—is of two kinds; one called a summer's, the other, a winter's run; a description of which, with their expected and probable effects, will be found under the heads Grass and Soiling.
V.
VENOMOUS BITES
—are sometimes sustained by horses and dogs; and become the more perplexing, in consequence of not knowing from whence the injury proceeds. Vipers, slow-worms, efts, horse-stingers, hornets, and wasps, seem to be nearly the whole tribe from which bites (or stings) of this description are received. The effect of either is much the same, as to inflammation, pain, and tension; but that the symptoms are not equally severe, being gradational in their degrees of violence, according to the individual by which the wound is inflicted. Of these the viper is by much the worst; for the vesicle in which the poisonous particles are contained, being seated upon the gum close to the insertion of the tooth, in the very act of biting, the vesicle is broken, and the venomous fluid at the same moment communicated to the wound. This is followed by excruciating pain, increasing inflammation, and various violent symptoms, in either man or beast. By way of immediate relief, bleeding is first premised, to unload the vessels, and take off the increasing stricture from the part: this, followed by an early application of the oil of vipers, is said to be infallible. Repeated experiments have proved the finest olive oil to be equally efficacious. The others, however painful at first, soon submit to repeated bathings with the strongest white wine vinegar, or a weak solution of sugar of lead.
VENERY, BEASTS of
,—are little heard or spoken of, but in the code of FOREST LAWS originally framed for the preservation of vert and venison. Beasts of venery (alias, beasts of forest) are the hart, hare, hind, boar, and wolf.
VERDERER
—is a judicial officer of the King's Forest, elected (under his Majesty's writ) by a majority of votes in a convened county court of the shire in which the forest is; and there sworn before the sheriff, to keep and maintain the assizes and laws of the forest; and also to review, receive, and enrol, all the attachments and presentments of all manner of trespasses of the forest in respect to vert and venison.
The official department of a Verderer bears great similitude to that of a coroner, and in this particular respect; that as a coroner, upon the notice of a sudden or accidental death, (if attended with circumstances to render the inquisition necessary,) is to take a personal view of the body, and to make inquiry, upon the joint oaths of twelve men, how and by what means the person came by his or her death, and who and what was the occasion thereof; so it is the official duty of the Verderer to look after and view the beasts of the forest; for any of those being found hurt, wounded, or slain, upon notice given to the Verderer, he is to take a view of the same, and to cause a jury of twelve men to be summoned from the surrounding district, that an inquisition may be made to discover (if possible) how and by whom the said beast was hurt, wounded, or killed. The office of the Verderer at the Court of Attachments, is to sit there to see, hear and examine the attachments of the forest, both in vert and in venison, and to receive the same of the subordinate officers, or those who may attend to present them there, and then to enter them into their own rolls. See Forest Laws.