Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/174

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

OUR

O V U

hiane. The hair of the reft of the body is fliort, arid they have a dewlap under the throat like our bulls. Ray's Syn. Quad. p. 73.

1 thefe are ufually added the paces and mufmon ; the firft of which properly belong to the camel clafs, not the Jheep, and the latter an animal fufpected not to be found any where at this time.

In the Linnaeanfyflem of zoology, thejheep makes a diftinct genus of animals, of the order of the pecora. The characters bv which the creatures of this genus are diftinguifhed from the reft of that order, are thefe : their horns arc hollow, bent backward, wreathed and crooked, and fcabrous, not fmooth on their outfide. Linnai Syftem. Nat. p. 43.

GUMIEN, a name given by the Chinefe to a peculiar fort of porcelain, of which they are very fond. It is black, orna- mented with gold. They (bmetimes alfo call the blue and gold, which is made in the fame manner, by the fame name. They colour it with three parts of the azure, and feven parts oil of ftonc, and lay on the gold afterwards. If they would have it bluifh, they add lefs of the azure, and fome cerufs white. Obferv. de PAfie.

OUNCE (Cyd.) — The ounce averdnpas weight, is about 37^ grains troy. See Pound.

Ounce is alfo the Engliih name of the lynx, or lupus cervarius, a very fierce faeaft of prey. .See Lynx.

OURISSIA, in zoologv, a name by which Clufius and fome other authors have called the Immmhig-bird, or guainumbi. Clnf Exot. I. 5. c. 7. See the article Guainumbi.

OUROLOGY, in medicine, a name given by authors to a treatife or difcourfe on the fubject of urine. The chemifts have given us treatifes on the analvfis of urine, and the pre- parations of tt, fuch as the pbofphorus, &c. under the name of ourohgiei : and medical writers have, under the fame name, given us treatifes on the prognoftics from the urine, and its various appearance in different difeafes.

The firft ftep towards judging by the urine, is to fix fome- tbing as its ftandard in a healthy ftate, all the deviations from which, in whatever refpeft, are to be judged fignals of diftempers or diftempered habits. This ftandard is beft taken from the urine of a perfon in health, of between thirty and forty years old, and it is of a citron colour and moderate con- fiftence, of a due and fome what ftrong fmell, and made in a considerable quantity. This, when it has ftood a proper time, is alfo to depofit a natural fediment. By being well ac- quainted with all the ftages and changes of this, the difeafed urine will be eafUy judged of by their fcveral peculiarities in difference from it. Phil. Tranf. N°. 100. It is faid by fome, that people often die with good and health- ful urine; but this is only faid by thofe who are not fkilful in urine: for it is as impoflible for the urine to be healthful at the approach of death in difeafes, as for the blood to be fo. . The time of infpe£ting the urine, and the time that the urine is made that is to be infpected, are alfo circumftances of sjeat confequence. The urine by which the beft judgment is to be formed, is that made alter the firft flecp in the night; and the time of judging of this is not immediately when it is | made, but about two hours after, when it has had time to fettle. It muft in the mean time be fetto fettle in a moderate! air, neither too cold nor too hot. The firft hinders the fet- tling, and the latter rarifies the colour ; and if very great, it caufes an ebullition, which deftroys what fliould fwim upon the furface of the urine. The urine mult not be judged of in the fun, nor by candle-light; for either of thefe lights will give falfe colours : but the proper place is, when there is a moderate, not glaring light; and when it is firft received, it muft beheld very ftill and fteady ; afterwards it will be pro- per to (hake it, to fee the whole that fwims in it, and will fcparate from it. Eygel. de Urinis.

The colour of the urine is the moft precarious of all its ap- pearances, and to be judged of with the greateft caution. What is taken to be the mark of a difeafe in this cafe, is often only the effect of medicines or the food : rhubarb or faf- fron will make the urine yellow, and a common fallad will make it greenifh ; but thefe tinctures go off after a few hours from the time of taking the things which occafion them People who live in a hot air, and thofe who ufe violent ex- ercife, ufually make more high coloured urine than others. The fubftance, the quantity, the qualities, and the contents of the urine, will always difcover to the attentive view the nature, caufe, and fymptoms of the perfon who made it. What is moft to be obferved as to the fubftance of the urine is, whether it be thick or thin, clear or turbid, oily or not . oily. The copioufnefs of it is only to be judged of by com- parifon of the quantity voided within the twenty-four hours by the patient, with that he ufed to void in health, or that quan- , tity which at a medium a man in health does ufually void. Among the qualities of the urine, the principal is the fmell. This is affected not only by difeafes, but by medicines taken for them. The urine is on many occafions rendered foetid ;

. . and there are fome things which communicate an agreeable . fmell to it, fuch as turpentine and many of the diftilled oils. ■ Among the things which render the urine foetid, the princip; - are ulcers and purulent matter. The tafte of the urine alfo

declares its qualities. It is naturally of a faltifti and fulphu- rous tafte, but this goes off", and a fweetnefs or infipidity is obferved in it. The principal colours of the urine in its va- rious ftates, as inflamed by difeafes, are white, yellow, red- difh, and black; to one or two of thefe, differing in degree or to mixtures of two or more of them, in different propor- tions, may be referred the other lefs common colours of pale citron, high-red, green and blue, which laft two, in any per- fect degree, are very uncommon. The moft dangerous of all urines are the blue and the black, particularly the laft : the antients, however, judged too feverely of it. Galen fays, he never knew any one recover who made black urine; but we meet with fome Jnftances of children efcaping after this fy mptom.

