304 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



which is said to be connected with Gk. toXvttt] = the mound- 

 thrower. Of course the great invasion of the Mus decumanus 

 or Norway rat only occurred in the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century. The name rato occurs in old German vocabularies, 

 and this name in different forms is common to all Teutonic 

 countries. It is most probable, then, that the rat was not 

 known to the Romans. 



With respect to the knowledge of the Romans of the bale- 

 ful influence of mosquitoes, Varro (de re Rustica, i. 12) remarks, 

 as a reason for avoiding loca palustria — " crescunt animalia 

 quaedam minuta, quae non possunt oculi consequi, et per 

 aera intus per os ac nares perveniunt atque efficiunt difficiles 

 morbos " — a striking passage. 



Yours, etc. 



Herbert A. Strong. 



MALEDUCATION AND MALPRONUNCIATION 



From SIR II. BRYAN DONKIN, M.D.. F.R.C.P. 



Sir, — The author of the " Note " on " Maleducation and Mal- 

 pronunciation " in the July issue of Science Progress seems 

 to have forgotten that all Greek and Latin scholars in England 

 (with the probable exception of many of those who are now 

 under fifty years old) were taught to pronounce these languages 

 in the English way ; and that to such scholars the sound and 

 rhythm of the poetry of Homer and Virgil have given, and still 

 give, as exquisite a pleasure as that enjoyed by classical 

 scholars of any other nation. It surely matters not how the 

 ancients pronounced Latin or Greek, when this question is 

 looked at from the aesthetic point of view. It may be true 

 that by an English student of other languages the rhythm of 

 Homer, as rendered by a modern Greek, is quite appreciable ; 

 but it is certainly true that to an^ immense majority of English 

 scholars of middle age both the sound and rhythm of Homer's 

 lines, pronounced in English fashion, are immeasurably more 

 delightful. 



Why the author of the " Note " should drag in the word 

 " Cockney " when he contrasts the modern Greek with the 

 English tongue is a puzzle as insoluble as " What song the Sirens 

 sang." But " what are we to think " of his quoting and 

 stigmatizing as " doggerel " the well-known and touching lines : 



