5iS 
Things versus Words. 
[September, 
that the general public— educated verbally— can form even 
‘an approximate ilea of its shape ? Words, no matter how 
skilfully used, will be of no 
either give an illustration or— if speaking to naturalists I 
must say that the new being is like some known group. 
Thus if I state that it is a Buprestid every entomologist 
will know its general features, and its especial peculiarities 
can then be explained by language, which, however , wouM 
be auite unintelligible to such as have not hist made them 
selves acquainted^*!. the thing for which each word stands 
^In^manner I might go on with the texture ' ^nt 
of various objects. Here language is much more impotent 
than it is in case of shapes and colours. Ask an experienced 
wool-broker to put into language the charafteristics y 
which on handling a sample wool he judges of its propel - 
lies He will laugh at the request as involving a sheer 
impossibility. He will say that in his experience he has 
observed certain points in the feel of a wool which indicate 
its practical value. These points have fixed themselves in 
his P memory, but he has never clothed them in words, and 
does not know how to attempt it. It is sometimes over- 
looked that we can, and do, distinctly remember and identify 
sense-impressions without the use of language • 
now understand why practical men always say X t rs of 
iPfip ,,ce reading about a process; to undeistand it you 
must see it donefand do it yoVself.” And this holds good 
in the laboratory— physical, chemical, or biological just as 
Absolutely tremendous * MUori. If 
language, unaided by illustrations diagrams, models, and 
specimens gives us such a misty, inaccurate notion of the 
colours and forms of objefts, how much the more does this 
hold good of tastes and smells ! For expressing tastes we 
have a very scant vocabulary. We speak of sweet, sour 
hitter saline savoury. Beyond this range we help ourselves 
out with reference to substances of known flavour. But 
these substances may not be known and Shades 
known the similarity is never absolute. 1 here are shades 
of difference which we recognise and remember, but of 
which we cannot speak. Where, for instance, is the 
language in which an experienced tea-taster or wine-tastei 
can record or transmit his knowledge ? 
With odours the case is yet more decided. Beyond such 
generalities as pleasant or unpleasant, sweet or nasty, we 
have absolutely no terms at all at our command except 
