The dusky Brazilian weasel is a variety of this. Its nose and ears are formed as above; but beneath each eye it has two spots of white; the hair on its back and sides is dusky at the roots, black in the middle, and tipt with yellow; chin and throat, sides of its cheeks, and belly, yellowish; feet black, and tail an nulated with black and white. Sometimes the tail is of an uniform dusky colour. Linnéus has described this variety as a distinct species. These inhabit Brazil and Guiana; they feed on fruits, eggs, and poultry; run up trees very nimbly; eat like a dog, holding their food between their fore-legs; are easily tamed, very good-natured, and seem much inclined to sleep during the day. They make a sort of a whist ling noise. 6. V. vulpecula. Stifling weasel. Entirely chesnut; snout elongated; has a short slender nose, short ears and legs, and a long tail, of a black and white colour; its body is black, well covered with hair; its length from nose to tail is about eighteen inches. It inhabits Mexico and North America. This and the four following species are remarkable for the pestiferous, suffocating, and most fetid vapour they emit from behind, when attacked, pursued, or frightened; which is their only means of defence. Some turn their tail to their enemies, and keep them at a distance by a frequent crepitus; others send forth their urine, loaded with an intolerable stench, to the distance of eighteen feet: the pursuers are stopped by the fetor, Should any of this liquid fall into the eyes, it almost occasions blindness; if on the clothes, the smell will remain for several days, in spite of all washing :-in order to be sweetened, they must even be buried in fresh soil, Dogs that are not true bred to the chace run back as soon as they perceive the smell those who have been used to it will kill the animal, but are often obliged to relieve themselves by thrusting their noses into the ground. There is no bearing the company of a dog that has killed one, for several days. Professor Kalm was one night in great danger of being suffocated by one of them that was pursued into a house where he slept. When driven into a house where cattle are kept, the cattle bellow through pain: indeed they are much disturbed at the sight or smell of any weasel in their stalls. Notwithstanding this, the flesh is reckoned good meat, and not unlike that of a pig; but it must be skinned as soon as killed, and the bladder taken carefully out. It is capable of being tamed, and will follow its master like a dog, and never emits its vapour except when terrified. It breeds in hollow trees, or holes under ground, or in the clefts of rocks. It climbs trees with great agility, kills poultry, eats eggs, and destroys birds. 7. V. putorius. Striated or striped weasel. Blackish, with five dorsal, parallel, whitish lines. This is about the size of an European pole-cat, but the back is more arched; the ears are rounded; the head, neck, belly, legs, and tail black back and sides marked with five parallel whitish lines; one on the top of the back, and two on each side; the second extends some way up the tail, which is long and bushy towards the end: but it varies in the disposition of its stripes. It inhabits North America. When attacked, bristles up its hair, and flings its body into a round form: its odour, like that of the last, is intolerable. Du Pratz says, that the male is of a shining black. It digs holes, climbs, sleeps by day, prow!, by night; feeds on worms, insects, birds, and sheep; when pursued by dogs contracts itself. Penis with a cartilaginous bone, 8. V. mephitis. Skunk. Back white, with a longitudinal black line from the middle to the tail. This species, like the rest, has short rounded cars cheeks are black: a white stripe from the nose, between the ears, to the back: the upper part of the neck, and the whole back white, but divided at the bottom by a black line, commencing at the tail, and passing a little way up the back: its belly and legs are black; tail bushy, being covered thick with long coarse hair, generally black, sometimes tipt with white: the nails on all the feet are very long, like those on the fore feet of the badger: it is rather less than the former species. It inhabits Péru and North America, as far as Canada, and is of the same manners, and as much a stinkard, as the two preceding. Charlevoix calls it l'enfant du diable, and bete puante, devil's child, and stinking beast. 