y i c 
380 VIC 
murrain appeared among the cattle in Languedoc in 1775, 
Vicq-d’Azyer was commissioned by the minister Turgo to 
discover means for restraining it, which charge he executed 
with success. A medical society was formed at Paris about 
this time, which he zealously promoted, and of which he 
was secretary. He also, in connection with this society, 
performed the office of eulogist, very much to his own repu¬ 
tation, and to the honour of many considerable persons, 
whose talents and services he commemorated. In his private 
character he exhibited, with gentle manners, a very consi¬ 
derable degree of ardour and sensibility; so that he is repre¬ 
sented as a warm friend and philanthropical citizen. He 
obtained both fame and fortune, employing the latter liber¬ 
ally in collecting a costly apparatus and a well-chosen 
library. Agitated and exhausted by the disastrous effects of 
the revolution, he died in June 1794, at the age of forty-six. 
His “ Eloges Historiques” were collected and published, 
with notes, and a memoir on the author, by J. L. Moreau, 
three vols. 8vo. 1805. His other writings were communi¬ 
cated to the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences and of the 
Medical Society. His “ Illustrations of the Brain” are of a 
character so good, that even in the present improved state of 
anatomy it may be referred to with advantage. Nouv. Diet. 
Hist. 
VI'CTIM, s. [victima , Lat. It was so called, either be¬ 
cause vincta percussa cadebat, or because vincta ad aras 
ducebatur.'] A sacrifice; something slain for a sacrifice. 
All that were authors of so black a deed. 
Be sacrific’d as victims to his ghost. Denliam. 
Something destroyed. 
Behold where age’s wretched victim lies; 
See his head trembling, and his half-clos’d eyes. Prior. 
It is not certain who was the first person that introduced 
bloody sacrifices among the Pagans. If the authority of 
Ovid be at all regarded, he alleges that the sow was the first 
animated victim which was offered to Ceres, on account of 
the ravages which that animal makes in the field. From 
Homer we learn that the use of such sacrifices was common 
in the time of the Trojan war. Whenever they were in¬ 
troduced, it is certain they were very ancient in the Pagan 
world. It may be observed, however, that when victims of 
this kind were offered they blended with them herbs, salt and 
meal. Pliny informs us, that Numa prohibited the Romans 
from using bloody victims, or any other sacrifice, besides 
those in which they employed fruits, salt, and corn. Dion. 
Halic. ascribes this prohibition to Romulus; and he adds, 
that this usage subsisted in his time, although they had su- 
peradded to it that of bloody sacrifices. At length, how¬ 
ever, superstition prevailed to such a degree, that they offered 
to their deities human victims; and this barbarous custom, 
the origin of which is not satisfactorily ascertained, was pro¬ 
pagated to almost every known nation. These horrid sacri¬ 
fices, prescribed even by the oracles of the gods, were known 
in the days of Moses, and constituted a part of those abomi¬ 
nations with which this legislator reproached the Amorites. 
The Moabites sacrificed their children to Moloch, and burned 
them in the cavity of the statue of that god. According to 
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, they offered men in sacrifice to 
Saturn, not only at Tyre and Carthage, but even in Greece 
and Italy. The Gauls, if we may believe Diodorus Siculus, 
sacrificed to their gods their prisoners of war; those of 
Taurus, all the strangers who landed upon their coasts; the 
inhabitants of Pella sacrificed a man to Peleus. Those of 
Temessa, as Pausanias has it, offered every year a young 
virgin to the genius of one of Ulysses’ associates, whom they 
had stoned; and Aristomenes, the Messenian, sacrificed 
three hundred men at one time. 
For the public sacrifices there were authorized ministers 
or priests who made a choice of victims; and several names 
were given to these victims from some circumstances that 
attended the oblations. Such as were offfered up the day 
before the solemnity, were called “ prrecidanere hostiae as 
the sow, sacrificed to Ceres before harvest, was called “ prae- 
cidanea porea.” Again, they gave the name of “ succedanese 
hostiae” to such sacrifices as they offered up, when the former 
ones had been neglected; and thus it was they atoned for 
the omission. There were others named “ eximiae hostile;” 
meaning not that these victims had any peculiar excellence, 
as the word properly signifies, but that they were separated 
from the flock in order to be sacrificed, “ eximebanturgrege.” 
