Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Saltonstall, Sir Richard sôlˈtənstôl [key], 1586–1658, early English colonist in Massachusetts. Of a prominent Yorkshire family (he was knighted in 1618), Saltonstall became a member and was app...

(Encyclopedia) Gaulli, Giovanni Battista jōvänˈnē bät-tēsˈtä gäo͞olˈlē [key], 1639–1709, Italian painter, called Baciccia or Baciccio. He was noted for his airy, illusionistic frescoes, his figures of ...

(Encyclopedia) Manx măngks [key], virtually extinct language belonging to the Goidelic or Gaelic group of the Celtic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. The last native speaker, Ned Madrell, died in...

(Encyclopedia) informed consent, in medicine, a patient's written consent to a surgical or medical procedure or other course of treatment, given after the physician has told the patient all of the potential benefits...

(Encyclopedia) Anderson, Elizabeth Garrett, 1836–1917, English physician. A sister of Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Elizabeth also worked for woman suffrage. With difficulty she obtained a private medical education u...

(Encyclopedia) Hadassah, women's Zionist organization of the United States founded (1912) by Henrietta Szold. It has done important work in Israel in medical service, child welfare, and aid to refugees. Hadassah pro...

(Encyclopedia) Farmer, Moses Gerrish, 1820–93, American inventor, b. Boscawen, N.H. He helped build and maintain some of the pioneer telegraph lines of Massachusetts and experimented in multiple telegraphy. He exh...

(Encyclopedia) evil eye, principally Sicilian and Mesoamerican superstition, although it is known in other cultures. According to the Native American version, a person who stares fixedly at a pregnant woman or a chi...

(Encyclopedia) Tudor, royal family that ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Its founder was Owen Tudor, of a Welsh family of great antiquity, who was a squire at the court of Henry V and who married that king's widow, ...

(Encyclopedia) Lidice lĭˈdyĭtsĕ [key], village, NW Czech Republic, in Bohemia. In reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Germans “liquidated” (1942) Lidice by killing all the men, deporting...