Africa, G 6). The river, here nearly a mile wide, suddenly plunges into a cleft or chasm 400 feet deep and only 100 to 300 feet wide, running transversely across the river bed. A dense cloud of vapor rises far above the falls, and as it condenses it darkens to the appearance of smoke, whence the native name. The name Victoria was given to the falls by Livingstone, who dis

covered them in 1855.

VICTORIA INSTITUTE, THE. A society founded in London in 1870 with the object of bringing together men of scientific attainments as well as those interested in the investigation of philosophy and science in the inquiry how far these may be found to harmonize with the great truths taught in the Holy Scripture; also by the discussion of these truths to test the faith of the members in 'one eternal God.' The results of such discussions are printed in the Transactions of the Institute. The membership is about 1000, one-third of whom are residents of British colonies and foreign countries.

VICTORIA LAND. See SOUTH VICTORIA

LAND.

VICTORIA NYANZA, nê-än'zå, or UKEREWE. The largest lake in Africa, and, next to Lake Superior, the largest sheet of fresh water in the world. It lies between British and German East Africa, about 400 miles from the Indian Ocean, and 175 miles northeast of Lake Tanganyika, extending from latitude 0° 25′ N. to 3° S. (Map: Africa, H 5). Its length from north to south is over 200 miles, its average breadth 150 miles, and its estimated area about 26,000 square miles. The lake occupies a broad depression, probably due to a series of faults in the ancient crystalline rocks of the East African plateau. Its surface lies at an elevation of 3775 feet. The shores, especially on the south and east, are very irregular, with numerous headlands and deep bays, and the lake contains several large and numerous smaller islands with an aggregate area of about 2300 square miles. The largest islands are Ukerewe, in the southeast, and Sesse, in the northwest. The islands are generally densely wooded, and some of them contain a number of villages, while others, even some of considerable size, are uninhabited. The western shore of the lake is high, steep, and rocky in the south, becoming lower and densely forested northward. The southern shore is low and marshy, while the country bordering the lake on the east is mostly an open steppe region. The water is clear and fresh. There are many fish in the lake and it abounds in mollusks. Crocodiles are numerous, and on the uninhabited islands there are many hippopotamuses. None of the streams entering the lake are of great size. The largest is the Kagera, which may be regarded as the extreme upper course of the Nile, as that river, known here as the Somerset Nile, forms the outlet of the lake. The Victoria Nyanza is now navigated by two steamers, one of which was launched in 1900 and the other in 1896; but the main volume of trade is still carried in native boats. The lake was discovered by Speke in 1858, circumnavigated by Stanley in 1875, and subsequently explored at various times by him and others, but only a portion of the coasts has been accurately surveyed.

VICTORIA

UNIVERSITY.

An English university founded in 1880 by the union of Owens College, Manchester, University College, Liverpool, and Yorkshire College, Leeds. Its government is vested in a council and a board of studies. Part of the Fellows are chosen by a convocation, consisting of teachers and graduates of the university, part by the Crown. There is, unlike London University, a regular course of study, and the university is, through its colleges, a teaching as well as an examining institution. In this it resembles Oxford and Cambridge, but differs from them in that its colleges are situated in three different cities. Like the latter, it has office of vice-chancellor is held in turn by the as chancellor a distinguished nobleman, and the principals of the colleges as the real head of the funds, and is independent, as in the case of the institution. Each college is supported by its own

older universities. The number of students in 1900 was about 3000.

VICTORI'NUS, GAIUS MARIUS. A Latin grammarian and rhetorician of the fourth century. He was an African by birth, went to Rome about A.D. 300 to teach rhetoric, Saint Jerome being among his pupils, and in his old age became a Christian. His translations from the Greek of Plotinus and other Neo-Platonists were the indirect means of Augustine's introduction to that philosophical system. His commentaries on the Pauline Epistles and polemics against the Arians and Manichæans are edited in Migne's Patrologia Latina (vol. viii.); but his greater fame is as a grammarian, a commentary on Cicero's De Inventione (in Halm, Rhetores Latini, 1863); an Ars Grammatica, dealing almost entirely with prosody (edited with other grammatical fragments in Keil, Grammatici Latini, vol. vi., 1874); and a treatise De Definitionibus (edited by Stangl, 1888) being the chief of his works.

