two chaplains, and choir. It stands on the north of the city, and has in front a wide terrace and a beautiful row of elms. It is formed of two Gothic quadrangles; the hall is a fine and well-proportioned room; the library occupies the upper story of the east and south sides of the second quadrangle. In the chapel the Corinthian order prevails. Trinity was founded in 1554 by Sir Thomas Pope. The members are a president, twelve fellows, and twelve scholars; the chapel has great simplicity of arrangement, and the hall is a plain but noble room. University College continues erroneously as cribed to king Alfred as its founder, but was founded by William of Durham, rector of Wearmouth, in 1249. It consists of a master, twelve fellows, and seventeen scholars, and is situated on the north side of High-street. The valuable library was completed in 1699. The hall is a spacious and handsome room: in the common room is a fine bust of Alfred. Wadham was founded in 1611, by Nicholas Wadham, esq., of Edge and Merrifield, in Somersetshire, for a warden, fifteen fellows, fifteen scholars, two chaplains, and two clerks. It consists of a single quadrangle 130 feet square: the chapel is a handsome structure, in the Gothic style, and the library has a fine Gothic window; the hall is capacious, and here the Royal Society originated. Worcester, originally named Gloucester College, was founded in 1714, by Sir Thomas Coke of Bentley, in Worcestershire. The whole architecture is of a noble character. It has had several endowments since, and now consists of a provost, twenty-one fellows, ten scholars, and three exhibitioners. Being a seminary for educating the novices of Gloucester monastery, it was at the reformation converted for some time into an episcopal palace. It is agreeably situated near the Isis, at the western extremity of the city. The halls at Oxford were originally houses erected by the citizens of Oxford for the accommodation of the students, to whom they were let. After the foundation of so many colleges, they sunk into neglect; four, however, remain, viz. St. Alban's, St. Edmond, St. Mary Magdalen, and New Inn Hall, and have been enriched by various endowments. Each is governed by a principal, and by the university statutes; the students possessing the privileges, and wearing the same dress, with those of the colleges. If entitled to little notice, amidst the blaze of architectural beauty around, the buildings are in general commodious, and the halls have produced a due proportion of eminent characters. Of the other public buildings, the schools form, together with the Bodleian library and the picture gallery, a noble quadrangle. These schools were erected in the fifteenth century, the professors reading lectures in their sciences, and the scholars of the university being enjoined to perform here their exercises for degrees. The Bodleian comprises three extensive rooms, disposed in the convenient form of the letter II. It was founded by Humphrey duke of Gloucester, but greatly augmented by the munificence of Sir Thomas Bodley, and now contains one of the most va luable collections of books, MSS., &c. in Europe. In an apartment on the north side of the schools are the famous ARUNDELIAN MARBLES: see that article. The theatre is a fine building, on the plan of the Roman theatre of Marcellus. It was built by Sir Christopher Wren, and is capable of containing 4000 persons. The Clarendon printing-house is also a large and respectable edifice, built in 1711, with the profits of the sale of lord Clarendon's History. The Radcliffe library is another of the ornaments of the university, founded by Dr. Radcliffe, and completed in 1749. The Ashmolean museum was founded in 1682, by Elias Ashmole, for the reception of curiosities both natural and artificial. The observatory is an elegant building, in a retired situation, at the extremity of the north suburb. At St. Mary's church, the chief members of the university attend divine service; and, besides this, Oxford contains thirteen other churches, belonging respectively to the thirteen parishes into which it is divided, viz. All Saints, Carfax or St. Martin's, St. Clement's, St. Ebb's, St. Giles's, Holywell, St. John's, St. Mary Magdalen's, St. Michael's, St. Peter's in the East, St. Peter's in the Bailey, St. Aldgate's or St. Old's, and St. Thomas's. There are also places of worship for the Roman Catholics, Quakers, Methodists, Baptists, &c. The other public buildings are the town and county-hall and jail, city bridewell, music room, Radcliffe infirmary, and the wellcontrived general market. Here are also various charity schools; but no theatrical representations are allowed in the city. Oxford has no considerable manufacture or branch of