[1] E.g. Fr. _Linotte_, Ger. _Hänfling_, Swed. _Hämpling_.
LINSANG, the native name of one of the members of the viverrine genus
_Linsanga_. There are four species of the genus, from the Indo-Malay
countries. Linsangs are civet-like creatures, with the body and tail
greatly elongated; and the ground colour fulvous marked with bold black
patches, which in one species (_L. pardicolor_) are oblong. In West
Africa the group is represented by the smaller and spotted _Poiana
richardsoni_ which has a genet-like hind-foot. (See CARNIVORA.)
LINSEED, the seed of the common flax (q.v.) or lint, _Linum
usitatissimum_. These seeds, the linseed of commerce, are of a lustrous
brown colour externally, and a compressed and elongated oval form, with
a slight beak or projection at one extremity. The brown testa contains,
in the outer of the four coats into which it is microscopically
distinguishable, an abundant secretion of mucilaginous matter; and it
has within it a thin layer of albumen, enclosing a pair of large oily
cotyledons. The seeds when placed in water for some time become coated
with glutinous matter from the exudation of the mucilage in the external
layer of the epidermis; and by boiling in sixteen parts of water they
exude sufficient mucilage to form with the water a thick pasty
decoction. The cotyledons contain the valuable linseed oil referred to
below. Linseed grown in tropical countries is much larger and more plump
than that obtained in temperate climes, but the seed from the colder
countries yields a finer quality of oil.
Linseed formed an article of food among the Greeks and Romans, and it is
said that the Abyssinians at the present day eat it roasted. The oil is
to some extent used as food in Russia and in parts of Poland and
Hungary. The still prevalent use of linseed in poultices for open wounds
is entirely to be reprobated. It has now been abandoned by
practitioners. The principal objections to this use of linseed is that
it specially favours the growth of micro-organisms. There are numerous
clean and efficient substitutes which have all its supposed advantages
and none of its disadvantages. There are now no medicinal uses of this
substance. Linseed cake, the marc left after the expression of the oil,
is a most valuable feeding substance for cattle.
Linseed is subject to extensive and detrimental adulterations, resulting
not only from careless harvesting and cleaning, whereby seeds of the
flax dodder, and other weeds and grasses are mixed with it, but also
from the direct admixture of cheaper and inferior oil-seeds, such as
wild rape, mustard, sesame, poppy, &c., the latter adulterations being
known in trade under the generic name of "buffum." In 1864, owing to the
serious aspect of the prevalent adulteration, a union of traders was
formed under the name of the "Linseed Association." This body samples
all linseed oil arriving in England and reports on its value.
_Linseed oil_, the most valuable drying oil, is obtained by expression
from the seeds, with or without the aid of heat. Preliminary to the
operation of pressing, the seeds are crushed and ground to a fine
meal. Cold pressing of the seeds yields a golden-yellow oil, which is
often used as an edible oil. Larger quantities are obtained by heating
the crushed seeds to 160° F. (71° C.), and then expressing the oil. So
obtained, it is somewhat turbid and yellowish-brown in colour. On
storing, moisture and mucilaginous matter gradually settle out. After
storing several years it is known commercially as "tanked oil," and
has a high value in varnish-making. The delay attendant on this method
of purification is avoided by treating the crude oil with 1 to 2% of a
somewhat strong sulphuric acid, which chars and carries down the bulk
of the impurities. For the preparation of "artist's oil," the finest
form of linseed oil, the refined oil is placed in shallow trays
covered with glass, and exposed to the action of the sun's rays.
Numerous other methods of purification, some based on the oxidizing
action of ozone, have been suggested. The yield of oil from different
classes of seed varies, but from 23 to 28% of the weight of the seed
operated on should be obtained. A good average quality of seed
weighing about 392 lb. per quarter has been found in practice to give
out 109 lb. of oil.
