Newton was born in 1642.

The word philosophy means "I love wisdom."

Astrology rightly means the science of the stars.

Galileo constructed the first refracting telescope.

The term science comes from the Latin scio, I know.

At the equator the limit of perpetual snow is 14,400 feet.

Perigee is that point in the moon's orbit nearest the earth.

Torricelli, a pupil of Galileo, invented the barometer in 1643.

The principle of the pendulum was discovered by Galileo in 1583.

Among all rude nations the healing art is practiced by the priests.

The Leyden Jar was invented by Muschenbrock, of Leyden, in 1746.

Perihelion is that point of a planet's orbit in which it is nearest the sun.

The first balloon ascent was made in 1783 by Joseph and Stephen Montgolfier.

Froebel reminds us that nature supplies the raw material, education is the manufacturer.

As physics means the science of matter, it is about synonymous with natural philosophy.

Aphelion is that point in the elliptical orbit of a planet which is most remote from the sun.

The inductive school of philosophy, on which modern science has been developed, began about 1624.

The horse-power of Niagara is three and one quarter million nominal, equal to ten million horses effective.

Three miles an hour is about the average speed of the gulf stream; at certain places, however, this speed is considerably increased.

Cuvier says: "In the exact sciences at least, it is the patience of a sound intellect, when invincible, which truly constitutes genius."

Satellites are small members of the solar system, taking the place of attendants of the larger planets, by which their motions are controlled.

On shipboard the term Binnacle is given to a wooden box or case containing the compass, together with a lamp and other necessary apparatus.

The crow flies at the rate of but twenty-five miles per hour. The sparrow hawk flies six times as far, or 150 miles, in the same length of time.

Rider Haggard makes a scientific error when in "King Solomon's Mines" he describes a lunar eclipse taking place at the new moon instead of at the full.

The Arctic whale never migrates to the southward as most species of whales do, because of its inability to live in the heated waters of the southern seas.

The carbon of the food, mixed with the oxygen of the air, furnishes fuel for the body, which evolves the heat in exactly the same way that a fire or candle does.

The smallest tree in Great Britain grows on the summit of Ben Lomond. It is the dwarf willow, which is mature when it attains the height of two inches.

Lightning is zig-zag because, as it condenses the air in the immediate advance of its path it flies from side to side in order to pass where there is the least resistance to its progress.

Generally speaking, we say that the curvature of the earth amounts to about seven inches to the statute mile; it is exactly 6.99 inches, or 7.962 inches for a geographical mile.

The sciences that have been educed from reason are called abstract, those that depend on cause and effect are natural, and those assumed to be complete are exact sciences.

Good clear ice, two inches thick, will bear men to walk on; four inches thick will bear horses and riders; six inches thick will bear horses and teams with moderate loads.

The normal temperature of man is about 98.5 degrees; of the snail, 76 degrees; oyster, 82 degrees; porpoise, 100 degrees; sheep, 104 degrees; hog, 105 degrees; chicken, 11 degrees.

To discover the weight of our earth, Cavendish makes it 5,480 times the weight of water, and the total weight to be 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,-000 tons (i. e. 6,000,000 trillions).

The properties and use of the mariner's compass were known to the Chinese centuries ago. It was brought to Europe in the thirteenth century, and first used on the Mediterranean.

That fragile and paradoxical wonder, the "snow plant," which is found in the Sierra Nevada mountains, is pronounced by western botanists as probably our most remarkable plant.

One horse-power will raise 16½ tons per minute a height of twelve inches, working eight hours a day. This is about nine thousand nine hundred foot-tons daily, or twelve times a man's work.

A gray, green, or yellowish green sunset indicates rain. A red sunset means rain. A deep blue sky means fair weather. A growing whiteness, a storm. Unusually bright or twinkling stars mean rain.

Plants breathe through the "stomata" or breathing-pores in the leaves. In case the plant or tree is of the leafless variety the stem, which is also provided with stomata, performs the office of breathing.

In the manufactnre of air gas, steam is passed over petroleum or other rich mineral oil, which it volatilizes, and the resulting mixture burns brilliantly. The process is, however, expensive, and not much used.

When we speak of chemical affinity we mean the tendency to combine with one another which is exhibited by many substances; or to the force by which the substances constituting a compound are held together.

The elephant is given the credit of being the most long-lived, as well as the most intelligent of all animals. Cuvier says that there are instances of their having lived to beyond the age of three hundred years.

Professor Barnard's photograph of the milky way shows the existence of 500,000,000 suns, each supposed to be the center of a system of planets, where hitherto it was thought to contain only about 20,000,000 such suns.

A female codfish will lay 45,000,000 eggs during a single season. Piscatorial authorities say that were it not for the work of the natural enemies of fish, they would fill all the available space in the seas, rivers and oceans.

Snow appears white because it is an aggregation of an infinite number of minute crystals, each reflecting all the colors of the rainbow; these colors, uniting before they reach the eye, cause it to appear white to every normal eye.