pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
LABIAU, a city of East Prussia, in the government of Königsberg, the capital of a circle of the same name. It stands on the river Deine, and is connected by a canal with the Pregel. It is fortified, and contains 290 houses, with 2630 inhabitants, who export considerable quantities of tallow and of linseed. Long. 21. 1. 25. E. Lat. 54. 51. 20. N. .
LABOOAN, an island off the north-west coast of Borneo, to which the English retired in 1775, when they were expelled by the Sooloos from Balambangan. Long. 115. E. Lat. 5. 20. N.
LABORATORY, the chemist’s workhouse, or the place where furnaces are built, vessels kept, and operations performed. In general the term laboratory is applied to any place where physical experiments in pharmacy, chemistry, pyrotechny, and the like, are performed. See Chemistry.

Laboratory, in military affairs, signifies that place [7:13:3]where all sorts of fire-works are prepared, both for actual service and for experiments, viz. quick matches, fuzes, port-fires, grape-shot, case-shot, carcasses, hand-grenades, cartridges, shells filled, and fuzes fixed, wads, &c.
LABOUREUR, John le, almoner to the king of France, and prior of Juvigne, was born at Montmorency, near Paris, in 1623. At the age of eighteen lie distinguished himself by publishing a Collection of the Monuments of Illustrious Persons buried in the church of the Celestines at Paris, with their elegies, genealogies, arms, and mottos, in 4to. He afterwards published an edition of the Memoirs of Michel de Castelneau, with several other genealogical histories. He had a brother, Louis le Laboureur, bailiff of Montmorencjr, author of several pieces of poetry; and an uncle, Dome Claude le Laboureur, provost of the abbey of L’Isle Barbe, of which he wrote a history, and published notes and corrections on the breviary of Lyons. Laboureur died in 1675.
LABRUM, in Antiquity, a great tub which stood at the entrance of the temples, containing water for the priests to wash in previously to their offering sacrifices. It was also the name of a tub used in the baths of the ancients.
LABY, or Labbe', one of the principal cities of the Foolah kingdom of Foota Jallou, in Western Africa. It is distant about seventy-two miles from Teembo, the capital, and contains about 5000 inhabitants, who carry on a considerable traffic with various towns on the river Nunez.
LABYRINTH, amongst the ancients, was a large, intricate edifice, cut out into various aisles and meanders running into one another, so as to render it difficult to find a passage through them. Mention is made of several of those edifices amongst the ancients; but the most celebrated were the Egyptian and Cretan labyrinths. That of Egypt, according to Pliny, was the oldest of all the known labyrinths, and subsisted in his time, after having stood three thousand six hundred years. According to him, it was built by King Petesucus, or Tithoes; but Herodotus makes it the work of several kings. It consisted of twelve large contiguous palaces, containing three thousand chambers, fifteen hundred of which were under ground. Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny, and Mela, speak of this monument with the same admiration as Herodotus; but not one of them tells us that it was so constructed as to bewilder those who attempted to explore it; although it is manifest that, without a guide, they who entered it would be in danger of losing their way. It was this danger, no doubt, which introduced a new term into the Greek language. The word labyrinth, taken in the literal sense, signifies a circumscribed space, intersected by a number of passages, some of which cross each other in every direction like those in quarries and mines, whilst others make larger or smaller circuits round the place from which they depart, like the spiral lines we see on certain shells. In the figurative sense, it was applied to obscure and captious questions, to indirect and ambiguous answers, and to those discussions which, after long digressions, bring us back to the point from which we had set out. The Cretan labyrinth is the most famous in history or fable, having been rendered particularly remarkable by the story of the Minotaur, and of Theseus, who found his way through all its windings by means of Ariadne’s clue. Diodorus Siculus relates as a conjecture, and Pliny as a certain fact, that Daedalus constructed this labyrinth on the model of that of Egypt, though on a smaller scale. It was formed by the command of Minos, who kept the Minotaur shut up in it; but in their time it no longer existed, having been either destroyed by time, or purposely demolished. Diodorus Siculus and Pliny, therefore, considered this labyrinth as a large edifice? whilst other writers represent it simply as a cavern hollowed in the rock, and full of winding passages. The opinion of Diodorus and Pliny supposes that in their time no traces of the labyrinth existed in Crete, and. that even the date of its destruction had been forgotten. Yet it is said to have been visited by the disciples of Apollonius of Tyana, who was contemporary with these authors. At that time, therefore, the Cretans believed that they possessed the labyrinth,
LAC of Rupees, is a hundred thousand rupees, which, supposing them standard, or siccas, at 2s. 6d∙, amounts to L.12,500 sterling.
