or 



TIAST SCHOOL OF PAINTIN<: 



VENTRILOQUISM. 



We most notice also M. Amies' method of veneering in relief. Two 

 moulds, an upper and an under, a* in cameo and intaglio, are gently 

 heated, and a ahet of veneer is placed between them. One side of the 

 veneer take* the device in relief ; the other side, hollow, is then filled 

 up with mastic or any plastic substance. The veneer is in the first 

 instance smoothed or polished on the surface which U to be in relief. 

 Paper is pasted on the back ; and it is while the wood is yet damp 

 with the paste that it is pressed between the dies ; the paste assist* 

 the veneer to conform to the dies, and to retain the device when cold. 

 The veneer is not removed from the mould till quite dry. Medallions 

 are produced in this way, remarkable for the sharpness and per- 

 fection of the device. 



VENETIAN 1 SCHOOL OF PAINTING. [PAINTIS.;.] 



\ I.NIRE FACIAS, or Venire, the name of a writ addressed to the 

 sheriff or other returning officer, commanding him " to cause to come" 

 (rrnire facial) the parties set forth at the place named in the writ. 

 The purpose to which the writ was formerly applied, and in reference 

 to which it is generally known, is in summoning juries to serve for the 

 ordinary trial of civil causes. It has long ceased to be acted upon, the 

 court assuming that the jurors had been summoned upon it and hod 

 failed to appear at Westminster, where anciently the trial itself took 

 place, another writ thereupon issuing to bring them to the assizes. 

 Now, however, the sheriff is simply commanded to summon the jurors 

 to appear before the judges of Assize or Nisi Prius. (Common Laic 

 Procedure Act, 1852.) [JURY; VKXUE.] 



VENTILATION. [WARMIKU AND VENTILATION.] 



VENTRE INSPICIENDO, WRIT DE. "When a widow U sus- 

 pected to feign herself with child in order to produce a suppositious 

 heir to the estate, the heir presumptive may have a writ tie n-ntre 

 iiiifirienJo, to examine whether she be with child or not ; and, if she 

 be, to keep her under proper restraint till delivered ; which is entirely 

 conformable to the practice of the civil law : but if the widow be, 

 upon due examination, found not to be pregnant, the presumptive heir 

 shall be admitted to the inheritance, though he hath to lose it again, 

 on the birth of a child within forty weeks from the death of a 

 husband." (Blackstone, ' Coiuiu.' i. 456) The Roman practice is 

 explained in the title of the ' Digest' (25 tit. 4) : " Dt iiurpiciendo venire 

 ciatodiendoqtK partu." The practice originated in the joint reigns 

 of Aurelius and Verus, in a case in which a wife denied her pregnancy 

 and the husband maintained it. The wife had separated from the 

 husband, and probably wished to keep the child that might be born, 

 though by law it would belong to the husband. If a woman alleged 

 that she was left pregnant by her deceased husband, it was her duty to 

 announce the fact to those whom it concerned, and to inform them 

 that they might, if they pleased, send women to inspect her (t/nm 

 rentrem inspiciant). All the proceedings of inspection and of watch- 

 ing the woman, if she should be reported to be with child, are minutely 

 prescribed in the Prsctor's Edict. The penalty in case of the woman 

 not complying with the edict was, that the pnctor would refuse to the 

 child the tiuaurum pottatio. 



The form of the English writ de venire iatpiciendo is given Co. 

 Litt. 8 b. It is directed to the sheriff, and commands him to empanel 

 a jury of twelve women to search whether she be enceinte. If they 

 find that she is with child, another writ issues which commands that 

 she shall be safely kept and duly inspected by the women, who must 

 be present at the delivery. 



The use of this writ U an instance in which what is called a pro- 

 ceeding at common law is token from the Roman system. (Co. l.if, . 

 8 b., and N. 44 in Butler's edition; Comyns, ' Digest,' Bastard, C.) 



VENTRILOQUISM (literally " belly -speaking :" from renter, the 

 belly ; and loguar, I speak) is a vocal mimicry of sounds, by which an 

 illusion is produced on the hearer that the sound comes, not from the 

 mimic, but from some other appropriate source. The various pheno- 

 mena of vocal mimicry may be conveniently considered under two 

 general heads, namely: 1st, The simple imitation of the voices of 

 persons, of animals, of musical instruments, and other sounds and 

 noise* of every description, in which no illusion is intended, but, on 

 the contrary, the imitation avowedly and perceptibly comes from the 

 mimic ; and 2nd, The imitation of those voices, sounds, and noises, not 

 as originating in the mimic, but in some other, an appropriate source 

 at a given or varying distance, in any or even in several dir 

 successively. And when these imitations are mode without moving 

 the mouth, features, or body, the illusive effect of the mimicry is 

 enhanced. The terms mimicry, or imitation, are commonly 

 to designate effort* under the former general head where no ill < 

 intended, while the term ventriloquism distinguishes those under the 

 latter where an illusion is produced, 



The various kinds of divination amongst the nations of antiquity 

 which were stated by the priesthood to be by a spirit, a familiar xpirit. 

 or a spirit of divination, are now supposed to have been effected by 

 mama* of ventriloquism. Divination by t familiar spirit can be tracked 

 through a long period of tinn-. liy reference to Leviticus, xx. 6, 27, it 

 will be seen that the Mosaic law forbade the Hebrews to consult those 

 having familiar spirits, and to put to death the possessor. The Mosaic 

 law wan given about fifteen hundred years before Christ Divining by 

 a familiar spirit was however so familiar to the Jews, that the prophet 

 laaiah draws a powerful illustration from the kind of voice heard in 

 such divination, see Isaiah, xxix. 4. In the Acts of the Apostles, xvi. 



