July 2, 1888.] 



♦ KNOW^LEDGK 



209 



ruk-rcason, trade=buy, sell ; joking=laugli, talk ; dia- 

 logue=nsk, answer; duty=own part; fa, "a father." 



We also find a large number of absti-act ideas expressed 

 by the combination or apposition of more than two words. 

 Thus our idea of creation is translated by " open- heaven, 

 split-earth " ; conduct is rendei-ed by the words for " speak, 

 act, move, rest," or " words, ways, deeds." " The five lakes 

 and the four seas " is their equivalent for " the world." 

 " Food + cups" equals "feast"; " look + wait" means to 

 visit friends. The figure for hon, hun, " cold," is made up 

 of a man under a roof among grass, and over ice. 



I have dwelt at such considerable length on the structure 

 of the Chinese language because of the strong light it throws 

 on (he ]M-ocesses of the evolution of language in general ; 

 for, although the outer features of human languages, as 

 of human faces, may difler, their physiological structure 

 is on the same general principles, and I may be permitted, 

 ■while expressing the conviction that in Chinese, as in 

 other languages, the majority of imitative, or so-called 

 onomatopoetic words have become unrecognisable b}- the 

 process of phonetic decay, to strengthen my position by the 

 quotation of a f3w imitative words now in use, which I have 

 taken somewhat at random, and without making any par- 

 ticular search for them. In my article on " Demonstrative 

 and Pronominal Roots " I gave some instances of natural 

 and imitative sounds in Chinese. Summers, in his '■ Hand- 

 book of the Chinese I^anguage," says : " Besides the ordinary 

 interjections of surprise, admiration, &c., there are in the 

 Chinese colloquial stvie a great number of expressions in 

 imitation of the various sounds heard in nature (onomato- 

 pieia), as the falling of water, jin[ilin<i of crockery, bursts of 

 liiughtir, &o." — such is fanfqn j'tng-jdn/j, to express the 

 noise of business in a market-place (p. 95). Among many 

 others I may select as examples kiav.-lciau, " the crowing 

 of a cock"; siau-siau, "the noise of wind and rain." To 

 which examples I may add the following : ting signifies 

 "nail"; ki'ing, "a. bow"; ko, "fire"; shvnii, "water"; 

 kin, " metal " ; ski, " an arrow," with a different character, 

 " an omen from heaven " ; pi, " the nose " ; ping is ice ; 

 p'tik, p'u, to hit with the hand ; kom, kiln, to dare ; hdu, 

 k'Ctu, breath, obstructed effort — as of speech ; hn, lulu, to 

 cry out ; ch'ui, to blow; kilt, cliiieli, to hiccough; ki, chi, 

 choked ; ?»(7w, the low of an ox. The sign meaning fiiii, 

 a bird flying upwards and not coming down again, is also 

 I'ead piit, pu, not. T'<1u or p'Hu is to reject with scorn and 

 spitting ; Hn, tin, to flow; ts'au, hsiu, to swim; fo, hwo, 

 tire ; ch'i, the teeth. 



INK VEUsrs WRITING FLUID. 



HOUGH the old-fashioned gallic ink had its 

 faults, it w-as altogether superior to the 

 "fluid writing ink" now in such common 

 use. I know of no ink ever invented more 

 undesirable than this last. It has great 

 fluidity, be it gr.mted, and this is doubtless 

 a desirable quality. It also illustrates 

 admirably several chemical pi-inciples, but they are not such 

 as we desire to see illustrated when writing. 



For example, it corrodes the metallic pen we are using ; 

 but it is not ])leasant when, perhaps after long searching, 

 one has found a pen which writes with absolute smoothness 

 and neatness, to have that pen presently spoiled, even though 

 the process bv which the metal of the pen enters into 

 chemical combination with the .acid of the ink be scientifi- 

 ally interesting. (I am myself, like most rapid writers, 

 rather hard to please in the matter of pens.) 



Again, the fluid ink writes light though the writing pre- 

 sently turns dark, owing to a chemical change of consider- 

 able interest ; but every literary man likes his writing to be 

 dark from the start. An even worse fault of the truly 

 hateful compound called writing fluid is that if you pause 

 to think (a process considered occasionally allowable even 

 among literary men, but which the inventor of the fluid 

 evidently failed to take into account), the chemical process 

 by which your pen is being destroyed takes place so eflec- 

 tively as to transform the green fluid into a sickly yellow, 

 which does not turn black after writing. You are obliged 

 to take a fresh supply of the fluid on your nib, if you would 

 not have several words of your writing of the colour which 

 oar Iiish friends poetically term " dunducketty mud colour." 

 (To be scientifically accurate you ought to dry the pen before 

 taking this fresh supply.) 



Yet again, the fluid ink is so undesirably fluid that 

 manuscript written with it is bound to be plentifully 

 smeai-ed ; for the ink is ready to smear long after any 

 reasonable ink would be dry. 



The fluid ink seems to have been invented solely in the 

 interests of the makers of steel pens ; for while, in the first 

 place, it cannot be used with quill pens, since the chemical 

 changes on which its ultimate blackness depends require the 

 iron of the pen, it so rapidly destroys steel pens that one 

 must use at least three times as many as one would require 

 with good ink. 



The old-fashioned ink could be used to produce the best 

 dead black coloiu- known to me. (The discovery is original 

 with me, so far as I know.) You take black French chalk — 

 the usual crayon chalk — and score over with it the surface 

 you wish to blacken, paying no special attention to uniform- 

 ity, and leaving all the chalk dust on the sheet. Then with 

 a brushful of the old-fashioned gallic ink (or you may use a 

 feather) you go over the surftice thus roughlj- blackened, 

 and forthwith find that a beautiful!}' uniform black is pro- 

 duced, which on drying is a fit surface for drawing on with 

 coloured or white chalk. It is especially desirable for pic- 

 tures of nebula>, comets, and other such objects. 



It is essential when ink is used for written records, if 

 such records are to be safe, that the ink should resist all 

 such chemical processes as reverse the changes considered 

 above, turning coloured into colourless matter. It is well 

 known that the old-fashioned ink yields to several chemical 

 agents. If advantage were only taken of this to remove 

 ink-stains where ink-stains are not desirable, this would be 

 a gain rather than a defect. But records of various kinds 

 may be treated with chemicals till the ink disappears, with 

 results altogether undesirable. A solution of oxalic acid, or 

 of hydrochloric acid, will act as an effectual bleacher in the 

 case of all ordinary inks, the acid of the solution entering 

 into combination with the metallic colouring material of the 

 ink, leaving one colourless liquid and producing another. If 

 the ink-marks thus removed be records relating to pro|ierty, 

 signatures to deeds, the filling-in of cheques or the like, the 

 results of such chemical experiments are by no means such 

 that the persons chiefly interested in them can regard them 

 as pleasing. They will, however, continue to be performed 

 until or unless the inks used for such purposes be absolutely 

 indelible. 



Now, it will probably have been noticed by many that 

 the printed matter is not affected at all by the agents which 

 remove ink-stains. The reason of course is that the ink 

 u,sed by printers owes its blackness to lampblack, which is 

 almost pure carbon, carbon being of all elements the one 

 which most stubbornly resists the attacks of the agents 

 usually most effective in producing chemical change. Wo 

 recognise here the true principles on which ink for written 

 records should bo prepared. The base should be carbon- 



