742 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



Report of the Conference of Delegates of Corresponding Societies held at 

 Portsmouth, August 31 and September 5, 1911. 



Chairman Professor J. W. Gregory. 



Vice-Chairman William Dale. 



Secretary W. P. D. Stebbing. 



First Meeting, August 31. 



The Secretary having read the report of the Corresponding Societies Com- 

 mittee, the Conference agreed that the grant of 25/. referred to therein should 

 be applied for. 



The Chairman then delivered his Address, entitled 



The Scientific Misappropriation of Popular Terms. 



One of the main functions of the British Association is to prevent the develop- 

 ment of a scientific caste in this country. The essential ideas of caste and 

 science are diametrically opposed ; nevertheless, the spirit of caste has in times 

 past invaded the spirit of science, with the natural consequence that the eager 

 explorers of knowledge became the academic guardians of tradition; and the 

 same invasion now would deprive science of the popular sympathy and support 

 which are more than ever necessary for its steady development. The members 

 of the Corresponding Societies have special opportunities for helping that part 

 of the Association's mission, for their personal intercourse with all sections 

 of the community enables them to do much ' to obtain a more general attention 

 to the objects of science.' Their influence must be exerted mainly through 

 words, and the proper use of words is a matter of vital importance to the 

 welfare of science. The recent appeals for the improvement of the language 

 of scientific literature are therefore direct contributions to scientific method ; 

 and as the Societies represented at this Conference are the strongest link 

 between the technical specialist and those who take a friendly interest in science, 

 special sympathy may be expected here with the complaints against the unin- 

 telligibihty of some scientific writings owing to the excessive use of technical 

 terms. I wish this afternoon, without denying that technical terms are some- 

 times used unnecessarily, to call attention to a more neglected and insidious 

 evil, the use of well-known English words with a technical meaning. The 

 temptation to adopt an old word for a new idea, instead of inventing a fresh 

 term, is often strong. It saves trouble, at the time. The old word is probably 

 shorter than a new one would have to be, and its use avoids burdening a pas- 

 sage with an unknown and perhaps uncouth term. A sentence in which all the 

 words are familiar appears to present no difficulties; a reader skims lightly over 

 it, pleased with the lucidity of the author and ignorant of the fact that it has 

 been misunderstood, as the leading word conveyed to him a meaning different 

 from that intended by the writer. The danger of a passage being misunder- 

 stood is more serious than that of its being not understood. It is worse to be 

 misled by a plausible phrase than to be startled or repelled by a correct technical 

 statement. A new word compels a conscientious reader to determine its true 

 meaning, and should help him to a clear conception of the fresh idea ; whereas 

 the use of an old word with a new meaning discourages inquiry and encourages 

 slovenliness in work and thought. The use of popular phraseology may render 

 scientific literature apparently less strange; but if that phraseology be incor- 

 rectly used, the ultimate effect is to increase the divergence between the 

 scientific and popular languages and the estrangement between science and 

 public opinion. For the scientific use of terms inconsistently with their ordinary 

 meanings is apt to persuade the layman that the language of science is so different 

 from his own that it is no use attempting to understand it. 



Most sciences have adopted popular terms with new and restricted meanings ; 

 and if the origin of such a word be forgotten, scientific writers are apt to treat 

 any use of it in its original sense as a popular blunder. For example, zoologists 

 not only now reject spiders from the class of Insecta but treat the idea that a 



