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269

FRAGMENTS . . • ~ By COLO~EL SIR ROBERT FIRTH, K.B.E.,· C.B.

XXXIV.

TO-DAY, at the club to which I belong, they gave us a prawn curry for " -qunch, and as I sat enjoying the lJl~al and qualifying for a possible after~ . ~math of digestive trouble I could not help thinking how the prawn, in addition to. providing us with a very edible dish when dead, was also an interesting creature when alive. By virtue of tqe chitinous and tough .e·nvelope iri which it is enclosed and to which external skeleton its muscles are attached, the prawn, like its relatives the lobster, crab and shrimp, belongs to the class Crustacea. Its outer envelope is made up of a ~umber -of sections jointed together by means of a·flexible tough membrane, except' at the fore part where it becomes an unjointed shieid und'er which are the ,gills. The unyielding nature of this' chitinous body"covering renders .growth impossible without a periodic casting of .the entire coat, . to ';say nothing of the chitinous lining of certain inner tubes. 'l'his actually happe~s, for prawns, exuviate' as often as once or even twice a' month. When the time arrives for a prawn to rid itself of its uncomfortably tight :.skin it ceases to feed and searches' for a .convenient place at which to ,undress. This spot having been' found; the three hinder pairs of legs are

. hooked firrilly to a suitable support in such a way that the body is able to sway about freely. Aidedby a series of sudden Jerks, th'e swaying move­ments gradually loosen the whole surface of the body f1\om the encasing

. ,cover. Even the eyes are moved in their coverings. Gradually, the shell ·splits between the front shield and the legs, ~hen slowly and carefully the head, the 'antennre and the legs with the rest·of the body are withdrawn until" with a final sudden jerk, the, prawn frees itself, I~'aving its. discarded

-coat still clinging to its anchorage by the six hooked claws. .' When first set free, aHerthis unrobing, ,the prawn rolls helplessly on-

the sea-bed owing to its legs being so soft as',to be unable to bear its weight. 'Presently; by alternate bending and straightening ,of its body, c9upled with a stretching of its tail-fans and fin lets; the prawn wriggles along to find

. shelter in sQlne safe nook until its new covering is hard enough to afford it protection. E~erging ~rom its retreat in this new coat, the prawn is really beautifully clothed and a very different looking creature to the dull

.'red crustacean so familiar to us on the fishmonger's tray for" to an eVjln ,.greater extent ,than the shrimp, the living prawn differs in colour from the

boiled dead specimens, we know so well. When alive, the colours, of the ,'prawn are bright and clear, more especially the orange and rich 'brown

bands upon its pale blUe forelegs. The body of .the larger species is of a ;transluce:q.t grey spotted and striped with brown and red, while the smaller

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species are striped transversely wi·th deep olive-green alid purple on similar translucent grey. The species vary somewha:t in colouring, but the general scht;lme is such as' to render the cre.!Ltures very inconspicuous on or near the sea-bed. Other distinguishing features of the prawn CPulcemon serratus' and P. squilla) are the long antenp.re, the prominent eyes and the well­developed finl!3ts which lie just in front' ·of its powerfully constructed tail-fan. These features make' it an easy graceful swimmer combined with a wide range of vision and keen senses of smell and touch. It has ten pairs of legs which are tucked close under the hody when .': swimming. To its long antennre the pra~n owes its acute senses of smell and touch j the former is so remarkable that, if a small particle of food be dropped into the water, the moment the antennre pass' across the track of the food particle, the prawn darts' rapidly about in search of it; and. even, after it ,has been found and eaten, . a ·second prawn, 'on explO1;ing the same water~ will" pick up the scent an'd search diligEmtly for what has alreadY,been devoured though evidently leaving an odour behind it.

Havingsaid so much' about the prawn, I would add a word or so con­c~rning his near relative the ,shrimp, Pandal'1fs annulicomis, or lEsop's prawn as it is sometimes called, because, like' lE so]:> , i~ has a .humped back. Much the same size as P. squilla, it is largely fished for market, and in its native eleIpent is a sand-coloured creature speckled with b.right red-brown'

'spots with its antennre' charact,erized by red and ,white bands. So admirably does this coloration, .harmonize with the sandy sea-bed that its habit of burying itself. seems scarcely necessary. Although rapid in :its movements, the'shrimp spends most of its time' on or in, the sand,b'eing, a far less powerful swimmer than the prawn, from which it also differs' by being ~quatter or fla~tened from above instead of' laterally and lacking the ilOtched 'beak or rostrum, which rus III 'Curved cruel-looking weapon projecting forwards from the head-shield is so characteristic of the prawn. All this family seize their food by the pincers with which the first' pair of legs are

,armed. These pincers have short hairs. like 'a brush which stan~ out 'at " right angles to the cJaw, and' with these a prawn and shrimp clean, , every part of their bodies, standing all the time on the other eight stilt~ 'like legs. "

