Italian Liberal Party

The Liberal Party was first formed as a parliamentary group within the Piedmont assembly in 1848 by Count Camillo di Cavour, who eventually brought about the unification of Italy and became

Lewis, John L.

The son of immigrants from Welsh mining towns, Lewis left school in the seventh grade and went to work in the mines at age 15. In the coal-mining town of Panama,

Pigneau De B�haine, Pierre-joseph-georges

Pigneau de B�haine left France in 1765 and went to establish a seminary in southern Vietnam, then known as Cochinchina. He arrived at Ha Tien, near the Cambodian frontier,

Catania

Latin �Catana, or Catina, � city, capital of Catania provincia, eastern Sicily, Italy, in the broad plain of Catania on the Ionian seacoast, south of Mount Etna. The city was founded in 729 BC by Chalcidians (settlers from Chalcis in the Greek island of Euboea) from Naxos, 50 miles (80 km) north. It acquired importance in the 5th century BC with Hieron I, tyrant of Syracuse, and his son Deinomenes, who conquered it and renamed

Capital Levy

Strictly defined, a direct tax assessed simultaneously on the capital resources of all persons possessing taxable wealth in excess of a minimum value and paid at least partly out of capital resources. This definition excludes death duties because in any given year their application is necessarily limited to the estates of deceased persons. Various taxes have

Earth Sciences, Pressure, temperature, and atmospheric circulation

If clouds are essentially multicompartmented balloons, their motions could be explained by the movements of winds blowing on them. Descartes suggested that the winds might blow upward as well as laterally, causing the clouds to rise or at least preventing them from descending. In 1749 Benjamin Franklin explained updrafts of air as due to local heating of the atmosphere

Sun Bear

Also called �Bruang, Honey Bear, or Malayan Sun Bear� (species Helarctos, or Ursus, malayanus), smallest member of the family Ursidae, found in Southeast Asian forests. The bear is often tamed as a pet when young but becomes bad-tempered and dangerous as an adult. It weighs only 27 - 65 kg (59 - 143 pounds) and grows 1 - 1.2 m (3.3 - 4 feet) long with a 5-centimetre (2-inch) tail. Its large forepaws bear long, curved claws, which it uses for tearing

Ossory

Also spelled �Osraighe, � an ancient kingdom of Ireland that won for itself a semi-independent position as a state within the kingdom of Leinster, probably in the 1st century AD. In the 9th century it was ruled by an able king, Cerball, who allied himself with the Norse invaders and figured in later centuries as an ancestor of some important families in Iceland. When surnames were introduced, the dynasts

Aegithalidae

Songbird family that includes the long-tailed tits (or titmice) of the Old World and the bushtits of North America. Both groups are sometimes considered subfamilies of the family Paridae (order Passeriformes). The eight species are small, arboreal insect eaters with long, narrow tails; tiny bills; and silky, plain plumage. The nest is a thick-walled,

Kharg Island

Persian �Jazireh-ye Khark, �Arabic �Jazirat Kharg, � small Iranian island in the northern Persian Gulf, 34 miles (55 km) northwest of the port of Bushire (Bushehr). In the 15th century the Dutch established a factory (trading station) on the island, but in 1766 Kharg was taken by pirates based at Bandar-e Rig, a small Persian port north of Bushire. The island was virtually uninhabited for long periods thereafter, but, with Iran's 20th-century mineral

Mugla

City, southwestern Turkey, on the edge of a small plain about 12 miles (20 km) north of the Gulf of G�kova. A favourite residence of the emirs of the 14th-century Turkmen Mentese principality, it was annexed to the Ottoman Empire in 1425. It is a local market for the agricultural products of the region and is linked by road with Izmir and Denizli. The surrounding region borders on both the

Devrient, Eduard

Nephew of the great Romantic actor Ludwig Devrient, Eduard began his career as an opera singer and in March

Saptamatrka

Representations of the goddesses are found in shrines throughout

Radical

In politics, one who desires extreme change of part or all of the social order. The word was first used in a political sense in England, and its introduction is generally ascribed to Charles James Fox, who in 1797 declared for a �radical reform� consisting of a drastic expansion of the franchise to the point of universal manhood suffrage. The term radical thereafter began

Religious Symbolism And Iconography, Relation to the literary and visual arts

Religious symbols and pictures may be identical with, related to, or similar to those of language (metaphors) and to pictorial expressions in prose and poetry. They are related in allegory, parable, fairy tales, fables, and legends in which they can appear in a form that is closely related to that of religious symbolism. Religious symbols are used in the plastic arts, in

Business And Industry Review

The high production and plant-operating rates seen in 1995 continued to mark most of the world's chemical industry in 1996. The high and rising sales levels reflected the generally healthy economies of countries around the globe. The high volume of products sold, however, did not always translate into record profits, particularly for the makers of big-volume petrochemicals.

