LOURDES

lourdes, a town of south-western france in the department of hautes-pyrenees, at the foot of the pyrenees, 12 m. s.s.w. of tarbes on the main line of the southern railway between that town and pau. pop. (1906) 7228. lourdes is divided into an old and a new town by the gave de pau, which at this point leaves the valley of argeles and turns abruptly to the west. the old quarter on the right bank surrounds on three sides a scarped rock, on which stands the fortress now used as a prison. its large square keep of the 14th century is the chief survival of feudal times. little is left of the old fortifications except a tower of the 13th or 14th century, surmounting a gateway known as the tour de garnabie. the old quarter is united with the new town by a bridge which is continued in an esplanade leading to the basilica, the church of the rosary and the grotto, with its spring of healing water. the present fame of lourdes is entirely associated with this grotto, where the virgin mary is believed in the roman catholic world to have revealed herself repeatedly to a peasant girl named bernadette soubirous in 1858. a statue of the virgin stands on a rock projecting above the grotto, the walls of which are covered with crutches and other votive offerings; the spot, which is resorted to by multitudes of pilgrims from all quarters of the world, is marked by a basilica built above the grotto and consecrated in 1876. in addition the church of the rosary, a rich building in the byzantine style, was erected in front of and below the basilica from 1884 to 1889. not far from the grotto are several other caves, where prehistoric remains have been found. the hospice de notre-dame de douleurs is the chief of the many establishments provided for the accommodation of pilgrims. lourdes is a fortified place of the second class; and is the seat of the tribunal of first instance of the arrondissement of argeles. there are marble and slate quarries near the town. the pastures of the neighbourhood support a breed of aquitaine cattle, which is most highly valued in south-western france. the origin of lourdes is uncertain. from the 9th century onwards it was the most important place in bigorre, largely owing to the fortress which is intimately connected with its history. in 1360 it passed by the treaty of bretigny from french to english hands, and its governor was murdered by gaston phoebus viscount of bearn, for refusing to surrender it to the count of anjou. nevertheless the fortress did not fall into the possession of the french till 1406 after a blockade of eighteen months. again during the wars of religion the castle held out successfully after the town had been occupied by the troops of the protestant captain gabriel, count of montgomery. from the reign of louis xiv. to the beginning of the 19th century the castle was used as a state prison. since the visions of bernadette soubirous, their authentication by a commission of enquiry appointed by the bishop of tarbes, and the authorization by the pope of the cult of our lady of lourdes, the quarter on the left bank of the gave has sprung up and it is estimated that 600,000 pilgrims annually visit the town. the chief of the pilgrimages, known as the national pilgrimage, takes place in august. several religious communities have been named after our lady of lourdes. of these one, consisting of sisters of the third order of st francis, called the congregation of our lady of lourdes (founded 1877), has its headquarters in rochester, minnesota. another, the order of our lady of lourdes, was founded in 1883 for work in the archdiocese of new orleans. see g. mares, _lourdes et ses environs_ (bordeaux, 1894); fourcade, _l'apparition de la grotte de lourdes_ (paris, 1862) and _l'apparition ... consideree au point de vue de l'art chretien_ (bordeaux, 1862); boissarie, _lourdes, histoire medicale_ (paris, 1891); bertrin, _hist. critique des evenements de lourdes_ (2nd ed., paris, 1905), written under authority of the bishop of tarbes; h. lasserre, _miraculous episodes of lourdes_ (london, 1884, tr.); r. f. clarke, _lourdes and its miracles_ (_ib_., 1889) and _medical testimony to the miracles_ (_ib_., 1892); d. barbe, _lourdes hier, aujourd'hui, demain_ (paris, 1893; eng. trans. by a. meynell, london, 1894); j. r. gasquet, _the cures at lourdes_ (london, 1895); _les pelerinages de lourdes. cantiques, insignes, costumes_ (lourdes, 1897); w. leschner, _the origin of lourdes_ (london, 1900). zola's _lourdes_ (paris, 1894), a criticism from the sceptical point of view, in the form of a realistic novel, has called forth many replies from the catholic side. lourenco marques, capital of portuguese east africa, or mozambique, on the north bank of the espirito santo or english river, delagoa bay, and 396 m. by rail via