382 



OXFORDSHIRE OXYGEN GAS. 



30 

 32 



) 



20 

 12 



3 

 18 

 15 

 30 

 13 



4 



Foun. 

 1200 

 1317 

 1325 

 1391 

 1480 



See Wood's Historia Univ. Oxon., and Athence Oxo- 

 nienses ; Ackerman's History of the University of 

 Oxford; the articles in the first and third numbers 

 of the Quarterly Journal of Education, and the Uni- 

 versity Calendar. 



OXFORDSHIRE ; an inland county of England, 

 bounded north by Warwickshire and Northampton- 

 shire, east by Buckinghamshire, south by Berkshire, 

 and west by portions of several counties. It extends 

 from north to south about forty-eight miles, and its 

 greatest breadth is twenty-six. The outline of 

 Oxfordshire is very irregular, consisting of two 

 parts, the northern or larger part forming an irre- 

 gular triangle, joined by a narrow neck to the 

 smaller part. The boundary on the south and 

 south-west is determined by the course of the 

 Thames, which makes a considerable curve in its 

 passage between Oxfordshire and Berkshire. The 

 soil of this county, taken generally, is extremely 

 fertile, furnishing abundant crops of grain and 

 grass. The land is dry, being exempt from bogs, 

 fens, and standing pools, but by no means destitute 

 of running water, the streams which intersect the 

 country, and the rivers which they feed, being more 

 numerous here than in most other parts of the 

 kingdom. In the northern part of the county the 

 soil is chiefly strong, deep sand, and the enclosure; 

 are formed by stone walls ; the central district is 

 rich meadow land, with a subsoil of gravel, remark- 

 able for the multitude and variety of fossil remains 

 which are embedded in it ; and in the south, the 

 county exhibits a pleasing alternation of hill and 

 dale. The greater portion of the county is under til- 

 lage, and the most common corn crops are wheat, bar- 

 ley, and oats ; peas arc cultivated occasionally, and 

 on the heavier soils beans ; and among the usual 

 agricultural products are also turnips, both common 

 and Swedish, tares, clover, trefoil, and santfoin. 

 The grass-land, which is chiefly on the banks of the 

 rivers, or near the centre of the, county, affords pas- 

 turage for milch cattle, and considerable quantities 

 of butter are made here, and calves are fattened for 

 the London market. A great many sheep are kept, 

 and also swine, which furnish the materials for making 

 brawn and sausages. The mineral products of this 

 county include limestone, freestone, slate for the 

 roofs of buildings, pipe-clay, fuller's earth, and 

 ochre, which is found of a peculiarly fine quality 

 near Shotover. The principal manufactures are 

 those of blankets, for which Witney has long been 

 noted ; a kind of coarse velvet called shag, made at 

 Banbury ; and gloves and various articles of polished 

 steel, made at Woodstock; besides lace-making, 

 chiefly practised in the southern part of the county. 



Oxfordshire possesses one city, Oxford, which is 

 also the county town ; two boroughs, VVoodstock 

 and Banbury ; and the market towns are, Bicester, 

 Burford, Chipping-Norton, Deddington, Henley- 

 upon-Thames, Thame, Wellington, and Witney, 

 besides Bampton, Charlbury, and Dorchester, of 

 which the markets are discontinued. Population of 

 the county in 1831, 151,726. 



OXFORD CHRONICLE. See Artmdeliun 

 Marbles. 



OXFORD, LORD. See Hurley. 



OXIDES. See Oxygen. 



OXUS. See Gihon. 



OXYGEN GAS was discovered by doctor Priest- 

 ley in 1774, and by Scheele in 1775, without pre- 

 vious knowledge of Priestley's discovery. It 

 received the names of free air, dephlogisticated air, 

 pure air, and vital air, from its property of support- 

 ing combustion and animal life terms changed, by 

 the inventors of the new nomenclature, to oxygen 

 gas, from its property of giving acidity to compounds 

 in which it predominates (o|t/s, acid, and yimrfai, to 

 produce). Oxygen denotes its gravitating mat- 

 ter, or substance, when not in the gaseous state ; 

 oxygen gas is the name given to it in its elastic form. 

 Oxygen is the most extensively diffused of material 

 substances. In the state of gas, it forms one-fifth 

 of the atmosphere ; it is, also, the principal compo- 

 nent part of water, forming eight ninths of it by 

 weight. It consists in acids, in the alkalies, and 

 earths, and, consequently, in their saline com- 

 pounds. It is combined with metals ; is found in 

 numerous forms of combination in mineral sub- 

 stances, and is an abundant ingredient in all vege- 

 table and animal matters. It is also the most 

 energetic, in its chemical agencies, of all the ele- 

 ments of matter, and the history of its properties 

 and combinations forms the most important subject 

 in chemistry. Oxygen gas no where exists pure 

 and uncombined ; hence certain processes are 

 required to obtain it in an insulated form. These 

 consist, chiefly, in applying heat to some of its com- 

 pounds, in which it is retained by a weak attraction. 

 The substances commonly employed for the purpose, 

 are, the peroxide of manganese and the chlorate of 

 potash. It may be procured from the former in two 

 ways ; either by heating it to redness in a gun- 

 barrel or iron retort, or by putting it into a flask, 

 with half its weight of concentrated sulphuric 

 acid, and heating the mixture by means of a 

 lamp. To obtain it from the manganese, it is only 

 necessary to heat it to a full red heat, in an iron retort. 

 The gas obtained by the first process is the purest ; 

 that by the latter is liable to contain small quantities 

 of carbonic acid and hydrogen, but it is sufficiently 

 good for ordinary purposes. Oxygen gas is colour- 

 less, inodorous, and tasteless, and is rather heavier 

 than common air, its specific gravity being 1-111. 

 It is absorbed by water . very sparingly, 100 cubic 

 inches of water, freed from air by boiling, absorbing 

 about 3-5 cubic inches, under a common atmospheric 

 temperature and pressure. Its most striking pro- 

 perty is that of exciting and supporting combustion. 

 A candle, or wax tapep, freshly extinguished, is re- 

 lighted on being immersed in a bottle of this gas. A 

 partially kindled piece of charcoal, on being intro- 

 duced into it, also inflames with great rapidity and 

 brilliancy. But the most interesting combustion, in 

 this gas, is that of iron wire, or a watch-spring, 

 which only require to have their temperature excited 

 by the previous burning of a piece of sulphur-match 

 attached to them at the extremity, in order to be 

 kindled into the most vivid and intense combustion, 

 burning with sparks and scintillations, until pieces 

 many inches in length, are consumed ; and this in a 



