SOME NEURAL TERMS. 1 67 



heed to their terminology, and to maintain at least a temporary 

 consistency, that is, within the limits of a single lecture, article, 

 or treatise. 



Yet our gratification at the tardy German admission of the 

 need of terminologic improvement, and our recognition of the 

 usefulness of the list compiled with such learning and industry 

 and at such expense should not lead us to overlook {a) the lim- 

 itations of the German report in both intent and performance; 

 (b) the delay in its adoption by other nations; (c) the qualifica- 

 tions of Americans for independent judgment. 



The •' B. N. A.," that is, the Nomina Anatomica adopted by the 

 Anatomische Gesellschaft at Basel in 1895, is regarded by the 

 Germans themselves as provisional and subject to modification. 

 As stated ofificially (Anatomisc/ier An:2eiger, Erganzungsheft, X, 

 161) and by Professor His, there was appointed a standing com- 

 mittee of revision, which is to report upon proposed changes and 

 new terms at intervals of three years. ^ 



Although France and Great Britain were represented upon 

 the general committee, no members from those countries were 

 present at the signing of the report and of the declaration 

 against the efforts of the American committees, April 19, 1895, 

 {Anatomischer Anzeiger, Erganzungsheft, X, 162). Further- 

 more, as frankly stated by Professor His ('95, 6-8), some of the 

 French correspondents preferred a different method of proce- 

 dure, and the English commission had not reported at all. 

 The improbability of universal and unqualified assent upon the 

 part of British anatomists is indicated by the following remarks 

 of a Glasgow professor (Cleland and Mackay, '96, 3): 



With regard to the naming of individual structures it may be 

 noted that more than one attempt has been made to impose uniform- 



1 Sofar as appears in the official record {Aiiatomischer Aiizeiger, XII, Erganzungs- 

 heft, 1896), no reference to nomenclature was made at the last meeting of the Anato- 

 mische Gesellschaft. Curiously enough, however, the title of a paper (pp. 1 53, 1 54) 

 by Bardeleben, who signed the antimononym declaration of the " Nomenclatur 

 Commission " (p. 145), is " Ueber das Praefrontale und Postfrontale des Menschen." 

 I am not disposed to cite these two words as adjectival locatives and as precedents 

 for postcavii, etc. (p. 150) ; but they are excellent mononymic adjectives used as 

 substantives (p. 138), and they do not occur in the official list adopted by the 

 committee of which Bardeleben was a member. 