pretoria from johannesburg. pop. (1904) 9849, of whom 4691 were europeans and 1690 asiatics. the town is situated close to the mouth of the river in 25° 53 s. and 32° 30 e., and is built upon a low-lying spit of sand, formerly surrounded by swamps. the streets are regularly laid out and adorned by several fine buildings. the principal thoroughfare, the avenida aguiar, 2 m. long, goes from the centre of the town to reuben point. the harbour is well equipped with piers, quays, landing sheds and electric cranes, which enable large steamers to discharge cargoes direct into the railway trucks. the depth of water at low tide is 18 ft. the streets are lit by electricity and there is an electric tramway system 7 m. in extent. at reuben point, which marks the spot where the english river enters the bay, are the lighthouse, barracks and the private residences of the wealthy citizens. at its mouth the english river is about 2 m. across. lourenco marques is the nearest seaport to the rand gold mines. the port is 8374 m. from southampton via cape town and 7565 m. via the suez canal. it is served by british, portuguese and german liners, the majority of the goods imported being shipped at southampton, lisbon or hamburg. over 50% of the import trade of johannesburg is with lourenco marques. great britain and british possessions take some 40% of the import trade, portugal, germany, norway, sweden and america coming next in order. most of the imports, being forwarded to the transvaal, figure also as exports. the chief articles of import are food-stuffs and liquors, iron, mineral oils, inks and dyes, timber and live stock. these all form part of the transit trade. there is practically no export trade by sea save in coal, which is brought chiefly from the collieries at middelburg in the transvaal. at port matolla, 20 m. from the town, on the river of that name, one of the feeders of the english river, is a flourishing timber trade. the average value of the total trade of lourenco marques for the five years 1897-1899 and 1902-1903 (1900 and 1901 being years during which trade was disorganized by the anglo-boer war) was over £3,500,000. in 1905 the value of the trade of the port was £5,682,000; of this total the transit trade was worth over £4,500,000 and the imports for local consumption £1,042,000. the retail trade, and trade with the natives, is almost entirely in the hands of indians. the chief import for local consumption is cheap wine from portugal, bought by the kaffirs to the extent of over £500,000 yearly. these natives form the bulk of the africans who work in the rand gold mines. lourenco marques is named after a portuguese navigator, who with a companion (antonio calderia) was sent in 1544 by the governor of mozambique on a voyage of exploration. they explored the lower courses of the rivers emptying their waters into delagoa bay, notably the espirito santo. the various forts and trading stations which the portuguese established, abandoned and re-occupied on the north bank of the river were all called lourenco marques. the existing town dates from about 1850, the previous settlement having been entirely destroyed by the natives. in 1871 the town was described as a poor place, with narrow streets, fairly good flat-roofed houses, grass huts, decayed forts and rusty cannon, enclosed by a wall 6 ft. high then recently erected and protected by bastions at intervals. the growing importance of the transvaal led, however, to greater interest being taken in portugal in the port. a commission was sent by the portuguese government in 1876 to drain the marshy land near the settlement, to plant the blue gum tree, and to build a hospital and a church. it was not, however, until the end of the 19th century that any marked development took place in the town, and up to 1903 cargo had to be discharged in tugs and lighters. in 1873-1877 mr burgers, president of the transvaal, endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to get a railway built from pretoria to delagoa bay. in 1878-1879 a survey was taken for a line from lourenco marques to the transvaal, and in 1883 the lisbon cabinet granted to colonel edward mcmurdo, an american citizen, a concession--which took the place of others which had lapsed--for the building of a railway from lourenco marques to the transvaal frontier, the boer government having agreed (1883) to continue the line to pretoria. under this concession colonel mcmurdo formed in london in 1887 a company--the delagoa bay and east african railway company--to construct the line. meantime a secret agreement had been come to between president kruger and portugal for the concession to the transvaal of a "steam tramway" parallel to the projected railway, should the company not complete the line in the time specified. the