visiting-book 
The Bishop went and wrote his name down in the visit- 
inij-book at (iaiint House that very day. 
Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Iv. 
visiting-card (viz'i-ting-k;ird), 11. A small 
card, bearing one's name, and sometimes an 
address, an official title, or the like, to be left 
in making calls or paying visits, or, upon occa- 
sion, to be sent as an act of courtesy or in ac- 
knowledgment of an attention. 
visiting-clay (viz'i-ting-da), n. A day on which 
one is at home to visitors. 
He keeps a Visiting Dai/; you and I'll wait on him. 
C. Shadwell, Humours of the Navy, i. 1. 
visitor (viz'i-tor), n. [Alsovisiter; < F.visitcur 
= Sp. Pg. visitatlor = It. visitatorc, < LL. visi- 
tator, a visitor, protector, < L. visitarc, visit: 
see visit.'} 1. One who visits. Specifically (a) 
One who comes or goes to see or stay with another, as in 
civility or friendship. 
She hated having visitors in the house while her health 
was so indifferent. 
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, xxiii. 
(6) A superior or person authorized to visit a corporation 
or any institution, for the purpose of seeing that the laws 
and regulations are observed, or that the duties and condi- 
tions prescribed by the founder or by law are duly per- 
formed or executed. 
I heare saie the Visitors have taken this ordre, that 
every man shall professe the stndie eyther of divinitie, 
law, or physick ; and, in remembring thus well England 
abrode, thei have in myn opinion forgotten Cambrig it 
self. Ascham, in Ellis's Lit. Letters, p. 16. 
2. In zool., a visitant. =Syn. 1. (a) Visitor, Caller, 
Guest. Caller regards a person as coming to see another 
for a short interview of civility, formality, or friendship : 
as, she devoted the afternoon to receiving callers. Visitor 
regards the person as coming to see another, but mak- 
ing a longer stay than acnZfer and enjoying more of social 
intercourse. Guest regards the person as admitted to hos- 
pitality, and hence generally as welcome. (frXJnspector, 
examiner. 
visitorial (viz-i-to'ri-al), a. [< visitor + -i-al.] 
Same as visitatorial. 
visitress (viz'it-res), . [< visitor + -ess.'] A fe- 
male visitor. Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, xxxiii. 
visive (vi'siv), a. [< F. visif = Sp. Pg. It. visivo, 
< L. videre, pp. visits, see : see vision.'] Of or 
pertaining to the power of seeing; visual. 
The object of the church's faith is, in order of nature, 
before the church, . . . and therefore cannot be enlarged 
by the church, any more than the act of the visive faculty 
can add visibility to the object. 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), II. 309. 
Vismia (vis'mi-a), n. [NL. (Vandelli, 1793), 
named from one Visme, a botanist of Lisbon.] 
A genus of plants, type of the tribe Vismiex in 
the order Hyperieinex. It is characterized by a five- 
celled ovary, with numerous ovules in each cell. There 
are about 27 species, natives of tropical America, with 
1 species in tropi- 
cal Africa. They 
are shrubs or 
trees, hearing en- 
tire leaves which 
are commonly 
large, closely 
woolly or hoary, 
and glandular- 
dotted. The flow- 
ers are yellow or 
whitish, in termi- 
nal and usually 
abundant and 
panicled cymes. 
The five petals are 
often downy ; the 
stamens are in 
five united clus- 
ters opposite the 
petals ; the fruit 
is a berry. Most 
of the species 
have a copious yellow juice, of energetic properties. V. 
Bragiliensis, of Brazil, and V. Guianensis, widely dispersed 
in Guiana and Brazil, are known as wax-tree, a name ex- 
tended to the genus ; the latter also as gutta-gum tree ; it 
is a small tree, the source of a drastic gum-resin analogous 
to gamboge, known as gutnini-qutta or Atnerican gamboge, 
also obtained from other species, as V. micrantha. 
