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ing one line in thickness. Such leaves are then cut into small slips,of various forms, according to the design proposed; and, whenthe ground work is duly prepared, they are cemented by meansof glue, and submitted to the action of a press, till the whole be-comes perfectly dry; alter which the articles are scraped andpolished.

VENEREAL, in medicine, belonging tovenery; as the luesvenerea, &c. See Medicine.

VENESECTION. See Surgery.

VENETl, a people of Italy, in Cisalpine Gaul , near themouths of the I'o.

VENEZUELA, a province of S. America , in Terra Firma;bounded on the N. by the Gulf of Mexico , S?. by New Granada,E. by Cumana, and W. by Hacha. It is very fertile, in corn,cotton, sugar, fruits, cocoa-nuts, See.

Venezuela, the capital of the above province, on a bay sonamed. Lon. 68. 50. W. Lat. 10. 35. N.

VENICE, a celebrated city of Italy , and capital of a late re-

i tublic of the same name, situated on the Lagunes or Small.stands, about five miles from the continent. Lat. 45° 27'4* N.Lon. 12° 3' 15" E. from Greenwich.

VENIRE FACIAS, in law is a judicial writ lying were twoparties plead and come to is-ue directed to the sheriff, to cause 12men of the same neighbourhood to meet and try the same, and to9a.y the truth upon the issue taken.

VENLO, a town of the Netherlands , in Upper Guelder-land, seated on the Meuse , opposite Fort St. Michael ; 10 milesS. E. of Gueldres , 12 N. N. E. of lluremoml, and 25 N. W. ofDusseldorp.

VENTER INSPTCIENDO, is a writ to search a woman thatsaith she is with child, and thereby withholds lands from thenext heir; the trial whereof is by a jury of women.

VENT1LAGO, in botany, a genus of the pentandria rnono-gynia class and order. Calyx tubular; corolla scales protectingthe stamens, which are inserted into the calyx ; some are winged atthe top and one-seeded. There is only one species, viz. V. ma-deraspaiana.

VENTILATOR, a machine by which the noxious air of anyclose place, as an hospital, gaol, ship, chamber, &c. may be dis-charged and changed for fresh. The ventilators invented by Dr.Hales consist of a square box ABCD, (Plate CLXXL fig. 10,)| ofany size; in the middle of one side of this box a broad partitionor midriff is fixed by hinges X, and it moves up and down fromA to C, by means of an iron-rod ZR, fixed at a proper distancefrom the other end of the midriff, and passing through a smallRole in the cover of the box up to R. Two boxes of this kindmay be employed at once, and the two iron-rods may he fixed toa lever FG, (fig. ll,)moving on a fixed centre O'; so that bythe alternate raising and pressing down of the lever FG, the mid-riffs are also alternately raised and depressed, whereby these dou-ble bellows are at the same time both drawing in air, and pouringit out, through apertures with valves made on the same side with,and placed both above and below, the hinges of the midriffs. Inorder to render the midriffs light, they arc made of four barslengthwise, and as many across them breadthwise, the vacantspaces being filled up with thin pannels of fir-board ; and that theymay move to and fro with the greater ease, and without touchingthe sides of the boxes, there is an iron-regulator fixed upright tothe middle of the end of the box AC , (fig. 10,) from N to L,with a notch cut into the middle of the end of the midriff at Z;so that the midriffs, in the rising and falling, suffer no other frictionthan what is made betwen the regulator and the notch. More-over, as the midriff ZX moves with its edges only one 20th of aninch from the sides of the box ABCDFE, very little air willescape by the edges; and, therefore, there will be no need ofleathern sides as in the common bellows. The end of the box atAC is made a little circular, that it may be better adapted be-tween A and C to the rising and falling midriff; and at the oilierend X of the midriff a slip of leather may he nailed over the jointsif needful. The eight large valves through which the air is topass, are placed at the hinge-end of the boxes EK, (fig. 11,) as at 1,2, 3, See. The valve 1 opens inward to admit the air to enter,when the midriff is depressed at the other end by means of thelever FG. And at the same time the valve 3 in the lower venti-lator is that by the compressed air which passes out of the valve 4.

