LARGS, a police burgh and watering place of Ayrshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 3246. It is situated 43 m. W. by S. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Its fine beach and dry, bracing climate have attracted many wealthy residents, and the number of summer visitors is also large. The public buildings include the Clark hospital, the Victoria infirmary convalescent home and the Stevenson institute and mechanics’ library. Skelmorlie Aisle, the sole relic of the old parish church of St Columba, was converted into a mausoleum in 1636. Near it a mound covers remains, possibly those of the Norwegians who fell in the battle (1263) between Alexander III. and Haco, king of Norway. The harbour is used mainly by Clyde passenger steamers and yachtsmen. From the quay a broad esplanade has been constructed northwards round the bay, and there is an excellent golf course. Kelburne Castle, 2 m. S., a seat of the earl of Glasgow, stands in romantic scenery. Fairlie, 3 m. S., another seaside resort, with a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway, is the connecting-point for Millport on Great Cumbrae. Once a fishing village, it has acquired a great reputation for its yachts.
LARGUS, SCRIBONIUS, court physician to the emperor Claudius. About A.D. 47, at the request of Gaius Julius Callistus, the emperor’s freedman, he drew up a list of 271 prescriptions (Compositiones), most of them his own, although he acknowledged his indebtedness to his tutors, to friends and to the writings of eminent physicians. Certain old wives’ remedies are also included. The work has no pretensions to style, and contains many colloquialisms. The greater part of it was transferred without acknowledgment to the work of Marcellus Empiricus (c. 410), De Medicamentis Empiricis, Physicis, et Rationabilibus, which is of great value for the correction of the text of Largus.
See the edition of the Compositiones by G. Helmreich (Teubner series, 1887).
LARINO (anc. Larinum) a town and episcopal see of the Molise (province of Campobasso), Italy, 32 m. N.E. of Campobasso by rail (20 m. direct), 984 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 7044. The cathedral, completed in 1319, has a good Gothic façade; the interior has to some extent been spoilt by later restoration. The campanile rests upon a Gothic arch erected in 1451. The Palazzo Comunale has a courtyard of the 16th century. That the ancient town (which is close to the modern) existed before the Roman supremacy had extended so far is proved by the coins. It lay in the 2nd Augustan region (Apulia), but the people belonged to the Frentani by race. Its strong position gave it importance in the military history of Italy from the Hannibalic wars onwards. The town was a municipium, situated on the main road to the S.E., which left the coast at Histonium (Vasto) and ran from Larinum E. to Sipontum. From Larinum a branch road ran to Bovianum Vetus. Remains of its city walls, of its amphitheatre and also of baths, &c., exist, and it did not cease to be inhabited until after the earthquake of 1300, when the modern city was established. Cluentius, the client of Cicero, who delivered a speech in his favour, was a native of Larinum, his father having been praetor of the allied forces in the Social War.
(T. As.)
LARISSA (Turk. Yeni Shehr, “new town”), the most important town of Thessaly, situated in a rich agricultural district on the right bank of the Salambria (Peneios, Peneus, Peneius), about 35 m. N.W. of Volo, with which it is connected by rail. Pop. (1889) 13,610, (1907) 18,001. Till 1881 it was the seat of a pasha in the vilayet of Jannina; it is now the capital of the Greek province and the seat of a nomarch. Its long subjection to Turkey has left little trace of antiquity, and the most striking features in the general view are the minarets of the disused mosques (only four are now in use) and the Mahommedan burying-grounds. It was formerly a Turkish military centre and most of the people were of Turkish blood. In the outskirts is a village of Africans from the Sudan—a curious remnant of the forces collected by Ali Pasha. The manufactures include Turkish leather, cotton, silk and tobacco; trade and industry, however, are far from prosperous, though improving owing to the immigration of the Greek commercial element. Fevers and agues are prevalent owing to bad drainage and the overflowing of the river; and the death-rate is higher than the birth-rate. A considerable portion of the Turkish population emigrated in 1881; a further exodus took place in 1898. The department of Larissa had in 1907 a population of 95,066.