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Meech Lake Accord
Meech Lake Accord set of constitutional reforms designed to induce Quebec to accept the Canada Act . The Accord's five basic points, proposed by Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa, include a guarantee of Quebec's special status as a "distinct society" and a commitment to Canada's linguistic dualit...
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buffer
buffer solution that can keep its relative acidity or alkalinity constant, i.e., keep its p H constant, despite the addition of strong acids or strong bases. Buffer solutions are frequently solutions that contain either a weak acid and one of its salts or a weak base and one of its salts. Many aci...
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Ferdinand Hodler
Ferdinand Hodler , 1853-1918, Swiss painter and lithographer. At first he worked in an ornamental style akin to art nouveau. Inclined toward mysticism, he visited Paris in 1891 and was attracted to the symbolist group around Gauguin. Hodler then evolved his own powerful means of expression with stro...
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electromagnet
electromagnet device in which magnetism is produced by an electric current. Any electric current produces a magnetic field, but the field near an ordinary straight conductor is rarely strong enough to be of practical use. A strong field can be produced if an insulated wire is wrapped around a sof...
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pseudocyesis
pseudocyesis , imaginary pregnancy in women usually resulting from a strong desire or need for motherhood. In the absence of conception, the menstrual periods nevertheless cease, the abdomen becomes enlarged and the breasts swell and even secrete milk, mimicking genuine pregnancy. The uterus and cer...
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Gaston Doumergue
Gaston Doumergue , 1863-1937, president of the French republic (1924-31). He entered national politics in 1893 as a Radical Socialist deputy and served in various cabinets before and during World War I. After serving as president he retired, but when the cabinet of Édouard Daladier fell in ...
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Bessie Head
Bessie Head 1937-86, South African writer. Born in South Africa to a white mother and black father, she was placed in foster homes and orphanages as a child. After 1964, she lived in exile in Botswana. Her candid writing voiced her strong concerns about racism, economic stagnation, and the status o...
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tugboat
tugboat small, strongly built vessel, used to guide large oceangoing ships into and out of port and to tow barges, dredging and salvage equipment, and disabled vessels. Tugboats range in overall length from 70 to 210 ft (21-64 m), and their engines generate from 750 to 3,000 horsepower. Steam power...
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Crab Nebula
Crab Nebula diffuse gaseous nebula in the constellation Taurus; cataloged as NGC 1952 and M1, the first object recorded in Charles Messier's catalog of nonstellar objects. It is the remnant of a supernova that was observed in 1054 by Chinese and Arab astronomers to be as bright as Venus; markin...
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Thomas Brackett Reed
Thomas Brackett Reed 1839-1902, American legislator, b. Portland, Maine. A lawyer, he served in the state assembly (1868-69) and state senate (1870) and became (1870-73) state attorney general before he was elected (1876) as a Republican to the U.S. Congress. Reed quickly took his place among the l...
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