Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism is the practice of not eating meat or fish. Some vegetarians eat or drink animal products, like milk, eggs and honey - those who don't are called vegans. Vegans also often will not use animal products like leather, but many vegetarians do.

HISTORY

Vegetarianism probably first featured in connection with religious purification rituals; for instance a vegetarian ideology was practised among religious groups in Egypt around 3,200 BC, with abstinence from flesh based upon their reincarnation beliefs.

Advocacy of a regular fleshless diet began around 500 BC in India through the teachings of Buddhism and Hinduism. These religions condemn the taking of animal life to obtain food because of their belief in the rebirth of the soul in animal bodies.

In the eastern Mediterranean the philosophical teachings of the philosopher Pythagoras included advocating a diet which precluded meat (it is not known if he ate fish) in relation to the gluttonous excesses of his fellow Greeks.

In ancient times non-meat eaters were generally known as Pythagoreans or adhering to the "Pythagorean System". The word "vegetarian" to describe non-meat eaters wasn't coined until the mid-19th century.

Pythagoras Advocating Vegetarianism (1618-1630) by Peter Paul Rubens (below) was inspired by Pythagoras's speech advocating vegetarianism in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Roman gladiators and legionnaires ate a vegetarian diet consisting of three-quarters carbohydrates, mainly from wheat or barley.

For many centuries in the medieval era, Christian monks, hermits and ascetics forsook flesh eating as cruel, gluttonous and expensive. However, by the 13th century though many monks still lived in austere circumstances, not so many were vegetarians. For instance Saint Dominic, the founder of the Order of the Dominicans ate sparingly often just a couple of egg yolks but his diet did often include a small piece of fish.

In 1339 the Pope conceded that the monks might continue to eat meat provided that only half their number did so at a time, the other half maintaining a vegetarian rule.

From the 13th to 17th centuries when meat was largely a scarce and expensive luxury for the rich, an open vegetarian ideology was a rare phenomenon. Indeed by the beginning of the 18th century it was common to torture animals before killing them in the mistaken belief it improved their taste in the cooking process.

With the Enlightenment there arose a new assessment of man's place in the order of creation and moral objections were raised at the mistreatment of animals. In parallel with this many radical Christians were giving the cause of non-flesh eating great impetus in Britain including John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who believed in its health aspects.

The Bible Christian Church was founded by the Reverend William Cowherd in Salford, NW England in 1809. He saw vegetarianism as a form of temperance. To join the church, members had to sign a pledge that committed them to abstaining from meat eating. One of his followers a Martha Brotherton, published the first vegetarian cookbook, Vegetable Cookery, in 1812.

Two others of the Reverend William Cowherd's followers, the Reverend James Clark Reverend and the William Metcalfe emigrated to the United States in 1817 with 39 other members of the Bible Christian Church and formed the nucleus of a vegetarian movement in America. By the 1830s vegetarian communes were evident in the USA.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word vegetarian was first used in 1842. The word should not be confused with the word "vegetable"; it is derived from the Latin "vegetus", meaning "whole, vigorous, active."

The Bible Christian Church took the lead in establishing the first national Vegetarian Society. The initial meeting to bring like-minded people together was held in the less-than-aptly named Ham Common. A second meeting was held on September 30, 1847, at Northwood Villa, home of the Hydropathic Institute in Ramsgate, Kent. Joseph Brotherton, the husband of Martha Brotherton, was invited to chair the historic meeting, and the Vegetarian Society was born.

Society notice (1890)

By the end of the 19th century, vegetarian restaurants were becoming increasingly popular in London, offering cheap and nutritious meals in respectable settings.

In 1994 controls of export of British beef to Europe were imposed due to fears of contamination from BSE. Such health scares contributed to the increasing amount of consumers turning to vegetarian options.

In 2014, the Indian town of Palitana became the first city in the world to be legally vegetarian. It has outlawed, or made illegal, the buying and selling of meat, fish and eggs, and also related jobs or work, such as fishing and the rearing of animals for food. Palitana, which is located  in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat, India is a major pilgrimage centre for Jains.

FAMOUS VEGETARIANS

Daniel, a Jewish exile in Babylon in the 6th century BC and a member of the royal household refused to eat meat. This was because the food being offered to him was "non-kosher" and may have been slaughtered as part of pagan religious rites. As a consequence Daniel, along with three others opted for a vegetarian diet and amazed the chief official by appearing healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.

