LAVA WAEE 431 LAW most celebrated work is "Physiognomic Fragments" (1775-1778). He died in Zurich, Jan. 2, 1801. LAVA WABE, a kind of coarse ware resembling lava, made from iron slag, cast into urns, tiles, table-tops, etc. LAVEDAN, HENRI, a French novel- ist and critic, born in 1859. After some years as a journalist and story writer, he began the writing of plays at which he achieved great success. The subjects selected by him were social life of Paris society, problems of domestic life and his- torical episodes. Several of his plays were translated into English and pre- sented in the United States. In 1898 he was elected to the French Academy. LAVERNA, among the Romans and Latins, the patron goddess of thieves. A grove on the Via Salaria at Rome was sacred to her. The origin of the name is doubtful. LAVOISIER, ANTOINE LAURENT (la-vwa-zya), a French chemist, one of the founders of modern chemistry; born in Paris, France, Aug. 16, 1743. He demonstrated experimentally the acidi- fying action of "dephlogisticated air," or, as he renamed it, "oxygen gas." He was the first to analyze water, and to obtain by synthesis "fixed air," or as he called it, "carbonic acid." He first gave system to chemistry, and not least of his services to science was his part in devising — vidth Guyton de Morveau — a consistent scheme of chemical nomenclature. Besides pa- pers contributed to the proceedings of learned societies, he wrote an "Elemen- tary Treatise on Chemistry" (1789). He was a farmer-general of taxes, and was guillotined in Paris, May 8, 1794. LAW, a term variously defined, ac- cording to its application. The laws of nature, as expounded by men of science, are general propositions as to the order in which physical events have occurred, and will probably recur; the moral law, or the law of God, is a body of truth thrown into the form of rules for the guidance of human conduct. But when we speak of law we usually mean to indicate the law which is set and en- forced by civilized states. Law, in this sense, derives its sanction, or binding force, from the penalties by which men are constrained to obey it or punished for breaking it. The earliest source of law is custom; the customary rules of a primitive community formed the basis of the civil law at Rome, as they form the basis of the common law in England and the United States.^ Customary law is rigid and formal; in a progressive so- ciety it is relaxed and improved by the use of legal fictions, by the influence of equity, and by legislation. The civil law, amended and rationalized by successive praetors and emperors, has furnished most of the nations of modern Europe with the greater part of their legal rules and ideas; even England, while refusing? to borrow directly from the Corpus Juris Civilis (body of the civil law), has de- rived no small part of her law from that source. Scotch law has largely drawn its principles and nomenclature from Roman law. It is usual to distinguish public law (constitutional and criminal) from pri- vate law (which applies to personal status, family relations, property, and contract). Constitutional law is of espe- cial importance in the United States. Canon law is not received, as an entire system, by any modern state; but its rules are followed in defining the powers and functions of ecclesiastical persons. The law of nations, or international law, is also divided into public and private. LAW, A(NDREW) BONAR, an English statesman born in Canada, in 1858. Early in life he moved to Glas- gow, Scotland, where he engaged suc- cessfully in business. He was elected to A. BONAR LAW Parliament, where he distinguished him- self by ability in debate. He became leader of the Opposition and on the acces- sion of his party to power he succeed<?d A. J. Balfour as leader of the House. He was appointed Chancellor of the
