Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Henry, Cape ... Herbert, Edward Herbert, 1st Baron

Henry, Cape: promontory at the southern entrance to Chesapeake Bay, on the Atlantic coast in the northeast corner of the city of Virginia Beach, southeastern Virginia, U.S. Cape Henry Memorial, a stone cross put up by the Daughters of the American Colonists ...
Henry, Joseph: one of the first great American scientists after Benjamin Franklin. He aided Samuel F.B. Morse in the development of the telegraph and discovered several important principles of electricity, including self-induction, a phenomenon of primary importance in electronic circuitry.
Henry, O.: American short-story writer whose tales romanticized the commonplace-in particular the life of ordinary people in New York City. His stories expressed the effect of coincidence on character through humour, grim or ironic, and often had surprise endings, a device that ...
Henry, Patrick: brilliant orator and a major figure of the American Revolution, perhaps best known for his words "give me liberty or give me death," which he delivered in 1775. He was independent Virginia's first governor (serving 1776-79, 1784-86).
Henry, William: English physician and chemist who in 1803 proposed what is now called Henry's law, which states that the amount of a gas absorbed by a liquid is in proportion to the pressure of the gas above the liquid, provided that ...
Henrys Fork: river, southeastern Idaho, U.S., that rises in Henrys Lake in Caribou-Targhee National Forest, near the Montana line, and flows south and southwestward, past St. Anthony to join the Snake River near Rexburg after a course of about 117 miles (188 ...
Henryson, Robert: Scottish poet, the finest of early fabulists in Britain. He is described on some early title pages as schoolmaster of Dunfermline-probably at the Benedictine abbey school-and he appears among the dead poets in William Dunbar's Lament for the Makaris, which ...
Henschel, Sir George: singer, conductor, and composer, one of the leading English musicians of his day.
Henselt, Adolf von: German pianist and composer, considered to be one of the greatest virtuosos of his time.
Hensen, Victor: physiologist who first used the name plankton to describe the organisms that live suspended in the sea (and in bodies of freshwater) and are important because practically all animal life in the sea is dependent on them, directly or indirectly.
Henshaw, James Ene: Nigerian playwright of Efik affiliation whose simple and popular plays treating various aspects of African culture and tradition have been widely read and acted in Nigeria. His style has been much imitated by other writers.
Henslow, John Stevens: British botanist, clergyman, and geologist who popularized botany at the University of Cambridge by introducing new methods of teaching the subject.
Henslowe, Philip: most important English theatre proprietor and manager of the Elizabethan Age.
Henson, Jim: American puppeteer, creator of the Muppets of television and motion pictures. He coined the term Muppets as a meld of "marionettes" and "puppets"; his characters and those of his assistants included such familiar figures as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, ...
Henson, Matthew Alexander: American black explorer who accompanied Robert E. Peary on most of his expeditions, including that to the North Pole in 1909.
Henzada: town, southwestern Myanmar (Burma). Henzada is situated along the Irrawaddy River opposite Tharrawaw, with which it is linked by ferry, at a point considered to be the head of the Irrawaddy's delta. It is a port for the rice and ...
Henze, Hans Werner: German composer whose operas, ballets, symphonies, and other works are marked by an individual and advanced style wrought within traditional forms.
heparin: anticoagulant drug that is used to prevent blood clots from forming during and after surgery and to treat various heart, lung, and circulatory disorders in which there is an increased risk of blood clot formation. Discovered in 1922 by American ...
hepatic vein: any of a group of veins that transports blood from the liver to the inferior vena cava, which carries the blood to the right atrium of the heart. In its ascent to the heart, the inferior vena cava passes along ...
hepatica: any of about 10 species of small herbaceous plants of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) that grow in shady wooded areas of the North Temperate Zone.
hepatitis: inflammation of the liver that results from a variety of causes, both infectious and noninfectious. Infectious agents that cause hepatitis include viruses and parasites; noninfectious substances include certain drugs and toxic agents. In some instances hepatitis results from an autoimmune ...
Hepburn, Audrey: slender, stylish motion picture actress known for her radiant beauty, her ability to project an air of sophistication tempered by a charming innocence, and her tireless efforts to aid needy children.
Hepburn, Katharine: indomitable American stage and film actress, known as a spirited performer with a touch of eccentricity. She introduced into her roles a strength of character previously considered to be undesirable in Hollywood leading ladies. As an actress she was noted ...
Hephaestus: in Greek religion, the god of fire. Originally a deity of Asia Minor and the adjoining islands (in particular Lemnos), he had an important place of worship at the Lycian Olympus. Born lame, Hephaestus was cast from heaven in disgust ...
Hephthalite: member of a people important in the history of India and Persia during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. According to Chinese chronicles they were originally a tribe living to the north of the Great Wall and were known as ...
Hepplewhite, George: English cabinetmaker and furniture designer whose name is associated with a graceful style of Neoclassicism, a movement he helped to formulate in the decorative arts.
heptachlor: insecticide closely related to chlordane (q.v.).
heptathlon: women's athletics competition in which contestants take part in seven different track-and-field events on two days. The heptathlon replaced the women's pentathlon in the Olympic Games after 1981. The heptathlon consists of the 100-metre hurdles, high jump, shot put, and ...
heptatonic scale: musical scale made up of seven different tones. The major and minor scales of Western art music are the most commonly known heptatonic scales, but different forms of seven-tone scales exist. Medieval church modes, each having its characteristic pattern of ...
