y £ G 



V E G 



A work on the veterinary art, by a writer of the fame 

 name, is printed with the " Scriptores Rei Rufticx." 

 Moreri. Gen. Biog. 



VEGETO-ANIIVlAL Matter, in Agriculture, a term 

 formerly appHed to one of the principal conftituent parts of 

 the farina, meal, or flour of fome vegetable feeds. It is 

 found in the greateft proportion in grain, efpecially that of 

 the wheat kind, exifting in a ftate of mechanical union or 

 mixture with mucilage or itarch. On cautioufly wafliing 

 wheaten flour in the form of pafte, in a kneading manner, 

 under a fmall ftream of water, until the whole of the ttarchy 

 matter be removed, this fubftance or material is found in an 

 elaftic, duftile, tenacious fl;ate, but incapable of being dif- 

 folved in it. It has none or fcarcely any tade, readily draws 

 out and contrafts, and is of a whitifh-grey colour. When 

 fully drawn out, it extends to the length of about twenty 

 times its diameter before it breaks, and appears as if com- 

 pofed of fibres placed befide each other, according to the 

 dircftion in which it has been drawn. If the force ceafes, 

 it recovers its original form by its elafticity ; when dry, it 

 is femi-tranfparent, and fomewhat refembles glue in its 

 colour and appearance. If it be drawn out thin when firfl; 

 obtained, it may be dried by expofure to the air, and in 

 that ftate has a polilhed furface, fomewhat refembling that 

 of animal membranes. If it be expofed to warmth and 

 moifture while wet, it putrefies like an animal fubllance ; it 

 crackles, fwells, and burns, exaftly in the manner of a 

 feather or piece of horn. By diftillation it affords, like 

 animal fubftances, alkaline water, concrete volatile alkali, 

 and an empyreumatic oil. Its coal is very difficultly in- 

 cinerated, and does not afford fixed alkali. From thefe 

 fa6ts, it is faid to be obvious, that it is a fubllance totally 

 different from all the others known to exifl in vegetables, 

 except albumen, which has lately been difcovered in fome of 

 them, and in many of its charafters refembles the fibrous 

 part of the blood. It docs not appear to exift in any con- 

 fiderable quantity in other farinaceous fubftances, fuch as 

 rye, barley, buck-wheat, rice, and others of the fame kind. 

 M. Bcrthollct, however, thinks that it contains phofphoric 

 fait like animal matters, and that this is the reafon of the 

 difficulty with which it is incinerated ; and the younger 

 Rouille found a glutinous fubftance in the fecula of plants 

 analogous to that of wheat. It is now commonly called 

 gluten, and faid to become of a brown colour by expofure 

 to the air, to be very flightly foluble in water, and to differ 

 from albumen in being infinitely lefs foluble in that fluid. 

 When burnt, it affords fimilar produfts to that fubftance, 

 and probably differs very little from it in compofition. It 

 is found in a great number of plants. Prouft is faid to 

 have difcovered it in acorns, chefnuts, horfe-chefnuts, 

 apples, quinces, barley, rye, peas, and beans ; likewife in 

 the leaves of rue, cabbages, creffes, hemlock, borage, faffron, 

 in the berries of the elder, and in the grape. It appears, it 

 is faid, to be one of the moft nutritive of the vegetable fub- 

 Itances ; and that wheat feems to owe its fuperiority to 

 other grain, from the circumftance of its containing it in 

 larger quantities. 



In the work on the " Connexion of Agriculture with 

 Chemiftry," it is faid that different kinds of grain contain 

 mucilage or ftarch, and this fubftance in different propor- 

 tions, and that the fame fort of grain contains thorn in dif- 

 ferent quantities, according to the climate, feafon, and foil. 

