APPLETON'S NEW PRACTICAL CYCLOPEDIA VOLUME IV Lap'ithæ, in Greek mythology, a race of Thessalians, the descendants of Lapithes, a son of Apollo, whose king was Pirithous, son of Ixion. They overcame the Centaurs in a bloody war, but were in turn humbled by Hercules, as related in Hesiod and Ovid. They were probably an early warlike race of the Pelasgian stock. Laplace (lä-pläss'), Pierre Simon (Marquis de), 1749-1827; French mathematician and astronomer; b. Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy. His parents were poor, and he was indebted to the interest of wealthy friends for admission to the College of Caen and the Military School of Beaumont. Brought to the notice of d'Alembert, who procured him the mathematical mastership of the Military School at Paris, that city became his residence at the age of eighteen. Two papers on the "Theory of Probabilities," printed at the Academy during the ensuing five or six years, are mentioned by the Academy as chosen for publication among many, with the eulogy, "This society has never known so young a person to furnish in so short a time so many important memoirs on subjects so diverse and so difficult." He was elected an associate, and, 1785, a member. His political career during the revolution and under Napoleon has been much commented on, but neither space nor adequate data allow its discussion here. Laplace is styled by Professor Forbes "a sort of exemplar or type of the highest class of mathematical natural philosophers of this, or rather the immediately preceding, age"; by Airy," the greatest mathematician of the past age"; by Nichol, the titanic geometer "; to which Newcomb adds that "the present age has produced no recognized rival." His more important investigations are his improvements of the lunar heory; his discovery of the cause of the great nequality of Jupiter and Saturn's motions; his heory of the tides; his work on probabilities. His longest and most systematic work, the Mécanique Céleste," is a compendium of the roblems of physical astronomy treated by ethods mainly original with himself. His Exposition du système du monde" is a ésumé of all modern astronomy. Lap'land, land inhabited by the Lapps, the xtreme N. portion of the Scandinavian peninula and the European continent, bordering on he Arctic Ocean, the White Sea, and the Gulf f Bothnia, and comprised in Sweden, Norway, | Finland, and Russia; total area, est. at 153,000 sq. m., the greater part belonging to Russia; pop. abt. 102,000. The coasts are indented with numerous bays, and faced with small islands. Near the Gulf of Bothnia the surface is a plain covered chiefly with spruce and fir forests. The ground then rises, gradually terminating in rocky peaks, in some places 6,000 ft. rivers are the Tornea, Kemi, Kalix, Lulea, high. There are many lakes. The principal Pitea, Umea, Tana, and Alten. The climate is mildest on the seacoast. The mean annual temperature at Cape North is about 30° F. In winter the sun is for many weeks below the horizon, and in midsummer there are weeks of continuous day. Of the total population of Lapland, about one third are Lapps, who form a subdivision of the Finnic race. The fishermen are known as sea Lapps" and the reindeer herdsmen as mountain Lapps." They are very small in stature, with black, straight hair and yellow skin. They dress in furs with trousers and shoes of reindeer skin. The dwell ings of the mountain Lapps are small tents. The sea Lapps have wooden huts. They live almost The women are skillful in making garments, and the men cut exclusively on animal food. utensils out of wood. They hunt chiefly with bow and arrow, but some have guns. Polygamy. is not prohibited, but is rare, as wives have to clothing, and means of transportation, constibe bought. The reindeer, which affords food, tutes the entire wealth of the mountain Lapps. The Lapps belong to the Lutheran Church in Norway and Sweden, and to the Greek in Russia. The Lappish language is related to Finnish, but has of late incorporated many Swed ish words. La Plata (lä plä'tä), capital of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina; on the Rio de la Plata; 24 m. below Buenos Aires, with which it is connected by railway. The Plata here forms a bay, somewhat sheltered on the side of the sea. The village of Ensenada existed previous to 1882, Tolosa being a little inland. By law of 1882, 631 sq. m. of land, including these two places, was set apart for a provincial capital with the name of La Plata. The first stone of the new city was laid, November 19, 1882, and since then its growth has been phenomenal. A dock has been constructed, communicating with the deep channel of the Plata by a canal nearly 5 m. long, admitting vessels LA PLATA RIVER of 21 ft. draught, and with ample wharves and landing facilities. These advantages have transformed La Plata into the commercial port of Buenos Aires. Pop. (1907) 80,000. La Plata Riv'er. See PLATA, RIO DE LA. La Plata, Unit'ed Prov'inces of, official name until 1830 of the Argentine Republic. During a portion of this time it included Uruguay; later the strife of the federalist and centralists brought about the separation