Smelt, common name for a small, slender fish of the family Osmeridae, closely allied to the grayling of the family Salmonidae (salmon family). Most species are marine, but some ascend freshwat...

Salmon, member of the Salmonidae, a family of marine fish that spawn in freshwater, including the salmons, the trouts, and the chars. Many authorities place the whitefish and the grayling amon...

Hazlitt, William, 1778–1830, English essayist. The son of a reform-mindeed Unitarian minister, he abandoned the idea of entering the clergy and took up painting, philosophy, and later journali...

Descartes, René, Lat. Renatus Cartesius, 1596–1650, French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, b. La Haye. Descartes' methodology was a major influence in the transition from medieval s...