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U & V.

V has two powers expressed in modern English by two characters, V consonant, and U vowel, which ought to be considered as two letters; but, as they were long confounded while the two uses were annexed to one form, the old custom still continues to be followed. U, the vowel has two sounds; one clear, expressed at other times by eu, as obtuse; the other close, as approaching to the Italian u, or English oo, as obtund. V, the consonant, has a sound early approaching to those of b and f. With 6 it is by the Spaniards and Gascons always confounded, and in the Runic alphabet is expressed by the same character with f, distinguished only by a diacritical point. Its sound in English is uniform. It is never mute.

U, u, V, or v, is used, 1. As a letter; 2. As a numeral; and 3. As an abbreviation. I. As a letter it is the twentieth of our alphabet, and the fifth vowel. It is formed in the voice by a round configuration of the lips, and a greater extrusion of the under one than in forming the letter o, and the tongue is also more canulated. The sound is short in crust, must, tun, tub; but is lengthened by a final e, as in tune, tube, &c. In some words it is rather acute than long; as in brute, flute, lute, &c. It is mostly long in polysyllables; as in union, curious, &c., but in some words it is obscure, as in nature, venture, &c. This letter, in the form of V or v, is properly a consonant, and as such is placed before all the vowels; as in vacant, venal, vibrate, &c. Though the letters vand u had always two sounds, they had only the form v till the beginning of the fourth century, when the other form was introduced, the inconvenience of expressing two different sounds by the same letter having been observed long before. II. As a numeral V stands for five; and with a dash added at top, thus V, it signifies 5000. III. As an abbreviation, among the Romans V. A. stood for veterani assignati; V. B. viro bono; V. B. A. viri boni arbitratu; V. B. F. vir bonæ fidei; V. C. vir consularis; V. C. C. F. vale, conjux charissime, feliciter; V. D. D. voto dedicatur; V. G. verbi gratia; Vir. Ve. virgo vestalis; VL. videlicet; V. N. quinto nonarum. VA'CANT, adj. Į Fr. vacant; Lat. vacans. VACANCY, n. s. Empty; unfilled; void : hence at leisure; disengaged: the noun substantive corresponding.

They were content to bribe them with the nomination of some bishops, and disposal of the revenues of some churches during the vacancies. Lesley. They which have the government scatter the army abroad, and place them in villages to take their victuals of them, at such vacant times as they lie not Spenser.

in the camp.

How is 't,

That thus you bend your eye on vacancy, And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? Shakspeare. Hamlet. When alone, or in company, they sit still without doing any thing, I like it worse; for all dispositions to idleness or vacancy, even before they are habits, are dangerous.

Wotton.

Religion is the interest of all; but philosophy of

those only that are at leisure, and vacant from the affairs of the world. More's Divine Dialogues.

room to receive it.

Why should the air so impetuously rush into the cavity of the receiver, if there were before no vacant Boyle. If, sometimes, each other's eyes we meet, Those little vacancies from toil are sweet. Dryden. spiritualities was summoned to parliament in the In the vacancy of a bishop, the guardian of the bishop's room. Ayliffe. Others, when they allowed the throne vacant, thought the succession should immediately go to the Swift. The reader finds a wide vacancy, and knows no how to transport his thoughts to the next particu lar, for want of some connecting idea. Watts's Logick. Lat. vaco. To annul

next heir.

VACATE, v. a. I VACATION, n. s. make void; make of no authority; make vacant: the noun substantive corresponding.

As these clerks want not their full task of labour during the open term, so there is for them whereupor to be occupied in the vacation only.

Bacon's Office of Alienation. That after-act vacating the authority of the precedent, tells the world that some remorse touched even Stafford's most implacable enemies. King Charles. Vacation is all that time which passes between term and term at London. Cowell.

He vacates my revenge;
For, while he trusts me, 'twere so base a part
To fawn, and yet betray.

Dryden.

The necessity of observing the Jewish sabbath was vacated by the apostolical institution of the Lord's day. Nelson.

VACCA BERLINGHIERI (Francis), M. D., a native of Ponsacco, near Pisa, studied in the university of that city, and afterwards became professor of surgery. When the Brunonian theory of medicine (see JOHN BROWN) began to prevail in Italy, he attacked it in his Meditazioni sull' Uomo malato e sulla nuova Dottrina di Brown, 1795, 8vo., and was offered the chair of clinical medicine at Pavia, in 1796; but his attachment to his native country induced him to refuse it. He died October 6th, 1812.

