V E N 



V E N 



VENTOSO, Cape, in Geography, a cape on the N.E. 

 coaft of the ifland of Cabrera, in the Mediterranean. N. 

 lat. 39° lo'. E. long. 2° 55'. 



VENTOTIENA, in Geography, an ifland in the Medi- 

 ten-anean, near the coaft of Naples, anciently called Panda- 

 taria ; according to fir William Hamilton, compofed of 

 volcanic matter thrown up by fire. It is now, as it feems 

 to have been for ages, ufed as a place of baniftiment for 

 criminals of a fuperior rank. Hither Julia, the daughter of 

 Auguftus, was fent, accompanied by her mother Scribonia. 

 Some years the virtuous Agrippina was alfo confined here ; 

 and OAavia, wife of Nero, and daughter of Claudius, was 

 at the inftigation of Poppsea banifhed and murdered in this 

 ifland ; 17 miles W. of Ifchia. N. lat. 40° 53'. E. long. 

 13^ 19'. 



VENTRjE, in Ancient Geography, a town of Italy ; to 

 which the Romans fent a colony about the year 351 from 

 the foundation of Rome, according to Diodorus Siculus. 



VENTRE, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in the 

 circar of EDore ; 7 miles W. of EUore. 



Ventre InfpicienJo, in Laiu, a writ for the fearch of a 

 widow that fays {he is with child, and thereby holds land 

 from him that is, otherwife, next heir at law. See Jury of 

 Matrons. 



VENTREVRE, in Geography, a fmall ifland in the 

 Atlantic, near the coaft of France. N. lat. 47° 28'. W. 

 long. 2° 59'. 



VENTRICULUS, in Anatomy, the ftomach. See 

 Stomach. 



Ventriculi Cordis, the two cavities of the heart, which 

 propel the blood into the arteries ; they are the right and 

 left, or pulmonary and aortic. See Heart. 



Ventriculi or Ventricles of the Brain, cavities in differ- 

 , ent parts of its fubftance. They are the two lateral, right 

 and left, called alfo tricomes ; the 3d, 4th, and 5th, or 

 ventricle of the feptum lucidum. See Brain. 



Ventriculi Ardor. See Ardor. 



Ventriculus Succenturiatus, in Medicine, a name given 

 by feme to the duodenum, when very large Med. Eff. 

 Edinb. abr. vol. ii. p. 34. 



VENTRILOQUOUS, Ventriloquus, compounded 

 of venter. Belly, and loquor, I fpeah, gajlriloquus, or enga- 

 Jlrimythus, a term applied to perfons who fpeak inwardly ; 

 having a peculiar art of forming fpeech, by drawing the air 

 into the lungs ; fo that the voice, proceeding out of the 

 thorax, to a by-ftander feems to come from fome diftance, 

 or in any direftion. See Engastrimythus. 



Such a perfon we had formerly in London, a fmith by 

 profeflion, who had the faculty in fuch perfection, that he 

 could make his voice appear, now, as if it came out of the 

 cellar ; and the next minute, as if in an upper room ; and 

 nobody prefent could perceive that he fpoke at all. Ac- 

 cordingly, he has frequently called a perfon firft up, then 

 down ftairs ; then out of dSors, then this way, then that ; 

 and all this without ftirring from his feat, or appearing to 

 fpeak at all. 