10, mention is nude of a young woman with a familiar spirit meeting 

 the Apostles in the city of 1'uilippi in Macedonia. And St. Chryaostom 

 and other early fathers of the Christian Church mention divination by 

 a familiar spirit as practised in their day. The practice of similar 

 divination is still common in the East, and is even practised amongst 

 the Esquimaux. This divination by a familiar spirit has been practised 

 upwards of three thousand years. 



The witch of Endor divined by a familiar spirit; 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, 



in Hebrew 2"iS (Ob.) The word U also adopted in the Hebrew Bible 

 to designate those persons, whether male or female, in whom there is 



a familiar spirit. The plural of 2iS is rfiaiS Oboth, wlm-h in tin- 

 Septuagint version of the Scriptures is mostly rendered by the ' 

 'Eyyturrpijai/flowj, which is compounded of ir, in, ycurrlip, the bell;. 

 ni6os, speech, and corresponds with the word ventriloquism. This 

 rendering of the Hebrew in the Septuagint, Professor Lee accounts for 



by the muttering of those having a familiar spirit the ffiSiS : see 

 his Hebrew Lexicon, or ' Thes. Heb.' Gesenii, tub rare. 



The Greeks practised a mode of divination termed gastromancy, 

 from ycurrfip, the belly, and fjJairu, a prophet ; where the diviner 

 replied without moving his lips, so that the consulter believed he heard 

 the actual voice of a spirit speaking from its residence within the 

 priest's belly. St. Chrysostom adopts the same Greek word as the 

 translators of the Septuagint version to designate the diviners by 

 familiar spirits, namely, 'Eyyoorpijuuflous. 



The earliest description of a ventriloquial illusion in modern days is 

 that performed by Louis Brabant, valet-de-chambre of Francis I. liy 

 the aid of ventriloquism he extorted from the mother of a young 

 woman her consent to their marriage which she had previously 

 opposed, and from a rich old man a large sum of money. The 

 work of M. 1'Abbo" de la Chapelle, published 1772, descriptive of 

 the feats of Baron Mcngen at Vienna, and of M. St. Gille near 

 claims attention. Baron Mengen made a doll with moveabL 

 which he could control by his hand under its dress. With this doll he 

 held witty and satirical dialogue. Baron Mengen said he owed his art 

 to a passion for counterfeiting the cries of animals and the voices of 

 persons, that the passion manifested itself in early life ; and that he 

 had the power of imitating sounds so accurately as to make tl. ; . 

 appear to come from other places than his own mouth. 



M. St. Gille, in 1771, mode an experiment to test his ventril 

 talent before MM. Leroy and Fouchy, commissioners of the ][>>! 

 Academy of Sciences, and many other persons of the highest rank. 

 The object of the experiment was to show that M. St. Gille's mimicry 

 of sounds was so perfect as to produce illusion. For this purpose it 

 was reported that a spirit's voice was at times heard in the environs of 

 St. Germain, and that the commission was appointed to verify the fact 

 and to discover the cause. All the company were in the secret except 

 one lady, who, without suspecting it, was to be the subject of the 

 illusion. They all dined in the country in the open air, and while 

 they were at table a voice, as of a spirit *uspended in the air, addressed 

 the lady : now it seemed at the top of the trees ; then descending, it 

 approached her then receding, it plunged into the ground, whence it 

 ceased not to moke itself heard. The conversation was sustained 

 upwards of two hours with such adroitness that the lady was fully 

 convinced she had talked with a sylph ; and when tin- illusion was 

 explained to her, she doubted if it were on illusion. 



M. St. Gille, like Baron Mengen, made no secret of his art, but 

 referred it all to mimicry, for which he had a strong propensity. The 

 French Academy adopted the views contained in the statements of 

 these two ventriloquists, namely, that the art consists in an accurate 

 imitation of any given sound as it reaches the ear. 



Adopting these views, physiologists have offered a variety of possible 

 actions of the vocal organs to explain its production ; and some have 

 even supposed a peculiarity of structure of the vocal organs as neces- 

 sary, but have wisely omitted to specify what. Many physiologists 

 think that ventriloquism is vocally produced by speaking during 

 inspiration of the breath. It is possible to speak during inspii 

 and it may be occasionally adopted ; but close observation on many 

 public ventriloquists, and private friends who can ventriloquise, con- 

 vinces the author of this article that the general current of utt 

 U, as in ordinary speech, on an expiration of the breath. 



Adopting the views of the French Academy, sonic have thought 

 that the vocal means of effecting the required imitation nmsM in n 

 skilful management of the echoes of sound. Unfortunately, however, 

 for this theory, an echo merely repeats what ir already produced ; and 

 several ventriloquists, including the late Mr. Mathews, have produced 

 the vocal illusion while walking in the streets. 



Baron Mengen thus describes his mode of speaking when the voice 

 was to seem to come from his doll : " I press my tongue against the 

 teeth, and thus circumscribe a cavity between my left cheek and teeth, 

 in which the voice is produced by the nir held in reserve in the 

 pharynx (goner). The sounds thus receive a hollow and muffled tone, 

 which causes them to appear to come from a distance." The ' 

 says it is necessary to well manage the breath, and to respire as seldom 

 as possible. 



It w. observed that M. St. Gille appeared fatigued after long exer- 

 tion, when the vocal illusion became less perfect. Those vwitriloqnisl 

 with whom the author of this article has conferred have acknowledged 



