28 INTRODUCTION. 



50. Derivatives. With derivative words the connecting vowel is commonly i; 

 e. g., alipcs, claviger, fatifer, Jidicen, fluctigena, decimanus, neurilemma, and xiphisternum. 

 But classical exceptions are mulomedicus, quadrupedus, noctucigilus, and decumanus. In 

 common English and scientific terms of Latin or Greek origin the o is common ; e. g., 

 ambodexter, burgomaster, gastrotomy, termonology, ventroinguinal, lateroflexion, mucopuro- 

 lent, vasomotor, curtograph, neuroglia, oculospinal, pleuroperitoneal, xiphosura, septopyra, 

 hemoglobin, cephalotribe, etc. Rarely is it e as in venesection. 



Both analogy and euphony lead one to use the i when the first part of the word is of 

 Latin origin, and the o with the Greek. 



Hence we have dorsimeson, ventrimeson, dorsicumbent, latericumbent, dextriflexion, 

 sinistricersion, cephaloduction, caudiduction, etc. V 



51. Compound Words. The two Latin compounds known to us are veneri-vagus 

 and vesti-contubernium. The following common or technical English compound words 

 are selected from Webster's English Dictionary, or the Medical Dictionaries of Dunglison, 

 or Littre et Robin, or from the writings of Barclay, Humphrey (E), and Straus-Durckheim : 

 Anglo-Saxon, concavo-convex, dextro- gyrate, vcnlro-appendicular, costo-vertebral, costo- 

 alaris, caudo-pedal, osseo-cutaneous, occipito-scapularis, dor so-lateral, meso-dorsal, sterno- 

 damcular, claco-cucuttaire, dam-sternal, clavio-humeralis. By analogy with the foregoing, 

 compound terms of direction should read dorso- central, caudo-ceplialic, meso-latera! , 

 sinistro-cephalic, etc. 



52. Combination of Words. The names of two or more organs or tissues may 

 be conjoined like the words for regions ; thus we say musculo-tendinous, or gastro-hepatic. 

 But the names of organs are never combined with the names of regions ; hence such a 

 term as dorso-gastric does not occur. 



53. Hybrid Words. Some of the terms already mentioned are formed by the 

 union of Latin with Greek words; e.g., dorsimeson, meso-htteral, and caudo-cephalic ; 

 several others are likely to be employed; e. g., claw-mastoideus, and felitomy. 



Beyond the occasional intimation, in the dictionaries, that a term is hybrid, the 

 subject seems to be ignored, and it might fairly be inferred that literary authorities 

 entertain one or the other of two opposite convictions : either mongrel words are verbal 

 monstrosities which will be shunned instinctively by all well-regulated minds, or there 

 is no more serious objection to their use, or even their creation, than to the employment, 

 or even the production, of mules, or the mixed varieties of grapes and roses. 



However this may be, the fact is that the Latin and the Greek tongues have 

 united to form the following nine hybrids which may be found in Latin writings : 

 anticalo, bidinium, cryptoporticus, dentarpaga, epitogium, rnonosolis, monoloris, pseudo- 

 flatus, and pseudo-urbanus. Of these, the third only occurs with any degree of 

 frequency. 



Whoever will spend the time to look through an Unabridged Dictionary of the 

 English language and the interest as well as the instructiveness of such a search can 

 hardly be realized by those who use the volume only for occasional reference will find 

 that, after excluding the twenty-five or more words ending with meter, which may 

 perhaps be derived directly from the Latin form metrum, there are more than one hundred 

 hybrid words, many of them in good standing. Many more are to be gleaned from the 

 Dictionaries of Medicine and the other Arts and Sciences. 



Nevertheless, it is probable that a due regard for the feelings of the classical purists 

 in whose eyes language was not made for man, but rather man for language, will lead 

 scientists to refrain from the introduction of mongrel terms when others will serve the 

 purpose, and we shall be pleased to receive suggestions leading to the substitution of 

 wholly unobjectionable words for any of the hybrids which may occur in the present work. 



