The Grammar of English Grammars, page 428 by Gould Brown
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by observation in reading, than by the study of written rules; because what is proper or improper, depends chiefly upon usage.
The orthography of our language is attended with much uncertainty and perplexity: many words are variously spelled by the best scholars, and many others are not usually written according to the analogy of similar words. But to be ignorant of the orthography of such words as are spelled with uniformity, and frequently used, is justly considered disgraceful.
The following rules may prevent some embarrassment, and thus be of service to those who wish to be accurate.
_RULES FOR SPELLING._
RULE I.--FINAL F, L, OR S.
Monosyllables ending in _f, l_, or s, preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant; as _staff, mill, pass--muff, knell, gloss--off, hiss, puss_.
EXCEPTIONS.--The words _clef, if_, and of, are written with single _f_; and _as, gas, has, was, yes, his, is, this, us, pus_, and thus, with single s. So bul, for the flounder; nul, for no, in law; sol, for sou or _sun_; and sal, for salt, in chemistry, have but the single l.
OBS.--Because _sal, salis_, in Latin, doubles not the l, the chemists write _salify, salifiable, salification, saliferous, saline, salinous, saliniform, salifying_, &c., with single l, contrary to Rule 3d. But in gas they ought to double the _s_; for this is a word of their own inventing. Neither have they any plea for allowing it to form gases and gaseous with the s still single; for so they make it violate two general rules at once. If the singular cannot now be written gass, the plural should nevertheless be gasses, and the adjective should be gasseous, according to Rule 3d.
RULE II.--OTHER FINALS.
Words ending in any other consonant than _f, l_, or s, do not double the final letter; as, _mob, n