SOME NEURAL TERMS. 145 



terior by ventralis and dorsalis where the relations to compara- 

 tive anatomy, and especially to the anatomy of domesticated 

 animals, render it desirable; that is, where the terms anterior 

 and posterior apply only to the upright attitude of man. . . . 

 We do not deny the merit of such strict usage, but the com- 

 mission has not been able to decide upon its adoption. It 

 involves all kinds of difficulties and inconveniences. . . . We 

 leave time to determine whether or not we shall depart from 

 the traditional usage associated with the erect attitude of 

 man." 



Had most of the members of the commission been investi- 

 gators and teachers of zootomy rather than of anthropotomy, 

 there would probably have been no hesitation in adopting terms 

 that apply equally well to all vertebrates in any attitude. Let 

 us' hope that the distinguished president of the commission 

 may live to see his recommendations unanimously adopted. 



I close this discussion of the differences between the recom- 

 mendations of the American and German committees with the 

 remark that, strictly speaking, not one of the words in the 

 first column of Table II can be imputed to us. All were in 

 use for longer or shorter periods prior to 1880. Comparison 

 with the second and third columns will show that in most cases 

 our office was merely to disencumber the essential elements of 

 preexisting terms from superfluous accessories. 



Criticisms of the efforts and propositions of the American 

 committees in general and of myself in particular have been 

 published by the Anatomische Gesellschaft, 1 by Professor 

 Wilhelm His (see p. no) and by Professor Kolliker. 2 



In these criticisms it appears that the Germans are at last 3 



1 Anatomischer Anzeiger, Erganzungsheft, 1895, P- I ^ >2 - 



2 Gewebelehre, 6th ed., II, p. 814, 1896. 



3 I say "at last " in view of the enormous number of lengthy terms, both Latin 

 and vernacular, for whose continuance and even origin German -anatomists are 

 responsible (p. 122). Some of the heteronyms are indeed "fearfully and wonder- 

 fully made," and can be most fitly characterized as verbal " tandems," unman- 

 ageable by persons not specially trained. As remarked by Owen, " The happy 

 facility for combination which the German language enjoys has long enabled 

 the very eminent anatomists of that intellectual part of Europe to condense the 

 definitions of anthropotomy into single words ; but these combinations cannot 



