O P I 
the advantages of education, the German had fallen not 
merely into difufe, but into contempt. After that grand 
levenf, the national tongue was indeed adapted by many 
proteftant writers: but the barbarous jargon of polemi¬ 
cal divinity, which acquired additional harlhnefs from 
the intolerant and unphilofophic temper of the times, 
was little calculated to give to it that delicacy and har¬ 
mony which would render it the language of the Mufes. 
But he determined, by writing poems in his native tongue, 
to oppofe prejudices common to the learned, and of 
which even he had once been a zealous partifan. He is 
laid to have been the fir ft who introduced regular metre 
and harmony; and his verles are praifed for their pure and 
nervous ftyle. He was a man of great erudition ; and his 
intimate acquaintance with the ancient clalfics enabled 
him to transfule many of their beauties into his own 
works. A colleiSlion of his German Poems appeared at 
Frankfort in 1628 and 1644, and various pieces were 
printed feparately. All of them were reprinted at Ara- 
fterdam in 1698. Monthly Rev. vol. xiv. 
OPI'TIUS (Henry), a learned German Lutheran divine 
and orientaliit in the feventeenth and early part of the 
eighteenth century, was born at Altenburg in Mifnia, in 
theyear 1642. We have met with noother particulars con¬ 
cerning his perfonal hiftory, than that he became pro- 
fefior of divinity and of the oriental languages at Kiel 
in Holftein ; where, by his productions in Hebrew litera¬ 
ture and antiquities, hejuftly acquired the reputation of 
being one of the moft learned men of his time, and where 
lie died in 1712, when about feventy years of age. He 
was the author of 1. Novum Lexicon Hebrseo-Chaldaeo- 
Biblicum, See. ad modum tarn Lexici Buxtorfiani Hebraei, 
qua Schreveliani Grseci adornatum, 1692,410. 2. Atrium 
Linguns SanCtse ; or, a compendious introduction to the 
ftudy of the Hebrew Language, founded on the “He- 
braifmus Reftitutus” of the learned Wafmuth, of which 
the third edition, now before us, was publifhed in the 
year 1681, and is highly commended in a letter of Leuf- 
den to the author. 3. An edition of The Hebrew Bible, 
1709, in two volumes, 4to. 4. Parva Biblia. 5. Syriaf- 
nius; Chaldaifmus; Difputatiories, &c. In one in- 
ftance, however, he fhowed himfelf defective both in 
judgment and tafte, by attempting to eftablifh a relation- 
lhip between the Greek and Oriental languages, on the 
plan which Wafmuth has followed, in fhowing the affinity 
fublilling between all the languages of the Eaft. This 
wild fcheme for fubjeCting the Greek language to the 
fame rules with the Hebrew, he publifhed in a little work, 
entitled “ Grsecifmus Facilitati luas Reftitutus, Metho- 
do novo eaque cum Praeceptis Hebraicis Wafmuthianis, 
et fuis Orientalibus, quam proximo harmonica adeoque 
regulis xxxiv. fuccinCte abfolutus.” Nouv. Did. Hijl, 
Ladvoeat's Did. Hi ft. Bill, portatif. 
O'PIUM, f. [owion, from os-o?, Gr. juice. Our old word 
was opie. “Narcotikes, and opie of Thebes fine.” C/tau- 
?«•.] An infpiflated juice, partly of the refinous and 
partly of the gummy kind, produced from the white 
poppy, and pofleffin'g a narcotic principle.—A moderate 
dole of opium, taken internally, is generally under a 
grain, yet cuftom will make people bear a dram. Its firft 
effeCtis the making the patient cheerful; it removes me¬ 
lancholy, and diffipates the dread of danger; the Turks 
always take it when they are going to battle : it after¬ 
wards quiets the fpirits, eafes pain, and difpofes to fleep. 
After the.effeCt is over, the pain generally returns in a 
more violent manner ; the fpirits become lower than be¬ 
fore, and the puife languid. An immoderate dofe of 
opium brings on drunkennefs, cheerfulnefs, and loud 
laughter, at firft; and, after many terrible fymptoms, 
death itfelf. Thole who have accultomed themfelves to 
an immoderate ufe of opium, are apt to be faint, idle, anil 
though dels; they lofe their appetite, and grow old be¬ 
fore their time. Hill, 
Sleep hath forfook and given me o’er 
To death’s benumbing opium as my only cure. Milton, 
O P O 535 
Several vegetables furnifh a milky fluid, which, when 
reduced to a proper coniiftency, may have fimilar pro¬ 
perties to opium properly fo called. Of thefe are the 
LaCtuca virofa, or wild-lettuce, as well as the garden- 
lettuce. But it is furniflied in the greatell abundance 
from the white poppy of the Eaft, (Papaver fomnifefum ;) 
and alfo, in final 1 quantity, from the otherfpecies of the 
poppy. 
