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

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​MEERSCHAUM, a German word designating a soft white mineral sometimes found floating on the Black Sea, and rather suggestive of sea-foam (Meerschaum), whence also the French name for the same substance, écume de mer. It was termed by E. F. Glocker sepiolite, in allusion to its remote resemblance to the “bone” of the sepia or cuttle-fish. Meerschaum is an opaque mineral of white, grey or cream colour, breaking with a conchoidal or fine earthy fracture, and occasionally though rarely, fibrous in texture. It can be readily scratched with the nail, its hardness being about 2. The specific gravity varies from 0·988 to 1·279, but the porosity of the mineral may lead to error. Meerschaum is a hydrous magnesium silicate, with the formula H$_4$Mg$_2$Si$_3$O$_{10}$, or Mg$_2$Si$_3$O$_8$·2H$_2$O.
Most of the meerschaum of commerce is obtained from Asia Minor, chiefly from the plain of Eski-Shehr, on the Haidar Pasha-Angora railway, where it occurs in irregular nodular masses, in alluvial deposits, which are extensively worked for its extraction. It is said that in this district there are 4000 shafts leading to horizontal galleries for extraction of the meerschaum. The principal workings are at Sepetdji-Odjaghi and Kemikdji-Odjaghi, about 20 m. S.E. of Eski-Shehr. The mineral is associated with magnetite (magnesium carbonate), the primitive source of both minerals being a serpentine. When first extracted the meerschaum is soft, but it hardens on exposure to solar heat or when dried in a warm room. Meerschaum is found also, though less abundantly, in Greece, as at Thebes, and in the islands of Euboea and Samos; it occurs also in serpentine at Hrubschitz near Kromau in Moravia. It is found to a limited extent at certain localities in France and Spain, and is known in Morocco. In the United States it occurs in serpentine in Pennsylvania (as at Nottingham, Chester county) and in South Carolina and Utah.
Meerschaum has occasionally been used as a substitute for soap and fuller’s earth, and it is said also as a building material; but its chief use is for tobacco-pipes and cigar-holders. The ​natural nodules are first scraped to remove the red earthy matrix, then dried, again scraped and polished with wax. The rudely shaped masses thus prepared are sent from the East to Vienna and other manufacturing centres, where they are turned and carved, smoothed with glass-paper and Dutch rushes, heated in wax or stearine, and finally polished with bone-ash, &c. Imitations are made in plaster of Paris and other preparations.
The soft, white, earthy mineral from Långbanshyttan, in Vermland, Sweden, known as Aphrodite (ἀφρός, foam), is closely related to meerschaum. It may be noted that meerschaum has sometimes been called magnesite (q.v.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Meganucleus

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​MEGANUCLEUS (also called Macronucleus), in Infusoria (q.v.), the large nucleus which undergoes direct (amitotic) division in fission, and is lost during conjugation, to be replaced by a nucleus, the result of the karyogamy of the micronuclei.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lansquenet

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​LANSQUENET, the French corrupted form of the German Landsknecht (q.v.), a mercenary foot-soldier of the 16th century. It is also the name of a card game said to have been introduced into France by the Landsknechte. The pack of 52 cards is cut by the player at the dealer’s right. The dealer lays the two first cards face upwards on the table to his left; the third he places in front of him and the fourth, or réjouissance card, in the middle of the table. The players, usually called (except in the case of the dealer) punters, stake any sum within the agreed limit upon this réjouissance card; the dealer, who is also the banker, covers the bets and then turns up the next card. If this fails to match any of the cards already exposed, it is laid beside the réjouissance card and then punters may stake upon it. Other cards not matching are treated in the same manner. When a card is turned which matches the réjouissance card, the banker wins everything staked on it, and in like manner he wins what is staked on any card (save his own) that is matched by the card turned. The banker pays all stakes, and the deal is over as soon as a card appears that matches his own; excepting that should the two cards originally placed at his left both be matched before his own, he is then entitled to a second deal. In France matching means winning, not losing, as in Great Britain. There are other variations of play on the continent of Europe.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lannion

