off, is known as "stick lac." By tieing a few of these sticks on fresh parts of trees the natives induce the insects to spread to and over fresh branches, and thus obtain two crops a year. The industry is a very ancient one and gives a living to a large number of people; and the value of lac products exported from India alone approaches 35,000,000 of rupees (about $17,500,000) annually. The best lac comes from Bengal and the central provinces.

The original method of preparing the lac for use and market was by pulverizing the insect-covered twigs, at the proper time, and placing the fragments in hot water. This separated the scales from the wood, softened the resin, and dissolved the coloring-matter of their interior tissues, especially strong in the egg-sacks. The remains of the insects are then taken out and dried; and this operation of washing and drying is repeated until the resin from the melted scales is (or ought to be) entirely colorless. The mass is then put into a bag of coarse cotton cloth which is held near enough a fire to melt the lac, and is squeezed by twisting. The melted resin drips. on small sticks arranged to receive it, and congeals into thin, light-colored, transparent flakes called shell-lac, the shellac of commerce. Large and small drops falling on the ground form button-lac, lump-lac, and so forth. Latterly this work has been done by machines made to grind the sticks, and melt and wash the material in steam-heated apparatus, which quickens the process and improves the product.

The water in which the first washings are made is deeply reddened by the dissolved coloring-matter in the insects. This water is saved, strained and evaporated, or cleared by the aid of alum, and the residue is deposited. This, when dried, is molded into cakes that furnish a rich dye. Previous to the invention of aniline colors this was very valuable, but now, like cochineal, it has nearly disappeared from trade. It furnishes, however, the basis of many "lake" tints among artist's colors, particularly the exquisite carmine-lake. "Lake" is a modified form of the Sanskrit (and modern Hindu) word lak, or lac, which means a hundred thousand, and here refers to the multitude of insects in a colony; it is also familiar to us in the financial term lakh, meaning 100,000 rupees.

Lac is of great value for making varnish, because easily dissolved, furnishing a hard coating susceptible of fine polish, and easily taking a dye. The Indian, Burmese and Chinese use it for making and coating ornaments, and various artistic objects, usually rich in color. It also enters into the composition of the fancy sealing wax sold by stationers, and serves other useful purposes; but it must not be confounded with lacquer (q.v.), an Oriental vegetable product that resembles lac, when applied as a coating of boxes, bowls, etc.

A

LAC, or LAK, from the Sanskrit lakshâ, or laksha, that is, 100,000. In the East Indies it is applied to the computation of money. Thus, a lac of rupees is 100,000 rupees. lac is equal to about $46,350. A lac of Sicca rupees was equal to about $50,000; 100 lacs, or 10,000,000 rupees, make a crore. In 1835 the British government remodeled the currency of India, establishing a more uniform system, and the value of the rupee is now fixed at 32

cents (15 to the sterling £), divided into 16 annas of 12 pies.

LACAILLE, Nicolas Louis de, në-kō-lä loo-e de lä-kä-ē, French mathematician and astronomer: b. Rumigny, France, 15 March 1713; d. Paris, 21 March 1762. He was educated for the Church, but soon renounced theology for astronomy. He took an important part in the work of measuring an arc of the meridian, and in 1746 was appointed professor of mathematics in the Collège Mazarin. In 1751 he went to the Cape of Good Hope at the expense of the government, where he determined the position of some 10,000 stars with wonderful accuracy. As his departure from the Cape was delayed, he employed the interval in measuring a degree of the southern hemisphere. His works on geometry, mechanics, astronomy and optics were numerous. Among them are 'Leçons d'astronomie) and Astronomia Fundamenta; Colum Australe Stelliferm'; Journal historique du voyage fait au Cap de Bonne Espérance.'

LACANDONES, lä-kän-do'nes, an Indian tribe living in Guatemala and Mexico. At one time numerous and powerful, they waged war against the whites. They are now about 300 left, of whom a part are friendly to the white people, though retaining their native customs.

