Chapter II: Part 2

LAMETTRIE, JULIEN OFFRAY DE (1709-1751), French physician and philosopher, the earliest of the materialistic writers of the Illumination, was born at St Malo on the 25th of December 1709. After studying theology in the Jansenist schools for some years, he suddenly decided to adopt the profession of medicine. In 1733 he went to Leiden to study under Boerhaave, and in 1742 returned to Paris, where he obtained the appointment of surgeon to the guards. During an attack of fever he made observations on himself with reference to the action of quickened circulation upon thought, which led him to the conclusion that psychical phenomena were to be accounted for as the effects of organic changes in the brain and nervous system. This conclusion he worked out in his earliest philosophical work, the _Histoire naturelle de l'âme_, which appeared about 1745. So great was the outcry caused by its publication that Lamettrie was forced to take refuge in Leiden, where he developed his doctrines still more boldly and completely, and with great originality, in _L'Homme machine_ (Eng. trans., London, 1750; ed. with introd. and notes, J. Assézat, 1865), and _L'Homme plante_, treatises based upon principles of the most consistently materialistic character. The ethics of these principles were worked out in _Discours sur le bonheur_, _La Volupté_, and _L'Art de jouir_, in which the end of life is found in the pleasures of the senses, and virtue is reduced to self-love. Atheism is the only means of ensuring the happiness of the world, which has been rendered impossible by the wars brought about by theologians. The soul is only the thinking part of the body, and with the body it passes away. When death comes, the farce is over (_la farce est jouée_), therefore let us take our pleasure while we can. Lamettrie has been called "the Aristippus of modern materialism." So strong was the feeling against him that in 1748 he was compelled to quit Holland for Berlin, where Frederick the Great not only allowed him to practise as a physician, but appointed him court reader. He died on the 11th of November 1751. His collected _Oeuvres philosophiques_ appeared after his death in several editions, published in London, Berlin and Amsterdam respectively.

The chief authority for his life is the _Éloge_ written by Frederick
the Great (printed in Assézat's ed. of _Homme machine_). In modern
times Lamettrie has been judged less severely; see F. A. Lange,
_Geschichte des Materialismus_ (Eng. trans. by E. C. Thomas, ii.
1880); Nérée Quépat (i.e. René Paquet), _La Mettrie, sa vie et ses
oeuvres_ (1873, with complete history of his works); J. E. Poritzky,
_J. O. de Lamettrie, Sein Leben und seine Werke_ (1900); F. Picavet,
"La Mettrie et la critique allemande," in _Compte rendu des séances de
l'Acad. des Sciences morales et politiques_, xxxii. (1889), a reply to
German rehabilitations of Lamettrie.

LAMIA, in Greek mythology, queen of Libya. She was beloved by Zeus, and when Hera robbed her of her children out of jealousy, she killed every child she could get into her power (Diod. Sic. xx. 41; Schol. Aristophanes, _Pax_, 757). Hence Lamia came to mean a female bogey or demon, whose name was used by Greek mothers to frighten their children; from the Greek she passed into Roman demonology. She was represented with a woman's face and a serpent's tail. She was also known as a sort of fiend, the prototype of the modern vampire, who in the form of a beautiful woman enticed young men to her embraces, in order that she might feed on their life and heart's blood. In this form she appears in Goethe's _Die Braut von Corinth_, and Keats's _Lamia_. The name Lamia is clearly the feminine form of Lamus, king of the Laestrygones (q.v.). At some early period, or in some districts, Lamus and Lamia (both, according to some accounts, children of Poseidon) were worshipped as gods; but the names did not attain general currency. Their history is remarkably like that of the malignant class of demons in Germanic and Celtic folk-lore. Both names occur in the geographical nomenclature of Greece and Asia Minor; and it is probable that the deities belong to that religion which spread from Asia Minor over Thrace into Greece.

LAMMAS (O. Eng. _hlammaesse_, _hlafmaesse_, from _hlaf_, loaf, and _maesse_, mass, "loaf-mass"), originally in England the festival of the wheat harvest celebrated on the 1st of August, O.S. It was one of the old quarter-days, being equivalent to midsummer, the others being Martinmas, equivalent to Michaelmas, Candlemas (Christmas) and Whitsuntide (Easter). Some rents are still payable in England at Lammastide, and in Scotland it is generally observed, but on the 12th of August, since the alteration of the calendar in George II.'s reign. Its name was in allusion to the custom that each worshipper should present in the church a loaf made of the new wheat as an offering of the first-fruits.

A relic of the old "open-field" system of agriculture survives in the so-called "Lammas Lands." These were lands enclosed and held in severalty during the growing of corn and grass and thrown open to pasturage during the rest of the year for those who had common rights. These commoners might be the several owners, the inhabitants of a parish, freemen of a borough, tenants of a manor, &c. The opening of the fields by throwing down the fences took place on Lammas Day (12th of August) for corn-lands and on Old Midsummer Day (6th of July) for grass. They remained open until the following Lady Day. Thus, in law, "lammas lands" belong to the several owners in fee-simple subject for half the year to the rights of pasturage of other people (_Baylis_ v. _Tyssen-Amherst_, 1877, 6 Ch. D., 50).

See further F. Seebohm, _The English Village Community_; C. I. Elton,
_Commons and Waste Lands_; P. Vinogradoff, _Villainage in England_.

LÄMMERGEYER (Ger. _Lämmergeier_, _Lamm_, lamb, and _Geier_, vulture), or bearded vulture, the _Falco barbatus_ of Linnaeus and the _Gypaetus barbatus_ of modern ornithologists, one of the grandest birds-of-prey of the Palaearctic region--inhabiting lofty mountain chains from Portugal to the borders of China, though within historic times it has been exterminated in several of its ancient haunts. Its northern range in Europe does not seem to have extended farther than the southern frontier of Bavaria, or the neighbourhood of Salzburg;[1] but in Asia it formerly reached a higher latitude, having been found even so lately as 1830 in the Amur region where, according to G. F. Radde (_Beitr._ _Kenntn._ _Russ._ _Reichs_, xxiii. p. 467), it has now left but its name. It is not uncommon on many parts of the Himalayas, where it breeds; and on the mountains of Kumaon and the Punjab, and is the "golden eagle" of most Anglo-Indians. It is found also in Persia, Palestine, Crete and Greece, the Italian Alps, Sicily, Sardinia and Mauritania.

