Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/729

 V I V

time, yet the alterative and purging medicines fiiould be continued till the patient is quite well ; and as people are fubjecf to relapfes in this diforder, it is proper to give the fame medicines, and to bleed at the return of that feafon ot the year.

The firft fymptoms in this difeafe are often perceived to come on at the hips and os facrum, or extremity of the back- bone ; from thence a pain extends itfelf acrofs the navel, and thence the pain runs up to the top of the head : as foon as this happens theconvullions ufually begin ; thefe often firft appear in the belly, and are fo violent, that two or three perfons can fcarce hold the patient, and are forced to lie upon the bed to prevent him from railing up his belly in a ftrange manner. After this, in fome cafes, the nerves of the lungs become af- fected, and the patient will imitate the barking of a dog, or the marling and howling of that animal when hurt : after this, the nerves of the jaws generally fuller, and the teeth are map- ped violently together, and the mouth foams ; perfons have fometimes beaten out their teeth with the violence of mapping them together in thefe agonies.

There is, in the Philofophical Tranfat~lions, an account of a cafe of this kind following a fever, in which the patient at- tempted to bite every body about him, and would have even gnawed his own flefh, if he had not been prevented ; but, though the people about him thought, from all thefe fymp- toms, that he had been bitten by a mad dog, and that this was madnefs, yet, on offering him water, he drank, or rather lapped it greedily ; which proved it could be no effcdl of that bite, becauie the great fymptom of fuch diforders, the dread of liquids, did not (hew itfelf in him. Thefe were merely the effect of this Chorea Sandi Viti, and were attended with twitching of the arms and legs, which conftitute that diftem- per; his noifea alfo were not confined to thofe of a dog, but in different fits, he reprefented the founds of different animals, as the roaring of a bull, the grunting of a hog, and the noife of a goofe.

Thefe were not premeditated, or meant by the patient, as imitably of fuch founds, but merely proceeded from the for- cing out the air from the lungs in different manners, according to the different power of the convulfion, which affected their nerves. The patient in this cafe was fpeechlefs, not only in the time of the fits, but for a week together ; and the country people fell into the common error of fuppofing that he was bewitched, but the phyfician cured them of that belief, by the curing the patient of his diftemper by the common means, as they were convinced, that a diabolical fpirit could not be caff out by a regular courfe of phyfick. Phil. Tranf. N°. 287. p. 1480.

VIVACE, Vivacemente, or Vivamente, in the Italian mufic, fignifies to play with life and fpirit. It requires a de- gree of movement between largo and allegro, but neareft al- legro. See the articles Largo and Allegro.

VIVACISSIMO, in the Italian mufic, denotes a degree or two quicker than Vivace, and is much the fame with allegro. See the article Allegro.

VIVERR.A, in zoology, the name by which authors call the Ferret; called by fome alfo ?nujlela fyfoeftris, furo, and/«- runculus.

The ufe we make of this creature, is the fending it into rab- bet holes to drive them out ; but we are obliged to faften up their mouths, that they may not tear the rabbets to pieces ; but it ftill is able to annoy them with its claws, and foon drives them out. It feeds on milk, fmall birds, and the flelh of animals, and is a creature eafily kept tame, and will breed and bring up its young in that (late ; and thefe will naturally hunt the rabbet, in the fame manner as their parents. It is of a middle fize, between the weafel and polecat ; its head is fmall and flattifn ; its ears fhort, erect, and very wide ; its nofe, or fnout, long, like that of a hog; and its eyes fmall and red ; its colour is a pale, yellowifh white ; the back and fides a little darker than the belly ; and its feet have all five claws each : it breeds very well with us, but is faid not to be a native here, but brought from Africa. Ray's Syn. Quad. p. 198.

Viverra Indica, the Indian Ferret, a name by which fome have called the animal known in America by the name of qitirpele and qui I. See the article Quirpele.

VIVES, a name given by our farriers to a difeafe of horfes, which confifts in the growth of certain flattifh kernels in duf- ters, like bunches of grapes, beginning from the ears, and creeping downwards, between the chap and the neck of the horfe toward the throat.

When they are inflamed they fwell, and become not only painful to the creature, but are even mortal, flopping his wind unlefs a fpeedy courfe be taken for their cure. The difficulty of breathing, which they occafion in their pro- grefs toward this higlieft degree, occafions many fymptoms, which being mifunderftood by the farriers not being well ac- quainted with the nature of this difeafe, are often treated as. pe- culiar diftempers themfelves, and the creature perifhes by the treatment of them in an improper manner. The horfe will often He down, and ftart up again, and tum- ble about in a ftrange manner, and be fuppofed to have con- Suppl. Vol, II.

