Ober

Quarried from the red granite of Syene (Upper Egypt), inscribed with commemorative hieroglyphics, placed in pairs at temple entrances, they are reproduced in Solomon's Boaz and Jachin, twin towers of Gothic churches, Greek stela, and Roman columns. (See Weisse's The Obelisk and Freemasonry, 1880). Of ancient famous obelisks about thirty exist, twelve at Rome and two (Cleopatra's Needles) at London (transported 1878) and New York (1880) respectively. The Paris obelisk, whose companion still stands at Luxor, dates from the time of Rameses II. The high

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cultural College. From 1872 he travelled extensively in the West Indies, Mexico, Spain, and Africa, in early life giving much attention to the observation and collection of new species of birds, described in the Smithsonian Proceedings. Among his numerous works of travel, description, and fiction are Camps in the Caribbees (1879), Travels in Mexico (1883), Porto Rico and its Resources (1892), Under the Cuban Flag (1896), Our West Indian Neigh bors, the Islands of the Caribbean Sea (1904), and Hernando Cortés, Conqueror of Mexico (1905). Oberalp Pass. This pass

Oberlin

hours. Wood and ivory carvings are produced. Pop. (1900) 1,559. See PASSION PLAY.

Oberhausen, tn., Rhine prov., Prussia, 20 m. N.N.E. of Düsseldorf; is the centre of a mining district, and has foundries, chemical works, and porcelain and glass factories. Pop. (1900) 42,148.

Oberland. See BERN.

Oberleutensdorf, tn., Austria, Bohemia, at south foot of the Erzgebirge, 6 m. N.W. of Brüx. Has lignite mines, and manufactures furniture, cottons, toys and cloth. Pop. (1900) 12,928.

Oberlin, vil., Lorain co., Ohio, 32 m. w.s.w. of Cleveland, on a

(6,733 ft.) leads from Andermatt, above Goeschenen, in the Swiss Valley of the Reuss, canton of Uri, at the N. mouth of the St. Gothard Tunnel, to Disentis, in the Vorder-Rhine Valley, and so down to Coire. It forms, with the Furka, the great carriage route for travellers bound from Zermatt and the Simplon to the Engadine and Coire."

Ober-Ammergau, vil., Upper Bavaria, 31 m. s.s.w. of Munich; famed for its Passion Play, which originated in 1634, and takes place every tenth year. The performances, which until quite recently took place in the open air, last from seven to eight

branch of the Black R., and on the L. Shore and Mich. S. R. R., and the Lorain and Ashl., and the Cle. and S. W. Tract Lines. It is the seat of Oberlin College. Among its philanthropic institutions are the Lorain County Children's Home and the Congregational Missionary Home. It is chiefly a residential place and is situated in a thriving farming district. It was settled about 1833. Pop. (1900) 4,082.

Oberlin, JEAN FRÉDÉRIC (1740-1826), Lutheran clergyman and educator, born at Strasburg, and educated at the university there. He was first a private tutor, and then (1768) became

Oberonia

Oberonia, a genus of tropical epiphytal orchids, mostly natives of Asia and Australia, bearing crowded spikes, or racemes, of rather small flowers. The flowers of all the species mimic insects or other animal forms.

Obesity, an abnormal development of fat, tending to accumulate most deeply in the buttocks, thighs, neck, and abdomen, both in the walls and the folds of the peritoneum, also about the heart, liver, and kidneys. It is the result of the food being either excessive in quantity as a whole, or in quantities of certain constituents, relative to the oxidizing powers of the consumer. Fat is physiologically natural to infants, and tends to accumulate on females after the climacteric, and males after middle life. Obesity points to a deficiency in metabolism, which prevents the excretion of unwholesome waste

