372 V E S 
lied before them, a consul, or the prsetor, being obliged to 
give way to them. 
This fire was held a pledge of the empire of the world. 
If it went out, it was judged a very unlucky prognostic, and 
was to be expiated with infinite ceremonies. 
VE'STIBULE, s. [vestibulum, Latin.] The porch or 
first entrance of a house.—Looking upon knowledge to pass 
into the mansions of the mind through language, they were 
careful not to offend in the vestibule. Harris. 
VESTIBULUM, in Anatomy, a cavity belonging to the 
labyrinth of the ear. See Anatomy. 
To VE'STIGATE, v. a. [vestigo , Latin.] To trace. 
Obsolete. It is in the old vocabulary of Cockeram. We 
now say investigate. 
VE'STIGE, s. [vestigium, Latin.] Footstep; mark left 
behind in passing.—The truth passes so slightly through 
men’s imaginations, that they must use great subtility to 
track its vestiges. Harvey. 
VE'STMENT, s. [vestimentum, Lat.] Garment; part 
of dress.—The sculptors could not give vestments suitable 
to the quality of the persons represented. Dryden. 
VE'STRY, s. [vestiaire, French; vestiarium, Latin; 
vestiary, old Eng. Pr. Parv.] A room appendant to the 
church, in which the sacerdotal garments and consecrated 
things are reposited. 
Bold Amycus, from the robb’d vestry brings 
The chalices of heav’n ; and holy things 
Of precious weight. Dryden. 
A parochial assembly commonly convened in the vestry. 
—They create new senators, vestry elders, without any 
commandment of the word. White. 
VE'STURE, s. [vestura, Italian.] Garment; robe. 
What, weep you when you but behold 
Our Csesar’s vesture wounded ? Shakspeare. 
Dress; habit; external form. 
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st 
But in his motion like an angel sings. 
But this muddy vesture of decay 
Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it. Shakspeare. 
VESUVIUS, a mountain in the south of Italy, about 8 
miles south-south-east of Naples, celebrated for its volcanic 
eruptions. It rises in a gentle swell from the bay of Naples, 
to an elevation of nearly 3700 feet. The view from its sum¬ 
mit is very beautiful, including Naples, with its bay, its 
islands, and its promontories, as well as the delightful scenery 
of the Campagna Felice. To the west the prospect loses 
itself in the immensity of the sea; to the east it extends far 
into the interior, until bounded by the Appennines. But 
the most interesting objects in this view are the different por¬ 
tions of the mountain itself: the upper part torn by a series 
of convulsions, and strewed with its own fragments; the 
part next in the descent, mixed with dried lava, extending 
in wide black lines over its surface; while the lower part of 
the mountain, as if danger were far remote, is covered with 
villages and country seats, with fields of maize, groves of 
fruit trees, and other luxuriant productions, all displaying 
the great fertility given by the ashes to the soil. _ The sum¬ 
mit of the mountain is in the form of a cone, and consists of 
masses of burned earth, ashes, and sand, thrown out in the 
course of ages by the volcano. It is steep, and difficult of 
ascent, from the looseness of the materials. The crater is 
extensive, nearly a mile and a half in circumference, but has 
not above 350 feet of depth or descent from the ridge. Its 
sides or interior surface have been progressively formed of 
ashes and cinders, intermixed with some rocks and dried 
lava. The lower part of the crater is a level spot, of nearly 
three quarters of a mile in circumference, composed of a sort 
of crust of brown burned earth, and containing several ori¬ 
fices like funnels, not large, but emitting a thin vapour. 
Such is, in general, the appearance of the upper part of 
the mountain, but it is subject to frequent changes. After 
the eruption of 1794, the cone lost much of its elevation ; a 
portion of it, after being shaken, and even raised, by the. 
