Renaissance Flemish physician who revolutionized the study of biology and the practice of medicine by his careful description of the anatomy of the human body. Basing his observations on dissections he made himself, he wrote and illustrated the first comprehensive ...
American financier, once considered the boy wonder of international finance, who later became a fugitive from U.S. and other legal authorities. He was a key figure in certain American financial and political scandals of the early 1970s.
viral disease of swine causing eruption of painful blisters on feet and snout. Blisters emerge 24 to 72 hours after exposure and are accompanied by fever, which lasts 24 to 36 hours and may occur again after two or three ...
viral disease causing blisters in the mouths of cattle, horses, and mules and on the snouts and feet of swine. Horses and cattle with vesicular stomatitis become feverish two to five days after exposure. After the blisters break, the fever ...
inflammation and infection of the seminal vesicles in the male reproductive tract. The seminal vesicles are ductlike glands that add fluid secretions to the seminal fluid as it passes from the body during intercourse. Infections present in the prostate or ...
town, capital of Haute-Saone departement, Franche-Comte region, eastern France. It lies between the isolated conical hill, La Motte (1,263 ft [384 m]), and the Durgeon River. The hill is crowned by a votive chapel and a statue of the Virgin ...
Roman emperor (AD 69-79) who, though of humble birth, became the founder of the Flavian dynasty after the civil wars that followed Nero's death in 68. His fiscal reforms and consolidation of the empire generated political stability and a vast ...
large family of bats numbering more than 400 species. They are found worldwide in both tropical and temperate regions, their habitats ranging from tropical forest to desert.
evening prayer of thanksgiving and praise in Roman Catholic and certain other Christian liturgy. Vespers and lauds (morning prayer) are the oldest and most important of the traditional liturgy of the hours. Many scholars believe vespers is based on Judaic ...
merchant and explorer-navigator who took part in early voyages to the New World (1499-1500, 1501-02) and occupied the influential post of piloto mayor ("master navigator") in Seville (1508-12). The name for the Americas is derived from his given name.
in botany, the most specialized and efficient conducting structure of xylem (fluid-conducting tissues). Characteristic of most flowering plants and absent from most gymnosperms and ferns, vessels are thought to have evolved from tracheids (a primitive form of water-conducting cell) by ...
southernmost fylke (county) of Norway, extending inland from the North Sea and its arm, the Skagerrak, to the southern fringes of the Setes valley. A mild marine climate favours horticulture, which is well developed along the level coastal areas, especially ...
in astronomy, the brightest asteroid, though not the largest, and the only one ever visible with the naked eye. Found on March 29, 1807, by Heinrich Wilhelm Matthaus Olbers, it was the fourth minor planet to be discovered. Its diameter ...
in Roman religion, goddess of the hearth, identified with the Greek Hestia. The lack of an easy source of fire in the early Roman community placed a special premium on the ever-burning hearth fire, both publicly and privately maintained; thus, ...
in Roman religion, any of the six priestesses, representing the daughters of the royal house, who tended the state cult of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. The cult is believed to date to the 7th century BC; like other ...
prolific Dutch writer whose early novels, with their unrelenting exposure of the barrenness of middle-class provincial life, shocked the bourgeois world of the 1930s.
island group, in the Norwegian Sea, northern Norway. Forming the northern end of the Lofoten-Vesteralen archipelago, the Vesteralen include, from east to west, Hinn Island (largest Norwegian island but for Spitsbergen), And Island, and Lang Island; important smaller islands are ...
fjord, in the Norwegian Sea off the northwestern coast of Norway. Formed by the Norwegian mainland to the east and the Lofoten islands to the north and west, Vestfjorden is about 100 miles (160 km) long and almost 50 miles ...
fylke (county), southeastern Norway. Lying along the western shore of Oslo Fjord, the county seat is Tonsberg (q.v.), Norway's oldest town. Vestfold is known for its prehistoric Bronze Age mounds and for its Viking ship burials. By the 10th century ...
nerve in the human ear, serving the organs of equilibrium and of hearing. It consists of two anatomically and functionally distinct parts: the cochlear nerve, distributed to the hearing organ, and the vestibular nerve, distributed to the organ of equilibrium.
ancient Sabine tribe, which occupied the eastern and northern bank of the Aternus (modern Aterno) River in central Italy. They entered into the Roman alliance in 302 BC and remained loyal until they joined the Social War (90-88 BC), by ...
geographical region, southwestern Norway. Its 22,592 square-mile (58,512 square-kilometre) area embraces the fylker (counties) of Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, and More og Romsdal. Providing the most spectacular fjord and mountain scenery in Norway, the region has been a tourist ...
group of 14 small Icelandic islands off Iceland's southern shore. They have a total area of about 8 square miles (21 square km). Volcanic in origin, the islands are rocky and barren, with precipitous cliffs up to 1,000 feet (300 ...