9. V. zorilla. Zorilla. Variegated with black and white. This is the annas of the Indians, the zorrinas of the Spaniards. Its back and sides are marked with short stripes of black and white; but the latter is tinged with yellow: tail is long and bushy, part white, part black: legs and belly black size less than the preceding. It inhabits Peru, and other parts of South America. Its fetid odour overpowers even the American panther, and stupifies that formidable enemy. 10. V. Capensis. Cape weasel or ratel. Black; back grey edged with white. This creature has a blunt nose, and no external ears; in their place only a small rim round the ori fice of the auditory passage. Its tongue rough; legs short, and claws very long and straight, like those of the badger, and guttered beneath : colour of its crown, and of the whole upper part of its body, grey; the rest black, but that from each ear to the tail there runs along the sides a dusky line, leaving another of grey beneath it. Length of the body forty inches, of the tail twelve: the fore claws measure an inch and three-quarters, the hind ones an inch. It inhabits the Cape of Good Hope: lives on honey, and is a great enemy to the bees, which, in that country, usually inhabit the deserted burrows of the Ethiopian boar, the porcupine, jackal, and other animals that lodge under ground. It preys in the evening; ascends the highest part of the desert to look about, and will then put one foot before its eyes, to prevent the dazzling of the sun. The reason of its going to an eminence is, for the sake of seeing or hearing the honey-guide cuckoo, which lives on bees, and, as it were, conducts it to their haunts. The Hottentots follow the same guide. This animal cannot climb; but when he finds the bees lodged in trees, through rage at the disappointment, he will bite the bark from the trunks. By this sign also, the Hottentots know that there is a nest of bees above. The hair is so stiff, and the hide so tough, probably formed so by nature as a defence against the sting of bees, that this animal is not easily killed. By biting and scratching, it makes a stout resistance; and the dogs cannot fasten on its skin. A pack, which could tear a middle-sized lion to pieces, can make no impression on the hide of this beast. By worrying, they will leave it for dead, yet without having inflicted on it any wound. The Hottentots give it the naine of ratel. This emits the same intolerable vapour as several of the preceding. 11. V. civetta. Civet. Tail above spotted, brown towards the tip; mane chesnut; back spotted with cinereous and brown, This species, though it has been called civet-cat, has no resemblance to a cat, but in its agility. It has short rounded ears, sky blue eyes, and a sharp nose, tipped with black: the sides of the face, chin, breast, legs, and feet, black: the rest of the face, and part of the sides of the neck white, tinged with yellow. From each ear proceed three black stripes, ending at the throat and shoulders. The back and sides are ash-coloured, tinged with yellow, and marked with large dusky spots, disposed in rows. The hair is coarse; that on the top of the body erect like a mane. The tail is sometimes wholly black, sometimes spotted near the base: length about two feet three inches; the tail fourteen inches. It inhabits India, the Philippine isles, Guinea, Ethiopia, and Madagascar. The perfume called civet is produced from the orifice under the anus, in both sexes, secreted by peculiar glands. The persons who keep them are said to procure the civet by scraping the inside of this bag twice a week with an iron spatula, getting about a dram each time; but it is seldom sold pure, being generally mixed with suet or oil, to make it more weighty. The males yield the most, especially when they are previously irritated. They are fed, when young, with pap made of millet, and with a little flesh or fish; when old, with raw flesh. In a wild state, they prey on fowls, &c.: size that of a cat. 12. V. zibetha. Zibet. Tail annulate, black, streaked: short rounded ears, a sharp long nose, and a pale ash-coloured face: the head and lower part of the neck mixed with dirty white, brown, and black: the sides of the neck marked with stripes of black, beginning near the ears, and ending at the breast and shoulders. From the middle of the neck, along the ridge of the back, is extended a black line, reaching some way up the tail; on each side of which are two others. The sides are spotted with ash-colour and black; the tail is barred with black and white: the black bars are broader on the upper side than on the lower. This species was first distinguished from the preceding by Buffon, though it had been long before figured by Hernandez and Gesner. It was unknown in Mexico, till introduced there from the Philippine isles. It yields the same perfume as V. civetta. These animals seem