i8 FISHES OF AUSTRALIA. 



people find it difficult to understand the utility of tech- 

 nical names for animals and plants ; and I here take an 

 opportunity of giving a suitable answer. In doing so, I 

 cannot do better than quote the words of Professor 

 Huxley who, in his work on "The Crayfish" says: 

 "Many people imagine that scientific terminology is a 

 needless burden imposed upon the novice, and ask us why 

 we cannot be content with plain English. In reply, I 

 would suggest to such an objector to open a conversation 

 about his own business with a carpenter, or an engineer, 

 or, still better, with a sailor, and try how far plain 

 English will go. The interview will not have lasted long 

 before he will find himself lost in a maze of unintelligible 

 technicalities. Every calling has its technical termin- 

 ology; and every artisan uses terms of art, which sound 

 like gibberish to those who know nothing of the art, but 

 are exceedingly convenient to those who practise it. 



"In fact, every art is full of conceptions which are 

 special to itself; and, as the use of language is to convey 

 our conceptions to one another, language must supply 

 signs for those conceptions. There are two ways of 

 doing this : either existing signs may be combined in loose 

 and cumbrous periphrases; or new signs, having a well- 

 understood and definite signification, may be invented. 

 The practice of sensible people shows the advantage of the 

 latter course ; and here, as elsewhere, science has simply 

 followed and improved upon common sense." 



