LAROCHEFOUCAULD, an old French family of great celebrity, whose original seat was the small town of Larochefoucauld, near Angoulême. The history of the family is traced back to 1026, when a certain Foucauld, first seigneur de la Roche, is spoken of in a charter of an abbey of Angoulême as vir nobilissimus Fulcaudus. In the religious wars of the 16th c., it embraced the cause of the Protestants. -FRANÇOIS, DUC DE L., and PRINCE DE MARSILLAC, born 1613, was much attached to literary pursuits; and after having been involved in intrigues against Cardinal Richelieu, and in the tumults of the Fronde, he retired into private life, cultivated the society of the most eminent literary persons of his time, Boileau, Racine, and Molière, and composed his famous Mémoires (Cologne, 1662; Amst. 1723, &c.), in which he gives a simple but masterly historic account of the political events of his time. In 1665, he published also his Réflexions ou Sentences et Marimes Morales, a work containing 360 detached thoughts, of which, perhaps, the most widely celebrated is his definition of hypocrisy, as the homage which vice renders to virtue.' The book is regarded as a model of French prose, and exhibits much acuteness of observation, and a clear perception of the prevalent corruption and hypocrisy of his time. He died 17th March 1680. His Euvres Completes were edited by Depping (Par. 1818), and his writings have been commented on by a host of critics of the most different schools, as Voltaire, Vinet, Sainte-Beuve, and Victor Cousin.-FRANÇOIS ALEXANDRE FRÉDÉRIC, DUC DE L.-LIANCOURT, an eminent philanthropist, born 11th January 1747, was representative of the nobles of Clermont in the States-general, and was a zealous advocate of reform, but sought to preserve the monarchy. After the catastrophe of 10th August, he fled to England,

and lived in great penury, till he obtained back, in 1794, some fragments of his property. He now visited North America, and afterwards published his Voyage dans les Etats-Unis d'Amerique fait en 1795-1797 (8 vols. Par. 1798). Having returned to Paris, he lived for some time in retirement, occupied only with the extension of vaccination and similar works of benevolence. Napoleon restored him his ducal title in 1809. After the Restoration, he was made a peer, but soon gave offence to the court, by opposing its unconstitutional policy. He laboured zealously in promotion of many patriotic and philanthropic objects. He founded the first savings-bank in France. He died 27th March 1827. LAROCHEJAQUELEIN, DU VERGER DE, an old noble family of France. The name Du Verger is derived from a place in Poitou. Guy du Verger married, in 1505, the heiress of the seigneur of Larochejaquelein. Several of his descendants distinguished themselves as soldiers, after the beginning of the French Revolution, by their strenuous efforts in the cause of the Bourbons.-HENRI, Comte de Larochejaquelein, born 1772, was an officer in the guard of Louis XVI., and after the 10th of August 1792, left Paris, and put himself at the head of the insurgent royalists in La Vendée. He signalised himself by many heroic deeds, and for a time successfully repelled the republican forces, but was defeated by Generals Westermann, Müller, and Tilly, 13th December 1793, and escaped with difficulty. He raised a new body of troops, however, in Upper Poitou, but was killed in a battle at Nouaillé, 4th March 1794.-His brother, LOUIS DU VERGER, Marquis de Larochejaquelein, born 1777, emigrated at the commencement of the Revolution; returned to France in 1801, but resisted all Napoleon's efforts to win him, and in 1813 placed himself at the head of the royalists in La Vendée. Louis XVIII. appointed him, in 1814, to the command of the army of La Vendée, and during the Hundred Days he maintained the royalist cause there, supported by the British. He fell in battle at Pont-des-Mathis, 4th June 1815. His wife, MARIE-LOUISE VICTOIRE, Marquise de Larochejaquelein (born 1772-died 1857), published Mémoires of the War in La Vendée, of which she was an eye-witness (Bordeaux, 1855), which are of great value, and have gone through many editions.

LA ROCHELLE. See RoCHELLE, LA.

