S54 
V E S- 
V I B 
V 1 C 
*he wings is large and strong, and those 
on the feet extremely so, as well as much 
curved. 
This is the bat to which Linnseus applied 
the title of vampire,, on the supposition of its 
being the species of which so many extra- 
ordinary accounts have been given relative 
to its power of sucking the blood both of men 
and cattle. This it is supposed to perform 
by inserting its aculeated tongue into the 
vein of a sleeping person, in so peculiar a 
tuanner as not to excite pain, fanning at the 
saifie time the air with its wings, by which 
means the sleep is rendered still more pro- 
found. This is what appears at first so extra- 
ordinary as to justify a degree of scepticism 
as to the fact: it is, however, so solemnly re- 
lated, and seemingly so well authenticated, 
as to enforce belief. Mr. Condamine assures 
us, that the large bats have, in certain parts 
of America, destroyed, by this means, all the 
great cattle introduced there by the mission- 
aries. It is affirmed by Bontius, as well as 
Nieiihoff, that the bats of Java attack those 
who lie with their feet uncovered, whenever 
they can gain access ; and Gumiila, who men- 
tions a greater and lesser kind, found on the 
banks of the Oronoque, declares them to be 
equally greedy after human blood. Persons 
thus attacked have, in consequence, been 
near passing from a sound sleep into eternity. 
It is, therefore, very unsafe to sleep with 
open windows, or in the open air, in those 
regions. 
P. Martyr, who wrote soon after the con- 
quest of South America, says, that in the 
isthmus of Darien, there are bats which suck 
the blood of men and cattle, when asleep, to 
such a degree as to awaken, and even kill 
■them. 
An instance is also related in colonel Sted- 
-man’s Travels in Surinam, as having happen- 
ed to himself, which puts the matter beyond 
.a doubt. 
Lastly, though it seems to have escaped the 
attention of modem naturalists, the self-same 
faculty lias been, time out of mind, attributed 
to the common European bats, which are 
said to bite sleeping persons, and to suck the 
blood with the greatest avidity. This is men- 
tioned by Aldrovandus, who seems to relate 
it as a generally-received opinion ; observing, 
at the same time, that their attacks are in- 
ffinitely inferior to the dangerous ones of the 
large exotic bats m India and America. 
. It remains to explain the reason of the 
term vampire, by which the above large 
species has been distinguished. 
A vampire is an imaginary monster, sup- 
posed to suck the blood of sleeping persons. 
It also alludes to one of the most absurd su- 
perstitions that ever entered into the human 
mind. About the year 1732, an idea arose 
among the vulgar in some parts of Poland and 
Hungary, that certain bodies when interred, 
became possessed of the power of absorbing 
blood from those who were so unfortunate as 
to pass over or stand near their graves; it 
•was, therefore, supposed necessary to dis-inter 
such bodies and wound them with a sword, 
by which means this pernicious power was 
supposed to be put a stop to, and the blood 
;they had unjustly gained was evacuated. 
Astonishing as this folly miy appear, it is yet 
more astonishing that a gr at many treatises 
were written on the subject, and that some 
10 
considerable time elapsed before the super 
stitionwas completely destroyed. 
VESTALS, vestales, among the antient 
Romans, were priestesses of the goddess 
Vesta, and had the perpetual fire committed 
to their charge. They were at first only four 
in number, but afterwards increased to six; 
and it does not appear that their number ever 
exceeded six, among whom one was superior 
to the rest, and called vestalis maxima. 
The vestals were chosen from six to ten 
years of age, and obliged to strict continency 
for 30 years ; the first ten of which were em- 
ployed in learning the ceremonies of religion, 
Lite next ten in the performance of them, and 
the ten la»t in teaching them to the younger 
vestals. The habit of tire vestals consisted of 
an head-dress, called infula, which sat close 
to their heads, and whence hung certain 
laces called vitlao, a kind of surplice made of 
white linen, and over it a purple mantle with 
a long train to it. 
VESTIBULE, in architecture, a kind of 
entrance into a large building ; being an open 
place before the hall, or at the bottom of the 
staircase. Vestibules intended for magnifi- 
cence, are usually between the court and the 
garden. 
, VESTRY, a place adjoining to a church, 
where the vestments of the minister are kept ; 
also a meeting at such place where the minis- 
ter, churchwarden,, and principal men of 
most parishes, at this day make a parish 
vestry. On the Sunday before a vestry is to 
meet, public notice ought to be given, either 
in the church, or after divine service is ended, 
or else at the church-door as the parishioners 
come out, both of the calling of the said meet- 
ing, and also of the time and place of the as- 
sembling of it ; and it is reasonable then also 
to declare for what business the said meeting 
is to be held, that none may be surprized, 
but that ail may have full time before, to 
consider of what is to be proposed at the said 
meeting. Wats. c. 39. 
