Viz.

Viz introduces a list or series, in much the same way as a colon. It's often written in italics and sometimes with a period following it (indicating its abreviated nature).

Examples

Many things in life can be broken up into three sections, viz, beginning, middle and end.

My grandfather had four sons that grew up, viz.: Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah.

-- From Ben Franklin's autobiography [1].

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History and Usage

An abbreviation of the latin word videlicet [2], you'll find viz to be present in a surprisingly -- by today's standards -- large number of documents written during the 17th and 18th century. This was a period when Latin was still considered the international language of science.

Viz is particularly frequent in A Treastise of Human Nature by David Hume.