the Mediterranean, exploring the coasts of Africa and Asia, and making scientific collections. Having studied mathematics for the purpose, in 1735 he was sent by the Academy of Sciences, with Bouguer and others, to Peru, to measure a meridional are on the equator to show more accurately the shape of the earth. He wrote: Distance of the Tropicks (1738); La figure de la terre (1749); Journal du voyage fait par ordre du roi à l'équateur (1751); and Mémoires sur l'innoculation (1754-65). His account of caoutchouc, published in 1751, caused the introduction of this valuable substance into Europe. He became a member of the Royal Society of London in 1748, and in 1760 of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. He promoted inoculation for smallpox, and urged the adoption as a universal measure of the length of a second pendulum at the equator.

LACO'NIA. An ancient geographical division

of Greece. See SPARTA.

LACONIA. A city and the county-seat of Belknap County, N. H., 102 miles by rail north of Boston, Mass.; between Lakes Winnesquam and Winnipiseogee, on both banks of the Winnipiseogee River, and on the Boston and Maine Railroad (Map: New Hampshire, J 7). It is closely connected with other popular summer resorts of this lake region, is laid out with broad streets, and has opera-houses, a cottage hospital, and public library and park. The city is a prosperous manufacturing centre with car-shops, lumber-mills, hosiery-mills, foundries, a paperbox factory, and manufactures of knitting-machinery, friction-clutches, etc.; its industries representing a capital of over $2,000,000, having an output valued at $3,000,000, and employing 2000 persons. Population, in 1890, 6143; in 1900, 8042.

LACORDAIRE, là'kôr'dâr', JEAN BAPTISTE HENRI (1802-61). A distinguished French preacher and publicist, the restorer of the Dominican Order in France. He was born at Receysur-Ource, near Dijon, in which town he was educated, taking up ultimately the study of the law. When he went to practice in Paris, his studies of the evidences of Christianity gradually drew him away from the following of Rousseau, which had marked his earlier youth, and he decided to become a priest. He studied at the Seminary of Saint Sulpice, and was ordained in 1827. He entered upon his work with zeal, but, meeting with discouragement, almost decided to accept the invitation of Bishop Dubois, of New York, to come to America as his vicargeneral. He had already come much under the influence of Lamennais (q.v.), and after the Revolution of 1830 threw himself enthusiastically into the work of the Avenir. Its editors, at his suggestion, founded a 'general agency for the defense of religious liberty,' as a practical support of their ideas; its most significant result was the winning of a moral victory for the cause of religious education. When the Avenir was condemned by Gregory XVI., Lacordaire submitted, and for a time withdrew from political affairs. He had gone to Rome with Lamennais, but he saw the logical consequence of his old master's position, and parted company with him finally at the end of 1832. Two years later he began a series of apologetic conférences which

laid the foundation of his fame as a preacher; such men as Chateaubriand, Berryer, and Hugo were already among his regular hearers. His lectures were suspended for a time, owing to the suspicion aroused by his former association with Lamennais; but in 1835 the Archbishop selected him as the Lent preacher at Notre Dame, where his sermons once more caused an extraordinary sensation, not less than six thousand people sometimes attending them. These courses of sermons lasted ten years, with two interruptions, the latter of which was caused by his decision to enter the monastic life. He defended the right of the Dominicans (the Order of his choice) to French citizenship in his Mémoire pour le rétablissement des Frères Prêcheurs en France (1839), and entered the Order a few weeks later. At the end of 1840 he returned to France in the Dominican habit, which had not been seen there for half a century. His Vie de Saint Dominique appeared at the same time, and he presently returned to Rome with ten more novices. In 1843 he was able to found at Nancy the first new house of the Order in France. He gave much of his time to preaching in various parts of France. In 1845 were delivered the eight conferences on the divinity of Jesus Christ, which Montalembert considered the greatest triumph of modern Christian oratory. He still maintained his interest in political affairs, and was chosen Deputy from Marseilles to the Assembly after the Revolution of 1848, but soon resigned. His health began to decline in 1854, and he withdrew to the Convent of Sorèze, still doing what he could for his cause. Thus, in 1860 he published his pamphlet, De la liberté de l'église et de l'Italie, in which he protested vigorously against the interference of Napoleon