LARREY, DOMINIQUE JEAN, BARON, a celebrated French surgeon, was born in 1766 at Baudéan, near Bagnères-de-Bigorre, studied medicine with his uncle, Alexis L., and attended the two hospitals, the Hôtel-de-Dieu and the Hôtel-des-Invalides, having previously served for a short time both in the army and navy. In 1792, he was appointed second physician to the Hôtel-des-Invalides, and in 1793 accompanied the French army to Germany and Spain, making at this time the important invention of the ambulance volante, for the convenience of transporting the wounded. Napoleon summoned him to Italy in 1797, after he had been for a short time a professor in the medico-surgical school at Val-de-Grâce; and he accompanied the expedition to Egypt. In 1805, he was placed at the head of the medico-surgical department in the French army, and was created a Baron of the Empire, receiving also a considerable pension. He was wounded and taken prisoner at Waterloo, and at the Restoration lost his rank and pension; the latter, however, was restored in 1818; and he continued to fill important and honourable offices till 1836, when he retired from that of surgeon-general of the Hôtel-des-Invalides. On the 15th of May 1842, he embarked for Algeria, having been appointed

inspector of the military hospitals there, and while on his return, after having concluded his labours, he died at Lyon, 24th July 1842. Apart from the skill, talent, courage, and humanity shewn in the course of his practice, L. has a high scientific reputation, and is the author of a number of very valuable books on various subjects connected with his profession, most of which have been translated into other languages. L.'s works have been considered by eminent authorities to be the connecting link between the surgery of the last age and that of the present day.'

LA'RVA, in Natural History, is the denomination of animals which undergo transformation, in that state in which they first exist after issuing from the egg. Until recently, the larva state was known in insects only, and the term larva is still commonly used only with regard to them; but it has been discovered that many marine animals spend a considerable part of their existence in such a state, during which they are often extremely different from what they become after their next transformation; some of them, as the young of the Cirrhopods, swimming about freely in the larva state, whilst they become firmly fixed to one spot when they have reached their perfect development, and which seems still more remarkable-possessing eyes in the former state, and becoming destitute of them in the latter. The larva state of crabs exhibits a very singular form, long known as a distinct genus of crustaceans, under the name Zoëa. The young of at least some Entozoa pass through a larval state; those of the tape-worms were formerly regarded as creatures altogether distinct, and received the generic name Scolex, which when now used is with regard to these animals equivalent to larva.—The larva of insects differ very much in the degree of their develop. ment, the differences being characteristic of different orders; some of them much resembling the perfect insect, except in the want of wings, and others being very unlike it. The larvae of many insects, particularly those which are very unlike the perfect insect, as grubs (coleopterous larvæ), maggots (dipterous larvæ), and caterpillars (lepidopterous larvæ), accumulate fat in great quantity, which serves to sustain them during their Pupa (q. v.) state, in which they take no food. The same accumulation of fat does not take place in larvæ more nearly similar to the perfect insect, as in neuropterous insects, the pupa of which are active and voracious.

LARYNGITIS, or INFLAMMATION OF THE LARYNX, may be either an acute or a chronic affection. Acute laryngitis, in its more severe form, commences with a chill, which is followed by fever, with a full strong pulse, a hot skin, and a flushed face. There is also soreness of the throat, hoarseness of the voice, great difficulty in swallowing, and a feeling of extreme constriction of the larynx. There is a painful stridulous cough, but only a little mucus is ejected. Great difficulty of breathing soon comes on, the act of inspiration being prolonged, and wheezing, in consequence of the swollen membrane of the glottis impeding the entrance of air. On examining the fauces, the epiglottis (see LARYNX) is observed to be of a bright red colour, erect, and so much swollen as not to be able to descend and close the glottis during deglutition. The patient exhibits symptoms of great anxiety and distress; his lips become blue, his face of a livid paleness, his pulse irregular and very feeble, and at length he sinks into a drowsy state, often preceded by delirium, and quickly followed by death. The disease is very rapid, ending, when fatal, in three or four days, and occasionally in less than one day.

