4 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE 



by means of their literary and scientific works to the diffusion 

 of their languages and the advancement of their nations. 

 Whoever has observed this phenomenon will he forced to 

 the conclusion that amongst scientific men, at least in 

 Europe, this state of affairs is getting worse rather than 

 better. 



The increase of the participating languages involves an 

 increase of the periodicals, just at a time when a concentra- 

 tion of the periodical literature is most desirable. The cost 

 of subscriptions, translations, storing, and registration, and 

 the labour and time spent thereon, increase from year to 

 year. Above all, there is a want of translators ; ordinary 

 interpreters are not sufficient, since a special knowledge of 

 each subject is required. Where are such persons to be 

 found in sufficient numbers ? And how few and far between 

 are those who, when they possess the requisite training, are 

 willing to content themselves with the poorly paid remunera- 

 tion of a translator ! 



Bad or erroneous translations and faulty abstracts are 

 very harmful ; it would be better in such cases that no 

 translation should exist, as then the original would have to 

 be consulted. These difficulties, many more of which could 

 be mentioned, are well known to all scientific men, since 

 each has suffered more or less from them. 



The question then is, What remedy can we apply ? One 

 proposal is to introduce into secondary schools the teaching 

 of modern instead of classical languages, in order to render 

 the students, after matriculation at the universities, capable 

 of taking part in international scientific intercourse. 

 This proposal has arisen from the view that the learning 

 of modern added to that of the classical languages would 

 overburden the secondary schools, whilst the learning of 

 modern languages at the universities would cause equal or 

 greater difficulties. 



Few young people possess, during their years at the 



