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food poisoning

(Encyclopedia)food poisoning, acute illness following the eating of foods contaminated by bacteria, bacterial toxins, natural poisons, or harmful chemical substances. It was once customary to classify all such illn...

muscular dystrophy

(Encyclopedia)muscular dystrophy dĭsˈtrōfē [key], any of several inherited diseases characterized by progressive wasting of the skeletal muscles. There are five main forms of the disease. They are classified ac...

Marseilles

(Encyclopedia)Marseilles märsāˈ [key], Fr. Marseille, city (1990 pop. 807,726), capital of Bouches-du-Rhône dept., SE France, on the Gulf of Lions, an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the second largest city...

Salvation Army

(Encyclopedia)Salvation Army, Protestant denomination and international nonsectarian Christian organization for evangelical and philanthropic work. The Salvation Army was founded by William Booth, with the assist...

figwort

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Figwort, Scrophularia lanceolata figwort, common name for some members of the Scrophulariaceae, a family comprising chiefly herbs and small shrubs and distributed widely over all continents. T...

Organization of American States

(Encyclopedia)Organization of American States (OAS), international organization, created Apr. 30, 1948, at Bogotá, Colombia, by agreement of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican R...

Pinophyta

(Encyclopedia)Pinophyta pīˌnŏfˈətə [key], division of the plant kingdom consisting of those organisms commonly called gymnosperms. The gymnosperms, a group that includes the pine, have stems, roots and leaves...

medicine

(Encyclopedia)medicine, the science and art of treating and preventing disease. Modern medicine, characterized by growing specialization and a complex diagnostic and therapeutic technology, faces problems in the...

cigar and cigarette

(Encyclopedia)cigar and cigarette, tubular rolls of tobacco designed for smoking. Cigars consist of filler leaves held together by binder leaves and covered with a wrapper leaf, which is rolled spirally around the ...

genetic engineering

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Genetic engineering: Gene-splicing techniques genetic engineering, the use of various methods to manipulate the DNA (genetic material) of cells to change hereditary traits or produce biologica...