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products, and so tends to illhealth. It is frequent in certain diseases-e.g. anæmia and in some forms of insanity. The treatment must be suited to each case, but diet and exercise must be carefully regulated. An important point is the avoidance of too rapid reduction of fat. What one should aim at is the steady loss of a very few ounces in the week, the amount of reduction being regulated by the age, weight, and general health. Sugars, starches (e.g. flour), and fats must in most cases all be reduced, though in consequence it may be necessary to increase proteids, such as lean meat. The Banting system consisted largely in avoiding fat, sugar, and starches; while the Salisbury treatment practically limits the patient to lean meat and hot water, both in large quantities. Tea, if taken in any quantity, has a considerable effect in keeping down a tendency to obesity, through derangement of assimilative function, and hence the undesirability, if not the danger, of the Ebstein system. Obi River. See Oв.

Obiter Dictum, a remark made by a judge by the way’i.e. a remark which is not material to the determination of the case before him. Such remarks have no legal authority, though they may be quoted as the opinions of an expert.

Objectivity. See SUBJECT.

Oblates, the name of certain Roman Catholic communities, the members of which do not take the regular vows, but offer themselves (whence the name, from offerre, 'to offer') to the superior, promising constancy. The best-known are the Oblates of St. Ambrose, founded by St. Charles Borromeo in 1578, and introduced into England by Cardinal Manning in 1857.

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Oblates OF MARY IMMACULATE, a religious order of men, with the ordinary vows, founded by Charles Eugène de Mazenod, Bishop of Marseilles, in 1815. They have about seventy houses. They were introduced into the United States in 1848.

Obligation. In jurisprudence this term is commonly employed in a general sense to denote a binding recognition of a legal duty by a person, or a duty or liability imposed by law. It is, therefore, a broader term than contract. Where a number of people become bound to one or more obligees, their liability may be joint, in which case it is known as a joint obligation and all must be sued as if they were one person; or they may be severally bound, in which case any one may be sued separately; or the obligation may be joint and several, and in the latter case the obligation can be enforced against them either way. An obligation may be incurred either in a personal or representative capacity; if in the latter, the individual is not himself bound. A person may be primarily or secondarily liable under an obligation; if the latter, generally the person primarily liable must be first proceeded against to enforce the obligation. Among the obligations imposed by operation of law are the duty of a minor child to obey its parents; the duty of a parent to support a child: the duty of all persons to exercise such care in all their actions as not to injure others. See CONTRACT; NEGLIGENCE.

Oboe, or HAUTBOIS, a treble, wood-wind, double-reed, musical instrument, the prototypes of which can be traced to a very remote period. It is now the most complicated of all reed instruments. The oboe is essentially an octave instrument like the flute, and has its music always written in the G clef. Its lowest note is Bb below the stave, and, including all semitones, it has a normal compass of two octaves and a fifth. The orchestral oboe is set in C, but a Bb instrument is occasionally used in military bands.

Obok, or OвOCK, on the Red Sea, opposite Aden, part of the French Somali Coast Protectorate. The seaport of Obok, acquired by France in 1855, has since 1896 been superseded by Jibuti.

Obolus, an ancient Greek coin, made of an alloy of silver and copper, in value equal to the sixth part of a drachma, and hence to between three and four cents in U. S. money. As the price demanded by Charon, the ferryman of Hades, for ferrying the soul across the River Styx, an obolus was placed in the mouth of the dead.

O'Brien

Oboyan, tn. of Kursk gov., Central Russia, 36 m. s.S.E. of Kursk City. Tanneries, oil works, and manufactures of wax and tallow. Pop._11,872.

