Line, in fencing, that part of the body 
opposite to the enemy, wherein tlie shoul- 
ders, the right arm, and the sword, ought 
always to be found ; and wherein are also 
to be placed the two feet at the distance of 
eighteen inches from each other. In which 
sense a man is said to be in his line, or to 
go out of his line, &c. 
Line ^ the synodical, in reference to some 
theories of the moon, is a right line sup- 
posed to be drawn througli the centres of 
the earth and sun ; and, if it be produced 
quite through the orbits, it is called the 
line of the true syzygies : but a right line 
imagined to pass through the earth’s cen- 
tre, and the mean place of the sun, is called 
the line of the mean syzygies. 
Line, in genealogy, a series or succes- 
sion of relations in various degrees, all de- 
scendmg from the same common father. 
Direct line, is that which goes from father 
to son ; being the order of ascendants and 
descendants. Collateral line is the order of 
those who descend from some common 
father related to the former, but out of the 
line of ascendants and descendants : in this 
are placed uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, 
&c. 
Line was also formerly a French measure, 
containing the twelfth part of an inch, or 
the hundred and forty-fourth part of a foot. 
Geometricians conceive the line, notwith- 
standing its smallness, to be subdivided into 
six points. 
Lines, in music, the name of those 
strokes dratVn horizontally on a piece of 
paper, on and between which the charac- 
ters and notes of music are disposed: their 
number is commonly five ; when another is 
added, for one, two, or more notes, it is 
called a ledger-line. 
Lines, in heraldry, the figures used in 
armories, to divide the shield into different 
parts, and to compose difl'erent figures. 
These lines, according to their different 
forms and names, give denomination to the 
pieces or figures which they form, except 
the straight or plain lines. 
LINEAR numbers, in mathematics, such 
as have relation to length only ; such is a 
number which represents one side of a 
plane figure. If the plane figure be a square 
the linear number is called a root. 
Linear problem, that which may be 
solved geometrically, by the intersection of 
two right lines. This is called a simple 
problem, and is capable but of one solu- 
tion. 
LINEN, in commerce. The linen ma- 
nufacture was probably introduced into 
Britain with the first settlements of the 
Romans. The flax was certainly first planted 
by that nation in the British soil. The 
plant itself indeed appears to have been 
originally a native of the east. The wool- 
len-drapery would naturally be prior in its 
origin to the linen, and the fibrous plants 
from which the threads of the latter are 
produced, seem to have been first noticed 
and worked by the inhabitants of Egypt. 
In Egypt, indeed, the linen manufacture 
appears to have been very early ; for even 
in Joseph’s time it had risen to a consider- 
able height. From the Egyptians the 
knowledge of it proceeded probably to the 
Greeks, and from them to the Romans. 
Even at this day the flax is imported among 
us from the eastern nations ; the western 
kind being merely a degenerate species of 
it. In order to succeed in the linen manu- 
facture, one set of people should be con- 
fined to the ploughing and preparing the 
soil, sowing and covering the seed, to the 
weeding, pulling, rippling, and taking care of 
the new seed, and watering and dressing the 
flax till it is lodged at home : others should 
be concerned in the drying, breaking, 
scutching, and heckling the flax, to fit it 
for the spinners ; and others in spinning 
and reeling it, to fit it for the weaver : 
others should be concerned in taking due 
care of the weaving, bleaching, beetling, 
and finishing the cloth for the market. It 
is reasonable to believe, that if these seve- 
ral branches of the manufacture were car- 
ried on by distinct dealers in Scotland and 
Ireland, where our home-made linens "are 
manufactured, the several parts would be 
better executed, and the whole would be 
afforded cheaper, and witli greater profit. 
LING, in ichthyology, the cirrated gadus 
with two black fins, and with the upper 
jaw longest ; a fish called by authors asel- 
lus longus. See Gadus. 
LINGUATALA, in natural history, a 
genus of the Vermes Intestina class and or- 
der. Body depressed, oblong ; mouth 
placed before, surrounded with four pas- 
sages. There is but a single species, viz. 
L. serrata, inhabiting the lungs of the hare. 
LINNjEA, in botany, so named in ho- 
nour of the celebrated Linnaaus, a genus of 
the Didynamia Angiospermia class and or- 
der. Natural order of Aggregat®. Capri- 
foli®, Jussieu. Essential character : calyx 
double, of the fruit two-leaved, of the 
