Part 52

His researches in the life-history of various of the lower forms of animal life were in opposition to the doctrine that they could be "produced spontaneously, or bred from corruption." Thus he showed that the weevils of granaries, in his time commonly supposed to be bred _from_ wheat, as well as _in_ it, are grubs hatched from eggs deposited by winged insects. His chapter on the flea, in which he not only describes its structure, but traces out the whole history of its metamorphoses from its first emergence from the egg, is full of interest--not so much for the exactness of his observations, as for its incidental revelation of the extraordinary ignorance then prevalent in regard to the origin and propagation of "this minute and despised creature," which some asserted to be produced from sand, others from dust, others from the dung of pigeons, and others from urine, but which he showed to be "endowed with as great perfection in its kind as any large animal," and proved to breed in the regular way of winged insects. He even noted the fact that the pupa of the flea is sometimes attacked and fed upon by a mite--an observation which suggested the well known lines of Swift. His attention having been drawn to the blighting of the young shoots of fruit-trees, which was commonly attributed to the ants found upon them, he was the first to find the _Aphides_ that really do the mischief; and, upon searching into the history of their generation, he observed the young within the bodies of their parents. He carefully studied also the history of the ant and was the first to show that what had been commonly reputed to be "ants' eggs" are really their pupae, containing the perfect insect nearly ready for emersion, whilst the true eggs are far smaller, and give origin to "maggots" or larvae. Of the sea-mussel, again, and other shell-fish, he argued (in reply to a then recent defence of Aristotle's doctrine by F. Buonanni, a learned Jesuit of Rome) that they are not generated out of the mud or sand found on the seashore or the beds of rivers at low water, but from spawn, by the regular course of generation; and he maintained the same to be true of the fresh-water mussel (_Unio_), whose ova he examined so carefully that he saw in them the rotation of the embryo, a phenomenon supposed to have been first discovered long afterwards. In the same spirit he investigated the generation of eels, which were at that time supposed, not only by the ignorant vulgar, but by "respectable and learned men," to be produced from dew without the ordinary process of generation. Not only was he the first discoverer of the rotifers, but he showed "how wonderfully nature has provided for the preservation of their species," by their tolerance of the drying-up of the water they inhabit, and the resistance afforded to the evaporation of the fluids of their bodies by the impermeability of the casing in which they then become enclosed. "We can now easily conceive," he says, "that in all rain-water which is collected from gutters in cisterns, and in all waters exposed to the air, animalcules may be found; for they may be carried thither by the particles of dust blown about by the winds."

Leeuwenhoek's contributions to the _Philosophical Transactions_ amounted to one hundred and twelve; he also published twenty-six papers in the _Memoirs of the Paris Academy of Sciences_. Two collections of his works appeared during his life, one in Dutch (Leiden and Delft, 1685-1718), and the other in Latin (_Opera omnia s. Arcana naturae ope exactissimorum microscopiorum selecta_, Leiden, 1715-1722); and a selection from them was translated by S. Hoole and published in English (London, 1781-1798).

LEEWARD ISLANDS, a group in the West Indies. They derive their name from being less exposed to the prevailing N.E. trade wind than the adjacent Windward Islands. They are the most northerly of the Lesser Antilles, and form a curved chain stretching S.W. from Puerto Rico to meet St Lucia, the most northerly of the Windward Islands. They consist of the Virgin Islands, with St Kitts, Antigua, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique and their various dependencies. The Virgin Islands are owned by Great Britain and Denmark, Holland having St Eustatius, with Saba, and part of St Martin. France possesses Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Bartholomew and the remainder of St Martin. The rest of the islands are British, and (with the exception of Sombrero, a small island used only as a lighthouse-station) form, under one governor, a colony divided into five presidencies, namely: Antigua (with Barbuda and Redonda), St Kitts (with Nevis and Anguilla), Dominica, Montserrat and the Virgin Islands. Total pop. (1901) 127,536. There is one federal executive council nominated by the crown, and one federal legislative council--ten nominated and ten elected members. Of the latter, four are chosen by the unofficial members of the local legislative council of Antigua, two by those of Dominica, and four by the non-official members of the local legislative council of St Kitts-Nevis. The federal legislative council meets once annually, usually at St John, Antigua.

LE FANU, JOSEPH SHERIDAN (1814-1873), Irish journalist and author, was born of an old Huguenot family at Dublin on the 28th of August 1814. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1833. At an early age he had given proof of literary talent, and in 1837 he joined the staff of the _Dublin University Magazine_, of which he became later editor and proprietor. In 1837 he produced the Irish ballad _Phaudhrig Croohore_, which was shortly afterwards followed by a second, _Shamus O'Brien_, successfully recited in the United States by Samuel Lover. In 1839 he became proprietor of the _Warder_, a Dublin newspaper, and, after purchasing the _Evening Packet_ and a large interest in the _Dublin Evening Mail_, he combined the three papers under the title the _Evening Mail_, a weekly reprint from which was issued as the _Warder_. After the death of his wife in 1858 he lived in retirement, and his best work was produced at this period of his life. He wrote some clever novels, of a sensational order, in which his vigorous imagination and his Irish love of the supernatural have full play. He died in Dublin on the 7th of February 1873. His best-known novels are _The House by the Churchyard_ (1863) and _Uncle Silas, a Tale of Bartram Haugh_ (1864). _The Purcell Papers_, Irish stories dating from his college days, were edited with a memoir of the author by A. P. Graves in 1880.

LEFEBVRE, PIERRE FRANÇOIS JOSEPH, duke of Danzig (1755-1820), marshal of France, was born at Rouffach in Alsace on the 20th of October 1755. At the outbreak of the Revolution he was a sergeant in the Gardes françaises, and with many of his comrades of this regiment took the popular side. He distinguished himself by bravery and humanity in many of the street fights in Paris, and becoming an officer and again distinguishing himself--this time against foreign invaders--he was made a general of division in 1794. He took part in the Revolutionary Wars from Fleurus to Stokach, always resolute, strictly obedient and calm. At Stokach (1799) he received a severe wound and had to return to France, where he assisted Napoleon during the _coup d'état_ of 18 Brumaire. He was one of the first generals of division to be made marshal at the beginning of the First Empire. He commanded the guard infantry at Jena, conducted the siege of Danzig 1806-1807 (from which town he received his title in 1808), commanded a corps in the emperor's campaign of 1808-1809 in Spain, and in 1809 was given the difficult task of commanding the Bavarian contingent, which he led in the containing engagements of Abensberg and Rohr and at the battle of Eckmühl. He commanded the Imperial Guard in Russia, 1812, fought through the last campaign of the Empire, and won fresh glory at Montmirail, Areis-sur-Aube and Champaubert. He was made a peer of France by Louis XVIII. but joined Napoleon during the Hundred Days, and was only amnestied and permitted to resume his seat in the upper chamber in 1819. He died at Paris on the 14th of September 1820. Marshal Lefebvre was a simple soldier, whose qualifications for high rank, great as they were, came from experience and not from native genius. He was incapable of exercising a supreme command, even of leading an important detachment, but he was absolutely trustworthy as a subordinate, as brave as he was experienced, and intensely loyal to his chief. He maintained to the end of his life a rustic simplicity of speech and demeanour. Of his wife (formerly a _blanchisseuse_ to the Gardes Françaises) many stories have been told, but in so far as they are to her discredit they seem to be false, she being, like the marshal, a plain "child of the people."