Bible Illustrations by Sweet Media

Pope Gregory I (c540-604) who introduced the Gregorian chant into Christian church services, refrained from eating the flesh of animals. From his mid-thirties, as befitting his ascetic lifestyle, he ate only raw fruit and vegetables.

Bruno of Cologne (1030-1101), along with six companions, founded the Carthusian order in the isolated valley of Chartreuse, near Grenoble in SE France. There they lived as hermits, eating only vegetables and coarse bread.

In 1115 Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), a son of a French baron, entered Citeaux monastery
along with twenty-seven of his relations including four of his brothers. He had elected to withdraw from riches to live a life of extreme austerity and a diet of cooked beech and herbs.

Leonardo Da Vinci was a devoted vegetarian, a nearly-unheard of practice at his time . His love for animals was such that he would often purchase caged birds just to release them.

Benjamin Franklin became a vegetarian at 16, in part because he could save half of what his brother paid him, to buy more books. Franklin also declared the consumption of meat to be "unprovoked murder."

After a few years of vegetarianism, despite his dislike of their aroma, Franklin’s liking for fish tempted him back to eating flesh.

The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was a strong advocate of vegetarianism. Shelley wrote several essays advocating a vegetarian diet, "A Vindication of Natural Diet" and "On the Vegetable System of Diet".

His wife Mary Shelley was also an ethical vegetarian and strong advocate for animals. One can see references to vegetarianism in her writing. For example, in her novel Frankenstein, the 'monster' was a vegetarian.

Sylvester Graham (July 5, 1794 – September 11, 1851) was an American Presbyterian minister who preached nutrition and wanted to reform the eating habits of America and the world. Graham reached this conviction as the result of a bout of sickness he suffered. On his recovery, he gave much thought to the influence of diet on man's state of health and he became an advocate of vegetarianism stressing the advantage of eating a sufficient amount of roughage. The minister embarked on a campaign to induce people to eat cereals and bread baked from coarse grain. Preferably, he suggested, the bread should be stale, as this would aid digestion.

Sylvester Graham developed Graham bread a natural, whole grain bread, which proved successful. It was the first internationally consumed bread.

Vegetarian s'mores made with graham crackers

In 1887 an 18-year-old South African Indian Mohandas Gandhi was sent to London to study law at the University College. He had vowed to his mother that he would observe vegetarianism but at first he struggled and his friends warned him that it would wreck his studies as well as his health. Fortunately for Gandhi he came across a vegetarian restaurant and he was able to feed himself amply rather than nearly starving himself.

Later in his life, the vegetarian Gandhi would not even pluck fruit from a tree as he felt this was too violent a gesture. He relied on gathering fruit once it had fallen to the ground. At one time he reduced his daily food to four ingredients, wheat, vegetables, a little oil and fruit but he became very ill. So he added to his diet goat's milk and salt.

FUN VEGETARIANISM FACTS

A 1992 market research study conducted by the Yankelovich research organisation concluded that "of the 12.4 million people in the US who call themselves vegetarian, 68% are female and only 32% are male.

In 1971, 1 percent of U.S. citizens described themselves as vegetarians. By 2015, another Harris Poll National Survey found that 3,4% Americans ate a solely vegetarian diet.

A 2018 study by comparethemarket.com found that approximately 14% of British people are vegetarian.

India is the country with the largest number of vegetarians. In fact it has more vegetarians than the rest of the world put together. According to the 2006 Hindu-CNN-IBN State of the Nation Survey, 31% of Indians are vegetarian, while another 9% also consume eggs (ovo-vegetarian).

A vegetarian thali from Rajasthan, India. By Raveesh 

Since India has over 400 million vegetarians, every packaged food or toothpaste in India must have a mark to distinguish whether it is vegetarian or non-vegetarian. The vegetarian symbol is a green square with a green dot in the center while the non vegetarian is the same in red.

Kangatarianism is a vegetarian diet with the addition of kangaroo meat as a choice. It has environmental benefits because indigenous wild kangaroos require no extra land or water for farming and produce little methane.

Cats can go blind and die if forced onto a vegetarian diet.

John Lennon was the only Beatle who didn't become a full-time vegetarian.

Source Food For Thought by Ed Pearce

Vegetable

Anything that is a root, leaf, or stem of a plant is a vegetable—which is why corn, zucchini, green beans, and tomatoes are fruits.

One of oldest known vegetables is the pea, which was used by the Chinese in 2000 BC. It was also prized by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.

