VIRGINIUS MASSACRE 



6101 



VIRUS 



JC4 TL A N 7-/\C OCEAN 



VIRGIN ISLANDS OF THE UNITED STATES 



They are the key to the whole Caribbean area. The opening: of the Panama Canal gave a new 

 importance to them, for they stand where the steamer route from Europe to Panama crosses the 

 route from New York to South America. Germany sought earnestly to acquire the islands and 

 much disturbed when their control passed to the American republic. 



These islands will always be called the Virgin 

 Islands, but their legal designation is as given 

 in the first words of this article. B.M.W. 



VIRGINIUS MASSACRE, virjin'ius mas' a 

 k< r, an episode of President Grant's second ad- 

 ministration which almost involved the United 

 States in a war with Spain. In 1873, during a 

 Cuban insurrection against Spain, a merchant 

 ship called the Virginius was captured on the 

 hiph seas near Jamaica by a Spanish man-of- 

 war. The vessel floated the American flag and 

 was commanded by an American citizen, Cap- 

 Fry. Its captors excused their act on the 

 ground that the Virginius was preparing to land 

 men and arms in Cuba to aid the rebels. The 

 vessel was taken to the port of Santiago, and 

 Captain Fry, thirty-six of the crew and sixteen 

 passengers w : I ly the Spanish au- 



thorities. Only the arrival of the British ship 

 Niobe saved the rest of the prisoners. The af- 

 uused great excitement and indignation \\\ 

 the United States, but hostilities were averted, 

 as Spain agreed to surrender the ship and sur- 

 :ul to disclaim any intention to insult 

 tlu A flag. It was discovered, after in- 



us was unlawfully 

 flying the flag. The vessel was wrecked and 



abandoned off Cape Fear on its homeward 

 journey. 



VIR'GO, or THE. VIRGIN, a zodiacal constel- 

 lation, now mostly in the sign of Libra, also 

 the sixth sign of the zodiac, into which the sun 

 enters about August 20. In astronomy the sym- 

 bol is UK, supposed to represent a wing. 



The principal star in the constellation is 

 Spica Virginis, of about second magnit 

 nearly 10 south of the celestial equator. In 

 illustrations Virgo usually represents Astraea, 

 goddess of justice, holding tin- balance Libra 

 on one hand and a sheaf of wheat in tl 

 Sometimes she is shown as representing 

 Egyptian goddess Isis, daughter of Earth and 

 Heaven. 



See drawing, Th Heaven* in Spring and Sum- 

 mer, page 444, In article ASTRONOMY. 



VI'RUS, a medical term generally used in 

 tlir sense of disease poison. It is applied usu- 

 ally to the poisonous substance produced in 

 ill-- body by a particular disease, which when 

 transmitted to another person causes him to 

 take the same disease. Examples are the in- 

 ; ve agents which cause measles and small- 

 pox. It is also customary to designate the 

 material used in vaccination as virus, though 



