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radium

(Encyclopedia)radium rāˈdēəm [key] [Lat. radius=ray], radioactive metallic chemical element; symbol Ra; at. no. 88; mass number of most stable isotope 226; m.p. 700℃; b.p. 1,140℃; sp. gr. about 6.0; valence...

Joan of Arc

(Encyclopedia)Joan of Arc, Fr. Jeanne D'Arc (zhän därk), 1412?–31, French saint and national heroine, called the Maid of Orléans; daughter of a farmer of Domrémy on the border of Champagne and Lorraine. In...

Irving, Washington

(Encyclopedia)Irving, Washington, 1783–1859, American author and diplomat, b. New York City. Irving was one of the first Americans to be recognized abroad as a man of letters, and he was a literary idol at home. ...

Jacobins

(Encyclopedia)Jacobins jăkˈəbĭnz [key], political club of the French Revolution. Formed in 1789 by the Breton deputies to the States-General, it was reconstituted as the Society of Friends of the Constitution a...

Metz

(Encyclopedia)Metz Eng. and Ger. mĕts, Fr. mĕs [key], city (2010 est. pop. 127,000), capital of Moselle dept., NE France, on the Moselle River. It is a cultural, commercial, and transportation center of Lorraine,...

physiocrats

(Encyclopedia)physiocrats fĭzˈēəkrătsˌ [key], school of French thinkers in the 18th cent. who evolved the first complete system of economics. They were also referred to simply as “the economists” or “th...

French art

(Encyclopedia)French art, the artistic production of the region that constitutes the historic nation of France. See also French architecture. The innovations of postimpressionism, combined with the influence of C...

Pierce, Franklin

(Encyclopedia)Pierce, Franklin, 1804–69, 14th President of the United States (1853–57), b. Hillsboro, N.H., grad. Bowdoin College, 1824. Admitted to the bar in 1827, he entered politics as a Jacksonian Democrat...

Constance, Council of

(Encyclopedia)Constance, Council of, 1414–18, council of the Roman Catholic Church, some of its sessions being reckoned as the 16th ecumenical council. It was summoned to end the Great Schism (see Schism, Great),...

dentistry

(Encyclopedia)dentistry, treatment and care of the teeth and associated oral structures. Dentistry is mainly concerned with tooth decay, disease of the supporting structures, such as the gums, and faulty positionin...
 

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