o c c 
883 
o c c 
poet, who fucceeded ro Chaucer and Gower, and flou- 
rifhed about 1410. A (election from his poems was pub¬ 
lished by George Mafon, in 4to. 1796, with a Gloffary. 
'Jones's Bios;, Did. 
To OCCLU'DE, v. a. [ occludo , Lat.] To Shut up.— 
They take it up, and roll it upon the earths, whereby, 
occluding the pores, they conferve the natural humidity, 
atid fo prevent corruption. Brown. 
OCCLU'SE, adj. Shut up ; clofed.—The appulfe is 
either plenary and occlufe, fo as to preclude all paffages of 
breath or voice through the mouth; or eli’e partial and 
pervious, fo as to give them fome paffages out of the 
mouth. Holder on Speech. 
OCCLU'SION, /'. The a£l of fliutting up.-—The con- 
ftridtion and ocelijion of the orifice. Howell. 
OCCO'A, a river of the iiland of Hifpaniola, which 
runs into the fea, and forms a bay on the fouth coaft, to 
■which it gives name, a little to the weft of Point 
Salinas. 
OCCO'A, a bay at the eaffern extremity of the iiland 
of Cuba. 
OCCOCHAF'PY, or Bear Creek, a river of Ten- 
nelfee, which runs into the Tenneffee river. 
OCCONEACHE'A ISLANDS, three fmall illands on 
the river Roanoke, belonging to Virginia. Lat. 36. 35. N. 
Ion. 78. 45. W. 
OCCONE'E, a town of the Hate of Georgia, on the 
river Occonee : fixty-two miles north-weft of Augufta. 
OCCONEE MOU'NTAINS, mountains of United 
America, in the north-eaft part of the ftate of Georgia. 
Lat. 34. 50. N. Ion. 83.40. W. 
OCCONEE RIV'ER, a river of the ftate of Georgia, 
which rifes in the Occonee mountains, and joins the Oak- 
mulge to form the Altamaha. 
OCCOQUAN' CREE'K, a river of Virginia, which 
runs into the Potomack in lat. 39. 39. N. Ion. 77. 18. W. 
OCCUL'T, udj. [occulte , Fr. occultus, Lat.] Secret; 
hidden; unknown; undifcoverable.— An artift will play 
a leflon on an inftrument without minding a ftroke; and 
our tongues will run divifions in a tune not miffing a note, 
even when our thoughts are totally engaged elfewhere: 
which effedls are to be attributed to fome fecret act of the 
foul, which to us is utterly occult, and without the ken 
of our intelledls. Glanville. —Thefe inftindts we call oc¬ 
cult qualities ; which is all one with faying that we do 
not underftand how they work. L'Ejlrange. —Thefe are 
manifeft qualities, and their caufes only are occult. And 
the Ariftotelians give the name of occult qualities not to 
manifeft qualities, but to fuch qualities only as they Jjtip- 
poled to he hid in bodies, and to be the unknown caufes 
of manifeft eftedls. Newton's Opt. 
OCCULTA'TION, f. [occultatio , Lat.] In aftronomy, 
is the time that a ftaror planet is hid from our light, when 
eclipfed by interpofition of the body of the moon, or fome 
other planet between it and us. Harris. 
OCCUL'TED, udj. Secret. Not in ufe. 
If his occulted guilt 
Do not itfelf unkennel in one fpeech, 
It is a damned ghoft that we have leen. S/iahefpeare. 
OCCULT'NESS, f. Secretnefs ; ftate of being hid. 
OC'CUPANCY, I', [from occupaus, Lat.] Pofleffion. 
The aft: of taking pofleffion.—Of movables, fome are things 
natural; others, things artificial. Property in the firrt is 
gained by occupancy, in the latter by improvement. War- 
burton on Lit. Property. 
OC'CUPANT, J\ He that takes pofleffion of any thing. 
—Of beafts and birds the property pafieth with the pof- 
feffion, and goeth to the occupant ; but of civil people not 
fo. Bacon. —The number of the apoftles was not yet full: 
one room is left void for a future occupant. Bp. Hall's 
Contempt. 