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​LANNION, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Côtes-du-Nord, on the right bank of the Léguer, 45 m. W.N.W. of St Brieuc by rail. Pop. (1906) 5336. Lannion is 5 m. in direct line from the mouth of the Léguer; its port does a small trade (exports of agricultural produce, imports of wine, salt, timber, &c.), and there is an active fishing industry. The town contains many houses of the 15th and 16th centuries and other old buildings, the chief of which is the church of St Jean-du-Baly (16th and 17th centuries). On an eminence close to Lannion is the church of Brélevenez of the 12th century, restored in the 15th or 16th century; it has an interesting 16th-century Holy Sepulchre.
Some 6 m. S.E. of the town are the imposing ruins of the château of Tonquédec (c. 1400) styled the “Pierrefonds of Brittany,” and there are other buildings of antiquarian interest in the vicinity. The coast north of Lannion at Trégastel and Ploumanac presents curious rock formations.
Lannion is the seat of a subprefect and has a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. Its industries include saw-milling, tanning and the manufacture of farm implements. The town was taken in 1346 by the English; it was defended against them by Geoffroy de Pontblanc whose valour is commemorated by a cross close to the spot where he was slain.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lansing Man

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​LANSING MAN, the term applied by American ethnologists to certain human remains discovered in 1902 during the digging of a cellar near Lansing, Kansas, and by some authorities believed to represent a prehistoric type of man. They include a skull and several large adult bones and a child’s jaw. They were found beneath 20 ft. of undisturbed silt, in a position indicating intentional burial. The skull is preserved in the U. S. National Museum at Washington. It is similar in shape to those of historic Indians of the region. Its ethnological value as indicating the existence of man on the Missouri in the glacial period is very doubtful, it being impossible accurately to determine the age of the deposits.
See Handbook of American Indians (Washington, 1907).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lanolin

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​LANOLIN (Lat. lana, wool, and oleum, oil), the commercial name of the preparation styled adeps lanae hydrosus in the British Pharmacopoeia, and which consists of 7 oz. of neutral wool-fat (adeps lanae) mixed with 3 fluid oz. of water. The wool-fat is obtained by purification of the “brown grease,” “recovered grease” or dégras extracted from raw sheep’s wool in the process of preparing it for the spinner. It is a translucent unctuous substance which has the property of taking up large quantities of water and forming emulsions which are very slow to separate into their constituents. Owing to the ease with which it penetrates the skin, wool-fat both in the anhydrous form and as lanolin, sometimes mixed with such substances as vaseline or fatty oils, is largely employed as a basis for ointments. It is slightly antiseptic and does not become rancid.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lannoy, Guillebert de

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​LANNOY, GUILLEBERT DE (1386–1462), Flemish diplomatist, was chamberlain to the duke of Burgundy, governor of the fort of Sluys, and a knight of the Golden Fleece. He discharged several diplomatic missions in France, England, Prussia, Poland and Lithuania, and was one of the negotiators of the treaty of Troyes (1420). In 1421 he was sent by Henry V. of England to Palestine to inquire into the possibility of reviving the kingdom of Jerusalem, and wrote an account of his travels, Les Pèlerinages de Surye et de Egipte, which was published in 1826 and again in 1842.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lansdowne

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​LANSDOWNE, a hill cantonment in India, in Garhwal district of the United Provinces, about 6000 ft. above the sea, 19 m. by cart road from the station of Kotdwara on the Oudh and Rohilkhand railway. Pop. (1901) 3943. The cantonment, founded in 1887, extends for more than 3 m. through pine and oak forests, and can accommodate three Gurkha battalions.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lansing

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​LANSING, the capital of Michigan, U.S.A., in Ingham county, at the confluence of the Grand and Cedar rivers, about 85 m. W.N.W. of Detroit and about 64 m. E.S.E. of Grand Rapids. Pop. (1900) 16,485, of whom 2397 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 31,229. It is served by the Michigan Central, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Grand Trunk and the Père Marquette railways, and by interurban electric lines. The Grand river on its way through the city makes a horse-shoe bend round a moderately elevated plateau; this is the commercial centre of the city, and here, in a square covering 10 acres, is the State Capitol, erected in 1873–1878 and containing the State library. On the opposite side of the river, farther N., and also extending across the southern portion of the city, are districts devoted largely to manufacturing. Lansing has a public library and a city hospital. About 3 m. E. of the city, at East Lansing, is the State Agricultural College (coeducational), the oldest agricultural college in the United States, which was provided for by the state constitution of 1850, was organized in 1855 and opened in 1857. Its engineering course was begun in 1885; a course in home economics for women was established in 1896; and a forestry course was opened in 1902. In connexion with the college there is an agricultural experiment station. Lansing is the seat of the Michigan School for the Blind, and of the State Industrial School for Boys, formerly the Reform School. The city has abundant water-power and is an important manufacturing centre. The value of the factory products increased from $2,942,306 in 1900 to $6,887,415 in 1904, or 134.1%. The municipality owns and operates the water-works and the electric-lighting plant. The place was selected as the site for the capital in 1847, when it was still covered with forests, and growth was slow until 1862, when the railways began to reach it. Lansing was chartered as a city in 1859 and rechartered in 1893.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lantara, Simon Mathurin