company, however, built the line to the frontier shown on the portuguese maps of 1883 within the time limit, the railway being opened on the 14th of december 1888. the frontier by this date had been fixed at komati poort, 5 m. farther from the coast. portugal had previously agreed to grant the company "a reasonable extension of time" to complete the line if the frontier should be traced farther inland than shown on the 1883 maps. the lisbon government required the extension to komati poort to be completed in eight months (five of which were in the rainy season), an impossible stipulation. the railway not being finished, the portuguese seized the line on the 25th of june 1889 and cancelled the concession. portugal in so doing acted, to all appearance, under pressure from the transvaal. great britain and america at once protested, portugal admitted the illegality of her act and consented to refer the amount of compensation to the decision of three swiss jurists. this was in 1890, when portugal paid £28,000 on account. it was not until the 29th of march 1900 that the award was made known. the arbitrators ordered portugal to pay--in addition to the £28,000--a sum, including interest, of £950,000. the damages were promptly paid. meantime the railway had been continued from komati poort and was opened for through traffic to pretoria on the 8th of july 1895. in 1906-1910 another railway (47 m. long) was built from lourenco marques due west to the swaziland frontier, being a link in a new line to shorten the distance by rail between the rand and the sea by some 60 m. see also delagoa bay and the authorities there cited. the text of the railway arbitration award was published in french at berne in 1900. annual reports on the trade of lourenco marques are issued by the british foreign office. louse (o. eng. _lus_, cf. du. _luis_, ger. _laus_, dan. and swed. _lus_), a term applied to small wingless insects, parasitic upon birds and mammals, and belonging strictly speaking to the order anoplura, often included among the hemiptera, though the term is frequently extended to the bird-lice constituting the suborder mallophaga, formerly included among the neuroptera. both agree in having nothing that can be termed a metamorphosis; they are active from the time of their exit from the egg to their death, gradually increasing in size, and undergoing several moults or changes of skin. the true lice (or anoplura) are found on the bodies of many mammalia, and occasion by their presence intolerable irritation. the number of genera is few. two species of _pediculus_ are found on the human body, and are known ordinarily as the head-louse (_p. capitis_) and the body-louse (_p. vestimenti_); _p. capitis_ is found on the head, especially of children. the eggs, laid on the hairs, and known as "nits," hatch in about eight days, and the lice are full grown in about a month. such is their fecundity that it has been asserted that one female (probably of _p. vestimenti_) may in eight weeks produce five thousand descendants. want of cleanliness favours their multiplication in a high degree--the idea once existed, and is probably still held by the very ignorant, that they are directly engendered from dirt. the irritation is caused by the rostrum of the insect being inserted into the skin, from which the blood is rapidly pumped up. a third human louse, known as the crab-louse (_phthirius pubis_) is found amongst the hairs on other parts of the body, particularly those of the pubic region, but probably never on the head. the louse of monkeys is now generally considered as forming a separate genus (_pedicinus_), but the greater part of those infesting domestic and wild quadrupeds are mostly grouped in the large genus _haematopinus_, and very rarely is the same species found on different kinds of animals. the bird-lice (mallophaga) are far more numerous in species, although the number of genera is comparatively small. with the exception of the genus _trichodectes_, the various species of which are found on mammalia, all infest birds (as their english names implies) (see bird-louse). louse-infestation is known as phthiriasis in medical and veterinary terminology. authorities.--the following works are the most important: denny, _monographia anoplurorum britanniae_ (london, 1843); giebel, _insecta epizoa_ (which contains the working-up of nitzsch's posthumous materials; leipzig, 1874); van beneden, _animal parasites_ (london, 1876); piaget, _les pediculines_ (leiden, 1880); megnin, _les parasites et les maladies parasitaires_ (paris, 1880); neumann, _parasites and parasitic diseases of domesticated animals_ (1892); osborn, _pediculi and mallophaga affecting man and the lower animals_ (washington, 1891; u.s. dept. agr.); enderlein, "lause-studien," _zool. anz._ xxviii. (1904).