of Buenos Aires and the confederation's dissolution. La Porte du Theil (lä pört du tal'), François Jean Gabriel, 1742-1815; French scholar; b. Paris; received a military education, and served in the later campaigns of the Seven Years' War, but devoted all his leisure hours to the study of the Greek language and literature, and published, 1774, a translation of Eschylus's "Orestes," and, 1775, of the "Hymns" of Callimachus. In 1776-86 he resided in Rome, and having received admittance to the Vatican Library, which at that time was generally closed to foreigners, he took back to Paris nearly 18,000 documents illustrative of European history of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Three volumes of these documents, containing among other things the letters of Pope Innocent III, were published, 1791; but the further publication was interrupted by the revolution, and the materials were placed in the National Library. Lappenberg (läp'én-běrkh), Johann Martin, 1794-1865; German historian; b. Hamburg; studied in Edinburgh, London, Berlin, and Göttingen; became a lawyer, and was for many years in the diplomatic and civil service of Hamburg. Many of his historical works relate to the early history of the Hanse towns, especially Hamburg, and of N. Germany. His most remarkable work is the "History of England under Anglo-Saxon Kings." Lap'wing, or Pee'wit, large species of plover (Vanellus cristatus,) having a well-developed LAPWING. hind toe and an erect, slightly recurved, pointed crest on the head. The crown, fore throat, LARCENY upper breast, and half the tail are glossy black; the mantle deep green with a purplish gloss; the sides of the neck, under part of body, and lower half of tail are white; some of the tail coverts are rusty yellow. The lapwing is common in Europe and N. Asia, and is about as large as a pigeon. Lara (lä'rä), state of Venezuela; formed, 1881, from a portion of Falcon; lying between Falcon, Carabobo, Zamora, Los Andes, and Zulia, with about 20 m. of coast on the Caribbean Sea, where it possesses the port of Tucacas; area, 9,296 sq. m.; pop. (1907) 277,806. Capital, Barquisimito, united to Tucacas by rail. Lara is noted for its copper mines, the only ones worked in Venezuela. Laramie (lăr'ă-me), capital of Albany Co., Wyo., on the Big Laramie River; 57 m. NW. of Cheyenne; is in the midst of the Laramie plains, 7,122 ft. above sea level, and has mountains rich in ores on the E. and W., and a vast plateau of agricultural and stock-raising land on the N. and S. The city is the seat of the State University, the State Agricultural College, the State Fish Hatchery, the State Penitentiary, and of the Protestant Episcopal bishopric of Wyoming and Idaho. Besides extensive railway-machine shops, there are rolling mills, tie-preserving plant, soda-reduction works, several stone quarries, glass and soap works, and flour mills. Pop. (1900) 8,207. Laramie, river in State of Wyoming; formed by the Big and the Little Laramie, which rise in the Medicine Bow Mountains, and flow NE., skirting on the E. the plains of the same name. It enters the N. Fork of the Platte at Fort Laramie, and is much used for floating lumber from the mountains. Laramie Group, American geological formation of transition character passing below into marine Cretaceous and above into fresh-water Tertiary terranes. It occurs along the E. border of the Rocky Mountains from central Mexico, N. through the U. S. and far into Canada, a distance of 2,000 m.; this belt was originally 500 m. broad, but has been broken into detached areas by erosion. Valuable beds of coal occur in this group, especially in New Mexico, Colorado, and Montana; the coal fields on Puget Sound have been referred provisionally to the same period. Laramie Moun'tains, range rising at the Red Buttes, near the Sweetwater River, Wyo., and extending in a curve S. to the Arkansas River, near Long's Peak in Colorado, forming a wall which closes in the Laramie Plains to the NE. and E. This range is connected with the Big Horn Mountains and Black Hills by low anticlinals extending across the prairie, the most complete and beautiful to be found in the Rocky Mountain region. The numerous branches of the Platte rise in this range, of which the principal summit is Laramie Peak. Coal has been found in considerable quantities. Lar'ceny, the taking and removing by trespass of personal property, knowing that it belongs to another, and for the purpose of LARCENY depriving him of such property. It was a felony at common law, and, if the value of the property stolen exceeded twelve pence (twentyfour cents), the punishment was death. This excessive penalty accounts in part for the abundant technicalities and subtle distinctions in the law of larceny, for it induced in the judges a greater anxiety to save human life than to be logical. Only personal goods are subjects of larceny. Injuries to real estate may constitute a trespass, but not theft. Even where trees, or growing crops, or precious metals, or fixtures, had been wrongfully severed and carried away, the offense was a trespass, and not theft, unless the severance and the removal were distinct