trade; the canal, however, has recently opened new sources of commerce; and the city sends four members to parliament, two for the city, elected by the citizens and freemen, and two for the university. The government, subject to the chancellor or vice-chancellor of the university, in all affairs of moment, is vested in a mayor, high steward, recorder, four aldermen, eight assistants, two bailiffs, a town-clerk, two chamberlains, and twenty-four common council. The mayor, at the coronation feasts of the kings and queens of England, receives a gilt bowl and cover as his fee. The history of Oxford would require a volume of no ordinary size to trace: its early portions are involved in obscurity, and no credit can be given to any accounts of it before the reign of Alfred, when it appears to have had a famous monastery dedicated to the Trinity. The name is supposed to be derived from a ford for oxen, being formerly written Oxenford, and it was certainly a town in the tenth century. William the Conqueror was compelled to force an entrance into this city; his successors frequently made Oxford the place of their residence, and summoned both parliaments and councils here. Charles I. spent here the whole winter of 1646. Oxford early attained a degree of distinction from the number of its schools, but no regular corporate institution deserving the name of a university appears to have existed even at the period of the Norman Conquest. Many halls and schools were erected under the patronage of Richard I.; and, in the reign of king John, the number of scholars is said to have amounted to 3000. In that of Henry III. the students greatly increased; and about this time was introduced the practice of erecting and endowing colleges, which since this reign have gradually accumulated to their present state. Market on Wednesday and Saturday. Fifty-eight miles west by north of London. OXFORD, a county in the west part of Maine, bounded east by Somerset and Kennebeck counties, south by Cumberland and Oxford counties, and west and north-west by New Hampshire. Population 17,630. Chief town, Paris. OXFORD, a post town of Chenango county, New York, eight miles south of Norwich, 110 west of Albany. Population 2988. It is a flourishing town, has an academy, and a considerable village. A weekly newspaper is published here. Also a post town of Sussex county, New Jersey, on the east side of the Delaware; seventeen miles N. N. E. of Easton. Population 2470. OXFORD, a post town and port of entry, Talbot county, Maryland, on the Treadhaven, eight miles above its mouth. Thirteen miles S. S. W. of Easton, forty-eight south-east of Baltimore. It is a place of considerable trade. The shipping belonging to this port in 1816 amounted to 15,720 tons. OXFORDSHIRE. This county takes its name from the city of Oxford. When the Romans entered Britain under Aulus Plantius, by command of the emperor Claudius, a great portion of the districts now denominated Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire was inhabited by a race of aboriginal Britons termed Dobuni; and during the Saxon heptarchy it formed a part of the kingdom of Mercia. Oxfordshire is an inland county, bounded on the east by Buckinghamshire, on the west by the county of Gloucester; on the S. S. W. and south-east its limits unite with those of Berkshire; the river Cherwell separates Oxfordshire from Northamptonshire on the north-east, while the county of Warwick lies contiguous to the north-west. It is of a very irregular figure; near the centre of the county, at the city of Oxford, it is not more than seven miles across; and yet in the more northern part, at no great distance, its diameter is thirty-eight miles. Proceeding northward it assumes the resemblance of a cone, and terminates at what is called the Three Shire Stone, in a complete point or apex; the part south of Oxford is likewise disproportionately narrow, when compared with the chief central districts of the county; at no point south of the city of Oxford above twelve miles in width: its greatest length is fifty miles. Oxfordshire is divided into fourteen hundreds; and contains one city, twelve market towns, and 207 townships. According to a topographical survey, made by Mr. Davis, there are about 450,000 acres of land in the county. The whole is in the diocese of Oxford, and in the province of Canterbury. It is included in the Oxford circuit. The climate of Oxfordshire may be accounted in general cold, particularly the westward part of the northern division, where the fences consist chiefly of stone walls, and consequently afford little or no shelter. It is cold also upon and near the Chiltern Hills, especially on the poor white lands at the foot of the hills, where it is always to be observed that the frost will take effect sooner and continue longer on that soil than it does on the deeper lands further situated from the hills. The climate of the Chiltern country is moist, on account of the fogs, which are more frequent on the hills and woods than in the vale. The soil of this county contains (according to Young's Survey) three distinctions of soil, that are so marked by nature as to allow of little doubt respecting them. 1. The red land of the northern district, which in fertility much exceeds that of any other portion of equal extent. 