Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Fall River ... family practice

Fall River: city, Bristol county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on the east shore of Mount Hope Bay, at the mouth of the Taunton River, 18 miles (29 km) southeast of Providence, Rhode Island. Its site was included in Freeman's Purchase, a ...
fall wind: large-scale katabatic wind (air currents descending on the lee side of mountains) that remains cold as it flows downslope. The extremely cold winds along the coasts of Antarctica are fall winds; other examples are the bora in the Adriatic region ...
Fall, Albert Bacon: U.S. secretary of the interior under President Warren G. Harding; he was the first American to be convicted of a felony committed while holding a Cabinet post.
Falla, Manuel de: the most distinguished Spanish composer of the early 20th century. In his music he achieved a fusion of poetry, asceticism, and ardour that represents the spirit of Spain at its purest.
fallacy: in logic, erroneous reasoning that has the appearance of soundness. Among numerous types of logical fallacies that have been noted, some of the better known are: post hoc ergo propter hoc ("after this, therefore, because of this"), in which something ...
Falldin, Thorbjorn: politician who was prime minister of Sweden (1976-78, 1979-82).
Fallen Timbers, Battle of: (Aug. 20, 1794), decisive victory of the U.S. general Anthony Wayne over the Northwest Indian Confederation, ending two decades of border warfare and securing white settlement of the former Indian territory mainly in Ohio. Wayne's expedition of more than 1,000 ...
Fallieres, Armand: French statesman and eighth president of the French Third Republic.
Fallon: city, seat (1902) of Churchill county, west-central Nevada, U.S. Fallon lies about 60 miles (100 km) east of Reno near the end of an arid valley called the 40-Mile Desert, much feared by early travelers along the Emigrant Trail. The ...
fallopian tube: either of a pair of long narrow ducts located in the human female abdominal cavity that transport the male sperm cells to the egg, provide a suitable environment for fertilization, and transport the egg from the ovary, where it is ...
Fallopius, Gabriel: the most illustrious of 16th-century Italian anatomists, who contributed greatly to early knowledge of the ear and of the reproductive organs.
Fallot, tetralogy of: congenital heart disease characterized by cyanosis (bluish discoloration of the skin) usually after the neonatal period, hypoxic spells (which include difficult or laboured respiration, sudden onset of cyanosis, alterations in consciousness), digital clubbing, and heart murmur.
fallout: deposition of radioactive materials on the Earth from the atmosphere. The terms rain out and snow out are sometimes used to specify such deposition during precipitant weather.
Falloux, Frederic-Alfred-Pierre, comte de: (count of ) French political figure and monarchist who served in various political roles but is best remembered as the sponsor of the important educational legislation known as the loi Falloux.
fallow deer: (Dama dama), medium-sized deer, family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla), commonly kept on estates and in parks and zoos. The fallow deer was probably native to the Mediterranean region and western Asia but has been introduced in many areas and now occurs ...
Falls Church: independent city, northeast Virginia, U.S., just west of Washington, D.C. Its history centres around the Falls Church (Episcopal; 1767-69), which was built on the site of an earlier church erected in 1734 and named for its nearness to the Great ...
Falmouth: town (township), Barnstable county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S., on the southwestern end of Cape Cod. It includes the villages of Falmouth, East Falmouth, Hatchville, North Falmouth, Teaticket, Waquoit, West Falmouth, and Woods Hole. The site, called Succanessett by Algonquian-speaking Native Americans, ...
Falmouth: town ("parish"), Carrick district, administrative and historic county of Cornwall, England, on the western shore of the Carrick Roads. Falmouth occupies a peninsular site and faces water on two sides. The old part of the town overlooks the inner harbour ...
FALN: separatist organization in Puerto Rico that has used violence in its campaign for Puerto Rican independence from the United States.
false arborvitae: (Thujopsis dolabrata), ornamental and timber evergreen tree or shrub of the cypress family (Cupressaceae), native to Japan. It is closely related to the arborvitae (q.v.) but has larger leaves, marked on the underside with depressed white bands. The trees are ...
False Bay: bay on the south side of Cape Peninsula, South Africa, 13 mi (21 km) southeast of Cape Town. Cape Hangklip (east) and Cape Point (west) are about 20 mi apart. Its name refers to the fact that early sailors confused ...
false cypress: any of six species of ornamental and timber evergreen conifers constituting the genus Chamaecyparis (family Cupressaceae), native to North America and eastern Asia.