III. with the States of the Church. In the same year he was elected to the French Academy, and made his last public address there, on his predecessor, De Tocqueville. He resigned his office as provincial of the Dominicans in August, 1861, and died on November 20. His works appeared in nine volumes (Paris, 1873 et seq.). Three supplementary volumes of sermons and addresses were published in 1884 et seq., and Lettres inédites in 1881. Consult lives by Montalembert (Paris, 1862), Foisset (2d ed., ib., 1874), Chocarne (8th ed., ib., 1894), Mrs. Sidney Lear (London, 1882), Greenwell (ib., 1877), D'Haussonville (Paris, 1895), Nicolas, Le père Lacordaire et le libéralisme (Toulouse, 1886); Fesch, Lacordaire journaliste (Paris, 1897); and many important letters in Correspondance de Lacordaire et de Madame Swetchine, ed. Falloux (4 vols., ib., 1865).

LACORDAIRE, JEAN THÉODORE (1801-70). A prominent French naturalist and traveler, brother of the preceding, best known for his entomological studies. He was born at Recey-surOurce, and broke off his legal studies at Dijon to devote himself to natural science. Between 1825 and 1832 he made four voyages to South America and one to Senegal, some account of which he gave in the Temps and the Revue des Deux Mondes. The chair of zoology at Liège was voted him in 1835, and in 1838 a professorship in comparative anatomy. He wrote: Introduction à l'entomologie (1834-47); Faune entomologique des environs de Paris (1835); and the great work on Coleoptera, Histoire naturelle des in

sectes: genera des coléoptères (10 vols., 1854-76), which describes more than eight thousand genera.

LA COSA, là kō'sà, JUAN DE (c.1460-1509). A Spanish navigator and cartographer, born probably in the Province of Biscay. He accompanied Columbus on his first and second voyages, and afterwards settled at Santoña, where he became famous as a cartographer. He was the principal pilot of the expeditions sent out under Ojeda (1499) and Rodrigo Bastidas (1501) to explore the coast of Venezuela. After two other successful voyages (1504-06 and 1507-08) he was appointed alguacil mayor of Urubá, and as such again accompanied Ojeda to South America, where the entire party, with the exception of Ojeda and one other, was massacred by Indians while trying to land in Cartagena Bay. In 1500 La Cosa made a large map of the world, probably the first to be prepared after 1492, and the first, therefore, to include the New World. For this reason it is of the greatest value to cartographers and historians, and many reproductions of the part relating to America have been made. It was accidentally discovered by Humboldt in the library of Baron Walckenaer in Paris in 1832, and since 1856, when it was acquired by the Spanish Government, has been in the Naval Museum in Madrid.

LACOSTE, la'kôst', Sir ALEXANDRE (1842-). A Canadian jurist. He was born in Boucherville, Quebec, was educated at Saint Hyacinthe College and Laval University, and was admitted to the bar in 1863. In 1880 he was appointed Queen's Counsel, and from 1882 to 1884 was a member of the Legislative Council of Quebec. He was called to the Dominion Senate in 1884, and served as Speaker in 1891. He became Chief Justice of the Province of Quebec in 1891, and Privy Counciler of Canada in 1892. For several years he was professor of civil law in Laval University. He was knighted in 1893.

LACQUER. See LAC; LACQUER-WORK; VAR

NISH.

LACQUER-WORK (Fr., Sp., Port. lacre, from Port. laca, sealing-wax, from Pers. lak, Hind. lakh, lac, from Skt. lākṣā, lac-insect, from lakṣa, hundred thousand; so called from the great numbers of the insect in a single nest). In the so-called lacquer-work of Japan no lac is used, but a natural varnish, which is obtained by tapping the Rhus vernicifera or varnish-tree. This tree, which lives to a great age, belongs to the same genus as the American poison ivy and poison sumach. Usually, it is not tapped until about ten years old, and the best sap is obtained from trees one hundred years old or more. The process of tapping is elaborate, several instruments being employed and several incisions made. The crude liquor is prepared for market by simply drying it in the sun. The process of drying is facilitated and the quality of the varnish improved by adding water. This curious feature of the drying process makes it necessary to dry lacquer-work in a close damp cupboard, as it will not dry properly under ordinary atmospheric conditions, Several different varnish preparations are used in making a single piece of lacquer-work. Seshine urushi is a varnish usually prepared by adding to the crude liquid a jelly composed of seaweed and finely grated potato. This is used as a priming coat, and in the subsequent

sun.