VAC'ILLANCY, n. 8. Į Fr. vacillant; Lat. VACILLA'TION. 3 vacillans, vacillo. A state of wavering; fluctuation; inconsistency: vacillation is the word in modern use.

I deny that all mutability implies imperfection, though some does, as that vacillancy in human souls, and such mutations as are found in corporeal matter. More's Divine Dialogues.

The muscles keep the body upright, and prevent its falling, by readily assisting against every vacillation. Derham.

VACCINATION, variola vaccina, or the cow-pox. Any pustulous disease affecting the cow may be called the cow-pox: whether it arises from an over-distension of the udder, in consequence of neglect in milking, from the sting of an insect, or from any other cause. But the species which claims particular attention is that which was recommended to the world by Dr

Jenner, in the year 1798, as a substitute for the small-pox. This, which originates from the grease in the horse's heel, is called the genuine cow-pox; all other kinds are spurious. For proof that the vaccine fluid, fraught with such unspeakable benefits to mankind, derives its origin from this humble source, the reader may consult the works of Dr. Jenner; the Medical and Physical Journal; and a treatise on the subject by Dr. Loy, of which an analysis is given in the Annals of Medicine for the year 1801; and Mr. Ring's work on this disease, which contains the whole mass of evidence that has appeared concerning it.

The genuine cow-pox appears, in the form of vesicles, on the teats of the cow. They are of a blue color, approaching to livid. These vesicles are elevated at the margin, and depressed at the centre. They are surrounded with inflammation. The fluid they contain is limpid. The animals are indisposed; and the secretion of milk is lessened. Solutions of the sulphates of zinc and copper are a speedy remedy for these pustules; otherwise they degenerate into ulcers, which are extremely troublesome. It must, however, be recollected that much of the obstinacy attending these cases is owing to the friction of the pustules in consequence of milking. It is probable that a solution of the superacetate of lead would be preferable to irritating applications. Similar effects are produced in the hands of the milkers, attended with febrile symptoms, and sometimes with tumors. Other parts, where the cuticle is abraded, or which are naturally destitute of that defence, are also liable to the same affection, provided active matter is applied. It even appears that, in some instances, pustules have been produced by the application of vaccine virus to the sound cuticle. One case of this kind may be found in a letter from Dr. Fowler, of Salisbury, to Dr. Pearson, published in the first work of Dr. Pearson on this subject.

The spurious cow-pox is white; another criterion is, that both in the brute animal and in the human subject, when infected with the casual cow-pox, the sores occasioned by the genuine species are more difficult to heal than those which are occasioned by the spurious kind. It is of the utmost importance to distinguish the genuine from the spurious sort, which is also, in some degree, infectious; since a want of such discrimination would cause an idea of security against the small-pox, which might prove delusive. Dr. Jenner has elucidated another point of the first importance relative to the genuine cow-pox itself. It had frequently been observed that, when this disorder prevailed in a farm, some of the persons who contracted it by milking were rendered insusceptible of the small-pox, while others continued liable to that infection. This is owing to the different periods at which the disease was excited in the human subject; one person, who caught the disease while the virus was in an active state, is rendered secure from variolus contagion; while another, who received the infection of the cow-pox when it had undergone a decomposition, is still susceptible of the small-pox. This uncertainty of the prevention, the value of which is beyond all

calculation, is probably the reason why it was not before introduced into practice. It may be doubted whether the public would ever have adopted the practice had not this fallacy been detected by Dr. Jenner.

To him also we are indebted for another discovery of the first importance, namely, that the pustule, excited in the human subject by vaccine matter, yields a fluid of a similar nature with that which was inserted. This experiment, so essential to the general propagation of the practice, and so happy in its result, was never before attempted. It was reserved to crown the labors of Dr. Jenner. A considerable number of instances are on record to prove that farriers and others, who receive infection from the heel of a horse, are either partly or totally deprived of the susceptibility of the small-pox. When Dr. Jenner first published an account of his discoveries, this point was enveloped in some degree of obscurity. He then conceived that the matter of grease was an imperfect preservative against the small-pox. This opinion was founded on the following circumstance:-It had been remarked that farriers either wholly escaped the small-pox, or had that distemper in a milder manner than other people. This, however, is easily reconcileable to reason, if we only suppose that in some cases the infection is communicated when the virus possesses all its prophylactic virtue; and in others when its specific quality is in some measure lost.

