(H. Ch.)
LLOYD’S,an association of merchants, shipowners, underwriters, and ship and insurance brokers, having its headquarters in a suite of rooms in the north-east corner of the Royal Exchange, London. Originally a mere gathering of merchants for business or gossip in a coffee-house kept by one Edward Lloyd in Tower Street, London, the earliest notice of which occurs in theLondon Gazetteof the 18th of February 1688, this institution has gradually become one of the greatest organizations in the world in connexion with commerce. The establishment existed in Tower Street up to 1692, in which year it was removed by the proprietor to Lombard Street, in the centre of that portion of the city most frequented by merchants of the highest class. Shortly after this event Mr Lloyd established a weekly newspaper furnishing commercial and shipping news, in those days an undertaking of no small difficulty. This paper took the name ofLloyd’s News, and, though its life was not long, it was the precursor of the now ubiquitousLloyd’s List, the oldest existing paper, theLondon Gazetteexcepted. In Lombard Street the business transacted at Lloyd’s coffee-house steadily grew, but it does not appear that throughout the greater part of the 18th century the merchants and underwriters frequenting the rooms were bound together by any rules, or acted under any organization. By and by, however, the increase of marine insurance business made a change of system and improved accommodation necessary, and after finding a temporary resting-place in Pope’s Head Alley, the underwriters and brokers settled in the Royal Exchange in March 1774. One of the first improvements in the mode of effecting marine insurance was the introduction of a printed form of policy. Hitherto various forms had been in use; and, to avoid numerous disputes the committee of Lloyd’s proposed a general form, which was adopted by the members on the 12th of January 1779, and remains in use, with a few slight alterations, to this day. The two most important events in the history of Lloyd’s during the 19th century were the reorganization of the association in 1811, and the passing of an act in 1871 granting to Lloyd’s all the rights and privileges of a corporation sanctioned by parliament. According to this act of incorporation, the three main objects for which the society exists are—first, the carrying out of the business of marine insurance; secondly, the protection of the interests of the members of the association; and thirdly, the collection, publication and diffusion of intelligence and information with respect to shipping. In the promotion of the last-named object an intelligence department has been developed which for wideness of range and efficient working has no parallel among private enterprises. By Lloyd’s Signal Station Act 1888, powers were conferred on Lloyd’s to establish signal stations with telegraphic communications, and by the Derelict Vessels (Report) Act 1896, masters of British ships are required to give notice to Lloyd’s agents of derelict vessels, which information is published by Lloyd’s.
The rooms at Lloyd’s are available only to subscribers and members. The former pay an annual subscription of five guineas without entrance fee, but have no voice in the management of the institution. The latter consist of non-underwriting members, who pay an entrance fee of twelve guineas, and of underwriting members who pay a fee of £100. Underwriting members are also required to deposit securities to the value of £5000 to £10,000, according to circumstances, as a guarantee for theirengagements. The management of the establishment is delegated by the members to certain of their number selected as a “committee for managing the affairs of Lloyd’s.” With this body lies the appointment of all the officials and agents of the institution, the daily routine of duty being entrusted to a secretary and a large staff of clerks and other assistants. The mode employed in effecting an insurance at Lloyd’s is simple. The business is done entirely by brokers, who write upon a slip of paper the name of the ship and shipmaster, the nature of the voyage, the subject to be insured, and the amount at which it is valued. If the risk is accepted, each underwriter subscribes his name and the amount he agrees to take or underwrite, the insurance being effected as soon as the total value is made up.
See F. Martin,History of Lloyd’s and of Marine Insurance in Great Britain(1876).
See F. Martin,History of Lloyd’s and of Marine Insurance in Great Britain(1876).
LLWYD, EDWARD(1660-1709), British naturalist and antiquary, was born in Cardiganshire in 1660. He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, but did not graduate; he received the degree of M.A. however in 1701. In 1690, after serving for six years as assistant, he succeeded R. Plot as keeper of the Ashmolean museum, a position which he retained until 1709. In 1699 he publishedLithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia, in which he described and figured various fossils, personally collected or received from his friends, and these were arranged in cabinets in the museum. They were obtained from many parts of England, but mostly from the neighbourhood of Oxford. A second edition was prepared by Llwyd, but not published until 1760. He issued in 1707 the first volume ofArchaeologia Britannica(afterwards discontinued). He was elected F.R.S. in 1708. He died at Oxford on the 30th of June 1709.
LOACH.The fish known as loaches (Cobitinae) form a very distinct subfamily of theCyprinidae, and are even regarded by some authors as constituting a family. Characters: Barbels, three to six pairs; pharyngeal teeth in one row, in moderate number; anterior part of the air-bladder divided into a right and left chamber, separated by a constriction, and enclosed in a bony capsule, the posterior part free or absent. They are more or less elongate in form, often eel-shaped, and naked or covered with minute scales. Most of the species are small, the largest known measuring 12 (the EuropeanMisgurnus fossilis), 13 (the ChineseBotia variegata), or 14 in. (the Central AsianNemachilus siluroides). They mostly live in small streams and ponds, and many are mountain forms. They are almost entirely confined to Europe and Asia, but one species (Nemachilus abyssinicus) has recently been discovered in Abyssinia. About 120 species are known, mostly from Central and South-Eastern Asia. Only two species occur in Great Britain: the commonNemachilus barbatulusand the rarer and more localCobitis taenia. The latter extends across Europe and Asia to Japan. Many of these fishes delight in the mud at the bottom of ponds, in which they move like eels. In some cases the branchial respiration appears to be insufficient, and the intestinal tract acts as an accessory breathing organ. The air-bladder may be so reduced as to lose its hydrostatic function and become subservient to a sensory organ, its outer exposed surface being connected with the skin by a meatus between the bands of muscle, and conveying the thermo-barometrical impressions to the auditory nerves. Loaches are known in some parts of Germany as “Wetterfisch.”
