LAC 



LAC 



curate experiments made by Mr Hatchett, 

 it is found that lac consists of a colouring 

 extract of resin, gluten, and wax ; all of 

 them in intimate combinations : the pro- 

 portions of the stick-lac are as follow : 



Kesin 68.0 



Wax 6.0 



Gluten 6.5 



Colouring 1 extract . . . 10.0 

 Extraneous substances . 6.5 



96.0 



Lac is employed for a variety of pur- 

 poses in the arts : the finer specimens are 

 cut into beads for necklaces. It enters 

 largely into the composition of sealing- 

 wax, and hard japans or varnishes : and 

 it is much used in dying. 



LAC sulphuris, in medicine, a sulphur 

 separated by acid from its alkaline solu- 

 tion. In this state it is thought to be 

 milder and a more efficacious medicine 

 than in its crude state, and is certainly 

 less nauseous to the taste. See SULPHUR. 



LACCIC add, in chemistry, a white or 

 yellowish production of insects, called 

 white-lac. Some of this substance, brought 

 from Madras, was analyzed by Dr. Pear- 

 son, who found that it bore a considerable 

 analogy to bees -wax. A full account of 

 Dr. p'earson's experiments may be seen 

 in the eighty-fourth volume of Philos. 

 Trans. The component parts of this acid 

 are supposed to be carbon, hydrogen, and 

 oxygen. 



LACE, in commerce, a work composed 

 of many threads of gold, silver, or silk, in- 

 terwoven the one with the other, and 

 worked upon a pillow with spindles, ac- 

 cording to the pattern designed. The 

 open-work being formed with pins, which 

 are placed and displaced as the spindles 

 are moved. 



LACK, bone, a lace made of fine linen, 

 thread, or silk, much in the same manner 

 as that of gold and silver. The pattern of 

 the lace is fixed upon a large round pil- 

 low, and pins being stuck into the holes 

 or openings in the pattern, th ; threads 

 are interwoven by means of a lumber of 

 bobbins made of bone or ivory, each of 

 which contains a small quantity of fine 

 thread, in such a manner as to make the 

 lace exactly resemble the pattern. There 

 are several towns in England, and particu- 

 larly in Buckinghamshire, that carry on 

 this manufacture ; but vast quantities of 

 the finest laces have been imported from 

 Flanders. 



LACERTA, the lizard, in natural his- 

 tory, a genus of Amphibia, of the order 

 Reptiles. Generic character : body four- 



footed, tailed, naked and long, having TIO 

 secondary integument; legs equal. There 

 are, according to Gmelin, eighty-one spe- 

 cies, of which the following- are princi- 

 pally deserving of attention. L. crocodi- 

 lus or the crocodile, is a native both of 

 Africa and Asia, but is most frequently 

 found in the former, inhabiting its vast 

 rivers, and particularly the Niger and the 

 Nile. It has occasionally been seen of 

 the length of even thirty feet, and in- 

 stances of its attaining that of twenty are 

 by no means uncommon. It principally 

 subsists on fish, but such is its voracity, 

 that it seizes almost every thing within 

 its reach. The upper part of its body is 

 covered with a species of armour, so 

 thick and firm, as to be scarcely penetra- 

 ble by a musket ball, and the whole body 

 exhibits the appearance of an elaborate 

 covering of carved work. It is an ovipa- 

 rous animal, and its eggs scarcely exceed 

 in size those of a goose. These eggs are 

 regarded as luxuries by the natives of 

 some countries of Africa, who will also 

 with great relish partake of the flesh of 

 the crocodile itself. When young, the 

 small size and weak state of the crocodile 

 prevent its being injurious to any animal 

 of considerable bulk or strength, as those 

 which have been taken living to England 

 have by no means indicated that ferocious 

 and devouring character which they have 

 been generally described to possess, a cir- 

 cumstance, probably, owing to the change 

 of climate, and the reducing effect of 

 confinement. In its native climate its 

 po\ver and propensity for destruction are 

 unquestionably great, and excites in the 

 inhabitants of the territories near its 

 haunts a high degree of terror. It lies 

 in wait near the banks of rivers, and with 

 a sudden spring, seizes any animal that 

 approaches within its reach, swallowing it 

 by an instantaneous effort, and then rush- 

 ing back into its watery recesses, till re- 

 newed appetite stimulates the renewal of 

 its insidious exertions. These animals 

 were occasionally exhibited by the Ro- 

 mans among their collections of the natu- 

 ral wonders of the provinces, and Scaurus 

 and Augustus are both recorded to have 

 entertained the people with the sight of 

 these new and formidable objects. It is 

 reported by some travellers, that croco- 

 diles are capable of being tamed, and are 

 actually kept in a condition of harmless 

 domestication at the grounds and artificial 

 lakes of some African princes, chiefly as 

 appendages of royal splendour and mag- 

 nificence. A single negro will often at- 

 tack a crocodile, and by spearing it be- 

 tween the scales of the belly, where it is 



