It is more than 900 years fince the bonzes of China introduced at Lieou-kicou the worship of Fo, and the principal books belonging to their feet. This worship is at prefent the eftablished religion both of the grandees and of the people. There is fill to be feen in the royal city a magnificent temple, erected in honour of another idol borrowed from the Chinese, named Tein-fey, which fignifies celeftial queen or lady.

These islanders do not make promifes or fwear before their idols. When they have occafion to do this, they burn perfumes, prefent fruits, and ftand respectfully before fome stone, which they call to witnefs the folemnity of their engagements. Numbers of ftones are to be feen in the courts of their temples, in moft public places, and upon their mountains, which are entirely appropriated to this purpofe. They have alfo among them women confecrated for the worship of fpirits, who are supposed to have great influence over thefe beings. They visit the fick, diftribute medicines, and recite prayers for their recovery.

They respect the dead as much as the Chinese, and they are no lefs ceremonious in wearing mourning; but their funerals are neither fo pompous, nor attended with fo much expence. Their coffins, which are of an hexagonal or octagonal figure, are three or four feet high. They burn the flesh of the bodies of their dead, and preferve only the bones. They never offer pro-、 vifions to them; they are contented with placing lamps round them, and burning perfumes.

Different families are diftinguished in Lieou-kieou by furnames, as in China; but a man and a woman of the fame furname cannot be united in marriage. The king is not permitted to marry but in the three grand families, which always enjoy the higheft offices. There is a fourth, of equal diftinction to the three former; but neither the king nor the princes contract any alliances with this family; for it is doubtful, whether it be not fprung from the fame ftem as the royal line.

A plurality of wives is allowed in thefe ifles. Young men and young women enjoy the liberty of seeing one another, and of converfing together; and their union is always in confequence of their own choice. The women are very referved; they never ufe paint, and wear no pendants in their ears; they collect their hair on the top of their heads in the form of a curl, and fix it in that manner by means of long pins made of gold or filver.

Befides the vaft domains which the king poffeffes, he receives the produce of all the fulphur, copper, and tinmines, and of the falt-pits, together with what arifes from taxes. From thefe revenues he pays the falaries of the mandarins and officers of his court. Thefe falaries are estimated at a certain number of facks of rice; but under this name is comprehended whatever the king gives in grain, rice, filk, cloth, &c. The whole is valued according to the price of the facks of rice.

There are here, as in China, nine orders of mandarins, who are diftinguished by the colour of their caps, or by their girdles and cushions. The greater part of the titles of thefe mandarins are hereditary in their families; but there are fome which are only bestowed upon merit. In the royal city there are tribunals eftablished for managing the revenue and affairs of the principal island, and of all the others which are dependent

Lieutenant.

on it. The latter have agents, who refide at court. Lieutaud, There are alfo particular tribunals for civil and criminal matters; for whatever concerns the families of the grandees and princes; for the affairs of religion; for infpecting the public granaries, king's revenues, duties; for commerce, manufactures, civil ceremonies, and for navigation, public edifices, literature, and war.

The veffels that are built in this country are greatly valued by the people of China and Japan. In thefe the natives go not only from one ifland to another, but alfo to China, Tong-king, Cochinchina, Corea, Nangaza-ki, Satfuma, the neighbouring ifles, and to Formofa, where they difpofe of their different commodities. Befides thofe articles of commerce which their manufacturies of filk, cotton, paper, arms, copper utenfils, &c. furnish them, they alfo export mother of pearl, tortoife and other fhells, coral and whet-ftones, which are in great requeft both in China and Japan.

LIEUTAUD (Dr Jofeph), counsellor of state and firft physician at the court of France, was born at Aix in Provence, and refided principally there till he took the degree of doctor of medicine. After this he profecuted his ftudies for fome years at Montpelier. He returned to Aix, where he foon acquired extenfive practice, and became eminent for literary abilities. He refided there till the year 1750, when he was invited to act as phyfician to the royal infirmary at Verfailles. There he practifed with fuch reputation and fuccefs, that he foon arrived at the head of his profeffion; and in the year 1774, upon the death of M. Senac, he was appointed archiater. His extenfive engagements in practice did not prevent him from cultivating the fcience of medicine in all its branches, and from freely communicating to others the refult of his own ftudies. He published many valuable works; amongst which the following may be accounted the moft remarkable. 1. Elementa Philologia. 2. Precis de la Medecine. 3. Pratique Precis de la Matiere Medicale. 4. Effais Anatomique. 5. Synopfis Univerfa Praxeos Medicine. 6. Hiftoria Anatomico-Medica. He died at Verfailles in 1780, aged 78 years.