VICTORS, JAN (also called FICTOOR, VICTOORS, and VICTOR) (1620-c.82). A Dutch genre and biblical painter, pupil and follower of Rembrandt. He was a native of Amsterdam. The works of his later period, when he attempted to free himself from the influence of his master, have little merit. Paintings by him at Amsterdam are: "The Market Place," "The Village Dentist," "Joseph Interpreting Dreams;" at Brunswick, "The Taking of Samson;" at Copenhagen, "The Death of David;" at Dresden, "The Finding of Moses;" at Prague, "The Stirrup Cup;" and at Saint Petersburg, "The Fortitude of Scipio."

VICTOR VITEN'SIS (c.430-c.490). Ꭺ Latin historian, of whose life little is known. As early as 455 he was a cleric in the Carthaginian Church, and in 483 he was employed by Eugenius, metropolitan of Carthage, to help the clergy made destitute by the persecution of the Arian Vandals. The Historia Persecutionis Vandalicæ seu Africanæ sub Genserico et Hunnerica, Vandalorum Regibus (edited in Migne's Patrologia Latina, vol. lviii., and by Petschenig in the Vienna Corpus, vol. vii., 1881) is valuable for the information it gives of orthodox and heretic churches in Africa and of the survival of pagan superstitions.

VICTORY, THE. Lord Nelson's flagship in the battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805.

VICUDA, vê-kōō'Dȧ. One of the barracudas (Sphyrana ensis), about two feet long, and a food-fish of some importance on the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America.

VICUÑA or VICUGNA, vê-kōo'nyà (SP, from Peruv. vicuna, Mex. vicugne. One of the Andean llamas (Lama vicunia). In size it is intermediate between the llama and the alpaca. Its neck is longer and more slender; its wool finer, short, and curled. It is of a rich brown color, with patches of white across the shoulders and on the inner side of the legs. The vicuña inhabits the most desolate parts of the Cordillera, at great elevations, and delights in a kind of grass, the ychu (Stipa ychu), which abounds there in moist places; but it seldom ventures to the rocky summits, for which its tender feet are ill adapted. It is commonly found in small herds of from 6 to 15 females with one male. The vicuña is a very active and alert animal, like the wild goat or the antelope. The Indians seldom kill it with firearms, but set up a circle of stakes, about a mile in circumference, and so entrap it. It has never been domesticated. Compare ALPACA; GUANACO; LLAMA. See Plate of CAMELS AND LLAMAS.

VICUÑA-MACKENNA, vê-kōonyå må-kěn’nå, BENJAMIN (1831-86). A Chilean historian and politician, born at Santiago. He was educated in the institutions of his native country and devoted himself to literature. After engaging in the revolution of 1851-52 he was imprisoned and condemned to death, but escaped to the United States, whence he went to Europe. After his return to Chile in 1856 he was elected to Parliament, became Senator in 1871, and was Mayor of Santiago from 1872 to 1874. His Senatorial term expired in 1876, and he was reelected in 1879. Mackenna was the author of popular studies in Chilean history. They include: El ostracismo de los Carreras (1857); El ostracismo del General O'Higgins (1860); Historia de la administración Montt (1862); and Historia de Chile (1868).

VIDA, vēʼdå, MARCO GIROLAMO (1480-1566). An Italian Neo-Latin poet, born in Cremona, Italy. He was educated at Padua and Bologna, and became a canon of Saint John Lateran at

Vida was a

Rome. In 1532 he was made Bishop of Alba. scholar. He composed three didactic poems in learned Latinist and a profound Latin, viz. the De Arte Poetica, the Bombyx (on silkworms), the Scacchio Ludus (on chess), and an epic, the Christias, published in 1535 at the instance of Pope Leo X.

Consult : Marci Hieronymi Vida Poemata Omnia (Padua, 1721, and London, 1732); Baldi, Die Ars poetica des M. Hieronymus Vida (Würzburg, 1881); Lancetti, Della vita et degli scritti di Vida (Milan, 1840).

VIDA ES SUEÑO, vẽ'Dȧ as swǎ'nyo, LA (Span., Life is a Dream). The best known of Calderon's romantic productions, written about 1630. Sigismundo, the chief character, is a proud and selfish prince, kept captive by his father, who is gradually changed by experience into a noble and charitable type.

