Chapter 9

For habits of lemmings, see R. Collett,Myodes lemmus, its habits and migrations in Norway(Christiania Videnskabs-Selskabs Forhandlinger, 1895).

(W. H. F.; R. L.*)

LEMNISCATE(from Gr.λημνίσκος, ribbon), a quartic curve invented by Jacques Bernoulli (Acta Eruditorum, 1694) and afterwards investigated by Giulio Carlo Fagnano, who gave its principal properties and applied it to effect the division of a quadrant into 2.2m, 3.2mand 5.2mequal parts. Following Archimedes, Fagnano desired the curve to be engraved on his tombstone. The complete analytical treatment was first given by Leonhard Euler. The lemniscate of Bernoulli may be defined as the locus of a point which moves so that the product of its distances from two fixed points is constant and is equal to the square of half the distance between these points. It is therefore a particular form of Cassini’s oval (seeOval). Its cartesian equation, when the line joining the two fixed points is the axis of x and the middle point of this line is the origin, is (x2+ y2)2= 2a2(x2− y2) and the polar equation is r2= 2a2cos 2θ. The curve (fig. 1) consists of two loops symmetrically placed about the coordinate axes. The pedal equation is r3= a2p, which shows that it is the first positive pedal of a rectangular hyperbola with regard to the centre. It is also the inverse of the same curve for the same point. It is the envelope of circles described on the central radii of an ellipse as diameters. The area of the complete curve is 2a2, and the length of any arc may be expressed in the form ∫ (1 − x4)−1/2dx, an elliptic integral sometimes termed thelemniscatic integral.

The name lemniscate is sometimes given to any crunodal quartic curve having only one real finite branch which is symmetric about the axis. Such curves are given by the equation x2− y2= ax4+ bx2y2+ cy4. If a be greater than b the curve resembles fig. 2 and is sometimes termed thefishtail-lemniscate; if a be less than b, the curve resembles fig. 3. The same name is also given to the first positive pedal of any central conic. When the conic is a rectangular hyperbola, the curve is the lemniscate of Bernoulli previously described. Theelliptic lemniscatehas for its equation (x2+ y2)2= a2x2+ b2y2or r2= a2cos2θ + b2sin2θ (a > b). The centre is a conjugate point (or acnode) and the curve resembles fig. 4. Thehyperbolic lemniscatehas for its equation (x2+ y2)2= a2x2− b2y2or r2= a2cos2θ − b2sin2θ. In this case the centre is a crunode and the curve resembles fig. 5. These curves are instances of unicursal bicircular quartics.

LEMNOS(mod.Limnos), an island in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. The Italian form of the name, Stalimene,i.e.ἐς τὴν Λῆμνον, is not used in the island itself, but is commonly employed in geographical works. The island, which belongs to Turkey, is of considerable size: Pliny says that the coast-line measured 112½ Roman miles, and the area has been estimated at 150 sq. m. Great part is mountainous, but some very fertile valleys exist, to cultivate which 2000 yoke of oxen are employed. The hill-sides afford pasture for 20,000 sheep. No forests exist on the island; all wood is brought from the coast of Rumelia or from Thasos. A few mulberry and fruit trees grow, but no olives. The population is estimated by some as high as 27,000, of whom 2000 are Turks and the rest Greeks, but other authorities doubt whether it reaches more than half this number. The chief towns are Kastro on the western coast, with a population of 4000 Greeks and 800 Turks, and Mudros on the southern coast. Kastro possesses an excellent harbour, and is the seat of all the trade carried on with the island. Greek, English and Dutch consuls or consular agents were formerly stationed there; but the whole trade is now in Greek hands. The archbishops of Lemnos and Ai Strati, a small neighbouring island with 2000 inhabitants, resides in Kastro. In ancient times the island was sacred to Hephaestus, who as the legend tells fell on Lemnos when his father Zeus hurled him headlong out of Olympus. This tale, as well as the name Aethaleia, sometimes applied to it, points to its volcanic character. It is said that fire occasionally blazed forth from Mosychlos, one of its mountains; and Pausanias (viii. 33) relates that a small island called Chryse, off the Lemnian coast, was swallowed up by the sea. All volcanic action is now extinct.

The most famous product of Lemnos is the medicinal earth, which is still used by the natives. At one time it was popular over western Europe under the nameterra sigillata. This name, like the Gr.Λημνία σφραγίς, is derived from the stamp impressed on each piece of the earth; in ancient times the stamp was the head of Artemis. The Turks now believe that a vase of this earth destroys the effect of any poison drunk from it—a belief which the ancients attached rather to the earth from Cape Kolias in Attica. Galen went to see the digging up of this earth (see Kuhn,Medic. Gr. Opera, xii. 172 sq.); on one day in each year a priestess performed the due ceremonies, and a waggon-load of earth was dug out. At the present time the day selected is the 6th of August, the feast of Christ the Saviour. Both the Turkishhodjaand the Greek priest are present to perform the necessary ceremonies; the whole process takes place before daybreak. The earth is sold by apothecaries in stamped cubical blocks. The hill from which the earth is dug is a dry mound, void of vegetation, beside the village of Kotschinos, and about two hours from the site of Hephaestia. The earth was considered in ancient times a cure for old festering wounds, and for the bite of poisonous snakes.

