The first principle which must guide this work is undoubtedly the general principle of maximum internationality, which has been used in the construction of the auxiliary language. Its application is rendered easy by the fact that, owing to the use of Greek and Latin roots for the designation of scientific concepts, there is already present a far-reaching internationality, which must naturally be retained. In the second place, it will not always be possible to employ in science the same expressions that are used in ordinary speech, because the effect of the latter is to produce a blunting of the precise connotation of concepts; whilst science, on the other hand, requires clearly defined concepts, to which must correspond equally distinct expressions. In the third place, those words which occur frequently in combinations must be chosen _as short as possible_. Here I would not shrink from a very considerable mutilation of the most international forms. Such long names as _wasserstoff_ or "hydrogen" cannot be permitted, and must be reduced to monosyllabic forms. Every chemical author must have been times without number annoyed by the terms of three and four syllables for the commonest elements, and this defect is common to all languages. The objection against such an artificial abbreviation, which is valid for the language of daily life, namely, that it increases the difficulty of the language for those of little education, does not hold in the case of science, since it is a matter of indifference to the beginner whether he learns the new name _oxygen_ or _oxo_ (or any other similar abbreviation), because in any case he must learn it by heart. Such a procedure satisfies also the second condition, as it facilitates most easily the giving of a special form to scientific terms, which is different from that of ordinary life. In the fourth place, it will be advisable in cases where universally known symbols exist, which consist of letters or have been derived from these (such as certain mathematical symbols), to choose the name so _that it begins with the same letter_. For example, the constant of gravitation is now universally denoted by _g_, and the corresponding international word should therefore begin with _G_. It appears to me doubtful, however, whether this principle can be generally carried out. I have examined the names of the chemical elements with this intent, and have arrived at the conclusion that it would not work without doing considerable violence to general usage. For example, it would be scarcely possible to find an international name for _chlor_ (chlorine) which, corresponding to the chemical symbol _Cl_, would begin with _C_, for the latter letter is pronounced _ts_, whilst the word _chlor_ (with corresponding terminations) is international, and, according to its sound, must be written like _kloro_ or in some similar way.