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Regensburg

(Encyclopedia)Regensburg rāˈgənsbo͝orkh [key], city (1994 pop. 125,337), Bavaria, SE Germany, a port at the confluence of the Danube (Donau) and Regen rivers. In English it is known as Ratisbon. The city is a c...

cloaca

(Encyclopedia)cloaca klōāˈkə [key], in biology, enlarged posterior end of the digestive tract of some animals. The cloaca, from the Latin word for sewer, is a single chamber into which pass solid and liquid was...

sumptuary laws

(Encyclopedia)sumptuary laws sŭmpˈcho͞oĕˌrē [key], regulations based on social, religious, or moral grounds directed against overindulgence of luxury in diet and drink and extravagance in dress and mode of li...

Mao Tun

(Encyclopedia)Mao Tun or Mao Dun shəˈ yĕnˈbĭngˈ [key], 1896–1981, Chinese novelist and Minister of Culture (1949–65). His fiction offers a sympathetic portrayal of working-class life and praise of revolut...

Priapulida

(Encyclopedia)Priapulida, phylum consisting of 17 species of predatory, unsegmented marine worms that live in the sand and mud at the sea bottom. The largest are 4 to 6 in. (10–17 cm) long, but the majority of sp...

scurvy

(Encyclopedia)scurvy, deficiency disorder resulting from a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in the diet. Scurvy does not occur in most animals because they can synthesize their own vitamin C, but humans, other pri...

caddis fly

(Encyclopedia)caddis fly, any of various insects of the order Trichoptera, with four hairy wings usually held back rooflike over the abdomen, long antennae, and chewing mouthparts. The aquatic larvae, or caddis wor...

hydrothermal vent

(Encyclopedia)hydrothermal vent, crack along a rift or ridge in the deep ocean floor that spews out water heated to high temperatures by the magma under the earth's crust. Some vents are in areas of seafloor spread...

Graham, Sylvester

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Sylvester, 1794–1851, American reformer and Presbyterian minister, b. West Suffield, Conn. He advocated a vegetable diet as a cure for intemperance and the use of coarsely ground whole-wheat...

Andrew II

(Encyclopedia)Andrew II, d. 1235, king of Hungary (1205–35), son of Bela III. He continued his predecessors' policy of transferring crown lands to the magnates, and the lesser nobles forced him to issue the Golde...