LACCA, Lac, or Gum-Lac, is a substance out of which a species of insects form cells upon trees, like honeycombs. In these cells remain some of the dead insects, which give a red colour to the whole substance of the lac. That called stick-lac is the wax which adheres to some of the small branches of the tree, and is unprepared. This lac, when separated from the adhering sticks, and grossly powdered, and deprived of its colour by digestion with menstruums for the sake of the dyes and other purposes, is called seed-lac, which, when freed from impurities by melting it over a gentle fire, and formed into cakes, is called lump-lack ; and, lastly, that called shell-lac consists of the cells liquefied, strained, and formed into thin transparent larainae.

Artificial Lacca, or Lacque, is also a name given to a coloured substance obtained from several flowers, as the yellow from the flower of the juniper, the red from the poppy, and the blue from the iris or violet. The tinctures of∣ these flowers are extracted by digesting them several times in aqua vitae, or by boiling them over a stove firc in a lixivium of potashes and alum.
LACCADIVES, an archipelago of low islands lying off the Malabar or western coast of India, between the 8th and 13th degrees of north latitude. There are nineteen considerable ones; but as most of them are surrounded with reefs and steep rocks, with a great depth of water close to them, the approach to them is very dangerous. Between these islands there are many channels, through which ships from India, bound to Persia or Arabia, frequently sail. The safest of these is called Mamale, or the Nine-degree Channel, which runs between the islands of Seuhilipar and Kalpenny. The largest of these islands is [7:13:6]about seven miles in length and two and a half in breadth. Most of them are inhabited by a race of Mahommedans called Moplays. They do not yield grain, but produce an infinite quantity of cocoa nuts, from the husks of which they form the coir cables, which are more elastic and durable than hemp, as the sea-water, instead of rotting, preserves them. These islands are well supplied with fish, and carry on a trade with the small shells called cowries, which pass as coin all over India. They are nominally dependent on Cannanore, but their poverty has been always their chief security. They were discovered by Vasco de Gama in 1499, but have since been little frequented by Europeans.
LACEDAEMON, in fabulous history, a son of Jupiter, and Taygeta the daughter of Atlas, who married Sparta [7:13:8]the daughter of Europa, by whom he had Amyclas, and Eurydice the wife of Acrisius. He was the first who introduced the worship of the Graces into Laconia, and who built them a temple. From Lacedaemon and his wife, the capital of Laconia was called Lacedaemon and Sparta. Lacedaemon, a noble city of Peloponnesus, called also Sparta, names which differed in this, that the latter was the proper and ancient name of the city, whereas the former was that of the country, though it afterwards came to be applied to the city. Homer also makes this distinction, when he calls the country holy,, because encompassed with mountains. It has likewise been known by the name of Lelegia, from the Leleges, the first inhabitants of the country, or from Lelex, one of their kings; and Oebalia, from Oebalas, the sixth king after Eurotas. It was called Hecatompolis, from the hundred cities which the whole province once contained. This city was the capital of Laconia, situated on the right or western side of the Eurotas; and it was less in compass than Athens. Polybius makes it forty-eight stadia, a circuit much inferior to that of Athens. Lelex is supposed to have been the first king of Lacedaemon. His descendants, thirteen in number, reigned successively after him, till the reign of the sons of Orestes, when the Heraclidae recovered the Peloponnesus, about eighty years after the Trojan war. Procles and Eurysthenes, the descendants of the Heraclidae, usurped the crown; and after them it was decreed that the two families should always sit on the throne together. The monarchical power was abolished, and the race of the Heraclidae extinguished, at Sparta, about 219 years before Christ. Lacedaemon in its flourishing state remained without walls, the bravery of its citizens forming its only defence. At length, in Cassander’s time, and afterwards, when the city was in the hands of tyrants, the latter, distrusting the defence by arms and bravery, built a wall around it, which the tyrant Nabis made very strong. Pausanias ascribes the first walls to the times of DerAEtrius and Pyrrhus, under Nabis. More than a century and a half before Christ, the walls of the city were pulled down by Philopoemen, who was then at the head of the Achaean League; and Laconia some time afterwards became a Roman province, when reduced by Mummius. (See Sparta.) The present city is called Misitra.
