LAN 





LAN 



urn, and an equivalent drop of oil runs 

 down : by this means, though the lamp is 

 always plentifully supplied, yet it never 

 runs over. 



LAMPA/acfr. See COLOUR. 



LAMPYUIS, in natural history, /re /y, 

 a genus of insects of the order Coleoptera. 

 Antennae filiform ; four feelers ; shells 

 flexile; thorax flat, semi-orbicular, sur- 

 rounding and concealing the head ; seg- 

 ments of the abdomen terminating in 

 folded papillae: female usually apterous. 

 There are nearly sixty species, in four 

 divisions, viz. A. feelers subclavate : B. 

 fore-feelers hatchet-shaped : C. feelers 

 sub-filiform : D. first joint of the feelers 

 thicker and truncate. The first of these 

 divisions is subdivided into those which 

 have entire horny lips ; and into those 

 with an emarginate membranaceous lip. 

 The body of the insect in this genus is 

 oblong, \\iili the sides formed into a kind 

 of soft papillx, lapping over each other. 

 L. noctiluca, or glow-worm, is seen during 

 the summer months, in England, on dry 

 banks, about woods, pastures, and hedge- 

 ways, exhibiting, as soon as it is dusk, 

 vivid and phosphoric splendour, in form 

 of a round spot of considerable sixe. 

 The animal itself, which is the female 

 insect, measures about three quarters of 

 an inch in length, and is of a dull, earthy- 

 brown colour on the upper parts, and 

 beneath more or less tinged with rose 

 colour, with the two or three last joints 

 of the body of a pale or whitish sulphur 

 colour. It is from these parts that the 

 phosphoric light proceeds. The body, 

 exclusive of the thorax, consists of ten 

 joints. The larva arid pupa do not great- 

 ly differ from the complete insect, but 

 the phosphoric light is strongest in the 

 complete animal. The male is smaller 

 than the female, and is provided with 

 wings and wing-sheaths : it is very un- 

 common ; and it is not determined whether 

 it be luminous or not Naturalists have 

 commonly supposed, that the splendour 

 of the female is designed for the purpose 

 of attracting the male. In Italy, the fly- 

 ing glow-worm is extremely common ; 

 and it is said that, on grand occasions, 

 ladies use them as ornaments for their 

 head-dresses in evening parties. 



LAX A, in botany, -u-vol, a species of 

 pubescence, down, or velvet, which serves 

 to screen the leaves covered with it from 

 the heat: this appearance is very conspi- 

 cuous in the horehound, woolly thistle, Sec. 



T,\XA /j/iilosop/iicUf flowers of zinc. 

 Set- /.INC. 



LAXAHIA, in botany, a genus of the 



Hexandria Monogynia class and order, 

 Natural order of Ensatae. Irides, Jussieu. 

 Essential character : corolla superior, 

 woolly, longer than the filaments ; border 

 six-parted, somewhat spreading; capsule 

 three-celled. There is but one species, 

 viz. L. plumosa, woolly lanaria, a native 

 of the Cape of Good Hope. 



LANCET, a chirurgical instrument, 

 sharp-pointed, and two-edged, chiefly 

 used for opening veins in the operation of 

 phlebotomy, or bleeding; also for laying 

 open abscesses, tumours, &c. 



LANGUAGE. 1. Man, it has frequent- 

 ly been said, is the only animal possessed 

 of speech, and if we use this term as im- 

 plying the expression of a train of ideas 

 by articulate sounds, it may perhaps be 

 esteemed the best criterion of distinction 

 between man and the inferior animals. 

 It is not easy to fix upon one which shall 

 be universally applicable ; but the same 

 difficulty frequently occurs in the attempt 

 to ascertain the exact boundary between 

 the characteristics of one class of being 

 and those of another : for instance, the 

 naturalist finds it a puzzling problem to 

 ascertain the characteristic difference be- 

 tween the animal and the vegetable king- 

 dom. Some of the most intelligent of the 

 brute creation often astonish us by actions, 

 which can proceed only from powers of 

 intellect similar to those which we pos- 

 sess. All the mental powers, except 

 sensation, are probably the modifications 

 of the principle of association: it is ac- 

 knowledged that brutes possess this in a^ 

 considerable degree, and it is probable, 

 that to the difference in the extent of this 

 principle of its activity and direction we 

 are to attribute the mental difference be- 

 tween one animal and another. There 

 is, perhaps, less difference between the 

 most uninformed mind of the human 

 species and the most sagacious of the 

 brutes, than between the brightest orna- 

 ments of our race and tlio.se whose minds 

 have received the least culture from na- 

 tural or artificial education. We gain 

 greater exactness by making the capacity 

 of speech the criterion of distinction be- 

 tween man and the brute creation. .Many 

 animals are capable of acquainting others 

 of the same, and even of a (different 

 species, with the feelings of their minds ; 

 but man alone has the power of express- 

 ing a train of ideas, and of stating the 

 causes of those feelings. 



2. Articulation furnishes the most con- 

 venient and extensive method of com- 

 munication. It would be possible to form 

 a language of signs, and in many instances 



