LAPIS

(Lat.) In Roman Antiquity, literally a stone; but used among the Romans to signify a mile, at the end of which lapides or stones were erected with a mark thereon, to show the distance from Rome. Hence the phrases " tertius lapis," "cenlesimus lapis," , for 3, 100, ., miles; and sometimes even the ordinal number was used, with lapidem understood, as " ad duo decimum," twelve miles distant. The Roman practice i>f indicating the distance of one (tan another by the erection of stones has been borrow.-.1by almost all the nations of modern Europe. LAPIS CAU8TICU8. Caustic potash. called LAPIS lunar INFERNAL IS.caustic. Fused nitrate of silver; often [s. 657]