1028 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 287. 



Robey, Jr. , present some ' Studies in the Me- 

 chanism of Agglutination,' W. R. Brencker- 

 hoff describes 'The Pathology of Azoturia,' 

 and A. W. Balch notes ' A Possible Cause of 

 Azoturia,' Allen Cleghorn discusses 'The 

 Physiological Effects and the Nature of Ex- 

 tracts of Sympathetic Ganglia,' R. W. Lowett 

 has a note on ' Movements of the Normal Spine 

 in their Relation to Scoliosis,' and Harold C. 

 Ernst treats of ' Actinomycosis of the Udder of 

 the Cow.' 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 THE MISUSE OF TECHNICAL TERMS. 



When a layman discourses upon a profes- 

 sional subject, as when a cobbler expounds elec- 

 tricity, he may be excused for lack of familiarity 

 with technicalities, and for a consequent misuse 

 of technical terms, though one may question 

 the propriety of his posing as an authority on 

 the subject. The case is different with a pro- 

 fessional man who has acquired the right to 

 speak by reason of high position or meritorious 

 work, or both. A misuse of terms in speaking 

 to others of his own profession would probably 

 not affect them seriously, as they would per- 

 ceive the error and discern the truth that is 

 behind it, or the mistake, if there be any, in the 

 conclusions. But when he addresses an audi- 

 ence of laymen, it is incumbent upon him to be 

 careful of his language, especially in scientific 

 matters, since these are loaded down with tech- 

 nical terms of great exactness in meaning, the 

 wrong use of which may result to the uninitiated 

 in error as well as confusion. To be sure, the 

 use of abtruse or uncommon terms where com- 

 mon words would convey the true meaning is 

 tiresome pedantry in professor and layman 

 alike, but whether the words are common or 

 uncommon, let them be used correctly. 



In these days of specialties and specialists a 

 highly trained authority in one profession is a 

 layman among the members of another, and to 

 some degree is at their mercy as to technical 

 terms ; still more so are those who, without 

 special training, but with intelligence enough 

 to appreciate the ability of scholars, and with a 

 corresponding interest in such features of the 

 various professions as touch upon their life and 

 experience, must depend upon what they can 



get from the utterances of professional men in 

 quasi-scientific or semi-professional form, to 

 satisfy their thirst for knowledge. They cou- 

 stitiite the greater portion of the readers of 

 scientific journals which are not strictly techni- 

 cal, and they want expressions in regard to sci- 

 ence that are more authoritative than those 

 appearing in the daily newspaper, where, for 

 example, we read from time to time that a man 

 has taken an electric current of an incredible 

 number of volts. The diffusing and popular- 

 izing of science has introduced its nomenclature 

 to a wide circle of such interested but imper- 

 fectly trained readers, and has made accuracy 

 in the use of terms more important now than ever 

 before. There is no need to go to excess in 

 technicalities. Now and then we eucounter 

 papers or even extended treatises in which the 

 author delights in coining words, after the man- 

 ner of a Heine or a Riohter, apparently expecting 

 thereby to enrich our vocabulary, but while 

 occasionally a term thus introduced stays, most 

 commonly it falls out of use very speedily. 

 That is something that takes care of itself. 

 Our only contention is that a technical term 

 should be used correctly, if at all, and that this 

 is the more imperative if the term is not a rare 

 one. 



It is true that in some branches of science, 

 possibly in all branches, there are theories or 

 hypotheses, not yet well enough established, 

 phenomena not well enough understood to make 

 it possible to give to the terms the exact signifi- 

 cance they may come to possess later. This was 

 illustrated in the discussions that abounded four 

 years ago, regarding the X-rays, and the proper 

 words to designate the radiant agent and the pic- 

 tures produced by it. In response to a request 

 for a suitable name for the latter, no fewer than 

 twenty were suggested to The Electrical World, 

 with special reasons for each one. Of these 

 twenty none has been generally adopted, and to- 

 day the pictures may be called by any one of 

 several names without violating propriety or 

 precision.' It is quite different, however, in re- 

 gard to certain names in subjects that have 

 passed a transition stage, and probably in none 

 has the nomenclature been more fully developed 

 or better established than in mechanics. In 

 this science new words are proposed from time 