not to have been known to the ancients. It is probable the perfume was brought to Europe without their being ac quainted with its origin. The zibet is found wild in Arabia, Malabar, Siam, as well as in the Philippines. It is fe rocious, hardly tameable, and easily returns to its original wildness: eats small animals, birds, fishes, roots, and fruits; climbs and runs with ease. 13. V. genetta. Genet. Tail annulate; body spotted, blackish tawny. The ears are a little pointed; the body slender, and tail very long: the ridge of the back marked with a black line: tail annulate with black and tawny, and the feet are black: sometimes the groundcolour of the hair inclines to grey. It is about the size of a martin; but the fur is shorter. It inhabits Turkey, Syria, and Spain: frequents the banks of rivers, and other moist places: Buffon says there are some found in the southern provinces of France. They smell faintly of musk, and, like the civet, have an orifice beneath the tail. They are kept tame in the houses at Constantinople, and are useful as cats, for the purpose of catching mice: seventeen inches long. 14. V. fossa. Fossane. Tail annulate; body cinereous, spotted with black. The fossane weasel has a slender body, round ears, and black eyes: back and legs covered with cinereous hair, mixed with tawny: the sides of its face black. From the hind part of the head four black lines are extended towards the back and shoulders: the tail is semi-annulated with black; the whole under side of the body is of a dirty white. It inhabits Madagascar and Guinea, CochinChina, and the Philippine isles: fierce, and hard to be tamed. In Guinea it is called berbe, and by the Europeans wine-bibber, as it is very greedy of palm-wine. Like the rest of its genus, it is destructive to poultry. When young its flesh is reckoned good: has not the civet odour. 15. V. Malaccensis. Malacca weasel. Tail long, annulate with black; body grey, dotted above with black; above the eyes four round spots; on the neck and back three black stripes. Inhabits Malacca; fierce, active, leaping from tree to tree; lives by prey; smells of musk; retains its urine a long time, which is used by the Malays as an aphrodisiac and strengthener. Size and habits of a cat. 16. V. fasciata, Striped fitchet. Hair of the tail long, black, and tawnyish; body grey, with six long, black, longitudinal stripes, beneath white. Inhabits India: two feet nine inches long. 17. V. maculata. Spotted fitchet. Body, legs, and tail black, iriegularly spotted with white. Inhabits New South Wales: about one and a half foot long. See Nat. Hist. Pl. CLXXXV. VIVES, in veterinary science. See IVES. VIVIANI (Vincentio), a celebrated Italian mathematician, was born at Fiorence in 1621, some say 1622. He was a disciple of the illus trious Galileo, and lived with him from the 17th to the 20th year of his age. After the death of his great master, he passed two or three years more in prosecuting geometrical studies without interruption, and in this time it was that he formed the design of his Restoration of Aristeus. This ancient geometrician, who was contemporary with Euclid, had composed five books of problems, De Locis Solidis, the bare propositions of which were collected by Pappus, but the books are entirely lost; which Viviani undertook to restore by the force of his genius. He broke this work off before it was finished, in order to apply himself to another of the same kind, which was, to restore the fifth book of Apollonius's Conic Sections. While he was engaged in this, Borelli found, in the library of the grand duke of Tuscany, an Arabic MS. with a Latin inscription, importing that it contained the eight books of Apollonius's Conic Sections; of which the eighth was not found to be there. He carried this MS. to Rome, in order to translate it with the assistance of a professor of the oriental languages. So unwilling, however, was Viviani to lose the fruits of his labours, that he refused to receive the smallest account from Borelli on the subject. At length he finished the work, and published it in 1659, with the title De Maximis et Minimis geometrica divinatio in quintum conicorum Apollonii Pergæi. He was called by the state to undertake an operation of great importance, viz. to prevent the inundations of the Tiber, in which Cassini and he were employed for some length of time. On account of his great talents he received a pension from Louis XIV. In 1666 he was honoured by the grand duke with the title of the first mathematician. He resolved three problems which had been proposed to all the mathematicians of Europe. In 1669 he was chosen to fill, in the Royal Academy of Sciences, a place among the eight foreign associates. This circumstance, so honourable to his reputation, gave new vigour to his exertions, and he pubfished three books of the Divination upon Aristeus, in 1701, which he dedicated to the king of France. Viviani acquired a good fortune, which he laid out in building a magnificent house at Florence; here he placed a bust of Galileo, with several inscriptions in honour of that great man. He died in 1703, aged 81. VIVID. a. (vividus, Latin.) 