2. The district of Stonebrush. 3. The Chiltern Hills. 4. Miscellaneous loams. The proportionate extent of these soils, taking the total of the county at 450,000 acres, may be thus stated, in the estimation of Mr. Neele:-Red land 79,635 acres, Stonebrush 164,023, Chiltern 64,778, miscellaneous 166,400; total 474,836. In so much as the counties of Oxford and Berks are contiguous, they are separated from each other by the rivers Isis and Thames. The river Thames, which runs through the county, falls into the Isis at Dorchester, and from that place takes the name of Thames. Other rivers in Oxfordshire are the Cherwell, which divides this county from Northamptonshire on a part of the boundary only; the Windrush; the Evenlode; the Glym; and the Ray, besides numerous streams of inferior note: so that this county may be considered as inferior to none in point of being well watered. The Oxford Canal enters the county at its northern extremity, between Claydon and the Three Shire Stone. Approaching the vicinage of the river Cherwell, at Cropredy, it proceeds at a small distance from the banks of that river to the city of Oxford, where it falls into the navigation of the Isis. The advantages derived from this recent cut are incalculably great, as it opens an immediate connexion between the interior of the county and Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and the Wednesbury collieries. The produce of this county is chiefly like that in most of the midland farming counties: much butter and cheese are made, and numerous calves are reared and fed for the London markets; it grows also a considerable quantity of corn. The principal manufactures are those of blankets at Witney, shag at Banbury, gloves and polished steel at Woodstock, and some lace-making and spinning by the country people towards the borders of Buckinghamshire. This county returns nine members to parliament, viz. two for the county, two for the city of Oxford, two for the university of Oxford, two for Woodstock, one for Banbury. The dukes of Marlborough have long possessed a great sway over this county; but the Jenkinsons represented it from 1707 to 1734. OXIDES. Substances combined with oxygen, without being in the state of an acid. OXIGENĚ, in chemistry. See OXYGEN. OX'LIP, n. s. Ox and lip. Another name for the cowslip. OXNAM, formerly called Oxenham, a parish of Scotland, in Roxburghshire, nine miles in length, and upon an average five miles in breadth. It is watered by the rivers Oxnam, Coquet, and various other streams. The number of in habitants is between 700 and 800. OXTONGUE, n. s. Fr. buglossa. A plant. OXUCIE, in natural history, from Gr. ožuç, sharp, and or, a column, a genus of fossils of the class of selenitæ, but of the columnar, not the rhomboidal, kind. Of this genus there are only two known species:-1. A fine kind with flakes and transverse filaments, found in the clayey banks of the river Nen, near Peterborough in Northamptonshire; and, 2. A dull kind with thick plates and longitudinal filaments. This is common in Yorkshire, and lies sometimes in a yellow and sometimes in a blue clay. OXUS, a river of Central Asia, the principal part of whose course is through Independent Tartary, rises in the high table land of Pamer, in a narrow valley, enclosed on three sides by a high mountain called Pooshtikhur, where the stream is seen issuing from a vast mass of ice. It first rolls S. S. W., and then W. N. W., but always between lofty mountains, and receiving large accessions of water. It then bursts into the plain, and, being turned by a branch of the Hindoo Coosh, directs its course to the northwest. It now flows through the plain of Bukharia, on passing which it reaches an extensive desert, near the Tartar cities of Khieva and Urgunge, and at length falls into the Aral Sea, after a course of more than 1200 miles. It has been believed that it fell anciently into the Caspian, and was turned artificially into its present receptacle; but this is solely founded upon the ancients being ignorant of the existence of the Aral as a separate sea, and who therefore could find no other termination for the Oxus than the Caspian. It passes through a