Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Pendred's syndrome ... Penrith

Pendred's syndrome: hereditary metabolic condition that is characterized by deafness and defective incorporation of iodine into thyroid hormone, resulting in goitre or enlargement of the thyroid gland. Pendred's syndrome is a major cause of congenital deafness. It does not produce symptoms of ...
pendulum: body suspended from a fixed point so that it can swing back and forth under the influence of gravity. Pendulums are used to regulate the movement of clocks because the interval of time for each complete oscillation, called the period, ...
Penedo: port city, Alagoas state, northeastern Brazil, on the north bank of the lower Sao Francisco River, bordering Sergipe state, 25 mi (40 km) above its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. Founded in the 16th century during the Portuguese conquest, it ...
Penelope: in Greek mythology, a daughter of Icarius of Sparta and the nymph Periboea and wife of the hero Odysseus. In the Odyssey is told the story of how, during her husband's long absence after the Trojan War, many chieftains of ...
peneplain: gently undulating, almost featureless plain that, in principle, would be produced by fluvial erosion that would, in the course of geologic time, reduce the land almost to baselevel (sea level), leaving so little gradient that essentially no more erosion could ...
Peng Dehuai: Wade-Giles P'eng Te-huai military leader, one of the greatest in Chinese communist history, and minister of national defense of China from 1954 until 1959, when he was removed for criticizing the military and economic policies of Mao Zedong.
penguin: any of 17 species of flightless marine birds that live only in the Southern Hemisphere. The majority of the 17 species do not live in Antarctica but rather between latitudes 45° and 60° S, where they breed on islands. A ...
Penicaud Family: French enamelers active in Limoges during the 16th century, considered to be among the finest such craftsmen of their time. They were noted for their work in grisaille enamel, monochromatically painted enamel work intended to look like sculpture. Nardon Penicaud ...
penicillin: one of the first and still one of the most widely used antibiotic agents, derived from the Penicillium mold. In 1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming first observed that colonies of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus ...
Penicillium: genus of blue or green mold fungi (division Mycota) of the form-class Deuteromycetes (Fungi Imperfecti). Those species for which the sexual phase is known are placed in the Eurotiales. Found on foodstuffs, leather, and fabrics, they are of economic importance ...
Peninj mandible: an almost perfectly preserved fossil jaw of the hominin (of human lineage) species Paranthropus boisei containing a complete set of adult teeth. It was found in 1964 at Peninj, a locale in Tanzania to the west of Lake Natron and ...
peninsular: any of the colonial residents of Latin America from the 16th through the early 19th century who had been born in Spain. The name refers to the Iberian Peninsula. Among the American-born in Mexico the peninsulars were contemptuously called gachupines ...
Peninsular Campaign: (April 4-July 1, 1862), in the American Civil War, large-scale but unsuccessful Union effort to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Va., by way of the peninsula formed by the York and the James rivers. Following the engagement between the ...
Peninsular War: (1808-14), that part of the Napoleonic Wars fought in the Iberian Peninsula, where the French were opposed by British, Spanish, and Portuguese forces. Napoleon's peninsula struggle contributed considerably to his eventual downfall; but until 1813 the conflict in Spain and ...
penis: the copulatory organ of the male of higher vertebrates that in mammals usually also provides the channel by which urine leaves the body. The corresponding structure in lower invertebrates is often called the cirrus.
penitential book: any of the manuals used in Europe by priests of the Western church, especially during the early Middle Ages, in administering ecclesiastical penance. (The name penance is applied to both a sacramental rite and acts performed in satisfaction for sins.) ...
Penkovsky, Oleg Vladimirovich: senior Soviet military intelligence officer who was convicted of spying for the United Kingdom and the United States. He was probably the West's most valuable double agent during the Cold War.
Penn, Arthur: American motion-picture director whose films are noted for their critical examination of the darker undercurrents of American society.
Penn, Irving: American photographer noted for his sophisticated fashion images and incisive portraits.
Penn, Sir William: British admiral and father of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania.
Penn, William: English Quaker leader and advocate of religious freedom, who oversaw the founding of the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers and other religious minorities of Europe.
Penna, Sandro: Italian poet who celebrated homosexual love, particularly pederasty, with lyrical elegance. Usually written in the form of epigrams, his moody poems often feature the tranquil, homoerotic imagery of young boys at play.
Pennacook: Algonquian-speaking American Indians whose villages were located in what are now southern and central New Hampshire, northeastern Massachusetts, and southern Maine. Like other New England Algonquian-speaking tribes, they depended on hunting, fishing, and the cultivation of corn (maize). They were ...
Pennant, Thomas: Welsh naturalist and traveler, one of the foremost zoologists of his time.
Pennel, John: American pole-vaulter who was the first to jump more than 5.18 m (17 feet) and was a world-record holder (1963, 1966, 1969).
Pennell, Joseph: American etcher, lithographer, and writer who was one of the major book illustrators of his time.
Penneru River: river rising on the Deccan Plateau 7 miles (11 km) west-southwest of Chik Ballapur, Karnataka state, southern India. It flows north into Andhra Pradesh state and turns east-southeast toward the Coromandel Coast, emptying into the Bay of Bengal near Nellore, ...