LACAZE-DUTHIERS, la'kaz-du'tyā, Henri de, French comparative zoologist: b. Montpozat, 15 May 1821; d. Las Fous, 21 July 1901. He studied medicine at Paris and received (1854) the degree of professor of zoology at Lille, and was appointed to the chair (1865) of zoology at the Paris Museum of Natural History and (1868) at the university there. He edited, from 1872, Archives de zoologie générale et experimentale, and directed the Zoological Station at Roscoff, which he founded (1873) on the Brittany coast. In 1881 he started the Laboratoire Arago at Banyuls on the Mediterranean. For a number of years he devoted his researches to the study of the comparative anatomy of aquatic life, especially molluscs, and wrote, among other works, 'Histoire naturelle du Corail (1864); Le monde de la mer et ses laboratoires' (1889). His letters to Alexander Dedekind appeared in 1902 (Paris).

LACCADIVE (lăk'a-div) ISLES, a group of small coral islands in the Indian Ocean, about 200 miles off the west coast of Malabar and politically part of the Madras Presidency. They form 17 separate reefs, containing, however, but 14 islands, only 9 of which are inhabited. The surface soil is naturally so barren that there is little or no spontaneous vegetation on the majority of the islands, and their prosperity must ever depend on the cultivation of the coconut. The natives of these islands, a race of Mohammedans called Moplas (of mixed Hindu and Arab descent), are mild and inoffensive and dwell in low, thatched, stonebuilt houses, and live poorly. Vasco de Gama discovered these islands in 1498. They were ceded to the British in 1792. Pop. 10,600.

LACCOLITH, lǎk'ō-lith, or LACCOLITE (Greek, "stone-pit"), a mushroom-shaped mass of molten rock which has been forced along bedding planes, between layers of sedimentary rock, and which has arched up the overlying beds into a dome. It differs from a sill in that a sill does not produce, doming of the over

1 English 1780 Honiton bobbin

2 French early 18th century needlepoint. Flounce-Point de France detail

LACE, a cobweb background of threads with delicate patterns of flowers, figures and scrolls, also of threads, and used for ruffs, cuffs, collars, caps, scarves, handkerchiefs, cravats and aprons, and to trim articles of clothing, was first made in the 16th century. It reached perfection in the 17th and 18th centuries and deteriorated after the introduction of machinery. The word comes from lacis, meaning braid. The translators of the Bible used the word lace to denote braid. This definition survives in the gold and silver lace on uniforms and liveries. What is now called lace was anciently called "cut-work," "purls" and "points." It was also known as passament or passement; and passement dentelé (from the French dent, tooth) occurs in the inventory of Henri II of France (1547-1559). Dentelle de Florence, occurring in an inventory of 1545, introduces the French word for lace- dentelle. The word guipure, applied to all large patterned and coarse laces which have no threads joining pattern to pattern and no delicate net background, was also anciently used for braid. The tape guipures of Italy and France were famous. Before the days of point-lace and pillow-lace people wore "cut-work" and "drawn-thread work, also known as reticella, point gotico and needle-point gotico. Its effect is much the same as that of diaphanous lace.

Reticella, or cut-work, originated in the Ionian Islands and spread thence to Italy and throughout Europe. Reticella was made from about 1480 to 1620. The patterns, handed down for generations, are stiff and geometrical and consist of circles, triangles and wheels, often decorated with tiny, spiky knots. Reticella was largely used for collars and cuffs and to edge ruffs and handkerchiefs. It appears in portraits of the 15th and 16th centuries and in old pattern-books. Lacis, which also antedated filmy lace, was the darned netting, or "spiderwork," known as filet. It was popular in Italy. One of its names is "Siena Point." The pattern was darned with the needle upon a plain ground of coarse net. Lacis was made in squares and stripes and then joined. It was much used for household decoration. Catherine de'Medici had a bed draped with such squares. Lacis was sometimes combined with reticella, as the pattern book of Isabella Catanea Parasole (1616) shows.

