VOLUNTEERS. on joining must take the oath of allegiance, and must be of the age of 17. The force may not be used in times of civil disturbance, but may be embodied for active service anywhere in Great Britain, whenever the country is invaded, or invasion is apprehended by the crown. The occasion must first be communicated to parliament, or, if parliament be not sitting, to the country, by an order in council, and then the crown may direct the lords-lieutenant of counties to call out any or all of the volunteer corps in their respective counties for active service. Corps so called out come under the Mutiny Act, and are bound to march whithersoever the lord-lieutenant may command. While embodied, officers and men are entitled to the same pay as in the regular army. In point of precedence, volunteers rank with, but after, the same ranks in the army and militia. The yeomanry are reckoned as part of the volunteers. Among themselves, the volunteers rank in the following order: 1st, Light Horse; 2d, Artillery; 3d, Engineers; 4th, Engineers and Railway Transport Corps; 5th, Mounted Rifles; 6th, Rifles. Members of a corps are honorary and enrolled. The first are merely subscribers of a certain amount; they are entitled to wear the uniform, but not to interfere in any manner in the corps. The enrolled members are the actual working-men; they are classed as 'efficient' and 'non-efficient-the efficient being those who are certified by the commanding-officer and the adjutant to have a competent knowledge of the duties of the service, and to have attended the following number of drills: Gure III reviewed 150,000 volunteers. The force Under this act, adjutants are appointed by the crown: the other officers by the lords-lieutenant of counties (though practically they are elected by the sabers of corps, or nominated by the commanding Gars; the non-commissioned officers are appanted by the officers commanding. Adjutants and sergeant-instructors are at all times subject to the Mutiny Act-the other officers (and men) only when their corps is embodied; but the Queen can any time deprive them of their commissions. Ufences within corps, in time of peace, are punishe by fines or otherwise, as laid down in the rules the several corps, which must have the approval of the Secretary of State for War. Every volunteer ARM. teers, Engineers, establishment of Rifle Corps, not 30 having estab- 9 drills. 6 drills, of which 3 of the whole corps. 9 drill, of which 6 battalion, and 3 company drills. 9 drills, of which 3 battalion, and 6 company dril.s. The assistance afforded by the public to volunteer corps consists in the supply of adjutants and of sergeant-instructors in the proportion of 1 to a corps of 3 companies or less, 2 from 4 to 7 companies, 3 up to 12 companies, &c. The money aid is a capitation grant of 308. annually for each artillery volunteer who is efficient, and in other corps 208. annually for each efficient volunteer, in addition to which there is a rate of 10s. for each man who fulfils certain conditions prescribed in the regulations. In scattered administrative battalions, a charge of 48. for each efficient is allowed to cover the cost of attending battalion drills. These allowances are, however, none of them personal, but are granted to corps, to be expended by the adjutant, who is accountable to the War Office, within certain limits, according to the discretion of the commanding. officer. Government likewise provides all the arins, and a certain quantity of practice-ammunition. Corps may choose their own uniform, subject to the approval of the lord-lieutenant; but no gold lace or buttons may be introduced. Volunteer corps do not bear colours. The system has not yet been extended to Ireland. 25 Volute. ture notched in front, plaited; no operculum. foot, and a recurved VOLUTE VOMER. of the Ionic and Corin- a all VOLU'TE, in Architecture, the spiral ornaments rotatory movement capable of giving rise to volvulus-(1.) A portion of intestine may have become twisted on its own axis, and, in that case, even semi-rotation brings the intestinal walls into contact, so as to close the passage. This is a rare condition, and only occurs in the ascending colon. (2.) The Mesentery (q. v.), or a part of it, may be twisted into a cone, dragging the intestine with it; the mesentery being the axis, and the intestine being rolled up upon it. This form occurs in the small intestine. (3.) A single portion or a coil of intestine may afford the axis round which another portion, with its mesentery, is thrown, so as to compress it, and close the passage. A coil of small intestine, the sigmoid flexure or the cæcum (see DIGESTION, ORGANS OF), may form the axis. All these varieties occur chiefly in advanced life, and their seat is commonly towards the posterior unyielding wall of the abdothe parts anteriorly rendering such an event almost ninal cavity, the smoothness and yielding nature of impossible. The symptoms of twisting of the intestines, especially of the sigmoid flexure, which is the most common seat of the affection, are usually very well marked from the beginning. Great pain is suddenly experienced in a small circumscribed spot of the abdomen, obstinate constipation usually setting in from that date. If the sigmoid flexure, which lies just above the rectum, is