THE FUTURE OF ANATOMICAL TERMINOLOGY n 



Vertebrates." And, now that the newest edition of Gould's Medical Dictionary 

 is also to consider the BNA, there would seem to be no longer reason for 

 delay in general recognition and employment. 



The assumption that students who have been taught the BNA and their 

 clinical teachers will be reciprocally embarrassed in one another's presence 

 that a sort of anatomical Babel will prevail gives scarcely due credit to either 

 student or clinician. For, on the one hand, the student is sure during this tran- 

 sition period to become acquainted quickly with the old synonyms of the few 

 new anatomical terms foreign to the ordinary clinical vocabulary; he can scarcely 

 escape, for instance, learning that clinicians almost invariably speak of the 

 "atria" of the heart as its "auricles," or of the "omental bursa" as the "lesser 

 peritoneum." And, on the other hand, we may be certain that the modern sci- 

 entific clinician, worthy of a clinical chair in a medical school, will not be un- 

 familiar with those more recent studies in the anatomy of his field which are of 

 sufficient permanent importance to have been reflected in the BNA. The 

 internist who has not brought his anatomy of the lungs, the heart, the liver, the 

 spleen, the kidneys and the peritoneum at least up to the level of precision 

 indicated by the BNA list, handicaps himself in his work. So with the surgeon 

 with regard to the bones, the articulations, the blood-vessels and nerves, the 

 neck, the abdomen and the pelvis. There need be little fear, we may feel toler- 

 ably sure, of delinquency here. Should the nobler motives prove ineffective 

 they will not the fierceness of competition among clinicians, the rivalry for 

 prestige among the occupants of clinical chairs, would from now on, if it has not 

 always so done in the past, compel the teachers of the practical branches to 

 keep pace with progress in the fundamentals. We have seen above, as a mat- 

 ter of fact, how clinicians in the medical specialties have not only kept pace 

 with the anatomists but, in part, have outstripped them in the race. Investi- 

 gating the anatomy of their own special domains anew and independently, their 

 inquiries have expanded knowledge and necessitated an enrichment of anatomical 

 vocabulary. This process has begun in America. That it will go on and be- 

 come an engine of great power in furthering the development of our knowl- 

 edge of the human form in regions yet obscure, who can doubt? 



The Future of Anatomical Terminology. 



No matter how many revisions of terminology are made, and entirely 

 independently of those who make them, we can be sure that, in the long run, only 

 those names will survive which are wisely selected, which are precise in expression, 

 and which are organically connected with whatever great general plan our ana- 

 tomical nomenclature ultimately assumes. Anatomical terms, to live, must 

 satisfy the needs of, and be adopted by, a majority of anatomists and clinicians. 

 It would be folly to attempt to force the use of the BNA or any other list of 

 anatomical terms upon any man or group of men. A terminology must rely 

 upon its intrinsic merits, not upon the influence of authority. The better it satis- 

 fies the needs of teaching and investigation, the greater its chances of general 

 acceptance and permanence. Those of us who are convinced of the value of 

 the BNA should set an example by using it and may recommend its use to others. 

 More than this we ought not to do. 



The fact should be emphasized that the BNA makes no attempt to limit 

 the language of research, but only to supply a list of simple terms, free from 

 ambiguity, for common use in the medical schools. Research must, of course, 

 retain absolute freedom of expression. Investigators, to make themselves 

 understood, are compelled to use temporarily many expressions consciously 



