Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/303

Rh graduated as Ph. D., and received sacred orders. In 1768 he was sent as preacher to Sao Paulo, in which city he was appointed in 1771 professor of geometry," and obtained the chairs of rhetoric in 1779 and natural history in 1786. Soon the vice- roy, Luiz de Vasconcellos, called him to Rio Janei- ro and commissioned him, with Francisco Solano, to make a botanical exploration of the province. After many years of work he finished in 1790 his celebrated work on the flora of the province of Rio Janeiro, which contained alone 1,640 plants of new and formerly unclassified species. The vice- roy ordered him to present his work personally at court in Lisbon, where the manuscript was lost in the archives, but it was discovered in 1824 in the royal library by Antonio de Arrabida, and the Em- peror Pedro I. obtained a copy, which was published by his orders. Velloso was honored in Lisbon with the friendship of the prince regent, and by him appointed director of the topography of the " Arco do Cego," which in 1798 was incorporated in the royal printing-office. Velloso continued as one of the directors, was a corresponding member of the Royal academy of science and many other scien- tific societies, and provincial of his order, but, de- siring to return to his country, he was in 1809 nominated superior of the convent of Santo An- tonio in Rio Janeiro, where he died two years after. A plant of the Euphorbia? family has been named in his honor Vellosia jabanesia princeps. • He wrote " Fazendeiro do Brazil," a work on agri- culture (11 vols., Lisbon, 1794) ; " Ornothologia Brazileira, ou enumeracao de muitas aves uteis" (1804) ; "Estudo sobre a cochonilha" (1807) : " So- bre 6 Lavrador pratico, eontendo a historia da canna de assucar " (Rio Janeiro, 1810); and a great natural history, " Flora Fluminense, ou descripcao das plantas que nascem espontaneas no Rio de Janeiro" (11 vols., 1825).

VENABLE, Abraham B., senator, b. in Prince Edward county, Va., in 1760 ; d. in Richmond, Va., 26 Dec, 1811. His ancestors were among the earli- est settlers of Virginia, receiving from Charles II. a grant of lands at the Manikin town on James river. His grandfather was a surgeon in the first regiment of troops that was sent to Jamestown, under the command of Sir John Harvie. Abra- ham was graduated at Princeton in 1780, settled as a planter in his native county, and in 1791-'9 was a member of congress. In 1803-'4 he was U. S. senator, but he resigned at the latter date, returned to private life, and exerted a controlling influence in public affairs. He was the intimate friend and party adviser of Thomas Jefferson, by whom he was appointed president of the Bank of Virginia, which enterprise was under that states- man's control. Mr. Venable perished at the burn- ing of the Richmond theatre. — His nephew, Abra- ham Woodson, congressman, b. in Prince Edward county, Va., 17 Oct., 1799 ; d. in Oxford, N. C, 24 Feb., 1876, was graduated at Hampden Sidney in 1816, and at Princeton in 1819, in the mean time studying medicine. He was admitted to the bar in 1821, removed to North Carolina in 1828, and established a large practice. He was a presidential elector on the Jackson ticket in 1832, and on the Van Buren-Johnson ticket in 1836, was chosen to congress in 1846, and served by re-election till 1853, but was defeated in the next canvass. Dur- ing his service in that body he gained reputa- tion as an able debater and an opponent of the free-soil or anti-slavery policy and that of nullifica- tion. He was a presidential elector on the Breck- inridge and Lane ticket in 1860, and in 1861— '4 a member of the Confederate congress. — Abraham's nephew, Charles Scott, educator, b. in Prince Edward county, Va., 19 April, 1827, was graduated at Hampden Sidney in 1842 and at the University of Virginia in 1848, and studied at Berlin in 1852 and at Bonn in 1854. He was professor of mathematics at Hampden Sidney in 1848-'56, of physics and chemistry in the University of Georgia in 1856, and of mathematics and astronomy in the University of South Carolina in 1858-'61. He be- came captain of engineers in the Confederate army in the last-named year, and in 1862-'5 was lieu- tenant-colonel and aide-de-camp to Gen. Robert E. Lee, participating in all the important battles in which the Army of Northern Virginia took part. He became professor of mathematics in the Uni- versity of Virginia in 1865, and still holds that chair. In 1870-'3 he was chairman of the faculty, .and in 1887 was again chosen to that office. In 1860 he was one of the five commissioners appoint- ed to visit Labrador to observe the solar eclipse. The University of Virginia gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1868. He has published a series of mathematical text-books (New York, 1869-75). — His son, Frank Preston, chemist, b. at Long- wood, Prince Edward co., Va., 17 Nov., 1856, was educated at the University of Virginia, and then studied chemistry at the universities of Bonn and Gottingen, receiving the degree of Ph. D. from the latter in 1881. He has held the chair of chemistry at the University of North Carolina since 1880, and, in addition to various scientific papers, has published " A Short Course in Qualitative Chemical Analysis" (Raleigh, N. C, 1883).

TENABLE, William Henry, author, b. in Warren county, Ohio, 29 April, 1836. He began to teach at seventeen years of age, and during his vacations attended teachers' institutes in Oxford, Ohio, being one of the first teachers in the state upon whom the Ohio board of examiners conferred a life certificate. He was graduated at the Normal school at Lebanon, Ohio, in 1862, became professor of natural science in Chickering classical and sci- entific institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, in the same year, was its principal and proprietor in 1881, organized and was first president of the Cincinnati society of political education, and in 1882 founded and conducted in that city the African school of popu- lar science and history. He retired from teaching in 1886, has since devoted himself to literary work and to lecturing, and is an editor of the " Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly." He is actively connected with many educational associa- tions, and is a member of several learned bodies. The University of Ohio gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1886. He has published " June on the Miami, and other Poems" (Cincinnati, 1871); "A School History of the United States " (1872) ; " The School Stage," a collection of juvenile acting plays, original and adapted (1873) ; " The Teacher's Dream," a poem (New York, 1880) ; " Melodies of the Heart, and other Poems" (Cincinnati, 1884); " Footprints of the Pioneers in the Ohio Valley " (1888); "Biography of William D. Gallagher" (1888); and "Historical Sketch of Western Peri- odical Literature " (1888). He has also published several pamphlets, addresses, etc., and edited " The Dramatic Actor," a collection of plays (1874) ; and " Dramatic Scenes from the Best Authors " (1874).

VENANT, Jean Barré de (vay-nong) (sometimes written Saint- Venant), French agriculturist, b. in Niort in 1737 ; d. there in February, 1810. He came in his youth to Santo Domingo, founded there a model farm, and was appointed president of the colonial board of agriculture and trade, which post he retained for about