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by four deputes termed provide The he two proctors are masters of arts of at four years standing, and not more than ten fr.m their regency. They are chosen from the severd colleres in turns. The proctors are elected by the common suffrages of all doctors and masters of arts. They assist the vice-chancellor in con

Vocations and Con_Terations, to see that the scholastic exercises are duly performed, the statutes and discipline observed, just weights and measures kept, &c They name four masters of arts as assistants or pro-proctors. There is also a public orator of the university, who is chosen by the convocation, and must be at least either a bachelor of ovi law or master of arts. His duty is to write letters and addresses on public occasions, as the organ of the university; and to present the honorary degree of master of arts; he also is keeper of the archives and charter, and registrar of the convocations, conrea tions, and other meetings, and acts. He also collects and receives the rents of the university, There are at Oxford public lecturers and professors of divinity, Hebrew, Greek, civil law, medicine, modern history, botany, natiral philosophy, astronomy, geometry, ancient history, anatomy, music, Arabic, poetry, Anglo-Saxon, common law, and chemistry. Four terms are kept in the year at the university, and degrees are taken in divinity, law, physic, music, and the arts. The total number of members in the university books is about 3000, 1000 of whom are maintained on the revenues of the university,

and the rest at their own expense.

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Chret Church was founded by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525; in 1529, when he fell into disgrace. Henry VIII. suspended it for three years, when he re-established it under his own name, and in 1546 translated the episcopal ser hither from Oseney. Queen Elizabeth converted the grammar scholars into students, whose vacancies should be supplied from the Westminster school. The society consists of a dean, eight canops, 101 students, three professors, eight chaplains, and a suitable choir. The buildings consist of the cathedral, two spacious quadrangies, and two smaller courts. The west, or principal front, has a noble ur. From the gateway in the centre rises a stately tower, in which is suspended the famous bell Great Tom, at the sound of which, every evening, the students are directed, by the statutes of the university, to retire for the night. The grand western quadrangle, entered through the gateway, was erected, and the foundation stone laid, by Wolsey. It is nearly a square of 260 feet. The second great quadrangle is termed Peckwater Court, and

the architecture is perfectly classical. The southern side contains the library. Canterbury Square is a small quadrangle, built after the model of Peckwater. Christ Church cathedral is one of the most interesting objects in Oxford. The chief parts can be traced to the reign of Henry I.; and the style is even of an earlier period. It has the form of a cross, with a square tower, surmounted by a spire steeple in the centre. The choir is ornamented with splendid Gothic roof. The hall was built entirely under the direction of Wolsey; and is 115 feet long, and forty wide; containing several interesting paintings. The oak ceiling is beautifully carved.

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Corpus Christi was founded in 1516 by bishop Fox, lord privy seal to Henry VII. and VIII.; and the society consists of a president, twenty fellows, twenty scholars, two chaplains, two clerks, and two choristers. The building is at the east of Christ Church, and to the west of Merton College, and consisted at first of one spacious quadrangle; but various additions have since been made. The library is well furnished.

Exeter, was founded by Walter Stapleton, bishop of Exeter, in 1314; it consists of a rector, twenty-five fellows, one scholar, and ten exhibi

tioners.

Hertford, formerly called Hert Hall, was founded also by Walter Stapleton in 1312. It consists of a principal, four senior and eight junior fellows, eight probationary students, twenty-four actual students, and four scholars. The buildings are incomplete, and the college has had no principal since 1805. Here the late Mr. Fox was educated.

Jesus was founded in 1571 by queen Elizabeth, and endowed by Hugh Price, treasurer of St. David's, for a principal, eight fellows, and eight scholars, which has been since raised to mineteen fellows, and eighteen scholars, besides exhibitioners.

Lincoln was founded by Richard Fleming, who obtained a license from Henry VI. in 1427, to make All Saints' church collegiate, and to found a college for a rector and seven scholars. It was finished in 1475, by Rotherham, bishop of Lincoln, and consists of a rector, twelve fellows, eight scholars, thirteen exhibitioners, and a Bible clerk. The buildings consist of two quadrangles. The chapel was built in 1631, and

the hall in 1636.

