S03 
LAY 
board of confutation, and actively promoted all its nfe- 
ful plans and refearches. When the new fyl’tem of mea- 
fures'was propofed, lie contributed fome new and accu¬ 
rate experiments on the expanfion of metals. The na¬ 
tional convention confuted him with advantage concern¬ 
ing the belt method of manufacturing afiignats, and of 
fecuri.ig them againft forgery. Agriculture early engaged 
liis attention, and he allotted a coniiderable trait of land 
on his eftate in the Vendornois for the purpofe of experi¬ 
mental and improved farming. The committee of the con- 
ftituent affembly of 1791, appointed to form an improved 
fyftem of taxation, deiired to avail itfelf of his extenfive 
knowledge. For its information, he drew up an extrait 
of a large work on the different productions of the coun¬ 
try and'their confumption, for which he had been long 
collecting materials. It was printed by order of the af¬ 
fembly, under the title of Richejfts territoriales de la France ; 
and was regarded as the molt valuable memoir on the fub- 
jeit. After having been one of the adminiflrators of the 
caffe d'efcompte, lie was appointed, in 1791, one of the 
comtniffioners of the national trealury ; and he introduced 
into that department Inch order and regularity, that the 
proportion between the income and expenditure, in all 
the branches of government, could be feen at a fingle 
view every evening. This f'pirit of fyftematic and lu¬ 
cid arrangement was indeed the quality by which he was 
peculiarly diftiriguifhed ; and its happy influence appeared 
in every fubjett which occupied his attention. In the 
twenty volumes of Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, 
from 1772 to 1793, are forty papers of his writing, rela¬ 
tive to many of the mod: important fubjects in philofo- 
phical chemiftry. One of the lateft of his refearches was 
upon the refpiration of animals, concerning which he 
made feveral curious and delicate experiments, of import¬ 
ance to the fcience of phyfiology. Fie has fliown that 
this vital function is a real combuftion of carbon and hy¬ 
drogen, by which carbonic acid and water are produced. 
The effect of this combuftion is animal heat, the degree 
of which he was fo fortunate as to afcertain by calcula¬ 
tion. His experiments on this fubjeCt conducted him to 
means for determining the remarkable relation which ex- 
ifts between accelerated refpiration, the circulation of the 
blood, and perfpiration, and between the different powers, 
and the application made of them by nature. He had la¬ 
boured alfo for a long time on a particular work on the 
fubjedt of digeftion. The laft, and perhaps the mofl: im¬ 
portant, of Lavoifier’s labours related to animal perlpira- 
tion, on which fubject he read a paper before the Acade¬ 
my of Sciences on the 4th of May, 1791. He fil'd: lays it 
down as an eliablifhed principle, that the animal body is 
maintained by refpiration, perf’piration, and digeftion. 
He then examines in a chemical view each of tbefe effedts, 
t.he nature of the perf’piration of the fkin and of the lungs, 
diltinguifhes the eftedts from each other, and, as it were, 
interrogates nature refpedting the three caufes by which 
they are produced. He invented an apparatus by which 
every thing that relates to evaporation externally, and to 
breathing internally, could be obf’erved. In conjunction 
■with Seguin, he made on this fubject fome exceedingly 
difficult and laborious experiments, by which he found 
that a man by perfpiration lofes daily 2 pounds 13 ounces; 
that in the courfe of 24 hours he conlumes 33 ounces of 
oxygen gas; that in the fame period 8 cubic feet of car¬ 
bonic acid gas, one-third of which confilts of carbon, and 
two-thirds of oxygen, are difengaged from the lungs; 
that the quantity of water produced in the lungs amounts 
to 1 pound 7 ounces, of which 3 ounces are hydrogen, 
and 20 oxygen ; and that only 6 ounces of water are form¬ 
ed by the perfpiration of the lungs. For thefe experi¬ 
ments he had provided balances which did mot err half a. 
dram in 125 pounds. By thefe accurate and difficult ex¬ 
periments, Lavoifier had obtained great infight into the 
caufes of feveral diieafes, as wellas in regard to the means, 
of affifting the powers of nature in curing them; and on. 
that account had refolved to overturn the immenfe colof- 
LAY 
fus of medical prejudices and errors which had been be¬ 
fore eftabliflied. None of his undertakings was of more 
importance than this, and it is much to be lamented that 
he did not live to carry it into execution. 