town, southern Iceland, on Heima Island (Heimaey), the largest of the Vestmann Islands (Vestmannaeyjar). One of the older Icelandic settlements, it grew as a fishing village. It is almost entirely dependent upon cod fishing and processing, having been the site ...
a family of dancers who dominated French ballet for nearly a century, most notably Gaetan Vestris (in full Gaetano Appoline Baldassare Vestri, or Vestris; b. April 18, 1729, Florence, Italy, -d. September 23, 1808, Paris, France, ) and his son ...
married name (from 1838) Lucia Elizabeth, or Elizabetta, Mathews, nee Bartolozzi British actress, opera singer, and manager who inaugurated tasteful and beautiful stage decor and set a standard in stage costumes.
amtskommune (county), western Sjaelland (Zealand), Denmark, created in 1970 from the former counties of Soro and Holbaek, with an area of 1,155 sq mi (2,991 sq km). The northern coast is characterized by tonguelike peninsulas and islands.
common silicate mineral that occurs in crystalline limestones near their contacts with igneous rocks, and in beds of marble and calcsilicate granulite that are associated with gneiss and mica schist. Fine glassy crystals coloured yellow, green, or brown have been ...
active volcano that rises above the Bay of Naples on the plain of Campania in southern Italy. Its western base rests almost upon the bay. The height of the cone in 1980 was 4,198 feet (1,280 metres), but it varies ...
town and seat of Veszprem megye (county), western Hungary. It lies along the Sed River, spanned there by a viaduct, in the Bakony Mountains, southwest of Budapest. The town already had a cathedral and castle in the 9th century; it ...
megye (county), western Hungary, extending north from Lake Balaton. It consists largely of the forested Bakony Mountains (q.v.). Lowlands in the northwest are agriculturally poor, but the production of wines is important on the north shore of Lake Balaton, particularly ...
any herbaceous plant of the genus Vicia, within the pea family (Fabaceae). About 150 species are known. The plants are 30-120 cm (1-4 feet) tall, with trailing or climbing stems and compound leaves with several pairs of leaflets. The magenta, ...
in the United States, day (November 11) honouring veterans of the armed forces and those killed in the country's wars. The observance originated in 1921 as Armistice Day with the burial of the body of an unknown soldier from World ...
American organization created in 1913-14 by the merger of three national war-veteran societies that were founded in 1899, shortly after the Spanish-American War. The American Veterans of Foreign Service, the Colorado Society of the Army of the Philippines, and another ...
the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the diseases of domestic animals and the management of other animal disorders. The field also deals with those diseases that are intercommunicable between animals and humans.
perennial grass of the family Poaceae, native to tropical Asia and also introduced into the tropics of both hemispheres. Its thick, fragrant roots contain an oil used in perfumes. It is planted as hedges in some areas. In others it ...
municipality, West Flanders province, western Belgium. The municipality lies at the junction of four canals, northeast of Dunkerque. It was founded about 870 by Baldwin I Iron-Arm (or Ferreus), first ruler of Flanders. An important town of the Spanish Netherlands, ...
village, Yonne departement, Bourgogne region, north-central France. The village lies on a hill on the left bank of the Cure River. Its history is tied to its great Benedictine abbey, which was founded in the 9th century under the influence ...
conventionally defined portion of the electromagnetic spectrum including any radiation with a wavelength between 1 and 10 metres and a frequency between 300 and 30 megahertz. VHF signals are widely employed for television and radio transmissions. In the United States ...
Canadian state-owned passenger-railway system. Incorporated in 1977 and established in 1978 as a crown corporation independent of the Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) railroads, VIA gradually assumed full responsibility for managing all the country's rail-passenger services except commuter ...
one of the largest and foremost communications and media conglomerates in the United States. The present form of the corporation dates from 1994 when Viacom Inc., which owned radio and television stations and cable television programming services and systems, acquired ...
type of long bridge or series of bridges, usually supported by a series of arches or on spans between tall towers. The purpose of a viaduct is to carry a road or railway over water, a valley, or another road. ...
trade name of the first oral drug for male impotence, introduced by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Inc., in 1998. Also known by the chemical name sildenafil citrate, it is one of a category of drugs known as phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors. See also ...
spa and tourist resort, Haute-Savoie departement, Rhone-Alpes region, eastern France, on the southern shore of Lake Geneva, opposite Lausanne on the Swiss shore of the lake. Lying below the lowest Alpine spurs, it has ...
town and capital of Viana do Castelo distrito ("district"), northwestern Portugal. It lies at the mouth of the Lima River, north of Porto. Mount Santa Luzia dominates the town, which originated as the Roman Velobriga. An important medieval seaport trading ...
