793 LIS 
college in Cambridge, of which he was made fellow by 
royal mandate in 1660. Having made choice of the me¬ 
dical profeffion, he travelled to the continent for improve¬ 
ment, and in 1670 fettled in York as a prattitioner. To 
his profeffional employment he added the diligent purfuit 
of enquiries in natural hiftory and antiquities, and com¬ 
municated many papers to the Royal Society, of which 
body he was elected a fellow. By his various produc¬ 
tions, he became well known to the learned in the king¬ 
dom ; and upon the folicitation of his friends, he removed 
to the metropolis about the year 1683. He was created 
M. D. by diploma at Oxford in that year, and was elected 
.a fellow of the College of Phyficians. In 1698 he at¬ 
tended the earl of Portland in his embafly to the court of 
France, on which occalion he obtained introductions to 
the molt eminent men of fcience at Paris, and viewed all 
the curiofities of that capital. On his return he pub- 
lifbed an account of this journey, among the particu-. 
lars of which were fome things of a trifling nature, that 
gave occalion to Dr. William King’s burlelque imitation 
of it, entitled, A Journey to London. It was not, indeed, 
difficult at that time to throw ridicule on a man who had 
written on fnails and fpiders, and bellowed his attention 
'-on the minuted parts of natural knowledge. Dr. Lifter 
was appointed, in 1709, fecond phylician in ordinary to 
*queen Anne, which poll he occupied only a ffiort time. He 
died in February 1712-12. 
The properly-medical writings ,of this phylician, are 
marked with a propenfity to hypothefis, and an attach¬ 
ment to the ancients, but are not void of valuable obfer- 
vations from his own experience. In this clals may be 
enumerated his two works on Englifn medicinal waters, 
entitled, r. De Fontibus Medicatis Anglise, Exercit. nova 
et prior, 1682; altera, 1684. 2. Exercitationes lex Me- 
dicinales,. 1694; republifhed with additions under the ti¬ 
tle of Ofto Exercitationes Medicinajes, 1697; the difeafes 
here treated of are dropfy, diabetes, hydrophobia, lues ve¬ 
nerea, fcurvy, gout, calculus, and fmail-pox. 3. Diflerta- 
tio de Humoribus, 1709, the work of his old age, full of 
hypothefes and refutatio.ns'of other fheorifls. In general, 
Lifter is a keen controverlialift, and indulges in fevere re¬ 
marks on fome of his contemporaries, efpecially Syden¬ 
ham. But his reputation is principally founded on his 
labours in natural hiftory and comparative anatomy. Be- 
fides his papers in the Philofophical Tran factions, of which 
near forty appear in the numbers from 25 to 585 i.nclulive, 
he publilhed the following works: 4. Hiftoriae Anima- 
Jium Tres Traftatus; 16*78, 4to. 5. Exercitatio Anato- 
mica de Cochleis maxime terreltribus et Limacibus, 1694, 
8vo. 6. Exercitatio Anatomica altera, de Buccinis Fluvi- 
atilibus et Marinis, 1695, 8vo. 7. Exercitatio Anatomica 
tertia Conchyliorutn Bivalvium, 1696, 4to. In all thefe 
works Dr. Lifter has difplayed great accuracy of observa¬ 
tion, and indefatigable induftry in dete&ing the moft mi¬ 
nute and curious particulars of the animal economy. He 
alfo publillied a correfted and newly-methodifed edition 
of Goedart on Infects, 1685, 8vo. His Journey to Paris, 
1698, contains a variety of entertaining matter, and was 
well received, notwithfi&nding the efforts of ridicule. Biog. 
Britan. 
LIST'FUL, adj. [from lift, v. in its fenfe of liftm .] At¬ 
tentive : 
Thereto they both did franckly condifcend 
And to his doome with liftfull cares did both attend. Sp. 
LIS'TERLAND, a cape on the fouth coaft of Norway, 
twenty miles north-welt of Lindefuefs. 
LIS'TIMG, f The act of putting on lilt ; of enrol¬ 
ling foldiers. A kind of border. 
LIST'LESS, adj. [from lift. ] Without inclination ; 
without any determination to one thing more than an¬ 
other.—Intemperance and fenfuality clog men’s Jpirits, 
mak e them grots, hftlefs, and uuadiv.e. Tillotfm, 
L I T 
A lazy lolling fort 
Of evzY-hftlcfs loit’rers, that attend 
No caufe, no truft. Pope. 