The name Lemnos is said by Hecataeus (ap.Steph. Byz.) to have been a title of Cybele among the Thracians, and the earliest inhabitants are said to have been a Thracian tribe, called by the Greeks Sinties,i.e.“the robbers.” According to a famous legend the women were all deserted by their husbands, and in revenge murdered every man on the island. From this barbarous act, the expression Lemnian deeds,Λήμνια ἔργα, became proverbial. The Argonauts landing soon after found only women in the island, ruled over by Hypsipyle, daughter of the old king Thoas. From the Argonauts and the Lemnian women were descended the race called Minyae, whose king Euneus, son of Jason and Hypsipyle, sent wine and provisions to the Greeks at Troy. The Minyae were expelled by a Pelasgian tribe who came from Attica. The historical element underlying these traditions is probably that the original Thracian people were gradually brought into communication with the Greeks as navigation began to unite the scattered islands of the Aegean (seeJason); the Thracian inhabitants were barbarians in comparison with the Greek mariners. The worship of Cybele was characteristic of Thrace, whither it spread from Asia Minor at a very early period, and it deserves notice that Hypsipyle and Myrina (the name of one of the chief towns) are Amazon names, which are always connected with Asiatic Cybele-worship. Coming down to a better authenticated period, we find that Lemnos was conquered by Otanes, one of the generals of DariusHystaspis; but was soon reconquered by Miltiades, the tyrant of the Thracian Chersonese. Miltiades afterwards returned to Athens, and Lemnos continued an Athenian possession till the Macedonian empire absorbed it. On the vicissitudes of its history in the 3rd centuryB.C.see Köhler inMittheil. Inst. Athen.i. 261. The Romans declared it free in 197B.C., but gave it over in 166 to Athens, which retained nominal possession of it till the whole of Greece was made a Roman province. A colony of Attic cleruchs was established by Pericles, and many inscriptions on the island relate to Athenians. After the division of the empire, Lemnos passed under the Byzantine emperors; it shared in the vicissitudes of the eastern provinces, being alternately in the power of Greeks, Italians and Turks, till finally the Turkish sultans became supreme in the Aegean. In 1476 the Venetians successfully defended Kotschinos against a Turkish siege; but in 1657 Kastro was captured by the Turks from the Venetians after a siege of sixty-three days. Kastro was again besieged by the Russians in 1770.

Homer speaks as if there were one town in the island called Lemnos, but in historical times there was no such place. There were two towns, Myrina, now Kastro, and Hephaestia. The latter was the chief town; its coins are found in considerable number, the types being sometimes the Athenian goddess and her owl, sometimes native religious symbols, the caps of the Dioscuri, Apollo, &c. Few coins of Myrina are known. They belong to the period of Attic occupation, and bear Athenian types. A few coins are also known which bear the name, not of either city, but of the whole island. Conze was the first to discover the site of Hephaestia, at a deserted place named Palaeokastro on the east coast. It had once a splendid harbour, which is now filled up. Its situation on the east explains why Miltiades attacked it first when he came from the Chersonese. It surrendered at once, whereas Myrina, with its very strong citadel built on a perpendicular rock, sustained a siege. It is said that the shadow of Mount Athos fell at sunset on a bronze cow in the agora of Myrina. Pliny says that Athos was 87 m. to the north-west; but the real distance is about 40 English miles. One legend localized in Lemnos still requires notice. Philoctetes was left there by the Greeks on their way to Troy; and there he suffered ten years’ agony from his wounded foot, until Ulysses and Neoptolemus induced him to accompany them to Troy. He is said by Sophocles to have lived beside Mount Hermaeus, which Aeschylus (Agam.262) makes one of the beacon points to flash the news of Troy’s downfall home to Argos.

See Rhode,Res Lemnicae; Conze,Reise auf den Inseln des Thrakischen Meeres(from which the above-mentioned facts about the present state of the island are taken); also Hunt in Walpole’sTravels; Belon du Mans,Observations de plusieurs singularitez, &c.; Finlay,Greece under the Romans; von Hammer,Gesch. des Osman. Reiches; Gött. Gel. Anz.(1837). The chief references in ancicnt writers areIliadi. 593, v. 138, xiv. 229, &c.; Herod. iv. 145; Str. pp. 124, 330; Plin. iv. 23, xxxvi. 13.

LEMOINNE, JOHN ÉMILE(1815-1892), French journalist, was born of French parents, in London, on the 17th of October 1815. He was educated first at an English school and then in France. In 1840 he began writing for theJournal des débats, on English and other foreign questions, and under the empire he held up to admiration the free institutions of England by contrast with imperial methods. After 1871 he supported Thiers, but his sympathies rather tended towards a liberalized monarchy, until the comte de Chambord’s policy made such a development an impossibility, and he then ranged himself with the moderate Republicans. In 1875 Lemoinne was elected to the French Academy, and in 1880 he was nominated a life senator. Distinguished though he was for a real knowledge of England among the French journalists who wrote on foreign affairs, his tone towards English policy greatly changed in later days, and though he never shared the extreme French bitterness against England as regards Egypt, he maintained a critical attitude which served to stimulate French Anglophobia. He was a frequent contributor to theRevue des deux mondes, and published several books, the best known of which is hisÉtudes critiques et biographiques(1862). He died in Paris on the 14th of December 1892.

LEMON, MARK(1809-1870), editor ofPunch, was born in London on the 30th of November 1809. He had a natural talent for journalism and the stage, and, at twenty-six, retired from less congenial business to devote himself to the writing of plays. More than sixty of his melodramas, operettas and comedies were produced in London. At the same time he contributed to a variety of magazines and newspapers, and founded and edited theField. In 1841 Lemon and Henry Mayhew conceived the idea of a humorous weekly paper to be calledPunch, and when the first number was issued, in July 1841, were joint-editors and, with the printer and engraver, equal owners. The paper was for some time unsuccessful, Lemon keeping it alive out of the profits of his plays. On the sale ofPunchLemon became sole editor for the new proprietors, and it remained under his control until his death, achieving remarkable popularity and influence. Lemon was an actor of ability, a pleasing lecturer and a successful impersonator of Shakespearian characters. He also wrote a host of novelettes and lyrics, over a hundred songs, a few three-volume novels, several Christmas fairy tales and a volume of jests. He died at Crawley, Sussex, on the 23rd of May 1870.

