O L I 
458 O L I 
and only fays, in his own juftification, that he has given 
it in plainer terms than any body had done before him. 
The author relates many wonderful things of this dia¬ 
phoretic oil, on his own experience; particularly, the 
curing a confirmed dropfy, by throwing off the water by 
fweat; fo that the patient, in a manner, fwam in it, and 
the drops ran through the bed, in all parts, to the 
floor. It were well if we could underftand the procefs. 
Chambers. 
OLEW'SKO, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of 
Brzefc: eighty-eight miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Pinfk. 
To OLFAC'T, v. a. [olfadns , Latin.] To fmell. A 
hurlefqxie word: 
There is a machiavilian plot, 
Though every nare of ad it not. Hudibras. 
OLFACTORY, adj. [ofadd re, Fr. from of ado, Lat.] 
Having the fenfe of fuelling.—Effluvias, or invifible par¬ 
ticles, that come from bodies at a diftance, immediately 
affeft the olfactory nerves. Locke. 
OL'GA, the confort of Igor, fecond monarch of Ruflia, 
■who flourilhed about the year 880, having fucceeded his 
father Ruric, who died in 878. She bore him one fon, 
called Swetoflaw. Igor being murdered by the Drewenfes, 
Olga revenged his death. She went afterwards, for what 
reafon we know not, to Conftantinople, where Ihe was 
baptized, and received the name of Helena. The emperor 
John Zimilces was her godfather, and fell in love with her, 
as we are told; but Ihe, alleging the fpiritual alliance, 
refufed to marry him. Her example made fonie imprefiion 
upon her fubjefts, a good number of whom became con¬ 
verts to Christianity ; butnone upon her fon, who reigned 
for a long time after her death, which happened in the 
80th year of her age, fourteen years after her baptifm. 
The Ruffians to this day rank her among their faints, 
and commemorate her feltival on the nth of July. See 
the article Russia. 
OLGIA'TE, a town of Italy: four miles north of 
Lecco. 
OL'GSKOI, a town of Ruflia, in the government of 
Olonetz, on the Latcha Lake: twelve miles fouth of 
Kargopol. 
OL'HOH, a town of Arabia, in the province of Hedsjas : 
fixty-fix miles foutn-fouth-eaft of Mecca. 
OLIA'NA, a town of Spain, in the province of Cata¬ 
lonia: feven miles north-weft of Solfona. 
OLIAPOU'R, a town of Bengal, capital of the circar 
of Baharbund : 195 miles north-north-eaft of Calcutta. 
Lat. 25. 22. N. Ion. 89. 42. E. 
OLIAPOU'R, a town of Hindooftan, in Dowlatabad : 
twenty miles north-weft of Darore. 
OLIA'RA, or Alga'ria, a river of Spain, which joins 
the Cabriel a little before its conflux with the Xucar. 
OLIA'ROS, in ancient geography, a fmall ifland in the 
number of the Cyclades, lituated neai/do, and welt of, 
Paros; faid to be a colony of Sidonians. 
O'LIAS, a fmall, but very agreeable, town of Spain, 
on the road from Madrid to Toledo, two leagues from 
the latter place. It is the only place in this route which 
affords any fruit-bearing trees. 
OLI'BA, in ancient geography, a town of Spain, in 
the Tarragonenlis, and in the country of the Bterones. 
OLIB'ANUM, J'. in botany. See Juniperus. 
OLIBA'TO, or Lieat'ta, a river of Africa, which 
runs into the fea to the eaft of Cape Lopez Gonfalvo, 
forming a bay at its mouth. This river is laid to abound 
in crocodiles. 
OLIBA'TO, a town of Africa, in Lower Guinea, on a 
river of the fame name; containing about 300 houfes : 
thirty-fix miles eaft of Cape Lopez Gonfalvo. Lat. i.S. 
Ion. 10.54. E. 
OLIC A'NA, in ancient geography, a town of the ifle 
of Albion, in the country of the Brigantes, which was 
lituated at Hkley, on the river Wherfe, in Yorklhire. 
