328 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
denying that a number of words in the later developmeut of lan- 
guage were purely notional, that is, intended to represent an idea, 
not to imitate a sound, he strongly contended, that the whole ori- 
ginal stock of language was either direct imitations of natural 
sounds, or analogical representations of things visible and tangible 
by things audible. As proofs of* this be adduced various illustra- 
tions from the Aryan and the Semitic languages. He showed spe- 
cially that most motions are accompanied by certain sounds or 
noises, and these sounds are imitated more or less perfectly by the 
great family of verbs which express motion in all languages ; that 
objects which are sharp or blunt, rough or smooth to touch, are 
expressed by words which have the same character to the organs 
of speech and to the ear ; and that there is a distinct correlation 
between all outward sensuous impressions and the emotions thereby 
excited in our minds and nervous system, which necessarily causes 
the vocal expression of any feeling to bear a likeness to the ex- 
ternal impression from which it proceeded.- He did not consider 
the scientific truth of this matter to be in any way affected by the 
vexed question, whether man was created originally an infant or 
full-grown ; and the disownment of the imitative principle in the 
formation of language by Professor Max Muller, in his recent work 
on the science of language, he considered as the result of a Grerman 
prejudice against even the appearance of sensationalism, a fond- 
ness for the abstract in preference to the concrete in philosophy, 
and a delight in the mysterious. 
3. Note on the Phlogistic Theory. By Alexander Crum 
Brown, M.D., &c. 
When we consider that the Phlogistic Theory formed, as it were, 
the central point round which the facts of chemistry first crystallized 
into regular scientific form, and that for more than a hundred years 
it was recognised by all as the foundation of the science, we might 
reasonably suppose that it should contain at least some germ of truth. 
J think I shall be able to show in the folloAving note that not 
only is this the case, but that the theory itself, as stated by its 
founders, Beecher and Stahl, is, if not strictly true, a very close 
approximation to what we now recognise as truth. 
