LAC, Gum. See LACCA. Labyrinth, tracted) to attend to the following passage in Strabo. Lac. At Napulia, near the ancient Argos, (says that judicious writer), are still to be seen vast caverns, in which are constructed labyrinths that are believed to be the work of the Cyclops: the meaning of which is, that the labours of men had opened in the rock passages which crossed and returned upon themselves, as is done in quarries. Such, if I am not mistaken, is the idea we ought to form of the labyrinth of Crete. "Were there several labyrinths in that island? Ancient authors speak only of one, which the greater part place at Cnossus; and some, though the number is but small, at Gortyna. "Belon and Tournefort have given us the description of a cavern situated at the foot of Mount Ida, on the south side of the mountain, at a small distance from Gortyna. This was only a quarry accor·ling to the former, and the ancient labyrinth according to the latter; whose opinion I have followed, and abridg. ed his account. Those who have added critical notes to his work, besides this labyrinth, admit a second at Cnossus, and adduce as the principal support of this opinion the coins of that city, which represent the plan of it according as the artists conceived it. For on some of these it appears of a square form, on others round on some it is only sketched out; on others it has, in the middle of it, the head of the Minotaur. In the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, I have given an engraving of one which appears to me to be of about the 15th century before Christ, and on which we see on one side the figure of the Minotaur, and on the other a rude plan of the labyrinth. It is therefore certain, that at that time the Cnossians believed they were in possession of that celebrated cavern; and it also appears that the Gortynians did not pretend to contest their claim, since they have never given the figure of it on their money. : "The place where I suppose the labyrinth of Crete to have been situated, according to Tournefort, is but one league distant from Gortyna; and, according to Strabo, it was distant from Cnossus six or seven leagues. All we can conclude from this is, that the territory of the latter city extended to very near the former. "What was the use of the caverns to which the name of labyrinth was given? I imagine that they were first excavated in part by nature; that in some places stones were extracted from them for building cities; and that in more ancient times they served for a habitation or asylum to the inhabitants of a district exposed to frequent incursions. In the journey of Anacharsis through Phocis, I have spoken of two great caverns of Parnassus, in which the neighbouring people took refuge; in the one at the time of the deluge of Deucalion, and in the other at the invasion of Xerxes. I here add, that, according to Diodorus Siculus, the most ancient Cretans dwelt in the caves of Mount Ida. The people, when inquiries were made on the spot, said that their labyrinth was originally only a prison. It may have been put to this use; but it is difficult to believe, that, to prevent the escape of a few unhappy wretches, such immense labours would have been undertaken." LABYRINTH of the Ear. See ANATOMY Index. + Lac, LACCA, LAC, or Gum Lac, is a substance, of Lacca which a species of insects form cells upon trees, like honeycombs. This is the coccus lacca, Lin. See ENTOMOLOGY Index. In these cells remain some of the dead insects, which give a red colour to the whole substance of the lac. That called stick lac is the wax adhering to some of the small branches of the tree, and which is unprepared. This lac, when separated from the adhering sticks, and grossly powdered, and deprived of its colour by digestion with menstruums for the sake of the dyes and other purposes, is called seed lac; when the stick lac is freed from impurities by melting it over a gentle fire, and formed into cakes, it is called lump lac; and, lastly, that called shell lac is the cells liquefied, strained, and formed into thin transparent laminæ. See DYEING Index. 1. For sealing wax. The following are some of the purposes to which this substance is applied. Take a stick, and heat one end of it upon a charcoal fire; put upon it a few leaves of the shell lac softened above the fire; keep alternately heating and adding more shell lac until you have got a mass of three or four pounds of liquefied shell lac upon the end of your stick (in which manner lump lac is formed from seed lac.) Knead this upon a wetted board with three ounces of levigated cinnabar; form it into cylindrical pieces; and to give them a polish, rub them while hot with a cotton cloth. 