VOUCHER (from vouch, from OF. voucher, vocher, from Lat. vocare, to call, from vox, voice). In law, a written or printed instrument which records the particulars of a payment of money, or which entitles a person to receive a sum of money. It is something more than a receipt, as it sets forth more fully the essential facts of the transaction, and may operate as an order as well as as an acknowledgment. The term was also formerly employed to describe a person who was called into court by a tenant to defend the latter's title on a general warranty. VOUSSOIRS. The individual stones forming an arch, and of which the central one is the keystone. They are always of a truncated wedgeform.

VOW (OF. vou, vo, veu, Fr. vou, from Lat. rotum, wish, engagement, vow). A promise made to God of a certain thing or action good in itself, and within the dominion and right of the person promising. The practice of vows appears to have formed part of the religious observance of almost all races in any degree civilized; and it largely pervaded the whole ceremonial system of the Mosaic dispensation (Gen. xxviii. 20; Lev. xxvii. 2; Num. xxx. 2; Judges xi. 30). The stringency of the obligation of fulfilling a vow when once made is distinctly laid down (Deut. xxiii. 21; Eccles. v. 4, 5); but it is equally clearly stated, that it is by no means a matter of obligation to make a vow (Deut. xxiii. 22). The practice of making vows continued among the Jews in the time of Christ; and Saint Paul, after his conversion to Christianity, continued to conform to this usage (Acts xviii. 18). Vows, while discarded as a religious observance by the Reformers, enter largely into the system of the Roman Catholic Church. The objects of these engagements among Catholics are various; but they are drawn, for the most part, from what are called the evangelical 'counsels,' in contradistinction to 'precepts' or 'commands'-the most ordinary subject of vows being the so-called 'evangelical' virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Pilgrimages, however, acts of abstinence, or other self-mortifications whether of the body or of the will, special prayers or religious exercises, are frequently made the object of vows; and there is another large class of more material objects, as the building of churches, monasteries, hospitals, and other works of public interest or utility, to which medieval Europe was indebted for many of its most magnificent memorials of piety and of art. Vows in the Church law are either 'simple' or 'solemn.' The principal difference between them consists in the legal effects of the 'solemn' vow which, where the subject of such vow is chastity, renders not merely unlawful, but null and void, a marriage subsequently contracted. A 'simple' vow of chastity makes it unlawful to marry, but, except in the Jesuit society, does not invalidate a marriage, if subsequently contracted. Catholics acknowledge in the Church a power of dispensing from vows; bishops are held to possess the power of dispensing from simple vows generally; but the power of dispensing from solemn vows and certain simple vows, VOL. XVII.-29.

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. See PHO

NETICS.

VOX CLAMANTIS (Lat., voice of one crying). A Latin poem by John Gower, completed in 1384, but never printed. It is the second of the three parts of Gower's great work, and describes allegorically the rising under Wat Tyler in 1381.

VOYAGE AUTOUR DE MA CHAMBRE, vwä'yäzh' o'toor' de må shänʼbr' (Fr., journey around my room). A prose work by Xavier de Maistre (1794) written during an enforced confinement to the barracks. It consists of a series of little descriptions of the furniture about him, flights of imagination suggested by the different articles, and memories of his mistress, his servant, and other acquaintances.

on

VOY'NICH, Mrs. ETHEL LILLIAN (1864-). An English novelist, daughter of George Boole (q.v.). She passed several years the Continent, and married Wilfrid Michael Voynich, a native of Lithuania, who settled in England, owing to his dislike of the harsh government of the Czar. She began her literary work by translating, from the Russian, tales and plays, published under the title of The Humour of Russia (preface by Stepniak, 1895). stant success, and was followed in 1901 by Jack Her first novel, The Gadfly (1897), met with inRaymond.

