(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20090317154456/http://www.britannica.com:80/bps/browse/alpha/e/79

A-Z Browse

  • Evolutionary Socialism (work by Bernstein)
    ...This led him to conclude that the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism was neither necessary nor desirable. A gradual, peaceful transformation to socialism, he argued in Evolutionary Socialism (1899), would be safer than the revolutionary route, with its dangerously vague and potentially tyrannical dictatorship of the proletariat....
  • evolutionary taxonomy (biology)
    The second half of the 20th century was marked by a debate between three main schools. In the first, traditional evolutionary taxonomy, classification was intended to represent a maximum of evolutionary information. Generally this required that groupings be “monophyletic,” or based solely on shared evolutionary history, though exceptions could occur and were allowed. Crocodiles, for....
  • evolutionary theism (Christianity)
    The second half of the 20th century was marked by a debate between three main schools. In the first, traditional evolutionary taxonomy, classification was intended to represent a maximum of evolutionary information. Generally this required that groupings be “monophyletic,” or based solely on shared evolutionary history, though exceptions could occur and were allowed. Crocodiles, for....
  • evolutionary tree
    Evolutionary trees are models that seek to reconstruct the evolutionary history of taxa—i.e., species or other groups of organisms, such as genera, families, or orders. The trees embrace two kinds of information related to evolutionary change, cladogenesis and anagenesis. The figure can be used to illustrate both kinds. The branching relationships of the trees reflect the relative......
  • evolutionism (social science)
    In the 1950s and ’60s, evolutionist ideas gained fresh currency in American anthropology, where they were cast as a challenge to the relativism and historical particularism of the Boasians. Some of the new evolutionists (led by Leslie White) reclaimed the abandoned territory of Victorian social theory, arguing for......
  • Evolutionists (political party, Portugal)
    By 1912 the republicans were divided into Evolutionists (moderates), led by António José de Almeida; Unionists (centre party), led by Manuel de Brito Camacho; and Democrats (the leftist core of the original party), led by Afonso Costa. A number of prominent republicans had no specific party. The whirligig of republican political life offered little improvement on the monarchist......
  • Evolvulus (plant genus)
    ...to dry, desert regions as dense plant surfaces and thorns. The largest genera—Ipomoea (morning glory, with some 500 species), Convolvulus (bindweed, with 100 species), and Evolvulus (100 species)—include twining vines, herbs, trees, and a few aquatics. The large parasitic genus Cuscuta (dodder, 145 species), formerly placed in its own family......
  • Évora (Portugal)
    city, south-central Portugal. It lies in a fertile valley surrounded by low hills, 70 miles (110 km) east of Lisbon....
  • Evora, Cesaria (Cape Verdean singer)
    Cape Verdean singer and Grammy Award-winning recording artist known for her rich, haunting voice....
  • Evpatoriya (Ukraine)
    city, Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the Kalamit Bay on the west coast of the Crimean Peninsula. Founded in the 6th century bc as a Greek colony and later renamed for Mithradates VI Eupator, sixth king of Pontus, the city has known many masters, passing to Russia with the ann...
  • Evreinov, Nikolay (Russian director)
    The Russian theatre during these years produced many other talented and innovative directors. Three who deserve mention are Nikolay Evreinov, Aleksandr Tairov, and Nikolay Okhlopkov....
  • Evreiskaia (oblast, Russia)
    autonomous oblast (province) in Khabarovsk kray (region), far eastern Russia, occupying an area of 13,900 sq mi (36,000 sq km) in the basin of the middle Amur River. Most of the oblast consists of level plain...
  • Evren, Kenan (Turkish general)
    On Sept. 12, 1980, the senior command of the army, led by General Kenan Evren, carried out a bloodless coup. This coup, the third army intervention in 20 years, was generally supported by the public. The leading politicians were arrested, and parliament, political parties, and trade unions were dissolved. A five-member National Security Council took control, suspending the constitution and......
  • Évreux (France)
    town, capital of Eure département, Haute-Normandie région, northwestern France. It lies west-northwest of Paris, in a pleasant valley on branches of the Iton River, which is a tributary of the Eure....
