Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Larousse ... Lastman, Pieter

Larousse: Parisian publishing house specializing in encyclopaedias and dictionaries, founded in 1852 by Augustin Boyer and Pierre Larousse, editor of the Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIX^e siecle (15 vol., 1866-76; 2 supplements, 1878 and 1890). The many reference works later published ...
Larousse, Pierre: grammarian, lexicographer, and encyclopaedist who published many of the outstanding educational and reference works of 19th-century France, including the Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIX^e siecle (15 vol., 1866-76; supplements 1878 and 1890), a comprehensive encyclopaedia of lasting value.
Larra, Mariano Jose de: Spanish journalist and satirist who attacked contemporary society for its social habits, literary tastes, and political ineptitude.
Larreta, Enrique: Argentine novelist famous for La gloria de Don Ramiro: Una vida en tiempos de Felipe II (1908; The Glory of Don Ramiro: A Life in the Times of Philip II), one of the finest historical novels in Spanish American literature. ...
Larrey, Dominique-Jean, Baron: French military surgeon in the service of Napoleon; he introduced field hospitals, ambulance service, and first-aid practices to the battlefield.
Larsa: one of the ancient capital cities of Babylonia, located about 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Uruk (Erech; Arabic Tall al-Warka'), in southern Iraq. Larsa was probably founded in prehistoric times, but the most prosperous period of the city coincided ...
Larsen Ice Shelf: ice shelf in the northwestern Weddell Sea, adjoining the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and named for Captain Carl A. Larsen, who sailed along the ice front in 1893. It originally covered an area of 33,000 square miles (86,000 ...
Larsen, Nella: novelist and short-story writer of the Harlem Renaissance.
Lartet, Edouard Armand Isidore Hippolyte: French geologist, archaeologist, and a principal founder of paleontology, who is chiefly credited with discovering man's earliest art and with establishing a date for the Upper Paleolithic Period of the Stone Age.
Lartigue, Jacques-Henri: French photographer and painter noted for the spontaneous, joyful photographs he took beginning in his boyhood and continuing throughout his life.
larva: stage in the development of many animals, occurring after birth or hatching and before the adult form is reached. These immature, active forms are structurally different from the adults and are adapted to a different environment.
larvacean: any member of the class Larvacea, of the subphylum Urochordata, or Tunicata, belonging to the phylum Chordata. Reaching lengths of 5 mm (0.2 inches), larvaceans are transparent, larva-like organisms that live in the open sea. The U-shaped body consists of ...
laryngeal cancer: malignant tumour of the larynx. There are two types of tumours found on the larynx that can be malignant. One is called a carcinoma; the other, called a papilloma, often is benign but occasionally becomes malignant.
laryngitis: inflammation of the larynx or voice box, caused by chemical or mechanical irritation or bacterial infection. Laryngitis is classified as simple, diphtheritic, tuberculous, or syphilitic laryngitis.
laryngology: a branch of medicine dealing with the larynx, nose, and pharynx. See otolaryngology.
larynx: a hollow, tubular structure connected to the top of the windpipe (trachea); air passes through the larynx on its way to the lungs. The larynx also produces vocal sounds and prevents the passage of food and other foreign particles into ...
Las Alpujarras: mountainous district, Granada and Almeria provincias, Andalucia comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), southern Spain, stretching northward from the towns of Motril and Almeria to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and forming a trough between the latter and the coastal mountains. ...
Las Bela: district of Kalat division, Baluchistan Province, Pakistan. A former princely state, it has an area of 7,048 sq mi (18,254 sq km) and is bounded north by Khuzdar district, east by the Kirthar Range (separating it from Sind), south by ...
Las Casas, Bartolome de: early Spanish historian and Dominican missionary in the Americas, who was the first to expose the oppression of the Indian by the European and to call for the abolition of Indian slavery. His several works include Historia ...
Las Cases, Emmanuel, Count de: French historian best known as the recorder of Napoleon's last conversations on St. Helena, the publication of which contributed greatly to the Napoleonic legend in Europe.
Las Cruces: city, seat (1852) of Dona Ana county, southern New Mexico, U.S. It lies along the Rio Grande 38 miles (61 km) northwest of El Paso, Texas. It was founded in 1848. Old accounts tell how a Spanish military party was ...
Las Hurdes: region of western Spain in Caceres provincia, in the Extremadura comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), northwest of Plasencia. The high plateau of Salamanca in the central Cordillera Ridge rises almost imperceptibly to the western ranges of the Sierra de Pena de ...
Las Marismas: coastal marshes along the Guadalquivir estuary in Andalusia, southern Spain. For centuries the region, noted for its birdlife, served as a hunting ground for the dukes of Medina-Sidonia. In 1963, at the suggestion of the World Wildlife Fund, it was ...
Las Palmas: city, capital of Las Palmas provincia, Canary Islands comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Spain. Located on the northeastern coast of Gran Canaria Island, it is the largest city of the island.
Las Palmas: provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of the eastern Canary Islands, Spain. It consists of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote (qq.v.), and a few smaller islands. The city of Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria is the capital ...
