V I T 



V I T 



to account for thofe people painting their bodies with 

 •uitrum, glafs, as they underftood it : but the whole meaning 

 of this plant obtaining the name of vitrum, feems to have 

 been its ftaining the flcin to a pale blue colour, or, as it was 

 called by many, a glafs-colour. 



VlTRVuJntimonii Ceraliim, in Pharmacy. See AntIMONY. 

 This is an infipid, inodorous powder, of a brownifh 

 colour : in its operation diaphoretic and cathartic, occa- 

 fionally exciting naufea and vomiting. 



The ordinary dofe for adults is ten or twelve grains ; but 

 it is fufficient to begin with fix, or even with three or four 

 grains. The quantity of a fcruple has been given to a 

 ftrong man, which wrought gently. The dofe for a child 

 of three or four years is two or three grains ; and for one 

 of ten, three or four grains. 



This medicine was for fome time held a fpecific in dyfen- 

 teries ; but the preparation and manner of giving it had 

 been kept a fecret, till Dr. Young made it pubhc. Dr. 

 (afterwards fir John) Pringle fays, he tried it in a dyfentery 

 of four years ftanding with furprifing fuccefs ; and, indeed, 

 to him we are principally indebted for the general intro- 

 duftion and ufe of this medicine ; as he coUefted and pub- 

 lifhed feveral cafes of its efficacy. 



It has been given in dyfenteries, with or without a fever, 

 whether epidemic or otherwife, and whether bleeding and 

 vomits have been premifed or not. In its operation, it 

 fometimes makes the patient fick, and vomits him ; it 

 purges almoil every perfon ; but it has been known to cure 

 without any evacuation or ficknefs. It is to be given with 

 an empty ftomach, for then it operates molt mildly. No- 

 thing is to be drank after it for three hours, unlefs the 

 patient is very fick, and difpofed to vomit ; in which cafe 

 warm water may be given, as in other vomits. 



This medicine fhould not be given for diarrhoeas in the 

 end of confumptions. Other diarrhoeas have been cured 

 with large dofes of it ; but in fuch cafes it fails oftener than 

 in dyfenteries. During the ufe of this powder, fermented 

 liquors fhould be abftained from, and a milk diet is proper. 

 It may be given fafely to women with child, and to children 

 onthe breaft may be given half a grain. This preparation 

 has alfo been found fuccefsful in uterine hsemorrhages, both 

 in young and old. 



It has alfo been tried in cohc pains, from vifcidities in 

 the inteftines, and found a fafe and eafy purgative, and 

 fometimes a gentle emetic. 



The method of giving it is in a bolus, with conferve of 

 rofes, diafcordium, or theriaca Edinenfis. An opiate, after 

 the operation, is proper. (Med. Elf. Edinb. vol. v. art. ij. 

 p. 162, &c. ) See an account of its efficacy in bloody fluxes, 

 diarrhoeas, fimple loofenefTes, quartan agues, even the moft 

 obftinate, and in certain cafes of the fluor albus, and obfer- 

 vations on the mode of adminiftering it, by M. GeofFroy, 

 in Phil. Tranf. vol. Ixvii. p. 273, &c. 



Later experience, it is faid, has proved that it poflefles 

 no advantages fuperior to other antimonials, properly dofed 

 and combined, in the difeafes above-mentioned ; and differs 

 from the vitrum antimonii, or glafs of antimony, only in 

 its milder operation, owing to part of the oxygen being 

 abllrafted by the carbonaceous matter of the wax, which 

 appears to anfwer no other purpofe. Thomfon's Difp. 



Vitrum Archimedeum, Archimedes' s Glafs, a name given 

 by Svvedenborg to an inftrument which he invented for the 

 examination of mixed metals, and by means of which he 

 could difcover the quantities, without the trouble of the 

 apparatus and calculation commonly ufed for this purpofe. 



