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 404: VOLOGDA VOLTAIRE 1822) ; Tableau du climat et du sol des tats- Unis (TAmerique (2 vols., 1803 ; translated by C. B. Brown, Philadelphia, 1804); Recherche* noucelles sur Vhistoire ancienne (3 vols., revised and enlarged ed., 1814-'15; translated by Col. Corbet, 2 vols., London, 1819) ; ^alphabet eu- ropeen applique aux langues asiatiques (1819); and Histoire de Samuel, intenteur du sacre des rois (1819). His complete works (8 vols., Paris, 1820-'26) were edited by Ad. Bossange, with a biography. A select edition appeared in 1846. See Etudes sur Volney, by Eugene Berger (Paris, 1852). VOLOGDA. I. A N. government of European Russia, bordering on Olonetz, Archangel, To- bolsk (from which it is separated by the Ural mountains), Perm, Viatka, Kostroma, Yaro- slav, and Novgorod ; area, 155,498 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 1,003,039. The surface, stretching across more than half the breadth of northern Russia, is an undulating plain, mostly covered with woods, marshes, and sands, except in the east, where it is traversed by offshoots of the Ural. It contains Lake Kubinskoye in the west, and is watered by the Petchora, Mezen, Dwina, Siikhona, Vitchegda, and Pinega, tribu- taries of the Arctic ocean or of the White sea. The climate is very severe, and only a small por- tion of the soil is cultivated, producing chiefly rye, barley, hemp, flax, and pulse. The chief mineral products are iron, copper, salt, granite, and marble. Horses and cattle are reared, and bears, wolves, and deer are hunted. The in- habitants consist of Russians, Voguls, Samo- yeds, and some other tribes, many of them un- civilized. The exports comprise furs, timber, turpentine, and pitch. The chief towns besides the capital are ijstiug Velikoi and Totma. II. A city, capital of the government, on the Vo- logda, a tributary of the Sukhona, about 340 ra. E. 8. E. of St. Petersburg ; pop. in 1867, 17,859. It has more than 50 churches, a priests' semi- nary, a gymnasium, and other schools, and 40 manufactories, chiefly of tallow, soap, crystal, glass, leather, and linen. In the 13th century it became part of the republic of Novgorod, and was a centre of trade with Asia. English merchants were established here in the 16th century, and previous to the conquest of the Baltic ports Vologda was the great emporium for traffic. The trade is still active, though less important than formerly. Offenders were banished to Vologda until it was superseded by Siberia as a place of exile, and it is still oc- casionally assigned as a residence to persons expelled from the capital. VOLSCI, an ancient people of central Italy, according to their language akin to the Um- brians. They inhabited the southern part of Latium, extending E. beyond the Liris (Gari- gliano) and W. to the Tyrrhenian sea, on the shore of which their capital, Antium, formed a considerable seaport (now Porto d'Anzo). They were engaged in continual hostilities with Rome, until they were subdued in 338 by L. Furius Camillus, when they disappeared. VOLSINII. See BOLSEXA. YOI/I'A, Altssandro, nn Italian physicist, born in Como, Feb. 18, 1745, died there, April 5, 1827. Ho belonged to a noble family, and early studied electrical phenomena. In 1774 he became rector of the gymnasium and pro- fessor of physics in Como, and a few years later was transferred to the university of Pa- via. In 1775 he constructed the electrophorus, consisting of two circular plates of metal hav- ing between them a plate of resin ; and to im- prove it, he invented in 1782 the electrical con- denser, by which small charges of electricity were accumulated until they reached a consid- erable amount. In the course of his investi- gations he constructed the electrical pistol, the eudiometer for testing the amount of oxygen in the air, and the lamp with inflammable air. But his reputation rests upon his discovery in 1799 of the instrument now known as the vol- taic pile. (See ANIMAL ELECTRICITY, and GAL- VANISM.) In 1782 Volta travelled in Germany, Holland, England, and France, and he is said to have introduced from Savoy into Lombardy the culture of the potato. In 1796 ho was one of the deputies sent by the citizens of Pavia to solicit the protection of Bonaparte, who treat- ed him with the highest honor, and when first consul invited him to Paris to make experi- ments with his pile. In 1802 he was chosen a member of the French institute, was afterward delegate of the university of Pavia to the con- gress of Lyons, and was created by Napoleon count and senator of the kingdom of Italy. In 1804 he resigned his professorship and retired to Como, and in 1815 received from the em- peror Francis the appointment of director of the philosophical faculty in the university of Pavia. Antinori superintended an edition of his works (5 vols., Florence, 1826). See Moc- chetti, Vita del conte Volta (Como, 1838). VOLTAIRE, Francois Marie Aronet de, a French author, born in Paris, Nov. 21, 1694, died there, May 80, 1778. His parents were the sieur Arouet, treasurer in the chamber of accounts, and Marie Catharine d'Aumart, of a noble fam- ily of Poitou. The name Voltaire is said by some to have been derived from a family estate that belonged to the mother, while others con- sider it an anagram of Aronet I. i. (le jeune). His godfather, a certain abb6 de Ch&teauneuf, was his first teacher, and indoctrinated him in the lively but skeptical literature of the day. The child was taught to read in the Mosa'ide, a poem in which Moses is described as an impos- tor, ascribed to Jean Baptiste Rousseau. His first verses, written in his 12th year, addressed to the dauphin and soliciting alms for an inva- lid, attracted the attention of Ninon de 1'En- clos, who bequeathed him 2,000 francs for the purchase of books. At the college of Louis- le-Grand the Jesuits soon discovered both his extraordinary talents and the freedom of mind which induced one of them to predict that he would one day become the coryphffius of deism. On his departure from college, the