The ewes that had two lambs, which they sacrificed with the 
mother, were termed “ ambiguse oves,” and the victims 
whose entrails were adherent, “ harungse,” or “ harugae;” 
such as were consumed, “prodigiae;” and such as had two 
teeth higher than the rest, “ bidentes.” 
Of whatever nature the victims were, great care was to be 
taken in the choice of them ; and the same blemishes that 
excluded them from sacrifices among the Jews, rendered 
them also imperfect among the Pagans; whence it would 
seem that they borrowed several rites from the Hebrews. 
All sorts of victims were not offered indiscriminately to 
every divinity, or for every purpose. It was commonly a 
sow, big with young, that they offered to Cybele and to the 
goddess Tellus; the bull to Jupiter; to Juno, heifers, ewe- 
lambs, sheep; and at Corinth they sacrificed to her a she- 
goat. To Neptune, a bull and lambs, as appears from Homer; 
to Pluto, likewise a bull; and to Proserpine a cow, both of 
them black; and when that goddess was taken for Hecate, 
they sacrificed to her a dog, an animal whose barking they 
thought drove away the apparitions sent by that goddess. 
The most acceptable victims to Ceres, were the boar and the 
sow; they made her likewise an offering of honey and of 
milk. To Venus the dove, the he-goat, the heifer, a white 
she-o'oat &c» 
To VI'CTIMATE, v. a. [victimo, Latin.] To sacrifice; 
to offer in sacrifie. Not in use. Bullokar, and Cockcram. 
VICTOIRE ISLE, a very small island in the Eastern seas, 
covered with wood. Lat. 1. 39. N. long. 106. 30. E. 
VI'CTOR, s. [victor, Latin.] Conqueror; vanquisher; 
he that gains the advantage in any contest. 
This strange race more strange conceits did yield; 
Who victor seem’d, was to his ruin brought; 
Who seem’d o’erthrown, was mistress of the field. Sidney. 
Some time the flood prevails, and then the wind. 
Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast. 
Yet neither conqueror, nor conquered. Sliakspeare. 
Pope has used this word in a manner perhaps unauthorized. 
There, victor of his health, his fortune, friends. 
And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends. Pope. 
VICTOR, a post village of the United States, in Ontario 
county, New York. 
VICTOR, Valle de, a settlement of Peru, in the pro- 
vince of Arequipa. 
VICTOR, Valle del, a river of Peru, in the province of 
Arequipa, which enters the Pacific ocean, joined with the 
river Chile. 
VICTOR, Valle del, a port of Peru, in the Pacific 
ocean, in the province of Arica. Lat. 18. 47. S. 
VI'CTORESS, s. A female that conquers. 
But when the victoresse arrived there. 
Where late she left the pensife Scudamore 
With her own trusty squire, both full of feare, 
Neither of them she found. Spenser. 
VICTORIA (Vincente), was a Spanish artist, a native of 
Valencia, and born in 1658. He went to Rome when young, 
and there became a scholar of Carlo Marratti, and distin¬ 
guished himself sufficiently in historical painting to be taken 
into employment by the grand duke of Tuscany. His por¬ 
trait is in the Florentine gallery. He painted several pictures 
for churches in his native country, and died at Rome in 1712. 
VICTORIA, a village of the Caraccas, in the province of 
Venezuela, situated on the road- leading from Caraccas to 
Puerto Cavello, 6 leagues east of Tulmero.—2. A town 
of Mexico, in the province of Tabasco, founded in 1519 
by Cortes.—3. A settlement of Peru, in the province of 
Calca and Lares.—4. A city of New of Granada, in the 
province of Mariquita.—5. A settlement of Brazil, in the 
province 
