a town of Hesse-Darmstadt, in the canton of Upper Hesse. It is the capital of the bailiwick of its name, is situated on the river Altifeld, is walled, and contains 538 houses, with 3050 inhabitants, who are employed in linen and woollen manufactures, and in tanneries.

LAVA, a stream of melted minerals, which runs out of the mouths, or bursts out through the sides, of burning mountains, during the time of an eruption. See AETNA and VESUVIUS, also VOLCANO.

LAVAL, an arrondissement of the department of the Mayenne, in France, extending over 715 square miles. It is divided into nine cantons and ninety-three communes, and contains a population of 108,600 persons. The chief place is the city of the same name, which is also the capital of the department. It is finely situated on both sides of the Mayenne, but is ill built, with narrow and crooked streets and antique houses, and only agreeable from the walks that surround it. It contains 3520 houses, with 13,500 inhabitants, who are chiefly employed in making linens, which, under the name toiles de Laval, have great celebrity throughout the kingdom. There are also some serges and thin stuffs of worsted made. Long. 0. 52. W. Lat. 48. 4. N.

LAVATER, John Gaspard Christian, best known by his writings on physiognomy, was born at Zurich, in Switzerland, in 1741. He was brought up a protestant minister, and entered into holy orders in 1761. He was for some time pastor of the orphans' church in that city; but from the year 1778 he was deacon and pastor of St Peter's church in the same place. The eloquence of his discourses in the pulpit, as well as the ardent zeal and Christian benevolence with which he discharged the duties of his office, procured for him an early reputation. Though not much conversant with books, he had a very extensive knowledge of human nature, and a most acute discernment. His theological writings in prose and verse are little known, but his works on physiognomy have extended his fame throughout every part of Europe. We are informed by himself, that he felt an early propensity to study the human face, and frequently drew such features as made a peculiar impression upon his mind; but his choice of physiognomy was fixed by the suggestion of Dr Zimmerman, who, having heard his remarks on the singular countenance of a soldier whom they saw passing by as they stood together at a window, urged him to pursue and methodise his ideas. He soon acquired a full conviction of the reality of physiognomical science, and of his own discoveries in it. His first volume on this subject appeared at Leipzig in 1776, and the twenty sections of which it was composed he modestly denominated fragments. With him it appeared to be an axiom, that the powers and faculties of the mind have representative signs in the solid parts of the countenance. This notion he extended to all animated nature, firmly believing that internal qualities invariably denote themselves by external marks or tokens.

Two more volumes soon appeared in succession, containing a wonderful assemblage of curious observations, refined reasoning, delicate feeling, and philanthropic sentiments, with a number of engravings highly finished and singularly expressive. This work was well translated into the French and English languages, and for some time formed the favourite topic of literary discussion. So much was its author admired, that no foreigner of distinction passed through Zurich without obtaining an interview with Lavater, and asking his opinion of some character from a shade or miniature. His huge volumes, however, are now seldom looked at except for the sake of the plates, and his physiognomical notions appear to be consigned to oblivion with other sciences of a chimerical nature. One of the best known of his miscellaneous publications is his Aphorisms on Man, which contain originality both in sentiment and expression, with deep and philosophical views of human nature.

Lavater was zealously attached to the Christian revelation, and translated Bonnet's Inquiry into the Evidences of Christianity, into the German language. This book he dedicated to the celebrated Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelsohn, with a challenge either to refute it publicly, or profess his conviction of the truth of its arguments. This challenge he afterwards confessed to have been considerate, and allowed that his zeal had misled him. His popularity at Zurich was so extremely great, that in his walks it was no uncommon thing to see the people flocking around him, and kissing his hand in token of respect. He had a most exemplary moral character, and his zeal in doing good was scarcely ever surpassed. He was mild and moderate in conversation, although naturally full of fire and sensibility; he was candid in his estimate of such as differed from him in opinion; he always rose early, and never took his breakfast till he thought he had earned it. He was the determined enemy of tyranny in every shape, being possessed of the genuine Swiss zeal for liberty. He Lavatory was therefore a friend to the French revolution at its commencement; but the rapine, plunder, and bloodshed which afterwards disgraced it, made him one of its bitterest adversaries. On the day when the unfortunate city of Zurich was stormed by Massena in 1799, he received a wound in the breast from a Swiss soldier in the streets, to whom he had formerly been a benefactor. He never wholly recovered from the effects of this wound; and he brought on a train of dangerous symptoms by attending for more than an hour, in the open air, a man who was condemned to be shot as a spy. The activity and vigour of his mind, however, continued till a short time before his death, which took place on the 2d of January 1801.

