of the Congo river in 6° S. northwards through about two degrees. At one
time included in the "kingdom of Congo" (see ANGOLA, _History_), Loango
became independent about the close of the 16th century, and was still of
considerable importance in the middle of the 18th century. Buali, the
capital, was situated on the banks of a small river not far from the
port of Loango, where were several European "factories." The country
afterwards became divided into a large number of petty states, while
Portugal and France exercised an intermittent sovereignty over the
coast. Here the slave trade was longer maintained than anywhere else on
the West African seaboard; since its extirpation, palm oil and
india-rubber have been the main objects of commerce. The Loango coast is
now divided between French Congo and the Portuguese district of Kabinda
(see those articles). The natives, mainly members of the Ba-Kongo group
of Bantu negroes, and often called Ba-Fiot, are in general well-built,
strongly dolichocephalous and very thick of skull, the skin of various
shades of warm brown with the faintest suggestion of purple. Baldness is
unknown, and many of the men wear beards. Physical deformity is
extremely rare. In religious beliefs and in the use of fetishes they
resemble the negroes of Upper Guinea.
LOBACHEVSKIY, NICOLAS IVANOVICH (1793-1856), Russian mathematician, was
born at Makariev, Nizhniy-Novgorod, on the 2nd of November (N.S.) 1793.
His father died about 1800, and his mother, who was left in poor
circumstances, removed to Kazan with her three sons. In 1807 Nicolas,
the second boy, entered as a student in the University of Kazan, then
recently established. Five years later, having completed the curriculum,
he began to take part in the teaching, becoming assistant professor in
1814 and extraordinary professor two years afterwards. In 1823 he
succeeded to the ordinary professorship of mathematics, and retained the
chair until about 1846, when he seems to have fallen into official
disfavour. At that time his connexion with the university to which he
had devoted his life practically came to an end, except that in 1855, at
the celebration of his jubilee, he brought it as a last tribute his
_Pangéométrie_, in which he summarized the results of his geometrical
studies. This work was translated into German by H. Liebmann in 1902. He
died at Kazan on the 24th of February (N.S.) 1856. Lobachevskiy was one
of the first thinkers to apply a critical treatment to the fundamental
axioms of geometry, and he thus became a pioneer of the modern
geometries which deal with space other than as treated by Euclid. His
first contribution to non-Euclidian geometry is believed to have been
given in a lecture at Kazan in 1826, but the subject is treated in many
of his subsequent memoirs, among which may be mentioned the
_Geometrische Untersuchungen zur Theorie der Parallellinien_ (Berlin,
1840, and a new edition in 1887), and the _Pangéométrie_ already
referred to, which in the subtitle is described as a précis of geometry
founded on a general and rigorous theory of parallels. (See GEOMETRY, §
_Non-Euclidean_, and GEOMETRY, § _Axioms of_.) In addition to his
geometrical studies, he made various contributions to other branches of
mathematical science, among them being an elaborate treatise on algebra
(Kazan, 1834). Besides being a geometer of power and originality,
Lobachevskiy was an excellent man of business. Under his administration
the University of Kazan prospered as it had never done before; and he
not only organized the teaching staff to a high degree of efficiency,
but arranged and enriched its library, furnished instruments for its
observatory, collected specimens for its museums and provided it with
proper buildings. In order to be able to supervise the erection of the
last, he studied architecture, with such effect, it is said, that he was
able to carry out the plans at a cost considerably below the original
estimates.
See F. Engel, _N. I. Lobatchewsky_ (Leipzig, 1899).
