496 
The word is used in chemistry to indicate the condition of 
an element in the state of passing or having just passed 
from one combination to another. The earlier stages of 
the process might well be expressed by the word 
“ rudiment.” In the glossary to The Origin of Species 
“rudimentary” is rightly defined as “very imperfectly 
developed.” The Latin word rudinientuni comes from 
rudis, which means unwrought, untilled, unformed, unused, 
rough, new, and, figuratively, rude, unpolished, uncultivated. 
Hence r'udimentum means a first attempt—rudimenta 
adolescentiae ponere means to pass one’s novitiate. Hence 
“ rudiments ” means the elements of a subject. 
“ Hor.: I must begin with rudiments of art : 
To teach you gamut. . . 
“ Bian.: Why, I am past my gamut long ago.” 
—(Taming of the Shrew. Act Hi., sc. /.) 
In the glossary to The Origin of Species it is asserted 
that “ an organ is said to be ‘ aborted ’ when its de 
velopment has been arrested at a very early stage.”* Now 
this is in accordance with the meaning of abortion—which 
signifies, in the first place, premature birth, and, in the 
second place, the immature form which accompanies such 
a birth. Hence Richard III. says of himself, according to 
Shakespeare— 
“ I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion, 
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, 
Deform’d, unfinish’d, sent before my time 
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, 
And that so lamely and unfashionable, 
That dogs bark at me, as I halt by them.” 
—(King Richard III. Act i., sc. /.) 
The later stages on the way to perfection, subsequent to 
those which could be rightly called rudimentary, might be 
A 43°•