L A T 
LATER AN', was originally the proper name of a man; 
whence it descended to an ancient palace in Rome, and 
to the buildings lince erected in its place ; particularly a 
church called St. John of Lateran , which is the principal 
fee of the popedom. 
Councils of the Lateran, are thofe held in the bafilica 
of the Lateran ; of thefe there have been five, held in 
1123, 1139, 1179, 1215, and 1513. 
Canons Regular of the Congregation of the Lateran, is a 
congregation of regular canons, whereof that church is 
the principal place or feat. It is pretended there has 
been an uninterrupted fucceflion of clerks, living in com¬ 
munity, from the time of the apoftles ; and that a number 
of thefe were eftabliffied in the Lateran in the time of 
Conftanline. But the canons were not introduced till the 
time of Leo I. and thefe held the church 800 years, till 
the reign of Boniface, who took it from them, and placed 
fecular canons in their room; 150 years after, the regulars 
were reinftated. 
LATERA'NUS, a man’s name; a Roman conful. A 
Itoufehold god. 
LATER'CULUM, / in antiquity, a roll or lift of all 
the magiftrates and military officers under the Roman em¬ 
perors, with an account of their refpeftive offices and 
fees. 
LAT'ERE. See Legate. 
LATERI'TIOUS, adj. Like brick; made of brick. 
Beddoes. 
LATE'SA, a town of Naples, in Abruzzo Citra : ten 
miles fouth of Lanciano. 
LATE'WA, a town of Bengal: forty-five miles north- 
weft of Ramgur. 
LA'TEVVARD, adv. [ late and feapib. Sax.] Some¬ 
what late. 
LA'TEX, f. in the old chemiftry, a name by which Van 
Helmont has, in fome of his writings, called the famous 
menltruum, which he boafts Paracelfus and himfelf to 
have been poffeffed of, and which he ufually calls Alka¬ 
hest. See that word, vol. i. 
LATF, a town of Egypt, three miles fouth of Faoua. 
LATH,/ [laT'ea, Sax. latte, Fr.] A finall long piece 
of wood, ufed in plaftering, tiling, and Hating.— Laths are 
made of heart of oak for outfide work, as tiling and plafter¬ 
ing; and of fir for infide plaftering, and pantile lathing. 
Moxon. 
The god who frights away, 
With his lath lword, the thieves and birds of prey. Drfd. 
Formerly a contemptuous appellation for a fword : 
Have your latk glu’d within your fheath, 
Till you know better how' to handle it. Titus Andronicus. 
For the purpofe of plaftering, the narrower the laths 
are, the better, provided they are of fufficient breadth to 
hold the nails ; as the number of interftices is increafed, 
the lime or fluff will hang more readily ; and, the thicker 
they are, they will be the better adapted to refill violence; 
but then they would be much more expenfive. The laths 
are generally made of fir, in three, four, and five, feet 
lengths, but may be reduced to the ftandard of five feet. 
Laths alfo are iingle or double ; the latter are generally 
about three-eighths of an inch thick, and the former 
barely one quarter, 2nd about an inch broad. Lath is 
fold in bundles; the three-feet are eight fcore to the bun¬ 
dle, the four-feet, fix fcore, and the five-feet, five fcore. The 
lath for plain-tiling is the fame as that ufed in plaftering. 
Laths are alfo diltinguifhed into heart and fap laths ; the 
former ffiould always be ufed in plain-tiling; and the lat¬ 
ter, of an inferior quality, is molt frequently ufed by the 
plafterer. Heart-of-oak laths, by the ltatute Edw. III. 
