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fame tree. T. The ftick lac. 2. The feed lac. 3. The fhell lac. Authors leave us uncertain whether this drug belongs to the animal or the vegetable kingdom. Hill.

(3.) Lac, Gum. See LACCA. LACARRY, Giles, a learned Jefuit of the 17th century, born in the diocese of Caftres, in Languedoc, in 1605. He taught philofophy, theology, and the holy Scriptures in his fociety; was rector of the college of Cahors, and well skilled in hiftory. He wrote many works; among which are, 1. Hift. Galliarum fub Præfe&is Prætorii Galliarum, 4to. a work which is much efteemed, and extends from the reign of Constantine to that of Juftinian. 2. Hiftoria Romana a Julio Cæfare ad Conftantinum Magnum, per numifmata et marmora antiqua, an excellent work. 3. Epitome hiftoriæ Reg. Francia, ex Dionyfio Petavio excerpta, also much efteemed. 4. An edition of Velleius Paterculus, with learned notes. 1

LACAS, or LAS LACAS, a town of Cuba. (1.)LACCA,LAC, or GUM LAC, is a kind of wax, of which a species of infects form cells upon trees, like honeycombs. See Coccus, N° 4. In thefe cells remain fome of the dead infects, which give a red colour to the whole substance of the lac. That called flick lac is the wax adhering to fome of the fmall branches of the tree, and which is unprepared. This lac, when feparated from the adhering fticks, grofsly powdered, and deprived of its colour by digeftion with menftruums, for the fake of the dyes and other purposes, is called feed lac; when the stick lac is freed from impuri ties by melting it over a gentle fire, and formed into cakes, it is called lump lac; and lastly, that called ell lac is the cells liquefied, ftrained, and formed into thin transparent laminæ in the following manner: Separate the cells from the branches, break them into small pieces, throw them into a tub of water for one day, wash off the red water and dry the cells, and with them fill a cylindrical tube of cotton cloth 2 feet long, and I of 2 inches in diameter; tie both ends, turn the bag above a charcoal fire; as the lac liquefies twift the bag, and when a fufficient quantity has tranfuded the pores of the cloth, lay it upon a fmooth junk of the plantain tree (MUSA PARADISIACA of Linnæus), and,with a ftrip of the plantain leaf draw it into a thin lamella; take it off while flexible, for in a minute it will be hard and brittle. The value of fhell lac is according to its tranfparency. The lac infect is one of the most useful of that tribe yet discovered, particularly to the natives of the countries where it is found. They confume a great quantity of thell lac in making ornamental rings, painted and gilded in various taftes, to decorate the arms of the ladies; and it is formed in to beads, fpiral and linked chains for necklaces, and other female ornaments. The following are recipes for various purposes to which they apply this fubftance: 1. For SEALING WAX. Take a stick, and heat one end of it upon a charcoal fire; put upon it a few leaves of the fhell lac foftened above the fire; keep alternately heating and adding more fhell lac until you have got a mafs of 3 or 4 lb. of liquefied fhell lac upon the end of your ftick; in which manner lump lac is formed from feed lac. Knead this upon a wetted board with

