Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Herbert, Frank ... Hermans, Willem Frederik

Herbert, Frank: American science-fiction writer noted as the author of the best-selling Dune series of futuristic novels, a group of highly complex works that explore such themes as ecology, human evolution, the consequences of genetic manipulation, and mystical and psychic possibilities.
Herbert, George: English religious poet, a major metaphysical poet, notable for the purity and effectiveness of his choice of words.
Herbert, Sir A P: English novelist, playwright, poet, and politician, author of more than 50 books, famous for his witty championing of minority causes. More importantly, as an independent member of Parliament for Oxford University (1935-50), he introduced the matrimonial causes bill (enacted in ...
Herbert, Victor: Irish-born American composer of operettas and light music.
Herbert, Xavier: Australian novelist and short-story writer best known for his eloquent novel Capricornia (1938), a comic chronicle about life in the Northern Territory of Australia and the inhumane treatment suffered by the Aborigines there at the hands of white men.
Herbert, Zbigniew: one of the leading Polish poets of the post-World War II generation.
herbicide: an agent, usually chemical, for killing or inhibiting the growth of unwanted plants-i.e., weeds. (See weed.) In the past, sea salt, by-products of chemical industries, and various oils were used as weed killers. Late in the 19th century the selective ...
herbivore: animal adapted to subsist solely on plant tissues. The herbivores range from insects (such as aphids) to large mammals (such as elephants), but the term is most often applied to ungulates, or hoofed mammals. Types of adaptation for a herbivorous ...
Herblock: American editorial cartoonist who won Pulitzer Prizes in 1942, 1954, and 1979.
Herculaneum: ancient city of 4,000-5,000 inhabitants in Campania, Italy. It lay 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Naples, at the western base of Mount Vesuvius, and was destroyed-together with Pompeii, Torre Annunziata, and Stabiae-by the Vesuvius eruption of AD 79. The ...
Herculano de Carvalho e Araujo, Alexandre: historian, novelist, and poet, one of the writers who is credited with introducing Romanticism to Portugal. As a historian he was a leader of liberal opinion, enjoying a national prestige comparable to that of Victor Hugo in France.
Hercules, Tower of: probably the only ancient Roman lighthouse still in use, located 1.5 miles (2.4 km) outside the city of La Coruna (Corunna), Spain, on a peninsula in Corunna Bay. A Phoenician tower may have occupied the site originally, but the present ...
Hercynian orogenic belt: series of mountain ranges that developed during the Devonian Period (which occurred about 408 to 360 million years ago) and the subsequent Carboniferous Period (which ended about 286 million years ago), as a result of the collision between Africa and ...
hercynite: the mineral iron aluminum oxide, a member of the spinel (q.v.) series.
herdbook: official record of individuals and pedigrees of a recognized breed of livestock, especially cattle or swine. When development of purebred livestock for use in breeding began in Britain in the 18th century, it became necessary to maintain a pedigree of ...
Herder, Johann Gottfried von: German critic, theologian, and philosopher, who was the leading figure of the Sturm und Drang literary movement and an innovator in the philosophy of history and culture. His influence, augmented by his contacts with the young J.W. von Goethe, made ...
Here de Corny, Emmanuel: French court architect to Stanislaw Leszczynski, duke of Lorraine, best known for laying out the town centre of Nancy, a principal example of urban design in the 18th century.
Heredia: city, central Costa Rica, on the central plateau 3,729 feet (1,137 m) above sea level, just northwest of San Jose, the national capital, via the Pan-American Highway. Probably founded in the 1570s, the city was originally called Cubujuqui and then ...
Heredia, Jose Maria de: Cuban-born French poet, brilliant master of the sonnet.
hereditary spherocytosis: form of congenital hemolytic anemia characterized by enlarged spleen, spherical (rather than disk-shaped) red blood cells of variable size and increased fragility of cell membrane, and a chronic, mild hemolytic anemia punctuated by episodes of severe aplastic anemia (failure of ...
heredity: sum of all biological processes by which particular characteristics are transmitted from parents to their offspring. Among organisms that reproduce sexually, progeny are not exact duplicates of their parents but usually vary in many traits. Heredity and variation, two sides ...
Hereford: popular breed of beef cattle, the product of generations of breeding work on the part of landed proprietors and tenant farmers in the county of Herefordshire (now in Hereford and Worcester county), England. Herefordshire was noted for its luxuriant grasses, ...
Hereford: city, unitary authority and historic county of Herefordshire, England, on the River Wye.
Herefordshire: unitary authority and historic county that covers a roughly circular area in the Welsh borderland of England. The historic county includes three small areas outside the unitary authority. One, just south of Ludlow, is in the South Shropshire district of ...
Hereke carpet: floor covering handwoven in imperial workshops founded late in the 19th century at Hereke, Turkey, about 40 miles (64 km) east of Istanbul. Large carpets and prayer rugs with pile of wool or silk were made there for palace use ...
