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VIOLONCELLO 229 VIBCHOW Notre Dame de Paris" (1867-1869); "Memoir on the Defense of Paris" (1872) ; "History of a House/' "History of a Fortress," "History of Human Dwelling Places," "History of a City Mansion and of a Cathedral" (4 vols. 1873-1878). He died Sept. 17, 1879. VIOLONCELLO, a bow instrument of the viol class, held by the performer be- tween the legs, and filling a place be- tween the viola and the double-bass. It is strung with four gut strings, the lower two covered with silver wire, and tuned in fifths. The compass usually employed extends from C on the second leger line below the bass staff to A on the second •space of the treble, though soloists play an octave higher, with all the interme- diate semitones. VIPER, a genus of venomous snakes, representative of the family Viperidse. This family includes many important forms — e. g., the common adder (Vipera or Pelias bertis) ; the asp {V. aspis), ex- tending as far N. as Sweden; the Afri- can horned viper (V. cerastes) and puff adder (Clotho or Echidna arietans) ; the Indian daboia or Russell's viper (Daboia '>n(ssellii) ; and the Indian Echis carinata. The head is relatively broad, somewhat triangular, and generally covered with scales; the eye has a vertical pupil, and there is no pit between it and the nostril ; the maxilla bears on each side one func- tional fang, usually with several reserve fangs beside it; the poison is virulent. The vipers are widely distributed through Europe and Australia; the majority are African. As far as is known they are viviparous. The common viper or adder is the only poisonous snake indigenous to Great Britain. It lives especially on dry heaths and waste places, often among stones and brushwood; it is commoner in Scotland than in England, and does not occur in Ireland. It is widely dis- tributed throughout Europe. Often con- fused with the innocent grass snake (TropedonoUis natrix) , it may be distin- guished by its markings. It has two diverging marks between and rather be- hind the eyes, a spot on each side of the hinder part of the head, a row of con- fluent rhomboidal spots running zigzag along the upper surface of the whole length of the body and tail, and a row of small irregular, almost black, triangu- lar spots on each side. The under parts are of a lead color. The characteristic markings are almost invariable, but the ground color varies considerably, from nearly olive, rich deep brown, or brown- ish-yellow, to almost black. Thus in some parts of England a black viper is occasionally met with; its ground color a rich black, and the markings of a more intense black than the rest. There is also the "red" and the "blue-bellied," and an almost white viper, with black mark- ings. The viper seldom exceeds two feet in length. It feeds on mice, frogs, small birds, and other small animals, which are killed by its poison fangs, and swal- lowed entire. It hibernates during several months of the year, and several may then be found twined together in a torpid state. It is a good swimmer, and may occasionally be seen on lakes, such as Loch Lomond, crossing from one is- land to another. The young are pro- duced in early summer, from 10 to 15 or more at a birth. The eggs have soft, thin envelopes, and are hatched within the oviduct. The young viper is coiled up so closely in the egg as to appear almost a solid mass, but the moment it is set free it is active, and ready to throw itself at once into an attitude of defense. vmCHOW, RUDOLF, a German pathologist; bom in Schivelbein, Pome- rania, Oct. 13, 1821; studied medicine at Berlin; and early became famous as a lecturer on pathological anatomy at Berlin University. His advanced liberal opinions during the movement of 1848 induced the government to deprive him (temporarily) of his appointment. In 1849 he accepted a chair at Wiirzburg, where he remained seven years, return- ing to Berlin in the autumn of 1856 as professor in the university and director of the pathological institute attached to it. He rendered immense service to medical science by his discoveries in re- gard to inflammation, ulceration, tuber- culosis, and numerous other morbid proc- esses of the human body, and has had great influence on the whole of modern medicine, including hospital reform and sanitary science. In 1862 he was chosen deputy to the Prussian Diet, and became one of Bismarck's most powerful oppo- nents in the Prussian Parliament and Reichstag, and a member of important commissions, etc. He was one of the founders of the German Anthropological Society, and an enthusiastic worker in this field, accumulating facts (partly in company with Schliemann) in Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Egypt and Nubia, etc. He was a voluminous writer, and among his important works are: "Cellu- lar Pathology" (4th ed. 1871, translated into various languages) ; "Handbook of Special Pathology and Therapeutics"; "T3T)hoid"; "The Natural Sciences in the New National Life of Germany"; "The Freedom of Science in the Modern State." He died at Berlin, Sept. 5, 1902.