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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    to be a mere contraction of the former in their Greek origin. However inclined to demur, space and circumstance alike forbid. My present purpose must be limited to showing that whatever be the classic relation of the epithets in question, their translation into Latin and English, and as employed in general, and espocially in medical scientific Terminology, does indicate such a distinction which it is most convenient to recognise and maintain. It is admitted that Greek adjectives in -c65r)y are sometimes made to signify likeness to a certain object, and inserted as synonymous with those in -eiSris; but the former I conceive to be exceptional, as the result of a necessity when the particular term in -i^Stjs was most in use; the latter I imagine to have proceeded from inadvertency, for where both terms are given in the older Lexicons, as in Morell's Hedericiis, the distinction between them is pre- served. Although in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon they are represented to be synonymous, they are so with no slight inconsistency, thus, AatpvtiSes, es,—5o(?)coei5i)j, laurelled; KaAa- ndSris, 6S, like a reed, full of reeds. In the just acceptation of language, tliat wliich is laurelled or (which is preferable) full of reeds or laurels will, in a certain sense, be like, because actually possessing or consisting of those very objects; but this is altogether apart from the idea of special resemblance, and nothing more, conveyed by the terms Aoi^i/oeiSijs and KaAa/ioei57)s. On the other hand, that which is like a laui-el or a reed, need not have any affinity to or connexion with either,other than sliglit resemblance—in fact, may be a stone or a shell. How, then, can such be, with any propriety, supposed to be laurelled, or full of laurels or reeds? Terms in -Odes are to bo held distinct from those in -ides, and their grammatical cha- racter is that of adjectives of one termination, of the third declension, having very rarely the n. pi., and seldom or never the n. sing. Section V.—Of Botanical terms ending in -ia, forming the titles of Classes and Orders in the Linn, and Juss. Systems. Hitherto these have been characterised thus :—Monandria (a, cp,/xocos, alone; a,v^p,a. husband), the name of a Class in the sexual system of Linna;us, and Monogynia {fiSvo? and yuvr] a woman) in a similar manner. These, and all of like formation, have no classical existence, but appear to have been invented for illustration of the peculiar arrangements of plants. One and all, frcjm their meaning, application, termination, and from analogy, are to be regarded as adjectives of the first and second declensions. It is impossible to attach to them any distinct, and in itself complete, signification otherwise. If Monandria and Monogynia were really nouns feminine, their signification, (to give the simplest, scarcely allowable, effect to their first constituent,) could only be one stamen or pistil, but this is an example of adjective and substantive in agreement. If, again, to bring tiiem still nearer to the standard of a noun, the indefinite article be substituted for the numeral adjective, we indeed obtain a fair specimen, and say, a stamen,—a new compound word to signify this, however, was unnecessary, for it already formed the analogue of the Latin, stamen. Then, how were these terms to convey the idea of a Class and Order having but one stamen, one pistil in each flower? It wottld be absurd to say tlie Class Stamen, but not more so than the Class Monandria, if held to be a noun. Diandria and Digynia, Tri- andria and Trigynia, are more conspicuously illustrative of the point. They cannot be the names of things, but plainly express the quality of certain names of things. We might seem, indeed, to give a merely substantive meaning to them in this manner,—a tre-stamen (for triple stamen), as we say trefoil. Such a word, to be admissible at all, must be held to indicate a single object like tiie trefoil which, though it presents the semblance of three leaves, these proceed from one foliole ; but it could not denote the class of things intended. Tlie titles under consideration are applied to genera, or kinds of plants which closely assimilate as to the number of stamens, or pistils in their flowers, respectively. They are nominatives plural of adjectives in ius, ia, ium; each has the quality, having or possessing, and agrees with genera (understood), pi. of Genus, a kind or species. Thus employed, they very aptly express the kinds with flowers having one, two, three, or a larger number of sta- mens or pistils. In corroboration of this, writers and lecturers on botany have recourse to English adjectives directly formed from them, as Monandrious or Monogynious'' plants. It cannot be said that these are nouns substantive ; yet are they the literal analogues of the terms in question, and are very convenient for illustrating to the young and non-classically educated. Their translation, therefore, will be,—having or consisting of one, two (or more), stamens or pistils, as the case may be; or, more tersely, one-stamened, two-stamened, and so of the rest. Section VI.—Of the Greek Aspirate, and the misplacement of its symbol, H, in Latin Com- pound Terms and their English Analogues. In almost all (there are exceptions) terms from the Greek and their English analogues, in which the Spiritus aspcr, or rather its symbol the letter h, has been preserved, it is shifted from its original position, and put into another where it is superfluous and useless. It forms no part of my purpose tot'arp at a single instance of those friendly freedoms taken with /{ in certain districts of England. The following remarlts refer solely to its misplacemenf in scientific nomenclature.
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