We cannot forbear making a few extrafts on this curious 

 fubjeft from a work, pubhflied in 1772, entitled " Le Ven- 

 triloque," &c. or the Ventriloquift, by M. de la Chapelle, 

 ccnfor royal at Paris, member of the Academies at Lyons 

 and Rouen, and F.R.S. Some faint traces of the art or 

 faculty of ventriloquifm are to be found in the writings of 

 the ancients ; but many more are to be difcovered there, if 

 we adopt this author's opinion, that the refponfes of many 

 of the ancient oracles were aftually delivered by perfons 

 ^ffeffing this quality, fo very capable of being applied to 

 the piirpofds of prieftcraft and delufion. The abbe de la 



Chapelle, having heard many furprifing circumftances re- 

 lated concerning one M. St. Gille, a grocer at St. Ger- 

 main-en-Laye, near Paris, whofe powers as a ventriloquift 

 had given occafion to many fingular and diverting fcenes, 

 formed the refolution of feeing him. Being feated with 

 him on the oppofite fide of a fire in a parlour on the ground- 

 floor, and very attentively obferving him, the abbe, after 

 half an hour's converfation with M. St. Gille, heard him- 

 fclf called', on a fudden, by his name and title, in a voice 

 that feemed to come from the roof of a houfe at a diftance ; 

 and whilft he was pointing to the houfe from which the 

 voice had appeared to him to proceed, he was yet more 

 furprifed by hearing the words " it was not from that 

 quarter," apparently in the fame kind of voice as before, 

 but which now feemed to ifl"ue from under the earth, at one 

 of the corners of the room. In fliort, this faftitious voice 

 played, as it were, every where about him, and feemed to 

 proceed from any quarter, or diftance, from which the 

 operator chofe to tranfmit it to him. To the abbe, though 

 confcious that the voice proceeded from the mouth of 

 M. St. Gille, he appeared abfolutely mute, while he was 

 exercifing this talent ; nor could any change in his coun- 

 tenance be difcovered. He obferved, however, that 

 M. St. Gille prefented only the profile of his face to him, 

 while he was fpeaking as a ventriloquift. On another 

 occafion, M. St. Gille fought for ftielter from a ftorm in a 

 neighbouring convent ; and finding the community in 

 mourning, and enquiring the caufe, he was told, that one of 

 their body much efteemed by them had lately died. Some 

 of the religious attended him to the church, and fliewing 

 him the tomb of their deceafed brother, fpoke very feehngly 

 of the fcanty honours that had been beftowed on his 

 memory ; when fuddenly a voice was heard, apparently 

 proceeding from the roof of the choir, lamenting the fitua- 

 tion of the defunft in purgatory, and reproaching the 

 brotherhood with their want of zeal on his account. The 

 whole community being afterwards convened into the 

 church, the voice from the roof renewed its lamentations 

 and reproaches, and the whole convent fell on their faces» 

 and vowed a folemn reparation. Accordingly they firft 

 chaunted a de profundis in full choir, during the intervals of 

 which the ghoft occafionaUy exprefled the comfort he re- 

 ceived from their pious exercifes and ejaculations in his 

 behalf. The prior, when this religious fervice was con- 

 cluded, entered into a ferious converfation with M. St. Gille, 

 and inveighed againft the abfurd incredulity of our modern 

 fceptics, and pretended philofophers, on the article of ghofts 

 and apparitions ; and M. St. Gille found it difficult to con- 

 vince the fathers that the whole was a ludicrous deception. 



Another inftance of his extraordinary powers occurred 

 in prefence of a large party, confifting of commiflaries 

 from the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, and other 

 perfons of the higheft quahty, together with a certain lady, 

 who was not in the fecret, and who was only told, that an 

 aerial fpirit had lately eftabliflied itfelf in the foreft of 

 St. Germain-en-Lave, and that they were aflembled to en- 

 quire into the reality of the faft. When the party fat 

 down to dinner, the aerial fpirit began to addrefs the lady 

 with a voice that feemed to be in the air over their heads ; 

 fometimes he fpoke to her from the trees around them, or 

 from the furface of the ground at a great diftance, and at 

 other times from a confiderable depth under her feet. The 

 lady, being thus addreffed for more than two hours, was 

 firmly perfuaded that this was the voice of an aerial fpirit ; 

 and it was fome time before flie was undeceived. 



Several other inftances of M. St. Gille's talents are re- 

 lated ; and the abbe, in the courfe of his inquiries, was in- 



fonned. 



