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Forster, Johann Reinhold

(Encyclopedia)Forster, Johann Reinhold, 1729–98, German naturalist and teacher. His Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1772–73) on zoology, ornithology, and ichthyology established him as one of t...

X-ray crystallography

(Encyclopedia)X-ray crystallography, the study of crystal structures through X-ray diffraction techniques. When an X-ray beam bombards a crystalline lattice in a given orientation, the beam is scattered in a defini...

melodrama

(Encyclopedia)melodrama [Gr.,=song-drama], originally a spoken text with musical background, as in Greek drama. The form was popular in the 18th cent., when its composers included Georg Benda, J. J. Rousseau, and W...

Defregger, Franz von

(Encyclopedia)Defregger, Franz von fränts fən dāˈfrĕgər [key], 1835–1921, Austrian genre and historical painter. He studied in Munich with Piloty. He is known for his popular pictures of Tyrolean life, whic...

Delbrück, Rudolf von

(Encyclopedia)Delbrück, Rudolf von dĕlˈbrük [key], 1817–1903, German statesman. He served (1857–76) under Bismarck as president of the chancellery of the North German Confederation (1866–71) and, after 1...

Dohnányi, Ernst von

(Encyclopedia)Dohnányi, Ernst von ĕrˈnö [key], 1877–1960, Hungarian composer, pianist, and conductor. He studied at the Royal Academy, Budapest (1894–97), and later became its director. As a pianist he tour...

Drygalski, Erich von

(Encyclopedia)Drygalski, Erich von āˈrĭkh fən drēgälˈskē [key], 1865–1949, German polar explorer. A professor of geography at the Univ. of Munich, he led an expedition that wintered (1892–93) in W Green...

Dalin, Olof von

(Encyclopedia)Dalin, Olof von o͞oˈlôv fən dälēnˈ [key], 1708–63, Swedish historian, poet, and journalist, the foremost figure of the Swedish Enlightenment. In his successful career in the civil service, Da...

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