LIG 
»ing will not be so likely to pass through 
them. But the safest place of all is in a 
hammock hung by silken cords, at an equal 
distance from all the sides of the room. Dr. 
Priestley observes, that the place of most 
perfect safety must be the cellar, and es- 
pecially the middle of it ; for when a person 
is lower than the surface of the earth, the 
lightning must strike it before it can pos- 
sibly reach him. In the fields, the place of 
safety is within a few yards of a tree, but 
not quite near it. Beccaria cautions persons 
not always to trust too much to the neigh- 
bourhood of a higher or better conductor 
than their own body, since he has repeatedly 
found that the lightning by no means de- 
scends in one undivided track, but that bo- 
dies of various kinds conduct their share of 
it at the same time, in proportion to their 
quantity and conducting power. See Frank- 
lin’s Letters, Beccaria’s Lettre dell’ Ellet- 
tricessimo, Priestley’s History of* Electricity, 
and Lord Mahon’s Principles of Electri- 
city. 
Lord Mahon observes, that damage may 
be done by lightning, not only by the main 
stroke and lateral explosion, but also by 
what he calls the returning stroke, by which 
is meant the sudden and violent return of 
that part of the natural share of electricity 
which had been, gradually expelled from 
some body or bodies, by the superinduced 
elastic, electrical pressure of the electrical 
atmosphere of a thunder-cloud. 
The ancient notion of a thunderbolt, or 
stony mass, falling at the stroke of lightning, 
seems to have obtained no small degree of 
force from the modern observations and re- 
searches concerning stones which have fal- 
len from the atmosphere. See Stones, 
meteoric. From which it appears, that 
other substances as well as water are not 
unfrequently condensed and precipitated 
from the air, and exhibit the most astonish- 
ing degrees of heat and electricity during 
their condensation. 
LIGNUM Bite. The lignum vitee tree is 
a native of the West Indies, and the warmer 
parts of America : there is also a species, a 
native of the Cape of Good Hope. It is a 
large tree, rising at its full growth to the 
height of forty feet, and measuring from fif- 
teen to eighteen inches in diameter; having 
a hard, brittle, brownish bark, not very 
thick. The wood is firm, solid, ponderous, 
very resinous, of a blackish yellow colour 
in the middle, and a hot aromatic taste. 
It is so hard as to break the tools which are 
employed in felling it ; and is, therefore. 
LIG 
seldom used as firewood, but is of great use 
to the sugar-planters for making wheels 
and cogs to the sngar-niills. It is also fre- 
quently wrought in bowls, mortars, and 
other utensils. It is imported into Eng- 
land, in large pieces of four or five hundred 
weight each, and front its hardness and 
beauty, is in great demand for various arti- 
cles in the turnery ware, and for trucks of 
ship blocks. The wood, gum, bark, fruit, 
and even the flowers of this plant, have 
been found to possess medicinal virtues. 
LIGULA, in natural history, a genus of 
the Vermes Intestina. Body linear, equal, 
long ; the fore-part obtuse ; the hind-part 
acute, with an impressed dorsal suture. 
There are two species, viz. L. intestinalis, 
L. abdominalis ; the former is found in the 
intestines of the merganser and guillemot : 
about a foot long, and exactly resembling a 
piece of tape: of the latter there are, at 
least, eight varieties described as inhabiting 
the intestines of fish : they are found prin- 
cipally in the mesentery, emaciating the fish 
they infest, and causing them to grow 
deformed. When they escape from the 
body they penetrate through the skin : they 
are sometimes solitary, and sometimes gre- 
garious, about half a line thick, and from 
six inches to five feet long. 
LIGUSTICUM, in botany, Invage, a ge- 
nus of the Pentandria Digynia class and 
order. . Natural order of Umbellatas, or 
Umbelliferae. Essential character; fruit 
oblong, five-grooved on both sides ; corolla 
equal, with involute entire petals. There 
are eight species, of which L. levisticum, 
common lovage, has a strong, fleshy, peren- 
nial root, striking deep into the ground, 
composed of many strong fleshy fibres, co- 
vered with a brown skin, possessing a hot 
aromatic smell and taste. The leaves are 
large, composed of many leaflets, shaped 
like those of Smallage, but larger and of a 
deeper green ; stems six or seven feet high, 
large and channelled, dividing into several 
branches, each terminated by a large um- 
bel of yellow flowers. It is a native of the 
Alps, of Italy, the South of France, Silesia, 
&c. 
LIGUSTRUM, in botany, privet, a ge- 
nus of the Diandria Monogynia class and 
order. Natural order of Sepiariae. Jasmi- 
ne®, Jussieu. Essential character: corolla 
four-cleft; berry four-seeded. There are 
three species, of which L. vulgare, common 
privet, is a shrub about six feet in height, 
branched, the bark of a greenish-ash colour, 
irregularly sprinkled, with numerous pro- 
