park in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa). Created in 1925, it has an area of some 3,050 square miles (7,900 square km) and contains a vast diversity of habitats.
an infectious agent of small size and simple composition that can multiply only in living cells of animals, plants, or bacteria. The name is from a Latin word meaning "slimy liquid" or "poison."
Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, the outermost major island of the Dalmatian archipelago. Its area is 35 square miles (90 square km), and its highest point is Mount Hum, at 1,926 feet (587 m). Its climate and vegetation are ...
city, seat (1853) of Tulare county, south-central California, U.S. It lies on the Kaweah River delta in the San Joaquin Valley, 42 miles (68 km) southeast of Fresno. Founded in 1852 by Nathaniel Vise, it developed as an agricultural (olives, ...
island group, central Philippines. The Visayas group consists of seven large and several hundred smaller islands clustered around the Visayan, Samar, and Camotes seas. They have a total area of 23,582 square miles (61,077 square km). The seven main islands ...
city and capital of the lan (county) of Gotland, southeastern Sweden. It lies on the northwest coast of the island of Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. Because of its remarkably well-preserved medieval ramparts and buildings, Visby, "the city of roses ...
one of the mistletoe families of flowering plants of the sandalwood order (Santalales), including about 11 genera and more than 450 species of semiparasitic shrubs. This family is sometimes considered a subfamily of the mistletoe family (Loranthaceae).
any of four species of slender yet fairly large South American rodents similar to chinchillas. They have short forelimbs, long hindlimbs, and a long, bushy tail. The soft fur is long and dense, and the soles of the feet have ...
sculptors and brass founders working in Nurnberg in the 15th and 16th centuries. Hermann the Elder (d. Jan. 13, 1488) established the foundry. His son Peter the Elder (1460-1529) was the most celebrated member of the family, producing monumental brasswork ...
instrument for measuring the viscosity (resistance to internal flow) of a fluid. In one version, the time taken for a given volume of fluid to flow through an opening is recorded. In the capillary tube viscometer, the pressure needed to ...
Italian motion-picture director whose realistic treatment of individuals caught in the conflicts of modern society contributed significantly to the post-World War II revolution in Italian filmmaking and earned him the title of father of Neorealism. He also established himself as ...
(Marquess) Italian statesman whose political-diplomatic career of more than 50 years spanned Italian history from the Risorgimento to the power politics of World War I.
resistance of a fluid (liquid or gas) to a change in shape, or movement of neighbouring portions relative to one another. Viscosity denotes opposition to flow. The reciprocal of the viscosity is called the fluidity, a measure of the ease ...
arm of the Arctic Ocean, Kitikmeot and Baffin regions, Northwest Territories, northern Canada. It is 250 miles (400 km) long and 100 miles (160 km) wide. The discovery of this body of water, reached from the east by Sir William ...
device consisting of two parallel jaws for holding a workpiece; one of the jaws is fixed and the other movable by a screw, a lever, or a cam. When used for holding a workpiece during hand operations, such as filing, ...
distrito ("district") northern Portugal. Framed by the Caramulo, Arada, and Montemuro mountains in the west, the district is drained by the upper basin of the Mondego and Vouga rivers. It is densely populated in the more humid western plateaus, with ...
town, capital, and concelho (township), Viseu distrito ("district"), northern Portugal, southeast of Porto. The town's notable landmarks include the Romanesque and Gothic cathedral (12th and 16th centuries) and the Grao-Vasco Museum, which is dedicated to the works of a 16th-century ...
city, northeastern Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. It lies on the Bay of Bengal, about 380 miles (612 km) northeast of Madras. Vishakhapatnam lies along a small bay, and its natural harbour is formed by two promontories, the southern one ...
one of the principal Hindu deities, worshiped as the protector and preserver of the world and restorer of dharma (moral order). Vishnu, like Siva (the other major god of Hinduism), is a syncretic personality who combines many lesser cult figures ...