LOAD; LODE.The O.E.lád, from which both these words are derived, meant “way,” “journey,” “conveyance,” and is cognate with Ger.Leite. The Teutonic root is also seen in the O. Teut.laidjan, Ger.leiten, from which comes “to lead.” The meanings of the word have been influenced by a supposed connexion with “lade,” O.E.hladan, a word common to many old branches of Teutonic languages in the sense of “to place,” but used in English principally of the placing of cargo in a ship, hence “bill of lading,” and of emptying liquor or fluid out of one vessel into another; it is from the word in this sense that is derived “ladle,” a large spoon or cup-like pan with a long handle. The two words, though etymologically one, have been differentiated in meaning, the influence of the connexion with “lade” being more marked in “load” than in “lode,” a vein of metal ore, in which the original meaning of “way” is clearly marked. A “load” was originally a “carriage,” and its Latin equivalent in thePromptorium Parvulorumisvectura. From that it passed to that which is laid on an animal or vehicle, and so, as an amount usually carried, the word was used of a specific quantity of anything, a unit of weight, varying with the locality and the commodity. A “load” of wheat = 40 bushels, of hay = 36 trusses. Other meanings of “load” are: in electricity, the power which an engine or dynamo has to furnish; and in engineering, the weight to be supported by a structure, the “permanent load” being the weight of the structure itself, the “external load” that of anything which may be placed upon it.
LOAF,properly the mass of bread made at one baking, hence the smaller portions into which the bread is divided for retailing. These are of uniform size (seeBaking) and are named according to shape (“tin loaf,” “cottage loaf,” &c.), weight (“quartern loaf,” &c.), or quality of flour (“brown loaf,” &c.). “Loaf,” O.E.hláf, is a word common to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger.Laib, orLeib, Dan.lev, Goth,hlaifs; similar words with the same meaning are found in Russian, Finnish and Lettish, but these may have been adapted from Teutonic. The ultimate origin is unknown, and it is uncertain whether “bread” (q.v.) or “loaf” is the earlier in usage. The O.E.hláfis seen in “Lammas” and in “lord,”i.e.hlafordforhlafweard, the loaf-keeper, or “bread-warder”; cf. the O.E. word for a household servanthláf-æta, loaf-eater. The Late Lat.companio, one who shares,panis, bread, Eng. “companion,” was probably an adaptation of the Goth,gahlaiba, O.H. Ger.gileipo, messmate, comrade. The word “loaf” is also used in sugar manufacture, and is applied to sugar shaped in a mass like a cone, a “sugar-loaf,” and to the small knobs into which refined sugar is cut, or “loaf-sugar.”
The etymology of the verb “to loaf,”i.e.to idle, lounge about, and the substantive “loafer,” an idler, a lazy vagabond, has been much discussed. R. H. Dana (Two Years before the Mast, 1840) called the word “a newly invented Yankee word.” J. R. Lowell (Biglow Papers, 2nd series, Introd.) explains it as German in origin, and connects it withlaufen, to run, and states that the dialectical formlofenis used in the sense of “saunter up and down.” This explanation has been generally accepted. TheNew English Dictionaryrejects it, however, and states thatlaufenis not used in this sense, but points out that the GermanLandläufer, the English obsolete word “landlouper,” or “landloper,” one who wanders about the country, a vagrant or vagabond, has a resemblance in meaning. J. S. Farmer and W. E. Henley’sDictionary of Slang and its Analoguesgives as French synonyms of “loafer,”chevalier de la loupeandloupeur.
The etymology of the verb “to loaf,”i.e.to idle, lounge about, and the substantive “loafer,” an idler, a lazy vagabond, has been much discussed. R. H. Dana (Two Years before the Mast, 1840) called the word “a newly invented Yankee word.” J. R. Lowell (Biglow Papers, 2nd series, Introd.) explains it as German in origin, and connects it withlaufen, to run, and states that the dialectical formlofenis used in the sense of “saunter up and down.” This explanation has been generally accepted. TheNew English Dictionaryrejects it, however, and states thatlaufenis not used in this sense, but points out that the GermanLandläufer, the English obsolete word “landlouper,” or “landloper,” one who wanders about the country, a vagrant or vagabond, has a resemblance in meaning. J. S. Farmer and W. E. Henley’sDictionary of Slang and its Analoguesgives as French synonyms of “loafer,”chevalier de la loupeandloupeur.