VOYSEY, voiʼzi, CHARLES (1828-). An English clergyman, founder of the Theistic Church.' He was born in London, graduated at Oxford (1851), and was curate of Hessle, Yorkshire (1852-59); of Craighton, Jamaica (1860-61); of Saint Mark's, Whitechapel, London (1861). He was ejected on account of a sermon against endless punishment. He was vicar of Healaugh, Yorkshire (1864-71). In 1865 he published, in The Sling and the Stone, sermons preached at Healaugh on the atonement, justification, incarnation, and inspiration, which were deemed at variance with the Bible and the Thirty-nine Articles. The secretary of the Archbishop of York prosecuted him in the Chancery Court of the diocese. From the sentence of condemnation he appealed to the judicial committee of the Privy Council, which confirmed the sentence, deprived him of his living, and required him to pay the costs (1871). He afterwards preached and lectured in Saint George's Hall, London, a fund having been raised by men of wealth called the Voysey establishment fund,' the outcome of which was the "Theistic Church.' Many of his discourses have been published.

VOZNESENSK, võz'nyě-syěnsk'. A town in the Government of Kherson, South Russia, situated on the Bug, 100 miles northwest of Kherson (Map: Russia, D 5). It has extensive ware

houses for the storage of grain and salt and manufactures brick and iron products. Population, in 1897, 14,178.

VRANIA, vrän'yȧ, or VRANJA. The capital of a department in Servia, 37 miles east by south of Prishtina, Turkey, on the Morava River (Map: Balkan Peninsula, D 3). It is an important railway and commercial centre, and is noted for the manufacture of rope. Hemp and flax are the principal products of the vicinity. There are numerous sulphur springs. lation, in 1900, 11,921.

VRATZA, vrät'så. The capital of a department in Bulgaria, 59 miles north by east of Sofia (Map: Balkan Peninsula, D 3). It manufactures leather, wine, and jewelry and carries on an important trade. There is a school of sericulture here. Population, in 1900, 13,749.

VRAZ, vräs, STANKO (1810-51). A SerboCroatian poet, born at Zerovec, in Lower Styria. He was educated at Gratz and joined the movement to fuse the Slovene and Serbo-Croatian languages under the name of Illyrian. This attempt was not successful; but Vraz (who is also known as Jacob Fraz) wrote many graceful lyrics and made collections of national songs which are of great value. His work has a strong Oriental coloring and he himself ranks as one of the four important Serbo-Croatian poets. His collected works, Djela, were published at Agram in four volumes (1863-64), and a fifth volume containing his letters was added in 1877.

VRIES, vrēs (or FRIES), ADRIAEN DE (1560c.1627). A Dutch sculptor, born at The Hague In his boyhood he went to Florence and there studied under Giovanni da Bologna. He made many copies of the antique in bronze, notably a "Farnese Bull," now in Gotha. Many of his original works were done in wax, one of which was a "Rape of the Sabines" for Rudolph II., who

invited the sculptor to Prague. There De Vries made a statue of the Emperor and thence he went to Augsburg, where his greatest works were made and remain, the most famous being the Mercury Fountain (1599) and the Hercules Fountain (1602). Both are beautiful examples of the Italian Renaissance, with much profusion of figure and fine detail. Consult the monograph by Buchwald (Leipzig, 1899).

VRIES, HUGO DE (1848-). A Dutch botanist, born in Haarlem and educated at Leyden, Heidelberg, and Würzburg. In 1871 he became a teacher in the Commercial High School of Amsterdam and in 1877 lecturer in the University of Amsterdam, where in 1880 he was professor of vegetable anatomy and physiology. Since 1897 he has been professor at Würzburg. He has made important studies on the structure of plant-cells and wrote: Untersuchungen über die mechanischen Ursachen der Zellstreckung (1887); Intracellulare Pangenesis (1889); Monographie der Zwangsdrehungen (1892); and in the Leerboek der Plantkunde, which he edited with Oudemans, the first volume on vegetable physiology (2d ed. 1885).

