vi PREFACE. 



capable of farther development. The only purpose of a name 

 is that it shall furnish a key to a common understanding; 

 where the BNA name does not furnish such a key to English 

 readers, and where there is a term in established English usage 

 that does serve this purpose and seems unlikely to be sup- 

 planted, we have used the latter. But we have endeavored to 

 make the number of these exceptions as small as possible, and 

 in such cases we have usually cited at the same time the term 

 proposed by the German society, followed by the abbreviation 

 BNA. When, on the other hand, we have adopted a BNA 

 term for which there is also a commonly used English equiva- 

 lent, the latter has likewise usually been cited in parenthesis. 



In deciding whether or not to use in a given case the BNA 

 term many difficult cases arose. Will the common English 

 name innominate bone (os innominatum) be replaced by the 

 BNA term os coxcz or coxal bone f We have held this to be 

 highly improbable, and have therefore used the term innomi- 

 ,nate bone, merely citing os coxa (BNA) as a synonym. In the 

 same way we have used centrum as a designation of a part of a 

 vertebra, in place of corpus (BNA) ; premaxillary bone or pre- 

 maxilla in place of os incisivum (BNA) ; malar bone in place 

 of os zygomaticum (BNA) ; trapezoid as a name of one of the 

 bones of the carpus, in place of o s mitltangulum minus (BNA), 

 etc. In other cases where it has seemed probable that the 

 BNA term would come into common use, though now un- 

 familiar, this and the more common English expression are 

 both used or used alternatively; such has been the case, for 

 example, with the Gasserian ganglion or semilunar ganglion 

 (BNA). In naming the cerebral sulci and gyri the system in 

 use for man is not well fitted for bringing out the plan of those 

 in the brain of the cat, so that it was necessary to reject the 

 BNA names for these structures. 



As to the use of the Latin terms and their equivalents in 

 English form, we have made a practice of employing in the 

 text sometimes one, sometimes the other; this has the advan- 

 tage of giving variety, and of impressing the interchangeability 

 of the Latin and English forms on the mind of the student. 

 Where a given structure is called by two equally well-known 



