(HO2CCH2CO2H), a dibasic organic acid whose diethyl ester is used in syntheses of vitamins B1 and B6, barbiturates, and numerous other valuable compounds.
wojewodztwo (province), southern Poland. It is bounded by the provinces of Swietokrzyskie to the north, Podkarpackie to the east, and Slaskie to the west. The country of Slovakia is located along its southern border. Created in 1999 ...
English writer whose identity remains uncertain but whose name is famous as that of the author of Le Morte Darthur (q.v.), the first prose account in English of the rise and fall of King Arthur and the fellowship of the ...
mountain range, northern Lesotho. The term as generally used outside Lesotho refers to a particular range that trends off to the southwest from the Great Escarpment of the Drakensberg Range, which forms the northeastern arc of Lesotho's circumferential boundary with ...
arm of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, indenting the northwestern coast of Prince Edward Island, Canada. The inlet, 12 miles (19 km) long and up to 10 miles (16 km) wide, is protected from the ocean by Hog Island. Its ...
Italian physician and biologist who, in developing experimental methods to study living things, founded the science of microscopic anatomy. After Malpighi's researches, microscopic anatomy became a prerequisite for advances in the fields of physiology, embryology, and practical medicine.
in insects, any of the excretory organs that lie in the abdominal body cavity and empty into the junction between midgut and hindgut. In species having few malpighian tubules, they are long and coiled; in species with numerous (up to ...
(Sept. 11, 1709), the duke of Marlborough's last great battle in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14). It was fought near the village of Malplaquet (now on the French side of the Franco-Belgian border), about 10 miles (16 km) ...
French novelist, art historian, and statesman, who became an active supporter of General Charles de Gaulle and, after de Gaulle was elected president in 1958, served for 10 years as France's minister of cultural affairs. His major works include the ...
grain product that is used in beverages and foods as a basis for fermentation and to add flavour and nutrients. Malt is prepared from cereal grain by allowing partial germination to modify the grain's natural food substances. Although any cereal ...
country located in the central Mediterranean Sea. It is a small archipelago but a strategically important group of islands. Throughout a long and turbulent history, the archipelago has played a vital role in the struggles of a succession of powers ...
enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of the disaccharide maltose to the simple sugar glucose. The enzyme is found in plants, bacteria, and yeast; in humans and other vertebrates it is thought to be synthesized by cells of the mucous membrane ...
breed of toy dog named for the island of Malta, where it may have originated about 2,800 years ago. Delicate in appearance but usually vigorous, healthy, affectionate, and lively, the Maltese was once the valued pet of the wealthy and ...
type of guipure lace (in which the design is held together by bars, or brides, rather than net) introduced into Malta in 1833 by Genoese laceworkers. It was similar to the early bobbin-made lace of Genoa and had geometric patterns ...
Semitic language of the Southern Central group spoken on the island of Malta. Maltese developed from a dialect of Arabic and is closely related to the western Arabic dialects of Algeria and Tunisia. Strongly influenced by the Italian dialect spoken ...
English economist and demographer who is best known for his theory that population growth will always tend to outrun the food supply and that betterment of humankind is impossible without stern limits on reproduction. This thinking is commonly referred to ...
town, Ryedale district, administrative county of North Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England. On the site of an early British settlement and later a Roman fort and town (Derventio) on the River Derwent, it was renamed Malton in Anglian times ...
propinsi (province) of the Maluccas island group, eastern Indonesia. In 1999 the northern half of Maluku province was made into the separate North Maluku (Maluku Utara) province. The Moluccas group includes about 1,000 islands. The largest of North Maluku province ...
French physicist who discovered that light, when reflected, becomes partially plane polarized; i.e., its rays vibrate in the same plane. His observation led to a better understanding of the propagation of light.
the mallow family, a large group of flowering plants, in the order Malvales, containing about 95 genera of herbs, shrubs, and trees. Representatives occur in all except the coldest parts of the world but are most numerous in the tropics. ...
mallow order of dicotyledonous flowering plants, a division of the subclass Dilleniidae. The plants grow in various habitats throughout much of the world, and a number of members are important commercially.
(1597), agreement made between the Portuguese and the native chiefs of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The chiefs swore allegiance to the king of Portugal and, in return, were assured that their laws and customs would be left inviolate.
district, administrative county of Worcestershire, western England. The district lies almost entirely within the historic county of Worcestershire, except for a small area between Leigh Sinton and Acton Green that belongs to the historic county of Herefordshire. Its dominant physical ...
prime minister of Southern Rhodesia (1933-53) and architect of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which he served as its first prime minister (1953-56).
historic province comprising a large portion of eastern Madhya Pradesh state and parts of southeastern Rajasthan state, west central India. Strictly, the name is confined to the hilly tableland bounded on the south by the Vindhya Range, but it has ...
