728 O R G 
them, which the priefts in afterj-times carried about in 
the feftivals inftituted in honour of that prince. It is 
alfo another allowed fa£t, that Orpheus and Melampus, 
in their travels to Egypt, had feen the feftivals of Ofiris 
celebrated, and introduced them into Greece. Bacchus, 
it is faid, in honour of whom the orgies were celebrated, 
is the fame with Ofiris. From Greece the orgies palled 
into Phrygia; and the knowledge of them was brought 
into Italy, either by the Arcadians, when they planted a 
colony in Latium, or by iEneas himfelf, with his Trojans, 
wflio had previoufly celebrated this feftival. They were 
held every third year. The chief folemnities were in the 
night-time, and w>ere attended with all manner of im¬ 
purities. They were carried to fuch an excefs, that, in 
the year of Rome 568, the fenate was obliged to abolilh 
them through the whole empire. And Cicero informs 
us, that Diagondas aboliflied thefe infamous feftivals at 
Thebes. 
Servius fays, that orgiu was a common name for all 
kinds of facrifices among the Greeks, of the fame import 
with the word ceremonies among the Romans. 
OR'GIES, f. pi. [from orgiu.'] Frantic revels of any 
kind: 
/ Thefe are nights 
Solemn to the Ihining rites 
Of the fairy prince and knights. 
While the moon their orgies lights. H. Jonfon. 
She feign’d nofturnal orgies; left my bed, 
And, mix’d with Trojan dames, the dances led. Dryden. 
We have met with one inftance of this word in the lin¬ 
gular.—The writer has formed a kind of nofiturnal orgie 
out of her own fancy. Spectator, N° 217. 
OR'GILD,/! [Saxon.] Without recompenfe ; as, where 
no fatisfaftion was to be made for the death of a man 
killed, fo that he was judged lawfully llain. Spehnan. 
OR'GILLOUS, adj. [orgueilleux , Fr. ojigellice, Sax.] 
Proud ; haughty. Not in life. 
From illes of Greece, 
The princes orgillous, their high blood chafed, 
Have to the port of Athens fent their ftiips. Sliakefpcare 
OR'GON, a river of Chinefe Tartary, which rifes in 
lat. 46. 56. Ion. 101. 20. and runs into theSelingue in lat. 
50. N. Ion. 106. 14. ly. 
OR'GON, a town of France, in the department of tire 
Mouths of the Rhone, on the Durance: feventeen miles 
eaft of Tarrafcon, and nine north of Salon, 
OR'GUES, f. [French, from appearing like the keys 
of an organ.] In fortification, long thick pieces of wood, 
pointed and ftiod with iron, and hung each by a feparate 
rope over the gateway of a city, ready, on any furprife or 
attempt of the enemy, to be let down, to ftop up the gate. 
The ends of the feveral ropes are wound round a windiafs, 
by means of which they may be all let down together. 
Orgues are preferable to herfes, or portcullices, becaufe 
thefe may be either broke by a petard, or they may be 
flopped in their falling down; but a petard is ufelefs 
againft an orgue; for, if it break one or two of the pieces, 
others immediately fall down and fill up the vacancy ; or, 
if they ftop one or two of the pieces from falling, it is no 
hindrance to [he reft; ; for, being all feparate, they have no 
dependence upon one another. 
Orgues is alfo ufed for a machine compofed of feveral 
mufquet-barrels,bound togetherpnarow; wdiich, by means 
of a priming-train of gunpowder, may be fubjedled to one 
general explofioa. This machine has been found ex¬ 
tremely ferviceable in the defence of a low flank, a tenaille, 
or to prevent an enemy from crofting the ditch of a forti¬ 
fied place. James's Mil. Dill. 
OR'GUES, a town of France, in the department of 
the Lower Alps: eleven miles fouth of Sifteron, and two 
north of Forcalquier. 
ORGY'A, f. An ancient Grecian meafure, containing 
fix feet. Some reprefent the orgya as the Grecian pace. 
O R I 
Hefychius deferibes it as the fpace comprehended between 
the tw f o hands, when the arms are extended ; anfwering 
to the Roman ulna, and our fathom. 
