•LEA
LEE
fcnd of great ufe in the Chinefc porcelain manufacture, be- ing the finefl blue they are pofTeffed of. This ftone is found in the ftrata of pit coal, or in thofe of a yellowifh er reddifti earth in the neighbourhood of the veins of coal. There are often found pieces of it lying on the furface of the ground, and thefe are a fure indication, that more will be found on digging. It is generally found in oblong pieces of the fize of a finger, not round, but flat. Some of this k very fine, and fome coarfc, and of a bad colour. The latter is very common, but the fine fort is fcarce, and greatly valued. It is not eafy to diftinguifh them at fight, but they are found by experiment, and the trying one piece is generally fufficient for judging of the whole mine ; for all that is found in the fame place, is ufually cf the fame fort.
Their manner of preparing it for ufe is this : They firft wafh it very clean, to feparate it from the earth, or any other foulncfs it may have ; they then lay it at the bottom of their baking furnaces; and whin it has been thus cal- cined for three or four hours, it is taken out and powdered very fine in large mortars of porcelain with pcrftles of ftone faced with iron. When the powder is perfectly fine, they pour in fome boiling water, and grind that with the reft, and when it is thoroughly incorporated, they add more, and finally pour it off, after fome time fettling. The re- mainder at the bottom of the mortar, which is the coarfcr part, they grind again with more water, and fo on, till they have made the whole fine, excepting a little dirt or grit. When this is done, all the liquors are mixed together, and well ftirred. They are fuffered to ftand two or three mi- nutes after this, and then poured off, with the powder re- maining in them. This is fufTered to fubfidc gradually, and is the fine blue they ufe in their beft works, our com- mon fmalt ferving for the blue of all the common low priced China ware. Obfervat. fur les Coutumes de l'Afie, p. 326-.
It is plain that this ftone is a fort of lapis lazuli, and the ultramarine blue, ufed by our painters, is made in a manner not wholly unlike this. It is much to be wifhed that England were well fearched for fuch a ftone as this leao, fince our mines in Derbyshire afford many blue fubftances, which have not been fumciently confidered \ and if it fhould be found that either this, or any other European nation, produces it» it will be a fine difcovery, as we fhould not only have the means of giving a fine colour to our own manufactures of this kind, but we might trade with it in China to a vaft advantage. If England does not pofiefs it, it is very probable that Germany docs, the mines there af- fording an almoft inexhauftible ftore of coloured ftones ; and this being certainly no other than the ftony matter of fome crvftallinc nodule, accidentally tinged with fome par- ticles of copper. See Lazuli lapis.
LEAP, (Cyrl.) in mufic, is when the fong does not proceed fey conjoint degrees. For inftance, when there is an inter- val of a third, fourth, fifth, &c. between two notes, the Italians call it a leap, [alto.
It is to be obferved that ihere are two kinds of haps, regu- lar and irregular, called by the Italians, falti regolar'i & ir- regotari.
The regular leaps are thofe of a third major, or minor, whether natural or accidental, fourth, fifth, fixth minor, and o£tave, and thefe either afcending or defcending. Irregular leaps arc the tritone, fixth major, feventh major, the ninth, tenth, and in general all beyond the compafs of an ocfave ; at leaft in vocal mufic.
Befides thefe there are others which may be ufed, but with difcretion; fuch as the diminifhed fourth, the falfe fifth, and flat feventh. The difference between the regular and irregular leaps is, that the former are performed by the voice, without any great difficulty or effort ; whereas the latter require more attention and pains to execute.
Leap m fifhing is ufed for a net, engine, or weel, made of twigs, to catch filh in. Stat. 4 and 5 Will, and Mary, cap. 23. Blount.
Leap, in the manege, an air of a ftep and a leap. See Step, Cycl.
LEAPING-/>ar/£, in the manege, is one that works in the high manege, or one that makes his leaps with order and obedience between two pillars upon a ftrait line, in volts, caprioles, balotades* or croupades. Ufe excludes a gallop a terra a terra, and corvcts, from the number of leaps ; becaufe the horfe does not rife fo very high in thefe. Each bap of the horfe ought not to gain, or make above a foot and a half of ground forward.
LEAT, is ufed for a trench to convey water to, or from a mill. It is mentioned in the ftatutc 7 Jac. I. c. 19.
LEATHER {CycL)—Mx. Boyle fpeaks of a method of pre- paring leather without any bark at all, and better than in the ufual way ; but we do not find the procefs of this in hU works. Shaw's Abridg. Vol. 1. p. 134.
LBATHER-?Matf/W, in ichthyography, a term ufed as the Englifh for malacGjlomzMs, the diftinflive epithet of fuch fifties as have thick lips and no teeth in their jaws j as Suppl. Vol. I.
