Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/288

260 went to New York, where he died. He left his anatomical collections and physical cabinet, part of his library of 8,000 volumes, and two houses, to the university, the rest of the library to the National library, and his mineral and botanical collections to the National museum of Caracas.

VARGAS-MACHUCA, Bernardo, Spanish sol- dier, b. in Simancas about 1550 ; d. in Mexico about 1620. He took part in the wars of Flanders, rose to the rank of captain, and was sent to Mexico, where, according to his own statement, he became commander-in-chief, although his name is not mentioned in the official documents of the time. He is noteworthy as the author of " Milicia Indi- ana, y Descripcion Hidrografica y Geografica de las Indias " (Mexico, 1599) ; " Compendio y Doc- trina nueva de la Gineta, secretos y advertencias de ella, senales y enfrenamientos de Caballos, su cura- cion y beneficio" (Madrid, 1619); and " Defensa de las Conquistas de las Indias." of which the origi- nal manuscript is in a private library.

VARGAS Y PONCE, Juan Jose, Spanish geog- rapher, b. in Cadiz in 1755 ; d. in Madrid in 1821. He entered the navy, was ordered in 1783 to assist Vicente Tofino in the publication of the great atlas of the coast of Spain, and wrote a remarkable in- troduction to that work. Vargas was attached af- terward to the colonial department, prepared the instructions for the scientific expeditions that were sent to America between 1789 and 1820, and was elected in the latter year a member of the constit- uent cortes. His works include " Descripcion de las islas Pytiusas y Baleares" (Madrid, 1787), and M An Account of the Last Expedition to the Strait of Magellan made by the Frigate ' La Santa Maria de la Cabeza'"(Spanish edition, 1788; English trans- lation, London, 1788). Among his manuscripts, in the National library at Madrid, are " Descripcion estatistica de la provincia de Guipuzcoa, " " De- scripcion estatistica de la isla de Cuba," and "His- toria de la isla de Santo Domingo."

VARICK, Richard, soldier, b. in Hackensack, N. J., 25 March, 1753 ; d. in Jersey City, N. J., 30 July, 1831. The family name was originally Van Vafick. He studied law and was practising in New York city, when, at the open- ing of the Revo- lution, he became a captain in Alex- ander McDou- gall's regiment. He afterward be- came military sec- retary to General Philip Schuyler, and on the lat- ter's recommenda- tion was appoint- ed by congress deputy muster- master-general, 25 Sept., 1776, to which post the rank of lieuten- ant-colonel was attached on 10 April, 1777. He remained with the northern army till the muster department was abolished after the capture of Burgnyne, and was f resent at the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga. Ie was inspector-general at West Point after 1780, and first aide-de-camp to Gen. Benedict Arnold, whom he greatly admired as a soldier. It is said that when Arnold's defection was made known, Col. Varick was almost insane for several days. With Col. Franks, the second aide, he was ex- amined by a court of inquiry, which exonerated both from suspicion of the least complicity in the treason. Shortly afterward he became a member of Washington's military family, acting as his re- cording secretary till near the close of the war, and taking charge of his confidential papers. From the evacuation of New York by the British in 1783 till 1789 he was recorder of that city. In the latter year he became attorney-general of the state, and from 1791 till 1801 he was mayor of New York. In 1786 he and Samuel Jones were appointed re- visers of the state laws, and they published the re- sult of their labors in a volume (1789). On the organization of the state militia he was made colo- nel of one of the regiments. Col. Varick was speaker of the assembly in 1787, for many years president of the Merchants' bank, and a founder and liberal benefactor of the American Bible so- ciety, of which he was president from the resigna- tion of John Jay till his death. He was more than six feet high, and of imposing presence, and has a fine monument in his native place.

VARICK, Theodore Romeyn, physician, b. in Dutchess county, N. Y., 24 June, 1825 ; d. in Jer- sey City, N. J., 23 Nov., 1887. He was graduated at the medical department of New York univer- sity in 1846, and, after practising for two years in New York, removed in 1848 to Jersey City, where he resided until his death. He made many valuable additions to professional knowledge, and was widely known as a surgeon. He was the first to prove the usefulness of cocaine in capital ampu- tations, and he introduced into the United States Trendelenberg's method of amputating at the hip- joint. Being dissatisfied with the results of the Lister method of dressing open wounds, he per- fected a system for the employment of hot water in surgery, and thereby secured the largest per- centage of successful operations known, but three deaths resulting from fifty-four capital amputa- tions. He also was the first to use hot water to control oozing in laparotomy. Dr. Varick was an incorporator of the District medical society of Hudson county, president of the New Jersey state medical society, surgeon-general of New Jersey, president of the New York medical society, director of Morris Plains hospital for the insane, director of St. Francis's hospital, surgeon of Jersey City hospital, and a member of various medical societies. Among the published records of his cases are monographs on " Urticaria produced by Hydro- cyanic Acid," " Complete Luxation of the Radius and Ulna to the Radial Side," " Subperiosteal Re- section of the Clavicle," " Distal Compression in Inguinal Aneurism," " The Causes of Death after Operations and Grave Injuries," " The Use of Hot Water in Surgery," " The Protective Treatment of Open Wounds," and " Railroad Injuries of the Extremities of the Human Body."

VARLET, Domingue Marie, French missionary, b. in France in 1678; d. in Utrecht, Holland, in 1742. He was ordained a priest in 1706, and about 1712 was appointed superior of the priests in the valley of the Mississippi by the directors of the Seminary of foreign missions of Paris. After his arrival in Canada he was named vicar-general, especially for Fort La Mobile and Fort Louis, by Bishop Saint Vallier, of Quebec, with jurisdiction over all priests along Mississippi river except Jesuits. He spent six years on this mission, visiting the country from Cahokia to the Gulf. He returned to Europe in 1718, and was appointed bishop of Ascalon and coadjutor to the bishop of Babylon. When he was on his way to the East,