ORHE'I, a town of Moldavia, on the Reut: fixty-fix 
miles eaft-north-eaft of Jafii, and fifty north-north-weft: 
of Bender. 
O'RI, a town of Sardinia: eight miles fouth of Safari. 
O'RIA, a town of Spain, in the province of Grenada : 
nineteen miles fouth of Huefca. 
O'RIA, or Oi'ra, a town of Naples, in the province of 
Otranto; the fee of a bilhop, united to Tarento : forty- 
five miles north-weft of Otranto, and 165 eaft of Naples. 
ORIA'GO, a town of Italy, in the Paduan, on the 
Brenta: twelve miles eaft of Padua. 
ORIBA'SIA, f. in botany. See Psychotria. 
ORIBA'SIUS, an eminent phyfician of the fourth cen¬ 
tury, was a native either of Pergamus or Sardes, and was 
a difciple of Zeno the Cyprian. By his medical lkill, 
learning, and agreeable manners, herofeto celebrity; and 
became the intimate friend of the emperor Julian, who 
made him queftorof Conftantinople. After the death of 
that prince in 363, he loft his intereft, and fell into dif- 
grace,infomuch that, under Valentinian II. he was ftripped 
of his property, and fent to baniftnnent among the bar¬ 
barians. His fortitude and profeflional lkill, however, 
infpired thefe people with a high veneration for his cha- 
rafler; and he was at length recalled to the imperial court. 
Eunapius reprefents him as flourilhing in wealth and re¬ 
putation at the time when he wrote the Lives of the Phi- 
lofophers, which was near the year 400. Oribafius, at the 
requeft of the emperor Julian, made a compilation from 
Galen and all the other preceding medical authors, in fe- 
venty or feventy-two books, ofwhich there are remaining 
the fifteen firft books, together with two others on ana¬ 
tomical fubje&s. In this work are preferved many paf- 
fages of ancient writers not to be met with elfewhere, 
and others are given with more accuracy than in the ex¬ 
tant works of the authors themfelves. He afterwards 
drew up the fynopfis of his great work, for the life of his 
fon Eullathius, in nine books, now' extant; as are like- 
wife his four books on medicine and difeafes, entitled 
“ Euporiftorum,” &c. He wrote fome other works, men¬ 
tioned by Photius and Suidas," wdiich are now loft. Of 
his remaining writings, various editions have been given, 
with Latin tranfiations; and they rank among the more 
valuable of the medical works of antiquit)', though they 
contain little of his own, and can fcarcely be faid to have 
contributed to the advancement of the art. He was a 
great collector of recipes and fpeeific remedies, feveral of 
which were received into prafitice after his'time. He 
fpeaks highly from his own experience of the efficacy of 
local bleedings by means of Tcarification, and aflerts that 
he was himfelf cured of the plague by it. He alfo gives 1 
a particular and curious defeription of a fpecies of me¬ 
lancholic derangement called lycanthropij, in which the 
patient wanders about by night among the tombs, as if 
lie were transformed into a wolf. The cafe of the de¬ 
moniac in the New Teftament, who abode among the l’e- 
pulchres, feems to have been of this kind. The theore¬ 
tical and anatomical parts of Oribafius are almoft purely 
tranferipts from Galen. The whole works of Oribafius 
were printed at Bafil, in three volumes, folio, 1557, and 
in the Artis Medics Principes of Stephanus. Friend's 
Hijl. Phyjick. 
ORICHAL'CUM, or Aurichalcum,/ A metallic fub- 
ftance refembling gold in colour, but very inferior in 
value.—A maffy id.ol of auricalk is placed upon a chariot 
with eight wheels richly gilded. Sir T. Herbert's Travels. 
Not Bilbo fteel, nor brafs from Corinth fet, 
Nor coftly orichalch from ftrange Phcenice, 
But fuch as could both Phcebus’arrows w’ard. 
And the hailing darts of heaven beating hard. Spenfer. 
Refpefiling the etymology of the word there is great 
diverfity of opinions. Thofe who write it aurichalcwm „ 
think 