Ancient vegetables were small and unpalatable. Ancient tomatoes were the size of berries; potatoes were no bigger than peanuts. Corn was a wild grass, its tooth-cracking kernels borne in clusters as small as pencil erasers.

The word “vegetable” has been with us since the 1400s.

The abbreviation “veggie”, for a plant used as food, only began to be used in 1907, while “veggie” meaning a vegetarian was first seen in 1942.

Lachanophobia is the fear of vegetables.

The worst U.S. state for vegetable consumption is Mississippi, where only 5.5% of people consume the recommended amount of vegetables.

Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, kohlrabi, savoy and others are all technically the same plant. Through history, different cultures bred the plant to express different qualities, creating the varied cultivars we see today.

The name of 'bubble and squeak' comes from the sound made by leftover vegetables from a roast dinner when fried.

The belief that all raw vegetables are healthier is a misconception. A host of vegetables have nutritional content which only gets unlocked when cooked. Cooked asparagus, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, peppers and spinach are healthier than their raw counterparts.

There is as much vitamins and nutrients in frozen vegetables as in fresh ones. This is due to the fact that they have been quickly frozen after picking to preserve their properties, unlike "fresh" ones that can stay for days in a storage or display.

Source scientificamerican.com

Vegemite

Vegemite is an Australian-made food made from leftover brewers' yeast extract used for making beer.

It was developed by an Australian chemist named Dr Cyril P Callister at Fred Walker & Co in Melbourne in 1922. He'd been asked to come up with a new spread following the disruption of British Marmite imports after World War I.

Callister developed the new spread from leftover brewers' yeast extract and blended it with ingredients like celery, onion, salt, and a few secret ones.

Fred Walker & Co ran a competition inviting the public to dream up a name for its new spread. A prize of fifty pounds for finalists guaranteed heaps of entries and from the pile a name was pulled by Fred Walker's daughter, Sheilah: "Vegemite".

In 1935, customers were given a free jar of Vegemite with every Fred Walker & Co product purchased, and the popularity of the spread started to grow after this promotion.

Vegemite was officially endorsed by the British Medical Association as a rich source of B vitamins in 1939. The success of the nutritious spread was boosted during the Second World War when it was chosen to be included in Australian Army ration packs. By the late 1940s vegemite was used in nine out of ten Australian homes.

Vegemite on toast. By Tristanb 

Vegemite is generally used as a spread for sandwiches, toast, crumpets and cracker biscuits and also as a filling for pastries.

Vegemite is said to have naturally occurring anti-bacterial properties, which means you can use it to disinfect and clean anything and everything from cutting boards to pots and pans.

Veganism

The term “vegan”, for someone refraining from eating or using any animal products, was coined in 1994 by Vegan Society founder Donald Watson.

Watson explained the word by saying he suggested it “because veganism starts with vegetarianism and carries it through to its logical conclusion.” Actually the word Vegan already existed. In the mid-1940s a vegan was simply a non-dairy vegetarian.  It was Watson who extended it to including abstinence from animal products such as leather and honey.

Vegan paella

The DJ and voice actor Casey Kasem was a devout vegan, supported animal rights and environmental causes, and was a critic of factory farming. He initially quit voicing Shaggy in the late 1990s, after being asked to voice Shaggy in a Burger King commercial, returning in 2002 after negotiating to have Shaggy become a vegetarian.

Veganism is protected under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

“Veganism” is an anagram of “saving me”.

A 2018 survey commissioned by the Vegan Society found that there were 600,000 vegans in Great Britain (1.16% of the population.)

According to the 2014 Faunalytics survey in the US, 70% of those who adopted a vegan diet, later abandoned it.

Beyoncé launched a vegan home delivery service called 22 Days Nutrition in February 2015 with her personal trainer Marco Borges. The idea behind the plan is that it takes 21 days to break your unhealthy eating habits.

In the United States, Black people are twice as likely as the general population to identify as vegan. 

Approximately one half of vegans are vitamin B12 deficient.

Oreos are vegan-friendly since the cream doesn’t contain any dairy products.

Source Daily Express

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams was born on October 12, 1872, in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England, the son of a clergyman.

Vaughan Williams c. 1920

Ralph was very young when his father died and his widow took her son and his two siblings to live in her family home, Leith Hill Place, Wotton, Surrey.

He was educated at the Royal College of Music in London and Trinity College in Cambridge University, where Hubert Parry was his tutor.

