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

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​KANGAROO-RAT, a name applied in different parts of the world to two widely different groups of mammals. In Australia it is used to denote the small kangaroo-like marsupials technically known as Potoroinae, which zoologists prefer to call rat-kangaroos (see Marsupialia and Kangaroo). In North America it is employed for certain small jumping rat-like rodents nearly allied to the pocket-gophers and belonging to the family Geomyidae. Kangaroo-rats in this latter series are represented by three North American genera, of which Dipodomys phillipsi, Cricetodipus agilis and Microdipodops megacephalus may respectively be taken as examples. Resembling pocket-gophers in the possession of cheek-pouches, kangaroo-rats, together with pocket-mice, are distinguished by their elongated hind-limbs and tails, large eyes, well-developed ears and general jerboa-like appearance and habits. The upper incisor teeth are also relatively narrower, and there are important differences in the skull. The cheek-teeth are rootless in kangaroo-rats, but they develop roots in the pocket-mice. The former inhabit open, sandy districts, where they burrow beneath rocks or stones, and hop about like jerboas; their food consisting of grasses and other plants.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kanker

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​KANKER, a feudatory state of India, within the Central Provinces; area, 1429 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 103,536; estimated revenue, £10,000. It is a hilly tract, containing the headwaters of the Mahanadi. The extensive forests have recently been made profitable by the opening of a branch railway. The residence of the raja, who is of an old Rajput family though ruling over Gonds, is at Kanker (pop. 3906).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kankakee

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​KANKAKEE, a city and the county-seat of Kankakee county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the N.E. part of the state, on the Kankakee river, 56 m S. of Chicago. Pop. (1900), 13,595, of whom 3346 were foreign-born; (1910 census), 13,986. Kankakee is served by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Illinois Central, and the Chicago, Indiana & Southern (controlled by the New York Central) railways. It is the seat of the Eastern Hospital for the Insane (1879) a state institution; St Joseph’s Seminary (Roman Catholic) and a Conservatory of Music. At Bourbonnais Grove, 3 m. N. of Kankakee is St Viateur’s College (founded 1868), a well-known Roman Catholic divinity school, and Notre Dame Academy, another Catholic institution. The city has a public library and four large parks; in Court House Square there is a monument erected by popular subscription in honour of the soldiers from Kankakee county who died in the Civil War. There are rock quarries here, and the city manufactures sewing machines, musical instruments, especially pianos, foundry and machine shop products, agricultural implements and furniture. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $2,089,143, an increase of 222 % since 1900. Kankakee is also a shipping point for agricultural products. It was first settled in 1832; was platted as the town of Bourbonnais in 1853, when Kankakee county was first organized; was chartered as the city of Kankakee in 1855, and was re-chartered in 1892.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kangavar

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​KANGAVAR, a small district of Persia, situated between Hamadan and Kermanshah, and, being held in fief by the family of a deceased court official, forming a separate government. The district is very fertile and contains 30 villages. Its revenues amount to about £500 per annum, and its chief place is the large village of Kangavar, which has a population of about 2500 and is 47 m. from Hamadan on the high road to Kermanshah.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Matanzas