LOBANOV-ROSTOVSKI, ALEXIS BORISOVICH, PRINCE (1824-1896), Russian
statesman, was born on the 30th of December 1824, and educated, like
Prince Gorchakov and so many other eminent Russians, at the lyceum of
Tsarskoe Selo. At the age of twenty he entered the diplomatic service,
and became minister at Constantinople in 1859. In 1863 a regrettable
incident in his private life made him retire temporarily from the public
service, but four years later he re-entered it and served for ten years
as _adlatus_ to the minister of the interior. At the close of the
Russo-Turkish war in 1878 he was selected by the emperor to fill the
post of ambassador at Constantinople, and for more than a year he
carried out with great ability the policy of his government, which aimed
at re-establishing tranquillity in the Eastern Question, after the
disturbances produced by the reckless action of his predecessor, Count
Ignatiev. In 1879 he was transferred to London, and in 1882 to Vienna;
and in March 1895 he was appointed minister of foreign affairs in
succession to M. de Giers. In this position he displayed much of the
caution of his predecessor, but adopted a more energetic policy in
European affairs generally and especially in the Balkan Peninsula. At
the time of his appointment the attitude of the Russian government
towards the Slav nationalities had been for several years one of extreme
reserve, and he had seemed as ambassador to sympathize with this
attitude. But as soon as he became minister of foreign affairs, Russian
influence in the Balkan Peninsula suddenly revived. Servia received
financial assistance; a large consignment of arms was sent openly from
St Petersburg to the prince of Montenegro; Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria
became ostensibly reconciled with the Russian emperor, and his son Boris
was received into the Eastern Orthodox Church; the Russian embassy at
Constantinople tried to bring about a reconciliation between the
Bulgarian exarch and the oecumenical patriarch; Bulgarians and Servians
professed, at the bidding of Russia, to lay aside their mutual
hostility. All this seemed to foreshadow the creation of a Balkan
confederation hostile to Turkey, and the sultan had reason to feel
alarmed. In reality Prince Lobanov was merely trying to establish a
strong Russian hegemony among these nationalities, and he had not the
slightest intention of provoking a new crisis in the Eastern Question so
long as the general European situation did not afford Russia a
convenient opportunity for solving it in her own interest without
serious intervention from other powers. Meanwhile he considered that the
integrity and independence of the Ottoman empire must be maintained so
far as these other powers were concerned. Accordingly, when Lord
Salisbury proposed energetic action to protect the Armenians, the
cabinet of St Petersburg suddenly assumed the rôle of protector of the
sultan and vetoed the proposal. At the same time efforts were made to
weaken the Triple Alliance, the principal instrument employed being the
_entente_ with France, which Prince Lobanov helped to convert into a
formal alliance between the two powers. In the Far East he was not less
active, and became the protector of China in the same sense as he had
shown himself the protector of Turkey. Japan was compelled to give up
her conquests on the Chinese mainland, so as not to interfere with the
future action of Russia in Manchuria, and the financial and other
schemes for increasing Russian influence in that part of the world were
vigorously supported. All this activity, though combined with a haughty
tone towards foreign governments and diplomatists, did not produce much
general apprehension, probably because there was a widespread conviction
that he desired to maintain peace, and that his great ability and
strength of character would enable him to control the dangerous forces
which he boldly set in motion. However this may be, before he had time
to mature his schemes, and when he had been the director of Russian
policy for only eighteen months, he died suddenly of heart disease when
travelling with the emperor on the 30th of August 1896. Personally
Prince Lobanov was a _grand seigneur_ of the Russian type, proud of
being descended from the independent princes of Rostov, and at the same
time an amiable man of wide culture, deeply versed in Russian history
and genealogy, and perhaps the first authority of his time in all that
related to the reign of the emperor Paul. (D. M. W.)
LÖBAU, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the Löbau water,
12 m. S.E. of the town of Bautzen, on the Dresden-Görlitz railway. Pop.
(1905) 10,683. There is a spa, König Albert-Bad, largely frequented
during the summer season. The town has agricultural implement,
pianoforte, sugar, machine-building and button works, and trade in
grain, yarn, linen and stockings. Other industries are spinning,
weaving, dyeing, bleaching and brewing.
Löbau is first mentioned as a town in 1221; it received civic rights
early in the 14th century and, in 1346, became one of the six allied
towns of Lusatia. It suffered severely during the Hussite war and was
deprived of its rights in 1547.
See Bergmann, _Geschichte der Oberlausitzer Sechsstadt Löbau_
(Bischofswerda, 1896); and Kretschmer, _Die Stadl Löbau_ (Chemnitz,
1904).
LOBBY, a corridor or passage, also any apartment serving as an
ante-room, waiting room or entrance hall in a building. The Med. Lat.
_lobia_, _laubia_ or _lobium_, from which the word was directly adapted,
was used in the sense of a cloister, gallery or covered place for
walking attached to a house, as defined by Du Cange (_Gloss. Med. et
Inf. Lat._, s.v. _Lobia_), _porticus operta ad spatiandum idonea,
aedibus adjuncta_. The French form of _lobia_ was _loge_, cf. Ital.
