Oxford Reference Search Results

eggshell skull rule   Quick reference

A Dictionary of Law (10 ed.)

... skull rule The rule that a tortfeasor cannot complain if the injuries he has caused turn out to be more serious than expected because his victim suffered from a pre-existing weakness, such as an unusually thin skull. A tortfeasor must take his victim as he finds him ( Smith v Leech Brain & Co Ltd [ 1962 ] 2 QB...

eggshell skull rule   Quick reference

A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (2 ed.)

... skull rule The rule that a tortfeasor or assailant cannot complain if the injuries he has caused turn out to be more serious than expected because his victim suffered from a pre‐existing weakness, such as an unusually thin skull. A tortfeasor or assailant must take his victim as he finds...

eggshell skull rule   Reference library

Australian Law Dictionary (3 ed.)

...eggshell skull rule A principle of compensation in tort which goes to quantification of damages once duty, breach and some damage are established: Tame v New South Wales ( 2002 ) 211 CLR 317. Tortfeasors must take their victims as they find them, so they are liable to vulnerable plaintiffs for additional damage of a foreseeable kind but unforeseeable extent, but not for unforeseeable damage of a different kind: Commonwealth v McLean ( 1996 ) 31 NSWLR 389; see Kavanagh v Aktar ( 1998 ) 45 NSWLR 588. Commonly but erroneously regarded as a principle of remoteness...

causation   Quick reference

A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (2 ed.)

...however, that if a patient is dying from a wound and doctors switch off a life‐support machine because he is clinically dead, the attacker, and not the doctors, ‘caused’ the death. If death results because the victim has some unusual characteristic (e.g. a thin skull: see eggshell skull rule ) or particular belief (e.g. he refuses a blood transfusion on religious grounds), there is no break in causation and the attacker is still guilty . In tort it must be established that the defendant's tortious conduct caused or contributed to the damage to the...

Reptiles   Reference library

The New Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians (2 ed.)

...(dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crocodilians). Although birds' skulls have only one temporal opening, they are also included in this latter group, since the single opening is thought to derive from the fusion of the two diapsid recesses. Euryapsid, or parapsid, a category previously used to describe the skull in the marine reptiles of the Mesozoic (i.e. plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs); it has one apse high on the skull; these reptiles are now thought to be diapsid derivatives. Reptilian Body Plan The skulls of living reptiles: a Tuatara, b Crocodile, c ...

China   Reference library

Sarah Milledge Nelson, Sarah Milledge Nelson, Sarah Milledge Nelson, Adam Kessler, Julie M. Segraves, Julie M. Segraves, Chen Xingcan, and Magnus Fiskesjö

The Oxford Companion To Archaeology (2 ed.)

...with an as-yet-undeciphered eleven-character inscription was retrieved. As the pottery wheel was perfected, the shapes, designs, and dimensions of pottery vessels flourished. Experimentation led to the refining of clays from coarser gray and red pottery to the so-called black “eggshell” pottery of Shandong, which, with the invention of the vertical kiln, was fired at temperatures in excess of 1,830°F (1,000°C). White pottery artifacts retrieved from Dawenkou cultural sites, moreover, were made of clays that contain a high percentage of natural gaolinite. In a...

East Africa   Reference library

Paul J. Lane, Pamela Rae Willoughby, John E. G. Sutton, John E. G. Sutton, Mark Horton, and John E. G. Sutton

The Oxford Companion To Archaeology (2 ed.)

...Lowe for South Africa, and have come to represent the sub-Saharan equivalent of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, respectively. In East Africa there are long sequences of MSA and LSA occupation near Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania. These include Mumba, the “Skull site,” and Nasera. At the skull site, remains of Homo heidelbergensis are associated with a Sangoan occupation, one in which crude core tools occur along with smaller flake tools. Similar Sangoan sites are found in the Western Rift in Kenya, such as Muguruk and Simbi. While the Sangoan was once...

Snakes   Reference library

The New Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians (2 ed.)

...more primitive species such as the boas and pythons, which are often more prominent in males. Snakes' skulls are, for the most part, extremely flexible, with most bones reduced in size and weight and only loosely articulated with one another – a trait that allows the snake to open its mouth widely to accommodate meals that may be several times the diameter of its head. Blindsnakes, which have a diet of small, soft-bodied invertebrates, have more rigid skulls. Snakes' teeth are pointed, very sharp, and directed backwards. They have evolved for grasping and...

Crocodilians   Reference library

The New Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians (2 ed.)

...freshly laid eggs contain multiple sex hormones. These maternal hormones probably influence the sex of offspring, especially at transition temperatures that produce both males and females. Hormones from the environment may also affect developing embryos. Estrogen painted onto an eggshell can change the sex of an embryo incubating at warm temperatures from male to female. Some pollutants, like PCBs and DDT derivatives, have feminizing effects on alligator as well as turtle eggs. On the other hand, using hormones in captive breeding programs to produce females may...

Bibliography, Selected   Reference library

Green's Dictionary of Slang

...[London 1979] Silva, Penny (ed.) A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles ( DSAE ) (Oxford 1996) Simes, Gary A Dictionary of Australian Underworld Slang (Melbourne 1993) Simmons, Herbert Corner Boy (New York 1957) [London 1996] —— Man Walking On Eggshells (London 1962) Simms, Henry The Life of Henry Simms ; Alias Young Gentleman Harry (London 1747) Simms, W. Gilmore Boarder Beagles (New York 1840) —— The Forayers (New York 1855) —— Guy Rivers (New York 1834) —— The Sword and the Distaff (New York 1853) Simon,...

abnormal   Reference library

Australian Law Dictionary (3 ed.)

...ordinary, given the particular context. Thus in tax and finance, an abnormal item (loss, expense, gain, profit) is beyond the normal range of expectations for the business. In torts, a plaintiff may have an abnormality that makes him or her particularly vulnerable ( see eggshell skull rule...

foreseeability   Reference library

Australian Law Dictionary (3 ed.)

...intervening circumstance that was neither foreseeable by that person nor reasonably foreseeable by any person): R v Tralka [ 1965 ] Qd R 225, 228. Intervening act or circumstance does not include an unforeseen pre-existing condition such as the victim’s thin skull ( see eggshell skull rule ; see Mamote-Kulang of Tamagot v R ( 1964 ) 111 CLR...