Herelle, Felix d': French-Canadian microbiologist generally known as the discoverer of the bacteriophage, a virus that infects bacteria. (The earlier identification of the bacteriophage by the British microbiologist F.W. Twort in about 1915 became obscured by Twort's disinclination to take credit for or ...
Herero: a group of closely related Bantu-speaking peoples of southwestern Africa. The Herero proper and a segment known as the Mbanderu inhabit parts of central Namibia and Botswana; other related groups, such as the Himba, inhabit the Kaokoveld area of Namibia ...
Hereroland: geographic region of eastern Namibia, encompassing part of the western Kalahari (desert) and bordering Botswana on the east.
heresy: a theological doctrine or system rejected as false by ecclesiastical authority.
Hereward, The Wake: Anglo-Saxon rebel against William the Conqueror and the hero of many Norman and English legends. He is associated with a region in present-day Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire.
Herford: city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), northwestern Germany. It is situated where the Aa River joins the Werre, north of the Teutoburger Wald (mountains). It originated around a Benedictine nunnery founded in about 789 and confirmed by the emperor Louis the ...
Hergesheimer, Joseph: American author whose novels are typically concerned with the decadent and sophisticated milieu of the very wealthy.
Heribert Of Antimiano: archbishop of Milan who for two years led his city in defying the Holy Roman emperor Conrad II. During the Risorgimento, the period of Italian unification in the 19th century, Heribert's fame was revived as an example of Italian nationalism.
Herihor: Egyptian army officer and usurping high priest of Amon, who founded a dynasty of priest-kings that ruled southern Egypt when the country became disunited in the last years of the 20th dynasty.
Hering, Ewald: German physiologist and psychologist whose chief work concerned the physiology of colour perception. He taught at the University of Leipzig (1895), following professorships at the Josephs-Akademie, Vienna (1865-70), and at the University of Prague (1870-95). Hering challenged the colour-vision theory ...
heriot: in European feudal society, the right of the lord to seize his tenant's best beast or other chattel on the tenant's death. The right grew out of the custom under which the lord lent horses and armour to those of ...
Herisau: capital, Appenzell Ausser-Rhoden demi-canton, northeastern Switzerland. It lies along on the Glatt River, just southwest of Sankt Gallen. Its Church of St. Laurence was mentioned in the 10th century, although the present building dates from the 16th century. Above the ...
Heriz carpet: floor covering handmade in any of a group of villages near the town of Heris, lying east of Tabriz in northwest Iran. Heriz carpets-primarily room-sized, stout, serviceable, and attractive-have found ready markets in Europe and the United States. They are ...
Herkimer: village, seat (1791) of Herkimer county, central New York, U.S., on the north bank of the Mohawk River, 14 miles (23 km) southeast of Utica. The site, settled about 1725 by Palatinate Germans, was known as German Flats. Fort Dayton ...
Herkimer: county, central New York state, U.S. The northern arm of the county lies in the Adirondack Mountains, while the southern section consists of a hilly upland. The principal streams are the Black, Independence, Mohawk, and Moose (north and south branches) ...
Herkimer, Nicholas: American general during the American Revolution who led American militiamen in the Battle of Oriskany (August 6, 1777).
herm: in Greek religion, sacred object of stone connected with the cult of Hermes, the fertility god. According to some scholars, Hermes' name may be derived from the word herma (Greek: "stone," or "rock," such as a boundary or landmark). With ...
Herman De Valenciennes: French poet known for a scriptural poem that was very popular in his time. Born at Valenciennes, he became a priest and wrote the Histoire de la Bible (after 1189), including the Old and New Testaments in an abridged form, ...
Herman Miller, Inc.: American furniture company known for innovations in design and in organizational management.
Herman, Woody: American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, vocalist, and bandleader who was best known as the front man for a succession of bands he dubbed "Herds."
hermandad: (Spanish: "brotherhood"), in medieval Castile, any of a number of unions of municipalities organized for specific ends-normally for police purposes or for defense against the aggressions of magnates. They emerged in the 12th century as temporary associations but later became ...
Hermann I: landgrave of Thuringia and count palatine of Saxony who helped defeat the Hohenstaufen emperor Henry VI's attempt to transform the German kingdom from an elective into a hereditary monarchy.
Hermann Von Reichenau: German chronicler, poet, composer, astronomer, and mathematician. A contemporary of the Holy Roman emperor Henry III, Hermann von Reichenau is historiographically important as a primary source for some events of his own time in Germany.
Hermann Von Salza: German grand master (Hochmeister), from 1210 to 1239, of the organization of German crusaders called the Teutonic Order.
Hermann, Eduard: German linguist who specialized in comparative studies of Indo-European languages and whose exhaustive linguistic exegesis of passages from Homer is a model of its kind: Sprachwissenschaftlicher Kommentar zu ausgewahlten Stucken aus Homer (1914; "Linguistic Commentary on Selected Passages from Homer").
Hermans, Willem Frederik: Dutch satirical novelist who vehemently attacked the ills and hypocrisies of society.