As everyone knows, the scientific world had at one time a universal language--Latin. A scientific publication from any country could be read without translation by any scientist, no matter what his nationality. Direct communication, verbally or by letter, was possible for all scientists. For five centuries this internationality existed, to be gradually replaced by a narrow nationalism. Since 1850 practically no scientific work has been published in Latin. In fact, the twentieth century has seen a growing provincialism in the face of a glorious development in communication and transportation. It has become the custom of even the smallest countries to expect their scientists to publish in the national tongue, though such a step reduces the usefulness of the publication.
As a result, the scientist of today is isolated from his fellows in other lands. Even though he has mastered English, French, and German, he may be unable to understand a scientist from South America, Italy,. Poland, or Russia. An important research, published in Dutch or Swedish or Japanese, may be entirely overlooked, with resulting loss to the whole scientific world. Language difficulties intrude also in every attempt at international standardization and in all international scientific congresses.
The revolt against Latin as the language of science was part of the humanistic revolt against class privilege (1).3 As such it was commend-