VRIES, MATTHIAS DE (1820-92). A Dutch philologist, born in Haarlem, and educated at Leyden, where in 1853 he became professor of Dutch language and literature. His most important publication was Woordenboek der Neder

spelling (with Te Winkel, 1865), which intro

duced the method now in common use, and of his many pamphlets on linguistic problems in general, of which De Nederlandsch taalkunde (1849) and De heerschappij der taal, het beginsel der welsprekendheid (1850) are most important. VUILLEFROY, vụy-frwä, DOMINIQUE FÉ LIX DE (1841—). A French painter of landscape and animals-particularly the latter. He

was born in Paris and studied under Bonnat and Hébert. His first picture at the Salon was "The Coast of Grâce at Honfleur" (1867). Later pictures were: "Free Market in Picardy" (1875); lery, Paris); "In the Meadows" (1883; Luxem"Return of the Herd" (1880; Luxembourg Galbourg); "The Brook" (1886).

VULCAN (Lat. Vulcanus, Volcanus; connected with Skt. ulkā, firebrand), or HEPHÆSTUS. In classical mythology, the god of fire. In Greek legend Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera. Deformed at birth, he was hurled by his mother from Olympus. He fell into the sea, and was cared for by Thetis and Eurynome. Another story represents him as hurled from heaven by Zeus for interfering in behalf of Hera. He fell on Lemnos and was cared for by the Sintians. In the Iliad his wife is Charis (Grace), but later legend united him with Aphrodite, apparently for the contrast between the lame, awkward, and grimy smith and the goddess of beauty. His detection of her infidelity with Ares is told in the Odyssey. In spite of his prominence in legend, the cult of Hephaestus was very limited. At Lemnos and in Sicily (both volcanic regions) is scarcely known outside of Attica. Here he he enjoyed honor, but in Greece proper his cult was the god of artisans, especially workers in metal, and was joined in worship with Athena Ergane, in a temple in the Ceramicus, identified by some with the so-called Theseum. In the suburb of the Academy in the sacred precinct of Athena was a common shrine of Hephaestus and Prometheus (q.v.), a very similar personage. The god seems to have developed from the conception of divinity in fire conjoined with local demons or gnomes honored or feared by smiths and potters. In Rome we find among the early Roman gods Volcanus, with a festival on August 23d, and a sacred place, the Volcanal, not far from the Comitium. He seems to have been a god of the destructive fire, who was appeased by the offering of living fishes, and in whose honor the captured weapons were burned. He certainly was especially invoked against danger from conflagration, and his worship became more prominent under Augustus, who had redistricted the city and provided special protection against fires. The poets of course identified him with

Hephaestus, and we find him paired with Vesta and otherwise honored by the Greek ritual as early as the third century B.C. This did not, however, penetrate deeply into the common cult, and he does not seem to have been held in special honor by Roman artificers. VULCAN. A hypothetical planet once sup posed to be revolving around the sun within the orbit of Mercury. In 1859 Leverrier found certain perturbations in the motions of Mercury which indicated the existence of another body in the vicinity. Such a body could be no other than another planet. Soon afterwards a certain Lescarbault announced that he had witnessed the transit of the planet across the sun's disk. was thought for a time that Lescarbault's observation was a correct one; but astronomers are

It

now agreed that he mistook some small sun-spots for the supposed planet. Vulcan is not now believed to have a real existence.

VULCANIZING. See RUBBER.

VULCANO, vụl-käʼnô, or VOLCANO. The southernmost island of the Lipari group, in the Mediterranean Sea, 12 miles north of the coast of Sicily. It is seven miles long, three miles wide, and contains the crater of a volcano 1200 feet high, from which issue sulphurous gases and vapors. The soil is fertile, producing grain, fruit, and grapes. The islet of Vulcanello, lying off the northern coast, containing two craters, is connected with it by a neck of land.

