532 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1275 



as the entire mass, embryonic mass, abortion 

 mass or quite inaccurately even tbe chorionic 

 vesicle when the latter is surrounded by a 

 certain amount of decidua and blood clot even ! 



I trust that readers will generously remem- 

 ber that I am aware that change may not 

 imply immediate improvement or progress, but 

 the absence of it surely never does. I realize 

 full well that the use of unnecessary terms is 

 to be avoided, but this is equally true of 

 awkward circumlocution and misunderstand- 

 ing. When anyone writes or says, at present, 

 that no embryonic remnants were present or 

 that he has seen an interesting abortion, it is 

 impossible to know what he means. Although 

 the word embryo could by common consent be 

 used in the proposed sense of cyema, long 

 usage probably would make such an attempt 

 futile for this reason alone. The introduction 

 of thie term and of the others suggested does 

 not needlessly change old usage. It abrogates 

 nothing save confusion. 



Since I recently happened upon the term 

 cubus, which the ancient Greeks (Atheneeus) 

 used for what I have designated as the pre- 

 iliac fossa^ in bovines, sheep, goats and horses, 

 I take pleasure in recording this incidental 

 finding. At the time I suggested the above 

 term nothing but the German designation 

 " Hungergrube" was known to me. Ifone of 

 the works on veterinary medicine and anatomy 

 in English, which were accessible to me gave 

 a name for this fossa. Since the term cubus 

 seems rather far fetched, at least to one un- 

 familiar with its origin, I can not recommend 

 the term cubical fossa. 



At the suggestion of the late Professor Mall, 

 who was ever ready to welcome and accept 

 whatever answered a need, I am prompted also 

 in this connection to say a few words in ex- 

 planation and justification for several titles I 

 have used in scientific papers. One of these 

 titles is the old one of Spolia Anatomica.* 

 Some of my friends have taken exception to 

 this title and others have felt prompted to 

 twit me! The objection apparently is to the 



8 Am. Jr. ATMt., Vol. 21, 1917. 



*Jr. Anat. Physiol., Vol. 48, 1914; Atiat. Bee, 

 Vol. 9, 1915, and Vol. 12, 1917. 



word spolia. I used it in an inclusive sense 

 to represent observations and descriptions of 

 anomalies from the dissecting room and such 

 as I happened upon while engaged in investi- 

 gation. All of the things reported under this 

 head were essentially anatomic windfalls. 

 Since they were incidental to the work of the 

 student of anatomy and the dissecting room, 

 or that of the anatomist in his laboratory, they 

 certainly could with entire propriety be called 

 by-products or leftovers — spolia. That is ex- 

 actly what they were. This use is an old and 

 not a new one. In fact, such use is not new 

 even in modern literature of anatomy. If I 

 am informed rightly, the skin, horns and 

 hoofs, and so forth, were regarded as the spolia 

 or by-products of slaughtering, and this they 

 remain to this day. Likewise, the shield and 

 sword and armor of the fallen combatant were 

 the spolia or the by-products of the gladia- 

 torial combat. They too were removed in the 

 sjjoliary or spoliarum. And even in the chase 

 and, for that matter, in many wars of the past 

 the spoils were the by-products, not the aim. 

 To have interchanged the two is a very recent 

 and lamentable thing. I am also reminded, 

 and very gladly so, that there still are those 

 to whom the spoils of angling and the chase 

 remain incidental and the love of these sports, 

 the aim. 



While I must insist then that the use of the 

 term spolia anatomica, is strictly correct, I 

 can not commend it very highly. It tells no 

 more about the content of a paper than the 

 wastebasket does of its content, and it makes 

 proper indexing diiBcult. Consequently, un- 

 less, as generously done by the " Index Med- 

 ieus," all sub-titles of an article so designated 

 are listed separately, no one knows what has 

 been reported under such an omnibus title. 

 Usually the things so reported really do not 

 attract the attention of those who would be 

 interested in them. Purthermore, in these 

 days of counting titles ia order to gage a man'a 

 productivity, one inclusive title makes a very 

 poor showing in place of three or four scores 

 of separate ones. Yet in spite of all these 

 disadvantages, I chose the term advisedly and 