the seat of the twisting, the abdomen soon becomes distended, especially on the left side, the distention being VOLUTIDÆ, family of gasteropodous molluscs, of the section Pectinibranchiata, marine, having a spiral shell, which is turreted or convolute, the aperthe columella obliquely The animal has a very large siphon. The species are numerous, and abound chiefly in tropical seas. Many of them have very beautiful shells, much prized by shell-collectors. Several small species are found on the shores of Britain, of which Voluta tornatilis is the only one that is not rare. This genus makes its appearShell of Voluta tornatilis. ance in the Cretaceous strata, and increases in numbers in Tertiary deposits, no less than 50 species being known in the Pleistocene beds. VO'LVOX, a genus of minute organisms, the type of a family called Volvocineæ, now regarded as vegetable, and ranked among Protophytes, but which were at first supposed to be animals, and were reckoned by Ehrenberg among Infusoria. They are globular, or nearly so, are found in stagnant water, and move slowly through the water, revolving round an axis, by the agency of numerous little filaments which project from green points on their surface. It was on account of their motions that they were formerly thought to be animalcules, and, partly on the same account, it has been suspected that they are not really protophytes, but zoospores of some kind of algae. This opinion, however, is rendered improbable by their apparently possessing the power of reproduction; green granules being formed within the parent globe, at first adhering to its wall, and afterwards becoming detached; the parent globe finally bursting, to allow them to escape. These frequently exhibit, even whilst within the parent globe, a rotatory motion similar to its own. The presence of starch in the interior of the Volvocine has been detected by means of iodine, and is regarded as a conclusive proof of their vegetable nature. The most common and best-known species is Volvox globator, which is just visible to the naked eye. It is Volvox globator. a transparent sphere, having its surface studded with innumerable green spots, united by a beautiful net-work. From six to twenty young are often to be seen in its interior. VO'LVULUS (Lat. volvere, to twist) is the term used in Medicine to signify a twisting of the intestine, producing obstruction to the passage of its contents. There are three distinct varieties of much more marked than when the twist is in the small intestine, as might physiologically have been expected. Vomiting, often constant and copious, is usually present. These cases are so desperate in their nature, that it is needless to enlarge upon their treatment. Attempts to remove the displacement by injecting water or air into the intestine by means of a long tube, have often been made, but with very slight success. Mr Pollock, in his article on 'Disease of the Alimentary Canal,' in Holmes's System of Surgery, remarks, that relief in twist of the sigmoid flexure is just possible without opening the abdomen, provided the long tube he introduced into the distended gut, its contents drawn off, and the twist be reduced by the altered position of the bowel. But no operation for the ultimate relief of the patient will be successful unless the intestine be unloaded first, and the twist then reduced.'-Vol. ii. p. 158. The operations that have been proposed for the relief of this and other intestinal obstructions are so often fatal, and, even when successful, leave the patient in so wretched a state, with an artificial outlet for the discharge of the contents of the bowels, that it is doubtful whether they should be recommended. It is simply a choice between almost certain death in a few days, and a possible chance of a prolonged (but usually a miserable) existence. There are, however, a few rules that should be universally known and attended to-viz, wherever symptoms such as we have described occur, aperients should only be given by the rectum, while opium should be freely given by the mouth. Leeches and hot fomentations should be applied to the seat of pain; and all solid food should be prohibited, the nourishment being given solely in the fluid form. VO'MER, a bone which, in the human skeleton, forms part of the middle partition of the nose, and the lower edge of which fits into grooves between the apposed surfaces of the palatine processes of the upper jaw and palate-bones. It exhibits many modifications in the different classes of Vertebrata. Its position is indicated in the figure of Archetype Vertebrate Skeleton, in the article SKELETON. It is specially noticed here because of the frequent occurrence of the term vomer in articles on fishesa very important character being often found in the presence or absence of teeth on the vomer, that is, along the middle line of the roof of the mouth. VO'MITING consists in the stomach emptying itself through the gullet and mouth. It is preceded by a feeling of nausea, a flow of saliva in the mouth, and the breaking out of perspiration; the countenance grows pale, a feeling of weakness spreads over the whole body, and the pulse becomes slow. At last the muscles of the abdomen and the diaphragm strongly contract, and the whole contents of the stomach are ejected with