1 ' 



LEorriM.vnoy. 



LEMN1SCATA. 



184 



. Austrian, and French codea, The difficulty 



ol paeaiag an extensive measure through s popular legislature has 

 bwu urgrd by those who have bean reproached with failure, as 

 dhl.Miasln any attempt at a systematic digesting of the law. 

 But UM d%eet of UM few of UM state of New York, and other 

 American codincations, afford instance, that such difficulty is not 

 



The inconveniences arising from too great prolixity or too great 

 eunefeensei in the phraseology of laws are stated by Lord Bacon, in 

 the 66th and 67th aphorisms of his eighth book De Augment*.' If 

 an attempt be made, by an enumeration of species, to avoid the 

 obscurity which arises from the use of Urge generic terms, doubts ore 

 treated as to the comprehensiveness of the few ; for, as Lord Bacon 

 well observes, " l"t exceptio firmat rim legia in ca-ibun non exceptis, 

 iU enumeratio infirmat earn in caribus non enumcratis." (' Ib.,' aph. 

 17.) On the other hand, vague and extensive terms, if unexplained, 

 are obscure and frequently ambiguous. The best mode of producing a 

 few which shall at once be comprehensive, perspicuous, and precise, 

 probably is, to draw the text of the few in abstract and concise 

 language, and to illustrate the text with a commentary, in which the 

 scope, grounds, and meaning of the several parts of the law are 

 explained. Such a commentary was suggested by Mr. Benthain. 

 (' Traitos de Legislation,' torn, iii., p. 284 ; ' De la Codification,' a. 4.) 

 Doubte will arise in practice respecting the interpretation of the moat 

 skilfully drawn laws ; and the best guide to the interpretation of a law 

 is an authentic declaration, made or sanctioned by the legislature 

 which enacted it, of its scope or purpose. The want of such a com- 

 mentary frequently causes the scope of a law to be unknown; and 

 hence the tribunals often hesitate about enforcing laws which may be 

 beneficial (' Dig.,' lib. i., t. 3, fr. 21, 22.) 



It seems scarcely necessary to say that laws ought, where it ia 

 poestble, to be composed in the language most intelligible to the 

 persons whose conduct they are to regulate. In countries where the 

 great majority of the people apeak the same language (aa in England 

 or France), no doubt about the choice of the language for the com- 

 position of the laws can exist. In countries however where the people 

 peak different languages, or where the language of the governing body 

 differs from that of the people, or where the bulk of the people speak 

 a language which has never received any. literary cultivation, a difficulty 

 arises as to the language in which the lawn shall be written. Where 

 the people apeak different languages, authentic translations of the 

 original text of the laws should be published. Where the language of 

 the governing body differs from that of the people (which ia generally 

 the case in newly-conquered countries), the laws ought to be issued in 

 the language of the people. It ia comparatively easy for a small 

 number of educated persona to learn a foreign language ; whereas it ia 

 impossible for the people at large speedily to unlearn their own, or to 

 learn a new tongue. Where the language of the bulk of the com- 

 munity has not received a literary cultivation, the language used 

 by educated persons for literary purposes must be employed for 

 the composition of the laws. Thus in Wales, the Highlands 

 of Scotland, and the west of Ireland, the language of the laws 

 and the government is not Celtic, but English ; and in Malta, where 

 the bulk of the people speak a dialect of Arabic, the laws are pub- 

 lished and administered in Italian, which is the literary language of 

 hekfend. 



IT1MATIOX. [BASTARD.] 



LEGfMIN. VrgctaUc Ouci*. This body has already been referred 

 to [ALB CM EX] a* one of the members of the albuminoid or 

 group of substance*. It exists in the seeds of all leguminous plants, 

 but is best prepared from pew or sweet almonds. These are bruised, 

 digested in lukewarm water for two or three hours, strained, reduced 

 to a pulp hi a mortar, the mass digested in its own weight of cold water 

 for an hour, the whole thrown upon a cloth filter, ami finally pressed. 

 The resulting liquor is then set aside for a short time that starch may 

 deposit, in filtered, and dilute acetic acid added to it cautiously drop 

 by drop. The legumin is thus precipitated in flocks, it is first washed 

 with water, then with alcohol, dried, powdered, digested in ether to 

 separate fatty matter, awl finally exposed in vacuo to a temperature 

 of 284' Fahr. till all moisture is got rid 



Legumin is insoluble in cold alcohol or ether. It is readily soluble 

 ia cold water, the solution coagulating on boiling; a trace of alkali, 

 however, prevents the coagulation. Acids also cause the precipitation 

 of legumin from solution, and redusolve it if they are added in excess. 

 Ebullition with dilute sulphuric acid converts it into leiicin. A piece 

 of rennet has the same action upon solution of legumin that it has 

 upon milk. Legumin or vegetable casein further resembles the animal 

 csMsn contained in milk, in the spontaneous curding of it solution 

 when wt aside for some hours, the supernatant liquid or vegetable 

 whey containing lactic acid like milk whey. 



According to Dumas and Cahours, legumin contains : 



.v < . 

 Sulphur | 



40-53 



GUI 



18-li 



24-41 



i H 



Some experimenters, however, find more carbon and less nitrogen ; 

 the sulphur api>ears to be present to the extent of 0-51 ; and Voelcker 

 timU J-18 of phosphorus in leguuiiii. By oxidation legumin give* 

 I'.'rini'-. arctic, ami other acids of the series CnHm >,. 



