Epicycloid
A curve generated by a point in the circumference of a movable circle, as it rolls upon another circle. The teeth of driving wheels are usually of this form.
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Single-source entries: E (26)
These 13 listings are so strange that each appears in only one of the 7 encyclopedias we compared. They include such classics as Epicycloid, Epidemic, Epidermis.
Epidemic
a disease which attacks many persons at the same time at different places, spreading with great rapidity, extremely virulent and fatal at the first onset, gradually becoming spent and feeble, so that the early cases are usually the worst. The plague, cholera, smallpox, and influenza are epidemics, and other infectious diseases are among the number.
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Epidermis
in human anatomy, the cuticle or scarf-skin constituting the external layer of the skin, and protecting It is thickest in the the inner ones. palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, where the skin is much exposed to pressure. In comparative anatomy, a somewhat similar cuticle in several animals; also a layer of animal matter covering the shells of mollusks. In botany, the true skin of a plant below also the general integument the cuticle; le; as a whole, divided into cuticle and derma.
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Epiglottis
a cartilaginous valve which partly closes the aperture of the larynx.
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Epigoni
. See Seven Against Thebes
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Epilogue
the closing speech or short poem addressed to the audience at the end of a play. The epilogue, is the opposite of the prologue, or opening address. ÉPINAL, chief town of the department ted at the W. base of the Vosges Mountains, on of the Vosges, France, situated both banks of the Moselle, and about 260 miles E. S. E. from Paris. It was in this region that the French forces attempted to launch an offensive against the Germans in Alsace-Lorraine, shortly after the beginning of the World War, in August, 1914, but were strongly repulsed. The French were able to hold their lines just E. of Epinal. Pop. about -30,000.
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Epimenides
A celebrated poet and prophet of Crete , whose history is largely mythical. He is said to have fallen asleep one day, when wearied from a long search for some missing sheep, and not to have awakened for fiftyseven years. It is, however, an historical fact that he came to Athens on the invitation of the citizens, and undertook the purification of the city in B. c. 596. St. Paul has preserved a famous verse of his against the Cretans (Titus 1 : 12). Epirus (The Mainland). A country in the northwest of Greece, so called to distinguish it from Corcyra and the other islands off the coast. 2026 Editor's Note: The verse St. Paul preserved in Titus 1:12—calling Cretans 'liars, evil beasts, idle bellies'—is the origin of the Epimenides paradox . This self-referential statement, often misquoted as 'All Cretans are liars,' is discussed in logic and in works like Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach . Although the original phrasing does not create a true logical paradox, it remains a famous early example of self-reference in philosophy. (Ed: BR 2026-07-04)
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Epiphany
Church a festival, observed on Jan. 6 in honor of the adoration of our Saviour by the three magi, or wise men, who came to adore Him and bring Him presents, led by the star. As a separate festival it dates from 813.
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Epirus
a province of ancient Greece, now forming the S. part of Albania. It was separated from Grecian Illyria by the Ceraunian Mountains, and by the famous river Pindus from Thessaly. The river Acheron, also famous in mythological story, flowed through its limits. Here were also the celebrated temple and sacred grove of Dodona. Pyrrhus, King of Macedon, was a native of Epirus, which country passed successively into the hands of the Romans and the Turks. It was ceded to Greece by the Turks in 1881. EPISCOPAL CHURCH. See PROTES- TANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH; REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
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Epitaph
an inscription on a tomb or monument in honor or memory of the dead. Epitaphs were in use both among the Greeks and Romans. The Greeks distinguished by epitaphs only their illustrious men. Among the Romans they became a family institution, and private names were regularly recorded on tombstones. The same practice has generally prevailed in Christian countries. EPIZOÖTIC, or EPIZOÖTIC DIS-
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Epoch
in ordinary language, a point of time from which a new computation of years is begun. Technical uses: History. A point of time in which an event of such importance takes place that its influence is powerfully felt in all succeeding time. Geology. The term is sometimes used for period, as the Tertiary epoch; this sense of the word is loose and objectionable, as the term epoch more properly refers to the moment at which a new space of time commences than to its whole duration. Astronomy. The longitude which a planet has at any given moment of time. To predict this for any future period the longitude at a certain instant in the past must be known; that instant is the epoch of the planet, which is an abbreviation for its longitude at that epoch. An epoch and an era are different. Both mark important events, but an era is an epoch which is chronologically dated from; an epoch is not marked in this way. The birth of Christ and the Reformation were both of them highly important epochs in the history of mankind; the former, the inconceivably greater event of the two, gave rise to the Christian era; but the Protestant nations and Churches do not any of them reckon time from the Reformation. The birth of Christ was, therefore, both an epoch and an era, the Reformation an epoch only.
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Epsom Salt
sulphate of magnesium (Mg SO. 7H2O), a cathartic salt which appears in capillary fibers or acicular crystals. It is found covering crevices of rocks, in mineral springs, etc.; but is commonly prepared by artificial procfrom magnesian limestone by esses treating it with sulphuric acid, or by dissolving the mineral kieserite (Mg SO. H₂O) in boiling water, allowing the insoluble matter to settle, and crystallizing out the Epsom salt from the clear solution. It is employed in medicine as a purgative, and in the arts. See EPSOM. American
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Epstein
JACOB, an sculptor. He was born in New York, 1880, and was educated in the New York public schools. He then took up sculpture and after producing several minor works was commissioned in 1907 to execute eighteen figures to decorate the recently erected building of the British Medical Association in London. The work, with the strongly marked anatomy of the figures, aroused much adverse criticism, though it had its defenders. In 1909 he was commissioned to execute the tomb of Oscar Wilde for the Père Lachaise Ceme- 1 tery, Paris; the tomb was carved out of Derbyshire marble. Later he decorated the Church Square, Pretoria, and in 1919 his figure of Christ caused much comment.
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