LIEUTENANT, an officer who fupplies the place and difcharges the office of a fuperior in his abfence. Of thefe, fome are civil, as the lords lieutenants of kingdoms, and the lords-lieutenants of counties; and others are military, as the lieutenantgeneral, lieutenant-colonel, &c.

Lord LIEUTENANT of Ireland, is properly a viceroy; and has all the ftate and grandeur of a king of England, except being ferved upon the knee. He has the power of making war and peace, of bestowing all the offices under the government, of dubbing knights, and of pardoning all crimes except high treafon; he alfo calls and prorogues the parliament, but no bill can pafs without the royal affent. He is affifted in his government by a privy-council; and, on his leaving the kingdom, he appoints the lords of the regency, who govern in his abfence.

Lord LIEUTENANTS of Counties, are officers, who, upon any invafion or rebellion, have power to raise the militia, and to give commiffions to colonels and other officers, to arm and form them into regiments, troops, and companies. Under the lord-lieutenants, are deputy-lieutenants, who have the fame power; E 2 thefe

:

See GENERAL.

Life

and acquaints the captain at all other times of the mif- Lieutenant, behaviour of any perfon in the fhip, and of whatever elfe concerns the fervice or difcipline.

The youngest lieutenant in the fhip, who is alfo ftyled lieutenant at arms, befides his common duty, is particularly ordered, by his inftructions, to train the feamen to the ufe of fmall arms, and frequently to exercife and difcipline them therein. Accordingly his office, in time of battle, is chiefly to direct and attend them; and at all other times to have a due regard to the prefervation of the small arms, that they be not loft or embezzled, and that they are kept clean and in good condition for fervice.

Lieutenant. thefe are chofen by the lords-lieutenants, out of the principal gentlemen of each county, and prefented to the king for his approbation. LIEUTENANT-Colonel. See COLONEL. LIEUTENANT-General. LIEUTENANT, in the land-fervice, is the fecond commiffioned officer in every company of both foot and horfe, and next to the captain, and who takes the command upon the death or abfence of the captain. LIEUTENANT of Artillery. Each company of artillery hath four; 1 firft and 3 fecond lieutenants. The first lieutenant hath the fame detail of duty with the captain; because in his abfence he commands the company he is to fee that the foldiers are clean and neat; that their clothes, arms, and accoutrements, are in good and ferviceable order; and to watch over every thing elfe which may contribute to their health. He must give attention to their being taught the exercise, fee them punctually paid, their meffes regularly kept, and to visit them in the hofpitals when fick. He must affift at all parades, &c. He ought to underftand the doctrine of projectiles and the fcience of artillery, with the various effects of gun-powder, however managed or directed; to enable him to conftruct and difpofe his batteries to the beft advantage; to plant his cannon, mortars, and howitzers, fo as to produce the greateft annoyance to an enemy. He is to be well fkilled in the attack and defence of fortified places; and to be converfant in arithmetic, mathematics, mechanics, &c.

Second LIEUTENANT in the Artillery, is the fame as an enfign in an infantry regiment, being the youngest commiffioned officer in the company, and muit affift the first lieutenant in the detail of the company's duty. His other qualifications fhould be equal with thofe of

the first lieutenant.

LIEUTENANT of a ship of War, the officer next in rank and power to the captain, in whofe abfence he is accordingly charged with the command of the fhip, as alfo the execution of whatever orders he may have received from the commander relating to the king's fer

vice.

The lieutenant who commands the watch at fea, keeps a lift of all the officers and men thereto belonging, in order to mufter them when he judges it expedient, and report to the captain the names of thofe who are abfent from their duty. During the night-watch, he occafionally vifits the lower decks, or fends thither a careful officer, to fee that the proper centinels are at their duty, and that there is no diforder amongst the men; no tobacco fmoked between decks, nor any fire or candles burning there, except the lights which are in lanthorns, under the care of a proper watch, on particular occafions. He is expected to be always upon deck in his watch, as well to give the neceffary orders with regard to trimming the fails and fuperintending the navigation, as to prevent any noife or confufion; but he is never to change the fhip's courfe without the captain's directions, unlefs to avoid an immediate danger.

