OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mena, Pedro de

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​MENA, PEDRO DE (d. 1693), Spanish sculptor, was born in Adra. He was a pupil of his father as well as of Alonzo Cano. His first conspicuous success was achieved in work for the convent El Angel at Granada, including figures of St Joseph, St Antony of Padua, St Diego, St Pedro Meantara, St Franciscus and Santa Clara. In 1658 he signed a contract for sculptural work on the choir stalls of the cathedral at Malaga—this work extending over four years. Other works are, statues of the Madonna and child and of St Joseph in Madrid, the polychromatic figures in the church of St Isodoro, the Magdalena and the Gertrudis in the church of St Martin (Madrid), the crucifixion in the Nuestra Senora de Gracia (Madrid), the statuette of St Francis of Assisi in Toledo, and of St Joseph in the St Nicholas church in Murcia. Between 1673 and 1679 Mena worked at Cordova. About 1680 he was in Granada, where he executed a half-length Madonna and child (seated) for St Dominicos. Mena died in Malaga in 1693. He and Mora (q.v.) may be regarded as artistic descendants of Montanes and Alonzo Cano, but in technical skill and the expression of religious motive his statues are unsurpassed in the sculpture of Spain. His feeling for the nude was remarkable. Like his immediate predecessors he excelled in the portrayal of contemplative figures and scenes; Mena’s drawing of Santiago leaping upon his charger is good, and the carving admirable, but the necessary movement for so spirited an action is lacking.
See B. Haendcke, Studien zur Geschichte der spanischen Plastik (Strassburg, 1900).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dais

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​DAIS (Fr. dais, estrade, Ital. predella), originally a part of the floor at the end of a medieval hall, raised a step above the rest of the building. On this the lord of the mansion dined with his friends at the high table, apart from the retainers and servants. In medieval halls there was generally a deep recessed bay window at one or at each end of the dais, supposed to be for retirement, or greater privacy than the open hall could afford. In France the word is understood as a canopy or hanging over a seat; probably the name was given from the fact that the seats of great men were then surmounted by such a feature. In ordinary use, the term means any raised platform in a room, for dignified occupancy.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dakar

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​DAKAR, a seaport of Senegal, and capital of French West Africa, in 14° 40′ N., 17° 24′ W. The town, which is strongly fortified, holds a commanding strategic position on the route between western Europe and Brazil and South Africa, being situated in the Gulf of Goree on the eastern side of the peninsula of Cape Verde, the most westerly point of Africa. It is the only port of Senegal affording safe anchorage for the largest ships. Pop. (1904), within the municipal limits, 18,447; including suburbs, 23,452.
The town consists for the most part of broad and regular streets and possesses several fine public buildings, notably the palace of the governor-general. It is plentifully supplied with good water and is fairly healthy. It is the starting point of the railway to St Louis, and is within five days steam of Lisbon. The harbour, built in 1904–1908, is formed by two jetties, one of 6840 ft., the other of 1968 ft., the entrance being 720 ft. wide. There are three commercial docks, with over 7000 ft. of quayage, ships drawing 26 ft. being able to moor alongside. Cargo is transferred directly to the railway trucks. There is also a naval dock and arsenal with a torpedo-boat basin 755 ft. by 410 ft. and a dry dock 656 ft. long and 92 ft. broad. The Messageries Maritimes Company use the port as a coaling station and provisioning depot for their South American trade. Dakar is a regular port of call for other French lines and for the Elder Dempster boats sailing between Liverpool and the West Coast of Africa. It shares with Rufisque and St Louis the external trade of Senegal and the adjacent regions. For trade statistics see Senegal.
Dakar was originally a dependency of Goree and was founded in 1862, a year after the declaration of a French protectorate over the mainland. The port was opened for commerce in 1867, and in 1885 its importance was greatly increased by the completion of the railway (163 m. long) to St Louis. Dakar thus came into direct communication with the countries of Upper Senegal and the middle Niger. In 1887 the town was made a commune on the French model, all citizens irrespective of colour being granted the franchise. In 1903 the offices of the governor-general and of the court of appeal of French West Africa were transferred from St Louis to Dakar, which is also the seat of a bishop. In February 1905 a submarine cable was laid between Brest and Dakar, affording direct telegraphic communication between France and her West African colonies by an all French route.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Daisy

