Among the fallacies in words may be classed those false impressions which some writers contrive to give, while at the same time making no single statement that is untrue or exceptionable. Thus in Gibbon’s famous history, it is not by what he expressly says regarding Christianity, that he misleads the reader, but by what he suppresses, hints, and insinuates. As Paley long ago observed, the subtle error rather lies hid in the sinuous folds than is directly apparent on the surface of the polished style. Never openly attacking Christianity, or advancing any opinions which he might find it difficult to defend, he yet contrives to leave an impression adverse to the theory of its divine origin. In like manner, it is not usually by false statements that Hume perverts the truth of English history; but his unfairness secretes itself so subtly in the turns of the words, that, when you seek to point it out, it is gone.
Even the Natural Sciences, in which precision of language is vital, are disfigured by words which, if closely scrutinized, are found to be full of error. It is true that as the progress of inquiry brings fresh facts into view, the words which serve to illustrate exploded theories are usually rejected; yet names are sometimes retained after they cease to be correct or expressive. The word “electricity” suggests thunder-storms, shocks at scientific soirées, and Morse’s telegraph; yet it means only “the amber-force.” The explanation of this name is that the observation of the fact that amber, when rubbed, attracts to itself light bodies, was the first step taken toward the establishment of this marvellous science. So the name “oxygen,” or “the acid-producer,” was given to the gas so called, when it was considered to be the cause of acidity. In 1774 the gas called “muriatic acid” was renamed by Scheele, in consequence of certain discoveries made by him, “dephlogisticated muriatic acid.” By and by the doctrine of phlogiston was exploded, and Lavoisier, having to modify the name, changed it to “oxymuriatic,” or “oxygenized muriatic acid.” When, again, it was found that this pungent gas was a simple body, and actually entered into the constitution of the muriatic, or, as it is now called, hydrochloric acid,—that the oxygen merely withdrew from the latter the second constituent, viz., hydrogen,—the name had to be altered again, and this time Sir Humphrey Davy suggested “chlorine,” or “the green gas,” which seems likely to be permanent. Again, until lately, “caloric” was a term in constant use among chemists, and designated something that produced heat. Now this doctrine is abandoned, and heat is said to be the result of molecular and ethereal vibration. All matter is supposed to be immersed in a highly elastic medium, which is called “ether.” But what is this “ether,” of which heat, light, electricity, and sound, are only so many different modes or manifestations? “‘Ether’ is a myth,—an abstraction, useful, no doubt, for the purpose of physical speculation, but intended rather to mark the present horizon of our knowledge, than to represent anything which we can grasp either with our senses or our reason.”[34]
The form of cerebral congestion known as “sunstroke,” was erroneously so named from the popular belief that it is caused by a sudden concentration of the sun’s rays upon a focal point. It is now well known that persons may be attacked by this disease who have not been exposed to the sun’s rays,—that it occurs often at night,—and that its cause is not extreme heat only, but the exhaustion consequent upon over-exertion—especially of the brain—anxiety, and worry.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] “Lectures on the Science of Language,” Second Series, pp. 592-6.
[31] Whately’s Logic.
[32] Bowen’s “Logic,” p. 432.
[33] “Logic,” Book IV., Chap. 5.
[34] Max Müller’s “Science of Language,” Vol. II, p. 600.