This variation in the effects produced by the virus of the horse, inclined Dr. Jenner to believe that it was modified, and underwent some peculiar alteration, in the teats of the cow. He now concludes that it is perfect when it excites the genuine disease in the cow; yet a considerable advantage is derived from its being transferred to the latter animal, the nipples of which furnish a more obvious and a more abundant source of this inestimable fluid than its original element the horse. This theory, that the preservative against variolous contagion is perfect when it issues from the fountain-head, and comes immediately from the hands of Nature, is consonant with reason, and consistent with analogy. Thus one obstacle more to the universal adoption of the practice is removed.

But the chief point which has been controverted respecting vaccine inoculation is the permanency of its effect. Instances have been known where persons have escaped the small-pox for a number of years, and yet have ultimately proved not insusceptible of its infection. When such persons had previously undergone the vaccine disease, their apparent security was erroneously ascribed to that cause; but we have not even a shadow of proof that the cow-pox possesses in the least degree the property of a temporary prophylactic, since it appears not even to retard the eruption of the small-pox where previous infection has been received. By this remark, it is not meant to be asserted that it never supersedes or modifies the small-pox; for we have great reason to believe that such beneficial effects often flow from vaccination; but, where an eruption of the small-pox actually takes place after vaccine inoculation, the two diseases frequently co-exist,

without retarding each other in the smallest degree. It is therefore contrary to all reason and analogy to consider the cow-pox as a mere temporary preservative: it is to be regarded, as we think, as a permanent security against that

terrible disease.

A number of cases are recorded by Dr. Jenner, and other authors who have written on this subject, in which persons who have received the cow-pox by casual infection, twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty years before, still continued insusceptible of variolous contagion, in whatever form it was applied. As the cow-pox destroys the susceptibility of the small-pox, so the smallpox destroys that of the cow-pox. To this general rule, however, a few exceptions are said to have occurred. Certain it is that a pustule has now and then been excited by the insertion of vaccine virus in those who have had the small-pox, and that this pustule has been known to yield the genuine virus; but it is not equally certain that the pustule has been perfect in all respects. Possibly it may have been defective in point of size or duration, in respect to its areola, or the limpidity of its contents. That such a pustule has, in some instances, yielded effectual virus, is admitted; but this is no more than what has often happened in cases where persons who have had the small-pox are a second time submitted to that infection in the same form.

The artificial cow-pox in the human subject is much milder than the casual disease; and incomparably milder than the small-pox, even under the form of inoculation. It neither requires medicine nor regimen; it may be practised at any season of the year; and, not being infectious by effluvia, one person may be inoculated without endangering the life of another. This affection produces no pustulous eruptions. When such attend vaccine inoculation, they are owing to some adventitious cause, such as the smallpox, which it is well known may co-exist with the cow-pox. The vaccine vesicle is confined to the parts where matter is inserted; it is, therefore, entirely a local and an inoculated disease. Nevertheless, it is certain that eruptions of other kinds, in some instances, attend vaccine inoculation; such as a nettle-rash, or an eruption resembling a tooth-rash, but rather larger than what is commonly called by that name.

form. The same inference may be drawn from its never spreading in a family, when only one person is inoculated at a time. To confirin this proposition more fully, the vaccine pustules have been ruptured, and persons who have never had the disorder have been suffered to inhale the effluvia several times a day, but to no purpose. This is no more than might be expected, in an affection where the pustulous appearance on the surface of the body is nearly local. As to the constitutional indisposition, it is seldom considerable, unless there is a complication of this with some other distemper; and, whenever any unfavorable symptoms appear, they may in general be traced to some other cause. We have indeed great reason to believe that no ill consequence ever arises from the cow-pox itself, unless from ignorance or neglect.

