— a I a eet 
EE EE EE OE EEE ee eee 
Loiae: 
VOMITING. 
in the feline ones, as in the dog, simple regurgi- | by means of some emetic on the organism of the 
tation is natural and functional, and vomiting is 
either morbid or provoked. But in man, as also 
in some other animals whose digestive system 
most nearly resembles his, vomiting is the only 
form of regurgitation, and proceeds only from 
disease or immediate provocation,—either me- 
chanical tickling of the fauces or chemical action 
stomach. The pharmaceutical use of provoca- 
tives to vomiting, therefore, is a nullity in the 
case of monodactyles, and comparatively limited 
in the case of canines and felines, and of full 
power only in the case of animals constituted 
like man. 
VOMIT-NUT. See Nux Vomica. 
PP PIPPI III III IPI II NIL PLRIOERINIERIOPI IRIN I SIL INR PIOIOL IRINA RS 
Ww 
WACHENDORFIA. A genus of ornamental, 
Cape-of-Good-Hope, evergreen, herbaceous plants, 
of the hemodorum family. Hight or nine spe- 
cies, with either yellow, violet, or purple flowers, 
and varying in height from 12 to 25 inches, have 
been introduced to the greenhouses of Britain. 
All love a soil of rich mould, and are propagated 
by radical division. One of the longest known is 
described as follows by Miller, and may be taken 
as a good specimen of the whole:—“It has a 
thick tuberous reed-like root of a deep red colour, 
sending out many perpendicular fibres of the 
same colour, spreading into several offsets. The 
leaves which rise immediately from the root are 
large, spear-shaped, and channelled; they have 5 
plaited veins, and resemble the folds in fans. 
The largest of these leaves are 2 feet long, 3 
inches broad, and of a deep green colour. The 
flower-stalk rises from the centre of the heads 
between the leaves, to the height of 3 or 4 feet, 
and is garnished with leaves of the same form 
with those below, but are narrower, and ranged 
alternately, embracing the stalk half round with 
their base. The flowers, when young, are en- 
closed in sheaths, which, after some time, open 
and make way for the flowers to come out,—then 
they wither and dry, but remain upon the stalk 
like those of the yellow asphodel. The flowers 
are produced from the wings of the stalk, form- 
ing a loose spike at the top; there are several 
sustained upon one common foot-stalk, which 
open after each other, so that there is seldom 
more than one open at the same time upon the 
same foot-stalk. Theupper flowers stand almost 
upright, but the lower nod downward; they are 
hairy and of a saffron colour on the outside, but 
smooth and yellow within, having generally 6 
petals. Sometimes the lower one is wanting; 
but then the place is occupied by the pointal, 
which is a singular sport of nature. After the 
flower fades, the germen swells to an almost oval, 
three-cornered, blunt capsule, with 3 cells, each 
containing three purple hairy seeds, fixed to an 
oblong placenta.” 
WAGKS. The price or hire paid to servants or 
labourers for their work. The wages of farm-ser- 
vants and farm-labourers widely vary, not only ac- 
cording to the grade and qualifications and re- 
sponsibilities of the parties themselves, but in dif- 
ferent districts and situations, and to some extent 
in different seasons and circumstances. Some of 
the causes which enhance them are great demand 
for labour in neighbouring cities and manufac- 
tories, thinness of population in a rich and im- 
proving country, smart competition for work- 
people among extensive farmers, dearth or scar- 
city of provisions, unusual severity of labour, and 
unusual length of time in the amount of daily 
work; and some of the causes which depress 
them are the want or decrease or cessation of 
manufactures, the comparative crowdedness of 
the rural population, the general unskilfulness or 
inaptitude or laziness of the peasantry, the light- 
ness and shortness of the amount of labour, and 
either the cheapness of provisions or the low | 
feeding habits of the people. A glance at these 
causes may explain that farm wages must be 
very high in the busiest districts of England and 
Scotland, and exceedingly low in most parts of 
Ireland and in the remote parts of the Scottish 
Highlands and Islands. 
Farm-wages, in different districts and to dif- 
ferent classes, are paid in three different ways,— 
first, chiefly in kind or in farm produce, and only 
in a small degree in cash,—second, chiefly in 
cash, and only in a small degree in kind,—and 
thirdly, altogether or almost altogether in cash. 
Persons paid in the first way and in the second 
never occur on the same farm, and rarely in the 
same district ; but persons paid in the first and 
the third are often found together; and persons 
paid only in the third sometimes comprise the 
whole of the workers. Ploughmen, who consti- 
tute both the typal and the most important class 
of farm-labourers, are paid in all the three ways 
in different parts of Britain,—in the first, through- 
out most of the border counties of both England 
i and Scotland,—in the second, throughout most | 