LEMON,the fruit ofCitrus Limonum, which is regarded by some botanists as a variety ofCitrus medica. The wild stock of the lemon tree is said to be a native of the valleys of Kumaon and Sikkim in the North-West provinces of India, ascending to a height of 4000 ft., and occurring under several forms. Sir George Watt (Dictionary of Economic Products of India, ii. 352) regards the wild plants as wild forms of the lime or citron and considers it highly probable that the wild form of the lemon has not yet been discovered.

1, Flowering shoot.

2, Flower with two petals and two bundles of stamens removed; slightly enlarged.

3, Fruit.

4, Same cut across.

5, Seed.

6, Same cut lengthwise.

The lemon seems to have been unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and to have been introduced by the Arabs into Spain between the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1494 the fruit was cultivated in the Azores, and largely shipped to England, but since 1838 the exportation has ceased. As a cultivated plant the lemon is now met with throughout the Mediterranean region, in Spain and Portugal, in California and Florida, and in almost all tropical and subtropical countries. Like the apple and pear, it varies exceedingly under cultivation. Risso and Poiteau enumerate forty-seven varieties of this fruit, although they maintain as distinct the sweet lime,C. Limetta, with eight varieties, and the sweet lemon,C. Lumia, with twelve varieties, which differ only in the fruit possessing an insipid instead of an acid juice.

The lemon is more delicate than the orange, although, according to Humboldt, both require an annual mean temperature of 62° Fahr.Unlike the orange, which presents a fine close head of deep green foliage, it forms a straggling bush, or small tree, 10 to 12 ft. high, with paler, more scattered leaves, and short angular branches with sharp spines in the axils. The flowers, which possess a sweet odour quite distinct from that of the orange, are in part hermaphrodite and in part unisexual, the outside of the corolla having a purplish hue. The fruit, which is usually crowned with a nipple, consists of an outer rind or peel, the surface of which is more or less rough from the convex oil receptacles imbedded in it, and of a white inner rind, which is spongy and nearly tasteless, the whole of the interior of the fruit being filled with soft parenchymatous tissue, divided into about ten to twelve compartments, each generally containing two or three seeds. The white inner rind varies much in thickness in different kinds, but is never so thick as in the citron. As lemons are much more profitable to grow than oranges, on account of their keeping properties, and from their being less liable to injury during voyages, the cultivation of the lemon is preferred in Italy wherever it will succeed. In damp valleys it is liable like the orange (q.v.) to be attacked by a fungus sooty mould, the stem, leaves, and fruit becoming covered with a blackish dust. This is coincident with or subsequent to the attacks of a small oval brown insect,Chermes hesperidum. Trees not properly exposed to sunlight and air suffer most severely from these pests. Syringing with resin-wash or milk of lime when the young insects are hatched, and before they have fixed themselves to the plant, is a preventive. Since 1875 this fungoid disease has made great ravages in Sicily among the lemon and citron trees, especially around Catania and Messina. Heritte attributes the prevalence of the disease to the fact that the growers have induced an unnatural degree of fertility in the trees, permitting them to bear enormous crops year after year. This loss of vitality is in some measure met by grafting healthy scions of the lemon on the bitter orange, but trees so grafted do not bear fruit until they are eight or ten years old.

The lemon tree is exceedingly fruitful, a large one in Spain or Sicily ripening as many as three thousand fruits in favourable seasons. In the south of Europe lemons are collected more or less during every month of the year, but in Sicily the chief harvest takes place from the end of October to the end of December, those gathered during the last two months of the year being considered the best for keeping purposes. The fruit is gathered while still green. After collection the finest specimens are picked out and packed in cases, each containing about four hundred and twenty fruits, and also in boxes, three of which are equal to two cases, each lemon being separately packed in paper. The remainder, consisting of ill-shaped or unsound fruits, are reserved for the manufacture of essential oil and juice. The whole of the sound lemons are usually packed in boxes, but those which are not exported immediately are carefully picked over and the unsound ones removed before shipment. The exportation is continued as required until April and May. The large lemons with a rougher rind, which appear in the London market in July and August, are grown at Sorrento near Naples, and are allowed to remain on the trees until ripe.

Candied lemon peel is usually made in England from a larger variety of the lemon cultivated in Sicily on higher ground than the common kind, from which it is distinguished by its thicker rind and larger size. This kind, known as the Spadaforese lemon, is also allowed to remain on the trees until ripe, and when gathered the fruit is cut in half longitudinally and pickled in brine, before being exported in casks. Before candying the lemons are soaked in fresh water to remove the salt. Citrons are also exported from Sicily in the same way, but these are about six times as expensive as lemons, and a comparatively small quantity is shipped. Besides those exported from Messina and Palermo, lemons are also imported into England to a less extent from the Riviera of Genoa, and from Malaga in Spain, the latter being the most esteemed. Of the numerous varieties the wax lemon, the imperial lemon and the Gaeta lemon are considered to be the best. Lemons are also extensively grown in California and Florida.

