The stem cerno (sift) forms two nouns which both mean a sieve, although the use of them side by side indicates that there must be some difference; as there are no other examples of incerniculum, this difference cannot be discovered: in torcularium quod opus est cribrum unum, incerniculum unum, Cato, R. R. I, 13, 3; caseum _per_ cribrum facito _transeat_ in mortarium, Cato, R. R. 76, 3. In the following examples, spiramen and spiracula are both used to mean “breathing holes” in the earth or universe, while spiramenta is applied to the cells in a beehive: sunt qui spiramina _terris_ esse putent magnosque cavae compages hiatus, Lucan, 10, 247; quasi per magni circum spiracula _mundi_ exitus introitusque elementis redditus exstat, Lucr. 6, 493; _apes_ in tectis certatim tenuia _cera_ spiramenta _linunt_, Georg. 4, 39. No difference can be seen in spectamen and spectaculum in these examples: _miserum_ funestumque spectamen _aspexi_, App. M. 4, 151; potius quam hoc spectaculum _viderem_, Mil. 38, 103; constitutur in foro Laodiceae spectaculum acerbum et _miserum_, Verr. I, 76. CHAPTER V SUFFIXES AND THE THEORY OF ADAPTATION As stated in the introductory chapter, it has been the primary object of this paper to examine certain word-building suffixes for the purpose of finding out, if possible, what the force of the suffixes themselves is, and how the nouns formed with them get their meaning. The material presented has, it is hoped, shown that these nouns are capable of wide semantic variation, the influencing elements being the verb stem and context (the former exerting greater influence than the latter); also that these suffixes overlap with other suffixes in forming words of identical semantic content to such an extent that they cannot be said to have any sort of fundamental meaning whatever. This is the significance of our investigation in so far as semantics is concerned. But it is possible also to connect our results with another question, the entire solution of which will doubtless never be possible, at least not soon; _viz._, the theory of the origin of inflection. Nothing but mere suggestion can be made in this direction from the conclusions of this study; the field will need much wider working-over before any thing definite can be asserted.