Ostend
a place in the Belgian province of West Flanders, on the German Ocean, 77 miles W. N. W. of Brussels. Two spacious floating basins for the Dover mail-packets were completed in 1874; and as a station also for London steamers, and the terminus of various lines of railway, Ostend is a lively and active place of transport traffic. It is an important fishing station, and has a good school of navigation, a handsome Cursaal (1878), a city hall (1711), a fish market, and a lighthouse (1771; 175 feet). The manufactures include linen, sail cloth, candles, and tobacco. Dating from 1072, Ostend is memorable for the protracted siege by the Spaniards which it underwent from July 7, 1601, to Sept. 20, 1604. Twice again it surrendered to the Allies in 1706, and to the French in 1745. The fortifications have been demolished since 1865. Pop. about 45,000. In the World War (1914-1918) Ostend was for a brief period the capital of Belgium. Occupied by the Germans Oct. 5, 1914. It was bombarded 187 times in the course of the war, during which 271 persons were killed and 496 injured, with damage to the town of $15,- 400,000.
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Osteolepis
a genus of fossil ganoid fish peculiar to the Old Red Sandstone. It is characterized by smooth rhomboidal scales, by numerous sharply pointed teeth, and by having the two dorsal and anal fins alternating with each other. The body is long and slender.
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Osteology
a discourse or treatise on the bones; that branch of anatomy which describes the bones and their uses. See ANATOMY: BONE
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Osterhaus
PETER JOSEPH, an American military officer; born Coblenz, Germany, about 1820; emigrated to the United States, and was made a major of Missouri volunteers early in the Civil War; commanded a brigade under Fremont, and a division in the battle of Missionary Ridge. He was promoted to Major-General of volunteers in 1864. After the war he was appointed United States consul at Lyons, France, and finally returned to Germany. He died in 1914.
HUGO. A rear-admiral in the United States Navy. He was born in Belleville, Ill., in 1851 and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1870. He commanded the battleship "Connecticut" in the voyage of the American Fleet around the world in 1907. A rear-admiral's commission was given him in 1909. In 1911 he was commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet, He retired at the age limit in 1913.
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Osterode
a town of Hanover, Prus- bred for sia, at the W. base of the Harz Mount- the wings ains, on the Söse, an affluent of the Leine, principally 30 miles N. W. of Nordhausen. Its church of St. Giles (724; rebuilt 1578) contains the graves of the dukes of Grubenhagen, and there are also a fine town hall, baths, large grain stores, and cotton, woolen, and linen factories. the
in East Prussia, on Drewenz, 77 miles N. E. of Thorn, has a castle of the Teutonic knights (1270) and iron manufactures. Pop. about 8,500.
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Ostiaks
or OSTYAKS, a Ural-Altaic people living along the lower course in 479 of the river Ob in Western Siberia, where quered they struggle against chronic poverty, of Italy drunkenness, frequently famine, to get his reign a living by fishing and hunting fur- pel these bearing animals. They dwell in wretched was and very dirty huts, eat flesh raw, use bows and arrows, and weapons of bone and stone; and are still in great part heathens. They are decreasing in numbers, and are estimated now at about 20,- 000. Their language belongs to the Finnish division.
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Ostrich
in ornithology, Struthio camelus, from the deserts of Africa and Arabia. It is the largest of all living birds, standing from six to eight feet in height, and has been known from remote antiquity. The ostrich is hunted and the sake of the quill feathers of and tail, now used by women , though formerly ostrich plumes decked the helmets of knights, still later, the hats of the cavaliers, and the fashion came in again for a time at the Restoration. The ostrich is a vegetable feeder, but swallows stones, bits of iron, and other hard substances to aid the gizzard in its functions. The head and neck are nearly naked, body black, quill feathers of wings and tail white. The wings are useless for flight, but of so much assistance in running that the bird can outstrip the fleetest horse. Ostriches are polygamous, the hens lay their eggs in a common nest-a hole scratched in the sand, and the cockbird relieves the hens in the task of incubation, which is aided by the heat of the sun.
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Ostrogoths
the E. branch of the Gothic race that, in a very early day, lived in Southern Russia near the Valley of the Don. Here in A. D. 375 they were attacked and conquered by the Huns. In 378 many of them settled in Pannonia. Theodoric became their king in 474, and led them over the Julian Alps, con- Odoacer in 493 and became King . The country prospered under . Belisarius endeavored to expeople and in 552 the kingdom taken from them and they gradually became incorporated with other nations.
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Ostrolenka
Poland, formerly in Russian Poland, when it was a district town in the government of Lomza, on the River Narew, and on the Ostrolenka-Piljava railways. During the great World War it was the center of almost continuous fighting for over a year, being held alternately by both Russians and Germans. Pop. about 17,500.
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Ostuni
a city of Italy, in the province of Lecce, about 20 miles N. W. of Brindisi. The city has a cathedral built in the 15th century, a library and a . Pop. about 25,000.
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Ostwald
WILHELM. German . Born at Riga, Prussia, he at Dorpat, and taught chemthere and at Riga and then for years at Leipzig University, act- Harvard exchange professor in In 1909 the Nobel prize for chemistry was awarded him, as a result of his discoveries in respect to the color of ions, the conductivity of organic acids, and their chemical reaction. His works include several text-books on general chemistry as well as "Elektrochemie"; and "Vorlesungen über Naturphilosephie." He edited numerous scientific reprints and " Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie."
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