VAORANT. 



VALKRIANIC ACID. 



correction until the next quarter-sessions, when the justice* were 

 empowered to order rogue* and vagabond* to be further confined in 

 the house of correction for any time not exceeding *ix month* ; and 

 incorrigible rogue* for any time not lev than six month*, nor more 

 than two years, and to be whipped. 



The statute 17 Oeo. II., c. 5, was by no mean* a well-coniiidered or a 

 well-expressed law- It has been justly said that " in the long cata- 

 logue of action* which it hold* up, many are of a dubious nature, and 

 nice legal acunion would often be required to distinguish whether a 

 person had incurred any and what penalty under the statute." (Eden's 

 ' State of the Poor,' vol. i., p. 806.) The courts too complained of the 

 inaccuracy of its expression and the consequent difficulty of under- 

 standing its meaning. (Rex r. Rhodes, 4 ' Term Reports,' 222.) 

 Repeated attempts were made in parliament to modify and improve 

 its provisions. A committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 

 1775 to review and consider the Poor Laws and the laws relating to 

 vagrants, resolved " that the stat. IT Oeo. II., c. 17, should be explained 

 and amended in such a manner as to enforce the execution thereof, 

 and prevent the practice of begging in the street* and highways, per- 

 nicious in its consequences and highly disgraceful to this country." 

 Nevertheless this statute continued in force until the year 1822, when 

 a temporary act, stat. 3 Oeo. IV., c. 40, passed, repealing all former, 

 laws and re-enacting most of the provisions of the stat. 17 Oeo. II., 

 c. 5, with many additions and modifications. The provisions of the 

 stat 3 Oeo. IV., o. 40, were however entirely superseded by the stat. 

 6 Oeo. IV., c. S3, which now constitutes the law respecting vagrants. 

 By tlio third section of this statute the following persons are declared 

 to 1 idle and disorderly persons, and may be committed by a single 

 magistrate to hard labour in the house of correction for any time not 

 exceeding one month : 1. Every person able to maintain himself and 

 his family, refusing or neglecting to do so, whereby he or his family 

 become chargeable to the parish ; 2. Every person returning and be- 

 coming chargeable to a parish from which he has been legally removed 

 by order of two justices without having a certificate of his settlement 

 in some other parish from the officers of such parish ; 3. Petty chap- 

 men or pedlars wandering abroad and trading without licence; 4. 

 Prostitutes wandering in the streets or highways, or in any place of 

 public resort, and behaving riotously or indecently ; 5. Every person 

 wandering abroad or placing himself in any public place to beg and 

 gather alms, or procuring any child to do so. To which other statutes 

 have since added : 6. Paupers in workhouses, not doing task-work 

 when required, or injuring their clothes or damaging the property 

 of the guardians ; 7. Women neglecting to maintain their illegitimate 

 children ; and, 8. Persons applying for relief as paupers, having pos- 

 session of money, &c., of which they do not make disclosure. These 

 offenders are punishable by a single justice with one month's imprison- 

 ment and hard labour. 



The 4th section of the 5 Geo. IV., c. 83, declares the following per- 

 sons to be roguet and vagabonds, and empowers a single magistrate to 

 commit them to hard labour in the house of correction, for any time 

 not exceeding three months : 1. Every person committing any offence 

 which would constitute him an idle and disorderly person ; 2. Every 

 person pretending to tell fortunes, or using a^iy device, by palmistry 

 or otherwise, to deceive and impose upon the people ; 3. Every person 

 wandering abroad and lodging in any barn or outhouse, or in any 

 deserted building, or in the open air, or under a tent, or in any cart or 

 waggon, not having any visible means of subsistence, and not giving a 

 good account of himself ; 4. Every person wilfully exposing to view in 

 any street, road, highway, or public place, any obscene print, picture, 

 or other indecent exhibition. (By 1 & 2 Viet., c. 38, this provision is 

 declared to extend to exposing such articles in a shop window.) 5. 

 Every person wilfully and obscenely exposing his person in any street 

 or highway, or in the view thereof, with intent to insult any female ; 

 6. Every person wandering abroad and endeavouring by the exposure 

 of wounds or deformities to gather alms ; 7. Every person going about 

 as a gatherer or collector of alms, or endeavouring to procure charitable 

 contributions under a false pretence ; 8. Every person running away 

 and leaving his wife actually or probably chargeable to the parish ; 9. 

 Every person playing or betting in any street, highway, or public place 

 with any table or instrument of gaming, at any game of chance ; 10. 

 Every person having in his possession any picklock-key, crow, jack, 

 bit, or other implement, with intent feloniously to break into any 

 house, ftc., or being armed with any gun, pistol, hanger, cutlass, 

 bludgeon, or other offensive weapon, or having upon him any instru- 

 ment with intent to commit any felonious act; 11. Every person, 

 being found in any dwelling-house, warehouse, coach-house, stable or 

 outhouse, or in any inclosed yard, garden, or area for any unlawful 

 purpose ; 1 2. Every suspected person or reputed thief frequenting any 

 river, canal, or navigable stream, dock, basin, or any quay, wharf, or 

 warehouse near or adjoining thereto, or any street, highway, or avenue 

 leading thereto, or any place of public resort, or any avenue leading 

 thereto, or any street, highway, or place adjacent, with intent to com- 

 mit felony ; 13. Every person apprehended as an idle and disorderly 

 person, and violently reacting any peace-officer so apprehending him, 

 and being subsequently convicted of the offence for which he shall 

 have been so apprehended. 