While neither the common prawn nor the shrimp is devoid altogether of " power or-mimicry, it is greatest in some 6f the smaller and less well-known members of the family. 'For instance H·ippolyte varians, which is a beauti-ful little creature some three-quartersol an inch in length, shows such powers of changing colour in harmony with a, change in environment that a bright green specimen placed in a vessel with red seaweeds, will, within an hour, become as red as the seawe~ds '; while red specimens placed among green seaweeds change equaIly rapidl~ to bright green. By virtue of this mimetic habi~, the Hippolyte will '~e found to b~ brown, red or green iJ.ccording as to whether we find it on sand, ruddy weed or sea grass. In a lesser degree,the prawn, motionless anti almost, invisible, reproduces 'I ' •

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Sir Robert. Firth .271

not only the colour', bpt also the pattern 'of its' background, exhibiting marbling or uniformity according as the light js more or, less broken 'up by the fo~ms and 'colouring of the sea forests; and as there is an infinite variety of colour gradation in this water foliage so does the livery'of the prawn vary from red to yiolet. . The mechanism of these. COI01,U changes is undQubtedly located in living pigment cells which change in size and ,shape under nervous, influences. . In so~e cases, ,the changes appear to be controlled through the visual organs, as blindness renders the apparatus ineffectual, but this is not so with the ptawns. In some of them, especially' Hippolyte and lEsop's pra~n; it would seem .as if light and darkness had' played alternately so long upon the nervous 'system as to. produce' ,a rhythmic hahit of action and repose corresponding with night and day. Thus, for choice these cr~atures sleep during the day and assiime, the colour of the chosen couch, but at nightfall, even' if placed in artificial light, no. matter its colour during the day, the creature changes to ,an azure blue" swims rapidly about and retll-ins its blu~ tint till daybreak when,assum­ing its daylight hue, it again sinks to rest and sleep. Having thus jotted down.what little I knDwabout.the prawn, I ask the reader to think kindly

· of the little cr~ature'and his brethren when pext he eats a praw.n curry. '

xxxv. . In the last fragment 'attention was drawn to the highly developed sense of smell in the prawn; it is curious to note how lar6e, a part odour, scent and the sense of smell: play in the economy of nature. To most people it is the existence df scent among flowers which is most familiar and obvious. There was a time when the' sweet scent of flowers was regarded as being exhaled solely for the, pleasure of man, .the idea being in conformity with the belief ~hat all the living things of the earth had their being with ref~rence to his needs .. We take a broader view in these days and, although there may-be a meaning and value to . mankind of perfume

· in flowers and plan,ts, 'we recogni~e that the property has a chief reference to the life and needs of the plants and flowers ,themselves. We know that the perfume of flowers constitutes the allure for insect visitors bbr whose agency pollen is transferred from one 'flower to another, thereby securing improvement and ,strengthening of stock by cross-fertilization or causing fertilization when self-fertilization is' impossibl~. .' An interesting side

· issue associated with the scent of flowers i~ that of colour. A popular generalization is to the effect that brightly coloured blossoms are seldom' scented 'while the in'consnicuDUS' ones usually are. This is riot strictly tru~, for the're are many exceptions to t,he rule. Many observations have been made by various observers as to the connexion between perfume and colour in flowers, and the ratio of .scented species to non-scented species in each colour has been estimated to be; whites, 1. to 6'4; reds, 1 to 10'8; yellow: 1 to 12'6; greens, 1 to 12'7, and blues, 1 to 19. This indicates

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h'ow comparativ~ly few'scented flowers there ,are in relation to ,the total -and that white flowers ,have twice as many 'of their number scented as

, ~llow or green flowers, and three times as manY,as blue flowers. , An old clergyman, with whom I liyed when a boy, used to descant much

-on this subject, especially on the relationship betweE!n the colour and perfume of flowers and the insects that fr~quente'd them. , H~ used to teach us that flies prefer greenish-yellow or brownish-yellow flowers and told us' to go and look for flies on the bloom of the ivy and parsnips, ,similarly he siid wasps ha!i a predilection for brown-red flowers, while the pal~r red and dingy violet flowers were the favourite haunt of, beetles and carrion flies. His theory of the preference in the ,three cases was the resemblance in colour and odour to a', manure heap,.rottenfruit and putrid flesh respectively. The idea. may seem far-fetched but it is supported by the fact that certain flies, resort to and devour the very malodorou~slim~ . -emitted by, and in which the ripe spores of the common fungus, Phallus i1npudicus, are embedded.' ,SimilarIy, certain foreign arums are peculiarly attractive for carrion flies because ·th~ spathe looks and smellsIike decom­posing flesh, and it is not unusuaUor blow-flies to deposit their eggs upon it under the impression that they are ovicpositing on flesh~ The result is that when' the maggots hatch' out they seek 'in vain for food and perish. 1p ,generaf terms it may be said that u.npleasant odours are' related toftull ,or dingy colours in plants and flowers,' while· pleasant odours' are found usually in connex'ion with those of bright colour. White flowers; in·. particular, are often sweetly scented; it is' such flowers that are most -conspicuous !Lt night and the haunts of moths and other night-flying insects.