In some external characters the lämmergeyer is intermediate between the families _Vulturidae_ and _Falconidae_, and the opinion of systematists has from time to time varied as to its proper position. It is now generally agreed, however, that it is more closely allied with the eagles than with the vultures, and the sub-family _Gypaëtinae_ of the _Falconidae_ has been formed to contain it.

The whole length of the bird is from 43 to 46 in., of which, however, about 20 are due to the long cuneiform tail, while the pointed wings measure more than 30 in. from the carpal joint to the tip. The top of the head is white, bounded by black, which, beginning in stiff bristly feathers turned forwards over the base of the beak, proceeds on either side of the face in a well-defined band to the eye, where it bifurcates into two narrow stripes, of which the upper one passes above and beyond that feature till just in front of the scalp it suddenly turns upwards across the head and meets the corresponding stripe from the opposite side, enclosing the white forehead already mentioned, while the lower stripe extends beneath the eye about as far backwards and then suddenly stops. A tuft of black, bristly feathers projects beardlike from the base of the mandible, and gives the bird one of its commonest epithets in many languages. The rest of the head, the neck, throat and lower parts generally are clothed with lanceolate feathers of a pale tawny colour--sometimes so pale as to be nearly white beneath; while the scapulars, back and wing-coverts generally, are of a glossy greyish-black, most of the feathers having a white shaft and a median tawny line. The quill-feathers, both of the wings and tail, are of a dark blackish-grey. The irides are of a light orange, and the sclerotic tunics--equivalent to the "white of the eye" in most animals--which in few birds are visible, are in this very conspicuous and of a bright scarlet, giving it an air of great ferocity. In the young of the year the whole head, neck and throat are clothed in dull black, and most of the feathers of the mantle and wing-coverts are broadly tipped and mesially streaked with tawny or lightish-grey.

The lämmergeyer breeds early in the year. The nest is of large size, built of sticks, lined with soft material and placed on a ledge of rock--a spot being chosen, and often occupied for many years, which is nearly always difficult of access. Here in the month of February a single egg is usually laid. This is more than 3 in. in length by nearly 2½ in breadth, of a pale but lively brownish-orange. The young when in the nest are clad in down of a dirty white, varied with grey on the head and neck, and with ochraceous in the iliac region.

There is much discrepancy as to the ordinary food of the lämmergeyer, some observers maintaining that it lives almost entirely on carrion, offal and even ordure; but there is no question of its frequently taking living prey, and it is reasonable to suppose that this bird, like so many others, is not everywhere uniform in its habits. Its name shows it to be the reputed enemy of shepherds, and it is in some measure owing to their hostility that it has been exterminated in so many parts of its European range. But the lämmergeyer has also a great partiality for bones, which when small enough it swallows. When they are too large, it is said to soar with them to a great height and drop them on a rock or stone that they may be broken into pieces of convenient size. Hence its name ossifrage,[2] by which the Hebrew _Peres_ is rightly translated in the Authorized Version of the Bible (Lev. xi. 13; Deut. xiv. 12)--a word corrupted into osprey, and applied to a bird which has no habit of the kind.

The lämmergeyer of north-eastern and south Africa is specifically distinct, and is known as _Gypaetus meridionalis_ or _G. nudipes_. In habits it resembles the northern bird, from which it differs in little more than wanting the black stripe below the eye and having the lower part of the tarsus bare of feathers. It is the "golden eagle" of Bruce's _Travels_, and has been beautifully figured by Joseph Wolf in E. Rüppell's _Syst. Übers. der Vögel Nord-Ost-Afrika's_ (Taf. 1). (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See a paper by Dr Girtanner on this bird in Switzerland
(_Verhandl. St-Gall. naturw. Gesellschaft_, 1869-1870, pp. 147-244).

[2] Among other crimes attributed to the species is that, according
to Pliny (_Hist. Nat._ x. cap. 3), of having caused the death of the
poet Aeschylus, by dropping a tortoise on his bald head! In the Atlas
range the food of this bird is said to consist chiefly of the
_Testudo mauritanica_, which "it carries to some height in the air,
and lets fall on a stone to break the shell" (_Ibis_, 1859, p. 177).
It was the [Greek: harpê] and [Greek: phênê] of Greek classical
writers.

LAMOIGNON, a French family, which takes its name from Lamoignon, a place said to have been in its possession since the 13th century. One of its several branches is that of Lamoignon de Malesherbes. Several of the Lamoignons have played important parts in the history of France and the family has been specially distinguished in the legal profession. GUILLAUME DE LAMOIGNON (1617-1677), attained eminence as a lawyer and became president of the parlement of Paris in 1658. First on the popular, and later on the royalist side during the Fronde, he presided at the earlier sittings of the trial of Fouquet, whom he regarded as innocent, and he was associated with Colbert, whom he was able more than once to thwart. Lamoignon tried to simplify the laws of France and sought the society of men of letters like Boileau and Racine. Having received rich rewards for his public services, he died in Paris on the 10th of December 1677. Guillaume's second son, NICOLAS DE LAMOIGNON (1648-1724), took the surname of Basville. Following his hereditary calling he filled many public offices, serving as intendant of Montauban, of Pau, of Poitiers and of Languedoc before his retirement in 1718. His administration of Languedoc was chiefly remarkable for vigorous measures against the Camisards and other Protestants, but in other directions his work in the south of France was more beneficent, as, following the example of Colbert, he encouraged agriculture and industry generally and did something towards improving the means of communication. He wrote a _Mémoire_, which contains much interesting information about his public work. This was published at Amsterdam in 1724. Lamoignon, who is called by Saint Simon, "the king and tyrant of Languedoc," died in Paris on the 17th of May 1724. CHRÉTIEN FRANÇOIS DE LAMOIGNON (1735-1789) entered public life at an early age and was an actor in the troubles which heralded the Revolution. First on the side of the parlement and later on that of the king he was one of the assistants of Loménie de Brienne, whose unpopularity and fall he shared. He committed suicide on the 15th of May 1789.

