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among the country people is a very odd one. They collect the bones of different animals, and break them into fmall pieces. The cattle greedily devour this fort of food when offered them in this difeafe, and there follows a fort of drivel- ing at the mouth for a confiderabfe time, after which they become well It is poffible there may be much error in this ftory. The kingdom of Norway is full of mines, and the effluvia of thefc may be the occafion of the catties illnefs, and the ceafing of thefe effluvia their cure; for it is not probable that either of thefe efie&s fhould be owing to the grafs or the bones. Bartbal Act. Med.
OSS1PAGINA, in botany, a name given by Arnobius and fome other of the old Greek writers to the confolida-major, or greater comfry. It had this name from its fuppofed quality of agglutinating broken bones on being taken internally. The Greek writers have fometimes called thisplant petle.
OSTEOCOLLA, {Cyd.) a fubftance ufed in Germany in cafes of fractures, giving it inwardly to bring on a callous ; but fo inaccurately described by authors, feveral different fpecies of the cruftaceous fpars having been defcribed under its name, that it is not eafy to ascertain what it truly and regu- larly is. Dr. Hill, from the inflection of what is now uni- verfally received in Germany as fuch, which anfwers very well to die accounts given of the fubftance by thofe who have firft recommended it in medicine, has afcertained the name to a peculiar fpecies of cruftaceous fpar of the terrene kind, which he has defcribed under the name of clbdeloplacium crajfius^ exaibo pallida fufcum, durum, fupcftde fcabra, or hard, pale brown, thick cruftaceous fpar, with a rough furface. This is found in long, thick, and irregularly-cylindric pieces, which are ufually hollow, but are fometimes filled up with a marley earth, and fometimes contain within them the re- mains of a ftick, round which the o/hocolla had been formed : but tho' it is plain from hence, that many pieces of o/lcccolla have been formed by incruftation round flicks, yet the greater number are not fo; but arc irregularly tubular, and feem formed of a fiat cake, rolled up inro a cylindric fhape. The crufis of which thefc are compofed do not form regular con- centric circles round the internal cavity, as muff have been the cafe t ad they been formed by incruftation, butftiewing plain- ly that they were once fo many thin ftrata, compofing a flat furface, which has afterwards" been rolled up as onemi^ht do a paper three or four times doubled, into two, three, or more ■fpiral lines; in which cafe, each fihgle edge of the paper would be every where a regular part of a continued fpiral line drawn from a given point; but they would by no means be fo many detached concentric circles.
The ojicocclla is found of various fizes, from that of a crow-quill to thethicknefs of a man's arm. It is compofed of fpar and earth, and is found, both in digging and in feveral brooks, in many parts of Germany and elfewhere. Hill's Hift. of Foil p. 350. OJleocoV.a is called hammcjlem in many parts of Germa- ny. It has this name in thefe places from the obfervation of its always growing in fand, never in clay, or any folid foil, nor even in gravel. Where a piece of it any where appears on the furface, they dig down for it and find the branches run ten or twelve feet deep. They ufually run ftreight down, but fometimes they are found fpreading into many parts near -the furface, as if it were a fubterraneous tree, whofe main Item began at twelve foot depth, and thence grew up in a branched manner, till met by the open air. The main trunk is ufually of thethicknefs of a man's leg, and the branches that grow out from it are thickeft near the trunk, and thinner as they feparate from it. The thinneft are about the fize of a man's finger. The people employed to collect this ojieocolfo when they cannot find any mark of it on the furface, fearch after the fpecks of white, or little lumps of whitifh foft mat- ter, which they find lying in different parts on the top of the fand. Thefc always lead them either to a bed of perfect ojieocolla, or to fome in the formation. If they mifs of the fubftance which they feek after, they ftill find a fubftance like rotten wood; which, when traced in its courfe, is found to proceed from a main trunk, at the depth of that of the ofleo- colla, and to fpread itfelf into branches in the fame manner. The diggers call this fubftance the flower of o/lexolla, or hammefteus. The ojhocolla found in the earth is at firft foft and ductile but
, in half an hour's time, if expofed to the air, it becomes as hard as we find it in the (hops. The method to take up a perfect piece for a fpecimen, is to open the ground, clear away the land, and leave it fo for an hour or thereabouts : in this time it will harden, and may be taken out whole. It is certain, that the c/'eocclia is produced at this time • for if a pit be cleared of it, there will more grow there in a year or two, but with this difference, that it will be fofter and will not harden fo eafily in the air as the other. What the rotten fubftance refembling the decayed branches of trees is, it is not eafy to fay, imlefs it really be fuch: but the opinion of the common people, that it is the root of fomething, is abfurd ; becaufe its thickeft part always lies at the greateft depth, and the branches all run upwards. The ofeocdla is a marley fpar, which concretes round this matter; but what it. is that deter- mines it to concrete no where in the fame ground but about
thefe branches, is not eafy to ky. The rottennefs of this fubftance which forms the bafis of the o/ieocoda, renders it very liable to moulder and fall away; and hence it is that we ufually fee the ojleocolla hollow. Sometimes it is found fohd, but in this cafe there will be found to have been a vegetable matter ferving as its bafis, and inftead of one branch, it will be found in this cafe to have concreted about a number of fibres, the remains of which will be found in it on a dole examination Phil. Tranf. N. 39.