The lieutenant, in time of battle, is particularly to fee that all the men are prefent at their quarters, where they have been previously flationed according to the regulations made by the captain. He orders and exhorts them every where to perform their duty;

LIEUTENANT-Reformed, he whofe company or troop is broke or disbanded, but continued in whole or halfpay, and ftill preferves his right of feniority and rank in the army.

LIFE, is peculiarly ufed to denote the animated ftate of living creatures, or the time that the union of their foul and body lafts.

The Prolongation of LIFE is made by Lord Bacon one of the three branches of medicine; the other two relating to the prefervation of health, and the cure of difeafes. See MEDICINE.

The theory of prolonging life he numbers among the defiderata. Some means or indications that feem to lead to it, he lays down as follow.

Things are preferved in two manners; either in their identity, or by reparation. In their identity; as a fly or ant in amber; a flower, or fruit, or wood, in a confervatory of fnow; a dead carcafe in balfams. By reparation; as a flame, or a mechanical engine, &c. To attain to the prolongation of life, both thefe methods must be used. And hence, according to him, arife three intentions for the prolongation of life: Retardation of confumption, proper reparation, and renovation of what begins to grow old.

The

Confumption is occafioned by two kinds of depredation; a depredation of the innate fpirit, and a depredation of the ambient air. Thefe may be each prevented two ways; either by rendering thofe agents lefs predatory, or by rendering the paffive parts (viz. the juices of the body) lefs liable to be preyed on. fpirit will be rendered lefs predatory, if either its fubftance be condenfed, as by the ufe of opiates, grief, &c.; or its quantity diminished, as in fpare and monaftic diets; or its motion calmed, as in idlenefs and tranquillity. The ambient air becomes lefs predatory, if it be either lefs heated by the rays of the fun, as in cold climates, in caves, mountains, and anchorets cells; or be kept off from the body, as by a denfe fkin, the feathers of birds, and the use of oils and unguents without aromatics. The juices of the body are rendered lefs liable to be preyed on, either by making them harder or more moift and oily: harder, as by a coarse fharp diet, living in the cold, robuft exercises, and fome mineral baths: moifter, as by the ufe of fweet foods, &c. abftaining from falts and acids; and efpecially by fuch a mixture of drink as confifts wholly of fine fubtile particles, without any acrimony or acidity.

Reparation is performed by means of aliment; and alimentation is promoted four ways: By the concoction of the vifcera, fo as to extrude the aliment: By exciting the exterior parts to the attraction of the aliment; as in proper exercifes and frications, and fome unctions

and

2.

Of Des Cartes.

3

Newton.

Among the modern philofophers there have been two celebrated opinions, viz. the Cartefian and Newtonian. According to the former, light is an invisible fluid prefent at all times and in all places, but which requires to be fet in motion by an ignited or otherwife properly qualified body in order to make objects viOf Sir Ifaac fible to us.--The Newtonians maintain, that light is not a fluid per fe, but confiits of a vast number of exceedingly fmall particles fhaken off in all directions from the luminous body with inconceivable velocity by a repulfive power; and which most probably never return again to the body from which they were emitted. Thefe particles are alfo faid to be emitted in right lines by the body from whence they proceed: and this rectilinear direction they preferve until they are turned out of their original path by the attraction of fome other body near which they pass, and which is called inflection; by paffing through a medium of different density, which is called refraction, or by being thrown obliquely or directly forward by fome body which opposes their paffage, and which is called reflection; or, laftly, till they are totally flopped by the fubftance of any body into which they penetrate, and which is called their extinction. A fucceffion of these particles following one another in an exactly straight line is called a ray of light; and this ray, in whatever manner it hath its direction changed, whether by refraction, reflection, or inflection, always preferves its rectilinear course; neither is it poffible by any art whatever to make it pafs on in the fegment of a circle, ellipfis, or other curve - From fome obfervations on the eclipfes of Jupiter's fatellites, and alfo on the aberration of the fixed ftars, it appears that the particles of light move at the rate of little lefs than 200,000 miles in a fecond of time. See ASTRONOMY-Index.

trine.

