OSSUNA, an ancient and confiderable town of Spain, in Andalufia, with an univerfity and an hofpital. Lon. 4. 18. W. Lat. 37. 8. N.

* OST. OUST. n.. A veffel upon which hops or malt are dried. Dia.

OSTABAT, a town of France, in the dep. of the Lower Pyrenees; 6 miles S. of St Palais, and 9 W. of Mauleon.

OSTADE, Adrian VAN, an eminent Dutch painter, born at Lubec, in 1610. He was a dif ciple of Francis Hals. His fubjects were always of the low kind; but his pictures are tranfparent and highly finished, and he is one of the Dutch mafters who.beit understood the chiaro obfcura. He died in 1685. His works are very scarce; fo that no price is thought too much for them. His prints etched by himfelf, large and small, confift of 54 pieces

OSTAGIO, a town of Italy, 15 miles NW. of Genoa.

OSTAKRE, a town of France, in the dep. of the Scheldt, and ci-devant province of Auftrian Flanders; 4 miles N. of Ghent.

OSTALRIC, a town of Spain, in Catalonia. It had a ftrong caftle, but it was taken by the French and demolished in 1695. It is feated on the river Tordera, in Lon. 2. 45. E. Lat. 24. 44. N.

OSTASCHKOV, a town of Ruffia in Tuer. OSTBORG, a town of Holland in the ifle Cadfand, depart. of Meufe, and late province of Dutch Flanders. **

OSTEIN. See OSTHAN.

OSTELLATO, a market town of Italy, in the dep. of the Lower Po; diftrict and late duchy of Ferrara.

OSTEN, a town of Lower Saxony, in Bremen; 11 miles NW. of Stade.

OSTENA, a town of Italy, in the dep, of the Lario, diftrict and ci-devant county of Como, on the lake of Lugano.

OSTEND, a very ftrong. fea port town of France, in the depart. of the Lys, and late prov. of Auftrian Flanders, with a good harbour and a magnificent town-houfe. It is not very large, but is well fortified. It was much more confiderable before the long fiege of the Spaniards, which continued from 16c1 to 1604, when it was almoft entirely reduced to afhes. The Dutch loft 50,000 men, and the Spaniards 80,000. This place was taken by the Dutch in 1706, but reftored to the emperor in 1724, when an Eaft India company was effablifhed here, but entirely fuppreffed by treaty in 1731. It was taken by the French in Auguft 1745, after ten days fiege, but reftored by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. It was over-run by the French Republicans, under Dumourier, but was quickly recovered by the junction of the allies. It was at laft, however, taken by the French under Pichegru, on the 1ft July, 1794, and annexed to the republic in 1796. In May, 1798, a body of 4000 British troops, under the Earl of Errol, made a defcent upon Oftend, with the view of either taking it, or at leaft demolishing the fluices; but though fome damage was done to the fluices, the chief object of the expedition failed; the Britifh were repulfed; and 105 officers, 1265 foldiers, and 400 failors, in all 1770, were left prifoners of war. It is 10 miles W. of Bruges, 8 NE. of Nieu

port, 22 NE. of Dunkirk, and 60 NW. of Bruffels. Lon. 3. 1. E. Lat. 51. 14. N.

* OSTENSIBLE. adj. [oftendo, Lat.] Such as is proper or intended to be fhewn.

* OSTENSIVE. adj. [oflentif, Fr. oflendo, Lat.] Showing; betokening.

OSTENT. n. J. Toflentum, Latin.] 1. Appearance; air; manner; mien.

Like one well ftudied in a fad oflent, To please his grandam. Shak. Merch. of Venice. 2. Show; token. Thefe fenfes are peculiar to Shakespeare.

Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts To courtship, and fuch fair oftents of love

As fhall conveniently become you there. Shak. 3. A portent; a prodigy; any thing ominous.— That admir'd, whereof a fact fo clean Of all ill as our facrifice, fo fearful an oftent, Should be the iffue. Chapman.

