66 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE 



second condition, as it facilitates most easily the giving of a 

 special form to scientific terms, which is different from that 

 of ordinary life. 



In the fourth place, it will be advisable in cases where 

 universally known symbols exist, which consist of letters or 

 have been derived from these (such as certain mathematical 

 symbols), to choose the name so that it begins with the same 

 letter. For example, the constant of gravitation is now 

 universally denoted by g, and the corresponding inter- 

 national word should therefore begin with G. It appears 

 to me doubtful, however, whether this principle can be 

 generally carried out. I have examined the names of the 

 chemical elements with this intent, and have arrived at the 

 conclusion that it would not work without doing considerable 

 violence to general usage. For example, it would be scarcely 

 possible to find an international name for chlor (chlorine) 

 which, corresponding to the chemical symbol Cl, would begin 

 with (7, for the latter letter is pronounced ts, whilst the word 

 chlor (with corresponding terminations) is international, 

 and, according to its sound, must be written like kloro or in 

 some similar way. 



These are the formal suggestions which I should like to 

 make with reference to the problem in hand ; they are only 

 intended to indicate how one might proceed, and are not 

 to be regarded as either exhaustive or infallible. There 

 arises now the second question as to how such work is to be 

 organised. 



As the same concepts occur in several related sciences, 

 and must receive the same designations, it would not be 

 practicable to entrust the construction of the vocabularies 

 to special commissions for each particular science. It 

 would be more advisable to appoint a certain number of 

 persons to collect the material and to make out lists of the 

 concepts for which terms are required, and then to appoint 

 commissions representing a whole group of sciences to 



