Wilder, Neural Terms. 227 



abbreviations are transposed. The Anglo-paronym of commis- 

 siira posterior is posterior coinmissure, and the respective abbrevi- 

 ations might be c, p. and/, c.\ but if the Latin dionym be mon- 

 onymized into postcouiuiissnra, the EngUsh paronym is postcojn- 

 missure, and the abbreviation /6\ answers for both. See ^i>6 1-64. 

 §48. Limitations to Paronymy. — As already admitted 

 with regard to mononymy (§88), the "nature of things" for- 

 bids the rigid and universal application of the principle of par- 

 onymy. Certain parts, so exposed or so vital as to have gained 

 early and popular attention, have received vernacular names or 

 heteronyms which are brief and generally understood. Such 

 are head, hand, foot, heart and brain. Indeed the use of the 

 Latin equivalent for either of these would impress most persons 

 as pedantic. But this concession of, for example, the suffici- 

 ency of brain instead of encephalon does not warrant the reten- 

 tion or formation of an indefinite number of inflectives, deriva- 

 tives and compounds from the heteronym. The same remark 

 applies to other languages.^ 



Part II. Stages of the Writer s Terminologic Progress. 



§49. TheTollowing summary of the changes of my views 

 during a quarter of a century shows, I trust, a general advance 

 in the comprehension of the subject and justifies me in com- 

 menting upon the labors of others. 



§50. L 1871-79. In an effort to confirm, extend and 

 modify certain morphologic ideas of my teacher, Jeffries Wy- 

 man, I enumerated ('71, 172) the following requirements of 

 technical terms: i. Classic Derivation. 2. Capacity for In- 

 flection. 3. Brevity. 4. Independence of Context for Signi- 

 fication. 5. Non-ambiguity to the Ear as well as to the Eye. 

 6. Previous Use in a Kindred Sense. 



Of the thirty-three names then adopted or proposed for 



1 Of the two German vernacles for encephalon, Gfhirn is more commonly 

 used alone and Him in composition. On my list there! are 35 compounds of 

 Gehirn and 106 of Him; moreover, of the former, one-half are duplicated among 

 the latter. 



