LIG 



429 



LIL 



LIFE-PRESERVER. Scheffer's life-pre- 

 erver is a hollow cylindrical ring formed 

 without a seam, and perfectly air-tight. 

 It is distended with air, and is therefore 

 well adapted to the place which it occu- 

 pies, being placed under the arms. 



LITE-REST. In Scottish law, the right 

 of enjoyment of an heritage or sum of 

 money for life. 



LIFTS. In a ship, certain ropes at the 

 yard-arms, used to make the yards hang 

 higher or lower as wanted. 



LIFT-WALL, the cross-wall of a lock 

 chamber. 



LIO'AM EN T. In anatomy, a strong elastic 

 and compact substance, serving to join 

 two moveable bones together : hence the 

 term ligamentum, from ligo, to bind. The 

 ligaments are harder than membrane, and 

 softer than cartilage. 



LIG'ATURE, a thread, ligatura, from ligo, 

 to bind ; anything which binds. In music, 

 a line connecting notes. In printing, a 

 double character or type consisting of two 

 letters, as^?, ft, &c. 



LIGHT, Sax. leoht, that which renders 

 bodies perceptible to our sense of seeing. 

 Some regard light as a substance, or fluid 

 per *; others consider it merely as a 

 principle, and attribute it to a sort of 

 undulation or vibration, propagated from 

 the luminous body through a subtle ethe- 

 real medium. The great source of light 

 is the sun, from which it radiates with a 

 velocity of 164,000 miles in a second of 



time. 2. In painting, those parts of a 



piece which are illuminated, or that lie 

 open to the luminary by which the picture 

 is supposed to be enlightened, and which 

 for this reason are painted in bright co- 

 lours, are termed lights. In this sense the 

 term is opposed to shadow. 



LIGHT'ER, a large and flat-bottomed 

 boat, used in loading and unloading ships. 

 A covered or close lighter is one furnished 

 with a deck. A ballast lighter is a vessel 

 fitted up to heave ballast from the bottom 

 of a river or harbour, and carry it to and 

 from ships. 



LIGHT-HOUSE, a certain erection, usually 

 in the form of a tower, built upon or ad- 

 jacent to dangerous rocks, for the purpose 

 of warning ships of their situation ; or 

 along the sea-coast as landmarks, lights 

 of various descriptions being introduced 

 upon the top at night. There are also 

 floating lights, or lights placed on board 

 vessels moored in certain situations, and 

 intended for the same purposes as those 

 on shore. Harbour lights are such as are 

 placed at the extremity of one of the arms 

 forming the entrance to a harbour, for 

 the purpose of guiding vessels in and out 

 during the night, &c. 



LI'GHTNESS, Teut. leicht. In the Jin 

 arts, a quality indicating freedom from 

 weight or clumsiness. 



LIGHT'NINO, a sudden discharge of clec- 

 :ricity from a cloud to the earth, or via 

 >ers&, or from one cloud to another, pro- 

 ducing a vivid flash of light, and fre- 

 quently the report called thunder. 



LIGHT'ROOM. In a ship of war, a small 

 ipartment having double glass windows 

 ;owards the magazine, and containing 

 ights by which the gunner fills car- 

 midges, &c. 



LiGNiFiCA'TioN.from lignum, wood, and 

 "ado, to make. The process of being con- 

 certed into wood. 



LIG'NIN, the name given by chemists to 

 :he fibrous portion of wood freed by diges- 

 tion in water, alcohol, ether, hydrochloric 

 cid, alkaline ley, and chlorine, from 

 everything which these reagents are capa- 

 ble of taking up. Lignin constitutes the 

 skeleton of the trunk and branches of trees. 

 Dressed flax is nearly pure lignin. Con- 

 stituents, carbon 50, oxygen 44'45, hydro- 

 gen 5'55. 



LIG'NITE, from lignum, wood ; wood- 

 coal. One of the most recent geological 



rmations, being the carbonised remains 

 of forest trees, &c. The lignites mostly 

 burn with flame, but they neither cake 

 nor smell like coal. 



LIG'NUM-VI'TJE, wood of life. The guai- 

 acum or pockwood(seeTHDYA). The com- 

 mon lignum- vitae tree is a native of the 

 warm latitudes of America. It is a large 

 tree, and the wood is hard, ponderous, 

 very resinous, of a blackish-yellow colour 

 in the middle, and of a hot aromatic taste. 



LIG'ULA, a strap. The name given by 

 Bloch to a genus of Entozoa. Order Pa- 

 renchymata: family Cestoideee. The body 

 resembles a long ribbon, and no external 

 organ whatever is perceptible. The spe- 

 cies inhabit certain birds and fresh water 

 fishes, enveloping and constricting the in- 

 testines to such a degree, as to cause 

 death. 



LIG'URITE, a mineral of an apple green 

 colour which occurs in oblique rhombic 

 prisms. It ranks as a gem. It takes its 

 name from Liguria in Italy. 



LIGCS'TRUM, the privet. A genus of 

 permanent plants. DiandriaMonogynia. 

 Name from ligo, to bind, on account of 

 its use in making bands. There are two 

 species^ Europe and China. 



LILIA'CEX, a natural order of plants 

 consisting of such as have liliaceous co- 

 rolla?. 



LILIA'CEOCS, Lat. liliaceus, from liliwn, 

 a lily. Kesembling the lily ; an epithet 

 for plants of the lily tribe. 



LI'LICM, the lily. A genus of peren- 

 nial plants. Hexandrta Slonogynia. There 

 are 21 species, mostly hardy. 



LILY EN'CRINITE. The encrinites moni- 

 liformis, so called because the arms when 

 folded resemble the head of a lily. It is 

 one of the most beautiful of the fossil 



