LYDIA 



3543 



LYNCHBURG 



community to draw up a new code of laws. 

 He thereupon remodeled the old constitution 

 and established a new social order, which gave 

 the people a voice in public affairs and led to 

 the development of Sparta into a great mili- 

 tary state. When this was accomplished, Ly- 

 curgus exacted a promise from his countrymen 

 not to alter the constitution until he returned 

 from a proposed journey. He then voluntarily 

 exiled himself in order that the Spartans would 

 be bound by oath to preserve intact and for- 

 ever the laws he had introduced. The time 

 and place of his death are unknown. Histo- 

 rians doubt the authenticity of some of this 

 traditional account of his life, and some au- 

 thorities regard him as a mythical personage. 

 See SPARTA. 



LYDIA, lid'ia, an ancient country in Asia 

 Minor, famous for its fertile soil and its rich 

 mineral deposits, especially the gold of the 

 River Pactolus. The Greeks believed that the 

 sands of this river produced the precious metal 

 after the unhap- 

 py King Midas 

 (which see) had 

 bathed in its 

 waters to rid him- 

 self of the touch 

 that turned every- 

 thing to gold. 

 Lydia lay be- 

 tween the sea and 

 Phrygia, on the 

 west and east, and Mysia and Caria, on the 

 north and south. In the seventh century B. c. 

 it was an independent and prosperous kingdom, 

 but in 546 B. c. the last king of the Lydians, the 

 celebrated Croesus (which see), was conquered 

 by Cyrus the Great. Thereafter the country 

 was subject in turn to the Persians, the Greeks 

 and the Romans. The Lydians are supposed to 

 have invented the art of dyeing wool and of 

 smelting and working ore. Their capital city 

 was Sardis, near whose ruins may now be seen 

 the straggling huts of a tiny village. 



LYELL, li'el, SIR CHARLES (1797-1875), a 

 British scientist of the nineteenth century who 

 is considered by many to be the founder of 

 modern geological science. He was born at 

 Kinnordy, Scotland, and educated at Oxford 

 University. He was admitted to the bar, but 

 soon abandoned the law to devote himself to 

 geological research. After making several geo- 

 logical tours in 1824, and again in 1828-1830, he 

 published his investigations in the Transactions 

 of the Geological Society. Portions of his first 



LOCATION MAP 



important book, Principles of Geology, form 

 the basis of the Elements of Geology, the sixth 

 edition of which was published in 1865. In the 

 Antiquity of Man he offers the theory that the 

 race of man is much older than is generally 

 believed. He was knighted in 1848, and was 

 created a baronet in 1864. Lyell lent his in- 

 fluence to securing recognition for Darwin's 

 theory of evolution, a system which he fore- 

 shadowed in his Principles of Geology. See 

 EVOLUTION; GEOLOGY. 



LYMPH, limf, a colorless fluid, which is in 

 composition like blood but does not contain 

 the red coloring matter (red corpuscles). From 

 this fluid the body cells get nourishment, the 

 lymph being first collected from the blood it- 

 self by an intricate process of filtration. The 

 lymph not only nourishes the body cells but 

 also collects impurities from them and thus 

 assists in protecting the body from harmful 

 influences. 



Chyle. Lymph which has absorbed nourish- 

 ment from the digested food in the intestine is 

 called chyle. This is later poured into the 

 blood stream and given to the body cells as 

 food. 



The Lymphatic System. Lymph is carried 

 by its own special system of vessels, which are 

 called lymphatics. These have their origin in 

 fine vessels lying adjacent to the fine blood 

 vessels; growing larger, they are called trunks; 

 these trunks unite to form still larger vessels 

 called ducts. The thoracic duct, the most nota- 

 ble example, carries the lymph and chyle 

 from nearly the whole system of lymphatics 

 and empties into the big vein under the collar 

 bone. This thoracic duct is about fifteen to 

 eighteen inches long, lies along the front of the 

 spine and begins below with a dilated portion 

 or reservoir, called the receptacle of chyle. It 

 is about the size of a goose quill above its res- 

 ervoir, or place where it receives the flow from 

 its tributaries. 



Lymphatic Glands are enlargements along 

 the trunk of a lymphatic vessel, and are most 

 thickly distributed in certain parts of the body, 

 as the neck, the armpit and groin. They drain 

 poison from the blood and near-by tissues in 

 time of need and peril, thus protecting the 

 body from harmful influences. S.C.B. 



LYMPHATICS, limfat'iks. See LYMPH, 

 subhead The Lymphatic System. 



LYNCHBURG, linch'berg, VA., a distributing 

 and manufacturing center of importance, hav- 

 ing exceptional transportation facilities through 

 the service of the Norfolk & Western, Chesa- 



