V I c 



V 1 c 



belonging to the officers of a county ; as flicriffi, coroners, 

 efcJieators, Sec. 



VICQ, in Geography. See Vic and ViQ. 



VICQ-D'AZYR, Felix, in Biography, was born at 

 ValogneS, in Normandy, in 1748, and diltinguifhed himfelf 

 both as. a phyfician and a man of letters. Settling at Paris 

 in 176^, he purfued with dihgence every branch of ftudy 

 connefted with medicine, and paid particular attention to 

 the phyfiological part of anatomy. In 1773 he commenced 

 a courfe of leftures on human and comparative anatomy, in 

 which purfuit he was very popular ; but he was interrupted 

 by a fpitting of blood, which made it necelTary for him to 

 return to his native place. Here he applied to the anato- 

 mical examination of filhes, the refult of which he commu- 

 nicated to the Academy of Sciences, which aiTociated him 

 as a member. When a murrain appeared among the cattle 

 in Languedoc in 1775, Vicq-d'Azyr was commiffioned by 

 the minifter Turgot to difcover means for reftraining it, 

 which charge he executed with fuccefs. A medical fociety 

 was formed at Paris about this time, which he zealoufly 

 promoted, and of which he was fecretary. He alfo, in con- 

 neftion with this fociety, performed the oince of eulogift, 

 ▼ery much to his own reputation, and to the honour of 

 many confiderable perfons, whofe talents and fervices he 

 commemorated. In his private charafter he exhibited, with 

 gentle manners, a very coniiderable degree of ardour and 

 ienfibility ; fo that he is reprefented as a warm friend and 

 philanthropical citizen. He obtained both fame and for- 

 tune, employing the latter liberally in coUeding a coftly 

 apparatus and a well-chofen library. Agitated and ex- 

 haufted by the difaftrous effefts of the revolution, he died 

 in June 1794, at the age of forty-fix. His " Eloges Hif- 

 toriques" were collefted and publifhed, with notes, and a 

 memoir on the author, by J. L. Moreau, three vols. 8vo. 

 1805. His other writings were communicated to the Me- 

 moirs of the Academy of Sciences and of the Medical 

 Society. Nouv. DiA. Hift. 



VICTIM, ViCTiMA, fo called, either bccaufe vint^a/^r- 

 cii^a cadehat, or becaufe vinBa ad aras ducebatur, a bloody 

 facrifice, offered to fome deity, of a living thing ; either a 

 human perfon, or a beafl, which is flain to appeafe his 

 wrath, or to obtain fome favour. See Sacrifice. 



It is not certain who was the firll perfon that introduced 

 bloody facrifices among the Pagans. If the authority of 

 Ovid be at all regarded, he alleges that the fow was the 

 firft animated viftim which was oifered to Ceres, on account 

 of the ravages which that animal makes in the i'leld. (Faft. 

 1. i.) From Homer we learn, that the ufe of fuch facrifices 

 was common in the time of the Trojan war. Whenever they 

 were introduced, it is certain that they were very ancient in 

 the Pagan world. It may be obferved, however, that when 

 ■viftims of this kind were offered, they blended with them 

 herbs, fait and meal. Phny informs us, that Numa pro- 

 hibited the Romans from ufing bloody viftims, or any 

 other facrifice, befides thofe in which they employed fruits, 

 fait, and corn. Dion. Halic. afcribes this prohibition 

 to Romulus ; and he adds, that this ufage fubfifted in his 

 time, although they had fuperadded to it that of bloody 

 facrifices. At length, however, fuperftition prevailed to fuch 

 a degree, that they offered to their deities human viftims ; 