LAMONT, JOHANN VON (1805-1879), Scottish-German astronomer and magnetician, was born at Braemar, Aberdeenshire, on the 13th of December 1805. He was sent at the age of twelve to be educated at the Scottish monastery in Regensburg, and apparently never afterwards returned to his native country. His strong bent for scientific studies was recognized by the head of the monastery, P. Deasson, on whose recommendation he was admitted in 1827 to the then new observatory of Bogenhausen (near Munich), where he worked under J. Soldner. After the death of his chief in 1835 he was, on H. C. Schumacher's recommendation, appointed to succeed him as director of the observatory. In 1852 he became professor of astronomy at the university of Munich, and held both these posts till his death, which took place on the 6th of August 1879. Lamont was a member of the academies of Brussels, Upsala and Prague, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and of many other learned corporations. Among his contributions to astronomy may be noted his eleven zone-catalogues of 34,674 stars, his measurements, in 1836-1837, of nebulae and clusters, and his determination of the mass of Uranus from observations of its satellites (_Mem. Astron. Soc._ xi. 51, 1838). A magnetic observatory was equipped at Bogenhausen in 1840 through his initiative; he executed comprehensive magnetic surveys 1849-1858; announced the magnetic decennial period in 1850, and his discovery of earth-currents in 1862. His _Handbuch des Erdmagnetismus_ (Berlin, 1849) is a standard work on the subject.

See _Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie_ (S. Günther); V. J. Schrift,
_Astr. Gesellschaft_, xv. 60; _Monthly Notices Roy. Astr. Society_,
xl. 203; _Nature_, xx. 425; _Quart. Journal Meteor. Society_, vi. 72;
_Proceedings Roy. Society of Edinburgh_, x. 358; _The Times_ (12 Aug.,
1879); Sir F. Ronalds's _Cat. of Books relating to Electricity and
Magnetism_, pp. 281-283; _Royal Society's Cat. of Scientific Papers_,
vols. iii. vii.

LAMORICIÈRE, CHRISTOPHE LÉON LOUIS JUCHAULT DE (1806-1865), French general, was born at Nantes on the 11th of September 1806, and entered the Engineers in 1828. He served in the Algerian campaigns from 1830 onwards, and by 1840 he had risen to the grade of _maréchal-de-camp_ (major-general). Three years later he was made a general of division. He was one of the most distinguished and efficient of Bugeaud's generals, rendered special service at Isly (August 14, 1844), acted temporarily as governor-general of Algeria, and finally effected the capture of Abd el-Kader in 1847. Lamoricière took some part in the political events of 1848, both as a member of the Chamber of Deputies and as a military commander. Under the régime of General Cavaignac he was for a time minister of war. From 1848 to 1851 Lamoricière was one of the most conspicuous opponents of the policy of Louis Napoleon, and at the _coup d'état_ of the 2nd of December 1851 he was arrested and exiled. He refused to give in his allegiance to the emperor Napoleon III., and in 1860 accepted the command of the papal army, which he led in the Italian campaign of 1860. On the 18th of September of that year he was severely defeated by the Italian army at Castelfidardo. His last years were spent in complete retirement in France (he had been allowed to return in 1857), and he died at Prouzel (Somme) on the 11th of September 1865.

See E. Keller, _Le Général de Lamoricière_ (Paris, 1873).

LA MOTHE LE VAYER, FRANÇOIS DE (1588-1672), French writer, was born in Paris of a noble family of Maine. His father was an _avocat_ at the parlement of Paris and author of a curious treatise on the functions of ambassadors, entitled _Legatus, seu De legatorum privilegiis, officio et munere libellus_ (1579) and illustrated mainly from ancient history. François succeeded his father at the parlement, but gave up his post about 1647 and devoted himself to travel and _belles lettres_. His _Considérations sur l'éloquence française_ (1638) procured him admission to the Academy, and his _De l'instruction de Mgr. le Dauphin_ (1640) attracted the attention of Richelieu. In 1649 Anne of Austria entrusted him with the education of her second son and subsequently with the completion of Louis XIV.'s education, which had been very much neglected. The outcome of his pedagogic labours was a series of books comprising the _Géographie_, _Rhétorique_, _Morale_, _Économique_, _Politique_, _Logique_, and _Physique du prince_ (1651-1658). The king rewarded his tutor by appointing him historiographer of France and councillor of state. La Mothe Le Vayer died in Paris. Modest, sceptical, and occasionally obscene in his Latin pieces and in his verses, he made himself a _persona grata_ at the French court, where libertinism in ideas and morals was hailed with relish. Besides his educational works, he wrote _Jugement sur les anciens et principaux historiens grecs et latins_ (1646); a treatise entitled _Du peu de certitude qu'il y a en histoire_ (1668), which in a sense marks the beginning of historical criticism in France; and sceptical _Dialogues_, published posthumously under the pseudonym of Orosius Tubero. An incomplete edition of his works was published at Dresden in 1756-1759.

See Bayle, _Dictionnaire critique_, article "Vayer"; L. Étienne,
_Essai sur La Mothe Le Vayer_ (Paris, 1849).