Latinus, frighted with this dire oftent, For counfel to his father Faunus went. Dryden. * OSTENTATION. n. f. [oftentation, Fr. oftentatio, Lat.] 1. Outward show; appearance.-' Make good this oftentation, and you fhall Divide in all with us. Shak. Coriolanus.

You are come

Skak.

A market maid to Rome, and have prevented The oftentation of our love. 2. Ambitious difplay; boaft; vain fhow. This is the ufual fenfe.-A vain oftentation of wit fets a man on attacking an established name, and facrificing it to the mirth and laughter of those about him. Spectator -He knew that good and bountiful minds were fometimes inclined to oftentation, and ready to cover it with pretence of inciting others by their example. Atterbury.

With all her luftre, now, her lover warms; Then out of oftentation, hides her charms. Young. The painter is therefore to make no oftentation of the means by which this is done, Reynolds. 3• A fhow; a fpectacle. Not in ufe.-The king would have me prefent the princefs with fome delightful oftentation. Shak. Love's Labour Loft.

* OSTENTATIOUS. adj. [oftento, Lat.] Boaftful; vain; fond of fhow; fond to expofe to view. -Your modefty is fo far from being offentatious of the good you do, that it blufhes even to have it known. Dryden. They let Ulyffes into his difpofition, and he feems to be ignorant, credulous, and oftentatious. Broome on the Odyffey.

* OSTENTATIOUSLY. adv. [from oftentatious.] Vainly; boaftfully.

* OSTENTATIOUSNESS. n. f. [from oftentatious.] Vanity; boastfulness.

* OSTENTATOUR. n. f. [oflentateur, Fr. oftento, Lat.] A boafter; a vain fetter to show.

(r.)* OSTEOCOLLA.”. J. Lescov and xeAAaa; ofteocolle, Fr.] Ofteocolla is frequent in Germany, and has long been famous for bringing on a callus in fractured bones. Hill's Mat.-Ofteocolla is a fpar, generally coarse, concreted with earthy or ftony matter, precipitated by water, and incrufted upon fticks, ftones, and other like bodies. Woodward.

(2.) OSTEOCOLLA, ostoxoxxa, in natural bistory, a white or afh-coloured fparry fubftance, in fhape like a bone, and by fome fuppofed to have the quality of uniting broken bones, on which account it is ordered in fome plafters ; a fuppofition

we

we fear, which is not warranted by experience. It is found in long, thick, and irregularly cylindric' pieces, which are in general hollow, but are fometimes filled up with a marly earth, and fometimes contain within them the remains of a stick, round which the ofteocolla had been formed; but though it is plain from thence that many pieces of ofteocolla have been formed by incrustations round fticks, yet the greater number are not fo, but are irregularly tubular, and appear to be formed of a flat cake, rolled up in a cylindric shape. The crufts of which thefe are compofed do not form regular concentric circles round the internal cavity, as muft have been the cafe had they been formed by incrustation. On the other hand, they plainly fhew that they were once fo many thin, ftrata, compofing a flat furface, which has afterwards been rolled up, as one might do a paper three or four times doubled, into two, three, or more fpiral lines; in which cafe, each fingle edge of the paper would be everywhere a regular point of a continued fpiral line drawn from a given point; but they would by no means be fo many detached concentric circles. The ofteocolla is found of different fizes, from that of a crow-quill to the thickness of a man's arm. It is compofed of fand and earth, which may be feparated by washing the powdered ofteocolla with water, and is found, both in digging and in several brooks, in many parts of Germany and elfewhere. It is called hammofteus in many parts of Germany. It has this name in thefe places from 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 ftraight down, but fometimes they are found fpreading into many parts near the furface, as if it were a fubterraneous tree, whofe main ftem began at 12 feet depth, and thence grew up in a branched manner till met by the open air. The main trunk is usually as thick as a man's leg, and the branches that grow out from it are thickeft near the trunk, and thinner as they separate from it. The thinneft are about the fize of a man's finger. The people employed to collect it, when they cannot find any mark of it on the furface, fearch after the fpecks of white, or little lumps of whitish soft matter, which they find lying in various parts on the top of the fand. Thefe always lead them, either to a bed of perfect ofteocolla, or to fome in the formation. If they mifs of it, they still 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 ofteocolla, and to spread itself into branches in the fame manner. The diggers call this fubftance the flower of ofteocolla or hammofteus. The ofteocolla found in the earth is at firft foft and ductile; but in half an hour, if expofed to the air, it becomes as hard as we find it in the fhops. The method to take up a perfect piece for a fpecimen is to open the ground, clear away 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 ofteocolla is produced at this time; for if a pit be cleared of it, there will more grow there in a year or two, only it will be fofter,

