Bibliography.—(1) Cuvier, "Sur un Nouveau Rapprochement," &c., in Ann. du Musee, 1812, vol. xix. p. 73; (2) Kowalewsky, "Devel. of Amphioxus," in Mém. de I'Acad. Imp., St Petersburg, 7th series, vol. xvi., No. 12, 1866; (3) Id., "Devel. of Ascidia," ibid.; (4) Lankester (E. Ray), "Notes on Embryology and Classification," in Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., vol. xvii., 1877; (5) Kowalewsky, "Balanoglossus," in Mém. de I'Acad. Imp., St Petersburg, vol. x., No. 3, 1866; (6) Bateson, "Balanoglossus," in Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., April 1884; ibid., supplement number 1885, ibid., June 1886; (7) Harmer, "Cephalodiscus," in Challenger Reports, vol. xviii.; (8) Dohrn, Ursprung der Wirbelthiere, 1875; (9) Zeppelin, "Budding in Ctenodrilus," in Zeitschr. wiss. Zoologie, vol. xxxix.; (10) Balfour, Monograph on Development of Elasmobranch Fishes, 1878; (11) Hubrecht, "Nerve-Tunic of Nemertines," in Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., vol. xx., 1880; (12) and (13) Id., "Comparison of Nemertines and Vertebrates," in Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., vol. xxiii., 1883, and vol. xxvii., 1887; (14) Lankester (E. Ray), "Brown Funnels of Amphioxus," in Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., vol. xv. p. 257, 1875; (15) Hatschek, "Subneural Gland of Amphioxus and Olfactory Pit," in Zool. Anzeiger, p. 517, 1884; (16) Lankester (E. Ray), "Vertebration of the Tail of Appendicularia," in Quart. Journ. Micr. Science, vol. xxii., 1882; (17) Kowalewsky, "Later Researches on Ascidian Development," in Archiv für mikroskopische Anatomie, vol. vii., 1871; (18) Id., "Later Researches on Amphioxus Development," in Archiv fur mikroskopische Anatomie, vol. xiii., 1876. (E. R. L.)
VERTUE, GEORGE (1684-1756), engraver and antiquary, was born in St Martin's-in-the-Fields, London, in 1684. At the age of thirteen he was apprenticed to an heraldic engraver, a Frenchman, who failed in three or four years. Vertue then studied drawing at home, and afterwards worked for seven years as an engraver under Michael Vandergucht. He was patronized by Sir Godfrey Kneller, and was one of the first members of the Academy of Painting which that artist instituted in 1711. His plate of Archbishop Tillotson, after Kneller, commissioned by Lord Somers, established his reputation as an engraver; and he was soon in an excellent practice, engraving portraits after Dahl, Richardson, Jervas, and Gibson. In portraiture alone he executed over five hundred plates. In 1717 he was appointed engraver to the Society of Antiquaries, and his burin was employed upon many interesting statues, tombs, portraits and other subjects of an antiquarian nature. He died on the 24th of July 1756, and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
From the year 1713 Vertue had been indefatigable in his researches on all matters connected with the history of British art, and had accumulated about forty volumes of memoranda on the subject. These were purchased by Horace Walpole, and form the basis of that author's Anecdotes of Painting in England, where will be found an account of Vertue's life and a catalogue of his engravings. Vertue's own literary works include On Holbein and Gerard's Pictures (1740); Medals, Coins, Great Seals, Impressions, from the Elaborate Works of Thomas Simon (1753); Catalogue and Description of King Charles the First's Capital Collection of Pictures, Limnings, Statues, &c. (1757); Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures belonging to King James II., to which is added a Catalogue of Pictures and Drawings in the Closet of Queen Caroline (1758); Catalogue of the Curious Collection of Pictures of George Villlers, Duke of Buckingham (1758); Description of the Works of that Ingenious Delineator and Engraver, W. Hollar (1745).
VERUS, M. Aurelius.See Aurelius, vol. iii. pp. 86-87.
VERVIERS, a town of Belgium, in the province of Liege, is situated on the Vesdre, 1512 miles by rail east by south from Liége and 19 miles south-west from Aix-la-Chapelle. It is divided into an upper and a lower town, but has no striking architectural features. The staple commodity is cloth, which is manufactured here and in the immediate environs to the value of £3,200,000 annually. Other manufactures are soap, chemicals, confectionery, and machinery; dyeing, tanning, and iron and copper founding are also carried on. The town is a modern one; its manufacturing prosperity, the beginning of which dates from the 18th century, is partly attributed to the waters of the Vesdre, which are said to be peculiarly well adapted to the purposes of the dyer. The population in 1876 was 37,828.