LOAM(O.E.lám; the word appears in Dut.leemand Ger.Lehm; the ultimate origin is the rootlai-, meaning “to be sticky,” which is seen in the cognate “lime,” Lat.limus, mud, clay), a fertile soil composed of a mixture of sand, clay, and decomposed vegetable matter, the quantity of sand being sufficient to prevent the clay massing together. The word is also used of a mixture of sand, clay and straw, used for making casting-moulds and bricks, and for plastering walls, &c. (seeSoil).
LOAN(adapted from the Scandinavian form of a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Swed.lån, Icel.lán, Dut.leen; the O.E.laénappears in “lend,” the ultimate source is seen in the root of Gr.λείπεινand Lat.linquere, to leave), that which is lent; a sum of money or something of value lent for a specific or indefinite period when it or its equivalent is to be repaid or returned, usually at a specified rate of interest (seeUsuryandMoney-Lending). For public loans seeFinance,National Debt, and the various sections on finance under the names of the various countries.
LOANDA(São Paulo de Loanda), a seaport of West Africa, capital of the Portuguese province of Angola, situated in 8° 48′ S., 13° 7′ E., on a bay between the rivers Bango and Kwanza. The bay, protected from the surf by a long narrow island of sand, is backed by a low sandy cliff which at its southern end sweeps out with a sharp curve and terminates in a bold point crowned by Fort San Miguel. The depth of water at the entrance to the bay is 20 fathoms or more. The bay has silted up considerably, butthere is a good anchorage about 1½ m. from the shore in 7 to 14 fathoms, besides cranage accommodation and a floating dock. Vessels discharge into lighters, and are rarely delayed on account of the weather. A part of the town lies on the foreshore, but the more important buildings—the government offices, the governor’s residence, the palace of the bishop of Angola, and the hospital—are situated on higher ground. Most of the European houses are large stone buildings of one storey with red tile roofs. Loanda possesses a meteorological observatory, public garden, tramways, gas-works, statues to Salvador Correia de Sá, who wrested Angola from the Dutch, and to Pedro Alexandrino, a former governor, and is the starting-point of the railway to Ambaca and Malanje.
Loanda was founded in 1576, and except between 1640 and 1648, when it was occupied by the Dutch, has always been in Portuguese possession. It was for over two centuries the chief centre of the slave trade between Portuguese West Africa and Brazil. During that time the traffic of the port was of no small account, and after a period of great depression consequent on the suppression of that trade, more legitimate commerce was developed. There is a regular service of steamers between the port and Lisbon, Liverpool and Hamburg. The town has some 15,000 inhabitants, including a larger European population than any other place on the west coast of Africa. It is connected by submarine cables with Europe and South Africa. Fully half the imports and export trade of Angola (q.v.) passes through Loanda.
LOANGO,a region on the west coast of Africa, extending from the mouth of the Congo river in 6° S. northwards through about two degrees. At one time included in the “kingdom of Congo” (seeAngola,History), Loango became independent about the close of the 16th century, and was still of considerable importance in the middle of the 18th century. Buali, the capital, was situated on the banks of a small river not far from the port of Loango, where were several European “factories.” The country afterwards became divided into a large number of petty states, while Portugal and France exercised an intermittent sovereignty over the coast. Here the slave trade was longer maintained than anywhere else on the West African seaboard; since its extirpation, palm oil and india-rubber have been the main objects of commerce. The Loango coast is now divided between French Congo and the Portuguese district of Kabinda (see those articles). The natives, mainly members of the Ba-Kongo group of Bantu negroes, and often called Ba-Fiot, are in general well-built, strongly dolichocephalous and very thick of skull, the skin of various shades of warm brown with the faintest suggestion of purple. Baldness is unknown, and many of the men wear beards. Physical deformity is extremely rare. In religious beliefs and in the use of fetishes they resemble the negroes of Upper Guinea.
LOBACHEVSKIY, NICOLAS IVANOVICH(1793-1856), Russian mathematician, was born at Makariev, Nizhniy-Novgorod, on the 2nd of November (N.S.) 1793. His father died about 1800, and his mother, who was left in poor circumstances, removed to Kazan with her three sons. In 1807 Nicolas, the second boy, entered as a student in the University of Kazan, then recently established. Five years later, having completed the curriculum, he began to take part in the teaching, becoming assistant professor in 1814 and extraordinary professor two years afterwards. In 1823 he succeeded to the ordinary professorship of mathematics, and retained the chair until about 1846, when he seems to have fallen into official disfavour. At that time his connexion with the university to which he had devoted his life practically came to an end, except that in 1855, at the celebration of his jubilee, he brought it as a last tribute hisPangéométrie, in which he summarized the results of his geometrical studies. This work was translated into German by H. Liebmann in 1902. He died at Kazan on the 24th of February (N.S.) 1856. Lobachevskiy was one of the first thinkers to apply a critical treatment to the fundamental axioms of geometry, and he thus became a pioneer of the modern geometries which deal with space other than as treated by Euclid. His first contribution to non-Euclidian geometry is believed to have been given in a lecture at Kazan in 1826, but the subject is treated in many of his subsequent memoirs, among which may be mentioned theGeometrische Untersuchungen zur Theorie der Parallellinien(Berlin, 1840, and a new edition in 1887), and thePangéométriealready referred to, which in the subtitle is described as a précis of geometry founded on a general and rigorous theory of parallels. (SeeGeometry, §Non-Euclidean, andGeometry, §Axioms of.) In addition to his geometrical studies, he made various contributions to other branches of mathematical science, among them being an elaborate treatise on algebra (Kazan, 1834). Besides being a geometer of power and originality, Lobachevskiy was an excellent man of business. Under his administration the University of Kazan prospered as it had never done before; and he not only organized the teaching staff to a high degree of efficiency, but arranged and enriched its library, furnished instruments for its observatory, collected specimens for its museums and provided it with proper buildings. In order to be able to supervise the erection of the last, he studied architecture, with such effect, it is said, that he was able to carry out the plans at a cost considerably below the original estimates.