OSTEOCOPUS.

OSTEOLOGIST. n.f. an anatomift, one skilled in ofteology. Afb.

*

(1.) OSTEOLOGY. n.. [ortor and yw; ofteologie, Fr.] A defcription of the bones.-Richard Farloe, well known for his acutenefs in diffection of dead bodies, and his great fkill in ofteology, has now laid by that price. Tatler.

(2.) OSTEOLOGY. See ANATOMY, Part I. OSTEOPTERYGIOUS. adj. Having bones in the fins. Afh.

OSTEOSPERMUM, in botany, Hard-jeeded Chrysanthemum, a genus of plants, of the lyngenefia clafs, in the polygamia neceffaria order; and in the natural method ranking under the 49th order, Compofita.

(1.) OSTER, a river of Ruffia, which runs into the Defna, near Kozeltz, in Kiev.

(2.) OSTER, a town of Ruffia, in Kiev, at the conflux of the Ofter and Deina; 24 miles N. of Kiev. Lon. 49. o. E. Ferro. Lat. 50. 58. N.

(3.) OSTER CAPPELN, a town of Ofnaburg; 10 miles ENE. of Vorden.

(4.) OSTER OEN, an island of Norway, 20 miles NW. of Bergen.

OSTERAGH. See OSTRACH.

OSTERBURG, a town of Brandenburg, 36 miles NW. of Brandenburg, and 60 WNW. of Berlin.

OSTERBY, a town of Sweden, in Upland. OSTERFELD, two towns of Upper Saxony: 1. In Thuringia, two miles S. of Stoffen: 2. In Naumburg, feven miles SE. of Naumburg, and eight W. of Zeitz.

OSTERHOFEN, a town of Bavaria, on the Danube, 20 miles NW. of Paffau. VOSTERHOLZ, a town of Lower Saxony, in Bremen; feven miles E. of Bremen.

OSTEROD, a town of Norway, 28 miles NW. of Drontheim.

(1.) OSTERODE, a town of Lower Saxony, in Grubenhagen, on the Saal; containing 800 houfes. Yyy 2

a corn magazine, and a woollen manufactory; 16 miles SW. of Goflar, and 18 SSE. of Einbeck.

(2.) OSTERODE, or a town of Pruffia, in OberOSTERRODE, land, on the Dribentz, defended by a caftle, built about A. D. 1400; 65 miles SE. of Dantzic, and 70 SSW. of Konigfberg.

OSTERTZ, a town of Croatia, 14 miles SW. of Varafdin.

OSTERVALD, John Frederick, a celebrated proteftant divine, born at Neufchatel, in 1663, and defcended of an ancient family. He made fuch rapid progress in his ftudies, that he became M. A. at Saumur before he was 16 years of age. He afterwards ftudied at Orleans and at Paris. At his return to Neufchattel in 1699 he became profeffor of divinity and paftor of the church there; and contracted à ftrict friendship with the celebrated John Alphonfus Turretin of Geneva and the illuftrious Samuel Werenfels of Bafil. The union of these three divines, which was called the Trium virate of the divines of Swifferland, lafted till his death. Mr Oftervald acquired the highest repu tation by his virtues, his zeal in inftructing his difciples, and reftoring ecclefiaftical difcipline. He wrote many books in French, the principal of which are, 1. A Treatise concerning the Caufes of the prefent Corruptions of Chriflians, and the remedies; which was tranflated into English, and has been often published. 2. A Catechifm, or Inftruction in the Chriftian Religion; which has been tranflated into German, Dutch, and English; and the Abridgment of the Sacred Hiftory, which he prefixed to it, was tranflated and printed in Arabic, to be fent to the East Indies, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel eftablished in London, who admitted him an honorary member. 3. A treatife against Impurity. 4. An edition of the French Bible of Geneva, with arguments and Reflections, in folió. 5 Ethica Chriftiana. 6. Theologia Compendium, &c. He died in 1747. He had a fon, who was paftor of the English church at Bafil, and maintained the reputation of his father. He published a work, which is much efteemed, entitled Les Devoirs des Communious.

