while changes in the coronary arteries lead to some of the definite results in the walls of the heart which have already been considered.
Veins are subject also to mechanical and toxic effects. The pressure of abdominal tumours, the effects of the weight of a column of blood on a long vein, constipation or obstruction to the venous return may cause dilatations or varicosity. The dilatation thins the walls of the veins and the valves become incompetent; the dilated vessel then becomes twisted and the surrounding tissues thickened by the growth of fibrous tissue. The thinned walls may rupture, and, owing to the loss of the valves, extensive hemorrhages may take place. Thrombosis may follow the slowing of the blood current, and phleboliths are produced by the deposit of lime salts in it. Phlebitis is an acute inflammation of a vein. Apart from injury it usually follows invasion by a septic thrombus, as in the well-known phlegmatis alba dolens, when an infective clot from the uterine sinuses reaches the iliac veins. The pathology of the blood itself is treated under Blood.
VASE (through Fr. from Lat. vas, a vessel, pl. vasa, of which the singular vasum is rarely found; the ultimate root is probably was-, to cover, seen in Lat. vestis, clothing, Eng. “vest,” Gr. ἐσθής, and also in “wear,” of garments), a vessel, particularly one of ornamental form or decoration; the term is often confined to such vessels which are uncovered and with two handles, and whose height is great in proportion to their width. It is the general term applied to the decorative pottery of the ancient Greeks and Romans, of whatever shape (see Ceramics).
VASELINE, or mineral jelly, the Paraffinum molle of the British Pharmacopoeia, a commercial product of petroleum which is largely employed in pharmacy, both alone and as a vehicle for the external application of medicinal agents, especially when local action rather than absorption is desired, and as a protective coating for metallic surfaces. “Vaseline” is a registered proprietary name (coined from the German Wasser, water, the Greek ἔλαιον, oil, and the termination -ine), and is strictly applicable only to the material manufactured by one company (the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company), but it is commonly applied in a generic sense. As met with in commerce, vaseline is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons, having a melting-point usually ranging from a little below to a few degrees above 100° F. It is colourless, or of a pale yellow colour, translucent, fluorescent, amorphous and devoid of taste and smell. It does not oxidize on exposure to the air, and is not readily acted on by chemical reagents. It is soluble, in chloroform, benzene, carbon bisulphide and oil of turpentine. It also dissolves in warm ether and in hot alcohol, but separates from the latter in flakes on cooling.
The process employed by the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company in the manufacture of vaseline is said to consist essentially in the careful distillation of selected crude petroleum, vacuum-stills being used to minimize dissociation, and filtration of the residue through granular animal charcoal. The filters are either steam-jacketed, or are placed in rooms heated to 120° F., or higher. The first runnings from the filters are colourless, and when they become coloured to a certain extent they are collected for use as a lubricant under the name of “filtered cylinder oil.”
- (B. R.)
VASILKOV, a town of Russia, in the government of Kiev, 23 m. by rail S.W. of the city of Kiev. Pop. 18,000, chiefly agricultural. Vasilkov was founded in the 10th century, but laid waste during the Mongol invasion of 1239-42. In 1320 it was taken by the Lithuanians, and later by the Poles, under whom it remained until 1686, when it was annexed to Russia.
VASLUI, the capital of the department of Vaslui, Rumania; on a hill at the confluence of the Bêrlad and Vaslui rivers, and on the railway from Jassy to Galatz. Pop. (1900) 13,405. There are a fine old church and ruins of a palace built in 1471 by Stephen the Great. The chief trade is in corn, wine, cattle and timber. A fair is held yearly, on the first ten days of September.
