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Inf., L. infusum, an infusion.

O., L. octarium, the eighth part of a gallon; one pint.
P.E., L. partes æquales, equal parts.

Pug., L. pugillus, a handful.

p.r.n., L. pro re nata, occasionally or as required.
Pulv., L. pulvis, powder.

Q.S., L. quantum sufficit, as much as is necessary.
R., L. recipe, take; the first word of a prescription.
S.A., L. secundum artem, according to art.

S.S. or ss., Semi, half.

NOTE.-In the new British Pharmacopeia all weights between a grain and an ounce are abolished; the ounce containing 437 grains, and there being 16 ounces in the pound Avoirdupoise.

MONEY ABBREVIATIONS.

L. 8. d., BRITISH money, Pounds, shillings, and pence sterling. L, the abbreviation for Pound, precedes the number, while s and d, the abbreviations for shillings and pence, follow the number; thus, £146. 12s. 6d. In writing, s and d are generally omitted, thus, £146. 12. 6.

The

c., UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, dollar and cent.
value of the dollar is 4s. 2d., and of the cent, one half-
penny. The dollar mark, $, precedes the number, and c,
the abbreviation for cent, follows the number. Thus,
$73. 8c., or 73 dollars, 8 cents.

F or Fr. and c. FRANCE AND BELGIUM, franc and centime. The value of the franc is 91d., and the centime is the one-hundredth part of a franc. F or Fr. always precedes the number, and c follows the number. Thus, Fr. 132. 75c., or 132 francs 75 centimes.

Th.

sgr. PRUSSIA AND NORTH GERMANY, Thaler and silbergrosche, pronounced tahler, zilbergrōshey. The value of the thaler is 2/10, and that of the silbergrosche, or onethirtieth part of a thaler, is 1.16d.. The abbreviation for thaler always precedes, and that of silbergrosche follows the number. Thus, Th. 150. 18sgr., or 150 thalers 18 silbergroschen.

Fl. and Kr.

AUSTRIA, Florin or Gulden, and Kreutzer. The Florin is worth 2/01, and the Kreutzer is the 60th part. Fl. precedes, and Kr. follows the number. Thus, Fl. 220. 35kr., or 220 Florins 35 kreutzers.

II.

NUMBER OF WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Sir Richard Phillips in a work entitled A Million of Facts, published in the year 1832, estimates the number of words in the following languages to be:

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These numbers have probably been obtained by counting the words in one of the best Dictionaries of each of the above languages.

Mr. G. P. Marsh in his Lectures on the English Language, states "that the number of English words not yet obsolete, but found in good authors, including the nomenclature of science and arts, does not fall short of one hundred thousand." Professor Max Müller seems to incline to a much smaller number, for he observes in his Science of Language that Richardson and Webster give altogether 43,556 words.

In Webster's Dictionary, enlarged by C. A. Goodrich, fifth edition, 1854, there are 80,640 words; but as many of them are repeated several times under different meanings, the number of words really different in pronunciation or in spelling, is probably only about 40,000.

A table is here given of the number of words commencing with each letter of the Alphabet, and also the ratio of words commencing with each letter in one thousand words. A table is also given of the number of words ending with each letter, and the ratio in 1,000 words

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III.

A Table showing the analysis of the words and sounds contained in the First Chapter of St. John's Gospel, authorised version, the First Chapter of Johnson's Rasselas, and the first three paragraphs of Macaulay's Biography of Dr. Johnson.

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The following observations are drawn from the foregoing table.

The number of letters to each sound is 1·16. This arises from the employment of digraphs, or two letters for one sound, from the number of words ending in silent E, and from the doubling of consonant letters.

The average number of sounds to a syllable is 2.63, or of 1 vowel and 1·63 consonant sounds.

The average number of syllables in a word is 1.46. One syllable words are most numerous, two-syllable words next so, and so on, in a diminishing number in proportion to the increase of syllables.

There may be two or even three accented syllables in a word of many syllables, but there is rarely more than one long vowel sound even in the longest words in the language. The ratio of long vowels and diphthongs to short vowels is as 11.39 to 26.15, or as 1 to 2·3.

The average number of consonant to vowel sounds is as 63 to 37, and this nearly coincides with the number of consonant endings in English, namely, 65.

The number of times H is aspirated in 100 times in which the letter occurs, is only 32; and twice it is silent, in such words as heir, hour, &c.; whilst it is employed no less than 66 times in forming digraphs, as sh, ch, th, and ph.

The number of sounds in each word in St. John is only 3.36, while in Macaulay it is 4:17. This shows the comparative absence of long words in the English of 1611.

The number of long vowels and diphthongs in St. John is 12.83, while in Macaulay it is only 10.02; this also shows the greater prevalence of short words and of the Anglo-Saxon element.

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