Vismieae (vis-ml'e-e), n. pi. [NL. (Choisy, 
1821), < Vismia + -ex.] A tribe of polypetalous 
plants, of the order Hypericiiieee. It is character- 
ized by a fleshy indehiscent fruit with wingless seeds. It 
includes 4 genera, of which Vismia is the type, chiefly trop- 
ical American trees or shrubs ; the others are mostly shrubs 
of tropical Africa. 
visnet, [AF. visne, < OF. visnc, < L. vicinia, 
neighborhood: see vicinage.] Neighborhood. 
See venue 1 , 2 (a). 
Visnomyt ( viz'no-mi), n. [A corruption < pJiys- 
innnomy.] Face; countenance; visage. 
I think it safer to sit closer, and so to cloud the sun of 
my visnomv that no eye discern it. 
Chapman, Hay-Day, iii. 3. 
Vison (vi'son), M. [NL. (Brisson); origin un- 
known.] the name specifically given to the 
American mink by Brisson in 1756, and subse- 
quently so used by most authors. The name was 
used absolutely by Buffon in 1765, and generically by J. E. 
Vismia Guianettsis. 
0772 
Gray in 1S43. As a generic name it is equivalent to Lu- 
treola, and includes semi-aquatic species of I'utorius, of 
which the European and American minks are the best- 
known. As a specific term it is applicable only to the 
latter, Putorius (Lutreola) vison. See cut under mink. 
vison-weasel (vi'son-we"zl), n. Same as i-i- 
son. 
Visor, visqred, etc. See vizor, etc. 
visoryt (vi'so-ri), a. [< L. visor (a doubtful 
word), a scout, lit. ' seer,' < videre, pp. visus, see : 
see vision.] Visual ; having the power of vision. 
But even the optic nerves and the visory spirits are cor- 
rupted. Reo. T. Adams, Works, II. 379. 
viss (vis), n. [< Tamil visai, Telugu vise.] In 
southern India and Burma, a weight equiva- 
lent to about 3 pounds 5 ounces. 
vista (vis'ta), n. [Formerly also, erroneously, 
visto; (. It. vista, sight, view, < visto, pp. of vc- 
dere, < L. videre, pp. visus, see : see vision.] 1 . 
A view or prospect, especially through an av- 
enue, as between rows of trees ; hence, the trees 
or other things that form the avenue. 
The tents are all ranged in a straight line : . . . and 
is there not a horrid uniformity in their infinite vista of 
canvas? Sheridan (?), The Camp, ii. 3. 
Terminal figures, columns of marble or granite porticoes, 
arches, are seen in the tngtas of the wood paths. 
Hawthorne, Marble Faun, viii. 
Hence 2. Figuratively, a vision; a view pre- 
sented to the mind in prospect or in retrospect 
by the imagination : as, a vista of pleasure to 
come ; dim vistas of the past. 
There is something exceedingly delusive in thus looking 
back through the long vista of departed years, and catch- 
ing a glimpse of the fairy realms of antiquity. 
Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 138. 
Prima vista. See prima. 
vistaed (vis'tad), . [< vista + -erf 2 .] Possess- 
ing or forming a vista or vistas, 
visto (vis'to), n. Same as vinta. [Erroneous.] 
Then all beside each glade and visto 
You'd see nymphs lying like Calisto. 
Gay, To a Young Lady. 
visual (viz'u-al), a. [< OF. visual, visuel, F. 
visuel = Sp. Pg. visual = It. visuale, < LL. visit- 
alis, of sight, < L. visas, sight, < videre, pp. 
visus, see: see vis 1 , visage.] 1. Of or pertain- 
ing to sight; relating to vision; used in sight; 
serving as the instrument of seeing; optic : as, 
the visual nerve. 
The air, 
No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray. 
Milton, f. L., iii. 620. 
Visual perception sees a superficies, but it does not see 
a superficies as distinguished from a solid. 
Hodgson, Time and Space, f 12. 
