ORB 
ORE 
O 11 E 
311 
diet of the inhabitants of Turkey, Persia, and 
Syria, From it is made the alimentary pow- 
der called salep ; which, prepared from fo- 
reign roots, is sold at five or six shillings per 
pound, though it might be furnished by our- 
selves at a sixth part of that price, if we chose 
to pay any attention to the culture of this 
plant." The orchis mascula is the most va- 
lued for this purpose. A dry, and not very 
fertile soil, is best adapted to its growth. 
The properesttime for gathering the roots 
is when the seed is formed, and the stalk is 
ready to fall; because the new bulb, of 
which the salep is made, is then arrived to its 
full maturity, and may he distinguished from 
the old one, by a white bud rising from the 
top of it, which is the germ of the orchis of 
the succeeding year. 
ORDEAL, a form of trial, or of discover- 
ing innocence or guilt, formerly practised 
over almost all Europe, and which prevailed 
in England from the time of Edward the 
Confessor, till it was abolished by a declara- 
tion of llenry HI. It was called purgatio 
vulgaris, or judicium, in opposition to hel- 
ium, or combat, the other form of purgation. 
In England an offender, on being arraign- 
ed, and' pleading Not. guilty, had it in his 
choice to put himself upon (tod and his 
country ; that is, upon the verdict of a jury ; 
©r upon God alone, on which account it was 
called the judgment of (tod, it being pre- 
sumed that God would deliver the innocent. 
The more popular kinds of ordeal were those 
of red-hot iron and water: the tivst for free- 
men and people of fashion, and the last 
for peasants. Eire ordeal was performed 
either bv taking up in the hand a piece 
of red-hot iron, of one, two, or three pounds 
weight ; or else by walking barefoot and 
blindfold over nine red-hot ploughshares, 
laid at unequal distances ; and if the party 
escaped unhurt he was adjudged innocent, it 
not he was condemned as guilty. Water or- 
deal was performed either by plunging the 
bare arm up to the elbow in boiling water, 
and escaping unhurt thereby: or by casting 
the person suspected into a river or pond of 
water ; and if he floated therein, without any 
action of swimming, it was deemed, an evi- 
dence of his guilt ; but if he sunk he was ac- 
quitted. 4 Black. 340. 
ORDER, See Architecture. 
ORDERS, or Ordination. No person 
shall be admitted to the holy order of deacon 
under S3 years of age ; nor to the order of 
priest unless he is 24 complete ; and none 
shall be ordained without a title, that is, a 
nomination to some cure or benefice, and he 
shall have a testimonial of his good behaviour, 
for three years past, from three clergymen : 
and the bishop shall examine him, and if he 
sees cause mav refuse him. And before he is 
ordained he shall take the oath of allegiance 
and supremacy before the ordinary, and sub- 
scribe the thirty-nine articles 
ORDINARY, in , common and canon 
lav/, is one who has ordinary or immediate 
jurisdiction in ecclesiastical causes in such a 
place. In which sense archdeacons are ordi- 
naries, though the appellation is more fre- 
quently given to the bishop of the diocese, 
who has the ordinary ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
tion, The archbishop is the ordinary of the 
whole province, to visit and receive appeals 
from inferior judicatures, 
ORDINATES, or Ordinate appli- 
Yol. II, 
cates, in geometry, arc parallel lines, MM, 
mm (Plate Miscefl. tig. 178), terminating in a 
curve, and bisected by a diameter, as AD. 
The half of these, as MP, mp, is properly the 
semiordinate, though commonly called ordi- 
nate. 
ORDNANCE, a general name for all 
sorts of great guns used in war. See G un- 
nery. 
Ordnance, boring of. Guns are thus 
bored: the piece A (Plate Observatory, fig. 
7.) is placed upon two standards Bn, by- 
means of two journeys, turned round by *a 
water-wheel; the breech D being introduced 
into the central line ot the wheel, with the 
muzzle towards the sliding carriage E, which 
is pressed forwards by a ratch F and weights. 