False Decretals: a 9th-century collection of ecclesiastical legislation containing some forged documents. The principal aim of the forgers was to free the Roman Catholic church from interference by the state and to maintain the independence of the bishops against the encroachments of ...
false pregnancy: disorder that may mimic many of the effects of pregnancy, including enlargement of the uterus; cessation of menstruation; morning sickness; and even labour pains at term. The cause may be physical-the growth of a tumour or hydatidiform mole in the ...
false scorpion: any of the 1,700 species of the order Pseudoscorpiones (sometimes Chelonethida) of the arthropod class Arachnida. They resemble true scorpions but are tailless and only 1 to 7.5 millimetres (0.04 to 0.3 inch) long. The chelicerae (first pair of appendages) ...
false sunbird: either of two species of birds in Madagascar of the family Philepittidae (order Passeriformes). Both are 10 cm (4 inches) long, with a short tail and a long, downcurved bill. Originally thought to belong with true sunbirds in the family ...
false vampire bat: any of certain bats of the Old World genera Megaderma, Cardioderma, and Macroderma (family Megadermatidae) and the New World genera Vampyrum and Chrotopterus (family Phyllostomatidae), conspicuous because of their large size and originally thought to feed on blood, as do ...
Falsen, Christian Magnus: nationalist political leader, generally regarded as the author of the Norwegian constitution.
falsetto: the upper register of the human voice, the opposite of chest voice. Though sometimes considered synonymous with head voice, the Italian term falsetto means "false soprano" and therefore has been used traditionally to describe only the adult male's head voice, ...
falsework: temporary construction to support arches and similar structures while the mortar or concrete is setting or the steel is being joined. As soon as the work is set, the centring is carefully removed; this process is called striking the centring. ...
falsobordone: method of harmonizing psalm tunes, closely related to fauxbourdon (q.v.).
Falstaff, Sir John: one of the most famous comic characters in all English literature, who appears in four of Shakespeare's plays. Entirely the creation of Shakespeare, Falstaff is said to have been partly modeled on Sir John Oldcastle, a soldier and the martyred ...
Falster: island, Storstroms amtskommune (county), Denmark. It lies in the Baltic Sea and is connected to southern Zealand (Sjaelland) and Lolland by several bridges. Falster has an area of 198 square miles (514 square km). Its southern tip, ...
Faltings, Gerd: German mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1986 for his work in algebraic geometry. (See the table of Fields Medalists.)
Faludi, Susan: American feminist and award-winning journalist and author, known especially for her exploration of the depiction of women by the news media.
Falun: town, capital of the lan (county) of Dalarna and major town of the traditional landskap (province) of Dalarna, central Sweden. It lies along the Falu River, which links Runn and Varpan lakes.
Falun Gong: controversial Chinese spiritual movement founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992; its adherents exercise ritually to obtain mental and spiritual renewal. The teachings of Falun Gong draw from the Asian religious traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Chinese folklore as well ...
Fama: in Greco-Roman mythology, the personification of popular rumour. Pheme was more a poetic personification than a deified abstraction, although there was an altar in her honour at Athens. The Greek poet Hesiod portrayed her as an evildoer, easily stirred up ...
Famagusta: a major port in the Turkish Cypriot-administered portion of northern Cyprus. It lies on the island's east coast in a bay between Capes Greco and Eloea and is about 37 miles (55 km) east of Nicosia. The port possesses the ...
Famennian Stage: all those rocks deposited worldwide during the Famennian Age (367 to 360 million years ago). The Famennian and the underlying Frasnian Stage together constitute the Upper Devonian Series. The stage's name is derived from the region of Famenne in southern ...
Familia: the leading noble family of Poland in the 18th century, eclipsing the rival Potocki family in both power and prestige.
familial periodic paralysis: any of the forms of a rare disorder that is characterized by relatively short-term, recurrent attacks of muscle weakness. Usually (but not invariably) the disorder is inherited; it is probably sex-linked, and it occurs three times more often in males ...
familiar: in Western demonology, small animal or imp kept as a witch's attendant, given to her by the devil or inherited from another witch. The familiar was a low-ranking demon that assumed any animal shape, such as a toad, dog, insect, ...
Familist: religious sect of Dutch origin, followers of Hendrik Niclaes, a 16th-century Dutch merchant. Niclaes' main activity was in Emden, East Friesland (1540-60). In his Evangelium regni, issued in England as A Joyfyl Message of the Kingdom, he invited all "lovers ...
famille rose: group of Chinese porcelain wares characterized by decoration painted in opaque overglaze rose colours, chiefly shades of pink and carmine. These colours were known to the Chinese as yang cai ("foreign colours") because they were first introduced ...
famille verte: group of Chinese porcelain wares characterized by decoration painted in a colour range that includes yellow, blue, red, purple, and green, the latter sometimes used for the ground. The verte palette that uses a yellow ground is ...
Famille, Pacte de: any of three defensive alliances (1733, 1743, and 1761) between France and Spain, so called because both nations were ruled by members of the Bourbon family. The Pactes de Famille generally had the effect of involving Spain in European and ...
family: a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, constituting a single household and interacting with each other in their respective social positions, usually those of spouses, parents, children, and siblings. The family group should be ...
family court: special court designed to deal with legal problems arising out of family relations. The family court is usually a consolidation of several types of courts dealing with narrower family problems, such as children's courts and orphans' courts.
family law: body of law regulating family relationships, including marriage and divorce, the treatment of children, and related economic matters.
family practice: field of medicine that stresses comprehensive primary health care, regardless of the age or sex of the patient, with special emphasis on the family unit.