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Drebbel, Cornelis Jacobszoon

(Encyclopedia)Drebbel, Cornelis Jacobszoon kôrnāˈlĭs yäˈkôpsōn drĕbˈəl [key], 1572–1634, Dutch inventor, physicist, and mechanician. His major inventions were an atmospherically driven clock and the fi...

Garshin, Vsevolod Mikhailovich

(Encyclopedia)Garshin, Vsevolod Mikhailovich fəsyĕˈvələt mēkhīˈləvĭch gärˈshĭn [key], 1855–88, Russian short-story writer. “Four Days” (1877), his story of a wounded soldier's ordeal in battle, f...

Yeomen of the Guard

(Encyclopedia)Yeomen of the Guard, bodyguard, now ceremonial in function, of the sovereign of England. When the guard was originated by Henry VII in 1485, its members had numerous duties as defenders of the king's ...

Carroll, James

(Encyclopedia)Carroll, James, 1854–1907, American bacteriologist and army surgeon, b. Woolwich, England, M.D. Univ. of Maryland, 1891. He went to Canada at 15 and later joined the U.S. army. A member of the Yello...

Lathrop, George Parsons

(Encyclopedia)Lathrop, George Parsons lāˈthrəp [key], 1851–98, American author, b. near Honolulu; studied in Germany (1867–70). He was the husband of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthor...

black gum

(Encyclopedia)black gum, ornamental deciduous tree (Nyssa sylvatica family Nyssaceae) native to E North America. The leaves turn bright scarlet in the fall. The very tough wood was used for wheel hubs and other pur...

Wagner-Jauregg, Julius

(Encyclopedia)Wagner-Jauregg, Julius yo͞oˈlyo͝os vägˈnər-youˈrĕk [key], 1857–1940, Austrian neurologist and pioneer in fever therapy. He was professor at the Univ. of Vienna from 1893 to 1928. He introduc...

Zika virus

(Encyclopedia)Zika virus zēˈkə [key], single-stranded RNA virus of the genus flavivirus that infects human and primates and causes a disease known as Zika fever or zika. It is primarily transmitted by the bite o...

Reed, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Reed, Walter, 1851–1902, American army surgeon, b. Gloucester co., Va. In 1900 he was sent to Havana as head of an army commission to investigate an outbreak of yellow fever among American soldiers....

rickettsia

(Encyclopedia)rickettsia rĭkĕtˈsēə [key], any of an order (Rickettsiales) of very small microorganisms, many disease-causing, that live in vertebrates and are transmitted by bloodsucking parasitic arthropods s...