244 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



biilc, after the analogy of reticule, divcrticle, etc. The same may 

 be said of inonticiilns and inontiailc\ see §167. 



§95. MesencepJialon. — By itself and used occasionally the 

 . Latin form is certainly euphonious and unobjectionable ; but in 

 any discussion of the segmental constitution of the brain, 

 whether written or spoken, the frequent recurrence of the ob- 

 trusively Latin termination is pedantic and burdensome. Its 

 omission is warranted by words like angel} 



§96. OpcrciLhim and Operclc. — The Latin tetrasyllable is 

 not commonly oppressive, but the compounds preopercuhim etc. , 

 might well become so. The case is comparable with that of 

 ultima ; with it, and even with pemiltiina, the last two syllables 

 are endured; but when two more syllables are added at one end, 

 then two are dropped from the other, leaving antepemilt of only 

 moderate length. . Preopercle, siiboperele and postopcrcle are 

 already applied to analogous parts of the fish's head ; see 

 §§67-70. 



§97. Praecitncus. — Here the difference between the Latin 

 antecedent and the Angloparonym consists in the replacement 

 of the ae by e as in preposition, pretext, preface, etc. 



§98. Tcntorinm. — By analogy with ovary, aviary, granary, 

 laboratory etc., the Angloparonym would be tentory, and this 

 word has been used to designate the awning of a tent. But 

 tentorium is unobjectionable and likely to be retained as an un- 

 changed paronym. 



§99. Pontilis. — Unwarrantable forms of the English ad- 

 jective from pons occur so frequently that there is here repro- 

 duced a paragraph from my recent note on the subject, '96, a. 

 "In the subtitle of the letter above mentioned the case is re- 

 ferred to as one of 'pontine hemorrhage.' This form of the 

 adjective is not uncommon in medical literature, and pontic and 

 pontal have found their way into the dictionaries. ' Now, as may 

 be seen from any Latin lexicon, pontal has no justification what- 

 ever. Ponticjis, the Latin antecedent of pontic, is derived from 

 pontiis, the sea. Pontinus, the antecedent of pontine, was orig- 



' Respecting the possibility of further abridgement of these terms see §74. 



