at Somerset House. There he held office until 1842, when ill-health led him to resign. The ability with which he edited the publications of the society and advised the council “on every obscure and difficult point” was commented on by Murchison in his presidential address (1843). In 1829 Lonsdale read before the society an important paper “On the Oolitic District of Bath” (Trans. Geol. Soc. ser. 2, vol. iii.), the results of a survey begun in 1827; later he was engaged in a survey of the Oolitic strata of Gloucestershire (1832), at the instigation of the Geological Society, and he laid down on the one-inch ordnance maps the boundaries of the various geological formations. He gave particular attention to the study of corals, becoming the highest authority in England on the subject, and he described fossil forms from the Tertiary and Cretaceous strata of North America and from the older strata of Britain and Russia. In 1837 he suggested from a study of the fossils of the South Devon limestones that they would prove to be of an age intermediate between the Carboniferous and Silurian systems. This suggestion was adopted by Sedgwick and Murchison in 1839, and may be regarded as the basis on which they founded the Devonian system. Lonsdale’s paper, “Notes on the Age of the Limestones of South Devonshire” (read 1840), was published in the same volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society (ser. 2, vol. v.) with Sedgwick and Murchison’s famous paper “On the Physical Structure of Devonshire,” and these authors observe that “the conclusion arrived at by Mr Lonsdale, we now apply without reserve both to the five groups of our North Devon section, and to the fossiliferous slates of Cornwall.” The later years of Lonsdale’s life were spent in retirement, and he died at Bristol on the 11th of November 1871. (H. B. Wo.)
LONS-LE-SAUNIER, a town of eastern France, capital of the
department of Jura, 76 m. N.N.E. of Lyons on the Paris-Lyons
railway, on which it is a junction for Chalon-sur-Saône, Dôle,
Besançon and Champagnole. Pop. (1906) 10,648. The town
is built on both sides of the river Vallière and is surrounded by
the vine-clad hills of the western Jura. It owes its name to the
salt mines of Montmorot, its western suburb, which have been
used from a very remote period. The church of St Désiré, a
building of the 12th and 15th centuries, preserves a huge
Romanesque crypt. The town is the seat of a prefect and of a
court of assizes, and there are tribunals of first instance and of
commerce, a chamber of commerce, lycées and training-colleges
for both sexes, and a branch of the Bank of France. There is
an establishment for the use of the mineral waters, which are
sodio-chlorinated and have strengthening properties. The
principal industry of the place is the manufacture of sparkling
wines, the Étoile growth being the best for this purpose. Trade
is in cheese, cereals, horses, cattle, wood, &c.
Lons-le-Saunier, known as Ledo in the time of the Gauls, was fortified by the Romans, who added the surname Salinarius to the Gallic name. An object of contention owing to the value of its salt, it belonged for a long time during the medieval period to the powerful house of Chalon, a younger branch of that of Burgundy. It was burned in 1364 by the English, and again in 1637, when it was seized by the duke of Longueville for Louis XIII. It became definitively French in 1674. It was here that the meeting between Ney and Napoleon took place, on the return of the latter from Elba in 1815. Rouget de l’Isle, the author of the Marseillaise, was born at Montaigu near this town, where there is a statue erected to him.
LOO (formerly called “Lanterloo,” Fr. lanturlu, the refrain of
a popular 17th-century song), a round game of cards, played
by any number of persons; from five to seven makes the
best game. “Three-card loo” is the game usually played. An
ordinary pack of fifty-two cards is used and the deal passes
after each round. Each player must have the same number of
deals; but if there is a “loo” (the sum forfeited by a player
who plays, but does not win a trick) in the last deal of a round,
the game continues till there is a hand without a loo. The
dealer deals three cards face downwards, one by one, to each
player and an extra hand called “miss,” and turns up the top
of the undealt cards for trumps. Each player contributes to
the pool a sum previously agreed upon. The unit for a single
stake should be divisible by three without a remainder, e.g.
three counters or three pence. The players are bound to put in
the stake before the deal is completed. Each player in rotation,
beginning from the dealer’s left, looks at his cards, and declares
whether he will play, or pass, or take “miss.” If the former,
he says “I play.” If he takes miss he places his cards face
downwards in the middle of the table, and takes up the extra
hand. If he passes, he similarly places his cards face downwards
in the middle of the table. If miss is taken, the subsequent
players only have the option of playing or passing. A player
who takes miss must play. Those who are now left in play
one card each in rotation, beginning from the dealer’s left, the
cards thus played constituting a trick. The trick is won by
the highest card of the suit led, or, if trumped, by the highest
trump, the cards ranking as at whist. The winner of the trick
leads to the next, and so on, until the hand is played out. The
cards remain face upwards in front of the persons placing them.
If the leader holds ace of trumps he must lead it (or king, if ace is turned up). If the leader has two trumps he must lead one of them, and if one is ace (or king, ace being turned up) he must lead it. With this exception the leader is not bound to lead his highest trump if more than two declare to play; but if there are only two declared players the leader with more than one trump must lead the highest. Except with trumps as above stated he may lead any card he chooses. The subsequent players must head the trick if able, and must follow suit if able. Holding none of the suit led, they must head the trick with a trump, if able. Otherwise they may play any card they please. The winner of the first trick is subject to the rules already stated respecting the lead, and in addition he must lead a trump if able (called trump after trick).
When the hand has been played out, the winners of the tricks divide the pool, each receiving one-third of the amount for each trick. If only one has declared to play, the dealer plays miss either for himself or for the pool. If he plays for the pool he must declare before seeing miss that he does not play for himself. Any tricks he may win, when playing for the pool, remain there as an addition to the next pool. Other rules provide that the dealer must play, if only one player stands, with his own cards or with “miss.” If miss is gone and against him, he may defend with the three top cards of the pack, excluding the trump card; these cards are called “master.”
If each declared player wins at least one trick it is a single, i.e. a fresh pool is made as already described; but if one of the declared players fails to make a trick he is looed. Then only the player who is looed contributes to the next pool. If more than one player is looed, each has to contribute.
At unlimited loo each player looed has to put in the amount there was in the pool. But it is often agreed to limit the loo, so that it shall not exceed a certain fixed sum. Thus, at eighteen-penny loo, the loo is generally limited to half a guinea. If there is less than the limit in the pool the payment is regulated as before; but if there is more than the limit, the loo is the fixed sum agreed on.
The game is sometimes varied by “forces,” i.e. by compelling every one to play in the first deal, or when there is no loo the previous deal, or whenever clubs are trumps (“club law”). When there is a force no miss is dealt. “Irish loo” is played by allowing declared players to exchange some or all of their cards for cards dealt from the top of the pack. There is no miss, and it is not compulsory to lead a trump with two trumps, unless there are only two declared players. At “five-card loo” each player has five cards instead of three, and a single stake should be divisible by five. “Pam” (knave of clubs) ranks as the highest trump, whatever suit is turned up. There is no miss, and cards may be exchanged as at Irish loo. If ace of trumps is led, the leader says “Pam be civil,” when the holder of that card must pass the trick if he can do so without revoking. A flush (five cards of the same suit, or four with Pam) “loos the board,” i.e. the holder receives the amount of a loo from every one, and the hand is not played. A trump flush takes precedence of flushes in other suits. If more than one flush is held, or if Pam is held, the holder is exempted from payment. As between two flushes which do not take precedence, the elder hand wins. A single stake should be divisible by five.
LOOE, a seaport and market town in the Bodmin parliamentary division of Cornwall, England, 17 m. by sea W. of Plymouth, a terminus of the Liskeard & Looe light railway.