VET 
convulsion, sinking down into the crater, and almost filling 
up the cavity. The fire raging in the hollow of the moun¬ 
tain, having thus lost its upward vent, burst through the side, 
and poured out the lava, which rolled down the declivity 
all the way to the sea, burning up the cultivated ground, 
and covering with a fluid which afterwards became solid and 
hard, the chief part of the town of Torre del Greco. The 
total number of great eruptions on record is above 30, 
reckoning from the celebrated one of A. D. 79, which proved 
destructive to Herculaneum. One of the latest, though not 
most formidable eruptions, took place in the end of the 
summer of 1819. The mountain had discharged almost 
daily small quantities of fire and lava; but on 27th of July, 
a thick smoke, accompanied by flames, and the discharge of 
red-hot stones, rose from the crater. The shocks succeeded 
each other, and seemed to cause a trembling on the summit 
of the mountain. Next day, the crisis took place; one side 
of the crater was suddenly rent with a dreadful crash, and its 
highest point, with the chief part of its south-west side, fell 
in. From the breach thus opened, there burst forth a great 
stream of lava; and this was, in 1822, the principal opening, 
although eruptions take place sometimes above, and some¬ 
times below it, according to the pressure of the melted sub¬ 
stance in the interior of the crater. The permanent effect of 
this last eruption has been to lower the height of the summit. 
VESZPRIM, a palatinate in the west of Hungary, to the 
north of the Lake of Balaton. It has a superficial extent of 
nearly 1600 square miles, with 152,000 inhabitants. 
VESZPRIM, a town of Hungary, the chief place of the 
preceding palatinate; 43 miles south-south-west of Raab. 
Population about 4500. 
VETCH, s. [vicia, Lat.] A plant with a papilionaceous 
flower, producing a legume. 
Where vetches, pulse, and tares have stood. 
And stalks of lupines grew. Dryden. 
VE'TCHY, adj. Made of vetches; abounding in vetches; 
consisting of vetch or pease-straw. 
If to my cottage thou wilt resort. 
There may’st thou ligge in a vetchy bed. 
Till fairer fortune shew forth his head. Spenser. 
VE'TERAN, s. [veteranus, Latin,] An old soldier; a 
man long practised in any thing.—The Arians, for the credit 
of their faction, took the eldest, the best experienced, the 
most wary, and the longest practised veterans they had 
amongst them. Hooker. 
VE'TERAN, adj. Long practised in war; long expe¬ 
rienced.—There was a mighty strong army of land-forces, 
to the number of fifty thousand veteran soldiers. Bacon. 
VETERINA'RIAN, s. [veterinarius, Lat.] One skilled 
in the diseases of cattle.—That a horse has no gall, is not 
only swallowed by common farriers, but also received by 
good veterinarians, and some who have laudably discoursed 
upon horses. Brown. 
VETERINARY, adj. [veterinarius, Lat.] Pertaining 
to farriery, and to science in the diseases of cattle. 
UETERSEN, a small town of Denmark, in Holstein; 
17 miles north-west of Hamburgh. Population 2000. 
VETLUGA, a river in the interior of European Russia, 
in the government of Kostroma, which joins the Wolga. 
VETSCHAU, a town of Lower Lusatia, on the Spree; 50 
miles north-by-east of Dresden. 
VETTORI (Pietro, Lat. Victorius), a descendant of a 
noble family at Florence, was born in 1499. Educated at 
his native city and at Pisa, he visited Spain, and returned to 
Italy with a collection of ancient inscriptions. At Rome he 
complimented Clement VII. on his accession to the ponti¬ 
ficate; and settling at Florence, joined the party opposed 
to the house of Medici, and supported it with his eloquence 
and arms. Upon the assassination of Alessandro di Medici 
in 1537, he withdrew to Rome. In the following year, 
duke Cosmo appointed him public professor of Greek and 
Latin eloquence at Florence, and he sustained this office 
with distinguished reputation for many years. He was much 
esteemed by several popes, and Mareellus II. drew him to 
Rome; 