The moral qualities of this eminent perfon were not 
lefs effimable than thofe of his underftanding. Fie was 
mild, fociable, and obliging; charitable to the poor upon 
his eftates; and liberal to young men of talents, whom 
be encouraged in the purfuit of fcience. At the affem- 
blies held twice a-week in hishcufe were to be found the 
moft diftinguifhed votaries of fcience and letters in France, 
as well as illuftrious foreigners. A man fo valuable, and 
fo generally efteemed, might have hoped to pafs unhurt 
through the fcenes of civil commotion ; but the time ar¬ 
rived in which eminence of any kind was dangerous, and, 
when joined with wealth, was almoit certainly fatal. The 
bloody reign of Robefpierre was fupported by facrificing 
to popular odium all whofe fltuation under preceding 
adminiftrations had raifed them to diftinction or opu¬ 
lence ; and they who had occupied pofts in the financial 
department were among the firlt viftfms. Lavoifier fore- 
faw that he ffiould be (tripped of all his property, and 
was prepared to gain his bread by his labours ; but a more 
rigorous doom awaited him. Involved in charges fabri¬ 
cated againft twenty-eight farmers-general, he was capitally 
condemned, and buffered on the icaftbld, May 8, 1794. 
Lavoifier was of a large llature ; complacency and pene¬ 
tration were difplaved in his countenance. He married, 
in 1771, the daughter of a farmer-general, a lady of pleaf- 
ing manners and confiderable talents. She engraved with 
her own hand the copper-plates for his laft work. She 
has fince given her hand to another eminent philofopher, 
count Rumford. 
LAVOL'TA,/! U a volte, Fr.] An old dance, in which 
was much turning and much capering. Hanmer. 
I cannot fing, 
Nor heel the high lavolt ; nor fweeten talk ; 
Nor play at fubtle games. Skakefpcarr. 
LAV'ONCOURT, a town of France, in the departmena 
of the Upper Saone : twelve miles fouth of Juffey, and ten 
eaft-of Champlitte. 
LAVO'NIA, a town of Naples, in Calabria Citra : 
eight miles weft-fouth-weft of Roffano, 
LAVO'NIA, a town of Naples, in Calabria Ultra: four¬ 
teen miles weft of Squillace. 
LAVQ'RA, a province of Naples, bounded on the 
north by the province of Abruzzo Ultra and Abruzzo 
Citra, on the eaft by the county of Molife and the pro¬ 
vince of Principato Ultra, on the fouth by the province of 
Principato Ultra and the Gulf of Naples, and on the weft 
by the Mediterranean and the Campagna di Roma; about 
140 miles in length, and 33 where broadeft. It is popu¬ 
lous and fertile, yielding abundance of corn, wine, oil, and 
other productions of Italy. Anciently it was called Cam¬ 
pania, and in the middle ages the Cajlellany of Capua-, bat 
received its prefent appellation in the year 1091, from Ri¬ 
chard II. prince of Capua ; and the Normans, who, in the- 
beginning of the fame year, were driven by the Lango- 
bardian inhabitants out of the city of Capua, and, inftead 
of the appellation of the Principality of Capua, ufed to 
give it that only of Terra di Lavora, from the fitnefs of 
the foil fur all manner of culture. The Normans, in the 
year 1098, recovering the poffeffion of Capua, retained 
this name inftead of the former, which was afterwards 
dif’ufed, except on certain occafions in public writings. 
Naples is the capital. 
LAU'PEN, a town of Swifferland, in the canton of’ 
Berne, the principal place of a bailiwic; fituated at the 
conflux of the Sannen and Senle ; five miles fouth.-w.eit of 
Berne. 
LAU'QUEN, called Villarica by the Spaniards, a lake 
of Chili,, about feventy-two miles in circuit, with a beau¬ 
tiful conic hill in the centre. From this bill fprings the 
river Token, which joins the Pacific Ocean. 
3 . 1AUJL,. 
