OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Signia

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SIGNIA (mod. Segni), an ancient town of Latium (adiectum), Italy, on a projecting lower summit of the Volscian mountains, above the Via Latina, some 35 m. S.E. of Rome. The modern railway station, 33 m. S.E. of Rome, lies 5 m. S.E. of Signia, 669 ft. above sea level. The modern town (2192 ft.) occupies the lower part of the ancient site. Pop. (1901) 6942. Its foundation as a Roman colony is ascribed to Tarquinius Superbus, and new colonists were sent there in 495 B.C. Its position was certainly of great importance: it commands a splendid view, and with Anagnia, which lies opposite to it, guarded the approach to the valley of the Trerus or Tolerus (Sacco) and so the road to the south. It remained faithful to Rome both in the Latin and in the Hannibalic wars, and served as a place of detention for the Carthaginian hostages during the latter. It seems to have remained a place of some importance. Like Cora it retained the right of coining in silver. The wonderfully hard, strong cement, made partly of broken pieces of pottery, which served as the lining for Roman water cisterns (opus signinum) owes its name to its invention here (Vitruvius, viii. 7, 14). Its wine, pears and charcoal were famous in Romatl times. In 90 B.C. it became a municipium with a senates and praetores. In the civil war it joined the democratic party, and it was from here that in 82 B.C. Marius marched to Sacriportus (probably marked by the medieval castle of Piombinara, near Segni station, commanding the junction of the Via Labicana and the Via Latina; see T. Ashby, Papers of the British School at Rome, London, 1902,1902, i. 125 sqq.), where he was defeated with loss. After this we hear no more of Signia until, in the middle ages, it became a papal fortress.
The city wall, constructed of polygonal blocks of the mountain limestone and 14 m. in circumference, is still well preserved and has several gates; the largest, Porta Saracinesca, is roofed by the gradual inclination of the sides until they are close enough to allow of the placing of a lintel. The other gates are mostly narrow posterns covered with flat monolithic lintels, and the careful jointing of the blocks of which some of them are composed may be noted. Their date need not be so early as is generally believed (cf. NORBA) and they are certainly not pre-Roman. A portion of the wall in the modern town has been restored in opus quadratum of tufa in Roman times. Above the modern town, on the highest point, is the church of S. Pietro, occupying the central cella of the ancient Capitolium of Signia (which had three cellae). The walls consist of rectangular blocks of tufa, and the whole rests upon a platform of polygonal masses of limestone (see R. Delbriick, Das Capitolium von Signia, Rome, 1903). An open circular cistern in front of the church lined with rectangular blocks of tufa may also be noted. (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasilievich

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​LOMONÓSOV, MIKHAIL VASILIEVICH (1711–1765), Russian poet and man of science, was born in the year 1711, in the village of Denisovka (the name of which was afterwards changed in honour of the poet), situated on an island not far from Kholmogorî, in the government of Archangel. His father, a fisherman, took the boy when he was ten years of age to assist him in his calling; but the lad’s eagerness for knowledge was unbounded. The few books accessible to him he almost learned by heart; and, seeing that there was no chance of increasing his stock of knowledge in his native place, he resolved to betake himself to Moscow. An opportunity occurred when he was seventeen, and by the intervention of friends he obtained admission into the Zaikonospasski school. There his progress was very rapid, especially in Latin, and in 1734 he was sent from Moscow to St Petersburg. There again his proficiency, especially in physical science, was marked, and he was one of the young Russians chosen to complete their education in foreign countries. He accordingly commenced the study of metallurgy at Marburg; he also began to write poetry, imitating German authors, among whom he is said to have especially admired Günther. His Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks was composed in 1739, and attracted a great deal of attention at St Petersburg. During his residence in Germany Lomonósov married a native of the country, and found it difficult to maintain his increasing family on the scanty allowance granted to him by the St Petersburg Academy, which, moreover, was irregularly sent. His circumstances became embarrassed, and he resolved to leave the country secretly and to return home. On his arrival in Russia he rapidly rose to distinction, and was made professor of chemistry in the university of St Petersburg; he ultimately became rector, and in 1764 secretary of state. He died in 1765.
The most valuable of the works of Lomonósov are those relating to physical science, and he wrote upon many branches of it. He everywhere shows himself a man of the most varied learning. He compiled a Russian grammar, which long enjoyed popularity, and did much to improve the rhythm of Russian verse.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lomza (town)