Occupant, in law; he who firft. gets pofleffion of a 
thing. An iiland in the fea, precious ftones on’the fea- 
fijo-re, and trealure difeovered in a-ground that has no 
particular owner, by the law of nations belong to him 
who finds them and gets the firft occupation of them. 
But lands po lie fled without any title are now in the crown, 
and not in him who firft enters. 
In fome cafes where the laws of other nations give a 
right by occupancy, as in lands newljr created, by the 
riling of an iiland in the fea or in a river, or by the allu¬ 
vion or derelidtion of the waters; in thefe inftances the 
law of England affigns them an immediate owner: For 
Bradton fays, that, if an iiland arife in the middle of a river, 
it belongs in common to thofe who have lands on each 
fide thereof; but, if it be nearer to one bank than another, 
it belongs only to him who is proprietor of the neareft 
(hore. However, in cafe a new iiland rife in the Jett, 
though the civil law gave it to the occupant, yet ours 
gives it to the king. Brad. 1 . 2. c. 2. And, as to lands 
gained from the fea,,either by alluvion, by the walhing-up 
of land and earth foas in time to make terra firma ; or by 
dtrelidion, as when the fea 1!)rinks back below the ulual 
water-mark ; in thele cafes the law is held to be, that, if 
this gain be by little and little, by fmall and imperceptible 
degrees, it fliall go to the owner of the land adjoining, 
Dyer, 326. but, if the alluvion or dereliction be fudden 
and confiderable, in this cafe it belongs to the king. In 
the fame manner, if a river, running between two lord- 
fhips, by degrees gains upon the one, and thereby leaves 
the other dry, the owner who lofes his ground has thus 
imperceptibl y no remedy ; but, if the courfe of the river 
be changed by a bidden and violent flood, or other hafty 
means, and thereby a man lofes his ground, it is faid that 
he fliall have what the river has left in any other place as 
a recompence for this bidden lofs. 
Of things perj'onal to which a title may he obtained by Occu¬ 
pancy. —Among thefe Blackftone enumerates the goods 
of alien enemies: rertrained however to captors by pub¬ 
lic authority, and to goods brought into the country by 
an alien enemy after a declaration of war, without a fafe. 
co min dr. The perfons of prifoners til! their ranfom is 
paid ; and perhaps, in fome cafes, negro-flaves. Any thing 
found which does not come under the defeription df waifs, 
eltrays, wreck, or treafure-trove. The benefit of the 
elements of light, air, and water, as far as they are pre- 
vioully unoccupied ; or as they may be occupied without 
injury to another. See Nuisance. Animals force natures, 
under the reftriftions of the Game-laws. See Game. A 
fpecial perfonal property in corn growing on the ground, 
or other emblements ; though the title to thefe is rather 
the continuation of an inchoate than the acquifition of 
an original right. Property ariiing by accefjion and confu- 
Jion of goods; as-to the latter of which, fee Confusion, 
vol. v. p. 69. As to property arifing from acceffion; by 
the Roman law', if any corporeal fubftances received after¬ 
wards an acceffion by natural or by artificial means, as by 
the growth of vegetables, the pregnancy of animals, the 
embroidering of doth, or the converlion of wood or men¬ 
tal into veilels and utenlils, the original owner of the 
thing was entitled by his right of poifeflion to the- pro¬ 
perty of it under fuch its ftate of improvement; but, if 
the thing itfelf by fuch operation were changed into a 
different fpecies, as by making wine, oil, or bread, from 
another’s grapes, olives, or wheat, the civil law held that 
it belonged to the new operator, who was only to make a 
latisfaftion to the former proprietor for the materials 
which he had fo converted. Brad. 1 . a. c. 2, 3. 2 Comm. 
c. 26. 
To OC'CUPATE, v.a. [ occnpo, Lat.] To poffefs ; to 
hold ; to take up.—Drunken men are taken with a plain 
deftitution in voluntary motion; for that the lpirits of 
the wine opprefs the fpirits animal, and occupate part of 
the place where they are, and fomake them weak to move.- 
Bacon's Nat. Hijl. 
OCCU'PATiLE, adj. A law term: belonging to that 
which -has-been left by the right owner, and is novv polk 
felled by another. Ajh. 
OCC UP A'TION,/ [Fr. from occupalio, I.at„] Poflellion. 
Aft 