The contents of the urine are of three kinds : the fediment or matter fubfiding to the bottom; the matter hanging in the middle; and the matter fwimming at the top. Thefe differ according to their degrees of weight, and in all thefe the phyfician is to obferve, the fubftance, colour, uniformity and jikenefs. For example : the beft fediment is that which is moderate in fubftance and quantity, white, uniform, and alike both for matter and time. We are not to expect a fe- diment in the urine in all difeafes, and in fome a thinner, in others a thicker fediment, is the beft fymptom. Among all the appearances of the middle and top of the urine, the worft is that of a fort of clouds forming themfelves in the urine, and rifing to the top entirely. Thefe are the figns of light-headednefs, and often of death itfelf. Eefides thefe, which are the general contents of urine, there are particular ones ; fuch as mealy matter, fcales, coagulated blood, purulent matter, afhes, flime, pieces of ieeming flefhy matter, fmail hairs, woolly filaments, flying duft, tough fluff" adhering to the fides of the veflel, and refembling the webs of fpiders, bladders, froth, fat or cream-like fubftances, and finally fandy or ftony matter. This laft is the moft frequent of all, and is of two kinds ; the one found in the body, the other only feparated from the urine after it is difcharged. It is of great confequence to know thefe, as they give great light into the nature of nephritic complaints. The fandy matter generated in the body always precipitates itfelf to the bottom in the urine, as foon as it is made, and remains loofe in it ; but the other only feparates from it in the pot, and adheresto the fides of it in form of a fort of cruft. It has been fuppofed by many, that prefages of the ftone may be made from thefe feparations from the urine, but there is no certainty in it ; only this, that thofe who have been ufed to void grains of fand, if they fuddenly leave it off", and from that time begin to make a whitifh and thin urine, they then may be fufpected to have a ftone breeding within them.

The nature of the fand voided at times by people afflicted with the ftone, may ferve as a guide to judge of the nature of the difeafe. When it is hard and red, the ftone is likely to be fituated in the bladder; if hard and white, the kidneys are likely to be the feat of the diforder. We have inftances of very particular matters voided by urine, befide thefe : fome wholly erroneous ; others certain, tho' very ftrange. Plem- pius gives an account of a woman who voided a yellow fatty matter with her urine for feveral months after the going off ot a quartan ague, and tho' fhe difcharged great quantities of this, was not at all the better for it. Phil, Tranf. N u . 100.

OUT, Outside, or Without, in the manege, is the cou- trarv of in 9 injich, inner, &c. See In, Inker, &e.

OUTIN, in zoology, a name by which fome call the fifh known. among authors by the name of oxyrynchus. Wilhughbfs Hift. Pile, p. 187. See the article Oxyrynchus.

OU FLICKER, or Outliggfr, in a fhip, a fmall piece of timber, three or four yards long, as occafion ferves, made fait to the top of the poop, and ftanding right out a-ftern : at the outmoft end of it is a hole, into which the ftanding part of the fheet is received, and made fait through the block of the fheet; and then again received through another block, which is feized to this outl'uker, hard by the end of it. This is feldom ufed in men of war, or in great fhips; and when- ever it is made ufe of, it is becaufe the mizen maft is placed fo far aft, that there is not room enough within board to hale the fheet flat.

Outligger feems the true orthography of the word, which ap- pears to be derived from the Dutch uitlegger, q. d. outlier.

OUTNESS, is ufed by fome for that relation of things by which one appears out of, or at a diftance from another. Dr. Berkeley, in his eflay on vifion, makes ufe of the word outnefi; and obferves, that we form no notion of outnejs from the fenfe of feeing merely, but only from motion.

OVUM [Cyd.)~ Ov\JM.-/fnguinum, a name given by many au- thors to a foflil, fuppofed by the vulgar to be the petrified egg of a ferpent, but being really like j^e brontise and om- brize, (pedes' of the 'etbiniiis. See Echtnites.

OvvM-psfypi, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome of the earlier writers, to the papyraceous, or thio-fhelled nautilus. The refemblance of the body and arms of the fifh which in- habits this fhell, with thofe of the fea-polypus, gave occafion to their fuppofing this creature the fame animal, not yet sot out of the egg. The fhell of this fpecies being very thin,

and