LEYDEN LIBATION. 



tndr. The manufactures have much declined, but 

 the salt-works are important. Leyden suffered much 

 in January. 1807, from the explosion of a ship con- 

 taining 40,000 pounds of gunpowder. The houses 

 on tin- M<ie of the canal were overturned, and many 

 IN killed. Natives of Leyden are John of Ley- 

 den (q. v.), known as the leader of the Anabaptists, 

 the celebrated Peter Muschenbroek, Rembrandt, 

 J.uke of Leyden, &c. It is connected with Ilnnrlem, 

 Hngne, and Delft by canals. Leyden was called by 

 tlie Romans Lugdunum Batavorum (see Batavians), 

 from which the present name was formed in the 

 middle ages. Even in Ptolemy's time, Leyden was a 

 considerable city. It suffered much during the war 

 with Spain (1574). 



LEYDEN, JAN or JOHN OF. See John of Ley- 

 den. 



LEYDEN, LUKE OF. See Luke of Leyden. 



LEYDEN, JOHN ; a poet, antiquary, and Orien- 

 talist, was born at Denholm, in Roxburghshire, 

 Scotland, in 1775, of parents in humble circumstances, 

 and bred up to such country labour as suited his con- 

 dition. In his earliest youth, he displayed the 

 greatest eagerness for the acquisition of knowledge, 

 but enjoyed few opportunities of gratifying it. His 

 predominHiit desire for learning, however, determined 

 his parents to prepare him for the church, and he 

 was entered at the college of Edinburgh, in 1790, for 

 the purpose of commencing his professional studies. 

 Here, besides attending to theology, he cultivated 

 medical studies, and, in addition to the learned lan- 

 guages, acquired French, Spanish, Italian, German, 

 the ancient Icelandic, Arabic, and Persian. After 

 remaining five or six years in Edinburgh, he became 

 private tutor to two young gentlemen, whom he 

 accompanied to St Andrews, and, in 1799, published 

 his History of African Discoveries, which has since 

 been continued and enlarged by Hugh Murray (3 

 vols., 8vo, 1820). At this time, he was also the 

 author of many poetical effusions in different depart- 

 ments, which appeared in the Edinburgh Magazine, 

 and which, by rendering him known to the lovers of 

 literature, introduced him into the best society in the 

 Scottish capital. In company, he displayed the 

 rudeness and independence, which his early life and 

 education were fitted to produce in a man of strong 

 feeling and vigorous genius, united with personal 

 boldness, and much bodily power and activity. In 

 1800, he began to preach, and, although popular as 

 a pulpit orator, he was not satisfied with his own 

 discourses. In 1801 and 1802 he assisted Sir Walter 

 Scott in procuring materials and illustrations for his 

 Minstrelsy -of the Scottish Border, and re-published 

 the Complaynt of Scotland, with a learned prelimin- 

 ary Dissertation, Notes, and a Glossary. Having 

 manifested a strong desire to set out on an expedi- 

 tion to explore the unknown regions of Africa, his 

 friends, to prevent the execution of this project, pro- 

 cured him an appointment in India, which, however, 

 could only be held by a person who had taken a sur- 

 gical degree, and this he actually obtained, after six 

 months' unremitting application. While in India, he 

 devoted himself to the study of Oriental literature, 

 but did not long survive the influence of the climate 

 and his over-exertions in his studies. He died in 

 1806, His Poetical Remains, with a Memoir of his 

 Life, were published in 1821, and, in 1826, the Com- 

 mentaries of Baber, translated by him from the 

 Turkish language. An animated sketch of doctor 

 Leyden's life is to be found among the Miscellaneous 

 prose Works of Sir W. Scott. 



LEYDEN PHIAL, in electricity, is a glass phial 

 or jar, coated both within and without with tin-foil, 

 or some other conducting substance, which may be 

 charged, and employed in a variety of useful and 



entertaining experiments. Glass of any other shape, 

 so coated and used, has also received the same 

 denomination. A vacuum produced in such a jar, 

 c. , has been named the Leyden vacuum. See 

 Electricity. 



LI, (called also caxa) ; the common copper coin, 

 in China, with a square hole in the middle, and an 

 inscription on one side. The copper is alloyed with 

 lead, and the coin, which is cast, is very brittle. 

 Ten lis make one candareen, 100 a mass, 1000 a 

 liang or tale, about five shillings. 



LIAS, in geology ; the name of a peculiar forma- 

 tion, consisting of thick, argillaceous deposits, which 

 constitutes the base on which the oolitic series 

 reposes. The word lias is of English origin, and is 

 said to lie derived from a provincial pronunciation of 

 the word layers. The upper portion of these depo- 

 sits, including about two thirds of their total depth, 

 consists of beds of a deep-blue marie, containing only 

 a few irregular limestone beds. In the lower por- 

 tion, the limestone beds increase in frequency, and 

 assume the peculiar aspect which characterizes the 

 lias, presenting a series of thin, stony beds, separated 

 by narrow, argillaceous partings ; so that the quar- 

 ries of this rock, at a distance, assume a striped and 

 riband-like appearance. These limestone beds, when 

 purest, contain ninety per cent, of carbonate of lime ; 

 the residue consisting, apparently, of alumine, iron, 

 and silex. In places where these beds are less pure, 

 alumine of course abounds. The blue lias, which 

 contains much iron, affords a strong lime, distin- 

 guished by its property of setting under water. The 

 white lias takes a polish, and may be used for the 

 purposes of lithography. The lias clay often occurs 

 in the form of soft slate or shale, which divides into 

 very thin laminee, and is frequently much impreg- 

 nated with bitumen and iron pyrites ; in consequence 

 of which, when laid in heaps with fagots, and once 

 ignited, it will continue to burn slowly until the iron 

 pyrites is wholly decomposed. When it falls in large 

 masses from the cliffs upon the sea-shore, as it often 

 does in England, and becomes moistened by sea- 

 water, it ignites spontaneously. The alum-slate of 

 Whitby, in England, is of this sort. Lias clay is 

 impregnated with a large dose of common salt, and 

 sulphate of magnesia and soda ; in consequence of 

 which, springs of water, rising through it, contain 

 these salts in solution. The Cheltenham and Glou- 

 cester springs are in this clay. The lias is remark- 

 able for the number and variety of its organic 

 remains, among which are numerous chambered 

 univalves, bivalves, certain species offish and verte- 

 bral animals, allied to the order of lizards, some of 

 which are of enormous size. The ichthyosaurus, 

 one of these, has the orbit of its eye ten inches long 

 and seven broad ; and the plesiosaurus, of which five 

 species have been found, measures twenty feet in 

 length. This rock also embraces, in some instances, 

 bones of the turtle, fossil wood, and jet. The lias 

 crosses England from near Whitby, in Yorkshire, to 

 Lyme, in Dorsetshire. The same formation occurs 

 also in France, and in the Alps and the Jura. The 

 most valuable mineral substances obtained from it 

 are water-setting lime and alum shale. 



LIBANUS, MOUNT. See Lebanon. 



LIBATION (Latin, libatio, libamenlum, from 

 libare, to pour out ) ; properly a drink-offering ; but 

 used also for other offerings to the gods, as a meal- 

 cake, or something similar placed on the altar, and a 

 part of which was burned. Libations were also 

 made at domestic meals, some of the food being 

 thrown into the fire on the hearth, in honour of the 

 lares. Of all fruits, a small portion was likewise 

 placed on an altar, table, &c., in honour of the gods, 

 or thrown into the sea, in honour of the sea deities. 



