May 20, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



283 



these living dead languages. My argument turns on the 

 word judicious — as applied to the extent and method of the 

 study. The old methods, as unphilosophical as they well 

 could be, and the undue time and labor devoted to the clas- 

 sics are worthy of radical change in the modern system of 

 education. 



Consider the vast array of technical terms and of common 

 English words in our general and scientiOc literature, which 

 are also pure Latin and Greek words. Look at this remark- 

 able series of paradoxes! A young man may never have 

 learned a single word of Latin or Greek, and yet under ordi- 

 nary circumstances he has learned by hearing and reading 

 English several hundred Latin and Greek words — if he is 

 especially intelligent, at least three thousand. When he 

 receives his degree of Doctor of Medicine, he has learned by 

 the most painful toil several hundred technical terms taken 

 from these languages — and still does not know a single word 

 of Latin or Greek. He can count in Latin and Greek and yet 

 is in ignorant bliss of the fact, for he could not give on de- 

 mand a single numeral of these languages. He already 

 knows the names of several colors, of several of the ele- 

 ments, and yet cannot tell one of them. He knows the 

 Latin and Greek names of every member of the body, of 

 every organ, tissue, fibre and fluid and of all their diseases, 

 of all the senses and functions, and the words to express 

 writing, describing and measuring. If, however, he was 

 asked to give the Latin and Greek synonyms for any of 

 them he could not give it. 



Now for the pith of what I have to say! A rudimentary 

 Latin, as also a Greek, grammar with the readers should be 

 constructed for the primary object of teaching English — 

 secondarily of teaching Latin and Greek. 



The Latin grammar, save perhaps fifty connectives and 

 other important words should contain scarcely forty pages 

 of declensions and conjugations with only a very few rules. 

 Every word of this grammar should be a good English word 

 with possibly a slight change of a letter or syllable. 



The Latin reader should contain at least a hundred and 

 fifty pages of pure, even elegant Latin from classic prose and 

 from poetry, almost every word of which would be a good 

 English word. 



We will present a few examples: 



"Labor omnia vincit." 



" Poeta nascitur, non fit." 



" facilis descensus Averno: 

 Noctes atquedies patet atri janua Ditis 

 Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras. 

 Hoc opus, hie labor est." 



Literae adulescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant sec- 

 undas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solatium praebent, 

 delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, 

 peregrinantur, rusticantur." 



"Homo sum, humani nihil a mealienum puto." 



"Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum taburnas 

 Regumque turres." 



These of course could be preceded by many simpler sen- 

 tences, such as " Tempus fugit." "Res sacra est miser." 



As the multiplication table must be committed to memory 

 before the child can progress in arithmetic, so the few pages 

 of declensions and conjugations must be memorized, that the 

 beginner may become perfectly familiar with Latin termina- 

 tions. With this preliminary exercise the scholar would 

 then find no perplexities and would read almost at sight all 

 the sentences in the reader. 



In the vocabulary at the end of tlie reader with every 



principal word should be arranged all cognate words. With 

 the definition of each word should be presented all English 

 words derived from it. 



Instead of exercises in transposing English into Latin, I 

 would for the first year direct the energies of the pupil in 

 the discipline of memorizing by easy tasks the classic sen- 

 tences I have just described. 



There seems to be a growing prejudice among educators 

 of recent times against the practice of "learning by heart." 

 I am convinced there is no way by which one can make more 

 rapid progress in learning a language, either ancient or 

 modern, than by committing to memory wisely selected! 

 sentences and phrases. 



This is the natural method of learning a language. The 

 child, from the time it attempts to utter its first syllable,, 

 never speaks that syllable perfectly till it has learned it by 

 heart. In a single year the pupil will learn far more Latin 

 than in two or three years by the methods usually pursued! 

 in our public schools. 



The same plan should be pursued in teaching the elements- 

 of Greek. Thirty pages of grammar, each word of which 

 should be an English word, except fifty connectives and 

 other important words, would suffice. 



There would be some difiiculty in filling a Greek reader 

 with gems of Greek, which would also be English. A com- 

 petent Greek scholar, however, with the aid of fifty con- 

 nective words not English, could compile a few such sen- 

 tences and paraphrase others. He could arrange simple 

 narrative of facts from history, biography, geography and 

 mythology, in which the several hundred Greek words ii* 

 our language could be formed into quite long sentences and 

 convey much useful information. 



Pardon me for reading a dry list of familiar syllables to 

 call to your minds a multitude of Greek English words, 

 which, properly arranged, would fill many pages of in- 

 structive reading — words ending in graph, gram, meter, 

 logue, asm, scope, sis; words commencing with dia, a or an, 

 kata, para, apo, hypo, hyper, hydro, phos, sym or syn, phil, 

 peri, tech, tel; words in which the following are important 

 syllables, hepat, soma, stoma, ptoma, tony, pneuma, deme, 

 crat, arch, bion, phon, tone, sarc. 



There is a great need of such elementary text-books for 

 the use of professional students, the preparation of which is 

 worthy the attention of any ingenious and thorough Latin 

 and Greek scholar. As far as I am aware, those which have 

 been heretofore arranged do not possess vocabularies suffi- 

 ciently extensive for the use of the medical student in study- 

 ing technical terms. The portion devoted to grammatical 

 forms is also inadequate. Moreover, the quotations and 

 other sentences are not selected with reference to their ele- 

 gance of expression and beauty of sentiment, which render 

 them suitable for memorizing. Nor do they seem to be se- 

 lected with special reference to the useful knowledge they 

 convey. 



The vocabulary should be sufficiently extensive to present 

 not only all words used in our general literature, but also in 

 the sciences. The following examples will illustrate my 

 meaning: — 



Tango, tangere, tetigi, factum (contingo, contingere, con- 

 tigi) = To touch. Tactus = Sense of touch. Tangent, tangi- 

 ble, intangible, tact, intact, contact, contiguous, contiguity, 

 contingent, contingency (integer, integral ?). 



GapuaSoo = To tear flesh like dogs. Sarcasm, sarcastic. 

 ffttpwZifc!? = To play. Sarcousa, sarcosis. 



(7ffp7iz;co?^ Fleshy. Sarcous, sarcocele. 