LA MOTTE, ANTOINE HOUDAR DE (1672-1731), French author, was born in Paris on the 18th of January 1672. In 1693 his comedy _Les Originaux_ proved a complete failure, which so depressed the author that he contemplated joining the Trappists, but four years later he again began writing operas and ballets, e.g. _L'Europe galante_ (1697), and tragedies, one of which, _Inès de Castro_ (1723), was produced with immense success at the Théâtre Français. He was a champion of the moderns in the revived controversy of the ancients and moderns. Madame Dacier had published (1699) a translation of the _Iliad_, and La Motte, who knew no Greek, made a translation (1714) in verse founded on her work. The nature of his work may be judged from his own expression: "I have taken the liberty to change what I thought disagreeable in it." He defended the moderns in the _Discours sur Homère_ prefixed to his translation, and in his _Réflexions sur la critique_ (1716). Apart from the merits of the controversy, it was conducted on La Motte's side with a wit and politeness which compared very favourably with his opponent's methods. He was elected to the Academy in 1710, and soon after became blind. La Motte carried on a correspondence with the duchesse du Maine, and was the friend of Fontenelle. He had the same freedom from prejudice, the same inquiring mind as the latter, and it is on the excellent prose in which his views are expressed that his reputation rests. He died in Paris on the 26th of December 1731.

His _Oeuvres du théâtre_ (2 vols.) appeared in 1730, and his _Oeuvres_
(10 vols.) in 1754. See A. H. Rigault, _Histoire de la querelle des
anciens et des modernes_ (1859).

LAMOUREUX, CHARLES (1834-1899), French conductor and violinist, was born at Bordeaux on the 28th of September 1834. He studied at the Pau Conservatoire, was engaged as violinist at the Opéra, and in 1864 organized a series of concerts devoted to chamber music. Having journeyed to England and assisted at a Handel festival, he thought he would attempt something similar in Paris. At his own expense he founded the "Société de l'Harmonie Sacrée," and in 1873 conducted the first performance in Paris of Handel's _Messiah_. He also gave performances of Bach's _St Matthew Passion_, Handel's _Judas Maccabaeus_, Gounod's _Gallia_, and Massenet's _Eve_. In 1875 he conducted the festival given at Rouen to celebrate the centenary of Boïeldieu. The following year he became _chef d'orchestre_ at the Opéra Comique. In 1881 he founded the famous concerts associated with his name, which contributed so much to popularize Wagner's music in Paris. The performances of detached pieces taken from the German master's works did not, however, satisfy him, and he matured the project to produce _Lohengrin_, which at that time had not been heard in Paris. For this purpose he took the Eden Theatre, and on the 3rd of May 1887 he conducted the first performance of Wagner's opera in the French capital. Owing to the opposition of the Chauvinists, the performance was not repeated; but it doubtless prepared the way for the production of the same masterpiece at the Paris Opéra a few years later. Lamoureux was successively second _chef d'orchestre_ at the Conservatoire, first _chef d'orchestre_ at the Opéra Comique, and twice first _chef d'orchestre_ at the Opéra. He visited London on several occasions, and gave successful concerts at the Queen's Hall. Lamoureux died at Paris on the 21st of December 1899. _Tristan und Isolde_ had been at last heard in Paris, owing to his initiative and under his direction. After conducting one of the performances of this masterpiece he was taken ill and succumbed in a few days, having had the consolation before his death of witnessing the triumph of the cause he had so courageously championed.

LAMP (from Gr. [Greek: lampas], a torch, [Greek: lampein], to shine), the general term for an apparatus in which some combustible substance, generally for illuminating purposes, is held. Lamps are usually associated with lighting, though the term is also employed in connexion with heating (e.g. spirit-lamp); and as now employed for oil, gas and electric light, they are dealt with in the article on LIGHTING. From the artistic point of view, in modern times, their variety precludes detailed reference here; but their archaeological history deserves a fuller account.

