Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/346

326 VEBTNEB intelligence is not able to correct the erroneous suggestions of the senses. It is most common- ly a symptom of congestion of the brain, and often indicates an approaching attack of apo- plexy, epilepsy, or paralysis. VERTNER, Rosa (JEFFREY), an American au- thoress, born near Natchez, Miss. She is the daughter of John Griffith, but was adopt- ed by an aunt, whose name Vertner she took. She was educated in the seminary under the charge of Bishop Smith, in Lexington, Ky. She married Claude M. Johnson, and after his death Alexander Jeffrey of Lexington, where she now resides (1876). In 1850 she became a contributor to the Louisville "Journal," and afterward to numerous periodicals, and in 1857 a volume of her poems was published in Bos- ton. She has also published " Woodburn," a novel (New York, 1864), and several tales and poems under the signature of Rosa, which have not been collected. VKRTOT, Ben* Anbert de, a French historian, born at the chateau of Benetot, Normandy, Nov. 25, 1655, died in Paris, June 15, 1735. He was successively a Capuchin and Premon- stratensian monk and a secular priest, in 1701 became a member of the academy of inscrip- tions, and was afterward historiographer of the knights of Malta and secretary to the duke and duchess of Orleans. His works, valued more for their style than for their accuracy, are : Histoire des revolution* de Portugal (Paris, 1689) ; Histoire des revolutions de Suede (2 vols. 12mo, 1696); Histoire complete de F ctabli&sement des Bretons dans les Oaules (1710); Histoire des revolutions arritees dans le gouvernement de la republique romaine (3 vols. 12mo, 1719); and Histoire des chevaliers hospitaliers de St. Jean de Jerusalem (4 vols. 4to, 1726). YKKTHIM S, or Vortumnus, an Etruscan or Sabine divinity, worshipped by the ancient Ro- mans as the god who presided over the seasons, and the blossoming and bearing of trees and plants. He had the power of assuming any shape ho pleased. Falling in love with Pomo- na, the goddess of garden fruits, he appeared to her in a variety of forms, and at last won her under the guise of a blooming youth. A flamen was appointed at Rome especially to superintend his worship ; a festival called the Vortumnalia was celebrated in his honor on Aug. 23 ; and offerings were brought him of first fruits from the garden and wreaths of flowers. In works of art he was represented, like Saturn, with a pruning knife in his hand and a wreath of ears of corn on his head. VERUS, Lnclns. See ANTONINUS, MABCCS Au- RKLIUS. VERVAIN. See VERBENA. VERV1ERS, a town of Belgium, in the prov- ince and 14 m. E. S. E. of the city of Li6ge, on the Vesdre, near the Prussian frontier; pop. in 1878, 38,875. It contains fine churches and other public buildings, including a chamber of commerce, and has celebrated cloth manufac- tories, the annual products of which are valued VESOUL at 100,000,000 francs, including those of the ad- jacent villages. One third is exported. There are more than 60 mills in the town and its vicinity, employing about 40,000 persons and 150 steam engines. The fortifications were de- stroyed by Louis XIV. VESALIUS, Andreas, a Flemish physician, born in Brussels, Dec. 3r, 1514, died in the island of Zante, Oct. 15, 1664. lie was educated at Louvain, Montpellier, and Paris, and was early distinguished by his devotion to anatomical studies. In the last named city he became chief assistant of Gunther, and in 1536 dis- covered the origin of the spermatic blood ves- sels. The pursuit of practical anatomy was attended with so much difficulty and danger in France, that after returning to Louvain he joined the army of Charles V. of Germany, and went to Italy, where in 1540 he was made professor of anatomy in the university of Pa- via, in 1543 in that of Bologna, and not long afterward in that of Pisa. In 1543 he pub- lished his great work on anatomy, De Corpo- ris Humani Fabrica (fol., Basel; enlarged ed., 1555). In this Vesalius exposed the errors of the Galenian school, who relied for their knowl- edge of the anatomy of the human body upon the observations made in the dissection of the bodies of the lower animals. The work met with the fiercest opposition; nevertheless the author's reputation increased. About 1544 he was made chief physician to Charles V., and afterward to his son Philip II. ; and the duties which devolved upon him gradually deprived him of all opportunity of increasing his knowl- edge of anatomy. In 1563 or 1564 he sudden- ly left Madrid to make a pilgrimage to Jeru- salem, for reasons not known. On his arrival there he received an offer from the Venetian senate of the professorship of anatomy at Pa- dua. On the voyage back he was wrecked on the island of Zante, where he died probably from fatigue and exposure. Besides his great work, he wrote De Radicis Chinas Usu Epistola (Venice, 1546); Anatomicarum Oabrielis Fal- lopii Obsercationum Examen (1564); Examen Apologias Fr. Puttri pro Galeno (1564) ; and a paraphrase and translation of some of the works of the Arabic physician Rhazes. His complete works, together with a life, were published at Leyden in 1725 (2 vols. fol.), ed- ited by Boerhaave and Albinus. VESOUL, a town of France, capital of the de- partment of Hante-8a6ne, at the junction of the Durgeon with the Colombine, about 190 m. 8. E. of Paris; pop. in 1872, 7,597. The fortifications have been converted into prom- enades, and it has a church of the 18th century with a fine altar, a museum rich in Gothic and Roman antiquities, cavalry barracks, a lyceum, a normal seminary, a public library, a theatre, manufactories of turned ware and of cotton and silk goods, and trade in grain, cattle, lea- ther, and iron ware. In the vicinity are many vineyards, iron works, and a mineral spring. On the adjoining Mt. La Motte (1,400 ft. high)