II 



OLEIN. 



OLYMPIAN GAMES. 



tit absorb* nxycea, acquires disagreeable rancid odour, is con- 

 mto a liuuidTan,! BO luoger .lidinable by peroxMe of 

 ,TtiW Lik/oU add, it yidd. palmitic and aortic add when fud 

 with nrdrate of potash. 



Batik add i* of course produced when oWe Mid or olive oil i- 

 aetod upon by nitric add or nitrate of mercury, the ultimate product* 

 of the action of exeats of strong nitric acid are. however, acetic add, 

 nroftoaie Mid, butyric add and the whole of the associated adds of 

 thVhoBMlocuns aerw* CnHnO., up to oapric add inclusive ; a* well as 

 four term, of tin dibasic add aerie*, 2HO,CnUu-.O ff namely, suberic, 



Y Mm have tike MM composition as the oleatea. Thou of 



the -"-" crmUllia*, and are soluble in water. Elaultilt of mlrer u 

 a white voluminou. precipitate containing (C M H u AgO t ). Klaidatt of 

 ,rtW has the composition C M H U (C,H,)0.. Elatdalt of rthyl or 

 lUitke tAer <C_H_(C HJO.) U a colourless, inodorous, tasteless oil of 

 p. gr. O.W8 at as'Vanr. Boiling point about 590* Four. 



OLEIN. [Ouao Acro.1 



OLKOPHOSPHORIC ACID. An oily matter contained in the 

 human brain, chiefly in combination with soda. According to Gobley 

 it i* alao present in the yolk of egg. It is insoluble in water, but 

 eatable in boiling alcohol and in ether. Alkalies break it up into 

 phosphoric acid, oleio acid and glycerin. It has not yet been 

 obtained in a state sufficiently pure for analysis ; according to Frcmy 

 it f-fitftin* from one and a half to two per cent, of phosphorus. 



OLETiON, LAWS OF. The law*, or constitutions, or judgments 

 of Oleron, are a capitulary of ancient marine customs written in old 

 French, and bearing the name of Oleron for several centuries, because 

 tradition points to the island so called as the place of their original 

 promulgation. An ancient copy of these laws i* to be found in the 

 Black "Book ' of the Admiralty, the original of which is supposed to 

 be in the Bodleian Library ; but they are not there called the Laws of 

 Oleron, nor is there any reference in the laws themselves, or in the 

 book which contains them, to their origin or history. They are not 

 (infrequently appended to ancient editions of the 'Coutumier' of 

 Normandy under the title of ' Lea Jugemens do la Mer : ' in Cleirac's 

 edition of the ' Uz ct Coutumes de la Mer ' they are given, without any 

 description of the book or place from whence they ore taken, under 

 the name of 'Boole des Jugemens d'Oleron.' They are generally 

 referred to by French writers on maritime law as ' Jugemens d'Oleron. 

 The copies of these laws however published by Cleirac, and those 

 appended to the ' Coutumier de Normandie,' differ materially from 

 each other, and also from that in the ' Black Book ' of the Admiralty 

 though many of the article* are almost verbally the same in all. They 

 nJrtm to the rights and duties of ship-owners and mariners, maritime 

 contract*, port and custom laws, and losses at sea ; but are chiefly re- 

 markable at the present day from the circumstance that they were for 

 several centuries adopted by all the nations of Europe as the founda 

 tion of their maritime laws. 



It ha* bean generally stated by Engliah law writers that the laws o 

 ' by Richard I. in the island of Oleron, on his 



return from the Holy Land. This statement, which is given by Coke 

 Balden, Hale, Prynne, Blackstone, Reeve, and several English writers 

 on maritime law, furnishes a curious instance of the readiness wit! 

 which histori~l errors are propagated when one writer makes his asser 

 tions nannrtinfl facts from the statements of another without though 

 or examination. There is scarcely any fact in history more entirely 

 settled, and few more notorious, than that Richard I., in returning 

 bom the Holy Land, was shipwrecked in the Adriatic, near Venice 

 and immediately taken by Leopold, duke of Austria, and detained a 

 prisoner in Germany (' Fowlera,' voL i. , p. 70) ; and there is good evideuc 

 that at the expiration of his captivity he returned home through 

 Flanders, without touching upon his French dominions. (Hoveden. 