,I It is noteworthy too that many of the'se flowers emit a much more powerful 'Scent at dusk than during the day. This suggests some 'connexion between the development of perfume and the state of the atmosphere; humidity with a 'certain degree of warmth app.ears to, be the dominant factor as' , 'Suggested by' the honeysuckle which invariably becomes, more powerfully

. 'Scented dn a warm evening, while the outdoor violet'plucked in ear1y spring ,is almost odourless until taken into a warm room. . ,

" Theories h:we not been wantin'g that perfume from plants and flowers may, act as a kind of invisible screen, especially in dry hot, places; against the sun's direct rays. The basis 6f these views are certain observations of Tyndall upon the h~a:t apsorption power of -some of the essential oils and aromatics. 1p.the light·of modern knowledge, the value of the idea seems small, but the riotion has some interest correlating with the old-time belief in scents and perfumes as, prophylactics agaiI).st infections. To a survival of t4,is ,belief we owe, in ou~ own day, ,the carrying of 'bags of camphor, or naphthalene balls, or lavender, or bottles containing one or other of the essential oils as amulets ana talismans for warding off the influene;a or other infectioIts. There appears-. to be no need for any svch : fanciful ideas to account for the role which sce~t and perfume play In the .economy of: plant life for apart from being an allure to useful insects a,s

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Sir' Rdbert Firth 273 i

agents for fertilization, they discourage the eager !ttt~ntions of browsing animals. in 'regions where fodder 'is scarce., ' Nearly all grazing animals 'dislike strongly-sce~ted Iood, an.'d carefully, avoid those pl~nts or parts of . plants which .'thusoffend their sense of smell;, further, many ,objects without odour to 'us may be, and probably are, distinctly odorous, to

,animals with their ~eener sense of smell. In some .plants such, as~ the lavender and rue, the foliage and the flowers have the same s'cent,' sotha~ enemies are repelled and friends attracted by the same means. As a rule,' the' scent, o( a blossom is quiteqistinct from that 'of theO leav~s of a plant, notable examples are the coriander and bemlock,the leaves of which

· have a mqst objectionable sm'eIlwhile the 'flowers are delicately perfumed; it is' the same with garl~c, in which the perfume that ~ttracts insects to

, its blo~soms is quite different from the: onion-like odour whi<,:h repels grazing animals from making a meal of the juicy lea.ves. '

, In the animal world scent is as full of significance, as fully varied in its nature, and as widely distribu,ted as it is in the plant world; further, its main value is, to attrapt friends andrep'el enemies. The weasel, stoat,

, polecat apd skunk at once come to mina as examples of odoriferQus mammals. In eac4 of them the ability to emit a noi~otpe scent is probably a mainly' defensive a~tion. . The polecat, which is not a cat at all, is as objectionable for the naqseating odour which' emanates from its body as it is for its fierce and marauding, habits. The odour is due to' a secretion

· from a gland or'pouch near the tail, an!1 the emission of the.foul-smelling secretion is l!J.rgely under the animal's control, being, put into, force when the crElature'~s annoyed or wounded. But of al'l animals of the putorius family 'the skunk IS pre-eminent for its noisome odorift(rous .qualities. The potency of the weapon it possesses in its. sub:caudal stink-glands is such that incautious hunters have been blinded for life by a discharge into the face o(the caustic and disgusting liquid. Even birds of prey, such as hawks ari~ eagles, have b~en known to be obliged to abandon their victims' on receiving a s.pray in the eyes and face of·the same horrible secretion.

'Scent, as'a signal to. frienqs, ,plays an important role among sociid' animals: ' . The rabbit is_ a familiar' example whose characteristic smell"js

, produc,ed by, a pair of ,glands-in the hinder part ofthe body. '1'he pig-like peccary of South America has a gland on tbe back which secretes an oily,

: evil-smelling fluid, ,the scent of which helps to keep the herd, together at nIght when'foragingfor {ood. A similar use of scent as a means. of l'ecog­~ition and keeping the community in touch with, each'otheris tg be found' Mpong sheep, deer and antelopes, . Be'tw~en the toes of sheep are _,bottle­shaped glands from which ooze drops of a strong-smelling ;secretion which

· doubtless serves as a trail to be followed by any stray member,of the flock '':@rue; sucba trail can be as easily fo,Howed by an enemy, bu~ tbis fact'may 'berieutralized by the safety which exists in numbers. In ·ma.ny dee'r. and' antelopes there is a scent-gland below the ,e:ye and the dr~ps that 'ooze' there!rom furnish a trail pywhich wanderers m~y re· find . the herd. In