V I V

Millions, when he has really no other complaint but the dif- ficulty of talcing his breath.

The common caufe of this diftemper, is the drinking cold water alter any violent heat : It is alfo fometimes faid to arifc from the eating too much bad corn. The method of cure is to be varied according to the progrefs and ftate of the difeafe, and the immediate danger.

\rT tumors be not grown fo large as to put the horfe in abfolute danger of fuffocation, the farrier ufually attempts to rot them away, by taking hold of each gently with a pair of pincers, and beating them gently witn the handle of a ihoemg-hammer, or bruifmg them with the hand alone, till they grow foft ; this will often make them difappear ; but this method is only to be ufed when they are nearly ripe ; for otherwile they will return after a time ; their being in a pro- per ftate for this, is known by the feparation of the hair, which eafily comes off on the taking hold of it between the fingers. if the cafe be more defperate, and the horfe likely to be°im- mediately fuffocated, it is beft to open them with an inftru- rnent. Whether this, or the other method be taken, the horfe ihould immediately after be blooded under the tonsrue, and afterwards in the flanks, and his mouth waftied with" fait and vinegar, and fome of the fame mixture mould be put into his ears, rubbing and fqueezing them hard to make it penetrate : this will wonderfully affwage the pain. After this, the horfe is to take a quart of white wine, with two handfuls of hemp- leedbruifed, two nutmegs fcraped, and the yolks of fix eggs, all thoroughly mixed in it. About an hour after this draught, he is to have the following glyfter : Boil an ounce and half offal polycrcftum, finely powdered, in five pints of beer; when this is taken off' the fire, two ounces of oil of bays is to be put to it; and the whole is to be thrown up blood-warm. I his is a regular method, and feldom fails of a cure ; but fome, who are not willing to have fo much trouble and ex- pence, only cut holes where the kernels are, and pick them out at thefewith a wire; they then fill the hole with fait, and at the end of three days it will run; after this they wafh the wound fome days with the juice of fage, and heal it with the common green ointment, or with a mixture of honey, but- ter, and tar.

VIVIPAROUS (Cycl.) —The females of all the quadruped clafs are viviparous, and thofe of the bird clafs are all ovi- parous.

The laws of nature in the larger animals, are therefore, in a great meafure, fixed and certain ; but it is not fo in the infeft tubes, nor in the fifties ; for of thefe fome are viviparous, and others oviparous ; and thofe of genera nearly allied to one another.

Among infefls, the much greater number are oviparous ; but there are many which are not fo, as the puccrons, progallin- fedts, cochineal, &c. The millepedes and fcorpions are alfo well known to be fo ; all the females of the butterfly, and of fome other claffes, lay only eggs ; but the mod lingular and remarkable inconftancy in nature, if we may be allowed the exprefiion, is that in the fly kingdom ; the fame clafs of in- fects, and even the fame genus, will furnifh us with fome which are viviparous, and others which are oviparous ; the two-winged flies give us inftanccs of this ; but thefe are not fingle in that refpecft ; for among the reptile world, there are other creatures which are fubject. to the fame varieties ; and Swammerdam has obferved a viviparous fnail. The two- winged viviparous flies bring forth worms, in all refpects the fame with thofe hatched from their eggs in the other fpecies. Many authors having obferved the flies in general to lay eggs, have too haftily declared flies to be oviparous ; and, on the contrary, fome having feen them produce living worms, were of opinion, that they were all viviparous. Redi very juftly blames both fides for making general inferences from particular fafts, and then propofes a queftion, whether the fame fly, in different circumftances, may not depofit eggs, or living animals, and whether external caufes, as the heat of the air, &c. may not make thofe eggs, naturally ordained to have been laid in that form, hatch in the creature's body, and thence appear in form of a living offspring : but as there is no probability of a chicken being in the body of the hen, though it may eafily happen that an egg may be detained there, fo neither is there any probability of that which nature ordained

, to be produced in the egg ftate by the fly, fhould by any ac- cident be made to hatch into a young one, in the body of the mother.

The fpecies of viviparous two-winged flies, are much more rare than the oviparous ; and among the four-winged clafs, they are yet more uncommon. It is not certain, that any of the latter, befide the winged pucerons, are of this kind ; but among the former, there are fix or feven fpecies which are known always to produce living worms, and probably many more will be difcovered, by a more clofe attention than has hitherto been given them, to be fo too. When we fee the eggs of a fly depofited in great numbers on food, excrements, or other fubftances, it is eafy to follow the changes of the creature produced from thofe eggs ; and when one has it in the fly ftate, there is a fufrkient proof that this fpecies of fly is oviparous : but it is much otherwife in refpecf to the vivipa- 5 K rous