Words, names and phrases in medicine : an address delivered at the opening of the Course of lectures in Physiology in the University of Manchester / by William Stirling.

  • Stirling, William, 1851-1932.
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Words, names and phrases in medicine : an address delivered at the opening of the Course of lectures in Physiology in the University of Manchester / by William Stirling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    PHYSIOLOGY A PRACTICAL AND ENTRANCING STUDY. There lies before you therefore an enchanting field of study, which it will be my privilege to< try to make both interesting and profitable to you. I have never yet come across a student who did not like the subject of Physiology when it is set before him in an attractive manner. Above all, it is a thought- compelling subject, and one which gives us pause in any specu- lations we may make regarding the beginnings of function and form as manifested in animate Nature. INTRODUCTION OP NEW WORDS. After this short introductory sketch of the “rare and refreshing ” problems which await your attention during the next few months, it occurred to me that it might be both interesting and profitable to you if I attempted to give you a few observations regarding some of the words and phrases used in Medicine which you hyve already heard, or will hear in the course of your studies. I hope you will add many of them permanently to your mental Armamentarium during your joyful years of Medical Study. There is an old French expres- sion that comes from the time of the immortal Rabelais, and it is “ Esbaudisez Vous.” I commend it to* you. The history of the coming of new words, the introduction of words and change of meaning of words already in existence, and the transference of words from other languages is both a fascinating and a profitable study, and this applies with special reference to Medicine. A medical man should know something —in fact a great deal—about the history not only of his own language, but if he is to bear himself worthily as a member of a learned profession, he should know something also of the history of his profession, and of its great pioneers in ages past and recent, as well as of the history and meaning of that vast vocabulary of names and technical terms with which tEis sub- ject abounds. INTRODUCTORY. In these Isles, when Roman Civilisation was destroyed, and when their Celtic inhabitants were driven westward and many of them were given to the sword, the invaders brought their own language with them, and made but little use either of Roman or Celtic words. In such town-names as Manchester, Dorchester, Doncaster, and Chester—the oldest being Colchester -—and many other similarly-constructed words, we have the Latin word “ Castra” represented, one of the few Latin words