609 



LASOARIS, CONSTANTINE. 



LATIMER, HUGH. 



si) 



Greecarum Literaruin formis ac causis apud Antiquos,' Paris, 1536, and 

 a collection of epigrams in Greek aud Latin, Paris, 1527. 



LA'SCARIS, CONSTANTINE, a descendant of the imperial family 

 of that name, emigrated from Constantinople at the time of the Turkish 

 conquest to Italy, where Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, entrusted 

 him with the education of bis daughter Ippolita, who married Alfonso 

 duke of Calabria, son of Ferdinand kiu^ of Naples. Lascaris after- 

 wards went to Rome and Naples, where he taught Greek and rhetoric. 

 He lastly repaired to Messina, where he was treated with great dis- 

 tinction, and where he died towards the end of the 15th century, 

 leaving his valuable manuscripts to the senate or municipal council 

 of Messina. Those manuscripts were afterwards transferred by the 

 Spaniards to the Escurial Library. 



Lascaris published a Greek Grammar, Milan, 1476, which was after- 

 wards translated into Latin, and went through several editions at Venice 

 from the Aldine press, under the title of ' Compendium octo Orationis 

 Partium,' Ac. He also wrote two Opuscula on the Sicilians and Gala- 

 brese who had written in Greek, which were published by Maurolico 

 in 1562, and also a ' Dissertation on Orpheus,' printed long after in the 

 first volume of the ' Marmora Taurinensia.' 



LASSO, ORLANDO DI, or ORLANDCS LASSUS, a very distinguished 

 name in musical history, was born in 1520, at Mons in Flanders, 

 but, says Thuanus, was, on account of his fine voice, forced away 

 while a boy by Ferdinand Gonzago, and detained by him in Sicily and 

 in Italy. Afterwards, being grown up, he taught during two years at 

 Rome. He then travelled in France and England with Julius Caesar 

 Brancatius, and subsequently lived some years at Antwerp. On the 

 invitation of Albert, duke of Bavaria, he next proceeded to Munich, 

 where he married. But Charles IX. of France, whose conscience-pangs, 

 on account of his share in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, admitted, 

 like those of Saul, of no alleviation, save that afforded by music, offered 

 Orlando the high and lucrative situation of ' maitre-de-chapelle ' at 

 his court, which the composer accepted, and, with his family, was 

 on bis way to Paris, when the death of the king arrested his progress, 

 and he returned to Munich, where he died in 1594. 



The compositions of Lasso are very numerous, and all show great 

 knowledge of his art, much invention, and a manly determination not 

 to be shackled by the rules and examples of the bigoted musicians of 

 his time. " He wag the first great improver of figurate music," Sir 

 John Hawkins remarks ; and Dr. Burney tells us that in his songs ' Alia 

 Napolitaua' "the chromatic accidental semitones are expressed by a 

 sharp, and no longer left to the mercy and sagacity of the singer, as 

 was before the constant custom." After his death, Rudolph, his eldest 

 son, published a collection of his works, in seven volumes, under the 

 title of ' Magnum Opus musicum Orlaudi de Lasso, complectens omnes 

 cantiones qua* Motetas vulgo vocant, a 2 ad 12 vuc.,' &c. ; and at 

 Munich is preserved among the musical archives a manuscript of his 

 compositions, ornamented with superb vignettes. In the British 

 Museum is a Latin motet by Orlando ; and specimens of his genius 

 are given by Hawkins and Burney, in their histories of music. 



LATHAM, JOHN, was bora June 27, 1740, at Eltham in Kent, the 

 eldest son of surgeon and apothecary of that place. He was 

 educated at Merchant Taylor's school, but when only fifteen was 

 removed in order to prepare himself for following his father's pro- 

 fession. He studied anatomy under Dr. William Hunter, aud having 

 completed his education at the London hospitals mid schools of 

 medicine, he commenced business at Dart ford in 17G3. He early 

 addicted himself to the study of natural history, and in 1771 became 

 the correspondent of Pennant, aud almost immediately after con- 

 tributed his astistance to Sir A. Lever iu the formation of his museum. 

 In 1781 be published the first volume of his 'General Synopsis of 

 Birds.' This was continued at irregular intervals by five others, and 

 two supplementary volumes completed the work in 1787. In the 

 preface to the supplement he announced that he was then contem- 

 plating the ' Index Ornithologicus,' which appeared in 1791 ; but 

 Gmelin's edition of Linnseus's 'Systema Naturae' had appeared in 

 1788, and he had availed himself of Latham's labours so far that 

 many of the birds there named were wholly unknown to Linnaeus, 

 and only known to Gmclin through Latham. In 1775 he had !> eu 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; in 1778 a Corresponding 

 Member of the Medical Society of London, and he was one of the 

 founders of the Linnscan Society ; in 1795 he received the diploma of 

 M.D. from the university of Erlangen, and was nominated a member 

 of the Natural History Society of Berlin and of the Royal Society of 

 Stockholm ; and in 1792 he became an F.S.A. In 1796 he retired from 

 business and settled at Romscy in Hampshire. A reverse of fortune 

 overtook him, and in 1819 he retired to the house of his son-in-law, 

 Mr. N. Wickham, at Winchester. He had always diligently pursued 

 his studies in natural history, and in 1821 he commenced the publi- 

 cation of the ' General History of Birds,' which was completed in ten 

 volumes 4to. The plates of his original work had been all etched by 

 himself from specimens all stuffed and prepared by himself, and for his 

 history, when upwards of eighty, he retouched them. The works have 

 always retained a high character for fidelity of representation and 

 accuracy of description. We have here only mentioned the works on 

 natural history, by which he is most widely known, but Dr. Latham also 

 wrote on a great number of subjects, chiefly of a medical character, in 

 the form of pamphlets, or of contributions to the ' Transactions ' of the 



Societies with which he was connected. After a short illness, he died 

 on February 4, 1837, and was buried in the abbey-church of Romsey. 