_loggia_, and this gave the Eng. "lodge," which is thus a doublet of
"lobby." The ultimate derivation is given under LODGE. Other familiar
uses of the term "lobby" are its application (1) to the entrance hall of
a parliament house, and (2) to the two corridors known as
"division-lobbies," into which the members of the House of Commons and
other legislative bodies pass on a division, their votes being recorded
according to which "lobby," "aye" or "no," they enter. The entrance
lobby to a legislative building is open to the public, and thus is a
convenient place for interviews between members and their constituents
or with representatives of public bodies, associations and interests,
and the press. The influence and pressure thus brought to bear upon
members of legislative bodies has given rise to the use of "to lobby,"
"lobbying," "lobbyist," &c., with this special significance. The
practice, though not unknown in the British parliament, is most
prevalent in the United States of America, where the use of the term
first arose (see below).
LOBBYING, in America, a general term used to designate the efforts of
persons who are not members of a legislative body to influence the
course of legislation. In addition to the large number of American
private bills which are constantly being introduced in Congress and the
various state legislatures, there are many general measures, such as
proposed changes in the tariff or in the railway or banking laws, which
seriously affect special interests. The people who are most intimately
concerned naturally have a right to appear before the legislature or its
representative, the committee in charge of the bill, and present their
side of the case. Lobbying in this sense is legitimate, and may almost
be regarded as a necessity. Unfortunately, however, all lobbying is not
of this innocent character. The great industrial corporations, insurance
companies, and railway and traction monopolies which have developed in
comparatively recent years are constantly in need of legislative
favours; they are also compelled to protect themselves against
legislation which is unreasonably severe, and against what are known in
the slang of politics as _strikes_ or _hold-ups_.[1] In order that these
objects may be accomplished there are kept at Washington and at the
various state capitals paid agents whose influence is so well recognized
that they are popularly called "the third house." Methods of the most
reprehensible kind have often been employed by them.
Attempts have been made to remedy the evil by constitutional
prohibition, by statute law and by the action of the governor of the
state supported by public opinion. Improper lobbying has been declared a
felony in California, Georgia, Utah, Tennessee, Oregon, Montana and
Arizona, and the constitutions of practically all of the states impose
restrictions upon the enactment of special and private legislation. The
Massachusetts anti-lobbying act of 1890, which has served as a model for
the legislation of Maryland (1900), Wisconsin (1905) and a few of the
other states, is based upon the publicity principle. Counsel and other
legislative agents must register with the sergeant-at-arms giving the
names and addresses of their employers and the date, term and character
of their employment. In 1907 alone laws regulating lobbying were passed
in nine states--Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Missouri,
Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas.
See James Bryce, _American Commonwealth_ (New York, ed. 1889), i.
673-678; Paul S. Reinsch, _American Legislatures and Legislative
Methods_ (New York, 1907), chaps. viii., ix.; Margaret A. Schaffner,
"Lobbying," in _Wisconsin Comparative Legislation Bulletins_, No. 2;
and G. M. Gregory, _The Corrupt Use of Money in Politics and Laws for
its Prevention_ (Madison, Wis., 1893).
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Bills introduced for purposes of blackmail.
LOBE, any round projecting part, specifically the lower part of the
external ear, one of the parts into which the liver is divided, also one
of several parts of the brain, divided by marked fissures (see LIVER and
BRAIN). The Greek [Greek: lobos], from which "lobe" is derived, was
applied to the lobe of the ear and of the liver, and to the pod of a
leguminous plant.
LOBECK, CHRISTIAN AUGUST (1781-1860), German classical scholar, was born
at Naumburg on the 5th of June 1781. After having studied at Jena and
Leipzig, he settled at Wittenberg in 1802 as privat-docent, and in 1810
was appointed to a professorship in the university. Four years later, he
accepted the chair of rhetoric and ancient literature at Königsberg,
which he occupied till within two years of his death (25th of August
1860). His literary activities were devoted to the history of Greek
religion and to the Greek language and literature. His greatest work,
_Aglaophamus_ (1829), is still valuable to students. In this he
maintains, against the views put forward by G. F. Creuzer in his
_Symbolik_ (1810-1823), that the religion of the Greek mysteries
(especially those of Eleusis) did not essentially differ from the
national religion; that it was not esoteric; that the priests as such
neither taught nor possessed any higher knowledge of God; that the
Oriental elements were a later importation. His edition of the _Ajax_ of
Sophocles (1809) had gained him the reputation of a sound scholar and
critic; his Phrynichus (1820) and _Paralipomena grammaticae graecae_
(1837) exhibit the widest acquaintance with Greek literature. He had
little sympathy with comparative philology, holding that it needed a
lifetime to acquire a thorough knowledge of a single language.
