Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/385

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LITTLE TURTLE. 341 LITURGY. Mary's in 17'Jl; participated in the battle of Fallen Timbers, in 1794, and was one of the chiefs who signed the Treat}' of Greenville in 1795. In 1797 he visited President Washington in Philadelphia. LITTLE WOMEN. A popular child's story by Louisa AI. Al™it (1868). LITTORAL DEPOSITS. See Sandstone; CON'GLOMKRATE; etc. LITTORALE, lit't6-ra'ia. A district of Aus- tria. See Kl.STENL.XD. LITTORINA. See Periwinkle. LITTRE', letra', IMa.ximiijen Paul Emiue (1801-81). A French lexicographer, philosopher, and physician, born in Paris, February 1, 1801. The life of Littre was neither brightened nor marred by dramatic incidents. His history is that of his mind, which was one of the most clear and energetic of the nineteenth century. Littre's capacity for work was prodigious, his interests univer.sal. Having studied at the Lycee Louis-le- Grand. he became secretary to Count Daru: then he was a student of medicine and an intern. The death of,his father set Littre to teaching modern languages and mathematics, but meanwhile he was deep in the ancient tongues, including San- skrit, and may have studied Oriental languages. He shared in the upheaval of 1830 as a democrat, working with Arniand Carrel on the yational. In 1839 he joined the Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. About the same time he espoused positive philosophy, but his mind sought other paths than Cointe's. Auguste Comte (q.v. ) lacked Littre's knowledge of biology. Littre was less mathematical than Comte, but Littre would have nothing to do with the mysticism of Comte's old age, and was therefore cast off by that philosopher. In 1871 Littre. who had against his will lived in Bordeaux during the siege of Paris, was made professor of history and geography at the Ecole Polytechnique at Bor- deaux, but he lectured only once. December 30, I87I, eight years after his first candidacy. Littre was elected to the chair left empty by Villemain in the Academy. In 1871 Littre was a member of the Xational Assembly, and in 1875 he was elect- ed life member of the Senate. To medicine Littre contributed Cholera oriental (1832), a transla- tion of Hippocrates (1839-01), and, with Robin, a new edition of Nysten's Dictionnaire de mede- cine. In this work occurs his definition of man as "a mammal of the order of primates, of the class with two hands," etc. — a definition which en- raged Dupanloup. Littre's Medecine et medecins (1872) and his translation of Miiller's Handbook of Physioloriy (1840). with his translation of Pliny's Xatiiral History (1848), are notable, as is the translation of Strauss's Life of Jesus ( 1839- 40) ; but Littre's greatest work is the Dietion- noire de la langue franfaise (5 vols., I86G-77), which he was encouraged to make by his friend the publisher Hachette (q.v.). Littrg was well fitted for his task. His vast learning, his previous experience in lexicography, his lucidity, his patience, and his energy stood him in good stead. Above all, Littrfi began his Dictionnaire when Romance philology had already become modern, and he knew bow to avail himself of the best. The history of this thesaurus Littre has told in Comment j'ai fait man dictionnaire and in the Preface. Without the dictionary, Littrf's deep scholarship would survive potently in his Orifjincs oryaniques de la morale (1870), in his I'oisie homirique et I'ancienne poisie fran- caise (1847j, in his various researches in posi- tivi.sm, or in his contributions to the Journal des Savants, and to the Histoire litteraire de la France. The personality of Littrf- is charmingly revealed in his Etudes et glanures (1880). He was simple of heart, high-minded, and even-tem- pered. Consult: Sainte-Beuve, A'o*fce sur M. Littre, sa vie et .ses travaux, in the youccaux Lundis, vol. v. (Paris, 18C3) ; Dupanloup. .Icerlisseuient aux peres de famille, a pamphlet ( ib., 1863 1 ; Caro, Littre et le positirisme (ib., 1883); Pas- teur, Discours de reception i V Academic l-nm- caise (ib., 1882) ; Renan, Discours en reponse i celui de Pasteur (ib., 1882) ; Sainte-Hilaire, Soui-tjnir» jiersonnels sur Litiri (ib., 1895). LITTROW, lit'triiv, .Josef JoHAX.v vox (1781- 1840). An Austrian astronomer and mathemati- cian, born at Bischofteinitz, Bohemia. He was professor of astronomy in the University of Vienna, and director of the observatory, which owes to him a thorough reorganization. His lec- tures were extremely popular. His published works include Theoretische und praktisehc .Is- tronomie (1821-27), Atlas des gestirnten Him- mcls (3d ed. 1866), and other scientific trea- tises, besides an excellent popular exposition of the principles of astronomy, entitled Die Wuiidrr dry Hinimels (8th ed. 1894). LITTROW, K.EL VON (1811-77). An Aus- trian astronomer, born in Kasan, the son of Jo- sef Johann von Littrow, whom he succeeded in 1842 as director of the Vienna Observatory. The publication of the meteorological records of the obser'atory from 1755 on was due to his efforts, and he brought the Annalen of the observatory to a high grade of scientific perfection. He de- vised a new method of reckoning longitude at sea, edited his father's works, adding largely to his Wunder des Bimmels, and wrote a valuable Ver^eichnis der geographischen Ort.<)l)estimmun- gen (1844-46) and Populiire Geometrie (1839). LITUITES, lit'u-i'tez (N^eo-Lat., from Lat. lituus, augur's staff). A genus of fossil tetra- branchiate cephalopods allied to Nautilus, foimd in rocks of Ordovician and Silurian age. The shell in its young stages resembles that of the I)rimitivc Nautilus in being closely coiled, but in its adult condition the last whorl straightens out and grows at a tangent to the coiled portion to form a long straight shell, in much the same manner as does the shell of the Cretaceous Baeu- lites (q,v.). This straightening of the last whorl shows among the later species of Silurian time in much younger individuals than it does in the earlier species of Ordovician time: and thus affords an illustration of accelerated development of an acquired characteristic. See Hyatt, '•Phylogeny of an Acquired Characteristic," in Proceedings of the .^meriean Philosophical So- ciety, vol. xxxii. (Philadelphia, 1894). LITURGICAL MUSIC. See Sacred Music, LITURGY (Gk. Xeirovpyla, Icltoiirgia. ser- vice, from etTovpy6s, Iritniirgos. minister, from XfiTot, Irilox. public 4- (pyor, ergon, work). A form of public worship, especially for the cele- bration of the Lord's Supper. The word is fre- quently used in the Septuagint translation of the