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Compte-rendu Ph. Cent. Obs. Russia. 1857. 4to.-From the Di

rectors.

Annales de l'Obs. 1856. Nos. 1, 2. 4to.-From the same.

Oversigt K. Danske V. S. Forhand., 1858. 8vo.-From the Society. Skrifter K. D. V. S. Nat. Afd., iv, 2; v, 1. 1859. 4to.-From the Society.

Reports of Council Brit. Meteorological Soc. 6, 7, 8.-From the Society.

Glaisher's Determination of Mean Temperatures. 1814 to 1856.From the same.

Glaisher's Mem. on the Meteorology of England. 1858.-From the

same.

Syro-Egyptian Soc. Correspondence and Papers. 1858 and 1859.From the Society.

Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc., xx, No. 2.-From the Society. Airy's Instructions for Mars in 1860.-From the same.

Proc. Royal Geograph. Soc., iii, No. 6. 1859.-From the Society. Journ. Soc. Arts and I. in U., vii, Nos. 359–362.—From the Society. Medical News and Library, xviii, No. 205. Jan., 1860.—From Blanchard & Lea.

Amer. Journ. Med. Sci., lxxvii. Jan., 1860.-From the same. Report of State Librarian, 1859. Harrisburg.-From the Librarian. Proc. Amer. Antiq. Soc., Oct. 21, 1859. Boston. 8vo.-From the

Society.

Proc. Acad. N. S. Philada. 1859.-From the Academy.
Wilkes on the Circulation of the Oceans.

the Author.

Philada., 1859.-From

Dr. Bache presented a communication from W. Sharswood, asking leave to withdraw his paper offered at the last meeting. His request was granted and the committee discharged.

ALEXANDER (JOSEPH ADDISON).-The Rev. Mr. Barnes announced the death of the Rev. J. A. Alexander, of Princeton, N. J., a member of the Society, January 28, 1860, æt.

50.

The Rev. Dr. Leyburn was appointed to prepare an obituary notice of the deceased.

GILPIN (HENRY D.)-Judge Sharswood announced the death of the Hon. Henry D. Gilpin, of Philadelphia, a mem

ber of the Society, January 29, æt. 58. Mr. Joseph R. Ingersoll was appointed to prepare an obituary notice of the deceased.

ESPY (JAMES P.)—Dr. Emerson announced the death of Prof. James P. Espy, a member of the Society, at Cincinnati, January 26, 1860, æt. 75. Prof. Henry was appointed to prepare an obituary notice of the deceased.

JONES (JOEL).—Mr. Lesley announced the death of Judge Joel Jones, of Philadelphia, a member of the Society, February 2, 1860, æt. 54. Judge Sharswood was appointed to prepare an obituary notice of the deceased.

Dr. Emerson called the attention of the Society to a quality of the diamond as producing light after friction in a dark room. When drawn along, for instance, over the surface of a polished marble mantel-piece, it emits a phosphorescent light. In the case of a large diamond, weighing twenty-four carats, the largest diamond ever found in North America, picked from a bank of drift near Richmond, Va., and now in the possession of Samuel W. Dewey, this phosphoric light was quite vivid and occasional, accompanied with a gentle scintillation. Observations were elicited by this description from Mr. Lesley, Dr. Le Conte, Dr. R. P. Harris, and Dr. Bache. Dr. Emerson referred to a flexible sandstone found in connection with diamonds in Stokes Co., N. C., a hill which is owned by Mr. Dewey.

Prof. Trego exhibited a specimen of this itacolumite sandstone, showing very plainly its flexible and elastic properties. Pending nomination, No. 397, was read.

The report of the Secretaries, concerning those members elect who appear to have lost the right of membership, was presented and referred to the Committee of Finance.

Dr. Leidy moved that the plaster casts of fossils now in possession of the Society be deposited with the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the consideration of which was postponed for the present.

And the Society was adjourned.

Stated Meeting, February 17, 1860.

Present, seventeen members.

Dr. GEORGE B. WOOD, President, in the Chair.

A letter was read from Dr. F. W. Lewis, acknowledging notice of his election.

A letter was read from Edward Sabine, of London, relative to the decease of Sir Francis Beaufort.

The following donations for the Library were received:—

Trans. Royal Irish Acad., xxiii, part 2. 4to. 1859.-From the Academy.

Proc. Royal Irish Acad., vii, parts 1 to 8. 8vo.-From the same. Lloyd's Memoir on Light through Thin Plates. 4to.-From the same. Lloyd's Memoir on Determining the Earth's Magnetic Force. 4to.From the same.

Proc. Boston Soc. N. H., vii, sigs. 11, 12. Jan., 1860.-From the Society.