CAREER 

Ralph Vaughan Williams was the dominant English composer of the early 20th century. He broke the ties with continental Europe that for two centuries--notably through Handel and Mendelssohn--had made Britain virtually a musical province of Germany.

Vaughan Williams started with the piano, but his aptitude for the instrument was considered poor. He found his niche when he discovered the violin. The composer said, "I never could play [the piano], and the violin…was my musical salvation."

After leaving Cambridge University, Vaughan Williams became organist of St. Barnabas' Church in London. He held the position from 1895 to 1899 for a salary of £50 a year.

From 1904 to 1906 Vaughan Williams was editor of The English Hymnal, for which he wrote his celebrated tune 'Sine Nomine' for the hymn "For All the Saints'."

Vaughan Williams in 1913

Ralph Vaughan Williams was 42 when World War I broke out in 1914. He could have avoided military service, but he volunteered for the medical corps as a private. With the Royal Army Medical Corps he drove ambulance wagons in France and later in Greece. Vaughan Williams had a dangerous time of it, constantly having to go into no man's land under enemy fire to bring back the wounded.

In 1917 Vaughan Williams was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, seeing action in France from March 1918.

He didn't talk much about his war experiences but his Third Symphony, with its lone bugle plaintive solo voice, draws on those terrible years.

After serving in World War I, Vaughan Williams became professor of composition at the Royal College of Music and conductor of London's Bach Choir. He continued to compose until his death in 1958.

WORKS 

Though he studied for a time at both Berlin, and Paris, Vaughan Williams remained unaffected by continental European influence, and developed a national style of music deriving from English choral tradition, especially of the Tudor period, and folksong.

Vaughan Williams began to collect folk songs in the early 1900s and while visiting the Surrey village of Forest Green in 1903 he heard the original song "The Ploughboy's Dream". The young composer and transcribed and arranged it under the title of "Forest Green."

Between 1905 and 1906 Vaughan Williams wrote three "Norfolk Rhapsodies"' based on melodies from that region.

Vaughan Williams' first major composition was the cantata "Toward the Unknown Region" (1905).

Dissatisfied with the music he had written, Vaughan Williams went to Paris in 1909 to work with Maurice Ravel, even though he was three years older than his tutor. His studies with the French composer helped him clarify the textures of his music. From then, his symphonies expressed a wide range of moods.

In 1910 Vaughan Williams completed his first significant composition, the popular "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis". The piece is for a string orchestra divided into two sections. It uses a theme by the famous 16th century composer Tallis.

Opening of Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, 1910

His "The Lark Ascending" (1914) has been voted the UK's most popular piece of music eight times in an annual poll of Classic FM listeners. A short work for solo violin and orchestra, the melody came to him on the day Britain entered World War I, as he walked along cliffs at Margate, Kent. The violin sounds like a skylark singing in the sky.

In 1934 Vaughan Williams wrote a short piece for flute, harp and string orchestra called Fantasia on Greensleeves which is based on the famous English Renaissance tune "Greensleeves."

As well as nine symphonies, Vaughan Williams also composed the ballet Job: A Masque for Dancing (1930) which has been frequently staged, the opera The Pilgrim's Progress (1948-9), and numerous choral works, songs, and hymns, including an adaption of "To Be A Pilgrim."

Vaughan Williams wrote masses of music for the 1948 movie Scott Of The Antarctic – far more than was used in the film. Never one to waste good material, the composer used the music for his epic "Sinfonia Antartica."

PERSONAL LIFE 

He insisted on the traditional English pronunciation of his first name, "Rafe".

The composer was related to both Charles Darwin and the potter Josiah Wedgwood.

Vaughan Williams and fellow composer Gustav Holst first met as students in 1895, and formed a lifelong friendship. They often went on long country walks together, and were great admirers of each other's works.

He married on October 9, 1897 Adeline Fisher, the daughter of Herbert Fisher, an old friend of the Vaughan Williams family. They honeymooned for several months in Berlin, where he studied with Max Bruch.

Vaughan Williams and Adeline lived in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London from 1905 to 1929. There were no children from their marriage.

Cheyn Walk. By Colin Smith,

During the 1920s Adeline became increasingly immobilised by arthritis, and the numerous stairs in their London home caused the Vaughan Williamses to move in 1929 to a more manageable house, "The White Gates", Dorking, where they lived until Adeline's death.

In 1938 Vaughan Williams met Ursula Wood (1911–2007), the wife of an army officer. She was a poet, and had approached the composer with a proposed scenario for a ballet. Despite their both being married, and a forty year age-gap, they fell in love and maintained a secret affair for over a decade.