LAVATORY, or Lavadero, a name given to certain places in Chili and Peru, where gold is obtained from earth by washing.

LAVAUR, an arrondissement of the department of the Tarn, in France, 316 square miles in extent. It consists of five cantons, divided into sixty-one communes, and contains 47,800 inhabitants. The capital is the city of the same name, situated on the left bank of the river Agout. It contains 850 houses, and 6600 inhabitants employed in making silk goods. Long. 1. 47. E. Lat. 43. 42. N.

LAVENHAM, a town of the hundred of Baberg, in the county of Suffolk, sixty-two miles from London. It is governed by a corporation of six capital burgesses, chosen for life. It had once a cloth manufactory, which has disappeared, and now only carries on some trade in hempen goods. The population amounted in 1801 to 1776, in 1811 to 1711, in 1821 to 1898, and in 1831 to 2107.

LAVER, in scripture history, a sacred utensil placed in the court of the Jewish tabernacle, consisting of a basin, whence water was drawn by cocks, for washing the hands and feet of the officiating priests, and also the entrails and legs of the victims.

LAVERNIA, in Antiquity, the goddess of thieves and cheats amongst the Romans, who honoured her with public worship, because she was supposed to favour those who wished that their designs might not be discovered. Varro says that she had an altar near one of the gates of Rome, which was hence called porta laverniae.

LAVINIUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of Latium, six miles to the east of Laurentum, according to an ancient map; so named from Larinia, consort of Æneas, and daughter of King Latinus, and built by the Trojans.

LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent, the celebrated discoverer of the new chemical theory, was born at Paris in the month of August 1745. His father being a man of opulence acquired in commerce, spared no cost on the education of his son. The latter studied at Mazarin College, and obtained a great number of prizes in his classes; but he soon evinced a decided taste for the sciences, which his father had the good sense to encourage. On leaving college, he applied himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy in the observatory of Lacaille, to that of chemistry in the laboratory of Rouelle, and to that of botany under Bernard de Jussieu, whom he attended in his herborisations. His passion for study was such, that he put himself on a milk diet, and denied himself the pleasures of general society, living only with his masters and fellow-students, all of whom remained his friends throughout life. An extraordinary premium having been offered by the French government in the year 1764, for the best and most economical method of lighting the streets of an extensive city, Lavoisier, although at that time only twenty-one years of age, gained the gold medal; and his excellent memoir was published by the academy, of which he became a member on the 13th of May 1768. His attention was successively occupied with the pretended conversion of water into earth, the analysis of the gypsum found in Lavoisier, the vicinity of Paris, the congelation of water, the phenomena of thunder, and the aurora borealis.

By undertaking journeys with Guettard into every province of France, he was enabled to procure an immense variety of materials for a description of the mineral kingdom, and serving also as the foundation of a great work on the revolutions of the globe, two admirable sketches of which are to be seen in the Memoirs of the French Academy for 1772 and 1787. His whole time and fortune were dedicated to the cultivation of the sciences, nor did he seem more attached to one than to another, till an interesting event decided his choice in favour of chemistry. The discovery of gases, just made known to the learned world by Black, Priestley, Scheele, Cavendish, and Macbride, appeared to him like a new creation.

