Aguesseau, Henri-fran�ois D'

The son of Henri d'Aguesseau, intendant (royal agent) of Languedoc, he was advocate general to the Parlement (high court of justice) of Paris from 1690 until 1700. As attorney general in that Parlement from 1700 to 1717, he opposed papal intervention

Sax, Antoine-joseph

Sax was the son of Charles Joseph Sax (1791 - 1865), a maker of wind and brass instruments, as well as of pianos, harps, and guitars. Adolphe studied the flute and clarinet at the Brussels Conservatory and in 1842 went to Paris. There he exhibited the saxophone

Welsh Literary Renaissance

Literary activity centring in Wales and England in the mid-18th century that attempted to stimulate interest in the Welsh language and in the classical bardic verse forms of Wales. The movement centred on Lewis, Richard, and William Morris, Welsh scholars who preserved ancient texts and encouraged contemporary poets to use strict metres of the ancient Welsh bards

Arab Economic Unity, Council Of

The organization is devoted to achieving economic integration

Jacobs, W(illiam) W(ymark)

His early home was a house on a Thames River wharf, where his father was manager. A landsman himself, Jacobs drew on his boyhood memories of seafaring men and dockworkers to create the stories that were to establish him as a writer. His first volume, Many

Python

In Greek mythology, a huge serpent that was killed by the god Apollo at Delphi either because it would not let him found his oracle, being accustomed itself to giving oracles, or because it had persecuted Apollo's mother, Leto, during her pregnancy. In the earliest account the serpent is nameless and female, but later it is male and named Python (Pytho was the old name for

Metastable State

In physics and chemistry, particular excited state of an atom, nucleus, or other system that has a longer lifetime than the ordinary excited states and that generally has a shorter lifetime than the lowest, often stable, energy state, called the ground state. A metastable state may thus be considered a kind of temporary energy trap or a somewhat stable intermediate

Anschluss

In July 1934 Austrian and German Nazis together attempted a coup but were unsuccessful. An authoritarian

Narbonne

Narbonne was the site of Narbo Martius (Narbo), the first colony founded by the Romans in Gaul (118 BC), from which the town derived its name. Then on the Mediterranean, it became a flourishing port. In 413 it was seized by

Eisenerz

Town, Bundesland Steiermark (federal province of Styria), Austria, in the Erzbach Valley, at the northern foot of the Erzberg (Ore Mountain; 5,033 ft [1,534 m]), northwest of Leoben. Iron has been mined on the Erzberg by terraced open-pit methods since Roman times, and Eisenerz (�iron ore�) is the principal centre of Austrian iron mining, supplying most of the nation's total output. Notable

Salado Formation

The Salado Formation is a division of the Ochoan Stage of the Upper Permian Series of rock strata (formed from 256 to 248 million years ago). It overlies the Castile

China, Changes in outlying areas

With the decline of the Ch'ing power and prestige, beginning in the early 19th century, China's peripheral areas began to free themselves from the Ch'ing influence.

Argentina, Mesopotamia

Thin stands of tall wax palms occupy the flood zones of Mesopotamia. Groups of trees and grassy areas form a park landscape of noted beauty. Common trees are the quebracho, exploited for its tannin since colonial times, the urunday, and the guayac�n, used for tannin and lumber. Gallery forests growing along rivers become denser and taller in Misiones province.

Gable, Dan

Gable was undefeated in high school competition and won three consecutive Iowa state high school championships. Competing for Iowa State University, he posted a near-perfect record. During his freshman year he entered the Midlands

Sundsvall

Town and seaport in V�sternorrland l�n (county), northern Sweden. It lies at the mouth of the Sel�nger River on the Gulf of Bothnia. It was chartered in 1624 by Gustavus II Adolphus. In 1721 it was burned by the Russians and in 1803 and 1888 it suffered further disastrous fires. The town centre, therefore, dates largely from the 1890s, when it was entirely rebuilt in brick and stone. Lying between

Olney, Richard

A Boston attorney who had served only one term in the Massachusetts legislature (1873 - 74), Olney was suddenly thrust into national prominence