See F. Engel,N. I. Lobatchewsky(Leipzig, 1899).
See F. Engel,N. I. Lobatchewsky(Leipzig, 1899).
LOBANOV-ROSTOVSKI, ALEXIS BORISOVICH,Prince(1824-1896), Russian statesman, was born on the 30th of December 1824, and educated, like Prince Gorchakov and so many other eminent Russians, at the lyceum of Tsarskoe Selo. At the age of twenty he entered the diplomatic service, and became minister at Constantinople in 1859. In 1863 a regrettable incident in his private life made him retire temporarily from the public service, but four years later he re-entered it and served for ten years asadlatusto the minister of the interior. At the close of the Russo-Turkish war in 1878 he was selected by the emperor to fill the post of ambassador at Constantinople, and for more than a year he carried out with great ability the policy of his government, which aimed at re-establishing tranquillity in the Eastern Question, after the disturbances produced by the reckless action of his predecessor, Count Ignatiev. In 1879 he was transferred to London, and in 1882 to Vienna; and in March 1895 he was appointed minister of foreign affairs in succession to M. de Giers. In this position he displayed much of the caution of his predecessor, but adopted a more energetic policy in European affairs generally and especially in the Balkan Peninsula. At the time of his appointment the attitude of the Russian government towards the Slav nationalities had been for several years one of extreme reserve, and he had seemed as ambassador to sympathize with this attitude. But as soon as he became minister of foreign affairs, Russian influence in the Balkan Peninsula suddenly revived. Servia received financial assistance; a large consignment of arms was sent openly from St Petersburg to the prince of Montenegro; Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria became ostensibly reconciled with the Russian emperor, and his son Boris was received into the Eastern Orthodox Church; the Russian embassy at Constantinople tried to bring about a reconciliation between the Bulgarian exarch and the oecumenical patriarch; Bulgarians and Servians professed, at the bidding of Russia, to lay aside their mutual hostility. All this seemed to foreshadow the creation of a Balkan confederation hostile to Turkey, and the sultan had reason to feel alarmed. In reality Prince Lobanov was merely trying to establish a strong Russian hegemony among these nationalities, and he had not the slightest intention of provoking a new crisis in the Eastern Question so long as the general European situation did not afford Russia a convenient opportunity for solving it in her own interest without serious intervention from other powers. Meanwhile he considered that the integrity and independence of the Ottoman empire must be maintained so far as these other powers were concerned. Accordingly, when Lord Salisbury proposed energetic action to protect the Armenians, the cabinet of St Petersburg suddenly assumed the rôle of protector of the sultan and vetoed the proposal. At the same time efforts were made to weaken the Triple Alliance, the principal instrument employed being theententewith France, which Prince Lobanov helped to convert into a formal alliance between the two powers. In the Far East he was not less active, and became the protector of China in the same sense as he had shown himself the protector of Turkey. Japan was compelled to give up her conquests on the Chinese mainland, so as not to interfere with the future action of Russia in Manchuria, and the financial and other schemes for increasing Russian influence in that part of the world were vigorously supported. All this activity, though combined with a haughty tone towards foreign governments and diplomatists, did not produce much general apprehension, probably because there was a widespread conviction that he desired to maintain peace, and that his great ability and strength of character would enable him to control the dangerous forces which he boldly set in motion. However this may be, before he had time to mature his schemes, and when he had been the director of Russian policy for only eighteen months, he died suddenly of heart disease when travelling with the emperor on the 30th of August 1896. Personally Prince Lobanov was agrand seigneurof the Russian type, proud of being descended from the independent princes of Rostov, and at the same time an amiable man of wide culture, deeply versed in Russian history and genealogy, and perhaps the first authority of his time in all that related to the reign of the emperor Paul.
(D. M. W.)
LÖBAU,a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the Löbau water, 12 m. S.E. of the town of Bautzen, on the Dresden-Görlitz railway. Pop. (1905) 10,683. There is a spa, König Albert-Bad, largely frequented during the summer season. The town has agricultural implement, pianoforte, sugar, machine-building and button works, and trade in grain, yarn, linen and stockings. Other industries are spinning, weaving, dyeing, bleaching and brewing.
Löbau is first mentioned as a town in 1221; it received civic rights early in the 14th century and, in 1346, became one of the six allied towns of Lusatia. It suffered severely during the Hussite war and was deprived of its rights in 1547.
See Bergmann,Geschichte der Oberlausitzer Sechsstadt Löbau(Bischofswerda, 1896); and Kretschmer,Die Stadl Löbau(Chemnitz, 1904).