Ekman, V(agn) Walfrid

Swedish physical oceanographer best known for his studies of the dynamics of ocean currents. The common oceanographic terms Ekman layer, denoting certain oceanic or atmospheric layers occurring at various interfaces; Ekman spiral, used in connection with vertical oceanic velocity; and Ekman transport, denoting

Anthony, Michael

In the mid-1950s Anthony left Trinidad to live in England, where he worked at Reuters News Agency

Murex

The animal

Brabant Revolution

(1789 - 90), a short-lived revolt of the Belgian provinces of the Austrian Netherlands against Habsburg rule. Centred in the province of Brabant, the revolution was precipitated by the comprehensive reforms of the Holy Roman emperor Joseph II (reigned 1765 - 90); these violated various medieval charters of provincial and local liberties, including Brabant's Joyeuse Entr�e, which was

Earth Sciences, Knowledge of Earth history

The occurrence of seashells embedded in the hard rocks of high mountains aroused the curiosity of early naturalists and eventually set off a controversy on the origin of fossils that continued through the 17th century. Xenophanes of Colophon (flourished c. 560 BC) was credited by later writers with observing that seashells occur �in the midst of earth and in mountains.� He

Heredity, In bacteria

In 1961 the French molecular biologists Fran�ois Jacob and Jacques Monod proposed a model for genetic regulation in E. coli. When grown on a minimum culture of carbohydrates and sulfur, these bacteria can synthesize all of their necessary amino acids. To accomplish this amino-acid synthesis, the bacteria must produce various enzymes, the activities of which can be detected

Eagle Ray

Any of about two dozen species of exclusively marine rays constituting the family Myliobatidae (order Rajiformes), occurring in the major oceans. They have the enlarged, winglike pectoral fins characteristic of the order. Some species have a sharp-edged serrated spine at the base of the long, whiplike tail. Their teeth are flat, for crushing and grinding mollusks

Itching

Also called �Pruritus,� a stimulation of free nerve endings, usually at the junction of the dermis and epidermis of the skin, that evokes a desire to scratch. It has been suggested that an itch is a subthreshold sensation of pain; however, although both itch and pain sensations share common nerve pathways, they are generally considered distinct sensory types. Itching evokes a range of sensations,

Theatre

Also spelled �theater� in architecture, a building or space in which a performance may be given before an audience. The word is from the Greek theatron, �a place of seeing.� A theatre usually has a stage area where the performance itself takes place. Since ancient times the evolving design of theatres has been determined largely by the spectators' physical requirements for seeing and hearing

Monashee Mountains

Southwesternmost range of the Columbia Mountain system, in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, extending for 200 miles (320 km) north from the Washington (U.S.) boundary between the Interior Plateau (west) and the Selkirk Trench (east), in which flows the Columbia River. Originally known as the Gold Range (a name now restricted to the narrow easternmost ridge), the mountains

Susah

Also spelled �Sousse, or Sousa, � capital of Susah wilayah (governorate), central east Tunisia. The town, an important port and commercial centre, originated as the Phoenician settlement of Hadrumetum. It declined under Arab control but was revived by the Aghlabid rulers of al-Qayrawan (Kairouan) in the 9th century, whose port it remained until the invasions of the Bedouin Arabs in the 11th century. Reestablished

Medicine, Drug research

The administration of any medicament, especially a new drug, to a patient is fundamentally an experiment: so is a surgical operation, particularly if it involves a modification to an established technique or a completely new procedure. Concern for the patient, careful observation, accurate recording, and a detached mind are the keys to this kind of investigation,

Intension And Extension

In logic, correlative words that indicate the reference of a term or concept: �intension� indicates the internal content of a term or concept that constitutes its formal definition; and �extension� indicates its range of applicability by naming the particular objects that it denotes. For instance, the intension of �ship� as a substantive is �vehicle for conveyance on