LACEDONIA, a city of the kingdom of Naples, in the province of Principato-Ulteriore. It stands on a hill, is the seat of a bishop, and contains 4550 inhabitants.
LACEPEDES, a group of small islands on the northwestern coast of New Holland, extending about thirty-six miles from north to south, near the shore, and the largest being about nine miles long. The surrounding seas abound in whales, and fishes of different kinds. Long. 117. 8. E. Lat. 16. 43. N.
LACERNA, a coarse, thick garment worn by the Romans over their gowns, like a cloak, to keep out the rain and the cold. It was first used in the camp, but afterwards admitted into the city. The emperors wore the lacerna of a purple die. The lacerna, at first very short, was lengthened after it became fashionable, which was not till the civil wars and the triumvirate; before this time it was confined to the soldiers. Senators were forbidden to wear it in the city by Valentinian and Theodosius. Martial makes mention of lacernae worth ten thousand sesterces. Some confound this garment with the penula; but it seems rather to have resembled the chlamys and birrus.
LA CHARITE ', a city of France, in the department of the Nièvre, and arrondissement of Cosne. It is finely situated on the side of a hill, looking down on the Loire. It contains 590 houses, and 5300 inhabitants, who carry on the trades of tanners, hatters, serge and button makers. Long. 2. 56. E. Lat. 47. 10. N.
LACHES (from the French lascher, that is, laxare, or lasche ignavus), in the English law, signifies slackness or negligence, as appears from Littleton, where laches of entry is a neglect of the heir to enter.
LACHESIS, in Mythology, one of the Parcae or Fates. Her name is derived from ^Kaγw, to measure out by lot. She presided over futurity, and was represented as spinning the thread of life, or, according to others, holding the spindle. She generally appeared covered with a garment variegated with stars, and holding spindles in her hand.
LACHISH, in Ancient Geography, a city to the southward of the tribe of Judah. Eusebius and St Jerome inform us, that in their time there was a village called Lachish, seven miles southward from Eleutheropolis. Sennacherib besieged Lachish, but did not take it; after which he sent Rabshakch against Jerusalem. It was at Lachish that King Amaziah was slain by his rebel subjects.
LACHRYMATORY, in Antiquity, a vessel in which were collected the tears of a deceased person’s friends, and preserved along with the ashes and the urn. Lachrymatories were small glass or earthen bottles, chiefly in the form of phials. At the Roman funerals, the friends of the deceased, or the praeficae, women hired for that purpose, used to fill them with their tears, and deposit them carefully with the ashes, in testimony of their sorrow, imagining that the manes of the deceased were thereby comforted and consoled.
LACHSA, Laiisa, or Hajar, a division of Arabia, extending along nearly the whole of the south-western coast of the Persian Gulf, from its entrance at Cape Mussendoom, and to a considerable distance inland. Like most other parts of Arabia, the coast is fertile and well peopled; but the interior consists of sandy plains. This country is famed for a breed of asses and camels, and some thousands of the latter are annually exported to Syria. It produces dates, rice, and cotton. The coast from Mussendoom to Bahrein had become such a refuge for pirates, who interrupted by their depredations the trade of the Red Sea, that in 1809 the British government fitted out an expedition at Bombay for the purpose of chastising them. They succeeded in taking by assault Ras-el-Khima, the principal port on this coast, in November 1809, and, burning seventy vessels, carried off considerable plunder. The principal town is Lachsa, situated a few miles up the river Astan, which forms at the mouth a species of bay, opposite to which are the islands of Bahrein, famous for pearls. Long. 48. 34. E. Lat. 26. 56. N.
