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Newlands, John Alexander Reina

(Encyclopedia)Newlands, John Alexander Reina, 1838–98, British chemist. He studied at the Royal College of Chemistry in London and worked as an industrial chemist. Newlands prepared the first periodic table of el...

leptospirosis

(Encyclopedia)leptospirosis lĕpˌtəspīrōˈsĭs [key], febrile disease caused by bacteria of the genus Leptospirae. The disease may affect dogs, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and horses and is also transmissible t...

browntail moth

(Encyclopedia)browntail moth, common name for a moth, Nygmia phaeorrhoea, of the tussock moth family. It is a serious pest of forest and shade trees, especially oak. It was introduced from Europe about the same tim...

barrel organ

(Encyclopedia)barrel organ, mechanical musical instrument requiring nothing but the regular rotary motion of a handle to keep it going. It probably originated at the beginning of the 18th cent., and was once used e...

yellow fever

(Encyclopedia)yellow fever, acute infectious disease endemic in tropical Africa and many areas of South and Central America. Yellow fever is caused by a virus transmitted by the bite of the female Aedes aegypti mos...

toothfish

(Encyclopedia)toothfish, common name for a genus (Dissostichus) of deep-water marine ray-finned fishes found in waters off S South America to Antarctica. The Patagonian toothfish, D. eleginoides, is the northerly o...

Hofmann, August Wilhelm von

(Encyclopedia)Hofmann, August Wilhelm von ouˈgo͝ost vĭlˈhĕlm fən hôfˈmän [key], 1818–92, German organic chemist. He was professor at the Univ. of Berlin from 1865 and was a founder (1868) of the German C...

Dumas, Jean Baptiste André

(Encyclopedia)Dumas, Jean Baptiste André dümäˈ [key], 1800–1884, French organic chemist. He was distinguished for his researches on atomic weights, esters, vapor densities, the oxidation products of alcohols...

torsion balance

(Encyclopedia)torsion balance, instrument used to measure small forces. It is based on the principle that a wire or thread resists twisting with a force that is proportional to the stress. The torsion balance consi...

Berzelius, Jöns Jakob, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Berzelius, Jöns Jakob, Baron bərzēˈlēəs; Swed. yöns yäˈkôp bĕrsāˈlĭəs [key], 1779–1848, Swedish chemist, M.D. Univ. of Uppsala, 1802. He was noted for his work as teacher at the medic...