2. For japanning. Take a lump of shell lac, prepared in the manner of sealing wax, with whatever colour you please, fix it upon the end of a stick, heat the polished wood over a charcoal fire, and rub it over with the half melted lac, and polish by rubbing it even with a piece of folded plantain leaf held in the hand; heating the lacquer, and adding more lac as occasion requires. Their figures are formed by lac charged with various colours in the same manner. 3. For varnish. In ornamenting their images and religious houses, &c. they make use of very thin beat lead, which they cover with various varnishes, made of lac charged with colours. The preparation of them is kept a secret. The leaf of lead is laid upon a smooth iron heated by fire below while they spread the varnish upon it. 4. For grindstones. Take of river sand three parts, of seed lac washed one part: mix them over the fire in a pot, and form the mass into the shape of a grindstone, having a square hole in the centre, fix it on an axis with liquefied lac, heat the stone moderately, and by turning the axis it may be easily be formed into an exact orbicular shape. Polishing grindstones are made only of such sand as will pass easily through fine muslin, in the proportion of two parts sand to one of lac. This sand is found at Ragimaul. It is composed of small angular crystalline particles tinged red with iron, two parts to one of black magnetic sand. The stonecutters, instead of sand, use the powder of a very hard granite called corune. These grindstones cut very fast. When they want to increase their power, they throw sand upon them, or let them occasionally touch the edge of a vitrified brick. The same composition is formed upon sticks, for cutting stones, shells, &c. by the hand. 3 Q 5. For cuttle fish bone. For other processes, see COLOUR Lecea, Making. LACE, in Commerce, a work composed of many threads of gold, silver, or silk, interwoven the one with the other, and worked upon a pillow with spindles according to the pattern designed. The open work is formed with pins, which are placed and displaced as the spindles are moved. The importation of gold and silver lace is prohibited. Method of Cleaning Gold-LACE and Embroidery when tarnished. For this purpose alkaline liquors are by no means to be used; for while they clean the gold, they corrode the silk, and change or discharge its colour. Soap also alters the shade, and even the species, of certain colours. But spirit of wine may be used without any danger of its injuring either the colour or quality of the subject; and in many cases proves as effectual, for restoring the lustre of the gold, as the corrosive detergents. A rich brocade, flowered with a variety of colours, after being disagreeably tarnished, had the lustre of the gold perfectly restored by washing it with a soft brush dipt in warm spirit of wine; and some of the colours of the silk, which were likewise soiled, became at the same time remarkably bright and lively. Spirit of wine seems to be the only material adapted to this intention, and probably the boasted secret of certain artists is no other than this spirit disguised. Among liquids, Dr Lewis says, he does not know of any other that is of sufficient activity to discharge the foul matter, without being hurtful to the silk: as to powders, however fine, and however cautiously used, they scratch and wear the gold, which here is only superficial and of extreme tenuity. But though spirit of wine is the most innocent material that can be employed for this purpose, it is not in all cases proper. The golden covering may be in some parts worn off; or the base metal, with which it had been iniquitously alloyed, may be corroded by the air, so as to leave the particles of the gold disunited; while the silver underneath, tarnished to a yellow hue, may continue a tolerable colour to the whole; in which cases it is apparent, that the removal of the tarnish would be prejudicial to the colour, and make the lace or embroidery less like gold than it was before. A piece of old tarnished gold lace, cleaned by the spirit of wine, was deprived, with its tarnish, of the greatest part of its golden hue, and looked now almost like silver lace. Method of separating the Gold and Silver from LACE without burning it.-Cut the lace in pieces, and (baving separated the thread from it by which it was sewed to the garment) tie it up in a linen cloth, and boil it in soap ley, diluted with water, till you perceive it is diminished in bulk; which will take up but a little time, unless the quantity of lace be very considerable. Then take out the cloth, and wash it several times in cold water; squeezing it pretty hard with your foot, or beating it with a mallet, to clear it of the soap ley; then untie the cloth, and you will have the metallic part of the lace pure, and nowhere altered in colour or diminished in weight. This method is abundantly more convenient and less troublesome than the common way of burning; and as a small quantity of the ley will be sufficient, the Lacca. 