See Bergmann,Geschichte der Oberlausitzer Sechsstadt Löbau(Bischofswerda, 1896); and Kretschmer,Die Stadl Löbau(Chemnitz, 1904).
LOBBY,a corridor or passage, also any apartment serving as an ante-room, waiting room or entrance hall in a building. The Med. Lat.lobia,laubiaorlobium, from which the word was directly adapted, was used in the sense of a cloister, gallery or covered place for walking attached to a house, as defined by Du Cange (Gloss. Med. et Inf. Lat., s.v.Lobia),porticus operta ad spatiandum idonea, aedibus adjuncta. The French form oflobiawasloge, cf. Ital.loggia, and this gave the Eng. “lodge,” which is thus a doublet of “lobby.” The ultimate derivation is given underLodge. Other familiar uses of the term “lobby” are its application (1) to the entrance hall of a parliament house, and (2) to the two corridors known as “division-lobbies,” into which the members of the House of Commons and other legislative bodies pass on a division, their votes being recorded according to which “lobby,” “aye” or “no,” they enter. The entrance lobby to a legislative building is open to the public, and thus is a convenient place for interviews between members and their constituents or with representatives of public bodies, associations and interests, and the press. The influence and pressure thus brought to bear upon members of legislative bodies has given rise to the use of “to lobby,” “lobbying,” “lobbyist,” &c., with this special significance. The practice, though not unknown in the British parliament, is most prevalent in the United States of America, where the use of the term first arose (see below).
LOBBYING,in America, a general term used to designate the efforts of persons who are not members of a legislative body to influence the course of legislation. In addition to the large number of American private bills which are constantly being introduced in Congress and the various state legislatures, there are many general measures, such as proposed changes in the tariff or in the railway or banking laws, which seriously affect special interests. The people who are most intimately concerned naturally have a right to appear before the legislature or its representative, the committee in charge of the bill, and present their side of the case. Lobbying in this sense is legitimate, and may almost be regarded as a necessity. Unfortunately, however, all lobbying is not of this innocent character. The great industrial corporations, insurance companies, and railway and traction monopolies which have developed in comparatively recent years are constantly in need of legislative favours; they are also compelled to protect themselves against legislation which is unreasonably severe, and against what are known in the slang of politics asstrikesorhold-ups.1In order that these objects may be accomplished there are kept at Washington and at the various state capitals paid agents whose influence is so well recognized that they are popularly called “the third house.” Methods of the most reprehensible kind have often been employed by them.
Attempts have been made to remedy the evil by constitutional prohibition, by statute law and by the action of the governor of the state supported by public opinion. Improper lobbying has been declared a felony in California, Georgia, Utah, Tennessee, Oregon, Montana and Arizona, and the constitutions of practically all of the states impose restrictions upon the enactment of special and private legislation. The Massachusetts anti-lobbying act of 1890, which has served as a model for the legislation of Maryland (1900), Wisconsin (1905) and a few of the other states, is based upon the publicity principle. Counsel and other legislative agents must register with the sergeant-at-arms giving the names and addresses of their employers and the date, term and character of their employment. In 1907 alone laws regulating lobbying were passed in nine states—Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas.
See James Bryce,American Commonwealth(New York, ed. 1889), i. 673-678; Paul S. Reinsch,American Legislatures and Legislative Methods(New York, 1907), chaps. viii., ix.; Margaret A. Schaffner, “Lobbying,” inWisconsin Comparative Legislation Bulletins, No. 2; and G. M. Gregory,The Corrupt Use of Money in Politics and Laws for its Prevention(Madison, Wis., 1893).
See James Bryce,American Commonwealth(New York, ed. 1889), i. 673-678; Paul S. Reinsch,American Legislatures and Legislative Methods(New York, 1907), chaps. viii., ix.; Margaret A. Schaffner, “Lobbying,” inWisconsin Comparative Legislation Bulletins, No. 2; and G. M. Gregory,The Corrupt Use of Money in Politics and Laws for its Prevention(Madison, Wis., 1893).
1Bills introduced for purposes of blackmail.
1Bills introduced for purposes of blackmail.
LOBE,any round projecting part, specifically the lower part of the external ear, one of the parts into which the liver is divided, also one of several parts of the brain, divided by marked fissures (seeLiverandBrain). The Greekλοβός, from which “lobe” is derived, was applied to the lobe of the ear and of the liver, and to the pod of a leguminous plant.
LOBECK, CHRISTIAN AUGUST(1781-1860), German classical scholar, was born at Naumburg on the 5th of June 1781. After having studied at Jena and Leipzig, he settled at Wittenberg in 1802 as privat-docent, and in 1810 was appointed to a professorship in the university. Four years later, he accepted the chair of rhetoric and ancient literature at Königsberg, which he occupied till within two years of his death (25th of August 1860). His literary activities were devoted to the history of Greek religion and to the Greek language and literature. His greatest work,Aglaophamus(1829), is still valuable to students. In this he maintains, against the views put forward by G. F. Creuzer in hisSymbolik(1810-1823), that the religion of the Greek mysteries (especially those of Eleusis) did not essentially differ from the national religion; that it was not esoteric; that the priests as such neither taught nor possessed any higher knowledge of God; that the Oriental elements were a later importation. His edition of theAjaxof Sophocles (1809) had gained him the reputation of a sound scholar and critic; his Phrynichus (1820) andParalipomena grammaticae graecae(1837) exhibit the widest acquaintance with Greek literature. He had little sympathy with comparative philology, holding that it needed a lifetime to acquire a thorough knowledge of a single language.