I the carp, tench, bream, roach, fcfV. IFiUughhy, Hift. Pifc,
j p. 129. Sec Malacostomous.
LEBERIS, in fome medical writers, a word ufed to exprefo the exuviae of ferpents, or the fkins which (hakes carl off every year; thefe are by fome greatly recommended for taking off freckles and fun-burns from the face.
LEBN1, in the materia medica of the antients, a name given by fome to ftorax. Avifenna has treated oi this drug in three feparate chapters : in one under the title of ajlarah, in another under the title of lebni, and in the other under the title of niiha, or almiha. This has led fome to ima- gine thefe three words the names of tiiree.differcnt drugs; but the author fets this right, by explaining himfelf in the beginning of one of the chapters, that of kbit, in this manner : What is lebni ? Lehni ie miha. It feems, upon the whole, that miha was the general name of tSis drug, and that ajlarak and lebni were the names of particular kinds of it. The Greeks were very nice in dininguifbing the feveral kinds of ftorax, and the Arabians fcem to have followed their example ; nay, they have even borrowed fome of the terms, by which they calkd the particular forts, as the calamha, and the reft. The calamite ftorax of the Arabians was not, however, the fame with that of the Greeks, but only the refufe of the prcflings of the liquid ftorax ; the lebni feems to have been the fame with the cala- mite of the Greeks, and the aftarak the fame with their cymatian ftorax.
The foft, or liquid ftorax of the Greeks, feems to have been very common among thefe people, and they have called it mel lebni, the honey of ftorax. This was a common word with them to exprefs any thing foft. Sec Mel.
LECANOMANTIA, Am^w^h*, in antiquity, a kind of divination performed in a bafon with wedges of gold or filver. See Hydromantia.
LECCIA, in zoology, a name given by feveral to a large fifh caught in the Mediterranean, and known among the generality of writers by the name of amia ; though by Al- drovand, and fome others, called glaiccus. IViihtghby, Hilt. Pifc. p. 296. See Amia and Lechia.
LECH, in metallurgy, a term ufed by the miners to exprefs the gold ore which has been powdered, and wafhed, and afterwards run with the affiftance of lime ftone. The lech is afterwards burnt in a fire of charcoal, in order to render it fit for the fcparation of the metal, by means of lead, which abforbing and fcorifying the extraneous matter, ren- ders the gold pure.
LECHIA, in ichthyology, a name given by Paulus Jovius, and others, to the fifn called by others amia and glaucus, and by the antient Greeks amia and troSius. It is properly a fpecies of the fcomber, and is diftinguifhed by Artedi by the name of the fcombsr with two fins on the back, and with the laft bone, or ray of the hinder fin very long. The Italians call it kecia, whence Jovius's name. Paul. javiusy c 7. p. 57.
LECITHOS, a word ufed by the old medical writers, and plainly fignifying a fort of pulfc, but authors have varioufly underftood it ; fome applying it to the decorticated feed of the lentil ; others to the meal of the fame pulfe ; and others to the fruit of a peculiar fpecies of aracus, or wild vetch. The fame word is alfo ufed by Hippocrates, fometimes, to denote the yolk of an egg. This is one of the numerous inftances, in which confufion is brought into the world by thefe homonymies; for when Hippocrates applies the epithet lecithodes to the fediment of the urine in fome difeafed ftates, it is not eafy to determine from it, whether he means to compare it to the meal of lentils, or to the yolk of an egg. The fame alfo is the cafe in regard to his applying it to the pus, or matter of certain ulcers.
LECTICA, among the Romans, a litter, or vehicle, in which people were carried. The fella differed from the letlica, as being higher, and becaufe people always fat in it ; on which account the fella, from the time it was firft brought into ufe, was efteemed the more honourable carriage of the two.
The leftica was alfo ufed as a bier for carrying out the dead, who were dreffed in habits fuitable to their quality and fex. Pitifc. in voc. See Burying.
LECTICARII, among the Romans, fervants who carried the leftica. See Lectica.
LECTORES, among the Romans, fervants in great men's houfes, who were employed in reading while their mafters were at fupper. They were called by the Greeks anagnojla. Pitifc. in voc. See ANACNosTiE.
LECTUS igmus, among the Romans, a kind of torture firft invented by Decius. The bottom of it was fet with fcr- rated teeth, or fpikes, and ftrowed with fait; while melted tallow was poured from above on the unhappy tortured per- fon. Hofrn. in voc.
LEDGES, in a ftiip, fmall pieces of timber lying athwart ftiips, from the wafte-trees to the roof-trees, which ferve to bear up the nettings, or the gratings over the half deck.
LEECH, kirudo, in zoology, an oblong animal, deftitute of
I5 H
feet,
