A very interesting Letter on Corpulence, recently (1863) published by Mr Banting, in which he records the effect of diet in his own case after all medicinal treatment had failed, is well worthy of the attention of those who are suffering from the affection of which this article treats. The following are the leading points in his case. He is 66 years of age, about 5 feet 5 inches in stature (and therefore, according to Dr Hutchinson's calculations, ought to weigh about 142 lbs.); and in August 1862 weighed 202 lbs. Few men,' he observes, have led a more active life..

so that my corpulence and subsequent obesity were not through neglect of necessary bodily activity, nor from excessive eating, drinking, or self-indulgence of any kind, except that I partook of the simple aliments of bread, milk, butter, beer, sugar, and potatoes, more freely than my aged nature required. .. I could not stoop to tie my shoe, nor attend to the little offices humanity requires without considerable pain and difficulty; I have been compelled to go down stairs slowly backwards, to save the jar of increased weight upon the ankle and knee joints, and been obliged to puff and blow with every slight exertion' (pp. 10 and 14).

By the advice of a medical friend, he adopted the following plan of diet: For breakfast I take four or five ounces of beef, mutton, kidneys, broiled fish, bacon, or cold meat of any kind except pork; a large cup of tea (without milk or sugar), a little biscuit, or one ounce of dry toast. For dinner, five or six ounces of any fish except salmon, any meat except pork, any vegetable except potato, one ounce of dry toast, fruit out of a pudding, any kind of poultry or game, and two or three glasses of good claret, sherry, or Madeira : champagne, port, and beer forbidden. For tea, two or three ounces of fruit, a rusk or two, and a cup of tea without milk or sugar. For supper, three or four ounces of meat or fish, similar to dinner, with a glass or two of claret (p. 18). I breakfast between eight and nine o'clock, dine between one and two; take my slight tea meal between five and six; and sup at nine' (p. 40). Under this treatment he lost in little more than a year (between the 26th of August 1862 and the 12th of September 1863) 46 lbs. of his bodily weight, while his girth round the waist was reduced 12 inches. He reports himself as restored to health, as able to walk up and down stairs like other men; to stoop with ease and freedom; and safely to leave off knee-bandages, which he had necessarily worn for twenty years past. He has made his own case widely known by the circulation of his pamphlet (which has now reached a third edition); and numerous reports sent with thanks by strangers as well as friends,' shew that (to use his own words) the system is a great success;' and tat it is so we do not doubt, for it is based on sound physiological principles.

O'BIT (Lat. obitus, a 'going down,' 'death'), literally means the decease of an individual. But as a certain ecclesiastical service was fixed to be celebrated on the day of death (in die obitus), the name came to be applied to the service itself. Obit therefore signifies, in old church language, the service performed for the departed. It consisted, in the Roman Church, of those portions of the Officium Defunctorum which are called Matins and Lauds, followed by a Mass of the Dead, chanted, or occasionally read. Similar services are held on the day of the funeral, and on the 30th day, and the anni

OBJECT, in the language of Metaphysics, is that of which any thinking being or Subject can become cognizant. This subject itself, however, is capable of transmutation into an Object, for one may think about his thinking faculty. To constitute a metaphysical object, actual existence is not necessary; it is enough that it is conceived by the subject. Nevertheless, it is customary to employ the term objective as synonymous with real, so that a thing is said to be 'objectively' considered when regarded in itself, and according to its nature and properties, and to be 'subjectively' considered, when it is presented in its relation to us, or as it shapes itself in our apprehension. Scepticism denies the possibility of objective knowledge; i. e., it denies that we can ever become certain that our cognition of an object corresponds with the actual nature of that object. The verbal antithesis of objective and subjective representation is also largely employed in the fine arts, but even here, though the terms may be convenient, the difference expressed by them is only one of degree, and not of kind. When a poem or a novel, for example, obtrudes the pecu liar genius of the author at the expense of a clear and distinct representation of the incident and character appropriate to itself, we say it is a subof the author retires into the background, or disjective work; when, on the contrary, the personality appears altogether, we call it objective. The poems of Shelley and Byron; the novels of Jean Paul Richter, Bulwer Lytton, and Victor Hugo; and the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites belong essentially to the former class; the dramas of Shakspeare, the novels of Scott, and the poems of Goethe, to the latter.

