Another of these results was no less satisfactory—his refutation of the error concerning the fermentation of the blood in living subjects. He demonstrated that the blood-vessels do not contain the air necessary for fermentation. Subsequent investigations concerning the composition of the blood itself were attended with results of great importance. The globules of blood discovered by Malpighi he found to be flattened ovals floating in the serum, and he concluded that the colour of the blood is owing to the presence of the globules with the serum (which is itself colourless). On these observations Boerhaave based his theory of inflammation. The fibrous structure of the brain and the structure of the crystalline lens in the eye engaged the attention of Leuwenhoeck for some time; and while his researches regarding the former had little result, those that he prosecuted respecting the latter, proving it to consist of superimposed laminæ, attracted much notice among men of science. In 1677 a young physician of Dantzic, Ludwig von Hammer, paid a visit to Leuwenhoeck, and had the distinction of drawing the great naturalist's attention to the subject of spermatozoa. Spermatozoa Leuwenhoeck had observed in 1674, but had mistaken them for globules; his researches were now extended even to those of insects, and in this direction he may be said to have wrought at the foundations of the modern science of embryology, as in another, he was certainly the founder of a science, of which the name was unknown to him—that of histology. In 1679 the Royal Society acknowledged his splendid services to science, and his many valuable contributions to their Transactions, by admitting him a member. His works, mostly in the form of letters, have been published in a Latin translation under the title of "Opera Omnia, seu Arcana Naturæ," Lugduni, Batavorum, 1792, 4to. An earlier Dutch edition in seven volumes was published at Leyden, 1686-88; and at Delft, 1689-1732, 4to.—F. B—y.
* LEVER, Charles James, a prolific and popular Irish novelist, was born about 1808 in Dublin, where his father was a thriving builder and timber merchant. He was educated at Trinity college, Dublin, and at Göttingen, for the medical profession, which he followed for some time in Ireland. The early chapters of his first and freshest novel, "Harry Lorrequer," were composed, according to his own account, "in a quiet little watering-place near the Giant's Causeway," and published in the Dublin University Magazine. So slight was then Mr. Lever's consciousness of his own powers that, having been called to Brussels to fill a medical appointment in connection with the English legation in that city, he had given up all thought of continuing "Harry Lorrequer." It had produced, however, a great impression on the readers of the magazine, and the publisher urged its completion. This was effected, and with it Mr. Lever at once took rank among the most amusing writers of his time. "Harry Lorrequer" was long his nom de plume. After a residence of a few years at Brussels, Mr. Lever returned to Ireland to undertake the editorship of the Dublin University Magazine. Meanwhile had appeared his second novel, "Charles O'Malley," with its striking pictures of the Peninsular war, perhaps at once more varied and more stirring than "Harry Lorrequer," and certainly not its inferior in either "dash" or animation. The key-note sounded in "Harry Lorrequer" is the pervading one of most of Mr. Lever's very numerous fictions. They are the productions of a gay, vivid, genial man of the world; keenly observant of the physiognomies of the mess-room and the ball-room, the camp and the hunting-field; with warm sympathies for the adventurous, the daring, the reckless; thoroughly understanding and readily reproducing most of the varieties of Irish character. The years of Mr. Lever's editorship of the Dublin University Magazine seem to have been coincident with the earlier period of Sir Robert Peel's second administration, and under his management the periodical did some service to the cause of conservatism in Ireland. Resigning after a few years the editorship of the Dublin University, Mr. Lever withdrew to the continent, residing chiefly at Florence, and producing a numerous series of lively fictions—among them, "The O'Donoghue;" "The Knights of Gwynne," one of the most successful of them all; "The Daltons;" "Roland Cashel;" "Tom Burke of Ours," &c. Some time after Lord Derby's reaccession to the premiership, the ex-editor of the Dublin University Magazine was appointed, November, 1858, English vice-consul at Spezia, the new Portsmouth of the then kingdom of Sardinia. The latest of his fictions, "A Day's Ride, a life's romance," was contributed in 1861 to the All the Year Round of his friend Mr. Dickens. Its quiet irony (it was intended to be the autobiography of a fool, as Mr. Thackeray's Barry Lyndon had been the autobiography of a knave) presented a striking contrast to the tone of most of Mr. Lever's previous fictions.—F. E.
