Suggestions to medical writers / by George M. Gould.

  • George M. Gould
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions to medical writers / by George M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    float through his mind hazy ideas that etymology de¬ mands the present method, and that at best you are a very bothersome and conceited person. To one who has pondered the subject, however little, it must be painfully apparent that every other product uncon¬ sciously developed in the evolution of the race, whether plows, guns, matches, or books, has been found capable of betterment, and all civilization consists in improvement of or improvement upon, the crude devices of early awk¬ wardness. Why should language then be an exception to the rule ? Those who have examined carefully aver that our language is a sorry instrument of thought, and bears about the same likeness to an ideal language that a hand- sickle does to the best reaping and binding machine of our day. It is plain, therefore, that the obstinate prejudice against any change whatsover in it is most ill-advised and unreasonable. We do not advise radical changes. The proper attitude of mind is one that welcomes slow and slight changes toward shortening, thus lessening the severe burden of education, and the expense of printing. Reform has a double motive here, psychologic and commercial. It has been estimated that our outrageous spelling costs one year of school-life of every child. The financial saving by lessening every printed page one line would probably pay the expenses of our government, and perhaps also retire on a life pension the Senate besides. This line could be saved, and at least a day or two of the wasted school-life spared by abolishing ce and ce, by lopping off a few redun¬ dant tails of words, and by observing a half-dozen little rules,—all of which are not only advisable but philologically necessary, not only not improper but genuinely proper. As to ce and ce, these diphthongs are difficult to write, and they are against the genius of the language. They have already been sloughed in a large number of words, and those who oppose what they are pleased to call “ the mutilation of our beloved language,” must answer our
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