the body; (2) a gristly rod or notochord, that runs lengthwise through the body just below the nerve cord. This notochord is the scaffolding about which the bodies of the vertebra are formed when they are present and (3) the possession of gill-clefts. These structures are openings through the neck into the pharynx, and are present in fishes throughout life. They appear without exception in the embryonic stages of all higher animals as hereditary survivals, but soon become closed, and disappear before the period of birth. See Development of Animal Life.
It is not possible to trace with certainty the path along which the vertebrated animals have been developed, but all possess some affinities (like jointed bodies and segmented kidneys) with the jointed worms, and the theory is widely accepted that vertebrates had remote ancestors that were very like the jointed worms. This is called the annelid theory, and was founded in 1875, chiefly by Dohrn and Semper. It is to be remembered, however, that there are other rival theories, and no one claims that any living animals represent the ancestors of vertebrates. These ancestors, whatever they were, have been long extinct.
The vertebrate subkingdom is divided into five classes: fishes, amphibia, reptiles, birds and mammals, all of which are further subdivided into orders, families and smaller groups. The principal facts of importance in reference to the different classes will be found by consulting those topics. See Tunicates.
Vespa'sian, Titus Flavius Vespasianus, a Roman emperor, the tenth of the 12 Cæsars, was born in the Sabine country in 9 A. D. He held several Roman offices, as that of military tribune in Thrace, quæstor in Crete, ædile and prætor. At the head of a legion in Britain he conquered the Isle of Wight in 43. He was governor of Africa, the accounts of his reign there disagreeing; but whether a good or bad ruler, he was pelted with turnips by a mob. He was sent in 67 to war in Judæa, and conquered almost the whole country except Jerusalem, in two years. The civil war between Otho and Vitellius gave him the opportunity to profit by his popularity, and he was proclaimed emperor at Alexandria in 69. The army of the east stood by him and, entering Italy, defeated and put to death Vitellius, sacked Cremona and took Rome after a terrible fight, in which the capitol was burned. Vespasian entered Rome in 70, where he restored the capitol, rebuilt the city, reorganized the army and by his own example shamed the luxury and extravagance of the period. The Jewish war, under the lead of his son Titus (q. v.), ended with the capture of Jerusalem, and the temple of Janus was closed, Rome enjoying peace for the nine years of Vespasian's reign. A new forum, the public baths, the temple of peace and the Colosseum were begun in Rome in the reign of Vespasian. He favored men-of-letters, Quintilian among others, to whom he gave a pension of $4,000 a year. He died on June 24 f 79. Consult Merivale's History of the Ro nans under the Empire. See Jews.
Vespucci (r. es-pdot'che), Amerigo, an Italian navigator, was born at Florence, Italy, Mar h 9, 1451. He began life as a clerk in the commercial house of the Medici, and in their employ was sent to Spain, where, at Seville, he entered the service of a Florentine merchant who had fitted out the second expedition of Columbus, in 1493. Vespucci finished a contract his master had with the king of Spain to fit out 12 vessels for him. Vespucci, according to his own story, sailed first, perhaps as an astronomer, with an expedition from Cadiz on May 10, 1497. After touching at the Canary Islands they reached "a coast which we thought might be that of a continent"— probably, from the description, Campeche Bay — and then sailed as far north as Cape Hatteras, returning to Spain in 1498. In a second voyage, in 1499, he reached the coast of Brazil, sailing north to the mouth of the Amazon and to Santo Domingo; and he made another expedition to Brazil, going as far as Georgia; and in 1503 he made his fourth voyage. Vespucci wrote a journal after his fourth voyage, but nothing of it remains except allusions to it. He also wrote several letters to a school-fellow in Florence, of one of which a Latin translation was printed in 1507. His claim that he reached the American continent in 1497, 18 days before the Cabots, has been disputed, and the general opinion is that he did not make that voyage, but there is no evidence that he had any thought of taking the honor of the discovery of the New World from Columbus. The name America was first applied to the New World by a geographer of Freiburg, named Waldsee-müller, who, referring to Vespucci's letter says: "Now that a fourth part (of the world) has been found by Amerigo Vespucci, I do not see why we should be prevented from calling it Amerigo or America." Vespucci died at Seville, Feb. 22, 1512. Consult Life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius by Lester and Narrative and Critical History of America by Winsor.
Vest, George Graham, United States senator from Missouri, was born at Frankfort, Ky., Dec. 6, 1830, and graduated at Centre College, Kentucky, and at the law department of Transylvania University at Lexington, Ky. In 1853 he removed to Missouri, where he practiced law, and became a member of the legislature. During the Civil War secessionist leanings induced him to Become a member of the Confederate Congress and later of the Confederate senate.
