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LEFT OXFORDSHIRE 70 OYAMA body having been passed during the reign of Elizabeth in 1570. The num- ber of colleges established are 21, viz.: — Universitv (founded, 1249) ; Balliol (1263); Merton (1274); Exeter (1314); Oriel (1326); Queen's (1340); New (1379); Lincoln (1427); All Soul's (1437); Magdalen (1458); Brasenose (1509); Corpus Christi (1516); Christ Church (1526); Trinitv (1554); St. John's (1555); Jesus (1571); Wadham (1610); Pembroke (1624); Worcester (1714); Keble (1870); and Hertford (1874). There are colleges, not incor- porated, viz.: Magdalen, St. Edmund's, St. Mary's, New Inn, and St. Alban's. Attached to the university is the Bod- leian Library, founded by Sir Thomas Bodley, containing about 500,000 printed volumes, and more than 30,000 valuable MSS. Practically the entire student body volunteered for service in the World War, and the university was used for war activities of many sorts. OXFORDSHIRE, co. of England, di- vided from Berkshire by the River Thames, and adjoining Gloucestershire, and the counties of Warwick, North- ampton, and Buckingham. The area, which totals 751 square miles, is divid- ed outside the towns between forest, agri- culture and pasture land, this last pre- dominating. The social life is centered at Oxford, which is the capital. Dairy farming is one of the industries, and the manufactures include shoes, gloves, blankets and farming utensils. Pop. about 200,000. OXIDATION, in chemistry, the chem- ical change which gives rise to the for- mation of oxides, and which is brought about by the action of oxygen acids, water, or free oxygen. OXIDE, the product of the combina- • tion of oxygen with a metal or metal- ^ loid. OXLIP, in botany, Primula elatior; resembles the cowslip, but has the calyx teeth accuminate, the corolla pale yel- low instead of buff, the limb concave, the throat without folds. OXUS, AMOO, AMOO-DARIA, or JIHOON, a large river in Central Asia, which has its sources between the Thian Shan and Hindu Kush ranges in the elevated region known as the Pamir, flows W. through a broad valley, receiv- ing many affluents, and N. W. through the deserts of W. Turkestan, bordering on or belonging to Bokhara and Khiva, to the S. extremity of the Sea of Aral, where it forms an extensive marshy delta. The principal head-stream of the Oxus is by some considered to be the Panja river, which rises in a lake of the Great Pamir, at a height of 13,900 feet. The Oxus for a considerable dis- tance forms the boundary between Afghanistan and Bokhara. Total course, 1,300 miles. OXYGEN, in chemistry, symbol ; at. wt. 16; a dyad element existing in the free state in the atmosphere, and in combination in the ocean. It forms about one-fifth of the former and eight- ninths of the latter. It is also present in the great majority of substances forming the earth's crust, and is the most abundant of all the elements. It was discovered in 1774 by Scheele in Sweden and Priestley in England inde- pendently, but the name was given by Lavoisier some time after. It can be obtained pure by heating black oxide of manganese, or a mixture of this oxide with potassic chlorate in a retort, and collecting the gas over water. When pure it is without color, taste, or smell. It is the sustaining principle of animal life and of the ordinary phenomena of combustion. Under the influence of cold and high pressure it has been reduced to the liquid state. OXYHYDROGEN BLOWPIPE. An apparatus in which hydrogen is burnt in a stream of pure oxygen. When hy- drogen burns in air or oxygen, water ig produced. When combustion takes place in pure oxygen, a very high temperature results, stated by Bunsen to be 2,844" C. This temperature is capable of fus- ing highly refractory substances, and even of bringing platinum to the boil- ing point. The original "limelight" was produced by directing an oxyhydrogen flame against lime. For industrial uses, the oxyhydrogen blowpipe has been al- most entirely superseded by the oxyacety- lene burner, which depends on similar principles, acetylene being substituted for hydrogen. OXYRHYNCHUS, a celebrated Egyptian fish, sacred to the goddess Athor, and represented in sculptures and on coins. It was anciently embalmed. OYAMA, IWAO, PRINCE. A Jap- anese general. He was born in 1842 at Kagoshima, and studied the military art in Europe, supporting the throne in the rebellion of 1877. In 1885 he be- came minister with war portfolio in the Japanese cabinet and commanded the Second Army in the China War. He was made field-marshal in 1898, and in the war with Russia was commander-in- chief of the Japanese forces that fought at Shoho and Mukden. Oyama was in