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as this activity ceases as soon as the medium becomes strongly acid, chalk must be added to neutralize the lactic acid produced. Further, the process must not be kept up too long, as another fermentation may set in, by which the lactic acid would be transformed into butyric acid. When obtained in the pure state, lactic acid forms a transparent, colorless, syrupy liquid, readily absorbing moisture and mixing in all proportions with water and with alcohol. The ordinary pharmaceutical product is an aqueous solution containing about 75 per cent. of lactic acid. It has been used, in diluted form, to dissolve the membrane in diphtheria, and as an ingredient of stomachic mixtures. Chemically lactic acid is at once an acid and a secondary alcohol, its molecule containing both a carboxyl group (COOH) and a secondary alcohol group (CHOH). It is a comparatively unstable substance, and when heated with dilute sulphuric acid readily decomposes into formic acid and ordinary aldehyde, according to the following equation:

[blocks in formation]

CH,CH(OH)COOH = HCOOH + CH,CHO Among the salts of lactic acid may be mentioned the lactate of calcium (C,H,O,),Ca + 5H,O, and the lactate of zinc (C,H,O,)¿Zn + 3H2O, which are readily soluble in hot water and almost insoluble in cold alcohol. A method of separating the different varieties of lactic acid is based on the different solubilities of their zinc and calcium

salts.

(2) Sarcolactic acid, or para-lactic acid, has the same chemical composition and constitution as ordinary lactic acid. It is found in blood, and under certain conditions in urine, as well as in various pathological fluids; it is a characteristic constituent of muscles, and is therefore contained in considerable quantities in Liebig's meat extract. Sarcolactic acid possesses considerable importance from a physiological point of view. The energy of an active muscle is found to be proportional to the acidity of the muscle; and as that acidity is due to a great extent to the formation of sarcolactic acid, it is clear that the production of muscular energy is due largely to the transformation of nitrogenous matter into sarcolactic acid. Sarcolactic acid may be prepared from Liebig's extract of meat. It has precisely the same chemical properties as ordinary lactic acid, from which it differs, however, in certain physical properties; unlike ordinary lactic acid, it is optically active, and the solubility of its zinc and calcium salts is different from that of the lactates. Sarcolactic acid, as well as another variety, viz.,

(3) Lævo-rotatory lactic acid, may be obtained from ordinary lactic acid by subjecting the strychnine salt of the latter to a process of fractional crystallization. The relation between the above three varieties of lactic acid is explained by the theories of modern stereo-chemistry (q.v.). (4) Ethylene-lactic acid, or 3-hydroxy-propionic acid, CH2 (OH).CH2.COOH, often called hydracrylic acid, is a sour, syrupy liquid readily breaking up into acrylic acid and water, according to the following equation:

CH2(OH).CH COOH = CH2: CH.COOH + H2O
Hydracrylic acid
Acrylic acid

Hydracrylic acid was formerly supposed to occur in the animal body, but this has been shown to be incorrect.

LACTIC FERMENTATION. See FERMEN TATION; LACTIC ACID.

LACTOMETER (from Lat. lac, milk + Gk. μéτ pov, metron, measure). A special form of hydrometer (q.v.) used for determining the specific gravity of milk, for the purpose of detecting adulteration with water. As usually constructed, the scale, which is about four inches in length, is divided into 120 equal degrees, the zero being the point to which the instrument sinks in pure water at a temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.56 degrees Centigrade), while the 100th degree corresponds to the specific gravity 1.029, and the 120th degree to the specific gravity 1.0348. Experience has shown that the specific gravity of mixed milk from healthy cows, when taken at least twelve hours after milking, will not fall below 1.029. See MILK; ADULTERATION.

LAC TUCA'RIUM (Neo-Lat., from Lat. lactuca, lettuce, from lac, milk). A drug consisting of the concrete juice of the Lactuca sativa, or garden lettuce. It appears in the market in two forms. The English lactucarium is in irregular pieces the size of a pea, while the German variety is in pieces about an inch by a half inch in measurement. It is dark brown or light yelbitter taste. It owes its efficiency to a crystallowish brown, with a faintly narcotic odor and lizable bitter principle, lactucin, probably first discovered by Aubergier. It is a very feeble antispasmodic and hypnotic. It has been called 'lettuce-opium,' and in the form of syrup was once popular.

