OSS 
battle between Cuthullin and 
a 
there is no mention of the 
ated b cpherfon 
1 
cl heared re 
of w 
inga 
Sea Specie of Celtic poetr 
tle of Lora, the next piece for which any au- 
thority ha been difcovered, is founded on a poem called 
Err : the incidents are nearly i fame, but the manner 
of sa ene them, the fentiments and the lan 
tremely unlike ; and thefe fufficiently prove, that the pecu- 
liarities of Offian’s poetry are, in fact, the offspring folely 
of Macpherfon’s mufe. 
Carthon, the next poem, is founded on the tale of Con- 
loch, natural fon of Cuchullin, who being educated in Scot- 
land, comes to Ireland, encounters his father there, with- 
out b erfon 
elic 
Macpherfon a very materially altered the 
The ballad of Lammon Mor fee have been 
the foundation of Mac herfon’s g Luthmon de but in the 
is fome authority, in a poem celebrating the fatal battle 
of Gabhra, in which Ofgur and moft of the Fions were 
flain : as, however, Macieeon eran Ae he publifhed 
the firft book of Beery to add a d, he has omitte 
this cataftrophe ; uch 
are the flender een on whic acpher 
the pieces contained in his irft publication : for thofe con- 
tained in his fecond volume, no genuine authorities can be 
found. 
The refult, therefore, of the enquiries of the Highland 
confidered as having finally and oS 
the siheieae f Offian’s 
imagery, and language, than the peak ion of Offian 
any Celtic bard ; and the ballads which he employed in cer 
eas. r fuch as exift in MS. or in tradition in the 
Highlands, can on no pofitive or probable evidence be af- 
cribed t nor indeed traced up to any particular 
bard o 
If farther information is wanted on this fubje@, the fol- 
may be confulted ; ‘* Laing’s Differtation on 
annexed to the fecond _ of his | Lif 
tions of the Committee by Henry 
copious appendix, containing fome o 
ments on Ca yher is fo unde 
on the idee 
of the Poems of Oller i in which oe Soe on of Malcolm 
oss 
Laing, efq. are ay a confidered and refuted by Patrick 
Graham, D.D.’ 
Bone ‘forty years ago, meeti 
earl of Eglinton’s, who 
ing Mr. Macpherfon at the 
prevailed on him to 
three airs that he had learned of his mother, who knew 
neither Englith nor are but in the fame manner as our 
oo keep alive t abes in the wood, and v 
adapted to the meafures and melodies of his mother’s fing- 
ing. The French, the Italians, and the Germans, Ae 
no ei of the authenticity of the poems of Fingal and 
were extremely ftruck with oa bold wilde ee 
eo eee of thefe poems, and when at Hamburgh, we 
f 
mentioned, the compan the Milt n of Germany, 
Klopftock, the being in paar of the rai wing melodies, 
which we wrote down for the firft time perhaps that suet 
r great regret, we were neve 
able to sa fee till Ana or ore months pa his deceafe. 
e therefore now a them a place on our plates, not only 
as cancuae but to appeafe the manes of the fublime Klop- 
ftock. For the airs, fhe Plate Mufic XLV. 
OSSICULA Aup pe in Anatomy, the three {mall bones 
a lions in he cavity of the tympanum. 
Ossicu Muferlorum, in Ichthyology, a name given by 
authors to tok oblong and flender — _ are faate 
in the flefh of fome kinds 9 n-the mufcles : 
thefe, in the anterior part, de efpecially 1 near the ae are 
of a forked fhape ; but in the hinder ta ) be! 
are ufually fimple and flender. Thefe f 
are in the following kinds of fifh: 
nthe efoces. 3. In the clupez. 
ae coregones. 6. In the of{merus. 
8. In mackrel. And g. In the ammodytes or fandeeel. In 
five laft, thefe baa touch the {pine at one end, but in the 
others they no e come near it. 
The ufe of thefe ‘oofe bones feems to be, to ftrengthen 
and fupport the mufcles, that by this means they may 
be able the more forcibly to move the bo and turn 
it dial they are sechliae to fifh, no land cal having 
‘OSSI FICATION, in Anatomy, the converfion into bone, 
as, for example, of a cartilage a procefs of 
formation of the fkeleton.; 
eafed changes of its nature. 
under Bone. 
OSSIFRAGUM, in Botany, a name given by Bartho- 
line, and fome other writers, to a peculiar kind of grafe, 
growing in fome parts of Norwa It comes up early in 
the {pring, before any other grafs, and the cattle are tempted 
to eat it: but it emaciates them, and makes them fickly ; 
their back bones uae protuberant if they feed any time 
on it, and their legs fo weak that aed can hardly go. 
The remedy among the country people 
They colle& the bones of different ccmals and break them 
into fmall pieces. 
This precel is defcribed 
rr ry 
mines, and the effluvia 
cattle’s illnefs, and the ceafing of thefe efluvia their cure; 
for it is not ghee sad of thefe effe&is thould be 
owing to the grafs or the bon 
OSSIG, in aie a roe of Silefia, in the Pe 
ity 