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.' . \ . some other species, such as the musk-deer, the males emit a smello,f musk;

, at certain seasons of the year; from a special gland to attract the females of. 'their kind, a fitct, which suggests.' that the sel,lse of smell plays apart in

, connexion with the propagation of species. ,', ': '. ' . , Among birds, the part played by sc~nt and. smell in 'the economy of

their. kind appears to b~ smaIl,a~ the only in'stance. which I can !ecall is that of the fulmar petrel, which has the 'objectionable but distinctive habit of disgorging a peculiarly fretiayellow iiquid ,~hen threatened/the stench of whichwilfdrive away ailY jntruder an~ious to take its eggs, or disturb' its young. Among the humbler ~iving creatures, the cOCKroach has a bad repute on account of the disagreeable odour which pervades its haunts and. ,taints everything over which the creaturecrawls,This bbjectionabI'e sm~ll,

· proceeds .from a pair of glands on its back, the secretion '~eing gixen out especially when the cockroach is excited or disturbed. Many true insects find a means of saJety in theirow!1 evil s~,ellwhic::h, 'in some cases 'such as' ' the ordinary bug, is constantly emitted and .curiously persistent.' On the other pand, the so-called bombardier beetle only shoots 'out its 'own particular hut very unpleasant fluid from the end .of its, body when danger threatens, The ejected liquid, whether .it really g~ves or does not give the alleged bomb~like effect of noise and smoke, is sufficient to stave off any pursuer andthus. imable the bombardier to escape into safety, , Anyone who has kept bees wili know that they, too, have a scent; in sbme species distinctly

, fragf~nt and in others very much the reverse. At the home of my youth, . \ we kept many bees and I well recall their. fragrance wh ich was quite inde­pe~dent of the perfum.e comi,ng from the pollen, with which they were so·

· often laden and doubtless a means of recognition between individuals .of their communities. One ,particul!tr genus tl1at was curiously devoid of fine "

· hairs and: particularlyfol1d of mignonette, we used to call the citron bee' because when one was handled it left an odour of that fruit .. In a'similar . way,' the humbie~bees and stag-beetles are lmown to emit attractive odours but,in their case~, it is designed specIally to attract tbe opposite sex. When the queens of the humble-bee are reared in July- and, hidden away in ~holes and crevices, the male pauses at' a likely hiding place and emits a pleasing scent to lure the' female from. her retreat.' Copversely, theJemale stag-beetle hidden'- in the foliage qfbush or hedge is discovered by the ,borped male in the summer dusk by the alluring odour which the lady. emit,s for his enticement., " ' \ ,

Few people reali"z-e how large a' part: scent plays in the life of butterflies , and moths and tbat many'of them are~asfragrarit as the flowers they fre­

quent. Many apparently odourless species emit odours so faint that we are' unable to detect them, but yet powerful enough 'to. be perceived by insects d their own kind. 1. have been guilty of coilecting butterflies and moths,

'mys,elf and often noticed that when 'some precious capture of a female necessitated transport in a matchbox, her presE;nce was detected by males which seemed ,to come from nowhere and hovered. around the prison: 'The

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Sir Robert' Firth. I 275,

,p~rfume of butterflies and moths is given out by bunches of fine halt on the legs and bo~y and also by I?pecial scent-sc9.les on the win'gs. IAnyone who examine's the male clouded yellow can easily find the cha:lky-looking- scent­scales on each of hi,s hind wings. In the majority of 'moths and butterfiief!, the S'Cent appears. to. be confine.d to th~ males,'but it has been noted that when both sexes' are sce~ted the' odour is usually unplea~ant to man and more prono\lnced in the female. This suggests the interesting question as

~ to what is the object of the conspicuous colour in sonie of th.ese insects . when both sexes .emit· unpleasant odours, for snch is the arrangement. The answer would seem to be that' the odours are protective and the' colours recognitive or premonitory, also' it is not impr.obable that the differences between the scent-scales of the two sexes in closely allied butterfiies with

,common premonitory colours may be a' provision of Nature to facilitate recognition by the opposite sex of the same species. Here, I would leav~ this interesting subject except to remark that'ma;y not the prevalent hahit among human females to scent themselves be an unconscious reversion to pri.mitive type whereby, even in man, perfume, if not too aggressive, plays its part in the courtship of the srx,es, ,and, when otherwise, is a repeUant and warning'to the m~le to keep away and pass on the other side ,? Ex­perienc~ shows that such is not il).frequently the case and that men-and

I: moths have much in commo:!?

XXXVI.

