LAT 



JLAT 



plant, by means of its long- claspers or 

 tendrils, the flower stalks come out at 

 the joints, which are about six inches 

 long-, sustaining- two large flowers, pos- 

 sessing 1 a strong odour ; these are suc- 

 ceeded by oblong hairy pods, having 

 four or five roundish seeds in each. 

 There are many varieties, according" to 

 Linnaeus ; the common dark sort is a na- 

 tive of Sicily, and the painted lady of 

 Ceylon. 



LATITAT, in law, a writ, which in 

 personal actions is the commencement 

 of a suit in the King's Bench, where the 

 party is to be arrested in any other coun- 

 ty than Middlesex. 



LATITUDE, the distance of a place 

 from the equator, or an arc of the meri- 

 dian intercepted between the zenith of 

 the place and the equator. Hence lati- 

 tude is either northern or southern, ac- 

 cording as the place, whose latitude is 

 spoken of, is on this or that side of the 

 equator. Thus London is said to be in 

 fifty-one degrees thirty-two minutes north 

 latitude. Circles parallel to the equator, 

 are called parallels of latitude, because 

 they shew the latitudes of places by their 

 intersection with the meridian. If through 

 the poles of the world we conceive innu- 

 merable great circles drawn, these are 

 called secondaries of the equator, and by 

 their help, the position of every point, 

 either on earth or in the heavens, with 

 regard to the equinoctial; that is, the 

 latitude of any point is determined. One 

 of the secondaries, passing through any 

 place on the earth's surface, is called the 

 meridian of that place, and on it the lati- 

 tude of that place is measured. The lati- 

 tude of a place, and the elevation of the 

 pole of that place above the horizon, are 

 terms used indifferently for each other, 

 because the latitude and elevation of the 

 pole are always equal. The knowledge 

 of the latitude of a place is of the utmost 

 consequence in navigation ; and the me- 

 thods of determining it, both at sea and 

 land, are generally the same. As the 

 altitude of the pole is always equal to the 

 latitude, the latitude is consequently 

 best found by observing 1 the pole's 

 height ; but as the pole is only a mathe- 

 matical point, and no ways to be observ- 

 ed by our senses, its height cannot be de- 

 termined in the same manner as that of 

 the sun and stars, &c. ; for which reason 

 another manner has been contrived. A 

 meridian line is first drawn, on which is 

 placed a quadrant, so that its plane may 

 be in the plane of the meridian ; then 

 some star near the pole is taken ; for ex- 

 ample, the pole star, (which never sets) 



and observation is made of both its great- 

 est and least altitude. The latitude may 

 also be found by having the sun or a star's 

 declination and meridian altitude, taken 

 with a quadrant or astrolabe. The me- 

 thod is this : observe the meridian and 

 distance of the sun from the vertex or 

 zenith, which is always the complement 

 of his meridian altitude ; correct for the 

 dip of the horizon, refraction, and add to 

 this the sun's declination, when the sun 

 and the place are on the same side of the 

 equator; and subtract the declination 

 when they are of different sides; the 

 sum, in the former case, and the differ- 

 ence, in the latter, will be the latitude re- 

 quired. But when the declination of the 

 sun is greater than the latitude of the 

 place, which is known from the sun's be- 

 ing 1 nearer to the elevated pole than the 

 vertex of the place is, as it frequently 

 happens in the torrid zone, then the dif- 

 ference between the sun's declination 

 and his zenith distance, is the latitude of 

 the place. If the sun or star have no 

 declination, but move in the equinoctial 

 that day, then the elevation of the equa- 

 tor will be equal to his meridian alti- 

 tude, and consequently his meridian alti- 

 tude is the complement of the latitude 

 to ninety. 



LATITUDE, in astronomy, the distance 

 of a star or planet from the ecliptic, in 

 degrees, minutes, and seconds, measured 

 on a circle of latitude drawn through that 

 star or planet, being either north or south, 

 as the object is situated either on the 

 north or south side of the ecliptic. The 

 ecliptic being drawn on the common ce- 

 lestial globes, we may see what constella- 

 tions it passes through : there are usually 

 six circles of latitude, which, by their 

 mutual intersections, show the poles of 

 the ecliptic, as well as divide it into twelve 

 equal parts, answerable to the number of 

 months in a year. 



LATTEN, denotes iron plates tinned 

 over, of which tea-canisters are made. 

 Plates of iron being prepared of a proper 

 thinness, are smoothed by rusting them 

 in an acid liquor, as common water made 

 eager with rye : with this liquor they fill 

 certain troughs, and then put in the 

 plates, which they turn once or twice a 

 day, that th-y may be equally rusted 

 over ; after this they are taken out, and 

 well scowered with sand, and, to prevent 

 their rusting again, are immediately 

 plunged into pure water, in which they 

 are to be left till the instant they are to 

 be tinned or blanched, the manner of 

 doing 1 which is this : they flux the tin in a 

 large iron crucible, which has the figure 