See the article by L. Friedländer inAllgemeine deutsche Biographie; C. Bursian’sGeschichte der klassischen Philologie in Deutschland(1883); Lehrs,Populäre Aufsätze aus dem Altertum(2nd ed., Leipzig, 1875); Ludwich,Ausgewählte Briefe von und an Chr. Aug. Lobeck und K. Lehrs(1894); also J. E. Sandys,History of Classical Scholarship, i. (1908), 103.
See the article by L. Friedländer inAllgemeine deutsche Biographie; C. Bursian’sGeschichte der klassischen Philologie in Deutschland(1883); Lehrs,Populäre Aufsätze aus dem Altertum(2nd ed., Leipzig, 1875); Ludwich,Ausgewählte Briefe von und an Chr. Aug. Lobeck und K. Lehrs(1894); also J. E. Sandys,History of Classical Scholarship, i. (1908), 103.
LOBEIRA, JOÃO(c.1233-1285), a Portuguese troubadour of the time of King Alphonso III., who is supposed to have been the first to reduce into prose the story ofAmadis de Gaula(q.v.). D. Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcellos, in her masterly edition of theCancioneiro de Ajuda(Halle, 1904, vol. i. pp. 523-524), gives some biographical notes on João Lobeira, who is represented in the Colocci BrancutiCanzoniere(Halle, 1880) by five poems (Nos. 230-235). In number 230, João Lobeira uses the sameritournellethat Oriana sings inAmadis de Gaula, and this has led to his being generally considered by modern supporters of the Portuguese case to have been the author of the romance, in preference to Vasco de Lobeira, to whom the prose original was formerly ascribed. The folklorist A. Thomas Pires (in hisVasco de Lobeira, Elvas, 1905), following the old tradition, would identify the novelist with a man of that name who flourished in Elvas at the close of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century, but the documents he publishes contain no reference to this Lobeira being a man of letters.
LOBELIA,the typical genus of the tribeLobelieae, of the order Campanulaceae, named after Matthias de Lobel, a native of Lille, botanist and physician to James I. It numbers about two hundred species, natives of nearly all the temperate and warmer regions of the world, excepting central and eastern Europe as well as western Asia. They are annual or perennial herbs or under-shrubs, rarely shrubby; remarkable arborescent forms are the tree-lobelias found at high elevations on the mountains of tropical Africa. Two species are British,L. Dortmanna(named by Linnaeus after Dortmann, a Dutch druggist), which occurs in gravelly mountain lakes; andL. urens, which is only found on heaths, &c., in Dorset and Cornwall. The genus is distinguished fromCampanulaby the irregular corona and completely united anthers, and by the excessive acridity of the milky juice. The species earliest described and figured appears to beL. cardinalis, under the nameTrachelium americanum sive cardinalis planta, “the rich crimson cardinal’s flower”; Parkinson (Paradisus, 1629, p. 357) says, “it groweth neere the riuer of Canada, where the French plantation in America is seated.” It is a native of the eastern United States. This and several other species are in cultivation as ornamental garden plants,e.g.the dwarf blueL. Erinus, from the Cape, which, with its numerous varieties, forms a familiar bedding plant.L. splendensandL. fulgens, growing from 1 to 2 ft. high, from Mexico, have scarlet flowers;L. Tupa, a Chilean perennial 6 to 8 ft. high, has reddish or scarlet flowers;L. tenuiorwith blue flowers is a recent acquisition to the greenhouse section, whileL. amaena, from North America, as well asL. syphiliticaand its hybrids, from Virginia, have also blue flowers. The last-named was introduced in 1665. The hybrids raised by crossingcardinalis,fulgens,splendensandsyphilitica, constitute a fine group of fairly hardy and showy garden plants. Queen Victoria is a well-known variety, but there are now many others.
