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 PROPER PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK. 49 Whoever believes that such learned men did not exist in our times need only read a pro- foundly learned book, written by Friedrich Blass, entitled : " Ueber die Aussprache des Griechischen." Berlin: Weidmann, 3 Aufl., 1888. A prince once offered a prize for an essay on the question : Why were the tails of fishes longer in winter than in summer; and great academi- cians of his country presented the most convinc- ing proofs from Pliny, Galen, and other sources in support of this fish-tail question. Friedrich Blass with his book can well be compared with these academicians ; his proofs of the correctness of the Erasmian pronunciation were as ridicu- lous as were those that fish-tails were longer in winter than in summer. Engel quotes some drastic passages from Blass' work, and criticises them severely. It cannot be the plan of this paper to enter into details; whoever wishes to study this question, although Erasmus is at last dead now, will find enough material in Engel's book, and still more in the more elaborate work of PapadimitraCOpOUloS : Bdaavo^ rmv nspl r^? kkXrivt- z^9 7:po(ppa.<$ ipafffitxaiv dizodsi^eiov. Athens: 1 889, 752 pages. Engel compares Blass with Moliere's Sganarelle. The quack Sganarelle palms him-