_Ancient Lamps._--Though Athenaeus states (xv. 700) that the lamp ([Greek: lychnos]) was not an ancient invention in Greece, it had come into general use there for domestic purposes by the 4th century B.C., and no doubt had long before been employed for temples or other places where a permanent light was required in room of the torch of Homeric times. Herodotus (ii. 62) sees nothing strange in the "festival of lamps," Lychnokaie, which was held at Sais in Egypt, except in the vast number of them. Each was filled with oil so as to burn the whole night. Again he speaks of evening as the time of lamps ([Greek: peri lychnôn], vii. 215). Still, the scarcity of lamps in a style anything like that of an early period, compared with the immense number of them from the late Greek and Roman age, seems to justify the remark of Athenaeus. The commonest sort of domestic lamps were of terra-cotta and of the shape seen in figs. 1 and 2 with a spout or nozzle ([Greek: myktêr]) in which the wick ([Greek: thryallis]) burned, a round hole on the top to pour in oil by, and a handle to carry the lamp with. A lamp with two or more spouts was [Greek: dimyxos], [Greek: trimyxos], &c., but these terms would not apply strictly to the large class of lamps with numerous holes for wicks but without nozzles. Decoration was confined to the front of the handle, or more commonly to the circular space on the top of the lamp, and it consisted almost always of a design in relief, taken from mythology or legend, from objects of daily life or scenes such as displays of gladiators or chariot races, from animals and the chase. A lamp in the British Museum has a view of the interior of a Roman circus with spectators looking on at a chariot race. In other cases the lamp is made altogether of a fantastic shape, as in the form of an animal, a bull's head, or a human foot. Naturally colour was excluded from the ornamentation except in the form of a red or black glaze, which would resist the heat. The typical form of hand lamp (figs. 1, 2) is a combination of the flatness necessary for carrying steady and remaining steady when set down, with the roundness evolved from the working in clay and characteristic of vessels in that material. In the bronze lamps this same type is retained, though the roundness was less in keeping with metal. Fanciful shapes are equally common in bronze. The standard form of handle consists of a ring for the forefinger and above it a kind of palmette for the thumb. Instead of the palmette is sometimes a crescent, no doubt in allusion to the moon. It would only be with bronze lamps that the cover protecting the flame from the wind could be used, as was the case out of doors in Athens. Such a lamp was in fact a lantern. Apparently it was to the lantern that the Greek word _lampas_, a torch, was first transferred, probably from a custom of having guards to protect the torches also. Afterwards it came to be employed for the lamp itself ([Greek: lychnos], _lucerna_). When Juvenal (_Sat._ iii. 277) speaks of the _aenea lampas_, he may mean a torch with a bronze handle, but more probably either a lamp or a lantern. Lamps used for suspension were mostly of bronze, and in such cases the decoration was on the under part, so as to be seen from below. Of this the best example is the lamp at Cortona, found there in 1840 (engraved, _Monumenti d. inst. arch._ iii. pls. 41, 42, and in Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_, 2nd ed. ii. p. 403). It is set round with sixteen nozzles ornamented alternately with a siren and a satyr playing on a double flute. Between each pair of nozzles is a head of a river god, and on the bottom of the lamp is a large mask of Medusa, surrounded by bands of animals. These designs are in relief, and the workmanship, which appears to belong to the beginning of the 5th century B.C., justifies the esteem in which Etruscan lamps were held in antiquity (Athenaeus xv. 700). Of a later but still excellent style is a bronze lamp in the British Museum found in the baths of Julian in Paris (figs. 3, 4, 5). The chain is attached by means of two dolphins very artistically combined. Under the nozzles are heads of Pan (fig. 3); and from the sides project the foreparts of lions (fig. 5). To what extent lamps may have been used in temples is unknown. Probably the Erechtheum on the acropolis of Athens was an exception in having a gold one kept burning day and night, just as this lamp itself must have been an exception in its artistic merits. It was the work of the sculptor Callimachus, and was made apparently for the newly rebuilt temple a little before 400 B.C. When once filled with oil and lit it burned continuously for a whole year. The wick was of a fine flax called Carpasian (now understood to have been a kind of cotton), which proved to be the least combustible of all flax (Pausanias i. 26. 7). Above the lamp a palm tree of bronze rose to the roof for the purpose of carrying off the fumes. But how this was managed it is not easy to determine unless the palm be supposed to have been inverted and to have hung above the lamp spread out like a reflector, for which purpose the polished bronze would have served fairly well. The stem if left hollow would collect the fumes and carry them out through the roof. This lamp was refilled on exactly the same day each year, so that there seems to have been an idea of measuring time by it, such as may also have been the case in regard to the lamp stand ([Greek: lychneion]) capable of holding as many lamps as there were days of the year, which Dionysius the Sicilian tyrant placed in the Prytaneum of Tarentum. At Pharae in Achaia there was in the market-place an oracular statue of Hermes with a marble altar before it to which bronze lamps were attached by means of lead. Whoever desired to consult the statue went there in the evening and first filled the lamps and lit them, placing also a bronze coin on the altar. A similar custom prevailed at the oracle of Apis in Egypt (Pausanias vii. 22. 2). At Argos he speaks of a chasm into which it was a custom continued to his time to let down burning lamps, with some reference to the goddess of the lower world, Persephone (ii. 22. 4). At Cnidus a large number of terra-cotta lamps were found crowded in one place a little distance below the surface, and it was conjectured that there must have been there some statue or altar at which it had been a custom to leave lamps burning at night (Newton, _Discoveries at Halicarnassus, &c._, ii. 394). These lamps are of terra-cotta, but with little ornamentation, and so like each other in workmanship that they must all have come from one pottery, and may have been all brought to the spot where they were found on one occasion, probably the funeral of a person with many friends, or the celebration of a festival in his honour, such as the _parentalia_ among the Romans, to maintain which it was a common custom to bequeath property. For example, a marble slab in the British Museum has a Latin inscription describing the property which had been left to provide among other things that a lighted lamp with incense on it should be placed at the tomb of the deceased on the kalends, nones and ides of each month (_Mus. Marbles_, v. pl. 8, fig. 2). For birthday presents terra-cotta lamps appear to have been frequently employed, the device generally being that of two figures of victory holding between them a disk inscribed with a good wish for the new year: ANNV NOV FAVSTV FELIX. This is the inscription on a lamp in the British Museum, which besides the victories has among other symbols a disk with the head of Janus. As the torch gave way to the lamp in fact, so also it gave way in mythology. In the earlier myths, as in that of Demeter, it is a torch with which she goes forth to search for her daughter, but in the late myth of Cupid and Psyche it is an oil lamp which Psyche carries, and from which to her grief a drop of hot oil falls on Cupid and awakes him. Terra-cotta lamps have very frequently the name of the maker stamped on the foot. Clay moulds from which the lamps were made exist in considerable numbers. (A. S. M.)

LAMP-BLACK, a deep black pigment consisting of carbon in a very fine state of division, obtained by the imperfect combustion of highly carbonaceous substances. It is manufactured from scraps of resin and pitch refuse and inferior oils and fats, and other similar combustible bodies rich in carbon, the finest lamp-black being procured by the combustion of oils obtained in coal-tar distillation (see COAL-TAR). Lamp-black is extensively used in the manufacture of printing ink, as a pigment for oil painting and also for "ebonizing" cabinet work, and in the waxing and lacquering of leather. It is the principal constituent of China ink.

LAMPEDUSA, a small island in the Mediterranean, belonging to the province of Girgenti, from which it is about 112 m. S.S.W. Pop. (1901, with Linosa--see below) 2276. Its greatest length is about 7 m., its greatest width about 2 m.; the highest point is 400 ft. above sea-level. Geologically it belongs to Africa, being situated on the edge of the submarine platform which extends along the east coast of Tunisia, from which (at Mahadia) it is 90 m. distant eastwards. The soil is calcareous; it was covered with scrub (chiefly the wild olive) until comparatively recent times, but this has been cut, and the rock is now bare. The valleys are, however, fairly fertile. On the south, near the only village, is the harbour, which has been dredged to a depth of 13 ft. and is a good one for torpedo boats and small craft.