OBJECT-GLASS, the glass in a Telescope (q. v.) or Microscope (q. v.), which is placed at the end of the tube nearest the object, and first receives the rays of light reflected from it.

O'BLATES (Lat. oblatus, oblata, 'offered up'), the name of a class of religious bodies in the Roman Catholic Church, which differ from the religious orders strictly so called, in not being bound by the solemn vows of the religious profession. The institute of oblates was one of the many reforms introduced in the diocese of Milan by St Charles Borromeo, towards the close of the 16th century. The members consisted of secular priests who lived in community, and were merely bound by a promise to the bishop to devote themselves to any service which he should consider desirable for the interest of religion. St Charles made use of their services chiefly in the wild and inaccessible Alpine districts of his diocese. This institute still exists, and has been recently introduced into England. Still more modern are the 'Oblates of the blessed Virgin Mary,' a body of French origin, which arose in the present century, and has been very widely extended; and whose chief object is to assist the parochial clergy, by holding missions for the religious instruction of the people in any district to which they may be invited. This body also has been established in England and in Ireland. Other similar institutes might be enumerated, but the constitution of all is nearly the same.

There is also a female institute of oblates, which was established in Rome, about 1440, by St Francisca of Rome, and which consists of ladies associated for charitable and religions objects, and living in community, but bound only by promise, and not by vow.

OBLIGATION is a term used in Scotch Law to denote the binding effect of any legal contract, and

divided into verbal and written.

OBLIGATO, in Music. When a musical composition is constructed in more than one part, any part is said to be obligato which is not merely employed to strengthen the others, but is necessary to the melodic perfection of the whole. An accompaniment is said to be obligato which does not conBist of mere chords, but has its own melody.

O'BOE. See HAUTBOY.

O'BOLUS (Gr. obolos or obelos, a spit), the smallest of the four common Greek coins and weights, was originally, as is generally supposed, a small piece of iron or copper, similar in form to the head of a spit, or spear head, whence its name. In this form it was used as a coin, and a handful of oboli' was equivalent to a Drachma (q. v.). It was subsequently coined of silver, and in the ordinary round form, but still retained its original name; its value, both as a coin and a weight, was now fixed as the th part of a drachma, so that in the Attic system it was equivalent to 1 d. and 153 Troy grains respectively; while the Æginetan obolus was worth 2 d. as a coin, and 25 Troy grains as a weight. Multiples and submultiples of this coin were also used, and pieces of the value of 5, 4, 3, 2, 14 oboli, and of, ,, and of an obolus respectively, are to be found in collections of coins.

O'BRIEN, WILLIAM SMITH, born in 1803, is the second son of the late Sir Edward O'Brien, Bart. of Dromoland, in the county of Clare, Ireland, and brother of the present Lord Inchiquin; that ancient barony having recently passed to the Dromoland O'Briens on the failure of the elder branch. W. S. O. was educated at Harrow School, whence he passed to Trinity College, Cambridge. He entered parliament for the borough of Ennis in 1826, and was a warm supporter of Catholic emancipation. In 1835, he was returned on advanced liberal principles for the county of Limerick, and for several years strongly advocated the claims of Ireland to a strictly equal justice with England, in legislative as well as executive measures. Professing his inability to effect this in the united legislature, and having embroiled himself with the Speaker by refusing to serve on committees (for which refusal he was committed to prison in the House by the Speaker's order), he withdrew from attendance in parliament in 1841, and joined actively with Daniel O'Connell (q. v.) in the agitation for a repeal of the legislative union between England and Ireland. In the progress of that agitation, a division having arisen on the question of moral as against physical jurce between O'Connell and the party known as Young Ireland,' O. sided with the latter; and when the political crisis of 1848 eventuated in a recourse to arms, he took part in an attempt at rebellion in the south of Ireland, which in a few days came to an almost ludicrous conclusion. He was in consequence arrested, and having been convicted, was sentenced to death. The sentence, however, was commuted to transportation for life; and after the restoration of tranquillity in the public mind in Ireland, he, in common with the other political exiles, was permitted to return to his native country. From that date (1856) he has spent much of his time in foreign travel; and although he has written more than once in terms of strong disapproval of the existing state of things, he has abstained from

