|
mercaptan
mercaptan or thiol , any of a class of organic compounds containing the group -SH bonded to a carbon atom. The volatile low-molecular-weight mercaptans have disagreeable odors. Mercaptans are found in crude petroleum, and methyl mercaptan is produced as a decay product of animal and vegetable ma...
Read more
|
|
belief
belief in philosophy, commitment to something, involving intellectual assent. Philosophers have disagreed as to whether belief is active or passive; René Descartes held that it is a matter of will, while David Hume thought that it was an emotional commitment, and C. S. Peirce considered it a...
Read more
|
|
|
fusel oil
fusel oil , oily, colorless liquid with a disagreeable odor and taste. It is a mixture of alcohols (largely amyl alcohols) and fatty acids, formed during the alcoholic fermentation of organic materials. After imperfect distillation of these fermentation products it becomes an impurity in the distill...
Read more
|
|
|
free will
free will in philosophy, the doctrine that an individual, regardless of forces external to him, can and does choose at least some of his actions. The existence of free will is challenged by determinism . A denial of free will was implicit in Plato 's argument that, because no one would deliberate...
Read more
|
|
|
Navigation Acts
Navigation Acts in English history, name given to certain parliamentary legislation, more properly called the British Acts of Trade. The acts were an outgrowth of mercantilism , and followed principles laid down by Tudor and early Stuart trade regulations. They had as their purpose the expansion o...
Read more
|
|
|
Church Slavonic
Church Slavonic language belonging to the South Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages ). Although it is still the liturgical language of most branches of the Orthodox Eastern Church, Church Slavonic is extinct today as a spoken tongue. ...
Read more
|
|
Great Depression
Great Depression in U.S. history, the severe economic crisis supposedly precipitated by the U.S. stock-market crash of 1929. Although it shared the basic characteristics of other such crises (see depression ), the Great Depression was unprecedented in its length and in the wholesale poverty and tr...
Read more
|
|
|
Ibn Tumart
Ibn Tumart , c.1080-1130, Berber Muslim religious leader, founder of the Almohads . He went to the East in his youth and returned convinced that he was the Mahdi and that he was destined to reform Islam. He was a rigorist and purist in doctrine and morality. Believing in a mystical concept of the...
Read more
|
|
|
Sir Milton Margai
Sir Milton Margai , 1895-1964, prime minister of Sierra Leone (1961-64). A prominent doctor, he turned to politics in 1949 and led his country to independence (1961) while serving as chief minister (1954-61). He was knighted in 1959. Milton died in office and was followed as prime minister by his br...
Read more
|
|
|
paraldehyde
paraldehyde , nervous system depressant similar to alcohol in its effects and used as a sedative . A colorless flammable liquid with a disagreeable odor, paraldehyde produces sleep for up to 12 hr. with little or no muscle, heart, or respiratory depression. It is often given to alcoholics having ...
Read more
|