In 1951 Adeline died, aged eighty. After losing Adeline, Ursula helped Vaughan Williams to refashion his daily existence. On February 7, 1953 they married and settled in London. Their marriage brought him much happiness in his last years.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH

Vaughan Williams became increasingly deaf in his old age. This was because of the noise of gunfire he had been exposed to when he was serving as a stretcher bearer in World War I.

He went on composing through his seventies and eighties, producing his last symphony months before his death at the age of 85.

Vaughan Williams signing the guest book at Yale University in 1954

Vaughan Williams died suddenly in the early hours of August 26, 1958 at Hanover Terrace, London. Two days later, after a private funeral at Golders Green, he was cremated.

Source Europress Encyclopedia

Vatican City

The Vatican City is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city: for this reason Rome has been often defined as capital of two states.

View of St. Peter's Square from the top of Michelangelo's dome By Diliff 

HISTORY

When Constantine I made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire in the 4th century, the emperor gave as a gift to the Church his old home, the Lateran Palace.

Other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. This new empire was meant to be altogether Christian, unlike Rome, which was full of temples of heathen gods. The emperors from this time usually lived at Constantinople or some other place in the East.

In 754 Pepin the Short, the King of the Francs, led an army that defeated the Lombards of northern Italy, who were threatening the pope. He promised the erection of Papal States in central Italy to the pope, Zacharias. This grant, called the Donation of Pepin, marked the beginning of the secular power of the papacy.

Between the 8th century and 1870, the Papal States were among the major states of Italy. At their zenith, the Papal States covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio (which includes Rome), Marche, Umbria and Romagna, and portions of Emilia.

By Capmo - Own work

The Pope has traditionally been based in Rome since 1377 when Pope Gregory XI began to reside in a house on Vatican Hill.

Michelangelo designed the dark blue, yellow and red uniforms that are worn to this day by the Swiss Guards who guard the Vatican.  The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrived in Rome on January 22, 1506, to provide security for the pope.

In 1870 Italian troops occupied Rome and deprived the Pope of all his territory except Vatican City. Pope Pius IX claimed he was a prisoner of the Italian state and excommunicated all the people who helped invade the Papal state.

Following the incorporation of the Papal States into a united Italy in 1870, successive popes were a "voluntary prisoner of the Vatican" refusing to leave their small remaining grounds as a protest. In the late 1920s Benito Mussolini decided to sign an agreement with the Holy See, called the Lateran Treaty. Under the Lateran Treaty, signed on February 11, 1929, Italy recognised the sovereignty of the Pope over the city of the Vatican. In return, the Papacy renounced all its claims to former Papal States in Italy, recognized Mussolini's rule and agreed to keep out of politics.

The State of the Vatican City was created by the Lateran Treaty, forming the sovereign territory of the Holy See. The name was taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state.

The flag of Vatican City was adopted on June 7, 1929. The flag consists of two vertical bands with the crossed keys of Saint Peter and the Papal Tiara centred in the white band. It is one of only two square sovereign-state flags, the other being the flag of Switzerland.

On the evening of November 5, 1943, a single Allied plane accidentally dropped four bombs on the Vatican during World War II. The bombs fell in the Vatican Gardens, causing considerable damage to buildings and property, but there were no casualties. The bombing of the Vatican was a highly controversial event at the time, and it remains a mystery to this day who was responsible for the attack. The Allies initially denied any involvement, but they later admitted that the bombing had been an accident.

In 1982 Roberto Calvi, known as God's banker because of his ties with the Vatican, was found hanged under a London Bridge shortly before the collapse of the Italian bank of which he was chair, Banco Ambrosiano. Warrants were issued in Italy against three Vatican bank executives held responsible for the crash. The warrants were annulled in 1987 because the affairs of the Vatican bank, officially known as The Institute for Religious Works, are outside Italian jurisdiction.

FUN VATICAN CITY FACTS

Vatican City is the smallest country in the world by both area and population. The whole country is 0.44 km2 (0.17 sq mi), with a population of just 1,000.

Map of Vatican City,. By Thomas Römer/OpenStreetMap data,

The Pope, elected for Life by The Sacred College of Cardinals, is absolute head of state of Vatican City. He appoints a pontifical commission to administer the state's affairs on his behalf and under his direction.

