VENTOSE- VENUS. 



801 



after being slept in, is of the greatest importance 

 to persons of weak health. Instances have been 

 known in which restlessness, and an inability to 

 find refreshment from sleep, would come on in such 

 individuals, when the linen of their beds had been 

 unchanged for eight or ten days. In one case, of a 

 gentleman of a very irritable habit, who suffered 

 from excessive perspiration during the night, and 

 who had taken much medicine without relief, he 

 observed that, for two or three nights after he had 

 fresh sheets put upon his bed, he had no sweating ; 

 and that, after that time, he never awoke but that 

 he was literally swimming, and that the sweats 

 seemed to increase with the length of time he slept 

 in the same sheets. 



Various means are had recourse to at times, with 

 the intention of correcting disagreeable smells, and 

 of purifying the air of sick-rooms. Diffusing the 

 vapour of vinegar through the air, by plunging a 

 hot poker into a vessel containing it, burning aro- 

 matic vegetables, smoking tobacco, and exploding 

 gunpowder, are the means usually employed. All 

 these are useless. The explosion of gunpowder 

 may, indeed, do something, by displacing the air 

 within the reach of its influence ; but, then, unfor- 

 tunately, an air is produced, by its combustion, that 

 is as offensive, and equally unfit to support life as 

 any air it can be used to remove. These expedients 

 only serve to disguise the really offensive condition 

 of the atmosphere. The best means of purifying 

 the air of a chamber which is actually occupied by 

 a sick person, is by changing it in such a manner 

 that the patient shall not be directly exposed to 

 the draughts or currents. Chemistry, however, 

 has furnished the means of purifying the air of 

 chambers in which persons have been confined with 

 contagious diseases, or in which bad air is generated 

 in other ways, so as to destroy the noxious or of- 

 fensive power of the effluvia generated in such situa- 

 tions, and thus of preventing its injurious influence. 

 (See Chlorine.) No fumigation will be of any 

 avail in purifying stagnant air, or air that has been 

 breathed till it has been deprived of its vital part : 

 such air must be driven out, when its place should 

 be immediately supplied by the fresh, pure atmos- 

 phere. The readiest means of changing the air of 

 an apartment is by lighting a fire in it, and then 

 throwing open the door and windows : this will set 

 the air in motion, by establishing a current up the 

 chimney. The air which has been altered by being 

 breathed is essential to vegetable life ; and plants, 

 aided by the rays of the sun, have the power to 

 absorb it, while they themselves at the same time 

 give out pure vital air. This process, going on by 

 day, the reverse of that described before as taking 

 place during the night, is continually in operation, 

 BO that the purification of the atmosphere can only 

 be prevented by its being preserved in a stagnant 

 state. 



VENTOSE. See Calendar. 



VENTRILOQUISM. Modern inquiries have 

 proved that the ventriloquist (a very ancient ex- 

 pression, which originated from the erroneous sup- 

 position that the sounds uttered by the persons so 

 called are formed in the belly) does not need any 

 peculiarity in the construction of the organs of 

 voice, but that practice only is necessary to carry 

 this act of illusion to a high degree of perfection. 

 They have also shown that the sounds are formed 

 by the same organs as the emissions of sound com- 

 monly the larynx, the palate, the tongue, the lips, 

 &c. ; that the sound is not produced during inspira- 



tion, but proceeds, as usual, during expiration, with 

 a less opened mouth. The art of the ventriloquist 

 consists merely in this: after drawing a long breath, 

 he breathes it out slowly and gradually, dexterous- 

 ly dividing the air, and diminishing the sound of 

 the voice by the muscles of the larynx and the 

 palate : besides this, he moves his lips as little as 

 possible, and, by various contrivances, diverts the 

 attention of his auditors. Alexander (born in Paris, 

 1797) has lately distinguished himself by his skill 

 in this art. The ancients also had ventriloquists. 

 The Greeks called them engastrimanteis, and con- 

 sidered their art the work of demons. 



VENUE ; the neighbourhood from whence juries 

 are to be summoned for trial of causes. In local 

 actions, as of trespass and ejectment, the venue is to 

 be from the neighbourhood of the place where the 

 lands in question lie ; and, in all real actions, the 

 venue must be laid in the county where the pro- 

 perty is for which the action is brought. 



VENUS ; the Roman name of the goddess of 

 love, called by the Greeks Aphrodite. The poets 

 mention an elder Venus, the daughter of Uranus, 

 and a younger, the daughter of Jupiter and Dione ; 

 but the events in the history of the two are often 

 confounded. From these events, and the places 

 where Venus was particularly worshipped, she re- 

 ceived her various epithets. The elder Venus is 

 called Venus Urania (heavenly Venus), to indicate 

 that she is the goddess of love refined from sen- 

 suality, and is thus distinguished from the younger 

 Venus, or earthly love ( Venus pandemos, vulgaris*). 

 Undoubtedly the notion of the Asiatic goddess of 

 nature, representing the female, generative princi- 

 ple, came from Syria and Phoenicia, and was deve- 

 loped and modified by the Greeks. According to 

 the Greek fable, Venus originated from the foam 

 of the sea ; hence she was called Aphrodite, Ana- 

 dyomene, and represented sometimes with a sea- 

 green veil. Great power over the sea was also 

 ascribed to her ; and mariners implored her protec- 

 tion. The myrtle was sacred to her, because she 

 hid herself behind such a tree, when she stepped, 

 naked, out of the sea, on the shore of the island of 

 Cythera. On this island (at present Cerigo*), she 

 was particularly worshipped, and was therefore 

 called Cythera. From similar causes, she was also 

 called Cypris, Gnidia, Paphia, Idalia, &c. She is 

 represented by the Greeks as the highest ideal of 

 female beauty and love, sometimes entirely naked, 

 sometimes but slightly covered. Swans, doves, 

 also sparrows, draw her chariot. Her son Cupid 

 generally accompanies her : sometimes the Graces 

 follow her. She had no children by Vulcan, her 

 husband, but had many by other gods, as Mars, 

 Bacchus, Mercury, &c. The most known of her 

 children are Amor (Cupid or Eros) and Anteros, 

 Hymen, Hermaphrodite and ./Eneas. (See these 

 articles). She also bestowed her favours on mor- 

 tals, and loved, particularly, the beautiful Adonis. 

 When the goddess of discord (Eris) rolled an ap- 

 ple, with the inscription " To the most beautiful," 

 into the assembly of the gods, Paris decided that it 

 belonged to her. Among the Greeks, Praxiteles 

 made particularly beautiful statues of her. Of 

 these, one was uncovered below (the Coan Venus), 

 and one entirely naked (the Cnidian Venus), rising 

 out of the bath. Of the latter, the Capitoline 

 Venus is, according to Meyer, a copy. Praxiteles 

 is believed to be the first sculptor who ventured to 

 make a statue of Venus entirely naked. Millingen 

 (Inedited Monuments of Grecian Art) says that all 

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