L E T 
LET 
L E V 
62 
brown colour above, and white beneath; on 
the nose is a yellowish spot, and the outsides 
of the limbs and space about the rump are of 
the same colour, ft is entirely destitute of 
a tail. See Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 247. 
8. Lepus pusillusf calling hare. In its 
form this species extremely resembles the 
ogotona hare, but is smaller, measuring near 
six inches, but weighing only from three 
ounces and a quarter to four and a half, and 
in winter two and a half. It is an inhabitant 
of the south-east parts of Russia, and about 
ail the ridge of hills spreading southward 
from the Uralian chain; as wall as about 
the Irtish, and the west part of the Altaic 
chain. It is an animal of a solitary dispo- 
sition, and is very rarely to be seen, even in 
the places it most frequents. 
Lepus, in astronomy, a constellation of 
the southern hemisphere, comprehending 12 
stars according to Ptolemy ; thirteen, ac- 
cording to Tycho; and nineteen in the Bri- 
tannic catalogue. 
LERCIiEA, a genus of the class and 
order monadelphia pentandria. The cal. 
is five-toothed ; cor. funnel-form, five-cleft ; 
anthers, five ; style, one ; caps, three-celled, 
many-seeded. There is one species, a shrub 
of the East Indies. 
LERNEA, in zoology ; a genus of insects 
of the order of vermes molluscs, the charac- 
ters of which are : the body fixes itself by its 
tentacula, is oblong, and rather tapering ; 
there are two ovaries like tails, and the ten- 
tacula are shaped iike arms. The cyprinacea 
has four tentacula, two of which are lunulated 
at the top. It is a small species, about 
half an inch long, and of the thickness of a 
small straw. It is found on the sides of the 
bream, carp, and roach, in many of our 
ponds and rivers, in great abundance. 2. 
The salmonea, or salmon-louse, has an ovat- 
ed body, cordated thorax, and two linear 
arms, approaching nearly to each other. 3. 
’The asellina, has a lunated body and cordated 
thorax ; and inhabits the gills of the cod-fish 
and ling of the northern ocean. 
LESKIA, a genus of the class and order 
cryptogam ia musci ; a moss of little note. 
LESSOR and Lessee, in law. See 
Lease. 
LET Fall, a word of command at sea, to 
put out a sail when the yard is aloft, and the 
sail is to come or fall down from the yard ; 
but, in strictness, only applied to the main 
and fore courses, when their yards are hoist- 
ed up. 
LETTER. A servant of the post-office is 
within the penalty of 5 Geo. III. c. 25, which 
makes it a capital felony to secrete a letter 
containing any bank-note, though he has not 
taken the oath required by 9 Anne c. 10. 
But to secrete a letter con'aining money, is 
not an offence within the statutes concerning 
the servants of the post-office. 
Letter of credit, is where a merchant or 
correspondent writes a letter to another, re- 
questing him to credit the bearer with a cer- 
tain sum of money. 
Letter of licence, is a written permission 
granted to a person under embarrassment, 
allowing him to conduct his affairs- for a cer- 
tain time without being molested. Such in- 
strument will bind all tile creditors by whom 
it is executed, and it generally Contains cer- 
tain stipulations to be observed by all par- 
lies. 
Letter of attorney, is an instrument 
giving to a second person the authority to do 
any lawful act in the stead of the maker. 
They are sometimes revokable and some- 
times not: in the latter case the word irre- 
vocable is inserted. The authority must be 
strictly pursued: and if the attorney does 
less than the power it shall be void ; if more, 
it shall be good as far as the power goes, and 
void as to the rest; but both these rules have 
many exceptions. See 1 Inst. 258. 
LETTERS. The rate of postage of ge- 
neral-post letters is regulated by distance in 
the following proportions : 
For every letter not exceeding 15 miles, 
3d, 30 miles, 4 J, 50 miles, bd, 80 miles, f id, 
120 miles. Id, 180 miles, 8 d, 230 miles, 9 J, 
300 miles, 10 d. Where the distance is under 
or above 100 miles, and more than 300 miles, 
an additional 1 d, and so on for every further 
100 miles;. and all letters to and from Ireland 
conveyed by packet-boats shall be paid 2d 
above all other rates : for all letters to or from 
Portugal, or the British dominions in America, 
Is ; and to any places without the king’s do- 
minions, 4 d additional ; and all foreign let- 
ters must be charged with the full inland rates 
of postage. 
No letter shall be rated higher than as a 
treble letter, if less than 1 oz. in weight, and if 
an bz. than as four single letters ; and so in 
proportion of ■§ of an oz. as a letter. These 
rates were settled by 41 Geo. III. c. 7. 
