Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Beauce bōs [key], region, in Orléanais, N France, in the Paris Basin, between the Seine and Loir rivers. It now comprises Eure-et-Loir dept. and parts of Loiret and Loir-et-Cher. It is the “granar...

(Encyclopedia) Semmelweis, Ignaz Philipp ĭgˈnäts fēˈlĭp zĕmˈəlvīs [key], 1818–65, Hungarian physician. He was a pioneer in employing asepsis. While on the staff of the general hospital in Vienna, he reco...

(Encyclopedia) Atchison, city (2020 pop. 10,348), seat of Atchison co., NE Kans., on the Missouri River; inc. 1881. It is a trade and industrial center in a rich grain producing area. Atchison was founde...

(Encyclopedia) pectin, any of a group of white, amorphous, complex carbohydrates that occur in ripe fruits and certain vegetables. Fruits rich in pectin are the peach, apple, currant, and plum. Protopectin, present ...

(Encyclopedia) Pembroke, Richard de Clare, 2d earl of, d. 1176, English nobleman, also known as Richard Strongbow. He went as an adventurer (1170) to Ireland at the request of the hard-pressed Dermot McMurrough, kin...

(Encyclopedia) Pachuca de Soto pächo͞oˈkä ᵺā sōˈtō [key], city (1990 pop. 174,013), capital of Hidalgo state, central Mexico, at the head of a ravine surrounded by foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental. P...

(Encyclopedia) Paracel Islands päräsĕlˈ [key], Chin. Xisha, group of low coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea, c.175 mi (280 km) SE of Hainan island. They are rich in guano and are underlain by oil dep...

(Encyclopedia) Marquand, John Phillips märˈkwänd [key], 1893–1960, American novelist, b. Wilmington, Del., grad. Harvard, 1915. Most of Marquand's gently satirical novels examine life among the rich and sociall...

(Encyclopedia) Morland, George, 1763–1804, English genre, animal, and landscape painter. A pupil of his father, Henry Morland (1716–97), a London portrait painter, he left his father's studio when he was 21 and ...

(Encyclopedia) Carvajal, Francisco de fränthēsˈkō dā kärvähälˈ [key], 1464?–1548, Spanish conquistador. For 40 years he fought in European wars before going to Mexico and subsequently to Peru, where he ai...