the remains of a castle, once a residence of the governor (Vogt) of the Vogtland.
See Jahn, Chronik der Stadt Ölsnitz (1875).
OELWEIN, a city of Fayette county, Iowa, U.S.A., in the
N.E. part of the state, about 132 m. N.E. of Des Moines. Pop.
(1890) 830; (1900) 5142, of whom 789 were foreign-born;
(1910 U.S. census) 6028. It is served by the Chicago, Rock
Island & Pacific and the Chicago Great Western railways, the
latter having large repair shops here, where four lines of its
road converge. Oelwein was named in honour of its founder,
August Oelwein, who settled here in 1873; it was incorporated
in 1888, and chartered as a city in 1897.
OENOMAÜS, in Greek legend, son of Ares and Harpinna,
king of Pisa in Elis and father of Hippodameia. It was predicted
that he should be slain by his daughter’s husband. His
father, the god Ares-Hippius, gave him winged horses swift
as the wind, and Oenomaiis promised his daughter to the man
who could outstrip him in the chariot race, hoping thus to
prevent her marriage altogether. Pelops, by the treachery of
Myrtilus, the charioteer of Oenomaüs, won the race and married
Hippodameia. The defeat of Oenomaüs by Pelops, a stranger
from Asia Minor, points to the conquest of native Ares-worshippers
by immigrants who introduced the new religion of
Zeus.
See Diod. Sic. iv. 73; Pausanias vi. 21, and elsewhere; Sophocles, Electra, 504; Hyginus, Fab. 84. 253. Fig. 33 in article Greek Art represents the preparations for the chariot race.
OENONE, in Greek legend, daughter of the river-god Kebren
and wife of Paris. Possessing the gift of divination, she warned
her husband of the evils that would result from his journey
to Greece. The sequel was the rape of Helen and the Trojan
War. Just before the capture of the city, Paris, wounded by
Philoctetes with one of the arrows of Heracles, sought the aid of
the deserted Oenone, who had told him that she alone could
heal him if wounded. Indignant at his faithlessness, she refused
to help him, and Paris returned to Troy and died of his wound.
Oenone soon repented and hastened after him, but finding that
she was too late to save him slew herself from grief at the sight
of his dead body. Ovid (Heroïdes, 5) gives a pathetic description
of Oenone’s grief when she found herself deserted.
OERLAMS, the name (said to be a corruption of the Dutch
Oberlanders) for a Hottentot tribal group living in Great Namaqualand.
They came originally from Little Namaqualand
in Cape Colony. They are of very mixed Hottentot-Bantu
blood.
OESEL (in Esthonian Kure-saare or Saare-ma), a Russian island in the Baltic, forming with Worms, Mohn and Runö,
a district of the government of Livonia, and lying across the
mouth of the Gulf of Riga, 106 m. N.N.W. of the city of Riga.
It has a length of 45 m., and an area of 1010 sq. m. The coasts
are bold and steep, and, especially towards the north and west,
form precipitous limestone cliffs. Like those of Shetland, the
Oesel ponies are small, but prized for their spirit and endurance.
The population, numbering 50,566 in 1870 and 60,000 in 1900,
is mainly Protestant in creed, and, with the exception of the
German nobility, clergy and some of the townsfolk, Esthonian
by race. The chief town, Arensburg, on the south coast, is a
place of 4600 inhabitants, with summer sea-bathing, mud baths
and a trade in grain, potatoes, whisky and fish. In 1227 Oesel
was conquered by the Knights of the Sword, and was governed
by its own bishops till 1561, when it passed into the hands of the
Danes. By them it was surrendered to the Swedes by the peace
of Bromsebro (1645), and, along with Livonia, it was united
to Russia in 1721.
