850 
YEN 
I be same artist imitated the tones of a scold- 
ing old woman, disturbed at unseasonable 
hours by a person demanding admission into 
her house. \\ e have heard that, when in 
Edinburgh, the same practitioner astonished 
a number of persons in the Fishmarket, by 
making a fish appear to speak, and give the 
lie to its vender, who affirmed that it was 
fresh, and caught in the morning. 
1 lie editor ot this dictionary heard some 
years ago, in Portugal, a ventriloquist who 
was at least equal to any of those above-men- 
tioned. Indeed, he could scarcely have be- 
lieved the fact from any authority, had he 
not been himself an ear-witness. The man 
held conversations with the figure of a child, i 
which he carried under his -cloak, with per- 
sons apparently out of the room, in the street, 
and even on the roof of the house. The 
voices were all varied according to the 
character of the person with whom he affect- 
ed to converse, and it was impossible not to 
believe that they proceeded from the quarter 
where he pretended they were stationed. 
We have never, we confess, found a satis- 
factory explanation of this phenomenon. The 
most plausible is that which refers it to a cer- 
tain delicacy of ear in the performer. Such 
an ear, it is observed, perceives every differ- 
ence which change of place produces in the 
same sound ; and if a person possessed of 
such an ear has sufficient command over his 
organs of speech, to produce by them a sound 
in all respects similar to another proceeding 
from any distant object, to the audience the 
sound which lie utters must appear to pro- 
ceed from that object. If this is the true 
theory of ventriloquism, it does not seem 
to be possible for the most expert ven- 
triloquist to speak in his usual tones of con- 
versation, and at the same time make the 
voice appear to come from a distance ; for 
these tones must be supposed familiar to his 
audience, and to be in their minds associated 
with the ideas of his figure, place, and dis- 
tance. There can, however, be no doubt, 
that if, by a peculiar modification of the 
organs ot speech, a sound of any kind can be 
produced, which in faintness, tone, body, and 
in short every other sensible quality, perfectly 
resembles a sound delivered from the roof of 
an opposite house, the ear will naturally, with- 
out examination, refer it to that situation and 
distance ; the sound which the person hears 
being only a sign, which he has from his in- 
fancy been constantly accustomed, by expe- 
rience, to associate with the idea of a person 
speaking from a house-top. If, however, 
this theory is true, how comes it that ven- 
triloquism is not more frequently and suc- 
cessfully practised ? The man whom the 
editor saw in Portugal, was apparently an 
ignorant and illiterate person, and either 
could not, or would not, give any account of 
the piinciples of his art. 
VENUE, in law, the neighbourhood 
whence juries are to be summoned for trial 
of causes. In local actions, as of trespass 
and ejectment, the venue is to be from the 
neighbourhood of the place, where the lands 
in question lie ; and in all real actions, the 
venue must be laid in the county where the 
thing is for which the action is brought. But 
in transitor-v actions, for injuries that may 
have happened any where, as debt, detinue, 
slander, or the lik , the plaintiff may declare 
m what county lie pleases ; and then the 
V E R 
trial must be in that county in which the de- 
claration is laid. Though if the defendant 
will make affidavit, that the cause of action, if 
any, arose not in that, but in another county, 
the court will direct a change of the venue, 
and oblige the plaintiff to declare in the pro- 
per county ; and the court will sometimes 
move the venue, from the proper jurisdiction 
(especially of the narrow and limited kind), 
upon a suggestion duly supported, that a fair 
and impartial trial cannot be had therein. 
3 Black. 294. 
With respect to criminal cases, it is ordain- 
ed by stat. 21 Jac. 1. c. 4, that all informa- 
lions on penal statutes, shall be laid in the 
counties where the offences were committed. 
\ ENUS, in astronomy, one of the inferior 
planets, revolving round the sun in an orbit 
between that of Mercury and the Earth. See 
Astronomy. 
\ enus, in zoology, a genus of insects be- 
longing to the order of vermes testacea. This 
animal is a tethys ; the shell is bivalve ; the 
hinge with three teetli near each other, one 
placed longitudinally and bent inwards. There 
are a great many species, of which the most 
remarkable is the mercenaria, or commercial, 
with a strong, thick, weighty shell, covered 
with a brown epidermis ; pure white within ; 
slightly striated transversely : circumference 
above 1 1 inches. These are called in North 
America clams ; they differ from other spe- 
cies only in having a purple tinge within. 
Vv ampum, or Indian money, is made of 
them. 
Venus’s fly-trap. See Dion.ea Mus- 
cipula. 
VEPRECUUE, diminutive from vepres, 
“ a briar or bramble ;” the name of the 31st 
order in Linnaeus’s Fragments of a Natural 
Method. See Botany. 
