V I o 



V I o 



fortnight, or even for a few days, it moftly recovers. In 

 this cafe, there is either very Uttle or no blood in the fgeces, 

 the flime dries up, and becomes mixed with hardened balls, 

 the feverilh heat abates, the fldn gets moid, the vigour of 

 the eye returns, the appetite increafes, and the wool rifes 

 flowly, and affumes its natural appearance, though a great 

 part of it frequently comes off. However, it grows again, 

 and (heep which have had this difeafe commonly become 

 Tery healthy and found, being feldom attacked by any other 

 difeafe. In fome cafes there is the feverifh appearances 

 without any flux at all, which is a lefs fatal and of courfe 

 more favourable ftate of the difeafe. 



Notwithftanding the difeafe is always originally produced 

 by improper management, it is often greatly infectious, and 

 fpreads rapidly among the fame flocks and to different ones. 

 It is a very dangerous fort of diforder, which on foft foils 

 deftroys the greater number of fheep attacked with it, but 

 which on dry hard land is lefs fatal and lefs infeftious. 



In preventing the difeafe, which is more certain and bene- 

 ficial than any thing that can be done in the cure of it when 

 it is formed, the principal circumftances to be regarded are, 

 the difperfmg the fheep as equally as poffible over the land ; 

 the preventing their coUefting together in clumps and foul- 

 ing the land ; the having the fituations for the boughts in 

 milking time, high, dry and airy, fhifting them often, and 

 dividing the fheep equally among them, to prevent their 

 being too much thronged and heated ; the changing thofe 

 fituations frequently, where they lie, before they become 

 foul ; the removing the difeafed fheep immediately as they 

 become affedled to fome confiderable diftance ; the ufing of 

 tar to the nofes and tails of the fheep, as well as in tubs 

 where they are confined ; and the falving of many of the 

 fheep, and putting them in clean paftures, to he at their 

 eafe. The difeafe however fometimes continues, in fpite 

 of thefe means, until the frofl fets in, when it difappears 

 flowly with much lofs. 



The cure of the difeafe is to be attempted, when the 

 Iheep are ftrong and in good condition, by cutting the tails 

 acrofs, and afterwards caufing them to perfpire in fome way 

 or other freely, not letting them be fuddenly expofed to 

 cold after it. At the fame time the bowels are to be cleared 

 by the ufe of a Httle rhubarb, as about half a drachm, or, 

 what is better, by about four grains of ipecacuanha in 

 powder, given until they purge freely. A quantity of thin 

 flour-porridge well boiled, and barley or oatmeal, may then 

 be given with a pint of fweet milk two or three times a day. 

 If the difeafe be not foon removed by thefe means, reme- 

 dies of the powerful aflringent kind mufl be had recourfe 

 to, with opium in fmall quantities, fuch as a decoftion of 

 logwood, bark, Japan earth, and chalk made with milk, 

 and given in the proportion of a giU two or three times a 

 day. Fifteen or twenty drops of the tinfture of opium 

 may be put in each dofe of the decoftion. And it is 

 often very ufeful when taken alone in a very little cold 

 water. 



VIOLET, in Botany, Gardening, and the Materia Me- 

 dtca. See Viola. 



Violet, Bulbous, a name fometimes given to the fnow- 

 drop, a plant which Linnaeus makes a diftinft genus under 

 the name galanthus ; but which Tournefort comprehends 

 among the narcijfo-leucoiums . 



Violet, Cdathian. See Gentiana Pneumonanthe. 



Violet, Corn, a name fometimes applied to the Campanula 

 hybrida. 



Violet, Damaji. See Hesperis. 



Violet, Dame's, Rocket, or Q^iieins GiUifiowtr. See 



liESPERIS, 



This plant U an antifcorbutic and diaphoretic, and is very 

 ferviceable in the atlhma, coughs, and convuhions. The 

 outward ufe of it is recommended in inflammations, can- 

 cers, gangrenes, fphacelus, and contagious difeafes. Bruifed, 

 it very potently refills putrefaction ; and appUed to peflilen- 

 tial buboes in the arm-pits, it ripens and foftens them. 

 James from Boerhaave. 



Violet, Dog's-tooth, the name by which fome call the 

 dens canis of botanical writers. See Erythronium. 



Violet, IVater. See Hottonia. 



VIOLIN, an inflrument of four firings, tuned fifths, and 

 played by a bow. It has a neck like the treble viol, but 

 the finger-board has no frets. This may be pronounced 

 the moft powerful, the moil perfeft, and the moft ufeful 

 inflrument that has ever been invented. It is in the power 

 of the performer on this fovereign of the orcheflra, to 

 make the intonation of all keys equally perfed. We have 

 not been able to trace its antiquity higher than the i6th 

 century. In the beginning of the 17th century it was 

 hardly known to the Enghfh in fliape or name ; and, there- 

 fore, that fuperior power of exprelTrng almofl all that a 

 human voice can produce, except the articulation of words, 

 feemed at this time fo utterly impofTible, that it was not 

 thought a gentleman's inflrument, or one that fhould be ad- 

 mitted into good company. Viols of various fizes, with fix 

 firings, and fretted like the guitar, began indeed to be 

 admitted into chamber-concerts : for when the performance 

 was public, thefe inllruments were too feeble for the obtufe 

 organs of our Gothic anceftors ; and the low flate of our 

 regal mufic in the time of Henry VIII. 1530, may be ga- 

 thered from the accounts given in Hall's and Hollingfhead's 

 Chronicles, of a mafque at cardinal Wolfey's palace, White- 

 hall, where the king was entertained with " a concert of 

 drums and fifes." But this was foft mufic compared witli 

 that of his heroic daughter Elizabeth, who, according to 

 Henxner, ufed to be regaled during dinner " with twelve 

 trumpets and two kettle-drums ; which, together with fifes, 

 cornets, and fide-drums, made the hall ring for half an hour 

 together." Itinerarium, edit. 1757, Strawberry-Hill. 



It has long been a difpute among the learned, whether 

 the viohn, or any inflrument of that kind, as now played 

 with a bow, was known to the ancients. The little figure 

 of Apollo, playing on a kind of violin, with fomething like 

 a bow, in the grand duke's tribuna at Florence, which Mr. 

 Addifon and others fuppofed to be antique, has been proved 

 to be modern by the abbe Winckelmann and Mr. ^Iings. 

 So that as this was the only piece of fculpture reputed an- 

 cient, in which any thing hke a bow could be found, no- 

 thing more remains to be difcufled relative to that point. 

 With refpeft to an inflrument with a double neck, befides 

 that on the broken obehfk at Rome, and one from a fepul- 

 chral grotto in the ancient city of Tarquinia, there is an 

 antique painting in the coUeftion of William Locke, efq. 

 which confifts of a fingle figure, fuppofed to be a mufe, 

 with an inflrument nearly in the form of a modern violin, 

 but the neck is much longer, and neither bow nor pleftrum 

 are difcoverable ne.v it. This, as Dr. Burney apprehends, 

 may have been a chelys, which was a fpecies of guitar, 

 either thrummed by the fingers, or twanged with a quill. 

 The ancients had, indeed, inftead of a bow, the pledrum ; 

 but in all the reprefentations which painting and fculpture 

 have preferved of this implement, it appears too clumfy to 

 produce from the firings tones that had either the fweetnefs 

 or brilliancy of fuch as are drawn from them by means of 

 the bow or quill. Dr. Burney fuppofes, though it is repre- 

 fentcd fo maflive, that it was a quill, or piece of ivory in 

 imitation of one, rather than a flick or blunt piece of wood 

 7 or 