fhould be one inch in breadth, and half an inch in thick¬ 
nefs ; but now, though their breadth be an inch, their 
thicknefs is feldom more than a quarter of an inch ; fo 
that two laths, as they are now made, are but equal to 
one. According to the fame ltatute, pan-tile laths are nine 
■m ten feet long, three-quarters of an inch thick, and one and 
L A T 203 
a half inch broad, and ffiould be made of the beft yellow 
deal; the bundle confifts of twelve fuch laths. A fquare of 
plain-tiling will require a bundle of laths, more or lefs, 
according to the pitch. The diltance of laying laths one 
from another is various, differing more in fome places 
than in others ; but three and a half or four inches is the 
ufual diftance, with a counter-lath between rafter and raf¬ 
ter; but, if the rafters Hand at wide intervals, tw'o coun¬ 
ter-laths will be neceffary. Laths are employed for vari¬ 
ous other purpofes, as well as plaftering and tiling: as in 
filleting for fultaining the ends of boards; in naked floor¬ 
ing and roofing; for furring up the furfaces; and in every 
kind of fmall work, where the dimenfions of the parts do 
not exceed the fcantling of laths. In lathing for plafter¬ 
ing, it is too frequent a cuftom to lap the ends of the 
laths upon each other, w'here they terminate upon a quar¬ 
ter or batten, in order to prevent cutting them ; but, 
though this pratlice faves a row of nails, it leaves only a 
quarter of an inch for plafter; and, if the laths are very 
crooked, as they frequently are, there will be no fpace 
whatever left to ftraighten the plafter; the finiflied furface 
mull, therefore, be rounded, contrary to the intention 
and to the good effedt of the work; but if the ends are to 
be laid upon each other, they ffiould be thinned at the 
lapping out to nothing at the extremity, or otherwife they 
fhould be cut to exaft lengths. 
Laths fhould be as evenly fplit as poffible ; thofe that 
are very crooked ffiould not be ufed, or the crooked part 
fhould be cut out; and fuch as have a ffiort concavity on 
the one fide, and a convexity on the other, not very pro¬ 
minent, fhould be placed with the concave fide outwards. 
The following is the method of fplitting laths: The lath- 
cleavers having cut their timber into lengths, they cleave 
each piece with wedges into eight, twelve, or fixteen, 
pieces, according to the fcantling of the timber; the 
pieces thus cloven are called holts ; then, in the direction 
of the felt-grain, with their dowl-ax, into fizes for the 
breadth of the laths; this operation they call felting ; and* 
laftly, with their chit they cleave them into thicknefs by 
the quarter-grain. 
Lath-Bricks, a particular fort of bricks made in fome 
parts of England, of twenty-two inches in length and 
fix in breadth, which are ufed in the place of laths or lpars, 
fupported by pillars in cafts, for the drying of malt. This- 
is affexcellent contrivance ; for, befides that they are not 
liable to fire, as the wooden laths are, they retain the heat 
vafily better ; fo that, being once heated, a very fmall 
quantity of fire will ferve to keep them fo. 
To LATH, v. a. To fit up with laths.—The plafterer’s 
work is commonly done by the yard fquare for lathing. 
Mortimer's Hujbandry. 
LATH, or Lathe, / A part of a county.—In fome 
counties there is an intermediate divifion between the fiiire- 
and the hundred, as laths in Kent, and rapes in Sulfex 3 
each of them containing three or four hundreds apiece. 
Blackfone. —In Ireland the arrangement was different.—If 
all that tything failed, then all that lath was charged for 
that tything; and if the lath failed, then all that hundred- 
was demanded for them; and if the hundred, then the 
fhire, who would not reft till they had found that undu- 
tiful fellow, which was not amefnable to law. Spenfer's- 
Ireland. 
LA'THAM, a townffiip in the parifii of Ormfkirk* 
Lancaffiire, fituated 3 miles from Ormfkirk, and 210 from 
London. I11 this townffiip is Latham-houfe, the feat of 
Edward Wilbraham Bootle, efq. This place is-noted in 
the topographical annals of Lancafhire as the ancient 
feat of the Lathams in the reign of Edward III. and 
afterwards of the Stanleys, and laftly, of the Booties. 
It is placed on a molt barren fpot, and commands a 
view as extenfive as dull. The back-front was begun 
by William earl of Derby ; the reft completed in a molt 
magnificent manner by fir Thomas Bootle. The houfe 
confifts of a ground-hoor, principal, and attic ; has a ruf- 
tic baftment, with a double flight of fteps to the firft 
flory. 