R~aders of this Journal 'know my weakness for writing. It oCCl~rred to me recently to calculate the extent of my vocabulary, and I was sur­prised to find, how relatively·smalr was the total number 'of words upon which, I drew; in fact myvoc.abulary appears to be rather less than half . the stock upon which Shakespeare drew, and he is credited with a vocabu:'

, lary of ~ome fifteen thousand 'Y0rds. rrhe important thing, however, is' not.so much the quantity as the quality of the words we use, whether it be

. in writing or speaking. ' Words are t~e bricks ~ith which we build literary edifices, they_ are, moreover, common property and as'- chameleonic in practice and effect as the tin.ts on, a cock pheasant. . Practice in words is not only audible and :legible, we think i,n them, can dream in them, we make magic with them, we comfort and even wound or injure with them,

I we pray in them and we die with a' few of them on our lips. This bei?g ~he case, does it not behove us to, be ,more critical in our use and selection of words, and should' we not be. boider, more human,. humorous and idio­syncratic in our efforts to acquir:e' them and thereby become articulate in . not only good but pur,e English? Further, since' our tongue bids fair to 'be the chief language of civilization, it mus~ be adaptive, catholic and h9spitable ; unfortu'nately, it is subject to .no guidance and to very lit"tle intelligent criticism with the result that many speak and write ,English with little tlhought a~to the processes and forces which have formed it 'in I

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276 'Eragments

the past and still less thought of the need that the' new elements added to it should be in harmony with· the old. My theme, ther~fore, is that we who profess t6 write and talk English should employ an English truly characteristic of the language, however'derived, and to indicate briefly, the directions in which danger lies, more particularly the modern tendency to borrow alien words without due need, the failure to keep oitl's ours, and the neglect of short, simple words, and of t~ose -froI)1 the local vernacular~ which are· at once ,both the nurseries. and sanctuaries of true .English words .. ; ,

,With regard .to foreign. words recently' bor;rowed from abro,ad, literary taste seems at the present time to be scientifically incorrect and tenQing to impair the national character 'of our standard speech. Instead of being assimilated, as they were in, the past, .and brought into conformity with the m~in structure of our: spe~ch, our/borrowed terms, especially those from the French, are naw spelt and pronounced, not as ,English, but. us foreign words. ,Not only this, but such words are constantly printed ,in italics which is another active force towards the degeneration' 'of ol1r language. Mu'ch of this is mere pedantry and; as \ the result of -a false taste iil this matter, many words which have long been naturalize'd in the language are 'being now put back into their foreign forms and our speech thus grad,ually improverished. J,ust as certain ardent enthusiasts on " phbnetics would reduce our commonest vowel sounds to an indiscriminate ' er and say H we went frerm Brightern ter Margit ·ernd then ern ter Bern­merth," and certain modern versifiers would, sacrifice metre and rhyme to their passion for, what they call" free," verse; .sothere ar~ genteel writers / who prefer to write impas'se or cul-de-sac when they mean a blind alley;

'" they say and write rfJSlUne when ,they mean an abstract or summary; ,melee is written'for mellay, naivete for naivety, flair for flair, technique for

I technic, clinique for clinic, and yet the same people have no ,difficulty in using the English form, " employee" in place of empZ(,ye. A~mittedly, if we have no equivalents, we must make use of foreign words to meet the' needs of our time, but, even so, surely it is better that we should put them in English garb and so ir;lCorporate them in our language as ~vailable for common USA.· In this manner a' useful word )ike malaise could with advantage take the old for~ "malea~e" which it once possessed, and words like" nuance" and" naivety" had much better be pronounced and written rus Euglibh words. Many other examples might be quoted. I

Another form of the useless and pedantic process of the de-assimilation , ohyords is the current practice of restoring foreign plural forms to words

, borrowed from Greek, ,Latin and Italian. It may be accepted that no common i:toUll is tr'uly assimilated into our language fl>nd really avail~ble

'for popular use .until it has an EngJish plilral. For example, we n~ longer· write asiJla, musca, chori, idem or spccimina for asyl'ums, museums, choruses, ideas or specimeus, and anyone who wrote" the. idem of music implied in the chori suggested specimina of inmates from rival asyla. " would

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Sir ~obert lrirth 277

be laughed at. And yet this very process is now going on' and sanatoria, memoranda" gymnasia, automata, formulre, lacunre, miasmata" indices and apices are replacing the plain English formsof sanatoriums, memorandums, gymnasiullls, automatons, formulas, lacup.as, miasllls, indexes and apexes, while to make matters even worse publisher's readers have even allowed to pass such barbarisms as chimerre, lexica and rhododen,dra. I sl)ppose the next stage will be that our newspapers will write 'of chinese'banditti instead of bandit"s. Undoubtedly, some, of these, words have 'exceptional uses; thus, when used collectively, 'lllemoranda and ,automata ~re pardonable. So again, when the classical form is a scientific term it is desirable' to' preserve iis differentiation and use foci and' indices in mathematics and formulce in chemistry or medicine; but these are exceptions to a general rule w:hich demands that, whenever there is a choice, the Eri~lish form of a word is to be preferred; otherwise, a little knowledge becomes jndeed a malevolent thing.' , " "

