Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/997

Rh situated on the south-west coast, with a good harbour and an interesting cathedral.

 VEII, an ancient town of Etruria, Italy, situated about 10 m. N. by W. of Rome by road. It is mentioned in the earliest history of Rome as a constant enemy, being the nearest Etruscan city to Rome. The story of the slaughter of the Fabii, who had encamped in the territory of Veii, and, of whom but one boy escaped, is well known. After constant warfare, the last war (the fourteenth, according to the annalists) broke out in 406 The Romans laid siege to the city, and, after a ten years’ siege, M. Furius Camillus took it by storm in 396, by means, so we are told, of a tunnel leading into the citadel. According to the legend, the ermissarium of the Alban Lake was constructed in obedience to the Delphic oracle, which declared that, until it was drained, Veii could not be taken. The territory of Veii was three years afterwards divided among the Roman plebs. Veii is mentioned in connexion with the defeat of the Romans at the Allia in 390, after which many Roman soldiers fled there, while a project was actually broached for abandoning Rome for Veii, which was successfully opposed by Camillus. From this time onwards we hear little or nothing of Veii up to the end of the Republic. Propertius speaks indeed of the shepherds within its walls. Augustus, however, founded a municipality there (municipium Augustum Veiens), inscriptions of which have been found down to the time of Constantius, after which, at some date unknown, the place was deserted. The medieval castle of Isola Farnese, on a hill to the south, of the city, is first mentioned in a document of 1003; but Veii itself had disappeared to such an extent that its very site was uncertain, though some scholars identified it correctly, until the excavations of the 19th century finally decided the question. Veii was not on a high road, but was reached by branch roads from the Via Clodia. The site is characteristic — a plateau, the highest point of which is 407 ft. above sea-level, divided from the surrounding country by deep ravines, and accessible only on the west, where it was defended by a wall and fosse. Remains of the city walls, built of blocks of tufa 2 ft. high, may be traced at various points in the circuit. The area covered measures about 1 sq. m. There are no other remains on the site of the city earlier than the Roman period, and these are now somewhat scanty. The site of the Forum has been discovered on the west side of the plateau; a statue of Tiberius, now in the Vatican, and the twelve Ionic columns now decorating the colonnade on the W. side of the Piazza Colonna at Rome were found there. The acropolis was at the eastern extremity of the site, where the two ravines converge; it is connected with the rest of the plateau by a narrow neck, and here a large number of ex-votos in terra-cotta, indicating the presence of a temple, and dating at earliest from the 3rd century, have been found. The first discovery of them was made in 1655– 1667, when remains of the temple (of Juno?) to which they belonged were also found (R. Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, London, 1892, p. 64). In the deep ravine to the N. of the site of the town, traversed by the Cremera brook, are the ruins of two ancient bridges and of some baths of the Roman period; and here is also the Ponte Sodo, a natural tunnel, artificially enlarged, through which the stream passes. Outside the city tombs have been discovered at various times. The earliest belonged to the Villanova period (8th and 9th centuries, ), probably before the coming of the Etruscans. Others are cut in the rock and are Etruscan. The most famous is the Grotta Campana found in 1843, which contains paintings on the walls with representations of animals, among the earliest in Etruria. There are also several tumuli. To a later period belongs a columbarium cut in the rock, with niches for urns. See L. Canina, L'antica città at Veio (Rome, 1847); G. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (London, 1883), i. 1 sqq.

