Category: V

Ancient Roman poet whose Aeneid is still used today as an oracular book, purportedly to predict, interpret, and so it is hoped, control the future. In the Aeneid Virgil set out a mythological history for Rome to show his people retrospectively where their destiny lay. The admonitory stand and the giving of moral instructions to…

Medieval document that is supposed to be the oldest known European map of North America. The Vinland map is believed to be a European copy of a Norse map that shows the location of Viking colonies in North America around the year 1000 C.E. It is drawn in pen and ink on two parchment leaves…

Precolumbian contacts with the New World by Norse explorers. When the scholar Thormod Torfason published his Historia Vinlandae Antiquae in 1705, the news of the Scandinavian discovery of America spread throughout northern Europe. Torfason cited two Icelandic sagas to support his views: Graenlandinga Saga and Eirik’s Saga. Both told of the voyage of explorers from…

A phenomenally successful and controversial book, issued anonymously in October 1844, about the “development hypothesis,” as evolutionary theory was sometimes called. Vestiges’ author was its publisher, Robert Chambers of Edinburgh, who specialized in popular periodicals. He did not admit authorship until shortly before his death in 1871, even though the book had been an immediate…

An instrument, also known as Rutots Spirit Indicator, intended to facilitate contact with spirit entities. The spirit indicator was invented by a young man named Vandermeulen, who died in 1930 while it was still in the testing stage. It consisted of two prisms and a fine wire triangle. The two prisms, one plain and one…

Primarily a Slavic legend of a blood-sucking creature, supposedly the restless soul of a heretic, criminal, or suicide. Folklore claims that the vampire leaves its burial place or coffin (sometimes in the form of a bat to fly by night) seeking to drink blood from the living and then returns to its dark grave before…

Derived from two ancient Greek words, Kosmos meaning universe and logos meaning reasoning, the study of any scientific, mythological, or religious theory of the universe, particularly those involving heavenly bodies. Until about 400 years ago, thinking about the origin and working of the universe was a matter of speculation and religious faith. Creation myths are…

One of the small glands on either side of the vaginal orifice.  

Vulvar pain; a nonspecific syndrome of unknown etiology. Common complaints include sporadic pain, dyspareunia, and pruritus. A provisional diagnosis is based on the patient’s symptoms, and an absence of any other vulvovaginal or systemic pathology. Palliative treatment is individualized, although some women report relief of symptoms with an oxalate-restricted diet. A persistent sensation of burning,…

To the vulva and thigh.