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- Walt Whitman

A noiseless patient spider,

I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,

Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,

It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,

...

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noun

A polynomial or function with exactly two variables.

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Chapter 18 of 18

Glossary of Scientific Terms

21 min read

* I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W.S. Dallas for this Glossary, which has been given because several readers have complained to me that some of the terms used were unintelligible to them. Mr. Dallas has endeavoured to give the explanations of the terms in as popular a form as possible.

ABERRANT.—Forms or groups of animals or plants which deviate in important characters from their nearest allies, so as not to be easily included in the same group with them, are said to be aberrant.

ABERRATION (in Optics).—In the refraction of light by a convex lens the rays passing through

Chapter 18

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