The island was, as remains of hut foundations show, inhabited in prehistoric times. Punic tombs and Roman buildings also exist near the harbour. The island is the Lopadusa of Strabo, and the Lipadosa of Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_, the scene of the landing of Roger of Sicily and of his conversion by the hermit. A thousand slaves were taken from its population in 1553. In 1436 it was given by Alfonso of Aragon to Don Giovanni de Caro, baron of Montechiaro. In 1661, Ferdinand Tommasi, its then owner, received the title of prince from Charles II. of Spain. In 1737 the earl of Sandwich found only one inhabitant upon it; in 1760 some French settlers established themselves there. Catherine II. of Russia proposed to buy it as a Russian naval station, and the British government thought of doing the same if Napoleon had succeeded in seizing Malta. In 1800 a part of it was leased to Salvatore Gatt of Malta, who in 1810 sublet part of it to Alessandro Fernandez. In 1843 onwards Ferdinand II. of Naples established a colony there. There is now an Italian penal colony for _domicilio coatto_, with some 400 convicts (see B. Sanvisente, _L'Isola di Lampedusa eretta a colonia_, Naples, 1849). Eight miles W. is the islet of Lampione. Linosa, some 30 m. to the N.N.E., measures about 2 by 2 m., and is entirely volcanic; its highest point is 610 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) about 200. It has landing-places on the S. and W., and is more fertile than Lampedusa; but it suffers from the lack of springs. Sanvisente says the water in Lampedusa is good. A few fragments of undoubtedly Roman pottery and some Roman coins have been found there, but the cisterns and the ruins of houses are probably of later date (P. Calcara, _Descrizione dell' isola di Linosa_, Palermo, 1851, 29). (T. As.)

LAMPERTHEIM, a town in the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, 8 m. N. from Mannheim by the railway to Frankfort-on-Main via Biblis, and at the junction of lines to Worms and Weinheim. It contains a Roman Catholic church and a fine Evangelical church, and has chemical and cigar factories. Pop. (1900) 8020.

LAMPETER (_Llanbedr-pont-Stephan_), a market town, municipal borough and assize town of Cardiganshire, Wales, on the right bank of the Teifi, here crossed by an ancient stone bridge. Pop. (1901) 1722. Lampeter is a station on the so-called Manchester-and-Milford branch line of the Great Western railway. Though of ancient origin, the town is entirely modern in appearance, its most conspicuous object being the Gothic buildings of St David's College, founded in 1822, which cover a large area and contain a valuable library of English, Welsh and foreign works (see UNIVERSITIES). The modernized parish church of St Peter, or Pedr, contains some old monuments of the Lloyd family. North of the town are the park and mansion of Falcondale, the seat of the Harford family.

The name of Llanbedr-pont-Stephan goes to prove the early foundation of the place by St Pedr, a Celtic missionary of the 6th century, while one Stephen was the original builder of the bridge over the Teifi. As an important outpost in the upper valley of the Teifi, Lampeter possessed a castle, which was demolished by Owen Gwynedd in the 12th century. In 1188 the town was visited by Archbishop Baldwin on his way from Cardigan to Strata-Florida Abbey, and the Crusade was vigorously preached at this spot. Lampeter was first incorporated under Edward II., but the earliest known charter dates from the reign of Henry VI., whereby the principal officer of the town, a portreeve, was to be appointed annually at the court-leet of the manor. The town was subsequently governed under a confirmatory charter of 1814, but in 1884 a new charter was obtained, whereby the corporation was empowered to consist of a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Although only a small agricultural centre, Lampeter has since 1886 become the assize town of Cardiganshire owing to its convenient position. Until the Redistribution Act of 1885 Lampeter formed one of the group of boroughs comprising the Cardigan parliamentary district.

LAMPOON, a virulent satire either in prose or verse; the idea of injustice and unscrupulousness seems to be essential to its definition. Although in its use the word is properly and almost exclusively English, the derivation appears to be French. Littré derives it from a term of Parisian argot, _lamper_, to drink, greedily, in great mouthfuls. This word appears to have begun to be prevalent in the middle of the 17th century, and Furetière has preserved a fragment from a popular song, which says:--

Jacques fuyant de Dublin
Dit à Lauzun, son cousin,
"Prenez soin de ma couronne,
J'aurai soin de ma personne,
Lampons! lampons!"

--that is to say, let us drink heavily, and begone dull care. Scarron speaks of a wild troop, singing _leridas_ and _lampons_. There is, also, a rare French verb, _lamponner_, to attack with ridicule, used earlier in the 17th century by Brantôme. In its English form, lampoon, the word is used by Evelyn in 1645, "Here they still paste up their drolling lampoons and scurrilous papers," and soon after it is a verb,--"suppose we lampooned all the pretty women in Town." Both of these forms, the noun and the verb, have been preserved ever since in English, without modification, for violent and reckless literary censure. Tom Brown (1663-1704) was a past master in the art of lampooning, and some of his attacks on the celebrities of his age have a certain vigour. When Dryden became a Roman Catholic, Brown wrote:--

Traitor to God and rebel to thy pen,
Priest-ridden Poet, perjured son of Ben,
If ever thou prove honest, then the nation
May modestly believe in transubstantiation.

Several of the heroes of the _Dunciad_, and in particular John Oldmixon (1673-1742), were charged without unfairness with being professional lampooners. The coarse diatribes which were published by Richard Savage (1697-1743), mainly against Lady Macclesfield, were nothing more nor less than lampoons, and the word may with almost equal justice be employed to describe the coarser and more personal portions of the satires of Churchill. As a rule, however, the lampoon possessed no poetical graces, and in its very nature was usually anonymous. The notorious _Essay on Woman_ (1764) of John Wilkes was a lampoon, and was successfully proceeded against as an obscene libel. The progress of civilization and the discipline of the law made it more and more impossible for private malice to take the form of baseless and scurrilous attack, and the lampoon, in its open shape, died of public decency in the 18th century. Malice, especially in an anonymous form, and passing in manuscript from hand to hand, has continued, however, to make use of this very unlovely form of literature. It has constantly reappeared at times of political disturbance, and the French have seldom failed to exercise their wicked wit upon their unpopular rulers. See also PASQUINADE. (E. G.)

