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Mill, James

(Encyclopedia)Mill, James, 1773–1836, British philosopher, economist, and historian, b. Scotland; father of John Stuart Mill. Educated as a clergyman at Edinburgh through the patronage of Sir John Stuart, Mill ga...

lightning

(Encyclopedia)lightning, electrical discharge accompanied by thunder, commonly occurring during a thunderstorm. The discharge may take place between one part of a cloud and another part (intracloud), between one cl...

motorboating

(Encyclopedia)motorboating, sport of navigating a motor-powered vessel on the water. It is done on either fresh- or saltwater and may be competitive or recreational. The first successful motorboat traveled (1887) a...

Hague Tribunal

(Encyclopedia)Hague Tribunal, popular name for the Permanent Court of Arbitration established in 1899 by a convention of the First Hague Peace Conference to facilitate arbitration and other forms of dispute resolut...

grafting

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Two methods of grafting grafting, horticultural practice of uniting parts of two plants so that they grow as one. The scion, or cion, the part grafted onto the stock or rooted part, may be a s...

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever

(Encyclopedia)Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, acute, sometimes fatal disease endemic in many parts of Eurasia and Africa, caused by a tick-borne virus. The virus, an RNA virus (Nairovirus) of the Bunyaviridae fami...

sociolinguistics

(Encyclopedia)sociolinguistics, the study of language as it affects and is affected by social relations. Sociolinguistics encompasses a broad range of concerns, including bilingualism, pidgin and creole languages, ...

poisonous plant

(Encyclopedia)poisonous plant, any plant possessing a property injurious to man or animal. Plants may be poisonous to the touch (e.g., poison ivy, poison sumac), or orally toxic (e.g., poison hemlock, deadly amanit...

reservoir

(Encyclopedia)reservoir rĕzˈəvôr, –vwär [key], storage tank or wholly or partly artificial lake for storing water. Building an embankment or dam to preserve a supply of water for irrigation is an ancient pra...

quarantine

(Encyclopedia)quarantine kwŏrˈəntēn [key], isolation of persons, animals, places, and effects that carry or are suspected of harboring communicable disease. The term originally referred to the 40 days of offsho...

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