300 SCIENTIFIC _NAMES—PRONUNCIATION. 
Finally, I must mention that in the reformed pronunciation all the 
consonants must be sounded no less than all the vowels. Thus in all 
such words as the following the initial letters must be heard :—Bdella, 
Cnestis, Ctenodus, Gnetum, Psammobia, and Pteris. Also the consonants 
must preserve their proper sounds under all circumstances, so that thet, s, 
and c in such words as Spartium, Blasia, and Vicia have the same sound 
as in other words where they are not followed by i and a vowel. The 
two latter practices might be adopted with advantage by even those who 
will consent to no other change, and are capable of a wider application. 
For instance, I do think that those who pronounce Calcium 
‘* Calshium,” Strontia ‘‘ Stronsha,” etc., carry their love of the corrupt 
sounds of the English language to an unreasonable extent. 
Having now touched on the chief topics connected with the pronun- 
ciation of Latin, we come to the far more difficult case of words 
derived from the modern languages. I have already laid down the 
only principle which seems to me to affcrd the slightest hope of 
general agreement upon this point. It is useless to attempt to tinker 
at the matter by dealing with special sounds, such as ch, as has been 
done by some; we must adopt one broad rule, which will comprehend 
all questions, or leave the present chaos undisturbed. 
There are three cases of which examples may be found: (1) a word 
may be borrowed from a foreign language without undergoing any 
change—in this case we borrow the pronunciation also ; (2) the word may 
be Latinised—in this case it will be treated exactly as a Latin word; (3) 
it may have a Latin ending tacked on to a ‘‘ barbarian” stem—in this 
case we must take the pronunciation of the stem from one language, and 
of the termination from another. This would sometimes produce a 
curious result, were it not that the ending is generally simple, such as -a, 
-ia, or -ii. In some few cases the ignorance or inadvertence of authors 
has perpetrated worse combinations, e.g., Indigofera anil, of which indigo 
is French, -fera Latin, and anil Portuguese. 
A word by the way to prevent misconception: in speaking thus, I 
must not be understood to mean that ignorance of the niceties of Latin 
and Greek etymology is ofitself blamable. It is so only when it pretends 
to be knowledge, and forms the incorrect assemblages of letters, which 
some naturalists (and also some barbers and tailors) elaborate. Looking 
at the jaw-breaking names often imposed upon innocent little creatures 
or plants, it might be thought that the number of euphonious combinations 
was nearly exhausted. So thought Charles Kingsley, when he said that 
men of science had been obliged to invent what we may suitably call 
these cacophonic appellations, ‘‘since they took to breaking up one 
species into ten.” But itis not so; the number of smooth-sounding 
pleasant names is not only not exhausted, but practically inexhaustible. 
Even if Pleuroschismatypus were a correctly formed and very expressive 
term, we would readily exchange it fora simpler word. But I do not 
agree with those who are horrified at such names as Schweyckherta and 
Razoumowskia, they must stand on the same footing as Daltonia, Cruik- 
shankii, and Fothergilli. We are not the only scientific people, and there 
A. 
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