OLD 



OLD 



been described. These oils are acrid 

 and stimulating, with a strongly fetid and 

 disagreeable odour. It would appear 

 that these properties are owing to a par- 

 tial decomposition of other oils. These 

 oils are produced, as the name imports, 

 by the action of fire. They are obtained 

 when oils are forced to rise in vapour, 

 and pass over in common distillation, 

 with a greater degree of heat than that of 

 boiling water, or by the application of a 

 strong heat to substances from which no 

 oil was previously extracted. These em- 

 pyreumatic oils agree in some of their 

 properties with the volatile oils. They 

 combine in small proportion with water, 

 and they are soluble in alcohol ; and pro- 

 bably any difference that exists between 

 them is owing to a partial decomposition ; 

 for when they are distilled, the oil is re- 

 Stored to a state of purity, and the car- 

 bonaceous matter which had been sepa- 

 rated remains behind. See Thomson's 

 Chemistry. 



OINTMENT. See PHARMACY. 



OLAX, in botany, a genus of the Tri- 

 andria Monogynia class and order. Na- 

 tural order of Sapotse, Jussieu. Calyx 

 entire ; corolla funnel-form, trih'd ; nec- 

 tarium four ; berry three-celled, many- 

 seeded. There is but one species, viz. 

 O. Zeylanica, a native of Gey Ion. 



OLD age. See LONGEVITY. 



OLDENBURG, (HEXRY), in biogra- 

 phy, who wrote his name sometimes 

 Grubeiidol, reversing the letters, was a 

 learned German gentleman, and born in 

 the duchy of Bremen, in Lower Saxony, 

 about the year 1626, being descended 

 from the counts of Aldenburg in West- 

 phalia : whence his name. During the 

 long English Parliament, in the time of 

 Charles I., he came to England as consul 

 for his countrymen ; in which capacity he 

 remained at London in Cromwell's admi- 

 nistration. But being discharged of that 

 employment, he was engaged as tutor to 

 Lord Henry O'Bryan, an Irish nobleman, 

 whom he attended to the University of 

 Oxford ; and in 1656, he entered himself 

 a student in that university ; chiefly to 

 have the benefit of consulting the Bod- 

 leian Library. He was afterwards ap- 

 pointed tutor to Lord William Cavendish, 

 and became intimately acquainted with 

 Milton the poet. During his residence 

 at Oxford, he became also acquainted 

 with the members of that society there 

 which gave birth to the Royal Society ; 

 and upon the foundation of this latter, he 

 was ejected a member of it ; and when 



the society found it necessary to have 

 two secretaries, he was chosen assistant 

 to Dr. Wilkins. He applied himself with 

 extraordinary diligence to the duties ot 

 this office, and began the publication of 

 the " Philosophical Transactions," with 

 Number 1, in 1664. In order to discharge 

 this task with more credit to himself and 

 the Society, he held a correspondence 

 with more than seventy learned persons, 

 and others, upon a great variety of sub- 

 jects, in different parts of the world. 

 This fatigue would have been insupport- 

 able, had he not, as he told Dr. Lister, 

 managed it so as to make one letter an- 

 swer another ; and that, to be always 

 fresh, he never read a letter before he 

 was ready immediately to answer it ; so 

 that the multitude of his letters did not 

 clog him, nor ever lie upon his hands. 

 Among others, he was a constant corres- 

 pondent of Mr. Robert Boyle, and he 

 translated many of that ingenious gen- 

 tleman's works into Latin. 



About the year 1674, he was drawn in- 

 to a dispute with Mr. Hook, who com- 

 plained, that the Secretary had not done 

 him justice, in the History of the Trans- 

 actions, with respect to the invention of 

 the spiral spring for pocket-watches : the 

 contest was carried on with some warmth 

 on both sides, but was at length termi- 

 nated to the hononr of Mr, Oldenburg; 

 for, pursuant to an open representation 

 of the affair to the Royal Society, the 

 Council thought fit to declare, in behalf 

 of their Secretary, that they knew no- 

 thing of Mr. Hook having printed ft book* 

 entitled " Lampas," &c., but that the 

 publisher of the " Transactions" had 

 conducted himself faithfully and honestly 

 in managing the intelligence of the Roy- 

 al Society, and given no just cause for 

 such reflections. 



Mr. Oldenburg continued to publish 

 the " Transactions" as before, to Number 

 136, June 25, 1677; after which, the 

 publication was discontinued till the Ja- 

 nuary following, when they were again- 

 resumed by his successor in the secreta- 

 ry's office, Mr. Nehemiah Grew, who 

 carried them on till the end of Februa- 

 ry, 1678. Mr. Oldenburg died at his 

 house at Charlton, between Greenwich 

 and Woolwich, in Kent, August 1678, 

 and was interred there, being 1 fifty-two 

 years of age. 



He published, besides what has been 

 already mentioned, twenty tracts, chiefly 

 on theological and political subjects ; in 

 which he principally aimed at re- 