Mr. Young, a furgeon of Edinburgh, received a medal 
from the Society of Arts in May laft, (1819.) for the 
cultivation of the poppy, and thence collecting and pre¬ 
paring opium in Great Britain. The chairman (Dr. 
Powell) obferved, that this would be of great confe- 
quence, as fupplying the place of an article of coftly im¬ 
portation. See the article Papaver, vol. xviii. 
O'PIUS, or Oph, in ancient geography, a town of Alia, 
near the Euxine lea, between the mouths of two rivers, 
and ealt-fouth-eaft of Trapezus. 
OPl'ZUM, a town of Thrace, between Hadrianopolis 
and Philippopolis. 
O'PLE-TREE, J\ [opulus, Lat.] A fort of tree; the 
witch-hazel. Ainjworth. 
OPLI FODRO'MI, J'. [from the Gr. ott'Kov, armour, 
and ^fo/ 23 ?, a race.] A defignation given to thole who 
ran in armour, at the Olympic and other games. Cham¬ 
bers. 
OPOBAL'SAMUM, J\ See Amyris ofobalsamum, 
vol. i. p. 501. 
OPOCAL'PASON, or Opocarbason, / [Greek.] A 
gummy relinous lubftance, which has altrong refemblance 
to liquid myrrh, and which in the time of Galen was mixed 
with myrrh. It was difficult, according to this writer, 
to diltinguilh the one from the other, unlefs by their eftefts; 
the'former being of a poifonous nature, which frequently 
produced lethargy. 
OPODEL'DOC, f. The name of a plafter faid to be 
invented by Mindererus, though often mentioned by Pa- 
racelfus. There ul’ed to be alfo a famous popular oint¬ 
ment under the name of opodeldoc* of which the prepa¬ 
ration, as defcribed in Dr. James’s Difpenfatory, is very 
tedious and complicated ; but the Edinburgh Pharmaco¬ 
poeia has direfted it to be made in a much more Ample 
manner, viz. by digefting two ounces and a half of Spa- 
nilh foap in a pint of rettified fpirit of wine, and after¬ 
wards adding half an ounce of camphor, a dram of oil of 
rofemary, and a dram of oil of origanum. Opodeldoc is 
excellent in (trains, relaxations of the linews in horles, 
as well as in the human kind; alfo in all pains, numb- 
nefs, weaknefs in the joints, or other parts, being well 
rubbed in. 
OPOD'IPE, a town of New Navarre : 170 miles fouth 
of Cafa Grande. 
OPOG'KA, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 
Plkov, on the Velika. Lat. 56.40. N. Ion. 29. 14. E. 
OPOL'LE, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of 
Sandomirz : thirty miles weft-fouth-weft of Sandomirz. 
OPOORA'GE, a lmall iflandnear the eaftcoalt of New 
Zealand, a little to the fouth of Mercury Bay. Lat. 36.51. 
S. Ion, 1 S3. 54. W. 
OPOP'ONAX,/. [Latin.] A gum refin in fmall loofe 
granules, and fometimes in large malles, of a ltrong 
dilagreeable fimell, and an acrid and extremely bitter 
talte ; brought to us from the Eaft. See Pastxnaca o?o- 
POtfAX. 
OPORI'NUS (John), a learned printer, born at Bafil 
in 1507, was the Ion of a painter, in indigent circum- 
ftances, named Herbft. He was inltrubted in the elements 
of the Latin language by his father; and afterwards 
pafled four years at the univerlity of Strafburg, maintain¬ 
ing himfelf by teaching the younger Undents, by copy¬ 
ing manuferipts, and correbiing the prefs. When", by Tus 
fervices in the caufe of literature, he felt himfelf of fuf- 
liceut confequence to afluine a claiiical name, he changed 
that of Herbft, iignifying Autumn or Harvelt in German, 
to Oporinus, winch has the lame meaning in Greek; and, 
to 
