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 300 VENICE VENOM co Foscari (see FOSCARI) she was engaged for about 30 years in mostly successful wars with the dukes of Milan, and for the remainder of the century with- the Turks, with whom a dis- advantageous peace was concluded in 1503. During the 16th and 17th centuries Venice was continually at war. Alliances were formed and dissolved at short intervals, so that from the formation of the league of Cambrai against Venice in 1508, between the pope, the empe- ror of Germany, and the kings of Aragon and France, till the conclusion of the peace of Car- lovitz in 1699 between the Turks and the Chris- tians, Venice was at different times engaged in war both for and against nearly every power in Europe. A portion of her Grecian posses- sions were taken by the Turks in a war which ended in 1540, and Candia, after a long strug- gle, in 1669; and in 1715 her last hold on the Morea was lost. The discovery of America and of the passage around the cape of Good Hope had in the mean while diverted enter- prise and commerce into new channels, and Venice, after being for centuries the centre of the trade between Asia and Europe, gradually declined. With the exception of unimportant contests with the piratical sovereigns of Tunis and Algiers, she remained at peace during the greater part of the 18th century. During the wars which followed the breaking out of the French revolution Venice declared her neu- trality ; but her hostility to France continual- ly manifested itself, and finally Bonaparte de- clared war against her, and she was compelled to yield. In May, 1797, the French troops took possession of the city, which no hostile force had ever before entered. The heredi- tary privileges of the aristocracy were abol- ished; the great council was superseded by a provisional government; the destruction of the prisons and other buildings of the inquisi- tion was decreed ; the " golden book," contain- ing the names of the hereditary nobility, was burned, and Venice lost her independence. By the peace of Campo Formio Venice with a large part of her territories was subjected to Austria. By the peace of Presburg in 1805 she was an- nexed to the kingdom of Italy. After the fall of Bonaparte she again passed under the do- minion of Austria, forming a part of the Lom- bardo- Venetian kingdom. During the revolu- tionary movements of 1848 Venice in March revolted against the Austrian rule and pro- claimed the restoration of the republic (see MAXIN) ; but after enduring a long siege and a terrible bombardment, she capitulated on Aug. 23, 1849, and on the 30th Radetzky en- tered the city, which was not released from the state of siege until May 1, 1854. By the peace of Villafranca in 1859 Venice was still left in the possession of the Austrians. After their defeat in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 Venice and such of her former territo- ries as were under Austrian rule were ceded to Napoleon III.; he immediately placed the government in the hands of the municipal au- thorities, who at once called upon the people to vote on the question of annexation to the kingdom of Italy. The election was held in October, and out of upward of 650,000 votes cast all but 69 were in favor of annexation. Victor Emanuel made his entrance into Ven- ice Nov. 7. The emperor Francis Joseph of Austria met Victor Emanuel, for the first time after his loss of the dominion, at Venice, April 5, 1875. See Tentori, Saggio sulla storia di Venezia (12 vols., Venice, 1785-'90) ; Count Daru, Histoire de la republique de Venise (7 vols., Paris, 1819-'21) ; Philippi, Geschichte de Freistaats Venedig (3 vols., Dresden, 1828) ; Venezia e le sue lagune (3 vols., Venice, 1847) ; Ruskin, u The Stones of Venice " (3 vols., Lon- don, 1851-'3); Eomanin, Storia documentata di Venezia (10 vols., Venice, 1853-'61) ; W. 0. IJazlitt, "The History of the Venetian Re- public " (4 vols., London, 1858-'60) ; Howells, "Venetian Life" (New York, 1866); Cicogna, I dogi di Venezia (2 vols., Venice, 1867); and Billitzer, Cfeschichte Venedigs (Trieste, 1871). VENICE, Gnlf of, the name given to the N. W. part of the Adriatic sea, where it forms an indentation in the coast of Venetia, extending about 50 m. from the mouth of the Tiif_ r li;i- mento to the delta of the Po. The gulf of Tri- este is its N. E. prolongation. Its depth is not more than 12 fathoms. It receives the waters of the Piave, Brenta, Adige, Po di Levante, Po della Maestra, and other rivers. YKXLOO, a fortified town of the Netherlands, in the province of Limburg, on the right bank of the Maas, 40 m. N. N. E. of Maestricht ; pop. about 8,000. It has a large Catholic church, a fine town hall, two arsenals, a school of indus- try and design, manufactories of tobacco and other articles, tanneries, breweries, and distil- leries, and much trade in hogs. A suspension bridge connects the town with Fort St. Mi- chael on the left bank of the Maas; on the right bank is Fort Ginkel, and opposite Ven- loo is the fortified island of Waert or Weert. The place has undergone many' sieges. VEXOM, a kind of secretion produced in certain animal bodies, which acts as a poison when introduced into the tissues of other ani- mals. The characteristics of a venom, as dis- tinguished from poisons in general, are that it is of organic origin, produced in special secre- ting organs, termed " poison glands," and that it is introduced into the tissues by means of certain organs specially adapted for the pur- pose, which have the form of stings or fangs. Thus we have the venom of the rattlesnake, the viper, the scorpion, and the tarantula. A virus, on the'other hand, though also a poison of an organic, and usually an animal origin, is the result of diseased action or of putrescence, and usually has the power of exciting in the poisoned individual the same disease as that by which it was itself produced. Thus we speak of the virus of smallpox, of cowpox, and the like. The poison of hydrophobia is properly not a venom but a virus, since it is due to the