See the article by L. Friedländer in _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_;
C. Bursian's _Geschichte der klassischen Philologie in Deutschland_
(1883); Lehrs, _Populäre Aufsätze aus dem Altertum_ (2nd ed., Leipzig,
1875); Ludwich, _Ausgewählte Briefe von und an Chr. Aug. Lobeck und K.
Lehrs_ (1894); also J. E. Sandys, _History of Classical Scholarship_,
i. (1908), 103.
LOBEIRA, JOÃO (c. 1233-1285), a Portuguese troubadour of the time of
King Alphonso III., who is supposed to have been the first to reduce
into prose the story of _Amadis de Gaula_ (q.v.). D. Carolina Michaelis
de Vasconcellos, in her masterly edition of the _Cancioneiro de Ajuda_
(Halle, 1904, vol. i. pp. 523-524), gives some biographical notes on
João Lobeira, who is represented in the Colocci Brancuti _Canzoniere_
(Halle, 1880) by five poems (Nos. 230-235). In number 230, João Lobeira
uses the same _ritournelle_ that Oriana sings in _Amadis de Gaula_, and
this has led to his being generally considered by modern supporters of
the Portuguese case to have been the author of the romance, in
preference to Vasco de Lobeira, to whom the prose original was formerly
ascribed. The folklorist A. Thomas Pires (in his _Vasco de Lobeira_,
Elvas, 1905), following the old tradition, would identify the novelist
with a man of that name who flourished in Elvas at the close of the 14th
and beginning of the 15th century, but the documents he publishes
contain no reference to this Lobeira being a man of letters.
LOBELIA, the typical genus of the tribe _Lobelieae_, of the order
Campanulaceae, named after Matthias de Lobel, a native of Lille,
botanist and physician to James I. It numbers about two hundred species,
natives of nearly all the temperate and warmer regions of the world,
excepting central and eastern Europe as well as western Asia. They are
annual or perennial herbs or under-shrubs, rarely shrubby; remarkable
arborescent forms are the tree-lobelias found at high elevations on the
mountains of tropical Africa. Two species are British, _L. Dortmanna_
(named by Linnaeus after Dortmann, a Dutch druggist), which occurs in
gravelly mountain lakes; and _L. urens_, which is only found on heaths,
&c., in Dorset and Cornwall. The genus is distinguished from _Campanula_
by the irregular corona and completely united anthers, and by the
excessive acridity of the milky juice. The species earliest described
and figured appears to be _L. cardinalis_, under the name _Trachelium
americanum sive cardinalis planta_, "the rich crimson cardinal's
flower"; Parkinson (_Paradisus_, 1629, p. 357) says, "it groweth neere
the riuer of Canada, where the French plantation in America is seated."
It is a native of the eastern United States. This and several other
species are in cultivation as ornamental garden plants, e.g. the dwarf
blue _L. Erinus_, from the Cape, which, with its numerous varieties,
forms a familiar bedding plant. _L. splendens_ and _L. fulgens_, growing
from 1 to 2 ft. high, from Mexico, have scarlet flowers; _L. Tupa_, a
Chilean perennial 6 to 8 ft. high, has reddish or scarlet flowers; _L.
tenuior_ with blue flowers is a recent acquisition to the greenhouse
section, while _L. amaena_, from North America, as well as _L.
syphilitica_ and its hybrids, from Virginia, have also blue flowers. The
last-named was introduced in 1665. The hybrids raised by crossing
_cardinalis_, _fulgens_, _splendens_ and _syphilitica_, constitute a
fine group of fairly hardy and showy garden plants. Queen Victoria is a
well-known variety, but there are now many others.
The _Lobelia_ is familiar in gardens under two very different forms,
that of the dwarf-tufted plants used for summer bedding, and that of
the tall showy perennials. Of the former the best type is _L. Erinus_,
growing from 4 to 6 in. high, with many slender stems, bearing through
a long period a profusion of small but bright blue two-lipped flowers.
The variety _speciosa_ offers the best strain of the dwarf lobelias;
but the varieties are being constantly superseded by new sorts. A good
variety will reproduce itself sufficiently true from seed for ordinary
flower borders, but to secure exact uniformity it is necessary to
propagate from cuttings.