in economics, exchange of physically tangible goods between countries, involving the export, import, and re-export of goods at various stages of production. It is distinguished from invisible trade, which involves the export and import of physically intangible items such as ...
member of a division of the Goths (see Goth). One of the most important of the Germanic peoples, the Visigoths separated from the Ostrogoths in the 4th century AD, raided Roman territories repeatedly, and established great kingdoms in Gaul and ...
artistic style produced in southern France and Spain under the Visigoths, who ruled the region between the 5th and the 8th century AD. The style is largely the result of local Roman traditions combined with Byzantine influences. The effect of ...
physiological process of distinguishing, usually by means of an organ such as the eye, the shapes and colours of objects. See eye; photoreception; sense.
among the American Indian hunters of the eastern woodlands and the Great Plains, an essential part of a young boy's (or, more rarely, a girl's) initiation into adulthood. The youth was sent out from the camp on a solitary vigil ...
(Sanskrit: Nonduality of the Qualified), one of the principal schools of Vedanta, an orthodox philosophy of India. This school grew out of the Vaisnava (worship of the god Vishnu [Visnu]) devotional movement prominent in South India from the 7th century ...
procedure adopted by a belligerent warship to ascertain whether a merchant vessel is liable to seizure. If an inspection of the papers shows the ship to be an enemy vessel or to be carrying contraband, breaking blockade, or engaging in ...
royally appointed official sent periodically in the late Middle Ages to investigate the administration of justice in the towns of the Spanish Kingdom of Castile. In the late 15th century, the visitadores were also enjoined to inspect the other aspects ...
a Roman Catholic order of nuns founded by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal at Annecy, Fr., in 1610. The order was originally destined for charitable work, visiting and caring for the sick and poor in ...
the visit, described in the Gospel According to Luke (1:39-56), made by the Virgin Mary, pregnant with the infant Jesus, to her cousin Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary's greeting, the pregnant Elizabeth felt the infant St. John the Baptist ...
Dutch poet and daughter of the Renaissance man of letters Roemer Visscher. She was admired and praised in verse by such poets as Constantijn Huygens and Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft.
poet and moralist of the early Dutch Renaissance who was at the centre of the cultural circle that included the young poets Pieter C. Hooft, Joost van den Vondel, and Gerbrand Bredero. A friend of Henric L. Spieghel and Dirck ...
shallow, marsh-fringed lagoon on the Baltic coast, bisected by the Polish-Russian border and considered part of the Gulf of Gdansk. Covering 330 square miles (855 square km), it is 56 miles (90 km) long, 6 to 15 miles (10 to ...
largest river of Poland and of the drainage basin of the Baltic Sea. With a length of 651 miles (1,047 kilometres) and a drainage basin of some 75,100 square miles (194,500 square kilometres), it is a waterway of great importance ...
a blind spot (scotoma) or blind area within the normal bounds of vision. In most cases the blind spots or areas are persistent, but in some instances they may be temporary and shifting, as in the scotomata of migraine headache. ...
(Sanskrit: "All Accomplishing"), in Hindu mythology, the architect of the gods. The name was originally used as an epithet of any powerful god but later came to personify creative power. Visvakarman is the divine carpenter and master craftsman who fashioned ...
the grape family of flowering plants, in the buckthorn order (Rhamnales), comprising 12 genera of woody plants, most of them tendril-bearing vines. The largest genus, which is pantropic in distribution, is Cissus, containing about 350 species. Vitis, with about 60 ...
relative frequencies of vital occurrences that affect changes in the size and composition of a population. When calculated per 1,000 inhabitants-as is conventional in vital-statistics publications-they are referred to as crude rates. More refined rates often must be used in ...
school of scientific thought-the germ of which dates from Aristotle-that attempts (in opposition to mechanism and organicism) to explain the nature of life as resulting from a vital force peculiar to living organisms and different from all other forces found ...
any of several organic substances that are necessary in small quantities for normal health and growth in higher forms of animal life. Vitamins are distinct in several ways from other biologically important compounds such as proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. Although ...
