OBS 
= Portable. See EquaTore 
OssrervatTory S/land, or Voud, in Gesgraply, a {mall 
ifland in the South aaa hes near the N.E. coal of 
Wew Caledonia. S. lat. 18!. 
= E. long. 165° ‘40 
OxssERVATORY Tand, 2 {mall ifland in the ftraits of 
Magellan, at the entrance of eee ra bay. 
ces of the ifland 
' 
Capt. 
extending about 32 miles, N. lat. 54° 58’. E. le of as 
entrance, 230° 6’. 
ESSION, an action, or rather paffion, of being be- 
fet eel an evil a alae ; which, without entering the body, tor- 
and, as it were, befieges the perfon without. In which 
fente, *sbfeffion difer from poffeffion 
marks o effion, according to o fome, are a bein 
hoifted into the air, cate thrown violently down ‘without being 
hurt; {peaking alee never vii ; having an averfion 
to al acts and offices of religion 
me beam look on all ca ies of obfeffion as — 
ani curable by natural medicines, particularly by a 
guent, called shies corriobieri ; with purgatives, or vo- 
mitives 
OF this opinion is Dr. Gabriel Clauderus, member of the 
Leopoldine Academy, which he confirms with the teftimony 
romannus, in ne eatife ** De Fafcinationibus,’’? an 
Ganfius de Corallis ; i that it has been confeffed 
vent their operations. 
He confirms this fentiment hence, that the devil, in thofe 
he thus befets, makes ufe of the melancholic humour, o 
a = bilis, and the groffer impurities of the blood, with- 
ways acting immediately of himfelf. For which he 
riers to the books of Melchior Sebizius, and Jerom Jor- 
*¢ De Divino in Homine ;’’ and gives the procefs of a 
cure of a manifeft obfeffion is a child of a year old at 
Delitfchebourgh, three leagues from Leipfic. In truth, the 
devil hath no fhare in the matter. See DammoniacaL 
Poffefon. 
OBSIDIANUS Lapis, in the Natural Hiflory of the 
Ancients, the name of a ftone which they have alfo defcribed 
under the name of the China marble. It is very {mooth and 
hard, extremely difficult to cut, but capable of a fine polifh, 
and wag ufe eon the ancient Greeks for the making of 
refleQing mirr 
he later seen have fuppofed the ei fier aeeli 
rived from fomebo the name of who was 
inventor of this a of it; but it feems only, a falfe Gale 
of the — a ANUS pa rns otocy from ih the images 
of ee 
ey 
Mee 
v 
> 
o 
Berg man, — more meu by Abildgacd, ith the fol- 
lowing refults 
Berg. Abild. 
69 - 74 Pome 
22 - 2 Alu 
9 - sl Oxyd of i iron. 
100 oP 
The hardnefs audio opaque blacknefs 0 of this mineral, added 
to the high polith of which it is capable, have caufed it to 
be employed for various kinds of ornaments. In Peru, at 
OBS 
the time of its ate ae by the Spaniards, it was ufed for 
mirrors, and has n fafhioned in Europe into refleCtors 
for emcee See rer TE and ava, Clafs ro. 
DIONALIS, an epithet which the Romans gave 
toa fe * a crown with which ane honoured fuch of their 
generals as had delivered a Roman army, or fortrefs, be- 
ee by the eed. : and had vaifed the fiege, or obliged 
them to dts m 
A rd comes from the Latin obfdio, fige. 
It was 33 allo called laa becaufe made of grafs or herbs 
sg on he {pot 0 
the foldier mn who beftowed this crown; which, 
a. was the reafon of its not being of a more pre- 
ious matter. 
re KATA, in ha eek a gulf or bay of Ruffia, in 
e Frozen ocean, about 360 miles in length, and from 44 
ong. 
adth. N. ia. 66° 4o! to 72° 1 
72° to 76°. 
OBSTACLES to teehee of Land, in ei slapped ay 
placed in the ro 
ort of impediments way of its 
Thefe are of various a. “tach as arife fen « too ae 
water below or on the furface of the ground, and which 
can only be removed by fuitable kinds of draining; from 
the growth of wood either of the flrong or more fhrubby 
forts, and which can only be made capable of cultivation, 
n the 
groun 
nore before an 
All thefe, and various others of a lefs obvious tendency, are 
frequently met with by the cultivator, and often oppofe 
confiderable obftruétion to the progrefs of his improvements, 
in Beene land into the ftate of cultivation. See Drarn- 
IN 
But though tkefe are fome of the principal obftacles.that 
prefent themfelves from the nature of the lands themfelves 5 
there are others which arife from the nature of the tenure or 
are productive of v s ill sarees ; v afthly the 
cuftom of aii to vmaills 3 tty, the JShortnefs of Yeates : 3 
feventhly, the diffance from Y> commons, 
e 
articular 
e in preventing 
the cultivation of lands, will be ex eer tied | in pean g of the 
feveral heads to which they pareeuaey rela 
ORSTETRICAL Art, the art of midwifery. See 
ELIVERY, and Lazour. 
OBSTITA, among the Romans, a term ufed to fignify 
places that had been psensa ftruck, which were otherwife 
called bidentalia. See B TA 
Sera TON, it in Metin. ~ Any tumour or collec- 
tion of matter, natural or morbid, which oceafions an im- 
ody, is = to 
crement in the inteftinal canal, or of 
bile in the duéts of ie liver; the effufions of ferum in various 
cavities of the body, conftituting hydrothorax, afcites, aes 