 VEIL (O.Fr. veile, mod. voile, from Lat. velum, cloth, awning, sail), a cloth or piece of other fabric used as a means of concealing something from the view, as in the veils of the Jewish tabernacle, which hung before the Holy Place, and before the Most Holy Place. The word is, however, chiefly used of a covering for the face and head, as worn by women. The veiling of the face by women is a practice, among the Mohammedan races of the East and among those peoples which have come under the influence of Islam. It is observed only when outside the harem and not by slaves or by the very poor, and rarely by the Bedouin women. The face-veil (burka') is a long strip of white muslin covering the whole of the face except the eyes and reaching nearly to the feet., Among the poorer classes the burka' is made of coarse black crêpe, or the tarhah, the head-veil, is drawn round the lower part of the face. There is also the double veil or yashmak, serving as a head- and face-veil (see, § Indian Costume). In European countries the veil has played a large part in the head-dress of women. It took many shapes in the early middle ages and could be brought over the face as a covering or protection. Later it became a mere ornamental appendage, hanging down from the high, peaked and elaborate head-dresses then worn. In modern times it has become a piece of gauze, lace or net attached to the hat or bonnet and used as a protection against dust, light or wind.

 VEINS, in anatomy. The veins (Lat. vena) are b lood vessels which return the blood from the, capillaries toward the heart. As they approach that organ they join together to form larger and larger trunks. In man and other mammals three venous systems are recognized: (1) the general venous system; (2) the pulmonary system; and (3 the hepatic portal system. (See also .)

The general venous system consists of superficial and deep veins; the former lie in the superficial fascia and are often visible through the skin. They are usually accompanied by lymphatic vessels though not as a rule by arteries, and, sooner or later, they empty their blood into the deep veins, often passing through special openings in~ the deep fascia to do so. Thedeep veins always accompan arteries, and are therefore known as venae comitesy With' small and medium-sized arteries-that is to say, arteries whose diameter is not much greater than that of an ordinary lead pencil-there are two of these venae comites, one on each side, connected by occasional cross communications, but arteries of a larger calibre have only'dne companion vein. In the scalp arid face the .superficial veins are remarkable for accompanying, more or less closely, corresponding arteries-more or less closely because the arteries in this re ion are very tortuous (see ARTERIES), and so are sometimes near their veins and sometimes far away, since the veins run a comparatively straight course. Frontal, superficial temgoral, posterior auricullir and occipital vqins are found in the scalp, t'e1r names indicating the areas they drain. Like all other superficial veins, they anastomose freely with one another and also at certain places communicate, through foramina in the skull, with the intracranial blood sinuses; these communications are known as emissary veins, and act as safety-valves to the sinuses. The frontal vein on the forehead passes down on the inner side of the eyelids, where it is known as the angular, and then becomes the facial vein, which runs down to an inch in front of the angle of the jaw, whence it passes into 'the neck to join the common facial. In the greater~'part'of its course it lies some distance behind the facial artery. The superficial temporal vein' runs down 'in front of the ear, where it joins the internal maxillary vein from the pterygoid plexus and so forms the te'mporomaxillary trunk, which passes down, embedded in the parotidgland, to about the angleof the 3aw. Here it divides into an anterior branch, 'which ] o1ns the facial vexn to form the common facial, and a posterior, which recexyes the posterior auricular vein and' in this wa forms the external Jugular.

The external jugular vein is easily reco nized through the skin and platysma muscle on the side 'of the neck, and eventually pierces the deep fascia above the middle of the clavicle to 'join the subclavian vein. The occipital' vein sinks deeply into the back of the neck and so forms the beginning of the vertebral vein. ' '-The intracranial blood sinuses lie between two layers of the dura mater and differ from the veins in having fibrous walls which do not contract or expand. g The superior longitudinal sinus runs7alon'g the upper, mar in of the falx cerebri (see BRAIN), while the in erior lon itudinal sinus'runs along the lower margin; these drain' the surface of the brain, and the blood passes backward in both. Where the falx meets'the' tentorium cerebelli, the inferior longitudinal sinus receives the veins of Galen from the interior of the brainfand then passes backward as the straight sinus to join the superior longitudinal sinus at the internal occipital protuberance (see SKULL). This meeting-place is known as the torcular Herophili, and fromjit the blood passes outward and downward through the right and left lateral sinuses, which groove the cranium (see SKULL) until they