Lac
in botany, etc.: (1) A resinous incrustation caused by the parasitic insect Coccus lacca. The incrusted sticks are called stick lac. Lac is called also East Indian kino. (2) A white, te, orange, or other-colored fluid occurring in many plants. (3) A gummy substance produced by Aleurites lac. In pharmacy, a decoction of shell lac is much used in India in the preparation of several medicinal oils.
LAC AMMONIACUM (-nia-kum), milk of ammoniacum, from its resembling that fluid in appearance. A mixture prepared by rubbing, slowly and perfectly, down a certain quantity of the ammoniacum with water, till the whole, by steady and careful trituration, is suspended in the water. This makes one of the best expectorant mixtures in the pharmacopeia for coughs, colds, and hoarseness.
LACCADIVES (lak'a-dīvz), a group of 14 coral islands in the Arabian Sea; about 200 miles W. of the Malabar coast; between lat. 10° and 14° N.; area, 744 square miles; pop. about 10,000.
The cocoanut is the chief plant, and coir (cocoanut fiber) the staple product; this and jaggery, cocoanuts, copra, tortoise-shell, and cowries are carried over to the mainland by the men. The group was discovered by Vasco da Gama in 1499. The N. islands are attached to the Madras district of South Kanara; the rest belong to the rajah of Cannanore, but since 1877 have been administered by the collector of Malabar. The people are Mohammedans of Hindu decrocodile 12 feut Brived from the of a section of nder the microa the labyrinth- 100,0002 In the (1) A reainous the parasitic inincrusted sticks ec is called also carring in many substance pro- In pharmacy, a much used in slowly and cantity of the all the wh Chis mak one the bar about 10,000.
Def plant, and ve corried over 4 Gama in tre attached to South Kanara; Dish of Cяпля- LACE scent, their language Malayalam, except in Minikoi, which properly belongs to the Maldive group and retains its language.
LACE, an ornamental fabric of threads so interwoven, twisted, braided, and knotted as to form definite patterns, of contrasted open and close structure.
It is claimed that the art of embroidery was developed into needle lace early in the 15th century, by Greek refugees, who brought their art from the Ionian Islands to Venice. By the middle of the 17th century lace had become the most desired adornment; and at the time when Colbert introduced its manufacture into France, under royal patronage, in 1660, it was so highly prized that extravagant nobles mortgaged their châteaux to obtain decorations for their boot-tops and jabots for their necks. From then till the introduction of machine-made lace early in the 19th century, lace making remained one of the great industries of Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the S. of England.
Technically, lace consists of two elements: the pattern, flower, or gimp, which forms the closer-worked and more solid portion of the fabric; and the ground or filling, which serves to hold the pattern together and in its proper place.
Real or hand-made lace is of two distinct varieties: point or needle lace, which is made with a needle and is, in fact, the direct development of embroidery (being the lace of Italy, Spain and their followers); and pillow lace, which is made by the braiding, plaiting, and of threads whose foundations are pins stuck in a cushion or pillow held on the maker's lap (this is the lace of Flanders and the Netherlands). Το these two schools of real laces, in which the finest linen threads are the material, have been added machine lace, which imitates with tates with marvelous closeness the more noticeable characteristics of the precious handmade treasures, but utilizes cotton and silk and even metal threads, producing such quantities of beautiful web at such moderate cost as to have practically killed the real lace industry.