Lngumin, like the other members of the albuminoid group, h an 

 important flesh-forming material. [Ai.iu-jiKX.] 



I.Kh i'.' >MM i: is the iiame given to a substance possessing the proper- 

 ties of gum, and which is produced by simply exposing ntarch to a 

 temperature of 300. It has a brownish-yellow colour, and acts iu the 

 same manner as gum, and is extensively used instead of this substance 

 in calico-printing. It is identical with I>I:.\THIX. 



l.r.Il'slr YKLLOW. [Coi.ormx.; MATTERS.] 



I. K LEGES. The history of this people is involved in great obscu- 

 rity, in consequence of the various and almost contradictory traditions 

 which exist concerning them ; according to which, they are ou tin ..n.- 

 hand represented as among the earliest inhabitants of Greece, while on 

 the other they are said to bo the same people as the Carians. Tin v 

 were probably, as Strabo considers them, a mixed race widely d::. 

 According to Herodotus, the Carians, who originally inhabited the 

 islands of the .ttgean Sea, were known by the name of Leleges before 

 they emigrated to Asia Minor (i. 171) ; and according to Pausania*, the. 

 Leleges formed only a part of the Carian nation (vii. _'. S 4). The 

 Leleges appear, from numerous traditions, to have inhabited tli- 

 islands of the .E^eati Sea and the western coasts of Asia Minor from a 

 very early period. In Homer they are represented as the allies of the 

 Trojans, who inhabited a town called Pedasus, at the foot of Mount 

 Ida ; and their king, Alien, is said to be the father-in-law of I 

 (' II.,' xx. 96 ; xxi. 80.) They are said to have founded the tern 

 Hera in Samoa (Athen. xv., p. 672, Casaubou); and Strabo info; 

 that they once inhabited, together with the Carianx, the whole of 

 Ionia (vii. p. 831). 



On the other hand, in the numerous traditions respecting them in 

 the north of Greece, we find no connection between them and the 

 Carians. According to Aristotle (quoted by Strabo, vii. ]>. 3'J^), they 

 inhabited parta of Acarnania, ..IStolia, Opuntian I.ocris, Leucas, and 

 Bceotia. In the south of Greece we again meet with the same con- 

 fusion in the traditions of Megara respecting the Leleges and ( ' 

 Car ia said to have been one of the most ancient kings of Megara, and 

 to have been aucceeded in the royal power after the lapse of i 

 generation!*, by Lelex, a foreigner from Egypt. (Paua., i. 89, 4, 6.) 

 I'ylus, the grandson of this Lelex, is said to have led n colony of 

 Mcgarian Leleges into Mesaenia, where he founded the city of l'\ In.-. 

 (Paua., iv. 36, 1.) The Lacedaemonian traditions, on the coi 

 represent the Leleges as the original inhabitants of Lacou. 

 iii. 1,11.) 



It can scarcely be doubted, from the numerous traditions on the 

 subject, that the Lelegea were in some manner closely connected with 

 the Carians ; though it seems improbable that they were, according to 

 Herodotus, the same people. The Carians are univ. 

 as a people of Aaiatic origin ; while the principal and apparenU] 

 settlements of the Leleges were on the continent of Greece. With the 

 aingle exception of the Megarian tradition mentioned above, the I 

 arc nowhere represented as foreign settlers. If we might venture to 

 form on opinion upon such a doubtful snliject, we should be disposed 

 to regard the Leleges as a people of Pelaagian race, a portion of whom 

 emigrated, at a very early |>eriod, from the continent of Greece to the 

 islands of the .-Egean Sea, where they became connected with tho 

 Canons, and subsequently joined them in their descent upon Asia 

 Minor. 



(Kruw'a Iltllat: Wochsinuth'a llittorical Anli'/uitia of t/ie (ircckt ; 

 Thirlwall'a notary <>/ '.nft; Philvlnyiral Mtueum, No. 1, art. 

 " Ancscus.") 



1 . K M M A (Aijwia, literally " a thing taken or assumed "), a preparatory 

 proposition borrowed from another subject, or from another j 

 the same subject, nnd intiodund at the point at which it becomes 

 indiapeusable. Thus, if in a treatise on mechanics it become necessary 

 t" | >ro\v certain pro] .ositioim of giuiutry, those propositions are lemmas. 

 Many writers use the term as if it applied to any necciwary preli; 

 proposition : thus the seventh of Hie first book of Euclid is with 

 a li-nnna to the eighth. But this destroys the peculiar and 

 signification of the term, which it is dexirable to retain, or else to avoid 

 the word altogether. 



I.K.MMSCATA, a curve (first noticed by James Bernoulli) having 

 the form of nn S, but with the upper and lower part* pcitYc.tl-. 

 metrical. It is tho locus of the point in which a tangent to an 

 equilateral hyperbola meets the perj>eiidicular on it drawn from the 

 centre. If the equation of the hyperbola be .c s if-a.-, that of th.- 

 lemniscata referred to the some ax> (./-'-'->,-), and its 



polar aquation is ;~' = a j cos. 29. If the hyperbola be not Vqui 

 and it- major and minor itenii-axes be a and 4, the IOCU.M 

 described is still a curve of the same form, and if 



*-._, 



o= ft"" 1 

 be the equation of the hyperbola, that of the new Icinniscata is 



A grcnt many <!iflen-iil i lc rt, baring the name 



form ; an instance is y"-m.c' : (a-~ . 