Vitrum Morrh'mum, Morrhine, or Myrrhine Glafs, a name 

 given by Phny, and fooie of the ancients, to a fort of 



manufafture made in Egypt, which, though truly no other 

 than a kind of glafs divefted of its tranfparency, yet was 

 made fo nicely to imitate the myrra or morra of the Indies, 

 fo famous among the Romans, under the form of cups and 

 vefTels, called murrhina vafa, that it was called by fomc 

 murrha altera, another fort of murrha, and the cups made 

 of it honoured with the name of murrhim vefflls. This 

 ferves to fhew, that the myrrhina vafa, properly fo called, 

 were not of any precious itone, as vulgarly fuppofed, but 

 a fort of porcelain. See Murrhixe. 



Vitrum Saturni. See Glass of Lead. 



VITRUVIUS, M. PoLLio, iu Biography, a very diftin- 

 guifhed writer on architefture, is fuppofed to have flourifhed 

 in the times of .Julius Csfar and Auguftus : of his parentage 

 and place of nativity nothing certain is known. Verona 

 claims him ; but the pretenfions of Formia, now Mola de 

 Gsta, are more generally allowed. Of his liberal education, 

 and of his travels for information and improvement, we can 

 have no doubt. By the exercife of his profeffion he had 

 acquired fome property ; though perhaps it was not very 

 confiderablc, as he fays of hinifelf that he did not, like the 

 generahty of architefts, folicit employment. Under the 

 emperor Auguflus, or perhaps one of the fucceeding princes, 

 to whom he dedicated his work, he occupied the poil of 

 infpeftor of the military engir.cs. But as Pliny the Elder 

 mentions his name, among other authors, in his " Natural 

 Hiflory," compofed in the reign of V^cfpaCan, his work 

 muft have been publifhed before that period. Of edifices 

 planned or conftructed by him, one only is mentioned by 

 himfelf, whicli was a Bafilica at Fano. His work was dif- 

 covered in MS. by Poggio in the 15th century, and it has 

 ever fince been held in high eftimation. The ten books 

 into which it is diftributed, not only treat on every thing 

 belonging to buildings, pubhc and private, their fcite, mate- 

 rials, forms, ornaments, conveniences, and the hke ; but 

 include much of what would now be termed engineering, 

 civil and military, and even digrefs to g?ometrical problems 

 and allronomical inventions. Befides the inflruftion that 

 may be derived from it, it has afiorded much important 

 matter to the antiquary relative to the flate of art and 

 fcience, and the detail of private life, among the Romans. 



Some of the moll efteemed editions of Vitruvius are " Dan. 

 Barbari," Venet. fol. 1567 ; " J. de Laet," Amft. fol. 

 1649 '■> " Galiani," Neap. fol. 1758 ; with an Italian tranf- 

 lation and notes. " Claude Perrault" has given a good 

 French tranflation, Paris, fol. 1684 ; and we have an Eng- 

 lifh one by " Mr. Newton," Lond. 1791. Gen. Biog. 



A magnificent edition of the Civil Architefture of Vitru- 

 vius, in two parts, royal foho, has been lately prefented to 

 the public by W. Wilkins, jun. A.M., F.R.S., &c. &c. 



During the reign of Auguflus, except Vitruvius, it does 

 not appear that the Romans had one architeft, fculptor, 

 painter, or mufician. Vitruvius has given Arifloxcnus's 

 fyflem in Latin ; but was obliged to retain the Greek 

 technica, as he was the firfl Roman writer on the fubjeft 

 of mufic, and ufed Greek technical terms as we do Italian. 

 Vitruvius has defcribed the theatrical vafes ufed by the 

 Greeks for the augmentation and continuation of found 

 ( fee EcHElA ) ; and has given us a defcription of the organ of 

 the ancients blown by the fall of water. See Organ 

 and Hydraulicox. 



VITRY, James de. See James de Vitry. 



Vitry, in Geography, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Straits of Calais; 9 miles N.E. of Arras 



Alfo, a town of France, in the department of Paris ; 4 

 miles S.S.E. of Paris. 



Vitry le Brule, a town of France, in the department or 



the 