Upon this sliding carriage is fixed,- truly ho- 
rizontal and central to the gun, the drill-bar 
G, to the end of which is fixed a carp’s tongue 
drill or cutter H ; which, being pressed for- 
ward upon the piece whilst it is turning round, 
perforates the bore, which is afterwards 
finished with bars and cutters. 
The machinery for boring of ordnance is 
sometimes put in motion by a steam-engine : 
and in this way, from 18 to 24 great guns 
have been boring at the same time ; the borer 
in each piece being brought up to its proper 
place in the gun, by a lever and weights. In 
this method of bringing up the borer the 
pressure may always be made equable, and 
the motion of the borer regular; but the dis- 
advantage is, that without due attention the 
borer may work up too far towards the 
breech, and the piece be spoiled. In the 
royal arsenal at Woolwich, only one piece is 
bored at a time in the same mill : the gun to 
be bored lies with its axis parallel to the ho- 
rizon, and in that position is turned round its 
axis by means of wheel-work, moved by one 
or more horses. The borer is laid, as above 
described, in the direction of the axis of the 
gun, and is incapable of motion in any direc- 
tion except that of its length ; and in this di- 
rection it is constantly moved by means of a 
small rack-wheel, kept in proper motion by- 
two men, who thus make the point of the 
borer so to bear against the part of the gun 
that is boring, as to pierce and cut it. The 
outside of the gun is smoothed at the same 
time by r men with instruments fit for the pur- 
pose, whilst it turns round, so that the bore 
may be exactly in the centre of the metal, 
bee Gregory’s Mechanics. 
Ordnance, office of, an ofliee kept within 
the Tower of London, which superintends 
and disposes of all the arms, instruments, and 
utensils of war, both by sea and land, in ail 
the magazines, garrisons, and forts, in G rest 
Britain. 
ORES, METAU.TC. This class compre- 
hends all the mineral bodies, composed either 
entirely of metals, or of which metals con- 
stitute the most considerable and important 
part. It is from the minerals belonging to 
this class that all metals are extracted ; for 
this reason they have obtained the name of 
ores, 
As the metals at present known amount to 
23, we shall divide this class into 23 orders, 
allotting a distinct order for the ores of every 
particular metal. 
Metals exist in ores in one or o'ther of the 
four following states: 1. In a metallic state, 
and either solitary, or combined with each 
other. 2. Combined with sulphur. 3. In 
R r 
the state of oxides. 4. Combined with acids. 
Each order therefore may be divided into the 
four following genera : 
1. Alloys. 3. Oxides. 
2. Sulphurets. 4. Salts. 
It must be observed, however, that every 
metal has not hitherto been found in all these 
four states, and that some of them are hardly 
susceptible of them all. Some of the orders, 
therefore, want one or more genera, as may 
be seen from the following table, taken from 
Dr. Thomson’s incomparable work on che- 
mistry ; a work of which every student of 
that science, or of natural philosophy, ought 
to be possessed. 
Order I. Gold. 
1. Alloys. 
Order II. Platinum 
I. Alloys. 
Order HI. Silver , 
1. Alloys. 
2. Sulphurets. 
3. Oxides. 
4. Salts. 
Order IV. Mercury. 
1 . Alloy r s. 
2 ...Sulphurets. 
3. Oxides. 
4. Salts. 
Order V. Copper . 
1 . Alloys. 
• 2. Sulphurets. 
3. Oxides. 
4. Salts. 
Order VI. Iron . 
1. Alloys, 
2. Sulphurets. 
3. Oxides. 
4. Salts. 
Order VII. Tin . 
1. Sulphurets. 
2. Oxides. 
Order VIII. Lead. 
1 . Sulphurets. 
2. Oxides, 
3. Salts, 
Order IX, Nickel . 
1. Sulphurets. 
Order X. Zinc. 
1. Sulphurets. 
2. Oxides. 
3. Salts. 
Order XI. Antimony . 
1. AUovs. 
2. Sulphurets. 
3. Oxides. 
4. Salts. 
Order XII. Bismuth , 
1. Alloys, 
2. Sulphurets. 
3. Oxides. 
Order XIII. Tellurium. 
1. Alloys. 
Order XIV. Arsenic. 
1. Alloys, 
2. Sulphurets, 
3. Oxides. 
4. Salts, 