LACU'NAR (Lat. lacunar, panel, from laA sunken panel cuna, pit, from lacus, lake).

or coffer in a ceiling, and also in the soffits of classic cornices. Lacunars are much used in porticoes and similar classic structures, and are frequently ornamented with pateræ. The ceilings of many Christian churches were so decorated during the Renaissance-as, for example, the gilt ceiling of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The word is synonymous with caisson, which is also given to the same decorative form when used not on horizontal ceilings, but on curved surfaces, such as those of the tunnel vaults and domes of Roman temples and baths, and the vaults of triumphal arches. These were usually carved in stone or marble, but were sometimes of stucco or wood, especially in post-classic times. They are buildings and their modern copies. seldom found except in Roman and Renaissance

LACY, lä'sê, FRANZ MORITZ. An Austrian field-marshal. See LASCY, FRANZ MORITZ.

LA'CY, HUGH DE (?-1186). One of the English conquerors of Ireland. He was probably a son of Gilbert de Lacy, and before 1163 was in possession of his father's estates. In October, 1171, he went over to Ireland with Henry II., and soon was playing an important rôle. He received the grant of Meath, and was at one time also in charge of Dublin. While Governor of Ireland, he was accused of seeking to become King of Ireland, having married in 1181 the daughter of Roderic, King of Connaught. But whatever his intentions were, before they could be realized he was murdered by a native (July 25, 1186).

LACY, JOHN (?-1681). An English actor and playwright. He began his London life in 1631, as apprentice to John Ogilby, a dancing-master; held a commission in the Royalist army during

the Civil War; after the Restoration became a favorite actor; played Teague in Howard's Committee, and was the original Bayes in Buckingham's Rehearsal (1671). His experiences as soldier he turned to good account in The Old Troop, a farce. Consult his Dramatic Works, with memoir and notes (London, 1875).

LADAKH, lå-däk'. A district in the east central part of Kashmir (q.v.), British India, forming part of the upper valley of the Indus, between the Western Himalayas and the Karakorum Range. The area of Ladakh proper is about 8000 square miles, but the name is applied to a wider region. The population numbers about 30,000. The whole district is highly elevated, and is crossed by a number of lofty mountain-spurs, with narrow valleys between them. The air is exceedingly dry and the climate is severe, with enormous variations in temperature. Notwithstanding this, pretty good crops of wheat, barley, and buckwheat are raised. The mineral products are sulphur, iron, borax, silver, and gold. The woolen manufactures are important. The transit trade is extensive, being carried mostly on mules and sheep. The capital is Leh. Ladakh was originally a province of Tibet, after which it was for a time independent until 1839, when it was annexed to Kashmir.

Education (1890); A Theory of Reality (1899); The Philosophy of Conduct (1902).

LADD, WILLIAM (1778-1841). An American philanthropist, born in Portsmouth, N. H. After graduating at Harvard (1797), he took to the sea, and came to be known as a capable New England captain. A disbeliever in war for any purpose, he turned landsman at the outbreak of the War of 1812, and devoted both tongue and pen to preaching non-resistance. He was president of the American Peace Society, editor of its organ, The Friend of Peace, afterwards The Harbinger of Peace, and published separate addresses to the peace societies of Maine (1824), of Massachusetts (1825), and An Essay on the Congress of Nations (1840).

LADDER-SHELL. See WENTLE-TRAP.

LADEGAST, lä'de-gast, FRIEDRICH (1818-). A German organ-builder, born at Hochhermsdorf, near Rochlitz, in Saxony. He served an apprenticeship with his elder brother, and then established himself at Weissenfels in 1846. He first became known through the cathedral organ at Merseburg, which he rebuilt in 1855. In conjunction with his son, Oskar (1856-), he built more than 150 organs, most of them of large size. LADENBURG, läʼden-boorK, ALBERT (1842 educated at Heidelberg, Berlin, Ghent, and Paris. He made special studies of the synthesis of conine and the formation of benzol; and contributed to the history of chemistry Entwicklungsgeschichte der Chemie in den letzten hundert Jahren (2d ed. 1887). He wrote largely for Liebig's Annalen (vol. 135 sqq.), and for the Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft (vol. 1 sqq.).

LADAKHI, lå-däk'hê. The natives of Ladakh.). A German chemist, born at Mannheim and They are reputed to be peaceful and industrious. Some of their settlements are 14,000 feet above sea-level. Their dress is peculiar in several respects, and their women paint their faces in Indian fashion. Their addiction to change, or native sour beer, has made liquor legislation necessary. They speak an Aryan dialect closely related to Kashmiri, but are thought by some authorities to have a large strain of Mongolian blood. The Ladakhi are Buddhists, with an interesting folkreligion behind the adopted one. The folk-poetry

of the Ladakhi is extensive. A brief collection of Ladakhi proverbs has been published by Rev. H. Kranke, a missionary at Leh, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1900.

