LODZ(Lodzι), a town of Russian Poland, in the province of Piotrokow, lies 40 miles by rail to the north of the chief town of the province, on a branch railway of the line between Warsaw and Vienna. Only a small hamlet with 800 inhabitants in 1821, when its woollen manufactures were first introduced by Germans, it is now the second town of Poland, both by population and by the importance of its cotton-mills, the annual production of which amounts to a value of about £150,000, that is, five-sixths of the whole production of cottons in Poland. This, as well as the other less important industries of the place (woollen cloth manufacture, dyeing, and so on), is chiefly in the hands of Germans, and thus the German language predominates in the town. Although its population in 1872 amounted to 50,500, Lodz still maintains its village character, consisting of one broad street 7 miles long, on which are situated alike the factories, the houses of the merchants, and the dwellings of the working men.