALATHI. See LIGNUM ALOES. LIGNUM CALAMBAC. See LIGNUM ALOES. LIGNUM CAMPECHENSE, (Campechensis; so called, because it was brought from Campeachy, in the Bay of Honduras). Lignum campechianum. Lignum sappan. Logwood. The wood of this tree, Hamatoxylum campechianum of Linuéus, is of a solid texture, and of a dark red colour. It is imported principally as a substance for dyeing, cut into junks and logs of about three feet in length of these pieces the largest and thickest are preserved, as being of the deepest colour. Logwood has a sweetish subastringent taste, and no remarkable smell; it gives a purplish red tincture both to watery and spirituous infusions, and tinges the stools, and sometimes the urine, of the same colour. It is employed medicinally as an adstringent and corroborant. In diarrhoeas, it has been found peculiarly efficacious, and has the recommendation of some of the first medical authorities; also in the latter stages of dysentery, when the obstructing causes are removed: to obviate the extreme laxity of the intestines usually superinduced by the repeated injections. An extract is ordered in the pharmacopeias. See HEMATOXYLUM. LIGNUM INDICUM. See GUAIACUM. LIGNUM MOLUCCENSE. SeeLIGNUM PAVANE. LIGNUM NEPHRITICUM. Nephritic wood. The wood of the Guilandina moringa: inermis foliis sub-bipinnatis, foliis inferiori bus ternatis of Linnéus, which also affords the aur bean. It is brought from America in large, compact, ponderous pieces, without knots, the outer part of a whitish, or pale yellowish colour, the inner of a dark brown, or red. When rasped it gives out a faint aromatic smell. It is never used medicinally in this country, but stands high in reputation abroad, in difficulties of urine, nephritic complaints, and most disorders of the kidneys and urinary passages. LIGNUM PAVANE. Lignum pavanum. Ligaum moluccense. The wood of the Croton tiglium: foliis ovatis glabris acuminatis serratis, caule arboreo of Linnéus, which affords the grana tiglii. It is of a light LIGNUM RHODIUM. See ROSEWOOD. RUBRUM. rather broad. 1. L. intestinalis. Body clear white and very narrow. Found in the intestines of the menganser and guillemot; about a foot long, and exactly resembling a piece of tape. 2. L. abdominalis. Body pale-ash and Eight varieties, from difference of habitation, being found in the abdomen of the loche, gudgeon, tench, crucian, dace, bleak, vimba, and bream. These worms are traced chiefly in the mesentery, emaciating the fish they infest, and making them grow deformed; when they escape from the body they penetrate through the skin: they are sometimes solitary and sometimes gregarious, about half a line thick, and from six inches to five feet long. LIGULATE, in botany, (from ligula, a strap; which some derive from ligo, to bind; others from lingula, dimin. of lingua, a tongue; the first from its office, the second from its shape) applied to the corol. Ligulate expanse sunt. These are the Semi floscu losi corolla. A ligulate or strap-shaped flower. A species of compound flower, in which the florets have their corollets flat, spreading out towards the end, with the base only tubular. Cum corollule flosculorum omnes plane, versus exterius latus, or Semifloscular flowers of Tournefort; and are comprised in the first division of the first order of Linnéus's nineteenth class, Syngenelia Polygamia Equalis. LIGURES, the inhabitants of Liguria. LIGURIA, a country at the west of Italy, bounded on the east by the river Macra, on the south by part of the Mediterranean called the Ligustic sea, on the west by the Varus, and on the north by the Po. The commercial town of Genoa was anciently, and is now, the capital of the country. The origin of the inhabitants is not known. Liguria was subdued by the Romans, and its chief harbour now bears the name of Leghorn. LIGUSTICE ALPES, a part of the Alps, which borders on Liguria, sometimes called Maritimi. ; LIGUSTICUM. Lovage. In botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order digynia. Fruit oblong, three-ribbed on each side: flowers uniform; petals involute, entire; calyx five-toothed. Fourteen species: all European plants, three of them common to our own country. L. levisticum, a native of the Apennines, polyphyllous, the leaflets cut at the top, is still employed as a useful medicine is dyspeptic affections, and some other diseases, under the name of LEVISTICUM which see. LIGUSTRUM, in botany, Privet, a genus of the diandria monogynia class and order. Natural order of sepiariæ. Jasmineæ, Jussieu. Essential character: corolla four-cleft; berry four-seeded. There are three species, of which L. vulgare, common privet, is a shrub about six feet in height, branched, the bark of a greenish-ash colour, irregularly sprinkled, with numerous prominent points; branches opposite, the young ones flexible and purplish; leaves opposite, on short petioles, smooth on both sides: panicle about two inches in length, somewhat pyramidal; corolla white, but soon changes to a red. dish-brown. Privet is found wild in most parts of Europe, and in Japan, in woods and hedges; it flourishes best in a moist soil. LIKE. a. (lic, Saxon; liik, Dutch.) 1. Resembling; having resemblance (Baker). 2. Equal; of the same quantity (Sprat). 3. (for likely.) Probable; credible (Bacon). 