Lemons of ordinary size contain about 2 oz. of juice, of specific gravity 1.039-1.046, yielding on an average 32.5 to 42.53 grains of citric acid per oz. The amount of this acid, according to Stoddart, varies in different seasons, decreasing in lemons kept from February to July, at first slowly and afterwards rapidly, until at the end of that period it is all split up into glucose and carbonic acid—the specific gravity of the juice being in February 1.046, in May 1.041 and in July 1.027, while the fruit is hardly altered in appearance. It has been stated that lemons may be kept for some months with scarcely perceptible deterioration by varnishing them with an alcoholic solution of shellac—the coating thus formed being easily removed when the fruit is required for household use by gently kneading it in the hands. Besides citric acid, lemon juice contains 3 to 4% of gum and sugar, albuminoid matters, malic acid and 2.28% of inorganic salts. Cossa has determined that the ash of dried lemon juice contains 54% of potash, besides 15% of phosphoric acid. In the white portion of the peel (in common with other fruits of the genus) a bitter principle calledhesperidinhas been found. It is very slightly soluble in boiling water, but is soluble in dilute alcohol and in alkaline solutions, which it soon turns of a yellow or reddish colour. It is also darkened by tincture of perchloride of iron. Another substance namedlemonin, crystallizing in lustrous plates, was discovered in 1879 by Palerno and Aglialoro in the seeds, in which it is present in very small quantity, 15,000 grains of seed yielding only 80 grains of it. It differs from hesperidin in dissolving in potash without alteration. It melts at 275° F.The simplest method of preserving lemon juice in small quantities for medicinal or domestic use is to keep it covered with a layer of olive or almond oil in a closed vessel furnished with a glass tap, by which the clear liquid may be drawn off as required. Lemon juice is largely used on shipboard as a preventive of scurvy. By the Merchant Shipping Act 1867 every British ship going to other countries where lemon or lime juice cannot be obtained was required to take sufficient to give 1 oz. to every member of the crew daily. Of this juice it requires about 13,000 lemons to yield l pipe (108 gallons). Sicilian juice in November yields about 9 oz. of crude citric acid per gallon, but only 6 oz. if the fruit is collected in April. The crude juice was formerly exported to England, and was often adulterated with sea-water, but is now almost entirely replaced by lime juice. A concentrated lemon juice for the manufacture of citric acid is prepared in considerable quantities, chiefly at Messina and Palermo, by boiling down the crude juice in copper vessels over an open fire until its specific gravity is about 1.239, seven to ten pipes of raw making only one of concentrated lemon juice. “Lemon juice” for use on shipboard is prepared also from the fruits of limes and Bergamot oranges. It is said to be sometimes adulterated with sulphuric acid on arrival in England.The lemon used in medicine is described in the British pharmacopoeia as being the fruit ofCitrus medica, var. Limonum. The preparations of lemon peel are of small importance. From the fresh peel is obtained theoleum limonis(dose ½-3 minims), which has the characters of its class. It contains a terpene known as citrene or limonene, which also occurs in orange peel: and citral, the aldehyde of geraniol, which is the chief constituent of oil of roses. Of much importance is thesuccus limonisor lemon juice, 1 oz. of which contains about 40 grains of free citric acid, besides the citrate of potassium (.25%) and malic acid, free and combined. Ten per cent. of alcohol must be added to lemon juice if it is to be kept. From it are prepared thesyrupus limonis(dose ½-2 drachms), which consists of sugar, lemon juice and an alcoholic extract of lemon peel, and also citric acid itself. Lemon juice is practically impure citric acid (q.v.).Essence or Essential Oil of Lemon.—The essential oil contained in the rind of the lemon occurs in commerce as a distinct article. It is manufactured chiefly in Sicily, at Reggio in Calabria, and at Mentone and Nice in France. The small and irregularly shaped fruits are employed while still green, in which state the yield of oil is greater than when they are quite ripe. In Sicily and Calabria the oil is extracted in November and December as follows. A workman cuts three longitudinal slices off each lemon, leaving a three-cornered central core having a small portion of rind at the apex and base. These pieces are then divided transversely and cast on one side, and the strips of peel are thrown in another place. Next day the pieces of peel are deprived of their oil by pressing four or five times successively the outer surface of the peel (zest or flavedo) bent into a convex shape, against a flat sponge held in the palm of the left hand and wrapped round the forefinger. The oil vesicles in the rind, which are ruptured more easily in the fresh fruit than in the state in which lemons are imported, yield up their oil to the sponge, which when saturated is squeezed into an earthen vessel furnished with a spout and capable of holding about three pints. After a time the oil separates from the watery liquid which accompanies it, and is then decanted. By this process four hundred fruits yield 9 to 14 oz. of essence. The prisms of pulp are afterwards expressed to obtain lemon juice, and then distilled to obtain the small quantity of volatile oil they contain. At Mentone and Nice a different process is adopted. The lemons are placed in anécuelle à piquer, a shallow basin of pewter about 8½ in. in diameter, having i a lip for pouring on one side and a closed tube at the bottom about 5 in. long and 1 in. in diameter. A number of stout brass pins stand up about half an inch from the bottom of the vessel. The workman rubs a lemon over these pins, which rupture the oil vesicles, and the oil collects in the tube, which when it becomes full is emptied into another vessel that it may separate from the aqueous liquid mixed with it. When filtered it is known asEssence de citron au zeste, or, in the English market, as perfumers’ essence of lemon, inferior qualities being distinguished as druggists’ essence of lemon. An additional product is obtained by immersing the scarified lemons in warm water and separating the oil which floats off.Essence de citron distilléeis obtained by rubbing the surface of fresh lemons(or of those which have been submitted to the action of theécuelle à piquer) on a coarse grater of tinned iron, and distilling the grated peel. The oil so obtained is colourless, and of inferior fragrance, and is sold at a lower price, while that obtained by the cold processes has a yellow colour and powerful odour.Essence of lemon is chiefly brought from Messina and Palermo packed in copper bottles holding 25 to 50 kilogrammes or more, and sometimes in tinned bottles of smaller size. It is said to be rarely found in a state of purity in commerce, almost all that comes into the market being diluted with the cheaper distilled oil. This fact may be considered as proved by the price at which the essence of lemon is sold in England, this being less than it costs the manufacturer to make it. When long kept the essence deposits a white greasy stearoptene, apparently identical with the bergaptene obtained from the essential oil of the Bergamot orange. The chief constituent of oil of lemon is the terpene, C10H16, boiling at 348°.8 Fahr., which, like oil of turpentine, readily yields crystals of terpin, C10H163OH2, but differs in yielding the crystalline compound, C10H16+ 2Cl, oil of turpentine forming one having the formula C10H16+ HCl. Oil of lemons also contains, according to Tilden, another hydrocarbon, C10H16, boiling at 3.20° Fahr., a small amount ofcymene, and a compound acetic ether, C2H3O·C10H17O. The natural essence of lemon not being wholly soluble in rectified spirit of wine, an essence for culinary purposes is sometimes prepared by digesting 6 oz of lemon peel in one pint of pure alcohol of 95%, and, when the rind has become brittle, which takes place in about two and a half hours, powdering it and percolating the alcohol through it. This article is known as “lemon flavour.”