Penney Company: ., American retail company founded in 1902 by James Cash Penney and today engaged in marketing apparel, home and automotive products, drugstore merchandise, and insurance. The firm serves consumers principally through stores but also through catalog sales and telephone orders ...
Penney, J.C.: merchant who established one of the largest chains of department stores in the United States.
Penney, William Penney, Baron: British nuclear physicist who led Britain's development of the atomic bomb.
Pennine Alps: segment of the central Alps along the Italian-Swiss border, bounded by the Great St. Bernard Pass and the Mont Blanc group (southwest), by the Upper Rhone Valley (north), by Simplon Pass and the Lepontine Alps (qq.v.; northeast), and by the ...
Pennines: major upland mass forming a relief "backbone," or "spine," in the north of England, extending southward from Northumberland into Derbyshire. The uplands have a short, steep western slope and dip gently eastward. They are surrounded on the east, west, and ...
Pennisetum: genus of the grass family (Poaceae), containing about 80 species of annual and perennial plants, native to tropical and subtropical areas. Kikuyu grass (P. clandestinum), a perennial sod-forming species, is grown for pasturage in Central America. Several varieties of feathertop ...
Pennsylvania: constituent state of the United States of America, one of the original 13 American colonies. The 45,308 square miles (117,348 square km) of the state are bounded on the north by Lake Erie and New York; on the east by ...
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest art academy and museum in the United States, founded 1805. Specializing in American painting and sculpture of the 18th to the 20th century, the Academy's Art Museum was built between 1872 and 1876 ...
Pennsylvania Avenue: major thoroughfare of Washington, D.C. It runs for 7 miles (11 km) in a northwesterly direction from the District of Columbia-Maryland line over the Anacostia River (John Philip Sousa Bridge) and through Washington's well-known central section lined with government buildings ...
Pennsylvania German: 17th- and 18th-century German-speaking settlers in Pennsylvania and their descendants. Emigrating from southern Germany (Palatinate, Bavaria, Saxony, etc.) and Switzerland, they settled primarily in the southeastern section of Pennsylvania, where they practiced any of several slightly different forms of Anabaptist ...
Pennsylvania Railroad Company: largest of the trunkline railroads that connected the East Coast of the United States with the interior. It was chartered in 1846 by the Pennsylvania legislature to build a line between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. Its first passenger train ran in ...
Pennsylvania State University: coeducational state-supported system of higher education in Pennsylvania, U.S. The main campus, at University Park, is the system's largest branch and is the focus of its graduate and four-year undergraduate education. The system also includes the four-year school Penn State ...
Pennsylvania system: penal method based on the principle that solitary confinement fosters penitence and encourages reformation. The idea was advocated by the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, whose most active members were Quakers. In 1829 the Eastern State ...
Pennsylvania, University of: private university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., one of the Ivy League schools and the oldest university in the country.
Pennsylvanian period: in North America, interval of geologic time roughly equivalent to what is internationally designated the Late Carboniferous Epoch (320 to 286 million years ago). Because the rocks that originated during this span of time are widespread in the state of ...
penny dreadful: an inexpensive novel of violent adventure or crime that was especially popular in mid-to-late Victorian England. Penny dreadfuls were often issued in eight-page installments. The appellation, like dime novel and shilling shocker, usually connotes rather careless and second-rate writing as ...
Penny Post: private postal service created by the London merchant William Dockwra in 1680. All letters and packets up to one pound in weight were delivered for one penny (1 d). The packets were also insured up to £10. Dockwra's system consisted ...
pennycress: (genus Thlaspi), plant of the mustard family (Brassicaceae), named and sometimes grown for its round seedpods. Most of the 60 species are Eurasian, but a few are native to North and South America, mostly in mountain areas. Common pennycress, or ...
Pennzoil Company: American petrochemical corporation that was founded in Pennsylvania in 1889 as a producing unit of the Standard Oil Trust and-after several structural changes, mergers, and acquisitions over the years-underwent reincorporation in 1968. Headquarters are in Houston, Texas, U.S.
Penobscot: Algonkian-speaking Indians who lived on both sides of the Penobscot Bay and throughout the Penobscot River basin in what is now Maine, U.S. They were members of the Abenaki confederacy. Penobscot subsistence was based on hunting, fishing, and collecting, with ...
Penobscot: county, east-central Maine, U.S. Located in a highland region, the county contains many lakes, rivers, and ponds, foremost among them being the Penobscot River, the longest in the state; nearly all of the river's 350-mile (560-km) course is through the ...
Penobscot River: river in Maine, U.S., formed by several headstreams draining numerous lakes that were created by melting glaciers. It is the state's longest river, about 350 miles (560 km) in length. Its western and eastern branches join at Medway and run ...
penology: the division of criminology that concerns itself with the philosophy and practice of society in its efforts to repress criminal activities. As the term signifies (from Latin poena, "pain," or "suffering"), penology has stood in the past and, for the ...
Penrith: city, east-central New South Wales, Australia, on the Nepean River, a section of the Hawkesbury River. Founded in 1815, it was known as Evan and Castlereagh before being renamed after Penrith in Cumberland (now in Cumbria), England. It was declared ...