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Gasparri, Pietro ... Gaunilo

Gasparri, Pietro: Italian cardinal who, by appointment of Pope St. Pius X, in 1904 directed the new Code of Canon Law, a systematic arrangement of ecclesiastical law now practiced by the Roman ...
Gaspe: city, Gaspesie region, eastern Quebec province, Canada. It lies at the mouth of the York River, overlooking Gaspe Bay. The city's name derives either from the navigator Gaspar Corte-Real, who ...
Gaspe Current: outflow from the St. Lawrence River, which moves around the Gaspe Peninsula and along the southern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It merges with a cold branch of ...
Gaspe Peninsula: peninsula in eastern Quebec province, Canada. The peninsula extends east-northeastward for 150 miles (240 km) from the Matapedia River into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is situated between the ...
Gaspe, Philippe Aubert de: author of the first important French-Canadian novel.
Gaspee, Burning of the: (June 10, 1772), in U.S. colonial history, act of open civil defiance of British authority when Rhode Islanders boarded and sank the revenue cutter Gaspee in Narragansett Bay. Headed by ...
Gaspesian Provincial Park: park in eastern Quebec province, Canada. The park occupies 500 square miles (1,295 square km) on the Gaspe Peninsula, near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. It was established ...
Gasprinski, Ismail: Turkish journalist and writer who was an advocate of pan-Islamic unity and whose writings significantly contributed to the growth of cultural identity within the Turkic community of Russia.
Gasquet, Francis Aidan: English Roman Catholic historian, a cardinal from 1914, and prefect of the Vatican archives from 1917.
Gass, William H.: American writer noted for his experimentation with stylistic devices.
Gassendi, Pierre: French scientist, mathematician, and philosopher who revived Epicureanism as a substitute for Aristotelianism, attempting in the process to reconcile mechanistic Atomism with Christian belief in immortality, free will, an infinite ...
Gasser, Herbert Spencer: American physiologist, corecipient (with Joseph Erlanger) of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944 for fundamental discoveries concerning the functions of different kinds of nerve fibres.
Gastein Valley: side valley of the Salzach River, in Bundesland (federal state) Salzburg, west-central Austria. Lying along the north slope of the Hohe Tauern Mountains and traversed by the Gasteiner River, it ...
Gastein, Convention of: agreement between Austria and Prussia reached on Aug. 20, 1865, after their seizure of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark in 1864; it temporarily postponed the final struggle ...
Gasteromycetes: name often given to a group of fungi of the class Basidiomycetes (division Mycota) consisting of more than 700 species. Their spores, called basidiospores, are borne within a variety of ...
gasterosteiform: any member of the order Gasterosteiformes, a group of fishes characterized generally by soft fin rays, pelvic fins located on the abdomen, an air bladder without a duct to the ...
Gaston III: count of Foix from 1343, who made Foix one of the most influential and powerful domains in France. A handsome man (hence the surname Phoebus), his court in southern France ...
Gastonia: city, seat (1909) of Gaston county, southwestern North Carolina, U.S. It lies on the central Piedmont Plateau, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Charlotte. The site was settled in ...
gastrectomy: surgical removal of all or part of the stomach, a procedure that is used to treat peptic ulcers. The operation eliminates the gastric-acid-secreting parietal cells in the stomach lining and ...
gastric gland: any of the branched tubules in the inner lining of the stomach that secrete gastric juice and protective mucus.
Gastrikland: landskap (province), eastern Sweden. It lies along the Gulf of Bothnia, in the administrative lan (county) of Gavleborg. With a land area of 1,614 square miles (4,181 square km), it ...
gastrin: any of a group of digestive hormones secreted by the wall of the pyloric end of the stomach (the area where the stomach joins the small intestine) of mammals. Gastrin ...
gastritis: acute or chronic inflammation of the mucosal layers of the stomach. Acute gastritis may be caused by excessive intake of alcohol, ingestion of irritating drugs, food poisoning, and infectious diseases. ...
gastrocnemius muscle: large posterior muscle of the calf of the leg. It originates at the back of the femur (thighbone) and patella (kneecap) and, joining the soleus (another muscle of the calf), ...
gastroenteritis: acute infectious syndrome of the stomach lining and the intestine. It is characterized by diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps. Other symptoms can include nausea, fever, and chills. The severity of ...
