VESZPREM 206 VETERINARY MEDICINE clear it is supposed to cause the earth- quakes by which the gi'eater eruptions are preceded and accompanied. (4) What is called "smoke" from the crater is sim- ply steam more or less blackened with incinerated dust. When the dust is in excess it accelerates the fall of the steam, which, having become water by conden- sation, descends like a mud torrent, flood- ing the ground. This was a notable fea- ture of the visitation in which Pompeii perished. (5) During an eruption what appears as flame shooting- out of the cra- ter is really the reflection of the molten lava within the crater on the steam and upon the ashes suspended in the steam accumulated above it. (6) The rapid condensing of vapor into water, and the conversion of this into steam, generates electricity, which explains the lightning- der plant, Vicia sativa and the genus Vicia. This genus, belonging to the Pa- 2nlionace£e, sub-order of Leguminosse, consists of about 100 species of climbing or diffuse herbs, distributed through temperate regions of the Northern Hemi- sphere and South America. The com- mon bean is frequently classed under Vicia as V. Faba. The next most im- portant species is the vetch, or tare of agriculturists — the V. sativa above men- tioned. It is one of the best fodder plants, but is only of one or two years' duration; it is important also for green manure, and as a companion crop with clovers. The practice of sowing it along with oats or barley is strongly recom- mended, insuring a greater bulk of prod- uce, and preventing the crop from massing and rotting in wet weather. V, effects visible on the edges of the clouds Cracca, or the tufted vetch, V. peregrina, overhanging the crater. Vesuvius is reckoned by geologists the most instruc- tive object lesson on volcanoes in gen- eral, and the University of Naples, by an admirable assortment of specimens of its structure, has greatly facilitated its study. Professor Secchi numbers 40 species of minerals found in it, of which augite, hornblende, mica, sodalite, breis- lakite, magnetic iron, and leucite are the most abundant. The fertility of its slopes, since Martial's famous epigram on the destruction of Pompeii, has passed into a proverb, its chief product being the wine called Lacrima Christi. Its ob- servatory (1844) has acquired a Euro- pean reputation from the meteorologist Melloni, and still more from his succes- sor. Professor Palmieri, who directed it with equal sagacity, skill and daring from 1854 till his death in 1882. The so-called railway, but rather cable road, from the base to near the summit, was opened in 1880, See Pompeii. VESZPREM (German, Weissbrunn), a town of Hungary, at the N. end of Flatten See; 22 miles W. of Stuhlweis- senburg. It has a cathedral, a magnifi- cent building of the 14th century, the episcopal palace with the chapel of Queen Gisela, a gymnasium, a college of the Piarist monks, and a tall mina- ret — the only relic of Turkish occupa- tion. Breweries, corn mills, flannel weaving, spinning, and iron works are the chief industries. The vine is culti- vated. Veszprem, which under the Ro- mans had the name of Cimbriana, was once a royal residence. The Hungarians took it in 1491, the Turks in 1552, and it was joined to the empire in 1683. Pop. about 15,000. VETCH, FETCH, FITCH, or TARE, terms variously used to indicate the fod- Cyc 14 V. sepiiim, V. sylvatica^ and various species of the same group as V. sativa, are all relished by cattle, and some of them are cultivated in southern Europe. Twelve species of Vicia (including there- in Ervum) are natives of Great Britain. VETERINARY MEDICINE, that branch of medical science which em- braces the treatment of diseased do- mestic animals, and the preservation of their health. It has evidently been practiced from the earliest times; and there is every reason to suppose that the study of disease in the inferior ani- mals was applied, on comparative prin- ciples, to the treatment of disease in the human subject. For many centuries, the inferior animals alone were used for purposes of scientific dissection. Among the Greeks, the study of the diseases of domestic animals, and of the remedial agents applicable to such diseases, was directly applied to the practice of medi- cine, and it was compulsory on anyone making a new discovery regarding such curative agents, to divulge it for the public good. Physicians were presumed to be acquainted with veterinary medi- cine, and Hippocrates, the most cele- brated physician of early times, wrote a treatise on the curative treatment of horses. Columella and Vegetius, Latin authors, the latter of whom flourished about A. D. 300, wrote books on the sub- ject, which contain an epitome of the best of all that was previously known. In the Middle Ages, however, veterin- ary medicine was utterly neglected, and desolating plagues swept away nearly the entire herds and flocks of the countries they visited, precisely as the great epidemics of the Middle Ages swept away vast numbers of human beings, almost depopulating many of the provinces of Europe. Indeed, cattle Vol. X
