Ootacamund
or UTAKAMAND, the chief town in the Neilgherry Hills, the principal sanatorium of the Madras presidency, and the summer headquarters of the governor of Madras. It stands on a plateau, in an amphitheater surrounded by hills, 7,228 feet above the sea, 350 miles from Madras city, and 24 from the nearest railway station on the Madras line. There are a public library (1859), the Lawrence Asylum (1858) the children of British soldiers, botanical for gardens, the Breeks Memorial and Basel Mission buildings. Pop. 18,829.
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Open Door
the principle of equal economic opportunity for all nations in such countries as China, Turkey, etc., where particular nations have attempted in the past to establish monopolies for themselves or their nationals. The prin- P PACKING INDUSTRY. (Packers and Stockyards Regulation Act.) An act regulating foreign and interstate commerce in live stock and its products and prohibiting dealings between packing companies, was passed by Congess January 24, 1921. Suits were instituted by the packers to test the constitutionality of this act, on the ground that the livestock business as conducted in stockyards was not of an interstate character and therefore not subject to federal regulation. The act, however, was declared constitutional by the U. S. Supreme Court, May 1, 1922.
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Opera Bouffe
a farcical form of opera buffa in which the characters, subject matter, and music is intended to burlesque the more serious style of opera. Offenbach was the creator as well as the chief master in this art. The comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, both in the character of the music and the libretti, stand by themselves.
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Ophelia
in Shakespeare's tragedy of Hamlet, the daughter of Polonius. She is in love with Hamlet and when he, in madness, kills her father, Ophelia's reason is overthrown. After various pathetic scenes she is drowned while attempting to gather flowers.
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Ophidia
in zoölogy, snakes; an order of the class Reptilia, which is placed by Professor Huxley in his division Sauropsida. The body is always cylin- Vertebræ procœlous, with rudimentary transverse processes. They have no sternum, pectoral arch, forelimbs, or sacrum; nor as a rule are traces of hinder limbs present, though they occasionally occur, e. g., in Python. Hooked conical teeth are always present, anchylosed with the jaw. The order is preeminently tropical, the species rapidly diminishing as the distance from the equator increases, and wholly ceasing before the Arctic or Antarctic Circle is reached. The classification is not fixed. Acording to Wallace, the order contains 25 families. There is another and natural division into three sub-orders: (1) Thanatophidia (venomous snakes), with two groups, Proteroglyphia and Solenoglyphia; (2) Colubriformes (Innocuous colubriform snakes); and (3) Typhlopidæ (blind snakes).
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Ophir
an ancient country celebrated for gold. The ships of Solomon and Hiram, King of Tyre, brought 450 talents of gold to Jerusalem, 1000 b. c. Its position has not been ascertained, and Arabia, India, and Africa are contended for by different authorities. Josephus considers Malacca to be Ophir, and Sir Emerson Tennent supports this view. Purchas says Ceylon. But the discoveries made in 1868 of gold deposits on the E. coast of Africa, and the the remains of the ancient workings, give additional force to the ideas entertained by many that thereabouts was the locality of Ophir.
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Ophite
green porphyry or serpentine, a metamorphic rock of a duskygreen color of different shades, sprinkled with spots of a lighter green. It is a Vol. VII--Cyc Charles Cadman (1918), and "The Le- hydrous silicate of magnesia with alumina and iron. Called also ophiolite.
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Ophites
This gnostic sect seems to have dated from the second century. A full system of initiation was in vogue among the members, and they possessed symbols to represent purity, life, spirit and fire. The whole appears to have been of Egyptian origin. (See Gnostics.)
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Ophiuchus
in astronomy, Serpentarius, the Serpent-bearer, a constellation of the Northern Hemisphere. One of the ancient asterisms, having Hercules on the N., Scorpio on the S., and Serpens on the W. It has about 80 stars visible to the naked eye, the chief being Ras Alague.
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Ophiuroidea
an order of the Echinodermata, comprising star fishes known as brittle stars and sand stars. These animals have long slender-jointed arms, which may either be branched or simple.
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Ophthalmia
in pathology, a term used to indicate the structural changes produced by proliferation and catarrhal inflammation, going on to the formation of pus in the mucous membrane of the eye, exhibiting various forms, catarrhal, drical and without a bony exoskeleton. pustular, purulent (in the new-born infant), gonorrheal, strumous, or scrofulous, and chronic. The chief symptoms are redness of the eye, chemosis, or swelling, discharge of fluid and pus, intolerance of light, and frequently, in severe cases, spasmodic closure of the eyelids. When the cornea is involved, destruction of the eye and permanent loss of sightas in diphtheria and smallpox, or from sand, etc., as among the troops and natives in Egypt especially is a common result. Treatment of the discharge by caustics and astringents is imperatively called for.
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Ophthalmoscope
an instrument invented by Helmholtz, and described by him in 1851. It is used for the examination of the inner structure of the eyeball, and is composed of a small round mirror with a central perforation, which reflects the light of a lamp placed at the side of the eye. When the mirror only is used, the method is known as direct; when a convex lens is between the eye and the mirror it is indirect.
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Opisthobranchiata
in zoölogy, an order of Gasteropoda. Shell rudimentary or wanting; branchiæ arborescent or fasciculated, more or less completely exposed on the back and sides toward the rear of the body. It contains two sections, Tectibranchiata and Nudibranchiata.
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Opium
in chemistry, the dried juice obtained from Papaver somniferum, extensively cultivated in Asia Minor, Egypt, and India. An incision is made in the unripe capsules, the juice is left to dry over night, and then removed with a blunt knife. Opium is a complex substance containing morphine (3-15 per 3 cent.), the most important alkaloid, narcotine, codeïne, narceïne, thebaïne, papaverine, meconic acid, meconin, resin, and fat, together with other substances, the composition of which is not clearly established. In pharmacy, in small doses it produces brief excitement, and then acts as a soporific. In large doses the sleep becomes coma, and death ensues. It is given to allay pain and spasm.
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