desart country abounding with sands. OX'YCRATE, n. s. Gr. οξύκρατον; French oxycrat; Gr. οξυς and κεραω. A mixture of water and vinegar. Apply a mixture of the same powder, with a compress prest out of oxycrate, and a suitable bandage. Wiseman. OXYDATION, a term applied by modern chemists to express the process by which bodies are converted into oxides; and it is allowed on all hands to be exactly similar to combustion. The nature of this process has been much disputed; and the question involves in it great part of the controve sy between the followers of Stahl and the celebrated Lavoisier, the founders of the phlogistic and antiphlogistic theories, which for some years divided the chemical world. But the latter doctine has now completely triumphed, and the former is quite exploded. See CALCINATION, CHEMISTRY, COMBUSTION, INFLAMMATION, and PHLOGISTON. OXYGEN GAS. This gas was obtained in 1774 from red oxide of mercury exposed to a burning lens, by Dr. Priestley, who observed its distinguishing properties of rendering combustion more vivid and eminently supporting life. Scheele obtained it in different modes in 1775; and in the same year Lavoisier, who had begun, as he says, to suspect the absorption of atmospheric air, or of a portion of it, in the calcination of metals, expelled it from the red oxide of mercury heated in a retort. Oxygen gas forms about a fifth of our atmosphere, and its base is very abundant in nature. Water contains 88.88 per cent. of it; and it exists in most vegetable and animal products, acids, salts, and oxides. This gas may be obtained from nitrate of potash, exposed to a red heat in a coated glass or earthen retort, or in a gun-barrel; from a pound of which about 1200 cubic inches may be obtained; but this is liable, particularly towards the end of the process, to a mixture of nitrogen. It may be expelled, as already observed, from the red oxide of mercury, or that of lead; and still better from the black oxide of manganese, heated red hot in a gun-barrel, or exposed to a gentle heat in a retort with half its weight, or Somewhat more, of strong sulphuric acid. To obtain it of the greatest purity, however, the chlorate of potash is preferable to any other substance, rejecting the portions that first come over as being debased with the atmospheric air in the retort. Growing vegetables, exposed to the solar light, give out oxygen gas; so do leaves laid on water in similar situations, the green matter that forms in water, and some other substances. Oxygen gas has neither smell nor taste. specific gravity is 11111; 100 cubic inches weigh 33-88 grains. It is a little heavier than atmospheric air. Under great pressure water may be made to take up about half its bulk. I is essential to the support of life: an animal will live in it a considerable time longer than in atmospheric air; but its respiration becomes hurried and laborious before the whole is consumed, and it dies, though a fresh animal of the same kind can still sustain life for a certain time in the residuary air. Its Combustion is powerfully supported by oxygen gas. Any inflammable substance previously kindled, and introduced into it, burns rapidly and vividly. If an iron or copper wire be introduced into a bottle of oxygen gas, with a bit of lighted touchwood or charcoal at the end, it will burn with a bright light, and throw out a number of sparks. The bottom of the bottle should be covered with sand, that these sparks may not crack it. If the wire coiled up in a spiral like a corkscrew, as it usually is in this experiment, be moved with a jerk the instant a melted globule is about to fall, so as to throw it against the side of the glass, it will melt its way through in an instant, or, if the jerk be less violent, lodge itself in the substance of the glass. If it be performed in a bell glass, set in a plate filled with water, the globules will frequently fuse the vitreous glazing of the plate, and unite with it so as not to be separable without detaching the glaze, though it has passed through perhaps two inches of water. OXYGENATION. This word is often used instead of oxidation, and frequently confounded with it; but it differs in being of more general import, as every union with oxygen, whatever the product may be, is an oxygenation; but oxydation takes place only when an oxide is formed. ΟΧΎΜΕΙ, n. s. Gl. οξύμελι, εξυς, and μελι. A mixture of vinegar and honey. In fevers, the aliments prescribed by Hippocrates, were ptisans and decoctions of some vegetables, with oxymel or the mixture of honey and vinegar. Arbuthnot. OXYMO'RON, n. s. Gr. ožuμwpov. A rhetorical figure, in which an epithet of a quite contrary signification is added to any word. OXYR'RHODINE, n. s. Gr. οξυρροδινον, žve, and podov. A mixture of two parts of oil of roses with one of vinegar of roses. The spirits, opiates, and cool things, readily compose oxyrrhodines. Floyer on the Humours. OYER and TERMINER, Fr. Ouir et Terminer; Lat. Audiendo et Terminando. A comtuission directed to the judges, and other gentlemen of the county to which it is issued, by virtue whereof they have power to hear and determine treasons, and all manner of felonies and trespasses. In our statutes the term is often printed Oyer and Determiner. OYES'. Fr. oyez, hear ye. Is the introduction to any proclamation or advertisement given by the public criers both in England and Scotland. It is thrice repeated. