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Doctrine of Signatures

(Encyclopedia)Doctrine of Signatures, the concept that the key to humanity's use of various plants was indicated by the form of the plant. The red sap of the bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), for instance, was be...

Abel, John Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Abel, John Jacob, 1857–1938, American pharmacologist, b. Cleveland, grad. Univ. of Michigan, 1883, M.D. Univ. of Strasbourg, 1888. Professor of pharmacology (1893–1932) and director of the laborat...

Murphy, William Parry

(Encyclopedia)Murphy, William Parry, 1892–1987, American physician, b. Stoughton, Wis., M.D. Harvard, 1920. He taught at Harvard from 1923 and was associated with the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, in Boston, from ...

pus

(Encyclopedia)pus, thick white or yellowish fluid that forms in areas of infection such as wounds and abscesses. It is constituted of decomposed body tissue, bacteria (or other micro-organisms that cause the infect...

DeBakey, Michael Ellis

(Encyclopedia)DeBakey, Michael Ellis dəbāˈkē [key], 1908–2008, American surgeon, b. Lake Charles, La. While still at Tulane medical school (M.D., 1932), DeBakey developed the roller pump, which later became a...

mustang

(Encyclopedia)mustang [Sp. mesteño=a stray], small feral horse of the W United States. Mustangs are descended from escaped Native American horses, which in turn were descended from horses of North African blood, b...

medical jurisprudence

(Encyclopedia)medical jurisprudence or forensic medicine, the application of medical science to legal problems. It is typically involved in cases concerning blood relationship, mental illness, injury, or death resu...

tinnitus

(Encyclopedia)tinnitus, the hearing of sounds in the absence of any external sound, also known as ringing in the ears. The sounds may be perceived as hissing, whistling, buzzing, swooshing, roaring, or clicking in ...

Hyacinth, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Hyacinth hīəsĭnˈthəs [key], in Greek mythology, beautiful youth loved by Apollo. He was killed accidentally by a discus thrown by the god. According to another legend, the wind god Zephyr, out of...

Heymans, Corneille

(Encyclopedia)Heymans, Corneille kôrnāˈyə hīˈmäns [key], 1892–1968, Belgian physiologist. His contributions to the physiology of circulation include a study of the sensory mechanism through which arterial ...