May 13, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



457 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION FOR THE METRIC 

 SYSTEM 



Doubtless practically all scientific workers 

 favor general use of the decimal or metric 

 system of weights and measures. Obviously 

 there are certain unavoidable difficulties, both 

 psychological and economic, which must be 

 overcome before this end can be attained. It 

 seems inconsistent, then, for users of the sys- 

 tem to add unnecessarily, even in small de- 

 gree, to the popular prejudice against the 

 change. 



Just such an unnecessary minor difficulty 

 is produced by a common American practise 

 in the pronunciation of metric names con- 

 taining the prefix cent-. As a matter of his- 

 tory, it is true, these names came to us from 

 the French; they could just as well, however, 

 have been taken directly into English from 

 the Latin and Greek. In most respects these 

 words are already, by common consent, fully 

 Anglicized; we never employ the French 

 syllabic stress, nor do we use the French 

 sound of the r or the i or the second e in 

 centimeter. Why, then, should we ever say 

 "sant" (sahnt), approximating the sound 

 in centime, for the straightforward Eng- 

 lish " sent " (as in center) ? Although this 

 hybrid pronunciation is (for example) not 

 recognized by the Funk and Wagnalls " New 

 Standard Dictionary," it is certainly widely 

 prevalent in this country, and it doubtless 

 adds a little to the unthinking popular 

 prejudice against the metric system as a 

 " high-brow " foreign innovation. The same 

 considerations apply to the word centigrade, 

 which has come into English by the same 

 route. 



In various other English words, such as 

 ■cental, centipede, and centenary, cent is regu- 

 larly pronounced as in the case of the name 

 of our monetary unit. The only excuse for a 

 different practise for the metric system is the 

 fact that these words were first used by the 

 French. They are truly international words, 

 however, and as a matter of practical con- 

 Tenience they should be naturalized in each 



language in which they are used. Any at- 

 tempt at precise international uniformity for 

 such words is obviously predestined to failure, 

 except as this uniformity comes with the 

 general adoption of an international auxiliary 

 language such as Esperanto — and even when 

 this happens the usage of " national " lan- 

 guages will probably remain unchanged. 



And while we are about it, in conformity 

 with the definite trend of modern English 

 usage, can we not all agree to drop the " me " 

 from gramime), and to write meter rather 

 than metre? 



Howard B. Frost 



Citrus Experiment Station, 

 ErvERSiDE, California 



EXTRAMUNDANE LIFE 



To THE Editor of Science: In Science for 

 March fourth an eminent astronomer speaks 

 of the " strong probability that intelligent life 

 exists in abundance throughout the universe." 

 May I inquire where I can secure any evidence 

 in support of this statement ? Ii-should like to 

 know upon what grounds I may assert that life 

 exists anywhere but upon this earth. Second- 

 ly, bow may I know it is intelligent? And 

 thirdly, how may I know that it exists in 

 abundance? The whole assertion savors to me 

 of newspaper pseudo-science. 



Hubert Lyman Clark 



WiLLIAMSTOWX, MaSS., 



April 11 



To THE Editor of Science: On April 4 I 

 had the pleasure of suggesting by letter di- 

 rectly 'to Professor Humbert Lyman Clark that 

 he read Professor Simon Newcomb's superb 

 essay of ithirteen printed pages on this very 

 old subject, entitled " Life in the Universe," 

 and contained in his volume, " Side-Lights on 

 Astronomy" (Harper and Brothers), pp. 120- 

 132, 1906. One of ISTewoomb's concluding sen- 

 tences (p. 132) reads, " It is, therefore, per- 

 fectly reasonable to suppose that beings, not 

 only animated, hut endowed with reason, in- 

 habit countless worlds in space." 



"W. W. Campbell 



Mount Hamilton, California, 

 April 25 