LEVER, Thomas, a zealous promoter of the Reformation, is said to have been born at Little Lever, near Bolton, in Lancashire, and studied at Cambridge, where he took his degrees, and became first fellow and then master of St. John's college. He was ordained in 1550 by Bishop Ridley, and became an eloquent and popular preacher. Bullinger calls him a learned and very godly man, and says he used to preach before the king, Edward VI. Through his influence St. John's became distinguished for its attachment to the Reformation, and when Mary began to persecute, Lever and twenty-four of the fellows went abroad. After his ejection he went to Geneva, where he became strongly attached to Calvin. In one of his letters written at this time he says, "I attend all the sermons and lectures of Calvin, and some of those of other persons, and have hitherto employed the remainder of my time in the publication of a little book in our vernacular English; it is now in the press, and, God willing, will shortly be sent to England." This was his "Right way from danger of sin and vengeance," &c. He afterwards visited Zurich, and resided for a time with the English congregation at Frankfort, but eventually undertook the charge of a small flock at Arau. On his return to England he was prominent among the puritans, and was deprived of his preferments for resisting the act of uniformity. He died in 1577. His works well deserve perusal; they strongly resemble those of Latimer.—B. H. C.
LEVERIDGE, Richard, the composer and singer, was born in 1670. He possessed a fine bass voice, was the principal singer at the theatres, and much distinguished himself by his performance of Purcell's Ye Twice Ten Hundred Deities, composed for him. About the year 1726 he opened a coffee-house in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, and published a "Collection of Songs" in two thin octavo volumes, neatly engraved, with a frontispiece by Hogarth. In Rowe's edition of Shakspeare, the music of Macbeth is said to have been set by Leveridge. This is the charming witch-music which has so long passed current as the composition of Matthew Lock.—(See Lock.) He was also the author of many fine dramatic songs, which were occasionally introduced in the dramatic productions of the early part of the last century. Dr. Burney says of him—"I remember him singing Ghosts of Every Occupation, and several of Purcell's bass songs occasionally, in a style which forty years ago (i.e., about the year 1744) seemed antediluvian; but, as he generally was the representative of Pluto, Neptune, or some ancient divinity, it corresponded perfectly with his figure and character." He was the composer and singer of a number of convivial songs that were in great favour with singers and hearers of a certain class, who more piously performed the rites of Comus and Bacchus than those of Minerva and Apollo. Notwithstanding his propensities—such as commonly shorten the term of life—he attained the great age of eighty-eight. But though his habits had no influence on his health, they powerfully operated on his circumstances. He died in 1758 wretchedly poor.—E. F. R.
* LEVERRIER, Urban Jean Joseph, one of the most distinguished mathematicians and astronomers of modern times, was born at St. Lo, in the department of La Manche, on the 11th March, 1811. He was admitted into the polytechnic school in 1831; and he had there obtained such distinction, that in 1833 he was allowed to select one of the best positions in the public service. He chose, however, that of engineer to the Administration des Tabacs; and he devoted himself to chemical researches with so much success that in 1837 he published in the Annales de Chimie a memoir on a new combination of phosphorus and oxygen. His passion for mathematics, however, overbore his chemical tastes, and he was appointed a repetiteur in the polytechnic school.
In his researches in physical astronomy he followed in the footsteps of Laplace, and attacked the highest problems in the mechanism of the heavens. In 1839 he submitted to the Institute two memoirs on the stability of the planetary system, in which he demonstrated that it was insured by the system of the three planets—Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus—leaving the question still undecided for Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars. After determining the perturbations of the orbit of Mercury by the action of the other planets, he communicated to the Institute in 1844 his theory of Lexell's periodical comet of