Lavoisier was so struck with the grandeur and importance of the discovery, that he turned all his attention to this fountain of truths, perceiving the powerful influence which this new science would exert over all physical researches. He was inspired with the true spirit of inductive philosophy, and all his experiments had a direct reference to general views. In the year 1773, he presented to the academy, and published, his Opuscules Physiques et Chimiques, containing a history of whatever had been done before respecting the gases, and concluding with his own grand and interesting experiments. He demonstrated that metals, in calcination, derive their increased weight from the absorption of highly-respirable air, of which he afterwards proved that nitrous acid is composed. His chemical ingenuity was now so well known, that Turgot employed him in 1776 to inspect the manufacture of gunpowder, which he greatly improved in strength, or explosive force. In the year 1778 he discovered that all acids contain the respirable portion of the atmosphere as a constituent principle, and to this he gave the name of oxygen. This was the first grand step towards the new chemistry, which was fully completed by his confirming the discovery of the composition of water, ascertained in 1783.

His Elements of Chemistry, in two vols. 8vo, were published in 1789, and form a beautiful model of scientific composition, being at once clear, logical, and elegant. In a very few years his system was almost universally adopted, so complete was the conviction it carried along with it to every candid and reflecting mind. The last of Lavoisier's philosophical works was on the respiration and transpiration of animals, first read to the academy on the 4th of May 1791. By a number of the nicest experiments, he found that a man in one day perspires forty-five ounces; that he consumes thirty-three ounces of vital air or oxygen; that eight cubic feet of carbonic acid gas are discharged from his lungs; that the weight of water discharged from the lungs is twenty-three ounces, composed of three of hydrogen and twenty of oxygen; which interesting discoveries he directed to the improvement of medicine.

There are no fewer than forty memoirs of Lavoisier in the volumes of the Academy of Sciences from 1772 to 1793, all relating to the grand phenomena of the science; such as the analysis of atmospherical air, the formation of elastic fluids, the properties of the matter of heat, the composition of acids, the decomposition of water, &c.

To the sciences, arts, and manufactures, he rendered the most essential services, both in a public and in a private capacity. He succeeded Buffon and Tillet as treasurer to the academy, into the accounts of which he introduced both economy and order. He was consulted by the National Convention as to the most eligible means of improving the manufacture of assignats, and of augmenting the difficulties of forging them. He turned his attention also to political economy, and, between the years 1778 and 1785, he allotted 240 arpents in the Vendômois for experimental agriculture, and increased the ordinary produce by one half. In 1791, the Constituent Assembly invited him to draw up a plan for rendering more simple the collection of the taxes; which produced an excellent report, printed under the title of Territorial Riches of France.

Whilst the horrors of Robespierre's usurpation continued, he used to observe to Lalande that he foresaw he would be deprived of all his property, but that he was extremely willing to work for his subsistence; and it is supposed that he meant to pursue the profession of apothecary, as most congenial to his studies. But the unrelenting tyrant had already fixed his doom. He was thrown into prison, whence he was soon dragged to the scaffold, where he perished, with twenty-eight farmers-general, on the 8th of May 1794, for no other crime but because he was opulent, and belonged to that body. A report, drawn up by M. Hallé, a courageous citizen, containing a description of the works, and a recapitulation of the discoveries, of Lavoisier, sufficient to make an impression upon the most obdurate heart, was presented to the revolutionary tribunal. Even Lavoisier himself deigned to ask of the miscreants who had condemned him, a delay for a few days, that he might have time to complete some experiments interesting to humanity; alluding probably to his researches on transpiration, which had been suspended by his imprisonment. But all was in vain. The president of that horrible tribunal told him, in a ferocious tone, that they had no longer any need of learned men; and his head fell under the axe of the guillotine, in the fifty-first year of his age.

Lavoisier was tall, and possessed a countenance full of benevolent expression. His character was mild, humane, social, obliging; and he discovered an incredible degree of activity. He had great influence, on account of his credit, fortune, reputation, and his office in the treasury; but all the use he made of it was to do good; yet this did not prevent jealousy on the part of others. In 1771 he married Marie-Anne-Pierrette Paulze, the daughter of a farmer-general, whose excellent accomplishments formed the delight of his life, who assisted him in his labours, and even drew the figures for his last work. This lady had the misfortune to behold her father, her husband, and her most intimate friends, assassinated in one day; and she was herself imprisoned, nay, even menaced with a similar fate; but the unshaken fortitude of her mind enabled her to rise superior to the horrors of her condition. Lavoisier died childless.