OBSCENE PRINTS, BOOKS, or PICTURES,

exhibited in public render the person so doing liable to be indicted for a misdemeanour. Persons exposing them in streets, roads, or public places, are also liable to be punished as rogues and vagabonds with hard labour. An important change in the law was effected by Lord Campbell's Act (20 and 21 Vict..c. 83), which was passed to suppress the traffic in obscene books, pictures, prints, and other articles. Any two justices of the peace, or any police magistrate, upon complaint made before him on oath that such books, &c., are kept in any house, shop, room, or other place, for the purpose of sale, or distribution, or exhibition for gain or on hire, and that such things have been sold, &c., may authorise a constable to enter in the daytime, and, if necessary, use force by breaking open doors, or otherwise to search for and seize such books, &c., and carry them before the magistrate or justices, who may, after giving due notice to the occupier of the house, and being satisfied as to the nature and object of keeping the articles, cause them to be destroyed.

OBSCURA'NTISTS, the name given, originally in derision, to a party who are supposed to look with dislike and apprehension on the progress of knowledge, and to regard its general diffusion among men, taken as they are ordinarily, found, as prejudicial to their religious welfare, and possibly injurious to their material interests. Of those who avow such a doctrine, and have written to explain and defend it, it is only just to say that they profess earnestly to desire the progress of all true knowledge as a thing good in itself; but they regard the attempt to diffuse it among men, indiscriminately, as perilous, and often hurtful, by producing presumption and discontent. They profess but to reduce to practice the motto

A little learning is a dangerous thing. It cannot be doubted, however, that there are fanatics of ignorance as well as fanatics of science.

OBSERVANTISTS, or OBSERVANT FRANCISCANS. Under the head FRANCISCANS (q. v.) has been detailed the earlier history of the contro versies in that order on the interpretation of the original rule and practice established by St Francis for the brethren, and of the separate organisation of the two parties at the time of Leo X. The advocates of the primitive rigour were called Observantes, or Strictioris Observantiæ, but both bodies were still reputed subject, although each free to practise its own rule in its own separate houses, to the general administrator of the order, who, as the rigorists were by far the more numerous, was a member of that school. By degrees, a second reform arose among a party in the order, whose zeal the rigour of the O. was insufficient to satisfy, and Clement VII. permitted two Spanish friars, Stephen Molena and Martin Guzman, to carry out in Spain these views in a distinct branch of the order, who take the name of Reformati, or Reformed. This body has in later times been incorporated with the O. under one head. Before the French Revolution, they are said to have numbered above 70,000, distributed over more than 3000 convents. Since that time, their number has, of course, been much diminished; but they still are a very numerous and widespread body, as well in Europe as in the New World, and in the missionary districts of the East. In Ireland and England, and for a considerable time in Scotland, they maintained themselves throughout all the rigour of the penal

OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENT are the leading features of modern science, as contrasted with the philosophy of the ancients. They are indispensable as the bases of all human knowledge, and no true philosophy has ever made progress without them, either consciously or unconsciously exercised. Thus, by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, no less than by Archimedes and the ancient astronomers, observation and experiment are extensively though not prominently or always obviously employed; and it was by losing this clue to the spirit of their masters' teaching, that the later disciples in these schools of philosophy missed the path of real progress in the advancement of knowledge. It was in the latter half of the 16th c. that the minds of philosophers were first consciously awakened to the importance of observation and experiment, as opposed to authority and abstract reasoning. This result was first occasioned by the discoveries and controversies of Galileo in Florence; and to the same end were contributed the simultaneous efforts of a number of philosophers whose minds were turned in the same direction-Tycho Brahe in Holland, Kepler in Germany, William Gilbert in England, who were shortly afterwards followed by a crowd of kindred spirits. The powerful mind of Francis Bacon lent itself to describe the newly-awakened spirit of scientific investigation, and though he ignored or affected to despise the results achieved by the great philosophers just mentioned, he learned from them enough to lay the foundation of a philosophy of inductive science, which, if we look at the course of scientific progress since his day, seems to have been almost prophetic. The difference between observation and experiment may be said to consist in this, that by observation we note and record the phenomena of nature as they are presented to us in her ordinary course; whereas by experiment we note phenomena presented under circumstances is thus the more powerful engine for discovery, artificially arranged for the purpose. Experiment since one judiciously conducted experiment may provide the data which could only result from a long course of observations.