OSTERWIECK, a town of Lower Saxony, in Halberstadt, on the Ilfe, famed for woollen manufactures; 13 miles W. of Halberstadt, and 15 NE. of Goflar.

OSTERWITZ, a citadel of Carinthia. OSTERWYCK, Mary VAN, a celebrated Dutch paintress, born near Delft, in 1630. Her chief fubjects were flowers and ftill life, which the painted with great delicacy. She died in 1693.

OSTERZELE, a town of France, in the dep. of the Scheldt, and ci-devant province of Auftrian Flanders; nine miles SSE. of Ghent,

OSTHAMMAR, a town of Sweden, in Up

land.

OSTHAN, or OSTEIN, a river of France, which runs into the Chiers, 3 miles above Montmedi. OSTHEIM, a town of Franconia, in Henneberg; 6 miles SW. of Meinungen.

OSTHOFFEN, a town of Germany, in the late palatinate of the Rhine, two miles NNW. of Manheim. As the city of MANHEIM was allotted to the Elector of Baden, by Bonaparte, on the divifion

of the indemnities in Auguft 1802, this town probably belongs alfo to the Elector.

(r.) OSTIA, an ancient and celebrated town of Italy, in Campagna, at the mouth of the Tiber, 12 miles SW. of Rome. It was built by Ancus Martius, the 4th king of Rome, and was colled Offia Tiberina, in the plural number, i. e. the two mouths of the Tiber, which were feparated by the Holy Ifland, an equilateral triangle, whofe fides were each of them computed at two miles. The colony of Oftia was founded immediately beyond the S. or left, and the port immediately beyond the N. or right, branch of the river; and the diftance between their remains meafures fomething more than two miles. In the time of Strabo, the fand and mud depofited by the Tiber had choaked the harbour of Oftia; the progrefs of the fame cause has added much to the fize of the Holy Island, and gradually left both Oftia and the port at a confiderable diftance from the fhore. The dry channels and the large eftuaries mark the changes of the river and the efforts of the fea. Its port was one of the moft ftupendous works of the Roman magnificence, and it was a long time one of the beft towns on the coaft; but having been deftroyed by the Saracens, and the harbour choaked up, it has not been able fince to recover its importance. But it is the fee of a bishop, who is deacon of the cardinals, and crowns the Pope. Lon. 12. 24. E. Lat. 41. 44. N. There were falt-works in Oftia, called Salinæ Oftienfes, as early as the reign of Ancus Martius (Livy); from which the Via Salaria, which led to the Sabines, took its name. (Varro.) It gave name to the gate of Rome, called Oftienfis. (Ammian.)

(2.) OSTIA, OLD, where the ruins of the ancient harbour are ftill to be feen, lies beyond New Oftia, nearer the fea; and contains only a few houses and an ancient caftle.

