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ART. XXXIII. A new Anatomical Nomenclature. By DR. BARCLAY.

SO much of the best spirit of a moderate, sagacious and truly philosophical reformer appears in this essay, as immediately to lay to rest all that hostility to mere innovation which naturally arises when reform is dictated and not advised; and to ensure, at least, a respectful attention, if not to enforce conviction.

The subject of scientific nomenclature is curious, important and entertaining, and involves many interesting enquiries relative to the origin, progress, and capacity of language. The author but slightly touches on these topics, confining himself principally to the precise object expressed in the title page, that of anatomical nomenclature.

Dr. Barclay judiciously begins by shewing the faults of the present system; the most unpardonable of which, where it occurs, is ambiguity. Many of the common terms of relative situation lie under this censure; superior, inferior, anterior, posterior, within, without, &c. &c are all occasionally used in more than one sense, and therefore must frequently mislead the learner. Our continental neighbours, the French, stimulated doubtless by the deserved success of their chemical nomenclature, have attempted a reform in that of anatomy; but though undertaken by such able men as Vicq d'Azyr and Chaussier, Dr. Barclay has shewn that these attempts have not answered expec tation, owing to a preference (now so fashionable) of cumberous minuteness to useful condensation.

The author proceeds to enquire which is the best language to furnish the radicals of a scientific nomenclature. The scholar will at once decide in favour of Greek or Latin; and, with justice we apprehend, because they are the only languages common to science, over the greater part of the philosophical world, Because they are the least liable to change being fixed by indelible standards, which will endure as long as learning and taste

are valued, and because they possess a modulating harmony which admits of extensive variety and useful combination. Dr. Barclay comes to the same result by a different mode of reasoning, and proceeds to demonstrate anatomically (and we must add a little whimsically) the 1,125,899,906,842,623 possible combinations of the muscles that contribute to the human voice, whence he infers that no living vocal language can preserve its stability against such an array of millions of chances of variation; and hence that the classic languages, now nearly extinct as living tongues, and resting on the solid basis of written record, are to be preferred as the basis of philosophical nomenclature.

Dr. Barclay allows, however, a large latitude in the combination of these languages, "notwithstanding the opprobrium attached by some to certain connections and intermarriages among harmless vocables," and where utility would be much consulted, he would not refuse the union of the two languages in the same compound. In this he is supported by some authority; for though the clas sic ears of our continental name-reforming neighbours might be shocked at diventer or bigastric, they have judiciously tolerated centilitre, milligramme, &c. for the conveniency of their metrical system.

With some remarks on the present system of chemical nomenclature, Dr. Barclay proceeds to point out the imperfections of the anatomical:

"Many of the present terms of anatomy have been condemned for not expressing some quality or circumstance of the objects which they signify, and others, containing a kind of a short definition or description, have been substituted for them. As it may be both wished and expected that the new terms brought into anatomy were all of this sort, a peculiar advantages, will not be improper. previous inquiry into their nature, uses, and The French have fately adopted such terms in their modern calendar: the words nivose,

pluriose, and thermidor, are intended to shew the species of weather which prevails at certain periods of the year. Let us see the improvement: the weather being variable even in France, and the rain and snow not happening to fall always at the time foretold in the calendar, these terms become so many lying predictions; and in countries where the seasons and climate are different, are an absurd unintelligible jargon. But what are the descriptive terms in anatomy? Not a great deal better. Many of these, as sphenoides, ethmoides, astragalus, cuboides, which are founded on vague and remote analogies, scarcely convey the most distant idea of the forms which they were meant to express :many which contain allusions to functions, and seem to communicare something of importance, deceive thousands of the indolent and credulous, who trust to their lame and imperfect information;-some, again, as levalor scapula, and supinator radii longus, are almost unavoidable sources of error, from directly insinuating what is not true;-and some, as it were taking advantage of a partial and erroneous classification, pretend to inform us of what belongs to this or that function, excluding, by a kind of secret reservation, some of the principal organs employed. This is evident in our distinction and arrange ment of muscles into flexors, extensors, pronators, and supinators. But by no means the least numerous class are those which allude to frivolous circumstances; some of which, like sella turcica, and the word hippocampus, seem intended to illustrate the things which we see, and which we may handle, by comparing them to objects which we either have not seen, or have seldom a:: opportunity of observing. Much discernment, therefore, and caution, are highly requisite in the use and application of such terms; for wherever their descriptions are frivolous or vague, or wherever they are false, whether founded on ignorance, error, or hypothesis, they can hardly fail, if used in their primary and original sense, to be hurtful to science; nay, even when true and accurately just, they cannot be admitted unless when concise; for be their powers what they will, they become ridiculous when they run out to the length of

sentences.

"Are all such terms then to be rejected from the language of anatomy? And ought there to be a complete revolution in its noinenclature? To answer these questions it may be observed, that no where perhaps is' prudence more necessary than in our attempts to innovate on habits and established customs. Those terms may surely be retained which are just and accurate, and not too long; those which assist us in discriminating objects; and those likewise, however absurd their general allusions, that, in course of time, have laid aside their primary sense, and begun to be used as arbitrary names."

