I.AC 



Lit a hViuid formed at that part of the palate which is near the teeth. 

 It istherefen allied at oooe to the adjoining liquid, r and u, and 

 to the palato-dsntal contooanU. The various forms, which the MM 

 ha* sstiiintil may be aten in ALTBABIT. The interchanges to which 

 it i* liable are as wik)ws - 



1. ZuiDtatchanfeaUe'withr. Hence from the Greek or rather Latin 

 SMislifi. tfifUU, the Preach have derived tfttlrt, afttrt; epiitre, 

 *ftm. Again, in Latin, while from ne, a stream, rirali, living near 

 tie same stream, and from am. an, <MOM, of the same age, are 

 derived . yet fofmlo and /amilut lead to the adjectives poptJari, /omt- 

 livi. Ulonpug to the same people, or the same family. These last, 

 word, it will be observed already | inisii U an L In the same way the 

 well-known town on the African coatt hat been called at different 

 time* Alaitn and Aryti. The Spanish coronet corresponds to our eoionet. 

 Cartlit, m Sardinia, is now CagLari Salamanca was called in ancient 

 time* Selmantioa PTV ^ Uermandica> 



J, L with n, as Bmrdno (onis), Barcelona : Jbuciita, RmatOlm ; Bo- 

 mmia, Bebyua or Amltfne, Xtbriaa, LArixa ; rnvfuw from m, or 

 A**Mr, Lat. f*l*to; tana and beUm in Latin, Btrrurnt and /3t\Ti<rTot 

 in Oreek : A<T*M>, nitrati ; aima in Lat, Ital alma. 



8. L with d.ttSt, Aegidita, St. Gtla ; yridinm, meaning grill-inn ; 

 and the English title admiral is derived from the Spanish atmiranlc. 

 But see D, So. 4. L is ah interchangeable with t. (See T.) 



4. LI in the middle of words with U. Example* of this are abundant 

 in the French pronunciation of the I motutU. Hence from the French 

 bUlanU it derived without much alteration of sound the Englith 

 ttfwn/j. It is somewhat strange that the English name ViUurt and 

 the French Viilan, which are no doubt of the same origin, should be 

 pronounced to perversely that the first writes an i and omits to sound 

 it, and the second gives an i to the ear and none to the sight This 

 atom prevail* between the Greek and Latin languages, as fvXAo and 

 /Wie, a leaf ; eAA* and otto, other ; 'oAA and tali, leap. Even in the 

 Greek iteclf piAAer must be a corruption, at analogy would require 

 paA*, paAMr, jMAitfra. It it probable indeed that the Greeks gave to 

 the double I in thit word the same sound as the French now do. On 

 any other principle it would be impossible to defend the circumflex 

 accent, which i* only placed on syllables terminating in a vowel It 

 would perhapt not be wrong to write ffirCAAo rather than trin\o, corre- 

 sponding to the Latin tpolvt, a skin or covering. With these forma 

 may be compared MaUorca, pronounced Majorca, the Spanish name 

 for tlajvrra. Lastly, the Portuguese write U with the tome sound. 



6. L disappearing. Not very dissimilar U the Italian interchange of 

 pi, (I, Jl, with i>i, flti,ji ; at from pUxo, full, piato ; piano, flat or low, 

 flaeaUia, Piatmua ; clan, a key, dtiaee ; elan, bright, chian; 

 f, to call, duauum; and far, a flower, fore ; Jluctu, a wave, 

 ; Ptnrmtit, once Fiorttaa, now Firtnte, the ""t'T'g name of 



This \am of an / after a consonant appears in other languages. The 

 German >'t>i, to fly, ha* for its chief element flag, oorresponding to 

 the Liin /<7. In the tame language JUiftnt and jbyMrn both mean to 



wMsper ; >.* and JUtiok both mean a wing; Minnn oorreeponds to 

 the kogliih words UaJt and MM*. The word dnifach. threefold, it 

 derived from drri and .Hat*. Again the Greek Intro and the Latin 

 M*WM, tafar, have Kf I or the radical tyllable. In the Gothic in-tutpp- 

 *, the tune root hat the form mcp, but in the German tdtlaf, and in 

 B|Ulh Uetf. Lattly, the Latin da*d, abut, and dari, key (words of 

 the same origin, as U proved by the various forms of mart, sweet), 

 appear in German la the form tchlum, and in English as <A< and key. 



4. L with , particularly after an a. Aljidena, a town, or Aujidma ; 

 rtrsji.rn, pity (used by eooUniasttoal writers to signify charitable 

 fifui, IUL /.MOMM, Fr. o.mow, Eng. Wtu ; Lat allari, an altar, Fr. 

 a.frf ; Lnt. o/i 7 .-o, Ital. alcuM, Fr. OHO.. , Lat *l*a, Fr. otrne. 

 The Krroch aUo oontnct the pronoun and article a le, a let, to an 



1. Many word* begmnmg with an (onoe had other consonant* 

 the i, at ia Latin, Ufa, a place, bti, a suit, lalo, broad, were once pro 

 eeded by st-thoa, atfoeo, MH, Kioto. This explains how lalo in Latin 

 Is the participle of /otf. It must once have been Uato, oorresponding 

 to the Greek forms o* the same root, namely, rAi^rof, r\n-iu, as wefl 

 e TeA^H). Again the English limurict b a corruption from the word 

 Wtv r*t. tweK-root To this head perhap* belongs the WeUh sound 

 of worrit beghnring with //, at for example all the places beginning 

 with L/u.. which it prodbunced by eome as Matt, by others at /on 

 Perhapt lam., an.1 *,./ are kindred words. 