4. Likely; in a state that gives probable expectations (Shakspeare). LIKE quantities, or Similar quantities, in algebra, are such as are expressed by the same letters, to the same power, or equally repeated in each quantity; though the numeral co-efficient may be different: thus, 4 a and 5 a are like quantities; so also are 3% and 92; and likewise 5 b d y2 10 b d y2. But 4 a and b are not like quantities; nor are 4 a and 4 a. LIKE SIGNS, in algebra, are either both affirmative or both negative. LIKE FIGURES, the same as Similar figures. All like figures have their homologous lines in the same ratio. Like plane figures are in the duplicate ratio, or as the squares of their homologous lines or sides; and like solid figures are in the triplicate ratio, or as the cubes of their homologous sides. LIKE. S. 1. Some person or thing resembling another (Shakspeare). 2. Near approach; a state like to another state (Raleigh). LIKE. ad. 1. In the same manner; in the same manner as (Spenser. Philips). 2. In such a manner as befits (Samuel). 3. Likely; probably (Shakspeare). To LIKE. v. a. (lican, Saxon.) 1. To choose with some degree of preference (Clarendon). 2. To approve; to view with approbation, not fondness (Sidney). 3. To please; to be agreeable to (Bacon). To LIKE. v. n. 1. To be pleased with: obsolete (Hooker). 2. To choose; to list; to be pleased (Locke). LIKELIHOOD. LIKELINESS. 8. (from likely.) 1. Appearance; show: obsolete (Shaksp.). 2. Resemblance; likeness: obsolete (Raleigh). 3. Probability; verisimilitude; ap. pearance of truth (Hooker). LIKELY. a. (from like.) 1. Such as may be liked; such as may please: obsolete (Shakspeare). 2. Probable; such as may in reason be thought or believed. LIKELY. ad. Probably; as may reasonably be thought (Glanville). To LIKEN. v. a. (from like.) To represent as having resemblance; to compare (Milton). LIKENESS. 8. (from like.) 1. Resem blance; similitude (Dryden). 2. Form; appearance (L'Estrange). 3. One who resembles another (Prior). LIKEWISE. ad. (like and wise.) In like manner; also; moreover; too (Arbuthnot). LIKING. a. Plump; in a state of plump. ness (Daniel). LIKING. 8. (from like.) 1. Good state of body; plumpness (Dryden). 2. State of trial (Dryden). 3. Inclination (Spenser). LILAC, in botany. See SYRINGA. LILALITE, in mineralogy. See MICA. LILIA. In botany, the name of the third nation, tribe, or cast of vegetables, in Linnéus's Regnum Vegetabile, containing the patrician rank, eminent for their splendid flowers. LILIACEOUS, in botany, applied to the corol: having six regular petals. LILIACE. Liliaceous or lily-like plants. The name of one of Tournefort's classes. Also of the tenth order in Linnéus's Fragments of a Natural Method. They are divided among several, from nine to eleven orders, in the Ordines Naturales, at the end of Linnéus's Genera Plantarum.-This fine natural class is to be found in the class Hexandria of Li Artificial System. LILIED. a. (from lily.) Embellished with lilies (Milton). LILIUM. Lily. In botany, a genus of the class hexandria, order monogynia. Corol six-petalled, campanulate, with a longitudinal, nectariferous groove from the middle to the base: capsule with the valves connected by cancelled hairs. Sixteen species, chiefly natives of Asia, a few of Europe and America. The following are the chief. 1. L. candidum. White lily. Leaves lanceolate, scattered, tapering to the base; flowers campanulate, glabrous within, sometimes nodding; the stem round or a little flat. A native of Syria. The root is an article in the Edinburgh pharmacopoeia: it is extremely mucilaginous, and is chiefly used, boiled in milk and water, in emollient and suppurating cataplasms. 2. L. bulbiferum. Orange lily. Leaves scattered, broader or narrower; corols campanulate, erect, rough within; generally yellow, but varying in colour. A native of Europe. 3. L. chalcedonicum. Scarlet martagon. Leaves linear-lanceolate, scattered; crowning the stem to its summit; flowers reflected ; corols revolute, dotted within. A native of Persia. 4. L. martagon. Purple martagon. Leaves whorled, ovate-lanceolate, flowers reflected; corols revolute. Another variety with the leaves, stalks and buds somewhat hairy; whorls distant. Dark purple flowers with black spots. Natives of Europe. 5. L. Kamschatcense. Kamschatka lily. Leaves in whorls ; flowers erect; corol campanulate; petals without claws. A native of Canada and Kamschatka. Its root, called by the natives of Kamschatka saranne, constitutes a considerable part of their food. They are gathered in August, dried in the sun, and laid up for winter use. They are baked when wanted and then reduced to powder or flour, and serve instead of wheaten flour for bread; and are put into soups and other dishes. Our own travellers have generally been pleased with this article of diet, in most of the forms in which it is dressed. To the Kamschadales it is of peculiar use, as being most common when the coasting fishes are most scarce. Mice and other animals are equally provident of this vegetable with the human inhabitants of the country. Many of these also have their winter granaries well stored with its nutritious production. All these species are bulbous-rooted, herbaceous, flowering perennials, rising with erect annual stalks three or four feet high, with corols uniformly beautiful, in some species superb, white, red, scarlet, orange, purple and yellow. They are propagated both by seeds and by offsets. The seeds should be sown in the beginning of August in pots or boxes of light earth, and be placed in a situation where they may derive the benefit of the morning sun. |