VESALIUS, ANDREAS (1514-1564).See Anatomy, vol. i. pp. 807-8; also Vascular System, p. 95 above.
VESICAL DISEASES.The urinary bladder is the temporary reservoir of the renal secretion, and as such contains the urine for longer or shorter periods. In recent years diseases of the bladder have come more than formerly within the scope of operative surgery, owing especially to great advances in the methods of examining the inner wall of the bladder both by sight and touch,—by sight in virtue of the endoscope, an instrument which when introduced into the bladder enables a visual examination of the interior to be made; and by touch, as surgeons do not now hesitate to make incisions into the bladder, either from the perinæum or suprapubically, for purely diagnostic purposes. Further, more careful and improved chemical and microscopical examination of the urine enables the surgeon to judge better than formerly what the condition of the bladder is. Diseases of the bladder may be conveniently divided into two groups,—(1) those which involve recognizable organic structural change, and (2) those which do not necessarily involve obvious organic structural change (Sir H. Thompson). The more important diseases of the first class are inflammation or cystitis, calculi, and neoplastic growths; but there are also others of less importance, such as hypertrophy, dilatation, and tuberculosis. The diseases of the second group in which no organic structural change can be recognized in the bladder-wall are numerous. In many cases, however, they can scarcely be considered as diseases of the bladder pure and simple, but rather as concomitants or results of other diseases. Moreover, in many cases they give rise sooner or later to diseases which are accompanied by structural changes. Thus "irritable bladder," although at first it may be independent of any such change, soon gives rise to inflammation of the bladder-wall, or cystitis; and many surgeons describe it from the beginning as simple cystitis, while cystitis as described in this article they call catarrhal cystitis. In this division, however, we may describe paralysis, atony, incontinence of urine, stammering micturition, and retention of urine.
Acute cystitis.Cystitis.—Inflammation of the bladder may be acute or chronic. It is due in most cases to the presence of irritating matters in the urine, produced by decomposition of the urine itself or by morbid admixture. The inflammation may result also from traumatic injury, from cold, or in cases of gonorrhoea from extension of the inflammation along the urethra into the bladder (through continuity of tissue). Although frequently ushered in by rigors, the chief symptoms of acute inflammation are local: there is pain over the region of the bladder and frequent micturition. The desire to pass water is often incontrollable, even before more than one or two ounces of urine have been secreted. The urine is much changed in its character, being cloudy from the presence of epithelial scales, pus, mucus cells, and often blood. At this stage also it may be ammoniacal, though this usually comes on later, and is probably caused by septic decomposition of the mine due to the entrance or introduction of organisms into the bladder. The quantity of blood varies, but may be so large as to give the urine a distinct reddish tinge. As a rule, the mucous membrane at the neck of the bladder is the first part to become inflamed, but the whole of the mucous membrane may be affected; resolution, however, usually takes place before more than a portion has been attacked. Chronic cystitis.Chronic cystitis is one of the most common affections of the bladder, and its causes are very various. It sometimes remains after an acute attack has passed off, but more commonly it results from long-continued irritation, such as may be produced by a urinary calculus in or by atony of the bladder. The symptoms are not so severe as in acute cystitis: the urine contains more mucus, but less pus and blood, and there is much less tendency to frequent micturition, the irritability of the bladder being greatly diminished. Frequently very large quantities of mucus are secreted, and the condition is then termed "catarrh of the bladder." Chronic inflammation is not in itself dangerous; but the patient, so long as it remains, is liable to an attack of acute cystitis, which, superadded to the pre-existing condition of the bladder, may be very serious. An increase in the fibrous elements of the coats of the bladder and hypertrophy of the muscular fibres are a common result of chronic cystitis.
Treatment of cystitis.The treatment in both varieties of the disease consists in giving rest to the inflamed part and in alleviating the pain. Hot sitz-baths may be used two or three times daily for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour at a time; and, if the pain be very severe, hot fomentations with tincture of opium should be applied to the perinæum or hypogastrium, or a hot douche may be used per rectum.
