LACEPEDE, BERNARD GERMAIN ETIENNE DE Count de, an eminent natu ralist and elegant writer, was b. of a noble family, Dec. 26, 1756, at Agen; Having early devoted himself to thestudy of natural history, in which he was greatly encouraged by the friendship of Buffon, he was appointed curator of the cabinet of natural history in the royal gardens at Paris. This office be held till the revolution, when he became professor of natural history, and also entered upon a political career, in which he rose to be a senator in 1799, a minister of state in 1809, and, after the return of the Bourbons. a peer of France, although he had• previously been one of the most zealous adherents of Bonaparte. He died of small-pox at his mansion of Epinay, near St. Denis, Oct. 6, 1825. A collective edition of his works was published in 1826 Among them are works on the natural history of reptiles, of fishes, and of the eetacea, a work on the natural history of man, and one entitled Les Ages de la _Nature. His work on fishes (5 vols. 1738-1803) is the greatest of his works, and was long unrivaled in that department of zoology, although it has now been in a great measure superseded. Lae6pile, who was a highly accomplished musician, was the author of a work entitled La Poitique de la Jfvaique (2 vols. 1785) and of two romances intended to illustrate social and moral principles. He was an amiable man, extremely kind, delighting in domestic life, and very simple, and almost abstemious, in his habits.
LA CEItDA, the name of an ancient Spanish family which traced its genealogy to Fernando, eldest son of Alfonso X. of Castile, called La Cerda, or the horse's mane, from a tuft of hair that grew upon his shoulders. This prince married Blanche, a daughter of St. Louis of France. and died in 1275, leaving two sons, Alfonso and Fernando, heirs to the crown. But Sancho, son of Alfonso X , claimed the succes sion, and procured his proclamation before his father died. Alfonso's wife, Yolande,
escaped from Castile with her grandchildren, finding a protector for them iu her brother, Don Pedro, king of 'Aragon, or in their uncle, Philip the bold of France. These sov ereigns conspired to keep the young princes prisoners in Aragon, and their grandmother returned to Castile. Blanche, the mother of the princes, protested in vain against their imprisonment. When Alfonso X. died in 1284 he left a will making Alfonso and Fer nando tie la Cerda his heirs, and unconditionally disinheriting Sancho, by whom his life had been so much inibittered. But Sancho was already on the throne, and the rightful heirs could not dispossess him. At length the king of Aragon, wishing to vex the king of Castile, set the princes of La Cerda at liberty, and they were proclaimed at Badajos and Talavera; but they were unable to maintain their pretensions and retired into France in the reign of Philip the fair, where they concerted plans to enforce their claims. But their plans failed, and at length a son of Sancho succeeded to the throne. The kings of Portugal and Aragon, being requested to act as mediators, decided in favor of the son of Zanclio, but stipulated that three cities should be ceded to Alfonso to enable him to maintain the dignity of his royal birth. Alfonso accepted these hard terms and was thenceforth known as the Disinherited. He died in 1325, leaving two sons, one of whom, Carlos de la Cerda, known also as Charles of Spain, was appointed by king John in 1350 constable of France. But a rivalry springing up between Charles of Spain and Charles the bad, king of Navarre, the former, while on a visit to his young wife in in 1354, was assassinated by agents in the pay of the latter. In 1425 the house of La Cerda became extinct, hut it is still represented in the female line by the dukes of Medina-Cceli.