Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/863

 a series of bright and dark patches known as striations. Some examples of these are given in fig. 17 of (Through Gases). The distance between the striations varies with the pressure of the gas and the diameter of the tube, the bright parts being more widely separated when the pressure is low and the diameter of the tube large, than when the pressure is high and the tube small. The striations are especially brilliant and steady when a Wehnelt cathode covered with hot lime is used and the discharge produced by a number of storage cells; by this means large currents can be sent through the tube, resulting in very brilliant striations. When the current is increased the positive column shortens, retreating backwards towards the anode, and may, by using very low currents, be reduced to a glow over the surface of the anode. The electric force in the positive column has been measured by many observers. It is small compared with the forces which exist in the dark space; when the luminosity in the positive column is uniform, the force there is uniform; when the positive column is striated there are periodic variations in the electric force, the force being greater in the bright parts of the striation than in the dark.

Anode Drop of Potential.—Skinner (Wied. Ann. 68, p. 752; Phil. Mag. [6], 8, p. 387) has shown that there is a sudden change in potential between the anode itself and a point in the gas close to the anode. This change amounts to about 20 volts in air; it is thus much smaller than the cathode fall of potential, and it is also much more abrupt. There does not seem to be any region at the anode comparable in dimensions with the Crookes' dark space in which the drop of potential occurs.

The highly differentiated structure we have described is not the only way in which the current can pass through the tube. If a large Leyden jar is suddenly discharged through the tube the discharge passes as a uniform, continuous column stretching without interruption from anode to cathode; Goldstein has shown (Verh. deutsch. phys. Ges. 9, p. 321) that the spectrum of this discharge shows very interesting characteristics.

VÁCZ (Ger. Waitzen), a town of Hungary, in the county of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kis-Kun, 20 m. N. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900) 16,563. It is situated on the left bank of the Danube, at the point where this river takes its southern course, and at the foot of the Nagyszál (Ger. Waitzenberg), on the outskirts of the Carpathians. It is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishopric, founded in the 11th century, and contains a beautiful cathedral, built in 1761–1777, after the model of St Peter's at Rome. Amongst other buildings are the episcopal palace, with a museum of Roman and medieval antiquities, several convents, and the principal deaf and dumb institute in the country. There are large vineyards in the neighbouring hilly district, and the exportation of grapes is extensively carried on. Vácz was the scene of two victories gained by the Austrians against the Turks, one in 1597 and the other in 1684.

VADE-MECUM, a Latin phrase meaning literally “come with me” (vade, imperative of vadere, to go or come; cum, with; me, abl. of ego, I), and used in French, Spanish and English for something that a person is in the habit of constantly taking about with him, especially a book of the nature of a handy guide or work of reference.

VAGRANCY (formed from “vagrant,” wandering, unsettled; this word appears in Anglo-Fr. as wakerant and O.Fr. as wancrant, and is probably of Teut.origin, cf. M.L.G. welkern, to walk about; it is allied to Eng. “walk,” and is not to be directly referred to Lat. vagari), the state of wandering without any settled home; in a wider sense the term is applied in England and the United States to a great number of offences against the good order of society. An English statute of 1547 contains the first mention of the word “vagrant,” using it synonymously with “vagabond” or “loiterer.” Ancient statutes quoted by Blackstone define vagrants to be “such as wake on the night and sleep on the day and haunt custom able taverns and alehouses and routs about; and no man wot from whence they come ne whither they go.” The word vagrant now usually includes idle and disorderly persons, rogues, vagabonds, tramps, unlicensed pedlars, beggars, &c.

