LAC 
LAC 
and the young insects at first feed upon the 
enclosed liquid, and after this is expended 
they eat through the coat, leaving a hollow 
red resinous bag which is “ stick-lac.” The 
best lac is procured from the province of 
Acbam, but it is obtained in great plenty 
on the uncultivated mountains on each side 
of the Ganges. There are four kinds of lac, 
viz. “ stick-lac,” which is lac in its natural 
state, without any preparation; “ seed-lac,” 
which is stick-lac broken into small lumps, 
and granulated; “lump-lac,” which is sec d- 
lac liquified by fire ; “ shell-lac,” which is a 
preparation of the, stick-lac. By a number 
of very accurate 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 proportions of the stick-lac are as fol- 
low : 
Resin 68.0 
Wax 6.0 
Gluten 6.5 
Colouring extract 10.0 
Extraneoussubstances... 6.5 
9 ^ 
Lac is employed for a variety of purposes 
in the arts : the finer specimens are cut into 
beads for necklaces. It enters largely into 
tlie 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 solution. 
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 acid, in chemistry, a white or 
yellowish production of insects, called white- 
lac. Some of this substance, brought from 
Madras, was analyzed by Dr. Pearson, who 
found that it bore a considerable analogy 
to bees-wax. A full account of Dr. Pear- 
son’s experiments may be seen in the eighty- 
fourth volume of Philos. Trans. The com- 
ponent parts of this acid are supposed to be 
carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 
LACE, in commerce, a work coinposed 
of many threads of gold, silver, or silk, in- 
terwoven the one with the other, and work- 
ed upon a pillow with spindles, according 
to the pattern designed. The open-work 
being formed with pins, which are placed 
and displaced as the spindles are moved. 
Lacb, 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 pillow, 
and pins being stuck into the holes or open- 
ings in the pattern, the threads are inter- 
woven by means of a number of bobbins 
made of bone or ivory, each of w'hich con- 
tains a small quantity of fine thread, in such 
a manner as to make the lace exactly re- 
semble the pattern. There are several towns 
in England, and particularly in Buckingham- 
shire, that carry on this manufacture ; but 
vast quantities of the finest laces have been 
imported from Flanders. 
LACERTA, the lizard, in natural histo- 
ry, a genus of Amphibia, of the order Rep- 
tiles. Generic character : body four- 
footed, tailed, naked and long, having no se- 
condary integument ; legs equal. There 
are, according to Gmelin, eighty-one spe- 
cies, of which the following are principally 
deserving of attention. L. crocodiliis or 
the crocodile, is a native both of Africa and 
Asia, but is most frequently found in the 
former, inhabiting its vast rivers, and parti- 
cularly the Niger and the Nile. It has oc- 
'casionally been seen of the length of even 
thirty feet, and instances ofits 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 penetrable 
by a musket ball, and the whole body exhi- 
bits the appearance of an elaborate cover- 
ing of carved work. It is an oviparous 
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 par- 
take 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 brought 
living to England have by no means indi- 
cated that ferocious and devouring charac- 
ter which they have been generally de- 
scribed to possess, a circumstance, proba- 
bly, owing to the change of climate, and the 
reducing effect of confinement. In its na- 
tive climate its power 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 rushing 