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, O yes! if any happy eye Mine is the wag. OY'LETHOLE, n. s. Shakspeare. Crashaw. See EYLET. It Another mass held a kind of oyster shell, and other bivalves. Woodward. There may be many ranks of beings in the invisible world as superior to us as we are superior to all the ranks of being in this visible world; though we descend below the oyster to the least animated atoms discovered by microscopes. Watts. Where oyster tubs in rows OYSTER HARBOUR, a bay in the north part of King George the Third's Sound, New Holland, discovered by Vancouver in the year 1791; there. It will only admit vessels of a middle and so called from the abundance of oysters size, the shallowness of the water on the bar extending from shore to shore, on which were found seventeen feet water only. Long. 118° 15' E. OYSTER ISLAND, an island in the bay of Bengal, very dangerous to navigation on account of its rising but just above the level of the sea, and rock oysters, which the natives of the opposite being surrounded by rocks. It abounds with coast catch with hammers, and carry to Chittagong, Dacca, and Calcutta; but it is dangerous to eat them till they have been purged in salt. It lies nine miles S. S. W. of the north point of the Arracan River. OYSTER SHELLS are an alkali far more powerful than is generally allowed, and in all probability much better medicines than many of the more costly and pompous alkalies of the same class. These shells produce very sensible effects on the be written oylet, from oeillet, Fr. but eylet seems stomach, when it is injured by acid humors. better. Distinguished slashes deck the great, Prior. As each excels in birth or state; I will not lend thee a penny, sword will open. Shakspeare. Merry Wives of Windsor. Off goes his bonnet to an oysterwench. Shakspeare. VOL. XVI. OZAMA, a river of Hispaniola, formed by the confluence of the Isabella and Ozama, two streams which unite about a league above the capital, and fall down in a beautiful wood-girted channel, as wide as the Thames at Chelsea. In rainy seasons this stream is of great convenience for bringing down provisions and produce. The OZANAM (James), an eminent French mathematician, born at Boligueux in Bresse, in 1640. His father designed him for the church; but his mathematical genius showed itself so early that he made that study his profession, and taught that science at Lyons. In 1702 he was admitted into the Royal Academy of Sciences; and died of an apoplexy in 1717. He was of a mild and serene temper, and a cheerful disposition. His works are very numerous, and have met with approbation. principal are, 1. Practical Geometry, 12mo. 2. A Mathematical Dictionary. 3. A Course of Mathematics, 5 vols. 8vo. 4. Mathematical and Philosophical Recreations, the most complete edition of which is that of 1724, in 4 vols. 8vo. 5. An Easy Method of Surveying. 6. New Elements of Algebra, a work much commended by M. Leibnitz. 7. Theoretical and Practical Perspective, &c. 2 E P. P, a labial consonant, is formed by a slight Compression of the anterior part of the lips; and is confounded by the German and Welsh with b. It has an uniform sound; but is sometimes mute before ; as accompt, receipt; but the mute p is in modern orthography commonly omitted. P is used, 1. as a letter; 2. as an abbreviation; 3. it was anciently used as a numeral. 1. As a letter, P is the fifteenth of the alphabet, and the eleventh consonant. The sound is formed by expressing the Ireath somewhat mere suddenly than in forming the sound of b; in other respects these two sounds are pretty much alike. When P stands before t or sits sound is lost; as in the words psalmis, psychology, ptolemaic, ptisan, &c. When placed before they both together have the sound of f; as in philosophy, physic, &c. P and B are so like each other, that in ancient inscriptions, and old glossaries, these two letters have often been confounded. Several nations still pronounce one for the other. The Welsh and Germans say, ponum vinum for bonum vinum. Among the Latins, as often as an s followed, the b was changed into a p, as scribo, scripsi. St. Jerome observes, on Daniel, that the Hebrews had no P; but that the ph served them instead; adding that there is but one word in the whole Bible read with a P. viz. apadno. 