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AN ESSAY 
ON THE 
SIGNS OF IDEAS; 
OR, THE 
Means of conveying to others a Knowledge of our Ideas. 
BY EDWARD CARBUTT, M.D. 
Physician to the Manchester Infirmary, 
&e. &ee 
(Read Dec. 13th, 1816.) 
At édola fori molestissima sunt, que ex foedere tacito inter homines, de 
verbis et nominibus impositis, se in intellectum insinuarunt. Werba 
autem plerunqué ex captu vulgi induntur; atque per differentias, qua- 
rum vulgus capax est, res secant; cum autem intellectus acutior, aut 
observatio diligentior, res melins distinguere velit, verba obstrepunt. 
Bacon: De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum : 
Liber V. Caput IV. 
> O<e- 
Tue subject of the paper which I have now 
the honour of reading before the society, is, 
the Signs of Ideas,—thatis, the means employ- 
ed, on the needful occasions, to impart to others 
a knowledge of the ideas of which we are 
conscious. Inorder, however, to be fully un- 
derstood, it appears proper to explain, in the 
first place, withas much precision as possible, 
whatismeantin this paper by the word Idea ;— 
VOL, Il. Hh 