3 oz. of levigated cinnabar; form it into cylindrical pieces; and to give them a polish, rub them while hot with a cotton cloth. 2. For JAPANNING. Take a lump of thell lac, prepared in the manner of fealing wax, with whatever colour you pleafe, fix it upon the end of a ftick, heat the polished wood over a charcoal fire, and rub it over with the half melted lac, and polish by rubbing it even with a piece of folded plantain leaf held in the hand; heating the lacquer and adding more lac as occafion requires. Their figures are formed by lac, charged with various colours in the fame manner. 3. For VARNISH. In ornamenting their ima ges and religious houfes, &c. they make use of very thin beat lead, which they cover with various varnishes, made of lac charged with colours, The preparation of them is kept a fecret. The leaf of lead is laid upon a smooth iron heated by fire below while they fpread the varnish upon it. 4. For GRINDSTONES. Take of river fand three parts, of feed lac washed one part, mix them over the fire in a pot, and form the mafs into the shape of a grindstone, having a fquare hole in the centre, fix it on an axis with liquefied lac, heat the stone moderately, and by turning the axis it may eafly be formed into an exact orbicular thape. Polishing grindstones are made only of fuch fand as will país eafily through fine muflin, in the proportion of two parts fand to one of lac. This fand is found at Ragimaul. It is compofed of smail angular crystalline particles tinged red with iron, two parts to one of black magnetic fand. The ftonecutters, inftead of fand, ufe powder of a very hard granite called corune. Thefe grindftones cut very faft. When they want to increase their power, they throw fand upon them, or let them occafica. ally touch the edge of a vitrified brick. The fame compofition is formed upon fticks, for cutting ftones, fhells, &c. by the hand. 5. For PAINTING. Take one gallon of the red liquid from the first washing for fhell lac, ftrain it through a cloth, and let it boil for a fhort time, then add half an ounce of foap earth (foffil alkali); boil an hour more, and add 3 oz. of powdered load (bark of a tree); boil a fhort time, let it stand all night, and firain next day. Evaporate 3 quarts of milk with out cream to 2 quarts upon a flow fire, curdle it with four milk, and let it stand for a day or two, then mix it with the red liquid above mentioned; train them through a cloth, add to the mixture 1 oz. of alum, and the juice of 8 or 10 lemons: mix the whole, and throw it into a cloth-bag ftrainer. The blood of the infect forms a coagulum with the cafeous part of the milk, and remains in the bag, while a limpid acid water drains from it. The coagulum is dried in the fhade, and is ufed as a red colour in painting and colouring. 6. Fer DYEING. Take one gallon of the red liquid prepared as before without milk, to which add 3 of alum. Boil 3 or 4 oz. of tamarinds in a gallon of water, and ftrain the liquor. Mix equal parts of the red liquid and tamarind water over a brisk fire. In this mixture dip and wring the filk alternately until it has received a proper quantity of the dye. To increase the colour, increase the proportion of the red liquid, and let the filk boil a few minutes in the mixture. To make filk hold the colour, boil a handful of the bark called load

In water, ftrain the decoction, and add cold water to it; dip the dried filk into this liquor feveral times, and then dry it. Cotton cloths are dyed in this manner; but the dye is not fo lafting as in filk. The lac colour is preserved by the natives upon flakes of cotton dipped repeatedly into a ftrong folution of the lac infect in water, and then dried. Among us, lac is alfo ufed in various arts; being employed in the preparation of fpirit varnifh es, for making fealing wax, and as a colouring material for dying scarlet; fee VARNISH, WAX, &c. It is infoluble in water, and difficultly foluble, in spirit of wine, which, for that purpose, must be well dephlegmated. According to Neumann, 16 ounces of feed-lac, diftilled in an open fire, yielded 9 oz. 6 dr. of a butter or thick oil, 1 oz. 6 dr. of a watery liquor neither acid nor alkaline, and a refiduum weighing 24 oz. The colour given by lac is lefs beautiful, but more durable, than that given by cochineal. To render the colouring matter of the lac diffufible in water, fo as to be applied to the stuffs to be dyed, Mr Hellot directs the following procefs: Let fome powdered gum lac be digefted 2 hours in a decoction of comfry root, by which a fine crimson colour is given to the water, and the gum is rendered pale or strawcoloured. To this tincture, poured off clear, let a folution of alum be added; and when the colouring matter has fubfided, let it be separated from the clear liquor and dried. It will weigh. about one 5th of the quantity of lac employed. This dried fecula is to be diffolved or diffused in warm water, and fome folution of tin is to be added to it, by which it acquires a vivid fcarlet cofour. This liquor is to be added to a folution of tartar in boiling water; and thus the dye is preared. The method of obtaining the fine red lac fed by painters from this fubftance, is by the folowing fimple procefs. Boil the ftick lac in water, iter the decoction, and evaporate the clear liquor n drynefs over a gentle fire. The reason of this afy feparation is, that the beautiful red colour bus feparated adheres only flightly to the outides of the sticks broke off the trees along with The gum-lac, and readily communicates itself to oiling water. Some of this sticking matter also thering to the gum itself, it is proper to boil the hole together; for the gum does not at all predice the colour, nor diffolve in boiling water: that after this operation the gum is as fit for aking fealing wax as before, and for all other es which do not require its colour. Lac is likeife employed for medicinal purposes. The ftick c is the fort ufed. It is of great efteem in Gerany, and other countries, for laxity and fponinefs of the gums proceeding from cold or a fcortic habit: for this use the lac is boiled in water, with the addition of a little alum, which promotes ⚫ folution; or a tincture is made from it with reced fpirit. This tincture is recommended alfo ternally in the fluor albus, and in rheumatic and corbutic diforders: it has a grateful fmell, and ot unpleasant, bitterish, aftringent tafte. The um lac has been alfo ufed as an electric, inftead of glass for electrical machines. See LACKER, § 12. AKE, N° 3; and VARNISH.

