VANILLA 



6037 



VARICOSE VEINS 



from 1899 to 1910 chairman of the board of 

 directors. Van Home was created a Knight 

 Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and 

 Saint George in 1894. 



VANILLA, vanil'a, a genus of orchids, of 

 commercial value as the source of an extract 

 widely used in flavoring chocolate, ice cream, 

 pastry, confectionery and perfumes. The spe- 

 cies producing most of the vanilla of commerce 

 is native to the 

 countries of 

 North and South 

 America, be- 

 tween Mexico 

 and Peru. It is 

 also cultivated ex- 

 tensively in Java, 

 Ceylon, th 

 Indies and other 

 warm regions, 

 and is propagated 

 by cuttings. The 

 plant has a long 

 stem and aerial 

 rootlets, and is 

 enabled to at- 

 tach itself to 

 trees by the lat- 

 ter. It lives for 

 nearly half a cen- 

 tury and produces 

 its first crop at 

 the end of three 

 years, if normal conditions have prevailed. 



The fruit is a cylindrical pod, or "bean," 

 seven or eight inches long, with an oily black 

 pulp containing large numbers of tiny black 

 seeds. The pods are gathered before they are 

 ripe, are slowly dried and then sweated, or fer- 

 mented, the latter process serving to develop 

 flavor and aroma. Vanilla extract is pre- 

 pared from the pulp of the beans by a labori- 

 ous process. The best beans sometimes sell 

 for as high as $15 a pound, therefore substi-. 

 - and adulteration of vanilla are common. 

 Vanillin, the aromatic principle of tin- fruit, is 

 produced by artificial methods and used in th< 

 preparation of cheaper grades, and th. . x tract 

 of the tonka bean is frequently marketed aa 







VAN RENSSELAER, ren'teler, STEPHEN 

 (1764-1839), an American statesman, the last 

 of the Dutch patroons, whose former estate 



now constitutes three counties. 

 II was born in New York City and was edu- 

 cated at Harvard. Having become interested 



VANILLA 

 Flowering branch and pod. 



in politics, he was elected to the legislature in 

 1789, was state senator from 1790 to 1795, lieu- 

 tenant-governor from 1795 to 1801, and pre- 

 sided over the state constitutional convention 

 in 1801. Van Rensselaer was a prominent mem- 

 ber of the commission that effected the con- 

 struction of the Erie and Champlain canals, 

 and he directed and financed a geological sur- 

 of New York in 1821-1823. In 1824 he es- 

 tablished at Troy, N. Y., a scientific school for 

 the instruction of teachers, which was incor- 

 porated in 1826 as the Rensselaer Polytechnic 

 Institute. Between 1823 and 1829 he was a 

 member of Congress. See PATROON SYSTEM. 



VAPOR, va'per. In physics this term is ap- 

 plied to the gaseous state into which solids and 

 liquids pass when heated. In a technical sense 

 both steam and oxygen are vapors. It is cus- 

 tomary, however, to make this distinction be- 

 tween gases and vapors: the former retain the 

 form of air at ordinary temperatures, and the 

 latter resume their liquid or solid state under 

 the same conditions. The process of converting 

 a substance into a vapor is called vaporization. 

 Evaporation and boiling are forms of vapori- 

 zation; in the one case the change to a vapor- 

 ous condition takes place slowly and quietly, 

 and in the other very rapidly. When the boil- 

 ing point of a solid is lower than the melting 

 point and it vaporizes without first becoming 

 a liquid, it is said to undergo sublimation. 

 Vaporization in connection with atmospheric 

 conditions bears a very important relation to 

 climate. Water vapor is constantly present in 

 the air, and under varying conditions it forms 

 clouds, dew, rain and snow. 



Related Subject*. In connection with this 

 article on vsipor, the reader may consult the fol- 

 lowing: topics in these volume*: 

 Boiling Point Rain 

 Cloud Snow 

 Dew Steam 

 Distillation Sublimation 

 Evaporation 



VARICOSE VEINS, lar'ikohs vanes', veins 

 that h.ive become dilated through some con- 

 dition which interferes with the flow of venous 

 blood back to the In nt Veins in the legs are 

 commonly affected, opeeially in cases \\ 

 tin- occupation necessitates much standing. 

 Other predisposing causes are diseases of the 

 * heart and liver, gout, overindulgence in ath- 

 letic sporta and the wearing of tight garters. 

 In advanced cases knotty lumps of a bluish 

 color form along the vein, and tin victim ex- 

 periences considerable pain in the affected limb. 

 chief danger arises from the bursting of 