1. Lively; quick; striking (Pope). 2. Sprightly; active (Watts). VIVIDLY. ad. (from vivid.) With life; with quickness; with strength (Boyle). VIVIDNESS. s. (from vivid.) Life; vigour; quickness. It is VIVIERS, a town of France, in the department of Ardeche, with a bishop's see seated among rocks (on one of which the cathedral is built) on the river Rhone, 20 miles N. of Orange, and 70 N.E. of Montpellier. Lon. 4. 46 E. Lat: 44. 20 N. VIVIFICAL. a. (vivificus, Latin.) Giving life (Bailey). To VIVIFICATE. vq n. n. (vivifico, Latin.) 1. To make alive; to inform with life; to animate. 2. To recover from such a change of form as seems to destroy the essential properties. VIVIFICATION. s. (from vivificate.) The act of giving life (Bacon). VIVIFIC. a. (vivificus, Lat.) Giving life; making alive (Ray). To VIVIFY. v. a. (vivifier, Fr. vivus and facio, Lat.) To make alive; to animate; to endue with life (Bacon. Harvey). VIVIPAROUS. a. (vivus and pario, Lat.) Bringing the young alive: opposed to ovipa rous (Ray). VIXEN.s. Vixen is the name of a she-fox; and applied to a woman, whose nature is thereby compared to a she-fox (Shakspeare). VIZ. ad. (videlicet, written with a contraction.) To wit; that is (Hudibras). VIZARD. s. (visiere, Fr.) A mask used for disguise; a visor (Roscommon). To VIZARD. v. a. (from the noun.) To mask (Shakspeare). VIZIER. s. (properly wazir.) The prime minister of the Turkish empire (Knolles). UKRAINE, a large country of Europe, lying on the borders of Turkey in Europe, Poland, Russia, and Little Tartary. Its name properly signifies a frontier. By a treaty between Russia and Poland in 1693, the latter remained in possession of all that part of the Ukraine lying on the west side of the river Dnieper, which is but indifferently cultivated; while the country on the east side, inhabited by the Cossacs, is in much better condition. The Russian part is comprised in the government of Kiof; and the empress of Russia having obtained the Polish palatinate of Kiof, by the treaty of partition in 1793, the whole of the Ukraine, on both sides of the Dnieper, belongs now to that ambitious and formidable power. The principal town is Kiof. ULCER. (ulcus, from λxos, a sore.) A purulent solution of continuity of the soft parts of an animal body. Ulcers may arise from a variety of causes, as all those which produce inflammation, from wounds, specific irritations of the absorbents, from scurvy, cancer, the venereal or scrofulous virus &c. The proximate or immediate cause i increased action of the absorbents, and a 'fic action of the arteries, by which separated from the blood upon the ulcerated surface. They are variously denominated: the following is the most frequent division: 1. The simple ulcer, which takes place generally from a superficial wound. 2. The sinuous, which runs under the integuments, and whose orifice is narrow, but not callous. 3. The fistulous ulcer, or fistula, a deep ulcer, whose orifice is narrow and callous. 4. The fungous ulcer, whose surface is covered with fungous flesh. 5. The gangrenous, which is livid, fetid, and gangrenous. 6. The scorbutic, which depends on a scorbutic acrimony. 7. The venereal, arising from the venereal disease. 8. The cancerous ulcer, or open cancer. (See CANCER). 9. The carious ulcer, depending upon a carious bone. 10. The inveterate ulcer, which is of long continuance, and resists the ordinary applications. 11. The scrofulous ulcer, known by its having arisen from indolent tumours, its discharging a viscid, glary matter, and its indolent nature. To U'LCERATE. v. n. To turn to an ulcer. To ULCERATE. v. a. (ulcerer, Fr. ulcero, Latin.) To disease with sores (Arbuthnot). ULCERATED SORE THROAT. See CYNANCHE. ULCERATION. s. (ulceratio, Lat.) 1. The act of breaking into ulcers. 2. Ulcer; sore (Arbuthnot). U'LCERED. a. (from ulcer.) Grown by time from a hurt to an ulcer (Temple). U'LCEROUS. a. (ulcerosus, Lat.) Afflict. ed with old sores (Shakspeare). ULCEROUSNESS. s. (from ulcerous.) The state of being ulcerous. ULEA, or ULABORG, a seaport of Sweden, in East Bothnia. It is the largest town in East Bothnia, and situate at the mouth of a river of the same name, 320 miles N. of Abo. Lon. 22. 