TheLobeliais familiar in gardens under two very different forms, that of the dwarf-tufted plants used for summer bedding, and that of the tall showy perennials. Of the former the best type isL. Erinus, growing from 4 to 6 in. high, with many slender stems, bearing through a long period a profusion of small but bright blue two-lipped flowers. The varietyspeciosaoffers the best strain of the dwarf lobelias; but the varieties are being constantly superseded by new sorts. A good variety will reproduce itself sufficiently true from seed for ordinary flower borders, but to secure exact uniformity it is necessary to propagate from cuttings.The herbaceous lobelias, of whichL. fulgensmay be taken as the type, may be called hardy except in so far as they suffer from damp in winter; they throw up a series of short rosette-like suckers round the base of the old flowering stem, and these sometimes, despite all the care taken of them, rot off during winter. The roots should either be taken up in autumn, and planted closely side by side in boxes of dry earth or ashes, these being set for the time they are dormant either in a cold frame or in any airy place in the greenhouse; or they may be left in the ground, in which case a brick or two should be put beside the plants, some coal ashes being first placed round them, and slates to protect the plants being laid over the bricks, one end resting on the earth beyond. About February they should be placed in a warm pit, and after a few days shaken out and the suckers parted, and potted singly into small pots of light rich earth. After being kept in the forcing pit until well established, they should be moved to a more airy greenhouse pit, and eventually to a cold frame preparatory to planting out. In the more favoured parts of the United Kingdom it is unnecessary to go to this trouble, as the plants are perfectly hardy; even in the suburbs of London they live for several years without protection except in very severe winters. They should have a loamy soil, well enriched with manure; and require copious waterings when they start into free growth. They may be raised from seeds, which, being very fine, require to be sown carefully; but they do not flower usually till the second year unless they are sown very early in heat.The speciesLobelia inflata, the “Indian tobacco” of North America, is used in medicine, the entire herb, dried and in flower, being employed. The species derives its specific name from its characteristic inflated capsules. It is somewhat irritant to the nostrils, and is possessed of a burning, acrid taste. The chief constituent is a volatile liquid alkaloid (cf. nicotine) named lobeline, which occurs to the extent of about 30 %. This is a very pungent body, with a tobacco-like odour. It occurs in combination with lobelic acid and forms solid crystalline salts. The single preparation of this plant in the British Pharmacopeia is theTinctura Lobeliae Ethereae, composed of five parts of spirits of ether to one of lobelia. The dose is 5 to 15 minims. The ether is employed in order to add to the efficacy of the drug in asthma, but a simple alcoholic tincture would be really preferable.Lobelia has certain pharmacological resemblances to tobacco. It has no action upon the unbroken skin, but may be absorbed by it under suitable conditions. Taken internally in small doses,e.g.5 minims of the tincture, it stimulates the peristaltic movements of the coecum and colon. In large doses it is a powerful gastrointestinal irritant, closely resembling tobacco, and causing giddiness, headache, nausea, vomiting, purging and extreme prostration, with clammy sweats and faltering rapid pulse. Its action on the circulation is very decided. The cardiac terminals of the vagus nerves are paralysed, the pulse being thus accelerated by loss of the normal inhibitory influence, and the blood-vessels being relaxed owing to paresis of the vasomotor centre. The blood-pressure thus falls very markedly. The respiratory centre is similarly depressed, death ensuing from this action. Lobelia is thus a typical respiratory poison. In less than toxic doses the motor terminals of the vagi in the bronchi and bronchioles are paralysed, thus causing relaxation of the bronchial muscles. It is doubtful whether lobelia affects the cerebrum directly. It is excreted by the kidneys and the skin, both of which it stimulates in its passage. In general terms the drug may be said to stimulate non-striped muscular fibres in small, and paralyse them in toxic doses.Five minims of the tincture may be usefully prescribed to be taken night and morning in chronic constipation due to inertia of the lower part of the alimentary canal. In spasmodic (neurotic) asthma, and also in bronchitis accompanied by asthmatic spasm of the bronchioles, the tincture may be given in comparatively large doses (e.g.one drachm) every fifteen minutes until nausea is produced. Thereafter, whether successful or not in relieving the spasm, the administration of the drug must be stopped.
TheLobeliais familiar in gardens under two very different forms, that of the dwarf-tufted plants used for summer bedding, and that of the tall showy perennials. Of the former the best type isL. Erinus, growing from 4 to 6 in. high, with many slender stems, bearing through a long period a profusion of small but bright blue two-lipped flowers. The varietyspeciosaoffers the best strain of the dwarf lobelias; but the varieties are being constantly superseded by new sorts. A good variety will reproduce itself sufficiently true from seed for ordinary flower borders, but to secure exact uniformity it is necessary to propagate from cuttings.
The herbaceous lobelias, of whichL. fulgensmay be taken as the type, may be called hardy except in so far as they suffer from damp in winter; they throw up a series of short rosette-like suckers round the base of the old flowering stem, and these sometimes, despite all the care taken of them, rot off during winter. The roots should either be taken up in autumn, and planted closely side by side in boxes of dry earth or ashes, these being set for the time they are dormant either in a cold frame or in any airy place in the greenhouse; or they may be left in the ground, in which case a brick or two should be put beside the plants, some coal ashes being first placed round them, and slates to protect the plants being laid over the bricks, one end resting on the earth beyond. About February they should be placed in a warm pit, and after a few days shaken out and the suckers parted, and potted singly into small pots of light rich earth. After being kept in the forcing pit until well established, they should be moved to a more airy greenhouse pit, and eventually to a cold frame preparatory to planting out. In the more favoured parts of the United Kingdom it is unnecessary to go to this trouble, as the plants are perfectly hardy; even in the suburbs of London they live for several years without protection except in very severe winters. They should have a loamy soil, well enriched with manure; and require copious waterings when they start into free growth. They may be raised from seeds, which, being very fine, require to be sown carefully; but they do not flower usually till the second year unless they are sown very early in heat.
