Ti-iO THE NAME MAMMAL AND THE IDEA EXPRESSED. 



of those countries failed even to appreciate its etymological aptness 

 and beauty. First, the French had to introduce a new word to cor- 

 respond — mamniiferes, or the breast-bearers. Thg other Latin races 

 followed; the Spanish and the Portug-uese with nianiiferos, and the 

 Italians with mammiferi. None of the words quoted in the Century 

 Dictionary are even given as nouns in the ordinary dictionaries of 

 those languages — not even in the great dictionary of Littre. Littre, 

 however, has the words nuunnialogie, nianimalogique, and niamma- 

 logiste. 



Of course the Germans coined a word from their vernacular — 

 Saugethiere, or suckling animals. The cognate nations imitated — the 

 Dutch with Zoogdieren, the Swedish Avith Diiggdjuren, and the Danes 

 and Norwegians with Pattedyrene. 



But, although the English proved ultimately to be so "accommo- 

 dating,*" the full acceptance of a name in the vernacular speech was 

 long delayed. Very early the equi\alent words had been cordially 

 welcomed in the continental languages, l)ut the users of English were 

 chary in their admission of foreigners. 



Even the English word in plural form "mannnals'' — was grudg- 

 ingly admitted; the Latin form — ''mammalia'' — was long preferred. 

 The chief translators of the Regne Animal rendered manmiiferes by 

 '■mannnalia;'"' Plyth alone substituted "mannnalians'" in its place. 

 Owen, in his Histor}^ of British Fossil Mammals, employed "mam- 

 malia" in the text more frequently than "mammals," and yet he used 

 the English form more than any of his contemporaries. Popular as 

 well as scientific writers avoided the English word as one alien to 

 the genius of the language. Some preferred the word "mammifers" 

 when they would use an anglicized term. 



By reason of the general ignorance of the etymology of the word 

 ''mammalia." and the dislike of it on account of the misappreliension 

 that it was an imperfect or clipped word, one of the French natural- 

 ists devised a substitute — "mammiferes" — and this early took root 

 and has been universally adopted by French writers. It was to some 

 extent adopted l)y English writers of the first half of the last century 

 under the form '' mammifers." Rol)ert Chambers, in his anonymous 

 Vestiges of Creation, frequently used it, and Hugh Miller, in his 

 antidotes to the heresy of the Vestiges, sometimes did. Miller, in 

 his Old Red Sandstone (18-il), also accepted the singular form in his 

 statement (Chapter IV) that '"the manmiifer takes precedence of the 

 bird, the bird of the reptile, the reptile of the fish." The usie of the 

 word, nevertheless, was never general. The derivative adjective, how- 

 ever, was much more frequently adopted for a time. 



Lyell, in his Principles of Geology, almost invariably used the 

 word " manmialia,'' but accepted the adjective " mammiferous" instead 

 of "mammalian" and even of "mammaliferous." (He admitted 