VASSAL (Fr. vassal, vassaut, vassault, &c.), the tenant and follower of a feudal lord (see Feudalism). The etymology of the word has been a matter of considerable dispute. The late Henri de Tourville, in his Histoire de la formation particulariste, maintained that vassal is derived from the German Gast, a guest, meaning an outsider to whom a portion of a free domain was assigned in return for rent and certain fixed services. This derivation has a somewhat fantastic air, and seems to have been framed to suit an hypothesis. The commonly accepted etymology is from the Breton gwaz, Welsh gwas, a lad or a servant. As the word in its Latin form vassus was at first uniformly employed in the sense of slave, this explanation is the more acceptable of the two. If it is correct we may say that “vassal” was analogous in origin to the name of “boy” given to a coloured servant by Europeans in Asia and Africa. The word gained in dignity under the Frankish empire through the vassi dominici, i.e. servants of the royal household, great officers of state, who were sent on extraordinary missions into the provinces, to act as assessors to the counts in the courts, or generally to settle any questions in the interests of the central power. Sometimes they were sent to organize and govern a march, sometimes they were rewarded with benefices, and as, with the growth of feudalism, these developed into hereditary fiefs, the word vassus or vassallus was naturally retained as implying the relation to the king as overlord, and was extended to the holders of all fiefs whether capital or mediate. As feudal independence increased, the word vassal lost every vestige of its original servile sense, and, since it had come to imply a purely military relation, acquired rather the meaning of “free warrior.” Thus in medieval French poetry vassalage is commonly used in the sense of “prowess in arms,” or generally of any knightly qualities. In this sense it also became acclimatized in England, and “vassal” came to be used as equivalent to free-born, soldierly, valiant and loyal, in which sense it is commonly used in medieval poetry. In countries which were not feudally organized—in Castile, for instance—vassal meant simply subject, and during the revolutionary period acquired a distinctly offensive significance as being equivalent to slave. The diminutive form vasseletus, for the son of a vassal, after strange fortunes returned to something of its original sense of “household servant” in the modern “valet” (q.v.) (see also Vavassor).
See Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue français (Paris, 1895), for numerous examples of the use of the word vassal; also Du Cange; Glossarium, s. “Vassus.”
VASSAR COLLEGE, a non-sectarian institution for the higher education of women, about 2 m. E. of Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.A. It was incorporated in 1861 as Vassar Female College (which was changed to Vassar College in 1867), and was named in honour of its founder,[1] Matthew Vassar, who transferred to a board of trustees of his own selection about $400,000 (increased by his will to twice that amount) and the tract of about 200 acres of land upon which the college was built. Building began in June 1861, and the institution was opened on the 20th of September 1865, with John Howard Raymond[2] (1814-1878) as president, and Hannah W. Lyman (1816-1871) as lady principal; it had a faculty of eight professors and twenty instructors and teachers, and an enrolment of 353 pupils. The first graduating class was that of 1867, and comprised four members, to whom were given temporary certificates stating that they were “entitled to be admitted to the First Degree of Liberal Arts,” as the propriety of awarding the degree of “bachelor” to
- ↑ Matthew Vassar (1791-1868) was born at East Dereham, Tuddenham parish, Norfolk, England, on the 29th of April 1791, son of a Baptist who emigrated to the United States in 1796, settled 3 m. E. of Poughkeepsie in 1797 and in 1801 established a brewery there. The brewery was burned in 1811, and Matthew took up the business and in 1812 established an “ale and oyster saloon” and a brewery, from which he became wealthy. He was a prominent member of the Baptist church. He got the idea of founding a college for women from his niece, Lydia Booth, a school teacher. He died on the 23rd of June 1868 while reading his farewell report to the Board of Trustees. His nephew, Matthew Vassar, Jun. (1809-1881), was born in Poughkeepsie, became manager of his uncle's brewery, was a member of the Board of Trustees of Vassar College, and its treasurer until his death, gave in all about $500,000 to the institution, and with his brother, John Guy Vassar (1811-1888), also one of the trustees and a benefactor of the college, gave to the college the Vassar Brothers' Laboratory.
- ↑ Raymond graduated at Union College in 1832; studied law and then (at Hamilton, N.Y.) theology; in 1839-49 taught rhetoric and English literature at Madison (now Colgate) University, at Hamilton, N.Y.; was professor of belles-lettres at Rochester University in 1850-56; and organized the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1856-65.
