LICHTENBERG LICHTENSTEIN. 



461 



arctic rpgions, it grows in the greatest profusion, 

 often occupying, exclusively, extensive* tracts of 

 country, covering the ground to the depth of a foot 

 or more, and having the appearance of snow. It is 

 celebrated as being the chief resource of the reindeer 

 in these desolate regions. The Iceland moss (physcia 

 Icelandica) is also exceedingly abundant in the arctic 

 regions, and often affords aliment to the inhabitants, 

 either in the form of gruel or bread, which last, 

 though not agreeable, is very nutritious. The taste 

 is bitter, astringent, and extremely mucilaginous. 

 It is an article of commerce, and is very frequently 

 employed in pharmacy, in the composition of various 

 pectoral lozenges and sirups, and is celebrated as an 

 article of diet, in combination with milk, in coughs 

 and pulmonary affections. The plant consists of a 

 membranous frond, divided into lobes and lacinics, 

 which are unattached, and either smooth or fringed on 

 the margin. It is very abundant in the Alpine region 

 of the White mountains of New Hampshire, America. 

 Orchal (orcella tinctoria) is still an important article 

 of commerce, though much less used now than for- 

 merly, on account of the fugitiveness of the rich 

 purple and rose-coloured dyes which it yields. Some 

 ot its tints, however, are capable of being fixed, and 

 it is, besides, employed for staining marble, forming 

 blue veins and spots. It grows on rocks, bordering 

 on the sea, in the islands of the Mediterranean, the 

 Azores, Canaries, Cape Verde and Bourbon. That 

 from the Canaries is most esteemed, and is largely 

 imported into Europe. Several other lichens afford 

 dyes of various colours, some of which can be ren- 

 dered permanent. Litmus is also obtained from a 

 lichen. See Litmus. 



LICHTENBERG, GEORGE CHRISTOPHER, one of 

 the greatest natural philosophers, and wittiest writers, 

 that Germany has produced, was born in 1742, at 

 Ober-Ramstadt, near Darmstadt, and was the youngest 

 of a family of eighteen children. He received from 

 his father some instruction in physics, and went, 

 after his death, to the academy at Darmstadt. He 

 was strong and well formed till eight years of age ; 

 but, at this time, the effects of the carelessness of his 

 nurse became visible, in a distortion of the spine. In 

 1763, he went to Gottingen, where he applied himself 

 to astronomical observations. He made observa- 

 tions upon the earthquake of 1767, and observed, 

 with Kastner, the transit of Venus over the sun's 

 disk, June 19, 1769, as also the comets of 1770, 1771, 

 and 1773, the orbit of which last he described, and 

 presented to the academy of sciences of Gottingen. 

 He also constructed lunar charts, in which the spots 

 are indicated in the ordei in which they are succes- 

 sively covered by the earth's shadow. In 1770, he 

 was offered a professorship at Gottingen, which he 

 entered upon in his twenty-eighth year. In this year 

 he went to London. Lichtenberg ascertained by 

 observation, in 1772 and 1773, the situations of 

 Hanover, Osnabriick, and Stade. He afterwards 

 undertook to publish, with illustrations, the papers 

 left by Tobias Mayer, and added a lunar chart, with 

 a description of lunar spots; but only one volume 

 appeared. He visited England again in 1774, and 

 wrote upon Garrick and the English stage. He 

 subsequently published an excellent commentary upon 

 Hogarth's engravings. In 1778, he returned to Got- 

 tingen. From this period he lectured upon experi- 

 mental philosophy. His lectures were of great 

 worth, and his apparatus was princely. He was 

 ranked as a discoverer in physics, from his observa- 

 tions upon the figures developed upon electrified 

 substances, which he learned to reproduce and 

 exhibit, and which still retain his name. He also 

 attacked, with much wit, in several publications, the 

 system of physiognomy to which Lavater had given 



such currency; but he was subsequently reconciled 

 to Lavater. Other productions, which he thought 

 censurable, felt the lash of his wit. His taste for 

 drawings illustrative of character, made him a great 

 admirer of Hogarth. He, for a long time, supplied 

 the Gottingen Souvenir with miniature drawings of 

 the heads of Hogarth, accompanied by very witty 

 and ingenious observations. The favourable recep- 

 tion of these led to the publication of a Minute 

 Explanation of Hogarth's Plates, with perfect minia- 

 ture Copies of them, by Riepenhausen, of which he 

 published four numbers himself: the seven next to 

 the eleventh were published by Bottiger, and the last 

 by Bouterwek. In the last years of his life, Lich- 

 tenberg became hypochondriac and misanthropic, so 

 that he shut himself up in his chamber, and would 

 see no one. He died of a pulmonary inflammation, 

 Feb. 24, 1799, aged 57. He was an original think- 

 er, to whom no subject of a scientific character was 

 uninteresting. Scientific spirit and poetic talent 

 were united in him in a singular degree, and produc- 

 ed the most peculiar and striking results ; but the 

 highest principle of the human mind faith in some- 

 thing divine was, in his speculative moments, 

 disregarded ; and a superstitious belief in dreams, 

 predictions and presentiments, was admitted in its 

 stead. 



LICHFIELD, or LITCHFIELD; an ancient city 

 of England, in the county of Stafford, and a county of 

 itself, with particular local jurisdiction, under the 

 government of the bailiffs and magistrates. It stands 

 on a small brook that runs into the Trent. The city 

 is neat and well built, and consists of three or four 

 principal streets, and some smaller ones ; and is 

 separated from the Close, which is in the county of 

 Stafford, by a pool of running water. It is the resi- 

 dence of the dignitaries of the church. The cathe- 

 dral is supposed to have been founded about 656, and 

 was afterwards much enlarged and improved. It is 

 one of the most elegant religious edifices in Great Bri- 

 tain, extending 400 feet in length, and 67 in breadth. 

 In the centre rises an elegant steeple, to the height 

 of 258 feet, and two smaller ones, at the west end, 

 183 feet. The interior is finished with correspond- 

 ing elegance and splendour. The body of the church 

 is spacious and lofty, supported by pillars formed of 

 clusters of slender columns, with neat foliated capi- 

 tals. It extends 213 feet in length, from the great 

 west door to the choir, and 153 in breadth : the 

 breadth of the side-aisles is 66 feet, and the height 

 of the nave 60. Over the great west doors, that 

 open into the nave, is placed a splendid circular 

 window, constructed at the expense of James, duke 

 of York, in the reign of Charles II. A number of 

 interesting monuments are dispersed through the 

 church, among them Chantrey's celebrated group of 

 sleeping children. St Mary's chapel, now thrown 

 open to the choir, is uncommonly beautiful and 

 splendid. Besides the cathedral, the Close contains 

 a variety of buildings, which, except a few houses, 

 belong to the church. The bishop's palace is situat- 

 ed at the north-east corner. It is a spacious building 

 of stone, with the date of 1687, and the arms of the 

 bishopric, in front. Lichfield contains a free gram- 

 mar school, at which were educated Addison, Wol- 

 laston, Aslimole, Garrick, and Johnson. Population, 

 in 1831, 6499; in 1841, 6761. 



LICHTENSTEIN (properly, Liechtenstein), a 

 sovereign principality, the smallest state of the Ger- 

 man confederacy, is situated on the northern declivity 

 of the Rhaetian Alps (which here rise to the height 

 of 5600 feet), and on the Rhine. It comprises an 

 area of 53 square miles, with 5800 inhabitants, in 11 

 villages. Vadutz, a market-town, is the chief place. 

 The prince has declared the Austrian code valid in 



