ORY 
tliograpliy, from its determining things by 
perpendicular lines falling on the geometri- 
cal plane. 
Orthography, in architecture, the ele- 
vation of a building. This orthography is 
either external or internal. The external 
orthography is taken for the delineation of 
an external face or front of a building ; or, 
as it is by others defined, the model, plat- 
form, and delineation of the front of a 
house, that is contrived, and to be built, by 
the rules of geometry, according to which 
pattern the whole fabric is erected and fi- 
nished. This delineation or platform exhi- 
bits the principal wall with its apertures, 
roof, ornaments, and every thing visible to 
an eye placed before the building. Inter- 
nal orthography, which is also called a sec- 
tion, is a delineation or draught of a build- 
ing, such as it would appear were the ex- 
ternal wall removed. 
Orthography, in perspective, is the 
fore-right side of any plane, i. e. the side or 
plane that lies parallel to a straight line, 
that may be imagined to pass through the 
outward convex points of the eyes, conti- 
nued to a convenient length. 
Orthography, in fortification, is the 
profile or representation of a work ; or a 
draught so conducted, as that the length, 
breadth, height, and thickness of the seve- 
ral parts are expressed, such as they would 
appear if perpendicularly cut from top to 
bottom. 
ORYCTOLOGY is the science which 
teaches the natural history of those animal 
and vegetable substances which are dug 
out of tlie earth, in a mineralized state. In 
the following slight sketch of the historj’ of 
these substances it will be seen, that the re- 
markable situations in which they have 
been found, and the extraordinary changes 
which they have undergone, have led to the 
adoption of various contradictory and ab- 
surd notions respecting their nature and 
origin ; which have been corrected, as just 
ideas have been obtained respecting the 
forinatioii of the earth itself Xenophanes, 
more than 400 years before Christ, was led 
to the belief of the eternity of the universe, 
by discovering the remains of different ma- 
rine dnimals imbedded in rocks, and under 
the surface of the earth. Herodotus ascer- 
tained the existence of fossil shells in the 
mountains of Egypt, and was thereby in- 
duced to conclude, that the sea must have 
once covered those parts. In the pyramids 
of Egypt, mentioned by this author, and 
which had been built at so, early a period 
that no satisfactory accounts could be de- 
ORY 
rived from tradition respecting their erec- 
tion, the stones were found to contain 
the remains of marine animals, and particu- 
larly of such as exist no longer in a recent 
state, and differ essentially from all known 
animals. These were supposed by Strabo, 
who saw the fragments of these stones 
laying around the pyramids, to be the petri- 
fied remains of the lentils which had been 
used for food by the workmen. Eratosthenes, 
Xanthus of Lydia, and Strabo, have all no- 
ticed and variously commented upon the 
existence ofanimalremains thus wonderfully 
preserved. In the works of Pliny many 
fossil bodies are mentioned ; particularly 
the bucardia, resembling an ox’s heart, hut 
which was doubtlessly a cast formed in a 
bivalve shell ; glossopetra, bearing the form 
of a tongue, and supposed to fall from the 
moon, when in its wane ; hammites, re- 
sembling the spawn of fish; horns ofammon, 
resembling, in form, the ram’s-horn; lepi- 
dotes, like the scales of fishes ; meconites, 
bearing a resemblance to the seeds of 
poppies ; brontia, to the head of a tortoise; 
spongites, to sponge ; phycites, to sea- 
weeds or rushes, &c. Although noany were 
convinced, by the exact resemblance which 
several of these substances bore to different 
species of marine animals, tliat these must 
be the remains of such animals, and must 
have been deposited on these spots, at a pe- 
riod when they were covered by the sea ; 
others, unable to comprehend a circum- 
stance so inexplicable as the existence of 
the sea over seme of the highest mountains, 
chose rather to liave recourse to an appa- 
rently more easy mode of explanation, by 
attributing their formation to the energies 
of certain occult pow'ers, such as the vis 
plastica, vis formaiiva, and vis lapidijicativa. 
The formation of these bodies was also 
attributed, by our countryman, Dr. Plot, 
to certain plastic powers inherent in some 
saline bodies ; and Dr. Woodward, one of 
our latest writers on these substances, al- 
though aware that the situations in which 
these bodies were found, could only be ex- 
plained by the powerful and extensive ef- 
fects of the deluge, found himself obliged 
also to have recourse to an occult plastic 
power, to explain the formation of some of 
these substances. “ There are,” he ob- 
serves, “ various phenomena, that plainly 
shew that when they were brought forth at 
the deluge, the earth was destroyed, all tlie 
solids of it, metals, minerals, stone, and the 
rest, dissolved, taken up into the water, and 
there sustained along with the sea-shells, 
and other extraneous bodies j till at length 
