26 INTR OB UCTION. 



Barclay seems not to liave concerned himself for other than English users of his new 

 terms, and we can only conjecture what he would have made the classical forms of 

 proximal and distal. Following analogy, they may be rendered proxlmalls and dldalin, 

 though no such Latin words exist. 



For the four other aspects (borders or sides) of each limb, Barclay 

 proposed the terms ulnar, radial, anconal aud thenar, tibial, fibular, 

 rotular aad popliteal. 



These have been employed to some extent by later writers, but they are 

 open to at least three objections: they are specific instead of general; the 

 bones from which they are derived are not recognizable in "fishes;" with 

 many mammals, the ulna and radius are crossed instead of parallel, and with 

 some the ulna and tibia are but slightly developed. 



Huxley and some other English anatomists have employed the general 

 terms preaxial, postaxial, epaxial, and hypaxial. But these words are liable 

 to misconception because axial has been used already in reference to not 

 only the axis vertebra, but also the entire skeleton of the trunk as contra- 

 distinguished from that of the limbs. 



Perhaps the chief objection to all these terms is that they are not really 

 necessary, and introduce undesirable verbal complications. 



The limbs are certainly part of the body, and whether or not, as held by 

 Thacher {!) and Mivart {T), they are essentially and primarily only isolated 

 and differentiated portions of continuous lateral fold, there seems to be a 

 general assent to Huxley's proj^osition (J) that, for comparison, the limbs 

 should be regarded as extended laterad at right angles with the soma. 



Hence it seems to us most natural to apply to the aspects of the limbs the 

 same terms which are applied to the corresponding regions of the soma. 

 Thus each limb presents a dorsal and a ventral aspect, a cejDhalic and caudal 

 aspect, and a proximal and distal end. 



§ 46. Terms of General Application to the Whole "Body.— Central 

 and periphei'al were proposed by Barclay, and have been very generally used 

 by anatomists. They are especially applicable to the parts of the nervous 

 and vascular systems, since the vessels and the nerves may be said to radiate 

 from or converge to the heart and the myelencephalon (cerebro-spinal axis) 

 as anatomical and physiological centers. 



Barclay also recognized the need of terms denoting nearness or remote- 

 ness with respect to the surface of any part of the bodyj and proposed dermal 

 in the one case, central doing duty also in the other. 



Most anatomists, however, have contented themselves with the older 

 words, outer and inner, superficial and deep, sublime and profound. 



Of these terms, three are incapable of inflection ; all are very commonly 

 employed in a metaphysical sense, and are therefore more or less ambiguous; 

 while the last two are quite ina])propriatc to the insignificant structures 

 with which they are often associated. 