Incnrriijihlr rogues are I. Persons breaking or escaping out of any 

 place of legal confinement before the expiration of the term for which 



they shall have been committed, or ordered to be confined by virtue of 

 the statute; 2. Persons committing any offence against the statute 

 which subject* them to be dealt with a* rogue* and vagabond*, such 

 persons having been at come former time adjudged so to be and duly 

 convicted thereof ; and, 3. Every person apprehended a* a rogue and 

 vagabond, ami vit l.-ntly resisting any constable or other peace-officer *o 

 apprehending him, aud being subsequently convicted of the offence tat 

 which he shall have been so apprehended. These offenders are to be 

 committed to the next sessions, and kept to hard labour in the interim ; 

 and the sessions may further punish them by imprisonment with li.inl 

 labour for one year, and if male*, with whipping. 



The statute, beside* the definition of the facts and circumstances 

 which are to constitute offences in the several classes above enumerated, 

 contains various provisions for the prosecution of vagrants and the 

 regulation and disposal of them. Thus it is enacted that any person 

 may apprehend a vagrant and bring him before a magistrate. The 

 persons as well as the carriages or luggage of the several deacr! 

 of vagrants may be searched, and money or goods found upon 

 may on their conviction be applied towards the costs of apprehending 

 them and maintaining them in prison. If proceedings at the sessions 

 are contemplated, either by reason of an appeal against a summary 

 conviction or the commitment of an incorrigible rogue, the committing 

 magistrate may bind over witnesses to prosecute, and the justices at . 

 sessions may order the payment of costs to persons so bound. Ami 

 an appeal is given to the next sessions to any person aggrieved by an 

 act or determination of any magistrate out of sessions concerning the 

 execution of the act. 



(See Blackstone's Cnmmmtaritt, by Kerr, vol. iv.) 



VALERACETONITRILE. [VALEEIANIO GROUP.] 



VALERAL. [VAI.ERIANIC GROUP.] 



VALERALDEHYDE. [VALEBIASIO GROIT.] 



VALERALD1NE. [VALERIANIC GROUP.] 



VALERAMIDE. [VAI.KKIAMC GROUP.] 



VA I.I :ii. \NILIDE. [VAUJHIANIC GBOCP.] 



VALKHKNK. j VAI.I HIAXIC OBOCP.] 



VALERIATJA OFFICINALIS Medical Propertia of. The root, 

 or more properly the rhizoma with its root-fibres, of thin species, par- 

 ticularly the variety termed tylreatra, is used in medicine. It 

 be collected in spring before it shows flower, or late in autumn. It is 

 best from plants of two or three years old, which grow in elevated 

 stony places, rather than in very moist meadows. It varies con- 

 siderably in appearance and in its sensible properties, according to the 

 age of the plant, its place of growth, and the length of time it has been 

 kept. The rhizoma is small, short, rounded or oblong, truncated, 

 furnished with very many root-fibres, which are about the thickness of 

 a straw, and from two to six inches long ; the colour of the freshly 

 obtained root is a dirty yellowish-white ; the consistence fleshy ; by 

 drying, which is easily effected, it becomes wrinkled, more yellow or 

 brownish, and in time dark. The root gathered in spring becomes 

 most wrinkled. The odour is heavy, penetrating, and very charac- 

 teristic. This odour is stronger in the dried than the fresh root, and 

 is scarcely impaired by time, even when the access of the air is freely 

 allowed. The taste is acridly aromatic, camphoracuous, and bitter. 

 The English Valerian is the most esteemed : it is abundant in Hamp- 

 shire, formerly in Kent and Essex, and the wild plant is to be preferred 

 to that which is cultivated for medical use. It is to be regretted that 

 this root is often confounded or fraudulently adulterated with that of 

 the Valtriana dioica, which is smaller and of much feebler odour, ami 

 that of the Hi inn urban um or atens, which is pleasantly aromatic. 

 Much more serious is the confusion, probably always accidental or 

 merely from ignorance, of the genuine root with those of several 

 species of ranunculus, or crowfoot, namely, Ji. repent, acris, and even 

 polyanthemot, also those of .S't'um angitstifiilium and & / 

 more rarely llelleborut Kiyer and Asclcpias Vinceto.ricum ; but the 

 absence of the peculiar odour of valerian, or the presence of a very 

 repulsive one, may always distinguish them with moderate atteir 



According to the analysis of Trommsdorf (' Journal der Pharin.vif,' 

 xviii., p. 3), 100 parts of the dried root yield of volatile oil ]"J, j , nli i 

 resinous extractive (termed valerianin) 12'5, gummy extractive li'4,soft 

 resin 6'2, woody fibre 707 ; by distillation a volatile fatty acid t 

 valerianic acid is obtained, besides the volatile oil. The medk in.il 

 action is chiefly due to the volatile oil and extractive. Valerian i 

 considered a cerelrro-tpinal stimulant, large doses of it causing n 

 excitement of the nervous system, not only of the hum 

 also of cats, which are remarkably fond of it In the sligh- 

 nervous diseases not dependent on any change of structure of tl><> 

 brain or spinal cord, valerian is of considerable utility. In several 

 instances, especially if there be much acidity of stomach, its Iwneficial 

 effects are increased by combination with ammonia. In other instances 

 valerian (in powder) greatly heightens the tonic power of tin 

 jihatr. of r/uinia, the absence of all aroma from which renders it inferior 

 as a tonic to many of the other forms of administering bark. [CINCHONA.] 



Valerianic acid, combined with various bases, such as iron, /im . 

 ipiininc, &<., furnishes compounds of great value as antispaamodics 

 more useful than any of these agents singly. 



\ AI.KHIANIC ACID (HO,C IO H,O a ). Valeric add. Delp!,;,n,- 

 acid, fhocenic acid. This body exists in valerian root, hence its 

 name ; in the oil secreted by several species of phoca (hence phocenic) 





