VERMES 



VERMONT 



VERMES, vur'mcez, an extensive division of 

 the animal kingdom, including worms. See 

 WORMS. 



VER'MIFORM APPEN'DIX. See APPENDI- 

 CITIS. 



VERMILION, vermil'yun, a permanent red 

 pigment of brilliant color, widely used in the 

 manufacture of paint. It is manufactured by 

 grinding mercury and sulphur together and 

 treating the mixture with caustic potash solu- 

 tion, or by heating mercury and sulphur in 

 an iron pan and subjecting the mass to con- 



stant stirring. As a result of the latter process 

 a black sulphide forms. This sulphide when va- 

 porized in clay retorts yields the red pigment. 

 In both processes it is necessary to grind, wash 

 and dry the product. Imitation vermilions 

 are made by coloring chalk with coal-tar dyes. 

 Cinnabar, or native mercuric sulphide, is also 

 known as vermilion. The name is derived 

 from a Latin word meaning little worm, and 

 refers to the insect from which carmine is ob- 

 tained the tiny cochineal insect of Central 

 and South America. See CARMIXK. 



THE STORY OF VERMONT 



ERMONT', a New England state, popu- 

 larly known as THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE. 

 It is named for its evergreen-clad mountains 

 which are said to have been first called Ics 

 verts monts, meaning the green mountains, by 

 Champlain when he saw their forested summits 

 from the lake which bears his name. The 

 state flower is the red clover. 



Size and Location. Vermont is the only state 

 of the New England group which has no sea 

 coast, but for more than one hundred miles its 

 western boundary follows the shores of Lake 

 Champlain, more than half of which lies within 

 the state; and the entire length of the state on 

 the east is bordered by the Connecticut River, 

 the longest river of New England. Having an 

 area of 9,564 square miles, of which 440 square 

 miles are water surface, Vermont ranks forty- 

 second in size among the states of the Union. 

 Its area only slightly exceeds that of New 

 Hampshire and is about one-third of that of 

 New Brunswick. 



The People. Vermont had in 1910 the same 

 rank in population among the states as it has 

 in area; since then Idaho and New Mexico 

 have become more populous. In 1910, the 

 population was 355,956, the average density be- 

 ing thirty-nine per square mile. On January 1, 

 1917, the population was estimated at 364,322. 

 Of the foreign-born citizens, numbering about 

 50,000, over one-half are Canadians, the ma- 

 jority of them French-speaking. A little over 

 half of the population is rural. The largest 



cities are Burlington, Rutland, Barre, Mont- 

 pelier, the capital, and Saint Albans, but the 

 villages of Saint Johnsbury and Brattleboro 

 are both larger than Saint Albans. Owing to 

 the proximity of the old French province of 

 Quebec and the large number of French-Cana- 

 dians in the state, the Roman Catholics are 

 most numerous among the religious denomina- 

 tions. Other Churches of importance are the 

 Congregational, Methodist, Baptist and Epis- 

 copal, ranking in the order named. 



Education. The public schools of Vermont 

 are organized in a township system adminis- 

 tered by town superintendents of education un- 

 der the supervision of the state superintendent 

 of public instruction. Education is compulsory 

 twenty-six weeks of the year for all from eight 

 to fifteen years of age. The illiteracy in the 

 state, being 3.7 per cent, is less than that of 

 any other Eastern state. The school fund is 

 derived from state and local taxation; state 

 normal schools at Castleton and Johnson and 

 the University of Vermont and the state agri- 

 cultural college at Burlington are maintained by 

 the state. Middlebury College at Middlebury 

 and Norwich University at Northfield, the other 

 institutions of higher education, receive state aid 

 and inspection. 



In 1912, an educational commission, acting 

 in cooperation with the Carnegie Foundation 

 for the Advancement of Teaching, was created 

 by the governor. In 1914 this commission re- 

 ported upon the educational affairs of the state, 



