VAT
V E G
jng the finer part of ah earthy fubftance in water. The
fubftance which they make it of is a common yellow earth : this they diflolve in watery and letting the co«tie parts fettle, they pour off the yet thick liquor, and what afterwards fub- fides from this, is the pure and fine part, which they keep in form of a foft paite, or thick cream. They ufe this only to the thinneft and moft delicate porcelain ware. The manner ot tifing it is this : they mix a quantity of this fine fedimeht with fo much water as renders it thin and liquid, like the.common Yarnijh ; this and the common kind are to be ufed together, fo that care mult be taken that they are nice- ly of the lame degree of thicknefs : this the workmen try by dipping a petunfe or brick of their earth into both, and feeing which comes out moft covered, that which lies on the thick- eft, is to he diluted with more water, or the other to be heightened with more of the earth, to bring them to the fame ftandard. They are both judged to be fufficiently liquid when they enter the pores of the petunfe. They then mix fome of the oil of fern aihes and lime, (fee the article Fern-GW) along with the brown Vamijh, and add as much of this mix- ture to the common Vamijh as they find upon trial will give fuch a colour as is required. The common proportion for the brown colour moft efteemed at prefen:, is two pints of the brown Vaniijh to eight pints of the common; and to four pints of this mixture they add one pint of the P'arnijb, or oil of fern. It might puzzle a (hanger to their terms, to un- derstand what thefe people meant by oil ; but it is a word with them in ufe for any thing liquid; and they call all their Var- r.ifoes fo, though made of the powders of earths and (tones mixed with water. They apply this Varnifii to the veffels, by dipping them into it, and fo compleatly covering them infide and out before they put them into the oven ; and the baking gives a great brightnefs to the colour. This is the nlcclt part of the whole manufactury of the porcelain, and other wares of that kind. The Varnijhes ufed by the Chinefe are two ; the one they call oilof jlones, the other, oil of fern; which fee. They mix thefe together, and with great caution and delicacy apply them to the veffels all over equally, with a fteady hand and a fine pencil. Obfervat. fur les Coutum. de l'Aue, p. 304.
When the porcelain is very thin and fine, they give it two beds of the Varnijh, the one over the other, when dry ; thefe are to be very thin, and they anfwer to the (ingle covering of Vamijh given to the common good China, that is thick and ftrong. They give thefe coats by dipping, and ufe the foot of the veffel to hold it by : after this, they hollow the foot, and paint the circle that we fee round it, or mark it with fome Chinefe character.
The Vamijh they lay on is fo thick, that it often hides the co- lours, till the baking afterwards brings them out again: this is the cafe with the fine deep blues ; we fee none on the bed: china; it is all hid under the coat of white, and the veffel ap- pears plain, till it has patted through the fire again ; but then the colour appears deeper than when at firft laid on. Obferv. fur 1'Afie
VASTUS (CycL) — Vastus Externum a very Targe flefhy mufclc, almoft asiong as the os femoris, broad at the extre- mities, and thick in the middle, and lying on the outfide of the thigh.
Its upper infertbn being fomething tendinous, is in the pofte- rior*or convex rough furface of the great trochanter. It is likewife fixed by a Hefhy infertion along the outfide of the os femoris, for above two thirds of its length downward, in the correfponding part of the linca afpera, and in the neighbouring portion of the fafcia lata. From all this extent, the flefhy fibres running downward, and a little obliquely forward, to- wards the rectus anterior, terminate infeniibly in a kind of ihort aponeurolis, which is fixed in all the neareft edge of the tendon of the rectus, in the fide of the patella, in the edge of the ligament of that bone, and the neighbouring lateral part of the head of the tibia. The body of this mufcle is bigger than its extremities, and its lowed: fibres run a little below the rectus. IVinflow 's Anatomy, p. 213.
Vastus internus, a mufcle very like the vaftus extemus, and fituated in the fame manner on the infide of the os femoris. It is fixed above by a (hort flat tendon in the anterior rough furface of the great trochanter, and by flefhy fibres in that ob- lique line, which terminates the bails of the collum of the os femoris anteriorly on the forefide of the infertions of the pfoas and iliacus, in the whole infide of the os femoris, and in the linea afpera on one fide of the infertions of the three tricipites, almoft down to the internal condyle. From all this extent, thefibres run downward, and a little obliquely forward, and the body of the mufcle increafes in bulk : it terminates below in an aponeurofis, which is fixed in the tendon of the rectus anterior, in the fide of the patella, and of its tendinous liga- ment, and in the fide of the head of the upper extremity of the tibia. IVhflovfs Anatomy, p. 214.