  • Évreux, house of (French royal house)
    ...various counts of Artois (from 1237), with controversial succession; the first Capetian house of Anjou, with kings and queens of Naples (1266–1435) and kings of Hungary (1310–82); the house of Évreux, with three kings of Navarre (1328–1425); the second Capetian house of Anjou, with five counts of Provence (1382–1481); and other lesser branches....
  • Evrípos (strait, Greece)
    narrow strait in the Aegean Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea), between the Greek island of Euboea (Évvoia) and the mainland of central Greece. It is 5 miles (8 km) long and varies from 130 feet (40 m) to 1 mile (1.6 km) in width. It has strong ...
  • Evrípou, Porthmós (strait, Greece)
    narrow strait in the Aegean Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea), between the Greek island of Euboea (Évvoia) and the mainland of central Greece. It is 5 miles (8 km) long and varies from 130 feet (40 m) to 1 mile (1.6 km) in width. It has strong ...
  • Évros River (river, Europe)
    river in Bulgaria, rising in the Rila Mountains southeast of Sofia on the north face of Musala Peak. It flows east and southeast across Bulgaria for 170 miles (275 km), forms the Bulgaria–Greece frontier for a distance of 10 miles (16 km), and then becomes the Greece–Turkey frontier for another 115 miles (185 km). At Edirne it ch...
  • Evrótas River (river, Greece)
    nonnavigable river rising in the Taíyetos Mountains in the southern Peloponnese, Greece. The principal stream of Laconia, it flows south-southeast through the agricultural Laconian plain between the Taíyetos and Párnon ranges and debouches at the head of the Gulf of Laconia northeast of Yíthion after a course of 51 ...
  • Evrouin (Neustrian official)
    mayor of the palace in the Frankish kingdom of Neustria for some 20-odd years, from 656....
  • Évry (France)
    new town (French ville nouvelle), département of Essonne, Île-de-France région in north-central France. Évry is approximately 17 miles (27 km) southeast of Paris and is one of several new towns developed outside the capital since 1965. Évry is linked to Par...
  • Evtushenko, Evgenii (Russian poet)
    poet and spokesman for the younger post-Stalin generation of Russian poets, whose internationally publicized demands for greater artistic freedom and for a literature based on aesthetic rather than political standards signaled an easing of Soviet control over artists in the late 1950s and ’60s....
  • Évvoia (island, Greece)
    island, the largest in Greece, after Crete. In the Aegean Sea, it forms with the island of Skyros to the northwest, the nomós (department) of Euboea, whose capital is Chalcis. Recognized geographically as part of the Greek mainland, which it almost touches at ...
  • Evvoïkós Kólpos (gulf, Greece)
    arm of the Aegean Sea, between the island of Euboea (northeast) and the Greek mainland (southwest). Trending northwest-southeast, the gulf is divided by the narrow Strait of Euripus, at the town of Chalcis (Khalkís). The northern part is about 50 miles (80 km) long and up to 15 miles (24 km) wide, and the southern part is about 30 miles (...
  • Evylaeus malachurus (insect)
    The social behaviour of Halictus (Evylaeus) malachurus has advanced another step. Morphological differences are apparent between the ovipositing female and the assisting females. The latter are poorly fed as larvae and, as a result, are smaller with poorly developed sexual organs. Bumblebee colonies are often highly......
  • Ewa (people)
    A second type of carving has also been recovered, usually from burial rock shelters of the Ewa, a now much-diminished group south of the Alamblak. These figures are related in general form to the yipwon, but their bodies are expressed as panels and scrolls rather than hooks. Other flat figures are of females in frontal positions with......
  • Ewab Islands (islands, Indonesia)
    island group of the southeastern Moluccas, lying west of the Aru Islands and southeast of Seram, in the Banda Sea. The group, which forms part of Maluku provinsi (province), Indonesia, includes the Kai Besar (Great Kai), Kai Kecil (Little Kai) and Kai ...
  • Ewald, J. R. (German physiologist)
    ...concept,” which held that head movements cause a flow of endolymph in the canals and that the canals are then stimulated by the fluid movements or pressure changes. The German physiologist J.R. Ewald showed that the compression of the horizontal canal in a pigeon by a small pneumatic hammer causes endolymph movement toward the crista and turning of the head and eyes toward the opposite.....
