temperature, body: see body temperature; fever.

or pineal body

Endocrine gland in the brain that produces melatonin. It is large in children and begins to shrink at puberty. The gland may play a significant role in sexual maturation, circadian rhythm and sleep induction, and seasonal affective disorder and depression. In animals it is known to play a major role in sexual development, hibernation, and seasonal breeding.

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Metaphysical problem of the relationship between mind and body. The modern problem stems from the thought of René Descartes, who is responsible for the classical formulation of dualism. Descartes's interactionism had many critics even in his own day. Thomas Hobbes denied the existence of mental substance. Materialism of a sort was also supported by Descartes's correspondent Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655). Benedict de Spinoza posited a single substance of which the mental and the material are attributes; his theory is known as psycho-physical parallelism. More recent views include the double-aspect theory, identity theory, eliminative materialism (which denies the reality of the familiar categories of mental state posited in so-called folk psychology), and theories of supervenience.

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Intentional alteration of the human body for religious, aesthetic, or social reasons. Modifications and mutilations are performed for purposes such as magical protection, medical or pseudo-medical intervention, cosmetic enhancement, and punishment. Alterations include head flattening, insertion of a lip plug, tattoos, scarification, piercing of the ear and other parts of the body, circumcision, foot binding, and amputation. That similar modifications are interpreted very differently from one culture to the next is an excellent indication of the relativity of ideals of beauty and deformity.

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Opaque watercolour. Also known as poster paint, designer's colour, and body colour, it differs from transparent watercolour in that the pigments are bound by liquid glue, which is used as a thinner. The addition of white pigment lightens the tone and lends opacity. Gouache paints dry to a matte finish and, if desired, without visible brush marks. They can be applied thinly or thickly. A wide range of colours are available, including fluorescent and metallic pigments. The suede finish and crisp lines characteristic of many Indian and Islamic miniature paintings is produced by this medium; it is used in Western screen and fan decoration and was used by modern artists such as Georges Rouault and Paul Klee.

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or body armour

Protective clothing that can shield the wearer from weapons and projectiles. By extension, armour is also protective covering for animals, vehicles, and so on. Prehistoric warriors used leather hides and helmets. Chinese warriors used rhinoceros skin in the 11th century BC, and Greek infantry wore thick, multilayered metal-and-linen cuirasses (armour covering the body from neck to waist) in the 5th century BC. Shirts of chain mail were worn throughout the Roman Empire, and mail was the chief armour of western Europe until the 14th century. Ancient Greeks and Romans used armour made of rigid metal plates, which reappeared in Europe around the 13th century. Plate armour dominated European design until the 17th century, when firearms began to make it obsolete. It began to disappear in the 18th century, but the helmet reappeared in World War I and became standard equipment. Modern body armour (the bulletproof vest) covers the chest and sometimes the groin; it is a flexible garment reinforced with steel plates, fibreglass, boron carbide, or multiple layers of synthetic fabric such as Kevlar.

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(born May 16, 1832, Stockbridge, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 6, 1901, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. entrepreneur and innovator. Armour's first entrepreneurial success was in California mining endeavours. He vastly expanded his family's Midwestern grain and meatpacking business in 1875, originating the use of byproducts and the sale of canned meat. When railcar refrigeration was introduced in the 1880s (see Gustavus Franklin Swift), he established distributing plants in eastern states and began exporting Armour meat products to Europe. His Armour & Co. enterprises helped make Chicago the meatpacking capital of the world.

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(born May 16, 1832, Stockbridge, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 6, 1901, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. entrepreneur and innovator. Armour's first entrepreneurial success was in California mining endeavours. He vastly expanded his family's Midwestern grain and meatpacking business in 1875, originating the use of byproducts and the sale of canned meat. When railcar refrigeration was introduced in the 1880s (see Gustavus Franklin Swift), he established distributing plants in eastern states and began exporting Armour meat products to Europe. His Armour & Co. enterprises helped make Chicago the meatpacking capital of the world.

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Theoretical surface that absorbs all radiant energy that falls on it, and radiates electromagnetic energy at all frequencies, from radio waves to gamma rays, with an intensity distribution dependent on its temperature. Because all visible light falling on such a surface is absorbed without reflection, the surface will appear black as long as its temperature is such that its emission peak is not in the visible portion of the spectrum. Seealso absorption.

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With regard to living things, a body is the integral physical material of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death. The study of the workings of the body is physiology.

Human body

The human body mostly consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs.

Limitation

In some contexts, a superficial element of a body, such as hair may be regarded as not a part of it, even while attached. The same is true of excretable substances, such as stool, both while residing in the body and afterwards. Plants composed of more than one cell are not normally regarded as possessing a body.

Variations

The body of a dead person is also called a corpse, for humans, or cadaver. The dead bodies of vertebrate animals, insects and humans are sometimes called carcasses. The study of the structure of the body is called anatomy.

Antonym

In the views emerging from the mind-body dichotomy, the body is considered in behavior and therefore considered as little valued and trivial. Many modern philosophers of mind maintain that the mind is not something separate from the body.

See also

See also: regarding corpses

References