Objections To this doctrine concerning the nature of light feto the New-veral objections have been made; the most considerable tonian doc- of which is, That in this cafe, as rays of light are continually paffing in different directions from every vifible point, they must neceffarily interfere with and deftroy each other in fuch a manner as entirely to confound all distinct perception of objects, if not to deftroy the fense of seeing altogether; not to mention the continual wafte of fubftance which a conftant emiffion of particles muft occafion in the luminous body, and which fince the creation ought to have greatly diminished the fun and ftars, as well as increased the bulk of the earth and planets by the vast quantity of particles of light abforbed by them in tuch a long period of time.

5

Anfwer by Mr Melville.

In anfwer to this objection, Mr Melville gives fome ingenious illuftrations concerning the extreme fubtilty of light, or the fmallnefs of the particles of which it confifts, and of which few perfons, even of those who admit the hypothefis, have any idea. He obferves, that there is probably no phyfical point in the vifible horizon that does not fend rays to every other point, unlefs where opaque bodies interpofe. Light, in its paffage from one fyftem to another, often paffes thro' torrents of light iffuing from other funs and fyftems, without ever interfering or being diverted in its courfe, either by it, or by the particles of that claftic medium

6

The difficulty, according to Mr Canton, will nearly By Mr Canvanith, if a very small portion of time be allowed be- ton. tween the emiffion of every particle and the next that follows in the fame direction. Suppofe, for inftance, that one lucid point of the fun's furface emits 150 particles in a fecond, which are more than fufficient to give continual light to the eye without the least appearance of intermiflion; yet fill the particles of which it confifts, will on account of their great velocity be more than 1000 miles behind each other, and thereby leave room enough for others to pass in all directions.

7

the mo

Mairan.

In order to determine whether light really confifts Experi of particles emitted from the luminous body, or only in ments to determine the vibrations of a fubtile fluid, it has been attempted to find out its momentum, or the force with which it mentum of moves. The first who fet about this matter with any light. tolerable pretenfions to accuracy was M. Mairan. O- 8 thers indeed, particularly Hartfocker and Homberg, By Mr had pretended, that in certain cafes this momentum was very perceptible; but M. Mairan proved, that the effects mentioned by them were owing to currents of heated air produced by the burning-glaffes ufed in their experiments, or to fome other caufes overlooked by thefe philofophers. To decide the matter therefore, if poflible, he began with trying the effects of rays collected by lenfes of four and fix inches diameter, and thrown upon the needle of a compafs; but the refult was nothing more than fome tremulous motion from whence he could draw no conclufion. After this, he and Mr du. Fay conftructed a kind of mill of copper, which moved with an exceeding flight impulfe; but though they threw upon it the focus of a lens of feven or eight inches diameter, they were ftill unable to draw any conclufions from the refult.

M. Mairan afterwards procured a horizontal wheel of iron three inches in diameter, having fix radii, at the extremity of each of which was a fmall wing fixed obliquely. The axis of the wheel, which was alfo of iron, was fufpended by a magnet. The wheel and the axis together did not weigh more than 30 grains; but though a motion was given to this wheel when the focus of the burning glafs was thrown upon the extremities of the radii, yet it was fo irregular, that he could not but conclude that it was occafioned by the motion of the heated air. He tifen intended to have made his experiment in vacue, but he concluded that it was unneceffary. For, befides the difficulty of making a vacuum, he was perfuaded that there was in our atmo

5

fphere

By Mr Michell.