  • Ewald, Johannes (Danish poet)
    one of Denmark’s greatest lyric poets and the first to use themes from early Scandinavian myths and sagas....
  • Ewald, Manfred (Eastern German sports official)
    East German sports official (b. May 17, 1926, Podejuch, Ger. [now Podjuchy, Pol.]—d. Oct. 21, 2002, Damsdorf, Ger.), formed a powerhouse Olympic team but was discredited when it was discovered that his athletes’ success was based in part on the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Ewald was a member of the Nazi Party and then joined the East German Communist Party after Germany was di...
  • Ewald, Paul Peter (German physicist)
    German physicist and crystallographer whose theory of X-ray interference by crystals was the first detailed, rigorous theoretical explanation of the diffraction effects first observed in 1912 by his fellow physicist Max von Laue....
  • Ewald’s sphere (mathematics)
    ...and also devised a graphic method of solving the equation described by Sir Lawrence Bragg in 1912, the fundamental law of X-ray scattering, which involves a geometric construction now known as Ewald’s sphere. He went to the United States in 1949, and from 1949 to 1957 he served a...
  • Ewart, Gavin (British poet)
    British poet noted for his light verse, which frequently deals with sexual themes. He wrote children’s poems and poetry on serious subjects as well....
  • Ewart, Gavin Buchanan (British poet)
    British poet noted for his light verse, which frequently deals with sexual themes. He wrote children’s poems and poetry on serious subjects as well....
  • Ewart, William (British politician)
    English politician who succeeded in partially abolishing capital punishment....
  • Ewbank, Weeb (American football coach)
    American football coach of the Baltimore Colts from 1954 to 1962 and of the New York Jets from 1963 to 1973, he led each team to pro football championships, the Colts in 1958 and 1959 and the Jets in 1968-69, and thus became the only coach to win championships in both the National and the American football leagues; he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978 (b. May 6, 1907, Richmon...
  • Ewbank, Wilbur Charles (American football coach)
    American football coach of the Baltimore Colts from 1954 to 1962 and of the New York Jets from 1963 to 1973, he led each team to pro football championships, the Colts in 1958 and 1959 and the Jets in 1968-69, and thus became the only coach to win championships in both the National and the American football leagues; he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978 (b. May 6, 1907, Richmon...
  • ewe (mammal)
    ...the outer coat takes the form of hair, and beneath this lies a short undercoat of fine wool that has been developed into the fleece of domesticated sheep. Male sheep are called rams, the females ewes, and immature animals lambs. Mature sheep weigh from about 80 to as much as 400 pounds (35 to 180 kg). To browse sheep by breed, see below....
  • Ewe (people)
    peoples living in southeastern Ghana, southern Benin, and the southern half of Togo who speak various dialects of Ewe, a language of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family. Ewe unity is based on language and common traditions of origin: their original homeland is traced to Oyo, in western Nigeria, which was a major Yoruba kingdom....
  • Ewell, Barney (American athlete)
    American athlete, one of the world’s leading sprinters of the 1940s. Although he was believed to be past his prime when the Olympic Games were resumed after World War II, he won three medals at the age of 30 at the 1948 Olympics in London....
  • Ewell, Norwood H. (American athlete)
    American athlete, one of the world’s leading sprinters of the 1940s. Although he was believed to be past his prime when the Olympic Games were resumed after World War II, he won three medals at the age of 30 at the 1948 Olympics in London....
  • Ewen, Harold (American astronomer)
    In 1951, American physicists Harold Ewen and E.M. Purcell detected 21-cm radiation emitted by cold clouds of interstellar hydrogen atoms. This emission was later used to define the spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy and to determine the rotation of the Galaxy....
  • Ewen, Paterson (Canadian artist)
    Canadian artist (b. April 7, 1925, Montreal, Que.—d. Feb. 17, 2002, London, Ont.), was a relentlessly innovative artist whose expressionistic paintings of the 1970s and ’80s attracted widespread interest. Ewen studied at McGill University, Montreal, and at the Art Association of Montreal’s School of Art and Design. His earliest paintings were representational, but from the mid...