processes is introduced between coatings of other mixtures. Other varnishes are formed by mixing with the seshine urushi, or with the crude varnish, wheaten flour, burnt clay, or other substances. In black lacquer-work the final black varnish is prepared by adding to the crude lacquer a coloring matter made by boiling iron filings in strong rice vinegar, and then exposing the mixture for several days to the rays of the After the woodwork to be lacquered has had the joints properly filled and the surface primed, the article is carefully covered with hempen cloth accurately cut and fitted to the surface. This effectually prevents cracking of the wood and springing of the joints, and forms a foundation for the successive coats afterwards applied. The first layers of varnish are laid on with a spatula, each layer being dried from 12 to 50 hours in a damp closet, as already described. The final layers are applied with a When dried, brush made from human hair. each coat of varnish is thoroughly polished, at first with a whetstone, later with a mixture of burnt clay and calcined deer's horn, and finally with several coats of calcined deer's horn laid on with the fleshy part of the thumb. For ordinary lacquer-work over thirty distinct and separate operations, consuming more than twenty days, are required, at least fifteen different coats of var nish being applied. For finer work many more coats are used. There are also cheaper grades made with less care.

In aven

Colored lacquer is produced in much the same way, a pigment being added to the final coats of varnish, after a foundation of uncolored lacquer is laid. Gold lacquer and aventurine lacquer are produced by mixing gold or bronze powder with the prepared varnish. turine work, only enough powder is added to give the surface à mottled appearance. In gold lacquer enough of the powder is used to impart an even dull metallic appearance to the substance. Ornamental designs, either flat or embossed, are obtained by applying to the lacquered surface different gold or colored lacquers. In incrusted or mosaic work the surface of black laequer is first made as described above. The spaces to be occupied by the inlaid pattern are then sunk through the polished surface into the wood, to give a firm hoid to the pieces to be inlaid, which are cemented into their places. Incrusted work is also done on gold and aventurine lacquer, and for this purpose ivory, mother-of-pearl, and metal are freely used.

Lacquer-work of artistic value is also produced in Persia, India, and China, which is in part of the same general character as that of Japan. though immeasurably inferior in variety and in artistic excellence. It is of gold on a black ground, or what seems to be gold, though not very brilliant; sometimes also in gold, on a ground of yellow and brown of different shades. A peculiar ware, known ordinarily as Fu-chow lacquer, is thought to be made recently in direct imitation of the lacquer of Japan, which it does not seriously rival. Another variety is that in which the resinous coating is of considerable thickness, an eighth of an inch or more. and carved in relief with figures and flowers of great decorative beauty. This is more usually red, but it is also made of black lacquer in China, as well as in Japan.

cation. His principal works are a volume of verse, entitled Les cloches (1841); Dona Carmen (1844); Nocturnes (1846); Contes de la méridienne (1859); La poste aux chevaux (1861); Lamartine et ses amis (1878); and the three-act play Fais ce que dois (1856), in collaboration with M. Decourcelle, which was produced at the Théâtre Français. He was the friend of Lamartine and the promoter of the George Sand Memorial (1876).

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Consult Kurokana, "The Development of Gold Lacquer Work in Japan," in The Far East for November 29, 1897; Audsley, Ornamental Arts of Japan (London, 1885), contains an interesting detailed description of Japanese lacquer-work.

LACRETELLE, lå'kr'-těl', JEAN CHARLES DOMINIQUE DE, called le Jeune (1766-1855). A French historian and publicist, born in Metz, the brother of Pierre Louis de Lacretelle. He was educated for the bar at Nancy, and went to Paris in 1787, where he wrote for the Encyclopédie méthodique and the Journal des Débats, for which he reported the sessions of the Assembly. In 1790 he became secretary to the Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, whom he assisted in promoting the King's attempted escape. Afterwards he joined the army, and was one of the most prominent of the 'Jeunesse dorée' (q.v.). On account of his Royalist sympathies he was imprisoned for about two years (1797-99). During this term he completed Rabaut SaintEtienne's Précis de l'histoire de la Révolution (1801-06). In 1809 he was made professor of history at the University of Paris, a post he held until 1848. He was twice censor of the press-in 1810 under Napoleon and in 1814 under Louis XVIII-and was made a member of the Academy in 1811. As an historian he is not sufficiently critical or impartial, but his works contain much that is interesting, from the personal part he played in the events he describes. They cover the period of the Revolution very thoroughly, and include the following: Histoire de France pendant le XVIIIième siècle (1808); His toire de France pendant les guerres de religion (1814-16); L'histoire de l'assemblée constituante (1821); L'assemblée législative (1824); La convention nationale (1824-25); Histoire de France depuis la Restauration (1829-35); Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire (1846); Dix années d'épreuves pendant la Révolution (1842); and Testament philosophique et littéraire (1840).

