Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) blight, general term for any sudden and severe plant disease or for the agent that causes it. The term is now applied chiefly to diseases caused by bacteria (e.g., bean blights and fire blight of frui...

(Encyclopedia) bowlegs (genu varum), outward curvature of the leg bone (tibia) or thighbone (femur) causing the knees to separate when the feet are placed together. When the condition is severe enough to be consider...

(Encyclopedia) Fracastoro, Girolamo jērôˈlämō fräkästôˈrō [key], 1483–1553, Italian physician and poet. He was born in Verona, where he practiced after studying at Padua. He studied epidemic diseases and...

(Encyclopedia) Windaus, Adolf äˈdôlf vĭnˈdous [key], 1876–1959, German chemist. He was professor of chemistry and director of the chemistry laboratories at the Univ. of Göttingen (1915–44). For his researc...

(Encyclopedia) tree surgery, practice of repairing damaged trees to restore their appearance and to arrest disease. Injured or diseased parts are first removed (even small cavities in the bark may harbor injurious f...

(Encyclopedia) Richards, Dickinson Woodruff, Jr., 1895–1973, American physician and physiologist, b. Orange, N.J., grad. Yale, 1917, M.D. Columbia, 1923. He joined the staff of the College of Physicians and Surgeo...

(Encyclopedia) Paracelsus, Philippus Aureolus fĭlĭpˈəs ôrēōˈləs părəsĕlˈsəs [key], 1493?–1541, Swiss physician and alchemist. His original name Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. He traveled widel...

(Encyclopedia) monkeypox, rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus, which is related to the viruses that cause smallpox and cowpox. The symptoms of monkeypox, which typically take 1 to 2 weeks to ap...

(Encyclopedia) diarrhea dīərēˈə [key], frequent discharge of watery feces from the intestines, sometimes containing blood and mucus. It can be caused by excessive indulgence in alcohol or other liquids or foods...

(Encyclopedia) Carlsson, Arvid, 1923–2018, Swedish pharmacologist, grad. Univ. of Lund, Sweden, (M.D., Ph.D., 1951). Carlsson was a professor at the Univ. of Lund (1951–59) and at the Univ. of Gothenburg, Sweden...