Memoirs Hist. Soc. Penna., vii. (500 pp. 8vo.)-From the Society. Med. News and Library, xviii, No. 206.-From Blanchard & Lea. Journ. Franklin Institute, No. 410.—From the Institute.

Ann. Rep. Penna. Inst. Deaf and Dumb. 1859.-From the Board. Ann. Rep. Y. M. Mercantile Library Assoc. Cincinnati, 1859.From the Association.

BEAUFORT (SIR FRANCIS).-Dr. Le Conte announced the death of Sir Francis Beaufort, December 17, 1857, æt. 84.

Mr. Lesley presented a communication from Mr. George Calhoun, of Philadelphia, exhibiting at the same time a model of his compound ventilator, eliciting explanations from Prof. Cresson.

Professor Cresson described the effects of the gale of February 9th and 10th at the City Gas Works, destroying a strong new building, 250 feet long by 57 wide and 54 high, lifting up the roof of iron, braced and stayed in the strongest manner, and weighing with its slates 300,000 pounds, and with it large portions of the walls.

(Continuation on page 292.)

[Read Sept. 17, 1858.]

SANSCRIT AND ENGLISH ANALOGUES.

BY PLINY E. CHASE.

FEW Etymologists will be disposed to claim for their favorite study the dignity of a Science; for neither its elementary principles, its legitimate ends, nor its ethnological uses in verifying history, or determining the pre-historical migrations and affiliations of tribes, are definitely settled. Resemblances, that one investigator regards as valuable and important, are pronounced trivial, accidental, or insignificant by another, whose most serious dicta are, in their turn, made the subject of ridicule by those who advocate a theory of language differing from his own.

Such students as Bopp, Grimm, Curtius, Pott and others, have accumulated a mass of information, from which some rules have been deduced that must be recognized in every attempt to find a scientific basis for comparative philology. But even their labors have been ridiculed by sciolists, who, placing undue stress on the mistakes that are inseparable from all human effort, lose sight of the merit that rewards all sincere investigation. It is not strange that a tyro, perplexed between the assumed derivation of "wig" on the one hand, and the curious "Ten Paradoxes" of Haldeman on the other,† should be disposed to assert the worthlessness of Etymology, and to regard as its fundamental rule, that "all consonants are mutually interchangeable, and all vowels are of no account," or to set the derivation of "fox" from "rainy day" and "mango" from "King Jeremiah," on a level with the results of the most abstruse philological researches.

But the earnest student will soon outgrow all disposition to ridicule even what may appear to him as absurd in the deductions of careful investigators. He will feel that every addition to knowledge

VOL. VII.-X

* Pilus, pelo, peluco, paruik, periwig, wig.
† See Trans. Am. Phil. So. Vol. XI. page 270.

is an addition to the treasury from which future investigators will draw their wealth, and he will rather leave the rejection of the base metal to those who can find a proper use for the good, than attempt to depreciate the whole by directing our attention exclusively to that which he imagines may be bad.

All etymological researches may be arranged in three classes, viz.: 1. Immediate or Derivative; 2. Comparative; 3. Radical or Germinal.

1. Derivative Etymology is limited to the determination of the language from which any given word is immediately derived, and usually without much change of form. Its method is the one adopted by ordinary lexicographers.

2. Comparative Etymology traces similarities and subordinate differences of sound and meaning, between different languages which are generally, though not necessarily, of the same family or origin; and sometimes attempts to assign the cause of such similarity or difference, whether accidental, organic, derivative, or otherwise.

3. Radical or Germinal Etymology, endeavors to ascertain the essential elements of words, without regard to their immediate derivation or remote affinities. The most noteworthy example of this class, is to be found in the labors of the Indian grammarians, who compiled the lists of Sanscrit radicals, an example that might be advantageously imitated by supplying similar lists for other languages.

The philological labors of Oriental scholars, such as Grimm, Bopp, and others, have been mostly comparative. In the sanguine enthusiasm of the early students of Sanscrit, the hope was often indulged, that the key to all languages had been found, and that all dialectic mysteries would be speedily removed. Since these extravagant expectations have been generally given up, there has been, perhaps, an undue tendency in the opposite direction, to disparage the study of Sanscrit for etymologic uses. In contending against such a tendency it is not necessary to assume any theory with regard to the relative antiquity and position of the Sanscrit and its kindred languages; it is sufficient to show that the Sanscrit is one of the earliest known members of the Indo-European family, and that, therefore, from its introduction into a comparative list with any other member of the same family, it is reasonable to hope for aid in ascertaining primitive roots and determining radical significance.

Whatever value may be attached to the following vocabulary must belong to it in virtue of its adaptedness to the wants of the comparative etymologist. It is a list, not of roots, but of analogues;

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