The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-04-26
HARD AND EASY NAMES.

PLEA FOR "sCIENTIFIC PEDANTRY" as oP
POSED TO CoLLC QUAIL LoosENEss.
The World thus urges the saving of time
in a scientific nomenclature: There is
hardly fsvorite apple known but its re-
cord is obscured by the fact that it hiss a
provincial name in every different locality;
ard the simplicity of the common names
of flowers, "Love-entsngle," Bouncing
Bet" "Johnny-jump-u up" "Forget-me-
not" Lady's-slipper," and the like, are
only provincialisms, leading ineffably to
confusion. The case is the same with the
commercial names which appear in our
cargo lists and custom house manifesis,
where scientific pedantry" is greatly
needed for evolving something Like con-
sstency and uniformity out of the COZ
fused wilderness of articles having twenty
different collCquial NAMES in twenty DIFF
ferent languages. A little scientific ps-
dsntry" applied to our trade lists, tariffs,
and such things, would be effective in ex-
purgsti1g from these barbsrisms ike
'arsgic,"' argols," alkekengi, bezoar, c.
jepuT, clutch, coir, cowago, glsngal, garsn-
cine, kelp, muDjeet, the complicated cata-
lCgue OF essential oils, orchilI, orpiment,
phlang lein, picric, r0ueoU, sal0up, sandal
rae, sesamum, shsles, "tonquin, tonqua
or IoDks" beans, vermuth, zaffre, etc. III Q
sdva tages of "scieL tific pedantry" in Civ
,ng US simple uniform dtcmal system OF
we Oh 8 nd measures, instead of the COM
piicated disorder of picul, cstty and mace
ariobs and mayo; pipe, barrel and ton,
puncheon, hogshead, tierce, runlet, piece,
TUNE, barrique, ohm, mass, elmer, fuder
and anker, each with its own dimensions
and its INDEPENDENT, irreducible Standard
would be almost incslculsble. In these
respe cts the United States are far
IN ADVANCE OF ENGLAND
which, with inveterate conservatism,
clings to the old provincislisms of weight
and capacity, still has her long ton and
her hundred-weight, her quarter and her
stone; still sells corned beet and pork by
the "pieos" and firkin, bricks by the
"losd," pitch by the stand" butter, by
the stub" canvas by the "bolt," cheese by
the " weigh" coal by the "chsldron" or
"keel, fish by the "last," -four by the
"ssck," glass by the seam" gloves by
the "dicker," hay by the "truss," behring's
by the "csde" and "crsn," hops by the
"pocket," indigo by the "msund," lead by
the fodder" nails by the "score." meal
the "barrel," deals by the quarter" tin by
the "tagger," wood by the ''stsck," and
| wool by the "pack !" "clove" or s'tod,''
producing q confusion that would have
supplied the workmen OF Babel with
weis hts and measures enough to have let
them 90 on with their building. Bot Bra
zil and most of the other South American
states are nearly as far ahead of us as we
are ahead of Great Britain. They have
discarded their old weights and measures
and adopted the metrical system de6nit-
lively, while with US the metr.cal system
Is only permissible one, and Is scarcely
ever made familiar to the youthful mind
by being taught in the schools, in spite Of
the tact that the whole system can be &C.
quIred in less time than it takes the aver.
sge school boy to memorize the single
table OF "long measure"