Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
August,  1920.  j 
Editorial. 
525 
and  correctness.  Few,  indeed,  can  appreciate  the  real  extent  and 
importance  of  that  influence  which  language  has  always  exercised 
on  human  affairs,  or  can  be  aware  how  often  these  are  determined 
by  causes  much  slighter  than  are  apparent  to  a  superficial  observer." 
The  history  of  the  English  language  is  a  very  interesting  study. 
It  has  gone  through  several  stages  of  development  and  Modern 
English,  the  cultivated  language  forming  our  Standard  English  of 
today,  is  declared  by  competent  authorities  to  be  so  distinctly 
different  from  Old  English  or  Anglo  Saxon  as  to  constitute  these, 
for  all  practical  ends,  two  distinct  languages  as  much  so  as  Latin 
and  Spanish.  It  is  a  mixed  or  polyglot  tongue  exhibiting  in  its 
extensive  vocabulary  the  modifying  influences  of  invasion,  conquest, 
wars,  explorations,  expositions,  commerce,  advances  in  the  profes- 
sions, arts,  sciences  and  industries,  and  the  progress  of  literature 
throughout  the  centuries.  Intercourse  with  other  nations  has 
added  many  words  from  the  French,  German,  Portuguese,  Italian, 
Dutch  and  other  languages. 
Nevertheless,  the  root  words  have  been  generally  retained  in- 
tact and  the  newer  words  formed  therefrom  have  followed  the  spell- 
ing of  their  predecessors  and  the  established  rules.  The  forms  of 
pure  words  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  past  generations.  Of 
the  great  body  of  words  constituting  the  English  language  the  spell- 
ing is  determined  by  established  usage  and  the  rules  of  grammar 
that  proclaim  such  usages  are  the  laws  of  that  science.  The  spelling 
of  a  language  is  really  a  process  of  sifting  out  and  it  is  the  special 
province  of  lexicographers  to  determine  the  correct  spelling  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  principles  enunciated  in  these  laws  and  their 
conclusions  embodied  in  the  accepted  dictionaries  become  the  author- 
ity or  standard  of  good  English,  alike  for  spelling,  pronunciation 
and  meaning. 
The  natural  changes  that  take  place  in  the  language  are  due  to 
many  and  varied  causes  whose  influences  effect  gradual  innovations 
recognized  by  usage  and  reflected  in  the  dictionaries.  Among  such 
may  be  cited,  as  examples,  labor  instead  of  labour,  physic  for  physick, 
toils  for  toyls,  choose  for  chuse,  virtue  for  vertue.  Many  similar 
changes  have  been  and  are  continually  going  on,  almost  unperceived, 
as  a  part  of  the  process  of  language  evolution  and  without  violating 
the  sense  of  propriety  or  infracting  the  rules  of  our  orthography. 
We  conceive  it  to  be  the  duty  of  all  English-speaking  peoples  to 
preserve  the  purity  of  our  language. 
) 
