156 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



(5) These ancient usages are assumed to be familiar to edu- 

 cated anatomists, who therefore should recognize the compounds 

 with little or no hesitation. 



(6) The compounds are so euphonious and so obviously cor- 

 related with the segmental names as to be learned and remem- 

 bered easily even by general students and by those who may 

 not have had a classical training. 1 



(7) In recent times it has been independently proposed by 

 two anatomists, teachers as well as investigators. 2 



(8) It has been adopted more or less completely by three of 

 the older American neurologists, Henry F. Osborn ('82, '84, 

 88), E. C. Spitzka ('81, '84), and R. Ramsay Wright ('84, '85), 

 and unreservedly by eight of the younger, W. Browning, T. E. 

 Clark, P. A. Fish, Mrs. S. P. Gage, O. D. Humphrey, B. F. 

 Kingsbury, T. B. Stowell, and B. B. Stroud. 



It will be noted that among the advantages of coelia over 

 ventriculus is not enumerated its freedom from ambiguity. 

 Theoretically, of course, ventriculus (encephali*) might be mis- 

 taken for ventriculus (cardiae s. cordis). Practically, however, 

 the context would almost infallibly obviate misapprehension. 3 

 Hence, from my point of view, the absolute unambiguity of 

 coelia and its compounds would not in itself justify its replace- 

 ment of ventriculus. It would be a causa vera, but hardly a 

 causa sufficient. 



The concluding remark of Professor His may be said to 

 " cap the climax " of his ill-founded criticism. The characteri- 

 zations, " vollig neuen " and " grossentheils recht fremdartig 



1 Among the hundreds of such students at Cornell University and at the Medi- 

 cal School of Maine who have gained their practical and theoretic knowledge of 

 encephalic morphology by means of these compounds no special difficulty has 

 ever been experienced. 



2 My propositions first appeared in Science, March 19 and 26, 1881. On 

 the fifteenth of August, 1882, Prof. T. Jeffery Parker read before the Otago 

 Institute of New Zealand a paper ("82) in which mesocoele and similar compounds 

 were introduced, although he was evidently quite unaware of my prior publication. 

 The terms were also employed in his " Zootomy " ('84) and in a later paper ('86). 



3 My previous reference to the polyonymic derivative, sulcus limitans ventricu- 

 lorum, was not for the sake of demonstrating the ambiguity of that term, but to 

 illustrate the inconsistency of the implied demand of Professor His that all terms 

 must be self-explanatory and require no definition. 



