OVAL 66 OVIPAROUS OVAL, an egg-shaped curve or curve i-esembling the longitudinal section of an egg. OVARIAN CYSTS, in pathology, one of the three kinds of tumors occasionally arising in the ovary. It consists in the conversion of the gland, or parts of it, into cysts. Ovarian cysts tend to grow to a great size. They are often fatal within four years unless healed by a successful operation. OVARIOTOMY, the operation of re- moving the ovary, or a tumor in the ovary; a surgical operation first per- formed in 1809, and long considered exceedingly dangerous, but latterly per- formed with great and increasing suc- cess, especially since the adoption of the antiseptic treatment inaugurated by Lister. OVARY, in botany, a hollow case placed at the base of the pistil, and con- taining one or more cells inclosing ovules. Its normal state is to be su- perior to the calyx; but in some cases it is adherent to the tube of the calyx, when it is called inferior. It may also be parietal. In physiology, the organ in which the ova or germs of the future offspring are formed and temporarily contained. OVEN, a close chamber in which sub- stances are baked, heated, or dried; a chamber in a stove or range in which food is baked. OVEN BIRDS, birds belonging to the family Certhidse, or creepers, found in South America; typical genus, Furnar- ius. They are all of small size, and feed upon seeds, fruits, and insects. Their popular name is derived from the form of their nest, which is dome-shaped, and built of tough clay or mud with a wind- ing entrance. OVENS RIVER, a river in the N. E. of Victoria, Australia; a tributary of the Murray. The district is an impor- tant gold mining and agricultural one. OVERIJSSEL, or OVERYSSEL, a province of the Netherlands; area, 1,283 square miles. It is watered by the Ijs- sel, which separates it from Gelderland, and by the Vecht and its affluents. Ex- cept a strip along the Ijssel, present- ing good arable and meadow land, the surface is mostly a sandy flat relieved by hillocks, and the principal industry is stock raising and dairy farming. Chief towns, Zwolle, Deventer, Almelo, and Kampen. Pop. (1917) 431,757. OVERLAP, a term of geology. When the upper beds of a conformable series of strata extend beyond the bottom beds of the same series, the former are said to overlap the latter. OVERMAN, LEE SLATER. United States Senator from North Carolina. Born 1854, and graduated from Trinity College, N. C, in 1874. For a few years, while studying law, he was private sec- retary to the governor of the state, and in 1878 was admitted to the bar. He was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1883 and between that date and 1900 served four terms. In 1900 he was president of the Democratic State Convention and in 1903 elected United States Senator, He was re-elected in 1909 and 1915. OVERTURE, in music, an introduc- tory symphony for instruments, chiefly used as an introduction to important musical compositions, as operas, orator- ios, etc. Its principal themes are often taken from the work it precedes. In Presbyterianism, a petition or proposal from a Presbytery, or an individual, to the highest court, which is the General Assembly or the Synod, that a new law be created, an old one amended or re- pealed, or a measure carried into effect. The term was borrowed from the Huguenots. OVID, PUBLIUS OVIDIUS F S0, a Roman poet of the Augustan age, of the equestrian order; born in Sulmo, 43 B. C. He studied the law, but his decided predilection for polite literature, and particularly poetry, led him to neglect severer studies and on succeeding to the paternal estate, he quitted the bar for poetry and pleasure. Horace and Prop- ertius were his friends, and Augustus was a liberal patron to him; but he at length fell under the displeasure of the emperor, who, for some cause never ex- plained, banished him from Rome, and sent him to live among the Getae, or Goths, on the Euxine. His chief works are "The Loves," "The Art of Loving," and the "Metamorphoses." He in vain solicited his recall to Rome, and died in Tomi A. p. 18. Ovid possessed high poeti- cal genius. His judgment and taste, however, are sometimes at fault, but no poet, either ancient or modern, has ex- pressed beautiful thought in more ap- propriate language. OVIPAROUS, in zoology, a term, ap- plied to birds, reptiles, fishes,^ and in- sects, whose mode of reproduction is by the exclusion of the germ in the form and condition of an egg, the development of which takes place out of the body, either with or without incubation.