OBSERVATORY, an institution supplied with instruments for accurately observing and recording the position of the heavenly bodies, and superintended by an astronomer, with usually one or more assistants. The objects to which the work of an observatory is directed are, 1st, The ascertainment of elements necessary to the science of theoretical and physical astronomy; 2d, The accurate measurement and publication of time. A third object, namely, the observation of meteorological phenomena, though not a necessary part of the work of an observatory, is often combined with the above. It often happens that the purpose for which a particular observatory is instituted has especial reference to one of the above objects, and in most observatories the character of the instruments possessed is more especially fitted for some classes of observations than for others. Since, therefore, almost every civilised country possesses one or more observatories of excellent character, the time of the observers in each is often better employed in carrying out those classes of observations for which they have special opportunities, than by attempting observations of more various kinds. Thus, almost every observatory has some distinctive feature of its own.

The ancients have made no mention of observatories, though we are told that Hipparchus made

andria, the latter astronomer possessing the greatest collection of astronomical instruments then in use; so we are led to conclude, that among the ancients it was not the custom to erect houses exclusively adapted for astronomical observations. The case observatories in all parts of their empire, the chief was very different with the Arabs, who erected of which were those of Cairo, two in number; the Bagdad observatory; the celebrated Meraghah, superintended by Nazir-ed-din; and last, and greatest of all, that of Samarkand, erected by the celebrated Ulugh Beg (q. v.). Observatories are also found in various parts of China.

one of

The principal instruments in general use in an observatory are the Transit Instrument (q. v.), the Mural Circle (see CIRCLE, MURAL), the Equatorial The alti(v.), and the Sidereal Clock (q. v.). or altazimuth tude and azimuth instrument, (see ALTITUDE), is sometimes added, and the transit instrument and mural circle are sometimes combined in a single instrument called the transit circle. For meteorological observations, the principal instruments are the barometer, the thermometer, the rain-gauge, and the anemometer (q. v.), or instrument for measuring and registering the force and direction of the wind. We proceed to notice some of the principal existing observatories, particularly those belonging to

Britain.

more

The most

The principal observatory in England is the of the Astronomer-Royal (now Mr Airy), with a Royal Observatory of Greenwich, under the direction staff at present of six assistants and six computers, with other supernumerary computers occasionally volume yearly of observations in a reduced form, employed. The publications consist of a large prepared under the superintendence of the astronomer-royal, the initials of the particular observer being given with each observation. important instrument in this observatory is the great transit circle, erected in the year 1850, and engineers, and Mr Simms as optician. The length brought into use at the beginning of 1851. It was constructed by Messrs Ransomes and May as of the telescope is nearly 12 feet, the clear aperture of the object-glass 8 inches, and the length of axis between the pivots 6 feet. For determining the error of collimation there are two horizontal telescopes, of about 5 feet focal length, and 4 inches aperture, one north, and the other south of the instrument. There is a chronographic apparatus, which registers the transits through a galvanic contact, made by the hand of the observer, on a paper stretched over a drum in connection with the sidereal clock. A massive altitude and azimuth instrument, erected in 1847, was constructed under the direction of the astronomer-royal, on peculiar principles of solidity and strength, for the purpose of making extra-meridional observations of the moon, which are effected by it with an accuracy equal to those made on the meridian. There are three telescopes in use, with equatorial mounting. The great equatorial was constructed by Messrs Ransomes and Sons as engineers, and Mr Simms as instrument-maker and optician. The object-glass by Messrs Merz and Son of Munich has a clear aperture of about 12 inches, and a focal length of 16 feet 6 inches. The observatory at Greenwich was the first to employ galvanic signals on an extensive scale in the transmission of time. By this means, since the year 1852. a time-ball has been dropped on the dome of the Observatory, and also at the office of the Electric Telegraph Company in London, at precisely one o'clock. By means of the telegraph-wires, also, the longitude of the other principal observatories