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​DAISY (A.S. daeges eage, day’s eye), the name applied to the plants constituting the genus Bellis, of the natural order Compositae. The genus contains ten species found in Europe and the Mediterranean region. The common daisy, B. perennis, is the only representative of the genus in the British Isles. It is a perennial, abundant everywhere in pastures and on banks in Europe, except in the most northerly regions, and in Asia Minor, and occurs as an introduced plant in North America. The stem of the daisy is short; the leaves, which are numerous and form a rosette, are slightly hairy, obovate-spathulate in shape, with rounded teeth on the margin in the upper part; and the root-stock is creeping, and of a brownish colour. The flowers are to be found from March to November, and occasionally in the winter months. The heads of flowers are solitary, the outer or ray-florets pink or white, the disk-florets bright yellow. The size and luxuriance of the plant are much affected by the nature of the soil in which it grows. The cultivated varieties, which are numerous, bear finely-coloured flowers, and make very effective borders for walks. What is known as the “hen-and-chicken” daisy has the main head surrounded by a brood of sometimes as many as ten or twelve small heads, formed in the axils of the scales of the involucre. The ray-florets curve inwards and “close” the flower-head in dull weather and towards evening.
Chaucer writes—
* “The daisie, or els the eye of the daie,
* The emprise, and the floure of flouris alle”;
and again—
* “To seen this floure agenst the sunne sprede
* Whan it riseth early by the morrow,
* That blissful sight softeneth all my sorrow”;
and the flower is often alluded to with admiration by the other poets of nature. To the farmer, however, the daisy is a weed, and a most wasteful one, as it exhausts the soil and is not eaten by any kind of stock.
In French the daisy is termed la marguerite (μαργαρίτης, a pearl), and “herb margaret” is stated to be an old English appellation for it. In Scotland it is popularly called the gowan, and in Yorkshire it is the bairn wort, or flower beloved by children. The Christmas and Michaelmas daisies are species of Aster; the ox-eye daisy is Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, a common weed in meadows and waste places. B. perennis flore-pleno, the ​double daisy, consists of dwarf, showy, 3 to 4 in. plants, flowering freely in spring if grown in rich light soil, and frequently divided and transplanted. The white and pink forms, with the white and red quilled, and the variegated-leaved aucubaefolia, are some of the best.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dahlstjerna, Gunno

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​DAHLSTJERNA, GUNNO (1661–1709), Swedish poet, whose original surname was Eurelius, was born on the 7th of September 1661 in the parish of Öhr in Dalsland, where his father was rector. He entered the university of Upsala in 1677, and after gaining his degree entered the government office of land-surveying. He was sent in 1681 on professional business to Livonia, ​then under Swedish rule. A dissertation read at Leipzig in 1687 brought him the offer of a professorial chair in the university, which he refused. Returning to Sweden he executed commissions in land-surveying directed by King Charles XI., and in 1699 he became head of the whole department. In 1702 he was ennobled under the name of Dahlstjerna. He wandered over the whole of the coast of the Baltic, Livonia, Rügen and Pomerania, preparing maps which still exist in the office of public land-surveying in Stockholm. His death, which took place in Pomerania on his forty-eighth birthday, 7th of September 1709, is said to have been hastened by the disastrous news of the battle of Poltava. Dahlstjerna’s patriotism was touching in its pathos and intensity, and during his long periods of professional exile he comforted himself by the composition of songs to his beloved Sweden. His genius was most irregular, but at his best he easily surpasses all the Swedish poets of his time. His best-known original work is Kungaskald (Stettin, 1697), an elegy on the death of Charles XI. It is written in alexandrines, arranged in ottava rima. The poem is pompous and allegorical, but there are passages full of melody and high thoughts. Dahlstjerna was a reformer in language, and it has been well said by Atterbom that in this poem “he treats the Swedish speech just as dictatorially as Charles XI. and Charles XII. treated the Swedish nation.” In 1690 was printed at Stettin his paraphrase of the Pastor Fido of Guarini. His most popular work is his Götha kämpavisa om Konungen och Herr Peder (The Goth’s Battle Song, concerning the King and Master Peter; Stockholm, 1701). The King is Charles XII. and Master Peter is the tsar of Russia. This spirited ballad lived almost until our own days on the lips of the people as a folk-song.
The works of Dahlstjerna have been collected by P. Hanselli, in the Samlade Vitterhetsarbeten af svenska Författare från Stjernhjelm till Dalin (Upsala, 1856, &c.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Daillé, Jean

