VIOTTI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, celebrated violinist, born in Piedmont (1753-1824).

VIRCHOW, RUDOLF, eminent pathologist, born in Pomerania; is distinguished as a politician as well as a man of science, and is in the former regard a strenuous Liberal; his services not only in the interests of medicine but of science generally and its social applications have been very great; b. 1821.

VIRGIL, great Latin poet, born near Mantua, author in succession of the “Eclogues,” the “Georgics,” and the “AEneid”; studied at Cremona and Milan, and at 16 was sent to Rome to study rhetoric and philosophy, lost a property he had in Cremona during the civil war, but recommended himself to Pollio, the governor, who introduced him to Augustus, and he went to settle in Rome; here, in 37 B.C., he published his “Eclogues,” a collection of 10 pastorals, and gained the patronage of Maecenas, under whose favour he was able to retire to a villa at Naples, where in seven years he, in 30 B.C., produced the “Georgics,” in four books, on the art of husbandry, after which he devoted himself to his great work the “AEneid,” or the story of AEneas of Troy, an epic in 12 books, connecting the hero with the foundation of Rome, and especially with the Julian family, and which was finished in 19 B.C.; on his deathbed he expressed a wish that it should be burned, and left instructions to that effect in his will; he was one of the purest-minded poets perhaps that ever lived (70-19 B.C.).

VIRGIN ISLANDS (45), a group of islands in the West Indies, few of them of any size, belonging partly to Denmark, Britain, and Spain.

VIRGIN QUEEN, appellation popularly given to Queen Elizabeth.

VIRGINIA (1,655), one of the United States of America, a State somewhat larger than Scotland, between Maryland and North Carolina, so named by its founder Sir Walter Raleigh in honour of Queen Elizabeth; is divided from West Virginia by the Appalachians; it is well watered; the soil, which is fertile, yields the finest cotton and tobacco, and minerals, particularly coal and iron, are abundant; the largest city is Richmond, with flour-mills.

VIRGINIA, WEST (762), formed originally one State with the preceding, but separated in 1861 to join the Federal cause; is nearly the same in size and resources; is a great mining region, and is rich in coal and iron; its largest city is Wheeling, on the Ohio.

VISHNU, the Preserver, the second god of the Hindu triad, BRAHMA (q. v.) being the first and SIVA (q. v.) the third; revealed himself by a succession of avatars, RAMA (q. v.) being the seventh and KRISHNA (q. v.) the eighth; he has had nine avatars, and on the tenth he will come to judgment; he is extensively worshipped, and his worshippers, the Vaishnavas, are divided into a great number of sects.

VISIGOTHS, a branch of the Goths that settled in the South of France and in Spain.

VISTULA, a central river of Europe, which rises in the Carpathians and after a course of 600 m. falls into the Baltic; it is almost navigable throughout, and carries down great quantities of timber, grain, and other produce to the Baltic ports.