(2.) LACCA, ARTIFICAL, or ARTIFICIAL Acqua, a coloured fubftance drawn from feve

ral flowers: as the yellow from the flower of the juniper, the red from the poppy, and the blue from the iris or violet. The tinctures of these flowers> are extracted by digesting them feveral times in aqua-vitæ, or by boiling them over a stove, in a lixivium of pot-afhes and alum. An artificial laccais alfo made of Brazil wood, boiled in a lixivium of the branches of the vine, adding a little cochineal, turmeric, calcined alum, and arfenic, incorporated with the bones of the cuttle-fish pulverized and made up into little cakes and dried. If it be to be very red, they add the juice of lemon to it; to make it brown, they add oil of tartar. Dove-coloured or columbine lacca is made with Brazil of Fernambuc, fteeped in diftilled vinegar for a month, and mixed with alum incorporated in cuttle-fish bone. For other proceffes, fee COLOURMAKING, Index.

LACCADIVE ISLANDS, a group of small islands in the Indian Ocean. The nearest is about 120 miles from the coaft of Malabar. Lon. from 710 15' to 73° 30′ E. Lat. from 10° to 11° 40′ N. (1.) LACE. n. f. lacet, French; laqueus, Lat.] 1. Aftring; a cord.

2.

*

[blocks in formation]

The king had fnared been in love's strong lace.
Fairfax.

3. A plaited string, with which women fasten their clothes.

O! cut my lace, left my heart èracking, it Break too. Shakespeare.

Doll ne'er was call'd to cut her lace, Or throw cold water in her face. Swift. 4. Ornaments of fine thread curiously woven.Our English dames are much given to the wearing of coftly laces; and, if they be brought from Italy, they are in great esteem. Bacon. 5. Textures of thread, with gold or filver.He wears a ftuff, whose thread is coarfe and round,

Herbert.

Prior.

But trimm'd with curious lace. 6. Sugar. A cant word; now out of use.He takes up their mysterious face, He drinks his coffee without lace. (2.) LACE, in commerce, (§ 1. def. 4, 5.) is com pofed of many threads of gold, filver, or filk, interwoven the one with the other, and worked upon a pillow with spindles according to the pattern defigned. The open work is formed with pins, which are placed and displaced as the spindles are moved. The importation of gold and filver lace is prohibited.

(3.) LACE, BLOND, a lace made of fine linen thread or filk, much in the fame manner as that of gold and filver. The pattern of the lace is fix ed upon a large round pillow, and pins being ftuck into the holes or openings in the patterns, the threads are interwoven by means of a number of bobbins made of bone or ivory, each of which contains a small quantity of fine thread, in fuch a manner as to make the lace exactly resemble the pattern. Several towns in England, particularly in Buckinghamfhire, carry on this manufacture; but vaft quantities of the fineft lace have been imported from Flanders. By an act of parlia ment lately puffed (April 1802), impofing new du

ties instead of the convoy duties on various imports 2. To adorn with gold or silver textures fewed of and exports, a duty of 14 s. is payable upon every - It is but a night-gown in respect of yours ; cloth dozen of yards of bone lace of thread imported. of gold and coats, and lac'd with silver. Shat.

