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About the Lion and Its Claw

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About the Lion and Its Claw 592 _ ___________ CORRESPONDENCE·-----N_AT_U_RE_V_OL_.3...:..:.33_16_JU:._N_E _1988 ferent treatises in the Corpus Paroemio­ More about the lion and its claw graphorum Graecorum list EK 1:&u ovuxwv 1:ov SIR-Faulkner's letter' on the translation one-eyed philosophers." AEOVLc:t vel sim., for instance Diogenianus v .15 of the famous phrase "tanquam ex ungue STEPHEN M. STIGLER (vol.i, p.252 Leutsch-Schneidewin) with an leonem" (I recognize the lion by its claw), Department of Statistics, explanation like the one given above; and from said to have been uttered by John University of Chicago, the editors' notes there one gathers that the Bernoulli about a work of Newton's, can 5734 University A venue, earliest attestation is in Alcaeus (vii-vi B. C.) as be bolstered by appeal to older sources. I Chicago, quoted by Plutarch, de defectu oraculorum 3 have a Latin dictionary published in Illinois 60637, USA (Moralia 410 C). It might well be that that is Bernoulli's source. I had wondered about Cambridge in 1693, Linguae Romanae I. Faulkner. J. Nature 332. 200 ( 1988). 2. Palgrave. R. H.[. (ed.) Dictionary of Political Economy. 2. Erasmus, Adagia or a derivative, but at Adagia Dictionarium Luculentum Novum, A New 820 (Macmillan. London, 1896). 834 (I.ix.34) E. offers ex unguibus aestimare Dictionary in Five Alphabets. It is not leonem as his version of the Greek, with plural impossible that this is the very dictionary SIR-As master of the college in which claws; while Plutarch gives us both the singular that Newton himself consulted when he Newton lived and worked for the greater 'claw' and a work with some mathematical sought to probe the nuances of Bernoulli's part of his life, I was intrigued by the content which might have made it memorable remark. Here I find, in the relevent one of speculations of John Faulkner (Nature to Bernoulli - but the M aralia were in any case the five sections, "Unguis, ... A nail of 332, 200; 1988) on possible meanings to be quite widely read at the time. It is also true that the fingers or toes in man, bird or beast; a read into the phase "ex ungue leonem" the standard Latin translation of Plutarch's claw, a talon: also the hoof of an ox or cow used by Bernoulli about Newton's solu­ phase produces- by literal means- ex ungue leonem out of £1; ovuxol; wv AEOV"tc:t, thus creat­ ... " Thus there are grounds here for pre­ tion of the brachystochrone problem that ing the appearance of a tag or proberb in Latin ferring, as Faulkner does, "claw" for he had set as a challenge. I did however which led to our wild goose chase. "paw" and the following word in this remain sceptical because it seemed to me Yours sincerely, dictionary could suggest that "ungue" at least possible that the phrase was (sgd) Eric Handley could have an active connotation as well: merely a tag from some classical author, I am most grateful to Professor Handley "Ungula ... The hoof of an horse or other familiar to educated people three cen­ for searching out this solution to the prob­ beast: also an hook that is used for the turies ago but no longer current; a pointer lem, and for allowing me to publish his drawing out of a child that is dead in the in this direction was that "ex ungue letter. mother's womb; a tormenting iron, leonem" scans as the end of an epic or ANDREW HuxLEY wherewith the sides of malefactors were elegiac hexameter. I therefore looked for The Master's Lodge, pinched or burnt." Thus Newton's view of it in concordances of Horace, Virgil, Trinity College, the phrase may well have been like Ovid, Juvenal and Catullus, but without Cambridge CB21TQ, UK Faulkner's, that Bernoulli knew he had success. I next asked for help from my been burned! friend and colleague, E. W. Handley, SIR-John Faulkner' interpreted the The letter does suffer from two obvious Regius Professor of Greek and Fellow of Latin phrase "tamquam ex ungue leonem" errors, however. The title ("Darwin's this college, and he promptly found the as a sign of contempt, "the old lion has "claw", not "paw"!") is a howler, but solution, which he set out in the following given me the finger". The old lion would