greater or less violence. The first matters to be ejected are the food and drink present, then mucus from the stomach and oesophagus, and lastly, bile from the duodenum. In cases of disease, abnormal substances are sometimes vomited, such as blood, fragments of the intestines, and even excrementitious matters. When the vomiting is over, it is followed by languor and drowsiness, or, if the excitement was inconsiderable, the usual atate immediately returns. The causes of vomiting are various. In the first stages of infancy, it is almost normal, and occasions no disturbance of the system. In many animals, too, it is a normal function of life, as when birds of prey reject the hair and feathers of their victims. The infant gets rid of the superabundant milk it swallows by throwing it up with no trouble. Some persons can excite themselves to vomit by swallowing air. According to the oldest doctrine respecting vomiting, it was held to arise solely from convulsive movements of the stomach, which was thought to take on a motion contrary to the usual peristaltie motion. Bayle advanced the opinion, that the stomach is quite passive in the operation, and that its contents are emptied entirely by its being compressed through the contractions of the abdominal muscles and the diaphragm. An apparently conclusive experiment of Magendie's, in which the stomach was removed, and a bladder substituted for it, had more recently (in 1813) satisfied most phy nologists as to the passiveness of the stomach in vomiting, until Béclard and Budge shewed the At the early age of 13, his poetical efforts were praised by Hooft. In his 23d year, he married Maria de Wolf, to whose clever management V. chiefly left his business as a hosier, while he devoted himself to study and poetry. The tragedies of V. are very numerous, and the grandest specimens of Dutch literature. His satirical writings and epigrams are full of fire, energy, and spirit. of his most remarkable pieces is Lucifer, published in 1654, strikingly resembling Milton's Paradise Lost, which appeared thirteen years later. V. took an earnest and active part in favour of the Remonstrants, Grotius and Oldenbarneveld, drawing down on himself the anger both of the clergy and court, whom he attacked with the keenest satire. Gysbrecht van Aemstel, Adam in Bunishment, Palamedes, The Batavian Brothers, Solomon, Sam son, Adonijah, Noah, or the Destruction of the Old World, Mary Stuart, &c., are splendid efforts of genius. The Harpoon, The Horse-comb, and the Decretum Horribile are stinging satires on the ruling powers both in church and state. V.'s translations from the Greek and Roman writers are numerous, the Metamorphoses of Ovid having been rendered into Dutch verse when he was 84 years old. V. left no subject untouched, no measure untried. His works (9 vols. quarto) contain many sea-songs, and more than 100 odes. Many of the later poems were written with a strong Roman Catholic spirit, he having joined that church about 1640. Through the imprudences of his son, to whom he had given his business, V. fell into straitened circumstances, and in 1658 accepted a situation in the City Pawnbroking Office. In 1668, the magistrates allowed him to retire with his salary of 650 guilders yearly, which kept him above want. He was of moderate stature, well made, and had an eagle eye. After his powers of body and memory had begun to fail, he could still read without glasses. He died calmly VOPADEVA-VORTEX. on the 5th of February 1679, at the age of 91, and was carried to his resting-place in the new church, Amsterdam, by fourteen poets, himself Princeps Poetarum. VOPADEVA is a celebrated grammarian of India. He wrote a grammar entitled Mugdhabodha, which is held in high repute, especially in Bengal, and was commented upon by Durgadása. (Both text and commentary have been edited at Calcutta in 1861; previous editions contain merely the text of V.'s grammar.) It differs from the great work of Pan ini (q. v.) in its arrangement as well as in its terminology; and without the commentary of Durgadâsa, would not yield by far the information that may be derived from Pân ini's grammar. It is valuable, however, on account of many later Sanscrit formations, that could not be contained in the older work. V. composed also a catalogue of Sanscrit dhâtus, or so-called radicals, in verse, called Kavikalpadruma (published at Calcutta, 1848), and a commentary on it, the Kavyakâmadhenu. Another grammatical work, the Ramavyâkaran a is likewise attributed to his authorship. According to a general tradition prevalent in India, V. would also be the author of one of the most renowned Purân'as (q. v.), the Bhâgavata-Purân'a; and in a little treatise, the Durjanamukha-chapet'ika, or a slap on the face of the wicked,' which is averse to this tradition, and maintains that Vyasa (q. v.) was the author of this Purân'a, three other works of a religious character are assigned to V.-viz., the Paramahansapriya, Muktaphala, and Harilila. A little medical work, the S'atas' lokachandrika, though written by a Vopadeva (see Professor Aufrecht's Catalogue of the Sanscrit MSS. of the Bodleian Library), does not seem to belong to the author of the works just mentioned. The date of V., given by some as the 12th, by others as the 13th c. after Christ, is, according to Burnouf's investigation, the second half of the 13th century.