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​LOMZA, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on the Narew, 103 m. by rail N.E. from Warsaw. Pop. (1872), 13,860, (1900) 22,428. Lomza is an old town, one of its churches having been erected before 1000. In the 16th century it carried on a brisk trade with Lithuania and Prussia. It was well fortified and had two citadels, but nevertheless often suffered from the invasions of the Germans and Tatars, and in the 17th century it was twice plundered by the Cossacks of the Ukraine. In 1795 it fell under the dominion of Prussia, and after the peace of Tilsit (1807) it came under Russian rule.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/London (Ontario)

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​LONDON, a city and port of entry of Middlesex county, Ontario, Canada, situated 121 m. N.W. of Toronto, on the river Thames and the Grand Trunk, Canadian Pacific and Michigan Central railways. Pop. (1901), 37,981; but several suburbs, not included in these figures, are in reality part of the city. The local nomenclature is largely a reproduction of that of the great city whose name it has borrowed. Situated in a fertile agricultural district, it is a large distributing centre. Among the industries are breweries, petroleum refineries, and factories for the manufacture of agricultural implements and of railway carriages. The educational institutions include the Hellmuth Ladies’ College and the Western University (founded in 1878 under the patronage of the Church of England). London was founded in 1825–1826.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Londonderry, Earls and Marquesses of

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​LONDONDERRY, EARLS AND MARQUESSES OF. The 1st earl of Londonderry was Thomas Ridgeway (c. 1565–1631), a Devon man, who was treasurer in Ireland from 1606 to 1616 and was engaged in the plantation of Ulster. Ridgeway was made a baronet in 1611, Baron Ridgeway in 1616 and earl of Londonderry in 1623. The Ridgeways held the earldom until March 1714, when Robert, the 4th earl, died without sons. In 1726 Robert’s son-in-law, Thomas Pitt (c. 1688–1729), son of Thomas Pitt, “Diamond Pitt,” governor at Madras and uncle of the great earl of Chatham, was created earl of Londonderry, the earldom again becoming extinct when his younger son Ridgeway, the 3rd earl of this line, died unmarried in January 1765. In 1796 Robert Stewart (1739–1821), of Mount Stewart, Co. Down, was made earl of Londonderry in the Irish peerage. He had been created Baron Londonderry in 1789 and Viscount Castlereagh in 1795; in 1816 he was advanced to the rank of marquess of Londonderry. The 3rd marquess married the heiress of the Vane-Tempests and took the name of Vane instead of Stewart; the 5th marquess called himself Vane-Tempest and the 6th marquess Vane-Tempest-Stewart.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lomza (government)

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​LOMZA, or Lomzha, a government of Russian Poland, bounded N. by Prussia and the Polish government of Suwalki, E. by the Russian government of Grodno, S. by the Polish governments of Siedlce and Warsaw and W. by that of Plock. It covers 4666 sq. m. It is mostly flat or undulating, with a few tracts in the north and south-west where the deeply cut valleys give a hilly aspect to the country. Extensive marshes overspread it, especially on the banks of the Narev, which flows from east to south-west, joining the Bug in the south-western corner of the government. The Bug flows along the southern border, joining the Vistula 20 m. below its confluence with the Narev. There are forests in the east of the government. The inhabitants numbered 501,385 in 1872 and 585,033 in 1897, of whom 279,279 were women, and 69,834 lived in towns. The estimated population in 1906 was 653,100. By religion 771/2% are Roman Catholics, 151/2% Jews and 51/2% members of the Orthodox Church. Agriculture is the predominant industry, the chief crops being rye, oats, wheat, barley, buckwheat, peas, potatoes, flax and hemp. Bees are extensively kept, and large numbers of ​poultry, especially geese, are reared. Stock raising is carried on to some extent. The wood trade is important; other industries are the production of pottery, beer, flour, leather, bricks, wooden wares, spirits, tobacco and sugar. There is only one railway (between Grodno and Warsaw); the Bug is navigable, but wood only is floated down the Narev. The government is divided into seven districts, of which the chief towns, with their populations in 1897, are Lomza (q.v.), Ostrolenka (8679), Mazowiec (3900), Ostrów (11,264), Maków (7232), Kolno (4941) and Szczuczyn (5725).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Londonderry, Charles William Stewart, 3rd Marquess of

