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Rice, Charles Moen

(Encyclopedia)Rice, Charles Moen, 1952–, American virologist, b. Sacramento, Calif., Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1981. Rice was a researcher at the Washington Univ. School of Medicine from 1986 to 2...

cataract

(Encyclopedia)cataract, in medicine, opacity of the lens of the eye, which impairs vision. In the young, cataracts are generally congenital or hereditary; later they are usually the result of degenerative changes b...

bronchitis

(Encyclopedia)bronchitis brŏnkīˈtĭs [key], inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes. It can be caused by viral or bacterial infections or by allergic reactions to irritants such as tobacco smo...

leafhopper

(Encyclopedia)leafhopper, common name for small, wedge-shaped leaping insects, cosmopolitan in distribution, belonging to the family Cicadellidae, which comprises some 5,500 species of insects. Some are brightly co...

erythroblastosis fetalis

(Encyclopedia)erythroblastosis fetalis ərĭthˌrəblăstōˈsĭs [key], hemolytic disease of a newborn infant caused by blood group incompatibility between mother and child. Although the Rh factor is responsible f...

cholera

(Encyclopedia)cholera kŏlˈərə [key] or Asiatic cholera, acute infectious disease caused by strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae that have been infected by bacteriophages. The bacteria, which are found in fe...

Pott, Percivall

(Encyclopedia)Pott, Percivall, 1714–88, English surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He described a fracture of the ankle subsequently known by his name and a deformity of the spine (Pott's disease) caused by t...

l-dopa

(Encyclopedia)l-dopa ĕl-dōˈpə [key], drug used to alleviate some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, particularly trembling, rigidity, and slow movements; the drug is also called levodopa. Parkinson's disea...

mumps

(Encyclopedia)mumps (epidemic parotitis), acute contagious viral disease, manifesting itself chiefly in pain and swelling of the salivary glands, especially those at the angle of the jaw. Other symptoms are fever, ...

gluten

(Encyclopedia)gluten, mixture of proteins present in the cereal grains. The long molecules of gluten, insoluble in water, are strong and flexible and form many cross linkages. This gives flour its characteristic ch...