OERA LINDA BOOK 



OFFICERS 



581 



Evening Primrose 

 (lEiiolhera biennii). 



CEnothera, chiefly natives of North America, are 



very generally 

 cultivated in 

 English flower- 

 gardens. 



Oera Linda 

 Book. See 



FRISIANS. 



<Er'ebro, a 



town of Sweden, 

 at the entrance 

 of the Svarta in- 

 to the Hjelniar 

 Lake, 170 miles 

 \V. of Stockholm 

 by rail. It lias 

 an ancient castle, 

 in which many 

 diets have been 

 held ; and there 

 is a trade in 

 minerals and 

 matches. Pop. 

 13,618. 



Oersted, 



HANS CHRIS- 

 TIAN, physicist, 

 was born 14th August 1777, at Rudkjobing, on 

 the Danish island of Langeland, and studied 

 medicine at Copenhagen, where in 1806 he was 

 appointed extra-ordinary professor of Physics. He 

 held numerous scientific appointments and honorary 

 offices and distinctions, and died 9th March 1851. 

 He may lie regarded as the father of the science of 

 electro-magnetism (see ELECTRICITY, Vol. IV. p. 

 iM.'n. and made numerous chemical discoveries. 

 Of his many works the best known are Naturlarens 

 Mechaniske Deel ( 1845 ; 3d ed. 1859) and Aanden i 

 Naturen (1850). His collected works were trans- 

 lated into German in 6 vols. ( 1850-53 ). There is a 

 biography by Haucli and Forchhaminer (1853). 

 His brother, ANDERS SANDOE (1778-1850), was a 

 distinguished Danish statesman. 



Ocsel, an island in the Baltic belonging to the 

 Russian government of Livonia, and lying across 

 the mouth of the Gulf of Riga. It is about 45 

 miles in length from north-east to south-west, has 

 an area of 1000 i\. m., and a pop. of 50,600. The 

 surface is undulating, broken by low hill-, marshy, 

 watered by numerous small streams, and well 

 wooded. The coast ig generally formed by high 

 clillk The climate is milder than that of the 

 neighlmuring continental districts. The only town 

 is Arensburg, on the south-east coast (pop. 4000). 

 Many of the inhabitants of Arensburg are of 

 German descent, as are the nobles and clergy of 

 the island ; but the peasantry are Esthonian. 

 Long governed by the Teutonic Knights, it be- 

 came a Danish province in 1559, was given up to 

 Sweden in 1645, and in 1721 fell into the hands of 

 Russia. 



(Esophagus, or GULLET, a membranous canal 

 about 9 inches in length, which extends from the 

 pharynx to the stomach, and thus forms part of the 

 alimentary canal. See DIGESTION, Vol. III. p. 

 814 ; and CHOKING. 



<!:*( ridii'. See HOT. 



Oetinxer, CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH, theosophic 

 theologian, was born in 1702 at Giippingen, and, 

 after holding various cures, died at Murrhardt, 

 10th February 1782. His sermons (5 vols.) were 

 published in 1857, and his collected works (7 vols. 

 edited by Ehmann) in 1858-67. His system has 

 been described as lying between Jacob Boehme ami 

 Schelling. See monographs by Aul>erlin (1848), 

 Ehraann ( 1852 ; 2d ed. 1877), and Wachter (1885). 



Ofen. See PESTH. 



Offa's Dyke, an entrenchment extending along 

 the lx>rder of England and Wales, from the north 

 coast of Flintshire, on the estuary of the Dee, 

 through Denbigh, Montgomery, Salop, Radnor, 

 and Hereford, into Gloucestershire, where its 

 southern termination is near the mouth of the 

 Wye. In some places it is nearly obliterated by 

 cultivation ; in others it is of considerable height. 

 Nearly parallel with it, some two miles to the 

 east, is Watt's Dyke, which, however, seems never 

 to have been so great a work. Offa, king of Mercia, 

 is said to have erected Watt's Dyke in 765 to keep 

 back the Welsh, and OlFa's Dyke a few years later. 



OHVllhaoll. a manufacturing town of Hesse- 

 Darmstadt, on the south bank of the Main, 5 

 miles by electric railway SE. of Frankfort. Among 

 its manifold industrial products are chemicals, 

 fancy leather goods, machines, and carriages. The 

 scMoss is a residence of the princely House of Isen- 

 buig-Birstein. Pop. (1831) 7802; (1875)26,012; 

 (1890)35,079. 



OflVnhach, JACQUES, a composer of opera 

 bouffe, born of Jewish parents at Cologne, 21st 

 June 1819. He came to Paris in 1833, and settled 

 there, becoming chef d'orchestre in the Theatre 

 Francais in Paris in 1848, and manager of the 

 Boujfes Parisiennet in 1855. He died 5th October 

 1880. OH'enbach composed a vast number of light, 

 lively operettas, La Manage aux Lanternes, La 

 Fille d'Elezondo, &c., perfect as musical trifles; 

 but the productions by which he is best known are 

 a series of burlesque operas, in virtue of which he 

 must be regarded as the inventor of the modern 

 form of opera bouffe. Amongst the most notable 

 are Orphee aux Enfers (1858), La Belle Helene, 

 La Barbe Bleu, La Grande Duchesse, Genevieve 

 de Brabant, and Roi Garotte. Madame Favart * 

 (1878) became almost as popular in England as in 

 France. 



Offertory (Lat. offertoriutn, from offero, '1 

 ofier') is the name given to that portion of the 

 public liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church with 

 which the eucharistic service, strictly so called, 

 commences (see LITURGY). This offering of the 

 bread and wine in the public service became, from 

 a very early period, the occasion of a voluntary 

 offering, on the part of the faithful ; originally, it 

 would seem, of the bread and wine designed for 

 the encharistic celebration and for the communion 

 of the priest and the congregation. By degrees 

 other gifts were gnperadded to those of bread and 

 wine as of corn, oil, wax, honey, eggs, butter, 

 fruits, lambs, fowl, and other animals ; and eventu- 

 ally of equivalents in money or other objects of 

 value. The last-named class of offerings, however, 

 was not so commonly made upon the altar and 

 during the public liturgy as in the form of free 

 gifts presented on the occasion of other ministerial 

 services, as of baptism, marriages, funerals, &c. ; 

 and from this has arisen the practice in the Roman 

 Catholic Church of the mass-offering, or honor- 

 arium, which is given to a priest with the under- 

 standing that he shall offer the mass for the inten- 

 tion (whence the honorarium itself is often called 

 an 'intention ') of the efferent. See also COLLEC- 

 TIONS. 



Officers, MILITARY AND NAVAL. Military 

 Officers are combatant and non-combatant, the 

 latter term including paymasters, medical officers, 

 commissariat, and other departmental officers. 

 The great divisions of rank in the British army 

 are commissioned, warrant, and non-commissioned 

 officers. Commissioned officers hold commissions 

 from the crown, and comprise all of the rank of 

 second-lieutenant or corresponding or superior 

 rank. Some warrant officers also hold honorary 



