152 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [July, 



to a uniform and most beautifully expressive terminology. Take 

 that terminology aAvay, and chemistry will again be what it originally 

 was. The alchemists knew a great many facts in chemistry ; they 

 knew all the principal metals and most of the nonmetallic bodies. 

 They knew them and their compounds well, but they called them 

 brothers of the moon and sisters of the sun, or some such names, 

 and used them as mysteries and delusions. We designate them by 

 words which at once tell us exactly what they are and of what 

 things composed, and we convert alchemy into a science. Jiet our 

 per-nitrate of iron and sesqui-oxide of manganese cease to connote to our 

 minds the different components of the articles we allude to, and they 

 cease to be instruments of science, and become as unmeaning gibberish 

 as the " sisters of the sun" and the " brothers of the moon." To the 

 natives of India those words must necessarily be perfectly unintelli- 

 gible, and therefore, if imported bodily into our vernacular books, 

 they cannot but for us altogether destroy the beautiful simplicity 

 and precision of chemistry as a science, and reduce it to the level 

 of a juggler's art. And what is true of chemistry, will be true of 

 most other sciences. Will Mathematics or Botany remain sciences 

 to us, if we be called upon to work mathematical propositions without 

 understanding such terms as lines and angles and arcs and trapeziums ? 

 or recognise plants, if we understand not what are petals and sepals 

 and anthers and pollen ? 



"But perhaps my position will be admitted, and it will be said 

 that the vernaculars are not rich and pliant enough to admit of 

 the formation of sufficiently expressive scientific terms. This, how- ( 

 ever, I deny. Every experiment that has been made in this 

 country on the subject, has proved the contrary. I am told it was 

 said at the last meeting that such words as galvanism and electricity 

 could not be translated into Bengali. But I can see nothing in 

 them which need frighten us in the least. The word galvanism is a most 

 unfortunate instance to quote. If it indicates anything it shews 

 that we have not yet got a more expressive term in the English 

 language to connote certain electrical phenomena than a non-connota- 

 tive word, the name of an Italian physicist. As for electricity it 

 simply means ' relating to amber' or electron the Greek name for 

 amber. It has nothing to do with the various phenomena which 



