Amtorg: a company organized in 1924 in the United States by the Soviet Union to serve as the buying and selling organization of the Soviet Union in trade between the two countries.

animalcule: a minute or microscopic animal, nearly or quite invisible to the human eye.

Aniximander: 6th century B.C. Greek Philosopher.

Aristarchus: 3rd century B.C. Greek astronomer.

Aristotle: (384-322 B.C.) Greek philosopher; pupil of Plato.

bacillus: a particular type of bacteria.

bagatelles: things of little value or importance; trifles.

Capella: 5th century A.D. Italian astronomer.

Chaldean: a people that formed the dominant element in Babylonia, an ancient empire of South West Asia.

Confucianism: the system of ethics, education and statesmanship taught by Confucius and his disciples, stressing love for humanity, ancestor worship, reverence for parents and harmony in thought and conduct.

coolie: a laborer living in China and India, especially in former times, and having no special skills.

Copernicus: (1473-1543) Polish astronomer who promulgated the now accepted theory that the earth and the other planets move around the sun.

cytology: the study of the microscopic appearance of cells.

Democritus: (c460-370 B.C.) Greek philosopher.

DNA: abbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid; a complex compound found in the nucleus of all living cells which plays a vital part in heredity.

dolorous: very sorrowful or sad.

Empedocles: (c490-c430 B.C.) Greek philosopher and statesman.

epigrams: any witty, ingenious, or pointed saying tersely expressed.

Erathosthanes: (c276-c195 B.C.) Greek mathematician and astronomer at Alexandria.

Espiritismo: spiritism; a religious belief, which at the heart of the faith, lies a type of tribal memory of a certain half-remembered vision of an island that had once been teeming with spirits. With the infusion of Catholicism, a great many of these primal spirits were either supplanted by saints or else entirely lost.

facsimiles: three-dimensional color pictures with sound and smell and all other perceptions, plus the conclusions or speculations of the individual.

Fakirism: in Muslim or Hindu religions, the practice of wonder-working.

Galileo: (1564-1642) Italian physicist and astronomer.

gravitically: in the basic manner of being weighty or heavy.

Gordian knot: pertaining to Gordius, ancient king of Phrygia, who tied a knot that according to prophecy, was to be undone only by the person who was to rule Asia, and that was cut, rather than untied, by Alexander the Great.

haiku: a major form of Japanese verse employing highly evocative allusions and comparisons, often on the subject of nature or one of the seasons.

happenstances: chance happenings or events.

Harvey, William: (1578-1657) English physician; discoverer of the circulation of blood.

Homer: 9th century B.C. Greek epic poet; reputed author of the Iliad and Odyssey.

hydro-statics: a branch of fluid dynamics which deals with the equilibrium and pressure of liquids.

imbiber: one who takes into the mind, as knowledge, ideas or the like.

Kublai Kahn: (1216-1294) founder of the Mongol dynasty in China, Grandson of Genghis Khan.

Koenig photometer: a device invented by Karl Koenig to measure sound vibrations.

Lamaism: the Buddhism of Tibet and Mongolia.

lamasery: a monastery of Buddhist priests or monks.

Lao-Tze: also Lao-Tzu; 6th century B.C. Chinese philosopher; reputed founder of Taoism.

Methodism: an excessive use of or preoccupation with methods, systems or the like.

Newton, Sir Isaac: (1642-1727) English philosopher and mathematician; formulator of law of gravity.

Phoenicians: inhabitants of Phoenicia, an ancient kingdom on the Mediterranean, in the region of modern Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Plato: (427-347 B.C.) Greek philosopher.

Ptolemy, Claudius: (127-151 A.D.) mathematician, astronomer and geographer in Alexandria, Egypt.

Pythagoras: (c582-c500 B.C.) Greek philosopher, mathematician and religious reformer.

Sanskrit: an Indo-European language in use since c1200.

Schopenhauer, Arthur: (1788-1860) German philosopher.

sicced: attacked or incited to attack.

Socrates: (469?-399 B.C.) Athenian philosopher.

Spencer, Herbert: (1820-1903) English philosopher.

Spinoza, Baruch: (1632-1677) Dutch philosopher.

star shells: shells that burst in the air and produce a bright light to illuminate enemy positions.

syntax: the way words are put together and related to one another in sentences.

Taoism: a philosophical system advocating a life of complete simplicity and naturalness and of noninterference with the course of natural events.

Thales: (c640-546? B.C.) Greek philosopher, born in Miletus.

vectors: physical quantities with both magnitude and direction, such as a force or velocity.

Veda: the entire body of Hindu sacred writings. These were religious hymns comprising some 125,000 - 150,000 volumes.

Vedic: of or pertaining to the Veda.

vicissitudes: a change or variation occurring in the course of something.

Voltaire: (1694-1778) French philosopher, historian, satirist, dramatist and essayist.

Wheatstone Bridge: an electrical circuit for measuring the amount of resistance to a flow of electricity (E-Meter).