(4.) LÁCE, GOLD, METHOD OF CLEANING, 3. To embellith with variegations.WHEN TARNISHED. The method of cleaning gold

Look, love, what envious streaks lace or embroidery, is the same with that recom- Do lace the sev'ring clouds in yonder eaft. Sbak. mnended for brocade. See BROCADE, Ø 5. But Then clap four slices of pilafter on't, though fpirit of wine is the most innocent material That, lac'd with bits of ruftic, makes a front. that can be employed for this purpose, it is not

Pepe. in all cases proper. The golden covering may be 4. To beat; whether from the form which L'ELin some parts worn off; or the base metal with trange uses, or by corruption of lafh.-Go you, which it had been alloyed, may be corroded by and find me out a man that has no curiosity at all, the air, so as to leave the particles of the gold dis- or I'll lace your coat for ye. L'Estrange. united; while the filver underneath, tarnished to (1.) LACEDÆMON, in fabulous history, a son a yellow hue, may continue a tolerable colour to of Júpiter and Taygete, the daughter of Atlas. the whole: in which cases it is apparent, that the He married Sparta the daughter of Europa, by removal of the tarnish would be prejudicial to the whom he had Amyclas and Eurydice the wife of colour, and make the lace or embroidery less like Acrisius. He was the first who introduced the gold than it was before. A piece of old tarnished worship of the Graces into Laconia, and built gold-lace, cleaned by spirit of wine, was deprived, them a temple. From Lacedæmon and his wife, with its tarnish, of the greateft part of its golden the capital of Laconia was called Laceda mon and hue, and looked almost like filver lace. The fact Sparta. is, that what is called Gold Lace should rather be (2.) LACEDÆMon, in ancient geography, a nocalled Gilt Lace, being only filver lace gilded. ble city of Peloponnesus, called allo SPARTA; There is no such thing as real gold lace.

these games differing in this, that the latter is the (s.) LACE, METHOD OF SEPARATING The proper and ancient name of the city, the former GOLD AND SILVER FROM, WITHOUT BURNING of the country, which afterwards came to be apIT. Cut the lace in pieces, and (having separa. plied to the city (Strabo, Stephanus). Homer alted the thread from it by which it was fewed to so makes this diftinction ; who calls the country the garment) tie it up in a linen cloth, and boil it holy, because encompassed with mountains. It has in soap ley, diluted with water, till it be diminish- also been feverally known by the name of LELEed in bulk; which will take up but a little time, Gia, from the Leleges, the first inhabitants of the unless the quantity of lace be very great. Then country, or from Lelex, one of their kings; and take out the cloth, and wash it several times in cold OEBALIA, from Oebalus, the 6th king from Eurowater, squeezing it pretty hard with your foot, tas. It was also called HECATOMPOLIS, from or beating it with a mallet, to clear it of the soap 100 cities which the whole province once containley; then untie the cloth, and the metallic parted. This city was the capital of Laconia, fituof the lace will remain pure, nowhere altered in ated on the right or west side of the Eurotas: it colour or diminished in weight. This method is was less in compass than Athens, however equal, more convenient and less troublesome than the or even superior to it in power. Polybius makes common way of burning; and as a small quantity it 48 ftadia, a circuit much inferior to that of Athens. of the ley will be sufficient, the expense will be LElex is supposed to have been the first king of trifling, especially as the same ley may be used fe. Lacedæmon. His descendants, 13 in number, veral times, if cleared of the filky calcination. It reigned successively after him, till the reign of the may be done in either an iron or copper vessel. fons of Oreftes, when the Heraclidæ recovered The ley may be had at the foap-boilers, or it may the Peloponnefus about 80 years after the be made of pearl-ash and quick-lime boiled toge. Trojan war. Procles and Eurysthenes, the dether in a sufficient quantity of water. The reaton scendants of the Heraclidæ, ufurped the crown of this sudden change in the lace will be evident to together; and after them it was decreed that the such as are acquainted with chemistry: for filk, on two families should always fit on the throne toge. which all laces are wove, is an animal substance, ther. The monarchial power was abolished, and and all animal stubstances are soluble in alkalies, the race of the Heraclidæ extinguifhed at Sparta, especially when rendered more caustic by the ads about A. A. C. 219. Lacedæmon in its flourishdition of quick-lime; but the linen you tie it in, ing state had no walls, the bravery of its citizens being a vegetable, will remain unaltered.

