inflection, but
because there is some difference of meaning between the mere name of the
sort and the distinct modification in regard to number. There are also
other nouns in which a like difference may be observed. Some names of
building materials, as _brick, stone, plank, joist_, though not destitute
of regular plurals, as _bricks, stones, planks, joists_, and not unadapted
to ideas distinctly singular, as _a brick, a stone, a plank, a joist_, are
nevertheless sometimes used in a plural sense without the _s_, and
sometimes in a sense which seems hardly to embrace the idea of either
number; as, "Let us make _brick_, and burn _them_ thoroughly."--_Gen._, xi,
3. "And they had _brick_ for _stone_."--_Ib._ "The tale of
_bricks_."--_Exod._, v, 8 and 18. "Make _brick_."--_Ib._, v, 16. "From your
_bricks_."--_Ib._, v, 19. "Upon altars of _brick_."--_Isaiah_. lxv, 3. "The
_bricks_ are fallen down."--_Ib._, ix, 10. The same variety of usage occurs
in respect to a few other words, and sometimes perhaps without good reason;
as, "Vast numbers of sea _fowl_ frequent the rocky cliffs."--_Balbi's
Geog._, p. 231. "Bullocks, sheep, and _fowls_."--_Ib._, p. 439. "_Cannon_
is used alike in both numbers."--_Everest's Gram._, p. 48. "_Cannon_ and
_shot_ may be used in the singular or plural sense."--_O. B. Peirce's
Gram._, p. 37. "The column in the Place Vendome is one hundred and
thirty-four feet high, and is made of the brass of the _cannons_ taken from
the Austrians and Prussians."--_Balbi's Geog._, p. 249. "As his _cannons_
roar."--_Dryden's Poems_, p. 81. "Twenty _shot_ of his greatest
cannon."--CLARENDON: _Joh. Dict._ "Twenty _shots_" would here, I think, be
more proper, though the word is not made plural when it means _little balls
of lead_. "And _cannons_ conquer armies."--_Hudibras_, Part III, Canto iii,
l. 249.

"Healths to both kings, attended with the roar
Of _cannons_ echoed from th' affrighted shore."--_Waller_, p. 7.

OBS. 39.--Of foreign nouns, many retain their original plural; a few are
defective; and some are redundant, because the English form is also in use.
Our writers have laid many languages under contribution, and thus furnished
an abundance of irregular words, necessary to be explained, but never to be
acknowledged as English till they conform to our own rules.

1. Of nouns in _a, saliva_, spittle, and _scoria_, dross, have no occasion
for the plural; _lamina_, a thin plate, makes _laminae_; _macula_, a sp