The nomenclature of diseases / drawn up by a joint committee appointed by the Royal College of Physicians of London.

  • Royal College of Physicians of London.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nomenclature of diseases / drawn up by a joint committee appointed by the Royal College of Physicians of London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    constituting the current medical language of tlie present day. By adopting this method, a very heterogeneous collec- tion of words has been put together; one set being genuine <3reek or Latin terms, of which some still retain their original meaning, while others are used in a sense altogether different; another set of words has been intro- duced in a more or less Latinized form from other languages ; a third has been legitimately formed chiefly on the Greek model, to represent diseases that were unknown in ancient times; and a fourth has been bar- barously formed with the same object, and has now obtained such a degree of popularity that it would be practically impossible to expel them from the medical vocabulary. But, notwithstanding the medley of words ■thus introduced, which must necessarily be offensive to scholars, it was believed that the utility of this Nomen- olature would be seriously lessened if any other method should be adopted. At the same time it is hoped that the careful reader will be able to notice, that, when two or more words, or forms of the same word, presented them- «elves for adoption, every care has been taken to select that which seemed most in accordance with classical usage. An occasional want of uniformity in words and forms of expression will be not'ced, which, however, is believed to be of no real importance, and which, in a work of this kind, is almost unavoidable. In the third edition the same principles have been followed and the whole version has been carefully revised, while it has been necessary to introduce some new terms.