Franklin V. MnU 149 



that they could be copied gradually while being evolved. The subject 

 matter of his lectures was chosen in a very conservative way, the sub- 

 stance being always sound and free from all kinds of wild theory and 

 speculation.'' 



Early in his career, h.e had inach^ crude models of the mesentery and 

 the like, for these were subjects the forms of whicli Avere dilTicnlt to 

 understand. Toward the end of the seventies, modelling was prosecuted 

 on an extensive scale with the aid of the modeller. Steger, resulting in a 

 series of papers on the form and ])osition of the organs A\hich are now 

 standard. His many models have been duplicated and fill an important 

 corner in all anatomical museums; they have made His the founder of a 

 new school of topographical anatomy. The method which His had in- 

 troduced in embryology were thus also applied to gross anatomy, for he 

 was never satisfied until he could see adult forms in the embryo and the 

 outlines of the embryo in the adult. 



In His the power of visualizing forms — the power which enaliled him 

 to do his work of reconstruction, to make those wonderful blackboard 

 drawings during his lectures — was developed to an extreme degree. This 

 power was one of his principal gifts, and one of the chief foundations of 

 his achievements in science. As he grew older there was not only an 

 increase in the depth of insight into problems, which is natural in so able 

 a man, but also what is rarer, a very great improvement in the power of 

 expounding his results. His last papers are models, characterized by 

 conciseness of style, great clearness of description and a suppression of 

 all superfluous details. 



While His Avas teaching and investigating, the question of nomencla- 

 ture came up. Each century, each country, each school, each specialty 

 and each teacher seemed to have a particular group of terms based upon 

 an imaginary normal ; the result was that there Avere so many normals 

 that it Avas extremely difficult to construct a table of synonyms. 



AVhen His and a few others founded the Anatomische Gesellschaft, 

 one of the first questions discussed Avas the formation of a uniform 

 nomenclature. After much Avork and expense, His droAV up ^lie official 

 report of the international commission, in 1895 : it is another standard 

 which the leading teachers and authors have agreed to folloAV. The ncAV 

 nomenclature is a comproniise ; it is not radical, but it has reduced the 

 numl)er of anatomical names, including synonyms, by al)Out eighty per 

 cent. It Avill not be .difficult for English-speaking anatomists to accept 

 this terminology, for it diifers less from ours than from that of any 

 other language. 



If we consider the great aninnnt of Avork His did upon the form and 



