2/8 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



antiquity alone can be urged ; against praecava and postcava 

 can be alleged only the sinfulness of comparative youth. 



§i88. In the foregoing discussion I have refrained from 

 following one line of argument that readily suggests itself and 

 is, indeed, almost formulated in the hypothetic series between 

 posterior vena cava and postcava as stated in §178, viz., The 

 prefix post might not unnaturally be regarded as the abbrevia- 

 tion oi posterior ox postero. Were compounds of post alone con- 

 cerned, this simple line of argument might perhaps be adequate; 

 but it will not serve for compounds of the correlative prae, nor 

 for those of the Greek prepositions, Ui, ixsrd, vtz6, etc. 



§189. The straightforward way oi dealing with the mat- 

 ter is to assume that post and prae, in composition, may have 

 the force of the adjectives posterior diwd anterior respectively.^ 

 " If this be treason, make the most of it." 



§190. It seems to me that the nature of the issue between 

 postcava and vena cava inferior (or posterior ) is such as to in- 

 volve the acceptance or rejection of the following propositions. 



A. Language was made by and for man, and not the 

 reverse. 



B. Grammatic rules are framed from time to time in order 

 to maintain the uniformity that is acceptable and convenient. 



C. Like the roads we traverse, such rules are but means 

 to ends, and have no intrinsic sanctity. 



D. Like a circuitous but familiar road, a commonly ac- 

 cepted rule is not to be abandoned without reflection. 0;i the 

 other hand, no more is it to be laboriously travelled when new 

 conditions render a "short cut " desirable. 



E. Extrinsic toponyms {i. e., terms of location or direc- 

 tion that do not refer expressly to the recognized body-regions, 

 dorsum, venter, etc.) should conform to the more usual verte- 

 brate attitude rather than to the erect attitude of man ; e.g., 



* It is well understood in this country that the Nezv York Medical Journal 

 and the '' Encyclopaedic Medical Dictionary " stand for the highest scholarship. 

 Yet so long ago as 1885, when some of my simplified terms were submitted to 

 him, their editor, Dr. F. P. Foster replied, " I think some of the words excel- 

 lent, /raiffoww/j^wrfl, for example." 