VIDAL, vê'dål', PIERRE. A Provençal poet. He was the son of a furrier of Toulouse, and became a favorite in the courts of Southern

France and of Spain, being on terms of special intimacy with Barral, Viscount of Marseilles,

whose wife he celebrated under the name of Vierna.

visited the Marquis of Montferrat and the King of Hungary, and probably went on a crusade with the former. His death occurred in the first decade of the thirteenth century. Among his poems are to be found some of the best specimens of Provençal literature. His sirventes and particularly his crusade songs are powerful and full of moral earnestness. An edition of Peire Vidal's songs was published by Bartsch (Berlin, Consult 1857), but it is now out of print. Schopf, Beiträge zur Biographie und zur Chronologie der Lieder des Troubadours Peire Vidal

He lived for a time in the East, in later life

(Breslau, 1887).

VIDAURRI, vê-Dou'rê, SANTIAGO (1803-67). A Mexican general and statesman, born in the Province of Nuevo Leon. He began life as a lawyer, served in several wars, attained the rank of general, and became Governor of Nuevo Leon in 1853. He assisted in the operations against Santa Anna, 1854-55, and participated in the 'war of reform,' 1857-60. After 1856 he united Coahuila to Nuevo Leon by force, and ruled in practical independence of the general Government, which was constrained to enter into treaty signing to establish an independent republic in relations with him. He was suspected of deFrench domination, but after 1864 submitted and Northern Mexico. He opposed, at first, the was made lieutenant of the Empire by Maximilian in 1867. Taken prisoner in the same year by the Liberal forces, he was shot as a traitor.

(1775

VIDOCQ, vê'dôk', FRANÇOIS-JULES 1857). A celebrated French criminal and detective. He was the son of a baker of Arras, where he was born July 23, 1775. When a boy he stole from his father and was sent to the house of correction, but immediately on his return appropriated a considerable sum of money. He was for a time an acrobat, and then entered the army. Returning home, he lived a disreputable life, and in 1796 was sentenced to the galleys for forgery. Escaping, he joined a band of highwaymen, afterwards turned them over to the police, and soon acquired some note as a spy upon criminals. In 1812 he was made chief of a small detective force, the brigade de sureté, which developed great efficiency in detecting crime, and in creating crime to detect. On sus

picion of this latter, Vidocq was removed in 1825. He became a paper manufacturer, failed, opened a secret information bureau, and died in Paris, April 28, 1857. His Mémoires (1829) are of doubtful authenticity, and, if authentic, are unreliable.

VIEILLE, vê'a'y', PAUL (1854-). A French engineer and inventor, born in Paris. He graduated from the polytechnic school of that city in 1875, and went into the Government service as engineer in the department of explosives. In 1879 he was nominated assistant chief of the cenParis. There he conducted a series of investigatral laboratory of powders and saltpetre at tions on projectiles which led to his invention in 1884 of a smokeless powder, which was adopted by the French Army. For his scientific discoveries he was admitted to the Legion of Honor and

VIEIRA, vê-ã'rå, ANTONIO (1608-97). A Portuguese preacher and missionary, born at Lisbon. He was taken to Brazil in 1615, was educated in the Jesuit schools of Bahia, and was ordained in 1635. He returned to Lisbon in 1641, and rose to the post of Court preacher. He was sent by his Order to Brazil in 1652 as

director of the northern missions. There he was imprisoned by the colonists in 1661 and sent back to Portugal. On the charge of teaching doctrines condemned by the Church in 1665, he suffered imprisonment by the Inquisition for two years more, but was released finally without any demand upon him to retract. In 1681 he returned to Brazil, and died there as provincial of his Order. His sermons (1679-99) are considered examples of the best Portuguese prose. Among his other writings may be named: Discurso sobre el cometa que apareció en Bahía en 25 de Octubre de 1694, and Inquisición en Portugal con sus prisioneros.

VIELE, vělé, EGBERT LUDOVICKUS (18251902). An American soldier and civil engineer, born at Waterford, N. Y. He graduated at West Point in 1847; served under General Scott in Mexico; and became a first lieutenant in 1850, but resigned in 1853. From 1854 until 1857 he was topographical engineer of New Jersey; in 185758 he was chief engineer of Central Park, New York, and later became chief engineer of Prospect Park, Brooklyn. He reëntered the army on the outbreak of the Civil War; became a brigadiergeneral of volunteers in August, 1861; commanded the land forces in the capture of Fort Pulaski; was engaged in the advance on Norfolk, Va., and was Governor of that place from August, 1862, until October, 1863, when he resigned from active service. In 1883 he became commissioner of parks for New York City, and in the following year was made president of the department. In the same year he was elected to Congress as a Democrat, but two years later was defeated in a contest for reëlection. He published: Handbook for Active Service (1861); Topographical Atlas of the City of New York (1865); and Report of the Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy at West Point (1886).