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​MATANZAS, an important city of Cuba, capital of Matanzas Province, situated on a large deep bay on the N. coast, about 54 m. (by rail) E. of Havana. Pop. (1907), 36,009. There are railway outlets W., S. and E., and Matanzas is served by steamships to New York and by the coast steamers of the Herrera Line. The bay, unlike all the other better harbours of the island, has a broad mouth, 2 m. across, but there is good shelter against all winds except from the N.E. A coral reef lies across the entrance. Three rivers emptying into the bay—the San Juan, Canimar and Yumuri—have deposited much silt, necessitating the use of lighters in loading and unloading large ships. The city is finely placed at the head of the bay, on a low, sloping plain backed by wooded hills, over some of which the city itself has spread. The conical Pan de Matanzas (1277 ft.) is a striking land-mark for sailors. The San Juan and Yumuri rivers divide Matanzas into three districts. The Teatro Esteban, Casino Español and Government House are noteworthy among the buildings. The broad Paseo de Marti (Alameda de Versalles, Paseo de Santa Cristina) extends along the edge of the harbour, and is perhaps the handsomest parkway and boulevard in Cuba. At one end is a statue of Ferdinand VII., at the other a monument to 63 Cubans executed by the Spanish Government as traitors for bearing arms in the cause of independence. A splendid military road continues the Paseo to the Castillo de San Serverino (built in 1694–1695, reconstructed in 1773 and following years). There are two smaller forts, established in the 18th century. Near Matanzas are two of the most noted natural resorts of Cuba: the valley of the Yumuri, and the caves of Bellamar. Commanding the Yumuri Valley is the hill called Cumbre, on which is the Hermitage of Monteserrate (1870), with a famous shrine. Matanzas is the second port of the island in commerce. Sugar and molasses are the chief exports. The city is the chief outlet for the sugar product of the province, which, with the province of Santa Clara, produces two-thirds of the crop of the island. There are many large warehouses, rum distilleries, sugar-mills and railway machine-shops. Matanzas is frequently mentioned in the annals of the 16th and 17th centuries, when its bay was frequented by buccaneers; but the city was not laid out until 1693. In the next year it received an ayuntamiento (council). Its prosperity rapidly increased after the establishment of free commerce early in the 19th century. In 1815 it was made a department capital. The mulatto poet, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, known as Plácido (1809–1844), was born in Matanzas, and was executed there for participation in the supposed conspiracy of negroes in 1844, which is one of the most famous episodes in Cuban history. The hurricanes of 1844 and 1846 are the only other prominent local events. American commercial influence has always been particularly strong.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Masulipatam

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​MASULIPATAM, or Bandar, a seaport of British India, administrative headquarters of the Kistna district of Madras, on one of the mouths of the river Kistna, 215 m. N. of Madras city. Pop. (1901), 39,507. Masulipatam was the earliest English settlement on the Coromandel coast, its importance being due to the fact that it was the bandar or port of Golconda. An agency was established there in 1611. During the wars of the Carnatic, the English were temporarily expelled from the town, which was held by the French for some years. In 1759 the town and fort were carried by storm by Colonel Forde, an achievement followed by the acquisition of the Northern Circars (q.v.). In 1864 a great storm-wave swept over the entire town and is said to have destroyed 30,000 lives. Weavers form a large portion of the inhabitants, though their trade has greatly declined since the beginning of the 19th century. Their operations, besides weaving, include printing, bleaching, washing and dressing. In former days the chintzes of Masulipatam had a great reputation abroad for the freshness and permanency of their dyes. Masulipatam is a station of the Church Missionary Society. The port is only a roadstead, where vessels anchor 5 m. out. A branch line from Bezwada on the Southern Mahratta railway was opened in 1908. The chief educational institution is the Noble College of the C.M.S.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mat

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​MAT (O. Eng. meatt, from late Lat. matta, whence Ital. matta, Ger. and Dan. matte, Du. mat, &c.), an article of various sizes and shapes, according to the purpose for which it is intended, and made of plaited or woven materials, such as coir, hemp, coco-nut fibre, straw, rushes, &c., or of rope or coarse twine. The finer fabrics are known as “matting” (q.v.). Mats are mainly used for covering floors, or in horticulture as a protection against cold or exposure for plants and trees. When used near the entrance to a house for people to wipe their boots on “door mats” are usually made of coarse coco-nut fibre, or india-rubber, cork, or of thickly coiled wire. Bags, rolls or sacks made of matting are used to hold coffee, flax, rice and other produce, and the term is often used with reference to the specific quantities of such produce, e.g. so many “mats” of coffee, rice, &c.
To be distinguished from the above is the term “mat” in glass-painting or gilding, meaning dull, unpolished or unburnished. This is the same as Ger. matt, dead, dull, cf. matt-blau, Med. Lat. mattus, adapted from Persian māt, dazed, astonished, at a loss, helpless, and seen in “mate” in chess, from Pers. shāh māt the king is dead.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Matamoros

