IMPORTAXCE OF BREVITY. 15 



§ 27. Nomina Impudica. — Several parts, especially of the brain, have 

 received names originally applied to portions of the reproductive apparatus 

 which they were fancied to resemble. While it may perhaps be urged in 

 extenuation that the patres anatomici entertained a notion as to the representa- 

 tion of the entire organism in the brain, some of their terms certainly indicate 

 an entire freedom from apprehension that the mysteries of encephalic 

 anatomy ever would be discussed by ordinary mortals, much less by women, 

 or under circumstances requiring propriety of speech. 



On the other hand, many names of general or special application have 

 been, at times or by certain writers, needlessly applied to the male and 

 female organs. Among the 50-60 medical synonyms for vulva are sinus, 

 folliculus, atinulus, hiatus, ostium, sulcus, trema, delta, cava, fovea, mesa, 

 porta, and fundus. Among the 70-80 synonyms of penis are vomer, vas, 

 clavus, Cauda, vena, gladius, radix, ramus, columna, trahs, pyramis, and 

 spina. These terms should not be lost to clean anatomical uses because 

 heedless or filthy-minded writers have so misapplied them. 



§ 28. Importance of Brevity. — As has been stated, and as will be 

 exemplified in the vocabulary, we place great stress upon hrevity as a desira- 

 ble characteristic of anatomical terms. 



So long as the study of anatomy was nearly confined to members of the 

 medical profession, they being comparatively few in number, and, by ancient 

 tradition at least, not wholly averse to clothing their discourse in a 

 sesquipedaUan garb impenetrable to the vulgar eye, it mattered little whether 

 the statement of a given fact or idea required one minute or five. 



But now, thanks to the popular writings of Agassiz, Dana, Gray, Darwin, 

 Hfeckel, Huxley, Owen and others, in so far especially as they have aroused 

 a personal interest in the problems of Evolution, natural history instruction 

 is given systematically in all schools and colleges, and the time seems to have 

 come when, in the words of the naturalist first-named, "Scientific truth 

 must cease to be the property of the few ; it must be woven into the common 

 life of the world." It is probable, indeed, that those who employ anatomical 

 language to a greater or less extent at the present day are at least one hun- 

 dred times as numerous as when Dr. Barclay's praiseworthy effort at reform 

 was received with indifference or opposition. 



In our opinion, therefore, tlie single names trochiter, trochin , epicondylus, and epitroeh- 

 lea are worthy of adoption in place of the compound terms greater and leaser tuberosity, 

 external and internal condyle of the humerus, notwithstanding their proposer, Chaussier, 

 has burdened the myological division of anatomy with the most unwieldly set of terms 

 that could have been devised. 



§ 29. Technical Terms.— It may be asked: In the face of this rapid 

 popularization of anatomical knowledge, is it worth while to introduce, or 

 even to retain, any purely technical terms ? 