But when that midriff is raised, the valve 1 shuts, and the air passesout of the valve 2. And it is the same with the valves 5, 6, Sec.of the other box ; so that the midriffs are alternately rising andfalling, and two of the ventilators drawing in air, and two blow-ing it out; the air entering at the valves I, 3, 6, 8, and passingout at the valves 2, ,4, 5, 7. Before these last valves there is fixedto the ventilators a box QQNM, (fig. 12,) as a common recepta-cle for all the air which comes out of Uiese valves; which airpasses off by the trunk P, through the walls of a building. Fora farther account of this machine we refer to the author himself,who gives a full detail of it and of its manner of working. SeeDescription of Ventilators by Stephen Hales , D. D. Loud. 1743,8vo. The ventilators in large ships, since the order for ventilat-ing the licet issued by the lords of the admiralty in 1756, arefixed in the gunner’s fore-store-room, and generally a-head of thesail-room.

VENTRILOQUISM^ an art by which certain persons can somodify their voice, as to make it appear to the audience to pro-ceed from any distance, and in any direction. Some faint tracesof this art are to be found in the writings of the ancients.

VENUE, in law, the neighbourhood whence juries are to besummoned for trial of causes. In local actions, as of trespass andejectment, the venue is to be from the neighbourhood of theplace, where the lands in question lie ; and in all real actions, thevenue must be laid in the* county where the thing is for whicli theaction is brought. But in transitory actions, for injuries that mayhave happened any where, as debt, detinue, slander, or the like,the plaintiff may declare in what county lie pleases.

VENUS, in mythology, the goddess of love and beauty. Ci-cero mentions two other deities of this name. Venus, styledUrania and Cclestis; and the Venus Pandemos or Popularis, thewife of Vulcan, and the goddess of wanton and effeminatelove.

Venus, in astronomy. Sec Astronomy.

Venus, in zoology, a genus of insects belonging to the orderof vermes testacea. Animal a tethys; shell bivalve; hinge withthree teeth near each other, one placed longitudinally, and bentinwards. There are about 200 species.

Venus-Fly-Trap. Sec DionjEa Muscipula.

VEPRECULAi, [diminutive from vepres, a briar or bramble ; jthe 31st order in Linnaius’s Fragments of a Natural Method. SeeBotany .

\ ERA CRUZ, a sea-port-town of N. America , in New Spain,200 miles S. E. of Mexico . Lon. 37. 25. W. Lat. 19 . 12. N.

VERAGUA, a province of New Spain, bounded on the E-by that ol Costa Rica, on the W. by Panama , on the N. by Da-rien and the Gulf of Mexico , and on the S. by the South Sea.It is about 125 miles long, from E. to W. and 60 broad from N.to S. It is a mountainous barren country ; but has plenty of goldand silver. Conception is the capital.

VEKATRUM, in botany, a genus ofnlants of the class poly-gamia, and order monoecia: natural order Coronaria:. Calyx none;corolla six-petaled ; stamina six; hermaphrodite, pistils three;capsule many-seeded; male, rudiment of a pistil. There arefour species.

VERB, in grammar. See Grammar, and English Lan-guage .

VERBAL FIGURES. See Oratory.

VERRASCUM, Mullein or Cow’s Lungwort; in botany,a genus of plants of the class pentandria, and order monogynia ;natural order, Luridai. Essential character: corolla wheel-shaped,a little unequal; capsule, two-celled, two-valved. There arenineteen species.

VERBENA, Vervain ; a genus of the diandria monogyniaclass and order. Natural order Personatx. Corolla, funnel-shaped, almost equal, curved; calyx, one of the teeth truncate ;seeds two or four, naked, or very thinly arilled ; stamina two orfour. There are twenty-three species.

VEKBESINA, in botany, a genus of the syngeuesia polyga-mia stiperfitia class and order. Natural order Composure. Calyxa double row ; florets of the ray about five ; pappus awned ; re-ceptacle chaffy. There are twelve species.

VERD, CAPE, a promontory on the W. coast of Africa , 10miles N. \V. of the mouth of the Gambia . Lon. 17. 38. W. Lat.14. 45. N.

Verb