Filmy lace appeared in the 16th century and in Italy. Antiquaries have sought in vain for its origin. It was probably an effort to imitate by woven threads the exquisite cut-linen that had reached perfection in Italy. There are but two classes of this diaphanous fabric: one, made with the needle; the other, with bobbins. The first variety is called point-lace, or needlepoint; and the second, pillow-lace. Point takes its name from the French point (stitch). The French call it point d'aiguille (point of the needle). By extension, "point has been given to a few laces of high quality to denote their excellence, such as point d'Angleterre, point de Valenciennes, point de Malines and punto di Milano, which are not made with the needle, but are bobbin (or pillow) laces. This produces more confusion regarding the classification of

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lace, already made difficult by the term pillowlace instead of bobbin lace. As the pillow is. also used for making point-lace, the name pillow-lace is misleading; but the classification of point and pillow is, however, too well established to admit of any change. The technical words used to describe lace are French. In both point and pillow the groundwork consists of a net of fine threads called réseau; or, instead of this réseau, slender threads called brides connect the patterns with each other. These brides are sometimes tipped here and there with little spiky knots, called picots. The edge, or border, is often decorated also with these picots. In some laces the background consists of both réseau and brides. The solid part of the design is called toilé. In point there is but one kind of stitch,- the old familiar button-hole, or looped; and no matter from what country the lace comes, or how intricate, or how solid its pattern, or how fine its réseau, every stitch is the button-hole. If brides occur, they are also button-holed over, and if picot ornamentation is used, that, too, is button-holed

over.

Pillow-laces are divided into two classes: (1) the pattern is first made on the pillow and the réseau filled in afterward; (2) pattern and réseau made in one continuous piece. Charles Blanc shows the difference as follows: "The dominant character of pillow-lace is the soft blending of its forms. The needle is to the bobbin what the pencil point is to the stump. The pattern softened when wrought in pillowlace is depicted with crispness by the needle." Pillow-lace is produced by the intercrossing. and plaiting of the threads which are rolled at one end around bobbins and fastened at the other upon a cushion by means of pins. Bobbins are elongated spindles, tapering and swelling into little handles. They are made of wood, bone, or lead. They vary in size according to the thickness of the threads; and the more delicate the lace the greater the number of bobbins. A pattern is pricked out by pins on the pillow to guide the worker. The pillow varies in size and shape.

Italian Point.- Italian Point lace, poetically called Punta in Aria (stitches in the air), was developed in Venice. The graceful scrolls and lovely flowers of the earliest lace resemble the arabesques of Persian ornament. Venetian Point is the richest and most beautiful of all laces. There are three classes: (1) Venetian Raised Point and Venetian Rose Point; (2) Venetian Flat Point (including the famous Coralline), and (3) Venetian Grounded Point (including Punta di Burano). Venetian Raised Point has large fantastic flowers issuing from. rich scrolls and foliage in the Renaissance style. These designs are outlined with a heavy, padded thread, called cordonnet, button-holed over. The designs are connected by brides and often decorated with picots. Rose Point has smaller patterns and more brides and more picots. It has a whirling, snowy effect and is also called Point de Neige in consequence. (2) Venetian Flat Point has no cordonnet; but brides and picots are plentiful. Coralline Point represents a tangle of seaweed; and, though lacking in clear outlines, is extremely beautiful. Venetian Grounded Point has a net background. It was inspired by the new Point d'Alençon, which the

French had created in imitation of Venetian Raised Point. The pattern of Venetian Grounded Point is usually the lily and the edge is a shallow scallop. It has a cordonnet, stitched down around the outline of the pattern. Burano was the chief place where this Grounded Point was made, and it was manufactured there until the beginning of the 19th century. In 1872 Burano lace was revived under the patronage of the king and queen of Italy. The Burano makers copied the Point d'Alençon designs and also the square mesh of the réseau. The unevenness of the thread gives Burano ground a somewhat cloudy appearance, which aids in identifying it.

Italian Pillow Lace.- Milan and Genoa were also famous marts for lace. The most beautiful of all Italian pillow-laces is punta di Milano, or Milan point (the name describing the quality). The tape pattern was made first and the ground net-work filled in afterward. .The meshes of this net are diamond shaped with a plait of four threads. The Genoese lace was of two kinds: (1) a "tape guipure," the tape arranged in spirals connected with brides and decorated with picots, and (2) pointed scallops decorated with little ornaments called "wheat-ears." Genoese lace was much used for collars and cuffs and appears in portraits by. Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt and Frans Hals, as well as in portraits by Italian masters.

