1866.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 153 



the modern science of electricity teaches us. We have a word for 

 amber, but what could be a better word to indicate those phenomena 

 than the native term for lightning ? Then there are other terms in 

 English which are positively wrong. Oxygen was the sole generator 

 of acids as long as the composition of the hydrochloric acid was not 

 known. A vegetable alkaloid, on the principle I suppose of ' Lucus 

 a non lucendo,' is called narcotine, though it has no narcotic effect 

 at all. Will it be proper to perpetuate those errors when conveying 

 a science from a nation who has it, to another who has it not, and 

 when we have the means of correcting them without creating any 

 jar on usage ? I certainly think not. I do not deny that there 

 are certain words in English which cannot be rendered with absolute 

 accuracy in any native language, and perhaps the fi : fa : and ca : sa : of 

 our English courts could not be reproduced in such short handy 

 forms in Bengali. But I, nevertheless, maintain that native terms 

 are preferable to foreign ones. The English terms are not always and 

 absolutely correct, though they will always be unintelligible and un- 

 pronounceable. The vernacular terms may sometimes prove to be incor- 

 rect, but they will be intelligible and useful, and therefore always pre- 

 ferable. But suppose the case were worse, and that vernacular terms 

 were always to turn out incorrect, still their claims would not be second 

 to those of foreigners, for it would be a great mistake to suppose that 

 what is sometimes correct is necessarily better than what is always 

 wrong. It would be a logical position which DeMorgan has justly stig- 

 matised as a gross fallacy. My watch, Sir, it may be, is always wrong ; it 

 goes either a few minutes too fast or too slow ; but it is nevertheless in- 

 finitely more useful than the watch which does not go at all, but which 

 from that very circumstance is mathematically correct twice in 24 

 hours. My Indian terms like my watch will always be useful, though 

 they may be at times somewhat inexpressive. The English terms 

 may be exact, but like the watch that does not go, be perfectly 

 useless and a positive encumbrance. I beg of you, therefore, gentle- 

 men, to pause before you adopt the resolution. I feel convinced that 

 it will prove, if it be enforced, a grievous hardship to the people of 

 this country and a serious impediment to the progress of knowledge." 

 The Secretary read the following letter bearing on the discussion, 

 at the request of the Be v. J. Long. 



