Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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helmet shell ... hemochromatosis

helmet shell: any marine snail of the family Cassidae (subclass Prosobranchia, class Gastropoda), characterized by a large, thick shell with a shieldlike inner lip. An example is the 18-centimetre (7-inch) king helmet (Cassis tuberosa) of the Caribbean.
helmet-shrike: any of nine species of African songbirds (order Passeriformes) characterized by a forwardly directed crest on the forehead. Several Prionops species, often called red-billed shrikes, were formerly separated in the genus Sigmodus. They are about 20 cm (8 inches) long. ...
Helmholtz, Hermann von: German scientist and philosopher who made fundamental contributions to physiology, optics, electrodynamics, mathematics, and meteorology. He is best known for his statement of the law of the conservation of energy. He brought to his laboratory research the ability to analyze ...
Helminthosporium: genus of imperfect fungi (form-class Deuteromycetes, division Mycota) that causes leaf blight, especially of grasses (e.g., bluegrass, corn, oats), in humid areas. Symptoms include grayish green, tan, or brown elliptical spots that appear on lower leaves and spread later to ...
Helmold Of Bosau: German historian and priest who wrote Chronica Slavorum (Chronicle of the Slavs). Completed in about 1172, this work was a history of the lower Elbe River region from about 800 to 1170.
Helmond: gemeente (commune), Noord-Brabant provincie, southeastern Netherlands. It lies along the Aa River and the Zuid-Willems Canal east of Eindhoven. It is a modern industrial town with textile factories, iron foundries, and engineering plants. Helmond's town hall is in a castle ...
Helmont, Jan Baptista van: Belgian chemist, physiologist, and physician who recognized the existence of discrete gases and identified carbon dioxide.
Helmstedt: city, Lower Saxony Land (state), north-central Germany, east of Braunschweig (Brunswick). Probably founded in the 9th century, it was chartered in 1050, joined the Hanseatic League in 1426, and passed to Brunswick in 1490. In 1576 Julius, ...
Helnaes Stone: runic monument found at Fyn, Den., in 1860; it is among the oldest inscriptions with so-called Danish runes and is the first Danish example of a stone with the memorial formula: "[Person's name] raised this stone in memory of." The ...
Heloise: wife of the theologian and philosopher Peter Abelard, with whom she was involved in one of the best known love tragedies of history. Fulbert, Heloise's uncle and a canon of Notre-Dame, entrusted Abelard with the education of his brilliant niece ...
helot: a state-owned serf of the ancient Spartans. The ethnic origin of helots is uncertain, but they were probably the original inhabitants of Laconia (the area around the Spartan capital) who were reduced to servility after the conquest of their land ...
Helou, Charles: president of Lebanon, 1964-70.
Helper, Hinton Rowan: the only prominent American Southern author to attack slavery before the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-65). His thesis widely influenced Northern opinion and served as an important force in the antislavery movement.
Helphand, Alexander Israel: Russian-German socialist who helped enable Lenin to reenter Russia in 1917 from exile in Switzerland, thus helping to ignite the Russian Revolution of October 1917.
Helpmann, Sir Robert: Australian ballet dancer, choreographer, actor, and director. His career encompassed activities in ballet, theatre, and motion pictures.
Helsingborg: city and seaport, Skane lan (county), southern Sweden, at the narrowest part of The Sound (Oresund), opposite the Danish town of Helsingor (Elsinore). It is the most convenient place for motor traffic to cross to and from the European continent. ...
Helsingin Sanomat: morning daily newspaper published in Helsinki, the largest paper in Finland and the only one of substance that remains free of political-party control.
Helsingor: city, Frederiksborg amtskommune (county commune), Denmark. It lies on the northeast coast of Sjaelland (Zealand), at the narrowest part of The Sound (Oresund) opposite Helsingborg, Sweden, with which it is connected by two ferries. In medieval times, when a toll ...
Helsinki: capital of Finland and administrative centre of Uudenmaan laani (province). It is the leading seaport and industrial city of the nation. Helsinki lies in the far south of the country, on a peninsula that is fringed by fine natural harbours ...
Helsinki Accords: (August 1, 1975), major diplomatic agreement signed in Helsinki, Finland, at the conclusion of the first Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE; now called the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe). The Helsinki Accords were primarily an ...
Helst, Bartholomeus van der: Baroque painter who was one of the leading portrait painters of Amsterdam in the mid-17th century.
Helstein, Ralph: American labour union official who was president of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) from 1946 to 1968.
Helston: town ("parish"), Kerrier district, administrative and historic county of Cornwall, England. In the 13th century Helston, lying in the extreme southwest of England, was western Cornwall's most important town, having a harbour on the River Cober, which now extends into ...
Helvetic Confession: either of two confessions of faith officially adopted by the Reformed Church in Switzerland. The First Helvetic Confession (also called the Second Confession of Basel) was composed in 1536 by Heinrich Bullinger and other Swiss delegates, assisted by Martin Bucer ...
Helvetic Republic: republic constituting the greater part of Switzerland, founded on March 29, 1798, after the country had been conquered by Revolutionary France. The new republic excluded both Geneva, which was annexed to France (April 1798), and the three provinces of Valtellina, ...