-See E. Burnouf's Preface to his edition, and French translation, of the first nine books of Le Bhagavata Purân'a, vol. i. (Paris, 1840). VORANT, in Heraldry, a term applied to an animal represented as swallowing another; as, sable, a dolphin naiant, vorant a fish proper. VORONE JE, or VORONETZ (pronounced Voronesh), a government in the south of Great Russia, bounded on the S. by Little Russia and South Russia. Area, 25,712 sq. m.; pop. (1866) 1,975,000, consisting of Russians and German colonists. It is watered by the Don, its two navigable tributaries, the Voroneje and Khoper, and other streams. The soil, mostly a black mould, is generally fertile, and great crops of grain-wheat, rye, barley, oats, and millet (which supply the inhabitants and local distilleries, and are exported)-are produced. Cattle and horses of a good breed are reared-the best studs belong to the crown. The principal manufactured articles are brandy, beer, cloth, beetroot, sugar, skins, wax-candles, soap, tobacco, and potass; and corn, tallow, hemp-seed, cattle, and horses are exported to Moscow, St Petersburg, &c. VORONEJE, a town of Great Russia, capital of the government of the same name, stands on the right bank of the Voroneje, 150 miles south-west of Tambov. It was founded in 1586 as a bulwark against Tartar invasion. Peter the Great, who had previously visited the town, built a fortress and a dockyard here in 1694. Besides two cathedrals, the town has many important civil, ecclesiastical, and educational institutions. The commerce of V. is extensive-the chief articles of trade being corn, hemp-seed, and tallow. Pop. 40,967. VORTEX (Lat. a whirlpool). Till lately, it was a reproach to Hydrodynamics that the theory of vortices or eddies in fluids had not been properly brought under the domain of mathematical analysis. Even now, the problem has only been partially solved by the labours chiefly of Stokes (q. v.) and Helmholtz (q. v.), as their beautiful investigations apply only to perfect fluids, that is, fluids which oppose no frictional resistance to change of shape. In ordinary motions of perfect fluids, such as currents and waves, the instantaneous change of shape of a small spherical portion makes it an ellipsoid by simple extensions and compressions without rotation. The essential characteristic of vortex-motion is, that it involves rotation of some parts of the fluid. Helmholtz has shewn that this rotational or vortex-motion remains with the parts of the fluid which first have it, and cannot be transferred. We can conceive no process by which vortexmotion could be given to, or taken from, a perfect fluid; for to our reason fluid friction (which does not exist in a perfect fluid) would seem to be indispensable. On such abstruse subjects we cannot of course enter here; but one result of Helmholtz's investigations is so curious that we must mention it. We are all familiar with those singular smoke-rings which are produced when a mortar is fired; or when, on a smaller scale, a bubble of phosphuretted hydrogen takes fire in air, or a smoker skilfully emits a puff of tobaccosmoke. A very simple mode of producing them, on even a large scale, is to bore a hole in one side of a box, remove the opposite side, and substitute a cloth or sheet of india-rubber for it. A slight blow on this membrane ejects a vortex-ring from the hole. To make this vortex visible, we may burn phosphorus or moistened gunpowder in the box; or still better, sprinkle its interior with ammonia, and introduce a vessel containing common salt and sulphuric acid. The sal-ammoniac cloud which fills the box is admirably adapted to display the rings. The gene ral character of these rings, or vortex-tubes, is shewn in the diagram (fig. 1); which indicates that, besides as a whole, the ring a progressive motion Fig. 1. revolves about its own central or medial line. shch rings to follow each other, with their planes Suppose two parallel, and their centres moving in the same line, Helmholtz shews that (at least in a perfect fluid) the foremost will relax its speed, and spread out into a larger ring, while its follower will contract, and quicken its pace, till it passes through the other, which in turn becomes the pursuer, and so on. realised in a tea-cup, by drawing the half-immersed This very curious result may be bowl of a tea-spoon along the surface of the tea for a short way, and withdrawing it. Two little whirlpools, or vortices, are then seen moving side by side. They are sections of the half vortexring which has been formed in the liquid by the spoon. A second half-ring may be at once sent after them by another stroke of the spoon, and the phenomenon above described will be obtained. When, on the contrary, two such vortex-rings meet, their centres moving in one line, they both spread out, and relax their speed indefinitely. This is obtained in a liquid by letting the half vortex-ring impinge directly on the side of the vessel, when it spreads out, and relaxes its speed; just as if there were no boundary of the fluid, but a second VORTICELLIDE-VOSGES MOUNTAINS. vortex-ring occupying the place of the image of the first which would be formed by a plane mirror substituted for the side of the vessel. When one vortexring