The most frequent cause of laryngitis, whether

mild or severe, is exposure to cold and wet, espe cially when in a state of perspiration. It frequently also arises from direct injury to the larynx, as from attempting to swallow boiling water or corrosive fluids, from inhaling irritating gases, &c.

In severe cases, the strongest antiphlogistic treatment must be at once adopted, as general bleeding, leeching, and either tartar emetic or calomel. If these fail, the only remedy upon which much reliance can be placed is tracheotomy. In chronic laryngitis, there is hoarseness, the voice is altered, and various morbid sensations are felt in the larynx, which excite cough. If the disease goes on to ulceration, The phthisis or syphilis is probably its cause. treatment of ulcerated larynx is noticed in LARYNX,

DISEASES OF.

LARYNGOSCOPE AND LARYNGOSCOPY. Although attempts had been previously made by Avery and Garcia to explore the recesses of the larynx by means of a reflecting mirror, it was not until two German physiologists, Drs Turck and Czermak, took up the subject in 1857 and 1858, that the great importance of laryngoscopy was first generally recognised.

The laryngoscope is a small mirror placed on a stalk attached to its margin, at an angle of from 120° to 150°, the stalk being about six inches in length, and being composed of flexible metal, so that it can be bent at the will of the operator.

The

The mouthpiece of a large reflector, with a central opening through which the observer looks, is held between the molar teeth; or, which is better, the reflector may be attached to a spectacle frame by a stiffly working ball-and-socket joint. rays of the sun or of a good lamp are concentrated by means of this reflector on the laryngeal mirror, which is placed against the soft palate and uvula. The laryngeal mirror, introduced with the right hand, which rests by two fingers on the jaw, is maintained at such an inclination that it throws the light downwards, and illuminates the parts to be examined, while at the same time it reflects the images of these parts into the eye of the observer through the central opening of the reflector. By this means he can look through the larynx into the trachea or windpipe.

By means of this instrument we can see the actual position of small tumours, ulcers, &c., whose existence would otherwise have been at most only suspected; and the precision and accuracy of diagnosis to which we can thus attain, enable us to employ rational means of local treatment to an extent that

was quite impossible before the introduction of laryngoscopy.

LA'RYNX, THE (Gr. larynx), is the organ of voice, and takes a part in the respiratory process, as all air passing either to or from the lungs must pass through it. It is a complex piece of mechanism, resembling a box composed of pieces of cartilage, which may be moved on each other, and enclosing the membranous bands (the chorda vocales) by which the vocal vibrations are produced.

It is situated between the trachea, or windpipe, and the base of the tongue, at the upper and front part of the neck, where it forms a considerable projection (especially in men) in the mesial line; and it opens superiorly into the pharynx, or throat, and inferiorly into the windpipe.

The cartilages of which the skeleton of the larynx is composed are five in number-viz., the thyroid and the cricoid cartilages, the epiglottis, and the two arytenoid cartilages.

The thyroid (Gr. shield-like) cartilage consists of two square plates of cartilage united in front at an acute angle, which forms the projection which is

oval in form, and supports an arytenoid cartilage. The arytenoid (Gr. ladle-like) cartilages are pyramidal bodies resting on the oval articular surfaces at the upper and posterior part of the cricoid cartilage. When in situ, they present a concave posterior surface (fig. 1). From their connection with the vocal cords, and from their great mobility as compared with the two larger cartilages, the arytenoids play a very important part in the mechanism of the larynx. The epiglottis is a very flexible cartilaginous valve (fig. 1, f), situated at the base of the tongue, and covering the opening of the larynx. Its direction is vertical, except during deglutition, when it becomes horizontal. It is attached inferiorly by a kind of pedicle to the angle of the thyroid cartilage. Upon removing the investing mucous membrane, the cartilage is found to be perforated by numerous foramina, f. Each perforation admits some fasciculi, of yellow, elastic, ligamentous tissue, which expands on its anterior aspect, and secures the return of the epiglottis to its vertical position, independently of any muscular action. Such is the skeleton of the larynx, which hangs from the hyoid bone, with which it is connected by the thyro-hyoid ligament and certain muscles.

The various cartilages which have been described are connected to one another by ligaments, the chief

Fig. 1.

