One last experiment may be mentioned. It was made under scientific
conditions on September 23, 1905. The subject was an adult, who had
learnt French and German for years at school, and had since taught
French to young boys, but was not a linguist by training or education,
having read mathematics at the university.

He had had no lessons in Esperanto, and had never studied the language,
his sole knowledge of it being derived from general conversation with
an enthusiast, who had just returned from the Geneva Congress. He
was disposed to laugh at Esperanto, but was persuaded to test its
possibilities as a language that can be written intelligibly by an
educated person merely from dictionary by a few rules.

He was given a page of carefully prepared English to translate into
Esperanto. The following written aids were given:

1. Twenty-five crude roots (e.g. _lern-_ = to learn.)

2. One suffix, with explanation of its use.

3. A one-page complete grammar of the Esperanto language.

4. An Esperanto-English and an English-Esperanto dictionary.

He produced a good page of perfectly intelligible Esperanto, quite
free from serious grammatical mistake. He admitted that he could not
translate the passage so well into French or German.

Such experiments go a good way towards proving the case for an