VERATRUM, a genus of plants of the 
class polygamia, and order monoecia ; and in 
the natural system arranged under the 10th 
order, coronariae. There is no calyx ; the 
corolla has six petals ; there are six stamina ; 
the hermaphrodite flowers have three pistils 
and three capsules. There are four species, 
none of which are natives of Britain. The 
most important is the album, or hellebore, the 
root of which is perennial, about an inch 
thick, externally brown, internally white, and 
beset with many strong fibres ; the stalk is I 
thick, strong, round, upright, hairy, and 
usually rises four feet in height ; the leaves are 
numerous, very large, oval, entire, ribbed, 
plaited, without footstalks, of a yellowish 
green colour, and surround the stem at its 
base : the flowers are of a greenish colour, and 
appear from June to August in very long, 
and branched, terminal spikes. 
It appears from various instances, that 
every part of the plant is extremely acrid 
and poisonous, as its ieaves and even seeds 
prove deleterious to different animals. Gred- 
ing employed it in a great number of cases of 
the maniacal and melancholic kind ; the ma- 
jority of these, as might be expected, derived 
no permanent benetit ; several, however, 
were relieved, and five completely cured by 
this medicine. It was the bark of the root, 
collected in the spring, which he gave in 
powder, beginning with one grain : this dose 
was gradually increased according to its 
effects. With some patients one or two 
grains excited nausea and vomiting, but ge- 
nerally eight grains were required to produce 
VER 
this effect, though in a few instances a scrupl 
and even more was given. 
\ eratrum has likewise been found useful 
in epilepsy, and other convulsive complaints • 
out the diseases in which its efficacy seems 
least equivocal, are those of the skin ; as 
scabies and different prurient eruptions, her- 
pes, morbus pedicuiosus, lepra, scrophula 
&e. and in many of these it has been suc- 
cessfully employed both internally and ex- 
ternally. As a powerful stimulant and irri- 
tating medicine, its use has been resorted to 
only in desperate cases, and then it is first to 
be tried in very small doses in a diluted state, 
and to be gradually increased according to 
the effects. s 
VERB, in grammar, a word serving to 
express what we affirm of anv subject, or at- 
tribute to it. 
\ ERBASCUM, a genus or plants of the 
class pentandria, and order monogynia ; and 
m the natural system arranged under the 
28th order, lurid*. The corolla is rotated, 
and rather unequal ; the capsule is mono- 
locular and bivalved. There are 19 species, 
hve of which are natives of Britain : 
a siem single, simple, erect, covered wit 
leaves, about six feet high ; leaves ]ar°r 
broad, white, woolly on both sides, sessile, de 
current; flowers terminal, in a long spike 
sessile, yellow. Catarrhal coughs and diar 
rheeas are the complaints for which it ha 
been internally prescribed. Dr. Hume triei 
it in both, but it was only in the latter diseas 
that this plant succeeded. He relates fou 
cases m which a decoction of verbascum wa 
given ; and from which he concludes, that i 
“ is useful in diminishing or stopping diar 
rheeas of an old standing, and often in easini 
the pains of the intestines. These acquire ' 
great degree of irritability ; and the ordinal ’ 
irritating causes, aliment, bile, distension frori 
air, keep up a quicker peristaltic motion 
i his is obviated by the emollient and perhan 
gentle astringent qualities of tins plant.” 
~. The nigrum, or black mullein, having 
stem beset with hairs that are beautiful]' 
branched ; the blossoms yellow with purpli 
tips. It is a beautiful plant, and the flower 
are grateful to bees. Swine eat it; sheet 
are not fond of it ; cows, horses, and goats 
refuse it. I he other British species are tin 
Jychmtis, blattana, and virgatum. 
VERBENA, a genus of plants of the das 
ot diandna, and order of monogynia ; and ii 
the natural system arranged under the 40U 
order personat*. The corolla is funnel 
shaped; calyx one of the teeth truncate 
seeds two or four, naked or very thinly aril 
led ; stem two or four. There are 23 species 
only one of which is a native of Britain ; tin 
officinalis, or common vervain, which grow 
on the road-sides near towns and villages 
1 he leaves have many jagged clefts, the b?os 
soms are pale blue. It manifests a slight de 
8 ree °f stringency, and was formerly mud 
in use as a deobstruent, but is now dis 
regarded. Mr. Millar says, that it is neve 
found above a quarter of a mile from a house 
v hence the common people in England cal 
it simpler s joy, becau e, wherever it is found 
it is a certain sign of a house being near 
SiK ep eat it ; cows, horses, and goals, re- 
fuse it. 
\ ERBESINA, a genus of the syngenesu 
