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OSIRIS 56 OSMTJNDA capsules. Cultivated in osier beds, its long pliable shoots being used for wicker- work basket making. OSims, in Egyptian mythology, one of the chief Egyptian divinities, the brother and husband of Isis, and, to- gether with her, the greatest benefactor of Egypt, into which he introduced a knowledge of religion, laws and the arts and sciences. His principal office, as an Egyptian deity, was to judge the dead, and to rule over that kingdom into which the souls of the good were admitted to eternal felicity. He was that attribute of the deity which signified the divine goodness; and as an avatar, or manifes- tation of the divinity on earth, he was superior to any even of the Egyptian gods. He was styled Manifester of Good, President of the West, Lord of the East, Lord of Lords, Eternal Ruler, King of the Gods, etc. He was venerated un- der the form of the sacred bulls Apis and Mnevis; or as a human figure with a bull's head, distinguished by the name Apis-Osiris, and is usually represented as clad in pure white. His general at- tributes are the high cap of Upper Egypt, a flagellum, and sometimes a spotted skin. Under the form of the sa- cred bull Apis he was supposed to be al- ways present among men. OSKALOOSA, a city and county-seat of Mahaska co., la.; between Des Moines and Keokuk rivers, and on the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific, the Burlington Route, and the Minneapolis and St. Louis railroads; 62 miles S. E. of Des Moines. It contains Oskaloosa College (Chris- tian), Penn College (Friends), a busi- ness college, preparatory and normal schools, high school, public library, elec- tric lights. National and state banks, and a number of daily and weekly news- papers. It is in a rich coal, iron, lime- stone, and fire^ clay region, and has man- ufactories of iron and brass goods, iron furnaces, vitrified brick works, woolen goods and flour mills, etc. Pop. (1910) 9,466; (1920) 9,427. OSLER, SIR WILLIAM. Physician and author. He was born in 1849 at Bondhead, Ontario, Canada, and gradu- ated as M.D. from McGill University, Montreal, in 1872, after studying also in England, Germany, and Austria. On returning from abroad he taught path- ology at McGill, and in 1884 was named professor of clinical medicine at Penn- sylvania University and five years later of medicine at Johns Hopkins. In 1905 he went to live in England, and after six years* residence there was made a baronet, having lectured at Oxford and at St. George's Hospital, London. Osier was a voluminous essayist and wrote much on cancer, chorea, blood platelets, displaying much originality. He gained considerable notoriety by putting forty as almost the terminus to the age of hu- man usefulness, but his extravagance on the one side was balanced by contribu- tions in his special field on the other. During the World War he presided SIR WILLIAM OSLER over the medical departments of the Brit- ish forces, and organized several medical units. His works include: "Histology Notes"; "Cerebral Palsies of Children"; "Principles and Practice of Medicine"; "Science and Immortality" ; "Counsel and Ideals"; "An Alabama Student"; "A Way of Life." He died in 1919. OSMAN. See Othman. OSMIUM, in chemistry, a tetrad me- tallic element, discovered by Tennant in 1804; symbol, Os; at. virt., 190.9; occurs combined with iridium, forming the na- tive alloy osmiridium, in platinum ore. OSMOSE, in chemistry, osmosis, the mixing of dissimilar substances through a porous diaphragm — a phenomenon due to the attraction which the liquids have for each other. OSMTJNDA, in botany, fern royal, os- mund royal, or flowering fern; the typi- cal genus of Osmundese. Six are known. One, O. regalis, the common osmund