Commercial linseed oil has a peculiar, rather disagreeable sharp taste
and smell; its specific gravity is given as varying from 0.928 to
0.953, and it solidifies at about -27°. By saponification it yields a
number of fatty acids--palmitic, myristic, oleic, linolic, linolenic
and isolinolenic. Exposed to the air in thin films, linseed oil
absorbs oxygen and forms "linoxyn," a resinous semi-elastic,
caoutchouc-like mass, of uncertain composition. The oil, when boiled
with small proportions of litharge and minium, undergoes the process
of resinification in the air with greatly increased rapidity.
Its most important use is in the preparation of oil paints and
varnishes. By painters both raw and boiled oil are used, the latter
forming the principal medium in oil painting, and also serving
separately as the basis of all oil varnishes. Boiled oil is prepared
in a variety of ways--that most common being by heating the raw oil in
an iron or copper boiler, which, to allow for frothing, must only be
about three-fourths filled. The boiler is heated by a furnace, and the
oil is brought gradually to the point of ebullition, at which it is
maintained for two hours, during which time moisture is driven off,
and the scum and froth which accumulate on the surface are ladled out.
Then by slow degrees a proportion of "dryers" is added--usually equal
weights of litharge and minium being used to the extent of 3% of the
charge of oil; and with these a small proportion of umber is generally
thrown in. After the addition of the dryers the boiling is continued
two or three hours; the fire is then suddenly withdrawn, and the oil
is left covered up in the boiler for ten hours or more. Before sending
out, it is usually stored in settling tanks for a few weeks, during
which time the uncombined dryers settle at the bottom as "foots."
Besides the dryers already mentioned, lead acetate, manganese borate,
manganese dioxide, zinc sulphate and other bodies are used.
Linseed oil is also the principal ingredient in printing and
lithographic inks. The oil for ink-making is prepared by heating it in
an iron pot up to the point where it either takes fire spontaneously
or can be ignited with any flaming substance. After the oil has been
allowed to burn for some time according to the consistence of the
varnish desired, the pot is covered over, and the product when cooled
forms a viscid tenacious substance which in its most concentrated form
may be drawn into threads. By boiling this varnish with dilute nitric
acid vapours of acrolein are given off, and the substance gradually
becomes a solid non-adhesive mass the same as the ultimate oxidation
product of both raw and boiled oil.
Linseed oil is subject to various falsifications, chiefly through the
addition of cotton-seed, niger-seed and hemp-seed oils; and rosin oil
and mineral oils also are not infrequently added. Except by smell, by
change of specific gravity, and by deterioration of drying properties,
these adulterations are difficult to detect.
LINSTOCK (adapted from the Dutch _lontstok_, i.e. "matchstick," from
_lont_, a match, _stok_, a stick; the word is sometimes erroneously
spelled "lintstock" from a supposed derivation from "lint" in the sense
of tinder), a kind of torch made of a stout stick a yard in length, with
a fork at one end to hold a lighted match, and a point at the other to
stick in the ground. "Linstocks" were used for discharging cannon in the
early days of artillery.
LINT (in M. Eng. _linnet_, probably through Fr. _linette_, from _lin_,
the flax-plant; cf. "line"), properly the flax-plant, now only in Scots
dialect; hence the application of such expressions as "lint-haired,"
"lint white locks" to flaxen hair. It is also the term applied to the
flax when prepared for spinning, and to the waste material left over
which was used for tinder. "Lint" is still the name given to a specially
prepared material for dressing wounds, made soft and fluffy by scraping
or ravelling linen cloth.
LINTEL (O. Fr. _lintel_, mod. _linteau_, from Late Lat. _limitellum_,
_limes_, boundary, confused in sense with _limen_, threshold; the Latin
name is _supercilium_, Ital. _soprasogli_, and Ger. _Sturz_), in
architecture, a horizontal piece of stone or timber over a doorway or
opening, provided to carry the superstructure. In order to relieve the
lintel from too great a pressure a "discharging arch" is generally built
over it.
