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Southcott, Joanna

(Encyclopedia)Southcott, Joanna southˈkət [key], 1750–1814, English religious visionary. Uneducated, even illiterate, she spent her earlier years in domestic service. She began c.1792 to claim the gift of proph...

spleen

(Encyclopedia)spleen, soft, purplish-red organ that lies under the diaphragm on the left side of the abdominal cavity. The spleen acts as a filter against foreign organisms that infect the bloodstream, and also fil...

phthalates

(Encyclopedia)phthalates, family of chemical compounds made from alcohols and phthalic anhydride, C6H4(CO)2O. Oily, colorless, odorless liquids that do not evaporate readily, they are used primarily to make polyvin...

adoptionism

(Encyclopedia)adoptionism, Christian heresy taught in Spain after 782 by Elipandus, archbishop of Toledo, and Felix, bishop of Urgel (Seo de Urgel). They held that Jesus at the time of his birth was purely human an...

Bradlaugh, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Bradlaugh, Charles brădˈlô [key], 1833–91, British social reformer, a secularist. Editor of the free-thinking weekly National Reformer from 1860 and later associated with Annie Besant, he was an ...

mental retardation

(Encyclopedia)mental retardation, below average level of intellectual functioning, usually defined by an IQ of below 70 to 75, combined with limitations in the skills necessary for daily living. Daily living skills...

Munch, Edvard

(Encyclopedia)Munch, Edvard ĕdˈvärt mo͝ongk [key], 1863–1944, Norwegian painter and graphic artist. He studied in Oslo and under Bonnat in Paris, traveled in Europe, and lived in Berlin from 1892 to 1908. He ...

embryo screening

(Encyclopedia)embryo screening, procedure (see genetic testing) in which a single cell is removed from an embryo two or three days after it has been conceived through in vitro fertilization and tested for genetic a...

numbat

(Encyclopedia)numbat nŭmˈbăt [key], small marsupial, of SW Australia, also known as the marsupial anteater. The numbat, Myrmecobius fasciatus, resembles a squirrel in size and general appearance, but is adapted ...

Malmö

(Encyclopedia)Malmö mälˈmö [key], city (1990 pop. 223,660), capital of Malmöhus co., S Sweden, on the Øresund opposite Copenhagen. Sweden's third largest city, it is a major naval and commercial port and an i...