OsTi-ocoLL A-flffwer. See the article Flower.
OsTHocohh Pi-roots. See the article Root.
OSTEOCOLLON, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the great comfry. Ger. Emec. Ind. 2. This name was given by fome of the old writers to the fym- phytum, or comfry, from an opinion that its agglutinating quality reached to the bone, and that it was of great fervice taken internally in cafes of fractures.
OSTEOGQNY. See the article Ossification.
OSTEOLOGY (Cyd) — There are properly two kinds of o/leologyy one of which is to be learned from bones dried and prepared by boiling, and the other from the bones of a dead fubject, as they are naturally connected with each other. Both thefe method.-; are very neceflary for the practice of phyfic, and for the exact knowledge of the human body. By examin- ing dry bones, however, we can only learn their exterior forms, their fituation, and the connection which they may have with one another ; but when we confider them as joined together in a dead body, we are in a condition to obferve many other things in regard to them, very ufeful in phyfic : becaufe their connections with one another by cartilages and ligaments, and by the diverfity of articulation , are fometimes very different in the dry from what we fee them in the frefh bones; there are, for inftance, in dry bones, certain cavities which appear to be cotyloide, becaufe they are divefted of their cartilages; but in frefh bones, they are found to be glenoide, their cavities being filled with cartilage?. An- , on the other hand, fome cavities appear to be glenoide in the fkeleton, which are cotyloide in the body, their cavities be- ing augmented by cartilaginous fupercilia. The exterior form and qualities of bones are much better de- monflrated alfo from frefh fubjects, than -from prepared bones ; becaufe they loofe a great many things in boiling, fuch as the cartilaginous bodies, the periofteum, the mucilaginous fub- ftance found between them, and the marrow contained in their cavities ; all which may be fhewn in a frefti body, but cannot be feen in a fkeleton. Riolan. Encheiridion Ana- tomicum.
OSTINATO, or Contrapmito Ostinato, in the Italian mu- fic, is much the fame with Perfidla. SeePERFiDiA, Cyd.
OSTRACION, in the Linnasan fyftem of zoology, the name of a large genus of fifties of the general order of the branch ioftegi. The characters which diftinguifh the fifh of this genus, are that they have no belly-fins, and their fkjn is always hard and often prickly. Of this genus, befides the* ojlracion, commonly fingly fo called, are the orbis, hyftrix, atinga, &c. Liun&ias Syftem. Natural, p. 52.
The characters of the ojlradon^ according to Artcdi, are thefe : there is no branchioftegi membrane ; the figure of the body is particular, being globofe, or fpherical, or roundifh, oval or oblong and fquare, or finally conic ; the fkin is very hard, and ufually befet with rigid and hard fpikes, either on the whole body or on fome part of it, but in fome fpecies it is wholly fmooth; there are no belly-fins; the number of the others is five, there are two pectoral or lateral fins, two others are on the back, the other at the anus and the tail ; the mouth is fmall • the teeth are large; and the eyes are covered with the com- mon fkin of the head ; there are on each fide two foramina for the noftrils, near the eyes ; the lips may be drawn back, but in their natural ftate they cover the greater part of the teeth. Ariedi) Gen. Pifc. 39.
The fpecies of this genus are thefe. 1. The oblong fquare ojlradon, with four large tubercles on the back : this is the pifcis quadrangularis maxiraus of Ray. 2. The oblong fquare ojlramn, with a gibbous back : this is covered all over the body with beautiful hexagonal figures. 3. The oblong fquare ojlradon, with a fharp fnout, and 'with feveral fpots on the back and head ; there is a fpecimen of this in the cabinet of Sir Hans Sloane. 4. The fquare oftracion, variegated with a great number of fpots : the ("pots of this are rounded, and are of various colours. 5. The triangular ojlradon, with two fpines on the head, and two more on the lower part of the belly : this is coveted with hexangular and other radiated bo- dies inftead of fcales. 6. The triangular o/lradou, with two fpines near the head, and one long one on the upper part of the body near the tail : this is very beautifully (potted. 7. The triangular ojlradon, with two fpines tu the lower part of the belly, and covered with hexagonal bodies, with prominent edges : this is the pifcis triangularis of Cluiius and other au- thors. _ 8. The triangular ojlradon, fpotted all over and co- vered in many places with tubercles, having two fpines in the lower part of the belly : the fpots of this fifh are of various colours, and they are larger than ihe tubercles. 9. The tri- angular ojlradon, with hexagonal and radiated tubercle-, and
with