But, notwithstanding the symptoms are mild, they frequently occur at a very early period. A drowsiness, which is one of the most common attendants of the disease, is often remarked by the parents themselves, within forty-eight hours after the matter is inserted. In a majority of cases a slight increase of heat is perceptible, together with an acceleration of the pulse, and other signs of pyrexia; but not in such a degree as to alarm the most timorous mother. Sometimes the patient is restless at nights; and now and then a case is met with in which vomiting occurs; but in many cases no constitutional indisposition can be perceived. Even then, the cow-pox has never failed to prove an effectual preservative against the small-pox, provided the pustule has been perfect. This being the grand criterion of the security of the patient, too minute an attention cannot be paid to its rise, progress, and decline. The best mode of inoculating is by making a very small oblique puncture in the arm, near the insertion of the deltoid muscle, with the point of a lancet charged with fluid matter. In order to render infection more certain, the instrument may be charged again, and wiped upon the puncture.

In places where the patient is likely to be exposed to variolous contagion, it is advisable to inoculate in more places than one; but, unless there is danger of catching the small-pox, it is better not to make more than one puncture in each arm, lest too much inflammation should ensue. The vaccine fluid may be taken for

the vesicle is punctured at a very early period, it is more apt to be injured. When virus is wanting for inoculating a considerable number, it is better to let the pustule remain untouched till about the eighth day, by which time it has in general acquired a reasonable magnitude. After that day, if the pustule has made the usual progress, the matter begins to lose its virtue; but it may in general be used with safety, though with less certainty of producing infection, till the areola begins to be extensive.

Among other singularities attending the cow-inoculation as soon as a vesicle appears; but, if pox, the mildness of the disease, under the form of inoculation, has been urged as an argument against the practice, the cause appearing, to ordinary comprehensions, inadequate to the effect. This, it must be allowed, is the best apology that can be offered for scepticism on that point; but it will weigh but little when put into the scale against actual observation, and incontrovertible fact. The efficacy of the cowpox, as a safe-guard against the small-pox, rests perhaps on more extensive evidence, and a more solid foundation, than any other axiom in the whole circle of medical science. That the cowpox is not infectious by effluvia is naturally concluded from its never being communicated from one person to another in the dairies; where the disease is casual, and appears under its worst

The first sign of infection commonly appears on the third day. A small red spot, rather elevated, may be perceived at the place where the puncture was made. Sometimes, however, the mark of infection, having succeeded, is not visible till a much later period. It may be retarded,

or even entirely prevented, by any other disorder, such as dentition, or any complaint attended with fever, or by extreme cold. Another frequent cause of a slow progress in the pustule, or a total failure of success, is debility. Sometimes it is impossible to discover any sign of infection for above a fortnight. In this respect the cow-pox is subject to the same laws, and liable to the same variation, as the small-pox.

When a considerable inflammation appears within two or three days after inoculation, there is reason to suspect that infection has not taken place; and, if suppuration ensues, that suspicion ought in general to stand confirmed. Now and then, however, it happens that, after the spurious pustule, or, more properly speaking, the phlegmon, has run its course, which is within a few days, a vesicle begins to appear, bearing every characteristic of the genuine vaccine disease, and yielding a limpid and efficient virus for future inoculations. In this case the patient is as perfectly secured from all danger of the small-pox as if no festering of the puncture had preceded. The occurrence of such a case, though rare, is worthy to be recorded; because some practitioners have concluded a spurious pustule to be a certain proof of failure. The areola commonly begins to be extensive on the ninth day, and to decline about the eleventh or twelfth. At this period also the pustule begins to dry; the first sign of which is a brown spot in the centre. In proportion as this increases the surrounding efflorescence decreases, till at length nothing remains but a circular scab, of a dark-brown mahogany color, approaching to black. Sometimes it resembles the section of a tamarind stone; and it often retains the depression in the centre, which characterises this disease before exsiccation takes place.

Instances have been known where the vaccine pustule, though regular, and perfect in all other respects, has been totally destitute of areola; at least where neither the medical practitioner, on visiting the patient, nor the attendants, have remarked any appearance of that sympton. In these cases the patient has proved as insusceptible of variolous infection as if the surrounding efflorescence had covered the whole arm. It must, however, be confessed that we have no proof of the non-existence of an areola in these cases. It might have been trivial; it might have been transient; yet it might have been effectual. There is, however, greater reason to believe that the surrounding efflorescence, though usually a concomitant circumstance, is not an essential requisite to the vaccine disease. If by any accident the vesicle is ruptured, suppuration often ensues. In this case more attention than ordinary ought to be paid to the progress, and to all the phenomena of the local affection; both on account of the uncertainty of success in the pustule, as a prophylactic, and the greater probability of tedious ulceration.