LINTH, or LIMMAT, a river of Switzerland, one of the tributaries of the
Aar. It rises in the glaciers of the Tödi range, and has cut out a deep
bed which forms the Grossthal that comprises the greater portion of the
canton of Glarus. A little below the town of Glarus the river, keeping
its northerly direction, runs through the alluvial plain which it has
formed, towards the Walensee and the Lake of Zürich. But between the
Lake of Zürich and the Walensee the huge desolate alluvial plain grew
ever in size, while great damage was done by the river, which overflowed
its bed and the dykes built to protect the region near it. The Swiss
diet decided in 1804 to undertake the "correction" of this turbulent
stream. The necessary works were begun in 1807 under the supervision of
Hans Conrad Escher of Zürich (1767-1823). The first portion of the
undertaking was completed in 1811, and received the name of the "Escher
canal," the river being thus diverted into the Walensee. The second
portion, known as the "Linth canal," regulated the course of the river
between the Walensee and the Lake of Zürich and was completed in 1816.
Many improvements and extra protective works were carried out after
1816, and it was estimated that the total cost of this great engineering
undertaking from 1807 to 1902 amounted to about £200,000, the date for
the completion of the work being 1911. To commemorate the efforts of
Escher, the Swiss diet in 1823 (after his death) decided that his male
descendants should bear the name of "Escher von der Linth." On issuing
from the Lake of Zürich the Linth alters its name to that of "Limmat,"
it does not appear wherefore, and, keeping the north-westerly direction
it had taken from the Walensee, joins the Aar a little way below Brugg,
and just below the junction of the Reuss with the Aar. (W. A. B. C.)
LINTON, ELIZA LYNN (1822-1898), English novelist, daughter of the Rev.
J. Lynn, vicar of Crosthwaite, in Cumberland, was born at Keswick on the
10th of February 1822. She early manifested great independence of
character, and in great measure educated herself from the stores of her
father's library. Coming to London about 1845 with a large stock of
miscellaneous erudition, she turned this to account in her first novels,
_Azeth the Egyptian_ (1846) and _Amymone_ (1848), a romance of the days
of Pericles. Her next story, _Realities_, a tale of modern life (1851),
was not successful, and for several years she seemed to have abandoned
fiction. When, in 1865, she reappeared with _Grasp your Nettle_, it was
as an expert in a new style of novel-writing--stirring, fluent,
ably-constructed stories, retaining the attention throughout, but
affording little to reflect upon or to remember. Measured by their
immediate success, they gave her an honourable position among the
writers of her day, and secure of an audience, she continued to write
with vigour nearly until her death. _Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg_ (1866),
_Patricia Kemball_ (1874), _The Atonement of Leam Dundas_ (1877) are
among the best examples of this more mechanical side of her talent, to
which there were notable exceptions in _Joshua Davidson_ (1872), a bold
but not irreverent adaptation of the story of the Carpenter of Nazareth
to that of the French Commune; and _Christopher Kirkland_, a veiled
autobiography (1885). Mrs Linton was a practised and constant writer in
the journals of the day; her articles on the "Girl of the Period" in the
_Saturday Review_ produced a great sensation, and she was a constant
contributor to the _St James's Gazette_, the _Daily News_ and other
leading newspapers. Many of her detached essays have been collected. In
1858 she married W. J. Linton, the engraver, but the union was soon
terminated by mutual consent; she nevertheless brought up one of Mr
Linton's daughters by a former marriage. A few years before her death
she retired to Malvern. She died in London on the 14th of July 1898.
Her reminiscences appeared after her death under the title of _My
Literary Life_ (1899) and her life has been written by G. S. Layard
(1901).
LINTON, WILLIAM JAMES (1812-1897), English wood-engraver, republican and
author, was born in London. He was educated at Stratford, and in his
sixteenth year was apprenticed to the wood-engraver G. W. Bonner. His
earliest known work is to be found in Martin and Westall's _Pictorial
Illustrations of the Bible_ (1833). He rapidly rose to a place amongst
the foremost wood-engravers of the time. After working as a journeyman
engraver with two or three firms, losing his money over a cheap
political library called the "National," and writing a life of Thomas
Paine, he went into partnership (1842) with John Orrin Smith. The firm
was immediately employed on the _Illustrated London News_, just then
projected. The following year Orrin Smith died, and Linton, who had
married a sister of Thomas Wade, editor of _Bell's Weekly Messenger_,
found himself in sole charge of a business upon which two families were
dependent. For years he had concerned himself with the social and
European political problems of the time, and was now actively engaged in
the republican propaganda. In 1844 he took a prominent part in exposing
the violation by the English post-office of Mazzini's correspondence.
