BARCLAY’S ANATOMICAL NOMENCLATURE, 
tained in the Alas, implies a firm ele- 
vated support to an organ of command- 
ing importance, and ingeniously describes 
in a single word the circumstance both 
of use and relative situation; but such for- 
tunate combinations are very rare, ard it 
has been a real labour to the most pro- 
lific imagination to devise terms suffici- . 
ently distinct and appropriate to follow 
the ever ramifying search of the anato- 
mist ;therefore, though Highmorehas sur- 
rendered his exclusive claim to the maxil- 
lary antrum, and of late the crural arch 
has been refused to Poupart; and though 
we should be glad tosee a name substituted 
to a definition, when speaking of the iter a 
tertio ad quartum ventriculum, or the addita- 
mentum sutare lambdoidalis, we are not san- 
- guine enough to entertain the hope of 
seeing the entire system of anatomical 
nomenclature simplified to a single prin- 
ciple, without encreasing the difficulty 
of the'learner by the excessive recurrence 
of the same leading terms, and overload- 
ing the mechanical part of memory by 
depriving it of the assistance of the ima- 
gination. 
The system proposed by Dr. Barclay 
does not, however, go to a total change 
of the present nomenclature, nor can we 
entirely infer from what is said, that it is 
the author’s intention so to extend it. 
The present plan only proposes a refor- 
mation in all the terms relative to posi- 
tion and aspect, to be substituted for up- 
er, lower, internal, external, right, left, and 
others of the same class. 
The human anatomy has been the pro- 
fotype of the comparative ; all the terms 
of relative situation are therefore derived 
from it, and the anatomist has generally 
chosen the erect posture as the most con- 
yenient for the delineation of his subject. 
But it requires a great stretch of the 
imagination to transfer this position, the 
os homini sublime, to the brute creation; 
and in so doing, all the natural distinc- 
tions of situation in the inferior animals 
are distorted, whence infinite perplexity 
ensues. Toremedy this evil, the author, 
extending his views to every branch of 
anatomy, has with great judgment, and, 
in our opinion, with equal success, de- 
vised a system of relative terms, founded 
on those features of universal anatomy 
which are invariable, and capable of ge- 
neral application. ‘The former plan re- 
sembles the right and uf of amap, which 
gives correct ideas only on one projec. 
tion; the latter is the east and west, al. 
Ways accurate. “o 
763 
As our limits will not allow us to ex- 
plain this system with sufficient minute. 
ness to do it justice, we shall only enu- 
merate a few of the terms, as a specimen 
of the author’s talent for philosophical 
nomenclature. ‘Three sets of names are 
separately devoted to imply relative si- 
tuation in the trunk, the extremities and 
the head. For the trunk, a line drawn 
from the atlas to the sacrum furnishes 
the well contrived terms of ATLANTAL 
and sacrAL, to correspond with apperand 
lower ; another line, from the sternum to 
the back, expresses anterior and posteriorby- 
the denominations srerNAL and Dorsat. 
A plane passing along the neck, medi- 
astinum and linea alba, is called the 
MESION, whence MESIAL and LATERAL 
will be equivalent to infernal and external, 
in one of the senses in which these two 
terms are employed; whilst permar and 
CENTRAL is substituted for the same 
peony when they imply superficial and 
Cops 
The anatomy of the head requires a 
greater variety of combinations, and the 
author distinctly makes out ten different, 
aspects, to be described by appropriate 
names. This provision affords a facility 
for comparative anatomy, superior to 
any thing that has yet been devised, and’ 
it is im every way worthy of attention. 
The greatest stretch of system that we 
have observed, occurs in the extension of 
the terms atlantal and sacral to the head. 
These, as we have before observed, im- 
ply relatively, superior, and inferior, and 
are derived from the extreme points {in 
the trunk the opposite poles) of the atlas 
and sacrum. Continue this line,” says. 
the author, “ perpendicular to the plane 
of the foramen magnum occipitale, till 
it fall on some bone of the cranium or 
face, and let this bone, whatever it be, 
be called the at/anial. In man the line 
will terminate on the sagittal, a little be. 
hind the coronal suture;”? now “ if the 
term sacral be applied to the head, it 
must always denote that side which. is 
opposed to the atlantal, and may easil 
be found from observing the place of the 
foramen magnum.” 
According to this plan it will follow, 
that the parts of the head the most remote 
from the atlas, will be termed atlantal,. 
and those the most ‘contiguous to it, will be 
called sacral; nor can it be otherwise, 
consistently with the general system. It 
may indeed be argued, and not without 
reason, that these terms so applied have 
here only a relative signification, like 