The simplest method of preserving lemon juice in small quantities for medicinal or domestic use is to keep it covered with a layer of olive or almond oil in a closed vessel furnished with a glass tap, by which the clear liquid may be drawn off as required. Lemon juice is largely used on shipboard as a preventive of scurvy. By the Merchant Shipping Act 1867 every British ship going to other countries where lemon or lime juice cannot be obtained was required to take sufficient to give 1 oz. to every member of the crew daily. Of this juice it requires about 13,000 lemons to yield l pipe (108 gallons). Sicilian juice in November yields about 9 oz. of crude citric acid per gallon, but only 6 oz. if the fruit is collected in April. The crude juice was formerly exported to England, and was often adulterated with sea-water, but is now almost entirely replaced by lime juice. A concentrated lemon juice for the manufacture of citric acid is prepared in considerable quantities, chiefly at Messina and Palermo, by boiling down the crude juice in copper vessels over an open fire until its specific gravity is about 1.239, seven to ten pipes of raw making only one of concentrated lemon juice. “Lemon juice” for use on shipboard is prepared also from the fruits of limes and Bergamot oranges. It is said to be sometimes adulterated with sulphuric acid on arrival in England.

The lemon used in medicine is described in the British pharmacopoeia as being the fruit ofCitrus medica, var. Limonum. The preparations of lemon peel are of small importance. From the fresh peel is obtained theoleum limonis(dose ½-3 minims), which has the characters of its class. It contains a terpene known as citrene or limonene, which also occurs in orange peel: and citral, the aldehyde of geraniol, which is the chief constituent of oil of roses. Of much importance is thesuccus limonisor lemon juice, 1 oz. of which contains about 40 grains of free citric acid, besides the citrate of potassium (.25%) and malic acid, free and combined. Ten per cent. of alcohol must be added to lemon juice if it is to be kept. From it are prepared thesyrupus limonis(dose ½-2 drachms), which consists of sugar, lemon juice and an alcoholic extract of lemon peel, and also citric acid itself. Lemon juice is practically impure citric acid (q.v.).

Essence or Essential Oil of Lemon.—The essential oil contained in the rind of the lemon occurs in commerce as a distinct article. It is manufactured chiefly in Sicily, at Reggio in Calabria, and at Mentone and Nice in France. The small and irregularly shaped fruits are employed while still green, in which state the yield of oil is greater than when they are quite ripe. In Sicily and Calabria the oil is extracted in November and December as follows. A workman cuts three longitudinal slices off each lemon, leaving a three-cornered central core having a small portion of rind at the apex and base. These pieces are then divided transversely and cast on one side, and the strips of peel are thrown in another place. Next day the pieces of peel are deprived of their oil by pressing four or five times successively the outer surface of the peel (zest or flavedo) bent into a convex shape, against a flat sponge held in the palm of the left hand and wrapped round the forefinger. The oil vesicles in the rind, which are ruptured more easily in the fresh fruit than in the state in which lemons are imported, yield up their oil to the sponge, which when saturated is squeezed into an earthen vessel furnished with a spout and capable of holding about three pints. After a time the oil separates from the watery liquid which accompanies it, and is then decanted. By this process four hundred fruits yield 9 to 14 oz. of essence. The prisms of pulp are afterwards expressed to obtain lemon juice, and then distilled to obtain the small quantity of volatile oil they contain. At Mentone and Nice a different process is adopted. The lemons are placed in anécuelle à piquer, a shallow basin of pewter about 8½ in. in diameter, having i a lip for pouring on one side and a closed tube at the bottom about 5 in. long and 1 in. in diameter. A number of stout brass pins stand up about half an inch from the bottom of the vessel. The workman rubs a lemon over these pins, which rupture the oil vesicles, and the oil collects in the tube, which when it becomes full is emptied into another vessel that it may separate from the aqueous liquid mixed with it. When filtered it is known asEssence de citron au zeste, or, in the English market, as perfumers’ essence of lemon, inferior qualities being distinguished as druggists’ essence of lemon. An additional product is obtained by immersing the scarified lemons in warm water and separating the oil which floats off.Essence de citron distilléeis obtained by rubbing the surface of fresh lemons(or of those which have been submitted to the action of theécuelle à piquer) on a coarse grater of tinned iron, and distilling the grated peel. The oil so obtained is colourless, and of inferior fragrance, and is sold at a lower price, while that obtained by the cold processes has a yellow colour and powerful odour.