 It is equally clear, from the account of Hoveden and other chroniclers 

 that on his way to the East he travelled by land through France, am 

 embarked at Marseille for Sicily. There is therefore not the slightes 

 foundation for the statement which has been referred to ; and indeet 

 the only evidence that they were the work of Richard at all is foun 

 in what Sir Edward Coke calls a " notable " record in the Towei 

 (4 Inst., 144), which record is also mentioned by Srldcn in his ' Marc 

 Clausum ' (lib. ii., cap. 24). The part of this record however in whic 

 thaw laws are noticed is dated in the reign of Edward III., and con 

 Mquently 160 years after Richard's time; and the document appears 

 hardly to duwrni the name of a record, being merely a roll, coiuUting 

 of detached membranes, relating to maritime affairs of different reigns 

 miscellaneously thrown together, and without any formal date o 

 description, or anything to give them the authority of a judicial ac 

 (Ludars's ' Inquiry into the Origin of the Laws of Oleron.') This docu 

 meat contains the following iissufrn. from which the story, oscribin 

 this piece of legislation to Richard L has sprung : " QUID quidem leges 

 t statute per Dominum Ricarduin quondam Regem Anglini. in redit 

 MO de Ten* Sancta, correcU fin-runt, interpretate, declarata, ct in 

 inuU UK-run publicata, et nominate in Gallic* lingua La I.< y Olur.mn 

 On the other hand, there are strong reasons for attributing to those 

 ordinance* a later date than the reign of Richard I., tin: principal o 

 which are : 1. that they are written in the French language ; whereas 

 in the reign <>f Richard 1. all laws of royal ordinance, both in the king 

 French dominion* and in K"^""*. were written and promulgated i 



Latin 2 that if they had been promulgated in England before the 

 me of Bracton, Britton, and Fleta, they must have Ixsen m<-!,< 

 y those authors ; and 3, that the original historians of the reign of 

 iichard I. (though sufficiently ready to record his merits) never men- 

 on this part ofhis legislation. 



Mr. Luders conjectures that these law* did not proceed from any 

 yal ordinance ; but that the men of < Mi-run, who had corporate pi m- 

 eras granted to them by the name of " Burgenses de Oleronc," in the 

 reign of John (' Foxlera,' vol. L, pp. Ill, 112), and 1. 

 Ue trade as early as the 12th century, may have OoUMted a<l 

 cases upon the laws of the sea, for regulating their own ma, 

 attain ; that hence the laws of Oleron derived their name ; ami 

 received in England and France, became known and partially adopted 

 n other nations of Europe. To the copies of the laws appt-no 



.tinnier de Normandie,' and alao to those given by 

 the ' Uz et Coutumes,' an attestation by the seal of the Isle of ( > 

 is attached, with the date of 1266. This seal is inventoried as having 

 >een once in the treasury of the Court of Exchequer. See Palgrave's 

 Kalendars and Inventories of the Exchequer,' vol. i., p. 106. 

 OLI'BANUM. This name, of frequent occurrence in comparatively 

 modem works, does not seem to have been known to ancient com- 

 merce or Materia Medica. It appears to have been derived from tho 

 Greek M/3oroj, or the Arabic looban, which U applied, as well as the 

 name Koondur, to the substance known in Europe by the na 

 ..mum. Avicenna describes a resinous substance under the name 

 Koondur, to which, in the Latin translations, Olibanum is given as a 

 ynouyme, as well as Thia, and with this the Arabian author include! 

