APRIL 25, 1884.] 
leaves, and cones of Pinus sylvestris, —a discovery 
which he thus connects with the results of his inves- 
tigations on the flora of the carboniferous period: 
** Taking into consideration the fact that solid paraf- 
fine is found in petroleum and is also found in coal, 
and from my own work, that phenol exists in Pinus 
sylvestris and has been found by others in coal which 
is produced by the decomposition of a flora con- 
taining numerous gigantic coniferae allied to Pinus, 
and that petroleum contains phenol, and each (i.e., 
petroleum and coal) contains a number of hydro- 
carbons common to both, I am inclined to think that 
the balance of evidence is in favor of the hypothesis 
that petroleum has been produced in nature from a 
vegetable source in the interior of the globe. Of 
course, there can be no practical or direct evidence 
as to the origin of petroleum: therefore ‘ theories are 
the only lights with which we can penetrate the 
obscurity of the unknown, and they are to be valued 
just as far as they illuminate our path.’ In con- 
clusion, I think that this is a connecting-link between 
the old pine and fir forests of by-gone ages, and the 
origin of petroleum in nature.” 
— The new English dictionary of the Philological 
society, edited by Dr. Murray, and pronounced by. 
Mr. Furnivall to be the best dictionary of any lan- 
guage, has only reached the word ANT, and nobody 
knows when the end of the alphabet will come; but 
part i. gives a clear indication of the pian on which 
the work is to proceed, and shows that scholars in 
all departments, and not philologists alone, are to 
be benefited by its publication. Indeed, the construc- 
tion of this dictionary has been governed by the 
scientific method. The authors began by observing 
and collecting facts, then proceeded to classify them, 
and then to ascertain what was taught by the facts. 
Three and a half million citations were made by 
thirteen hundred readers. Among the collaborators 
were many Americans, led by Prof. F. A. March. 
Rey. Dr. Pierson of Iowa sent sixty thousand quota- 
tions. From such resources, added to those already 
at command in Richardson, and other general dic-. 
tionaries, and in the special glossaries of the Bible, 
Shakspeare, Milton, Pope, etc., it has been possible 
to determine the h’story of almost every word. It is 
curious to observe how sometimes the course has 
been upwared from the language of common life to 
that of abstract philosophy; at other times the word 
goes down in respectability like a drunkard, and 
becomes positively vulgar. Indeed, the differentiation 
of words resembles the development of living beings: 
from very simple germs, vel1y complex organisms are 
evolved. The ‘form-history’ of a word is what the 
editor calls its morphology, and includes a discussion 
of the derivation, phonetic changes, corruption, obso- 
lescence, revival, etc. 
In order to whet the appetite of those readers of 
Science who may not have had an opportunity to 
examine this masterly introduction, we shall cull a 
few examples, taken almost at random, of the mode 
of treatment which Dr. Murray and his coadjutors 
have followed. Almost every page will give us inter- 
esting material. A good many mathematicians who 
SCIENCE. 
27 
know that ‘algebra’ is an Arabic term will be sur- 
prised to find, that, so far as can be ascertained, it came 
into English use first (as early as 1541) in the sense of 
re-integrating broken bones, so that an algebraist or 
algebrista was ‘a bone-setter,’ and ten years later (in 
1551), in the sense of the science of ‘ redintegration,’ 
or equation, the mathematical sense which alone re- 
mains current. The historical use of another Arabic 
word, ‘alcohol,’ is likewise interesting. Its first re- 
corded appearance in English is in 1543, when it 
meant any fine impalpable powder produced by sub- 
limation, as alcohol of sulphur; and hence it was 
applied to fluids, an essence or spirit obtained by dis- 
tillation, as alcohol of wine, and so ultimately to an 
extensive class of compounds of the same type as 
spirit of wine, some of which, far from being volatile, 
are not even liquid. The very convenient scientific 
croup of ‘actinic’ words appears to have been intro- 
duced by Sir J. Herschel, who invented an instru- 
ment, which he called an actinometer, for measuring 
the intensity of the sun’s heating-rays, described by 
him in-1825. More than a score of words etymologi- 
cally related to this are now in scientific use. By 
and by we may expect a like multiplication from 
‘bolometer,’ which Professor Langley has set in mo- 
tion. ‘Agnostic’ is traced to a suggestion of Huxley’s 
at a meeting of the Metaphysical society of London 
in 1869, and he had in mind the altar referred to by 
St. Paul as erected ‘to the unknown God.’ The first 
use of the term in print may be found in the Specta- 
tor for Jan. 29, 1870. ‘ Agnosticism’ followed natu- 
rally a few months later. ‘Ant’ and ‘emmet’ havea 
common ancestry in the West Saxon aemete. In one 
form’ or another, they have been known to our lan- 
guage since the year 1000. ‘ Aluminium’ first came 
into use in the form ‘alumium,’ which Sir Hum- 
phry Davy employed in 1808. Four years later he 
spoke of ‘aluminum,’ not yet obtained in a perfectly 
free state; and very quickly the Quarterly review sub- 
stituted ‘aluminium’ for its less classical predecessor, 
and this is the form now commonly adopted. The 
biography of ‘academy’ is of interest. Caxton used 
the form ‘achadomye’ in 1474, referring to Plato’s 
dwelling; but it was almost a century later (1549, 
1588) when it began to be used as the name of a 
modern seat of learning. Perhaps it came to Eng- 
land from Geneva, where a protestant foundation 
took the name of an ‘ academy,’ to be distinguished 
from the ecclesiastical ‘ university.?- Toward the end 
of the seventeenth century the Royal academy of 
sciences in Paris was talked about in London; and 
in 1769 an academy of fine arts, that which is now in 
London the Academy, was founded. The American 
use of ‘academical’ as applying to an undergraduate 
classical college, in distinction from a scientific or 
professional schoo], does not appear to have been 
noted. 
— Alabama may now be said to have a state weather 
service. As now organized, there is a corps of twenty- 
two observers working under the patronage of the 
state commissioner of agriculture, no appropriation 
having as yet been made by the legislature. The 
service was organized in February, by Dr. P. H. Mell, 