. i it very apt to appear in a root, sometimes before a vowel, 

 MMtfeBf* after one, as in the Oreek words A. or A,, 0oA or 0A,, Ac. 

 here Out tupping oeoun after a sound like t, the / it apt to be con- 

 nrled into an r. Thus the Greek aA., poke, ia in Latin tern-lari 



before 



the phraw trrmian iyncm, to poke the fire). 



and 



xfuwn are of the same origin ; <TKI\OS and the Latin erut, <ntu\u$ aud 

 ena ; ecltber and enter. 



LA, in music, the name given in England, Italy, and France, to the 

 tixth uf the syllables used in soliuiaation [SOLMISATIOX], and l>y tin- 

 two latter countries to the note called A by the Germans and Eugluh. 



LABORATORY, the room in which chemical operation* are per- 

 formed. The requiaites for the proper arrangement of, and the neoes- 

 aary instruments for, a laboratory may be seen at length in Professor 

 Faraday's 'Chemical Manipulation,' or ill AYilliauui'g 'Handbook f 

 Chemical Manipulation ' 



LABOUR [WAUES.] 



LAC, a resinous substance, which in the East Indies flows from 

 certain trees in the state of a milk} fluid, on account of tho puncture 

 made by a small insect, the Ooceut Jitiu, in their branches, in order to 

 deposit its ova. The trees are principally the J-'icia Jndica, picus 

 rcliywta, and Jihamntu jujulta. 



There are three kinds of lac known in commerce, and they are dig- 

 thiguuhed by the names of tlick-lac, tttd-lac, and ihell-lur. Stick-lac 

 is the substance in its natural state ; it ia of a reddish colour, nml 

 uncnutH small twigs ; when broken off and boiled in water, it loses ita 

 red colour, and is then termed teed-lac ; and when melted and reduced 

 to the state of thin plates, it is called thtll-lac, which hat a yell 

 brown colour. Mr. Hatchett appears to have been the first cl 

 who minutely examined these substances, but Dr. John, who has more 

 recently examined stick-lac, gives as its composition 



Besln, insoluble in ether ..... 66*86 



Laccin 16-66 



Colouring matter 



Extractive 



Cochineal coloured coreringi of insects 



Waxy tallow 



Laccic acid ...... 



Vcllo^cxtract 



Salts of potash, lime, iron, and earthy matter 

 Low 



100- 



Notwithstanding the seeming accuracy of the details of the above- 

 mentioned analysis, it would appear that further experiments are still 

 required to determine the nature of lac ; for Uuverdorben has, since 

 this analysis was published, stated the results of his examination ; lt, 

 laccin; 2nd, red colouring matter; 3rd, resin soluble in alcohol, in it 

 not in ether; 4th, resinous looking matter, slightly soluble in 

 alcohol ; 5th, crystaUisable resin ; 6th, uncrystallisable resin, soluble in 

 alcohol and ether, but not in naphtha ; 7th, wax ; 8th fat of coccus, 

 not saponifiable, and some oleic and morgaric acids. 



Shell-lac is largely employed in the manufacture of sealing-wax ; it 

 answers this purpose better than any other resinous matter, because it 

 melts without charring, and consequently without giving much smoke, 

 and also because it is hard and less brittle thon^pther resins. Shell- 

 lac is also used in varnishes ; and is so good an insulator of elei : 

 that a needle made of it is said to remain some days excited. 



Laccin. The properties of the substance to which this nai 

 been given, and which remained after the lac had been repeatedly 

 digested in alcohol and water, are, that it is hard and brittle, of a 

 yellow colour, and slightly transparent It i* insoluble in water, but 

 softens in it when hot; and it also swells and softens, but without 

 dissolving, in alcoho either cold or hot ; nor do ether, or oils take it 

 up. It it dissolved by concentrated sulphuric acid. Concentrated 

 nitric acid, when heated, dissolves it slowly. Solution of potash 

 dissolves it readily. 



Laccic acid separates from solution in water, by spontaneous evapo- 

 ration, in crystalline grains. It attracts moisture from the air, does 

 not precipitate either the salts of lime or baryta, but thrown <l..\vn 

 those of mercury and lead ; the persalta of iron are precipitated white 

 by it. With the alkalies and with lime it forms salts which are 

 soluble in alcohol and in water, and are deliquescent. 



The colouring matter of stick-lac is said to be similar to that of 

 cochineal. It is used for the name purposes, and yields a marlct but 

 little inferior to it 



Lac Dye and Lac Lake, two preparationn of .lac which arc manu- 

 factured in the East Indies, and used to a very considerable extent in 

 scarlet dyeing : they appear to be prepared by dissolving stick-lac in 

 an alkali, at potash or soda, and then adding a solution of alum ; by 

 thix there is precipitated a mixture of the alumina of t he alum and tin- 

 resinous and colouring matter nf the stick-lac. Tho lac dye is much 

 the more valuable of the two. 



The principal uses to which lac initsvnrioux forms i - ap-ilii >! are for 

 the making of soaUng-wax, for varnHi' I, I r jupanniinf, and (or 