OSTIACKS, a people of Afia, in Siberia. They live upon the banks of the Oby and Jenifay, and fome other rivers which fall into thefe. They are very poor and very lazy, and in fummer live moftly upon fift. They are of a middle fize, with broad faces and nofes, and yellowish or red hair. All their garments from top to toe are made of fifh fkins, for they have neither linen nor woollen. and indeed they might almost as well go naked. Their greatest diverfion is hunting; and they go together in crowds, with a weapon like a large knife faftened in a ftick. In fummer they take and dry the fish which ferves them in winter; and when that feafon begins, they go into the woods with their bows and arrows, their dogs and nets, to kill fables, ermines, bears, rein-deer, elks, martens, and foxes. Part of the furs of thefe is paid as a tax to the emperor of Ruffia, and the reft are fold at a stated price to the Ruffian governors, but fometimes they are allowed to difpofe of them to private perfons. They chiefly live upon venifon, wild fowls, fish, and roots, for they have neither rice nor bread. They drink for the moft part water, and it is faid they can very well relish a draught of train oil. They are immoderately fond of tobacco, and of fwallowing the fmoke, which intoxicates them. In winter they build their huts in woods and forefts, where they find the greatest plenty of game, and dig deep in the earth to fecure themielves

themselves from the cold, laying a roof of bark or rushes over their huts, which are foon covered with fnow. In fummer they build above ground on the banks of the rivers, to enjoy the convenience of fishing, and make no difficulty of forfaking their habitations. They have a fort of princes among them, in one of whofe houfes fome European travellers found four wives. One of thefe had a red cloth coat on, and was fet off with all forts of glass beads. They may have as many wives as they pleafe, and make no fcruple of marrying their nearest relations. They purchase a wife of her relations for 3 or 4 rein-deer, and take as many as they please, returning them again if they do not like them, only lofing what they gave for the purchase. Upon the birth of their children, fome gave them the name of the first creature they happen to fee afterwards: others call their children according to the order of their birth, as First, Second, Third, &c. There was no other furniture than cradles and chefts, made of the bark of trees fewed together. Their beds confifted of wood-fhavings, almost as foft as feathers, and their children lie naked upon them in cradles, They can neither read nor write, nor do they cultivate the land; and seem totally ignorant of times paft. Their boats are only made of the bark of trees fewed together. Their religion is Pagan; and they have fome little brazen idols, tolerably well caft, reprefenting men and animals, made of wood and earth, all of which are dreffed in filks, in the manner of Ruffian ladies. To these they fometimes offer a beaft or a fish in facrifice, and are perfuaded that the faint or hero reprefented by the image always attends their facrifices, and when over, returns to his abode in the air. The Oftiacks are obliged to take an oath of fidelity, or rather an imprecation, to the Ruffian government. OSTIANY, a town of Lithuania, in Wilna.

* OSTIARY. n.. loftium, Lat.] The opening at which a river difembogues itself.-It is received, that the Nilus hath feven oftiaries, that is, by seven channels difburtheneth itself into the fea. Brown.

OSTIGLIA, a town of Italy, in the dep. of the Mincio, diftrict and late duchy of Mantua; on the N. bank of the Po, 19 miles ESE. of Mantua. It was anciently called Hoftilia.

OSTINES, a town of Barbadoes. OSTINGHAUSEN, a town of Germany, in Weftphalia, on the Alft; 8 m. W. of Lippstadt. OSTISCO, a lake of New York, 8 miles SW. of Onondago Castle.

* OSTLER. #. f. [boftelier, French.] The man who takes care of horses at an inn. The smith, the ofler, and the boot-catcher, ought to partake. Swift.

*OSTLERY. n. f. [hoftelerie, French.] The place belonging to the oftler.

OSTON, a town of Suffolk, SW. of Needham. OSTRA, a town and river of Moravia, in Prerau, on the borders of Silefia, 20 miles SE, of Troppau.

OSTRACH, or OSTERACH, a town, river, and valleys, of Germany, in Suabia, near Mengen; where the French under Gen. Jourdan, attacked the Auftrians under the Archduke Charles, and drove in their out-pofts on the 20th March 1799;

but on the 21ft were defeated, with the lofs of 5000 men; while that of the Auftrians was only 2160. OSTRACINE, an ancient town of Egypt, on the borders of Palestine. Plin. v. C. 12. OSTRACION, in zoology, a genus of the class amphibia nantes. It has ten long cylindrical obtufe teeth in each jaw; the aperture is linear; the body is covered with a bony fubftance, and it has no belly fins. There are nine fpecies, chiefly diftinguished by the angles of their bodies, and number of fins near their tales.

