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Ribot, Théodule

(Encyclopedia)Ribot, Théodule rēbōˈ [key], 1839–1916, French psychologist. He was professor of experimental psychology at the Sorbonne and later at the Collège de France. His many works include Heredity: A P...

Vitus, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Vitus, Saint vīˈtəs [key], 4th cent.?, Sicilian martyr. Vitus is invoked against diseases including epilipsy, nervous disorders, and St. Vitus' Dance (Sydenham's chorea). He is one of the Fourteen ...

slow virus

(Encyclopedia)slow virus, technically a virus, such as a lentivirus, that causes symptoms in an infected host long after the original infection and progresses slowly. Although many viruses fit this description, the...

Klebs, Edwin

(Encyclopedia)Klebs, Edwin klāps [key], 1834–1913, German-American pathologist, b. Prussia. He was an assistant of Rudolf Virchow and professor of pathology at Zürich (1872–92) and from 1896 at Rush Medical C...

Castellani, Sir Aldo

(Encyclopedia)Castellani, Sir Aldo älˈdō käsˌtəläˈnē [key], 1877–1971, British-Italian bacteriologist, b. Florence, Italy. He demonstrated the cause and mode of transmission of sleeping sickness (with Si...

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...

peanut

(Encyclopedia)peanut, name for a low, annual leguminous plant (Arachis hypogaea) of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) and for its edible seeds. Native to South America and cultivated there for millenia, it is s...

National Institutes of Health

(Encyclopedia)National Institutes of Health (NIH), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service, with headquarters in Bethesda, Md. It was established initially in 1887 as a laboratory in the U.S. Marine Hospital on St...

aphid

(Encyclopedia)aphid or plant louse, tiny, usually green, soft-bodied, pear-shaped insect injurious to vegetation. It is also called greenfly and blight. Aphids are mostly under 1⁄4 in. (6 mm) long. Some are wingl...

Prusiner, Stanley Ben

(Encyclopedia)Prusiner, Stanley Ben, 1942–, American neurologist, b. Des Moines, Iowa, M.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1968. Prusiner has been a professor at the Univ. of California, San Francisco ...