transactions. Accordingly, where a person severed an article from the land and concealed it for several hours until it was convenient for him to carry it off, it was held that he had not committed larceny ; for he had not abandoned the article, nor had his possession of it passed to anyone else, and his removal of the article was but a continuance of the transaction that began with the severance. LARCENY mediately a felonious taking and removal becomes possible. A person may steal goods of which he is the general owner. For example, a sheriff levies an execution on the debtor's horse; the debtor thereafter sells and delivers the horse to a third person, and charges the sheriff with having disposed of the animal: the debtor is guilty of larceny. The trespass need not be felonious when committed. If one takes another's coat, honestly supposing it to be his own, and later, on discovering his mistake, wrongfully converts it to his own use, the inadvertent trespass will suffice to make the transaction larceny. Common law carefully distinguished larceny from false pretenses. If a person asks another to give him small bills for a large one, and upon receiving them withdraws his bill and makes off with all the money, he is guilty of larceny. Had he obtained the bills on a check which he knew to be forged, his offense would have been false pretenses, but not theft. Wherever the owner intended the property to pass to the swindler, though he would not so have intended had he known the real facts, there is no larceny, because the taking is not by trespass. When two or more persons conspire to induce another to put his money into the hands of one of the confederates, on a wager between him and the other, and the stakeholder makes off with the money, he is guilty of larceny, as well where the bet is lost to the owner by a trick of the confederates as where he wins it. A person may commit trespass in taking and removing the personal property of another, and yet not commit larceny. He may honestly believe the property is his own, or that he has a right to take it, as in satisfaction of a debt. If he is mistaken, he is liable to a civil action for the trespass, but not to a criminal prosecution for stealing. The taking of another's goods under a bona fide, though legally groundless, claim of right is not larcenous. One who wrongfully takes the horse of another to use for a time and to return him, converts, but does not steal him; but if one wrongfully takes railway tickets to use, though he intends to return them to the company through the conductor, he is guilty of larceny. He does not return the property that he took. Only those chattels can be stolen in which another than the taker has a property. Hence there can be no larceny of things which are not the subjects of private ownership, or those which have been abandoned. Theft cannot be committed of wild animals while living, but theft could be committed of dead wild animals if they were fit for food. In the U. S. some courts have held that any wild animal of pecuniary value to its captors is the subject of larceny. An example of abandoned property is afforded by the case where the owner of a wornout horse turned it over to a servant, who was to kill and bury it. The servant sold it to a tanner for fifteen shillings, and the court held there was no larceny. The thief must take the property into his physical possession and -ontrol, but the length of time during which e retains it is immaterial. He must remove t, but not to any prescribed distance. Nor has e a thief's control of a coat which he seizes nd carries the length of a chain that fastens t to the owner's premises; but if he lifts a urse from its place in the owner's pocket, Ithough instantly dispossessed of it, the takng and removal are complete. It is not necssary that the thief should grasp the prop-ing the owner cannot be discovered, takes it ty. Enticement, or trick, or the agency of n innocent third party, may take the place forcible prehension; but it is not larceny to oot and kill another's animal, where the rongdoer leaves it undisturbed after its fall. A servant is not guilty of larceny who rongfully converts his master's property to 3 own use before the master has become ssessed of it; but he is if the taking d removal occur while the property is the master's actual or constructive posssion. If the servant is sent by the masto buy and bring an article to the latter, d makes away with it before his return, is not guilty of larceny, for the master had t acquired possession of the article; but if ving the master's carriage for the trip, he ts the article into that, it thereupon is in e master's constructive possession, and im The finder of property, who, honestly believ with the intention to convert it to his own use, is not a thief; but he is if when taking it with such intention he had reason to believe the owner could be found. In the latter case his purpose is to deprive the owner of his property; in the former he has no such intention. This felonious intention must exist at the time of taking, unless such taking was by trespass. Hence where the finder knows the owner of lost property, and