of Edinburgh, Session 1869 - 70 . 
167 
Monday, 1 Mil May 1870. 
Dr CHRISTISON, President, in the Chair. 
On taking the chair the President alluded to the loss 
which the Society had sustained by the death of Sir James 
Y. Simpson, Bart. 
The following Communications were read;— 
1. Primitive Affinity between the Classical and the Low 
German Languages. By the lion. Lord Neaves. 
(Abstract.) 
In this paper the author adverted to the limited attention that 
was paid in this country to comparative philology, and noticed 
the principles it had developed and the progress it had made else¬ 
where of late years. 
In illustration of the results thus attained in the Aryan or Indo- 
G-ermanic languages, he took as familiar examples the affinities 
that could he traced between the Latin and tbe Old English tongues, 
viewing the Latin as a type of the earlier branches of the family, 
including the Greek and Indian; and the English as a type of a 
later branch, consisting chiefly of the Low German dialects. The 
affinities referred to were not those which connected Latin with 
English through the romance languages, hut those which subsisted 
between Latin and vernacular English, and which must have arisen 
from a prehistoric identity or connection. 
The chief law regulating these affinities was what is commonly 
called Grimm’s law, but which is subject to various limitations and 
exceptions. 
The affinities between words in cognate languages which have 
had no historic connection are to he found out—1st, by studying 
the general law of letter-change prevailing between the primary 
and secondary branches of the family; and 2d, by finding out the 
peculiarities or idiosyncrasies of the individual languages sought 
to be compared; for each language has a character of its own, and 
