outchouc, Sponge, Coral,
Lime, Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Gas, Hydrogen,
Chalk, and Marble

XIV. Gold, Silver, Lead, Tin, Platina, Sulphur, Gems or
Precious Stones--as Diamonds, Rubies, Emeralds,
Turquois, Pearls, Mother-of-Pearl, and Ivory

XV. Starch, Arrow-root, Tapioca, Isinglass, Caviare, the
Vine, Wine, Gin, Rum, Brandy, Vinegar, Indigo,
Gamboge, Logwood, Tar, Pitch, Camphor, Musk,
Myrrh, Frankincense, and Turpentine

XVI. Bricks, Mortar, Granite, Slate, Limestone, or Calcareous
Rocks, Steel, Earths, Volcanoes, and Earthquakes

XVII. Architecture, Sculpture, Use of Money, and Navigation

XVIII. Music, Painting, Poetry, Astronomy, Arts and
Sciences, Art of Writing, and Chemistry

XIX. Attraction, Tides, Gravity, Artesian Wells, Air,
Aneroid Barometer, Ear-Trumpet, Stethoscope,
Audiphone, Telephone, Phonograph, Microphone,
Megaphone, Tasimeter, Bathometer, Anemometer,
Chronometer

XX. Light, Lime Light, Magnesium Light, Electric Light,
Rainbow, Prism, Spectrum, Colors, Photography,
Camera Obscura, Stereoscope, Kaleidoscope

XXI. Electricity, Electric Currents, Electric Battery, Electrotyping,
Stereotyping, Telegraph, Ocean Cable,
Lightning Rod, The Gulf Stream, The Mt. Cenis
Tunnel, The Suez Canal, Suspension Bridges, Eminent
Americans

A CATECHISM

OF

FAMILIAR THINGS.

CHAPTER I.

DEW, WATER, RAIN, SNOW, HAIL, ATMOSPHERE, WIND, LIGHTNING,
THUNDER, ELECTRICITY, TWILIGHT, AND THE AURORA BOREALIS.

What is Dew?

Moisture collected from the atmosphere by the action of cold. During
the day, the powerful heat of the sun causes to arise from the earth
and water a moist vapor, which, after the sun sinks below the horizon,
is condensed by the cold, and falls in the form of dew. Dews are more
copious in the Spring and Autumn than at any other season; in warm
countries than in cold ones: because of the sudden changes of
temperature. Egypt abounds in dews all the summer; for the air being
too hot to condense the vapors in the day-time, they never gather into
clouds and form rain.

_Horizon_, the line which bounds the view on all sides, so
that the earth and sky appear to meet. A Greek word, from
the verb signifying to mark boundaries.

_Temperature_, degree of heat or cold.

_Condense_, to cause the particles of a body to approach or
unite more clo