ORTUS COSMICUS OSMIUM. 



365 



which the rays of the sun are excluded, and which 

 is lighted by lamps kept constantly burning. There 

 the birds are plentifully supplied with food of the 

 most nutritive kind till they become mere lumps of 

 fat. Their flesh is said to be extremely delicate, but 

 so rich as soon to satiate the appetite. The ortolans 

 are prepared for the table in various ways. Some- 

 times they are roasted in an eggshell a method of 

 cookery borrowed from the ancients. A great traffic 

 was formerly carried on from the island of Cyprus in 

 these birds. They are caught in vast numbers in 

 that place, and pickled in casks, each containing 

 from three to four hundred, prepared with spice and 

 vinegar. In some years the number of casks 

 exported has amounted to 400, or, upon an average, 

 14,000 of these highly-prized morsels. The ortolan 

 is also reared for its vocal talents, which, however, 

 are not of the first order. The ortolan is yellow on 

 the throat and around the eyes ; the breast and belly 

 are red ; the upper part of the body brown, varied 

 with black. 



ORTUS COSMICUS ; the rising of the stars, as 

 the expression is used by the ancient poets. As the 

 calendar of the ancients was far from being exact, 

 since the received length of the year differed from 

 the actual length, they found it necessary, at a very 

 early period, to have recourse to other signs of the 

 lapse of time. The rising of the stars was compared 

 with the rising and setting of the sun, and certain 

 regulations were made accordingly. The rule, for 

 instance, of beginning certain agricultural labours 

 on the first day of the year was very inexact, since, 

 for the above-mentioned reasons, that day happened 

 in different parts of the year. On the other hand, 

 the rule was correct to undertake them upon the 

 day when Sirius rises at sunset, since this always 

 happens at the same time of the year. We find, 

 therefore, in the ancient poets and historians, 

 especially those on agriculture, expressions which 

 refer to this division of time. Thus the name of 

 orfus cosmicus is given to the rising of a star with 

 the sun ; and ortus acronyctos means the rising of a 

 star at sunset. See Lalande's AbrSge d' Astronomic. 



ORVILLE, JAMES PHILIP d'; an eminent writer on 

 classical literature, was born at Amsterdam, of French 

 extraction, in 1696. He studied at the university of 

 Leyden, and, having determined to devote himself 

 to the belles-lettres, travelled in England, Italy, 

 France, and Germany, visiting the public libraries, 

 and forming an acquaintance with the most cele- 

 brated classical scholars. On his return to Holland, 

 about 1730, he obtained the chair of history, rhe- 

 toric, and Greek literature, at Amsterdam, which he 

 occupied till 1742. He died 1751. His works are 

 Miscellaneae Observations critics novee, carried on 

 periodically in conjunction with Burmann ; an 

 edition of the Greek romance of Chariton, with a 

 commentary (1750, 4to); and Observations on 

 Sicily, published after the death of the author, by 

 Burmann, under the title of Sicula (1764, folio). 



ORYCTOGNOSY. See Mineralogy. 



ORYCTOLOGY; the science of the various 

 formation of mountains ; hence it is a branch of 

 geology. 



OSAGE, a river of Missouri, rises in the country 

 west of the state, about longitude 97 west, and 

 latitude 36 30' north. It flows into the state of 

 Missouri, and joins Missouri river 133 miles above 

 the Mississippi. It has a very winding course, is 397 

 yards wide at its mouth, and is navigable for boats 

 (iOO miles. Much of the land watered by it is very 

 fertile. The two native tribes, the Great Osages 

 and the Little Osages, live in separate settlements 

 on this river, about 400 miles from its mouth. The 

 Great Osages consist of about 3800; the Little Osages 



1700 About 150 miles south-west of these settle- 

 ments are the Osages of Arkansas, nearly 2000 in 

 number. The united foreign missionary society 

 have sent missionaries to the settlements in Arkan- 

 sas, and in Missouri territory. 



OSAGE ORANGE. See Fustic Wood. 



OSCILLATION, in mechanics ; vibration, or the 

 reciprocal ascent and descent of a pendulum. 



Axis of oscillation is a right line passing through 

 the point of suspension parallel to the horizon. 



Centre of oscillation is that point in a vibrating 

 body in which, if all the matter of the body were 

 collected into it, the vibrations would be performed 

 in the same time as before. 



OSIANDER, FREDKRIC BENJAMIN, one of the 

 most distinguished German professors of midwifery, 

 was born in 1759, at Zell, in the kingdom of VViir- 

 temberg. In 1792, he was appointed professor of 

 midwifery in the university of Gottingen, and director 

 of the lying-in hospital, which, was established in 

 1751, and had become the first school of midwifery 

 in Germany. Osiander remained its director for 

 thirty years, during which time about 3000 scholars 

 enjoyed his instructions there. From eighty to. a 

 hundred women were received there annually, and 

 it often happened that several years passed without 

 the occurrence of a single death. He published the 

 history of this interesting institution, and a descrip- 

 tion of all the remarkable cases which occurred 

 from 1794. He died in 1822. Osiander's numerous 

 works, on almost every branch of medicine, are 

 enumerated in Saalfeld's History of the University of 

 Gottingen, from 1788 (Gottingen, 1820), and in 

 Meusel. Among these is Manual of Midwifery (in 

 German), 1796, and Manual of Accouchment (Tubin- 

 gen, 1818 1821, 2 vols., in German), with a col- 

 lection of drawings ; On the Diseases which took 

 place in the Period of Development of the Female 

 Sex (Gottingen, 1817, and continued, Tubingen, 

 1820 to 1822, 2 vols.) 



OSIER. See fallow. 



OSIRIS, an Egyptian god. See Isis, Hierogly- 

 phics, and Egypt. 



OSMAN. See Caliph, and Ottoman Empire. 



OSMAZOME. If cold water, which has been 

 digested for a few hours OH slices of raw muscular 

 fibre, with occasional pressure, be evaporated, fil- 

 tered, and then treated with pure alcohol, a peculiar 

 animal principle will be dissolved, to the exclusion 

 of the salts. By dissipating the alcohol with a 

 gentle heat, the osmazome is obtained. It "has a 

 brownish-yellow colour, and the taste and smell of 

 soup. Its aqueous solution affords precipitates, with 

 infusion of nut-galls, nitrate of mercury, and nitrate 

 and acetate of lead. 



OSMELITE ; a mineral species found mixed with 

 datholite, in trachytic veins, near Wolfstein, on the 

 Rhine. Hardness between fluor and apatite ; speci- 

 fic gravity, 279 to 2-83; cleavage visible in one 

 direction only; feels rather greasy. It emits, at 

 the ordinary temperature of a room, a distinct 

 clayey smell, whence its name, osmelite, or smelling 

 stone. 



OSMIUM ; a metal discovered by Mr Tennant 

 among platina grains, and thus denominated by its 

 discoverer from the pungent and peculiar smell of its 

 oxide. Exposed to a strong heat in a cavity in a 

 piece of charcoal, it does not melt, nor is it volatile, 

 if oxidation be carefully prevented. With copper 

 and with gold it forms malleable alloys, which are 

 easily dissolved in nitro-muriatic acid, and afford by 

 distillation the oxide of osmium. The pure metal, 

 previously heated, did not appear to be acted upon 

 by acids. Heated in a silver cup with caustic alkali, 

 it combined with it, and gave a yellow solution, simi- 