LATHAM, ROBERT GORDON, a distinguished living philologer 

 and ethnologist. He was born iu the county of Lincolnshire, aud 

 received his early education at Eton. From thence he was entered 

 a student at King's College, Cambridge, and in 1833 was made B.A. 

 He was subsequently made a Fellow of his college, and took the 

 degree of M.D. Shortly after obtaining his fellowship he travelled 

 in the north of Europe, and published a short account of his travels. 

 From an early period the bent of his genius was towards a philoso- 

 phical study of language, and at Cambridge he was known for the 

 extent of his knowledge, not only of the classical languages exclusively 

 studied there, but for his acquaintance with European languages, and 

 their relations to each other. 



Shortly after the establishment of University College, London, ho 

 was appointed Professor of English Literature in that college. The 

 course of study which he pursued here led him especially to investi- 

 gate the history and structure of the English language, and resulted 

 in the publication of a series of works, which have placed him at the 

 head of the philosophical investigators of our native tongue. His most 

 important work on this subject is his 'English Language,' a work 

 which has gone through several editions, and is at present a standard 

 book in all our educational institutions. This has been accompanied 

 by the following works, all of which are used more or less generally 

 where a systematic study of the English language is considered a 

 point of importance : ' An Elementary English Grammar, for the use 

 of Schools ; ' ' An English Grammar, for the use of Ladies Schools ; ' 

 ' The History and Etymology of the English Language, for the use of 

 Classical Schools ; ' ' A Grammar of the English Language, for the 

 use of Commercial Schools.' 



Dr. Latham's extensive knowledge of languages, combined with his 

 medical studies, naturally led him to the study of the relations existing 

 between the languages spoken and the structure of the various races 

 of men. He early took an interest in the proceedings of the Ethnolo- 

 gical Society of London, and in 1850 he published a work on the 

 ' Varieties of Mankind.' This work is in many respects the most 

 valuable contribution ta the science of ethnology made during the 

 present century. The author has not only attempted to simplify the 

 classification of ethnologists, but from his extensive origiual researches 

 into the nature and relations of language, has ventured to differ from 

 those who had preceded him with regard to the relations of various 

 large branches of the human race. This book has been followed by a 

 series of works, in which he has carried out iu detail the views he had 



consist principally of courses of lectures which had been delivered 

 before various scientific societies in Great Britain. 



Dr. Latham has frequently contributed papers at the meetings of 

 the British Association for the Advancement of Science, aud to his 

 contributions may be mainly attributed the establishment of a section 

 devoted to the discussion of ethnology at the meetings of this Associa- 

 tion. When the directors of the Crystal Palace at Sjdenham deter- 

 mined to devote a certain portion of their building to the illustration 

 of ethnology, Dr. Latham was consulted, and the arrangement of this 

 department was committed to his care. 



Although Dr. Latham has for the present resigned the active duties 

 of the medical profession, he has nevertheless secured its highest 

 honours and held most important medical appointments. He is a 

 Licentiate and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London. 

 He was appointed physician to the St. George's and St. James's Dispen- 

 sary, and subsequently obtained the post of assistant physiciau to the 

 Middlesex Hospital. In the medical school of this institution he held 

 the appointment of lecturer on medical jurisprudence. In 1848 he 

 translated and edited the works of Sydeuham for the Sydeuham 

 Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Vice-Preaideut of the 

 Ethnological Society, and member of many learned societies iu 

 America and on the Continent of Europe. 



LATIMER, HUGH, Bishop of Worcester, the son of a farmer iu 

 Leicestershire, was born about the year 1472. He was educated first 

 at a grainmar-Bchool, aud afterwards at Cambridge, where he took a 

 degree, previous to entering into holy orders. The preaching of Bilney 

 directed hia attention to errors in the doctrines aud discipline of the 

 Church of Rome ; the subject soon engrossed his mind, aud his " here- 

 tical preaching," as it was then called, caused a remonstrance to be 

 made by the divines of Cambridge to the diocesan Bishop of Ely, and 

 his interference was requested. The bishop, a mild and moderate man, 

 visited Cambridge, but used no further harshness towards him than to 

 forbid his preaching within the diocese, an obstacle which he overcame 

 by gaining the use of a pulpit in a monastery exempt from episcopal 

 jurisdiction. Latiruer's eloquence, his moral conduct and kindness of 

 disposition, together with the merits of his cause, gained him a large 

 number of hearers. He was at this time a person of sufficient import- 

 ance to be esteemed worthy of persecution, aud was dealt with 

 accordingly, but it was not until Henry VIII. had been thirty years 

 .upon the throne, that he became distinguished as one of the principal 

 reformers. 



Thomas Cromwell, the king's favourite, had already given him a 