Essence of lemon is chiefly brought from Messina and Palermo packed in copper bottles holding 25 to 50 kilogrammes or more, and sometimes in tinned bottles of smaller size. It is said to be rarely found in a state of purity in commerce, almost all that comes into the market being diluted with the cheaper distilled oil. This fact may be considered as proved by the price at which the essence of lemon is sold in England, this being less than it costs the manufacturer to make it. When long kept the essence deposits a white greasy stearoptene, apparently identical with the bergaptene obtained from the essential oil of the Bergamot orange. The chief constituent of oil of lemon is the terpene, C10H16, boiling at 348°.8 Fahr., which, like oil of turpentine, readily yields crystals of terpin, C10H163OH2, but differs in yielding the crystalline compound, C10H16+ 2Cl, oil of turpentine forming one having the formula C10H16+ HCl. Oil of lemons also contains, according to Tilden, another hydrocarbon, C10H16, boiling at 3.20° Fahr., a small amount ofcymene, and a compound acetic ether, C2H3O·C10H17O. The natural essence of lemon not being wholly soluble in rectified spirit of wine, an essence for culinary purposes is sometimes prepared by digesting 6 oz of lemon peel in one pint of pure alcohol of 95%, and, when the rind has become brittle, which takes place in about two and a half hours, powdering it and percolating the alcohol through it. This article is known as “lemon flavour.”

The name lemon is also applied to some other fruits. The Java lemon is the fruit ofCitrus javanica, the pear lemon of a variety ofC. Limetta, and the pearl lemon ofC. margarita. The fruit of a passion-flower,Passiflora laurifolia, is sometimes known as the water-lemon, and that of a Berberidaceous plant,Podophyllum peltatum, as the wild lemon. In France and Germany the lemon is known as the citron, and hence much confusion arises concerning the fruits referred to in different works. The essential oil known as oil of cedrat is usually a factitious article instead of being prepared, as its name implies, from the citron (Fr.cédratier). An essential oil is also prepared fromC. Lumia, at Squillace in Calabria, and has an odour like that of Bergamot but less powerful.

1, Flowering shoot.

2, Fruit.

3, Same cut transversely.

4, Seed.

5, Seed cut lengthwise.

6, Seed cut transversely.

7, Superficial view of portion of rind showing oil glands.

The sour lime isCitrus acida, generally regarded as a var. (acida) ofC. medica. It is a native of India, ascending to about 4000 ft. in the mountains, and occurring as a small, much-branched thorny bush. The small flowers are white or tinged with pink on the outside; the fruit is small and generally round, with a thin, light green or lemon-yellow bitter rind, and a very sour, somewhat bitter juicy pulp. It is extensively cultivated throughout the West Indies, especially in Dominica, Montserrat and Jamaica, the approximate annual value of the exports from these islands being respectively £45,000, £6000 and £6000. The plants are grown from seed in nurseries and planted out about 200 to the acre. They begin to bear from about the third year, but full crops are not produced until the trees are six or seven years old. The ripe yellow fruit is gathered as it falls. The fruit is bruised by hand in a funnel-shaped vessel known as anécuelle, with a hollow stem; by rolling the fruit on a number of points on the side of the funnel the oil cells in the rind are broken and the oil collects in the hollow stem—this is the essential oil or essence of limes. The fruits are then taken to the mill, sorted, washed and passed through rollers and exposed to two squeezings. Two-thirds of the juice is expressed by the first squeezing, is strained at once, done up in puncheons and exported as raw juice. The product of the second squeezing, together with the juice extracted by a subsequent squeezing in a press, is strained and evaporated down to make concentrated juice; ten gallons of the raw juice yield one gallon of the concentrated juice. The raw juice is used for preparations of lime juice cordial, the concentrated for manufactures of citric acid.

On some estates citrate of lime is now manufactured in place of concentrated acid. Distilled oil of limes is prepared by distilling the juice, but its value is low in comparison with the expressed oil obtained by hand as described above. Green limes and pickled limes preserved in brine are largely exported to the United States, and more recently green limes have been exported to the United Kingdom. Limalade or preserved limes is an excellent substitute for marmalade. A spineless form of the lime appeared as a sport in Dominica in 1892, and is now grown there and elsewhere on a commercial scale. A form with seedless fruits has also recently been obtained in Dominica and Trinidad independently. The young leaves of the lime are used for perfuming the water in finger-glasses, a few being placed in the water and bruised before use.