Mr Michell fome years ago endeavoured to afcertain the momentum of light in a manner ftill more accurate. The inftrument he made ufe of for this purpose confifted of a very thin plate of copper, a little more than an inch fquare, which was faftened to one end of a flender harpichord-wire about ten inches long. To the middle of this was fixed an agate cap, fuch as is commonly used for small mariner's-compailes, after the manner of which it was intended to turn; and at the other end of the wire was a middling fized fhotcorn, as a counterpoife to the copperplate. The inftrument had alfo fixed to it in the middle, at right angles to the length of the wire, and in an horizontal direction, a fmall bit of a very slender fewing-needle, about one-third or perhaps half an inch long, which was made magnetical. In this ftate the whole inftrument might weigh about 10 grains. It was placed on a very tharp-pointed needle, on which the agate cap turned extremely freely; and to prevent its being difturbed by any motion of the air, it was included in a box, the lid and front of which were of glass. This box was about 12 inches long, fix or feven inches deep, and about as much in width; the needle standing upright in the middle. At the time of making the experiment, the box was placed in fuch a manner that a line drawn from the fun paffed at right angles to the length of it; and the inftrument was brought to range in the fame direction with the box, by means of the magnetical bit of needle above mentioned, and a magnet properly placed on the outfide, which would retain it, though with extremely little force, in any fituation. The rays of the fun were now thrown upon the copperplate above mentioned from a concave mirror of about two feet diameter, which, paffing through the front-glafs of the box, were collected into the focus of the mirror upon the copperplate. In confequence of this the plate began to move, with a flow motion of about an inch in a fecond of time, till it had moved through a space of about two inches and a half, when it ftruck against the back of the box. The mirror being removed, the inftrument returned to its former fituation by means of the little needle and magnet; and the rays of the fun being then again thrown upon it, it again began to move, and ftruck against the back of the box as before; and this was repeated three or four times with the fame fuccefs.-The inftrument was then placed the contrary way in the box to that in which it had been placed before, fo that the end to which the copperplate was affixed, and which had lain, in the former experiment, towards the right hand, now lay towards the left; and the rays of the fun being again thrown upon it, it began to move with a flow motion, and ftruck against the back of the box as before; and this was repeated once or twice with the fame fuccefs. But by this time the copperplate began to be fo much altered in its form, by the extreme heat which it underwent in each experiment, and which brought it nearly into a state of fufion, that it became very much bent, and the more fo as it had been unwarily fupported by the middle, half of it lying above and half below the wire to which it was fastened. By this means it now varied

fo much from the vertical pofition, that it began to Light, act in the fame manner as the fail of a windmill, being impelled by the Atream of heated air which moved upwards, with a force fufficient to drive it in oppofition to the impulfe of the rays of light.

"If we impute (fays Dr Priestley) the motion pro- Dr Pricft. duced in the above experiment to the impulfe of the ley's conrays of light, and fuppofe that the inftrument weighed clufions, ten grains, and acquired a velocity of one inch in a fecond, we shall find that the quantity of matter contained in the rays falling upon the inftrument in that time amounted to no more than one twelve-hundredthmillionth part of a grain, the velocity of light exceed-, ing the velocity of one inch in a fecond in the proportion of about 12,000,000,000 to 1. Now the light in the above experiment was collected from a furface of about three fquare feet, which reflecting only about half what falls upon it, the quantity of matter contained in the rays of the fun incident upon a square foot and an half of furface in one fecond of time, ought to be no more than the twelve-hundred-millionth part of a grain, or, upon one fquare foot only, the eighteenhundred-millionth part of a grain. But the denlity of the rays of light at the furface of the fun is greater than at the earth in the proportion of 45,000 to 1: there ought, therefore, to iffue from one fquare foot of the fun's furface in one fecond of time, in order to fupply the wafte by light, one forty-thousandth part of a grain of matter; that is, a little more than two grains in a day, or about 4,752,000 grains, or 670 pounds avoirdupoife nearly, in 6000 years; a quantity which would have fhortened the fun's femidiameter no more than about ten feet, if it was formed of the denfity of water only."

II

Cartefian

The Newtonians, befides the answer juft now given Objections to the most formidable objections of their opponents, against the have endeavoured to prove the impoffibility of light beopinion by ing a vibration in any fluid. Sir Ifaac, in his Princi- S: Ifaac pia, demonftrates, that no rectilinear motion can be Newton. propagated among the particles of any fluid unless thefe particles lie in right lines; and he hath alfo fhown, that all motion propagated through a fluid diverges from a rectilinear progrefs into the unmoved spaces Hence he concludes, a preffure on a fluid medium (i. e. a motion propagated by fuch a medium beyond any obftacle, which impedes any part of its motion), cannot be propagated in right lines, but will be always inflecting and diffufing itfelf every way, to the quiefcent medium beyond that obftacle. The power of gravity tends downwards; but the preffure of water rifing from it tends every way with an equable force, and is propagated with equal cafe, and equal strength, in curves, as in ftraight lines. Waves, on the furface of the water, gliding by the extremes of any very large obftacle, inflect and dilate themselves, ftill diffufing gradually, into the quiefcent water beyond that obftacle. The waves, pulfes, or vibrations of the air, wherein found confifts, are manifeftly inflected, though not fo confiderably as the waves of water; and founds are propagated with equal eafe, through crooked tubes and through ftraight lines; but light was never known to move in any curve, nor to inflect itself ad umbram.”

To this Mr Rowning adds another proof." The By Mr Cartefian notion of light (fays he), was not that it Rowning. is propagated from luminous bodies by the emiffion of fmall