 and this barbarous cuftom, the origin of which is not fatif- 

 faftorily afcertained, was propagated to almoft every known 

 nation. Thefe horrid facrifices, prefcribed even by the 

 oracles of the gods, were known in the days of Mofes, and 

 conftituted a part of thofe abominations with which this le- 

 giflator reproached the Amorites. The Moabites facrificed 

 their children to Moloch, and burned them in the cavity of 



the ftatufr of that god. According to Dionyfius of Hali- 

 carnaffus, they offered men in facrifice to Saturn, not only 

 at Tyre and Carthage, but even in Greece and Italy. The 

 Gauls, if we may believe Diodorus Siculus, facrificed to 

 their gods their prifoners of war ; thofe of Tauris, all the 

 ftrangers who landed upon their coaffs : the inhabitants of 

 Pella facrificed a man to Peleus. Thofe of Temeffa, as 

 Paufanias has it, offered every year a young virgin to the 

 Genius of one of Ulyffes' affociates, whom they had floned ; 

 and Ariftomenes, the Meflenian, facrificed three hundred men 

 at one time. Strabo mentions thofe abominable facrifices 

 offered by the ancient Germans. Athanafius gives the fame 

 account of the Phoenicians and Cretans ; and TcrtuUian of 

 the Scythians and Africans. In the Ibad of Homer we fee 

 twelve Trojans facrificed by Achilles to the manes of Patro- 

 clus. In fine, Porphyry gives a long detail of all the places 

 where, in old times, they offered up human facrifices ; 

 among which he enumerates Rhodes, the ifland of Cyprus, 

 Arabia, Athens, &c. 



From all thefe teflimonies put together, and from feveral 

 others, which it is needlefs to quote, it follows, that the 

 Phoenicians, the Egyptians, Arabians, Canaanites, the in- 

 habitants of Tyre and Carthage, thofe of Athens .ind La- 

 cedamon, the lonians, all Greece, the Romans and Scy- 

 thians, the Albanians, the AUemans, the Angles, the 

 Spaniards, and the Gauls, were equally guilty of this horrid 

 fuperftition. 



For the public facrifices there were authorized miniflers 

 or priefls who made a choice of viftims ; and feveral names 

 were given to thefe viftims from fome circumflances that 

 attended the oblations. Such as were offered up the day 

 before the folemnity, were called " prscidanese hoftis ;" as 

 the fow, facrificed to Ceres before harveft, was called " prx- 

 cidanea porca." Again, they gave the name of " fucce- 

 danex hoftise" to fuch facrifices as they offered up, when 

 the former ones had been neglefted ; and thus it was they 

 atoned for the omifTion. There were others named " eximiz 

 hoftiae ;" meaning not that thefe viftims had any peculiar 

 excellence, as the word properly fignifies, but that they 

 were feparated from the flock in order to be facrificed, 

 " eximebantur grege." The ewes that had two lambs, 

 w-hich they facrificed with the mother, were termed " ambi- 

 guae oves," and the viftims whofe entrails were adherent, 

 " harungx" or " harugas ;" fuch as were confumed, " pro- 

 digix ;" and fuch as had two teeth higher than the reft, 

 " bidentes." 



Of whatever nature the viftims were, great care was to 

 be taken in the choice of them ; and the fame blemifhes, 

 that excluded them from facrifices among the Jews, rendered 

 them alfo imperfeft among the Pagans ; whence it would 

 feem that they borrowed feveral rites from the Hebrews. 



All forts of viftims were not offered indifcriminately to 

 every divinity, or for every purpofe. It was commonly a 

 fow, big with young, that they offered to Cybele and to 

 the goddefs Tellus ; tfie bull to Jupiter ; to Juno, heifers, 

 ewe-lambs, fheep ; and at Corinth they facrificed to her a 

 fhe-goat. To Neptune, a bull and lambs, as appears from 

 Homer ; to Pluto, likewife, a buU ; and to Proferpine a 

 cow, both of them black : and when that goddefs was taken 

 for Hecate, they facrificed to her a dog, an animal whofe 

 barking they thought drove away the apparitions fent by 

 that goddefs. The moft acceptable viftims to Ceres, were 

 the boar and the fow : they made her hkewife an offering of 

 honey and of milk. To Venus the dove, tlie he-goat, the 

 heifer, a white fhe-goat, &c. : to Bacchus, a he-goat. They 

 facrificed the cov\' and the bull to Hermione, as we learn 

 from iEIian, who adds, that in thefe facrifices, a bull, which 

 U ten 