The above remarks touch the fringe of the ~pecial question of scientific terms. These are far too numerous~ to have any chance of admission into the common vocabuI'ary; they are' outside and must establish their own

.. proprieties and conveniences for themselves on' their ,own lines. ,N ever-theless, there is,' between the basic national vocabulary and 'the recondite

'differentia,tion of unfamhiarthings,a'margin'of words which it is important , to cobtrol. This is pa:rticularly th~ case in some departments of medicine, especially anatomy 'which has a w,ide b~sis 'of good wholesome English. . words, in such names' as neck, head, che'st; thigh, leg, knee, ankle, foot, wrist, hand, etc. Strictly speaking such English words should be used in preference to any alien terms, but \ in' spite of' this we are obliged to speak of cervical and jem01'al, etc. The reason is that we are unable to make English adjeCtives out of English nouns by,adding English suffixes to tnem, arid when driven to it, have to fall back on the devic,e of using th'e substantive adjectivally, as when we sa~ thigh-bone.' This is inconvenient; hence we have introduced so many Latin adjectives and say freely cervical, crural, c~rdjac, cerebral, mental a'nd manual. True,' they might be itvoided by, manipUlating the common speech words but it would lead to trouble and inconvenience, particularly in the making of, c'ompounds descriptive of relation; for who co~l~, ,coin out of p~re English ,words a , term at once so exact and expreSSlv,e as, deocrecal for' thl'l valve at that juncture? Again, in science, thes!3 Latin adjectives give the due fo the noun from which they derive and, likewise, struct~res and things that have failed to attain clear djfferentiation in vulgar speech tend to secure it by their Latin names. A good example of this presents itself in our own legs. The true English names for the two bones of' the leg are the shin and thespele-bone; but ,in the language of the kitchen and butcher the word" shin "may include both ~he leg pones, and, in the horse, shin is a metacarpal bone, therefore the, term ': shin" in common language is, ambigu?us. . We get over the difficulty by borrowing from the 'Romans,.

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who saw in the maii:lbo~e of the leg a resemblance to a flute or pipe and consequently called it the tibia; at the same time they saw in tJ1e smaller and outer bone of the leg a resembance to '8, brooch-pin and called it the fibula~ Obviously; it would not do to translate the terms and use' their

, original meaning then, just as iceberg is ,better than icehill, So to speak of the two bones of the leg as tibia and fibula is better than saying flut~ and brooch-pin, especially as there is no need to add bone and both ti'bia and fibula connote their indispensable adjectives. The weight, o( evidence, therefore, is in favour of the abundant classical terminology not only in an'atomy but in medicine and science generally;' it is in close relation with common speech" often an extension of it, defensible for scientific p)Jrposes . and internationally convenient.

''l'his. g~neral co~clusion, however, is subo~dinate to certain general rules. The first is that Science ,should write' and speak in the national ianguage, and 'employ nationaf terms wherever they ~re suitab'le. ]'aiJing convenient national terms, then Science must use Latin or Greek terms. A secon4 rule is that Latin nouns,' even when retaining their Latin form, become E'nglish words, and may ultimately take on an English form, an,d when this pappens the latter is preferable. Thus, the En'glish forms p

clavicle, canal; cubicle, nerve and tubercle are better than clav'icula, canalis, cubiculurn, nervus and tuberc:itlurn; on the other hand, the Latin terms, carnera, stim~tl~s and stratZt1n have become English ~ords withuut chang­ing their· form. A third rule is that in current, English a Greek noun may become English in either its original Greek' or acquired Latin form, or even take on an English form. ,The follow'jng, example's may ',suffice. Pa,norama is Greek in form, so is clw1'ion, but thalamus and chysanthe-1num are Greek in a ,Latin form, while theat1'o;~, systerna and chasma have been changed into the English forms theatre, system and chasm: Fprther,' a Greek noun inay form its adjective with, either a Greek ora Latin ter­mination j as to which i,s the more pre~erable, learned opinion in the' majority of cases inclines to favour the :Gatin termination, thus' the better adjectival form froill' condyle is condylar rather than condylic or condyloid~ This isin contr'avention of the view of purists who insist on 'G~eek and Latin nouns always retaining their proper linguistic suffixes, and would have us ,say theatric instead of theatrical, arid pra~tic instead of pr,actical, w:hich most wil~ agree would 'be offensive to both ear and eye.