VULPIUS, vul'pê-us, CHRISTIAN AUGUST (1762-1827). A German novelist and dramatist, born at Weimar. He studied at Jena and Erlangen, and, possibly through Goethe's influence, obtained a post in the Weimar Library in 1797. In Weimar he published the typical 'penny dreadful' of the period, Rinaldo Rinaldini, the Robber Captain, often translated and imitated, but still unrivaled on its bad eminence. He published a large number of romantic operas, dramas, and tales, and was active also as editor. He died at Weimar. His sister, CHRISTIANE (1765-1816) became the wife of Goethe. See

GOETHE.

VULTURE (Lat. vultur, voltur, vulture, from vellere, to pluck). A representative of a group of carrion-eating rapacious birds classified in two distinct families. The vultures proper constitute the Old World family Vulturida: the other family, Cathartida, comprises the condors, turkey-buzzards, and the like. The former group, true vultures, have a long straight beak, slightly or not at all hooked at the tip, and the head and neck bare or downy, a ruff or collar of soft feathers surrounding the lower part of the neck, into which the most of the head can be withdrawn for warmth. The legs and feet are large, but the claws are not nearly so large and strong as in the falcons. Vultures have long wings, great powers of flight, and soar out of human sight. Their plumage is dense, and usually black and white, often with the naked parts of the head

red. They are mostly found in warm climates, and many of them are inhabitants of mountainous regions. They feed on carrion. They seldom attack a living animal, but may put to death wounded or ill ones; and some of them regularly seek their food in the streets and environs of Eastern towns, where they are suffered as scavengers. Vast numbers have been seen feeding upon battlefields. They gorge themselves excessively when food is abundant, till their crop forms a great projection, and sit long in a sleepy or half-torpid state to digest their food. They do not carry food to their young in their claws, The but disgorge it for them from the crop. bareness of their head and neck adapts them for feeding on putrid flesh, by which feathers would be defiled; and they are very careful to wash The question has and cleanse their plumage.

been much discussed whether vultures discern dead animals by the eye or are attracted to them by the smell. It is certain that they possess great powers of vision, but the reasonable conclusion appears to be that the sense of smell is also of service in directing them to their prey. The rapidity with which they congregate about a carcass has been remarked with admiration. It is explained by their practice of soaring to a great height. Each one observes any sign of excitement on the part of another, and flies toward it, and so numbers are lured, following one another toward the feast discovered by the first

one.

Among notable species of vulture are the tawny vulture or griffon (Gyps fulvus), found in the south of Europe, the north of Africa, and the west of Asia. It makes its nest on the most inaccessible rocks of high mountains, as in the

trees.

Alps and Pyrenees, and sometimes in tall forest It is a very large bird, more than four feet in length. Its plumage is yellowish brown, the quills and tail-feathers blackish brown, the down of the head and neck white, the ruff white. When it has found a carcass on which to feed, it remains on the spot, gorging and torpidly resting by turns, till no morsel remains. The mountains and forests of the south of Europe, as well as of the north of Africa, and great part of Asia, are also inhabited by the cinereous vulture (Vultur monachus), another large species, which departs from the typical character of the vultures in having the greater part of the neck feathered, and comparatively large and powerful claws. Various species are known in Africa and Eastern Asia, of which a familiar one in India is the rather small Pondicherry vulture (Otogyps calrus), which is black, and noted for its enor mous nest.

The American vultures of the family Cathartidæ differ from those of the Old World technically rather than in appearance or habits. This family includes the huge condor, king, and California vultures of the genus Sarcorhamphus (see CONDOR), and several other species, among them the smaller carrion-crow (q.v.) of the tropics, and the more familiar turkey-buzzard (Cathartes aura) of the southern part of the United States; this bird is occasionally seen, however, in all parts of the United States, and occasionally beyond the Canadian line. It is about 30 inches in length, with an alar spread of about 75 inches; in color dingy brown; the tail is long, the wing is bent at a salient angle,

and the tips of the longest quills spread apart and bend upward. No birds. are better flyers or more expert and enduring in soaring. Their only utterance is a sort of hiss. They breed sometimes in communities and sometimes in separate pairs, depositing the eggs on the ground, on rocks, or in hollow logs and stumps, usually in thick woods. Where a rookery is established the foulness of the place soon becomes beyond description. The eggs are one or two in number, roundish, about 2 inches in longest diameter, and yellowish white blotched with brown and purplish tints. These birds are of very great service as scavengers, especially in the hotter parts of their habitat.