impinges obliquely on another, it rebounds from it, and both are thrown into vibration, their form of equilibrium being circular. They act in fact in this respect like solid india-rubber rings. By forming them from an elliptic aperture, they are produced in a state of vibration. A square aperture gives them in a different state of vibration. The impossibility of producing or destroying vortex-rings in a perfect fluid-save by creative power-has lately led W. Thomson (q. v.) to regard Fig. 2. the ultimate parts of matter as vortices of various kinds in a perfect fluid. Two such indestructible tortex-atoms are here sketched (fig. 2). The word vortex has also come into use in connection with Descartes's once celebrated theory of the universe, given in his Principia Philosophiae. In this the rotation of the planets about the sun, the satellites about the planets, &c. were explained (!) by the hypothesis of vortices for ever whirling about the central body. Descartes was a good mathematician, but in Natural Philosophy he preferred metaphysics to experiment, and of course erred enor mously. But he is not to be laughed at: mistakes more ridiculous than his are gravely propounded at the present day. VORTICE LLIDE, a family of Infusoria, remarkable for beauty, and containing a great number of species, to which, from their form, the name of Bell or Bell-flower Animalcules is often given. The genus Vorticella consists of minute cup-shaped or Group of Bell-flower Animalcules (Vorticella nebulifera). bell-shaped creatures, each placed at the top of a long flexible stalk, the other end of which is attached to some object, as the stem or leaf of an aquatic plant. Around the edge of the bell or cup is a fringe of rather long cilia, the motion of which brings food to the mouth. The stem is flexible, and is sometimes stretched out to its full length, sometimes contracted in a spiral form. The contraction takes place instantaneously upon any alarm, the cilia at the same time vanishing; and it is very interesting to watch a group of Vorticelle, which may often be easily done with a Coddington lens, when they adhere to the inside of the glass of an aquarium. The stem is often beautifully branched, the Vorticella becoming a compound animal, like many zoophytes, and the whole contracts or is extended at once. The stem, slender as it is, is a tube, through the whole length of which runs a minute muscular thread. A cup or bell of a Vorticella sometimes develops a new fringe of cilia at its point of junction with the stem, becomes detached from the stem, and begins to move freely through the water, till it finds a new place on which to fix itself, reproduction thus taking place by gemma. tion. Reproduction also takes place by encapsulation. See INFUSORIA. To the family V. belongs the genus Stentor, having a trumpet-shaped body, and therefore receiving the popular name of Trumpet Animalcules. They swim freely through the water, at the same time rotating on an axis, and attach themselves to objects by a sucker at the lower or narrow end. They have a fringe of cilia round the mouth, and the body of some species is covered with cilia. They are very voracious. They may often be found adhering to a twig or the stem of an aquatic plant, collapsed into minute masses of green jelly. VOSGES, a dep. in the north-east of France, formed out of the south part of the old province of Lorraine, is bounded on the N. by the departments of Meuse and Meurthe, and on the E. by those of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin. Area, 2346 sq. m.; pop. 415,485. The surface is mountainous, the territory being traversed not only by the Vosges Mountains, which run along its east border, but also by the Faucilles Mountains, which cross the dep. from east to west. The chief rivers are the Moselle, and its tributaries the Meurthe, Madon, and Mortagne, all of which flow in a north or north-west course through this department. The mountains in the east are covered with vast forests of beech and fir, and at the base of the mountains are tracts of pasture or rolling infertile plains. The west part of the dep., called the Plaine, is very fertile in cereals, vegetables, and fruits. Among the hills, the climate is cold; on the Plaine, it is humid. About 4,400,000 gallons of wine are produced annually. Mineral riches abound, there being iron, lead, copper, cobalt, and antimony mines. Of the kind of cheese called Géromé, 23,571 cwts. are made annually. The dep. is divided into the four arrondissements, Mirecourt, Neufchâteau, Remiremont, Saint-Die. The capital is Epinal. VOSGES MOUNTAINS (Lat. Vogesus Mons, Ger. Wasgau), a range of mountains in the northeast of France and the west of Germany, run from south to north, on the left bank of the Rhine, from the borders of the departments Haute-Saone, HautRhin, and Doubs, north to Mainz. The range runs parallel with the Schwarzwald or Black Forest in Baden and Würtemberg, on the right bank of the Rhine, and it separates what were the old provinces of Lorraine and Alsace. The summits are rounded and regular in outline, and are called ballons. The chief of them are the Ballon de Guebwiller, 4690 feet; le Hobeneck, 4429 feet; and the Ballon d'Alsace, 4101 feet. The length within the French boundaries of the V. M. is 100 miles. They are |