gastroenterology: medical specialty concerned with the digestive system and its diseases. Gastroenterologists diagnose and treat the diseases and disorders of the esophagus, stomach, intestines, liver, biliary tract, and pancreas. Among the ...
gastroesophageal reflux disease: relatively common digestive disorder characterized by frequent passage of gastric contents from the stomach back into the esophagus. The most common symptom of GERD is heartburn, a burning sensation in ...
gastrointestinal tract: the portion of the digestive system that includes the esophagus, the stomach, the pancreas, the small intestine, the large intestine, the rectum, and the anus. See also digestion.
gastronomy: the art of selecting, preparing, serving, and enjoying fine food. Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the celebrated French aphorist and gastronomic authority of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, called gastronomy "the ...
gastropod: any member of the class Gastropoda, the largest group of the phylum Mollusca, consisting of about 65,000 species. Gastropod, which means "belly-footed," refers to the broad tapered foot on which ...
gastrotrich: any of about 1,800 species of the class Gastrotricha, a group of microscopic aquatic invertebrates belonging to the phylum Aschelminthes. They occur in salt water and fresh water and also ...
gastrula: early multicellular embryo, composed of two or more germinal layers of cells from which the various organs later derive. The gastrula develops from the hollow, single-layered ball of cells called ...
Gatchina: city, Leningrad oblast (province), northwestern Russia, lying 15 miles (24 km) southwest of St. Petersburg. The first mention of Khotchino dates from 1499, when it was a possession of Novgorod. ...
gate: in hydraulic engineering, movable barrier for controlling the passage of fluid through a channel or sluice. River and canal locks have a pair of gates at each end. When closed, ...
Gate Theatre: Dublin dramatic company, founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheal MacLiammoir, whose repertoire included works from many periods and countries, unlike that of the established Abbey Theatre. From 1928 ...
gateleg table: type of table first used in England in the 16th century. The top had a fixed section and one or two hinged sections, which, when not in use, folded back ...
Gates of Paradise: the pair of gilded bronze doors (1425-52) designed by the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti for the east entrance of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence. Each wing of the Gates ...
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve: large, remote wilderness area in northern Alaska, U.S. It is part of a vast region of national parks, monuments, and preserves located north of the Arctic Circle that stretches for ...
Gates, Bill: American computer programmer and entrepreneur who cofounded Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest personal-computer software company.
Gates, Frederick T.: American philanthropist and businessman, a major figure in the Rockefeller interests, who spearheaded the endowment drive that created the University of Chicago.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.: American literary critic and scholar known for his pioneering theories of African literature and African American literature. He introduced the notion of signifyin' to represent African and African American literary ...
Gates, Horatio: English-born American general in the American Revolution (1775-83) whose victory over the British at the Battle of Saratoga (1777) turned the tide of victory in behalf of the Revolutionaries.
Gates, John Warne: American financier and steel magnate who leveraged an $8,000 investment in a barbed-wire plant into the $90,000,000 American Steel & Wire Co.
Gateshead: town and metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, historic county of Durham, England. It was initially a small settlement that developed at the southern end of a medieval ...
Gath: one of the five royal cities of the Philistines, the exact location of which in modern Israel has not been determined. The name occurs several times in the Old Testament, ...
Gatineau: city, Outaouais region, southwestern Quebec province, Canada. It is situated on the north bank of the Ottawa River, opposite Ottawa and adjacent to Hull, near the mouth of the Gatineau ...
Gatineau River: river in Outaouais region, southwestern Quebec province, Canada. The river rises in a chain of lakes north of Baskatong Reservoir and flows generally southward for 240 miles (390 km) to ...
Gatlinburg: city, Sevier county, eastern Tennessee, U.S. It lies about 30 miles (50 km) southeast of Knoxville, at the northwestern entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. English and Scotch-Irish settlers ...
Gatling gun: hand-driven machine gun, the first to solve the problems of loading, reliability, and the firing of sustained bursts. It was invented by Richard J. Gatling during the American Civil War ...
Gatling, Richard Jordan: American inventor best known for his invention of the Gatling gun (q.v.), a crank-operated, multibarrel machine gun, which he patented in 1862.
