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In the matter of weights we have introduced
the original Latin, because it is impossible to give true equivalents
and avoid the fractions of reduction; and further, as explained in the
Appendix on Weights it is impossible to say in many cases what scale the
Author had in mind
The English nomenclature to be adopted has given
great difficulty, for various reasons; among them, that many methods and
processes described have never been practised in English-speaking mining
communities, and so had no representatives in our vocabulary, and we
considered the introduction of German terms undesirable; other methods
and processes have become obsolete and their descriptive terms with
them, yet we wished to avoid the introduction of obsolete or unusual
English; but of the greatest importance of all has been the necessity to
avoid rigorously such modern technical terms as would imply a greater
scientific understanding than the period possessed.
Agricola's Latin, while mostly free from mediæval corruption, is
somewhat tainted with German construction
Moreover some portions have
not [Pg ii]the continuous flow of sustained thought which others display, but
the fact that the writing of the work extended over a period of twenty
years, sufficiently explains the considerable variation in style
The
technical descriptions in the later books often take the form of
House-that-Jack-built sentences which have had to be at least partially
broken up and the subject occasionally re-introduced
Ambiguities were
also sometimes found which it was necessary to carry on into the
translation
Despite these criticisms we must, however, emphasize that
Agricola was infinitely clearer in his style than his contemporaries
upon such subjects, or for that matter than his successors in almost any
language for a couple of centuries
All of the illustrations and display
letters of the original have been reproduced and the type as closely
approximates to the original as the printers have been able to find in a
modern font.
There are no footnotes in the original text, and Mr
Hoover is
responsible for them all
He has attempted in them to give not only such
comment as would tend to clarify the text, but also such information as
we have been able to discover with regard to the previous history of the
subjects mentioned
We have confined the historical notes to the time
prior to Agricola, because to have carried them down to date in the
briefest manner would have demanded very much more space than could be
allowed
In the examination of such technical and historical material
one is appalled at the flood of mis-information with regard to ancient
arts and sciences which has been let loose upon the world by the hands
of non-technical translators and commentators
At an early stage we
considered that we must justify any divergence of view from such
authorities, but to limit the already alarming volume of this work, we
later felt compelled to eliminate most of such discussion
When the
half-dozen most important of the ancient works bearing upon science have