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.

    74/84 (page 72)
    DISSERTATION SECTION Y. OF THE ANATOMICAL TERM PL A TYSMA-M YOIDES. This term, familiarly known as the epithet applied to the broad muscle of the neck, occupies a false position in the nomen- clature of Anatomy with reference to its spelling, derivation, and, consequently, the precise meaning attached to it and its employment in medical language. It is inserted in Hooper’s Medical Dictionary as follows: — “ Platy'sma-Myoides. (From vXarvg, broad, pvg, a mus- cle, and udog, resemblance.) A thin muscle on the side of the neck and immediately under the skin,” &c. No definition of the term itself is attempted, nor any further explanation of its etymology offered, nothing hut this imperfect and abrupt notice of its application; the plain signification left to he inferred being,—resembling a broad muscle, or, it might he, broad (and) like a muscle. It need scarcely he said, that both of these are vague and unsatisfactory, affording no explicit idea of the real meaning of the term. The object to which it is applied is not only like, hut actually constitutes, a broad muscle, which is called, for this very reason, Latissimus (mus- culusJ colli, by Alhinus and Douglas. By now endeavouring to show the erroneousness of the derivation assigned to it in the quotation, it is hoped that there will thus he provided the best means of arriving at the true signification of this epithet; for which end it will he necessary to consider separately its two components. Plcitysma may he easily disposed of. It does not directly come “ from vLarug, broad,” although that is the root of the etymon from which it is immediately derived, viz., vLarvvu, to render full and spacious, or to dilate. It is the analogue of