LACINIUM, in Ancient Geography, a noble promontory of the Bruttii, in Italy, the southern boundary of the Sinus Tarentinus and the Adriatic, all to the south of it being deemed the Ionian Sea. It was famous for a rich temple of Juno, surnamed Lacinia, with a pillar of solid gold, which Hannibal intended to carry off; but, according to Cicero, was dissuaded by a dream.
LACONIA, or Laconica, a country in the southern part of the Peloponnesus, having Argos and Arcadia on the north, Messenia on the west, the Mediterranean on the south, and the bay of Argos on the east. Its extent from north to south was about fifty miles. It was watered by the river Eurotas. The capital was called Sparta, or Lacedaemon.
LACONIUM, whence our term laconic, a short, pithy, sententious speech, such as the Lacedaemonians were remarkable for.
LACQUERS, are varnishes applied upon tin, brass, and other metals, to preserve them from tarnishing, and to improve their colour. The basis of lacquers is a solution of the resinous substance called seed-lac, in spirit of wine. The spirit ought to be very strong, in order to dissolve as much as possible of the lac. For this purpose, some authors direct dry potash to be thrown into the spirit. 1his alkali attracts the water, with which it forms a [7:13:9]liquid that subsides distinctly from the spirit at the bottom of the vessel. From this liquid the spirit may be separated by decantation; but by such a process the spirit is impregnated with part of the alkali, which depraves its colour, and communicates a property to the lacquer of imbibing moisture from the air. These inconveniences may, however, be prevented by distilling the spirit; or, if the artist has not an opportunity of performing that process, he may cleanse the spirit in a great measure from the alkali, by adding to it some calcined alum, the acid of which uniting with the alkali remaining in the spirit, forms therewith a vitriolated tartar, which, not being soluble in spirit of wine, falls to the bottom, together with the earth of the decomposed alum. To a pint of the purified spirit, about three ounces of powdered shell-lac are to be added, and the mixture digested during the same day with a moderate heat. The liquor ought then to be poured off, strained, and cleared by settling. This clear liquor is now fit to receive the required colour from certain resinous colouring substances, the principal of which are gamboge and arnotto; the former giving a yellow, and the latter an orange colour. To give a golden colour, two parts of gamboge are added to one of arnotto; but these colouring substances may be separately dissolved in the tincture of lac, and the colour required may be adjusted by mixing the two solutions in different proportions. When silver leaf or tin is to be lacquered, a larger quantity of the colouring materials is requisite than when the lacquer is intended to be laid on brass.
LACTANTIUS, Lucius Coelius Firmianus, an eminent father of the church, at the beginning of the fourth century, was, according to Baronius, an African; but, according to others, was born at Fermo, in the March of Ancona, whence it is imagined he was called Eirmianus. He studied rhetoric under Arnobius, and was afterwards professor thereof in Africa and Nicoedia, where he was so much admired that the Emperor Constantine chose him as preceptor to his son Crispus Caesar. Lactantius was so far from seeking the pleasures and riches of a court, that he lived there in poverty, and, according to Eusebius, frequently wanted the necessaries of life. He is justly accounted the most eloquent of all the ecclesiastical authors who have written in the Latin language. He formed himself upon Cicero as a model, and wrote in a style so remarkable for its purity, natural grace, and smoothness, that he is generally distinguished by the denomination of the Christian Cicero. Several works of his are still extant, the principal of which are, 1. his Institutiones Divinoe, a treatise in seven books, of which he made an abridgment, adding thereto another tract, De Ira Divina ; 2. De Asscribus Dei, in which he treats of the creation of man, and of divine providence; 3. Two books to Aescepiades, eight books of letters, a poem in hexameter verse, a treatise entitled The Grammarian, and another De Persecutione. It is also believed that the treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum was written by Lactantius. Some works, however, have been erroneously attributed to this father of the church. Amongst these may be mentioned the Phoenix, which is the production of a Pagan, not of a Christian; the poem upon Easter; that on the Passion of Christ; the Arguments upon the Metamorphoses of Ovid; and the Notes upon the Thebaid of Statius. Of the two last productions, the real author was Lactantius Placidius the grammarian. The prominent characteristic of Lactantius as a Christian writer is, that he exposes the illusions of Paganism with great force of reasoning. But he treats theology more like a philosopher than a divine. He did not thoroughly understand the nature of the Christian mysteries, nor distinguish between the respective provinces of faith and of reason; and hence he was betrayed into some errors, of which advantage has been taken by persons who either knew not, or chose to make no allowance for, the circumstances in which they originated. The best edition of his works is that published at Paris in 1748, in two vols. 4to.
