[GANONG]       PLACE-NOMENCLATURE OF NEW BRUNSWICK               177
 

PART I.

An Essay Towards an Understanding op the Principles op Place-
nomenclature.

The place-nomenclature of any given region is the product of an
evolution which is the resultant of the operation of many causes, which
fall into two divisions of supreme importance. First, there are the prin¬
ciples which control the giving, changing and persisting of names in
general; these are not written, nor even, as a rule, consciously recognized,
but are the result of the mode of working of the human mind ; in other
words, they are psychological. They differ somewhat in diff'erent races,
and especially with different grades or kinds of civilization, but in the
main they are everywhere the same. Their influence may be compared
with that of heredity in the evolution of organisms. Secondly, there is
the actual history or sequence of movements and events in the discovery,
exploration, settlement and subsequent progress of the given region, all
influenced strongly by its physiography, and applicable, of course, to
that particular region^alone. Its influence is comparable to that of en¬
vironment in organic evolution. As in an organism, heredity gives the
groundwork, leaving environment to mould the exact details of form, so
in place-nomenclature the psychological composition of the race-mind de¬
termines how names shall arise and grow, while the history of the par¬
ticular place supplies their exact form. It is well to examine apart these
two phases of the subject, since the first is of very wide application,
while the second belongs in the present work to New Brunswick alone.

To examine the general principles more exactly, it is convenient to
inquire into, first, those qualities of place-names which give them their
character; second, how they arise, alter, persist or die out; third, how
they may best be investigated.

1.  071 the Qualities of Places Names.

Names of places, or of anything else, are primarily mere symbols—
conveniences for connecting, through the medium of sound, material
objects with mental impressions. Their use depends entirely upon that
co-operation of sound-perception and memory by which a certain sound,
or set of sounds, can come to recall unconsciously an image of an associ¬
ated object before the mind ; and it is not in the least necessary that there
shall be any relation or connection between sound and object other than
that of habitual association. This is very plain in the case of the most
important of all names, those of people.    Nor for convenience in their