takes it, intending to restore it to him, such finder does not commit larceny by willfully converting it to his own use later. At common law the theft of property of a value exceeding twelve pence was grand larceny, while if the property was of twelve pence or less the crime was petit larceny. The former was punishable with death, the latter by fine and imprisonment. Modern statutes have LARCH in many jurisdictions abolished this classification; in others they have changed the limit of value separating the classes, and in all they have taken this crime out of the category of capital offenses. The common law also distinguished simple larceny from compound larceny, the latter consisting in stealing property which at the time of taking was under the protection of a person or a building. The former differs from robbery in that no force or fear is applied to the possessor prior to the taking. The latter differs from burglary in that it does not involve a breaking of a building. Both in Great Britain and the U. S. the rules governing larceny have been greatly modified by statutes, and simpler and more reasonable doctrines have been declared. Larch, coniferous tree with deciduous leaves belonging to the genus Larix. The L. europaa, called Scotch larch in the U. S., is not a native of Great Britain, though extensively grown there. Its wood is valuable for many purposes. AMERICAN LARCH. In Russia, Orenburg gum, a wholly soluble and edible product, is obtained from the charred trunks of this tree, as is Briançon manna in France. The Himalaya larch is L. griffithsii. For the American larch, see HACKMATACK. 66 Lar'com, Lucy, 1826-93; American author; b. Beverly, Mass.; edited Our Young Folks, of Boston, 1866-74; published Ships in the Mist," ," "Wild Roses of Cape Ann," and "A New England Girlhood," an autobiography. Lard, hog's fat extracted from the containing tissues by melting at a temperature slightly above the boiling point of water, extensively used for culinary purposes and for the manufacture of candles, illuminating oils, pomades, unguents, and soaps. The ordinary lard of commerce is obtained from the entire fat of LARISSA the animal; the best quality, known as leaf lard, is that derived from the fat which surrounds the kidneys. It is often adulterated to the extent of twenty-five per cent or more by the addition of cottonseed oil, alum, lime, mutton suet, starch, potato flour, or other farinaceous substance, while water may be employed for the same purpose up to twelve per cent. The composition of lard is sixty-two parts oleine to thirty-eight of stearine and palmitine, the former, called lard oil, being used for lubricating machinery and for illumination, while the latter is chiefly employed for the manufacture of hard candles. The manufacture of lard is an important part of the business of pork packing, and is largely carried on at the great slaughtering centers. The amount produced is nearly 250,000,000 lbs. per annum, as shown by a comparison of the statistics of several years. Lard is the chief material employed in pharmacy, in combination with vegetable balsams and oils, for the preparation of unguents and cerates, for which purpose, however, only the best quality can be advantageously used. Lard oil is exported from the U. S. in immense quantities, chiefly to France, where it is largely used for the adulteration of olive oil. The melting point of pure lard varies from 78° to 87° F. Lard'ner, Dionysius, 1793-1859; British writer on physical science; b. Dublin; was Prof. of Astronomy and Physics in the Univ. of London; afterwards resided in the U. S., and then in Paris; chief work, the "Cabinet Cyclopedia," 134 volumes, 1830-44; also produced an "Algebraic Geometry," a work on "Calculus," on the "Steam Engine," a series of "Handbooks" on science, the "Museum of Science and Art," and other works. Lardner, Nathaniel, 1684-1768; English divine; b. Hawkhurst, Kent; belonged to the Presbyterian denomination, but entertained Unitarian opinions. He wrote many valuable theological works, the most important of which is his "Credibility of the Gospel History." Lares (la'rēz), class of inferior divinities or protecting spirits in ancient Rome, domestic and public. Only the spirits of the good were honored as lares. The household lares were headed by the lar familiaris, who was revered as the founder of the family. The public lares were considered as the protecting spirits of the city, and had a temple in the Via Sacra. In great houses the images of the household lares had their separate apartment, called ædicula or lararium. Their worship was simple. Laredo (lä-ra'do), capital of Webb Co., Tex., on the Rio Grande River, opposite Nuevo Laredo, Mex., with which it is connected by two steel bridges; 153 m. W. of San Antonio. It is in the Rio Grande coal region, and has an import and export trade with Mexico. It was settled by Spaniards as a frontier town of Mexico, and on the annexation of Texas to the across the river and founded Nuevo Laredo. U. S. many of the Mexican inhabitants moved Pop. (1900) 13,429. Laris'sa, name of eight cities of Grecian times. The chief ones were: (1) The cap |