A pharmaceutical guide : in two parts ... / By the author of The student's manual ... [i.e. Richard Harrison Black].

  • Black, R. Harrison (Richard Harrison)
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A pharmaceutical guide : in two parts ... / By the author of The student's manual ... [i.e. Richard Harrison Black]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/188 (page 39)
    GERUNDS AND SUPINES. Gerund is a contraction of the Latin word gerundium ; gerundium is said to he derived from gero, I bear; if so, I presume to define gerunds to be an abbreviation of re-gervn- da, (that is, a corruption of gerEnda,) which means “ an action being carried on /’ or, in other words, “ an action in the state of progression/' Grammarians are much embar¬ rassed to settle the nature and character of the gerunds: they are not verbs, because they do not mark any judgment or affirmation of the mind, which is supposed to be the es¬ sence of the verb ; and, besides, they have their several cases, which verbs have not. Dr. Jones, in his Latin gram¬ mar, observes “ that the Latin gerunds in di, do, dum, are but the participle in dus, in the oblique cases: and as this is taken from the present participle, they have its sense, namely, an active sense ; participles express powers or habits in action, and their tendency is to signify those powers and not their operation, that is, to become abstract nouns : thus learning, feeling, hearing, assume the characters of nouns. On the same principle the oblique cases of the participles in dus, when alone, become in their nature abstract c nouns. The gerunds, being thus nouns in reality, are governed like other nouns in the genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative, either with or without a preposition. Examples. Ratio scriben¬ di, ‘the art of writing/ charta utilis scribendo, ‘paper use¬ ful for writing/ inter agendum, ‘amidst acting/ (that is, while acting); inter docendum, * amidst teaching/ (that is, during the time of teaching).” In the Pharmacopoeia we find Aqua, quce inter pi stil¬ landum cum oleis carui, et menthce piperita, prodit, in mum servetur, “ let the water which issues forth, during distilla¬ tion, with the oil of carraway, and peppermint, be preserved c See p. 24, note.