16 ISTRODUCTION. 



Apparently some German scientists have determined upon a negative 

 reply to this inquiry, and their papers, even those of strictly scientific 

 nature, teem with vernacular words, and with wonderful compounds 

 thereof. 



For abundant examples, the reader may consult any "Dictionary of 

 Oerman Medical Terms," as that of Cutter (A). 



If this kind of verbifaction be tolerable under any circumstances, it cer- 

 tainly would be justified by the extent and importance of the contributions 

 to knowledge which appear first in the German scientific periodicals. 



Upon this point, however, we can do no better than to quote the very 

 recent judgment of one who is at the same time an investigator, a promoter 

 of "the diffusion of knowledge," and an admirer of the methods and results 

 of German science : — 



" Every art is full of couceptions which are peculiar to itself ; and, as the use of lan- 

 guage is to convey our conceptions to one another, language must supply signs for those 

 conceptions. Either existinpf signs may be combined in loose and cumbrous paraphrases, 

 or new signs, having a well-understood and definite signification, may be invented. 

 Science is cosmopolitan, and the difficulties of the study of zoology would be prodigiously 

 increased if zoologists of different nationalities used different technical terms for the same 

 thing. They need a universal language ; and it has been found convenient that the 

 language shall be Latin in form, and Latin or Greek in derivation." — Bxtxley, C, 14. 



Unless it can be shown that there is a distinction between the methods 

 of designating entire organisms, and the parts thereof, the foregoing passages 

 should silence the objections of those who would have us retain a vocabulary 

 as vague as was that of Chemistry in the days of quicksilver, vitriol and 

 copperas — a vocabulary which combines the ponderous stiffness of the clois- 

 ter with the puerile vagueness of the nursery. Tulerculum tigeminum 

 anterius must give way to lobi optici, or some even shorter term ; while 

 trachea must take the place of windpipe, weasand, luftrohre and conduit 

 cerien. 



Is it not worth considering, too, that any avoidance of the use of technical 

 terms is, after all, only partial and delusive ? The principal human organs 

 have, of course, received popular names which may, in great measure, be 

 applied to the other Vertebrates, especially the Mammals. But there are 

 many other organs of which the butcher takes little or no account. Shall 

 we construct vernacular phrases, and write of the liver-vein, tlie hidney- 

 artery, the gullet-nerves, and the sweetbread-tube ? Unless we are prepared 

 to give up such convenient and elastic terms as liepatic, renal, pancreatic, 

 pulmonary, cardiac, etc., why should not the student be infoi-med, at the 

 outset of his anatomical and physiological enquiry, that nearly all the divi- 

 sions and appendages of the principal organs have received titles derived from 

 the classical names of the organs themselves? These derivatives and com- 