This led to a friendship with the Italian revolutionist, and Linton
threw himself with ardour into European politics. He carried the first
congratulatory address of English workmen to the French Provisional
Government in 1848. He edited a twopenny weekly paper, _The Cause of the
People_, published in the Isle of Man, and he wrote political verses for
the Dublin _Nation_, signed "Spartacus." He helped to found the
"International League" of patriots, and, in 1850, with G. H. Lewes and
Thornton Hunt, started _The Leader_, an organ which, however, did not
satisfy his advanced republicanism, and from which he soon withdrew. The
same year he wrote a series of articles propounding the views of Mazzini
in _The Red Republican_. In 1852 he took up his residence at Brantwood,
which he afterwards sold to John Ruskin, and from there issued _The
English Republic_, first in the form of weekly tracts and afterwards as
a monthly magazine--"a useful exponent of republican principles, a
faithful record of republican progress throughout the world; an organ of
propagandism and a medium of communication for the active republicans in
England." Most of the paper, which never paid its way and was abandoned
in 1855, was written by himself. In 1852 he also printed for private
circulation an anonymous volume of poems entitled _The Plaint of
Freedom_. After the failure of his paper he returned to his proper work
of wood-engraving. In 1857 his wife died, and in the following year he
married Eliza Lynn (afterwards known as Mrs Lynn Linton) and returned to
London. In 1864 he retired to Brantwood, his wife remaining in London.
In 1867, pressed by financial difficulties, he determined to try his
fortune in America, and finally separated from his wife, with whom,
however, he always corresponded affectionately. With his children he
settled at Appledore, New Haven, Connecticut, where he set up a
printing-press. Here he wrote _Practical Hints on Wood-Engraving_
(1879), _James Watson, a Memoir of Chartist Times_ (1879), _A History of
Wood-Engraving in America_ (1882), _Wood-Engraving, a Manual of
Instruction_ (1884), _The Masters of Wood-Engraving_, for which he made
two journeys to England (1890), _The Life of Whittier_ (1893), and
_Memories_, an autobiography (1895). He died at New Haven on the 29th of
December 1897. Linton was a singularly gifted man, who, in the words of
his wife, if he had not bitten the Dead Sea apple of impracticable
politics, would have risen higher in the world of both art and letters.
As an engraver on wood he reached the highest point of execution in his
own line. He carried on the tradition of Bewick, fought for intelligent
as against merely manipulative excellence in the use of the graver, and
championed the use of the "white line" as well as of the black,
believing with Ruskin that the former was the truer and more telling
basis of aesthetic expression in the wood-block printed upon paper.
See W. J. Linton, _Memories_; F. G. Kitton, article on "Linton" in
_English Illustrated Magazine_ (April 1891); G. S. Layard, _Life of
Mrs Lynn Linton_ (1901). (G. S. L.)
LINTOT, BARNABY BERNARD (1675-1736), English publisher, was born at
Southwater, Sussex, on the 1st of December 1675, and started business as
a publisher in London about 1698. He published for many of the leading
writers of the day, notably Vanbrugh, Steele, Gay and Pope. The latter's
_Rape of the Lock_ in its original form was first published in _Lintot's
Miscellany_, and Lintot subsequently issued Pope's translation of the
_Iliad_ and the joint translation of the _Odyssey_ by Pope, Fenton and
Broome. Pope quarrelled with Lintot with regard to the supply of free
copies of the latter translation to the author's subscribers, and in
1728 satirized the publisher in the _Dunciad_, and in 1735 in the
_Prologue to the Satires_, though he does not appear to have had any
serious grievance. Lintot died on the 3rd of February 1736.
