Virchow
RUDOLF, a pathologist; born in Schivelbein, Pomerania, Oct. 13, 1821; studied medicine at Berlin; and early became famous as a lecturer on pathological anatomy at Berlin University. His advanced liberal opinions during the movement of 1848 induced the government to deprive him (temporarily) of his appointment. In 1849 he accepted a chair at Würzburg, where he remained seven years, returning to Berlin in the autumn of 1856 as professor in the university and director of the pathological institute attached to it. He rendered immense service to medical science by his discoveries in regard to inflammation, ulceration, tuberculosis, and numerous other morbid processes of the human body, and has had great influence on the whole of modern medicine, including hospital reform and sanitary science. In 1862 he was chosen deputy to the Prussian Diet, and became one of Bismarck's most powerful opponents in the Prussian Parliament and Reichstag, and a member of important 1 commissions, etc. He was one of the founders of the German Anthropological Society, and an enthusiastic worker in this field, accumulating facts (partly in company with Schliemann) in Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Egypt and Nubia, etc. He was a voluminous writer, and among his important works are: "Cellular Pathology" (4th ed. 1871, translated into various languages); "Handbook of Special Pathology and Therapeutics"; "Typhoid"; "The Natural Sciences in the New National Life of Germany"; "The Freedom of Science in the Modern He died at Berlin, Sept. 5, State." 1902.
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Vireo
vir'e-o, an American family of singing birds. There are about fifty species, chiefly tropical. Half a score nest in the temperate parts of North America . The nests of the different species vary, but in general they hang from the slender forked twigs of low bushes and small trees, and are made of all sorts of shreds and fibers, grass, cotton, spider's web, bark, and tendrils. They are covered frequently with gray lichens to afford concealment. All vireos are small birds, scarcely, save the redeyed vireo, reaching six inches in length. As a family the vireos are gifted in song. They are modest gray and olive green birds, living on insects, for which they patiently explore the cracks, crannies, buds, and leaves of trees.
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Virgin Islands
a group of small islands to the east of Porto Rico, part of which belong to the Leeward Islands, a British colony, and part to the United States. The American islands are St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John, Vieques, and Quelebra. The three former, with 50 smaller ones, form the Danish West Indies. These were purchased by the United States from Denmark and were formally transferred on March 31, 1917. Payment of $25,000,000 was made for these islands. The islands belonging to the United States have a total area of 132 square miles, and a population of about 27,000. There are three cities, Charlotte Amalie, on the island of St. Thomas; Christiansted and Frederiksted on the island of St. Croix. Agriculture is the chief occupation of the inhabitants. The island of St. John is noted for its bay oil and St. Thomas for bay rum. The islands are administered by a rearadmiral of the United States Navy.
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Virgin's Bower
a climbing clematis with inconspicuous flowers, shady foliage, and seeds clothed with long plume-like tails. A common thicket climber in eastern North America .
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Virginal
a stringed instrument played by means of a keyboard, like the modern pianoforte. It was in form like a box, or desk of wood without legs or supports, and was usually placed on a table or stand. The strings were of metal, one for each note, and the sound was made by means of pieces of quill, whalebone, leather, or occasionally elastic metal, attached to slips of wood called "jacks," which were provided with metal springs. The compass was about three octaves. The virginal was a kind of oblong spinet, and the precursor of the harpsichord, now superseded by the pianoforte. The form virginals, a pair of virginals, is an old dual (as in organs, regals, a pair of organs) signifying a graduation or sequence.
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Virginia City
a city and countyseat of Storey co., Nev.; on the Virginia and Truckee railroad; 15 miles N. N. E. of Carson City. It is built on the E. slope of Mt. Davidson at an elevation of 7,825 feet above sea-level. Here are public and private schools, a mining school, court house, St. Mary's H Hospital, a county hospital, banks, and several newspapers. The city owes its growth to the famous Comstock mines, from which have been taken over $900,000,000 in gold bullion. The city has many ore smelting and refining plants built at considerable cost. Virginia City was settled in 1859, and was incorporated in 1861. Pop. (1910) 2,244; (1920) 1,200. VIRGINIA CREEPER the Ampelopsis hedercea, a climbing plant, native to North America, used as an ornamental covering for walls, etc., and sometimes called American ivy. Its leaves turn a bright red in the autumn.
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Virginia Creeper
or Ampelopsis, a fine climber. It is often called American ivy and woodbine. Flowers inconspicuous, July; blackberries in October. From five to seven leaflets spread out like the fingers of the hand. The creeper climbs over trunks of trees and walls by means of tendrils, terminating in flat disks or suckers. The foliage is handsome all summer, turning in autumn to a brilliant crimson. The creeper is a member of the vine family to which our wild grapes also belong. "As we were whirled along," says Thoreau, writing of a ride by train in autumn, "I noticed the woodbine, its leaves now changed, for the most part on dead trees draping them like a red scarf. It was a little exciting, suggesting bloodshed or, at least, an epaulet or sash as if it were dyed with the blood of the tree whose wound it was inadequate to staunch. For now the bloody autumn was come and an Indian warfare was waged through the forest."
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Virginia Military Institute
an educational non-sectarian institution in Lexington, Va.; founded in 1839; reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 34; students, 673.
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