Oarelefs; heedlefs : with of: 
The lick for air before the portal gafp. 
Or idle in their empty hives remain, 
Benumb’d with cold, and liftkfs of their gain. Dryden. 
LIST'LESSLY, adv. Without thought; without atten¬ 
tion.—To know this perfedly, watch him at play, and 
fee whether he be ftirring and active, or whether he lazily 
and liftlejly dreams away his time. Locke. 
LIST'LESSNESS, f. Inattention; want of delire.—-It 
may be the palate of the foul is indifpofed by liftlefnefs or 
forrow. Taylor. 
LISTOW'EL, a poft-town of Ireland, in the county 
of Kerry and province of Munlter, 131 miles from Dub¬ 
lin, anciently called Lis-Tuathal, the Fort of Tuatha), who 
was exiled in the firlt century, but returned; and his life 
forms a brilliant era in Irilb hiftory. Near this are the 
ruins of a cable, pleafantly fituated on the river Feale; it 
was taken in November 1600, by fir Charles Wilmot, be¬ 
ing then held out for lord Kerry againft queen Elizabeth. 
There are- three annual fairs.—Five miles beyond Lillowel 
are the ruins of a church. 
LISTVENNISCH'NA, a town of Ruffia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Irkutlk, on the Argun, on the confines of Chi¬ 
na: 176 miles eaft-north-eaft„of Nertchinlk. Lat. 51. 44, 
N. Ion. 121. 20. E. 
LI'SY SUR OU'RCQ, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Seine and Marne, on the Marne: feven miles 
north-eaft of Meaux. 
LIT, the preterite of light-, whether to light fignifies to 
happen, or to let on fire, or to guide with ligjit.—I lit 
my pipe with the paper. Addifonis SpeElator. 
Believe thyfeif, thy eyes, 
That firll inflam’d, and lit me to thy love, 
Thofe liars, that ft ill mult guide me to my joy. Southernc. 
LIT, a town of Sweden, in Jamtland: ten miles norih 
of Olterfund. 
LIT-CHI',/• in botany. See Sapindus edulis. 
LPTA, ft. [fo named by Schreber, from Afioj, Gr. Am¬ 
ple, naked, or deftitute, becaufe the plant confifts chiefly 
of flowers, with a very trifling Item, and no leaves, but a 
few fmall fcales.] I11 botany, a genus of the clals pentan- 
dria, order monogynia, natural order of rotaceae, (gen¬ 
tian re, JuJJ.) The generic chara£lers are—Calyx: perian- 
thium one-leafed, tubular, ereft, coloured, five-cleft, lharp, 
permanent. Corolla: one-petalled, falver-lhaped ; tube, 
cylindric, very long, enlarged at the bafe and tip; border 
five-cleft; divifions ovate, fpreading. Stamina: filaments 
none; antherce five, twin, in the throat of the corolla. 
Piftiilum: germ oblong; ftyle filiform, length of the tube ; 
ftigma headed, truncated. Pericarpium: capfule oblong, 
one-celled, two-valved. Seeds: numerous, faw-duft-like, 
affixed to the margins of the valves. This genus is allied 
to Gentiana, but differs in the corolla, piftil, and fruit.— 
EJfteniial CharaRer. Calyx five-cleft, with two or three 
fcales at the bafe; corolla falver-rlhaped, with a very long 
tube, dilated at the bale and throat, border five-cleft; an- 
therae twin, inferted in the throat; capfule one-celled, 
two-valved ; feeds numerous. 
Species. 1. Lita rofea, or rofe-lita: flowers in pairs; 
fegments of the corolla acute. Root tuberous, fibrous, 
about a foot deep in the ground. Stem knobbed, qua¬ 
drangular, with two little connate fcales at each joint, 
pointed, flefiiy and brittle ; as loon as it comes out of the 
ground, it divides into three, four, or five, branches, 
Scarcely an inch long, knobbed, fcaly, two-flowered, fel- 
dom one-flowered. Corolla rofe-coloured. Thefe flow¬ 
ers are almoft next the ground, moft of the Item being 
concealed. The root, which is irregular, and as big as 
