A text-book of anatomy / edited by Frederic Henry Gerrish.

Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A text-book of anatomy / edited by Frederic Henry Gerrish. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/926 (page 21)
    The following tabulation will aid in I'ecalling the principal points which have been made : f Vegetable Anatomy - f Comparative (all f Systematic, or Descriptive. ■ [Animal -| Gross, or Macroscopic Relational, Topographic, [ Human (man) ^ jj;,^^^^^^ Microscopic ^ Regional, t (Histology) NAMES AND DELIMITATIONS OF SURFACE PARTS. At the outset of anatomical study it is important to have the clearest possible conception of the limits set by nature or hy convention to the various parts which will be referred to constantly in the following ]:iages, and also to have for each of these parts a name which shall be used for that and for nothing else. All parts, even the minutest, have technical names, which are Latin in form, and almost all parts Avhich are visible without dissection, and those which are brought into view by accident, have, besides the scientific, vernacular appellations—names given by non-medical people who never had a thought of knowing anatomy. The scientific name of a part is understood in every land where medicine is cultivated; the vernacular designation in one language is generally difierent from that in every other, and frequently essentially so. Thus, what we call *'head in English is t^te in French, kopf in German, testa in Italian ; and the anatomist who is acquainted with no modern language but his own can understand only that one of these words which belongs to his native tongue. Caput, however, means the same thing to English, French, German, and Italian, for all scientific men are supposed to know something of Latin, the language of scientific nomenclature. Only a small proportion of the names applicable to anatomical parts is included in the vocabulary of the common people, but anatomists generally use these in their writings ; for the suggestion of pedantry which inevitably would come from the invariable employment of the technical terms instead of the existing vernacular words would be almost intolerably offensive. Unfortunately, however, quite a number of these vernac- ular titles ai'e used by anatomists with different significations fi'om those Avhich they have to the unscientific ; and hence it seems necessary to explain Avhat meaning we shall attach to these words, which have been familiar to us from the cradle. It may seem to some readers needless to undertake this ennmei-ation and definition. But a large observation of medical students through many years has demonstrated that it is Ingbiy desirable to do exactly this tiling. People of much more than ordinary intelligence and educa- tion rarely have any idea of the difference between the meaning which many a word has to medical men and that which is attached to it generally. When a surgeon hears through a non- medical source that a person has broken a leg or an arm, he simply gathers the impression that a fracture is supposed to have occurred in a lower limb in the one case and in an upper limb in the other case; but if leg or arm is mentioned by a medical man, he knows that the third segment of the lower extremity is meant in the first instance, and the second segment of the upper extremity in the second. Wrist to the laity means anywhere from the upper level of the palm to nearly halfway up the forearm; hip is used instead of thigh, mention of the latter, for some inexplicaljle reason, being at present considered even more indelicate than that of leg, for which polite usage has substituted limb. These few selections from a considerable number will serve, it is hoped, to justify the attempt which is here made in the interest of precision of language and of thought. In order to understand the application of the terms intended to designate the relation in space which different jiarts of the body sustain to each other, it is necessary to know Avhat is regarded as the anatomical position. This is the erect attitude, Avith the palms of the hands turned to the front, and the soles of the feet horizontal—that is, facing downward. To the anatomist head {eapid) means all of the mass Avhich is balanced