1 66 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



and without apprehension that opposition to my views will 

 affect my personal or official relations. All I ask of them is 

 the clear recognition of all the conditions. 



Perhaps my own view of what the conditions really are may 

 be most conveniently introduced by a commentary upon a para- 

 graph in the address of the president of the Association of 

 American Anatomists a year ago. Professor Dwight said ('95) : 



German anatomists have recently adopted a report prepared by 

 some of their number working in company with representatives of 

 other European countries. It is for us to consider whether this one 

 can be looked upon as accepted and whether it is acceptable ; whether 

 we can join hands with our foreign colleagues, or whether we can 

 devise an American nomenclature which shall be so much better 

 that we can disregard the inconvenience of a distinct standard. We 

 have had for years a committee on anatomical nomenclature, with 

 Professor Wilder for secretary, who has given so large a part of his 

 busy life to this matter. We may expect an important contribution 

 to the matter in the report of this committee. 



Dr. Dwight's address was devoted mainly to what he justly 

 characterized as " a social question of the first importance, far 

 transcending purely scientific discussion, viz., the methods of 

 obtaining and utilizing anatomical material." Nomenclature 

 was considered briefly and almost incidentally. The following 

 commentaries are designed partly to reenforce some of his 

 remarks, and partly to avert possible misapprehension as to 

 both what he said and what he felt obliged to omit. 



In the first place, as a member of the committee on nomen- 

 clature of the Association of American Anatomists since 1889, 

 Dr. Dwight recognizes with especial clearness that the subject 

 can no longer be ignored. Now that a score of European 

 anatomists have given more or less attention to it during six 

 years, and have expended upon it about $2500, no individual 

 or association can hereafter treat it as insignificant. 



Secondly, the approximate completeness of the German list 

 of the visible parts of the entire body renders it a substantial 

 basis for discussion and a starting point for further progress. 



The two conditions just named will, as doubtless anticipated 

 by Dr. Dwight, lead anatomic writers and teachers to pay more 