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​MATAMOROS, a town and port of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, on the S. bank of the Rio Grande, 28 m. from its mouth, opposite Brownsville, Texas. Pop. (1900), 8347. Matamoros stands in an open plain, the commercial centre for a large district, but its import trade is prejudiced by the bar at the mouth of the Rio Grande, which permits the entrance of small vessels only. The exports include hides, wool and live stock. The importance of the town in the foreign trade of northern Mexico, however, has been largely diminished by the great railways. Formerly it was the centre of a large contraband trade with Brownsville, Texas. Matamoros was founded early in the 19th century, and was named in honour of the Mexican patriot Mariano Matamoros (c. 1770–1814). In the war between the United States and Mexico, Matamoros was easily taken by the Americans on the 18th of May 1846, following General Zachary Taylor’s victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Matamoros was occupied by the Mexican imperialists under Mejia in 1864, and by the French in 1866.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Matador

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​MATADOR, a Spanish word meaning literally “killer,” from matar, Lat. mactare, especially applied to the principal performer in a bull-fight, whose function it is to slay the bull (see Bull-fighting). The word is also used of certain important cards in such games as quadrille, ombre, &c., and more particularly of a special form of the game of dominoes.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Matabele

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​MATABELE (“vanishing” or “hidden” people, so called from their appearance in battle, hidden behind enormous oxhide shields), a people of Zulu origin who began national life under the chief Mosilikatze. Driven out of the Transvaal by the Boers in 1837, Mosilikatze crossed the Limpopo with a military host which had been recruited from every tribe conquered by him during his ten years’ predominance in the Transvaal. In their new territories the Matabele absorbed into their ranks many members of the conquered Mashona tribes and established a military despotism. Their sole occupation was war, for which their laws and organization were designed to fit them. This system of constant warfare is, since the conquest of Matabeleland by the British in 1893, a thing of the past. The Matabele are now herdsmen and agriculturists. (See Rhodesia.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Matachines

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​MATACHINES (Span. matachin, clown, or masked dancer), bands of mummers or itinerant players in Mexico, especially popular around the Rio Grande, who wander from village to village during Lent, playing in rough-and-ready style a set drama based on the history of Montezuma. Dressed in fantastic Indian costumes and carrying rattles as their orchestra, the chief characters are El Monarca “the monarch” (Montezuma); Malinche, or Malintzin, the Indian mistress of Hernando Cortes; El Toro, “the bull,” the malevolent “comic man” of the play, dressed in buffalo skin with the animal’s horns on his head; Aguelo, the “grandfather,” and Aguela, “grandmother.” With the help of a chorus of dancers they portray the desertion of his people by Montezuma, the luring of him back by the wiles and smiles of Malinche, the final reunion of king and people, and the killing of El Toro, who is supposed to have made all the mischief.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mastigophora

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​MASTIGOPHORA, a group of Protozoa, moving and ingesting food by long flagella (Gr. μάστιξ, whip), usually few in number, and multiplying by fission, usually longitudinal, in the active condition. They were separated off from the rest of the old “Infusoria” by K. Düsing, and subdivided by O. Bütschli and E. R. Lankester into (1) Flagellata (q.v.), including Haemoflagellata (q.v.), (2) Dinoflagellata (q.v.) and Rhyncho = Cystoflagellata E. Haeckel (q.v.) = Rhynchoflagellata E. R. Lankester. The Mastigophora are frequently termed Flagellata or Flagellates.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lacy, Michael Rophino