2. Visible; perceptible by the sight. 
Among many remarkable particulars that attended his 
first perceptions and judgments on visual objects, . . . 
the first time the boy saw a black object, it gave him great 
uneasiness. Burke, Sublime and Beautiful, 115. 
3. Resulting from the eye ; produced by a look : 
as, visual influences Primary visual centers, the 
lateral corpus geniculatum ; the pulvinar and the anterior 
corpus quadrigeminum, in cells of which the fibers of the 
optic tract originate. Visual angle, the angle formed 
by the intersection of two lines drawn from the extremi- 
ties of an object to the first nodal point of the eye. 
Visual axis. See ozfoi. Visual field, the extent of 
external world which is visible in any position of an eye. 
Visual line. Same as visual axis. Visual plane, the 
plane including the visual lines of the two eyes. Visual 
point, in persp., a point in the horizontal line in which 
all the visual rays unite. Visual purple, a pigment 
found in the retina : same as rhodopsin. Visual rays, 
lines of light imagined to come from the object to the eye. 
Visual wnite, the final product of the photochemical 
changes undergone by visual purple when exposed to the 
action of light. Visual yellow, an intermediate stage 
of the passage of visual purple to visual white under the 
action of light. 
visualisation, visualise, etc. See visualisa- 
tion, etc. 
visuality (viz-u-al'i-ti), . ; pi. visitalitics (-tiz). 
[< LL. visuaUta(t-)s, the faculty of sight, < visu- 
alis, of the sight: see visual.] 1. The state 
or property of being visual. 2. A sight; a 
glimpse; a mental picture. 
We have a pleasant visuality of an old summer after- 
noon in the Queen's Court two hundred years ago. 
Carlyle, Cromwell, i. 98. 
visualization (viz"u-al-i-za'shon), . [< visu- 
alise + -ation.] The act, process, or result of 
visualizing; the state of being visualized, as 
an optical image. Also spelled visualisation. 
We have a problem of visualization the mind is called 
upon to supply an optical image. 
Proc. Amer. Soc. Psych. Research, I. 311. 
visualize (viz'u-al-iz), v.; pret. and pp. visual- 
ized, ppr. visualizing. [< visual + -ize.] I. 
trans. To make visual or visible; make that 
which is perceived by the mind only visible to 
the eye ; externalize to the eye. 
vital 
What is this Me? A Voice, a Motion, an Appearance 
some embodied, visualized Idea in tliu Eternal Mind? 
Carlyle, Sartor Kesartns, i. 8. 
Whatever may be the fate of these attempts to visualise 
the physics of the process, it will still remain true that 
to account for the phenomena of radiation and absorp- 
tion we must take into consideration the shape, size, and 
complexity of the molecules by which the ether is dis- 
turbed. Tyndall, Radiation, 15. 
Most persons . . . are less able to visualise the features 
of intimate friends than those of persons of whom they 
have caught only a single glance. 
F. Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty, p. 108. 
II. in traits. To call up a mental image or 
picture with a distinctness approaching actual 
vision. 
I find that a few persons can, by what they often de- 
scribe as a kind of touch-sight, visualise at the same 
moment all round the image of a solid body. 
F. Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty, p. 98. 
It is among uncivilised races that natural differences in 
the visualising faculty are most conspicuous. Many of 
them make carvings and rude illustrations, but only a few 
have the gift of carrying a picture in their mind's eye, 
judging by the completeness and firmness of their designs, 
which show no trace of having been elaborated in that 
step-hy-step manner which is characteristic of draughts- 
men who are not natural artists. 
F. Gallon, Inquiries into Human Faculty, p. 101. 
Also spelled visualise. 
visualize! ( viz'u-al-i-zer), . [< visualise + -cr 1 .] 
One who visualizes. Also spelled vinualiser. 
Abnormally sensitive visualizers. 
Proc. Amer. Soc. Psych. Research, I. 285. 
visually (viz'u-al-i), adv. In a visual manner; 
by sight; with reference to vision. 