  • Ewen, William Paterson (Canadian artist)
    Canadian artist (b. April 7, 1925, Montreal, Que.—d. Feb. 17, 2002, London, Ont.), was a relentlessly innovative artist whose expressionistic paintings of the 1970s and ’80s attracted widespread interest. Ewen studied at McGill University, Montreal, and at the Art Association of Montreal’s School of Art and Design. His earliest paintings were representational, but from the mid...
  • Ewha Women’s University (university, Seoul, South Korea)
    ...about one-third of the country’s population. Evangelistic and self-supporting Korean churches were known throughout Asia for their effective promotion of Bible study. Helen Kim, a Korean graduate of Ewha College, built that institution into the world’s largest women’s university, and Sun Myung Moon founded the ......
  • Ewige Bund (Swiss history)
    (Aug. 1, 1291), the inaugural confederation from which, through a long series of accessions, Switzerland grew to statehood. The league was concluded by the representatives of three districts, Uri, Schwyz, and Nidwalden, for self-defense against all who might attack or trouble them. The league’s formation was prompted by the death (July 15, 1291) of Rudolf I...
  • Ewing, A. C. (British philosopher and educator)
    British philosopher and educator and an advocate of a Neo-Realist school of thought; he is noted for his proposals toward a general theory of personal and normative ethics (as against the purely descriptive). He proposed a theory of the intuitive knowledge of good and duty (“deontol...
  • Ewing, Alfred Cyril (British philosopher and educator)
    British philosopher and educator and an advocate of a Neo-Realist school of thought; he is noted for his proposals toward a general theory of personal and normative ethics (as against the purely descriptive). He proposed a theory of the intuitive knowledge of good and duty (“deontol...
  • Ewing, Frederick R. (American author)
    American science-fiction writer who emphasized romantic and sexual themes in his stories....
  • Ewing, James (British scientist)
    Ewing tumour is caused by noninherited rearrangements in chromosomes, and the disease appears to occur at random. It is named after James Ewing, who described the disease in 1921....
  • Ewing, Juliana (British author)
    ...Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), which, often in simplified form, was either forced upon children or more probably actually enjoyed by them in lieu of anything better. Mrs. Overtheway (in Juliana Ewing’s Mrs. Overtheway’s Remembrances, 1869), recalling her childhood reading, refers to it as “that book of wondrous fascination.” A softene...
  • Ewing, Maurice (American geophysicist)
    U.S. geophysicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding of marine sediments and ocean basins, using seismic methods....
  • Ewing sarcoma (pathology)
    common malignant tumour of bone that occurs mainly in Caucasian males under the age of 20. This form of bone cancer appears most commonly in the shafts of long bones rather than at the growth junction. Related tumours can also develop in soft tissue....
  • Ewing, Sir Alfred (British physicist)
    British physicist who discovered and named hysteresis, the resistance of magnetic materials to change in magnetic force....
  • Ewing, Sir James Alfred (British physicist)
    British physicist who discovered and named hysteresis, the resistance of magnetic materials to change in magnetic force....
  • Ewing, Thomas (United States government official)
    Named Tecumseh in honour of the renowned Shawnee chieftain, Sherman was one of eight children of Judge Charles R. Sherman, who died when the boy was only nine. Thomas Ewing, a family friend and a Whig political force in Ohio, adopted the boy, and his foster mother added William to his name. When Sherman was 16, Ewing obtained an appointment to West......
  • Ewing tumour of bone (pathology)
    common malignant tumour of bone that occurs mainly in Caucasian males under the age of 20. This form of bone cancer appears most commonly in the shafts of long bones rather than at the growth junction. Related tumours can also develop in soft tissue....
  • Ewing, William Maurice (American geophysicist)
    U.S. geophysicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding of marine sediments and ocean basins, using seismic methods....
  • Éwondo (people)
    a Bantu-speaking people of the hilly area of south-central Cameroon who live in and around the capital city of Yaoundé. The Yaunde and a closely related people, the Eton, comprise the two main subgroups of the Beti, which in turn constitute one of the three major subdivisions of the cluster of peoples in southern Cameroon, mainland ...
  • Ewostatewos (Ethiopian saint)
    Ethiopian saint and founder of one of the two great Ethiopian monastic communities....
  • Ewry, Ray C. (American athlete)
    American track athlete, the only Olympic athlete to win eight gold medals in individual events....
