à l'abri de, beyond the reach of
Page 162. — 1. nous fait voir, shows us, portrays to us.
Page 163. — 1. solitaire, a bird formerly existing on the island of Rodriguez, near Mauritius in the Indian Océan, east of Madagascar. It was somewhat larger than the turkey, and was supposed to hâve belonged to the dodo, or else the ostrich, family.
2. dronte, dodo, a genus of birds which has become extinct within récent times. It was formerly abundant on the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, and is described as larger than a swan, of clumsy body, and of tough though eatable flesh.
Page 164. — 1. L'abbé Nollet (1700-1770), a French physicist, who devoted much time to electrical experiments. The expression "professeur des pages" refers to the fact that Nollet received from the king the appointment of master of philosophy and natural history to the princes and young noblemen of France.
2. Dufay (1698-1739), a French savant, the author of treatises on chemistry and other sciences, and the originator of certain théories of electricity. He lived in Paris, where he was appointed director of the Jardin royal des plantes médicinales, which became later the Jardin des plantes.
Page 165. — I. se donnait carrière sur, abandoned itself freely to, indulged freely in.
2. Bologne, Bologna, famous and picturesque city of Italy, about eighty miles to the north of Florence. It has been one of the centers of Italian learning, and its university, the oldest in the country, is said to hâve been founded as early as 425 a.d.
3. Galvani (1 737-1 798), the celebrated Italian physicist and anatomist, whose name has given us the words "galvanism," "galvanic," etc. He was educated at the University of Bologna, where he became professor of anatomy in the year 1762.
4. Franklin (Benjamin, 1 706-1 790), the eminent American statesman and philosopher. His "théorie de la foudre" has référence to the important discovery of the identity of lightning with the electric fluid, which he had made in 1752 by means of a kite.
5. choc en retour, indue ed discharge, a discharge produced at a distance.
Page 166. — 1. met à nu, lays bare.
Page 167. — 1. Pavie, Pavia, town in northern Italy, twenty miles from Milan. Its university is said to hâve been founded by Charlemagne.
2. Alexandre Volta (1 745-1 827), Italian Alessandro Volta, born at Como in northern Italy; was appointed professor of physics at the University of Pavia in 1776, and taught there for thirty years. His réputation rests mainly upon his invention of the "voltaic pile" described in the text. The electrical terms "volt," " voltameter," etc., also recall the physicist's name.
