. V INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE 



.and jealousy of nations who sought to further 

 the spread of their national languages by using them in 

 the works of their scientific men all this has contributed 

 to displace Latin by the modern national languages. The 

 result is that, instead of one common language for scholars 

 and men of science, we now possess three. 



It is required or supposed that every scholar or man of 

 science should know at least German, French, and English. 

 For the majority of German scholars and men of science 

 this may hold good, but in the case of the French it is less 

 true, and in the case of the English least of all. The 

 knowledge of these three languages is, however, no longer 

 sufficient, and that for the following reasons. 



In the first place, several other languages must be taken 

 into account, for many Italians write only Italian, many 

 Dutchmen only Dutch, whilst numerous Russians, Poles, 

 Czechs, Hungarians, Scandinavians, and Spaniards employ 

 only their national languages. In this way much escapes 

 general knowledge and recognition, or is only accessible in a 

 belated or mutilated form. 



In the second place, the difficulty of a quick mutual under- 

 standing is great, even for those who can command these 

 three chief languages. If one is possessed of a little natural 

 talent, one can by dint of industry and much loss of time 

 easily get so far as to read or understand a paper or a letter 

 in a foreign language, but when it comes to writing (replying) 

 the task is incomparably more difficult. One can, however, 

 not assume, when a German scholar or man of science replies 

 in German to a letter written in French or English, that he 

 will be always understood. 



The matter is much worse in the case of oral intercourse, 

 especially at scientific congresses. At these the three chief 

 languages mentioned above are usually now declared to be 

 official, that is to say, permissible for the delivery of papers. 

 As a matter of fact, however, the language of the country in 