  • Ewuare the Great (African king)
    ...remain for many years with a hereditary order of local chiefs. Late in the 13th century, royal power began to assert itself under the oba Ewedo and was firmly established under the most famous oba, Ewuare the Great (reigned c. 1440–80), who was described as a great warrior and magician. He established a hereditary succession to the throne and vastly expanded the territory of the.....
  • ex cathedra declaration (Roman Catholicism)
    The definition of the first Vatican Council (1869–70), established amid considerable controversy, states the conditions under which a pope may be said to have spoken infallibly, or ex cathedra (“from his chair” as supreme teacher). It is prerequisite that the pope intend to demand irrevocable assent from the entire church in some aspect of faith or morals. Despite the rarity.....
  • ex dividend (finance)
    ...the dividend. If the stock is purchased between the date of record and the date the dividend is to be paid, the buyer does not receive the recently declared dividend, and the stock is said to sell ex dividend, or “without dividend.” When a stock sells ex dividend, its price is usually reduced by the amount of the dividend....
  • ex post facto law
    law that retroactively makes criminal conduct that was not criminal when performed, increases the punishment for crimes already committed, or changes the rules of procedure in force at the time an alleged crime was committed in a way substantially disadvantageous to the accused....
  • Ex quo singulari (papal bull)
    ...to the kings of Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, and Naples in matters of patronage, the right of nomination to vacant sees, and secular jurisdiction over ecclesiastical changes. In his bulls Ex quo singulari (1742) and Omnium sollicitudinum (1744), he prohibited certain traditional practices that the Jesuits had allowed converts to retain in China and India. This ban set back......
  • Ex Voto de 1662 (painting by Champaigne)
    ...and more austere, and his portraits, which often portray the sitter dressed in black, demonstrate his sensitivity toward and understanding of people. One of the masterpieces of his later period is “Ex Voto de 1662” (1662, Louvre), which depicts the miraculous cure of his daughter, a nun at the Jansenist convent of Port Royal. In his theory of art Champaigne emphasized drawing and....
  • Ex-Im Bank (United States government agency)
    one of the principal agencies of the U.S. government in international finance, originally incorporated as the Export-Import Bank of Washington on February 12, 1934, to assist in financing the export of American-made goods and services. Its name was changed in 1968. Ex-Im Bank’s headquarters are in Washington, D.C., but most operations a...
  • ex-voto offering (religion)
    The idea of a picture to be hung on the wall is by no means universal in folk art. It occurs in Europe, notably as the ex-voto, or votive offering, hung in churches and chapels, and in America, where portraits and local scenes were executed in oil, pastel, or watercolour. More typically, the painted depictions that occur in folk art are incorporated into other objects; for example, the American......
  • exact differential equation
    type of differential equation that can be solved directly without the use of any of the special techniques in the subject. A first-order differential equation (of one variable) is called exact, or an exact differential, if it is the result of a simple differentiation. The equation P(x, y)y′ + Q(x, ...
  • exact equation
    type of differential equation that can be solved directly without the use of any of the special techniques in the subject. A first-order differential equation (of one variable) is called exact, or an exact differential, if it is the result of a simple differentiation. The equation P(x, y)y′ + Q(x, ...
  • exacta (gambling)
    ...of wagering on each horse in each of various betting pools. The customary pools are win, place, and show, and there are such specialty wagers as the daily double (winners of the first two races), perfecta (win and place winners in order in one race), quiniela (as in the perfecta but not in order), and trifecta (win, place, show winners in order in one race). Other specialty wagers, sometimes......
  • Exacum (plant genus)
    ...yellow, white, red, or purple; several species are cultivated as garden ornamentals. Gentians occur widely in moist meadows and woods. Swertia, an herb with blue, star-shaped flowers, and Exacum, a tropical indoor ornamental, are other attractive members of the family....
  • EXAFS (physics)
    Just above the absorption edge of an element, small oscillations in the absorption coefficient are observed when the incident X-ray energy is varied. In extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (EXAFS), interference effects generated by near neighbours of an atom that has absorbed an X ray, and the resulting oscillation frequencies, are analyzed so that distances to the......
  • Exagéré (French political history)
    any of the group of extremists of the French Revolution, followers of Jacques-René Hébert, who demanded a Revolutionary government that was anti-Christian and dedicated to the eradication of Girondists and other moderates....