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​LANTARA, SIMON MATHURIN (1729–1778), French landscape painter, was born at Oncy on the 24th of March 1729. His father was a weaver, and he himself began life as a herdboy; but, having attracted the notice of Gille de Reumont, a son of his master, he was placed under a painter at Versailles. Endowed with great facility and real talent, his powers found ready recognition; but he found the constraint of a regular life and the society of educated people unbearably tiresome; and as long as the proceeds of the last sale lasted he lived careless of the future in the company of obscure workmen. Rich amateurs more than once attracted him to their houses, only to find that in ease and high living Lantara could produce nothing. He died in Paris on the 22nd of December 1778. His works, now much prized, are not numerous; the Louvre has one landscape, “Morning,” signed and dated 1761. Bernard, Joseph Vernet, and others are said to have added figures to his landscapes and sea-pieces. Engravings after Lantara will be found in the works of Lebas, Piquenot, Duret, Mouchy and others. In 1809 a comedy called Lantara, or the Painter in the Pothouse, was brought out at the Vaudeville with great success.
See E. Bellier de la Chavignerie, Recherches sur le peintre Lantara (Paris, 1852).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Renton

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​RENTON, a manufacturing town of Dumbartonshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 5067. It is situated on the Leven, 2 m. N.N.W. of Dumbarton by the North British and Caledonian railways. The leading industry is Turkey red dyeing, and calico-printing and bleaching are also carried on. A parish church stands on the site of Dalquhurn House, the birthplace of Tobias Smollett the novelist, to whose memory a Tuscan column was erected in 1774, the inscription for which was revised by Dr Johnson when he visited Bonhill in that year with Boswell. The town was founded in 1782 by Mrs Smollett—previously Mrs Telfer—of Bonhill (sister of Tobias Smollett), who resumed her maiden name when she succeeded to the Smollett estates; it was named after Cecilia Renton, daughter of John Renton of Blackadder, who had married Mrs Smollett’s son, Alexander Telfer.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Renée of France

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​RENÉE OF FRANCE (1510–1575), second daughter of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany, was born at Blois on the 25th of October 1510. After being betrothed successively to Gaston de Foix, Charles of Austria (the future emperor Charles V.), his brother Ferdinand, Henry VIII. of England, and the elector Joachim II. of Brandenburg, she married in 1528 Hercules of Este, son of the duke of Ferrara, who succeeded his father six years later. Renée's court became a rendezvous of men of letters and a refuge for the persecuted French Calvinists. She received Clément Marot and Calvin at her court, and finally embraced the reformed religion. Her husband, however, who viewed these proceedings with disfavour, banished her friends, took her children from her, threw her into prison, and eventually made her abandon at any rate the outward forms of Calvinism. After his death in 1559, Renée returned to France and turned her duchy of Montargis into a centre of Protestant propaganda. During the wars of religion she was several times molested by the Catholic troops, and in 1562 her château was besieged by her son-in-law, the duke of Guise. She died at Montargis.
See B. Fontana, Renata di Francia (Rome, 1889 seq.); and E. Rodocanachi, Renée de France (Paris, 1896).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Renoir, Firmin Auguste

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​ RENOIR, FIRMIN AUGUSTE (1841-), French painter, was born at Limoges in 1841. In his early work he followed, with pronounced modern modifications, certain traditions of the French 18th-century school, more particularly of Boucher, of whom we are reminded by the decorative tendency, the pink and ivory flesh tints and the facile technique of Renoir. In the 'seventies he threw himself into the impressionist movement and became one of its leaders. In some of his paintings he carried the new principle of the division of tones to its extreme, but in his best work, notably in some of his paintings of the nude, he retained much of the refined sense of beauty of colour of the 18th century. Renoir has tried his skill almost in every genre—in portraiture, landscape, flower-painting, scenes of modern life and figure subject; and though he is perhaps the most unequal of the great impressionists, his finest works rank among the masterpieces of the modern French school. Among these are some of his nude “Bathers,” the “Rowers' Luncheon,” the “Ball at the Moulin de la Galette,” “The Box,” “The Terrace,” “La Pensée,” and the portrait of “Jeanne Samary." He is represented in the Caillebotte room at the Luxembourg, in the collection of M. Durand-Ruel, and in most of the collections of impressionist paintings in France and in the United States. Comparatively few of his works have come to England, but the full range of his capacity was seen at the exhibition of impressionist art held at the Grafton Galleries in London in 1905. At the Viau sale in Paris in 1907, a garden scene by Renoir, “La Tonnelle,” realized 26,000 frs., and a little head, “Ingénue,” 25,100 frs.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rep