 a description of the bark, manna, and smoke of Thus, or frankincense ; 

 n the same way as we find, in Dioscorides, the description of Libanos, 

 or Thus, followed by that of the other parts we have mentioned, indi- 

 cating, as is evident indeed from the description, that Avicenna, under 

 Kuomliir, refers to the X(flaoi of Dioscorides. Both authors mention 

 an Indian kind of the substance. Mr. Colebrooke ascertained (' Asiatic 

 tea,,' ix. and xi.) that Koondur was applied in India to a fragrant resin 

 still used there as incense, and which he ascertained to be the produce 

 of the tree which has been already described under the article 

 SOSWELLIA Oturifcra, in NAT. HIST. Div. The name Koondur appears 

 derived from the Sanscrit JCoondooroo, which is applied to looban by 

 the Hindus. (' Fl. Ind.,' ii., p. 884.) The tree is common in the 

 mountains of Central India, as well as in those of the Coromaudel 

 coast, together with B. r/labra, the other species of the genus, and 

 which extends as far north as 30 in the Sewalik or sub-Himalayan 

 range of hills. 



I >r. iloyle mentions that he has collected off the trunk of this <-| 

 in the latter locality, some very clear, pure, and fragrant resin, which 

 burns rapidly away with a bright light, diffusing a pleasant odour. 

 IVith species yield this fragrant resin, which is employed as incense in 

 India, and whicfi might bo much more exU-ni-ivrly collected than at 

 present From the affinity in vegetation between parts of A 

 Persia, and India, it is not improbable that the genus Boswt-llia may 

 extend to Arabia, and there produce the kind known as Ariinui 

 Olibanum, the tree yielding which has not yet been traced out by 

 botanist*. It grows between Berberra and Cape Gardafin, and is ex- 

 ported in Arab vessels. A species of Boswellia would appear to grow 

 in the island of Socotro. See Welatedan, 'Journal of Koyol Geo- 

 graphical Society,' vol. v. The conjecture that African olibanum is 

 the produce of Plo^ea-Jtoribunda (Endlicher) U very improbable, as no 

 sapindaceous plant yields a resinous juice. But with respect to most 

 of the Arabian exports, it is difficult to know whether they are the 

 produce of that country, or have been first obtained by commri 

 then re-exported, whence in early times Arabia obtained celebrity for 

 producing so many of the fragrant and aromatic substances which we 

 now know were obtained from Africa and India. 



Dr. Royle further states that in Bengal the name looban ia applird 

 to Benzoin, though in Northern India applicable only to Koondur, the 



produce of Hottoellia thuriftra, and also that in Persian works, Beimiiu 

 u distinguished by the names " hussee-al-jawa " and " hussee K> 

 ( Ulustr. Himal. Bat,' pp. 177 and 261.) 



Olibanum, or true frankincense, is now little used in medic i 

 surgery. It is burnt as incense, and enters largely into the composi- 

 tion of pastilles. 



This substance must not be confounded with common fraukin 

 the produce of Abiet exedta, or common fir. 



OL1DIC ACID. [PALMITIC ACID.] 



OLIVE OIL. [OILS, MANUFACTURE OF.] 



OLIVILE. (C M H,,O 10 f) A colourless crystalline substance found 



in the resin of the olive. It is soluble in hot water and very soluble in 



alcohol. Submitted to dry divtillution it yields pi/r<j/ir!li<: acid 



O. ). Concentrated hydrochloric or sulphuric acid convert* it 



into a rod matter called o,'.YiVf<'x. 



OLIV1X. [SU.IMMN.] 



01, l\ iOl.IVlLE.] 



ul.YMl'IAK J.KIIA.] 



OLVMl'IAN liAMKS. tl,.. ,-hii'f of the four great national I, 

 of the Greeks, were celebrated at Olympia, n sacred spot on the banks 

 of the AlpheiiH, near Elis, every fifth year. The exact interval at 

 which the Olympia, as the festival was (called, recurred was one of 

 forty-nine and fifty lunar months alternately ; so that it full sometimes 