more revealing about Nature's copy­ letter to me: be Isaac Newton, the person that made the remark Johann Bernoulli. editors than the letter's author. I suppose Dear Andrew, there are some dimensions (other than Thank you for letting me in on the intriguing Fortunately, Bernoulli knew his classics length of name) where it would be proper little problem of the lion's claw. better than Faulkner, for the well-known to equate Darwin with Newton, but surely Bernoulli is alluding to a proverbial phrase, phrase "ex ungue leonem" is a quotation not in the realm of quotation. The second as you suggest. Faulkner's interpretation seems from the Greek poet Alcaeus'. This grievous error is more common, and may to me improbable in itself; and I would share phrase was made more or less famous by be worth attempting a public correction. your view that the presence of the allusion is the Dutch humanist Erasmus who, in his To misspell Bernoulli as the letter does, against it; for while one can twist a proverb, one Adagia (Proverbs), quoted it as 'leonem with an extra "i" ("Bernouilli"), is not would want a much clearer sign from the con­ ex unguibus aestimare': 'to judge the lion text than we have in order to suppose that that by the claws', that is, by a slight but only an affront to the largest important is being done here. clan in the history of the mathematical The proverb is Greek in origin, and is one of characteristic mark. sciences, but to the memory of one of the a number which relate to popular experiences Erasmus had some doubt about the greatest scholars and writers in the of inference. 'Painting' or 'recognizing' the lion source of this proverb. In my opinion this pantheon of creative mathematicians. I from its claw (or claws) means basically that if is why other books of quotation do not offer the following quotation from an you have that bit (or those bits) you can tell that mention it. Among humanists this phrase article about the mathematician Augustus it came from an animal of a certain kind and was well-known. I myself discovered it for De Morgan, in the original Palgrave.' size: a single sample of Newton's work makes it instance in the Apotheosis of Macropedius possible to be clear what kind and size of a He has lost the sight of one eye in infancy. The (1565), a poem by Macropedius' pupil mathematician he is. strain upon the remaining eye, involved by his In detail (as often happens) the story is more Vladeraccus'. No contempt, no visceral constant industry in accumulating stores of intricate. Like you, I began by looking for a feelings, but admiration. Quoting such a knowledge, must have been severe. The writer Latin tag from the end of a hexameter, or a phrase, Bernoulli showed his admiration: once had occasion, in the letter to him, to "You shall know Newton by his fruits". mention one of the Bernoulli family of proverb in the traditional form of a paroemiac, which metrically comes to the same thing, but JAN BLOEMENDAL mathematicians of the last century, and spelt does not require one to postulate a poem. But the name wrongly, that is with two Bachlaan 27, i's, Bernouilli. "Oh," replied De Morgan, there is no trace of such a proverb in the stan­ 3781 HC Voorthuizen, dard work on the subject, Otto's Sprichworter "you have deeply offended me. Pray always The Netherlands keep in mind the personal interest I take in der Romer (1890), nor indeed in the list of'lion' proverbs in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae s. v. I. Nature332, 200 (1988). 2. fr. 113 (Bergk): tl; bvvxoc; ti>v ~EOVta< (sc. tEKf1a<tpE06at). leo; though I am bound to say that I was 3. Chr. Vladeraccus, Apotheosis Macropedii, vss. 145ff Letters submitted for Correspondence somewhat relieved that you had checked the Unquibus ut magni magna virtute leones Noscuntur," should be typed, double-spaced, on one likely poets in modern concordances. This is a volucres prodit et ipse color, Sic quoque discipuli monstrant virtute magistrum ... ' 'As great lions with great courage are side ofthe paper only. 0 dead end, so far as I can see. known by their claws and as their colour betrays the birds, so In Greek the story is different. Various dif- do his pupils by their virtue show the master.' .
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