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​REP, Repp, or Reps, a cloth made of silk, wool or cotton. The name is said to have been adapted from the French reps, a word of unknown origin; it has also been suggested that it is a corruption of “rib.” It is woven in fine cords or ribs across the width of the piece. In silk it is used for dresses, and to some extent for ecclesiastical vestments, &c. In wool and cotton it is used for various upholstery purposes.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rensselaer

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​RENSSELAER, a city of Rensselaer county, New York, U.S.A., in the eastern part of the state, on the E. bank of the Hudson river, opposite Albany. Pop. (1900) 7466, of whom 1089 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 10,711. It is served by the New York Central and the Boston & Albany railways, which have shops here, and is connected with Albany by three bridges across the Hudson. Rensselaer, originally called Greenbush, was first settled in 1631, and the site formed part of the large tract bought from the Indians by the agents of Killian van Rensselaer and known as Rensselaerwyck. In 1810 a square mile of land within the present city limits was acquired by a land speculator, was divided into lots and offered for sale. Development followed, and five years later the village was incorporated. In 1897 Greenbush was chartered as a city, and its name was changed to Rensselaer. Its limits were extended in 1902 by the annexation of the village of Bath (pop. in 1900, 2504) and the western part of the township of East Greenbush. Rensselaer manufactures knit-goods, wool shoddy, felt, &c.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Renwick, James

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​RENWICK, JAMES (1662–1688), Scottish covenanting leader, was born at Moniaive in Dumfriesshire on the 15th of February 1662, being the son of a weaver, Andrew Renwick. Educated at Edinburgh University, he joined the section of the Covenanters known as the Cameronians about 1681 and soon became prominent among them. Afterwards he studied theology at the university of Groningen and was ordained a minister in 1683. Returning to Scotland “full of zeal and breathing forth threats of organized assassination,” says Mr Andrew Lang, he became one of the field-preachers and was declared a rebel by the privy council. He was largely responsible for the “apologetical declaration” of 1684 by which he and his followers disowned the authority of Charles II.; the privy council replied by ordering every one to abjure this declaration on pain of death. Unlike some of his associates, Renwick refused to join the rising under the earl of Argyll in 1685; in 1687, when the declarations of indulgence allowed some liberty of Worship to the Presbyterians, he and his followers, often called Renwickites, continued to hold meetings in the fields, which were still illegal. A reward was offered for his capture, and early in 1688 he was seized in Edinburgh. Tried and found guilty of disowning the royal authority and other offences, he refused to apply for a pardon and was hanged on the 17th of February 1688. Renwick was the last of the covenanting martyrs.
See R. Wodrow, History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, vol. iv. (Glasgow, 1838); and A. Smellie, Men of the Covenant (1904); also Renwick’s life by Alexander Shields in the Biographia Presbyteriana (1827).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Renouf, Sir Peter le Page

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​ RENOUF, SIR PETER LE PAGE (1822-1897), Egyptologist, was born in Guernsey, on the 23rd of August 1822. He was educated at Elizabeth College there, and proceeded to Oxford, which, upon his becoming a Roman Catholic, under the influence of Dr Newman, he quitted without taking a degree. Like many other Anglican converts, he proved a thorn in the side of the Ultramontane party in the Roman Church, though he did not, like some of them, return to the communion of the Church of England. He opposed the promulgation of the dogma of Papal Infallibility, and his treatise (1868) upon the condemnation of Pope Honorius for heresy by the council of Constantinople in A.D. 680 was placed upon the index of prohibited books. He had been from 1855 to 1864 professor of ancient history and Oriental languages in the Roman Catholic university which Newman vainly strove to establish in Dublin, and during part of this period edited the Atlantis and the Home and Foreign Review, which latter had to be discontinued on account of the hostility of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. In 1864 he was appointed a government inspector of schools, which position he ​held until 1886, when his growing celebrity as an Egyptologist procured him the appointment of Keeper of Oriental Antiquities in the British Museum, in succession to Dr Samuel Birch. He was also elected in 1887 president of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, to whose Proceedings he was a constant contributor. The most important of his contributions to Egyptology are his Hibbert Lectures on “The Religion of the Egyptians,” delivered in 1879; and the translation of The Book of the Dead, with an ample commentary, published in the Transactions of the society over which he presided. He retired from the Museum under the superannuation rule in 1891, and died in London on the 14th of October 1897. He had been knighted the year before his death. He married in 1857 Ludovica von Brentano, member of a well-known German literary family.