All letters on his majesty’s business are 
free ; also all peers and members of the house 
of commons may send daily 10 letters free 
and receive 15, not exceeding 1 oz. each in 
weight, provided the franked letters sent by 
them shall be indorsed with their name, and 
the date when the letters are put in written 
at full length, and the whole direction to he 
in the hand-writing of such member of parlia- 
ment. Also, provided such member of par- 
liament shall be within 20 miles of the post 
town, where letters are put in franked by 
him, or where letters are received directed 
to him. 43 Geo. III. c. 31. 
Letters, threatening. To send letters 
threatening to accuse a person of any crime 
punishable with death or any infamous pu- 
nishment, and knowingly to send any ano- 
nymous or fictitious letter threatening to kill 
any one, or set fire to their tenements or pro- 
perty, with a view of extorting money or 
valuables from them, is in the first instance 
punishable with fine, imprisonment, pillory, 
whipping, or transportation for seven years, 
and in the other instance is felony without 
benefit of clergy. 
Letters patent. See Patents, and 
Exemplification of Patents. 
Letters, close, are grants of the king 
specially distinguished from letters patent, 
in that the letters close, being not of public 
concern, but directed to particular persons, 
are closed lip and sealed. 
Letters of marque, are extraordinary 
commissions, granted to captains or mer- 
chants for reprisals, in order to make a repa- 
ration for those damages they have sustained, 
or the goods they have been deprived of by 
strangers at sea. 
These appear to be always joined to those 
of reprise, for the reparation of a private 
injury ; but under a declared war the former 
only are required. 
Lethargy. See medicine. 
LEVARI facias, is a writ directed to the 
sheriff for levying a certain sum of money 
upon the lands, &c. of a person who has for- 
feited his recognizance. 
LEUCI I la. I his stone is usually found 
in volcanic productions, and is very abun- 
dant in the neighbourhood of Vesuvius. It 
is always crystallized. The primitive form of 
its crystals is either a cube or a rhomboidal 
dodecahedron, and its integrant molecules 
are tetrahedrons ; but the varieties hitherto 
observed are all polyhedrons. The most 
cbinmon has a spheroidal figure, and is 
bounded by 24 equal and similar trapezoids ; 
sometimes the faces are 12, 18, 36, 54, and 
triangular, pentagonal, &c. The crysta s 
vary from the size of a pin’s 1 :ad to that 'of an 
inch. 
The texture of the leucite is foliated; its 
fracture somewhat conclioidal ; specific gra- 
vity from 2.455 to 2.490; colour white, or 
greyish white. Its powder causes syrup of 
violets to assume a green colour. Infusible 
by the blowpipe. Gives a white transparent 
glass with borax. It is composed, as Kla- 
proth has shewn, of 
54 silica 
23 alumina 
22 potass 
99. 
It was by analysing this stone that Kla- 
proth discovered the presence of potass in 
the mineral kingdom, which is not the least 
important of the numerous discoveries of that 
accurate and illustrious chemist. 
Leucite is found sometimes in rocks which 
have never been exposed to volcanic fire; 
and Mr. Dolomieu lias rendered it probable] 
from the substances in which it is found, that 
the leucite of volcanoes has not been formed 
by volcanic fire, but that it existed previous- 
ly in the rocks upon which the volcanoes have 
acted, and that it was thrown out unaltered 
in fragments of these rocks. 
LEUCOJUM, great snozo-drop, a genus 
of the monogynia order, in the hexandria 
class of plants, and in the natural method 
ranking under the ninth order, spathaceax 
The corolla is campanulated, sexpartite, the 
segments increased at the points, the stigma 
simple. The species are, 1. The vernum, 
or spring leucojum, lias an oblong bulbous 
root, sending up a nakecLstalk, about a foot 
high, terminated by a spalba, protruding one 
or two white flowers, appearing in March. 
2. The sestivum, or summer leucojum, has 
a large oblong bulbous root, an upright stalk, 
15 or 18 inches high, terminated by many 
white flowers in May. 3. The autumnafe 
has a large oblong bulbous root, narrow 
leaves, an upright stalk, terminated by white 
flowers in autumn. 4. The shumosuin, with 
flowers white within, purplish without. 
LEUCOMA. See Surgery. 
LEVEL, an instrument used to make a 
line parallel to the horizon, and to continue 
it out at pleasure ; and by this means to find 
the true levtl, or the difference of ascent or 
descent, between two or more places, for con- 
veying water, draining fens, &c. 
There are several instruments, of differei t 
contrivance and matter, invented for the per- 
fection of levelling; but they mav be re- 
duced to the following kinds : 
IVater- Level, th..t which shews the hori- 