serving inftead of them (Nepos). At length in * To LACE. v. a. (from the noun.] 1. To fasten Cassander's time, or after, when the city was in with a string run through eilet holes. -- I caused a the hands of tyrants, distrusting the defence by arms fomentation to be made, and put on a laced fock, and bravery, a wall was built round it, at first by which the weak parts werefrengthened. Wifem. Night, and in a tumultuary or hafty manner ;

At this, for new replies he did not say, which the tyrant Nabis made very krong (Livy, But lac'd his crested helm, and Irode away. Fustin.) Paufanias ascribes the first walls to the

Dryden. times of Demetrius and Pyrrhus, under Nabis. Messapus' helm he finds among the rest, They were pulled down A. A. C. 188, by Philo.

And laceson, and wears the weaving creft. Dryd. pæmen, who was then at the head of the Achaan -Like Mrs Primly's great belly, the may lace it league, and Laconia some time after became a down before, but it burnishes on her hip. Congreve. Roman province, when reduced by Mummius, When Jenay's stays are newly lac'd,

See SPARTA. Lacedæmon is now called Misi Fair Alma plays about her waist. Prior. TRA. Loo. 23. 0. E. Lat. 36. 55. N.

LA.

a

LACEDÆMONIANS, the people of SPARTA. * LACED MUTTON. An old word for a whore. -Ay, Sir, I, a loft mutton, gave your letter to her, a lac'd mutton, and the gave me nothing for my labour. Shak.

LACEDOGNA. See CEDOGNA.

* LACEMAN. n. f. [lace and man.] One who deals in lace. I met with a nonjuror, engaged with a laceman, whether the late French king was moft like Auguftus Cæfar or Nero. Addifon.

*LACERABLE. adj. [from lacerate.] Such as may be torn. Since the lungs are obliged to a perpetual commerce with the air, they must neceffarily lie open to great damages, because of their thin and lacerable compofure, Harvey.

*To LACERATE. v. a. [lacero, Latin.] To tear; to rend; to separate by violence.-And my fons lacerate and rip up, viper-like, the womb that brought them forth. Howel's England's Tears. -The heat breaks through the water, fo as to lacerate and lift up great bubbles too heavy for the air to buoy up, and caufeth boiling. Denham. -Here lacerated friendship claims a tear. Vanity of Human Wifbes.

* LACERATION. n. f. [from lacerate.] The act of tearing or rending; the breach made by tearing. The effects are, extenfion of the great veffels, compreffing of the leffer, and lacerations upon fmall caufes. Arbuthnot.

*LACERATIVE. adj. [from lacerate.] Tearing; having the power to tear.-Some depend upon the intemperament of the part ulcerated, others upon the continual afflux of lacerative humours. Harvey on Confumptions.

LACERNA, a coarfe thick garment worn by the Romans over their gowns like a cloak. It was first used in the camp, but afterwards admitted into the city. The emperors wore the lacerLa of a purple dye. It was at firft very fhort, but it lengthened after it became fashionable, which was not till the civil wars and the trium virate; before this time it was confined to the foldiers. Senators were forbidden wearing it in the city by Valentinian and Theodofius. Martial mentions lacernæ worth 10,000 fefterces. Some confound this garment with the penula; but it ems rather to have refembled the CHLAMYS, or CIRRUS.

(I.) LACERTA, the LIZARD, in aftronomy, 1 conftellation of the Northern Hemisphere. See ASTRONOMY, 550.

(II) LACERTA, the LIZARD, in zoology, a genus of amphibious animals, belonging to the order of reptilia, the characters of which are thefe: The body is naked, with four feet, and a tail. See Plates CXCVI. and CXCVII. There are about 8 species; the most remarkable are these :

1. LACERTAAGILIS has a pretty long verticillated tail, with fharp fcales, and a fcaly collar. This is the common green lizard, and is a native both of Europe and India. This fpecies is extremely zimble: in hot weather it basks on the fides of Cry banks or old trees; but, on being obferved, immediately retreats to its hole. The food of this fpecies as well as of all the other British lizards, is infects; and they themselves are devoured by birds of prey. They are all perfectly harmVOL. XII. PART II,

lef; yet their form ftrikes one with disgust, and has occafioned great obfcurity in their history. Mr Pennant mentions a lizard killed in Worcesterfhire, in 1714, which was 2 feet 6 inches long, and 4 inches in girth. The fore legs were placed 8 inches from the head; the hind legs 5 inches beyond thefe: the legs were two inches long; the feet divided into 4 toes, each furnished with a fharp claw. Another of the fame kind was afterwards killed in that county; but whether these large lizards were natives of other countries and imported into England, or whether they were of British growth, is uncertain.

