VLADIVOSTOK 243 VOGHERA honor, was his great-grandson. He died in Kiev, May 19, 1126, leaving behind him a long "testament" full of instruc- tions to his descendants, which presents a curious picture of contemporary man- ners and opinions. VLADIVOSTOK, a seaport of east- ern Siberia; on the harbor of the Golden Horn in the Gulf of Peter the Great, Japan Sea, It was founded in 1861, and is an important naval station of Russia, and the E. terminus of the Trans-Si- berian railway, the first sod of which was cut at Vladivostok, May 24, 1891, the line being opened in December, 1901. The harbor is surrounded by hills which are well fortified. There are two large dry docks, waterworks, electric street railways, and street lighting plants. Vladivostok is an open port. Ice-break- ing steamers keep the harbor open in the winter months. Pop. about 100.000. Vladivostok, during and following the revolution in Russia, became an impor- tant strategic center. It was the head- quarters of the American Expeditionary Force to Russia, and of other foreign expeditions. See Russia: Siberia. V MOTH, the Halia wavaria, a rather common European geometer moth, fam- ily MacaHdas. Antennae of the male pectinated, those of the female simple. Wings gray, tinged with a faint irides- cence or purple gloss; the fore wings streaked, and having four conspicuous spots, the second shaped like a V, whence the name. The caterpillar feeds on the gooseberry. VOCAL CHORD, in anatomy, one of the inferior thyro-arytenoid ligaments or elastic membranes, the edges of which form the side of the glottis. The vocal chords are attached in front to the thyroid cartilage, and end behind in a process of the arytenoid cartilages. They nearly close the aperture of the windpipe. In addition to them there are upper or false vocal chords, which are not immediately concerned in the pro- duction of the voice. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, the in- clusion in the public schools of courses which have as their object the practical training of the pupils in the technical details of trades or professions, as dis- tinguished from the purely academic courses of those schools in which Latin formed one of the chief studies. The first instance of vocational training is on record as the law passed by Massa- chusetts, in 1642, which authorized the towns to educate the children of shift- less parents in useful trades. Virginia passed a similar law in 1646. In 1824 the House of Refuge for delinquent boys was established in New York, which sought to make useful members of society of the children of criminal par- ents. Later vocational training was ex- tensively put into practice in reforma- tories throughout the county. It was not till 1890, however, that the idea was introduced in schools for normal chil- dren, but between that year and 1905 vocational training courses were intro- duced in the public schools of over two hundred cities. It is now almost uni- versally a part of the curriculum of all public schools, especially in the high school grades. In February, 1917, the Smith-Hughes Act was passed by Con- gress, which created a Federal Board of Vocational Education, which was grant- ed a large appropriation by Congress for the purpose of instituting vocational training courses in the various States, largely for adults, in co-operation with the educational authorities of the States and municipalities. The main object was to provide for sailors and soldiers who had been injured and crippled during the war, so that they might be fitted for a return to civilian life. VOCHYACE.a}, or VOCHYSIACE^, in botany, vochyads; an order of hypo- gynous exogens, alliance Sapindales; trees or shrubs with opposite branches, four-angled when young. Leaves nor- mally opposite, the upper ones sometimes alternate, with glands or two stipules at their base; flowers generally in ter- minal panicles or large gaily-colored ra- cemes; sepals four to five, unequal in size, the upper one the largest and hav- ing a spur; petals one, two, three, or five, unequal; stamens one to five gen- erally opposite to the petals, most of them sterile, but one having a four- celled fertile anther; style one; stigma one; ovary three-celled, each with one, two, or many ovules; capsule three- angled, three-celled, three-valved, or oc- casionally one-celled, one-seeded; seed usually winged. Natives of tropical America. VODKA, an intoxicating spirit dis- tilled from rye, and formerly much used in Russia. VOGELWEIDE, WALTHER VON DER, see Walther von der Vogel- WRIVE. VOGHERA, a town of Italy; province of Pavia; on the Staffora; 81 miles E. of Turin. It was fortified by Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti, and an old castle still exists built by him toward the end of the 14th century. The church of St. Jjorenzo, founded in the 11th century, and remodeled in 1600, is the only building of importance, but the town i§