LINUS, one of the saints of the Gregorian canon, whose festival is
celebrated on the 23rd of September. All that can be said with certainty
about him is that his name appears at the head of all the lists of the
bishops of Rome. Irenaeus (_Adv. Haer._ iii. 3. 3) identifies him with
the Linus mentioned by St Paul in 2 Tim. iv. 21. According to the _Liber
Pontificalis_, Linus suffered martyrdom, and was buried in the Vatican.
In the 17th century an inscription was found near the confession of St
Peter, which was believed to contain the name Linus; but it is not
certain that this epitaph has been read correctly or completely. The
apocryphal Latin account of the death of the apostles Peter and Paul is
falsely attributed to Linus.
See _Acta Sanctorum_, Septembris, vi. 539-545; C. de Smedt,
_Dissertatione selectae in primam aetatem hist. eccl._ pp. 300-312
(Ghent, 1876); L. Duchesne's edition of the _Liber Pontificalis_, i.
121 (Paris, 1886); R. A. Lipsius, _Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten_,
ii. 85-96 (Brunswick, 1883-1890); J. B. de Rossi, _Bullettino di
archeologia cristiana_, p. 50 (1864). (H. De.)
LINUS, one of a numerous class of heroic figures in Greek legend, of
which other examples are found in Hyacinthus and Adonis. The connected
legend is always of the same character: a beautiful youth, fond of
hunting and rural life, the favourite of some god or goddess, suddenly
perishes by a terrible death. In many cases the religious background of
the legend is preserved by the annual ceremonial that commemorated it.
At Argos this religious character of the Linus myth was best preserved:
the secret child of Psamathe by the god Apollo, Linus is exposed, nursed
by sheep and torn in pieces by sheep-dogs. Every year at the festival
Arnis or Cynophontis, the women of Argos mourned for Linus and
propitiated Apollo, who in revenge for his child's death had sent a
female monster (Poine), which tore the children from their mothers'
arms. Lambs were sacrificed, all dogs found running loose were killed,
and women and children raised a lament for Linus and Psamathe (Pausanias
i. 43. 7; Conon, _Narrat._ 19). In the Theban version, Linus, the son of
Amphimarus and the muse Urania, was a famous musician, inventor of the
Linus song, who was said to have been slain by Apollo, because he had
challenged him to a contest (Pausanias ix. 29. 6). A later story makes
him the teacher of Heracles, by whom he was killed because he had
rebuked his pupil for stupidity (Apollodorus ii. 4. 9). On Mount Helicon
there was a grotto containing his statue, to which sacrifice was offered
every year before the sacrifices to the Muses. From being the inventor
of musical methods, he was finally transformed by later writers into a
composer of prophecies and legends. He was also said to have adapted the
Phoenician letters introduced by Cadmus to the Greek language. It is
generally agreed that Linus and Ailinus are of Semitic origin, derived
from the words _ai lanu_ (woe to us), which formed the burden of the
Adonis and similar songs popular in the East. The Linus song is
mentioned in Homer; the tragedians often use the word [Greek: ailinos]
as the refrain in mournful songs, and Euripides calls the custom a
Phrygian one. Linus, originally the personification of the song of
lamentation, becomes, like Adonis, Maneros, Narcissus, the
representative of the tender life of nature and of the vegetation
destroyed by the fiery heat of the dog-star.
The chief work on the subject is H. Brugsch, _Die Adonisklage und das
Linoslied_ (1852); see also article in Roscher's _Lexikon der
Mythologie_; J. G. Frazer, _Golden Bough_ (ii. 224, 253), where, the
identity of Linus with Adonis (possibly a corn-spirit) being assumed,
the lament is explained as the lamentation of the reapers over the
dead corn-spirit; W. Mannhardt, _Wald- und Feldculte_, ii. 281.
