LAPLACE 



3331 



LAPLAND 



1 



who believed that it possessed medicinal value, 

 ground it to powder and then mixed it with 

 milk, forming a dressing for boils and ulcera- 

 tions. The best specimens come from China, 

 Siberia, Persia and Chile. See GEMS; ULTRA- 

 MARINE. 



LAPLACE, laplahs' , PIERRE SIMON, Marquis 

 de (1749-1827), , the most famous of French 

 astronomers, called "the Newton of France" 

 and "the greatest mathematician of his age." 

 To him the world is indebted for a series of 

 brilliant discoveries in regard to the theory of 

 planets, the question of tides and the prob- 

 lem of the stability of the solar system. Espe- 

 cially is his name connected with the world- 

 famous theory of the origin of the solar system, 

 known as the nebular hypothesis (which see), 

 now largely discredited. 



Laplace was the son of a poor farmer of 

 Beaumont-en-Auge, and it was through gener- 

 ous friends that he was able to attend the 

 College of Caen and the Military School at 

 Beaumont. When only twenty years old he 

 became professor of mathematics in the Mili- 

 tary School of Paris, and from that time on 

 he advanced steadily in fame and in position. 

 Elected one of the "forty immortals" of the 

 French Academy in 1816, Laplace before his 

 death became a member of nearly every 

 learned society in the world. His most cele- 

 brated work, the Celestial Mechanics, is a 

 masterpiece of scientific writing. Of almost 

 equal merit is his Exposition of the System of 

 the Worlds, in which he set forth the nebular 

 hypothesis. 



LAP 'LAND, a land of continuous cold, in 

 Arctic Northwestern Europe, so called because 

 it is the home of the people known as Lapps. 

 It is a bleak land where the struggle for a 

 livelihood is difficult; but the Lapps, though 

 the smallest people of Europe, have great en- 

 durance and usually live in happiness and con- 

 tentment. 



Lapland really belongs to three countries 

 Norway, Sweden and Russia. On the north is 

 the Arctic Ocean, on the east the White Sea, 

 and on the west the Norwegian Sea. The 

 southern boundary is indefinite, but Lapland's 

 area of about 150,000 square miles consists of 

 the Norwegian provinces of Nordland, Tromso 

 and Finmarken; part of Sweden's province of 

 Noriiand and all of Norrbotten; Northern 

 Finland and the Kola Peninsula, which belong 

 to Russia. 



The People and Their Mode of Living. In a 

 land where there are nine months of extreme 



cold every year, where vegetation consists of 

 little but mosses, lichens and sparse growths 

 of birch, pine and fir, life must of necessity 

 be difficult to maintain. In this land where 

 in the extreme north there are two months of 

 continuous daylight and two months of un- 



RUSSIA 



LOCATION MAP 



broken darkness, live a strange little people 

 numbering about 25,000. They are small, aver- 

 aging less than five feet in height, muscular, 

 large-headed, with low foreheads, high cheek 

 bones, flat features, and lips straight and thin. 

 Their hair is black and straight, their faces 

 yellow. Year in and year out they wear their 

 garments of wool and reindeer skins, never re- 

 moving them until they need new ones, seldom 

 washing even their faces. They are dirty, yet 

 healthy; uneducated, but, perhaps because of 

 their ignorance, contented and merry-hearted. 

 They can, however, be cruel and selfish, for 

 many of them have a great love of money and 

 drink. 



There are three groups of Lapps. The 

 Mountain Lapps live a wandering life, moving 

 from place to place with their herds of rein- 

 deer, pitching their tents wherever herbage is 

 plentiful, and, as described in the lines by 

 James Thomson 



The reindeer form their riches ; these their tents, 

 Their robes, their beds, and all their homely 

 wealth supply. 



The children of the Mountain Lapps, who 

 know nothing of the happy, care-free life of 

 boys and girls in lands to the south of them, 

 seem like little old men and women, for they 

 must early do their share in the work of the 

 household. In one cone-shaped tent the en- 

 tire family, including dogs, live, eat and sleep. 

 These simple people pass an uneventful exist- 

 ence, content to rove from place to place, 