LA'DAS (Lat., from Gk. Λάδας). A swift runner of Laconia, whose speed became so proverbial that he is frequently mentioned by both Greek and Roman writers.

LADD, GEORGE TRUMBULL (1842-). An American psychologist and philosopher born at Painesville, Ohio, January 19, 1842. He gradu ated from Western Reserve College, and later from Andover Theological Seminary. He received from the latter the degree of D.D., 1879; LL.D., 1895; also LL.D. from Princeton, 1890. He left Andover in 1869; occupied pastorates at Edinburgh, Ohio, and at Milwaukee, Wis.; became professor of philosophy at Bowdoin College (1879), and was called to the chair of philosophy at Yale in 1881. In 1892 he gave a series of lectures on philosophy in Japan. He has written: Principles of Church Polity (1881); The Doctrine of Sacred Scripture (1883); Philosophy of Religion (1885); Practical Philosophy (1885); Elements of Physiological Psychology (1887); What Is the Bible? (1888); Introduction to Philosophy (1890); Outlines of Physiological Psychology (1891); Psychology, Descriptive and Explanatory (1894); Philosophy of Mind (1895); Philosophy of Knowledge (1897); Outlines of Descriptive Psychology (1898); Primer of Psychology (1898); Essays on the Higher

LADIES' CATHOLIC BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION. A society of Roman Catholic women, established for the purpose of providing benefits to be paid to the families of members after death. It was organized at Titusville, Pa., in April, 1890, and received a charter in Erie County, Pa. The central office of the association is at Union City, Pa., and the government is vested in a supreme council, which has jurisdiction throughout the United States. At the close of the fiscal year 1902 there were 780 subordinate branches in existence, with a total membership of 77,425. The amount paid during the year to beneficiaries was $408,500, and the total benefits disbursed since organization amounted to $2,229,452. The charter is perpetual, and the association has no capital stock, claims being provided for on the assessment plan.

LADIES OF THE QUEEN'S HOUSEHOLD. In Great Britain these comprise the mistress of the robes, the ladies of the bedchamber, the bedchamber women, and the maids of honor. The office of mistress of the robes is of considerable antiquity. It is her duty to regulate the rotation and times of attendance of the rest of the ladies of the household, who are all subordinate to her. She has the superintendence of all duties connected with the bedchamber, and the custody of the robes. On state occasions, she must see that the ceremony of robing the Queen is properly performed. In public ceremonials, she accompanies the Queen in the same carriage, or walks immediately before her Majesty. The

ladies of the bedchamber and the bedchamber women are personal attendants, ministering to the state of her Majesty. The maids of honor, of whom there are nine, are immediate attendants on the royal person, and in rotation perform the duty of accompanying the Queen on all occasions. LADINO, là-dĕnô (from Lat. Latinus, Latin). (1) A term of various ethnological applications, denoting the Romansch dialect and the closely related dialects spoken in the Tyrol and Friuli; (2) the old Castilian language in Spain; (3) a Hispano-Portuguese dialect of Latin, spoken by Turkish and other Jews; (4) a name applied in the Central American States to the descendants of Latin-American fathers and Indian mothers. As in the mulattoes in the United States, their color is a blend of the two races, and the hair is wavy.

LADISLAS, lăd'is-las, or LADISLAUS (Hung. László, and for the kings of Poland and Bohemia Ulászló). The name of several kings of Hungary, of whom one ruled also over Poland and two over Bohemia.-LADISLAS I., THE SAINT (died 1095), was the son of Béla I., and, after acquiring fame by his victories over the Cumans, succeeded his brother Gejza as King of Hungary in 1077. He subdued the Croatians (1091) and established the Christian religion

