Volume 1

The American encyclopedia and dictionary of ophthalmology / edited by Casey A. Wood, assisted by a large staff of collaborators.

Date:
1913-1921
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The American encyclopedia and dictionary of ophthalmology / edited by Casey A. Wood, assisted by a large staff of collaborators. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    it has not been considered necessary lo insert in the Dictionary foreign words that closely resemble their English equivalents; and, since our English scientific words and terms are mainly derived from the Latin and the Romance languages, it necessarily follows that many of these have been omitted. For example, Ablepsie (F.) and Ablepsia (L.) have not been entered in the dictionary list, as it is quite evident that they have exactly the same meaning as our English word Ablepsy, or Ablepsia, blindness. For the same reason it does not seem desirable to include such expressions as Abrasione della cornea (It.), as the ophthalmic reader will at once recognize its English equivalent. It will be readily seen how inevitable it is that certain repetitions occur in a work of this kind and magnitude; and it may at once be said that at least the majority of them in this Encyclopedia are intentional. References to a section, a cut or a plate on another page, or in another volume, are often found with some difficulty, and even when the search has been successful the effort much inter- feres with the concentration of thought required to grasp the matter under consideration. In the interest of the reader, therefore, this draw- back has, in certain instances, been avoided by duplication. For a similar I'eason the Editor has plentifully supplied ample cross-references, intended to aid the student in his search for information. Since writing and editing two Systems, the Editor has seen no good reason to change his opinion as to certain orthographic rules, and he therefore repeats that in his humble judgment the spelling of words used by English peoples throughout the globe properly varies in dif- ferent continents, and even in small subdivisions of these continents. It has long been his profound conviction that the English language— obviously a living, vigorous ,and progressive one, not reduced to the uniformity of certain other dead and dying dialects—in the very nature of things must exhibit transitional and evolutionary stages in different parts of the Anglo-Saxon world. Consequently, any spelling that can show a recognized authority, whether that authority be American, Canadian, British, Australasian or South African, is acceptable to him and is employed indifferently throughout this work. He contends that it is useless to lay down arbitrary rules for spelling or pronunciation, especially in a work intended to circulate among English-speaking peo- ple generally. In consequence of this belief he has decided not to attempt uniformity of spelling either on the part of his collaborators or of himself. In any event, it strikes him as unimportant whether cocaine is spelled with or without an “e,” whether one writes it “physiol- ogic” or “physiological,” whether or not the second syllable of anes- thesia is spelled with a diphthong, whether tumor terminates in or
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