Current English spelling, like our own, shows a number of uncertainties and inconsistencies, and some of them are undoubtedly the result of American influences that have not yet become fully effective. The lack of harmony in the /-our/ words, leading to such discrepancies as /honorary/ and /honourable/, I have already mentioned. The British Board of Trade, in attempting to fix the spelling of various scientific terms, has often come to grief. Thus it detaches the final /-me/ from /gramme/ in such compounds as /kilogram/ and /milligram/, but insists upon /gramme/ when the word stands alone. In American usage /gram/ is now common, and scarcely challenged. All the English authorities that I have consulted prefer /metre/ and /calibre/ to the American /meter/ and /caliber/.[18] They also support the /ae/ in such words as /aetiology/, /aesthetics/, /mediaeval/ and /anaemia/, and the /oe/ in /oesophagus/, [Pg258] /manoeuvre/ and /diarrhoea/. They also cling to such forms as /mollusc/, /kerb/, /pyjamas/ and /ostler/, and to the use of /x/ instead of /ct/ in /connexion/ and /inflexion/. The Authors' and Printers' Dictionary admits the American /curb/, but says that the English /kerb/ is more common. It gives /barque/, /plough/ and /fount/, but grants that /bark/, /plow/ and /font/ are good in America. As between /inquiry/ and /enquiry/, it prefers the American /inquiry/ to the English /enquiry/, but it rejects the American /inclose/ and /indorse/ in favor of the English /enclose/ and /endorse/.[19] Here American spelling has driven in a salient, but has yet to take the whole position. A number of spellings, nearly all American, are trembling on the brink of acceptance in both countries. Among them is /rime/ (for /rhyme/). This spelling was correct in England until about 1530, but its recent revival was of American origin. It is accepted by the Oxford Dictionary and by the editors of the Cambridge History of English Literature, but it seldom appears in an English journal. The same may be said of /grewsome/. It has got a footing in both countries, but the weight of English opinion is still against it. /Develop/ (instead of /develope/) has gone further in both countries. So has /engulf/, for /engulph/. So has /gipsy/ for /gypsy/.