LEMONNIER, ANTOINE LOUIS CAMILLE(1844- ), Belgian poet, was born at Ixelles, Brussels, on the 24th of March 1844. He studied law, and then took a clerkship in a government office, which he resigned after three years. Lemonnier inherited Flemish blood from both parents, and with it the animal force and pictorial energy of the Flemish temperament. He published aSalon de Bruxellesin 1863, and again in 1866. His early friendships were chiefly with artists; and he wrote art criticisms with recognized discernment. Taking a house in the hills near Namur, he devoted himself to sport, and developed the intimate sympathy with nature which informs his best work.Nos Flamands(1869) andCroquis d’automne(1870) date from this time.Paris-Berlin(1870), a pamphlet pleading the cause of France, and full of the author’s horror of war, had a great success. His capacity as a novelist, in the fresh, humorous description of peasant life, was revealed inUn Coin de village(1879). InUn Mâle(1881) he achieved a different kind of success. It deals with the amours of a poacher and a farmer’s daughter, with the forest as a background. Cachaprès, the poacher, seems the very embodiment of the wild life around him. The rejection ofUn Mâleby the judges for the quinquennial prize of literature in 1883 made Lemonnier the centre of a school, inaugurated at a banquet given in his honour on the 27th of May 1883.Le Mort(1882), which describes the remorse of two peasants for a murder they have committed, is a masterpiece in its vivid representation of terror. It was remodelled as a tragedy in five acts (Paris, 1899) by its author.Ceux de la glèbe(1889), dedicated to the “children of the soil,” was written in 1885. He turned aside from local subjects for some time to produce a series of psychological novels, books of art criticism, &c., of considerable value, but assimilating more closely to French contemporary literature. The most striking of his later novels are:L’Hystérique(1885);Happe-chair(1886), often compared with Zola’sGerminal;Le Possédé(1890);La Fin des bourgeois(1892);L’Arche, journal d’une maman(1894), a quiet book, quite different from his usual work;La Faute de Mme Charvet(1895);L’Homme en amour(1897); and, with a return to Flemish subjects,Le Vent dans les moulins(1901);Petit Homme de Dieu(1902), andComme va le ruisseau(1903). In 1888 Lemonnier was prosecuted in Paris for offending against public morals by a story inGil Blas, and was condemned to a fine. In a later prosecution at Brussels he was defended by Edmond Picard, and acquitted; and he was arraigned for a third time, at Bruges, for hisHomme en amour, but againacquitted. He represents his own case inLes Deux consciences(1902),L’Île vierge(1897) was the first of a trilogy to be calledLa Légende de la vie, which was to trace, under the fortunes of the hero, the pilgrimage of man through sorrow and sacrifice to the conception of the divinity within him. InAdam et Ève(1899), andAu Cœur frais de la forêt(1900), he preached the return to nature as the salvation not only of the individual but of the community. Among his other more important works areG. Courbet, et ses œuvres(1878);L’Histoire des Beaux-Arts en Belgique1830-1887 (1887);En Allemagne(1888), dealing especially with the Pinakothek at Munich;La Belgique(1888), an elaborate descriptive work with many illustrations;La Vie belge(1905); andAlfred Stevens et son œuvre(1906).

Lemonnier spent much time in Paris, and was one of the early contributors to theMercure de France. He began to write at a time when Belgian letters lacked style; and with much toil, and some initial extravagances, he created a medium for the expression of his ideas. He explained something of the process in a preface contributed to Gustave Abel’sLabeur de la prose(1902). His prose is magnificent and sonorous, but abounds in neologisms and strange metaphors.

See theRevue de Belgique(15th February 1903), which contains the syllabus of a series of lectures on Lemonnier by Edmond Picard, a bibliography of his works, and appreciations by various writers.

LEMONNIER, PIERRE CHARLES(1715-1799), French astronomer, was born on the 23rd of November 1715 in Paris, where his father was professor of philosophy at the collège d’Harcourt. His first recorded observation was made before he was sixteen, and the presentation of an elaborate lunar map procured for him admission to the Academy, on the 21st of April 1736, at the early age of twenty. He was chosen in the same year to accompany P. L. Maupertuis and Alexis Clairault on their geodetical expedition to Lapland. In 1738, shortly after his return, he explained, in a memoir read before the Academy, the advantages of J. Flamsteed’s mode of determining right ascensions. His persistent recommendation, in fact, of English methods and instruments contributed effectively to the reform of French practical astronomy, and constituted the most eminent of his services to science. He corresponded with J. Bradley, was the first to represent the effects of nutation in the solar tables, and introduced, in 1741, the use of the transit-instrument at the Paris observatory. He visited England in 1748, and, in company with the earl of Morton and James Short the optician, continued his journey to Scotland, where he observed the annular eclipse of July 25. The liberality of Louis XV., in whose favour he stood high, furnished him with the means of procuring the best instruments, many of them by English makers. Amongst the fruits of his industry may be mentioned a laborious investigation of the disturbances of Jupiter by Saturn, the results of which were employed and confirmed by L. Euler in his prize essay of 1748; a series of lunar observations extending over fifty years; some interesting researches in terrestrial magnetism and atmospheric electricity, in the latter of which he detected a regular diurnal period; and the determination of the places of a great number of stars, including twelve separate observations of Uranus, between 1765 and its discovery as a planet. In his lectures at the collège de France he first publicly expounded the analytical theory of gravitation, and his timely patronage secured the services of J. J. Lalande for astronomy. His temper was irritable, and his hasty utterances exposed him to retorts which he did not readily forgive. Against Lalande, owing to some trifling pique, he closed his doors “during an entire revolution of the moon’s nodes.” His career was arrested by paralysis late in 1791, and a repetition of the stroke terminated his life. He died at Héril near Bayeux on the 31st of May 1799. By his marriage with Mademoiselle de Cussy he left three daughters, one of whom became the wife of J. L. Lagrange. He was admitted in 1739 to the Royal Society, and was one of the one hundred and forty-four original members of the Institute.

He wroteHistoire céleste(1741);Théorie des comètes(1743), a translation, with additions of Hailey’sSynopsis;Institutions astronomiques(1746), an improved translation of J. Keill’s text-book;Nouveau zodiaque(1755);Observations de la lune, du soleil, et des étoiles fixes(1751-1775);Lois du magnétisme(1776-1778), &c.See J. J. Lalande,Bibl. astr., p. 819 (also in theJournal des savantsfor 1801); F. X. von Zach,Allgemeine geog. Ephemerideniii. 625; J. S. Bailly,Hist. de l’astr. moderne, iii.; J. B. J. Delambre.Hist. de l’astr. au XVIIIesiècle, p. 179; J. Mädler,Geschichte der Himmelskunde, ii. 6; R. Wolf,Geschichte der Astronomie, p. 480.

