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Homunculi
A homunculus ( , , ; "little person") is a representation of a small human being, originally depicted as small statues made out of clay. Popularized in sixteenth-century alchemy and nineteenth-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human. The concept has roots in preformationism as well as earlier folklore and alchemic traditions. The term lends its name to the cortical homunculus, an image of a person with the size of the body parts distorted to represent how much area of the cerebral cortex of the brain is devoted to it. History Alchemy The homunculus first appears by name in alchemical writings attributed to Paracelsus (1493–1541). ''De natura rerum'' (1537) outlines his method for creating homunculi: Comparisons have been made with several similar concepts in the writings of earlier alchemists. Although the actual word "homunculus" was never used, Carl Jung believed that the concept first appeared in the ''Visions of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cortical Homunculus
A cortical homunculus () is a distorted representation of the human body, based on a neurological "map" of the areas and proportions of the human brain dedicated to processing motor functions, or sensory functions, for different parts of the body. Nerve fibresconducting somatosensory information from all over the bodyterminate in various areas of the parietal lobe in the cerebral cortex, forming a representational map of the body. Types A motor homunculus represents a map of brain areas dedicated to ''motor'' processing for different anatomical divisions of the body. The primary motor cortex is located in the precentral gyrus, and handles signals coming from the premotor area of the frontal lobes. A sensory homunculus represents a map of brain areas dedicated to ''sensory'' processing for different anatomical divisions of the body. The primary sensory cortex is located in the postcentral gyrus, and handles signals coming from the thalamus. The thalamus itself re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicolas Hartsoeker
Nicolaas Hartsoeker (26 March 1656 – 10 December 1725) was a Dutch mathematician and physicist who invented the screw-barrel simple microscope . Biography He was the son of Anna van der Meij and Christiaan Hartsoeker (1626–1683), a Remonstrant minister in Moordrecht near Gouda. His father took the family to Alkmaar in 1661 and finally to Rotterdam in 1669. Nicolaas started to make a living as a lens maker in Rotterdam, and was instructed in optics by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. In 1674, he and a fellow student, assisted by Van Leeuwenhoek, were the first to observe semen, a situation that would later lead to a priority dispute between Hartsoeker and Leeuwenhoek over the discovery of spermatozoids. In 1677, Hartsoeker met Christiaan Huygens and initiated him in the making of lenses. In June 1678, Hartsoeker accompanied, in the role of an assistant, Huygens on a trip to Paris, where they made a great impression with their microscopes. However, Huygens failed to mention Hartsoek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zosimos Of Panopolis
Zosimos of Panopolis ( el, Ζώσιμος ὁ Πανοπολίτης; also known by the Latin name Zosimus Alchemista, i.e. "Zosimus the Alchemist") was a Greco-Egyptian alchemist and Gnostic mystic who lived at the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th century AD. He was born in Panopolis (present day Akhmim, in the south of Roman Egypt), and flourished ca. 300. He wrote the oldest known books on alchemy, which he called "Cheirokmeta," using the Greek word for "things made by hand." Pieces of this work survive in the original Greek language and in translations into Syriac or Arabic. He is one of about 40 authors represented in a compendium of alchemical writings that was probably put together in Constantinople in the 7th or 8th century AD, copies of which exist in manuscripts in Venice and Paris. Stephen of Alexandria is another. Arabic translations of texts by Zosimos were discovered in 1995 in a copy of the book ''Keys of Mercy and Secrets of Wisdom'' by Ibn Al-Hassan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Preformationism
In the history of biology, preformationism (or preformism) is a formerly popular theory that organisms develop from miniature versions of themselves. Instead of assembly from parts, preformationists believed that the form of living things exist, in real terms, prior to their development.Maienschein, Jane,Epigenesis and Preformationism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). It suggests that all organisms were created at the same time, and that succeeding generations grow from homunculi, or animalcules, that have existed since the beginning of creation, which is typically defined by religious beliefs. EpigenesisAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary: It is also worth quoting this adumbration of the definition given there (viz., "The formation of an organic germ as a new product"): (or neoformism), then, in this context, is the denial of preformationism: the idea that, in some sense, the form of living things comes into exist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golem
A golem ( ; he, , gōlem) is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is entirely created from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century rabbi of Prague. According to ''Moment'' magazine, "the golem is a highly mutable metaphor with seemingly limitless symbolism. It can be a victim or villain, Jew or non-Jew, man or woman—or sometimes both. Over the centuries, it has been used to connote war, community, isolation, hope, and despair."Cooper, MarilynJewish Word , Golem" ''Moment''. 17 July 2017. 24 August 2017. Etymology The word ''golem'' occurs once in the Bible in Psalm 139:16, which uses the word (; my golem), that means "my light form", "raw" material, connoting the unfinished human being before God's eyes. The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person: "Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one", () ( Pirkei Avot 5: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shroud
