Introductory address delivered at University College London on the occasion of the Opening of the Medical Session on October 3rd, 1881 / by George Vivian Poore.

  • Poore, George Vivian, 1843-1904.
Date:
[1881?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address delivered at University College London on the occasion of the Opening of the Medical Session on October 3rd, 1881 / by George Vivian Poore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    If these original terms be translated into the vernacular, we get a worse confusion than ever. Let me illustrate this by an example. Some 300 years before Christ, Herophilus, a Greek anatomist of the Alexandrian School, described that C-like bend of the gut, which is just beyond the stomach. This bend being about as long as twelve lingers are wide he called the dodekadaotyl. and this term was ulti- mately translated by the Latin writers into duodenum, the word which is now in common use. Although the word itself is neither short nor expressive, it should be retained and used in its Latin (the commonest) form. The Germans, however, are not content to re- ceive the old word merely as a symbol, but, looking back to its original form, they have had regard to its original meaning, and have perversely translated it into their own vernacular, and thus the dodekadaotyl of Herophilus has become the Zm'dlf-fmyer-darin, or twelve-iinger-gut of modern Germany. Now although an anatomist may know all about the duodenum, it does not, I regret to say, necessarily follow that he knows how the name arose, or what is its meaning ; and although he might be well enough acquainted with German to translate the three words, Zwolf, Finger, and Darm, he might be sorely puzzled to know what was alluded to. I could give you many other instances in which the Germans have thus disguised landmarks which would otherwise be easily recognisable by all. Our barbarous technicalities are merely symbols, and if literally translated, they are often misleading, as the meaning we attach to them is usually arbitrary and purely conventional. Thus the man who was under the impression that “ Bacillus Antliracis” (which ac- cording to the Latin and Greek dictionaries means the little rod of the coal) was a new name for a patent poker was sadly mistaken. When dealing with anatomical elements, anything like variety of expression is not to be thought of. To speak, for example, of the “Latissimus Dorsi ” hi one sentence, and of “the broad muscle of the back” hi the next, is only likely to puzzle the reader and throw him off the scent. In like manner the way iu which the French speak of the “ Teres Major” as the Grand Rond, and of the “ Serratus Magnus” as the Grand Dentele, is merely misleading. I believe that the establishment of an absolute international agree- ment as to the names to be given to the few hundred elements with which we have to deal, is a matter really worth striving after, and a fit subject for the consideration of an international committee. Perhaps such a committee might have some power given to it of altering names, for the unwieldiness of some is out of all proportion to their utility, and it would almost seem as if some names were meant to bear an inverse proportion to the size and importance of the thing designated. We must be very far off from even so much community of expression as is enjoyed by chemistry, when one of