The Vatican is the largest wine consumer in the world per capita. Each resident of the city-state consumes an average of 74 liters of wine per year, or nearly 100 bottles. This is twice as much as in France and seven times more than in the United States.

The largest animal ever seen in the Vatican was Hanno, an elephant given in 1514 by Manuel I, the King of Portugal to Pope Leo X.

The Vatican is the only nation in the world that can lock its own gates at night.

The obelisk that stands at the center of Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican City, is a four thousand year old Egyptian obelisk that was brought to Rome from Alexandria by Caligula in 37 AD.

The cash machines in the Vatican City are the only ones in the world that offer Latin as a language display option.

When Switzerland joined the United Nations in 2002, it left the Vatican City as the last widely recognized state without full UN membership. Kosovo (not recognized by enough UN members) and Taiwan (place was taken by China in 1971) also aren't members.

Vatican City is one of three countries completely surrounded by one other country. The other two are Lesotho and San Marino.

Vatican City is one of two states where divorce is forbidden, the other one being The Philippines.

According to the Herald Sun in March 2011, there were "only 32 female citizens" residing in the "smallest state in the world." As of February 2013, the majority of those women are from Italy.

Vatican City is the only country in the world in which women cannot vote.

Source Hutchinson Encyclopedia

Variolation

Variolation is a method of inoculation against smallpox by deliberately causing a mild case of smallpox using material from a person with the same disease. (Variola is the medical name for smallpox.)

Variolation was first used in China in the fifteenth century. They implemented a method of "nasal insufflation" administered by blowing powdered smallpox material, usually scabs, up the nostrils. Variolation spread to the Ottoman Empire around 1670.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was the beautiful wife of Edward Montagu, the British ambassador to Turkey from 1716 to 1718. She contracted smallpox, which pockmarked her face, and as a result she became interested in the inoculation methods that the Turks used to deal with the disease. While there, she had the practice conducted on her five-year-old son, Edward Montagu. On her return to England, Lady Montagu had her four-year-old daughter inoculated in the presence of physicians of the royal court in 1721. Both variolations proved successful.

Lady Montagu in Turkish dress.

The following year, Caroline  of Ansbach, the  wife of King George II, no doubt alarmed by the prevalence of smallpox in London at the time, trialed six prisoners with variolation in return for commuting their death sentences. When this was successful, she inoculated her own children, popularising the process.

Variolation became a common procedure once it was observed how smallpox deaths in London amongst those who had been inoculated were a great deal less frequent than amongst those who had not been inoculated.

France was the last European country to embrace variolation. It was not until an outbreak of smallpox in Paris in 1752 nearly killed the heir to the French throne that the public embraced the practice after seeing the prince variolated. However, after an epidemic was traced back to an inoculation, variolation was banned within city limits. These conditions caused physicians to move just outside the cities and continue to practice variolation in the suburbs.

At the turn of the 18th century, African tribes were already carrying out variolation by means of the tribal doctor who would transfer fluid from the smallpox spots of an infected person to a non-infected person. Meanwhile in Massachusetts, the Reverend Cotton Mather, a Puritan minister who was interested in science was told about variolation in 1706 by his African slave Onesimus. He applied the technique to a son and several servants, thus becoming the first person in North America to practice inoculation.

Opponents to this method were concerned it would cause the rapid spread of smallpox and after Mather inoculated his own son, a bomb was thrown through his window.

George Washington the commander in chief of the continental army during the War of Independence had his entire army inoculated in 1777, a controversial decision, as few doctors at the time believed in variolation.

The term variolation refers solely to inoculation with smallpox virus. The latter term was first used in 1800 soon after Edward Jenner introduced the smallpox vaccine derived from cowpox, an animal disease distinct from smallpox. The term variolation was then used from the 19th century to avoid confusion with vaccination.

Edward Jenner's cowpox had a very low death rate and was also more effective than variolation. Also, unlike a variolated person, a vaccinated person could not spread smallpox to others. Moreover, his vaccine seldom left a rash.

Below are Watercolour drawings showing variolation on versos and cowpox inoculation (vaccination) on fourteenth day smallpox (left) and cowpox (right).

Variolation began to be replaced by this new vaccine, and was eventually outlawed in England in 1840.

Vanuatu

Vanuatu is a group of islands of volcanic origin in the South Pacific. Vanuatu is an independent republic within the United Kingdom commonwealth. Two of the islands (Matthew and Hunter) are also claimed by France.

Vanuatu comprises about 82 small islands of which 65 are lived on.

