Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/163

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

j)6as. 5. The Portugal, fcorpioide ornitbopodium, with undu- lated pods. 6. The purfelain-leaved ornitbopodium. Journ. Inft. p. 400.

ORNITHOSCOPI, o = -»0^kob-oi, in antiquity, diviners^ or footh- fayers, who made predictions, . and drew omens, from birds. They were likewife called ormthomantet, and orneofcopi, &c. Potter, Archaeol. Gnec. 1. 2. c. rj. T. 1. p. 321.

OROBANCHE, bronn rape, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the flower is of the perfonated kind, divided into two lips, the upper of which is galeated, and the lower divided into three fegments. The piftil arifes from the lower part of the cup, and finally becomes an oblong fruit, confuting of only one cavity, which ufually contains extremely minute feeds. The (pedes of orcbar.che, enumerated by Mr.Tournefort, ate thefe: I. The great large flower'd orbanche, fmelling like cloves. 2. The great ftinking orobancbe. 3. . The great Por- tugal orobancbe, with purplifh flowers. 4. The l'nall flowered orobancbe. 5. ".' be bluifh flowered orobancbe. t. The branched, purple-flowered orobancbe. 7. The blue-flowered, branched orobancbe. 8. The whitifh-flowcred, branched ora- bancbe. Town. InQ. p. 17!;.

OROBO, a name given by the chemifts to any fort of metallic glafs.

OROBOTDES, a name given by Hippocrates, and other authors, to a furfuraceous fediment in the urine ofperfons who have the jaundice: it is ufually of a rcdifh brown colour ; and is not peculiar to that difeafe, but is found in fome others.

OROBUS, bitter vetch, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the flower is of the papilionaceous kind ; from the cup there arifes a piftil, which is covered with a membrane, and finally becomes a membra- naceous pod of a cylindric figure, ufually containing oval feeds. To this it is to be added, that the leaves grow in pairs on a middle rib, which terminates in a point. The fpecies of orobus, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: 1. The purple-flowered, fpring orobus of the woods. t. The vernal, wood o-obus, with a pale red flower. 3. The broad-leaved orobus, with finall purple flowers. 4. The broad- leaved orobus, with final] pure white flowers. 5. The narrow- leaved, afphodell-rooted, wild orobus. 6. The vetch-leaved, wood orobus. 7. The red-ftalked, vetch-leaved, wood orobus.

8. The Italian, narrow-leaved orobus, with variegated flowers.

9. The wood orobus, with oblong fmooth leaves. 10. The Englifh, wild, wood orobus. 1 1 . "The Pyrenaean orobus, with nervous leaves. 12. The American 01 obus, with fcarlet fruit, marked with a black fpot, by fome called the phajeolus of Ame- rica,and the abrus, and fcarlet Indian pea Tourn. Inft. p. 393.

OROCONITES, in the materia medica, a name given by' Hip- pocrates, and others, to a bulbous root that is recommended as a rich food. It has the name from the Greek, S f t>-, a ! mountain, and *o»it«, of a conic figure. This fhews that it was a root of fuch a fhape, found growing in mountainous places ; but the learned have been puzzled in their attempts to find out what it was.

puillandinus is of opinion, that the oroconites of Hippocrates is the trafi, or fweet cypei us root, but there are many argu- ments againft this opinion, though the two circumftances expreffed in its name, that is, the place of growth, and the

Ihape of it, are fufficient to throw this to the ground. The trafi grows in low marfhy grounds, near waters, and its roots are fmall tubera of the fhape of a hazel-nut, whence the Spa- niards, who are very fond of them, have called them avellanda. I he Arabians have a root which they call the bulb, by way of eminence. This feems, indeed, to be the fame with th oroconites of Diofcorides ; and they give the fame account of its virtues, and tell us, that it grew far from waters on the mountains of Syria, near Damafcus, and elfewhere, ana' that it was of the fize and Ihape of a pear ; this may very well be called a conic fhape in a root. ORONTIUM, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the antirrhinum, called in Englifh calfsfnout, or fnap-drann. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

° v? SPI n^' '" zoolo g>'> a lame by which the antient natura- Ilits called the br ambling, or mountain finch . The word is Greek, and exprefles mountain-cbajfincb. See the article Moktifrikgilla. ORPELLO, a preparation of brafs ufed in the glafs trade, and prepared in this manner : cut plates of brafs into fmall pieces, and place them in a luted crucible, in a ftrong fire, but not fo violent as to melt it. Let it ftand in this manner for four days, in which time it will be well calcined ; when cold, powder, and fift it, and finally grind it on a porphyry. 1 his will be a black powder ; fpread this on tiles, which place on burning coals m the leer, near the hole, for four days; take oft" the aihes that may fall into it, and finally powder and fift it fine for ufc. It is known to be nicely prepared, when on mixing with the melted metal in the glafs furnace, it makes it fwcll and boil.