20 E. Lat. 65. 40 N. ULEX. Furze. Gorse. Whin. In botany, a genus of the class diadelphia, order decandria. Calyx two-leaved; legume hardly longer than the calyx. Three species, as follow; all of which are cultivated. 1. U. Europæus. Common furze or gorse. A well known shrub, and found largely on our heaths and commons. 2. U. nanus. Dwarf furze. Lower than the common sort, with a less flaming orange or yellow flower. Found wild in our elevated mountains. 3. U. Capensis. Cape or African furze. Growing to the height of five or six feet in its natural soil, producing no flowers in England. ULI'GINOUS. a. (uliginosus, Latin.) Sli my; muddy (Woodward). ULLAGE, in gauging, is so much of a cask or other vessel as it wants of being full. ULLSWATER, a lake of Westmorland, 10 miles N. of Ambleside, and 14 S.W. of Penrith. It is eight miles long, and abounds ith char, and a variety of other fish. The ators of this lake find much amusement arging guns, or small cannon, in cer tain stations. The report is reverberated from rock to rock, promontory, cavern, and hill, with every variety of sound; now dying away upon the ear, and again returning like peals of thunder, and thus re-echoed seven tinics distinctly. ULM, a free imperial city of Suabia, and the chief of that order in the circle, where the archives thereof are deposited. It is fortified; and is seated on the Danube, where it receives the Iller, with a handsome bridge over the former. Here is a good college; and in the cathedral, which is a handsome structure, are 63 copper vessels full of water, ready for the extinguishing of fire. The inhabitants are protestants, and have a good trade in linens, fustians, hardware, and wool. The duke of Bavaria took it in 1702, by stratagem; but surrendered it after the battle of Blenheim, in 1704. It was taken by the French, in September 1796, but they were obliged to abandon it the same month. It is 36 miles W. of Augsburg, 47 S.E. of Stutgard, and 63 N. of Munich. Lon. 10. 12 E. Lat. 48. 25 N. ULMARIA. (from ulmus, the elm; so named because it has leaves like the elm.) Regina prati. Barba capræ. Meadow sweet. Queen of the meadows. This beautiful and fragrant plant is the spiræ ulmaria of Linnéus, The leaves are recommended as mild adstrin gents. The flowers have a strong smell resem bling that of may; they are supposed to possess antispasmodic and diaphoretic virtues, and as they are very rarely used in medicine, Linnéus suspects that the neglect of them has arisen from the plant being supposed to be possessed of some noxious qualities, which it seemed to betray by its being left untouched by cattle. It may be observed, however, that the cattle also refuse the angelica and other herbs, whose innocence is apparent from daily expe rience. ULMIN, in chemistry, a name given by Dr. Thomson to a very singular substance that exudes from the trunk of several species of the elm-tree, apparently in consequence of a dis eased action of its vessels. In the year 1797 M. Vauquelin published a paper, entitled Observations sur une maladie des arbres qui attaque spécialement l'Orme, et qui est analogue a un ulcere. In this paper he described two kinds of morbid matter which flowed from the common elm; the one whit ish, and nearly as limpid as water; the other dark brown, of greater consistency, and covering the bark of the elm with a kind of varnish. The white coloured sanies contained the following substances: Vegetable matter Carbonat of potash Carbonat of lime Carbonat of magnesia 0.605 0.342 0.050 0.003 1.000 The brown substance he found a combination of potash and a peculiar vegetable matter, resembling gum in several of its properties, but differing in several circumstances from that vegetable principle. It was soluble in water, insoluble in alcohol, precipitated from its solution by acids, and when burnt yields an acrid smoke, without any smell of caramel. No notice of these experiments was taken by any subsequent writer, But in the year 1804 Klaproth published a paper, entitled Chemische Untersuchung eines gummigen pflanzensaftes von Stamin eines Ulme; that is, Chemical experiments on a gummy juice from the stem of an Elm. The substance on which his experiments were made was sent him from Palermo in 1802; and he conjectures that the species of elm from which it exuded was the ulmus nigra. What species he refers to, by the name of ulmus nigra, it is difficult to guess; as probably no such name was ever given by botanists to any species of elm whatever. This substance, according to Klaproth, possessed the following properties. It was solid, hard, of a black colour, and had considerable