Mabch 28, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



309 



dental foramen? A dental foramen should be 

 a foramen of, or i)ertainLng to, a tooth, but 

 would be applied in this case to a foramen 

 of the mandible which transmits a nerve with 

 branches to the teeth. Is musculo-spiral a 

 well-constructed designation for a nerve con- 

 taining both sensory and motor fibers, which 

 passes somewhat spirally to the radial side 

 of the arm of which it is the chief supply, or 

 is it better to call it the radial nerve f The 

 writer of the editorial previously cited prefers 

 dental foramen and musculo-spiral nerve, to- 

 gether with several other rejected names which 

 can not be discussed here. For example, he 

 considers that a nerve which passes through a 

 notch in the upper border of the scapula is 

 properly designated in the Basle nomenclature 

 the suprascapular nerve, but he believes that 

 the notch of the scapula through which it 

 passes is faultil.v named scapular instead of 

 suprascapular. Here there is apparently an 

 unsuspected precision in the Basle distinction 

 which makes a part of the scapula scapular, 

 and a structure above the scapula suprascapu- 

 lar. It should be noted that the editors an- 

 nounce that they would be the last to reject 

 this system because of its German origin. 

 On its merits and demerits they counsel 

 British physicians not to accept it, even 

 though " it has now been introduced in our 

 most widely circulated manuals of anatomy." 



Whatever terminology American anatomists 

 may finally adopt, and they are, as every one 

 knows, using the Basle nomenclature very ex- 

 tensively, it would be a cause of great regret 

 if any issue were raised with their English 

 colleagues, whose preeminence in descriptive 

 anatomy is acknowledged, and whose Gray, 

 Quain and Cunningham, the last with the 

 Basle terminology, have been so profitably 

 used for the instniction of our students. Rec- 

 ognizing fully the annoyance from pettj' 

 changes in names and the great provocation, 

 it may yet be hoped that the present opinion 

 of the British anatomists is not final. 



But in another important matter of terms, 

 Americans ought certainly to change their 

 practise and follow British usage. This is in 



the rejection of anlage, which indeed is only 

 a single term, yet one used so frequently that 

 it gives German color to a large part of o\ir 

 embryological literature. Some Americans 

 never use the word, but others display it five 

 times on a page, and it perhaps deserves 

 special attention. 



Wolff and the early embryologists used a 

 variety of terms for anlage, such as rudi- 

 mentum, tentamentum, fundamentum, prim- 

 ordium and initium, and Pander in his 

 notable treatise in 1817 was content with 

 Rudiment and Anfang, e. g., die Anfange der 

 Wirbel. Von Baer used Anfang to some ex- 

 tent but preferred Anlage, changing Pander's 

 phrase to " diese Anlagen der Wirbel," and 

 perhaps through Von Baer anlage came to be 

 a technical term. Americans studying in 

 Germany thought it essential to borrow the 

 word, since rudiment had come to imply a 

 stunted organ, and fvmdament had an an- 

 atomical significance quite at variance with 

 that desired. Either term may mean, how- 

 ever, exactly the beginning, the first indica- 

 tion, or primordiimi. So important was the 

 use of anlage considered, that its definition 

 has taken a prominent place in the introduc- 

 tion to certain American text-books, and the 

 WTiter was among those taught that it was a 

 sine qua non in embryology. Left in doubt 

 whether the plural were better written anlagen 

 or anlages, years ago I visited the venerable 

 rhetorician, Professor Hill, for an opinion. 

 " Is the English language then so poor that 

 this idea can not be expressed without a for- 

 eign world ? " he asked. " Oh yes, certainly, 

 sir," I replied, with many reasons. " Then," 

 said he, " if the language will be enriched 

 thereby, it should be adopted, and probdbly 

 the English plural would be preferable." 



The fact is, nevertheless, that the idea can 

 be conveyed in English with far greater ac- 

 curacy through the abundance of expressions 

 available. This may be shown by citing con- 

 spicuous instances from our recent journals. 

 " The anlage and morijhogenesis of the chorda 

 dorsalis," seems to mean "the origin and de- 

 velopment of the notoehord," or perhaps " the 