The colour it gives is a very elegant fky-colour, and a fea- green, or a mixt colour, between them, according to the quantity, and degree of calcination. AW's Art of Glafs, P- 35-

GRP S H u^L ( VotTl A ' r0nS theAthenians > the <"?*<»» whole I

O R P

fathers had loft their lives in the fervice of their country, were under the guardianfhip of the pelemdrcbus, who was to provide them with a competent maintenance, out of the public trea- fury. See Polemarchus. ORPHANUS, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome au- thors to a poor fpecies of opal, called by fome pfiuio-opnhs: it has no other colours befide a milky white, and purplifh red. This ftone is frequent in Germany, and Hungary. ORPHEOTELIS I7E, .fpnnhnu, i n antiquity, perfons ini- tiated in the Orphic myfteries. They allured all that were admitted into their fociety of certain felicity after death ; which when Philip, one of that order, boafted of, Leotychidas, the Spartan, replied, Why do not you die then, you fool, and put an end to your misfortunes, together with your life ? At their initiation, little elfe was required of them befides an oath of fecrefy. Potter, Arch:rol. Grac. T. 1. p. 497. ORPHEUS, in zoology,the name of a fifh caught in the Archi- pelago. It is of a broad and flat figure, and of a fine purple colour; its eyes are large and prominent, and its teeth ferrat- ed ; it has only one fin on the back, and the anterior rays of that are prickly, the others foft to the touch. Its anus is fmall, and it is faid to have no paffage for the femen, This was the fifh called orpbeus by the antients, but the mo- dern Greeks call another fifh by that name. This is of a flat figure, but very thick, has a fmall mouth, and is covered with fmall, but very rough fcales, which adhere very firmly to the fleih ; the tail is not forked ; it lias flefliy lips, and very fmall teeth ; its back and fides are black ; its belly white; it has a large black fpot at the root of the tail Its head is reddifll, and its fins are very elegantly diverfifyed with various colours ; it has only one back fin, and that has the anterior ray prickly, the hinder ones not at all fo. It grows fometimes to twenty pound weight, and is much efteemed among the modern Greeks. Gefittr de Fife p. 752. ORPIMENT, (Cyct.) auripigmentum — Orpmeits are inflam- mable foffile fubftances compofed of numbers of thin flakes, like the tales, which eafily fplit, and are fepara'ted from one another, and are flexile, and not elaftic, folubie in oil, fufible in a moderate fire, and yielding in burning an offensive fmell like that of garlic.

Thefe, like the talcs, are, in fome of the fpines, compofed of large plates, or flakes, each making the whole furface of the mafs, and, in others of fmall flakeslodged in extraneous mat- ter, or cohering alone into a mafs in form of fpangles. Of this genus of foflils, there are only three known fpecies : 1. A broad-flaked, gold-coloured kind, well known among the antients, as is plain from the defcription of it left us by Di- ofcorides, and much efteemed at prefent by our painters. This is found in feveral places, as in the iflands of the Archipelago, in the mines of Goffelaer, in Saxony, in fome parts of Turky, and the Eaft- Indies, and in its utmoft purity about Smyrna ; this makes the fineft of all yellows in painting. 2. The fmall- flaked, yellow kind, which is the common orpiment of the Ihops, and is a fine colour, though greatly inferior to the for- mer. This is found in many parts of the Turkifh dominions, and in Germany. And, 3. Red orpiment. This has been a name given by the more judicious to fandarach, and, by the vulgar, to red arfenic, but is to be reftrained only to this foffile, which is of a fine bright red, and of the regular tex- ture of the orpinents, and anfwering all their characters. This is a very beautiful fubftance of a fine bright red, very gloiTy, and a little tranfparent, and is found in the Turkifh dominions, in the iflands of the Archipelago, and even in our own coun- try, Dr. Hill having lately received fome of it from Cern- wall, under the name of red mundic.

The Englifh druggifts are guilty of an unpardonable piece of ignorance, in that, in general, they know no difference be- tween yellow orpiment, and the yellow factitious arfenic, which they regularly fell under its name ; the orpiment is known to be a fafe internal medicine, and the thing they fell under its name is a very terrible poifon. The colour-men, however, who fell both are well acquainted with the difference. Hill's Hift. of FofT. p. 204. ORRHAGOGA, a name given by the antients to fuch me- dicines as operated violently, as purges, and evacuted ferous and watery humours. ORRHOPlGlON, a word ufed by anatomical authors, fome- times to exprefs the extremity of the fpine, but more fre- quently the line or feam which runs from the penis along the middle of the fcrotum to the anus. ORRHOP1SSA, a name given by the antients to the thinner

or more fluid parts of tar. ORRICE, a name given by the vulgar to the iris-root. See

the article Iris. ORRUS, in botany, a name by which many of the antients called the cultivated pine tree, from its being remarkably full of juice.

The firft perron who has given us the name is Theophraftus ; but he is followed in it riot only by the other Greeks, but alfo by the Latins, who have called the fame tree for the fame rea- fon fap'mus, a contraction or abbreviation of the word/apapinui, the juicy pine. Pliny tells us, that this laft was the name of the manured pitch tree ; but in this he errs, for Vitruvius, and others, tell us that the pine nuts, am pinea, which were eaten O o and