338 
Y I T 
received at least three or four tuns of wine 
annually as tithes, from the produce of the 
vineyards in his diocese, and to have irude 
frequent res rvations in his leases of a cer- 
tain quantity of wine for r ut. plot of land 
in London, which now forms East Smilhheld 
and some adjoining streets, was withheld 
from the r. 'Irons house within A'dgate by 
foui successive constables ot the lower, in 
tne reigns of Rufus, Henry, and Stephen, 
and made by them into a vineyard, which 
yielded great emolument. In the old ac- 
counts ot rectorial and vicarial revenues, and 
ih the old registers of ecclesiastical suits con- 
cerning them, the tithe of wine is an article 
that frequently occurs in Kent, Surry, and 
other counties.- And the wines of Gloucester- 
shire, within a century after the Conquest, 
were little inferior to the French in sweet- 
ness. Th .‘ beautiful region of Gaul, which 
had not a single vine in the days of Caesar, 
had numbers so early as the time of Strabo, 
i he south of it was particularly stocked with 
them ; and they had even extended them- 
selves into the interior parts of the country ; 
but the grapes of the latter did not ripen 
kindly. France was famous for its vineyards 
in the reign of Vespasian, and even exported 
its wines to Italy. The whole province of 
IS arbonne was then covered with vines; and 
the wine- merchants of the country were re- 
markable for knavish dexterity, tinging it 
with smoke, colouring it (as was suspected) 
with herbs and noxious dyes, and even adul- 
terating the taste and appearance with aloes. 
And as our iirst vines would be transplanted 
from Gaul, so were in all probability those 
of the Allobroges in Franche-compte. These 
were peculiarly fitted for cold countries. 
They ripened even in the frosts of the ad- 
vancing winter ; and they were of the same 
colour, and seem to h ive been of the same 
species, as the black muscadines of the pre- 
sent day, which have lately been tried in this 
island, and found to be fittest for the climate. 
Ihese were pretty certainly brought into 
Britain a little after the vines had been carried 
over all the kingdoms of Gaul, and about the 
middle of the third century, when the nume- 
rous plantations had gradually spread over 
the face of the latter, and must naturally 
have contributed to their progress into the 
former. 
The Romans, even nearly to the days of Lu- 
eullus, were very seldom able to regale them- 
selves with wine. Very little was then raised rti 
the compass of Italy ; and the foreign wines 
were so dear, that they were rarely produced at 
an entertainment ; and when they were, each 
guest was indulged only with a single draught. 
But in the seventh century of Rome, as their 
conquests augmented the degree of their 
wealth, and enlarged the sphere of their 
luxury, wines became the object of particular 
attention. Many vaults were constructed, 
and good stocks of liquor were deposited in 
them ; and this naturally gave encourage- 
ment to the wines of the country. The 
Falernian rose immediately into great repute; 
and a variety of others, that of Florence 
among the rest, succeeded it about the close 
of the century ; and the more westerly parts 
pt the European continent were at once sub- 
jected to the arms, and enriched with the 
vines ; of Italy. See Vineyard, and Wine. 
VITMANNIA, a genus of plants of the 
filuss and order octandria monogynia, The 
V I T 
V I V 
'calyx is four-cleft; corolla four petalled ; 
nect. a scale of the base. of each filament; 
nut semilunar, one- eeded. 'i here is one 
species, a tree of the East Indies. 
VITREOUS humour of the eye. See 
Optics. 
VIIRIOL, martial, or sulphat of iron. 
This salt was known to the undents, and is 
mentioned by Pliny under the names of misy, 
sory, and calchantum. In commerce it is 
usually denominated green vitriol or cop- 
peras. It is not prepared by dissolving iron 
in sulphuric acid, but by moistening the py- 
rites which are found native in abundance, 
and exposing them to the open air. They 
are slowly covered with a crust of sulphat of 
iron, which is dissolved in water, and after- 
wards obtained in crystals by evaporation. 
Sometimes the salt is found ready-formed, 
either in a state of solution in water, or mixed 
with decayed pyrites. In some cases it is 
found necessary to roast the pyrites before 
they can be made to undergo spontaneous 
decomposition. 'This is most probably owing 
to the compact state of the pyrites in these 
cases, and the absence of all uncombined iron. 
Pyrites is in fact a supersulphuret of iron, 
i be roasting reduces it to the state of a sui- 
plniret, which decomposes very readily. 
Sulphat of iron has a fine green colour. Its 
crystals aic transparent rhomboidal prisms, 
the faces of which are rhombs with angles of 
I "9° 50' and 100° 10', inclined to each other 
j at angles of 98° 37' and 81° 23'. It has a 
very strong styptic taste, and always reddens 
vegetable blues. Its specific gravity is 1.8399. 
It is soluble in about two parts of cold water, 
and in ~ths of its weight of boiling water. It 
is insoluble in alcohol. 