O'Brien, FITZ-JAMES (182862), Irish-American journalist and author, was born in Limerick, Ireland, and received his education at the University of Dublin. He is thought to have served in the British army for a time. He wasted a sizable patrimony in London, and while there published a periodical in aid of the World's Fair of 1851. Not long afterward he removed to New York city, and contributed extensively to the newspaper and magazine press of the day, his articles in Harper's Magazine alone numbering sixty-six. His writing was chiefly ephemeral, but his best story, The Diamond Lens,' contributed to the first volume of the Atlantic Monthly, is a masterpiece in the realistic carrying-out of an impossibly romantic idea. O'Brien was a leader of the young 'Bohemian' set who foregathered at Pfaff's and wrote for the ante-bellum Vanity Fair. At the outbreak of the Civil War he volunteered in the Union army and was fatally wounded in Feb., 1862, dying two months later. He had written several plays, of which A Gentleman from Ireland held the stage for many years. The best of his works, with an appreciative memoir by William Winter, is contained in The Poems and Stories of Fitz-James O'Brien (1881).

O'Brien, JAMES FRANCIS XAVIER (1831-1905), Irish Nationalist politician. For taking part in a Fenian riot in 1867, he was tried for treason-felony, and condemned to death. The sentence was, however, commuted to penal servitude for life, and, some years later, Mr. O'Brien was released under an amnesty. He was elected to the House of Commons for South Mayo (1885), but was returned for Cork City at the by-election (1895). He was a strenuous opponent of Mr. Parnell's retention of the leadership after the revelations in the O'Shea divorce case (1890). Mr. O'Brien was for many years honorary treasurer to the Irish National League of Great Britain, and general secretary to the United Irish League.

O'Brien, JEREMIAH (17441818), American sailor, born probably at Kittery, Me. When in 1775 the commander of the British ship Margaretta threatened to fire on Machias, where he was living, unless the liberty pole was cut down, O'Brien with about 40 men, some of them armed only with pitchforks, manned a small sloop in the har

O'Brien

bor and on the night of June 12, surprised and captured the ship. He later saw service as a privateer and while commanding the Hannibal of 20 guns was captured by two British frigates and remained a prisoner until the end of the war. He was the first collector of the port of Machias under the Federal government.

O'Brien, LUCIUS RICHARD (1832), Canadian painter, native of Ontario. From its foundation in 1880 till 1890 he was president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Many of his drawings were embodied in Picturesque Canada (1884), and some of his pictures are at Windsor. Sunrise on the Saguenay at Ottawa is one of his chief works. A Portage on the Peribonea is owned by the Canadian Club of New York city.

O'Brien, MORGAN JOSEPH (1852), American lawyer and judge. He was born in New York city and graduated at St. John's College, Fordham, N. Y., and at the Columbia University Law School. He was elected a judge of the Supreme Court of New York in 1887, and again for a term expiring in 1915. June, 1905, he became one of the rustees of the Equitable Life Assurance Society.

In

O'Brien, WILLIAM (1852), Irish journalist and parliamentary leader. He began life as a newspaper reporter, first on the Cork Daily Herald, and subsequently on the Freeman's Journal. In 1880 he founded United Ireland as the organ of the Land League and the Parnellite party, and became its editor. Since 1883, except for the five years, 1895-1900, when he retired owing to the internal dissensions of the Irish party, Mr. O'Brien has represented the Nationalists in Parliament. Owing to his activity in political affairs, he has been several times imprisoned under the Crimes Act of 1887. He escaped to the U. S. in 1890, where he remained for a year lecturing. In the leadership controversies he at first sided with Mr. Parnell, but finally threw in his lot with the Anti-Parnellites. He founded the United Irish League in 1898, and, as its newspaper advocate, The Irish People; and in 1902-3 he took part in the conferences between members of the Nationalist party and representatives of the landlords. He has published When We were Boys (1890), Irish Ideas (1894), A Queen of Men (1897), and Recollections (1905).

O'Brien, WILLIAM SMITH (1803-84), Irish Nationalist, and head of the Young Ireland party, was born at Dromoland, Co. Clare. He was returned to Parliament for Ennis (1828), and

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for Limerick (1835).