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​DAILLÉ (Dallaeus), JEAN (1594–1670), French Protestant divine, was born at Châtellerault and educated at Poitiers and Saumur. From 1612 to 1621 he was tutor to two of the grandsons of Philippe de Mornay, seigneur du Plessis Marly. Ordained to the ministry in 1623, he was for some time private chaplain to Du Plessis Mornay, whose memoirs he subsequently wrote. In 1625 Daillé was appointed minister of the church of Saumur, and in 1626 was chosen by the Paris consistory to be minister of the church of Charenton. Of his works, which are principally controversial, the best known is the treatise Du vrai emploi des Pères (1631), translated into English by Thomas Smith under the title A Treatise concerning the right use of the Fathers (1651). The work attacks those who made the authority of the Fathers conclusive on matters of faith and practice. Daillé contends that the text of the Fathers is often corrupt, and that even when it is correct their reasoning is often illogical. In his Sermons on the Philippians and Colossians, Daillé vindicated his claim to rank as a great preacher as well as an able controversialist. He was president of the last national synod held in France, which met at Loudun in 1659 (H. M. Baird, The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1895, i. pp. 412 ff.), when, as in the Apologie des Synodes d’Alençon et de Charenton (1655), he defended the universalism of Moses Amyraut. He wrote also Apologie pour les Églises Réformées and La Foy fondée sur les Saintes Écritures. His life was written by his son Adrien, who retired to Zürich at the revocation of the edict of Nantes.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Laraish

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​LARAISH (El Araish), a port in northern Morocco on the Atlantic coast in 35° 13′ N., 6° 9′ W., 43 m. by sea S. by W. of Tangier, picturesquely situated on the left bank of the estuary of the Wad Lekkus. Pop. 6000 to 7000. The river, being fairly deep inside the bar, made this a favourite port for the Salli rovers to winter in, but the quantity of alluvial soil brought down threatens to close the port. The town is well situated for defence, its walls are in fair condition, and it has ten forts, all supplied with old-fashioned guns. Traces of the Spanish occupation from 1610–1689 are to be seen in the towers whose names are given by Tissot as those of St Stephen, St James and that of the Jews, with the Castle of Our Lady of Europe, now the kasbah or citadel. The most remarkable feature of Laraish is its fine large market-place inside the town with a low colonnade in front of very small shops. The streets, though narrow and steep, are generally paved. Its chief exports are oranges, millet, dra and other cereals, goat-hair and skins, sheepskins, wool and fullers’ earth. The wool goes chiefly to Marseilles. The annual value of the trade is from £400,000 to £500,000.
In 1780 all the Europeans in Laraish were expelled by Mohammed XVI., although in 1786 the monopoly of its trade had been granted to Holland, even its export of wheat. In 1787 the Moors were still building pirate vessels here, the timber for which came from the neighbouring forest of M’amora. Not far from the town are the remains of what is believed to be a Phoenician city, Shammish, mentioned by Idrisi, who makes no allusion to Laraish. It is not, however, improbable from a passage in Scylax that the site of the present town was occupied by a Libyan settlement. Tradition also connects Laraish with the garden of the Hesperides, ʽArāsi being the Arabic for “pleasure-gardens,” and the “golden apples” perhaps the familiar oranges.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Laramie