Gattamelata: bronze statue of the Venetian condottiere Erasmo da Narni, (popularly known as Gattamelata, meaning "honeyed cat") by the 15th-century Italian Early Renaissance sculptor Donatello. It was completed between 1447 and ...
Gatton: town and shire, southern Queensland, Australia. It lies along Lockyer Creek, about 58 miles (93 km) west of Brisbane. Probably named after Gattonside near Roxburgh in the Borders region, Scotland, ...
Gatun Lake: long artificial lake in Panama, constituting part of the Panama Canal system; its area is 166 square miles (430 square km). It was formed by damming the Chagres River and ...
Gaucher's disease: rare inherited metabolic disorder characterized by anemia, mental and neurologic impairment, yellowish pigmentation of the skin, and bone deterioration resulting in pathological fractures. Gaucher's disease results when a defect in ...
Gauches, Cartel des: (French: "Coalition of the Left"), in the French Third Republic (1870-1940), a coalition of left-wing parties in the Chamber of Deputies (lower house of the legislature). It governed France from ...
gaucho: the nomadic and colourful horseman and cowhand of the Argentine and Uruguayan Pampas (grasslands), who flourished from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century and has remained a folk hero similar ...
gaucho literature: Spanish American poetic genre that imitates the payadas ("ballads") traditionally sung to guitar accompaniment by the wandering gaucho minstrels of Argentina and Uruguay. By extension, the term ...
Gauda: a city, a country, and a literary style in ancient India. The city is better-known under its Anglicized form, Gaur. Its first recorded reference is by the grammarian Panini (5th ...
Gaudi, Antoni: Catalan architect, whose distinctive style is characterized by freedom of form, voluptuous colour and texture, and organic unity. Gaudi worked almost entirely in or near Barcelona. Much of his career ...
Gaudier-Brzeska, Henri: French artist who was one of the earliest abstract sculptors and an exponent of the Vorticist movement; he was instrumental in introducing modern art to England during the early years ...
Gaudin, Martin-Michel-Charles, Duc De Gaete: French finance minister throughout the French Consulate and the First Empire (1799-1814) and founder of the Bank of France (1800).
Gaugamela, Battle of: (Oct. 1, 331 BC) clash between the forces of Alexander the Great of Macedonia and Darius III of Persia that decided the fate of the Persian empire. Attempting to stop ...
gauge: a measure of the bore of a shotgun. See bore.
gauge: in railroad transportation, the width between the inside faces of running rails. Because the cost of construction and operation of a rail line is greater or less depending on the ...
gauge: in manufacturing and engineering, a device used to determine, either directly or indirectly, whether a dimension is larger or smaller than another dimension that is used as a reference standard. ...
gauge theory: class of quantum field theory, a mathematical theory involving both quantum mechanics and Einstein's special theory of relativity that is commonly used to describe subatomic particles and their associated wave ...
gauging station: site on a stream, canal, lake, or reservoir where systematic observations of gauge height (water level) or discharge are obtained. From the continuous records obtained at these stations, hydrologists make ...
Gauguin, Paul: French painter, printmaker, and sculptor who sought to achieve a "primitive" expression of spiritual and emotional states in his work. The artist, whose work has been categorized as Post-Impressionist, Synthetist, ...
Gauhati: (India): see Guwahati.
Gaul: the region inhabited by the ancient Gauls, comprising modern-day France and parts of Belgium, western Germany, and northern Italy. A Celtic race, the Gauls lived in an agricultural society divided ...
Gaulish language: ancient Celtic language or languages spoken in western and central Europe and Asia Minor before about 500. Gaulish is attested by inscriptions from France and northern Italy and by names ...
Gaulle, Charles de: French soldier, writer, statesman, and architect of France's Fifth Republic.
Gaultheria: genus of about 100 species of upright or prostrate evergreen shrubs, of the heath family (Ericaceae), occurring in North and South America, Asia, and Australia. The plants are distinguished by ...
Gaultier de Varennes et de la Verendrye, Pierre: (French-Canadian explorer): see La Verendrye, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de.
Gaultier, Denys: celebrated lute virtuoso whose style influenced the French school of harpsichord music.
Gaunilo: Benedictine monk of the Marmoutier Abbey near Tours, France, who opposed St. Anselm of Canterbury's ontological argument for God's existence.