168 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [July, 



exist at all in Sanscrit or Arabic. Should the languages of India 

 adopt even in many cases English terms, for which good native terms 

 exist, we ought to remember from the past, that the severity, or 

 authority, of no linguistical purist is powerful enough to arrest such 

 a phenomenon. 



■' I am under the impression that science has long ago established the 

 correctness of the resolution before us. But I cannot see what benefit 

 would arise, if our Society should record an opinion on a settled matter. 

 For this reason I cannot support the resolution." 



Mr. Blanford spoke to the following effect : — 



" With many of Mr. Blochmann's remarks 1 am entirely in accord. 

 As I remarked on the first occasion on which the present matter was 

 discussed, I do not think that any decision that the Society may come 

 to, will in any way affect the ultimate practical result, which will be 

 determined by the convenience the natives may find in adopting the 

 one or the other course now under discussion. All we can do is, to 

 endeavour to ascertain which of the two courses pointed out will pro- 

 bably prove most convenient, and by endeavouring to convince others, 

 save them, perhaps, some misapplied labour. Sir D. Macleod has given 

 his opinion, an opinion' which, being at present unopposed, will doubt- 

 less carry much weight with those to whom it was addressed ; but he 

 has asked us for our opinion also, and I think therefore we are bound 

 to give it. 



" The question at issue is, I take it, purely one of convenience, and 

 we may fairly set aside all supposed preference on national grounds 

 for one or the other course. Science is cosmopolitan, and nothing, 

 tends more to raise men above small local partialities, than the study 

 of Science in a scientific spirit. I must, however, point out at the 

 outset, that all my remarks are intended to bear on the study of 

 Science, which alone deserves the name, — of that body of systematized 

 knowledge, which has methods, as well as a language of its own ; 

 and I in no way refer to such scattered fragments of its results as are 

 imbibed as dogmas, and with a view to their practical uses, by those 

 who have little or no conception of scientific method. For the educa- 

 tion of the masses, it will probably be found here, as in England, that 

 much useful practical knowledge maybe conveyed, with the assistance 

 of a very small amount of technology, and that words in common use 