Shroud usually refers to an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to ''burial sheets'', mound shroud, grave clothes, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the famous Shroud of Turin, '' tachrichim'' (burial shrouds) that Jews are dressed in for burial, or the white cotton ''kaffan'' sheets Muslims are wrapped in for burial. A traditional Orthodox Jewish shroud consists of a tunic; a hood; pants that are extra-long and sewn shut at the bottom, so that separate foot coverings are not required; and a belt, which is tied in a knot shaped like the Hebrew letter ''shin'', mnemonic of one of God's names, Shaddai. Traditionally, mound shrouds are made of white cotton, wool or linen, though any material can be used so long as it is made of natural fibre. Intermixture of two or more such fibres is forbidden, a proscription that ultimately derives from the Torah, ''viz.'', Deut. 22:11. An especially pious Jewish m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animalcules
Animalcule ('little animal', from Latin ''animal'' + the diminutive suffix ''-culum'') is an old term for microscopic organisms that included bacteria, protozoans, and very small animals. The word was invented by 17th-century Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek to refer to the microorganisms he observed in rainwater. Some better-known types of animalcule include: * '' Actinophrys'', and other heliozoa, termed sun animalcules. * ''Amoeba'', termed ''Proteus'' animalcules. * '' Noctiluca scintillans'', commonly termed the sea sparkles. * ''Paramecium'', termed slipper animalcules. * ''Rotifers'', termed wheel animalcules. * '' Stentor'', termed trumpet animalcules. * ''Vorticella'', and other peritrichs, termed bell animalcules. The concept seems to have been proposed at least as early as about 30 BC, as evidenced by this translation from Marcus Varro's ''Rerum Rusticarum Libri Tres'': Note also if there be any swampy ground, both for the reasons given above, and because ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chrysopoeia
In alchemy, the term chrysopoeia (from Greek , ', "gold-making") refers to the artificial production of gold, most commonly by the alleged transmutation of base metals such as lead. A related term is argyropoeia (, ', "silver-making"), referring to the artificial production of silver, often by transmuting copper. Although alchemists pursued many different goals, the making of gold and silver remained one of the defining ambitions of alchemy throughout its history, from Zosimus of Panopolis (c. 300) to Robert Boyle (1627–1691). The word was used in the title of a brief alchemical work, the ''Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra'' attributed to Cleopatra the Alchemist, which was probably written in the first centuries of the Christian era, but which is first found on a single leaf in a tenth-to-eleventh century manuscript in the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, MS Marciana gr. Z. 299. The document features an ouroboros containing the words "the all is one" (, '), a concept that is related to H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
March Equinox
The March equinox or northward equinox is the equinox on the Earth when the subsolar point appears to leave the Southern Hemisphere and cross the celestial equator, heading northward as seen from Earth. The March equinox is known as the vernal equinox (spring equinox) in the Northern Hemisphere and as the autumnal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. On the Gregorian calendar, the northward equinox can occur as early as 19 March or as late as 21 March at 0° longitude. For a common year the computed time slippage is about 5 hours 49 minutes ''later'' than the previous year, and for a leap year about 18 hours 11 minutes ''earlier'' than the previous year. Balancing the increases of the common years against the losses of the leap years keeps the calendar date of the March equinox from drifting more than one day from 20 March each year. The March equinox may be taken to mark the beginning of astronomical spring and the end of astronomical winter in the Northern Hemisphere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bryonia Alba
''Bryonia alba'' (also known as white bryony or wild hop) is a vigorous vine in the family Cucurbitaceae, found in Europe and Northern Iran. It has a growth habit similar to kudzu, which gives it a highly destructive potential outside its native range as a noxious weed. Other common names include false mandrake, English mandrake, wild vine, and wild hops, wild nep, tamus, ladies' seal, and tetterbury. Description An herbaceous, perennial vine of the cucumber family, white bryony is monoecious but diclinous (separate male and female flowers found on the same plant) with a tuberous yellow root. Greenish-white flowers are across. Long curling tendrils, flowers, and fruit all stem from axils of palmately lobed leaves. The fruit is a berry which blackens as it ripens. Distribution White bryony is native to Europe and Northern Iran. It has also been introduced to the United States, where it is listed as a noxious weed in Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Ecology Birds are the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Baptiste Pitois
Jean-Baptiste Pitois, also known as Jean-Baptiste or Paul Christian (1811–1877), was a French author, known for ''The History and Practice of Magic'', first published in France in 1870. Early life Jean-Baptiste Pitois was born May 15, 1811, in Remiremont, France. His family wanted him to become a priest and allowed him to be raised in a monastic community. However, he eventually decided against the priesthood. As a young man, he moved to Paris, where he became the associate of Charles Nodier, one of the leading literary lights of the Romantic movement, which was then emerging on the continent. Nodier's interest in the occult transferred to Pitois. Career Pitois became a journalist and wrote largely under the pen name ''Paul Christian''. He co-wrote ''Historic Paris: Walks in the Streets of Paris'' (1837-1840), which was his first book, with Nodier. It was followed by his ''Studies of the Paris Revolution'' (1839). That same year he was appointed librarian of the Ministry of Pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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