There is about 800 miles (1,300 km) north to south distance between the outermost islands.

Fourteen of Vanuatu's islands have surface areas of more than 100 square kilometres (39 sq mi).

HISTORY

The islands in this South Pacific archipelago were first reached from Europe in 1606 by a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós. The islands were claimed by Spain which had a short-lived settlement there before they were forgotten again.

The Vanuatu islands were rediscovered in 1768 and in 1774 by Captain James Cook who named them the New Hebrides.

James Cook landing at Tanna island, c. 1774

In the 1880s, France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the archipelago. The New Hebrides (or Nouvelles Hebrides) were joint-administered by the two countries from 1906.

Half a million or more US troops poured into Vanuatu in preparation for a huge counter-offensive against the Japanese during World War II.  Coconut plantations were cleared, local men were recruited as porters, and the colonial outposts of Port Vila and Luganville were transformed into bustling military hubs. As a result, Vanuatu managed to escape Japanese occupation during World War II.

On July 30, 1980 the New Hebrides became independent, within the Commonwealth, as the Republic of Vanuatu.

The first president was George Kalkoa, who adopted the name Sokomanu (leader of thousands), and the first Prime Minister was Father Walter Lini.

FUN VANUATU FACTS

The name of Vanuatu, from two local words meaning ‘home' and ‘stand' was adopted on independence in 1980.

The constitution dates from independence in 1980. It provides for a president, who is a formal head of state , selected for five year term by electric college consisting of parliament and the presidents of the country's regional council.

Vanuatu has a population of 272,459 people (2016 census).

Their local language is a form of pidgin English known as Bislama. The official languages are Bislama, English and French.

Their national dish ‘laplap' is a root vegetable cake. It comprises vegetable paste, coconut milk and meat cooked in a banana leaf.

Laplap. By Ronoleo -  Wikipedis

The highest point in Vanuatu is Mount Tabwemasana, at 1,879 metres (6,165 ft), on the island of Espiritu Santo.

The Vanuatu national anthem is “Yumi, yumi, yumi,” (We, we, we).

Bungee jumping originated as land diving, a ritual performed by the men of the southern part of Pentecost Island, Vanuatu. The men jump from the top of wooden towers around 20 to 30 meters (66 to 98 ft) high, with two tree vines wrapped around the ankles. It also acts as a coming-of-age ceremony for the youths who leap from lower platforms to demonstrate their courage.

A villager cuts the vines from a diver after a successful jump. By Paul Stein from New Jersey

Residents of one of the Vanuatu islands were devastated to learn of the retirement of Prince Philip in 2017. There's a cult in the small island nation called the Prince Phillip Movement that believes that the British Queen;s consort is a divine being. He once sent a signed picture of himself to them and they sent him a pig killing club. The followers of the cult had been waiting five decades in vain for him to visit — hoping that he would be able to cure all their diseases and fix their food shortages. (Every morning, they pray to the Duke of Edinburgh and ask him to bless their bananas.)

Sources BBC, Daily Express, Daily Mail

Vanilla

The vanilla fruit was originally a native of Mexico, growing on the orchid Vanilla, which is a vine. It is now cultivated elsewhere.

Pixiebay

The vanilla orchid bears pods which when dried are the source of vanilla flavouring, used in confectionary.

Vanilla beans were regarded by the Aztecs as sacred and of divine making. They were so valued by the Aztecs that they were one of the ways in which common people paid tribute to their emperors. According to their legend, their origin goes back to the early days of the world when the gods still walked the Earth. One god, Xanat was in love with a human youth and she transformed herself to look like a vanilla vine so she could remain on earth with him and his people.

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés is credited with introducing vanilla to Europe in the 1520s. He sent back to Spain from Mexico a consignment of the ground vanilla beans.

Below is a drawing of the Vanilla plant from the Florentine Codex (circa 1580) and description of its use and properties written in the Nahuatl language.

Europeans in the 16th century used vanilla, for medicinal purposes particularly as a nerve stimulant. They also believed it to be an aphrodisiac.

Until the mid-19th century, Mexico was the biggest producer of vanilla. However by the end of the century Madagascar, Réunion, and the Comoros Islands were producing 200 metric tons of vanilla fruits, about 80% of the vanilla grown in the world.

Madagascar and Indonesia currently produce two-thirds of the world's supply of vanilla between them.

As a 12 year old slave boy in 1841, Edmond Albius invented the technique for pollinating vanilla orchids profitably. Without this technique, it’s unlikely that vanilla would be nearly as well known as it is today.

