TERMINOLOGY AND NOMKNCLATURE. 423 



When, however, the tliin<r nainecl is, as in this last case, a combina- 

 tion of simple sensations, it is not necessary ih order to learn the 

 meaning of the word, tliat the student should refer back to the sensa- 

 tions themselves ; it may be communicated to him through the medium 

 of other words ; the terms, in short, may be delined. But the names 

 of elementary sensations, or elementary feelings of luiy sort, cannot be 

 dehned ; nor is there any means of making theiy signification known 

 but by making the learner experience the sensation, or referring him, 

 through some known mark, to his remembrance of having experienced 

 it before. Hence it is only the impressions on the outward senses, or 

 those inward feelings which are connected in a very obvious and 

 uniform manner with outward objects, that are really susceptible of 

 an exact descriptive language. The countless variety of sensations 

 which arise, for instance, from disease, or fiom peculiar physiological 

 states, it would be in vain to attempt to name ; for as no one can judge 

 whether the sensation 1 have is the same with his, the name may not 

 have, to us two, any community of meaning. Tlie same; may be said, 

 to a considerable extent, of purely mental feelings. But in some of 

 the sciences which are conversant with external objects, it is scarcely 

 possible to surpass the perfection to which this quality of a philosophi- 

 cal language lias been carried. 



" The formation" (continues Mr. Whewell*) " of an exact and ex- 

 tensive descriptive language for botany has been executed with a 

 degree of skill and felicity, which, before it was attained, could hardly 

 have been dreamed of as attainable. Every part of a plant has been 

 named ; and the form of every part, even the most minute, has had a 

 large assemblage of descriptive terms appropriated to it, by means of 

 which the botanist can convey and receive knowledge of form and 

 structure, as exactly as if each minute })art were presented to him 

 vastly magnified. This acquisition was part of the Linnaean reform .... 

 * Tournefort,' says Decandolle, ' appears to have been the first who 

 really perceived the utility of fixing the sense of terms in such a way 

 as always to employ the same word in the same sense, and always to 

 express the same idea by the same word ; but it was Linnteus who 

 really created and fixed this .botanical language, and this is his fairest 

 claim to glory, for by this fixation of language lie lias shed clearness 

 and precision over all parts of the science.' 



" It is not necessary here to give any detailed account of the terms 

 of botany. The fundamental ones have been gradually introduced, as 

 the parts of plants were more carefully and minutely examined. 

 Thus the flower was necessarily distinguished into the calyx, the 

 corolla, the stamcnx, and the piatils; the sections of the corolla were 

 termed petals by Columna ; those of the calyx were called sepals by 

 Necker. Sometimes terms of greater generality were devised; as 

 perianth to include the calyx and corolla, whether one or both of these 

 were present; pericarp, for the part inclosing the grain, of whatever 

 kind it be, fruit, nut, pod, &c. And it may easily be imagined that 

 descriptive terms may, by definition and combination, become very 

 numerous and distinct. Thus leaves may be called pinnatiful, pinna- 

 tiparlite, pinnatiscct, pinnatil abate, palmatijid, palmatipartite, &c., 

 and each of these words designates difl'erent combinations of the modes 



♦ Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, i., 465-7. 



