LAS 
LAS'PE. See Laas'phe, p. 2. 
LASS,/ [from lad is formed laddefs, by contraction 
lafs. Hickes.] A girl; a maid; a young woman : , ufed 
now moftly of mean girls.—A girl was worth forty of our 
widows ; and an honeft, downright, plain-dealing, lafs it 
was. L'Ef range. 
Now was the time for vig’rous lads to {how 
What love or honour could invite them to; 
A goodly theatre, where rocks are round 
With reverend age, and lovely lafes crown’d. Waller. 
LASS'-LORN, adj.- Forfaken by his miftrefs. Not ufed: 
Brown groves, 
Wlrofe fhadow the difrnilfed batchelor loves, 
Being lafs-lorn. Shake/peare's Tempef. 
LAS'SA, the capital of Thibet, is called by different 
names, which has occafioned no fmall degree of confu- 
fion. Its proper name, in the language of Thibet, is faid 
to be Baronthala ; but the Tartars call it Laffa, or Lahafla. 
Others call it Tonker, and apply the names Laffa and Ba¬ 
ronthala to the diftrift which contains Laffa and Putala. 
Others again give the name of Putala, inftead of Laffa, to 
the capital of Thibet. Rennell fays that we ought to ap¬ 
ply the name Laffa, or Lahafla, to the capital; and to con- 
fider Putala as the caftle and palace of the lama, and his 
ordinary place of refidence. Laffa, which is not confi- 
dered as a large city, is fituated on an extenfive plain ; 
the houfes are of Hone, and are fpacious and lofty. The 
mountain of Putcffu, on the fummit of which ftands the 
palace of the grand lama, the high pried: and lovereign 
of Thibet, is about feven miles eaft of the city. On the 
north of Laffa ftands another range of mountains, covered 
with fnow, which are clearly feen from Kambala, a very 
high mountain on the north of the lake of Palte. Laf¬ 
fa is in the province of Ou, and almoft in the centre 
of Thibet. The river Sanpooa Burrampooter runs at the 
diftan.ce of twenty-four miles from the city. The royal 
palace at Laffa is called Laprang, where, among other or¬ 
naments, are maps of the various provinces, painted about 
1665, by the orders of the king Tifri, on fixteen walls. 
Laprang isalfo one of the celebrated academies or fchools 
of Thibet, which are frequented by the youth of many 
furrounding countries, as far as Cafhgar, Yarkend, Ca- 
mul, Turfan, and fome from Koko Nor, Amdoa, and 
China. The courfe of ftudies employs twelve years, oc¬ 
cupied in logic, aftronomy, philofophy, medicine, and, 
above all, the theology of Boud, or Xaca. In the city of 
Laffa are many foreign merchants ; and the women have 
been recently polifhed by their converfation with the Chi- 
nefe. A beneficial traffic is carried on with Laffa, by ex¬ 
changing gold-duft for illver bullion. Lat. 30. 30. N. 
Ion. 91.40. E. 
LAS'SAN, or Les'san, a town of Anterior Pomerania, 
on a lake formed by the Peene : forty-four miles north- 
weft of Old Stettin, and thirty-eight fouth-fouth-eall of 
Stralfund. Lat. 53. 38. N. Ion. 13. 5a. E. 
LASSAY', a town of France, and feat of a tribunal, in 
the department of the Mayenne : eleven miles north-weft 
of Villaine, and nine north-north-eaft of Mayenne. Lat. 
48. 27. N. Ion. o. 24. W. 
LASSE', a town of France, in the department of the 
Mayne and Loire : five miles eaft of Bauge, and feven teen 
north of Saumur. 
LAS'SEM, or As'sem, a town on the north coaft of 
the ifland of Java. Lat. 6. 42. S. Ion. 111.21.E. 
LASSEU'BE, a town of France, in the department of 
the Lower Pyrenees : fix miles eaft of Oleron. 
LAS'SIA, an ancient name, of Andros. 
LASSIA'LI, a town on the eaft coaft of the ifland of 
Bouro. Lat. 3.30. N. Ion. 127. 34. E. 
LASSIGNY', a town of France, in the department of 
the Oife : fix miles weft of Noyon. 
