262 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



Ii6, 117). As there remarked, the German adoption oi fis- 

 siira calcarina (§108) and caviim stibdiirale (§118) practically 

 concedes the adequacy of calcar, dura and pia. 



§152. The special application of dorsal and ventral \.o the 

 spinal cornua and nerve roots is involved in the general recom- 

 mendation of the American committees to employ those ex- 

 plicit adjectives in place of the ambiguous toponyms of anthro- 

 potomy, (§132). As already stated (133) the maintenance of 

 the latter by the Anatomische Gesellschaft contravened the 

 opinion of the oldest German anatomist, who was also chair- 

 man of the " Nomenclatur Commission." Americans are not 

 likely to repent of a step that has been sanctioned by such 

 authority. 



§153. There remains the general recommendation includ- 

 ed in section 4, viz., "That, other things being equal, mono- 

 nyms be preferred to polyonyms." So far as may be inferred 

 from the official declarations of the Gesellschaft, and from the 

 papers of its secretary and of Professor His, this constitutes the 

 most substantial element of the terminologic phantasm- which 

 the Germans have erected between themselves and the Ameri- 

 can committees. 



§154. How unsubstantial even this really is may be seen 

 from the following facts : {a) Of the eleven specific terms 

 adopted by three American committees up to the spring of 

 1895, five, nearly one half, were polyonyms, viz., vertebra tJior- 

 acalis, radix dorsalis, j'adix ventralis, cormi dorsale, and comu 

 ventralc. {b) Even among the forty specific terms adopted by 

 the Neurological Association in 1896 (§80) nine are polyonyms, 

 nearly one-fourth of the w'hole. [c) Among the (about) five 

 hundred and forty neural terms adopted by the Gesellschaft, at 

 least forty, about one-fourteenth, are mononyms, and there are 

 others among the names of the other parts of the body. 



§155, In short, before condemning the American com- 

 mittees for prefering calcar to calcar avis, and pia and dura 

 to pia mater and dura mater, the Germans must justify their 

 recommendation of the following mononymic substantives in 

 place of polyonyms all of which are perfectly legitimate, and 