*(1.) OSTRACISM, n..[orpaxiomos; oftracisme, Fr.] A manner of paffing fentence, in which the note of acquittal or condemnation was marked upon a fhell, which the voter threw into a veffel. Banishment; public cenfure.

Donne.

Virtue in courtiers hearts Suffers an fracism, and departs. -Public envy is as an ofracism, that eclipseth men when they grow too great. Bacon.

Hyperbolus by fuffering did traduce

The aftracism, and sham'd it out of use. Cleavl. -This man, upon a flight and false accufation of favouring arbitrary power, was banished by oftracifm. Swift.

(2.) OSTRACISM, in Grecian antiquity, denotes the banishment of fuch perfons whofe merit and influence excited the jealoufy of the people of Athens, left they should attempt any thing againft the public liberty. This punishment was called oftracism, from the Greek word osganov, which properly fignifies a fhell; but when applied to this object, it is used for the billet on which the Athenians wrote the names of rhe citizens whom they intended to banish, which was a piece of baked earth, in the form of a fhell: The perfon who propofed the law was its firft victim, but as to his name and the time of its establishment, the ancients differ extremely. Many think that oftracifm owes its origin to very remote times. The punishment of oftracifm was inflicted by the Athenians when their liberty was in danger. When jealoufy or ambition had sowed discord among the chiefs of the republic; and different parties were formed, which threatened a revolution, the people affembled to propose measures proper to be taken, to prevent the confequences of a divifion which in the end might, be fatal to freedom. decree mas made, by which a day was fixed to proceed to the sentence of oftracifm. Then they who were threatened with banishment omitted no art to gain them the favour of the people. Some time before the meeting of the affembly, a wooden inclosure was raised in the forum, with ten doors, i. e, with as many as there were tribes in the republic; and when the appointed day was come, the citizens of each tribe entered at their refpective doors, and threw into the middle of the inclofure the small brick on which the citizen's name was written whofe banishment they voted. The archons and the fenate prefided at this affembly, and counted the billets. He who was condemned by 6000 of his fellow-citizens, was obliged to quit the city within ten days; for 6000 voices, at leaft, were requifite to baith an Athenian by oftracifm. The Athenians, without doubt, forefaw the inconveniences to which this

A

law was fubject; but they choose rather, as Cornelius Nepos hath remarked, fometimes to expofe the innocent to an unjuft cenfure, than to live in continual alarms. Yet as they were fenfible that the injuftice of confounding virtue and vice would have been too flagrant, they foftened, as much as they could, the rigour of oftracism. It was not aggravated with the circumstances which were moft difhonourable and fhocking in the ordinary mode of exile. They did not confif cate the goods of thofe who were banifhed by oftracifm. They enjoyed the produce of their ef. fects in the places into which they were banished; and they were banished only for a certain time. But in the common banishment, the goods of the exiles were always confifcated, and no hopes were given them of ever returning to Athens."

(1.) * OSTRACITES. n.f. Oftracites expreffes the common oyfter in its foflile state. Hill.

