Linnaeus, (Charles:) A native of Sweden, and the most celebrated naturalist of his age. He was born May 13th, 1707, and died January 11th, 1778. His life was devoted to the study of natural history. The science of botany, in particular, is greatly indebted to his labors. His Amaenitates Academicae (Academical Recreations) is a collection of the dissertations of his pupils, edited by himself, a work rich in matters relating to the history and habits of plants. He was the first who arranged Natural History into a regular system, which has been generally called by his name. His proper name was Linne.
Lobe: A division, a distinct part; generally applied to the two divisions of the lungs.
Loire: The largest river of France, being about five hundred and fifty miles in. length. It rises in the mountains of Cevennes, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean about forty miles below the city of Nantes. It divides France into two almost equal parts.
London Medical Society: A distinguished association, formed in 1773. It has published some valuable volumes of its transactions. It has a library of about 40,000 volumes, which is kept in a house presented to the Society, in 1788, by the celebrated Dr. Lettsom, who was one of its first members.
Louis XIV.: A celebrated King of France and Navarre, who was born September 5th, 1638, and died September 1st, 1715. His mother having before had no children, though she had been married twenty-two years, his birth was considered as a particular favor from heaven, and he was called the "Gift of God." He is sometimes styled "Louis the Great," is notorious as a period of licentiousness. He left behind him monuments of unprecedented splendor and expense, consisting of palaces, gardens, and other like works.
Lumbar:(From the Latin lumbus, the loin,) relating or pertaining to the loins.
Lunacy, writ of: A judicial proceeding to ascertain whether a person be a lunatic.
Mademoiselle: The French word for miss, a young girl.
Magnesia: A light and white alkaline earth, which enters into the composition of many rocks, communicating to them a greasy or soapy feeling and a striped texture, with sometimes a greenish color.
Malaria: (Italian, mal/aria, bad air,) a noxious vapor or exhalation; a state of the atmosphere or soil, or both, which, in certain regions and in warm weather, produces fever, sometimes of great violence.