OESOPHAGUS (Gr. οἴσω＝I will carry, and φαγεῖν, to eat),
in anatomy, the gullet; see Alimentary Canal for comparative
anatomy. The human oesophagus is peculiarly liable to certain
accidents and diseases, due both to its function as a tube to
carry food to the stomach and to its anatomical situation (see
generally Digestive Organs). One of the commonest accidents
is the lodgment of foreign bodies in some part of the tube. The
situations in which they are arrested vary with the nature of the
body, whether it be a coin, fishbone, toothplate or a portion of
food. An impacted substance may be removed by the oesophageal
forceps, or by a coin-catcher; if it should be impossible to draw
it up it may be pushed down into the stomach. When it is in
the stomach a purgative should never be given, but soft food
such as porridge. Should gastric symptoms develop it may
have to be removed by the operation of gastrotomy. Charring
and ulceration of the oesophagus may occur from the swallowing
of corrosive liquids, strong acids or alkalis, or even of boiling
water. Stricture of the oesophagus is a closing of the tube so
that neither solids nor liquids are able to pass down into the
stomach. There are three varieties of stricture; spasmodic,
fibrous and malignant. Spasmodic stricture usually occurs in
young hysterical women; difficulty in swallowing is complained
of, and a bougie may not be able to be passed, but under an
anaesthetic will slip down quite easily. Fibrous stricture is
usually situated near the commencement of the oesophagus,
generally just behind the cricoid cartilage, and usually results
from swallowing corrosive fluids, but may also result from the
healing of a syphilitic ulcer. Occasionally it is congenital.
The ordinary treatment is repeated dilatation by bougies.
Occasionally division of a fibrous stricture has been practised,
or a Symond’s tube inserted. Mikulicz recommends dilatation
of the stricture by the fingers from inside after an incision into
the stomach or a permanent gastric fistula may have to be made.
Malignant strictures are usually epitheliomatous in structure,
and may be situated in any part of the oesophagus. They
nearly always occur in males between the ages of 40 and 70 years.
An X-ray photograph taken after the patient has swallowed
a preparation of bismuth will show the situation of the growth,
and Killian and Brünig have introduced an instrument called
the oesophagoscope, which makes direct examination possible.
The remedy of constant dilatation by bougies must not be
attempted here, the walls of the oesophagus being so softened
by disease and ulceration that severe haemorrhage or perforation
of the walls of the tube might take place. The patient should
be fed with purely liquid and concentrated nourishment in order
to give the oesophagus as much rest as possible, or if the stricture
be too tight rectal feeding may be necessary. Symond’s method
of tubage is well borne by some patients, the tube having attached
to it a long string which is secured to the cheek or ear. The
most satisfactory treatment, however, is the operation of gastrotomy,
a permanent artificial opening being made into the
stomach through which the patient can be fed.
OETA (mod. Kotavothra), a mountain to the south of Thessaly,
in Greece, forming a boundary between the valleys of the
Spercheius and the Boeotian Cephissus. It is an offshoot of the
Pindus range, 7080 ft. high. In its eastern portion, called
Callidromus, it comes close to the sea, leaving only a narrow
passage known as the famous pass of Thermopylae (q.v.). There
was also a high pass to the west of Callidromus leading over into
the upper Cephissus valley. In mythology Oeta is chiefly
celebrated as the scene of the funeral pyre on which Heracles
burnt himself before his admission to Olympus.
OETINGER, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH (1702–1782), German
divine and theosophist, was born at Göppingen on the 6th of
May 1702. He studied theology at Tübingen (1722–1728),
and was much impressed by the works of Jakob Böhme. On
the completion of his university course, Oetinger spent some
years in travel. In 1730 he visited Count Zinzendorf at Herrnhut,
remaining there some months as teacher of Hebrew and Greek.
During his travels, in his eager search for knowledge, he made
the acquaintance of mystics and separatists, Christians and
learned Jews, theologians and physicians alike. At Halle he
studied medicine. After some delay he was ordained to the
ministry, and held several pastorates. While pastor (from 1746)
at Waldorf near Berlin, he studied alchemy and made many
experiments, his idea being to use his knowledge for symbolic
purposes. These practices exposed him to the attacks of persons
who misunderstood him. “My religion,” he once said, “is
the parallelism of Nature and Grace.” Oetinger translated
Swedenborg’s philosophy of heaven and earth, and added notes