2. As an abbreviation, P stands for Publius, Pondo, &c. P.A. DIG. for Patricia Dignitas; P. C. for Patres Conscripti; P. F. for Publii Filius; P. P. for Propositum, or Propositum publice; P. R. for Populus Romanus; P. R.S. for Pratoris sententia; P. R. S. P. for Præses provinciæ. P. M., among astronomers, is frequently used for post meridiem, or afternoon; and sometimes for post mane, after the morning, i. e. after midnight. On the French coins, P denotes those that were struck at Dijon. In the Italian music, P stands for piano, or softly; and P. P. P. for pianissimo, or very softly. Among physicians, P stands for pugil, or the eighth part of a handful; P. E. partes aquales, or equal parts of the ingredients; P. P. signifies pulvis patrum, or Jesuit's bark in powder; and ppt. præparatus, prepared. 3. As a numeral, P was used among the ancients to siguify the same with the G, viz. 100; though Baronius thinks it rather stood for seven. When a dash was added a-top of F, it stood for 400,000. The Greek signified eighty. PA, a city of China, in Sechuen, of the second rank. It stands in long. 106° 24′ E., lat. 31° 31' N. Pa, a fortified city of China, of the second rank, in Pe-che-lee, fifty miles south of Pekin. Also a town of Thibet, 450 miles east of Lassa. PAARDEBERG, or the Horse Mountain, a division of the district of Drakenstein, Cape of Good Hope, so named from the number of zebras that were formerly found here. Its chief produce is wheat. PAARLBERG, amountain in the territory of the Cape, to the north of the peninsula on which Cape Town is situated. A chain of large rocks, like a necklace, pass over the summit, and present a very remarkable appearance, which gives name to the mountain. Two of them, placed near the central and highest point, are called the Diamond and the Pearl. The Pearl is about 400 feet above the summit of the hill, and the circumference of its base is nearly a mile. The Diamond is larger. See CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. PAAW (Peter), a Dutch physician, born at Amsterdam in 1504. He became eminent at Leyden, where he wrote several Latin treatises on medicine, and died in 1716. PABAY, a small island of the Hebrides, about eight miles from Barray, nearly a mile and a half long, one broad, inhabited by three families. PABBA, a small island of Scotland, two miles from Sky, about a mile long, and three-fourths of a mile broad. It is used only for pasturing cattle. In one place are indications of iron ore; and many of the rocks are of the finest limestone, and exhibit beautiful petrifactions. At its northern extremity are the remains of a chapel. PABBAY, one of the isles which compose the district of Harris, Inverness, Scotland. It has a conical appearance, and rises to a high peak. Its diameter, at the base, may measure about two miles and a half. This island, once fertile in corn, has its south side now covered with sand drift, and exhibits the most desolate appearance. Towards the south-west, indeed, it is partially sheltered, and still productive; but on the north-west again, where exposed to the seaspray, scarcely any vegetation remains. PABLO, a small lake of Quito, in the province of Otabalo, on which is situated a settlement of this name. Forty miles east of Quito. It is also the name of other settlements of South America. PABULAR, adj. PABULATION, n. s. Lat. pabulum. Affording aliment: pabulation is the act of feeding or PARL LOUS, adj. procuring food: pabu PARULUM, 2.s. lous, alimental: pabulum, food; support; maintenance in regard to food. We doubt the air is the pabulous supply of fire, much less that flame is properly air kindled. Browne's Vulgar Errours. PACAJES, a province of Peru, bounded north by Chucuito and the great lake, north-east by Omasuayos, east by La Paz and Sicasica, south by Oruro, Paria, and Carangas, and south-west and west by the lofty chain of the Andes. Its length from the bridge of the Desaguadaro, which divides it from Chucuito, to the province of Paria, is fifty-six leagues, and its greatest width forty. The climate is cold, and the population, chiefly Indian, very thinly scattered. A mine of tale, which supplies the whole of Peru with window lights, is its only remarkable production. PACAMOROS YAGUAR-ONGO, or San Juan de Salinas, vulgarly called De Bracamoros, a province and government of Quito, bounded north by the territory of Zamora and the province of Lova, west by Piura, south by the river Amazon, and east by Indian territories. This pro |