If there is room for the least doubt of the sufficiency of the first inoculation, a second ought to be performed without delay. This, if unnecessary, is seldom attended with inconvenience, and never with danger. Either no effect is produced, or a slight festering, which terminates in VOL. XXII.

a few days. An exception occurs, but rarely, where a spurious, or perhaps even a genuine pustule, takes place in those persons who are known to have had the cow-pox or the small-pox already; but this cannot be the least cause of alarm to any one who knows the benign character of the distemper. Various topical applications, both stimulant and sedative, have been recommended, in order to allay the violence of inflammation. If the operation for the insertion of matter is not unnecessarily severe, nor the pustule irritated by friction, or pressure, or other violence, no such applications are necessary. Nevertheless, if either the anxiety of the professional man, or the importunity of a tender parent, should demand a deviation from this general rule, any of the following remedies may be had recourse to. The pustule may be touched with very diluted sulphuric acid; which should be permitted to remain on the part half a minute, and then be washed off with a sponge dipped in cold water. This has been ignorantly, or artfully, called an escharotic; but any one who tries the application will soon discover that its operation is mild and harmless. To avoid cavil and misrepresentation, it is better to apply a saturnine lotion; compresses, dipped in such a lotion, may be applied at any time when inflammation runs high, and renewed as occasion requires.

If the pustule should chance to be broken, a drop of the liquor plumbi acetatis, undiluted, may be applied as an exsiccant; but, if ulceration threatens to become obstinate or extensive, a mild cataplasm is the best resource. In case the ulceration is only superficial, and not attended with immoderate inflammation, a bit of any adhesive plaster, spread on linen, will prove the most convenient dressing, and seldom fails of success. It will, in general, be unnecessary to renew it oftener than every other day. These minute observations no one will despise, unless there be any person so ignorant as not to know that the care of the arm is almost the whole duty of the medical practitioner in vaccine inoculation; and that nothing disgusts the public so much against the practice as a sore arm, and the ill consequences which, from a neglect of that symptom, too often ensue. When fluid virus cannot be procured, it is necessary to be cautious how it is preserved in a dry state. The most improper mode is that of keeping it on a lancet; for the metal quickly rusts, and the vaccine matter becomes decomposed. This method, however, is as likely to succeed as any, when the matter is not to be kept above two or three days. If the virus be taken on glass, care must be taken not to dilute it much; otherwise it will probably fail.

Cotton thread is a very commodious vehicle. If it is intended to be sent to any considerable distance, it ought to be repeatedly dipped in the virus. No particular caution is necessary with regard to the exclusion of air; nevertheless, as it can be done with so little trouble, and is more satisfactory to those who receive the matter, it is better to comply with the practice. On this account it may be enclosed in a glass tube, or in a tobacco-pipe sealed at each end, or between two square bits of glass, which may, if necessary,

X

be also charged with the matter, and wrapped in gold-beater's skin. Nothing is more destructive to the efficacy of cow-pox matter than heat on this account it must not be dried near the fire, nor kept in a warm place. The advantage of inserting it in a fluid state is so great that it is to be wished every practitioner would endeavour to keep a constant supply for his own use, by inoculating his patients in succession, at such periods as are most likely to answer that purpose.

VACCINIUM, the whortle-berry, or bilberry, in botany, a genus of plants of the class of octandria, and order of monogynia; and arranged in the natural system under the eighteenth order, bicornes. The calyx is superior; the corolla monopetalous; the filaments inserted into the receptacle; the berry quadrilocular and polyspermous. There are fifteen species, the most remarkable of which are, 1. V. myrtillus, black whorts, whortle berries, or bilberries, growing in woods and on heaths abundantly. 2. V. oxycoccus, cran-berry, moss-berry, or moor-berry, frequent on peat bogs in the Lowlands, but not so common in the Highlands, of Scotland. 3. V. vitis idæa, red whortle berries, frequent in dry places, in heaths, woods, and on mountains. The berries have an acid cooling quality, useful to quench the thirst in fevers. 4. V. uliginosum, the great bilberry bush, found in low moist grounds, and almost at the summits of the Highland mountains. The leaves are full of veins, smooth and glaucous, especially on the under side; the berries are eatable, but not so much esteemed as the preceding.