These spectral images have only a subjective existence, 
though visually they have all the vividness of present- 
ment which belongs to realities. Nature, XLI. 417. 
Vitaceae(vi-ta'se-e),.j)J. [NL.(Lindley,1835), 
< Vitis T -acete.] An order of polypetalous 
plants, of the series Disciflorie and cohort Celas- 
trales. It is also known as Ampelidese (Kunth, 1821), or 
now as Ampelidaceve (R. T. Lowe, 1857), and as the vine 
family in each case from its type, Vitis vinifera, the d/i- 
ireAos of the Greeks. The order is characterized by a small 
calyx with imbricated lobes, and valvate caducous petals 
with the stamens opposite them. There arc about 435 spe- 
cies, of which 44 species, principally of Asia and Africa, 
forming the genus Leea, are erect tropical shrubs or small 
trees, with pinnate leaves without tendrils. The others, 
classed in 10 genera, and forming the tribe Ampelideee, 
are shrubby tendril-bearing climbers or vines, with a copi- 
ous watery juice, round, angled, or irregular stems thick- 
ened at the nodes (rarely herbaceous or subterranean), 
their wood abounding in large dotted ducts. They bear 
alternate or petioled leaves, which are simple, lobed, or 
digitately divided into three to five leaflets. The inflores- 
cence is paniculately cymose or racemose, rarely spicate, 
and is developed opposite the leaves ; the peduncles end 
in simple or divided tendrils. The small flowers are com- 
nionly greenish or inconspicuous. The fruit is a roundish 
juicy berry, commonly one-celled by obliteration of the two 
to five partitions, and containing two to five seeds. It is 
often large, sweet, and edible in Vitis and Cissuz, or some- 
times acrid, astringent, or intensely acid. Three genera ex- 
tend into the United States, Vitis, Cissus, and Ampelopsis. 
Ampelocissus, Parthenocissus, and Tetraxtigma also occur 
in tropical America; the others are small genera of the 
Old World. Their leaves are astringent, and sometimes 
furnish domestic remedies, especially those of tropical spe- 
cies of Cissus; another furnishes a blue dye ; but the prin- 
cipal importance of the family is the production of grapes 
and wine. Pterisanthes, a small aberrant genus, is one of 
the most singular of plants in its inflorescence, bearing 
its innumerable small flowers on a thin, flattened wing- 
like or leaf-like receptacle forming the expanded end of 
a slender tendril. 
Vitailet, Vitaillet, " Obsolete spellings of 
victual. 
Vital (vi'tal), a. [< ME. vital, < OF. (and F.) 
vital = Sp. Pg. vital = It. vitalc, < L. vitalis, of 
or belonging to life, < vita, life, < vivere, pp. 
victtis, live, = Skt. \/ jii', live; cf. Gr. fttnc,, life. 
From the same root are ult. E. vic%, vivid, re- 
vive, etc.] 1. Of or pertaining to life, either 
animal or vegetable : as, vital energies. 
A raven's note, 
Whose dismal tune bereft my vital powers. 
Shak., 2 Hen. VI., iii. 2. 41. 
As for living creatures, it is certain their vital spirits 
are a substance compounded of an airy and flamy matter. 
Bacon, Nat. Hist, 30. 
2. Contributing to life ; necessary to life : as, vi- 
tal air; vital blood. 3. Containing life ; living. 
Spirits that live throughout, 
Vital in every part. Milton, P. L., vi. 345. 
His vital presence? his corporeal mould? 
Wordntfarth, Laodamia, 
She is very haughty. 
For all her fragile air of gentleness ; 
With something Mai in her, like those flowers 
That on our desolate steppes outlast the year. 
T. B. Aldrich, Pauline Pavlovna. 
4. Being the seat of life ; being that on which 
life depends ; hence, essential to existence ; in- 
dispensable. 
He spoke, and rising hurl'd his forceful Dart, 
Which, driv'n by Pallas, pierc'd a vital Part. 
Pope, Iliad, v. 352. 