2. LACERTA ALLIGATOR, the Alligator, or American crocodile, has a vast mouth, furnished with sharp teeth; from the back to the end of the tail, ferrated; fkin tough and brown, and covered on the fides with tubercles. This dreadful fpecies, which grows to the length of 17 or 18 feet, is found in the warmer parts of North America; and most numerous, fierce, and ravenous, towards the S. Yet in Carolina it never devours the human fpecies, but on the contrary fhuns mankind; it, however, kills dogs as they fwim the rivers, and hogs which feed in the fwamps. It is often feen floating like a log of wood on the furface of the water, and is mistaken for fuch by dogs and other animals, which it feizes, draws under water, and devours. Like the wolf, when preffed by long hunger, it will fwallow mud, and even ftones and pieces of wood. They often get into the wears in pursuit of fish, and do much mi chief by breaking them to pieces. They are torpid during winter in Carolina; and retire into their dens, which they form by burrowing far under ground. They make the entrance under water, and work upwards. In fpring they quit their retreats, and refort to the rivers; and chiefly feek their prey near the mouth, where the water is brackish. They roar and make a dreadful no:fe at first leaving their dens, and against bad weather. The female lays a vaft number of eggs in the fand, near the banks of lakes and rivers, and leaves them to be hatched by the fun: multitudes are destroyed as foon as hatched, either by their own species or by fish of prey. In S. America, the carrion vulture is the inftrument of Providence to deftroy multitudes; and thus prevents the country from being rendered uninhabitable.

3. LACERTA BASILISCUS has a long cylindrical tail, a radiated fin on the back, and a creft on the throat. It is a native of the Indies. It is a very harmlefs creature; and altogether deftitute of thofe wonderful qualities which have been attributed to the fabulous animal of the fame name. See BASILISK, § 2.

4. LACERTA BIPES, the two-footed lizard, is transferred to this genus, in the laft edition of the Syftema Naturæ, from the Anguis of former edi tions, where it was called ANGUIS BIPES. See ANGUIS, N° 1.

5. LACERTA BULLARIS, the green lizard of Jamaica, is about fix inches long, of a fhining grafs green colour. It is common in Jamaica, frequenting hedges and trees. When approached, these animals, by filling their throat with wind, fwell it into a globular form with a fcarlet colour; Aaaa

which,

which, when contracted, the scarlet difappears, and the part returns to the colour of the reft of the body. The figure reprefents the animal with its throat thus inflated. This fwelling action feems to proceed from menacing, or deterring one from coming near them, though they are very inoffen five.

6. LACERTA CAROLINENSIS, the green lizard of Carolina, is fo denominated from its colour. This fpecies is very flender; the tail is near double the length of the body, and the whole length about 5 inches. It inhabits Carolina; where it is domeftic, familiar, and harmless. It sports on tables and windows, and amufes with its agility in catching flies. Cold affects the colour; in that uncertain climate, when there is a quick transition in the fame day from hot to cold,it changes inftantly from the most brilliant green to a dull brown. They are a prey to cats and ravenous birds. They appear chiefly in fummer; and at the approach of cold weather they retire to their winter receffes, and lie torpid in the hollow crevices of rotten trees. A few warm fun-fhiny days often fo invigorate them, that they will come out of their holes and appear abroad; when on a fudden the weather changing to cold, fo enfeebles them, that they are unable to return to their retreats, and die of cold.

7. LACERTA CAUDIVERBERA has a depreffed pinnatified tail, and palmated feet. It is larger than the common green lizard, is found in Peru, and has got its name from its beating the ground with its tail.

