LIN of this plant, have been found to possess medicinal virtues.

LIMAX, the slug, of which there are sixteen species, the one which we shall notice is the Limax agrestes; body whitish, with black feelers: five varieties, of which some have the power of secreting a large quantity of mucus from the under surface, and forming it into a thread like a spider's web; by this means it often suspends itself, and descends from the branches of trees, or any height it had crawled up to.

It is found in gardens, pastures, and groves, from May till December. One of the varieties of this species is that which has been recommended to be swallowed by consumptive persons; it is half an inch long, and when touched it stieks, as if dead, to the fingers.

LAME, in chemistry, an earth of a white colour, moderately hard, but easily reduced to powder.

Lime and limestone differ very materially from each other. Limestone is tasteless, scarcely soluble in water, and without power to act on animal suh. .stances; lime is the reverse of all this. Dr. Black has proved, that this difference is owing to the presence of a fixed air in limestone, and to the want of it in lime. This fixed air has received the denomination of carbonic acid gas. Lime, upon this foundation, is esteemed to be a simple substance; and limestone, à composition of carbonic acid and lime, with which is joined a quantity of water. Heat separates the carbonic acid from the lime.

LINEN, in commerce, a kind of cloth, made of flax. In the linen manufacture, one set of people are employed in ploughing and preparing the soil; sowing and covering the seed, weeding, palling,

а

rippling, taking care of new seed, and watering and grassing the flax, till it is lodged at home: others in the drying, breaking, scrutching, and heckling the flax, to fit it for the spinners; others in spinning and reeling it, to fit it for the weaver ; others in taking due care of the weaving, bleaching, beetling and finishing the cloth for the market:

LINNÆAN SYSTEM of vegetables. See Botany.

LINUM, LINT, or FLAX, in natural history, a plant, from the fibres of which thread, and cloth, are manufactured.

The L. usitatissimum, or common annual flax, is the species of linum cultivated for manufactures and medicine. Its stems are about two feet and a halt' high, garnished with narrow spear-shaped, alternate grey-coloured leaves, and divided, at their top, into peduncies, or foot-stalks, terminated by small, blue, bell-shaped flowers, appearing in June and July, and succeeded by large round capsules, each containing one seed.

LIQUORICE, in the materia medica, the root of a plant, called by botanists “glycyrrhizza.

LIQUID : fluids have been divided into two classes, viz. those which are elastic, and the non-elastic, or those which do not sensibly diminish in bulk when subjected to pressure. The first class are airs or gases: the second liquids : hence we may define a liquid to be a fluid not sensibly elastic, the parts of which yield to the smallest pressure, and move on each other.

LIQUOR of flints. Alkalies have a powerful action on silica : they combine in different proportions :: two or three parts of potash, with one of silica, give a compound, which is deliquiscent in the air,

and soluble in water : this was formerly distinguished by the name of liquor of flints, but it is now denominated silicated alkali.

LITURGY, a name given to those set forms of prayer which have been generally used in the chrissian church. The liturgy of the church of England was composed in the year 1947, since wbich time it bas undergone several alterations, the last of which was in the year 1661.

Liver, in anatomy, a very large viscus, of a red colour, serving for the secretion of the bile or gall. Its figure is irregular; the upper surface being convex, smooth and equal; the lower, hollow and unequal. There is also a remarkable eminence called the porta, where the vena porta enters it.

LOADSTONE, the same with magnet, see MAGNETISM. : 4 LOAN, in finance, money borrowed by government for defraying the extraordinary expences of the state. See Stocks. : 1 LOGARITHMS are artificial numbers, invented for the purpose of facilitating certain tedious arithmetical operations.

If any series of numbers in arithmetical pro.' gression beginning with o, be taken, and a corresponding series of geometrical numbers beginning with 1, the former series will be logarithms to the corresponding numbers in the latter; thus, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 logarithms. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 numbers.

Here 0, 1, 2, &c. are the logarithms of 1, 2, 4, &c. and it will be seen at once, 1. That “ Addition in logarithms answers to Multiplication in common numbers."

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Thus, if the logarithms 2 and 6; are added together, the sum is 8, which answers to the loga. rithm of 256, the number that is obtained by the multiplication of 4 and 64, which are the numbers standing under the logarithms 2 and 6. By adding the logarithms 4 and 5 we have 9, which stands over 512, the number obtained by multiplying together 16 and 32. Hence the addition of logarithms answers to multiplication in common numbers.

2. “ Subtraction in logarithms answers to division of common numbers.".

Divide 256 by 8, and you have 32, over which stands 5=8 -3: the logarithms standing above.

3. “ Multiplication in logarithms answers to involution of common numbers."

Ex. The square of 8 is 64 ; now 3 is the lega: rithm answering to 8, and 8X2, (because 2 is the index of the square), is equal to 6, which is the logarithm of 64.

4. “ Division in logarithms answers to evolution in common arithmetic."

Ex. 1. The square root of 256 is 16, over which stands the logarithm 4; which answers to 8.2, 8 being the logarithm of 256.

Ex. 2. The cube root of 512 is 8; and 9, wbich is the logarithm of 512, divided by 3, the sign of the cube, gives 3, which is the logarithm of 8.

The same indices will serve for any geometric series; but the logarithms generally used are those which increase in a tenfold proportion, as

bers between 1 and 10, are greater than 0, and less than one, thus the logarithms of 2, 6, 8, &c. are .3010300, .7781513, .9030900, &c.

The logarithms of the numbers between 10 and 100, are greater than 1, and less than 2 ; thus the logarithm of 15 is 1.1760913, and the logarithm of 95 is 1.9777236.

The logarithms of numbers between 100 and 1000, are greater than 2, and less than 3; thus the logarithm of 165 is 2.2174839, and of 984 is 2.9929951.

The logarithms between 1000 and 10000, must be somewhere between 3 and 4, and so on.

The logarithms in the above series are called indices, which are frequently neglected, the decimal part only being put down ; thus, if it be required to find the logarithm of 248, it will be sufficient to put dowo.3944517, and the number being between 100 and 1000, I know the index is 2. Therefore the rule for finding the index is this:

“ The index is always one less than the number of figures in the whole number : or the figures in the whole number must be always one more than the index.'' The logarithm of 248 is 2.3944517

2480

3.3944517 24800 4.3944517 24.8

1.3944517 2.48

0.3944517 .248

1.3944517 .0248

2.3944517 .00248

3.3944517 Here the decimal figures remain the same: and the only difference is in the indices, which are in-,