Wilder, Neural Terms. 255 



§129. Yet I believe that I did well to refrain from its in- 

 troduction ; for, after all , in nine cases out of ten, the artificial 

 appearance presented upon section is what is first offered the 

 student, and I have never known a case of misapprehension 

 occasioned thereby. Upon the whole, this has seemed to the 

 American committee a good case for the observance of Huxley's 

 aphorism ('80, 16) as to the unadvisability of interfering with 

 terms that are well established and have a definite connotation, 

 even when they may be etymologically inadequate, e. g., callo- 

 sum. Individually, I should feel that the case against conm 

 would be much stronger were it a word of half a dozen sylla- 

 bles, or lacking in euphony. 



§130. The assignment of ^^//^;w^« to the ridges of the myelic 

 cinerea naturally involved the replacement of that word, as com- 

 monly applied to the intervening masses of alba, by some other 

 word ; the German committee selected funiculus. If conm be 

 retained, colunina will be available as hitherto. Even if a change 

 be made, however, why not funis instead of the longer diminu- 

 tive, upon the grounds stated in §2 1 ? There could hardly be 

 confusion with the same word as applied to the " umbiHcal 

 cord." 



§131. CORNU F£.Vri?y^i:£.— As an objection to this 

 term it might be urged that consistency would involve the ap- 

 plication of the same words to the "middle" or "descending" 

 extension of the "lateral ventricle," which the German com- 

 mittee call cornu infcriiis. What the American committee may 

 do in this connection remains to be seen. There would be no 

 real cause for ambiguity, however, since cornu teniporale, c. 

 frontale, and c. occipitale are perfect examples of a class of 

 terms that suggest parts or regions already familiar. Personally 

 I have never had any difficulty, the locative, mononymic, 

 idionyms (§§25, 27) medicornu, praecornu and postcornu, having 

 been consistently employed by me for fifteen years ('81, b. d). 



§132. RADIX DORSALISws. radix poste^Hor.—Smce, 

 with this and with radix vcntralis (or anterior^ the Americans 

 and the Germans are at one as to the substantive element, there 

 only recurs the toponymic difference already alluded to in con- 