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​LONDONDERRY, CHARLES WILLIAM STEWART (VANE), 3rd Marquess of (1778–1854), British soldier and diplomatist, was the son of the 1st marquess by a second marriage with the daughter of the 1st Earl Camden. He entered the army and served in the Netherlands (1794), on the Rhine and Danube (1795), in the Irish rebellion (1798), and Holland (1799), rising to be colonel; and having been elected to parliament for Kerry he became under secretary for war under his half-brother Castlereagh in 1807. In 1808 he was given a cavalry command in the Peninsula, where he brilliantly distinguished himself. In 1809, and again in the campaigns of 1810, 1811, having become a major-general, he served under Wellington in the Peninsula as his adjutant-general, and was at the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, but at the beginning of 1812 he was invalided home. Castlereagh (see Londonderry, 2nd Marquess of) then sent him to Berlin as minister, to represent Great Britain in the allied British, Russian and Prussian armies; and as a cavalry leader he played an important part in the subsequent fighting, while ably seconding Castlereagh’s diplomacy. In 1814 he was made a peer as Baron Stewart, and later in the year was appointed ambassador at Vienna, and was a member of the important congresses which followed. In 1822 his half-brother’s death made him 3rd marquess of Londonderry, and shortly afterwards, disagreeing with Canning, he resigned, being created Earl Vane (1823), and for some years lived quietly in England, improving his Seaham estates. In 1835 he was for a short time ambassador at St Petersburg. In 1852, after the death of Wellington, when he was one of the pall-bearers, he received the order of the Garter. He died on the 6th of March 1854. He was twice married, first in 1808 to the daughter of the earl of Darnley, and secondly in 1819 to the heiress of Sir Harry Vane-Tempest (a descendant of Sir Piers Tempest, who served at Agincourt, and heir to Sir Henry Vane, Bart.), when he assumed the name of Vane. Frederick William Robert (1805–1872), ​his son by the first marriage, became 4th marquess; and on the latter’s death in 1872, George Henry (1821–1884), the eldest son by the second marriage, after succeeding as Earl Vane (according to the patent of 1823), became 5th marquess. In 1884 he was succeeded as 6th marquess by his son Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart (b. 1852), a prominent Conservative politician, who was viceroy of Ireland (1886–1889), chairman of the London School Board (1895–1897), postmaster-general (1900–1902), president of the Board of Education (1902–1905) and lord president of the Council (1903–1905).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lonauli

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​LONAULI, a town of India, in the Poona district of Bombay, at the top of the Bhor Ghat pass in the Western Ghats, by which the Great Indian Peninsula railway climbs from Bombay to Poona. Pop. (1901), 6686. It contains the locomotive works of the railway. Lonauli is a place of resort from Bombay during the hot season.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Razorbill

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​RAZORBILL, or Razor-billed Auk, known also on many parts of the British coasts as the Marrot, Murre, Scout, Tinker or Willock—names which it, however, shares with the Guillemot (q.v.) and to some extent with the Puffin (q.v.)—a common sea-bird of the North Atlantic, resorting in vast numbers to certain rocky cliffs for the purpose of breeding, and returning to deeper waters for the rest of the year. It is the Alca torda of Linnaeus and most modern authors, congeneric with the Gare-fowl (q.v.), if not with the true Guillemots, between which two forms it is intermediate—differing from the former in its small size and retaining its power of flight, which that extinct species had lost, and from the latter in its peculiarly-shaped bill, which is vertically enlarged, compressed, and deeply furrowed, as well as in its elongated, wedge-shaped tail. A fine white line, running ​on each side from the base of the culmen to the eye, is in the adult bird in breeding-apparel (with rare exceptions) a further characteristic. Otherwise the appearance of all these birds may be briefly described in the same words—head, breast and upper parts generally of a deep glossy black, and the lower parts and tip of the secondaries of a pure white, while the various changes of plumage dependent on age or season are alike in all. In habits the razorbill agrees closely with the true guillemots, laying its single egg (which is not, however, subject to the same variety of coloration as in the guillemot) on the ledges of cliffs, but it is said as a rule to occupy higher elevations, and when not breeding to keep farther out to sea. On the east side of the Atlantic the Razorbill has its breeding stations from the North Cape to Brittany, besides several in the Baltic, while in winter it passes much farther to the southward, and is sometimes numerous in the Bay of Gibraltar, occasionally entering the Mediterranean, but apparently never extending east of Sicily or Malta. On the west side of the Atlantic it breeds from 70º N. lat. on the eastern shore of Baffin's Bay to Cape Farewell, and again on the coast of America from Labrador and Newfoundland to the Bay of Fundy, while in winter it reaches Long Island. (A. N.)
* ↑ Schlegel (Mus. des Pays-Bas, Urinatores, p. 14) records an example from Japan; but this must be in error.
* ↑ The word Alca is simply the Latinized form of this bird's common Teutonic name, Alk, of which Auk is the English modification. It must be therefore be held to be the type of the Linnaean genus Alca, though some systematists on indefensible grounds have removed it thence, making it the sole member of a genus named by Leach, after Aldrovandus (Ornithologia, bk. xix. chap. xlix.), Utamania—an extraordinary word, that seems to have originated in some mistake from the no less extraordinary Vuttamaria, given by Belon (Observations, i. c. xi.) as the Cretan name of some diving bird, which could not have been the present species.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Razzia