8. LACERTA CAYMAN, or the Antilles crocodile, has been confounded with the ALLIGATOR and GANGETICA (N° 12.), but is evidently different from both; and has accordingly been properly diftinguished by the Abbé Bonaterre in the Encyclopedie Methodique. See the figures in Plate CXCVI. The greateft ftrength of this animal, according to M. Merian, confifts in its teeth, of which there are two rows croffing one another, by means of which it grinds with the greateft cafe whatever it feizes upon. But it must not be understood from this that there is a double row of teeth, as Seba pretends, on each fide of the under jaw; but on ly that there are two rows on each jaw, one on the right and the other on the left fide-The Cayman is fo called from fome small ifles of that name among the Antilles, where thefe creatures are faid to be very numerous. They are of exceed-, ing ftrength, and equally the dread both of men and animals; for they live on land as well as in the water, and devour every creature they meet with. On Pl. CXCVI is reprefented an egg with the young one at the time of breaking the shell.

9. LACERTA CHALCIDES. See N° 21. Fo. LACERTA CHAMELEON, the chamaleon, has a crooked cylindrical tail. The head of a large chamæleon is almoft two inches long, and from thence to the beginning of the tail it is 44. The tail is 5 inches long, and the feet 24. The thick nefs of the body is different at different feafons; for fometimes, from the back to the belly it is two inches, and fometimes but one; for he can blow up and contract himfelf at pleasure. This fwelling and contraction is not only of the back and belly, but alfo the legs and tail. Thefe different

motions do not, like thofe of other animals, proceed from a dilatation of the breaft in breathing, which rifes and falls fucceffively; but they are ve ry irregular, as in tortoifes and frogs. The cha mæleon will continue blown up for two hours together, and then grow lefs and lefs infenfibly; for the dilatation is always more quick and visible than the contraction. In this last state he appears extremely lean; the fpine of the back is fharp, and all his ribs might be told; the tendons of the arms and legs might also be seen diftinctly. The kin is very cold to the touch; and notwithstanding he feems fo lean, there is no feeling the beating of the heart. The furface of the skin is unequal, and has a grain not unlike fhagreen, but very soft, be caufe each eminence is as fmooth as if it was polifhed. Some of thefe are as large as a middling pin's head on the arms, legs, belly, and tail; but on the thoulders and head they are of an oval figure, and a little larger. Thofe under the throat are ran ged in the form of a chaplet, from the lower lip to the breaft. Some of the head and back are amaf fed together in clufters, with spaces between them, on which are almost imperceptible spots of a pale red and yellow colour, as well as the ground of the fkin itself, which plainly appears between thefe clufters. This ground changes colour when the animal is dead, becoming of a greyish brown, and the fmall fpots are whitifh. (See CHAMELEON, N° 2.) The head is like that of a fish, being joined to the breaft by a very short neck, covered on each fide with cartilaginous membranes refembling gills. There is a creft directly on the top of the head, and two others on each fide above the eyes, and between these there are two cavities near the top of the head. The muzzle is blunt, like that of a frog: at the end there is a hole on each fide for the noftrils; but there are no ears, nor any fign of any. The jaw are furnifhed with teeth, or rather with a bone in the form of teeth, which he makes little or no ufe of, because he lives by fwallowing flies and other infects without chewing them; and hence arofe the vulgar notion of his living upon air, because he was never feen to eat. The tongue, which Linnæus fays refembles an earthworm, is of confiderable length, and is enlarged and fomewhat flattened at the end. From this member there continually oozes out a very glutinous li quor, by means of which it catches fuch infects as come within its reach, and it is furprising to fee with what quicknefs it retracts its tongue the inftant it has arrefted any prey. The form, ftructure, and motion of the eyes, have fomething ve ry particular; for they are very large, being almoft half an inch in diameter. They are of a globous figure; which may be easily feen, becaufe they ftand out of the head. They have a fingle eye-lid like a cap, with a fmall hole in the middle, through which the fight of the eye appears, no bigger than a pin's head, and a fhining brown, encircled by a little ring of a gold color. This e lid has a gram like fhagreen, as well as the other parts of the fkin; and when the reft of the body changes colour and affumesfpots of different shape, thofe on the lid always keep the fame form, though they are tinctured with the fame colour as the fit. But the most extraordinary thing relating to the

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