V A U 



V A R 



O and D, given in pofition. For other examples illuftrative 

 of this calculus, fee the article Isoperimetky. 



Variation-, in Miific, is the different manner of playing 

 orfingingthefameair, tune, or fong, either by fubdividing 

 the notes into feveral others of lefs value, or by adding 

 graces, in fuch a manner, however, as that the tune itfelf 

 may ftill be difcovered through all its embellifhments, which 

 the French call broderies. 



Thus, great matters of the laft century, flattering the bad 

 tafte of the pubhc, have condefcended to make variations to 

 old tunes ; as Corelh to Farinel's ground, or " All Joy to 

 great Cafar," which the Italians call "LaFoUiad'Efpagna," 

 and which he has made the theme of his whole twelfth folo. 

 Handel and Tartiai have compofed fimpie airs on purpofe to 

 be the ground-work of variations. The late John Chriftian 

 Bach, Fifcher, Giardini, &c. have varied Scotch and Iri(h 

 tunes to corrupt the pubhc tafte, inftead of improving it by 

 new compofitions, which would have done them more credit, 

 and given them lefs trouble. See Theme and Double. 



" All Paris,." fays Roufleau, " ufed to go to the concert 

 fpirituel, to hear the variations of MelTrs. Guignon and Mon- 

 donville ; and ftill at a more recent period, thofe of Meflrs. 

 Guignon and Gavini^s, to the tunes of the Pont-neuf, which 

 had no other merit than that of being trifled with by the two 

 greateft performers on the violin in France." 



VARICA, in Ancier.t Geography, a town of Afiatic 

 Iberia, according to Ptolemy. 



VARICELLA, in Medicine, a diminutive of Variola, 

 (the fmall-pox,) fignifying a veficular eruption, accompa- 

 nied with flight febrile fymptoms, and occurrmg but once 

 in the period of human hfe, which is popularly termed 

 chicken-pox ani f wine-pox. 



It will not be matter of furprife that this difeafe fhould 

 bear the name of a hjjer fmall-pox, and that it fliould have 

 been defcribed by the older writers as a modification of that 

 diftemper, under various fimilar appellations, fuch as variola 

 pufilU, 'Uolatic£,fpuriit, &c.; when we are informed by a late 

 acute inveftigator of difeafes. Dr. Willan, that, from the 

 year 1800, to the time of the pubhcation of his eflay on vac- 

 cination, in 1806, he had ken f evenly -four c^iesoi chicken- 

 pox that had been miftaken for fmall-pox, after vaccine ino- 

 culation. It is true, indeed, that the diftinftion has been 

 rendered fomewhat more difficult, in confequence of the 

 milder degree, (horter duration, and modified form, which 

 the fmall-pox itfelf has been made to aflume by the influ- 

 ence of the previous cow-pox, in the few cafes where it has 

 occurred after this difeafe. Neverthelefs, the refemblance 

 is fufficient at all times to miflead ordinary obfervers ; and 

 the foreign nofologiils, from Sauvages down to Burferius, 

 have confidered the difeafe as a fpecies of variola. ( See Sau- 

 vages Nofol. Method, clafs iii. gen. 2. Vogel, De Cog- 

 nofcend. et Curand. Hominum Morbis, ^ 128. Burferius, 

 Inft. Med. vol. ii. cap. 9.) It is fingular, however, that 

 not only fome of the earheft Italian writers on the fmall-pox, 

 who hved three centuries ago, have diftinftly defcribed the 

 chicken-pox under a fpecific name, cryjlalli, and with the 

 mention of the fcarcely perceptible fever, and abfence of all 

 danger (fee Vidus Vidius, De CryftaUis ; and Ingraflias de 

 Tumoribus prseter Naturam, hb. i. cap. i.) ; but that the 

 Yulgar, in feveral countries of Europe, had diftinguiflied it by 

 popular appellations, even while phyficians were regarding 

 it as a modification of fmall-pox. Thus Daniel Sennert, 

 who was a profeflbr at Wittemberg at the commencement of 

 the feventeenth century, obferves, in his Treatife on Small- 

 pox and Meafles, that there are other varieties, " praeter 

 communes variolas et morbillos," which are popularly known 

 in Germany by the Xsx\Ti% fchaffsllattern [Jbeep-pox, or Jheep- 



bltbs or blains) and luindboSen [wind-pox). (See his Med. 

