ON THE VERTEBRATE SKELETON. 171 
_ To substitute names for phrases is not only allowable, but I believe it to be 
indispensable to the right progress of anatomy ; but such names must be arbi- 
trary, or, at least, should have no other signification than the homological one, 
if anatomy, as the science of the structure of all animals, is to enjoy the inesti- 
mable benefit of a steady and universal nomenclature. I am far from being in- 
sensible to the advantages which other sciences have derived from revolutions 
in their technical language; but experience has also demonstrated attendant 
evils ; and these, it is to be feared, would preponderate in the case of anatomy, 
on account of the peculiar character of its origin, and the fact of its cultivators 
being for the most part introduced to the science through the portal of anthro- 
potomy. Solong, likewise, as due deference continues to be paid to the deep 
and vital importance of the practical applications of the parent science in 
medicine and surgery, it will be in vain for any man to expect that his sole 
authority would suffice for the general reception of an entirely new nomen- 
¢lature, however philosophically devised or clearly enunciative of the highest 
and most comprehensive truths of the science at the time of its formation. 
_ After maturely considering this subject in its various relations, I have ar- 
rived at the conviction that the best interests of anatomical science will be 
consulted by basing the nomenclature applicable to the vertebrate subking- 
dom upon the terms and phrases in which the great anthropotomists of the 
16th, 17th and 18th centuries have communicated to us the fruits of their 
immortal labours, For it is only on this firm foundation that we may hope 
to avoid that ceaseless change of terms which follows the device of a syste- 
matic nomenclature significant of a given progress and result of scientific 
research, But the names of the parts of the vertebrate animals so based on 
or deduced from the language of anthropetomy must divest themselves of. 
their original descriptive signification, and must stand simply and arbitra- 
rily as the signs of such parts, or at least with the sole additional meaning 
of indicating the relation of the part in the lower animal to its namesake or 
homologue in Man. Jt is an old maxim accepted by the best logicians, that 
no name is so good as that which signifies the total idea or whole subject, 
without calling prominently to mind any one particular quality, which is 
thereby apt to be deemed, undeservedly, more essential than the rest. 
The chief improvement which the language of anatomy, based upon that 
of anthropotomy, must receive in order to do its requisite duty, is the substi- 
tution of ‘names’ for ‘ phrases’ and ‘definitions’; and this is less a change 
of nomenclature than the giving to anatomy what it did not before possess, 
but which is absolutely requisite to express briefly and clearly, and without 
periphrasis, propositions respecting the parts of animal bodies. Such names 
should be derived from a universal or dead language, and when anglicized, 
or translated into other modern equivalents, ought to be capable of being 
inflected adjectively. 
A few examples will suffice to show how greatly the advantage of such 
names preponderates over the trouble of substituting them in the memory 
for the definitions which previously signified the ideas. 
In the classical Anthropotomy of Soemmerring, a well-defined part of the 
skull, which is a distinct bone in the human embryo, and permanently so in 
all cold-blooded Vertebrata, is called “ pars occipitalis stricte sic dicta partis 
occipitalis ossis spheno-occipitalis*.” Monro, in his justly-esteemed treatise 
‘On the Human Bones+,’ defines the same bone as ‘‘all the part of the (oc- 
cipital) bone above the great foramen.” In the ‘Elements of Anatomy,’ by 
Dr. Quain{, a work of repute for its clearness and minuteness of detail, the 
* De Corporis Humani Fabrica, 1794, t.i. p.162. | + Kirby’s edition, 8vo, 1820, p. 76. 
} Elements of Descriptive and Practical Anatomy, 8vo, 1828, p. 50. 
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