VESUVIAN, a mineral found in lava, 
especially at Vesuvius, and formerly con- 
founded with hyacinth. Its colour is brown 
or greenish, tt is found in masses, but 
usually crystallized in rectangular eight-sided 
prisms. The primitive form of its crystals is 
the cube. The specific gravity is from 3.39 
to 3.4. It scratches glass; the fracture is 
imperfectly conchoidal. It causes double 
refraction. Before the blowpipe it melts into 
yellowish glass. It is composed of 
26.5 silica 
40.2 magnesia 
16.2 oxide of iron 
16.0 lime 
98.9 
VETCH. See Vtcia. 
VIBRATION, in mechanics, a regular 
reciprocal motion of a body, as a pendulum, 
&c. which, being freely suspended, swings or 
oscillates, first this way, then that. 
VIBRIO, a genus of vermes infusoria. The 
generic character is, worm invisible to the 
naked eye, very simple, round, elongated. 
There are 20 species enumerated, and found 
chiefly in vegetable inufusions. 
VIBURNUM, a genus of plants of the 
class pentandria, order trigynia, and in the 
nalurtl system arranged under the 43d order, 
dumosa*. The calyx is quinquepartite and 
above; the corolla divided into five lach ins; 
the fruit a monospermous berry. There are • 
23 species, two of which are natives of Britain, c 
1. The lantana, common viburnum, way-. | 
faring, or pliant mealy tree, having very ' j 
pliant shoots covered with a lightish-brow^ • 
bark ; large heart-shaped, veined, serrated 1 
leaves, white and hoary underneath, and the ■ 
branches terminated by umbels of white 
flowers, succeeded by bunches of red berries, j 
2. Theopulus, or Guelder rose, consisting 
of two varieties, one with fiat flowers, the 
other globular. The former grows 18 or 20 
feet high, branching opposite, of an irregular J 
growth, and covered with a whitish bark : and 
large lobated or three-lobed leaves on glan- I 
clukms footstalks. The latter has large globu- 1 
lar umbels of white flowers at the ends of the 
branches in great abundance. I bis tree when 
in bloom exhibits a singularly fine appear- 
ance ; the flowers, though small, are collect- 
ed numerously into large globular umbels, 
round like a ball ; hence it is sometimes 
called snowball -tree. 
3. The tinus, common laurustinus, or ever- ! 
green viburnum. There are a great many 
varieties. All the different species of vibur- 
num, both deciduous and evergreen kinds, 
being of the tree kind, are woody and durable 
in root, stem, and branches. They may all 
be propagated by layers ; and are of such 
hardy temperature as to grow freely in the 
open ground all the year, in shrubberies, and 
other hardy plantations. 
VICAR, one who supplies the place of 
another. The priest of every parish is called 
rector, unless the praedial tithes are appro- 
priated, and then he is styled vicar; and when 
rectories are appropriated, vicars are to sup- 
ply the rector’s place. For the maintenance 
of the vicar, there was then set apart a cer- 
tain portion of the tithes, commonly about a 
third part of the whole, which are now what 
are called the vicarial tithes, the rest being 
reserved to the use of the rectors, which for 
the like reason are denominated the rectorial 
tithes. 
V ICARAGE. For the most part vicar- 
ages were endowed upon appropriations; but 
sometimes vicarages have been endowed 
without any appropriation of the parsonage ; 
and there are several churches where the 
tithes are wholly impropriated, and no vicar- 
age endowed; and there the impropriators 
are bound to maintain curates to perform di- 
vine service, &c. The parsons, patron, and 
ordinary, may create a vicarage, and endow 
it ; and in time of vacancy of the church, 
the patron and ordinary may do it ; but the 
ordinary alone cannot create a vicarage, with- 
out the patron’s assent. 
VICE, in smithery, and other arts employ- 
ed in metals, is a machine, or instrument, 
serving to hold fast any tiling they are at 
work upon, whether it is to be filed, bent, 
rivetted, &c. To file square it is absolutely 
necessary that the vice should be placed per- 
pendicular, with its chaps parallel to the work- 
bench. 
Vice, hand , is a small kind of vice serving 
to hold the lesser works in, that require often 
turning about. 
Of these there are two kinds: the broad- 
chapped hand-vice, which is that commonly 
used ; and the square-nosed hand-vice, sel- 