lustre. Its powder was brown. It dissolved readily in the mouth, and was insipid. It dissolved speedily in a small quantity of water. The solution was transparent, of a blackish brown colour; and even when very much concentrated by evaporation, was not the least mucilaginous or ropy; nor could it be employed, like mucilage of gum, to paste substances together, It was completely insoluble both in alcohol and ether. When alcohol was poured into the aqueous solution, the greatest part of the substance was precipitated in light brown flocks, The remainder was obtained by evaporation, and was not sensibly soluble in alcohol. The alcohol, by this treatment, acquired a sharpish taste. When a few drops of nitric acid were added to the aqueous solution, it became gelatinous, lost its blackish brown colour, and a light brown substance precipitated. The whole solution was slowly evaporated to dryness, and the reddish brown powder which remained was heated with alcohol. The alcohol assumcd a golden yellow colour; and when evaporated left a light brown, bitter and sharp resinous substance. Chlorine was found to produce precisely the same effect as nitric acid. When the exudation from the elm was burnt, it emitted little smoke or flame, and left a spongy, but firm, charcoal; which, when heated sufficiently in the open air, burnt all away, except a little carbonat of potash. "In the third edition of my System of Chemistry," observes Dr. Thomson," I inserted this substance as a peculiar vegetable principle, under the name of ulmin. Though I had some suspicion that it might be the same with the peculiar substance previously discovered by Vauquelin in the diseased exudation from the common elm (ulmus campestris); yet, as I had no means of verifying this suspicion, and had no hopes of being able to procure any of the exudation described by Klaproth, I did 'hot venture to hint my suspicion, being ap prehensive that it might contribute to increase the confusion of a branch of chemistry by no means remarkable for its precision. "Fortunately, Mr. Waiter Coulson, on reading the account of ulmin in my work, recollected having seen a similar exudation from an old elm in the neighbourhood of Plymouth. Conceiving that this exudation might be ulmin, he collected a quantity of it, and was so obliging as to send it to me. I seized with avidity an opportunity, quite unlooked for, of putting my conjectures to the test of experiment, and of witnessing the very peculiar properties of ulmin described by Klaproth. The substance which I examined agrees in so many particulars with the properties noticed by Klaproth, that there can be little doubt of its belonging to the same species. The few differences which I observed were probably owing to the different length of time that the substance in question had been exposed to the atmosphere. The substance which I examined being an exudation from the common elm, and agreeing in every particular with the properties noticed by Vauquelin, there can be no hesitation in considering them as similar. Hence it follows, that the vegetable substance first described by Vauquelin, and the ulmin of Klaproth, are one and the same. "The following are the properties of the ulmin from Plymouth, as far as I observed them. 1. It was of a black colour, possessed considerable lustre, and broke with a vitreous fracture. It was nearly tasteless, leaving in the mouth only a very slight impression of astringency. When heated it did not melt, but swelled very much, as is the case with gum. It readily burnt away at the flame of a candle, leaving a white matter, which melted into an opake white bead, and was carbonat of potash. The proportion of this alkali was considerable, agreeing exactly with the exudation examined by Vauquelin. It contained also lime: 20 grains of the ulmin when burnt in a platinum crucible left 5 grains of residue. Of this 4.8 grains dissolved in nitric acid. The 0-2 grain of residue was insoluble, and possessed the properties of silica, tinged a little with iron. The nitric acid solution being saturated with carbonat of potash, one grain of carbonat of lime precipitated. Hence 20 grains of ulmin contained the following substances: Subcarbonat of potash Carbonat of lime Silica and oxyd of iron 0:3 3.8 1.0 5.0 "The silica and iron were probably accidentally present, and might have made their way to the ulmin while moist upon the tree; for it is probable that the dust of the road would consist chiefly of silica; or at least would be insoluble in nitric acid, the only criterion by which the 0-2 grains of residue were judged to be silica. 2. It dissolved readily in water. The so |