402 
LAX 
tivated it in 1759, fay s Oiat be received fpecfmens of it 
alio from the Spanilh Weft Indies. 
4. Lawfonia falcata, or falcated lawfonia : leaves fickle- 
fhaped, flightly crenate. This flirnb is fix feet high, and 
very much branched. Native of Cochin-china. 
Propagation and Culture. Thefe plants are propagated 
by feeds, Town on a hot-bed early in the fpring, that the 
plants when they come up may have time to get ftrength 
before winter. When fit to remove, plant each in a fmall 
pot filled with light fandy earth, and plunged into a hot¬ 
bed of tanners’ bark, where they muft be fcreened from 
the fun till they have taken new root. Then treat them 
as the coffee-tree, only giving them lefs water, efpecially 
in winter. They are too tender to thrive in the open air ; 
they muft'therefore conftantly remain in the ftove, hav¬ 
ing plenty of air in hot weather. 
LAW'SUIT, f. A procefs in law; a litigation.—The 
giving the prieft a right to the tithe would produce law- 
fuits and wrangles ; his attendance on the courts of juftice 
would leave his people without a fpiritual guide. Swift. 
LAW'YER,/! Profefl'or of law ; advocate; pleader.— 
Is the law evil, becaufe fome lawyers in their office fwerve 
from it ? Whitgifte. 
The nymphs with fcorn beheld their foes. 
When the defendant’s council rofe ; 
And, what no lawyer ever lack’d. 
With impudence own’d all the faff. Swift. 
An attorney.—The number of lawyers has much increafed 
within the laft three centuries; for an aft of parliament, 
patted in the 33 Hen. VI. c. 7. ftates, that not long before 
that time there had not been more than fix or eight at¬ 
torneys in Norfolk and Suffolk quo tempore, (it obferves,) 
magna tranquillitas regnabat, but that the number had in¬ 
creafed to twenty-four, to the great vexation and preju¬ 
dice of thefe counties; it therefore enafts that for the fu¬ 
ture there fhall only be fix attorneys in Norfolk, fix in 
Suffolk, and turn in the city of Norwich. As it does not 
appear that this ftatute was ever repealed, it might be cu¬ 
rious to inquire how it was originally evaded. Chrifiian's 
Blackjl. iii. 25. n. 
LAX, adj. [lanus, Lat.] Loofe ; not confined.—Inhabit 
lax, ye pow’rs of lieav’n ! Milton. —Dif'united ; not ftrongly 
combined.—In mines, thofe parts of the earth which 
abound with ftrata of ftone, fuffer much more than thofe 
which confift of gravel, and the like laseer matter, which 
more eafily give way. Woodward. —Vague; not rigidly 
exaff.—Dialogues were only lax and moral difcourfes. Ba¬ 
ker. —Loofe in body, fo as to go frequently to ftool; lax¬ 
ative medicines are fuch as promote that difpofition. 
Slack; not tenfe.—By a branch of the auditory nerve 
that goes between the ear and the palate, they can hear 
themfelves, though their outward ear be llopt by the lax 
membrane to all founds that come that way. Holder's Ele¬ 
ments of Speech. 
LAX, f. A loofenefs ; a diarrhoea. 
LAX, a town of Swiflerland, in the Valais: thirty-three 
miles eaft of Sion. 
LAX'A, a town of the ifland of Louis, fituated on a 
bay on the eaft coaft : nine miles fouth-fouth-weft of 
Stornaway. 
LAX'A, a town of Pern, in the diocefe of La Paz: 
twenty miles fouth-weft of La Paz. 
LAX'AMENT,/! [from lax.’] A relaxation, a refrefh- 
ment. Scott. 
LAXAN'TIA,/ Loofening medicines; medicines pro¬ 
ducing a moderate dilcharge by ftool. 
LAX'ATED, adj. Loofened. Scott. 
LAXA'TION, /. The act of loofening or flackening. 
The ftate of being loofened or flackened. 
LAX'ATIVE, adj. Having the power to eafe coftive- 
nefs.— Omitting honey, which is of a laxative power it- 
felf; the powder of loadftones doth rather conftipate and 
bind, than purge and loofen, the belly. Brown. 
LAX'ATIVE, f. A medicine flightly purgative ; a me¬ 
dicine that relaxes the bowels without llimulation ; 
LAX 
Nought profits him to fave abandon’d life, 
Nor vomits upward aid, nor downward laxative. Drydfn. 
