Lloyd's of London Insurance marketing association in London, spe¬ cializing in high-risk insurance services. Its history dates to 1688, when Edward Lloyd kept a London coffeehouse where merchants, seafarers, and marine-insurance underwriters met to transact business. The underwriters at Lloyd’s eventually formed a marine-insurance association (incorpo¬ rated 1871); it expanded to include other forms of insurance in 1911. After a series of financial scandals, the corporation was reorganized under the Lloyd’s Act of 1982. Today Lloyd’s consists of more than 20,000 indi¬ vidual members organized in several hundred syndicates, which are rep¬ resented at Lloyd’s by underwriting agents. Individual syndicate members, rather than the corporation, are liable for losses. Until record losses in the 1980s and ’90s bankrupted some syndicate members, they had unlimited liability for business transacted for them; in 1993 that liabil¬ ity was limited. See also insurance, liability insurance.
Llull VlyiiPA, Ramon English Raymond Lully (b. 1232/33, Ciutat de Majorca, Majorca—d. 1315/16, Tunis or near Majorca) Spanish (Cat¬ alan) mystic, poet, and missionary. He was reared at die court of Majorca, where he wrote lyrical troubadour poetry. He later traveled widely, attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity; he is said to have been stoned to death at Bejai'a. As a philosopher, he is best known as the inven¬ tor of an “art of finding truth.” Primarily intended to support the church in its missionary work, it was also designed to unify all branches of knowledge. In his principal work, Ars magna (1305-08), he tried to depict all forms of knowledge, including theology, philosophy, and the natural sciences, as mutually analogous and manifestations of the godhead in the universe. His writings influenced Neoplatonic mysticism throughout medieval and early modern Europe. In Catalan culture, his allegorical novels Blanquerna (c. 1284) and Felix (c. 1288) enjoy wide popularity; he is also known for his treatise on chivalry, his animal fables, and an encyclopaedia of medieval thought.
Llyr Vhlir\ In Celtic religion, the leader of one of the two warring fami¬ lies of the gods. According to one interpretation, the Children of Llyr were the powers of darkness, constantly in conflict with the Children of Don, the powers of light. In Welsh tradition, Llyr and his son Manawydan were associated with the sea. Llyr’s other children included Bran, Creidylad, and Branwen, wife of the sun god Matholwch, king of Ireland.
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd Milo-'we-lin-ap-'gri-fithX (d. Dec. 11, 1282, near Builth, Powys, Wales) Prince of Wales (1258-77). As prince of Gwynedd in northern Wales from 1255, he sought to extend his rule throughout his native country, and he proclaimed himself prince of Wales in 1258. He fought the English lords of southern Wales (1262) and allied himself with Henry Ill’s opponent, Simon de Montfort. After Montfort’s death, however, he signed a treaty recognizing Henry as overlord (1267). Llywelyn rebelled against Edward I but was defeated by him in 1277. He was killed in a final rebellion in 1282, and Wales soon fell entirely under English rule.
Llywelyn ap lorwerth Milo-'we-lin-ap-'yor-wertlA known as Lly- welyn the Great (d. April 11, 1240, Aberconway, Gwynedd, Wales) Welsh prince. The grandson of a powerful Welsh prince, he was exiled as a child from Gwynedd in northern Wales but returned in 1194 and deposed his uncle, gaining control of most of northern Wales by 1202. Though Llywelyn married King John’s daughter, the English king invaded Wales when Llywelyn’s authority reached too far (1211). Llywelyn soon recovered his lands and allied with John’s baronial opponents. Henry III acknowledged his rule in most of Wales (1218), but by 1223 Llywelyn was forced to withdraw to the north.
Lo-lang See Nangnang
load-bearing wall See bearing wall
loam Rich, friable (crumbly) soil with nearly equal parts of sand and silt, and somewhat less clay. The term is sometimes used imprecisely to mean earth or soil in general. Loam in subsoil receives varied minerals and amounts of clay by leaching (percolation) from the topsoil above.
Loanda See Luanda
Lobachevsky Uo-bo-'chev-skeV Nikolay (Ivanovich) (b. Dec. 1, 1792, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia—d. Leb. 24, 1856, Kazan) Russian math¬ ematician. His entire life centred around the University of Kazan, where he studied and later (from 1816) taught. In 1829 he published his ground¬ breaking theory, a geometry that rejected Euclid’s parallel postulate. It was the final solution to a problem that had baffled mathematicians for 2,000 years. Lobachevsky also did distinguished work in the theory of infinite series, especially trigonometric series, as well as in integral calculus, alge¬ bra, and probability. He was largely ignored during his lifetime; acceptance of his new geometry came a decade after his death, though much of the credit went to others. With Bolyai Janos of Hungary (1802-60), Lobachevsky is considered the founder of non-Euclidean geometry.
Lobamba Town (pop., 1995 est.: 10,000), legislative capital of Swazi¬ land. Located near Mbabane, it is in a densely populated rural area. It is, according to traditional Swazi customs, the residence of the Queen Mother and is thereby the spiritual home of the Swazi nation. It is the site of par¬ liamentary buildings and an official residence of the king.
lobbying Any attempt by a group or individual to influence the decisions of government. The term originated in 19th-century efforts to influence the votes of legislators, generally in the lobby outside a legislative chamber. The effort may be a direct appeal to a decision maker in either the executive or legislative branches, or it may be indirect (e.g., through attempts to influ¬ ence public opinion). It may include oral or written efforts of persuasion, campaign contributions, public-relations campaigns, research supplied to legislative committees, and formal testimony before such committees. A lobbyist may be a member of a special-interest group, a professional will¬ ing to represent any group, or a private individual. In the U.S., the Lederal Regulation of Lobbying Act (1946) requires that lobbyists and the groups they represent register and report contributions and expenditures.
lobelia family Uo-'bel-yoX Lamily Lobeliaceae, which contains about 750 species of flowering plants in 25 genera. Some are grown for their attractive, two-lipped flowers. Postlike and shaggy-tree forms are found on mountains in Africa. The family includes the cardinal flower, great blue lobelia (L. siphilitica), and Indian tobacco (L. inflata). Once used for smoking and for the vomit-inducing alkaloid in its roots, lobelia is now regarded as poisonous.
Lobengula V.lo-beq-'gyii-loV (b. c. 1836, Mosega, Transvaal—d. Janu¬ ary 1894, near Bulawayo, Rhodesia) Second and last king of the South African Ndebele nation. Son of the founder of the Ndebele kingdom, Mzi- likazi, Lobengula succeeded to the throne in 1870 after a period of civil war. He attempted to form an alliance with the British, granting them first farming (1886) and then mineral (1888) concessions. Not satisfied, the
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1128 I lobotomy ► Locke
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British South Africa Co. under Cecil Rhodes undertook a military expedi¬ tion that destroyed the Ndebele kingdom in 1893. See also Khama III.
lobotomy Uo-'ba-to-meX Surgical procedure in which nerve pathways in a lobe or lobes of the brain are severed from those in other areas. Intro¬ duced in 1935 by Antonio Egas Moniz and Almeida Lima, it came to be used to help grossly disturbed patients. Favoured for patients who did not respond to shock therapy, it did reduce agitation but often caused increased apathy and passivity, inability to concentrate, and decreased emotional response. It was widely performed until c. 1956, when drugs that were more effective in calming patients became available. Lobotomies are no longer performed; however, psychosurgery, the surgical removal of spe¬ cific regions of the brain, is occasionally used to treat patients whose symptoms have resisted all other treatments.