V I s 



VIS 



2. 2. The feptum ventriculorum divided to expofe the 

 left ventricle. 



3. Cavity of the left ventricle. 



4. Part of the mitral valve. 



5. 6. 7. Sigmoid or femi-lunar valves. 

 8. 8. 8. Corpora fefamoidea Arantii. 

 9. 10. Orifices of the coronary arteries. 



II. Cavity of the aorta. 

 12. 13. 14. Orifices of its three great fuperior branches. 



Viscera, JVounfIs of the. See Wounds. 



VISCERALIA, a term ufed by phyficians to denote 

 fuch medicines as impart ftrength and firmnefs to the fan- 

 guineous vifcera, fuch as the liver, fpleen, &c. 



VISCERATIONES, among the Romans, a feaft con- 

 fiding of the entrails of animals, given to the people at the 

 burial of great men in Rome. 



VISCHAR, in Geography, a town of Perfia, in the pro- 

 vince of Irak ; 20 miles S.S.E. of Hamadan. 



VISCHER's Island, a fmaU ifland in the Pacific 

 ocean, near the E. coaft of Morly. N. lat. 2" 2i'. E. 

 long. 128° 39'. 



VISCHERA, a river of Ruffia, which runs into the 

 Kama, 16 miles N. of Solikamflc, in the government of 

 Perm. — Alfo, a river of Ruffia, which runs into the Vit- 

 chegda, 20 miles E. of Nebdanfk'oi, in the provmce of 

 Uftiug. 



VISCHMA, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 

 Tobolfk ; 268 miles S.W. of Tobolflc. N. lat. 62° 36'. 

 E. lon^r. 60^ 14'. 



VISCHNEIVOLOGOK, a town of Ruffia, in the 

 government of Tver, on a canal, which forms a communi- 

 cation between the Mfta and the Tvertza ; 60 miles N.W. 

 of Tver. This place is remarkable for the extenfive canals 

 on which the great inland navigation of Ruffia is carried on. 

 The communication jull mentioned is by a navigable canal of 

 »t lead 500 verfls, uniting the Cafpian with the Baltic. N. 

 lat. 57° 8'. E< long. 34° 54'. 



VISCIDITY, or Viscosity, the quality of fomething 

 that is vifcld, or •vifcous, i. e. glutinous and dicky, like bird- 

 lime ; wliich the Latins call by the name vifcus. 



Vifcid bodies are thofe which confift of parts fo impli- 

 cated within each other, that they refid, a long time, a com- 

 plete reparation, and rather give way to the violence done 

 them by dretching, or extending each way. 



The too great vifcidity of foods has very ill effeAs ; thus 

 meals, or farinae not fermented, jellies, &c. of animals, tough 

 cheefe, or curd too much preffed, produce a weight, or op- • 

 preffion in the ftomach ; wind, yawnings, crudities, obdruc- 

 tions of the minuter vefiels in the intedines, &c. Hence an 

 inaftivity of the intedines themfelves, a fwelling of the ab- 

 domen ; and hence a vifcidity of the blood, from the re- 

 union of the vifcid particles ; obftruiElions of the glands, 

 palencfs, coldnefs, tremors, &c. 



VISCO, in Geography, a village of Italy, in Friuli ; 

 2 miles E. of Palma Nuova. 



VISCONTI, Catekina, of Milan, in Biography, an 

 opera finger of great reputation in her day, arrived here 

 in 3742, at the beginning of lord Middlefex's regency, and 

 performed with Monticelli in the operas of Galuppi and 

 Lampugnani, &c. till the year 1745, "'^'^n the breaking 

 out of the rebellion occafioned an interdi£l againft the whole 

 opera band, vocal and inftrumental. 



The Vilconti had a dirill flexible voice, and could run di- 

 vifions fader than the violins of thofe times could follow her. 