Helvetii: a Celtic people who, under pressure from Germanic peoples in the 2nd century BC, migrated from southern Germany into what is now northern Switzerland. In 61 BC, still pressed upon by the Germans, the Helvetii under Orgetorix decided to migrate ...
Helvetius, Claude-Adrien: philosopher, controversialist, and wealthy host to the Enlightenment group of French thinkers known as Philosophes. He is remembered for his hedonistic emphasis on physical sensation, his attack on the religious foundations of ethics, and his extravagant educational theory.
Helvidius Priscus: a Roman Stoic who forcefully upheld his principle that the emperor should act only with the consent of the Senate.
Helwingia: genus of three species of shrubs, constituting the family Helwingiaceae, native to the Himalayas and eastern Asia. All have simple leaves and an unusual manner of flower growth. The plants are dioecious (male and female flowers on separate plants), and ...
Helwys, Thomas: English Puritan leader, member of a Separatist group that emigrated to Amsterdam (1608), where he helped organize the first Baptist church.
Helyot, Hippolyte: French historian and Franciscan monk whose greatest work provides the definitive and most detailed source of information on Roman Catholic religious orders and lay congregations up to the end of the 17th century.
Hemacandra: teacher of the Shvetambara ("White-robed") sect of Jainism who gained privileges for his religion from Siddharaja Jayasimha, one of the greatest kings of Gujarat. Eloquent and erudite, Hemacandra also succeeded in converting the next king, Kumarapala, thus firmly entrenching Jainism ...
hemangioma: a congenital, benign tumour, made up of new-formed blood vessels of the skin. There are three main types.
Hemans, Felicia Dorothea: nee Browne English poet who owed the immense popularity of her poems to a talent for treating Romantic themes-nature, the picturesque, childhood innocence, travels abroad, liberty, the heroic-with a fluency that sweeps the reader along, avoiding difficulty of thought or ...
hematite: heavy and relatively hard oxide mineral, ferric oxide (Fe₂O₃), that constitutes the most important iron ore because of its high iron content (70 percent) and its abundance. Many of the various forms of hematite have separate names. The steel-gray crystals ...
hematocrit: diagnostic procedure for the analysis of blood. The name is also used for the apparatus used in this procedure and for the results of the analysis. In the procedure, an anticoagulant is added to a blood sample held in a ...
hematology: branch of medical science concerned with the nature, function, and diseases of the blood. The first step toward scientific knowledge of the composition of the blood was taken in the 17th century by a Dutch microscopist, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who, ...
hematuria: presence of blood in the urine, an indication of injury or disease of the kidney or some other structure of the urinary tract; in males blood in the urine can also come from the reproductive tract. The blood may become ...
Hembyze, Jan van: Calvinist leader who overthrew Ghent's Roman Catholic-dominated government (1577) during the Netherlands' struggle for freedom from Spanish control.
Hemel Hempstead: town, Dacorum district, administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London. The first charter was granted in 1539. The new town, one of eight designed by British planners to accommodate London's overspill population, has been grafted onto the ...
Hemery, David: English hurdler who held the 400-metre-hurdles world record of 48.1 sec (1968-72). In 1969 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
hemicellulose: any of a group of complex carbohydrates that, with other carbohydrates (e.g., pectins), surround the cellulose fibres of plant cells. The most common hemicelluloses contain xylans (many molecules of the five-carbon sugar xylose linked together), a uronic acid (i.e., sugar ...
hemichordate: any of a group of wormlike marine invertebrates closely related to the chordates and sometimes considered to constitute a phylum, Hemichordata. The term Hemichordata-from the Greek hemi, meaning "half," and chorde, meaning "string," thus, "half-chordate"-was first proposed because the buccal ...
hemimorphite: one of two minerals formerly called calamine in the U.S., a white silicate mineral that is an important zinc ore. A secondary mineral formed from the alteration of sphalerite, it is a hydrated basic zinc silicate, Zn₄Si₂O₇(OH)₂·H₂O. It is associated ...
Heminge, John: British actor who, with Henry Condell, prepared and oversaw the First Folio (1623), a collection of Shakespeare's plays.
Hemingway, Ernest: American novelist and short-story writer, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. He was noted both for the intense masculinity of his writing and for his adventurous and widely publicized life. His succinct and lucid prose style exerted a ...
hemiplegia: paralysis of the muscles of the lower face, arm, and leg on one side of the body. The most common cause of hemiplegia is damage to the corticospinal tracts in one hemisphere of the brain due to obstruction or rupture ...
hemipode: (Greek: "half foot"), generally any bird of the suborder Turnices (order Gruiformes), which includes the plains wanderer (q.v.; family Pedionomidae), the button quail, and the lark quail (family Turnicidae), but especially Turnix species, such as the Andalusian hemipode, or striped ...
Hemiptera: order of insects that is alternatively termed Heteroptera by some authorities. See heteropteran.
hemlock: any of about 14 species of coniferous evergreen trees comprising the genus Tsuga of the family Pinaceae, native to North America and central and eastern Asia. Some are important timber trees, and many are popular ornamentals. Other ...
hemochromatosis: inborn metabolic defect characterized by an increased absorption of iron, which accumulates in body tissues. The clinical manifestations include skin pigmentation, diabetes, enlargement of the spleen and liver, heart failure, and general weakness and lassitude.