The speciesLobelia inflata, the “Indian tobacco” of North America, is used in medicine, the entire herb, dried and in flower, being employed. The species derives its specific name from its characteristic inflated capsules. It is somewhat irritant to the nostrils, and is possessed of a burning, acrid taste. The chief constituent is a volatile liquid alkaloid (cf. nicotine) named lobeline, which occurs to the extent of about 30 %. This is a very pungent body, with a tobacco-like odour. It occurs in combination with lobelic acid and forms solid crystalline salts. The single preparation of this plant in the British Pharmacopeia is theTinctura Lobeliae Ethereae, composed of five parts of spirits of ether to one of lobelia. The dose is 5 to 15 minims. The ether is employed in order to add to the efficacy of the drug in asthma, but a simple alcoholic tincture would be really preferable.
Lobelia has certain pharmacological resemblances to tobacco. It has no action upon the unbroken skin, but may be absorbed by it under suitable conditions. Taken internally in small doses,e.g.5 minims of the tincture, it stimulates the peristaltic movements of the coecum and colon. In large doses it is a powerful gastrointestinal irritant, closely resembling tobacco, and causing giddiness, headache, nausea, vomiting, purging and extreme prostration, with clammy sweats and faltering rapid pulse. Its action on the circulation is very decided. The cardiac terminals of the vagus nerves are paralysed, the pulse being thus accelerated by loss of the normal inhibitory influence, and the blood-vessels being relaxed owing to paresis of the vasomotor centre. The blood-pressure thus falls very markedly. The respiratory centre is similarly depressed, death ensuing from this action. Lobelia is thus a typical respiratory poison. In less than toxic doses the motor terminals of the vagi in the bronchi and bronchioles are paralysed, thus causing relaxation of the bronchial muscles. It is doubtful whether lobelia affects the cerebrum directly. It is excreted by the kidneys and the skin, both of which it stimulates in its passage. In general terms the drug may be said to stimulate non-striped muscular fibres in small, and paralyse them in toxic doses.
Five minims of the tincture may be usefully prescribed to be taken night and morning in chronic constipation due to inertia of the lower part of the alimentary canal. In spasmodic (neurotic) asthma, and also in bronchitis accompanied by asthmatic spasm of the bronchioles, the tincture may be given in comparatively large doses (e.g.one drachm) every fifteen minutes until nausea is produced. Thereafter, whether successful or not in relieving the spasm, the administration of the drug must be stopped.
LOBENSTEIN,a town of Germany, in the principality of Reuss, on the Lemnitz, situated in a pleasant and fertile country, 25 m. N.W. from Hof by railway. Pop. (1905) 2990. The town, grouped round a rock, upon which stand the ruins of the old castle, is exceedingly picturesque. It contains a spacious parish church, a palace, until 1824 the residence of the princes of Reuss-Lobenstein-Elersdorf, and a hydropathic establishment. The manufactures include dyeing, brewing and cigar-making.
See Zedler and Schott,Führer durch Lobenstein und Umgebung(2nd ed., Lobenstein, 1903).
See Zedler and Schott,Führer durch Lobenstein und Umgebung(2nd ed., Lobenstein, 1903).
LOBO, FRANCISCO RODRIGUES(?1575-?1627), Portuguese bucolic writer, a lineal descendant in the family of letters of Bernardim Ribeiro and Christovam Falcão. All we know of his life is that he was born of rich and noble parents at Leiria, and lived at ease in its picturesque neighbourhood, reading philosophy and poetry and writing of shepherds and shepherdesses by the rivers Liz and Lena. He studied at the university of Coimbra and took the degree of licentiate about 1600. He visited Lisbon from time to time, and tradition has it that he died by drowning on his way thither as he was descending the Tagus from Santarem. Though his first book, a little volume of verses (Romances) published in 1596, and his last, a rhymed welcome to King Philip III., published in 1623, are written in Spanish, he composed his eclogues and prose pastorals entirely in Portuguese, and thereby did a rare service to his country at a time when, owing to the Spanish domination, Castilian was the language preferred by polite society and by men of letters. HisPrimavera, a book that may be compared to theDianaof Jorge de Montemôr (Montemayor), appeared in 1601, its second part, thePastor Peregrino, in 1608, and its third, theDesenganado,in 1614. The dullness of these lengthy collections of episodes without plan, thread or ideas, is relieved by charming and ingenious pastoral songs namedserranilhas. His eclogues in endecasyllables are an echo of those of Camoens, but like his other verses they are inferior to hisredondilhas, which show the traditional fount of his inspiration. In hisCorte na Aldeia(1619), a man of letters, a young nobleman, a student and an old man of easy means, beguile the winter evenings at Cintra by a series of philosophic and literary discussions in dialogue which may still be read with pleasure. Lobo is also the author of an insipid epic in twenty cantos inottava rimaon the Constable D. Nuno Alvares Pereira, the hero of the war of independence against Spain at the end of the 14th century. The characteristics of his prose style are harmony, purity and elegance, and he ranks as one of Portugal’s leading writers. A disciple of the Italian school, his verses are yet free from imitations of classical models, his descriptions of natural scenery are unsurpassed in the Portuguese language, and generally his writings strike a true note and show a sincerity that was rare at the time. Their popularity may be seen by the fact that thePrimaverawent through seven editions in the 17th century and nine in all, a large number for so limited a market as that of Portugal, while six editions exist of thePastor Peregrinoand four of the epic poem. An edition of his collected works was published in one volume in Lisbon in 1723, and another in four volumes, but less complete, appeared there in 1774.