Vitriol, blue, or sulphat of copper. Sul- 
phuric acid does not attack copper while cold, 
but at a boiling heat part of the acid is de- 
composed, the copper is oxidized, and com- 
bines with the remainder of the acid. But 
lecourse is seldom had to this process, as the 
sulphat of copper is found native abundantly, 
dissolved in mineral waters connected with 
copper-mines. From these waters it is often 
obtained by evaporation ; or it is formed by 
burning native sulphuret of copper, or by 
moistening that substance, and exposing it to 
the air. By either of these methods the sul- 
pluu is acidified, and the sulphat of copper 
formed. This salt appears to have been 
known to the antients. In commerce it is 
distinguished by the name of blue vitriol, 
and sometimes by that of blue copperas. It 
is, in fact, an oxysulphat. There are two 
varieties ot this salt known, namely, super- 
sulphat, and subsulphat. 
Vitriol, white, or sulphat of zinc. This 
salt, according to the best accounts, was dis- 
covered at Rammelsberg in Germany about 
the middle of the 16th century. Many as- 
cribe the invention to Julius duke of Bruns- 
wick. Henkel and Newmann were the first 
chemists who proved that it contained zinc ; 
and Brandt first ascertained its composition 
completely. It is generally formed for com- 
mercial purposes from sulphureted zinc ; or 
blende, as it is called by mineralogists. This 
ore is roasted, which converts the sulphur 
into an acid ; it is then dissolved in water, 
and concentrated so much, that on cooling it 
crystallizes very rapidly, and forms a mass 
not unlike loaf-sugar. This salt is usually 
called white vitriol. It is almost always con- 
taminated with iron, and often with copper 
and lead. lienee the yellow spots which ari 
visible on it, and hence also the reason in d 
its solution in water lets fall a dirty-brown s «j$ 
diluent; a circumstance very much coin- 
p'ained of by surgeons when they use that 
solution in medicine. It may be easily puril 
tied by dissolving it in water, and putting 
mfo the solution a quant. ty ot zinc-id, nasi 
taking care to agitate it occasionally. 'fl J 
zme precipitates foreign metals, alid take! 
: tneir place. The solution is then to be fiiei-l 
e>., and the sulphat of zinc may be obtained 
' 1 °j n 't in crystals by proper evaporation. 
VVe have inserted these three article J 
miner the vulgar names in compliance vvitiJ 
I c °mmoii prejudice. They are, however, no-1 
i heed under their proper head:,, and we trustl 
t he advancement of chemical knowledge villi 
; shortly banish these barbarous terms, 
j v|ymw S DANCE. See Medicine. 
; 1 ' a genus of quadrupeds of the! 
I order of feral. '1 he generic character is, cut-1 
I ting-teeth six, sharpish ; canine teeth longer -l 
j tongue in some smooth, in others aculeatcdl 
: backwards; body of a lengthened form. This! 
I genus comprehends all the animals of the! 
| weesei kind, which seem to be somewhat un— I 
| necessarily separated by Linna'us into two! 
! distinct genera, under tiie titles viverra and I 
j mu stela ; m which latter genus the otters are I 
j also included. In this particular Mr. Fen- 1 
I nant seems to have acted more judiciously I 
j than Linnaeus. We shall therefore follow his I 
j example, and unite the two genera, preserv- j 
j mg the otters distinct under the term Mus- I 
i tela, which see. 
The. general character of the weesei tribe I 
(of which there are about 31 species) is, a I 
certain slenderness and length of body ; with I 
a sharpened visage, short legs, and, in most I 
species, a longish tail (though in some few it I 
is short). 
i. Viverra ichneumon. The ichneumon is ' 
a species of which there seem to be two dis- 
tinct varieties ; one of which is a native of 
India, and the other of Africa. Both agree in 
their general appearance, but the Egyptian 
variety is considerably larger than the Indian, 
measuring mere than forty inches from the 
nose to the end of the tail ; whereas the In- 
dian ichneumon scarcely exceeds two-thirds 
ot this length. Exclusive of size alone, the 
Egyptian ichneumon is distinguished by hav- 
ing the tail slightly tufted at the end, which 
the other has not ; and from this circumstance 
it is placed, in the Ginelinian edition of the 
system a Naturae, as a distinct species. The 
ichneumon is ot a pale reddish-grey colour, 
each hair being mottled with brown or dusky, 
so that the whole appears speckled in the 
manner of the hair on some of the larger 
baboons. The eyes are of a bright red or 
name-colour ; the ears rounded, and almost 
naked ; the nose long and slender; the body 
rather thicker than in most of this genus ; and 
the tail is very thick at the base, and thence 
giadually tapers almost to a point ; the le°-s 
are short ; the hair on the whole animalls 
bard and coarse, and it varies somewhat as to 
the depth and cast of its colours in different 
individuals. In India, but still more in E°ynt 
the ichneumon lias always been considered 
as one of the most useful and estimable of 
animals ; since it is an inveterate enemy to 
serpents, rats, and other noxious creaturt* 
