An expository lexicon of the terms, ancient and modern, in medical and general science; including a complete medico-legal vocabulary / by R.G. Mayne.

  • Mayne, Robert Gray, 1808-1868
Date:
1860
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An expository lexicon of the terms, ancient and modern, in medical and general science; including a complete medico-legal vocabulary / by R.G. Mayne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    appear in Greek Lexicons are presented as adjective. In Latin Clnssionl Dictionaries tliey are given without any sign of their quality whatever: I have met wiUi ouly one exception, entered thus, S^^/iaffoctrfes, adj., on the authority of Bocitius and Vitvuvius. In medical dictionaries there is the same absence of indication of their character; for instance, the terms adduced for illustration are disposed of in this way,— Cliuoid is shown to be the English of Clinoides, and its etyma are given, but not a hint of its quality or status in gram- mar. Deltoides is truly enough stated to be synonymous with Bcltoid('.s,\i\\t is also said to be so mthDeltoideus, (an error afterwards noticed i. s. ii.); next comes its derivation, but no allusion to rank, nor the slightest trace of its familiar analogue deltoid ;'' then it is stated to be the name of a muscle. Hyaloid is rendered Hyaloides, but is otherwise equally unin- structive.* Thus also, the compilers of English Dictionaries have transferred the analogues of such terms, with all their faults, just as they found them. Lexicographers, whether medical, classical, or scientific, appear to have avoided a sub- ject, which, perhaps, they cared not to take the trouble of investigating, or, finding it in- volved in some obscurity, chose to let matters remain as they were rather tlian hazard a reputation for learning by acting on any impression of their own. Wherefore, and having, as already stated, derived no enlightenment from the learned living, I present my own views. In Greek Lexicons, the original terms are adjective, and rendered, having the likeness, figure of, or like to, some object denoted by the first portion of the epithet, as in the example, AeATOfiSTjs, to the Greek letter A, or a triangle, or, as actually applied in botany, to a trowel. Their Latin analogues are adjectives of one termination in -es, such having very rarely the neuter plural, and seldom or never the neuter singular.t Thus we have Mastoides (jiro- cessus) masculine, Sigmoides (flexura) feminine, and Cuhoides (os) neuter, and, where ne- cessary to use them in the plural, recourse has been had to the expedient of forming other adjei'tives from them ending in -ideus {Div. i. s. ii.), as Scsamoidea {ossa), etc. It has been objected to this view that Castellus, under the v/ord Sesamoidea, adds its Greek original, ar](Taij.oeiS4a, which can only be regarded as the nom. pi. n. of a-naanonh^s, and hence, Sesamoidea is not the parallel case of Sesamoideus, but of Sesanioides. Now, with all the force that can be given to this fact, even if it were as substantial as my objectors suppose, it amounts to very little; only that Castellus, when defining Sesamoidea, put down in this, as in similar instances, the corresponding Greek word, with no special reference, however, to their exact resemblance, which was a mere coincidence, and then proceeded to explain its application to the ossicula of the hand and foot. His account of the Sesamoidea ossa is drawn from certain passages in the works of Galen and Bartholin}, where this expression has been employed; but the bare circumstance of its employment does not tend one step to prove Sesamoidea to be the nom. pi. n. of 2'7ca;ioei5');s or its Latin analogue, Sesamoides. On the contrai'y, it distinctly proves its adoption as that case of a Latin adjective in -ideus. Admitting that Sesamoides is but the transcription of Sijn'o.uoeiS^js, still, so soon as enlisted into the Latin, it became amenable to the rules and government of that language as an adjective of one termination, and though 5r)cra;uo6iSe'o is truly the nom. pi. n. of the former, no analogous termination is to be met with in any case of the latter; therefore, whether we look to the fact of its ending in -idea, or to its application in agreement with ossa and other Latin nouns neuter, as will presently be shown, it cannot justly be regarded in any light but that of the nom. pi. n. of Sesamoideus. No parallel example of the same case of any other Greek adjective in -ciStjs being linked to a Latin noun and disguised in a diiferent type, yet supposed to preserve its iden- tity, is to be found in the old medical authors. Indeed, there is an irksome confusion in the very idea of such an anomaly. Had it really been intended to render the n. pi. of the Greek adjective in Koman or italic letters, and nothing more, the noun to which it is joined in the original, oaria, ought also to have been dealt with in the same manner and made to appear as ostea, instead of presenting a mongrel association of the indisputably Latin ossa, with the alleged Italico-Greek Sesamoidea, between which, as words of different languages, there could be no true grammatical union or agreement. Again, the same word, Sesamoidea, is applied to the corpora, or small hard bodies of the semilunar valves of the aorta and pulmonary artery. Here, surely, it cannot be considered as still the Greek word in mask; and this analogy indicates, at least, that the author who first used this terra, estimated and employed it according to my view. But further, that not only did Castellus himself regard it in this light, but that he must have understood the authority he quoted to have done the same, is clearly demonstrated by the fact that, in explaining the term Alhadara, he states it to be the Arabic name OssicuU sesamoidei, thus again employing—not the fancied Greek word whether in Eoman or italic dress, for no such termination as -idei comes from 2r)o-a;toei5?^s—but incontrovertibly the same Latin adjective, Sesamoideus, now used in the genitive sing. n. Turton evidently understood it in the same way; for in referring to the same application of the terra, he explains Sesamoideus as applied to the numerous little bones of the toes and fingers, from their resemblance to grains of Indian corn. But what- ever value may be accorded to this somewhat lengthened defence, the objeclion which called it forth cannot affect, cannot apply to the great number of similar terms in constant use. The terminal -ide, as a derivative of elSoy, occurs in a few terms, as Cancroide, Deltoide, * Hooper. t Edwarda' Eton Latin Grammar, Valpy's Latin Grammar, Hicldes' ditto, ditto. t Galen, 1. 2, de Usu Part. c. 11; Bartliol. libell. 4, Anat, c. 22, et ult.
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