724 OSTEOLOGY OSTRICH manifesto." (See BUCHANAN.) The fortifica- tions of Ostend were demolished in 1867. OSTEOLOGY. See ANATOMY, and BONE. OSTEO-MYELITIS, inflammation of the lining membrane of the bony cavities, or the endos- teum, often called simply endostitis, the mar- row being more or less affected. Endostitis is a more serious affection than periostitis ; it is more liable to be accompanied by pyaemia, and is a common cause of death in cases of am- putation and resection of the bones. When osteo-myelitis causes death and separation of a portion of bone, it constitutes one form (in- ternal) of necrosis. The symptoms are those of inflammation of bone in general : deep, ach- ing, intense pain, high fever and constitutional disturbance, increased temperature, rigors, and hectic. The treatment is of the same nature as that for necrosis, and is either expectant or active, or both. As it generally follows frac- ture or amputation, the parts may be reached, and the sequestrum (separated bone) may be removed, when detachment has fully taken place. (See AMPUTATION, and NECROSIS.) OSTERWALD, Jean Frederic, a Swiss clergyman, born in Neufchatel, Nov. 25, 1663, died there, April 14, 1747. He was pastor of the Re- formed church in Neufchatel, and published Abrege de Vhistoire de la Bible; Traite des sources de corruption parmi les Chretiens; Traite contre Vimpurete ; Ethiea Christiana, &c. Osterwald, Turretin, and Werenfels were called the "triumvirate of Swiss divines." OSTIA, a city of Latium, at the mouth of the Tiber, on the left bank of its southern arm, 16 m. S. W. of Rome by the Via Ostiensis. It was founded by Ancus Marcius, who established salt works there ; and it evidently grew with the growth of Rome, for, though not mentioned again until the second Punic war, it had be- come then a port and naval station of such im- portance to Rome that it was one of the two colonies allowed in 207 B. 0. an exemption from military service. During the civil war between Sulla and Marius, it was taken and plundered by the latter in 87 B. 0. ; but recov- ering from this attack, it subsequently became the residence of one of the four quaastors of Italy, with the title of qucestor Ostiensis. But the deposition constantly made by the Tiber gradually filled up its port, and the difficulty of furnishing the city with grain induced the em- peror Claudius to construct an artificial harbor on the right bank of the river 2 m. W. of Ostia. This new basin was called Portus Augusti, and Trajan added an inner basin (Portus Trajani). Despite the rivalry of the town of Portus, which sprang up around the new harbor, Ostia continued to prosper, and contained in its zenith 80,000 inhabitants. But about A. D. 830 it was entirely in ruins. The modern Ostia is a small town, from which the population, excepting some 200, has been driven away by the pesti- lential malaria. Although originally founded on the sea, it is now 3 m. distant. OSTEOLEPIS. See GANOIDS. OSTIAKS. See FINNS, vol. vii., p. 207. OSTRACION. See TEUNK FISH. OSTRACISM (Gr. barpaitov, a fragment of tile, a shell), in Athenian history, the banishing from the state for a limited period of a per- son deemed dangerous to the republic. Grote defends ostracism as a wise measure devised by Clisthenes for removing quietly from the state a powerful party leader, before he could carry out any plot against the government. At first the banishment was for ten years, but it was afterward reduced to five. It in- volved no dishonor, nor any loss of property. The senate and public assembly determined whether ostracism was advisable; a day was then appointed, and a space in the agora en- closed, having ten entrances for the ten tribes, through which the citizens passed, each deposit- ing in a prepared receptacle an oyster shell or potsherd inscribed with the name of the per- son whom he wished banished. The archons counted the votes, and if there were 6,000 votes against any one person, that person had to with- draw from the city within ten days. Among distinguished men ostracized were Aristides, Themistocles, and Cimon. OSTRICH, the type of a group of terrestrial rasorial birds, with the cassowary, apteryx, dinornis and its extinct congeners, constituting the family struthionidw. The genus struthio (Linn.) has a broad and depressed bill, with flattened culmen and strong rounded tip, the upper mandible overlapping the under; the oval nostrils are in a broad, membranous groove, near the middle of the bill ; the wings are short and imperfect, with long, bending, and soft plumes ; the tail moderate, composed of curled pendent feathers ; tarsi very long and African Ostrich (StrutMo camelus). robust, covered with hexagonal scales, trans- verse in front near the toes ; toes two, short and strong, connected at the base by mem- brane, the outer short and much padded, and the other larger, with a stout, broad, flat nail. The only species is the African ostrich (S. ca-
Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/738
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