Dissertation on scientific nomenclature, medical and general : exhibiting the defects, anomalies, errors, and discrepancies of its present condition : with suggestions for its improvement / by R.G. Mayne.

  • Mayne R. G. (Robert Gray), 1808-1868.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dissertation on scientific nomenclature, medical and general : exhibiting the defects, anomalies, errors, and discrepancies of its present condition : with suggestions for its improvement / by R.G. Mayne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    have refrained from consulting); and here let me state, that the selection of this useful Work for remark is influenced hy no invidious feeling -whatever, hut is made solely, because the manner adopted in its pages of setting forth these terms, (in which respect it is decidedly superior to the rest), serves more effectually than any other for the exhibition of the faults pre- valent in all of them, and for the illustration of my precise meaning in attempting their- correction. In Hooper’s Dic- tionary,* then, the three compound Greek derivative terms above noted are entered thus: — 1. “Cli'noid. (Clinoides; from xXivri, a bed, and eidog, resemblance.) Resembling a bed.” &c. 2. “Deltoi'des. (Deltoides and Deltoideus; from dsXra, the Greek letter A, and eidog, a likeness: shaped like the Greek delta.) The name of a muscle of the superior extremity situ- ated on the shoulder.” 3. “Hy'aloid. (Hyaloides; from vaXog, glass, and c-idog, likeness.) Transparent, like glass.” Now, what information of the kind desired can be gathered from such entries, or what can be more vague and unsatisfac- tory? In the 1st example, we are told that the Latin for Clinoid is Clinoides, and its Greek etyma are given, but not a hint of its quality, status, or character in grammar. In the 2nd, it is made to appear, simply enough, that Deltoides is synonymous with Deltoides, and also with Deltoideus, (a mis- conception to be afterwards noticed!); next comes its deriva- tion, but no allusion to rank, nor, singular to observe, the least trace of its familiar English analogue. Deltoid; then it is stated to be “ the name of a muscle,” &c. But how can it be considered a name, with any degree of propriety ? The idiom of a language may, indeed, warrant the use, in anatomical par- lance, of the Deltoides, — or of its English analogue, the Del- toid,—as distinguishing a particular muscle; still, neither of * The 7th Edition, 1839, is that here quoted from,