LACRETELLE, HENRI DE (1815-). A French politician and writer, son of the preceding, born in Paris. He was elected Deputy for Saône-et-Loire in the National Assemblies of 1871, 1876, 1877, and every succeeding four years up to 1893; belonged to the Left Radical Party, opposed the Broglio fac

LACRETELLE, PIERRE LOUIS DE, called l'Aîné (1751-1824). A French lawyer, politician, and publicist, born in Metz. He studied law at Nancy, and later he came to Paris, where his journalistic writings attracted the attention and friendship of such men as D'Alembert, Condorcet, Turgot, Malesherbes, and others. His essays Eloge de Montausier (1781) and Discours sur le préjugé des peines infamantes (1784) were widely discussed. During the Revolution he was a member of the Assembly, and was one of the chief advocates of the Constitution of 1791. He took little part in politics under Napoleon's administration, but after the Restoration joined the party of opposition, and was part editor, with Constant, of the Minerve Française, later suppressed. His works include: De l'établissement des connaissances humaines et de l'instruction publique dans la constitution française (1791); Idée sommaire d'un grand travail sur la nécessité, l'objet et les avantages de l'instruction (1800); Mélanges de philosophie et de littérature (1802-07); and Fragments politiques et littéraires (1817).

LACROIX, lå’krwä', FRANÇOIS, Viscount (1774-1842). A French general, born at Aymarques and educated at Montpellier. He saw active service when very young, won a victory over the Austrians at Friedberg (1796), and was a brigadier-general when but twenty-seven years old. Since he could look for no promotion under Bonaparte, who bore him enmity as a friend of Macdonald and Moreau, Lacroix sailed for Santo Domingo (1802), where he upheld the French standard, was created major-general, and won the good will of the negroes, who helped him in his strife with the revolutionaries under Christophe. On his return to Europe he took part in the Belgian campaign during the Hundred Days, and in 1820 received command of the division which arrested the Grenoble insurrection, while in 1823 he joined the Spanish expedition, but retired the following year. He published an important work, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la révolution de Saint Dominique (2 vols., 1810-20).

LACROIX, JEAN BAPTISTE MARIE ALBERT (1834-). A Belgian author and editor, born in Brussels. He took a law course at the university of that city, and became known through his prize essay, Influence de Shakespeare sur le In order to publish théâtre français (1855). the works of his friends, socialist refugees from France, he set up a small printing establishment, and it was his enterprise that started the international library of Brussels, forerunner of those in Paris, Leipzig, and Louvain. He published editions of Les misérables (1862) and other works of Victor Hugo, of Quinet, Louis Blanc, Michelet, and Charras. He got himself into trouble in Paris for his production of

proscribed literature, and Bougeart's Marat brought him one month's imprisonment, while Proudhoun's Evangiles caused his confinement for a year (1866). He rendered important service to French-speaking Europeans by his editions of Gervinus, Mommsen, Grote, Prescott, Bancroft, Washington Irving, and others, while with Jottrand he translated Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic.

LACROIX, JULES (1809-87). A French author and dramatist, brother of Paul Lacroix, born in Paris. He wrote a number of novels, including Fleur à vendre (1835), and Un grand d'Espagne (1845); Pervenches (1834), sonnets; translations of Juvenal and Horace; and plays, which include Le testament de César (1849); Valéria (1851), with Maquet; La Fronde (1855), an opera with Maquet, music by Niedermayer; Macbeth (1863) and King Lear (1888), translations; La jeunesse de Louis XI. (1859); and Edipe roi (1858), translated from Sophocles, which was crowned by the Academy, and still keeps its place on the French stage.