Opposed to O'Connell on many points, he yet worked with him for the repeal of the Union from 1844–6; in the latter year, however, he seceded, and founded the frish Confederation in 1847. In 1848 a band of peasants, which he led, was defeated by the police, and he himself captured and condemned to death. The sentence was commuted to transportation, but in 1856 a full pardon enabled him to return to Ireland. He travelled in the U. S. in 1859. In 1856 appeared his Principles of Government, or Meditations in Exile.

Obscene Works, PUBLICATIONS, etc. In the U. S. it is a misdemeanor, punishable with fine and imprisonment, to publish obscene or immoral books or pictures, or to obtain and procure such books or pictures for the purpose of uttering or selling them. The test of obscenity is whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences.

Under English statutes, 20 and 21 Vict., c. 83, a warrant may be issued for the search of a house where there is reason to believe obscene works are kept and, if found, they may be destroyed. There are also English statutes prohibiting the circulation of obscene works through the mails. In the United States it has been declared a misdemeanor to circulate obscene literature or pictures through the mails and is punishable by fine and imprisonment. A prívate letter of an indecent character has been held to be within the statute. It is within the police powers of a state to prohibit exhibitions of obscene pictures or the sale of such books, and statutes exist in most of the states

Obscurants, or OBSCURANTISTS, the term applied to the opponents, on the grounds of religious prejudice, of the advance of education and liberty of thought.

Observatory, a scientific establishment for observing, primarily, the heavenly bodies; secondarily, magnetic and meteorological phenomena. Astronomical. The earliest official foundation of the sort was at Alexandria in the 3d century B.C.; and medieval astronomy culminated in the erection of observatories at Nuremberg by Bernhard Walther (1472), Kassel by the Landgrave William IV. (1561), and at Hveen by Tycho Brahé (1576). The commencement of the modern epoch was marked by the foundation of the observatories of Paris and Greenwich, in 1667 and 1675, respectively. Four royal observa

at

Observatory

It

tories exist in the British dominions at Greenwich, the Cape of Good Hope, Edinburgh, and Dublin. The original function of the first was to promote the interests of navigators. A magnetic and meteorological department was added in 1838; and from 1873 photographic records of the solar surface have been regularly secured. The Cape Observatory, completed in 1829, had the scope of its work widened in 1898 to include astrophysics. The Scottish Royal Observatory, erected on the Calton Hill (1818), was transferred to new buildings on Blackford Hill (1896). has been, since 1834, directed by the Astronomer-Royal for Scotland. The fourth royal observatory was erected at Dunsink in 1785 by the University of Dublin. Oxford possesses the Radcliffe Observatory (founded 1771), and the University Observatory (1875) directed by the Savilian Professor of Astronomy. The Cambridge University Observatory was established in 1820. The most important French observatories, besides that of Paris, with its astrophysical dependency at Meudon, are those on the Mont Gros near Nice, of Marseilles, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyons, and Algiers. The foundation of the Berlin Observatory about 1700 was due to Leibniz; that of Königsberg was distinguished by the labors of Bessel; but the astrophysical observatories of Potsdam (1874) and Königstuhl (1899) are now pre-eminent. The Imperial Observatory of Vienna dates from 1756, and was transferred to new buildings on the Türkenschanze in 1880. The Observatory of Pulkova, near St. Petersburg, began its activity under Struve in 1839; and there are other Russian observatories at Moscow, Tashkend, and Kasan. Rome has observatories on the Capitol and at the Vatican; Milan owns the Brera, founded in 1763; and the Observatory of Catania is duplicated on Mount Etna, at an elevation of 9,600 ft. The chief establishments Sweden are at Stockholm, Lund, and Upsala;, and those at Helsingfors and Abo, in Finland, derive special importance from their high latitudes."

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The foundation in 1843 of the Cincinnati Observatory initiated astronomical research in the United States; the effective activity of the Naval Observatory, Washington, began in 1845, and that of the Harvard College Observatory in 1847. It has been extended to comprehend the Southern hemisphere by Professor Pickering's establishment of a post at Arequipa, Peru, where surveying operations, photometric, photographic, and spectro