 And bravura or execution was then fo new, that die pleafed 

 more in rapid fongs than die could have done in thofe that 

 required high colouring and pathos, if <he had been poffeffed 



of either. She was fo fat, that her age being the fubjeft 

 of converfation in a company where lord Chederfield was 

 prefent ; when a gentleman, who fuppofed her to be much 

 younger than the red, faid die was but two-and-twenty ; 

 his lordlhip, interrupting him, faid, " you me-^n Jlone, fir, not 

 years." She was engaged a fecond time in the Haymarket 

 for the feafon of 1753 and 1754; but having been heard in 

 her better day, her talents were pronounced on the decline, 

 which occafioned a declenfion in the public favour. And at 

 the end of a heavy feafon die gave way to Mingotti, who, 

 in the autumn of 1754, revived the favour of our lyTic 

 theatre, and for two or three feafons gave it a confiderable 

 degree of fplendour. 



VISCOUNT. See Vicount. 



VISCUM, in Botany, fo called by Pliny, and by fome 

 Latin writers Vifcus, derives its name from the Greek i|c!-:, 

 altered by the .^olians into /Sio-y.oj. The tranfition is eafy 

 enough to the Latin, though fcarcely to the Englidi appel- 

 lation of this plant, Mifletoe, fo famous in the hiilory of our 

 fuperditious and barbarous ancedors. We have hinted, under 

 the biographical article Sibthorp, that this learned traveller 

 and botanid, though he reckoned our V. album, dill called 

 i-ii, to be the i|o; of Diofcoridcs, neverthelefs fufpefted lat- 

 terly that the Loranthus europxus might have been confidered 

 by the ancients as a more genuine or perfeft kind. The latter 

 grows in Arcadia on the Oak ; our Vifcum album on the Silver 

 Fir only. Hence perhaps the Druids, not knowing the Lo- 

 ranthus, or true Mifletoe of the Oak, attached fuch importance 

 to the particular plants of the Vifcum found on this tree ; 

 in which over-curious perfons, who fee with the eyes of tra- 

 dition and prejudice, rather than with their own natural 

 organs, dill affeft to perceive fomething peculiar. We 

 fubmit this point to the confideration of the learned, not 

 being aware of its having ever been fuggeded by any one 

 before. — Linn. Gen. 517. Schreb. 680. Willd. Sp. PI. 

 v. 4. 737. Mart. Mill. Did. v. 4. Sm. Fl. Brit. 1074. 

 Prodr. Fl. Grasc. Sibth. v. 2. 256. Ail. Hort. Kew. v. 5. 

 371. Swartz Ind. Occ. 266. Purfli 114. Juff. 212. 

 Tourn. t. 380. Lamarck Dift. v. 3. 55. lUudr. t. 807. 

 Gaertn. t. 27. — Clafs and order, Dioecia Tetrandria, Nat. 

 Ord. Aggregate, Linn. CaprlfoUa, Juff. 



Gen. Ch. Male, Cal. none. Cor. Petals four, calyx - 

 like, ovate, equal, dilated and connefted at the bafe. Stam. 

 Filaments none ; anthers four, oblong, pointed, dotted, each 

 attached to the diflc of one of the petals. 



Female, Cal. a flight four-cleft border. Cor. Petals 

 four, fuperior, fmall, ovate, feffile, calyx-hke, deciduous. 

 Pijl. Germen inferior, oblong, three-fided, crowned with 

 the obfolete calyx ; dyle none ; ftigma obtufe, fcarcely 

 notched. Perk. Berry globofe, fmooth, of one cell. Seed 

 folitary, heart-ftiaped, compreffed, obtufe, flediy, lodged in 

 vifcid pulp. 



Eff. Ch. Male, Calyx none. Petals four, calyx-like, 

 dilated and cohering at their bafe. Anthers feffile upon the 

 petals. 



Female, Calyx a flight border. Petals four, calyx-hke, 

 dilated at the bafe. Style none. Berry inferior, with one 

 feed. 



Obf. The analogy, or natural affinity, of this genus 

 has always induced us to follow Juffieu, rather than Lin- 

 nxus, in denominating the principal, or only, integument 

 of its flowers a corolla, rather than a calyx. All the known 

 fpecies are parafitical, and though probably to be cultivated, 

 if fown on the branches or dems of particular trees, like 

 our only Enghdi one, provided we could have their berries 

 fredi, none of them has yet been introduced into any garden, 

 except that fpecies. Their habit is rigid and eoriaceous ; 



leaves , 



