INACCURATE TERMS. 161 



It must indeed be admitted that every department of 

 science has suffered more or less in consequence of the 

 inaccurate use of terms by many exponents who have been 

 influential and popular in their day. But few, probably, 

 would expect to find in the very first page of a well-known 

 physical primer, published in the year 1872, a striking 

 illustration of confusion in the use of terms familiar to all 

 students of physical science. 



An accurate terminology, one would suppose, would be 

 insisted on by every teacher of physics, as absolutely essen- 

 tial, if information concerning the elements of his subject 

 was to be conveyed to the pupil. The teacher who attempts 

 to teach physics, and more especially to children, ought to 

 be particularly careful in the choice of his words, and 

 assign to each its proper meaning ; and he should caution 

 his pupils against the tendency to employ the same term in 

 more than one sense. 



In the little work to which I refer, it is implied that, 

 between the "mood" of an active living child and the 

 "mood" of passive non-living matter there is an analogy; 

 but, surely, almost every one except the writer will be 

 ready to admit that these are, in fact, two very different kinds 

 of "moods." As will be seen in the following extracts, 

 analogical argument of an extravagant character has been 

 pushed to an extreme which cannot be justified. The little 

 boys and girls are enlightened concerning the meaning of 

 physics in this wise : " You have been told about the kinds 

 of things we have in the world, but you have not yet learned 

 much about the moods or affections of things." The child 

 may feel a little puzzled about the affections and moods of 

 things around him, and may ask himself, perhaps, what can 



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