Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Retalhuleu ... Reventlow, Christian Ditlev Frederik, Count

Retalhuleu: city, southwestern Guatemala. It is situated on the Pacific piedmont at an elevation of 784 feet (239 m) above sea level. Retalhuleu is a commercial and manufacturing centre for a fertile agricultural hinterland. Coffee and sugarcane plantations are most prominent ...
Rethel, Alfred: German artist who painted historical and biblical subjects on a heroic scale that was rare in the Germany of his time. Rethel is best remembered for his vitriolic series of woodcuts, "The Dance of Death." Although a conservative, he used ...
Rethimnon: town and capital of the nomos (department) of Rethimni, north-central Crete, Greece. A town and port on Almirou Bay, Rethimnon trades in wheat, almonds, olive oil, and wine. It lies north of the ancient Mycenaean town of Rithymna. Rethimnon was ...
Reti, Richard: Hungarian chess master, writer, and theoretician who was one of the chief exponents of the Hypermodern school of chess.
reticella: (Italian: "little net"), Renaissance fabric, akin to lace, with an open, gridlike pattern. The grid base for the pattern is formed either by threads remaining after warps and wefts have been drawn out of a fabric at regular intervals or ...
reticular fibre: in anatomy, fine fibrous connective tissue occurring in networks to make up the supporting tissue of many organs. The reticular fibres are composed of randomly oriented collagenous fibrils lying in an amorphous matrix substance. The fibrils are not oriented in ...
reticulated work: type of facing used on ancient Roman concrete or mortared rubblework walls. It appeared during the late Roman Republic and became widespread by the reign of Augustus. It succeeded the earliest type of facing, an irregular patchwork called opus incertum. ...
reticuloendothelial system: class of cells that occur in widely separated parts of the human body and that take up particular substances. These cells are part of the body's defense mechanisms.
reticulum cell sarcoma of bone: uncommon malignant tumour of bone marrow that may occur at any age and in any bone, affecting males twice as frequently as females. Symptoms include mild pain and swelling. The tumour grows slowly and metastasizes late, but bone destruction is ...
Retief, Piet: one of the Boer leaders of the Great Trek, the migration of independence-minded Boers from British rule in Cape Colony to uncolonized lands in the interior of South Africa.
retina: layer of nervous tissue, covering the back two-thirds of the eyeball, in which stimulation by light occurs, initiating the sensation of vision. The rest of the eyeball serves essentially as a supporting shell for this light-sensitive tissue, providing it with ...
retinitis pigmentosa: hereditary eye disease in which progressive degeneration of the retinal pigments leads to impairment of vision and, ultimately, to blindness. In the course of the disease the light-sensitive structures called rods-which are the visual receptors used in dim light-are destroyed ...
retinospora: a condition common in horticultural varieties of conifers, especially arborvitae, junipers, cypresses, and false cypresses, in which needlelike, spreading juvenile leaves persist on adult trees that normally have small, scalelike leaves, pressed against the stem. These intermediate plants were once ...
Retiro Park: the main park of Madrid, Spain. Originally called the Parque del Buen Retiro, or "pleasant retreat," and today covering approximately 350 acres (142 hectares), it was planned in the 1550s and redesigned on the instructions of Gaspar de Guzman, Conde-Duque ...
retort: vessel used for distillation of substances that are placed inside and subjected to heat. The simple form of retort, used in some laboratories, is a glass or metal bulb having a long, curved spout through which the distillate may pass ...
retraining program: occupational training program designed to aid workers in obtaining new employment. Formal retraining programs were first developed in Europe around the end of World War II as part of the effort to return military personnel to civilian life, to reduce ...
retriever: any of several sporting dogs bred and trained to retrieve game. Retrievers are characterized by water-resistant coats, a keen sense of smell, and "soft" mouths that do not damage game.
retroflex: in phonetics, a consonant sound produced with the tip of the tongue curled back toward the hard palate. In Russian the sounds sh, zh (like the English s sound in "pleasure"), and shch are retroflex; there are also many retroflex ...
retrograde motion: in astronomy, actual or apparent motion of a body in a direction opposite to that of the (direct) motions of most members of the solar system or of other astronomical systems with a preferred direction of motion. As viewed from ...
retrolental fibroplasia: disease of the retinal blood vessels in the eyes of premature infants, resulting from administration of excessive amounts of oxygen in the attempt to prevent respiratory disease. Until the role of oxygen was established in 1954, the disease was a ...
retrovirus: any of a group of viruses that, unlike most other viruses and all cellular organisms, carry their genetic blueprint in the form of ribonucleic acid (RNA). Retroviruses are responsible for certain cancers and slow virus infections of animals and cause ...
Rett syndrome: rare progressive neurological disorder that causes mental retardation, compulsive hand movements, reduced muscle tone, difficulties in walking, autism, decreased body weight, failure of the head to grow with age, and the increased presence of ammonia in the blood (hyperammonemia). Rett ...
retting: process employing the action of bacteria and moisture on plants to dissolve or rot away much of the cellular tissues and gummy substances surrounding bast-fibre bundles, thus facilitating separation of the fibre from the stem. Basic methods include dew retting ...