LAMPREY, a fish belonging to the family _Petromyzontidae_ (from [Greek: petros] and [Greek: myzô], literally, stone-suckers), which with the hag-fishes or _Myxinidae_ forms a distinct subclass of fishes, the _Cyclostomata_, distinguished by the low organization of their skeleton, which is cartilaginous, without vertebral segmentation, without ribs or real jaws, and without limbs. The lampreys are readily recognized by their long, eel-like, scaleless body, terminating anteriorly in the circular, suctorial mouth characteristic of the whole sub-class. On each side, behind the head, there is a row of seven branchial openings, through which the water is conveyed to and from the gills. By means of their mouth they fasten to stones, boats, &c., as well as to other fishes, their object being to obtain a resting-place on the former, whilst they attach themselves to the latter to derive nourishment from them. The inner surface of their cup-shaped mouth is armed with pointed teeth, with which they perforate the integuments of the fish attacked, scraping off particles of the flesh and sucking the blood. Mackerel, cod, pollack and flat-fishes are the kinds most frequently attacked by them in the sea; of river-fish the migratory _Salmonidae_ and the shad are sometimes found with the marks of the teeth of the lamprey, or with the fish actually attached to them. About fifteen species are known from the coasts and rivers of the temperate regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. In Great Britain and Europe generally three species occur, viz. the large spotted sea-lamprey (_Petromyzon marinus_), the river-lamprey or lampern (_P. fluviatilis_), and the small lampern or "pride" or "sand-piper" (_P. branchialis_). The first two are migratory, entering rivers in the spring to spawn; of the river-lamprey, however, specimens are met with in fresh water all the year round. In North America about ten species of lamprey occur, while in South America and Australasia still others are found. Lampreys, especially the sea-lamprey, are esteemed as food, formerly more so than at present; but their flesh is not easy of digestion. Henry I. of England is said to have fallen a victim to this, his favourite dish. The species of greatest use is the river-lamprey, which as bait is preferred to all others in the cod and turbot fisheries of the North Sea. Yarrell states that formerly the Thames alone supplied from 1,000,000 to 1,200,000 lamperns annually, but their number has so much fallen off that, for instance, in 1876 only 40,000 were sold to the cod-fishers. That year, however, was an unusually bad year; the lamperns, from their scarcity, fetched £8, 10s. a thousand, whilst in ordinary years £5 is considered a fair price. The season for catching lamperns closes in the Thames about the middle of March. The origin of the name lamprey is obscure; it is an adaptation of Fr. _lamproie_, Med. Lat. _lampreda_; this has been taken as a variant of another Med. Lat. form _Lampetra_, which occurs in ichthyological works of the middle ages; the derivation from _lambere petras_, to lick stones, is a specimen of etymological ingenuity. The development of lampreys has received much attention on the part of naturalists, since Aug. Müller discovered that they undergo a metamorphosis, and that the minute worm-like lamperns previously known under the name of _Ammocoetes_, and abundant in the sand and mud of many streams, were nothing but the undeveloped young of the river-lampreys and small lamperns. See CYCLOSTOMATA.

LAMPROPHYRES (from Gr. [Greek: lampros], bright, and the terminal part of the word porphyry, meaning rocks containing bright porphyritic crystals), a group of rocks containing phenocrysts, usually of biotite and hornblende (with bright cleavage surfaces), often also of olivine and augite, but not of felspar. They are thus distinguished from the porphyries and porphyrites in which the felspar has crystallized in two generations. They are essentially "dike rocks," occurring as dikes and thin sills, and are also found as marginal facies of plutonic intrusions. They furnish a good example of the correlation which often exists between petrographical types and their mode of occurrence, showing the importance of physical conditions in determining the mineralogical and structural characters of rocks. They are usually dark in colour, owing to the abundance of ferro-magnesian silicates, of relatively high specific gravity and liable to decomposition. For these reasons they have been defined as a _melanocrate_ series (rich in the dark minerals); and they are often accompanied by a complementary _leucocrate_ series (rich in the white minerals felspar and quartz) such as aplites, porphyries and felsites. Both have been produced by differentiation of a parent magma, and if the two complementary sets of rocks could be mixed in the right proportions, it is presumed that a mass of similar chemical composition to the parent magma would be produced.

Both in the hand specimens and in microscopic slides of lamprophyric rocks biotite and hornblende are usually conspicuous. Though black by reflected light they are brown by transmitted light and highly pleochroic. In some cases they are yellow-brown, in other cases chestnut-brown and reddish brown; in the same rock the two minerals have strikingly similar colour and pleochroism. Augite, when it occurs, is sometimes green, at other times purple. Felspar is restricted to the ground mass; quartz occurs sometimes but is scarce. Although porphyritic structure is almost universal, it is sometimes not very marked. The large biotites and hornblendes are not sharply distinct from those of intermediate size, which in turn graduate into the small crystals of the same minerals in the ground mass. As a rule all the ingredients have rather perfect crystalline forms (except quartz), hence these rocks have been called "panidiomorphic." In many lamprophyres the pale quartz and felspathic ingredients tend to occur in rounded spots, or _ocelli_, in which there has been progressive crystallization from the margins towards the centre. These spots may consist of radiate or brush-like felspars (with some mica and hornblende) or of quartz and felspar. A central area of quartz or of analcite probably represents an original miarolitic cavity infilled at a later period.

