A concordat is a convention between the pope, as head of the Roman Catholic Church, and any secular government, for the settling of ecclesiastical relations. One of the most important of the earlier concordats, that of Worms, called also the Calixtine Concordat, made in 1122, between PopeCalixtus II and the Emperor Henry V, has been regarded as the fundamental law of the church in Germany. Another celebrated concordat was that agreed upon between Cardinal Gonsalvi, in the name of Pius VII, and Napoleon in July, 1801. By it the head of the state had the nomination of bishops to the vacant sees; the clergy became subject in temporal matters to the civil power; all immunities, ecclesiastical courts, and jurisdictions were abolished in France, and even the regulations of the public worship and religious ceremonies and the pastoral addresses of the clergy, were placed under the control of the secular authorities. This concordat was practically abrogated in 1905 by the separation of church and state. The government had previously broken off diplomatic relations with the papacy. Research Concordat
Ear-cockle is a disease in wheat caused by the presence in the grain of worms belonging to the genus Vibrio. The disease is also called purples in some parts of England. Research Ear-Cockle
Head is the term applied to the anterior part of the body of an animal when marked off by a difference in size, or by a constriction (neck). A gradual increase of complexity in the structure of the head is observable as we ascend from the lowest to the highest forms of life. In the Protozoa, Infusoria, and Coelenterates nothing that can be regarded as a head is found, and it is not until we ascend to the worms proper, the articulated animals (crustaceans, myriapods, spiders, and insects), the land and fresh-water gasteropods (snails and whelks), and the cuttle-fishes, that a head proper is found.
The cuttle-fishes have a remarkable cartilaginous box, which, like a skull, protects their anterior nervous ganglia and gives support to the muscles. The head of the vertebrated animals presents a regular series of increasing complexity from the lancelet upwards, and as the anterior nervous mass enlarges, and its ganglia increase in complexity, so do the anterior vertebra change their character; as the brain becomes specialized, so does the brain-case or skull, attaining its highest development in man.
In man, and in the higher vertebrates, the head consists of an upper chamber, lodging the brain, the eyes, and other sense organs, and a lower, lodging the first portion of the alimentarycanal. In proportion as the vertebrates become developed, the brain increases in size, and its position advances anteriorly, until, in man, it comes to overhang the face.
Head is the unit of measurement of cattle. Thus a herd of 100 cattle is referred to as 100 head.
Acamthocephala are a compact group of cylindrical, parasitic worms, with no near allies in the animal kingdom. Its members are quite devoid of any mouth or alimentarycanal, but have a well-developed body cavity into which the eggs are dehisced and which communicates with the exterior by means of an oviduct. The size of the animals varies greatly, from some forms a few millimetres in length to Gigantorhynchus gigas, which measures from ten to 65 centimetres. The adults live in great numbers in the alimentarycanal of some vertebrate, usually fish, the larvae are as a rule encysted in the body cavity of some invertebrate, most often an insect or crustacean, more rarely a small fish. The body is divisible into a proboscis and a trunk with sometimes an intervening neck region. Research Acamthocephala
Alternate generation or metagenesis is that kind of multiplication, seen in some invertebrate animals or even in plants, in which parents produce progeny unlike, sometimes extremely unlike, themselves, while this unlike progeny give rise to others resembling the original forms. Sometimes there are more than one unlike form between these like forms. The Hydrozoa abundantly illustrate this phenomenon, also the Echinoderms, Polyzoa, Tunicata, the wheel animalcules, Nematoid worms, flat-worms, tape-worms, several of the true Annelids; among Crustaceans, Daphnia, the Phyllopods; among Insects, the plant-lice.
The steps may be seen in certain of the Hydroid Polyps, thus: (1) There is an ovum or egg, free-swimming and impregnated. (2) This ovum attaches itself to a fixed submarine object, and develops into an organized animal. (3) This organism produces buds or zooids, often of two kinds - one set nutritive, the other generative - unlike each other and unlike their parent, the whole forming a hydroid colony. (4) The generative set mature eggs, which on being liberated become the free-swimming ova (No. 1), and the cycle is renewed. A somewhat similar phenomenon is that of parthenogenesis. Research Alternate Generation
American wormseed (Chenopodium ambrosioides) or Mexican tea as it is also known, is a poisonous annual herb of the family Chenopodiaceae with a branched, reddish, leafy stem. The leaves are alternate and rectangular to lanceolate and coarsely toothed. The numerous small yellowish-green flowers are crowded together in small globose clusters in the leaf axils on the lateral stems. The fruit is an achene. American wormseed was introduced to Europe from tropical America during the 17th century, and acclimatized itself to some parts of Europe, but not Britain. In South America the leaves were formerly used to make an infusion of tea, but the principal use of the plant was in medicine to expel intestinal worms. Research American Wormseed
Amphibia (the amphibians) is a class of vertebrate animals, which in their early life breathe by gills or branchiae, and afterwards partly or entirely by lungs. The Frog, breathing in its tadpole state by gills and afterwards throwing off these organs and breathing entirely by lungs in its adult state, is an example of the latter phase of amphibian existence. The Proteus of the underground caves of Central Europe exemplifies forms in which the gills of early life are retained throughout life, and in which lungs are developed in addition to the gills. A second character of this group consists in the presence of two occipital condyles, or processes by means of which the skull articulates with the spine or vertebral column; Reptiles possessing one condyle only. The class is divided into four orders: the Ophiomorpha (or serpentiform), represented by the Blind-worms, in which limbs are wanting and the body is snake-like ; the Urodela or Tailed Amphibians, including the Newts, Proteus, Siren, etc; theAnoura, or Tailless Amphibia, represented by the Frogs and Toads; and the Labyrinthodontia, which includes the extinct forms known as Labyrinthodons. Research Amphibia
Anarthropoda is one of the two great divisions (the Arthropoda being the other) of the Annulosa, or ringed animals, in which there are no articulated appendages. It includes the leeches, earthworms, tube-worms, etc. Research Anarthropoda
Anatidae is the duck, geese and swan family of birds of the order Natatores. They are characterized by a thick, broad beak, high at the base, covered with a thin membranous skin and ending in a nail-like horny tip; the edges of the mandibles are cut into thin parallel ridges, or toothed; the wings are moderate; the legs placed not very far behind; the feet are four-toed and palmated; the hind toe is free, placed high on the tarsus. They feed on grass and aquatic weeds, worms, insects, molluscs and small fish. Research Anatidae
Annelid is any segmented worm of the Phylum Annelida. Annelids include earthworms, leeches, and marine worms such as lugworms. They have a distinct head and soft body, which is divided into a number of similar segments shut off from one another internally by membranous partitions, but there are no jointed appendages. They have red, rarely yellow or green, blood circulating in a double system of contractile vessels, a double ganglionated nervous cord, and respire by external branchiae, internal vesicles, or by the skin. Their organs of motion consist of bristles or setar, which are usually attached to the lateral surfaces of each segment, the bristles being borne on 'foot processes' or parapodia. The number of body segments varies. As many as 400 may be found in some sea-worms. A complete digestive system is developed, consisting of a mouth - armed with horny jaws and a protrusible proboscis - gizzard, stomach, and intestine. Research Annelid
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Concordat