Hepworth, Dame Barbara: sculptor whose works were among the earliest abstract sculptures produced in England. Her lyrical forms and feeling for material made her one of the most influential sculptors of the mid-20th century.
Hera: in Greek religion, a daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, sister-wife of Zeus, and queen of the Olympian gods. The Romans identified her with their own Juno (q.v.). Hera was worshiped throughout the Greek world and played an important ...
Heracleides Ponticus: Greek philosopher and astronomer who first suggested the rotation of the Earth, an idea that did not dominate astronomy until 1,800 years later. A pupil of Plato, who left the Academy temporarily in his charge, Heracleides is known to have ...
Heracleitus: Greek philosopher remembered for his cosmology, in which fire forms the basic material principle of an orderly universe. Little is known about his life, and the one book he apparently wrote is lost. His views survive in the short fragments ...
Heracleon: leader of the Italian school of Gnosticism, a dualistic doctrine of rival deities conceiving of salvation as an elitist enlightenment by secret knowledge, with fulfillment in the soul's eventual release from the body.
Heracles: most famous Greco-Roman legendary hero. Behind his very complicated mythology there was probably a real man, perhaps a chieftain-vassal of the kingdom of Argos. Traditionally, however, Heracles was the son of Zeus and Alcmene (see Amphitryon), granddaughter of Perseus. Zeus ...
Heraclius: Eastern Roman emperor (610-641) who reorganized and strengthened the imperial administration and the imperial armies but who, nevertheless, lost Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Byzantine Mesopotamia to the Arab Muslims.
Heraclonas: Byzantine emperor for a brief period in 641 who was accused, probably falsely, of complicity in the death of his half brother, Constantine III.
Heraeum: in ancient Greece, a temple or sanctuary dedicated to Hera, queen of the Olympian gods. The most important of these was the Argive Heraeum, five miles (eight kilometres) northeast of Argos, Greece, where Hera's cult was established at an early ...
herald: originally, an officer in medieval Europe charged with carrying messages to and from the commanders of opposing armies; in modern times, a professional authority on armorial history and genealogy. In the 12th century heralds formally announced and conducted tournaments, including ...
heraldic memorial: commemorative work of art decorated with the armorial bearings of the deceased. Memorials, whether in the form of stained-glass windows, effigies, monumental brasses, or tablets on church walls and in graveyards, provide an heraldic education of great value, contributing to ...
heraldry: the science and the art that deal with the use, display, and regulation of hereditary symbols employed to distinguish individuals, armies, institutions, and corporations. These symbols, which originated as identification devices on flags and shields, are called armorial bearings. Strictly ...
Herat: velayat (province) in western Afghanistan, 23,668 sq mi (61,301 sq km) in area, with its capital at Herat city. It is bounded by Iran (west), by Turkmenistan and the Afghan province of Badghisat (north), by Ghowr Province (east), and by ...
Herat: capital of Herat velayat (province) in western Afghanistan, lying on the Harirud (river), directly south of the Selseleh-ye Safid Kuh (Paropamisus Range), at an altitude of 3,026 ft (922 m). Herat is the focus of one of the country's most ...
Herat carpet: handwoven floor covering thought to have been woven in Herat, the Timurid capital in the 15th century, an important city in the 17th century, and now a provincial capital in western Afghanistan. Classic Herat carpets, made in the 16th and ...
Herat school: 15th-century style of miniature painting that flourished in Herat, western Afghanistan, under the patronage of the Timurids. Shah Rokh, the son of the Islamic conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), founded the school, but it was his son Baysunqur Mirza (died 1433) who ...
Herault de Sechelles, Marie-Jean: nobleman and magistrate who became a member of the Committee of Public Safety that ruled Revolutionary France during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship (1793-94).
herbal: ancient manual facilitating the identification of plants for medicinal purposes. Hundreds of medicinal plants were known in India before the Christian era, and the Chinese have a compilation, still authoritative, of 1,892 ancient herbal remedies. The Greeks had written accounts, ...
Herbart, Johann Friedrich: German philosopher and educator, who led the renewed 19th-century interest in Realism and is considered among the founders of modern scientific pedagogy.
Herbartianism: pedagogical system of German educator Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841). Herbart's educational ideas, which applied particularly to the instruction of adolescents, had a profound influence on late 19th-century teaching practices, especially in the United States, where educators established the National Herbart ...
Herbert River: river in northeastern Queensland, Australia. The river rises in the Eastern Highlands, flows for 150 miles (240 km) southeast across the Atherton Plateau past Ingham, and enters the Coral Sea at Halifax Bay in the Hinchinbrook Channel. A relatively deep ...
Herbert, Edward Herbert, 1st Baron: Baron Herbert Of Castle IslandEnglish courtier, soldier, diplomat, historian, metaphysical poet, and philosopher ("the father of English Deism"), also remembered for his revealing Autobiography.