learned professor was amazed; he considered the unusual phenomenon so remarkable that he wrote a paper for the Acta Eruditorum in the same year, ascribing the concordance to certain singular properties of the alcohol. Nothing can illustrate more cogently the imperfections of the best instruments then in scientific hands, and the character of those in ordinary use can be imagined; nothing can better demonstrate the immense advance made by Fahrenheit, and even those who deprecate the wide use of his illogical scale must pay tribute to the value of his services in developing reliable thermometers.
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was born at Danzig, 24th May, 1686, the son of a well-to-do merchant. After receiving private instruction at home he attended the gymnasium, but when fifteen years old he had the misfortune to lose both his parents in one day(14 Aug., 1701), and was then sent to Amsterdam to enter a business house. There he completed his apprenticeship of four years, but forsook commerce in order to follow his inclination to study physical science and to travel; he became interested in meteorology and acquired great skill in constructing thermometers. In 1714