(From Todd and Bowman.)

Cartilages of larynx and epiglottis, and upper rings of trachea, seen from behind: a, arytenoid cartilages; b, superior cornua of thyroid cartilage; c, its inferior cornua; d, posterior surface of cricoid; f, epiglottis, with its perforations; i, upper margin of thyroid; h, its left inferior tubercle; t, trachea.

cartilage forms almost the whole of the anterior and lateral walls of the larynx.

The cricoid (Gr. ring-like) cartilage is a ring whose lower margin is parallel to the first ring of the trachea, to which it is united by fibrous membrane. Its upper border is connected in front with the lower border of the thyroid cartilage by a thick yellow fibrous tissue. It presents two articular surfaces on

Fig. 3.

View of larynx from above, after Willis. b, ligaments uniting arytenoid and cricoid cartilages; e, thyroid cartilage in front; k, left thyro-arytenoid muscle, right removed; 1, r, x, cricoid cartilage; m, right crico-arytenoid muscle; n, arytenoid cartilage; t, v, vocal cords.

of which are those known as the true and false vocal cords. In their quiescent state, the true vocal cords do not lie parallel to each other, but converge from behind forwards (see fig. 3). The length of the vocal cords is greater in the adult male than in the adult female, in the ratio of three to two. In infancy, they are very short, and increase regularly from that period to the age of puberty. The mucous membrane of the larynx is part of the great respiratory tract (see MUCOUS MEMBRANE), and is remarkable for its great sensibility.

The length of the chink or aperture of the glottis, which is directed horizontally from before backwards, varies, like the vocal cords, until the period of puberty, when its length, in the male, undergoes a sudden development, while in the female it remains stationary. In the adult male, it is about eleven lines in length.

The larynx is provided with two sets of muscles, viz., the extrinsic, by which the whole organ is elevated or depressed, and the intrinsic, which regulate the movements of the various segments of the organ in relation to one another. By the action of these latter muscles, aided, in some cases,

by the extrinsic muscles, the tension of the vocal cords may be increased or diminished, and the size of the opening of the glottis regulated at will.

The nerves of the larynx are derived from the superior and inferior laryngeal branches of the pneumogastric or vagus nerve. The superior branch is for the most part sensory (being mainly distributed to the mucous membrane), while the inferior branch communicates motor-power to all the intrinsic muscles except the crico-thyroid.

In the preceding account of the cartilages, vocal cords, mucous membrane, muscles, and nerves of the larynx, we have included only the most essential points. For details regarding the attachments of muscles, &c., the reader must consult any standard work on Anatomy. That the larynx is the organ of voice, is proved by numerous facts, amongst which the following may be mentioned. 'First, the least alteration in the condition of the mucous membrane covering the vocal cords, is invariably accompanied by a change in the tone of the voice, e. g., hoarseness; secondly, ulcerative disease, eating through one or both of these vocal cords, destroys or greatly impairs the voice; thirdly, opening the trachea below the vocal cords, so as to divert the current of air in expiration from the larynx, will destroy the voice; fourthly, section of the inferior laryngeal nerves, by which the influence of the will is brought to bear on the muscles which regulate the tension of the vocal cords, destroys the voice; and lastly, by experiments on the dead larynx, sounds may be produced resembling those of the voice.'-Todd and Bowman's Physiological Anatomy, vol. ii. p. 431.

Diseases of the Larynx.-Of these, the most serious is acute inflammation of the larynx, or Laryngitis (q. v.).

Edema, or swelling of the glottis, although of common occurrence in laryngitis, may be developed independently of inflammation, from obstruction of the veins leading from that part, or from other causes. The symptoms are those of acute inflammation, except that there is no fever or inflammation, and less difficulty of swallowing. Tracheotomy (the operation of making an opening into the windpipe, below the seat of the disease) affords the patient almost his only chance of life.

Chronic inflammation and ulceration of the larynx are very common in tubercular consumption and in secondary syphilis. In these cases, the laryngeal affection is merely a local manifestation of a general disease. The chronic hoarseness and cough are often remarkably relieved, in these cases, by swabbing the epiglottis and upper part of the air-passages with a strong solution of lunar caustic.