Consult general works cited under BIRD. See Plate of VULTURES.

VYĀSA, vyäʼså (Skt., separation, distribution, arrangement). A legendary Hindu sage to whom is ascribed the authorship, compilation, or coördination of a large body of ancient Sanskrit literature. The redaction of the Vedic hymns and the authorship of the Mahābhārata (q.v.) are attributed to him, while his name is attached to the Puranas (q.v.), to a Brahmasutra (see VÉDÁNTA), and to several other works. According to tradition his father was the Vedic sage Parasara (q.v.), and his own sons were Pandu and Dhritarashtra, the famous kings of the Mahābhārata. His full name is given as Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, and legend accounts for the title krisna, 'black,' by his dark complexion, and for the attribute dvaipayana by a story of his birth on an island in the Yamuna or River

Jumna. As the immense mass of literature ascribed to him is so varied in character and so different in point of age, it is impossible to regard the whole as the production of a single individual. For that reason Vyasa is understood to typify the literary activity which brought order into the heterogeneous mass of Sanskrit literature.

VYATKA, vyäťkå. A government of Northeastern Russia. Area, nearly 59,400 square miles. It is largely a plateau, somewhat elevated in the northeast, with hills reaching an altitude of 1400 feet. The chief rivers are the Kama and its tributary the Vyatka (Map: Russia, G 3). The climate is characteristically continental, with a mean annual temperature of about 35°. Agriculture is the principal occupation and is favored by a fertile soil, but is carried on by primitive methods. Stock-raising is also an important industry, Vyatka being noted in Russia for its

good horses. About one-half of the area of the government is under forests, but they are unequally distributed. Over 300,000 persons are engaged in household industries. The mineral and smelting industries employ about 40,000 persons and produce chiefly iron and steel. The manufacturing industries are gradually developing and the annual value of their products is about $14,000,000. The chief manufactures are leather, flour, spirits, hardware, and machinery. There is an extensive Government factory of arms. Population, in 1897, 3,082,788. The Russians form about 78 per cent. and the remainder is composed of Votyaks, Tcheremisses, and Tatars.

VYATKA. The capital of the Government of Vyatka, in Russia, situated on the river Vyatka, 660 miles northeast of Moscow (Map: Russia, G 3). The trade in grain and animal products with Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Archangel, and Siberia is extensive. Population, in 1897, 24,782. Vyatka, formerly Khlynov, dates probably from the twelfth century. It was an important commercial city practically independent in its administration, and differing from Novgorod (q.v.) in that it had no princes. It was annexed to Moscow in the fifteenth century.

VYAZMA, vyäz'må. A district town in the Government of Smolensk, Russia, situated on the river Vyazma, 151 miles east of Moscow (Map: Russia, D 3). Flax and oil are the chief products. Population, in 1897, 15,776. The town was founded in the eleventh century and was an important place in the Principality of Smolensk. In 1812 it was the scene of an engagement between the Russians and the French, in which the former were victorious.

VYERNY, vyĕr'ni. The capital of the Territory of Semiryetchensk, Russian Turkestan, situated at an altitude of 2430 feet, 2690 miles southeast of Moscow (Map: Asia, G 4). It is strongly fortified. Population, in 1897, 22,982. The town was founded on the site of a Kirghiz settlement in 1854. It has suffered greatly from earthquakes, that of 1887 having almost entirely ruined the place and killed over 330 persons.

VYSHNI VOLOTCHEK, vish'nyê vô-lõchêk'. The capital of a district in the Government of Tver, Russia, situated near the Tsna River, 224 miles southeast of Saint Petersburg (Map: Russia, E 3). It has considerable commercial importance. The chief manufactures are cotton goods. Population, in 1897, 16,722.