 But that good wheat generally contains two-fifths of ani- 

 malized matter, and three-fifths of ftarch. And that good 

 and well-raifed bread depends on flour containing a due 

 admixture of thefe two fubftances. Hence, it is thought, 

 by mixing the flour of different forts gf wheat, better bread 



may at times be produced than from one fort only. Extcn- 

 live benefits, too, may arife to the procellcs of brewing, 

 diftiUing, and making of vinegar, by a mixture of the dif- 

 ferent forts of grain ; and to that of diftilling, a further ad- 

 vantage would be derived by a mixture of different roots 

 with the grain, fuch as potatoes, parfnips, carrots, and many 

 others, if prepared in a proper manner. 



VEGETO-MINERAL Water of Goulard, in Me- 

 dicine. See Water of Y-mad. 



VEGGIANI, in Geography, a town of the ifland of 

 Corfica ; 1 2 miles W. of Bonifacio. 



VEGI, or Ugi, the names given by the Arabian phyfi- 

 cians to the acorns. Thefe writers feem not to have been 

 acquainted with the plant itfelf in its growing ilate, but 

 only to have known that part of it which was ufed in medi- 

 cine in their time ; but the Greeks defcribed the plant in 

 fome fort. 



VEGIA, in Geography, a town of Africa ; 45 miles W. 

 of Tunis. 



VEGIANO, a town of Naples, in Bafilicata ; 12 miles 

 S. of Potenza. 



VEGIO, Maffeo, in Biography, was born at I^odi in 

 1406, and ftudied at Milan and Pavia, manifefting in the 

 former place an attachment to poetry, and in the latter ' 

 directing his attention to civil juri [prudence. He obtained 

 fome honorary and lucrative appointments under the popes 

 Martin V., Eugeiiius IV. and Nicholas V. Highly re- 

 fpected and efteemed for his genius and learning, as well as 

 for the fandtity of his life, he died in 1458. As a Latin 

 poet, he compofed with facility, but without being diftin- 

 guiflied for elegance or purity. He began, in his early age, 

 with profane poetry, compofing, among other works, an 

 additional book to Virgil's jEneid ; but after he entered 

 into the priefthood, he confined himfelf to facred lubjeits. 

 The beft of his works in this clafs, highly commended by 

 Dupin, was his treatife " De Educatione Liberorum et 

 eorum claris moribus." His profe ftyle is accounted ele- 

 gant and poliftied for his time. Moreri. Gen. Biog. 



VEGLENSKOI, in Geography, a town of Ruffia, in the 

 provinceof Uftiug, on theVim; 72 miles N.N.E. of Yarenflc. 



VEGLI A, an ifland in the gulf of Venice, near the coaft 

 of Dalmatia, about 30 miles in length, from 6 to 14 broad, 

 and 90 in circumference, anciently called CuriSa and Ful- 

 Jinio. In the decline of the Greek empire, it obtained the 

 name of Bec/a, of which the prefent is a corruption. It is 

 fituated in the innermoft part of the gulf of Quarnera, and 

 feparated from the continent by a fmall canal only. There 

 are many harbours, but unfit for the reception of large 

 veffels, on account of the ftorms by which they are agitated. 

 Its foil is mountainous and rocky, towards the north fterile, 

 but very fertile to the fouth, and the vallies are extremely 

 fruitful. The greater part is covered with woods, which 

 occafion a confiderable trade in fire-wood. Agriculture is 

 not fo much attended to here as the culture of the vine, 

 which produces excellent wine. The culture of filk is in- 

 fignificant : the breeding of horfes is more important. The 

 breeding of fheep and goats is likewife confiderable. The 

 quarries produce a red fpottcd marble, not unhke that of 

 Verona, which is much known by the name of Mandolato of 

 Venice. This ifle is inhabited by 17,000 fouls. N. lat. 

 45" 16'. E. long. 14° 42'. 



Veglia, a fea-port town, fituated on the S.W. coaft of 

 the ifland fo called, furrounded with walls and defended by 

 a caftle, m which the governor refides. It is the fee of a 

 bilhop, fuffragan of Zara, and contains about 3600 inhabit- 

 ants. N. lat. 45" 1 1'. E. long. 14° 38' — Alfo, a town of 

 Naples, in the province of Otranto ; 15 miles S. of J3rindifi. 