5. For painting. Take one gallon of the red liquid from the first washing for shell lac, strain it through a cloth, and let it boil for a short time, then add half an ounce of soap earth (fossil alkali); boil an hour more, and add three ounces of powdered load (bark of a tree); boil a short time, let it stand all night, and strain next day. Evaporate three quarts of milk without cream to two quarts upon a slow fire, curdle it with sour milk, and let it stand for a day or two; then mix it with the red liquid above mentioned; strain them, through a cloth; add to the mixture one ounce and a half of alum, and the juice of eight or ten lemons: mix the whole, and throw it into a cloth bag strainer. The blood of the insect forms a coagulum with the caseous part of the milk, and remains in the bag, while a limpid acid water drains from it. The coagulum is dried in a shade, and is used as a red colour in painting and colouring. The method of obtaining the fine red lac used by painters from this substance, is by the following simple process: Boil the stick lac in water, filter the decoction, and evaporate the clear liquor to dryness over a gentle fire. The occasion of this easy separation is, that the beautiful red colour here separated, adheres only slightly to the outsides of the sticks broke off the trees along with the gum lac, and readily communicates itself to boiling water. Some of the sticking matter also adhering to the gum itself, it is proper to boil the whole together; for the gum does not at all prejudice the colour, nor dissolve in boiling water: so that after this operation the gum is as fit for making sealing wax as before, and for all other uses which do not require its colour. 6. For dyeing. See DYEING Index. Lac is likewise employed for medicinal purposes.The stick lac is the sort used. It is of great esteem in Germany, and other countries, for laxity and sponginess of the gums proceeding from cold or a scorbutic habit: for this use the lac is boiled in water, with the addition of a little alum, which promotes its solution; or a tincture is made from it with rectified spirit. This tincture is recommended also internally in the fluor albus, and in theumatic and scorbutic disorders it has a grateful smell, and not unpleasant, bitterish, astringent taste. The gum-lac has been used as an electric, instead of glass, for electrical machines. See LACQUER, LAKE, See LACQUER, LAKE, and VARNISH. Artificial Lacca, or Lacque, is also a name given to a coloured substance drawn from several flowers; as the yellow from the flower of the juniper, the red from the poppy, and the blue from the iris or violet. The tinctures of these flowers are extracted by digesting them several times in aqua vitæ, or by boiling them over a stove fire in a lixivium of pot ashes and alum. An artificial lacca is also made of Brasil wood, boiled in a lixivium of the branches of the vine, adding a little cochineal, turmeric, calcined alum, and arsenic, incorporated with the bones of the cuttle fish pulverized, and made up into little cakes and dried. If it be to be very red, they add the juice of lemon to it; to make it brown, they add oil of tartar. Dove-coloured or columbine lacca is made with Brasil of Fernambuc, steeped in distilled vinegar for the space of a month, and mixed with alum incorporated in expence Lace. The ley may be had at the soap boilers, or it may be made of pearl ash and quicklime boiled together in a sufficient quantity of water. mon tory. bravery, a wall was built round it, at first slight, and Lacedein a tumultuary or hasty manner; which the tyrant Nabis made very strong (Livy, Justin). Pausanias ascribes the first walls to the times of Demetrius and LachrymaPyrrhus, under Nabis. The walls of the city were pulled down 188 years before Christ by Philopoemen, who was then at the head of the Achæan league, and Laconia some time after became a Roman province when reduced by Mummius. See SPARTA.—The present city is called Misitra, situated in E. Long. 23. 0. N. Lat. 36. 55. The reason of this sudden change in the lace will be evident to those who are acquainted with chemistry; for silk, on which all our laces are wove, is an animal substance, and all animal substances are soluble in alkalies, especially when rendered more caustic by the addition of quicklime; but the linen you tie it in, being a vegetable, will remain unaltered. Blond LACE, a lace made of fine linen thread or silk, much in the same manner as that of gold and silver. The pattern of the lace is fixed upon a large round pillow, and pins being stuck into the holes or openings in the patterns, the threads are interwoven by means of a number of bobbins made of bone or ivory, each of which contains a small quantity of fine thread, in such a manner as to make the lace exactly resemble the pattern. There