LAS'SINGTON, a village near Gloucefter. On a hill 
near it are found thofe ftones called afroites , or ftar-(tones 3 
LAS 2 5Q 
they are as broad as a filver penny, as thick as a half- 
crown ; and, when put into vinegar, have a peculiar qua. 
lity of motion. 
LASSI'RA, in ancient geography, a town of Spain, in 
the Tarragonenfis, in the interior of the country of the 
Edetani. Ptolemy. 
LASSI'TI, a town of the ifland of Candia: twenty-two 
miles fouth-eaft of Candia. 
LASS'ITUDE,/. [ lafitudo , Lat. la/fitude, Fr.] Weari- 
nefs ; fatigue ; the pain arising from hard labour.— Latitude 
of body is remedied by bathing, or anointing with oil and 
warm water; for all lajjitude is a kind of contufion and 
compreffion of the parts; and bathing and anointing give 
a relaxation or emollition. Bacon's Natural Hi/lory. —Do 
not over-fatigue the fpirits, left the mind be feized with a 
lafitude, and thereby be tempted to naufeate, and grow 
tired. Watts. 
From mouth and nofe the briny torrent ran, 
And loft in lafitude lay all the man. Pope's Odyjfcy. 
LASSO'NF, (Jofeph Maria Francis de), an eminent 
French phyfician, was born at Carpentras, on the 3d of 
July, 1717. His parents quitted their native province, to 
procure him the advantages of education afforded by the 
capital; and the ultimate fuccefs of the plan evinced their 
wifdoni and prudence. In his early years, however, 
young Laffone was not remarkable for his perfeverance in 
ftudy : on the contrary, his family were frequently alarm¬ 
ed by the propenfity which he fhowed for the gay plea- 
fures of youth ; but he as often raifed their hopes by 
fome ingenious performances, which merited academic ho¬ 
nours, as well as the efteern of his preceptors. He wrote 
a comedy, which his parents infilled that he Should fup- 
prefS, and facrifice the imprudent produftion ; he fubmit- 
ted, and was never afterwards willing to declare the title 
of the piece, which had neverthelefs been afted with much 
fuccefs, under a different name, and ftill remains on the 
theatre. This juvenile work, foreign as it was to his ftu¬ 
dies, was a proof of the facility and flexibility of his ge¬ 
nius, which afterwards enabled him to acquire in the dif¬ 
ferent fciences a juft and elevated reputation. Determin¬ 
ing upon a ltrift attention to ftudy, he devoted himfelf 
wholly to the purfuits of anatomy, in which he made 
fuch rapid progrefs, that, at the age of twenty-five, he 
was received into the Academy of Sciences as affociate- 
anatomiit. He examined, with great care and perfever¬ 
ance, the ftrufture of the bones, and of the arteries, and 
demonftrated the mufcular coat of the latter. He alfo in¬ 
vert igated the ftrufture, and inquired into the economy 
and ufe, of the fpleen, attempting to reconcile the different 
accounts ’ given of that vilcus by Kuyfch and Malpighi. 
He had ftrong hopes of difeovering the office of this vif- 
cus, when an extraordinary event put a period to his ana¬ 
tomical purfuits. In felefting among fome dead bodies a 
proper fubjeft for difleftion, he fancied he perceived in 
one of them fome very doubtful figns of death, and en¬ 
deavoured to reanimate it: his efforts were fora long time 
vain ; but his firlt perfuafion induced him to perfilt, and 
he ultimately (ucceeded in bringing his patient to life, who 
proved to be a poor peafant. This circumftance impreffed 
fo deep a fenfe of horror on the mind of the anatomift, 
reflefting on the cor.fequences of his having felefted this 
unhappy objeft for difleftion, that he declined thefe pur- 
fuits in future. Natural hiftory fucceeded the ftudy of 
anatomy, and mineralogy became a favourite objeft of 
his purtuit; he publiftted his obfervations on the cryltal- 
lized free-ltones of Fontainebleau. But cheiniftry, a’ 
fcience to which he was thus led, finally became the be¬ 
loved occupation of M. de Laffone. His numerous me¬ 
moirs, which were read before the Royal Academy of 
Sciences, prefented a valuable train of new obfervations, 
ufeful both to the progrefs of that ftudy, and to the art 
of compounding remedies ; and in every part of thefe he 
evinced the fagacity of an attentive obferver, and of an 
ingenious experimentalist. 
M. Laffone, although he had, by the number of his 
* works 