LACROIX, PAUL (1806-84). A French author, known by his nom-de-plume, 'Bibliophile Jacob.' He was born in Paris, was educated there in the Bourbon College, and at the age of eighteen brought out an edition of Clement Marot's Euvres complètes, in three volumes. This was the beginning of his treme dous literary activity, exhibited in the improvement of public libraries, the making of catalogues, and the production of such works as: Costumes historiques de la France (10 vols., 1852); Les arts au moyen âge et à l'époque de la renaissance (1868); Mœurs, usages et COStumes au moyen âge (1871); and La vie militaire et la vie religieuse au moyen âge (1872). In 1854 he became editor of the Revue Universelle des Arts, and the following year was made also curator of the Arsenal Library. Famous as an historical romancer and specialist in the lore of the Middle Ages, Lacroix was likewise a noted translator, bibliographer, editor, and collaborator with Henri Martin in the history of France and his Histoire de Soissons (1837-38), and with Ferdinand Séré in Le moyen âge et la renaissance (1847-52). An edition of his essays was published in 1867, in three volumes, called respectively Enigmes et découvertes, Mélanges, and Dissertations bibliographiques.

LACROIX,

SYLVESTRE FRANÇOIS (17651843). A French mathematician, born in Paris. At the age of sixteen he was teacher of mathematics at the naval school at Rochefort; he was afterwards teacher in the military school at Paris (1787), professor in the artillery school at Besançon (1788), and examiner of the artillery officers (1793). He was made adjunct professor of descriptive geometry in the Ecole Normale in 1794, and later became professor of mathematics at the Ecole Centrale des QuatreNations. He held the chair of analysis in the Polytechnic School (1799), going from there to the Sorbonne and the Collège de France (1815). He was not a discoverer, but he composed some excellent text-books. His chief works are: Traité du calcul différentiel et du calcul intégral (2 vols., 1797; 7th ed. 1867; German ed.. 3 vols., 1830-31); Traité des différences et des séries (3 vols., 1800; 2d ed. 1810-19); Essais sur l'enseignement en général et sur mathématiques en particulier (2d

ed. 1816); Traité élémentaire du calcul des probabilités (1816; 4th ed. 1864; German ed. 1818); Cours des mathématiques (9 vols., 17971816).

seat of La Crosse County, Wis., 198 miles by rail LA CROSSE, lå kros'. A city and the countywest-northwest of Milwaukee; at the confluence of the La Crosse and Black rivers with the Mississippi, and on the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul, the Chicago and Northwestern, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and the Green Bay, and Western railroads (Map: Wisconsin, B 5). It is the centre of a great dairy region, is an important tobacco market, and has a large wholesale trade; and is noted for its manufactures, which include sash, doors and blinds, boots and shoes, plows and other agricultural implements, boilers and heavy machinery, stoves, threshing-machines, carriages, rubber goods. crackers, knit goods, candies, flour, woolen goods, tanned leather, beer and ale, cooperage products, bed-springs, mattresses, brooms, cigars, etc. The lumber mills, formerly very extensive, had all closed by 1906. The city ships also considerable quantities of seeds. La Crosse has a public library with over 20,000 volumes, a fine city hall, court-house, post-office, high school, State normal school, hotel, county jail, opera-house, wagon bridge across the Mississippi River, and Lake and Pettibone parks, the latter on an island in the First permanently settled in Mississippi River. 1841, La Crosse was incorporated as a city in 1856, its present government being administered, under a revised charter of 1891, by a mayor, elected every two years, and a unicameral council, which elects the health officer, board of education, weighmaster, city attorney, and assessors. Other officials are chosen by popular election. The city owns and operates its waterworks. Population, 1900, 28,895; 1905, 29,079. LACROSSE. An American outdoor game played with a small ball and a hooked stick fitted with a loose net. It undoubtedly originated among the North American Indians, and was widely played by them. It was frequently of a ceremonial nature, in the preparation of the young men of a tribe for the war-path. The general character of the game was the same among all the tribes, with various minor differences, especially in the size and shape of the stick, or crosse. The original ball was of hide stuffed with hair, of bark, or of the knot of a tree. The goals were often any convenient rocks or trees; but at grand matches a single pole or two-pole goal was used, situated from 500 yards to half a mile or more apart, the ball to pass the line, strike the pole, or pass between two The Choctaws poles, according to local custom. (according to Catlin) used two poles 25 feet high and 6 feet apart, with a cross-bar, sugges Games lasted for tive of the football goal.

hours.

The players, who were put through a long course of training, were as a rule almost nude, and often decorated with paint and feathers, old medicine men usually acting as umpires. Catlin saw the game played by from 600 to 1000 at a time, and described the Olympic beauty of the contest as beyond all praise. The night before an important game a ceremonial dance occurred.

MODERN LACROSSE. The name lacrosse was given to the game by the French explorers, from