Las Piedras: city, southern Uruguay. It is situated in a wine-growing district just north of Montevideo. It was the site of a decisive battle (1811) in Uruguay's struggle for independence, in which the revolutionaries defeated Spanish forces. Las Piedras is among the ...
Las Tunas: provincia, south-central Cuba. It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean and on the southwest by the Caribbean Sea. Part of former Oriente province until 1976, Las Tunas consists of rolling plains; swamps exist in ...
Las Vegas: city, seat (1862) of San Miguel county, north-central New Mexico, U.S. It lies along the Gallinas River, at an elevation of 6,435 feet (1,961 metres), in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The original settlement (1835) developed as the Mexican port ...
Las Vegas: city, seat (1909) of Clark county, southeastern Nevada, U.S. It is the principal city of Nevada. Mormons from Utah were the first settlers (1855), attracted by the artesian springs in the arid valley along the Old Spanish Trail, hence the ...
LaSal Mountains: laccolithic segment of the Colorado Plateau, extending across San Juan and Grand counties in eastern Utah, U.S. Of volcanic origin, the peaks rise to Mount Peale (12,721 feet [3,877 metres]), the highest point in the Colorado Plateau. The region is ...
Lascaris, Constantine: Byzantine exile, primarily a grammarian and copyist, who taught Greek in Italy.
Lascaris, John: Greek scholar and diplomat whose career shows the close connections that linked political interests and humanist effort before the Protestant Reformation.
Lascaux Grotto: cave containing one of the most outstanding displays of prehistoric art yet discovered, located above the Vezere River valley near Montignac, in Dordogne, France. It is a short distance upstream from another major cave-art site, Eyzies-de-Tayac. The two sites, with ...
laser: any of a class of devices that produces an intense beam of light of a very pure single colour. This light beam may be intense enough to vaporize the hardest and most heat-resistant materials. The word laser is an acronym ...
Lashley, Karl S.: American psychologist who conducted quantitative investigations of the relation between brain mass and learning ability.
Lasker, Albert: American advertising executive and philanthropist who is credited with being the founder of modern advertising because he insisted that advertising copy actively sell rather that simply inform.
Lasker, Eduard: Prussian Liberal conspicuous for his opposition to Bismarck; he was one of the most important parliamentarians of the German Empire.
Lasker, Emanuel: German chess master, the world champion from 1894 to 1920, who is often regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. See the table of world chess champions.
Lasker-Schuler, Else: nee Schuler German poet, short-story writer, playwright, and novelist of the early 20th century.
Laski, Harold Joseph: British political scientist, educator, and prominent member of the British Labour Party who turned to Marxism in his effort to interpret the "crisis in democracy" in Britain during the economic depression of the 1930s.
Laspeyres index: index proposed by German economist Etienne Laspeyres (1834-1913) for measuring current prices or quantities in relation to those of a selected base period. A Laspeyres price index is computed by taking the ratio of the total cost of purchasing a ...
Lassalle, Ferdinand: leading spokesman for German socialism, a disciple of Karl Marx (from 1848), and one of the founders of the German labour movement.
Lassell, William: amateur English astronomer who discovered Ariel and Umbriel, satellites of Uranus; and Triton, a satellite of Neptune. He also discovered a satellite of Saturn, Hyperion (also discovered independently by William Bond and George Bond).
Lassen Peak: peak standing at the southern end of the Cascade Range in northern California, U.S., 50 miles (80 km) east of Redding. Lassen Peak is 10,457 feet (3,187 m) high. It erupted without warning on May 30, 1914, and larger explosions ...
Lasso, Orlando di: Flemish composer whose music stands at the apex of the Franco-Netherlandish style that dominated European music of the Renaissance.
Lassois, Mont: site of great Celtic fortifications near Chatillon-sur-Seine in the Cote-d'Or departement, France. The hill-fort of Vix, on Mt. Lassois, seems to have been the centre of widespread political authority and extensive trade relations, especially during the 6th century BC. The ...
Lasswell, Harold Dwight: influential political scientist known for seminal studies of power relations and of personality and politics and for other major contributions to contemporary behavioral political science. He authored more than 30 books and 250 scholarly articles on diverse subjects, including international ...
Last Judgment: a general, or sometimes individual, judging of the thoughts, words, and deeds of persons by God, the gods, or by the laws of cause and effect. In some religions (e.g., Christianity) the judgment is of both the living and the ...
Last Mountain Lake: lake in south central Saskatchewan, Canada, which drains southward to the Qu'Appelle River. Named after a hill 12 mi (19 km) to the east, the lake averages only 2 mi in width but extends northward for nearly 60 mi. It ...
Last Supper: in the New Testament (Matt. 26:17-29; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:7-38; I Cor. 11:23-25), the final meal shared by Jesus and his disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem, the occasion of the institution of the Eucharist. According to the biblical ...
Lastman, Pieter: Dutch painter of biblical and mythological scenes in antique landscapes who had a strong influence on the young Rembrandt, who worked in his Amsterdam studio in 1624.