The social problem of vagrancy is one that in 1910 had not yet been satisfactorily dealt with, so far as the United Kingdom is concerned. Indeed, the legislation of the early 19th century remained still in force in England and Wales. In early times, legislation affecting the deserving poor and vagrants was blended. It was only very gradually that the former were allowed to run a freer course, but provisions as to vagrancy and mendacity, including stringent laws in relation to constructive “sturdy beggars,” “rogues” and “vagabonds,” formed, until well on in the 19th century, a prominent feature of Poor Law legislation. In 1713 an act was passed for reducing the laws relating to rogues, vagabonds, sturdy beggars and vagrants into one act, and for more effectually punishing them and sending them to their homes, the manner of conveying them including whipping in every county through which they passed. This act was in turn repealed in 1740; the substituted consolidation act (13 Geo. II. c. 24), embracing a variety of provisions, made a distinction between idle and disorderly persons, rogues and vagabonds and incorrigible rogues. Four years later was passed another statute which continued the rough classification already mentioned. The laws relating to idle and disorderly persons, rogues and vagabonds, incorrigible rogues and other vagrants in England were again consolidated and amended in 1822, but the act was superseded two years later by the Vagrancy Act (5 Geo. IV. c. 83), which in 1910 was the operative statute.

The offences dealt with under the act of 1824 may be classified as follows: (1) offences committed by persons of a disreputable mode of life, such as begging, trading as a pedlar without a licence, telling fortunes, or sleeping in outhouses, unoccupied buildings, &c., without visible means of subsistence; (2) offences against the poor law, such as leaving a wife and family chargeable to the poor rate, returning to and becoming chargeable to a parish after being removed therefrom by an order of the justices, refusing or neglecting to perform the task of work in a workhouse, or damaging clothes or other property belonging to the guardians; (3) offences committed by professional criminals, such as being found in possession of house-breaking implements or a gun or other offensive weapon with a felonious intent, or being found on any enclosed premises for an unlawful purpose, or frequenting public places for the purpose of felony.

Offences specially characteristic of vagrancy are begging, sleeping out, and certain offences in casual wards, such as refusal to perform a task of work and destroying clothes. Persons committing these last-mentioned offences are classed as “idle and disorderly persons” and are liable on summary conviction to imprisonment with hard labour for fourteen days or on conviction by a petty sessional court to a fine of £5 or a months imprisonment with or without hard labour. A second conviction makes a person a “rogue and vagabond” liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for fourteen days or on conviction by a petty sessional court to a fine of £25 or imprisonment for three months with or without hard labour. Any person sleeping out without visible means of subsistence is a rogue and vagabond, or on second conviction an incorrigible rogue, while an ordinary beggar is an idle and disorderly person. Under the poor law as reformed in 1834 the primary duty of boards of guardians was to relieve destitute persons within their district, but legislation and administration gradually widened that duty, so that eventually they came to administer relief to vagrants also, or casual paupers, as they are officially termed.

Within the limits prescribed by the local government board the treatment in English casual wards varies in a striking degree. Before admission to a casual ward a vagrant requires an order, obtained either from a relieving officer or his assistant. In cases of sudden or urgent necessity, however, the master of the workhouse has power to admit without an order. Generally speaking, vagrants are not admitted to the casual wards before 4 p.m. in winter or 6 p.m. in summer. On admission, they are supposed to be searched, but this is not usually done with much thoroughness; broken food found on them is sometimes allowed to be eaten in the ward; money, pipe, tobacco, &c., are restored to them on discharge. As soon as practicable after admission vagrants are required to be cleansed in a bath with water of suitable temperature. Their clothes are taken away and disinfected and a nightshirt provided. Sleeping accommodation is provided either on the cellular system or in associated wards, the proportion of workhouses providing the former being 2 to 1. Vagrants are, as a general rule, supposed to be detained two nights and are required to perform a task of work. This consists of stone-breaking, wood-sawing. wood-chopping, pumping, digging or oakum picking, and should represent nine hours' work.

The supervising authority has endeavoured, in prescribing the work to which vagrants are put, to make it as deterrent as possible, but in practice the Work presents little difficulty to the-habitual vagrant, and very few workhouses enforce the two nights’ detention rule. The fare provided for vagrants is a welcome relief, too, from their usual scanty fare, and in many of the modern workhouses the wards are almost luxurious in their style and equipment. 