  • exaltados (Spanish radicals)
    ...of 1812. The king gave no support to this movement and, in a cowardly fashion, disowned a rising of the guards’ regiments that backed it. Thus, the extreme radicals (exaltados) gained control by means of demonstrations in the streets, organized by clubs run on the lines of the Jacobins of the......
  • exaltation (astrology)
    ...of 2°30′ each—each of which is also dominated by a planet. Scattered at various points throughout the ecliptic are the planets’ degrees of exaltation (high influence), opposite to which are their degrees of dejection (low influence). Various arcs of the zodiac, then, are either primarily or secondarily subject to each planet, whose......
  • Examen (work by du Châtelet)
    ...history of kings, wars, civilization and manners that became the Essai sur les moeurs, and plunged into biblical exegesis. Mme du Châtelet herself wrote an Examen, highly critical of the two Testaments. It was at Cirey that Voltaire, rounding out his scientific knowledge, acquired the encyclopaedic culture that was one of the outstanding facets of......
  • “Examen concilii tridentini” (work by Chemnitz)
    ...Eucharist (1561); a systematic discussion of the relation between the divine and human natures of Christ (1570); Examen concilii tridentini (1565–73; Examination of the Council of Trent), the standard Lutheran analysis of the doctrinal decisions of the Council of Trent (1545–63); and a partial presentation of his theology in the fo...
  • Examination (work by Benton)
    ...Years’ View, 2 vol. (1854–56), was eloquent with agrarian and Jacksonian Democratic faith, opposition to slavery extension, and concern for the imperiled Union. He produced a learned Examination of the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision in 1858 (which reaffirmed that the status of slaves, as property, cou...
  • examination (law)
    in law, the interrogation of a witness by attorneys or by a judge. In Anglo-American proceedings an examination usually begins with direct examination (called examination in chief in England) by the party who called the witness. After direct examination the attorney for the other party may conduct a cross-examination of the same witness, usually designed to cause him to explain, modify, or possibl...
  • examination (education)
    ...in the form of reasoning power. There has been special emphasis on the idea of the student’s readiness at various ages to grasp concepts of concrete and formal thought. Numerous agencies produce test material for these purposes, and in many countries the idea has been widely applied to selection for entry to secondary and higher schools; one of the purposes of so-called leaving examinati...
  • Examination of Dogmatic Theology, An (work by Tolstoy)
    In the early 1880s he wrote three closely related works, Issledovaniye dogmaticheskogo bogosloviya (written 1880; An Examination of Dogmatic Theology), Soyedineniye i perevod chetyrokh yevangeliy (written 1881; Union and Translation of the Four Gospels), and V chyom moya vera? (written 1884; What I Believe); he later added Tsarstvo bozhiye vnutri......
  • Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (work by Mill)
    Mill also began to write again on the wider philosophical questions that had occupied him in the Logic. In 1865 he published both his Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy and his Auguste Comte and Positivism, but in both writings his motives were largely political. It was because he regarded the writings and sayings of Sir William Hamilton as the great fortr...
  • Examination of the Council of Trent (work by Chemnitz)
    ...Eucharist (1561); a systematic discussion of the relation between the divine and human natures of Christ (1570); Examen concilii tridentini (1565–73; Examination of the Council of Trent), the standard Lutheran analysis of the doctrinal decisions of the Council of Trent (1545–63); and a partial presentation of his theology in the fo...
  • Examiner (British newspaper)
    ...partisan, they set a notable standard of fearless and independent journalism. Similar independence was shown by Leigh Hunt, whose outspoken journalism, particularly in his Examiner (begun 1808), was of wide influence, and by William Cobbett, whose Rural Rides (collected in 1830 from his Political......
  • Examiner (British magazine)
    After early contributions to an encyclopaedia and to periodicals, he was editor of The Examiner (1847–55). In 1855 he became secretary to the lunacy commissioners and in 1861 became a commissioner. Apart from his Dickens study, Forster’s Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith (1848; expanded into The Life and Ti...
  • examining justice (English law)
    ...on points of law by the clerk to the justices, who is responsible for the administrative functions of the court. Proceedings are always held in open court, unless the magistrates sit as “examining justices,” whereby they carry out inquiries preliminary to trial in serious matters that may require committal of the accused to a higher court for trial. All criminal charges are......
