(Encyclopedia) mirmirmēr [key], former Russian peasant community. The mir, which antedated serfdom (16th cent.) in Russia, persisted in its primitive form until after the Russian Revolution of 1917.…
(Encyclopedia) Meade, George Gordon, 1815–72, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Cádiz, Spain. Graduated from West Point in 1835, he resigned from the army the next year and became a civil…
(Encyclopedia) asthmaasthmaăzˈmə, ăsˈ– [key], chronic inflammatory respiratory disease characterized by periodic attacks of wheezing, shortness of breath, and a tight feeling in the chest. A cough…
(Encyclopedia) Laski, Harold JosephLaski, Harold Josephlăsˈkē [key], 1893–1950, British political scientist, economist, author, and lecturer. A graduate of New College, Oxford, he taught at McGill…
(Encyclopedia) artery, blood vessel that conveys blood away from the heart. Except for the pulmonary artery, which carries deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs, arteries carry oxygenated…
(Encyclopedia) paranoiaparanoiaprˌənoiˈə [key], in psychology, a term denoting persistent, unalterable, systematized, logically reasoned delusions, or false beliefs, usually of persecution or…
(Encyclopedia) Paz Estenssoro, VictorPaz Estenssoro, Victorvēktōrˈ päs āstānsōˈrō [key], 1907–2001, president of Bolivia (1952–56, 1960–64, 1985–89). An attorney and economist born into a land-owning…
(Encyclopedia) ZacatecasZacatecassäkätāˈkäs [key], state (1990 pop. 1,276,329), 28,125 sq mi (72,844 sq km), N central Mexico. Zacatecas is the capital. Lying on the central plateau, Zacatecas is a…
(Encyclopedia) World Health Organization (WHO), specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1948, with its headquarters at Geneva. WHO admits all sovereign states (including those not…
(Encyclopedia) bull [Lat. bulla=leaden seal], papal letter. As the diplomatic organization of the papal chancery progressed in the Middle Ages, the papal bull came to be more solemn than the papal…