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See also Laramie, Wyoming on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​LARAMIE, a city and the county-seat of Albany county, Wyoming, U.S.A., on the Laramie river, 57 m. by rail N.W. of Cheyenne. Pop. (1900) 8207, of whom 1280 were foreign-born; (1905) 7601; (1910) 8237. It is served by the Union Pacific and the Laramie, Hahn’s Peak & Pacific railways, the latter extending from Laramie to Centennial (30 m.). The city is situated on the Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7165 ft., and is hemmed in on three sides by picturesque mountains. It has a public library, a United States Government building and hospitals, and is the seat of the university of Wyoming and of a Protestant Episcopal missionary bishopric. There is a state fish hatchery in the vicinity. The university (part of the public school system of the state) was founded in 1886, was opened in 1887, and embraces a College of Liberal Arts and Graduate School, a Normal School, a College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, an Agricultural Experiment Station (established by a Federal appropriation), a College of Engineering, a School of Music, a Preparatory School and a Summer School. Laramie is a supply and distributing centre for a live-stock raising and mining region—particularly coal mining, though gold, silver, copper and iron are also found. The Union Pacific Railroad Company has machine shops, repair shops and rolling mills at Laramie, and, a short distance S. of the city, ice-houses and a tie-preserving plant. The manufactures include glass, leather, flour, plaster and pressed brick, the brick being made from shale obtained in the vicinity. The municipality owns and operates the water-works; the water is obtained from large springs about 21/2 m. distant. Laramie was settled in 1868, by people largely from New England, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, and was named in honour of Jacques Laramie, a French fur trader. It was first chartered as a city in 1868 by the legislature of Dakota, and was rechartered by the legislature of Wyoming in 1873.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Larcher, Pierre Henri

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​LARCHER, PIERRE HENRI (1726–1812), French classical scholar and archaeologist, was born at Dijon on the 12th of October 1726. Originally intended for the law, he abandoned it for the classics. His (anonymous) translation of Chariton’s Chaereas and Callirrhoë (1763) marked him as an excellent Greek scholar. His attack upon Voltaire’s Philosophie de l’historie (published under the name of l’Abbé Bazin) created considerable interest at the time. His archaeological and mythological Mémoire sur Vénus (1775), which has been ranked with similar works of Heyne and Winckelmann, gained him admission to the Académie des Inscriptions (1778). After the imperial university was founded, he was appointed professor of Greek literature (1809) with Boissonade as his assistant. He died on the 22nd of December 1812. Larcher’s best work was his translation of Herodotus (1786, new ed. by L. Humbert, 1880) on the preparation of which he had spent fifteen years. The translation itself, though correct, is dull, but the commentary (translated into English, London, 1829, new ed. 1844, by W. D. Cooley) dealing with historical, geographical and chronological questions, and enriched by a wealth of illustration from ancient and modern authors, is not without value.
See J. F. Boissonade, Notice sur la vie et les écrits de P. L. (1813); F. A. Wolf, Literarische Analecten, i. 205; D. A. Wyttenbach, Philomathia, iii. (1817).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lard