among them. He forced the Cumans likewise to embrace Christianity. He died in the midst of preparations for a crusade to the Holy Land, and was canonized by Pope Celestine III. in 1198. -LADISLAS IV., surnamed the Cuman, succeeded his father, Stephen IV., in 1272. He attacked the Cumans and defeated them; but, reinforced by hordes of the Nogai Tatars, they swept over Hungary in a wave of invasion (1285), and Ladislas was forced to make terms with them. He adopted some of their customs and put away his wife to marry one of their princesses. He was assassinated by a Cuman in 1290.-LADISLAS (Uladislas), King of Hungary (1440-44) and Poland (1434-44). See LADISLAS III., King of Poland.-LADISLAS VI. (V.), POSTHUMUS, King of Hungary and Bohemia. He was the posthumous son of Albert II., the third Hapsburg King of Germany, by Elizabeth, the heiress of the Emperor Sigismund, and was born in 1440. He was King of Bohemia from his birth, and at the age of five was made King of Hungary. His guardian, the Emperor Frederick III. (of the House of Austria), would not allow him to repair to his realms until he had reached the age of about thirteen years. The great general János Hunyady (q.v.) conducted the government of Hungary during the minority of Ladislas, while in Bohemia the government passed into the hands of George Podiebrad (q.v.). Ladislas died in 1457, in his eighteenth year.-LADISLAS (Uladislas) VII. (VI.) was elected King of Hungary in 1490, nineteen years after his accession to the throne of Bohemia. He died in 1516, and was succeeded by his son, Louis II. His daughter Anna married Ferdinand I. of Hapsburg.

LADISLAS, or LADISLAUS (c.1375-1414). King of Naples from 1386 to 1414, of the House of Anjou. He was the son of Charles III. (of Durazzo), and on his father's death succeeded to the crown under the regency of his mother. From the beginning he was forced to contend against a faction among the nobility, led by the powerful family of Sanseverini, who set up Louis II. of Anjou as a rival candidate for the throne.

In 1391 Louis invaded Naples, but after eight years of warfare was driven out by Ladislas, who from an early age had evinced remarkable military talents and a restless energy. He had succeeded, besides, in gaining the support of Pope Boniface IX., and winning over the Angevin Party. Once freed from his rival, Ladislas turned upon the turbulent nobility and crushed them into non-resistance. He then gave his attention to foreign conquests, for which Central Italy, rent by the Great Schism, offered a fair field. Playing both with the Pope and the people of Rome, he succeeded in inciting the populace against Innocent VII., who in 1405 was forced to flee from the city. Rome was sacked in the same year by the forces of Giovanni Colonna, but Ladislas's attempt to gain possession of the city failed, and in 1406 he was forced to come to terms with the Pope. In 1408 he made himself master of Rome without meeting resistance, and florins the States of the Church with Rome forced Gregory XII. to sell to him for 25,000 itself. In 1409 a league was formed against him of Anjou, and in the following year Ladislas by Pope Alexander V., Florence, Siena, and Louis King of Naples was carried on vigorously by was expelled from Rome. The war against the Pope John XXIII., whose forces, under the com

mand of Paolo Orsini, defeated Ladislas at Roccasecca in May, 1411. The King, neverthealliance, and made his peace with the Pope. This less, succeeded in detaching Florence from the was but to gain time. In June, 1413, he took Rome and compelled John XXIII. to flee. His plans for establishing a powerful Italian kingdom seemed well on the way toward realization when he was struck down by disease and died at Castelnuovo, August 6, 1414. In 1403 he had been crowned King of Hungary at Zara, a title which had soon to be laid down. Consult Creighton, History of the Papacy (Boston, 1882).

LADISLAS, or VLADISLAV. The name of several kings of Poland.-LADISLAS I., surnamed Lokietek, the Short' (1260-1333), was the son of Duke Casimir of Cujavia, and in 1288 made himself King of Poland with the assistance of a party among the nobility. He was compelled, however, to wage war against the Duke of Silesia and the King of Bohemia, and was driven by the latter from the country. After the death of the Bohemian King in 1305, he succeeded in making himself master of Cracow, and in 1312 completely crushed his enemies, thus reuniting the Polish territories under his rule. In 1320 he was crowned King of Poland, with the sanction of the Pope. The marriage of his son Casimir with Anna, daughter of Gedimin, Prince of Lithuania, prepared the way for the union of that country with Poland.-LADISLAS II. (1348-1434) was the son of Olgerd, Prince of Lithuania, and succeeded his father in 1377, being known before his acquisition of the Polish throne as Jagello. 1386 he was converted to Christianity, adopted the name of Ladislas, and married Hedwig, heiress of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, ascending the throne as Ladislas II. He became the founder of a dynasty which ruled over Poland until 1572. (See JAGELLONS.) His efforts were directed toward preserving the union between Lithuania and Poland, and extending the power of the latter country. He carried on long wars against the Teutonic Knights, and in 1410 gained a decisive victory over them at Tan

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