LACTHO, a province of India beyond the Ganges, tributary to the sovereign of Cochin-China. It is bounded on the south by Lars, on the north and east by Tungquin, and on the west by China. This territory has been but imperfectly explored by Europeans; but it is described by the Tungquinese as mountainous, rocky, covered with jungle, and destitute of navigable rivers, with a singularly pestilential air, and water very unwholsome, though the climate is cooler than that of Tungquin. The interior is inhabited by numerous tribes, little better than savage, governed by hereditary chiefs, and perpetually at war with each other. Salt is imported into this country from Tungquin; also salt-fish, oil, and some silk stuffs for the chiefs. The exports to Tungquin are chiefly buffaloes and cotton. Shells and cowries form the medium of exchange. According to information derived from the Tungquinese, this province contains many extraordinary natural caverns, which appear to have served the natives as temples. One cavern is described as a mile across, perforating a mountain, and another as being entered under ground in a boat.
LACTIFEROUS, an appellation given to plantsabound-ingwith a milky juice, as the sow-thistle andvarious others. The name of lactiferous, or lactescent, is given to all those plants which abound with a thick, coloured juice, whatever may be its colour. Most lactiferous plants are poisonous, except those with compound flowers, which are generally of an innocent quality. Of the poisonous lactescent plants, the most remarkable are sumach, agaric, maple, burning thorny plant, cassada, celandine, puccoon, prickly poppy, and the plants of the natural order contortae, as swallow-wort,apocynum, cynanchum,and cerbera. The bell-shaped flowers are partly noxious, as cardinal flower; partly innocent, as campanula. Amongst the lactescent plan‘,ş with compound flowers that are innocent in their quality, may be mentioned dandelion, picris, hyoseris i wild lettuce, gum succory, hawkweed, bastard hawkweed, hypochoeris, goat’s beard, and most species of lettuce.
LACUNAR, in Architecture, an arched roof or ceiling, more especially the planking or flooring above portico or piazzas.
LACYDES was born at Cyrene, a city on the northern coast of Africa. Of his personal history we are able to collect a few facts from Suidas and Diogenes Laertius. He was the son of a certain Alexander, of whom we know nothing except the name, and that his poverty exposed his son to many hardships. The love of learning drew Lacydes to Athens at the time when Arcesilaus had become the founder of what has been called the Middle Academy. He became the pupil of Arcesilaus, and by his acuteness and varied acquirements soon procured for himself the friendship of his instructor. On the death of Arcesilaus he succeeded to the vacant chair, b. c. 241, and presided in the academy for twenty-six years; at the end of which he abdicated, b. c. 215, in favour of two of his disciples, Evander and Telechus. Laertius asserts that he deserted the tenets of Arcesilaus; but Cicero {fifcad. iv. 6) states that he continued to teach the same doctrines as his predecessor. He taught that there was no certainty in philosophical knowledge; and that in all purely speculative subjects we must refrain from coming to a decision, because the mind of man cannot sufficiently distinguish truth from falsehood. He does not, however, appear to have carried these sceptical opinions into the every-day affairs of life, but to have restricted them to philosophy and science; though his opponents asserted, and with much reason, that such doctrines as he advocated tended to undermine all virtue [7:13:10]and morality. Lacydes was the friend of Attalus king of Pergamus, and was invited by him to take up his residence at his court; but he answered, that philosophers admired the portraits of kings most at a distance. The latter part of his life was spent, if we can credit the statements handed down to us, very differently from his early years. He gave himself up to every kind of debauchery, and his passion for wine replaced the taste for study. Athenaeus (x. 10) states that he was the greatest wine-bibber of his age, and often came off victorious in contests of that kind. He at last died in consequence of one of his excesses.
LADDER, a frame made with a number of steps, by means of which people ascend, as by a stair, to places otherwise inaccessible.

Scaling Ladders, in the military art, are used in scaling when a place is to be taken by surprise or escalade.