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​RAZZIA (an adaptation of the Algerian Arabic ghāzīah, from ghasw, to make war), a foray or raid made by African Moslems. As used by the Arabs, the word denotes a military expedition against rebels or infidels, and razzias were made largely for punishment of hostile tribes or for the capture of slaves. English writers in the early years of the 19th century used the form ghrazzie, and Dixon Denham in his Travels (1826) styles the raiding force itself the ghrazzie. The modern English form is copied from the French, while the Portuguese variant is gazia, gaziva.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Re

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​RE, the Egyptian solar god, one of the most important figures in the Pantheon. See Egypt, section Egyptian Religion.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Readymoney, Sir Cowasji Jehangir

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​READYMONEY, SIR COWASJI JEHANGIR (1812–1879), “the Peabody of Bombay.” Early in the 18th century three Parsee brothers moved from Nowsari, near Surat, in Gujarat, to Bombay, and became the pioneers of a lucrative trade with China. They gained the sobriquet of “ Readymoney,” which they adopted as a surname. Only Hirji Jewanji Readymoney left issue, two daughters, the elder of whom married a Banaji, and the younger a Dady Sett. The son of the former, Jehangir Hirji, married Mirbae, the daughter of the latter, and was made the heir not only of his grandfather, but of his two grand-uncles. The younger of their two sons was Cowasji Jehangir. His only English education was at the then well-known school kept by Serjeant Sykes in the fort of Bombay. At the age of 15 he entered the firm of Duncan, Gibb & Co. as “ godown keeer,” or warehouse clerk. In 1837 he was promoted to the responsible and lucrative appointment of " guarantee broker " to two of the leading European firms of Bombay. In 1846 he was able to begin trading on his own account. He was made a J.P. for the town and island of Bombay, and a member of the board of conservancy; and in 1866 was appointed a commissioner of income tax, his tactful management being largely responsible for the fact this tax, then new to Bombay and unpopular, was levied with unexpected financial success. He was made C.S.I. in 1871; and in 1872 he was created a Knight Bachelor of the United Kingdom, and his statue, by T. Woolner, R. A., was erected in the town hall. His donations to the institutions of Bombay amounted to close on £200,00. His health broke down in 1871, and he died in 1878, being succeeded by his son, Sir J. Coswasji Jehangir [Readymoney], who was created a Knight Bachelor in 1895, and a Baronet in 1908.
See J. Cowasji Jehangir, Sir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney' (1890). (M. M. Bh.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Reading Beds

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​READING BEDS, in geology, a series of marine and estuarine beds consisting of variegated plastic clays and bright-coloured sands, which form, with the Woolwich beds, a subdivision of the Lower Eocene (see Woolwich and Reading Beds).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Razor

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​RAZOR (O.F. rasor, mod. rasoir, from raser, to scrape, rase, Late Lat. rasare, frequentative of radere, to scrape), a sharp-edged cutting instrument, used for shaving the hair and beard. The typical razor consists of a blade, usually curving slightly backward, folding into a handle, to which it is fastened by a tang and rivet. The back of the blade is thick and the sides are hollowed or slope to the fine edge (see Cutlery). In modern times various forms of safety-razor have been invented, in which the blade fits into a fixed handle with a toothed or comb-like shield which protects the face from cutting.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stramonium

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​STRAMONIUM, in medicine, a drug obtained from the leaves and seeds of the Datura stramonium. Both contain an alkaloid known as daturine. From the seeds is made extractum stramonii. The tinctura stramonii is made from the leaves. The physiological action of stramonium resembles that of belladonna, except that stramonium relaxes to a greater extent the unstriped muscle of the bronchial tubes; for this reason it is used in asthma to relieve the bronchial spasm. Cigarettes made of stramonium leaves may be smoked or the tincture may be taken internally. Frequently the leaves powdered together with equal quantities of the powdered leaves of the Cannabis Indica and lobelia mixed with potassium nitrate are burned in an open dish. The preparation gives off dense fumes which afford great relief to the asthmatic paroxysm. Numerous patent " cures " for asthma contain these ingredients in vaiying proportions. Daturine is used as daturinae sulphas. In acute mania it acts like hyoscyamine in producing sleep. In large doses stramonium is a narcotic poison producing the well-marked stages of exaltation of function, diminution of functional activity, and later loss of function, sinking into coma and paralysis.