330 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



mists of other nationalities to apprehend the signification more 

 readily than they might from vernacular words. 



§256. Hoino7iyms. — As has been repeatedly observed 

 (§§23, 26, 68, etc.) the context commonly averts misapprehen- 

 sion as to words having two or more meanings. The proba- 

 bility of confounding the mouth with a bone is scarcely greater 

 than that of mistaking a mathematic for a urinary calculus. But 

 when a term or phrase possibly ambiguous is first introduced in 

 a given publication, and especially in the title, absolute ex- 

 plicitness should be attained, no matter how many qualify- 

 ing words may be required. In the title of a paper, the term 

 "cervical follicles " is certainly ambiguous, and while " mental 

 prominence" as employed by Huxley is shown by the context 

 to designate a projection in the region of the chin, in a title it 

 might be readily misunderstood, particularly by a psychologist.^ 



§257. Consistency. — This ranks second among the desira- 

 ble attributes of all scientific writing which I have long called 

 the five C's, viz., Clearness, Consistency, Correctness, Concise- 

 ness, and Completeness. The last may seldom be attained ; the 

 lack of the first and second is as rarely excusable.^ The prac- 

 tice of the virtue of Terminologic Consistency is tantamount to 

 avoidance of the vice of Pecilonymy (§§34-39)- 



§258. Avoidance of Pecilonomy. — Whatever doubts a wri- 

 ter may entertain as to the relative excellence, authority or 

 vogue of two or more synonyms, and however he may shrink 

 from committing himself to either one of them (i^39), justice to 



^ The title (" On the fracture system of joints, with remarks on certain 

 great fractures ") of a paper just received (Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. Proceedi7igs, 

 XXVII) might at first sight seem to concern the surgeon quite as much as the 

 geologist. 



' While never really justifiable, obscurity of style may result from conditions 

 more or less difficult to avoid ; let us assume that no scicuific writer would delib- 

 erately formulate the doctrine credited by Jules Janin to Balzac. When asked the 

 meaning of a passage the novelist is reported to have replied " Ceci pour le 

 bourgeois", and to have explained that an unintelligible sentence or phrase now 

 and then had a good effect on the "general reader", who, if the sense were al- 

 ways too obvious, might flatter himself that he was equal to the writer and on a 

 level with his thoughts. 