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​LACY, MICHAEL ROPHINO (1795–1867), Irish musician, son of a merchant, was born at Bilbao and appeared there in public as a violinist in 1801. He was sent to study in Paris under Kreutzer, and soon began a successful career, being known as “Le Petit Espagnol.” He played in London for some years after 1805, and then became an actor, but in 1818 resumed the musical profession, and in 1820 became leader of the ballet at the King’s theatre, London. He composed or adapted from other composers a number of operas and an oratorio, The Israelites in Egypt. He died in London on the 20th of September 1867.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lacunar

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​LACUNAR, the Latin name in architecture for a panelled or coffered ceiling or soffit. The word is derived from lacuna, a cavity or hollow, a blank, hiatus or gap. The panels or coffers of a ceiling are by Vitruvius called lacunaria.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lactones

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​LACTONES, the cyclic esters of hydroxy acids, resulting from the internal elimination of water between the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups, this reaction taking place when the hydroxy acid is liberated from its salts by a mineral acid. The α and β-hydroxy acids do not form lactones, the tendency for lactone formation appearing first with the γ-hydroxy acids, thus γ-hydroxybutyric acid, CH$_2$OH·CH$_2$·CH$_2$·CO$_2$H, yields γ-butyrolactone, ┌───────────┐ CH$_2$·CH$_2$·CH$_2$·CO·O These compounds may also be prepared by the distillation of the γ-halogen fatty acids, or by the action of alkaline carbonates on these acids, or from βγ- or γδ-unsaturated acids by digestion with hydrobromic acid or dilute sulphuric acid. The lactones are mostly liquids which are readily soluble in alcohol, ether and water. On boiling with water, they are partially reconverted into the hydroxy acids. They are easily saponified by the caustic alkalis.
On the behaviour of lactones with ammonia, see H. Meyer, Monatshefte, 1899, 20, p. 717; and with phenylhydrazine and hydrazine hydrate, see R. Meyer, Ber., 1893, 26, p. 1273; L. Gattermann, Ber., 1899, 32, p. 1133, E. Fischer, Ber., 1889, 22, p. 1889.
γ-Butyrolactone is a liquid which boils at 206° C. It is miscible with water in all proportions and is volatile in steam, γ-valerolactone, ┌─────────────┐ CH$_3$·CH·CH$_2$·CH$_2$·CO·O, is a liquid which boils at 207-208° C. δ-lactones are also known, and may be prepared by distilling the δ-chlor acids.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lacydes of Cyrene

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​LACYDES OF CYRENE, Greek philosopher, was head of the Academy at Athens in succession to Arcesilaus about 241 B.C. Though some regard him as the founder of the New Academy, the testimony of antiquity is that he adhered in general to the theory of Arcesilaus, and, therefore, that he belonged to the Middle Academy. He lectured in a garden called the Lacydeum, which was presented to him by Attalus I. of Pergamum, and for twenty-six years maintained the traditions of the Academy. He is said to have written treatises, but nothing survives. Before his death he voluntarily resigned his position to his pupils, Euander and Telecles. Apart from a number of anecdotes distinguished rather for sarcastic humour than for probability, Lacydes exists for us as a man of refined character, a hard worker and an accomplished orator. According to Athenaeus (x. 438) and Diogenes Laërtius (iv. 60) he died from excessive drinking, but the story is discredited by the eulogy of Eusebius (Praep. Ev. xiv. 7), that he was in all things moderate.
See Cicero, Acad. ii. 6; and Aelian, V.H. ii. 41; also articles Academy, Arcesilaus, Carneades.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lacépède, Bernard Germain Étienne de la Ville, Compte de

