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Willis, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Willis, Thomas, 1621–75, English physician and anatomist. He became professor at Oxford in 1660 and in 1666 established a practice in London. An authority on the brain and the nervous system, he dis...

Warner, Rex

(Encyclopedia)Warner, Rex, 1905–86, English author, b. Birmingham, grad. Oxford, 1928. A classical scholar noted for his translations from Greek and Latin, Warner taught in England, Egypt, and the United States. ...

Biddle, James

(Encyclopedia)Biddle, James, 1783–1848, U.S. naval officer and diplomat, b. Philadelphia. He became a midshipman in 1800. At the beginning of the War of 1812 he was first lieutenant on the Wasp; he later commande...

Sloane, Sir Hans

(Encyclopedia)Sloane, Sir Hans, 1660–1753, British physican and naturalist, president of the Royal College of Physicians (1719–35) and of the Royal Society (1727–40). His collection of botanical specimens (so...

Theodore I , Byzantine emperor of Nicaea

(Encyclopedia)Theodore I (Theodore Lascaris), d. 1222, Byzantine emperor of Nicaea (1204–22), son-in-law of the Byzantine emperor Alexius III. He escaped from Constantinople after it was captured (1204) by the La...

Otfried von Weissenburg

(Encyclopedia)Otfried von Weissenburg ôtˈfrēt fən vīˈsənbo͝orkh [key], 9th-century German monk and poet; pupil of Rabanus Maurus Magnentius. His Liber Evangeliorum (863–71) is a counterpart in Old High Ge...

Guy of Lusignan

(Encyclopedia)Guy of Lusignan lüsēnyäNˈ [key], d. 1194, Latin king of Jerusalem (1186–92) and Cyprus (1192–94), second husband of Sibylla, sister of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. In 1183 he was briefly rege...

Vespucci, Amerigo

(Encyclopedia)Vespucci, Amerigo ämārēˈgō vāspo͞otˈchē [key], 1454–1512, Italian navigator in whose honor America was named, b. Florence. He entered the commercial service of the Medici and in 1492 moved ...

Murray, John

(Encyclopedia)Murray, John, 1741–1815, founder of the Universalist denomination in America, b. England. He was excommunicated by the Methodists after he had openly accepted Universalism as taught by James Relly (...

waterfowl

(Encyclopedia)waterfowl, common term for members of the order Anseriformes, wild, aquatic, typically freshwater birds including ducks, geese, and screamers. In Great Britain the term is also used to designate speci...