LINZ, capital of the Austrian duchy and crownland of Upper Austria, and
see of a bishop, 117 m. W. of Vienna by rail. Pop. (1900) 58,778. It
lies on the right bank of the Danube and is connected by an iron bridge,
308 yds. long, with the market-town of Urfahr (pop. 12,827) on the
opposite bank. Linz possesses two cathedrals, one built in 1669-1682 in
rococo style, and another in early Gothic style, begun in 1862. In the
Capuchin church is the tomb of Count Raimondo Montecucculi, who died at
Linz in 1680. The museum Francisco-Carolinum, founded in 1833 and
reconstructed in 1895, contains several important collections relating
to the history of Upper Austria. In the Franz Josef-Platz stands a
marble monument, known as Trinity Column, erected by the emperor Charles
VI. in 1723, commemorating the triple deliverance of Linz from war,
fire, and pestilence. The principal manufactories are of tobacco,
boat-building, agricultural implements, foundries and cloth factories.
Being an important railway junction and a port of the Danube, Linz has a
very active transit trade.
Linz is believed to stand on the site of the Roman station _Lentia_. The
name of Linz appears in documents for the first time in 799 and it
received municipal rights in 1324. In 1490 it became the capital of the
province above the Enns. It successfully resisted the attacks of the
insurgent peasants under Stephen Fadinger on the 21st and 22nd of July
1626, but its suburbs were laid in ashes. During the siege of Vienna in
1683, the castle of Linz was the residence of Leopold I. In 1741, during
the War of the Austrian Succession, Linz was taken by the Bavarians, but
was recovered by the Austrians in the following year. The bishopric was
established in 1784.
See F. Krackowitzer, _Die Donaustadt Linz_ (Linz, 1901).
LION (Lat. _leo_, _leonis_; Gr. [Greek: leôn]). From the earliest
historic times few animals have been better known to man than the lion.
Its habitat made it familiar to all the races among whom human
civilization took its origin. The literature of the ancient Hebrews
abounds in allusions to the lion; and the almost incredible numbers
stated to have been provided for exhibition and destruction in the Roman
amphitheatres (as many as six hundred on a single occasion by Pompey,
for example) show how abundant these animals must have been within
accessible distance of Rome.
Even within the historic period the geographical range of the lion
covered the whole of Africa, the south of Asia, including Syria, Arabia,
Asia Minor, Persia and the greater part of northern and central India.
Professor A. B. Meyer, director of the zoological museum at Dresden, has
published an article on the alleged existence of the lion in historical
times in Greece, a translation of which appears in the _Report_ of the
Smithsonian Institution for 1905. Meyer is of opinion that the writer of
the _Iliad_ was probably acquainted with the lion, but this does not
prove its former existence in Greece. The accounts given by Herodotus
and Aristotle merely go to show that about 500 B.C. lions existed in
some part of eastern Europe. The Greek name for the lion is very
ancient, and this suggests, although by no means demonstrates, that it
refers to an animal indigenous to the country. Although the evidence is
not decisive, it seems probable that lions did exist in Greece at the
time of Herodotus; and it is quite possible that the representation of a
lion-chase incised on a Mycenean dagger may have been taken from life.
In prehistoric times the lion was spread over the greater part of
Europe; and if, as is very probable, the so-called _Felis atrox_ be
inseparable, its range also included the greater part of North America.
At the present day the lion is found throughout Africa (save in places
where it has been exterminated by man) and in Mesopotamia, Persia, and
some parts of north-west India. According to Dr W. T. Blanford, lions
are still numerous in the reedy swamps, bordering the Tigris and
Euphrates, and also occur on the west flanks of the Zagros mountains and
the oak-clad ranges near Shiraz, to which they are attracted by the
herds of swine which feed on the acorns. The lion nowhere exists in the
table-land of Persia, nor is it found in Baluchistan. In India it is
confined to the province of Kathiawar in Gujerat, though within the 19th
century it extended through the north-west parts of Hindustan, from
Bahawalpur and Sind to at least the Jumna (about Delhi) southward as far
as Khandesh, and in central India through the Sagur and Narbuda
territories, Bundelkund, and as far east as Palamau. It was extirpated
in Hariana about 1824. One was killed at Rhyli, in the Dumaoh district,
Sagur and Narbuda territories, so late as in the cold season of
1847-1848; and about the same time a few still remained in the valley of
the Sind river in Kotah, central India.
[Illustration: After a Drawing by Woll in Elliot's Monograph of the
_Felidae_.