Magdalen is one of the noblest institutions in the university. It was founded in 1458 by William Waynflete, bishop of Winchester, and consists of a president, forty fellows, thirty demies, a divinity lecturer, four chaplains, eight clerks, and sixteen choristers. No commoners are admitted. It is situated at the eastern extremity of the city, and the side towards the High-street is ornamented by a lofty tower. The great quadrangle is composed of the chapel, hall, library, a part of the president's lodgings, and chambers for the fellows and demies. The chapel is a beautiful Gothic structure, divided into two parts; the inner chapel retaining much of its original sublimity. The library is a low but extensive room. The interior of the hall is

very elegant. Magdalen is required by its statutes to entertain the kings of England and their eldest sons, whenever they visit Oxford, and has been honored with the presence of many of our kings. Attached to the college on the banks of the Cherwell are beautiful pleasure grounds. Cardinal Wolsey, Cardinal Pope, Hampden, Collins, and Addison, were educated here.

Merton is the most ancient college in Oxford, and was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, bishop of Rochester, and chancellor of England. It consists of a warden, twenty-four fellows, fourteen post-masters, four scholars, two chaplains, and two clerks, and is situated to the east of Corpus Christi; consisting of three courts. The first is small and irregular, but a handsome arch leads to the inner quadrangle of a pleasing style of Gothic architecture; the third court is also on a small scale: the library occupies two sides of it. The hall is a plain but respectable structure. The chapel is one of the finest Gothic buildings in the university. It is the parish church of St. John Baptist, and was erected in 1424, on the ruins of a more ancient building.

New College was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester. It is composed of a warden, seventy fellows, ten chaplains, three clerks, and sixteen choristers, and consists of a quadrangle, with attached chapel, hall, and library, a fine range of cloisters, and a series of buildings for the use of students, termed the Garden Court, which was completed in 1684 on the model of the palace of Versailles. The chapel is, in the interior, one of the most splendid in the university. It has undergone numerous modern alterations, under the direction of Wyatt. The painted windows are a remarkable feature of the building. The library consists of two rooms in different stories, and the gardens are laid out in good taste.

Oriel was founded in 1324 by Adam de Brom, archdeacon of Stow. The society is composed of a provost, eighteen fellows, and thirteen exhibitioners: the buildings consist of a quadrangle, with two ranges on the east and west sides of the garden, between which is placed the library, a chaste and classical structure, begun in 1788.

Pembroke was founded in 1620, by Thomas Teesdale of Glympton, in Oxford, and Richard Wightwick, rector of Isley, Berks, being named after the earl of Pembroke, then chancellor of the university. It consists of a master, fourteen fellows, and thirty scholars and exhibitioners. The chapel is a small building of the Ionic order.

Queen's takes the sixth place in the order of foundation, though the present buildings are of recent date. It was founded in 1340, by Robert Eglesfeld, confessor of queen Philippa, consort of Edward III., and consists of a provost, sixteen fellows, eight taberdars, sixteen scholars, two chaplains, two clerks, and forty exhibitioners. The hall is a fine room, sixty feet by thirty, and the library is one of the largest attached to any university.

St. John's was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas White, and consists of a president, fifty fellows,

Worcester, onginally named Gloucester College, was four bed 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 four lation of so many colleges, they sunk into neglect; four, however, remain, viz. St. Alban's, St. Edmond, St. Mary Magd.len, 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 H. 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 creations of books, MSS., &c. in Europe. In an apartm Licht-north side of the schools are the famous ART MELLIAN MARBLES: see that article Τ e teatre is a fine building, on the Ronan theatre of Marcellus. It Sir Clinistopher Wren, and is ca4.00 persons. The Clarendo'a large and respecta1711, with the profits of the n's History. The Radcliffe li rary is another of the omaments of the university, founded Ev Dr. Radcliffe, and completed in 1740. The Ashm dean museum was four led in 1782. by Elas Ashmole, for the reception of cuncsites both natural and artificial. The observatory is an elegant building, in a r tire situation, at the extremity of the north suburb.

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At St. Mary's church, the chief members of the university attend divine service; and, besides this. Oxford cont uns tarteen other churches, be1 nging 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. Aldrate's or St. Old's, and St. Thomas's. There are also places of worship for the Roman Catholes, Quakers, Methodists, Eaptists, &c. The other public buildings are the town and county-hall and jail, city bridewell, music room, Radde infirmary, and the wellcontrived Leneral 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 bailifis, 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 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. OXIGENE, in chemistry. See OXYGEN. OX'LIP, n. s. Ox and lip. Another name for the cowslip.

A bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where orlip and the nodding violet grows.

Shakspeare.

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 inhabitants is between 700 and 800.

OXTONGUE, n. s. Fr. buglossa. A plant. OXUCIE, in natural history, from Gr. org. sharp, and Ko, 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.

OXYCRATE, n. s. Gr. οξύκρατον; French oxycrat; Gr. ove and κεράω. 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 CALCI NATION, 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 inore, 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. Its 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. It 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.

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