17th-century school of Rajasthani miniature painting centred largely in Malwa and Bundelkhand (in modern Madhya Pradesh state); it is sometimes referred to as Central Indian painting on the basis of its geographical distribution. The school was conservative, and little development ...
alluvial plains in central Punjab state, northern India, between the Ghaggar and Sutlej rivers south of the Bist Doab (plain). The Malwa Plains are named for the Malloi peoples (Malavas) who ruled the Punjab in the 4th century BC and ...
plateau in north central India, bounded by the Gujarat Plains on the west, the Vindhya Range on the south, the Madhya Bharat Plateau and Bundelkhand Upland on the north, and the Vindhya Range on the east. Of volcanic origin, the ...
village, Westchester county, New York, U.S. It is located on Long Island Sound, just northeast of New Rochelle, astride the border separating the towns (townships) of Mamaroneck and Rye. Although considered part of the Dutch West India Company lands, the ...
American vocal quartet whose intricate harmonies brought them to the forefront of the folk rock movement of the 1960s. The original members were John Phillips (b. August 30, 1935, Parris Island, South Carolina, U.S., -d. March 18, 2001, Los Angeles, ...
any of four species of large arboreal venomous snakes that live throughout sub-Saharan Africa in tropical rainforest and savanna. Mambas are slender, agile, and quick and are active during the day. They have smooth scales, flat-sided (coffin-shaped) heads, long front ...
river in Indonesian Irian Jaya, northwestern New Guinea. Formed by the confluence of the Taritatu (Idenburg) and Tariku (Rouffaer) rivers, which converge in a large wild sago swamp, it flows generally northwest and empties into the Pacific Ocean near Tanjung ...
Italian poet and patriot of the Risorgimento and author of the Italian anthem "Inno di Mameli" ("Mameli Hymn"), popularly known as "Fratelli d'Italia" ("Brothers of Italy").
(from mamaruca, Indian for "half-breed"), in colonial Brazil, especially in the Sao Paulo district, a person of mixed Indian and white ancestry. The reputation of mamelucos for cruelty toward Indians, supposedly reminiscent of the Mamluks, a Muslim military caste of ...
band of mercenaries from Campania, in Italy, who, by a shift in alliances, touched off the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage (264-241 BC). Their name was derived from Mamers, the Sabellian war god. Originally hired by Syracuse, in ...
Roman official, author of a panegyric on the emperor Julian delivered at Constantinople in AD 362 in the form of a gratiarum actio (thanksgiving) for the orator's elevation to the consulship. Mamertinus had already held high office under Julian's patronage ...
American playwright, director, and screenwriter noted for his often desperate working-class characters and for his distinctive, colloquial, and frequently profane dialogue.
slave soldier, a member of one of the armies of slaves that won political control of several Muslim states during the Middle Ages. Under the Ayyubid sultanate, Mamluk generals used their power to establish a dynasty that ruled Egypt and ...
any member of the group of vertebrate animals in which the young are nourished with milk from special mammary glands of the mother. In addition to these characteristic milk glands, mammals are distinguished by several other unique features. Hair is ...
scientific study of mammals. Interest in nonhuman mammals dates far back in prehistory, and the modern science of mammalogy has its broad foundation in the knowledge of mammals possessed by primitive peoples. The ancient Greeks were among the first peoples ...
milk-producing gland characteristic of all female mammals and present in a rudimentary and generally nonfunctional form in males. Mammary glands are regulated by the endocrine system and become functional in response to the hormonal changes associated with parturition.
fruit of Mammea americana, a large, primarily West Indian tree of the garcinia family (Clusiaceae), with opposite, leathery, gland-dotted leaves; white, sweet-scented, short-stalked, solitary or clustered axillary flowers; and yellow or russet fruit, 7-15 cm (3-6 inches) in diameter. The ...
(genus Mammillaria), any member of a large genus (more than 200 species) of low-growing cacti, native to the Western Hemisphere but concentrated in Mexico. It includes pincushion, fishhook, snowball, bird's-nest, golden-star, thimble, old woman, coral, royal cross, feather, and lemon ...
(genus Mammuthus), any member of an extinct class of elephants found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits over every continent except Australia and South America (the Pleistocene epoch began 1,600,000 years ago and ended 10,000 years ago). The ...
national park containing an extensive system of limestone caverns, in west-central Kentucky, U.S.; it was designated a World Heritage site in 1981. The park, authorized in 1926 but fully established only in 1941, occupies a surface area of 83 square ...
(species Drepanis pacifica), Hawaiian songbird of the family Drepanididae (order Passeriformes), which became extinct in about 1898. About 20 cm (8 inches) long, it was black with yellow touches and had a long, decurved bill for nectar-feeding. The native Hawaiian ...
river in north-central Bolivia. It is formed by headwaters, chiefly the Grande River, which arise in Andean cordilleras and drain the Moxos (Mojos) plain, an ancient lake bed. The Mamore meanders generally northward to the Brazilian border, at which point ...