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​LARD (Fr. lard, from Lat. laridum, bacon fat, related to Gr. λαρινός fat, λαρός dainty or sweet), the melted and strained fat of the common hog. Properly it is prepared from the “leaf” or fat of the bowel and kidneys, but in commerce the term as applied to products which include fat obtained from other parts of the animal and sometimes containing no “leaf” at all. Lard of various grades is made in enormous quantities by the great pork-packing houses at Chicago and elsewhere in America. “Neutral lard” is prepared at a temperature of 40°–50° C. from freshly killed hogs; the finest quality, used for making oleomargarine, is got from the leaf, while the second, employed by biscuit and pastry bakers, is obtained from the fat of the back. Steam heat is utilized in extracting inferior qualities, such as “choice lard” and “prime steam lard,” the source of the latter being any fat portion of the animal. Lard is a pure white fat of a butter-like consistence; its specific gravity is about 0.93, its solidifying point about 27°–30° C., and its melting point 35°–45° C. It contains about 60% of olein and 40% of palmitin and stearin. Adulteration is common, the substances used including “stearin” both of beef and of mutton, and vegetable oils such as cotton seed oil: indeed, mixtures have been sold as lard that contain nothing but such adulterants. In the pharmacopoeia lard figures as adeps and is employed as a basis for ointments. Benzoated lard, used for the same purpose, is prepared by heating lard with 3% of powdered benzoin for two hours; it keeps better than ordinary lard, but has slightly irritant properties.
Lard oil is the limpid, clear, colourless oil expressed by hydraulic pressure and gentle heat from lard; it is employed for burning and for lubrication. Of the solid residue, lard “stearine,” the best qualities are utilized for making oleomargarine, the inferior ones in the manufacture of candles.
See J. Lewkowitsch, Oils, Fats and Waxes (London, 1909).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lardner, Dionysius

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​LARDNER, DIONYSIUS (1793–1859), Irish scientific writer, was born at Dublin on the 3rd of April 1793. His father, a solicitor, wished his son to follow the same calling. After some years of uncongenial desk work, Lardner entered Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated B.A. in 1817. In 1828 he became professor of natural philosophy and astronomy at University College, London, a position he held till 1840, when he eloped with a married lady, and had to leave the country. After a lecturing tour through the principal cities of the United States, which realized £40,000, he returned to Europe in 1845. He settled at Paris, and resided there till within a few months of his death, which took place at Naples on the 29th of April 1859.
Though lacking in originality or brilliancy, Lardner showed himself to be a successful popularizer of science. He was the author of numerous mathematical and physical treatises on such subjects as algebraic geometry (1823), the differential and integral calculus (1825), the steam engine (1828), besides hand-books on various departments of natural philosophy (1854–1856); but it is as the editor of Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1830–1844) that he is best remembered. To this scientific library of 134 volumes many of the ablest savants of the day contributed, Lardner himself being the author of the treatises on arithmetic, geometry, heat, hydrostatics and pneumatics, mechanics (in conjunction with Henry Kater) and electricity (in conjunction with C. V. Walker). The Cabinet Library (12 vols., 1830–1832) and the Museum of Science and Art (12 vols., 1854–1856) are his other chief undertakings. A few original papers appear in the Royal Irish Academy’s Transactions (1824), in the Royal Society’s Proceedings (1831–1836) and in the Astronomical Society’s Monthly Notices (1852–1853); and two Reports to the British Association on railway constants (1838, 1841) are from his pen.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lara

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​LARA, western state of Venezuela, lying in the angle formed by the parting of the N. and N.E. ranges of the Cordillera de Mérida and extending N.E. with converging frontiers to the Caribbean. Pop. (1905 estimate) 272,252. The greater part of its surface is mountainous, with elevated fertile valleys which have a temperate climate. The Tocuyo river rises in the S.W. angle of the state and flows N.E. to the Caribbean with a total length of 287 m. A narrow-gauge railway, the “South-western,” owned by British capitalists, runs from the port of Tucacas 55 m. S.W. to Barquisimeto by way of the Aroa copper-mining district. Lara produces wheat and other cereals, coffee, sugar, tobacco, neat cattle, sheep and various mineral ores, including silver, copper, iron, lead, bismuth and antimony. The capital, Barquisimeto, is one of the largest and most progressive of the inland cities of Venezuela. Carora is also prominent as a commercial centre. Tocuyo (pop. in 1891, 15,383), 40 m. S.W. of Barquisimeto, is an important commercial and mining town, over 2000 ft. above sea-level, in the midst of a rich agricultural and pastoral region. Yaritagua (pop. about 12,000), 20 m. E. of Barquisimeto, and 1026 ft. above the sea, is known for its cigar manufactories.