Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/621

 OKEGHEM OKEA 607 OKEGHEM, or Ockenheim, Jan, a Flemish musician, born about 1430, died about 1513. Most of his life was spent in France, where he held important civil offices under three kings. The invention of the canon and of artificial counterpoint has been attributed to him, but this is an error. His masses, motets, and chan- sons possess high merit. Pupils came to him from every part of Europe, among them Jos- quin des Pr6s, Pierre de la Rue, Brumel, Gas- pard, and Yerbonnet. OKEN, Lorenz, a German naturalist, born at Bohlsbach, Wiirtemberg, Aug. 1, 1779, died in Zurich, Aug. 11, 1851. His real name was Lorenz Ockenfuss, which he abridged to Oken when he became a private teacher at Gottin- gen. He had studied natural history and medi- cine at the university of Wtirzburg. In his Grundriss der Naturphilosophie (8vo, 1802) he maintained that animal classes are simply a rep- resentation of the organs of sense, and divi- ded the animal kingdom accordingly into five classes. In Die Zeugung (1805) he advanced the doctrine that all organic beings originate from and consist of vesicles or cells. In his Beitragezurvergleichenden Zoologie, Anatomie und Physiologic (1806) he demonstrated that the intestines originate from the umbilical ves- icle, and that this corresponds to the vitellus or yolk bag ; in the same work he described the corpora Wolffiana or primordial kidneys. In 1807 he became extraordinary professor of the medical sciences at Jena, his celebrated in- augural discourse, Ueber die Bedeutung der Schadellcnochen, being delivered in the pres- ence of Goethe, who as rector of the university had invited him thither, and from whom he has been unjustly accused of borrowing his vertebral theory of the skull. The first edition of his Lehrbuch der NaturpJiilosophie was published in 1808-'!!, a second in 1831, and a third in 1843; the last was translated into English by Dr. Tulk (London, published by the Ray society, 1847). In 1810 he was made court councillor, and in 1812 ordinary pro- fessor of natural sciences at Jena. In 1816 he commenced the publication of his celebrated periodical, the Isis, devoted principally to nat- ural science. His political criticisms led the court of Weimar to require him either to sup- press the Isis or to resign his professorship ; he chose the latter alternative, and published his journal (prohibited at Weimar) at Rudolstadt uninterruptedly till 1848. Accused in 1819 of being a member of a forbidden secret demo- cratic society, he was tried and acquitted, and thereupon retired to private life. In 1828 he resumed his occupation of private teacher in. the newly established university at Munich, and soon after was appointed professor there. In 1832, on the proposition of the Bavarian government to transfer him to a provincial university, he resigned his appointments, went to Switzerland, and in 1833 was appointed pro- fessor of natural history in the university of Zurich, which post he retained until his death. 616 VOL. xii. 39 A statue has been erected in his honor in the university of Jena. His views on philosophi- cal anatomy will be found under that title. OKHOTSK, a town of Siberia, Russia, for- merly the capital of a province of the same name, and since 1858 of a district in the lit- toral province (see PEIMOESK), situated on a narrow tongue of land projecting into the sea, at the mouths of the Okhota and Kukhtui riv- ers, lat. 59 21' K, Ion. 143 17' E. ; pop. about 200. It consists of a collection of ill built log houses, standing on a low shingly beach, and contains a church and a telegraph station. It was formerly of considerable importance, its decay being due to the acquisition of the Amoor country by Russia. OKHOTSK, Sea of, an arm of the K Pacific ocean, encircled by Kamtchatka, the Kurile islands, the Japanese island of Yezo, the Rus- sian island of Saghalien, and the district of Okhotsk. It is about 1,000 m. long and 600 broad, and contains several islands. It forms numerous gulfs, and several rivers fall into it. By the gulf of Amoor, which receives the river of that name, it communicates with the sea of Japan. The shores are covered with ice from November to April, but the main expanse con- tinues open. It is generally deep, without shoal or sand bank, and is subject to fogs and storms. OKRA, the common name for hibiscus escu- lentus, a plant of the mallow family. Some regard it as a native of the East Indies, but De Candolle thinks the common name, also given okkoro, okro, and ockra, points to a tropical American origin. It was formerly known as Alelmoschus, a genus so little distinct from hibiscus that it is now merged in it. Okra is Okra (Hibiscus esculentus). an annual with the general aspect of plants of the mallow family ; its usually simple stem is from 2 to 6 ft. high, with rounded heart- shaped, five-lobed leaves, in the axils of which are large yellowish flowers with a purplish centre, from which the calyx early falls away.