OIL 
•Who act imdef tlie Earl Marshal, Admiral, 
Ac. In the army, the subaltern otlicers are 
the lieutenants, cornets, ensigns, serjeants, 
and corporals. 
Ol'l'ICIAL, by the ancient law, signifies 
him wlio is the minister of, or attendant 
upon, a magistrate. In the canon law, it is 
especially taken for him to whom any 
bisliop generally commits the charge of his 
spiritual jurisdiction; and in this sense there 
is one in every diocese called officialis prin- 
cipalis, whom the laws- and statutes of this 
kingdom call chancellor. 32 Hen. VIII. 15.. 
OFFING, or O'ffin, in the sea-language, 
that part of the sea a good distance from 
shore, where there is deep water, and no 
need of a pilot to conduct the ship: thus, 
if a ship from shore be seen sailing out to 
seaward, they say, she stands for the offing : 
and if a ship, having the shore near her, 
have another a good w'ay without her, or to- 
w'ards the sea, they say, that ship is in the 
offing. 
OFF-SETS, in gardening, are the young 
shoots that spring from tire roots of plants; 
which being carefully separated, and plant- 
ed in a proper soil, serve to propagate the 
species. 
Off-sets, in surveying, are perpendicu- 
lars let fall, and measuring from the sta- 
tionary lines to the hedge, fence, or extre- 
mity of an enclosure. 
OGEE, or O. G., in architecture, a 
moulding, consisting of two members, the 
one concave and the other convex; or, of 
a round and a holloVv, like an S. 
OGIVE, in architecture, an arch, or 
branch of a Gothic vault ; which, instead of 
being circular, passes diagonally from one 
angle to another, and forms a cross with the 
other arches. 
OIL. The general character of oils are 
combustibility, insolubility in water, and 
fluidity. From the peculiar properties of 
different oils, they are naturally divided in- 
to two kinds ; fixed or fat oils, and volatile 
or essential oils. The fixed, or fat oils, re- 
(piire a high temperature to raise tliem to 
die state of vapour, a temperature above 
that of boiling vfater ; but the volatile, or 
essential oils, are vo^tiliaed at the tempe- 
rature of boiling water, and even at a lower 
one. Both the volatile and fixed oils are 
obtained from plants, and sometimes from 
the same plant ; but always from different 
parts of it. While the seeds yield fixed 
oil, the volatile oil is extracted from the 
bark or wood. One of the most distinguish- 
ing characteristics of the fixed oils is, that 
OIL 
they exist only in one part of the vegetable 
in tile seeds. No trace of fixed oil can be 
detected in the roots, the stem, leaves, or 
flowers of those plants, whose seeds afford 
it in great abundance. The olive may seem 
an exception to this. The oil which it yields 
is extracted, not from the seeds, but from 
its covering. Among plants too, fixed oils 
are only found existing in those whose seeds 
have a peculiar structure. The seeds of 
plants have sometimes one lobe, in which 
case they are called “ monocotyledonous” 
plants ; and sometimes they have two, when 
they are denominated “ dicotyledonous.” 
The formation of fixed oil in plants is ex- 
clusively limited to the latter class. There 
is no instance of fixed oils being found in 
the seeds of plants which have only one 
lobe. Those seeds which yield tlie fixed 
oils contain also- a eonsiderable portion of 
mucilage, so that when such seeds are bruis- 
ed and mixed with water, they form what 
is called an emulsion, which is a white fluid 
containing a quantity of the oil of the seed 
mixed with the mucilage. Fixed oils are 
extracted from the seeds of a great number 
of plants. Those which yield it in greatest 
abundance are, the olive, thence called 
olive oil ; the seeds of lint, and the kernels 
of almonds, called linseed, or almond oil. 
Fixed oils are also obtained from animals ; 
snch as train oil, as it is called, which is ex- 
tracted from the fat or blubber of the whale. 
Fixed oil is obtained also in great abun- 
dance from the liver of animals, and is found 
to exist in the eggs of fowls. These dif- 
ferent kinds of fixed oils, although they pos- 
sess many common properties, yet in others 
they are very different. Many of the vege- 
table oils have no smell, and scarcely any 
perceptible taste. The animal oils, on the 
contrary, are generally extremely nauseous 
and offensive. These differences are sup- 
posed to be owing to the mixture of extra- 
neous bodies, of to certain chemical changes 
which arise from the action of these bodies 
upon each other, or on tlie oil itself. As 
the fixed oils exist ready formed in the seeds 
of plants, they are generally obtained by 
“ expression,” and hence they have been 
called “ expressed oils.” This is done by 
reducing the seeds to a kind of pulp, or 
paste, which ■ is inclosed in bags, and sub- 
jected by means of machinery, when it is 
o btained in the large way, to strong pressure, 
so that the oil flows out, and is easily col- 
lected. The oil which is obtained by this 
process, which has been called “ cold drawn 
oil,” because it is procuted without the aji- 