LA SALLE, a city of Illinois, United States of America, 110 miles north-north-east of Springfield, is the terminus of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and junction of the Illinois Central and Chicago and Rock Island Railways. La S. has eight coal-mines near the city, five churches, and two newspapers. The Illinois Central Railroad here crosses the Illinois River on a bridge of twenty arches, 900 feet in length. Pop. about 4000.

LA'SCAR, in the East Indies, signifies properly a camp-follower, but is generally applied to native sailors on board of British ships. The Lascars make good seamen, but being of an excessively irritable and revengeful nature, are generally kept in the minority in a ship's crew.

LASCARIS, CONSTANTINE, a celebrated Greek refugee, after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, and one of the first founders of Greek studies in the West. He was received with distinction by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, in 1454,

Το

who intrusted to him the education of his daughter Hippolyta; but a more important scene of his labours was Rome, where he settled in the train of the learned Greek cardinal, Bessarion, and, finally, Naples and Messina, where he taught rhetoric and Greek letters until his death in 1493. His Greek grammar, entitled Erotemata, and dated 1476, is the earliest printed Greek book. him his contemporaries were also indebted for several other elementary Greek books of less note. His grammar is known chiefly through a Latin translation printed at the Aldine press, and frequently reprinted. His library, which is very valuable, is now in the Escurial.-JOHN JANUS L., a member of the same family, surnamed RHYNDACENUS, has also acquired a place in the history of the revival of letters. He was one of those whom Lorenzo de' Medici employed in the collection of ancient, and especially Greek classical authors, of whom L. brought home a valuable collection from Mount Athos. On the death of Lorenzo, L. went to Paris, where he taught Greek under Charles VIII. and Louis XII.; but he eventually settled in Rome, where he was appointed by Leo X. to the superintendence of the Greek press which that pontiff established. L. edited several of the editiones principes at the Roman press. He was employed as ambassador at the court of Francis I., and afterwards at Venice, and died in Rome, at a very great age, in 1535. See Villemain's Lascaris, ou les Grecs du 15me Siècle (Paris, 1825).

LAS CASAS, BARTOLOMÉ DE, Bishop of Chiapa, in Mexico, surnamed the Apostle of the Indians, a celebrated evangelist and philanthropist, was of French descent, and was born in Seville in 1474. He studied at Salamanca. In 1502, he accompanied Don Nicolas Ovando, who was sent out as governor, to St Domingo. Eight years after his arrival there, he was ordained to the priesthood, and was subsequently appointed to a charge in Cuba. Here he began to signalise himself by his exertions in favour of the oppressed Indians. To oppose the law which divided them amongst the conquerors, he went to Spain, where he prevailed on Cardinal Ximenes to send a commission of inquiry to the West Indies; but the proceedings of the commission by no means satisfying his zeal, he revisited Spain, to procure the adoption of stronger measures for the protection of the natives. Finally, to prevent the entire extirpation of the native race by the toils to which they were subjected, he proposed that the colonists should be compelled to employ negro slaves in the more severe labours of the mines and sugarplantations; and the proposal was adopted. Las C. has on this account been represented as the author of the slave-trade, although it has been proved to have existed long before this proposal was made. Las C. afterwards attempted to carry out Castilian peasants as colonists to the West Indies, with the view of giving more complete effect to his schemes on behalf of the Indians; but failing in this, he retired to a Dominican convent in Hispaniola. He again visited Spain in 1539, out of benevolent regard to the native inhabitants of the West Indies, and published his Brevissima Relacion de la Destruccion de las Indias, which was soon translated into the other languages of Europe. The rich bishopric of Cuzco was offered to him, but he preferred the poor one of Chiapa, in a wild and almost unexplored region. The colonists received him with no friendly feelings, and as he went the length of refusing the sacraments to those who disregarded the new laws in favour of the Indians, he drew upon himself not only the resentment of the planters, but the disapprobation of the church, so that he was compelled