In tliis place, mention may be made of our familiar suffix--itis, so much .favoured by doctors. 1n the medicine of the Greek~ it signified_disease of 'an organ, as in arthritis, and -is, perhaps, most faQ1iliar to the general publi,c in tHe word appendicitis. I well, remember the outcry against the term when it first becaine the name for a fashionftble complaint, b~t etymo­logically the word is defellsible; on the' other hand, the proposal to write or speak of lithitis is unpardon'able, as 'it would mean the disease of a stone

, and not the. diseased condition caused,by a stone. ' The most-' sucqessful , _ use of suffixes _ by science is that represented' by chemical J?omenclature

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which empioys one special suffix f~r one special form of combination, and another for a.nother. Thus, all newly-discovered metals are given names ~nding in' -~l11i, no matter, from what language the name is derived, familiar 'examples being chrQmium from the Greek," cal~iul1~ frQm Latin, strontium from Scottish, thorium from Scandinavian, and platinum from Spanish. The names of the non-metals do not end in ~um. Further, the suffix-ane

,indicates a normal paraffin; -ene indicates a homologue of the ethylene' series, -ol indicates an alcohol, and ine indicates a basic substance, while :

. -in is restricted to certaiIl' neutral compounds. In' a similar way, the suffilfes, emp-loyed for names of chemical compounds indicate their com­position; thus, -ide is typicalfy applied to a' compound of two elements, ,-ate to one containing tbese two elements and oxygen, -ite to one'containing less oxygen than the-ate, compound, . The suffixes, -ic and -ous are· lised ' to indicate different proportions of constituent elements, but where more' precisiop is needed may be replaced by the ,Greek pr~fixes mon-,di:, trio, etc.' , . ' ',. .

Much more might be written concerning the coining of scientific names, / but I would limit myself to saying' that structurtfs and thIngs should not

have more than one Greek or.Latin name. Uilfortunately, this rule is not " ' , observed, and doCtors are notable sinners in respect of it, for they' ~ame a ' ,boat-shaped bone indifferently from the Greek word scapha, and the Latin word navicula, both of'which mean a boat. Another mistake to avoid is the putting two Greek or Latin words together, and this 'applies to both names and adjectives. Many hybrids of this kind are fpund in the English of' daily life, and it is difficult to say how they' are ,to be excluded, for who

, now can drop the' use of such words as "automobile" (Greek' and Latin), or" b~reaucracy "(French and Greek), or "hypersensitive'~ (Greek and

. Latin), 'or "interweave" (Latir\ and English)? They' are interestipg examples of the results of 'evolution 0'£ a l~nguage in the course ol more than fwo thousand'years.'

I would pass now to the subject of dying words because they typify an,Other kind 'of impoverjs,hment fram which our language suffers,and the pity, of it is that it is a kind qf bJight which attacks many of our oldest, beautiful

,and expressi~e words, rendering them, firs't of ,all unsuitable for colloquial' use, then driving them from prOSEf to 'poetry,. and finally casting them into,

,the limbo of 'archaisms. The fate of many beautiful old 'words' ·has thus been decided or is iu the balance; examples which I have in mind are maid, damsel, weep, bide, seek, sojourn, dole, delve, dwell,' chide, heinous;'

, . _ swift, lilt, pelf, eerie, shun and muik. Many of them are tainted words , . and usage in regard 'to them varies; some' of them·' like, delte and dwell

,still linger'in metaphors, since people, stilI speak of delving into their minds and dwelling in thought, yet would never think of del vi Pg in a garden' or dwelling in London ;.others do not hesitate to call their enemies ,hounds' and swine and yet would be shy to use these words for. the animals they properly de~igllfite. It is not unco~mouto hear of a swift pui:tishment~'but

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280 . Fra.qments·

,a, smile anses if we speak or a swift tr~in or horse"andwe have no difficulty to shu,?, a"thought but ·find it less ell-sy to shun a bore. Perhaps the reader will ,bear some of these words in mind and by a slight effort introduce tbem into his vocabulary., even at th~ risk of suffering in a good cause unger the

. possible imputation of affect~tion. '. . Whether words may, by consci~us effort, be preserved' in colloquial ,usage

is open to experiment but,.undbubtedly, thereare, many excellent words spoken in dialect :and uneducated speech all about us which are well worth preserving by an introduction into our sta~ldard or' current vocabulary, Their great ,merit is that they are genuinely Engl,ish,. Other~ are ,bew formations, coined in the ever-active mint of uneducated speech and many, like 'blight, nag, fun, gallivant,' ,cantankerous, swank, harum-scarum and· pernickety, are ful,l of freshness and vigour out of the vivid popular imagi-

" nation. Many of the .dialects "and 'words in coruin~n use among country folk provide a wide field in which ~e niigJ;tt and· should. find 'ter-ms anil words essentially native and sufiiqiently' expressive to warrant inclusion in . . . . ,

our standard' spe~cb .. A few come to mind, such as dight, malison, ~ewd, douce, fash, starve, nesh a,nd 'hypped or hipped. Both. " l1esh " and