VACUNTÆ, an ancient people of Mauritania.

See MAURITANIANS.

VACUUM, n. s. Lat. vacuum. Space unVAC'UIST, occupied by matter: vaVACUITY, cuity has also this sense, VACUOUS, adj. and is applied metaphorically to inanity of mind or character: a vacuist is a philosopher who holds in a vacuum opposed to a plenist: vacuous, empty; unfilled.

In filling up vacuities, turning out shadows and ceremonies, by explicit prescription of substantial duties, which those shadows did obscurely represent. Hammond's Fundamentals. Boundless the deep, because I AM who fill Infinitude: nor vacuous the space.

Milton's Paradise Lost. Redeeming still at night these vacuities of the day.

Fell.

Those spaces, which the vacuists would have to be empty, because they are manifestly devoid of air, the plenists do not prove replenished with subtile matter. Boyle.

God, who alone can answer all our longings, and fill every vacuity of our soul, should entirely possess our heart. Rogers. Hunger is such a state of vacuity as to require a fresh supply of aliment. Arbuthnot.

Our enquiries about vacuum, or space and atoms, will shew us some good practical lessons. Watts. VACUUM, in philosophy, denotes a space empty or devoid of all matter or body. It has been a matter of much dispute among philosophers whether there be in nature a perfect vacuum, or space void of all matter; but, if bodies consist of material solid atoms, it is evi

dent that there must be vacuities, or motion would be impossible. See METAPHYSICS. We can even produce something very near a vacuum in the receiver of an air pump, and in the Torricellian tube. See PNEUMATICS. And it is doubtful whether the particles of the densest bodies known be in perfect contact.

VACUUM BOYLEANUM is the approach to a real vacuum, to which we can arrive by means of the air-pump.

VACUUM TORRICELLIAN is the most complete vacuum which we can make by means of the torricellian tube. See BAROMETER, and PNEUVADE, v. n. Lat. vado. To vanish; pass away.-Spenser. A word useful in poetry, but not received.

MATICS.

Be ever gloried here thy sovereign name, That thou mayest smile on all which thou hast made,

Whose frown alone can shake this earthly frame,

And at whose touch the hills in smoak shall vade. Wotton.

VADIUM, a pledge in law, is either vivum

or mortuum.

VADIUM MORTUUM, or dead pledge. MORTGAGE.

See

VADIUM VIVUM, or living pledge, is when a man borrows a sum (suppose £200) of another, and grants him an estate, as of £20 per annum, to hold till the rents and profits shall repay the sum so borrowed. This is an estate conditioned to be void as soon as such sum is raised. And in this case the land or pledge is said to be living it subsists, and survives the debt; and, immediately on the discharge of that, results back to the borrower. VAGʻABOND, adj. & n. s. Fr. vagabond; low Lat. vagabundus. Wandering without any settled habitation; wanting a home: the noun substantive corresponding.

Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death
Vagabond exile: yet I would not buy
Their mercy at the price of one fair word

Shakspeare. Coriolanus. We call those people wanderers and vagabonds, that have no dwelling-place.

Milton.

Raleigh's History of the World. Their prayers by envious winds Blown vagabond or frustrate. A vagabond debtor may be cited in whatever place or jurisdiction he is found. Ayliffe's Parergon. Vagabond is a person without a home. Watts. VAGA'RY, n. s. Lat. vagus. A wild freak; a capricious frolick.

They changed their minds, Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell, As they would dance.

Milton's Paradise Lost. VAGINA, in anatomy, a canal reaching from the external orifice, or os pudendi, of women, to the uterus.

VAGINA properly signifies a sheath or scabbard, and is used in architecture for the part of a terminus, because resembling a sheath, out of which the statue seems to issue.

VA'GOUS, adj. Lat. vagus; Fr. vague. Wandering; unsettled. Not in use.

Such as were born and begot of a single woman, through a vagous lust, were called Sporii. Auliffe.

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