LITERARY PROPERTY LITHTC ACID. 



489 



perty, the fruits of (heir own labour, and sequestrate 

 it fur the public use. If a man cultivates the ground, 

 or fabricates goods, the fruits of his labour go to him 

 and his heirs or assigns, absolutely, for ever; but if he 

 spends his life upon a poem or musical composition, 

 lie only has a lease of it for fourteen years, according 

 to the statute of Anne, when it is to be forfeited to 

 the public. This doctrine displays, in striking con- 

 trast, the rewards bestowed, and the forfeitures 

 enacted, in reference to different species of glory and 

 public service. While a military hero is rewarded 

 'tvith a grant of lands and a title of honour, to himself 

 ind liis heirs ad infinitum, a man of equal genius, 

 who, by his labours, instructs and delights mankind, 

 and sheds a lasting glory upon the country of which 

 lie is a citizen, is despoiled of the fruits of his own 

 labours. The injustice of such a doctrine is so obvi- 

 ous, that its legality, though sanctioned by an acqui- 

 escence of half a century, may well be questioned. 

 However this may be, legislators have begun to 

 mitigate the forfeitures heretofore inflicted upon 

 literary eminence, by extending the time for which 

 an author may enjoy the fruits of his own talents and 

 industry. By a law passed in the fifty-fourth year of 

 George the Third, chapter 156, an author is entitled 

 to an exclusive copyright in his work for twenty- 

 eight years, and, if he is living at the end of that 

 period, it is continued during his life. This act is 

 entitled to the commendation of being less unjust 

 than that of Anne. 



On the continent of Europe, the laws are much 

 more favourable, or, rather, much less unfavourable, 

 to authors. In France, they are entitled to an 

 exclusive copyright during their lives, and their heirs 

 or assigns for twenty years afterwards. In many of 

 the German states, the right is perpetual, but it is 

 subject to this disadvantage, that it extends only to 

 the state, in which it is granted, and the work may 

 be pirated in the others with impunity. This can be 

 avoided only by procuring a copyright in the differ- 

 ent German states, which is attended with much 

 difficulty and expense. The defect of the laws of 

 these German states on this subject, therefore, is not 

 in confiscating the author's property, or refusing to 

 recognise his right to it, but in burdening him with 

 heavy expenses in securing its protection. In Russia, 

 the period of the copyright is the same as in France, 

 and it is not liable to be seized and sold for the pay- 

 ment of the author's debts. In the United States of 

 America, the constitution provides, that congress 

 may secure, " for limited times, to authors, &c., the 

 exclusive right to their respective writings.'' &c. 

 Under this provision, a law was passed, in 1790, 

 giving to authors, being citizens of the United States, 

 r being resident therein, the sole right of printing 

 and vending their works for the term of fourteen 

 years from the time of recording the title in the 

 clerk's office ; and, if living at the expiration of that 

 period, and then citizens or resident as above, they 

 could have a renewal of the exclusive right for four- 

 teen years longer, on filing a copy of the title again 

 in the clerk's office. This law also required, that, 

 at the commencement of each term, the author 

 should publish the clerk's certificate in some news- 

 paper for four weeks. It also required that a copy 

 should be deposited in the office of the secretary of 

 state. A more liberal, or, rather, less illiberal, law 

 was passed on this subject in 1831. By this act, the 

 exclusive right is extended to twenty-eight years, 

 with a right of renewal for his life, if the author is 

 living at the expiration of the first copyright. It 

 dispenses with the publication of the clerk's certifi- 

 cate in a newspaper a very useless provision ; for, 

 if the work itself gives notice that the copyright is 

 secured, a person who pirates it can have no pretence 



for alleging ignorance of the fact. The act, also, 

 though it requires that the author shall supply a copy 

 for the office of the secretary of state, excuses him 

 from the trouble of depositing it there, requiring him 

 only to leave it in the office of the clerk of the dis- 

 trict court. See Copyright. 



LITERATURE, according to the English dic- 

 tionaries, means learning. In general use, however, 

 this word, in English, commonly signifies what in other 

 countries would be called elegant literature, exclud- 

 ing works of abstract science, and mere erudition. 

 The meaning of the word, in English, however, is 

 vague. In German and French, the word means 

 distinctly, the whole which has been written. Hence 

 the phrase " literature of the middle ages," or, " me- 

 dical literature," means the aggregate of works 

 written during the middle ages, or on medicine, &c. 

 Literary is applied to all those branches of reading 

 which come within the scope of a general reader; 

 the phrase " literary gentleman " corresponds pretty 

 nearly to the French homme de lettres. Literary 

 gazette is a journal which treats of works interesting 

 to a general reader. In literary history, the word 

 has a more extensive meaning. See Literary His- 

 tory. 



LITH1A ; the name applied by Arfwedson to an 

 alkali discovered by him in analyzing the petalite. 

 The name was derived from the Greek Xifaus (stony), 

 in allusion to the existence of the earth in a stony 

 mineral. Lithia has since been detected in spodu- 

 mene, and several kinds of mica. The best process 

 for procuring it is the following : One part of peta- 

 lite or spodumene, in fine powder, is mixed inti- 

 mately with two parts of fluor-spar, and the mixture 

 is heated with three or four times its weight of sul- 

 phuric acid, as long as any acid vapours are disen- 

 gaged. The silica of the mineral is attacked by 

 hydrofluoric acid, and dissipated in the form of fluo- 

 silicic acid gas, while the alumina and lithia unite 

 with sulphuric acid. After dissolving these salts in 

 water, the solution is boiled with pure ammonia to 

 precipitate the alumina ; is filtered, evaporated to 

 dryness, and then heated to redness, to expel the sul- 

 phate of ammonia. The residue is pure sulphate of 

 lithia, which is dissolved in \vater, and decomposed 

 by acetate of barytes ; and the acetate of lithia, 

 being heated to redness, is converted into the car- 

 bonate of lithia, and, finally, this is decomposed by 

 lime or barytes, which affords pure lithia. Its col- 

 our is white ; it is not deliquescent, but absorbs 

 carbonic acid from the air ; very soluble in water ; 

 acrid, caustic, and acts on colours like the other 

 alkalies : heated with platina, it acts on the metal. 

 It combines with the different acids, and forms salts 

 with them, like potash and soda, though possessed of 

 a higher neutralizing power than these alkalies. Its 

 phosphate and carbonate are sparingly soluble ; its 

 chloride is deliquescent and soluble in alcohol, and 

 this solution burns with a red flame. All its salts 

 give a red colour, when heated on a platinum wire 

 before the blowpipe. The muriate and nitrate are 

 deliquescent. The metallic base of lithia was 

 evolved by Sir H. Davy, by galvanism ; but it was 

 too rapidly oxidized to be collected : the metal w as, 

 however, seen to be white like sodium, and burn ed 

 with bright scintillations. 



LITHIC ACID, in combination with potash, is 

 obtained from human urinary calculi, by digesting 

 them in caustic lixivium : the lithate of potash gives 

 up the lithic acid, on being mingled with acetic acid. 

 It has the form of white shining plates, which are 

 denser than water ; is without taste or smell, and 

 dissolves in 1400 parts of boiling water. It reddens 

 the infusion of litmus. The lithates are all tasteless, 

 and very sparingly soluble in water. Lithic acid, by 