VIELE-GRIFFIN, vê'e-lâ' grê'fan', FRANCIS (1864-). A French poet of American birth. He was born at Norfolk, Va., but was educated for the most part in France. He there allied himself with the group of literary men who were known, first among themselves and later to a wider circle, as Symbolists. His publications include Cueille d'Avril (1886) made up of verses which appeared in Lutèce; Les Cygnes (1887); Anoœus (1888); Joies (1889); Entretiens politiques et littéraires (1890-92); with Paul Adam and Bernard Lazare, Swanhilde (1893); Poèmes et poésies (1895); Phocas la jardinière (1898); and La légende ailée de Wieland (1900). Consult: Thompson, French Portraits (Boston, 1900); and Beres and Léautaud Poétes d'aujourd'hui (Paris, 1900).

VIEN, VỀ ĂN, JOSEPH MARIE, Count (17161809). A French painter. He was born in Montpellier, and studied under Natoire, in Paris. In 1873 he won the Prix de Rome, and after his return to Paris he became the head of an influ

Na

leaders of Classicism in France. In 1775 he was made director of the French Academy at Rome, and in 1789 Court painter to the King. poleon made him Senator and count of the Empire. His art represents the period of transition from the Rococo to Classicism. His masterpiece, "Saint Denis Preaching to the Gauls," is in the Louvre, which also contains "Daedalus and Icarus," and other works.

VIENNA, vê-ĕn'nå. The capital of AustriaHungary, situated on the right bank of the Danube and intersected by an arm of the river called the Danube Canal, into which the small river Wien here empties; latitude 48° 12′ N., longitude 16° 23′ E. (Map: Austria, E 2). It has a temperate climate, the mean annual temperature being 48.8° F. The annual rainfall is 23.42 inches; the altitude, from 560 to 655 feet. The last northeastern outliers of the Alps (Wiener Wald) here reach the Danube plain. Vienna, as enlarged by the incorporation of the suburbs in 1891, is distinguished by an unusually large acreage of forests and meadows within its confines, the extent of the total area being very much greater than that of Berlin.

DESCRIPTION. Vienna is notable for the magnificent Ringstrasse (q.v.) lined with imposing Renaissance structures and beautiful public parks and squares, and for its general air of gayety, due to its genial, music-loving population. In modern architectural development, both in extent and in artistic value, perhaps no city is its equal. The traditional Vienna baroque style, with its open-air embellishments in relief and in color, give everywhere a lively and varied aspect. The modern improvements of every kind, especially in fine new streets, are remarkable. This modernization of the city has been continuous since 1858. The old inner city, which still has many Durchhauser, or short-cut passages through the courts of houses, is encircled by the Ringstrasse, marking the site of the interior fortifications finally demolished in 1857. The southwest section of the inner city is occupied by the Imperial Hofburg, and by the Volksgarten and the Hofgarten, with the extensive square lying between. The 'Burg,' or Imperial residence, is a vast, confused, and generally somewhat uninteresting edifice, which has been the official home of the Hapsburgs since they originally obtained possession of the city. In the spacious inner court, the Franzensplatz, stands an elaborate monument to Francis II. Through a portal on the east may be entered the Josefsplatz, with the equestrian bronze statue of Joseph II. rises the splendid Imperial library, dating from 1722, crowned by a great frescoed dome, and a long, handsomely embellished gallery, with statThe library contains over 900,000 volumes. There is also an immense and invaluable collection of engravings (over 300,000). In the Outer Burgplatz, which separates the Burg from the Ringstrasse, are two fine equestrian statues by Fernkorn, one to Archduke Charles, the other to Prince Eugene of Savoy. Here on the Ringstrasse is the Burgthor, with five passages, formed by Doric columns. Two immense wings by Semper connect this gate with the old palace. The attractive and popular Volksgarten dates from 1822 and contains the notable modern Grillparzer monument (1889), of elaborate design.

ues.

Here