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​LACÉPÈDE, BERNARD GERMAIN ÉTIENNE DE LA VILLE, Comte de (1756–1825), French naturalist, was born at Agen in Guienne on the 26th of December 1756. His education was carefully conducted by his father, and the early perusal of Buffon’s Natural History awakened his interest in that branch of study, which absorbed his chief attention. His leisure he devoted to music, in which, besides becoming a good performer on the piano and organ, he acquired considerable mastery of composition, two of his operas (which were never published) meeting with the high approval of Gluck; in 1781–1785 he also brought out in two volumes his Poétique de la musique. Meantime he wrote two treaties, Essai sur l’électricité (1781) and Physique générale et particulière (1782–1784), which gained him the friendship of Buffon, who in 1785 appointed him sub-demonstrator in the Jardin du Roi, and proposed to him to become the continuator of his Histoire naturelle. This continuation was published under the titles Histoire des quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpents (2 vols., 1788–1789) and Histoire naturelle des reptiles (1789). After the Revolution Lacépède became a member of the legislative assembly, but during the Reign of Terror he left Paris, his life having become endangered by his disapproval of the massacres. When the Jardin du Roi was reorganized as the Jardin des Plantes, Lacépède was appointed to the chair allocated to the study of reptiles and fishes. In 1798 he published the first volume of Histoire naturelle des poissons, the fifth volume appearing in 1803; and in 1804 appeared his Histoire des cétacés. From this period till his death the part he took in politics prevented him making any further contribution of importance to science. In 1799 he became a senator, in 1801 president of the senate, in 1803 grand chancellor of the legion of honour, in 1804 minister of state, and at the Restoration in 1819 he was created a peer of France. He died at Épinay on the 6th of October 1825. During the latter part of his life he wrote Histoire générale physique et civile de l’Europe, published posthumously in 18 vols., 1826.
A collected edition of his works on natural history was published in 1826.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ladd, George Trumbull

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​LADD, GEORGE TRUMBULL (1842– ), American philosopher, was born in Painesville, Lake county, Ohio, on the 19th of January 1842. He graduated at Western Reserve College in 1864 and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1869; preached in Edinburg, Ohio, in 1869–1871, and in the Spring Street Congregational Church of Milwaukee in 1871–1879; and was professor of philosophy at Bowdoin College in 1879–1881, and Clark professor of metaphysics and moral philosophy at Yale from 1881 till 1901, when he took charge of the graduate department of philosophy and psychology; he became professor emeritus in 1905. In 1879–1882 he lectured on theology at Andover Theological Seminary, and in 1883 at Harvard, where in 1895–1896 he conducted a graduate seminary in ethics. He lectured in Japan in 1892, 1899 (when he also visited the universities of India) and 1906–1907. He was much influenced by Lotze, whose Outlines of Philosophy he translated (6 vols., 1877), and was one of the first to introduce (1879) the study of experimental psychology into America, the Yale psychological laboratory being founded by him.
Publications.—The Principles of Church Polity (1882); The Doctrine of Sacred Scripture (1884); What is the Bible? (1888); Essays on the Higher Education (1899), defending the “old” (Yale) system against the Harvard or “new” education, as praised by George H. Palmer; Elements of Physiological Psychology (1889, rewritten as Outlines of Physiological Psychology, in 1890); Primer of Psychology (1894); Psychology, Descriptive and Explanatory (1894); and Outlines of Descriptive Psychology (1898); in a “system of philosophy,” Philosophy of the Mind (1891); Philosophy of Knowledge (1897); A Theory of Reality (1899); Philosophy of Conduct (1902); and Philosophy of Religion (2 vols., 1905); In Korea with Marquis Ito (1908); and Knowledge, Life and Reality (1909).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lacuzon

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​LACUZON (O. Fr. la cuzon, disturbance), the name given to the Franc-Comtois leader Claude Prost (1607–1681), who was born at Longchaumois (department of Jura) on the 17th of June 1607. He gained his first military experience when the French invaded Burgundy in 1636, harrying the French ​troops from the castles of Montaigu and St Laurent-la-Roche, and devastating the frontier districts of Bresse and Bugey with fire and sword (1640–1642). In the first invasion of Franche-Comté by Louis XIV. in 1668 Lacuzon was unable to make any effective resistance, but he played an important part in Louis’s second invasion. In 1673 he defended Salins for some time; after the capitulation of the town he took refuge in Italy. He died at Milan on the 21st of December 1681.