Urethra
in anatomy, a membrarunning from the bladder first nous tube ru directly downward and then forward beneath the arch of the pubes. It is the excretory passage for the urine, serving also in the male for the ejaculation of the semen. URFÉ, HONORÉ D', a French romance-writer; born in Marseilles, France, Feb. 11, 1568. He is celebrated for his immensely popular bucolic and allegorical romance "Astrée" (1st part, 1610). It introduces us to a sort of ideal world, in which elegant ladies and gentlemen appear clad as shepherds and shepherdesses, and make pretty observations on topics of the period. He left it unfinished, and the conclusion was supplied by his secretary. He died in Villefranche, France, June 1, 1625.
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Urga
a town of Mongolia; on the Tola river; in a valley in the great Asiatic plateau; 180 miles S. E. of Kiachta, on the trade route to Peking. It is the religious center for northern Mongolia, has considerable trade, and a population (partly living in tents outside the city proper) of about 30,000, mostly Chinese. In and about the town, which is the seat of the Bogdan or chief Lama of the Mongols, there are about 14,000 Mongolian Lamas.
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Urim and Thummim
A means of divination employed by the ancient Hebrews, and which it was believed consisted of a species of casting lots. Their form and method of use is uncertain, but from passages in the Book of Samuel, it seems probable that (1) they were used to determine guilt and innocence, and (2) that this was done by means of categorical questions, to which the suspected person answered "Yes or No." They appear to have been the prerogative of the priesthood.
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Urquhart
DAVID, a Scotch economist; born in Braelangwell, Scotland, in 1805; was educated at Oxford University after which he entered the diplomatic service; was secretary of the British embassy at Constantinople in 1835-1836. He was a representative for Stafford in Parliament in 1847-1852. During most of his public career he antagonized the Eastern policy of Lord Palmerston, which he held was subservient to the ambitious wishes of Russia. His publications include "England, France, Russia, and Turkey" (1835); "The Spirit of the East, a Journal of Travels Through Roumeli" (2 vols. 1838); "The Progress of Russia in the West, North, and South" (1853); "Letters and Essays on Russian Aggressions" (1853); etc. He died in Naples, May 16, 1877.
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Ursa Minor
in astronomy, the Little Bear; one of the 20 ancient northern constellations, bounded by Draco, Camelopardalis, Cassiopeia and Perseus. Its contour is marked out by seven stars. The curvature of the tail is in the contrary direction to that of the Great Bear; and at its tip is a star of the second magnitude, Alpha Ursæ Minoris, called Polaris, or the Pole Star, midway between Cassiopeia and the Great Bear. Next in brightness are Beta Ursæ Minoris, called by the Arabs Kobab, and Gamma Ursæ Minoris. The two are sometimes designated the Guards of the Pole, or simply the Guards. Kobab is of the second, and the other of the third. The remaining stars are smaller.
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Urside
bears; a family of the Carnivora, group arctoidea, or, in older classifications, plantigrada. Claws, five on each foot, large, strong and curved, nonretractile; tongue smooth; ears small, erect, and rounded; tail short; nose forming a movable truncated snout; cæcum absent. Though ranged with the Carnivora, many of the ursidæ live entirely or partially on vegetable diet, and their teeth are modified accordingly. They are widely distributed, but are entirely absent from the Australian and Ethiopian regions, and only one species, U. (or Tremarctos) ornatus, from the Andes of Peru and Chile. Wallace reckons 15 species, which have been grouped into as many as five genera (Ursus Thalassarctos, Helarctos, Melursus or Prochilus, and Tremarctos); Mivart makes two genera (Ursus and Melursus); and Professor Flower includes Ailuropus, an annectant form connecting Ursus with Ailurus. The family appears first in the Miocene.
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Ursinus College
a coeducational institution in Collegeville, Pa.; founded in 1869 under the auspices of the German Reformed Church; reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors 17, students, 224, number of graduates, 750; president, G. L. Omwake, Ph. D.
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Urumiah
a salt lake in Azerbaijan, 3,900 feet above sea-level; with a length of 90 miles, a breadth of 30 miles, and a circumference of not less than 250 miles. It contains 6 large and about 50 smaller islands, and receives 14 streams, of which the largest are the Jagatu, Tatau, Sefichai, and Ajichai. It has no apparent outlet. The depth for 2 miles does not exceed 3 feet, the average depth is under 12 feet, the greatest depth ascertained 45 feet. The water is so largely impregnated with salt that no fish can live in it, and the banks are covered with a thick saline incrustation, from which a salt of beautiful transparency is obtained for commerce.
OROOMIAH, URor MIAH, a city of Persia, in Azerbaijan; 64 miles S. W. of Tabriz. It is supposed to be the birthplace of Zoroaster. It is a fortified town and has a population of about 25,000.
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Urunas
in astronomy, one of the superior planets between Saturn and Neptune. It was not known to the ancients. When Sir William Herschel, after the construction of his great reflecting telescope, was systematically examining with it all the stars above a certain magnitude, he, on March 13, 1781, found in the constellation Gemini a star which he recognized as having a disk which the others had not. He took it for a comet, and other contemporary astronomers held the same view. Its distance from the sun is about 1,800,000,000 miles, and it travels once around the orbit in about 87 years. It receives only about one three-thousandth part of the light and heat from the sun which fall at least on the earth. It is attended by four satellites-Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, orbits all all lie in the and Oberon. Their same plane, and are at right angles -a cirto the path of the planet itself cumstance not known in the case of any Sidus other planet. Called also Georgium . and Herschel. See SOLAR SYSTEM
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