844 



SCIENCE 



[N. s. Vol. XXX. No. li 



grave and circumflex accents, or in German 

 with its umlauts ; but to deal in facts and not 

 in theories, during the past month I have had 

 personal knovsrledge of important telegrams 

 and cablegrams that had been transmitted in 

 this international language. 



International congresses on various sub- 

 jects are using Esperanto, for statistics on 

 which highly important point I need only re- 

 fer to page 478 of Science for October 8 ; and 

 the Esperantists themselves have tested this 

 language in five successive international Es- 

 peranto congresses and have given overwhelm- 

 ing proof of its practicability. The Fifth 

 Esperanto Congress, held last September in 

 • Barcelona, Spain, was attended by 1,300 dele- 

 gates in spite of the unrest prevalent in that 

 city. The sixth congress will occur in the 

 United States next August and will bring 

 proof to our very door, if it be that we still 

 need proof, that the language is musical, re- 

 markably easy, and a success, and after all the 

 main point for an international language is 

 that it should be a success. 



Ido, Ildo, Purified Esperanto, Esperantido 

 and Esperido, as it has been variously called, 

 on the other hand, as far as statistics have 

 been obtainable, has less than thirty adherents 

 in the United States, in which list for the 

 present I include Professor Jespersen. The 

 following of Ido in European countries I 

 understand to be proportionately small. It 

 has a few readers and grammars and text- 

 books and much diatribe against Esperanto, 

 but no literature whatever. It has ten period- 

 icals, including both propaganda and other 

 magazines, a number of which, while attack- 

 ing Esperanto, have been printed partly in 

 Esperanto in order to reach the public. In 

 this list of ten I am including one little sheet 

 published in the United States and designated 

 a quarterly, though its first and latest issxie 

 appeared in April of this year. Ido has had 

 no congresses or similar assemblies before 

 which this proposed system for international 

 communication could be tested. But in ad- 

 dition to returning the Scotch verdict of not 

 proven to the Idists' claims for recognition, I 

 wish to advance certain reasons why I believe 



Esperanto to be superior in construction to 

 Ido, Ildo, Esperido, etc. 



1. Esperanto is more musical, for in cutting 

 out the six supersigned letters Ido and its re- 

 lated systems have been forced to reduce the 

 sounds also ; thus a so-called " purification " 

 has resulted in monotony. 



2. Esperanto has definite rules and no ex- 

 ceptions, it is in short a logical language, 

 while there are many exceptions recognized 

 as proper to the rules of Ido or Purified or 

 Simplified Esperanto. 



3. Esperanto is the most truly international 

 language in several important details, and 

 therefore may be most easily learned by all 

 civilized races, while Ido, or Simplified Es- 

 peranto, with its harsh Anglo-Saxon pro- 

 nunciation of the letter j, and its fixed Franco- 

 English word order would prove troublesome 

 to most Europeans. Karl F. Kellerman 



BuKEAU OF Plant Industey, 

 Washington, D. C. 



college solidarity 



When ideas that have been in the air are, 

 as it were, precipitated by the utterance of an 

 eminent man in an authoritative position, 

 they suddenly become fructifying and produc- 

 tive of both wheat and tares. If, therefore, 

 solutions both profitable and unprofitable to 

 the college problem were numerous before 

 President Lowell's installation address, they 

 may be expected in increasing numbers to fol- 

 low his clear and impressive presentation of 

 the needs of American colleges. And indeed, 

 the greatest direct benefit to be expected from 

 this conspicuous discourse must be the in- 

 citement it will prove to all intimately inter- 

 ested in our colleges to formulate and publish 

 their convictions as to the best means of meet- 

 ing needs widely recognized and admitted. 



There can be little question that President 

 Lowell is right in his opinion that the pass- 

 ing of the common habitation made necessary 

 by the increased number of students, and the 

 passing of the common curriculum attending 

 the introduction of the elective system, have 

 resulted in social and intellectual disintegra- 

 tion. Further, it will be granted that the old 