are several towns in England, and particularly in Buckinghamshire, that carry on this manufacture; but vast quantities of the finest lace have been imported from Flanders. LACEDÆMON, in fabulous history, a son of Jupiter and Tayget the daughter of Atlas, who married Sparta the daughter of Europa, by whom he had Amyclas and Eurydice the wife of Acrisius. He was the first who introduced the worship of the Graces in Laconia, and who first built them a temple. From Lacedæmon and his wife, the capital of Laconia was called Lacedæmon and Sparta. LACEDÆMON, a noble city of Peloponnesus, called also Sparta; these names differing in this, that the latter is the proper and ancient name of the city, the former of the country, which afterwards came to be applied to the city (Strabo, Stephanus). Homer also makes this distinction; who calls the country holy, because encompassed with mountains. It has also been severally known by the name of Lelegia, from the Leleges the first inhabitants of the country, or from Lelex one of their kings; and Oebalia, from Oebalas the sixth king from Eurotas. It was also called Hecatompolis, from 100 cities which the whole province once contained. This city was the capital of Laconia, situated on the right or west side of the Eurotas: it was less in compass than, however equal, or even superior to, Athens in power. Polybius makes it 48 stadia, a circuit much inferior to that of Athens. Lelex is supposed to have been the first king of Lace dæmon. His descendants, 13 in number, reigned successively after him, till the reign of the sons of Orestes, when the Heraclidæ recovered the Peloponnesus about 80 years after the Trojan war. Procles and Eurysthenes, the descendants of the Heraclidæ, usurped the crown together; and after them it was decreed that the two families should always sit on the throne together. The monarchical power was abolished, and the race of the Heraclidæ extinguished at Sparta about 219 years before Christ. Lacedæmon in its flourishing state remained without walls, the bravery of its citizens being instead of them (Nepos). At length in At length in Cassauder's time, or after, when the city was in the hands of tyrants, distrusting the defence by arms and LACERNA, a coarse thick garment worn by the Romans over their gowns, like a cloak, to keep off the rain and cold. It was first used in the camp, but afterwards admitted into the city. The emperors wore the lacerna of a purple dye. The lacerna was at first very short, but was lengthened after it became fashionable, which was not till the civil wars and the triumvirate; before this time it was confined to the soldiers. tors were forbidden wearing it in the city by Valentinian and Theodosius. Martial makes mention of lacernæ worth 10,000 sesterces. Some confound this garment with the penula; but it seems rather to have resembled the chlamys and birrus. Sena-. LACERTA, including the LIZARD, CROCODILE, &c. a genus of amphibious animals, belonging to the order of reptilia. See ERPETOLOGY Index. LACHES, (from the French lascher, i. e. laxare, or lasche, ignavus), in the English law signifies slackness or negligence, as it appears in Littleton, where laches of entry is a neglect of the heir to enter. And probably it may be an old English word: for where we say there is laches of entry, it is all one as if it were said there is a lack of entry and in this signification it is used. No laches shall be adjudged in the heir within age; and regularly, laches shall not bar infants or femme coverts for not entry or claim, to avoid descents; but laches shall be accounted in them for non-performance of a condition annexed to the state of the land. LACHESIS, in Mythology, one of the Parcs. Her name is derived from xaxur, to measure out by lot. She presided over futurity, and was represented as spinning the thread of life, or, according to others, holding the spindle. She generally appeared covered with a garment variegated with stars, and holding spindles in her hand. LACHISH, in Ancient Geography, a city southward of the tribe of Judah. Eusebius and St Jerome tell us, that in their time there was a village called Lachish, seven miles from Eleutheropolis, southward. Sennacherib besieged Lachish, but did not take it. From thence it was that he sent Rabshakeh against Jerusalem. Here King Amaziah was slain by his rebel subjects. LACHNEA, a genus of plants belonging to the octandria class, and in the natural method ranking under the 31st order, Veprecula. See BOTANY Index. LACHRYMAL, in Anatomy, an appellation given to several parts of the eye. See ANATOMY. LACHRYMATORY, in antiquity, a vessel wherein were collected the tears of a deceased person's friends, and preserved along with the ashes and urn. They were small glass or earthen bottles, chiefly in the form of phials. At the Roman funerals, the friends 392 |