yi PREFACE. 



The lack of a good and comprehensive French-English 

 technological dictionary is a fact which will be regretted 

 by all who take up this new branch of French literature. 

 Karmarsch-Rohrig's, which is considered the best published, 

 is not only sadly deficient in many particulars, but in some 

 even absolutely wrong. Great care has therefore been be- 

 stowed on the vocabulary prepared for this Reader. In it 

 will be found all French scientific terms save those con- 

 tained in dictionaries ordinarily used in the class-room ; I 

 trust that it will prove equal to the necessities of the case. 

 The definitions used are borrowed from the Century Dic- 

 tionary. 



To the beginner a few words on the construction of 

 French scientific terms may be useful. French scientific 

 terms, though often resembling their English equivalents, 

 more frequently differ from them. The prepositions a, de, 

 en play a great part in the formation of composite terms. 

 The French language lacks the faculty of joining two or 

 more words without the aid of a preposition, as is done 

 in English and German, to designate machines, chemical 

 names, and so forth. Words following the prepositions 0, 

 de, en are often, if not always, placed before the radical 

 English word; as, for instance, machine a vapeur, "steam 

 engine." If two words are joined by a hyphen, as in the 

 expression monte-cscalier, allume-cigare, the first word is usu- 

 ally a verb expressive of the action to which the radical 

 is subjected. There are nouns and adjectives, moreover, 

 which are identical ; as, moteur, which, when used as a 

 noun, means "motor," but which, if used adjectively, in 

 expressions like organe moteur, means "driving, motive." 

 Adjectives which occur only with a particular noun are 

 given in connection with the same ; as, chaleur differee. It 

 is my pleasant duty to express my deep sense of gratitude 

 to Professor Alphonse N. van Daell, of the Massachusetts 