OL'LD, or Ol'idous, adj, [_olidus, Latin.] Stinking; 
fetid.—In a civet cat, a different and offenfive odour pro¬ 
ceeds partly from its food, that being efpecially fifli, 
whereof this humour may be a garous excretion and 
olidons feparation. Brown. —The fixt fait would have been 
not unlike that of men’s urine ; of which olid and defpi- 
cable liquor I chofe to make an inftance, becaufe chemifts 
are not wont to take care for extrading the fixt fait of it. 
Boyle. 
OLID'ITY,/. A ftrong fmell; a rank fmell. Scott. 
OL'IFANT, or Elephant, River, a river of Africa, 
on the weftern coaft of the Cape of Good Hope, which, 
after collecting the ftreamlets of the firft chain of moun¬ 
tains in its northerly courfe along their feet, difcharges 
itfelf into the Southern Atlantic in lat. 31. 30. S. but the 
navigation of this river is impeded by a reef of rocks 
acrofs its mouth. 
Olifant river, which is a fine clear ftream, flowing 
through a narrow valley, hemmed-in between the great 
chain of mountains and an inferior ridge called the 
Cardouw, forms one of the divifions of the diftrid of 
Stellenbofch and Drakenftein. This valley, (fays Mr. 
Barrow,) being interfeded by numerous rills of water 
from the mountains on each fide, is extremely rich and 
fertile ; but the great diftance from the Cape, and the bad 
roads over the Cardouw, prefent little encouragement for 
the farmer extending the cultivation of grain, fruit, or 
wine, beyond the neceflary fupply of his own family. 
Dried fruit is the principal article they fend to the 
market, after the fupplies which they furnifli of horfes, 
horned cattle, and llieep. The country on each fide of the 
lower part of the river is dry and barren, and for many miles 
from thejmouth entirely uninhabited. A chalybeate fpring 
of hot water, of the temperature of 108 0 of Fahrenheit’s 
fcale, flows in a confiderable ftream out of the Cardouw 
mountain into the Olifant river; and a bathing-houfe is 
ereded over the fpring. All the fmaller kinds of ante¬ 
lopes, jackalls, hares, and partridges, are very abundant 
in this and the adjoining divifions of Stellenbofch and 
Drakenftein. Barrow's Africa, vol. ii. 
OLIGAR'CHICAL, adj. [from oligarchy.'] Belonging 
to, or denoting, an oligarchy.— I cannot by royal favour, 
or by popular de-ufion, or by oligarchical cabal, elevate 
myfelf above a certain very limited point. Bar he's Speech 
in Pari. 1782. 
OL'IGARCHY, f. [from the Gr. oAiy^, few, and 
a (X' l > government.] A form of government, wherein the 
adminiftration is in the hands of a few perfons.—The 
ftates of Venice and Genoa may be ranked among oli¬ 
garchies. Chambers. —Oligarchy amounts to much the 
lame thing with ariftocracy; unlefs perhaps the former 
imports a kind of defed or corruption ; as if the fovereign 
power were monopolized by a few perfons, in prejudice 
of the rights of a great number.—We have no ariftocracies 
but in contemplation. All oligarchies, wherein a few men 
domineer, do what they lift. Burton. —After the expe¬ 
dition into Sicily, the Athenians chofe four hundred 
men for adminiftration of affairs, who became a body of 
tyrants, and were called an oligarchy , or tyranny of the 
few; under which hateful denomination they were foon 
after depofed. Swift, 
OLIGARRFIE'NA, f [fo named by Mr. Brown, from 
the Gr. oAiyo?, few, and a.fr,v, male, becaule of the ftamens 
being but two, though ufually, in the natural order to 
which the plant belongs, they are five.] In botany, a 
genus of the clafs diandria, order monogynia, natural 
order epacrideae. Generic EJJ'ential Charadcrs —Calyx 
in four deep fegments, with two feales at the bale; 
corolla four-cleft, its fegments not imbricated in the 
bud, permanent; ftamens within the tube; germen of 
two cells; capfule; of two cells. 
Oligarrhena micrantha, the only fpecies. Gathered by 
Mr. Brown on the fouthern coaft of New-Holland. A 
fmall, upright, much-branched, Ihrub. Leaves fcattered, 
imbricated, minute. Spikes terminal, ereCr. Flowers 
fmall, white, with four feales, or nectaries, under the 
germen. 