Per Ramessu

Probably founded in the Old Kingdom, the city was overrun by Palestinian peoples in about 1700 BC and became the Hyksos capital about 1530 BC. Sacked by the victorious pharaoh Ahmose about 1521 BC, it

�bidos

Town, west-central Par� estado (�state�), northern Brazil. It was founded in 1697 as a fortified town. �bidos overlooks the left (north) bank of the Amazon River 70 miles (110 km) upstream from Santar�m near the confluence of the Trombetas River, where the Amazon narrows to a width of 1.25 miles (2 km). River steamers and hydroplanes utilize the facilities at the town, which ships tobacco, cacao,

Anthrax

Also called �splenic fever, �malignant pustule�, or �woolsorters' disease� acute, specific, infectious, febrile disease of animals, including humans, caused by Bacillus anthracis, an organism that under certain conditions forms highly resistant spores capable of persisting and retaining their virulence in contaminated soil or other material for many years. A disease chiefly of herbivores (grass eaters), the infection may be acquired

Dolores River

River in southwest Colorado, U.S., rising in the La Plata Mountains and flowing southwest through deep canyons, past Dolores, then northwest through Paradox Valley, at the north end of which it is met by its chief tributary, the San Miguel River. It continues on past Gateway and across the Utah border to join the Colorado River near Moab after a course of about 250 miles (400 km). Melting

Burgess, Anthony

Trained in English literature and phonetics, Burgess taught in the extramural department of Birmingham University (1946 - 50), worked for the Ministry of Education (1948 - 50), and was English master at Banbury

Mental Disorder, Major affective disorders

The DSM-III defines two major, or severe, affective disorders: bipolar disorder and major depression. A person with bipolar disorder, which has traditionally been called manic-depressive psychosis, typically experiences discrete episodes of depression and then of mania lasting for a few weeks or months, with intervening periods of complete normality. The sequence

Local Church, The

The Local Church grew out of the ministry of Watchman Nee (1903 - 72), a Chinese Christian who had been strongly influenced by the Plymouth Brethren, a British fundamentalist free church. In the 1930s Nee wrote several books presenting his beliefs

Yung-cheng

As the fourth son of the previous emperor, Yung-cheng was not immediately in line for the throne; but when the designated heir apparent became mentally deranged, the future emperor

Cheilostomata

Major division of the bryozoans (small, colonial, aquatic invertebrate animals) that first appeared during the Jurassic period (208 to 144 million years ago). Individual members of the cheilostome colony are protected by a calcareous or chitinous covering that may be closed by a lidlike structure, an operculum. The cheilostomes are exclusively marine animals, and the plantlike

Neoorthodoxy

Influential 20th-century Protestant theological movement in Europe and America, known in Europe as crisis theology and dialectical theology. The phrase crisis theology referred to the intellectual crisis of Christendom that occurred when the carnage of World War I belied the exuberant optimism of liberal Christianity. Dialectical theology referred to the

Nordenflycht, Hedvig Charlotta

The deaths

C�sar

Departamento, northern Colombia, bounded on the northeast by Venezuela and on the southwest by the Magdalena River. Created in 1967, the departamento, with an area of 8,844 square miles (22,905 square km), descends from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the north and the Sierra de Perij� in the northeast to the lowlands of the Magdalena River valley. It is traversed by the C�sar River,

Earth Exploration, Electrical and electromagnetic methods

A multitude of electrical methods are used in mineral exploration. They depend on (1) electrochemical activity, (2) resistivity changes, or (3) permittivity effects. Some materials tend to become natural batteries that generate natural electric currents whose effects can be measured. The self-potential method relies on the oxidation of the upper surface of metallic

Taurus

In astronomy, zodiacal constellation lying between Aries and Gemini, at about 4 hours 20 minutes right ascension (the coordinate on the celestial sphere analogous to longitude on the Earth) and 16� north declination (angular distance north of the celestial equator). The constellation's brightest star, Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), is of the first magnitude. The constellation