313 



LIVER OF ANTIMONY. 



LOAM. 



314 



and is especially seen in the- case of Europeans exposed to the heat of 

 tropical climates, or in the hot weather of temperate climates. An 

 increased secretion of bile is attended with an increased action of the 

 bowels, called " bilious diarrhoea." Such increased secretion of bile is 

 attended with congestion, which may terminate in inflammation of the 

 liver, which is attended with a diminution of the biliary secretion. 



Various causes may produce a suspension of the processes by which 

 the bile is thrown out of the liver. When this occurs, the bile is 

 absent from the intestinal excretions, and being taken up into the blood 

 produces jaundice. [JAUNDICE.] 



The liver is very apt to become enlarged by chronic inflammation, 

 and then can be felt externally. Or such changes may be produced in 

 it by hypertrophy or atrophy of one or more of the tissues composing 

 it, or by the formation of a new tissue, that the passage of the blood 

 through it is impeded, and dropsy of the abdomen (ascites) is the 

 result ; this effect however is sometimes a consequence of the chronic 

 inflammation of the liver having extended to the whole lining mem- 

 brane of the abdominal cavity. 



Of the structural diseases, not inflammatory in their nature, some, as 

 scrofulous tubercles, are rarely met with in the liver, others, as 

 carcinoma, are more frequent in it than in most other internal organs, 

 except the intestinal canal. There are no certain means of ascertaining 

 the presence of these diseases in the liver, until the tumours which 

 they form attain such a size as to be felt externally ; though it should 

 be suspected, when the general states of the body marking the carcino- 

 matous and tubercular diathesis exist, and still more when these diseases 

 are known to be present in other parts, if at the same time there are 

 marks of irritation and disturbed action of the liver. 



The " fatty liver " is a frequent attendant on pulmonary phthisis : it 

 cannot be recognised by any signs during life. 



The liver in man, as in many animals, particularly the sheep, is, as 

 we have said, subject to become the seat of parasitic living creatures 

 hydatids. These are generally contained in great numbers in a firm 

 general cyst, which not uncommonly protrudes externally, and bursts, 

 or is opened by a lancet, when numerous pellucid bladder-like bodies 

 of different sizes, floating in a transparent fluid, escape. 



The treatment of diseases of the liver is regulated by the general 

 principles according to which the cure of diseases in other parts is 

 attempted, and will of course vary with the nature of the particular 

 affection requiring it. 



LIVER OF ANTIMONY. [ANTIMONY.] 



LIVER OF SULPHUR. [POTASSIUM, Sulphides of.] 



LIVRE, anciently a money of account in France, afterwards a coin. 

 The word is derived from the Roman libra, or pound, the standard by 

 which the French money was regulated, twenty sous being made equal 

 to the livre, or libra. Under the decimal system, accounts are now 

 kept in francs of 20 BOUB, of 10 decimes each, and each decime is 

 divisible into 10 centimes. 



The livre was formerly of two kinds, Tournois and Parisis. The 

 Livre Tournois contained 20 sous Tournois, and each sol or sous 12 

 deniers Tournois. The Livre Parisis was of 20 sous Parisis, each sous 

 worth 12 deniers Parisis, or 15 deniers Tournois; so that a livre 

 Parisis was equivalent to 25 sous Tournois ; the word Parisis being 

 used in opposition to Tournois on account of the rate of money, which 

 was one-fourth higher at Paris than at Tours. 



The Lira Italiana in the Italian livre, and it varies in value in several 

 states. In Austrian- Lombardy and Piedmont it was worth 8d. ; in 

 Tuscany 7M. ; but the currency has been latterly approximating to 

 the French system, which is now likely to become general. 



LIXIVATION, a term employed chiefly in technical chemistry to 

 denote the dissolving out of saline matters from an insoluble residue : 

 thus black ath is lixivated with water to dissolve but its constituent 

 carbonate of soda, from other insoluble matters consisting chiefly of 

 oxygulphuret of calcium. The solution thus obtained is termed a 

 lixivium. 



LIXIVIUM. [LIXIVATION.] 



LIZARIC ACID. [MADDER, COLOUBING MATTERS OF; Alizarin.] 



LOADSTONE. [MAGNKT.] 



LOAM, a soil compounded of various earths, of which the chief are 

 silicious sand, clay, and carbonate of lime, or chalk. The other sub- 

 stances which are found in loams, such as iron, magnesia, and various 

 salts, are seldom in such proportions as materially to alter their 

 nature. Decayed vegetable and animal matter, in the form of humus, 

 i found in loams in considerable quantities, and the soil is fertile in 

 proportion. 



According as the loams are composed, so they vary in quality. 

 Those which consist of a great portion of loose sand, with little vege- 

 table matter, and with an impregnation of iron, are very unproductive ; 

 amf those which contain too much clay, and are on an impervious 

 subsoil, are very difficult to cultivate. But between these extremes 

 there are soils which cannot be surpassed in fertility as wheat-land. 