There are two great groups of lamprophyres differing in composition while retaining the general features of the class. One of these accompanies intrusions of granite and diorite and includes the minettes, kersantites, vogesites and spessartites. The other is found in association with nepheline syenites, essexites and teschenites, and is exemplified by camptonites, monchiquites and alnoites. The complementary facies of the first group is the aplites, porphyrites and felsites; that of the second group includes bostonites, tinguaites and other rocks.

The _granito-dioritic-lamprophyres_ (the first of these two groups)
are found in many districts where granites and diorites occur, e.g.
the Scottish Highlands and Southern Uplands, the Lake district,
Ireland, the Vosges, Black Forest, Harz, &c. As a rule they do not
proceed directly from the granite, but form separate dikes which may
be later than, and consequently may cut, the granites and diorites. In
other districts where granites are abundant no rocks of this class are
known. It is rare to find only one member of the group present, but
minettes, vogesites, kersantites, &c., all appear and there are
usually transitional forms. For this reason these rock species must
not be regarded as sharply distinct from one another. The group as a
whole is a well-characterized one and shows few transitions to
porphyries, porphyrites and other dike types; its subdivisions,
however, tend to merge into one another and especially when they are
weathered are hard to differentiate. The presence or absence of the
four dominant minerals, orthoclase, plagioclase, biotite and
hornblende, determines the species. Minettes contain biotite and
orthoclase; kersantites, biotite and plagioclase. Vogesites contain
hornblende and orthoclase; spessartites, hornblende and plagioclase.
Each variety of lamprophyre may and often does contain all four
minerals but is named according to the two which preponderate. These
rocks contain also iron oxides (usually titaniferous), apatite,
sometimes sphene, augite and olivine. The hornblende and biotite are
brown or greenish brown, and as a rule their crystals even when small
are very perfect and give the micro-sections an easily recognizable
character. Green hornblende occurs in some of these rocks. The augite
builds eumorphic crystals of pale green colour, often zonal and
readily weathering. Olivine in the fresh state is rare; it forms
rounded, corroded grains; in many cases it is decomposed to green or
colourless hornblende in radiating nests (pilite). The plagioclase
occurs as small rectangular crystals; orthoclase may have similar
shapes or may be fibrous and grouped in sheaflike aggregates which are
narrow in the middle and spread out towards both ends. If quartz is
present it is the last product of crystallization and the only mineral
devoid of idiomorphism; it fills up the spaces between the other
ingredients of the rock. As all lamprophyres are prone to alteration
by weathering a great abundance of secondary minerals is usually found
in them; the principal are calcite and other carbonates, limonite,
chlorite, quartz and kaolin.

Ocellar structure is common; the ocelli consist mainly of orthoclase
and quartz, and may be a quarter of an inch in diameter. Another
feature of these rocks is the presence of large foreign crystals or
xenocrysts of felspar and of quartz. Their forms are rounded,
indicating partial resorption by the solvent action of the
lamprophyric magma; and the quartz may be surrounded by corrosion
borders of minerals such as augite and hornblende produced where the
magma is attacking the crystal. These crystals are of doubtful origin;
they are often of considerable size and may be conspicuous in
hand-specimens of the rocks. It is supposed that they did not
crystallize in the lamprophyre dike but in some way were caught up by
it. Other enclosures, more certainly of foreign origin, are often
seen, such as quartzite, schists, garnetiferous rocks, granite, &c.
These may be baked and altered or in other cases partly dissolved.
Cordierite may be formed either in the enclosure or in the
lamprophyre, where it takes the shape of hexagonal prisms which in
polarized light break up into six sectors, triangular in shape,
diverging from the centre of the crystal.

The second group of lamprophyric dike rocks (_the camptonite,
monchiquite, alnoite series_) is much less common than those above
described. As a rule they occur together, and there are transitions
between the different sub-groups as in the granito-dioritic
lamprophyres. In Sweden, Brazil, Portugal, Norway, the north of
Scotland, Bohemia, Arkansas and other places this assemblage of rock
types has been met with, always presenting nearly identical features.
In most cases, though not in all, they have a close association with
nepheline or leucite syenites and similar rocks rich in alkalies. This
indicates a genetic affinity like that which exists between the
granites and the minettes, &c., and further proof of this connexion is
furnished by the occasional occurrence in those lamprophyres of
leucite, haüyne and other felspathoid minerals.

The camptonites (called after Campton, New Hampshire) are dark brown,
nearly black rocks often with large hornblende phenocrysts. Their
essential minerals in thin section are hornblende of a strong
reddish-brown colour; augite purple, pleochroic and rich in titanium,
olivine and plagioclase felspar. They have the porphyritic and
panidiomorphic structures described in the rocks of the previous
group, and like them also have an ocellar character, often very
conspicuous under the microscope. The accessory minerals are biotite,
apatite, iron oxides and analcite. They decompose readily and are then
filled with carbonates. Many of these rocks prove on analysis to be
exceedingly rich in titanium; they may contain 4 or 5% of titanium
dioxide.

The monchiquites (called after the Serra de Monchique, Portugal) are
fine-grained and devoid of felspar. Their essential constituents are
olivine and purplish augite. Brown hornblende, like that of the
camptonites, occurs in many of them. An interstitial substance is
present, which may sometimes be a brown glass, but at other times is
colourless and is believed by some petrographers to be primary
crystalline analcite. They would define the monchiquites as rocks
consisting of olivine, augite and analcite; others regard the analcite
as secondary, and consider the base as essentially glassy. Some
monchiquites contain haüyne; while in others small leucites are found.
Ocellar structure is occasionally present, though less marked than in
the camptonites. A special group of monchiquites rich in deep brown
biotite has been called fourchites (after the Fourche Mountains,
Arkansas).

The alnoites (called after the island of Alnö in Norway) are rare
rocks found in Norway, Montreal and other parts of North America and
in the north of Scotland. They contain olivine, augite, brown biotite
and melilite. They are free from felspar, and contain very low
percentages of silica.

The chemical composition of some of these rocks will be indicated by
the analyses of certain well-known examples.