Various plants derive their names from their supposed virtues, as herniaria, rupture-wort; or from legends, as herba Sancti Johannis, St. John’s wort. The same is the case with minerals: thus the topaz was asserted to come from an island so shrouded in mists that navigators could only conjecture (τοπάζειν) where it was. In these latter cases, however, the legend is often not the true origin of the name, but is suggested by it.
The privilege of constructing names where they are wanted, belongs to natural historians no less than to 269 the cultivators of physical science; yet in the ancient world, writers of the former class appear rarely to have exercised this privilege, even when they felt the imperfections of the current language. Thus Aristotle repeatedly mentions classes of animals which have no name, as co-ordinate with classes that have names; but he hardly ventures to propose names which may supply these defects[3]. The vast importance of nomenclature in natural history was not recognized till the modern period.
[3] In his History of Animals, (b. i. c. vi.), he says, that the great classes of animals are Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Whales (Cetaceans), Oysters (Testaceans), animals like crabs which have no general name (Crustaceans), soft animals (Mollusks and Insects). He does, however, call the Crustaces by a name (Malacostraca, soft-shelled) which has since been adopted by Naturalists.
We have, however, hitherto considered only the formation or appropriation of single terms in science; except so far as several terms may in some instances be connected by reference to a common theory. But when the value of technical terms began to be fully appreciated, philosophers proceeded to introduce them into their sciences more copiously and in a more systematic manner. In this way, the modern history of technical language has some features of a different aspect from the ancient; and must give rise to a separate Aphorism.
Aphorism II.
In the Modern Period of Science, besides the three processes anciently employed in the formation of technical terms, there have been introduced Systematic Nomenclature, Systematic Terminology, and the Systematic Modification of Terms to express theoretical relations[4].
[4] On the subject of Terminology and Nomenclature, see also Aphorisms [LXXXVIII] and [XCVIII] concerning Ideas, and b. viii. c. ii. of the History of Scientific Ideas. In those places I have spoken of the distinction of Terminology and Nomenclature.
Writers upon science have gone on up to modern times forming such technical terms as they had occasion for, by the three processes above 270 described;—namely, appropriating and limiting words in common use;—constructing for themselves words descriptive of the conception which they wished to convey;—or framing terms which by their signification imply the adoption of a theory. Thus among the terms introduced by the study of the connexion between magnetism and electricity, the word pole is an example of the first kind; the name of the subject, electro-magnetism, of the second; and the term current, involving an hypothesis of the motion of a fluid, is an instance of the third class. In chemistry, the term salt was adopted from common language, and its meaning extended to denote any compound of a certain kind; the term neutral salt implied the notion of a balanced opposition in the two elements of the compound; and such words as subacid and superacid, invented on purpose, were introduced to indicate the cases in which this balance was not attained. Again, when the phlogistic theory of chemistry was established, the term phlogiston was introduced to express the theory, and from this such terms as phlogisticated and dephlogisticated were derived, exclusively words of science. But in such instances as have just been given, we approach towards a systematic modification of terms, which is a peculiar process of modern times. Of this, modern chemistry forms a prominent example, which we shall soon consider, but we shall first notice the other processes mentioned in the Aphorism.
I. In ancient times, no attempt was made to invent or select a Nomenclature of the objects of Natural History which should be precise and permanent. The omission of this step by the ancient naturalists gave rise to enormous difficulty and loss of time when the sciences resumed their activity. We have seen in the history of the sciences of classification, and of botany in especial[5], that the early cultivators of that study in modern times endeavoured to identify all the plants described by Greek and Roman writers with those which grow in the north of Europe; and were involved 271 in endless confusion[6], by the multiplication of names of plants, at the same time superfluous and ambiguous. The Synonymies which botanists (Bauhin and others) found it necessary to publish, were the evidences of these inconveniences. In consequence of the defectiveness of the ancient botanical nomenclature, we are even yet uncertain with respect to the identification of some of the most common trees mentioned by classical writers[7]. The ignorance of botanists respecting the importance of nomenclature operated in another manner to impede the progress of science. As a good nomenclature presupposes a good system of classification, so, on the other hand, a system of classification cannot become permanent without a corresponding nomenclature. Cæsalpinus, in the sixteenth century[8], published an excellent system of arrangement for plants; but this, not being connected with any system of names, was never extensively accepted, and soon fell into oblivion. The business of framing a scientific botanical classification was in this way delayed for about a century. In the same manner, Willoughby’s classification of fishes, though, as Cuvier says, far better than any which preceded it, was never extensively adopted, in consequence of having no nomenclature connected with it.
[5] Hist. Ind. Sc. b. xvi. c. ii.