SOME NEURAL TERMS. II5 



Huxley and Hawkins' Comparative Osteology the arm is called 

 the " anterior extremity, the leg the " hind limb.'" 



Indirect Pecilonymy. — - But when a certain substantive is 

 used in one passage, and in another an adjective or other deriv- 

 ative from a different substantive, the pecilonymy is indirect or 

 implied; e.g., " certain fibers are called peduncular because they 

 pass into the crura cerebri." Very commonly a certain fissure 

 is named Rolando, but adjoining gyres paracentral, ajiterior 

 central, etc. 



Pecilonymy by Permutation. — When a name, or the adjective 

 part of a name, contains two or more elements of approximately 

 equal value, they are subject to accidental or intentional trans- 

 positions that may cause misapprehension. For example, in his 

 paper on the brain of Ateles {Zodl. Soc. Proc, 1861), Huxley 

 refers to the same fissure as occipito-temporal on page 258 and 

 as temporo-occipital on page 260. One might infer that two dif- 

 ferent things were indicated, just as, in chemistry, hydro-carbon 

 and carbo-hydrate have different significations. Similar diversity 

 of usage exists with regard to the occipital fissure, which is 

 called by some occipito-parietal and by others parieto-occipital. 

 Orbito-frontal dind fronto-orbital constitute another instance. 



Abbreviational Pecilonymy. — The following is a good exam- 

 ple of a bad system : in the translations of two of Meynert's 

 works occur corpus quadrigeminum, coip. quadrigeminum, corp. 

 quadi'igem., corp. quadrig., corp. quad. 



The Perpetration or Toleration of Pecilonymy may be ascribed 

 to five mental conditions: 



{a) Pure heedlessness. 



{b) Indifference to the just claims of readers and especially 

 of students. 



{c) Pride in the hardly gained familiarity with the synonymy 

 of parts. 



(d) Desire to avoid repetition, as in certain forms of literary 

 expression; see W. & G. {'89), § 73, B, note. 



{e) Unwillingness to commit oneself to a particular ^ name. 



1 In some cases all the current titles of a part are so unacceptable that one 

 recalls Shakespeare's epigram as to the " Small choice among rotten apples," and 

 the demand of the dissatisfied guest, " If this is tea, bring me coffee; if it is coffee, 

 bring me tea." 