'., starve": a8'llle~ning f!'leling pain or cold are he~rtily alive still in Lanca~ shire, Yorkshire and Derbyshire, and if they have satisfied those people for a thousand years it would not be derogatory to southern speech if they and· 'some other words were accepted in our domestic vocabulary. '~Hyppish" is the Englished form or' hypochondriacal and was used by Swift, Berkeley and Gray, but owi~g to itg getting confo.und~d with "hipped" as meaning

· a 'horse lamed in the qip it has fallen on evil days, wbile "'hipped " , nowadays has po'more defihipe ~ignificationthan inqapacitittiori in mind or,'

loins and being out 0.£ s,orts, . . , , , . While· every student of, ou~ langu~ge knows that 1\nglo-Saxon i.s its

framework and the spin~ on which the structure of our speech is hung"and that itis to the classical and romance words, borrowed during the last thre~

· ~undred, years,:we owe its spirituai conceptions, yet, as a ~rue scnolar, he, " will rp.anifest,a partiality for ne'itherpart 'of the language but be governed

in his ,choice of words 'by the the~e he is, handlirig"still it is difficult to be ' .. unconscious of a modern tendency to neglect th~ '~lei1r; short' and bea~ti£ti.l · words which conie ,to us from the Saxon.. In this C9Ii.nexion, it is apurious fact that ;while we can readily frame I a seritence wholly from Anglo-Saxon, we canpot do so with ~ords entirely classical or romantic in origin, becaus~ thedetermi.native particles, which are the bolts and'hinges of the structure; niu~t be Saxon. This does not mean'that the words which we have Ruilt

'. up"or bon;owed from the Greeks and Latins should have no place in, our: language or tha:twe should fail to use them. The gamut of ideas needs a . corrE(sponding gamut of expressions. The classical' words are indispensa~le

, to a writer or speaker not only as to suhtilty of thinking but also as to ele­vation and subfim~ty., Our . language has a special dowry of power in'its double7headed origin; the SiLxon e)ement fulfils one set of functions, ,the'

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Sir Robert Firth ' '281 "

classical, another. Ne,ither is good nor bad absolutely, but only in 'relation to .the subject and the treatment which the subject)s to rec;eive, The Saxon has nerve, , terseness and simplicity,,it smacks of life and experienGe, puts small,and convenient handles to things, but' it has neither height nOlO breadth 'for every theme and, to confine ourselves to it, would be an unpar­donable impoverishmep.t of speech. Still, for all that, we can a~d are perhap~ allowing the pendulmn'to swing too far by the current neglect of l

, , pure English and Saxon words.\ They"though notintrinsicaily yet from association, are more concrete and pictorial than those derived from alien, sources, and this is particularly true of many beautiful wor,ds we have lost

. or are in danger ,of losing. How much more expressive to us:'is "sand­wast,e" than "desert"; " mill-race", than" channel" : " moonling" than " lunatic"; "water-fright" than "hydrophobia"; "sea~robber" than "pir'ate"; and "sho~-holiness" ·than'· hypocrisy." The wearing of 'woollen clothes does not make a man sheepish'; similarly, the~ reversion to

, homely words in our daily speech would nop make ,us yokels or clodhoppers. Therefore, why; need we neglect and forget, them?

,Again the modern, tendency to .make one syllable 'of two- is ,a further source of, li~guistic impove.rishment and not always with the best result. Surely, beasts is no shorter than beastes and it is certainiy more difficult to speak; the old genitive of "God'~ was Goddes and surely Goddes grace is easier to say, than,'" God's grace." Again, apart from the' o,bjection that loves may be a verb or a noun, loveth is a bette~ word than loves anddoeth than does. True, we have gained in the case of some words which have, escaped the general rules of' simplification since geese, mice, oxen and' children are better ,than' gooses, mouses,' oxes and childs . . For 'all, that, it would be as well if modern English could recover a ,few more of the older forms as they linger in our' perishing dialects, instead of grinding'down our speech by c'areiess pronunciation., When we laugh at a countryma'n for saying b,eastes, we need 'to remember that he has it in unbroken tradition from the mouth' of Chancer. Our 'losses ,may 'be irrettievable, but before they become greater le~ us do our best to 'favour the use and retention of, ,

,old word-forms and thereby,vary'the plod of our sentences. Here, I am constrained to stop, as I know' ,that our Editor has definite views as, to space; wtth h,is permission, perhaps, I may return to this, subje.ct on another occasion.' "

" Think not that strength lies in the, big round word, Or ,that the brief and plain must:needs pe weak; To whom cali this he true who once has heard The cry for help, the tongue that all men speak, When want or woe or fear is in the throat ?,'

* ~ * * * * For them that weep, for the~ that mourn the dead, For them that la):lgh, and danqe, and clap the hand, . To joy's quick step, as well as grief's slow tread" . The sweet, plain words we learned at first keep time, And though the theme be sad, or gay, or grand, With each, with all, these inay be made'to chime. In thought, or speech, or song, in p'l'ose or rhyme."

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