LAX'ATIVENESS, f. Power of eafing coftivenefs. 
LAX'EMBERG, a town of Auftria : feven miles fouth 
of Vienna. 
LAX'EY, a village about the centre of the eaft 
coaft of the Ifle of Man, in the parifh of Lonan. The 
bay affords a fafe fhelter from wefterly winds, in from fe¬ 
ven to ten fathom water. The cape at the fouthern ex¬ 
tremity is called Laxey Point. Laxey is a place of little 
trade, being compofed of not more than thirty cottages: 
it has only one fhop, apparently very ill fupplied, and two 
public houfes: for butcher’s meat, and many other arti¬ 
cles of convenience, the inhabitants fend weekly to Dou¬ 
glas. The herring-fifliery of this place is not very confi- 
derable ; and the prefent fcarcity of falmon is attributed 
to the. water from the copper-mines. See Isle of Man, 
vol. xi. p. 415. The river's banks are high and fteep ; 
and in fome places well planted with trees. A little way 
up the valley is a flax-fpinning mill, upon a conftruftion 
fimilar to that near Douglas. The water is kept up by an 
embankment of ftone, over which falmon, in the fpawn- 
ing feafon, were often feen to leap. Trout abound in 
Laxey river. The bridge is very narrow, and apparently 
ancient. Lonan, the parifh-church, is a mile from the 
village. Its name is a corruption of Lomanus, the faint 
to whom it is dedicated, a fon of Tigris, lifter to St. Pa¬ 
trick, and the firft bifhop of Trim in Ireland. In the 
year 1786, two hundred and thirty-feven pieces of filver 
were found in this parifh by a perfon digging ; and feve- 
ral others had been previoufly difcovered. 
Nearly two miles on the Douglas fide of Laxey, near 
the road, are about twelve ftones placed in a form fome- 
what oval. Juft beyond the oval, and at one end of it, 
facing the north-north-eaft, are two ftones fix feet high, 
one of wdiich is cloven from top to bottom ; the other 
ftones are from two to three feet high. The mount on 
which they all Hand is three or four feet high ; and in the 
centre of it is an excavation, feven feet long, three feet 
wide for about one-third of the length, and two feet for 
the remainder. The ftones are of a hard clay-flate. The 
following traditionary ftory is related of them : The pro¬ 
prietor of the land on which they reft, being defirous of 
removing them, took fome labourers to effefit his pUrpofe. 
Being arrived at the ftones, and looking back, he faw his 
houfe on fire, and confequently returned in hafte. Hav¬ 
ing arrived at home, he found his houfe as it fhould be, 
but faw the ftones on fire. The man was too wife to dif- 
regard fo clear an omen ; and the ftones have ever fince 
remained undifturbed. The natives do not feem to form 
even a conjecture of their original ufe, nor ever to have 
heard of fuch beings as Druids. Laxey is about eight 
miles and a half fouth-eaft of Ramfey, and fix north of 
Douglas. Woods's IJle of Man. 
LAXIA'NA, a river of Spain, which runs into the 
Xalon about three miles above Anza in Arragon. 
LAX'ITY , f. Not comprefiion ; not clofe cohefion.— 
The former caufes could never beget whirlpools in a chaos 
of fo great a laxity and thinnefs. Bentley. —Contrariety to 
rigorous precifion ; as, laxity of expreflion. — Loofenefs ; 
not coftivenefs. If fometimes it caufe any laxity, it is in 
the fame way with iron unprepared, which will difturb 
fome bodies, and work by purge and vomit. Brown. — 
Slacknefs ; contrariety to tenfion.— Laxity of a fibre is 
that degree of cohefion in its part which a fmall force can 
alter, lo as to increafe its length beyond what is natural. 
Quincy. —Opennefs ; not clolenefs.—Held a piece of paper 
dole by the flame of a candle, and by little and little re¬ 
move it further off, and there is upon the paper fome part 
of that which I lee in the candle, and it grows ft ill lefs 
and lefs as I remove ; fo that, if I would truft my fenfe, I 
fhould believe it as very a body upon the paper as in the 
candle, though infeebled by the laxity of the channel in 
which it flow's. Digby on Bodies. 
LAXMAN'NIA,/ [from Ericus Laxmann, a Swede,mem¬ 
ber 
