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Roget, Peter Mark

(Encyclopedia)Roget, Peter Mark rōzhāˈ [key], 1779–1869, English physician and lexicographer. For 50 years while he practiced medicine and was secretary of the Royal Society (1827–49), Roget prepared his The...

Roscoe, Sir Henry Enfield

(Encyclopedia)Roscoe, Sir Henry Enfield rŏsˈkō [key], 1833–1915, English chemist. He was professor (1857–87) at Owens College, Manchester. He is known for his work, with R. W. Bunsen, in photochemistry and f...

recoilless rifle

(Encyclopedia)recoilless rifle, light artillery piece, without recoil, usually operated by two men. An American invention, it was used as an infantry weapon for attacking fortifications such as pillboxes and bunker...

Priscian

(Encyclopedia)Priscian (Priscianus Caesariensis) prĭshˈən [key], fl. 500, Latin grammarian, b. Caesarea in Mauretania. Priscian taught grammar at Constantinople. His Commentarii grammatici, in 18 books, was long...

Australian aborigines

(Encyclopedia)Australian aborigines, indigenous peoples of Australia. The first modern humans in Australia probably came from somewhere in Asia more than 40,000 years ago, most likely sometime between 55,000 and 10...

dog racing

(Encyclopedia)dog racing, trials of speed between dogs. Now contested on oval tracks, the sport developed from the ancient practice of coursing, in which specially trained dogs chase game animals in the open field....

Drake, Joseph Rodman

(Encyclopedia)Drake, Joseph Rodman, 1795–1820, American poet and satirist, b. New York City. Under the name “The Croakers,” he and his friend Fitz-Greene Halleck wrote a series of light satirical verses for t...

Commonwealth Fund

(Encyclopedia)Commonwealth Fund, foundation established (1918) by Anna M. Harkness, wife of Stephen V. Harkness, an early Standard Oil investor, “for the welfare of mankind.” Its headquarters are in New York Ci...

De Bary, Heinrich Anton

(Encyclopedia)De Bary, Heinrich Anton hīnˈrĭkh änˈtōn də bärēˈ [key], 1831–88, German botanist. He was professor at the universities of Freiburg in Breisgau (1855–66) and Halle (1867–72) and first r...

Atholston, Hugh Graham, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Atholston, Hugh Graham, 1st Baron ăthˈəlstən [key], 1848–1938, Canadian newspaper publisher. He was the founder and proprietor (1869) of the evening paper the Montreal Star, which became Canada'...