See J. J. Lalande,Bibl. astr., p. 819 (also in theJournal des savantsfor 1801); F. X. von Zach,Allgemeine geog. Ephemerideniii. 625; J. S. Bailly,Hist. de l’astr. moderne, iii.; J. B. J. Delambre.Hist. de l’astr. au XVIIIesiècle, p. 179; J. Mädler,Geschichte der Himmelskunde, ii. 6; R. Wolf,Geschichte der Astronomie, p. 480.

LEMOYNE, JEAN BAPTISTE(1704-1778), French sculptor, was the pupil of his father, Jean Louis Lemoyne, and of Robert le Lorrain. He was a great figure in his day, around whose modest and kindly personality there waged opposing storms of denunciation and applause. Although his disregard of the classic tradition and of the essentials of dignified sculpture, as well as his lack of firmness and of intellectual grasp of the larger principles of his art, lay him open to stringent criticism, de Clarac’s charge that he had delivered a mortal blow at sculpture is altogether exaggerated. Lemoyne’s more important works have for the most part been destroyed or have disappeared. The equestrian statue of “Louis XV.” for the military school, and the composition of “Mignard’s daughter, Mme Feuquières, kneeling before her father’s bust” (which bust was from the hand of Coysevox) were subjected to the violence by which Bouchardon’s equestrian monument of Louis XIV. (q.v.) was destroyed. The panels only have been preserved. In his busts evidence of his riotous and florid imagination to a great extent disappears, and we have a remarkable series of important portraits, of which those of women are perhaps the best. Among Lemoyne’s leading achievements in this class are “Fontenelle” (at Versailles), “Voltaire,” “Latour” (all of 1748), “Duc de la Valière” (Versailles), “Comte de St Florentin,” and “Crébillon” (Dijon Museum); “Mlle Chiron” and “Mlle Dangeville,” both produced in 1761 and both at the Théâtre Français in Paris, and “Mme de Pompadour,” the work of the same year. Of the Pompadour he also executed a statue in the costume of a nymph, very delicate and playful in its air of grace. Lemoyne was perhaps most successful in his training of pupils, one of the leaders of whom was Falconnet.

LEMPRIÈRE, JOHN(c.1765-1824), English classical scholar, was born in Jersey, and educated at Winchester and Pembroke College, Oxford. He is chiefly known for hisBibliotheca ClassicaorClassical Dictionary(1788), which, edited by various later scholars, long remained a readable if not very trustworthy reference book in mythology and classical history. In 1792, after holding other scholastic posts, he was appointed to the head-mastership of Abingdon grammar school, and later became the vicar of that parish. While occupying this living, he published aUniversal Biography of Eminent Persons in all Ages and Countries(1808). In 1809 he succeeded to the head-mastership of Exeter free grammar school. On retiring from this, in consequence of a disagreement with the trustees, he was given the living of Meeth in Devonshire, which, together with that of Newton Petrock, he held till his death in London on the 1st of February 1824.

LEMUR(from Lat.lemures, “ghosts”), the name applied by Linnaeus to certain peculiar Malagasy representatives of the orderPrimates(q.v.) which do not come under the designation of either monkeys or apes, and, with allied animals from the same island and tropical Asia and Africa, constitute the suborderProsimiae, orLemuroidea, the characteristics of which are given in the article just mentioned. The typical lemurs include species likeLemur mongozandL. catta, but the English name “lemur” is often taken to include all the members of the suborder, although the aberrant forms are often conveniently termed “lemuroids.” All the Malagasy lemurs, which agree in the structure of the internal ear, are now included in the familyLemuridae, confined to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands, which comprises the great majority of the group. The other families are theNycticebidae, common to tropical Asia and Africa, and theTarsiidae, restricted to the Malay countries. In the more typicalLemuridaethere are two pairs of upper incisor teeth, separated by a gap in the middle line; the premolars may be either two or three, but the molars, as in the lower jaw, are always three on each side. In the lower jaw the incisors and canines are directed straight forwards, and are of small sizeand nearly similar form; the function of the canine being discharged by the first premolar, which is larger than the other teeth of the same series. With the exception of the second toe of the hind-foot, the digits have well-formed, flattened nails as in the majority of monkeys. In the members of the typical genusLemur, as well as in the alliedHapalemurandLepidolemur, none of the toes or fingers are connected by webs, and all have the hind-limbs of moderate length, and the tail long. The maximum number of teeth is 36, there being typically two pairs of incisors and three of premolars in each jaw. In habits some of the species are nocturnal and others diurnal; but all subsist on a mixed diet, which includes birds, reptiles, eggs, insects and fruits. Most are arboreal, but the ring-tailed lemur (L. catta) often dwells among rocks. The species of the genusLemurare diurnal, and may be recognized by the length of the muzzle, and the large tufted ears. In some cases, as in the black lemur (L. macaco) the two sexes are differently coloured; but in others, especially the ruffed lemur (L. varius), there is much individual variation in this respect, scarcely any two being alike. The gentle lemurs (Hapalemur) have a rounder head, with smaller ears and a shorter muzzle, and also a bare patch covered with spines on the fore-arm. The sportive lemurs (Lepidolemur) are smaller than the typical species ofLemur, and the adults generally lose their upper incisors. The head is short and conical, the ears large, round and mostly bare, and the tail shorter than the body. Like the gentle lemurs they are nocturnal. (SeeAvahi,Aye-Aye,Galago,Indri,Loris,Potto,SifakaandTarsier.)

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