VACU´ITY, _n._ Deficiency in a part; as, a _vacuity_ in the bony palate.
VAGI´NA, _n._ Any sheath, in general. Particularly, the female sexual
passage. In birds the lowermost tract of the oviduct is sometimes
loosely so called.
VANE, _n._ (151.) See VEXILLUM.
VARIETY, _n._ A nascent species. Practically, the term designates a set
of objects incompletely distinguished from others of the same species,
by reason of slightness of the difference, or presence of connecting
links.
VAS´CULAR, _a._ Permeated with blood vessels. Also equivalent to
_circulatory_; as, the _vascular_ system.
VAS DEF´ERENS, _n._ Tube conveying semen from testes to cloaca.
VAS´TUS, _a._ for _n._ A certain muscle of the thigh.
VEIN, _n._ Vessel conveying blood from the capillaries to the heart.
_Artery_ carries blood from the heart.
VE´NÆ CA´VÆ, _n. pl._ Large veins pouring blood from the system into the
heart.
VE´NOUS, _a._ Pertaining to a vein; as, _venous_ blood, the _venous_
system.
VEN´TER, _n._ Lower belly. (Not well distinguished from _abdomen_, and
little used.) (65.)
VEN´TRAD, _a._ Towards the belly.
VEN´TRAL, _a._ Pertaining to the belly.
VEN´TRICLE, _n._ Chamber of the heart, right or left, whence issue the
pulmonary arteries and the aorta. Compare AURICLE. Also, a cavity of the
cerebrum.
VEN´TRICOUS, _a._ Swollen; bulbous.
VENTRIC´ULUS BULBO´SUS, _n._ Same as _gigerium_.
VENTRIC´ULUS SUCCENTURIA´TUS, _n._ Same as _proventriculus_.
VERMICULA´TION, _n._ Very fine crosswise marking.
VER´MIFORM, _a._ Shaped like a worm; as, a woodpecker’s tongue.
LUMBRICIFORM is the same.
VER´NAL, _a._ Relating to the spring.
VERRU´COUS, _a._ Warty.
VER´SATILE, _n._ Reversible; susceptible of turning either way.
VERTEBRA, _n._; pl. _vertebræ_. Any bone of the spine; any one of the
backbones.
VER´TEBRAL, _a._ Pertaining to the backbone.
VERTEBRARTE´RIAL (_canal_), _a._ for _n._ Passage for an artery through
several cervical vertebræ.
VER´TEBRATE, _a._ Having a backbone; also, used substantively for an
animal with a backbone.
VER´TEX, _n._ Crown; highest central portion of pileus.
VESCIC´ULA SEMINA´LIS, _n._ A structure, imperfect or wanting in birds,
for storage of semen.
VESTI´TUS, _a._ or _n._ Clothed, i.e. feathered. Clothing, i.e. plumage;
as, _vestitus nuptialis_, breeding plumage.
VEXIL´LUM, _n._ Rhachis and web of a feather taken together; all of a
feather excepting _calamus_.
VIBRIS´SA, _n._; pl. _vibrissæ_. Bristly or bristle-tipped feather about
the mouth of a bird.
VIC´TUS, _n._ Food; diet.
VIL´LI, _n. pl._ Soft papulous projections of membrane.
VIS´CERAL, _a._ Pertaining to the viscera.
VIS´CUS, _n._; pl. _viscera_. Any interior organ of the body, but
especially of the digestive system. The stomach is a _viscus_; the
intestines are _viscera_.
VI´SUS, _n._ Vision; eyesight.
VI´TELLINE, _a._ Pertaining to the vitellus.
VI´TELLINE MEM´BRANE, _n._ An envelope of the vitellus.
VITEL´LUS, _n._ YOLK (which see).
VIT´REOUS, _a._ Glassy; said of the humor in the back chamber of the
eye.
VIT´TA, _n._ Broad band of color.
VO´MER, _n._ A bone of the skull, lying at the base, in the median line,
in advance of the sphenoid. Also, the peculiarly shaped and enlarged
last bone of the tail, or pygostyle.