 PraA. lib. iv. cap. 12.) And Riverius, who was profeflbr 

 at Montpellier at the fame period, fpeaks of it as famiharly 

 known by the common people in France by the name of vei- 

 rolette. (See his Praxis Med. cap. ii. ) In Italy it was alfo 

 known to the vulgar under the appellation of ravaglione. 

 Again, in our country. Fuller, who pubhflied his " Exan- 

 thematologia" in 1730, acknowledges himfelf indebted to 

 the old women for his appellation. " I have adventured to 

 think," he fays, " this is what among our tvomen goeth by the ( 

 name of chicken-pock." (P. 161.) Other popular names ■ 

 have been given to the difeafe in different parts of this coun- 

 try. Thus it is in many places called fiuine-pox ; in fome, 

 hives; and at Newcaftle and Sunderland, tuater-jags. (See (; 

 Dr. Wood in the Med. and Phyf. Journal, vol. xiii. p. 58.) ( 

 In fome places, however, the different forms which the dif- 

 eafe itfelf aflTumes, three of which have been diftinftly de- 

 fcribed by the late ingenious Dr. Willan, are defignated b-.- 

 the terms cMcien-pox, fwine-pox, and hives, refpeAively. 



The chai-after of each of thefe varieties, under which the 

 varicella occafionally appears, we (hall copy from the work 

 of that excellent obferver of difeafes, as there is no other 

 defcription of them extant of eijual accuracy ; and it is 

 highly neceflary to be able to difcriminate between this 

 eruption and the milder forms of fmall-pox, and efpe- 

 cially that modified and altered variola which fometimes fuc- 

 ceeds vaccination. The only other account of the chicken- 

 pox in our language, which bears the ftamp of obfervation, 

 is a paper of the late excellent Dr. Heberden, another phy- 

 fician of the true Hippocratic fchool, written in the year 1 767, 

 and publifhed in the firft volume of the Tranfaftions of the 

 College of Phyficians, and which we Ihall have occafion alfo-to 

 quote, on the point of diagnofis, in the fequel of this article. 



Dr. Willan obferves, " there are three varieties of the 

 varicella, which, from the different forms of the veficle*, 

 may be entitled the lenticular, conoidal, znd globale." And 

 he adds, in a note, " In the northern parts of England, and 

 in fome counties of Scotland, thefe varieties are denominated 

 the chicken-pox, the Iwine-pox, and the hives. In the fouth, 

 both the latter varieties are called fwine-pox. 



1. " The lenticular varicella exhibits, on the firft day of 

 eruption, fmall red protuberances, not exaftly circular, and 

 having a flat fhining furface, in the centre of which a minute 

 veficle is foon formed. This, on the fecond day, is filled 

 with a whitifh lymph, and it then fomewhat refembles a mi- 

 liary veficle, but is not fo prominent, fotenfe, or fo regularly 

 circumfcribed : its diameter is about the tenth of an inch. 

 On the third day, the extent of the veficles continues thefams, 

 but the lymph they contain becomes ftraw-coloured. On 

 the fourth day, many of the veficles are broken at the moft 

 prominent part ; the reft begin to fhrink, and are puckered 

 at their edges. Few of them remain entire on the fifth day, 

 but the orifices of feveral broken veficles are clofed, or adhere 

 to the Ikin, fo as to confine a httle opaque lymph within 

 the puckered margins. On the fixth day, fmall thin 

 brown fcabs appear univerfally in the place of the veficles. 

 The fcabs, on the feventh and eighth days, become yellowifh, 

 and gradually dry from the circumference towards the centre. 

 On the ninth and tenth days they fall off, leaving for a time 

 red marks in the fkin, without depreflion. 



" The eruption is generally firft obferved on the breaft and 

 back, and afterwards on the face and extremities. As frefti 

 veficles arife during two or three fucceflive days, and go 

 through the fame ftages as the firft, the duration of the dif- 

 eafe is fometimes longer than I have ftated above. 



2. " In the cono/i/a/ varicella, the veficles rife fuddenly, and 

 have a hard inflamed border. They are, on the iirft day of 



4 their 



