in anatomy. See there, n° 96.—Plato, and other of the ancients, fix the principle of love in the liver; whence the Latin proverb, Cogit amare jecur; and in this sense Horace frequently uses the word, as when he says, Si torre jecur quæris Idoneum. —The Greeks, from its concave figure, called it παρεξοντα, "vaulted, suspended;" the Latins call it jecur, q. d. juncta cor, as being "near the heart." The French call it foye, from foys, foys, "or fire-place;" agreeable to the doctrine of the ancients, who believed the blood to be boiled and prepared in it.—Enfistratus, at first, called it parenchyma, i.e. effusion, or mass of blood; and Hippocrates, by way of eminence, frequently calls it the hypochondrium.

Liver of Arsenic. See Chemistry—Index.

Liver of Arsenic, is a combination of white arsenic with liquid fixed vegetable alkali, or by the humid way. Arsenic has in general a strong disposition to unite with alkalis. Mr Macquer, in his Memoirs upon Arsenic, mentions a singular kind of neutral salt, which results from the union of arsenic with the alkaline basis of nitre, when nitre is decomposed, and its acid is disengaged in close vessels, by means of arsenic. To this salt he has given the name of neutral arsenical salt. + See Clr. The liver of arsenic, mentioned also by that chemist, although composed, like the neutral arsenical salt, of arsenic and fixed alkali, is nevertheless very different from that salt.

The operation for making liver of arsenic is easy and simple. To strong and concentrated liquid fixed alkali, previously heated, fine powder of white arsenic must be added. This arsenic easily disappears and dissolves, and as much of it is to be added till the alkali is saturated, or has lost its alkaline properties, although it is still capable of dissolving more arsenic superabundantly. While the alkali dissolves the arsenic in this operation, it acquires a brownish colour, and a singular and disagreeable smell; which, however, is not the smell of pure arsenic heated and volatilized. Lastly, this mixture becomes more and more thick, and at length of a gluey consistence. This matter is not crystallizable as the neutral arsenical salt is. It is easily decomposed by the action of fire, which separates the arsenic. This does not happen to the arsenical salt. Any pure acid is capable of separating arsenic from the liver of arsenic, in the same manner as they separate sulphur from liver of sulphur; whereas the neutral arsenical salt cannot be decomposed but by means of the united affinities of acids and metallic substances. Thus we see that arsenic may be combined with fixed alkali in two very different manners.

The author has given to this combination the name of liver of arsenic, to distinguish it from the neutral arsenical salt, and in imitation of the name of the liver of sulphur, given to the combination of the fixed alkali with sulphur.

Liver of Sulphur. See Chemistry, Index.

Liver-Wort, in botany. See Marchantia and Lichen.

Liver-Stone, (lapis hepaticus); a genus of inflammable substances, containing, besides its phlogiston, argillaceous, ponderous, and siliceous earth, united with vitriolic acid. See Earths, § 1. n° 4.

Mr Bergman, in his Sciagraphia, informs us, that 100 parts of this stone contain 33 of siliceous earth, 29 of caustic ponderous earth, almost 5 of argillaceous earth, and 3.7 of lime, besides the vitriolic acid and water of crystallisation: but Mr Kirwan quotes another analysis of the same author, where it is said that 100 parts of it contain 33 of baro-felinite, 38 of siliceous earth, 22 of alum, 7 of gypsum, and 5 of mineral oil.