French Point Lace.-"Venetian points," or "points," were bought by the wealthy and fastidious of high degree throughout Europe. To encourage home industry, Colbert, Prime Minister of Louis XIV, established a school at 'Alençon with lace-makers from Venice. Point d'Alençon was at first an exact imitation of Venetian Raised Point; but after a time the French invented a beautiful réseau in imitation of the bobbin net-work ground of Flemish lace. This was an entirely new idea, for point lace had never before been grounded on net; and, as noted above, the Venetians, hoping to win back their trade, imitated the Point d'Alençon in their Venetian Grounded Point, or Point de Venise à réseau. Point d'Alençon is called "the Queen of lace." It was first made in 1665. By royal decree it was called "Point de France.» The effect of this lace is delicacy; but the wonder of it can only be appreciated by applying a magnifying-glass. How human fingers can execute such delicate and minute stitches is beyond understanding. The average size of a diagonal taken from angle to angle in an Alençon hexagon is about one-sixth of an inch and each side of the hexagon is about one-tenth of an inch. An idea of the minuteness of the work can be gathered from the fact that a side of the hexagon is overcast with 9 or 10 button-hole stitches. One characteristic of Point d'Alençon is a heavy outline (cordonnet) button-holed over horsehair, which makes it firmer and heavier than any other fine lace. The designs are flowers, foliage, scrolls and arabesques, in the style of the decoration of the period. Spots, tears, sprigs and insects were used for designs in the days of Louis XVI. The factory became extinct during the Revolution. It was revived by Napoleon, when Bonaparte bees were used for motives in combination with flowers. This superb lace has always commanded fabulous prices. The Empress Eugénie had a dress of Point d'Alençon, for which

Napoleon III paid 200,000 francs ($40,000) in 1859. In later years she gave it to Pope Leo XIII, who wore it as a rochet.

Argentan was established at the same time as Alençon and also produced lace in imitation of Venetian Point. It can only be distinguished from Alençon after Alençon adopted the réseau. Argentan kept to the bride ground of a six-sided mesh worked over with, button-holed stitches. The large bride ground could support bolder and larger flowers and in heavier and higher relief than the réseau ground. The bride picotée is also a characteristic of the Argentan Point. Checked by the Revolution, it was revived in 1810; but in 1830 cotton, instead of linen thread, was used and debased the quality. Argentan Point became rare about 1858 and the secret of making it was lost in 1869. Although France borrowed the technique of lace-making from Italy, she put her own stamp upon it, and gradually brought it to such perfection that both Point d'Alençon and Point d'Argentan enjoyed enormous vogue. Other workshops were founded at Le Quesnoy, Arras, Rheims, Paris and Sedan.

French Pillow Lace.- Ten years before Colbert made French lace such an item of trade Le Puy had become a centre for lacemaking, and the Duchesse de Longueville, Conde's sister, had established lace-makers at Chantilly. Le Puy was the oldest lace-centre in France. It was noted for its thread laces and silk guipures. These guipures were made in bands, for which designs of geometric character, squares, stars and formal blossoms were used. Some of the Le Puy laces were known as "guipures de Cluny," from the Cluny Museum in Paris. Flax, silk, worsted, goat's hair and Angora rabbits' hair were used with equal facility at Le Puy.

Valenciennes is the most beautiful of all French pillow laces. Bobbin lace was made in Valenciennes in the 15th century, when the town belonged to Flemish Hainault. After Colbert founded Le Quesnoy the lace industry at Valenciennes revived and supplanted that in the neighboring town. Owing to the number of bobbins required, Valenciennes was the most expensive of all pillow-lace, though the workers who sat in dark cellars from four in the morning until eight at night, with only a little light concentrated on the pillow, received but a few pennies a day. Many went blind. A piece of lace "worked all by the same hand," therefore, was rare and commanded a large sum. In the town was made what the trade called "true Valenciennes" and in the suburbs "false Valenciennes» was produced. At the Revolution many workers fled into Belgium and settled in Alost, Ypres, Ghent, Menin, Courtrai and Bruges. Every town made a characteristic réseau. Valenciennes was revived, but the modern productions are not so fine as old Valenciennes. In the 18th century Valenciennes was much used for ruffles, cravats and trimmings. It was not regarded as a lace for full dress, nor was it a Church lace. Valenciennes is all made in one piece, the threads forming a continuous réseau and toilé. There is no cordonnet. The réseau is composed of circles in the earliest examples, but of squares in later examples. The flowers in early examples are tulips, anemones, iris, or carnations and have almost the appearance of cambric. Later specimens usually have