Retton, Mary Lou: gymnast who was the first American woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in gymnastics. At the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Retton achieved perfect scores in her final two events to win a dramatic victory in ...
Retz, Jean-Francois-Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de: one of the leaders of the aristocratic rebellion known as the Fronde (1648-53), whose memoirs remain a classic of 17th-century French literature.
Retzius, Magnus Gustaf: Swedish anatomist and anthropologist best-known for his studies of the histology of the nervous system.
Reuben: one of the 12 tribes of Israel that in biblical times comprised the people of Israel who later became the Jewish people. The tribe was named after the oldest of Jacob's sons born of Leah, his first wife.
Reubeni, David: Jewish adventurer whose grandiose plans inspired the messianic visions of the martyr Solomon Molcho (q.v.; d. 1532). Reubeni claimed to be a prince descended from the tribe of Reuben (hence his name) of a Jewish state in Arabia. He gained ...
Reuchlin, Johannes: German humanist, political counselor, and classics scholar whose defense of Hebrew literature helped awaken liberal intellectual forces in the years immediately preceding the Reformation.
Reumert, Poul: Danish stage and film star, regarded for more than 50 years as one of the most important character actors in Denmark.
Reunion: island of the Mascarene Islands and a French overseas departement in the western Indian Ocean. It is located about 420 miles (680 km) east of Madagascar and 110 miles (180 km) southwest of Mauritius. Reunion is almost ...
Reus: city, Tarragona provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Catalonia, northeastern Spain. It lies on a coastal plain just west-northwest of Tarragona city. Reus was first mentioned in the 13th century, but its commercial life dates from 1750 when ...
Reuss: two former German principalities, merged into Thuringia in 1920. In their final years they comprised two blocks, separated by part of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. The southern and larger block, or Oberland, with Schleiz and Greiz as chief towns, was bounded east by ...
Reuter, Ernst: leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. While mayor of post-World War II West Berlin, his leadership helped that city survive the Soviet blockade.
Reuter, Fritz: German novelist who helped to initiate the development of regional dialect literature in Germany. His best works, which mirrored the provincial life of Mecklenburg, are written in Plattdeutsch, a north German dialect.
Reuter, Paul Julius, Baron von: German-born founder of one of the first news agencies, which still bears his name. Of Jewish parentage, he became a Christian in 1844 and adopted the name of Reuter.
Reuters: British news agency that was founded in 1851 and became one of the leading news wire services in the world. It was established by Paul Julius Reuter, a bank clerk who became a partner in a book-publishing firm. He initiated ...
Reuther, Walter: American labour leader who was president of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and was active in national and international affairs.
Reutlingen: city, Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies on the Echaz River below the Achalm mountain in the Swabian Alps (Schwabische Alb), south of Stuttgart. Founded by Frederick II, it was chartered in the early 13th century ...
Reuveran Stage: major division of geologic time and deposits in The Netherlands. The Reuveran Stage, named for a clay deposit of the same name, is Pliocene in age (between 1,600,000 and 5,300,000 years old). The Reuveran underlies undoubted Pleistocene deposits and has ...
Revda: city, Sverdlovsk oblast (province), western Russia, in the mid-Urals on the Revda River, at the confluence of the Chusovaya River. Founded in 1734, when a metallurgical factory was built, it became a city in 1935. In 1940 the Sredneuralsk copper-smelting ...
Reve, Gerard: Dutch writer noted for his virtuoso style and sardonic humour. His subject matter was occasionally controversial, treating such topics as homosexuality and sadism.
revelation: in religion, disclosure of divine or sacred reality or purpose to man. Revelation in this sense is an essential aspect of all religions, although the specific forms it takes in particular traditions vary widely.
revelation: in religion, the disclosure of divine or sacred reality or purpose to mankind. In the religious view, such disclosure may come through mystical insights, historical events, or spiritual experiences that transform the lives of individuals and groups.
Revelation to John: last book of the New Testament. It is the only book of the New Testament classified as apocalyptic literature rather than didactic or historical, indicating thereby its extensive use of visions, symbols, and allegory, especially in connection with future events. ...
Revell, Viljo: Finnish architect, one of the foremost exponents of Functionalism in Finnish architecture.
Revels, Hiram R: American clergyman and educator who became the first black citizen to be elected to the U.S. Senate (1870-71), during Reconstruction.
Revels, Master of the: English court official, who, from Tudor times up until the Licensing Act of 1737, supervised the production and financing of often elaborate court entertainments. He later was the official issuer of licenses to theatres and theatrical companies and the censor ...
Revelstoke: city, southeastern British Columbia, Canada. It lies along the Columbia River between the Monashee and Selkirk mountains, 392 miles (631 km) northeast of Vancouver. Originally called Second Crossing, the site (overlooked by Mount Revelstoke [6,375 feet; 1,943 m]) was claimed ...
revenge tragedy: drama in which the dominant motive is revenge for a real or imagined injury; it was a favourite form of English tragedy in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras and found its highest expression in William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Reventlow, Christian Ditlev Frederik, Count: (Lensgreve) Danish state official whose agrarian reforms led to the abolition of serfdom in Denmark.