Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Morgagni, Giovanni Battista

(Encyclopedia)Morgagni, Giovanni Battista jōvänˈnē bät–tēsˈtä mōrgäˈnyē [key], 1682–1771, Italian anatomist, called the founder of pathologic anatomy. He was professor of anatomy at Padua for 56 yea...

Sutherland, Earl Wilbur

(Encyclopedia)Sutherland, Earl Wilbur, 1915–1974, American pharmacologist and physiologist, b. Burlingame, Kans., M.D., Washington Univ. Medical School, 1942. He was a professor at Washington Univ. (1945–53), a...

biofeedback

(Encyclopedia)biofeedback, method for learning to increase one's ability to control biological responses, such as blood pressure, muscle tension, and heart rate. Sophisticated instruments are often used to measure ...

cyanide

(Encyclopedia)cyanide sīˈənīdˌ [key], chemical compound containing the cyano group, –CN. Cyanides are salts or esters of hydrogen cyanide (hydrocyanic acid, HCN) formed by replacing the hydrogen with a metal...

paranoia

(Encyclopedia)paranoia prˌənoiˈə [key], in psychology, a term denoting persistent, unalterable, systematized, logically reasoned delusions, or false beliefs, usually of persecution or grandeur. In the former ca...

McCulloch v. Maryland

(Encyclopedia)McCulloch v. Maryland, case decided in 1819 by the U.S. Supreme Court, dealing specifically with the constitutionality of a Congress-chartered corporation, and more generally with the dispersion of po...

Scopes trial

(Encyclopedia)Scopes trial, Tennessee legal case involving the teaching of evolution in public schools. A statute was passed (Mar., 1925) in Tennessee that prohibited the teaching in public schools of theories cont...

Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth

(Encyclopedia)Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth dĭlk [key], 1843–1911, British statesman. A radical leader in the Liberal party, he helped pass the parliamentary Reform Acts of 1884–85 as well as laws giving the mu...

calcareous soil

(Encyclopedia)calcareous soil kălkârˈēəs [key], soil formed largely by the weathering of calcareous rocks and fossil shell beds. Different varieties usually contain chalk, marl, and limestone and frequently a ...

casuistry

(Encyclopedia)casuistry kăzhˈyo͞oĭstrē [key] [Lat., casus=case], art of applying general moral law to particular cases. Although most often associated with theology (it has been utilized since the inception of...