(2.) OSRTACITES, or folfile oysters, are common in many parts of England. They are of various fhapes and kinds; and the name is by fome authors used for the fhell itfelf, when preferved. in its native ftate and conditions as is the cafe with those about Woolwich and Blackheath; and by others, for the ftone caft or formed in thofe fhells, or in cavities from whence they have been washed away and diffolved: in both these cafes the ftone carries the exact resemblance of the fhell, even in its niceft lineaments; in the firft cafe, bearing every mark of the infide; in the other of the outer furface. We have this ftone in great plenty in many parts of England; and it is famous, in fome places, for its reputed virtue in cafes of gravel, and the like complaints. See Pl.261. OSTREA, the OYSTER, in zoology, a genus belonging to the order of vermes teftacea. The` fhell has two unequal valves; the cardo has no teeth, but a fmall hollowed one with tranfverfe, lateral ftreaks. There are 31 fpecies, principally diftinguished by peculiarities in their fhells. See Plates CCXLVII. and CCLXI. The common oyf. ter is reckoned an excellent food; and is eaten both raw and varioufly prepared. The character of the genus, in the words of Barbut, is, "The animal is a tethys; the fhell bivalve, unequivalve, with fomething like ears; the hinge void of teeth, with a deep oval hole, and tranfverfe ftreaks on the fides. There is no womb nor anus." The genus is divided by Barbut into four families, of which oftrea is the laft. But this divifion favours of confufion. If Oftrea be Barbut's name of the genus, it ought not to be alfo the name of a family or fubdivifion. See PECTEN. The fame author gives us the following account of the oyfter. "This fea fifh occupies in the scale of nature one of the degrees the moft remote from perfection; deftitute of defenfive weapons and progreffive motion, without art or induftry, it is reduced to mere vegetation in perpetual imprisonment, though it every day opens regularly to enjoy the element neceffary to its prefervation. The animal figure, and the fprings of its oganization, are fcarce difcernible through the coarfe and fhapelefs mafs; a ligament placed at the fummit of the fhell ferves as an arm to its operations: Oyfters are reputed tobe hermaphrodites; the fpawn which they caft

in May adheres to the rocks and other matters at the bottom of the fea; and in the space of 24 hours is provided with shells in which are contained other oysters, that never leave the spot on which they were fixed till the greedy fisherman tears them from the element. The green oysters eaten at Paris are commonly brought from Dieppe. Their colour is owing to the care taken to bed them in creeks, encompaffed with verdure, whence they acquire their delicacy. Common oytters fhould be fresh, tender, and moift. The moft efteemed are thofe caught at the mouths of rivers, and in clear water. Great account is made of oyfters from Britanny, but ftill greater of those that come from Morennes in Saintonge. Preference is given to those that are edged with a fmall brown fringe, or beard, which epicures call fecundated oyfters; but that these are females is a miftake. The want of fresh water renders oyfters hard, bitter, and unpalatable. Mud and fea weeds deftroy them in their very birth; galangal root, mufcles, fcollops, fea ftars, and crabs, are formidable enemies to the oyfter. There are found in Spain red and ruffet-coloured oyfters; in Illyria, brown coloured, with the flesh black; and in the Red Sea, of the colours of the Iris. Offters of the mangle tree are of two forts; thofe of St Domingo are delicate, adhering to the ftumps of the trees that dip in the water. The negro divers cut them off with a bill, and they are ferved upon table with the roots." Britain has been noted for oysters from the time of Juvenal. The luxurious Romans were very fond of this fish, and had their layers or ftews for oyfters as we have at prefent. Sergius Orata was the firft inventor of stews, as early as the time of L. Craffus, the orator. He did not make them for the fake of indulging his appetite, but through avarice, and made great profits from them. Orata got great credit for his Lucrine oyfters; for, fays Pliny, the British were not then known. The ancients eat them raw, having them carried up unopened, and generally eating them at the beginning of the entertainment, but fometimes roafted. They had also a cuf tom of ftewing them with mallows and ducks, or with fish. Britain ftill preserves its fuperiority in oyfters over other countries. Moft of our coafts produce them naturally; and in such places they are taken by dredging, and are become an article of commerce, both raw and pickled. The very fhells, calcined, become an useful medicine as an abforbent. In common with other fhells, they prove an excellent manure. Stews or layers of oyfters are formed in places which nature never allotted as habitations for them, Thofe near Colchester have been long famous; at present there are others that at least rival the former, near the mouth of the Thames. The offters, or their fpats, are brought to convenient places, where they improve in tafte and fize. It is an error to fuppofe, that the fine green, obferv. ed in oyfters taken from artificial beds, is owing to copperas; it being notorious how deftructive the fubftance or the folution of it is to all fifh. We cannot give a better account of the caufe, or of the whole treatment of oyfters, than that in the learned Bp. Sprat's hiftory of the Royal Society, p. 307. to