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[5 March 1822]
MAGENDIE'S PHYSIOLOGY.
The Publishers of the American Translation of MAGENDIE'S PHYSIOLOGY, having seen
a handbill from James Webster, the object of which is to invalidate the testimony given in
favour of that publication, by several of the most eminent scientific men in the United States,
in letters to the translator, and thereby to injure the sale of said work, conceive it their duty
to make the following remarks. The purport of the letters referred to is, that the American
is superior the the English translations, and that the author of the latter is equally ignorant of
his own language and that of the science of physioloygy &c. The design of the handbill is to show
that these assertions are not true, and for this purpose two exracts are made, from each
translation and the original, and then compared. As these have been selected by one in-
terested to prove the superiority of the English to the American, it is but fair to
suppose that these are among the best specimens ofthe former, and the worst of the latter work.
The value of the translation does not necessarily consist in being literal, because, so much do
lanuages differ from each other, that what is good grammer and good sense in one language,
may become ungrammatical and absurd when lierally renderedd into another. But the excel-
lence of every translation must consist in conveying the ideas of the original, in clear and sim-
ple language, and in a style natural and easy. Hence to be good translator, a man must be
well acquainted with the foreign lauguage, his own, and the subect treated of. If unacquainted
with the first two requisites, the translqtion must necessarily and inaccurqte, and
if ignorant of the last, he cannot fail to follow the originalinto and obscurity of expression,
or absolute error into which it may accidenally fall. Magendie's Physiology is certainly
remarkably free from error, yet, like every other human production, it has some inaccuracies.
In the two short extracts from the English translation, brought forward by its friends to show
its excellence, unquestionable evidence is afforded, that the English translator was grossly de-
ficient in all these respects. The following are the extracts contained in the handbill
above alluded to.
"Le poide des organes que la colonne vertbrale soutient se faimsant sourtout sentir sur sa partie anterieure,
dees muackes places le long de sa partie posterieure resistent a la tendance qu'elle aurait a se porteien avant.
Dans cettecirconstnce, chque vertbre, et les qui s'y attachet, representent in lervier du premier genre,
dont le poit d'appui est dans le fibro-cartilage qui soutient la vertere; la puissance, dans les parties qui l'atti-
rent en avant; et la resistance, dans les muscles qui s'attachent a ses apophyses epineuese et transverese."
AMERICAN TRANSLATION.- "The weight of the organs which the vertebral column sustains, causing it to
incline forward, there are muscles placed along its posterior part which resist this tendency. Under these cir-
cumstances, each vertebra, and part of whh it is composed, represent a lever of the first kind, of which
the fulcrum is in the fibro-cartilage which sustains the vertebrq; the power in the muscles which draw it back-
ward, and which are attched to the spinous and transverse processes, and the weight orresistance in those
parts which draw it foward."-Page 147.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION.- "The weight if the organs supported by the vertebral column, being felt especially
at the forepart, muscles placed along its posterior part, resist the ich it has to fall forwards. Under
these circumstances, every vertebra, and the parts attached to it, represents a lever of the first kin, whose
point of support is the fibro-cartilage which sustains the vertebra; whose powers is in the parts which draw it
forwards; and whose resistance is in the muscles which are attached to its sponous and transverse processes."-
Page 174
Again: from the original when speaking of the Vitreous Body, page 85.
"Le corps vitre a une fore refringente moindre que le cristallin, par consequent les rayons de lumiere,
qui apres avoir traverse le cristallin, penetrent dans le corpsvitre, s'ecartent de la perpendiculaire au point
de contact.
"Son usage rekativement a la marche des rayons dan l' il est donc d'augmenter leur convergance."
AMERICAN TRANSLATION.- "The vitreous humour possesses a less degree of refracting power than the
crtstallin; of consequence the rays of light wgich, after having traversed the crystalline, penetrate into the
vitreous humour, are drawn from the perpendicular at the point of contact. its used, then, as resects the direc-
tion of the rays in the eyes, is to diminish their covergency." .... Page 43.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION....."The vitreous body has a less refracting force than the crytalline, and consequent-
ly the rays of light penetrating it after passing through the crystalline, incline for the perpendicular at the
point of contact.
"its use in regard to the course of the rays in the eye, is therefore to increase their convergency.".....Page 40.
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