VATER1A, in botany, the name of a genus of plants ; the characters of which are thefe : The perianthium is fmall, acute, and permanent, and is compofed of one leaf, divided into five fegments ; the flower confilts of five oval expanded petals; the ftamina are numerous filament:;, fhorter than the ilower ; the anthers? arc fimpte ; the germen of the pifiil is Svppl, Vol. If,
fcimdifh ;_the ffyle is fimplc and fhort, and the ftigm'a is neap- ed ; the fruit is turbinated and trivalved ; the feeds finale and xf ?™ R? !eei Gcn ' Phllt - P* 2 35- Hort. Mai. vol. 4 °p. 1 c. VA ITCANA, FWular, the name of an old form of medicine, intended as a purge. The recipe is in the Old London Phar- macopcea ; but the late ones have difcarded it. VAULT {Cych J— Vault, in the manege. To vault a horfe- ihoe, is to forge it hollow, for horfes that have high and round foless to the end that the flioe, thus hollow oj vaulted, may not bear upon the fole that is higher than the hoof; but after all, this fort of (hoe fpoils the feet; for the fole being tenderer than the (hoe, affumes the form of the fhoe, and becomes every day rounder and rounder. In Mr. Solleyfel's Compleat Horfeman, may be feen the true method of (hoeing for hi*h and round foles. VAUNING, in mineralogy, a term ufed by our miners to ex- prefs a coarfe and expeditious way of warning ores, for the examination of their nature and richnefs. This inftrument called the Faun, is a long and moderately- deep wooden fhovel ; into this they put the earthy or ftony matter, which they fufpect to contain the metal, in powder : tbey then add water many times, and fhaking and ftirring it thoroughly about, they throw out the water, and add frefh, till at laft the matter is fcparated ; the earthy part is wafhed away, and the ftony and mineral matter only remain, the one at the hinder part, the other at the point of the (hovel. This laft is collected feparate ; and on being examined either by the eye or teft, they are able to judge very nearly of the general profit of the mine.
This method is often ufed with the (tones and earths found in the fhoads, or trains of mines. Phil. Tranf. N°. 69. VAZAEU, in the materia medica, a name by which fome au- thors have called the Jcorus JJiaticus^ or Afiatie fweet flag. Herm. Muf. Zeyl. p. 56. UB1RRE, in zoology, a name given by fome to the anguilla marina, or fmall fea eel, a long fifh of the eel kind, living among rocks about the fea (hores, and growing to be very fat and well tafted. De Laet's Ind. Occident. SeethearticleEEL. UDNON, in botany, the name by which Theophraftus and Diofcorides have called the truffle commonly ufed at table in their time.
Diofcorides tells us, that it was a root dug up at fmall depths under ground, and had neither (talks, nor flowers, nor leaves; and that it was of a reddifh colour, and fmooth furface. By this, which is alfo the account of Theophraftus and Athenseus, we find, that the Vdnon was indeed the truffle; but we alfo find that they were not acquainted with the better kind of truffle, which we cultivate at prefent.
This fmooth reddifh-coated truffle is common in Italy at this time, and is efteemed of no value, and called the wild truffle: the fort that is eaten there, and in all other parts of Europe, is the blackilh and rough-coated kind. In Africa they have a yet finer kind than ours ; it has a white coat, and is of the moft delicious flavour. The Greeks were alfo acquainted with this, and denominated it Cyrenean, as they did almoft all the things they had from Africa : they alfo gave it the name mify ; but this word being alfo the name of a vitriolic mineral, allied to the fory and the mclanteria, fome confufion has been thereby introduced. Many having thought, that the Cyrenean mify was only a finer kind of the mineral of that name. See the article Misy. UDO, in the materia medica, a name given by the Portuguefe to the lignum aloes. See the article Lignum Aloes. It feems only a corruption of the monofyllable Ud, by which the Arabian phyficians have called that drug ; and even this Ud poffibly was only a contraction of the orthography of the word Heudi which feems to have been the original name of this drug among the Arabs. See the article He ud. VEERING, in hufbandry, a term borrowed of the failors, and ufed for the turning two furrows toward each other, as they muft do to begin a ridge ; they therefore call the top of a ridge a Peering ; and they call the two furrows that are turned from each other at the bottom between two ridges, a benting, that is, an ending, becaufe it makes an end of plowing ridges. VEGETABLE {Cycl.)—- Vegetables, according to the analyfes made of them by chemiftry, are diftinguifhable into two grand tribes, the acid and the alkaline; the firft affording a volatile acid, and the fecond a volatile alkali, upon a dry di- ftillation : thus guaiacum, cedar, box, cinnamon, cloves, forrel, mint, balm, C3Y. afford an acid ; but garlick, leeks, onions, horfe-radifh, fcurvy-grafs, muftard, &c. afford an alkali, which, when rectified, is hardly diftinguifhable from that of animal fubftances, fo as nearly to refemble the fpirft and fait of hartfhorn.
For the analogy between the animal and vegetable world.
See the article Animal.
Mufcles of Vegetables, fee the article Muscle,
Vegetable Salt. In the Philofophical Transactions we have
fome very curious precedes and obfervations by Redi, on the
fubject of the (alts of Vegetables. Burn any wood, herb, fruit,
or flower to afhes ; make a lye with thefe allies with common
water, not heated ; filtre this through paper till it is clear as
rock-water ; then evaporate this lye to a proper degree in a
balneum maris;, in a glals veffel. This degree of evapora-
5 O tion