Before the 19th century, when vanilla pods became easier to acquire, vanilla ice cream was a costly treat enjoyed only by the wealthy. Today it's the world's most popular ice cream flavor.

Today, vanilla is the most popular flavour of ice cream, taking up around 25% of overall sales of ice cream with chocolate coming in a distant second.

Twinkies switched from their original banana cream filling to their now standard vanilla cream filling due to the rationing of bananas during World War II.

Vanilla is the second-most expensive spice after saffron because growing the vanilla seed pods is particularly labor-intensive.

Vanilla extract displays its distinctive color

Today, 95% of the vanilla flavoring today is done in chemical laboratories. The pure (man-made) form of the flavoring is artificially flavored with vanillin derived from lignin, a natural polymer found in wood, instead of vanilla fruits.

Vanilla flavoring is sometimes made with an ingredient from beaver urine.

Source Food for Thought by Ed Pearce

Vancouver

The coastal seaport city of Vancouver is on a peninsula on the West Coast of Canada, less than a one-hour drive north of the Canada-USA. border. Between Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean to the west is a large island called Vancouver Island.

The Vancouver area had been inhabited by native tribes for more than 4,000 years, before British naval captain George Vancouver became the first European to visit the area in the 1790s. Captain Vancouver entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca, between Vancouver Island and the Washington state mainland on April 29, 1792 and proceeded to explore the area.

A community sprung up in the area named Gastown in the late 1860s on the west edge of the Hastings Mill logging sawmill's property. It originated on July 1, 1867 with a makeshift tavern set up on a plank between two stumps run by John "Gassy Jack" Deighton after whom the community was named.

In 1870, Gastown was incorporated as the town of Granville, named in honor of the then-British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Granville.

On April 6, 1886, Granville was incorporated as the City of Vancouver, with around 1000 residents. It was named after George Vancouver.

View of Gastown from Carrall and Water Street in 1886.

The Great Vancouver Fire, on June 13, 1886, destroyed most of the newly incorporated city of Vancouver. The fire started in the city's downtown area and spread rapidly due to the prevailing dry and windy conditions. It consumed numerous buildings and structures, including homes, businesses, and the recently constructed Canadian Pacific Railway station. Rebuilding efforts began promptly, and the city was able to recover and grow in the following years. Its population grew to over 20,000 by the turn of the century and 100,000 by 1911.

The 321-foot tall art deco Marine Building in Downtown Vancouver used to be the tallest building in not just Canada, but in the entire British Empire.

The Lions Gate Bridge opened to traffic on November 14, 1938. The Lions Gate Bridge opened to traffic on November 14, 1938. It is a suspension bridge that crosses the First Narrows of Burrard Inlet and connects the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, to the North Shore municipalities of the District of North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and West Vancouver. The term "Lions Gate" refers to The Lions, a pair of mountain peaks north of Vancouver.

Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, with 2,566 athletes from 82 countries competing. Venues were spread over a 75-mile area stretching from Richmond to Whistler.

The city of Vancouver has a population of 631,486 people (2016 census), and is the largest city in British Columbia.

Metro Vancouver had a population of 2,463,431 in 2016, making it the third largest metropolitan area in Canada.

Vancouver, Canada has the least affordable housing in North America, more expensive than Manhattan and San Francisco

Fifty-two percent of Vancouver's residents have a first language that is not English. Roughly 30% of the city's inhabitants are of Chinese heritage.

In 1974, a performance artist disguised as Mr. Peanut ran for mayor of Vancouver and received 2685 ballots—3.4 percent of the vote.

Vancouver’s 405-hectare (1,001-acre) Stanley Park, is one of North America’s largest urban greenspaces, hosting around 8 million visitors a year.

Stanley Park By Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada

All of the squirrels in Stanley Park are descended from eight pairs gifted to Vancouver by New York City in 1909.

The Brockton Point totem poles, located inside Stanley Park, are British Columbia’s most visited attraction.

Kitsilano Pool opened on August 15, 1931. The longest saltwater pool in North America, it is 137 meters (450 feet) long, making it almost three times the length of an Olympic-sized pool. The pool is located on Kitsilano Beach and is open from May to September. 

Vancouver's summers are good, as protected by Vancouver Island, the city enjoys more sunshine than British Columbia’s other coastal areas. Winter and autumn are very wet and cloudy.

Source MentalFloss