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bloodletting

(Encyclopedia)bloodletting, also called bleeding, practice of drawing blood from the body in the treatment of disease. General bloodletting consists of the abstraction of blood by incision into an artery (arterioto...

Adler, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Adler, Alfred ädˈlər [key], 1870–1937, Austrian psychologist, founder of the school of individual psychology. Although one of Sigmund Freud's earlier associates, he rejected the Freudian emphasis...

vasectomy

(Encyclopedia)vasectomy, male sterilization by surgical excision of the vas deferens, the thin duct that carries sperm cells from the testicles to the prostate and the penis. Vasectomy is a popular method of birth ...

Caucasian languages

(Encyclopedia)Caucasian languages, family of languages spoken by about 7 million people in the Caucasus region of SE European Russia. The Caucasian languages take their name from the Caucasus Mountains, on the slop...

Catholic Emancipation

(Encyclopedia)Catholic Emancipation, term applied to the process by which Roman Catholics in the British Isles were relieved in the late 18th and early 19th cent. of civil disabilities. They had been under oppressi...

La Tour d'Auvergne, Théophile Malo Corret de

(Encyclopedia)La Tour d'Auvergne, Théophile Malo Corret de tāōfēlˈ mälōˈ kôrāˈ də lä to͞or dōvĕrˈnyə [key], 1743–1800, French soldier. Although an aristocrat, he fought for the revolutionaries i...

monorail

(Encyclopedia)monorail, railway system that uses cars that run on a single rail. Typically the rail is run overhead and the cars are either suspended from it or run above it. Driving power is transmitted from the c...

Morandi, Giorgio

(Encyclopedia)Morandi, Giorgio jôrˈjō môränˈdē [key], 1890–1964, Italian painter and etcher, b. Bologna. He studied at that city's Fine Arts Academy (grad. 1913) and from 1930 to 1954 was a professor there...

Modersohn-Becker, Paula

(Encyclopedia)Modersohn-Becker, Paula mōˈdərzōnˌ-bĕkˈər [key], 1876–1907, German painter. After studying in London and Berlin, she was greatly influenced by her experience at Worpswede, an artists' colony...

Accademia della Crusca

(Encyclopedia)Accademia della Crusca äk-kädĕˈmēä dĕlˈlä kro͞osˈkä [key] [Ital.,=academy of the chaff], Italian literary society founded in Florence in 1582 to maintain the purity of the language. Leonar...