VISTULA VITBUVIUS POLLIO. 



835 



pear pro bono publico, or to scare drunken rustics 

 from tumbling over their graves. Dragging chain 

 is not the fashion of English ghosts, chains and 

 black vestments being chiefly the accoutrements of 

 foreign spectres seen in arbitrary government : dead 

 or alive, English spirits are free." Doctor Aber- 

 crombie (Inquiries concerning the Intellectual 

 Powers, 2d ed., Edinburgh, 1831), in treating of 

 spectral illusions, refers them to the following heads: 

 1. False perceptions, or impressions made upon 

 the senses only, in which the mind does not partici- 

 pate. 2. Real dreams, though the person was not, 

 at the time, sensible of having slept, nor conse- 

 quently, of having dreamed. A person under the 

 influence of some strong mental impression, drops 

 asleep for a few seconds, perhaps without being 

 sensible of it; some scene or person connected with 

 the impression appears in a dream, and he starts up 

 under the conviction that it was a spectral appear- 

 ance. 3. Intense mental conceptions, so strongly 

 impressed upon the mind as, for the moment, to be 

 believed to have a real existence. This takes place 

 when, along with the mental emotion, the indivi- 

 dual is placed in circumstances in which external 

 impressions are very slight, as solitude, faint light, 

 and quiescence of body. It is a state bordering 

 closely upon dreaming, though the vision occurs 

 while the person is in the waking state. 4. Er- 

 roneous impressions, connected with bodily disease, 

 generally disease in the brain. The illusions, in 

 these cases, arise in a manner strictly analogous to 

 dreaming, and consist of some former circumstances 

 recalled to the mind, and believed, for a time, to 

 have a real and present existence. The diseases, 

 in connexion with which they arise, are generally 

 of an apoplectic or inflammatory character, some- 

 times epileptic ; and they are very frequent in the 

 affection called delirium tremens, produced by a 

 continued use of intoxicating liquors. Under each 

 of these heads, the author states a number of inte- 

 resting facts, illustrative of the general theory. 



The second species of illusions, or optical illusions, 

 are occasioned by the state of the atmosphere, pro- 

 ducing a reflection or unequal refraction of light, 

 such as the famous gigantic figure called the spectre 

 of the Brocken, aerial troops of horsemen, spectre 

 ships, &c. (see Optics}, of which phenomena the 

 reader will find descriptions and explanations in 

 Brewster's Natural Magic (London, 1832). Illu- 

 sions are often also produced by the appearance of 

 objects imperfectly seen in a dim light, and by elec- 

 tric phenomena, when the credulous and terrified 

 observer "sees, or thinks he sees," monstrous shapes 

 flitting around and glaring upon him. For further 

 information on this interesting chapter in the history 

 of human weakness, see Scott's Letters on Demono- 

 logy and Witchcraft ; Thacher's Essay on Demono- 

 logy (1831); and particularly Hibbert's Philosophy 

 of Apparitions (Edinburgh, 1824). 



VISTULA (Polish, Visla ; German Weichsel), 

 a river about 500 miles long, navigable from Cra- 

 cow, which rises in the principality of Teschen, in 

 Austrian Silesia, on the northern declivity of the 

 Carpathian mountains, flows round the territory of 

 Cracow and Gallicia, through the kingdom of Pol- 

 and, towards the north-west, passes through West 

 Prussia, and divides into two branches, of which 

 the eastern, the Nogat, empties, about two and a 

 half miles from Elbing, into the Frische Haff ; the 

 western divides again, about nine miles above Dant- 

 zic, into two branches, of which the western flows 

 into the Baltic at Weichselmunde, near Dantzic ; 



the eastern, by many small channels, into the Frische 

 Haff. The Vistula contains numerous and excel- 

 lent fish : its navigation is very important, as the 

 products of Poland wood, grain, &c. are trans- 

 ported on it to Dantzic, on the Baltic. The canal 

 of Bromberg connects the Vistula with the Oder. 

 Several navigable rivers empty into the Vistula. 



VITALIANS. See Apollinarians. 



VITELLIUS, AULUS, a Roman, raised by his 

 vices to the throne, was descended from one of the 

 most illustrious families of Rome. The greatest 

 part of his youth was spent at Capreae, where he 

 laboured to gratify the vicious propensities of Ti- 

 berius. He passed through all the offices of the 

 state, and gained the soldiery by donations and li- 

 beral promises. He was at the head of the Roman 

 legions in Germany when Otho was proclaimed em- 

 peror, and was likewise invested with the purple 

 by his soldiers. He accepted the office, and instantly 

 marched against Otho. After losing three battles, 

 he was successful in the plains between Mantua and 

 Cremona. He now gave himself up to luxury and 

 debauchery. He feasted four or five times a day, 

 and was often seen to make himself vomit, to begin 

 his repast afresh. Above thirty million dollars were 

 spent in maintaining his table in the space of four 

 months. This extravagance soon raised the indig- 

 nation of the people. Vespasian was proclaimed 

 emperor by the army, and his minister Primus was 

 sent to destroy the imperial glutton. Vitellius 

 concealed himself under the bed of the porter of his 

 palace ; but he was discovered, and dragged naked 

 through the streets, with his hands tied behind his 

 back. After suffering the greatest insults from the 

 populace, his head was cut off and fixed to a pole, 

 and his mutilated body dragged with a hook and 

 thrown into the Tiber, A. D. 69, after a reign of 

 one year, except twelve days. 



VITERBO (anciently Volturna} ; a town of 

 Italy, in the States of the Church, capital of a de- 

 legation, formerly capital of the Patrimonio; thirty- 

 four miles north-west of Rome ; Ion. 12 6' E. ; 

 lat. 42 25' N. ; population, 12,600. This city is 

 a bishop's see, and lies in a beautiful and fertile 

 valley : the streets, for the greater part, are broad 

 and well paved, the houses good, but thinly peopled, 

 though the number of churches, convents and hos- 

 pitals is not less than sixty-nine. Four popes lie 

 interred in the cathedral. Not far from the city is 

 a warm mineral spring. 



VITRIOL, GREEN. See Copperas. 



VITRIOL, OIL OF; the old name for sulphuric 

 acid. See Sulphur. 



VITRUVIUS POLLIO, MARCUS; a celebrated 

 writer on architecture, who is supposed to have 

 flourished in the time of Julius Caesar and Augus- 

 tus, and of whose parentage and place of nativity 

 no certain knowledge can be obtained. The most 

 probable opinion is, that he was born at Formia, a 

 city of Campania, now called Mola di Gaeta. He 

 plainly appears to have been liberally educated ; and 

 that he travelled for information and improvement, 

 we learn from his writings. The only public edifice 

 which he mentions as being constructed from his 

 designs, is a basilica at Fano. He wrote, at an ad- 

 vanced age, his work De Architectura Lib. X., 

 which he dedicated to Augustus, under whose reign 

 he had held the office of inspector of the military 

 machines. This treatise was first printed at Venice, 

 1497, folio; and, among modern editions, the most 

 valuable are those of Schneider (Leipsic, 1808, 4 

 vols., 8vo.), and of Stratico ((Ettingen, 1828, 4 



