TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 



THE science of human anatomy is purely descriptive in its methods, the field it covers is not very extensive, and its 

 boundaries s^z sharply limited ; it is, therefore, one of the few sciences in which something closely verging on finality 

 and completeness has been attained. Even, however, if no new anatomical data are likely to be forthcoming, there is yet 

 scope for originality in the method of presentation of those data of which the science now consists ; and originality of 

 this kind Professor Toldt's "Atlas of Human Anatomy" exhibits in a high degree. In the many admirable manuals of 

 human anatomy now extant in English, the illustrations, even when numerous, as they are often, and when good, as they 

 are occasionally, form a mere supplement usually a very imperfect supplement to the text. Atlases of anatomy, and 

 useful atlases, also exist in English, but all are quite fragmentary. Some, like the well-known and valuable, but somewhat 

 antiquated, " Illustrations of Dissections," consist of a series of pictures of selected regions carefully prepared on the 

 cadaver : these are models for the imitation of the student in his own dissecting work, but are not of much value for 

 private study. Others, like Bellamy's English edition of Braune's atlas of frozen sections of the human body, present a 

 small number of anatomical facts from a striking and unfamiliar point of view. But among English works, an accurate 

 pictorial representation of all the data of human anatomy, carefully drawn to scale from actual specimens, and arranged 

 suitably for systematic study, has hitherto been lacking. 



Whilst a true knowledge of anatomy, a knowledge that will through life supply the needs of the physician and the 

 surgeon in their practical work, can be obtained only in the dissecting-room, the student's labours with scalpel and forceps 

 niust be preceded and supplemented by systematic private study. Now, for this purpose, the textual descriptive treatise 

 is, net alone sufficient ; or, if sufficient, it is so at an excessive expenditure of time and labour. Both in his work 

 preparatory to dissection and in his revision of his anatomical knowledge subsequent to dissection, the energy of the 

 student will be enormously economized if he has at hand a graphic representation of every structure named and described 

 in his systematic treatise. An increased use of the visual or graphic method, both in the acquirement and in the 

 revivification of knowledge, is a feature of the age in all educational departments ; but this English translation of Professor 

 Toldt's work is, as far as the English-speaking races are concerned, the first adequate application of the method to the 

 study of human anatomy. 



In speaking of the finality and completeness of anatomical science, one exception must be made, and this exception 

 relates to anatomical terminology, which, though nearly completed, has not yet attained finality. Had there been a 

 universal anatomical nomenclature a nomenclature, that is, adopted by, or even fully intelligible to, anatomists of all 

 nationalities an English edition of this work would have been superfluous. Anatomy, however, like all other sciences, 

 has suffered from the dispersion of tongues that ensued on the Renascence, when the good and the evil of mediaevalism 

 became inextricably confounded, and were cast away together, and the inestimable gift of a language common to the 

 learned of all lands was lost for ever. The German-speaking peoples have a fairly complete and fairly pure Latin 

 anatomical nomenclature, needing, however, to be eked out here and there by the vernacular ; whilst in England, as in 

 France, a strange and bastard dialect, half Latin and half vernacular, has come into use. Uncouth jargon as it is, being 

 current and familiar, it is not likely in England and America ever to be replaced by the more consistent terminology in 

 use in the anatomical schools of Germany and Austria ; I have, however, in this English edition of the "Atlas of Anatomy" 

 retained the terminology of the original side by side with the English translation, distinguishing between the two by a 

 difference of type. 



In some cases, in the nomenclature used by the author, terms are met with which have no counterpart in English 

 anatomical terminology : either because the author regards as normal a structure which English anatomists regard as a 

 variety ; or, and far more commonly, because the structure in question, though normal, is unimportant, and English 

 anatomists have therefore neglected to name it. Sometimes, in such cases, I have given a literal English translation of 

 the Latin name used by the author ; sometimes, however, a periphrasis has been required to explain what the structure 

 is, or to account for the absence of an English name, and this periphrasis, when lengthy, has been printed as a foot-note. 

 In all such cases, an asterisk is prefixed both to the Latin name and to its English equivalent, to indicate to the reader 

 that there is something unusual in the terms employed. 



I must further point out that in a few instances the author's nomenclature actually conflicts with that commonly used 

 in England, so that the literal translation of the author's name for a certain structure is applied in England to a structure 

 totally different. For instance, what the author calls canalis pterygopalatinus is in England called the posterior palatine 

 or palatomaxillary canal, while the pterygopalatine canal of English anatomists is called by the author canalis 

 pharyngeus. But for this warning, beginners might imagine such divergencies to be due to carelessness on the part of 

 the translator or to errors of the press. 



A further difficulty has arisen from the fact that English anatomical nomenclature is itself not yet finally settled, nor 

 even wholly consistent. Not merely is the same structure often known by several names ; but, which is worse, the same 



