436 



SCIENCE PROGRESS 



A man who knows only French knows 91 per cent, of the 

 roots, one who knows only Italian knows 83 per cent, of them. 

 One who knows only Spanish or only English will recognise 

 at sight 79 per cent, of them, and even the mere German 

 speaker will know 60 per cent., and the mere Russian speaker 

 52 per cent, (see Complete Manual of Ido, Isaac Pitman & 

 Sons, 1919). 



Can Latin hope to compete with a vocabulary so inter- 

 national as this ? To make it adequate to the needs of modern 

 science, it must be flooded with new words, some coined from 

 Latin and Greek, some barbarian. Lucretius (I, 136-9) in his 

 day had to deplore the poverty of Latin for scientific purposes 

 compared to Greek. 



As to grammar, Ido is marvellous. {See Elementary 

 Grammar, Isaac Pitman & Sons, 6d.) No genders, no declen- 

 sions, and for all the Latin paradigms of verbs 14 syllables. 



And this for all verbs. None are irregular. 



Why have the successors of Newton and Linnaeus dropped 

 Latin ? Presumably because they have found French and 

 other modern languages more convenient. 



And here is the experience of a contemporary, Canon J. 

 Gross, of the Great St. Bernard, Switzerland : 



" After studying Latin for eight years, I now read Latin 

 every day and I can't speak it fluently, and this has been my 

 custom for thirty years." 



It is proper to schoolmasters, I suppose, to aim at getting 

 from their pupils as much work as possible ; manufacturers 

 aim at getting the work done with the minimum expendi- 

 ture of labour and energy. Is there not in this matter of 

 mental communication a case for adopting a labour-saving 

 device ? 



But mere ease is no sufficient criterion of the efficiency of a 

 language. A few gesticulations might be acquired easily, but 

 would be worth very little as means of expression. 



ii. Expressiveness. — The richness of expression of a lan- 

 guage depends on the wealth of its vocabulary and on its 