 What renders loams so much more fertile than either clays or sands is, 

 that the pure earths are in themselves almost entirely barren : sand 

 lets the moisture run through it and evaporate rapidly ; clay retains 

 it, but locks it up in its own substance, and does not allow the tender 

 young roots of plants to push through it ; chalk has the same 

 mechanical quality, besides containing very little organic and soluble 

 matter, from which plants derive their chief increase. Sand and clay 



alone, without a considerable portion of organic matter, will not make 

 a rich soil ; but when a portion of calcareous earth is joined to both, 

 the vegetable matter is more readily rendered soluble, and the clay and 

 sand are prevented from forming a mortar, which would harden too 

 readily, and prevent the influence of the air from reaching the roots. 

 Good loams allow of that circulation of moisture which acts so pro- 

 minent a part in the process of vegetation. It is almost universally 

 admitted that the most fertile soils always contain a proportion of 

 calcareous matter ; and by adding chalk to those soils in which it does 

 not abound, whether sandy or argillaceous, a manifest improvement is 

 always produced. 



It has been asserted that in the climate of France, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Paris, the best soil for the growth of wheat is composed of 

 equal portions of fine sand, clay, and chalk. Upon what grounds this 

 is assumed, does not appear very clear. The greater the natural 

 moisture of any climate, the greater proportion of sand is required to 

 make a fertile loam ; and the greater the proportion of humus, the less 

 sand will be required to temper the clay. The analysis of soils known 

 to be extremely fertile gives a very great difference in the proportions 

 of the different earths. 



In the climate of England the soil which is generally preferred for 

 cultivation is a loam, rather light than heavy ; at least half of which is 

 silicious sand, one-third clay, and the rest chalk. Such a soil is called 

 a good loam ; it is land which will produce almost every thing which is 

 usually cultivated on sands or clays : it is not too stiff for carrots and 

 turnips, and not too loose for wheat and beans. It is of most easy 

 cultivation at all times of the year, provided the subsoil be sound, and 

 not too retentive of water. It requires only to be occasionally recruited 

 with manure, to restore to it what vegetation has consumed, and to be 

 kept free from the weeds which naturally spring up in all fertile soils. 

 All attempts to improve the nature of a soil should have for their 

 object the bringing it to a state of loam, by the addition of those 

 substances which are deficient. If there is too much clay, chalk and 

 sand may be added, or a portion of the clay may be calcined by burn- 

 ing, in order to destroy its attraction for water, and thus act the part 

 of sand in forming the loam. Limestone or calcareous sand and gravel 

 are still more efficacious for this purpose : they not only correct too great 

 porosity, or too great tenacity, but also act chemically on the organic 

 matter in the soil, rendering it soluble, and fit to be taken up by the 

 roots of plants. If there is too much sand, marl composed of clay and 

 chalk is the remedy. Good loams require much less tillage than stiffey 

 soils, and will bear more stirring to clean them than sands. Hence 

 they are cultivated more economically, and more easily kept free from 

 useless weeds ; while the produce is more certain and abundant. They 

 can be impregnated to a higher degree with enriching manures, with- 

 out danger of root-fallen crops, or of too great an abundance of straw 

 at the expense of the grain. For artificial meadows they are eminently 

 proper : all the grasses grow well in good loams, when they are on a 

 dry or well-drained subsoil, which is an indispensable condition in all 

 good land. Sheep and cattle can be depastured on them during the 

 whole year, except when there is snow on the ground. If there should 

 be means of irrigation, no soil is better suited to it than a light loam 

 on a bed of gravel ; or even if the subsoil is clay, provided sufficient 

 under-draining prevent the water from stagnating between the soil and 

 subsoil, which, as practical men very properly express it, would poison 

 any land. 



A loamy soil requires less manure to keep it in heart than either clay 

 or sand ; for while it is favourable to the process by which organic 

 matter buried deep in the soil is converted into insoluble humus, it 

 also permits that part of it which is nearer to the surface to attract 

 oxygen from the air, and thus it is converted into a soluble extract, 

 which is to the roots of plants what the milk of animals is to their 

 young a ready-prepared food easily converted into vegetable juices. 



The analysis and classification of soils is of the greatest importance 

 to all those who take farms ; for the rent of land is very seldom pro- 

 portioned to its intrinsic value : one farm may be worth double the 

 rent of another, where the apparent difference in the soil is very 

 trifling. Those who have had long experience of the expense of 

 cultivation, and the average produce of certain lands, can nearly guess 

 what rent it may be safe to offer ; but a stranger has no criterion to 

 judge by. Hence it is notorious that a stranger coming to take a farm 

 from a distant district is almost invariably deceived. Why should not 

 the value of a soil be ascertained, as readily as that of any article of 

 commerce ? If there were certain points of comparison, it would be 

 so ; but in this the theory of agriculture is woefully deficient. A man 

 guesses at the qualities of land by the colour, the feeling, and other 

 uncertain signs : it seldom or never occurs to a farmer to examine the 

 component parts of a soil, by merely diffusing a portion in water, and 

 testing the deposits much less to compound artificial soils, and 

 compare them with those found in the fields. Yet every gardener can 

 prepare soils suited to different plants, and make loams of all degrees 

 of richness or consistence. In all these it will be found that sand, 

 clay, chalk, and decayed vegetable substances, in various proportions, 

 are the chief ingredients. If therefore these are found in a natural 

 loam, we may safely conclude that it would be equally productive, 

 and the deficiency of one ingredient may be supplied artificially. This 

 would be going rationally and scientifically to work ; and the result 

 would be a more certain and satisfactory practice of husbandry. 



