~ Geographic Nomenclature. 267 
corruptions. Also lessen the number of exceptions in those foreign 
names which are readily understood when written in accordance 
with the adopted phonetic rules : as Kalkutta for Calcutta, Mekka 
for Mecca, Kutch for Cutch, Selebes for Celebes, Bonni for 
Bonny, ete. 
Another notable agreement in the British, French and German 
Hydrographic Office systems is found in their declarations in 
regard to diacritical marks in the writing of foreign geographic 
names. The British say that a system which would attempt to 
represent the more delicate inflections of sound and accent would 
become so complicated as to defeat itself. They therefore recom- 
mend only the use of the acute accent to denote the syllable on 
which stress should be laid. The German Hydrographic Office 
has adopted the same view. The French Commission in its 
deliberations expressed decided opposition to the adoption of 
Lepsius’ or any similar system, and finally adopted besides the 
“tilde” and “crema,” only the accent “circonfiex” and the 
“apostrophe,” signs of which the two last are ordinarily em- 
ployed in the writing of the French language. ‘In our coun- 
try,” the French commission says, “a native of the Normandy 
and one of the Provence do not employ exactly the same sounds 
in pronouncing, for instance, Marseille, Enghien, or Montrichard, 
and, in foreign lands, we find still greater diversity in this 
respect.” Therefore, we should use diacritical marks with the 
greatest economy, and only when they are indispensable. 
It is of course not to be expected that a certain school of 
geographers, who are in favor of the strict application to geo- 
graphic names of a simplified form of Lepsius’ standard alphabet, 
will acquiesce in this view, but it is to be hoped that all practical 
minded geographers will agree to reserve the extended use of 
diacritical alphabets for purely linguistic literature only. 
In the meanwhile, the United States has not been idle, and 
the Hydrographer, Captain Henry F. Picking, U. 8. N., has 
taken the initiative by the appointment of a board to consider 
and report a system of orthography for foreign geographic names 
for guidance in the compilation of the Hydrographic Office charts, 
sailing directions and notices to mariners, which as we know 
cover all parts of the world. 
The Hydrographic Office, by its daily experience with the sub- 
ject matter, is thus peculiarly fitted to maugurate a reform, and 
it is hoped that the board, profiting by what the British, French 
