522 'Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



even though the form of the concept may ultimately be greatly 

 modified. Making the best use of all of these aids to research, 

 let us strive to keep an open mind and avoid a slavish devotion to 

 dogma, whether new or old. 



NEUROLOGICAL TERMINOLOGY. 



The appearance of Dr. Lewellys F. Barker's manual of 

 Anatomical Terminology^ suggests some reflections upon a subject 

 which was formerly actively debated, but which has by common 

 consent apparently been left to one side in recent years. A decade 

 ago the editors of this Journal remarked (vol. 7, p. 168), "The 

 unification of our nomenclature is to be accomplished, if at all, 

 by a process of survival of the fittest among competing terms at the 

 hands of our working anatomists rather than by legislative enact- 

 ment. Yet the international discussions now in progress may do 

 much to further this end." In the interval which has elapsed since 

 those words were written anatomists have devoted themselves to the 

 prosecution of research, in America at least, with unparalleled 

 vigor, and, though for the most part silent on questions of ana- 

 tomical terminology, it is evident thatthey have not been heedless 

 of them. The American usage has evidently tended more and 

 more to take its departure from the Basle terms of the Nomen- 

 clature Commission of the German Anatomical Society (commonly 

 referred to as the BNA terms), and we are therefore indebted to 

 Dr. Barker for the pubHcation of their Hst with vernacular Eng- 

 lish equivalents in parallel columns. This little manual is almost 

 a necessity on the desk of every anatomist who has not the original 

 German Hst at hand for ready reference. 



To many neurologists the selection of the terms of this list 

 does not seem to have been always happy; but the adoption of the 

 terms in their entirety is not binding on any one and nothing but 

 practical use in the manifold complexity of actual research and 

 didactic conditions can demonstrate which of the terms have actual 

 survival value and which ones will ultimately give way to better 

 ones. It is gratifying to remember, in this connection, that the 

 Basle system is not designed as a finality, but as one stage merely 



'Barker, Lewellys F. Anatomical Terminology, with Special Reference to the [BNA]. With 

 Vocabularies in Latin and English and Illustrations. Philadelphia, P. Blakistons Son & Co. 

 iqoy. $1. 



