METHODS OF TERMINOLOGICAL CHANGE. 13 



" A name is a short substitute for a definition, and where no definition 

 exists, there can be no name." Packard and Cope, 1. 



" The one essential of naming is that distinct objects shall have distinct 

 names ; and the second essential is, that each object or concept shall have 

 but one name." Idem. 



"Life is too short to spend in digging for Truth with a long-handled 

 shovel when a trowel will serve the purpose ; nor is it becoming that any 

 nation, however wise and great, should ask all the rest to take their intel- 

 lectual food with chop-sticks of its peculiar pattern." Wilder, 9, 124. 



"The personal convenience and preferences of all existing anatomists 

 should be held as of little moment as compared with the advantages which 

 reform may ensure to the vastly more numerous anatomical workers of the 

 future." Idem, 137. 



The two following may serve to show that we have not been unmindful of the 

 dangers and disadvantages of terminological change. 



" Nothing is more pernicious than to attempt to tamper with well- 

 understood and universally accepted symbols." Anonymous Reviewer ("The 

 Athenaeum," June 4, 1881). 



"He who, affected by the cacoethes reformandi, insists upon reform for 

 the sake of an ideal perfection, is apt to appear as nothing better than a 

 troublesome and useless pedant." Wilder, 9, 124. 



25. Brief Statement of the Objects and Methods of the 

 Terminological Changes here made. To render the Vocabulary of 

 Anatomy equally applicable to all Vertebrates, and equally intelligible to all 

 Nations. 



To facilitate the Recognition of parts by students, and lessen the labor 

 of Memorizing. 



To abridge the length of Descriptions, and at the same time increase 

 their Accuracy. 



To include in this Vocabulary, so far as practicable, only such terms as are 

 brief, simple, exact, significant, of classical origin, and capable of inflection. 



To propose as few changes as possible, and to introduce new names only 

 for parts apparently unknown or unnamed before (e. g., crista fornids), or 

 in the place of semi-descriptive appellations undesirably long or incapable 

 of inflection, as e. g., cirribia for tractus transversus pedunculi, porta for 

 foramen Monroi. 



To consider brevity as an especially desirable characteristic of such names 

 as are most frequently employed. 



When a part is known by a descriptive phrase, to select therefrom some 

 characteristic word as the technical designation ; e. g., iter (a tertio ad 

 ventriculwn quartum). 



