538 Professor F. G. Donnan [March 24, 



sions of its partisans, some of whom, led by Dr. Kerckhoffs, wished 

 to make it simpler and more adapted to the needs of commercial 

 life. These attempts at reform were, however, resisted by the learned 

 originator. No doubt his system was too complicated and intricate 

 for the majority of people. Moreover, those who took an interest 

 in the problem of an auxiliary international language were soon 

 provided with the much simpler and more practical Esperanto. 



The author of this language, Louis Lazarus Zamenhof, was born 

 in 1859 at Bielostok, in what was then Russian Poland. Perceiving 

 the racial and linguistic hostilities of his native country, as a young 

 school student in Warsaw he already dreamed of a universal neutral 

 language and of a universal brotherhood founded thereon. He 

 graduated as a physician at Warsaw, but during the six years of his 

 university course he worked constantly at his secret project. At 

 first he thought of reviving Latin, or of constructing an a priori or 

 philosophical language. It was the study of English, however, that 

 first showed him what could be done by means of a simple grammar, 

 and how stems of different origins could be utilised in the construc- 

 tion of a harmonious and self-contained language. In 1885 his 

 work was complete, but it was only in 1887 that he found a publisher. 

 In that year there appeared in Warsaw a Russian pamphlet describing 

 " La Lingvo Internacia de la Doktoro Esperanto " (" The Inter- 

 national Language of Dr. ' Hopeful ' "). 



In 1900 there appeared the " Universala Vortaro de la Lingvo 

 Internacia Esperanto," by L. Zamenhof. In this dictionary the equiva- 

 lents were given in five languages. The pseudonym " Esperanto," 

 originally adopted by Dr. Zamenhof, has been transferred to the 

 name of the language. The progress of Esperanto was at first slow. 

 But in 1898, when the French took the lead, expansion became 

 rapid. The Marquis Louis de Beaufront became the leader of this 

 movement. In 1914, when the war broke out, there were over a 

 hundred Esperanto periodicals, some appearing in Esperanto only, 

 others in Esperanto and a national tongue. In 1905 an International 

 Convention or Congress was held at Boulogne. Since then twelve 

 other International Congresses have been "held, the thirteenth at 

 Prague in 1921. 



As an international auxiliary language Esperanto has had an 

 unparalleled success. It has done more to spread the idea of the 

 need for and the possibility of an auxiliary international language 

 than any other project. 



What, then, was the nature of the discovery made by this young 

 Polish physician, and wherein did it differ from Volapiik ? 



Curiously enough, there was no new discovery. The fundamental 

 ideas of Zamenhof were very largely those of Schleyer. A phonetic 

 system, a regular method of pronunciation, a vocabulary of root-words 

 drawn from the international treasury, an autonomous system of 

 word-formation, and a perfectly regular grammar. In other words, 



