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hydrotherapy

(Encyclopedia)hydrotherapy, use of water in the treatment of illness or injury. Although the medicinal and hygienic value of water was recognized by the early Greeks, hydrotherapy attained its widest use in the 18t...

health-care proxy

(Encyclopedia)health-care proxy, legal document in which a person assigns to another person, usually called an agent or proxy, the authority to make medical decisions in case of incapacitation. It is, in essence, a...

tamoxifen

(Encyclopedia)tamoxifen təmŏkˈsĭfĕnˌ [key], synthetic hormone used in the treatment of breast cancer. Introduced in 1978, tamoxifen is used to prevent recurrences of cancer in women who have already undergone...

Carlstadt

(Encyclopedia)Carlstadt, Karlstadt käˈrôlōshtätˌ [key], c.1480–1541, German Protestant reformer, whose original name was Andreas Rudolph Bodenstein. As early as 1516, Carlstadt presented theses denying fre...

Blau, Joseph Leon

(Encyclopedia)Blau, Joseph Leon blou [key] 1909–86, American Jewish scholar and educator, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Columbia (A.B., 1931; M.A., 1933; Ph.D., 1945). He taught at Columbia from 1944, becoming profess...

God

(Encyclopedia)God, divinity of the three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as many other world religions. See also religion and articles on individual religions. There are se...

cortisone

(Encyclopedia)cortisone kôrˈtĭsōnˌ [key], steroid hormone whose main physiological effect is on carbohydrate metabolism. It is synthesized from cholesterol in the outer layer, or cortex, of the adrenal gland u...

growth hormone

(Encyclopedia)growth hormone or somatotropin sōmătˌətrōˈpən [key], glycoprotein hormone released by the anterior pituitary gland that is necessary for normal skeletal growth in humans (see protein). Evidence...

nullity of marriage

(Encyclopedia)nullity of marriage, in law, an unlawful marriage that is either void or voidable because of conditions existing at the time of the marriage. A bigamous or incestuous marriage, for example, is void, a...

Mills, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Mills, Robert, 1781–1855, American architect of the classic revival period, b. Charleston, S.C. From 1800 to 1820 he worked as an architect in Washington, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, being associat...