The herbaceous lobelias, of which _L. fulgens_ may be taken as the
type, may be called hardy except in so far as they suffer from damp in
winter; they throw up a series of short rosette-like suckers round the
base of the old flowering stem, and these sometimes, despite all the
care taken of them, rot off during winter. The roots should either be
taken up in autumn, and planted closely side by side in boxes of dry
earth or ashes, these being set for the time they are dormant either
in a cold frame or in any airy place in the greenhouse; or they may be
left in the ground, in which case a brick or two should be put beside
the plants, some coal ashes being first placed round them, and slates
to protect the plants being laid over the bricks, one end resting on
the earth beyond. About February they should be placed in a warm pit,
and after a few days shaken out and the suckers parted, and potted
singly into small pots of light rich earth. After being kept in the
forcing pit until well established, they should be moved to a more
airy greenhouse pit, and eventually to a cold frame preparatory to
planting out. In the more favoured parts of the United Kingdom it is
unnecessary to go to this trouble, as the plants are perfectly hardy;
even in the suburbs of London they live for several years without
protection except in very severe winters. They should have a loamy
soil, well enriched with manure; and require copious waterings when
they start into free growth. They may be raised from seeds, which,
being very fine, require to be sown carefully; but they do not flower
usually till the second year unless they are sown very early in heat.
The species _Lobelia inflata_, the "Indian tobacco" of North America,
is used in medicine, the entire herb, dried and in flower, being
employed. The species derives its specific name from its
characteristic inflated capsules. It is somewhat irritant to the
nostrils, and is possessed of a burning, acrid taste. The chief
constituent is a volatile liquid alkaloid (cf. nicotine) named
lobeline, which occurs to the extent of about 30 %. This is a very
pungent body, with a tobacco-like odour. It occurs in combination with
lobelic acid and forms solid crystalline salts. The single preparation
of this plant in the British Pharmacopeia is the _Tinctura Lobeliae
Ethereae_, composed of five parts of spirits of ether to one of
lobelia. The dose is 5 to 15 minims. The ether is employed in order to
add to the efficacy of the drug in asthma, but a simple alcoholic
tincture would be really preferable.
Lobelia has certain pharmacological resemblances to tobacco. It has no
action upon the unbroken skin, but may be absorbed by it under
suitable conditions. Taken internally in small doses, e.g. 5 minims of
the tincture, it stimulates the peristaltic movements of the coecum
and colon. In large doses it is a powerful gastrointestinal irritant,
closely resembling tobacco, and causing giddiness, headache, nausea,
vomiting, purging and extreme prostration, with clammy sweats and
faltering rapid pulse. Its action on the circulation is very decided.
The cardiac terminals of the vagus nerves are paralysed, the pulse
being thus accelerated by loss of the normal inhibitory influence, and
the blood-vessels being relaxed owing to paresis of the vasomotor
centre. The blood-pressure thus falls very markedly. The respiratory
centre is similarly depressed, death ensuing from this action. Lobelia
is thus a typical respiratory poison. In less than toxic doses the
motor terminals of the vagi in the bronchi and bronchioles are
paralysed, thus causing relaxation of the bronchial muscles. It is
doubtful whether lobelia affects the cerebrum directly. It is excreted
by the kidneys and the skin, both of which it stimulates in its
passage. In general terms the drug may be said to stimulate
non-striped muscular fibres in small, and paralyse them in toxic
doses.
Five minims of the tincture may be usefully prescribed to be taken
night and morning in chronic constipation due to inertia of the lower
part of the alimentary canal. In spasmodic (neurotic) asthma, and also
in bronchitis accompanied by asthmatic spasm of the bronchioles, the
tincture may be given in comparatively large doses (e.g. one drachm)
every fifteen minutes until nausea is produced. Thereafter, whether
successful or not in relieving the spasm, the administration of the
drug must be stopped.
LOBENSTEIN, a town of Germany, in the principality of Reuss, on the
Lemnitz, situated in a pleasant and fertile country, 25 m. N.W. from Hof
by railway. Pop. (1905) 2990. The town, grouped round a rock, upon which
stand the ruins of the old castle, is exceedingly picturesque. It
contains a spacious parish church, a palace, until 1824 the residence of
the princes of Reuss-Lobenstein-Elersdorf, and a hydropathic
establishment. The manufactures include dyeing, brewing and
cigar-making.
See Zedler and Schott, _Führer durch Lobenstein und Umgebung_ (2nd
ed., Lobenstein, 1903).