  • examining magistrates (English law)
    ...on points of law by the clerk to the justices, who is responsible for the administrative functions of the court. Proceedings are always held in open court, unless the magistrates sit as “examining justices,” whereby they carry out inquiries preliminary to trial in serious matters that may require committal of the accused to a higher court for trial. All criminal charges are......
  • exanthem subitum (disease)
    infectious disease of early childhood marked by rapidly developing high fever (to 106° F) lasting about three days and then subsiding completely. A few hours after the temperature returns to normal, a mildly itchy rash develops suddenly on the trunk, neck, and behind the ears but fades rapidly after two days. The disease appears to be c...
  • exanthematous viral infection (pathology)
    ...childhood disease. These diseases occur chiefly among children, and one bout usually provides lifelong immunity against further attacks. Such classic infectious diseases of childhood include the exanthematous viral infections (i.e., measles, chicken pox, German measles, and other viral......
  • exarate pupa (zoology)
    ...campodeiform (elongated, flattened, and active), elateriform (wireworm-like), and vermiform (maggot-like). The three types of pupae are: obtect, with appendages more or less glued to the body; exarate, with the appendages free and not glued to the body; and coarctate, which is essentially exarate but remaining covered by the cast skins (exuviae) of the next to the last larval instar (name......
  • exarch (Byzantine government official)
    ...was nominally a single unit, but it too in reality fell into several separate pieces. Its political centre was Ravenna, which was ruled by a military leader appointed from Constantinople and called exarch from about 590. Exarchs were changed quite frequently, probably because military figures far from the centre of the empire who developed a local following might revolt (as happened in 619 and....
  • Excalfactoria (bird)
    ...the size of a pigeon to that of a domestic chicken, 40 to 60 cm (16 to 24 inches) long and 500 to 2,500 grams (1 to 5.5 pounds) in weight. The smallest members of the order are the sparrow-sized painted quail (Excalfactoria), about 13 cm (5 inches) long and about 45 grams (about 1.5 ounces) in weight. The heaviest galliform is the common, or wild, turkey (......
  • Excalibur (Arthurian legend)
    in Arthurian legend, King Arthur’s sword. As a boy, Arthur alone was able to draw the sword out of a stone in which it had been magically fixed. This account is contained in Sir Thomas Malory’s 15th-century prose rendering of the Arthurian legend, but another story in the same work suggests that it was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake and ...
  • excavating machine (engineering)
    any machine, usually self-powered, that is used in digging or earth-moving operations of some kind; the power shovel, bulldozer, and grader are examples. ...
  • Excavation (painting by de Kooning)
    ...period after his first show were complex, agitated abstractions such as Asheville (1948–49), Attic (1949), and Excavation (1950; Art Institute, Chicago), which reintroduced colour and seem to sum up with taut decisiveness the problems of free-associative composition he had struggled with for many......
  • excavation (technology)
    horizontal underground passageway produced by excavation or occasionally by nature’s action in dissolving a soluble rock, such as limestone. A vertical opening is usually called a shaft. Tunnels have many uses: for mining ores, for transportation—including road vehicles, trains, subways, and canals—and for conducting water and sewage. Underground chambers, often associated wit...
  • excavation (archaeology)
    Excavation is the surgical aspect of archaeology: it is surgery of the buried landscape and is carried out with all the skilled craftsmanship that has been built up in the last hundred years since Schliemann and Flinders Petrie. Excavations can be classified, from the point of view of their purpose, as planned, rescue, or accidental. Most important excavations are the result of a prepared......
  • Excelsior Diamond (gem)
    until the discovery of the Cullinan diamond in 1905, the world’s largest-known uncut diamond. When found by a worker loading a truck in the De Beers mine at Jagersfontein, Orange Free State, on June 30, 1893, the blue-white stone weighed about 995 carats. After long study the Excelsior diamond was cut (1904) by I.J. ...
A-Z Browse

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog post.

If you think a reference to this article on "" will enhance your Web site, blog post, or any other Web content, then feel free to link to it, and your readers will gain complete access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

This is a BETA release of TOPIC HISTORY
Type
Title
Description
Contributor
Date
Image preview