The gallbladder is a small sac that stores and concentrates bile, a bitter fluid that aids in the emulsification of fats. In some people, small, pebble-like masses composed chiefly of cholesterol, calcium salts, and bile pigments form in the gallbladder or bile ducts. The presence of gallstones can lead to painful obstruction or infection and […]
Grapeshot is a cluster of small iron balls loaded into a canvas bag and fired from a cannon. When a grapeshot-loaded cannon is fired, the balls disperse at a high velocity, causing devastation similar to that of a scaled-up shotgun. This ammunition was especially effective against infantry massed at close range and was used until […]
Rhyta are ancient, hornlike drinking vessels that often feature a wide mouth and a pierced, pointed bottom. This design allows a rhyton to function as both a scoop for liquids contained in a larger storage vessel and, when the hole at its base is unstoppered, as a pouring device. Rhyta are often shaped like animal […]
Born Martha Jane Canary, Calamity Jane was a legendary American frontierswoman. She grew up in Montana and worked in mining camps, where she acquired riding and shooting skills. In 1876, she appeared in Deadwood, South Dakota, the site of new gold strikes, boasting of her marksmanship and her exploits as a pony-express rider and as […]
Bleuler was a Swiss psychiatrist who in 1908 introduced the term "schizophrenia." While studying schizophrenic patients, Bleuler concluded that the disease was not one of dementia, a condition involving organic deterioration of the brain, but one consisting of a state of mind in which contradictory tendencies exist together. He argued, against the prevailing opinion, that […]
Greatly admired in his time, Arbuthnot was a Scottish scientist, mathematician, and satirist. The court physician to Queen Anne, he is best remembered for his five "John Bull" pamphlets, political satires on the Whig war policy that introduced the character John Bull, a personification of England akin to the American Uncle Sam. With his friends […]
The Illuminati were members of a rationalistic society founded in Germany by Adam Weishaupt. Having close affinities with the Freemasons and seemingly organized on a Masonic plan, the group was briefly very popular among German rationalists but had limited influence. The Roman Catholic Church, which Weishaupt left in his youth and rejoined before his death, […]
On April 30, 1975, Saigon, the largest city in Vietnam and the capital of South Vietnam, was captured by the National Liberation Front and the People's Army of Vietnam. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War (1955-1975) and the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule. The city lost its status as the country's […]
During WWII, the Royal Air Force delivered 6,680 tons of food into parts of the German-occupied Netherlands, with the acquiescence of the occupying forces, to feed starving Dutch citizens suffering from a famine that ultimately claimed 18,000 lives. Operation Manna, as it was called, was named for the food that the Book of Exodus says […]