Suggestions to medical writers / by George M. Gould.

  • George M. Gould
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions to medical writers / by George M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/196 page 7
    INTRODUCTORY SUGGESTIONS AS TO MEDICAL ENGLISH. One can read scarcely a sentence of medical English without bumping against the fact that this is a strange sort of a jumble—this iatric language of ours. We find that the structures of the body and its diseases are named by words that are not English. Even in the single-sentence title of an article there will be a hodgepodge of Latin and English. We should protest against this nonsense. Let us anglicize our names of diseases, bones, nerves, veins, and muscles, and quit dragging about with us the tags and barbarisms of medievalism. It is long past the time when the medical snake should have thoroughly sloughed and left behind the old skin of a Latinity that is usually poor philology, sorrier science, and the very superstition of English. There are some terms which it may be difficult to anglicize, but let us “force them to come in ” by any amount of wheedling or by downright compulsion. Take the tables of anatomic parts and with a little good-will all the Latin names can be anglicized without much trouble. A few of the muscle names may bother one a little. Let us appeal to our anat¬ omists and quizmasters and get them to help us with our chronic philologic dyspepsia. The obstinate words must be adopted and taught English manners. We have these poor slaves on our hands ; it is we that brought them to this land of freedom and enslaved them. It is both ridiculous and useless to scorn them and keep them as outcasts. Let us teach them good manners, and good service of our pro¬ fession and of humanity. That is only sound sense, social or linguistic. As for ourselves, let us never italicize such terms; do not let us flatter either the modern sticklers, or
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