Letus pursue this subject a little farther

than our author, and give some of the leading features of the present system of anatomical nomenclature, if system it may be called. A very large class of names is that which expresses the form of the organ, either absolutely as bicèps, triceps, serratus, or from a resemblance more or less accurate with other visible objects, as lambdoid, styliform, stapes, malleus, incus, &c. Another class shews the real or supposed use of the part, as adductor, accelerator urina, sartorius; another class, though small and constantly diminishing, commemorates the name of the inventor, as Cooper's glands, Eustachian tube, Schneider's membrane, and a few terms are derived from an erroneous or whimsical origin, such as artery, pia mater, pômum Adami, or, like the os innominatum, are absurd appellations; but the larger class of names is expressive of relative situation, either in the form of a definition, like the compound term accipito-frontalis, denoting both the origin and insertion of a muscle; or, more generally, as implying connection with a particular organ, as hepatic artery.

Dr. Barclay appears to be most exclusively attached to the latter class, which, when well contrived, answers the purpose of topographical description, and on that account is highly estimable; but we cannot entirely agree with him in the objection, qualified as it is, which he urges against many of the terms of our firstmentioned class. However far-fetched and distant be the resemblance to other objects, though not one out of ten thou sand students should ever have seen a Turkish saddle in his travels, or a hippocampus in his books of natural history, though the os scaphoides should not put them in mind of a boat, or the corner of a ploughshare; yet when the resemblance is once pointed out, the mind catches at the association, and it soon becomes indelible. The tax on the memory in anatomy is so heavy, and, as far as nomenclature is concerned, is so much greater than in chemistry, that every artificial means of lessening its burthen should be studiously encouraged; and we appeal to the experience of every learner, whether the terms that express resemblance in shape to known objects, however remote, are not precisely those which the soonest lay hold of the memory, and cling to it the most tenaciously.

Of the singularly happy names, perhaps none is superior to that of the first vertebra. The classical allusion con

tained in the Atlas, implies a firm elevated support to an organ of commanding importance, and ingeniously describes in a single word the circumstance both of use and relative situation; but such fortunate combinations are very rare, and it has been a real labour to the most prolific imagination to devise terms sufficiently distinct and appropriate to follow the ever ramifying search of the anatomist; therefore, though Highmore has surrendered his exclusive claim to the maxillary antrum, and of late the crural arch has been refused to Poupart; and though we should be glad to see a name substituted to a definition, when speaking of the iter a tertio ad quartum ventriculum, or the additamentum suturæ lambdoidalis, we are not sanguine enough to entertain the hope of seeing the entire system of anatomical nomenclature simplified to a single principle, without encreasing the difficulty of the learner by the excessive recurrence of the same leading terms, and overloading the mechanical part of memory by depriving it of the assistance of the imagination.

The system proposed by Dr. Barclay does not, however, go to a total change of the present nomenclature, nor can we entirely infer from what is said, that it is the author's intention so to extend it. The present plan only proposes a reformation in all the terms relative to position and aspect, to be substituted for upper, lower, internal, external, right, left, and others of the same class.

The human anatomy has been the prototype of the comparative; all the terms of relative situation are therefore derived from it, and the anatomist has generally chosen the erect posture as the most convenient for the delineation of his subject. But it requires a great stretch of the imagination to transfer this position, the es homini sublime, to the brute creation; and in so doing, all the natural distinctions of situation in the inferior animals are distorted, whence infinite perplexity ensues. Toremedy this evil, the author, extending his views to every branch of anatomy, has with great judgment, and, in our opinion, with equal success, devised a system of relative terms, founded on those features of universal anatomy which are invariable, and capable of general application. The former plan resembles the right and left of a map, which gives correct ideas only on one projec. tion; the latter is the cast and west, al. ways accurate.

As our limits will not allow us to explain this system with sufficient minute ness to do it justice, we shall only enumerate a few of the terms, as a specimen of the author's talent for philosophical nomenclature. Three sets of names are separately devoted to imply relative si tuation in the trunk, the extremities and the head. For the trunk, a line drawn from the atlas to the sacrum furnishes the well contrived terms of ATLANTAL and SACRAL., to correspond with upper and lower; another line, from the sternum to the back, expresses anterior and posterior by the denominations STERNAL and DORSAL. A plane passing along the neck, mediastinum and linea alba, is called the MESION, whence MESIAL and LATERAL will be equivalent to internal and external, in one of the senses in which these two terms are employed; whilst DERMAL and CENTRAL is substituted for the same terms, when they imply superficial and deep.

The anatomy of the head requires a greater variety of combinations, and the author distinctly makes out ten different aspects, to be described by appropriate names. This provision affords a facility for comparative anatomy, superior to any thing that has yet been devised, and it is in every way worthy of attention.

The greatest stretch of system that we have observed, occurs in the extension of the terms atlantal and sacral to the head. These, as we have before observed, imply relatively, superior, and inferior, and are derived from the extreme points (in the trunk the opposite poles) of the atlas and sacrum. "Continue this line,” says the author," perpendicular to the plane of the foramen magnum occipitale, till it fall on some bone of the cranium or face, and let this bone, whatever it be, be called the atlantal. In man the line will terminate on the sagittal, a little behind the coronal suture;" now "if the term sacral be applied to the head, it must always denote that side which is opposed to the atlantal, and may easily be found from observing the place of the foramen magnum."

According to this plan it will follow, that the parts of the head the most remote from the atlas, will be termed atlantal, and those the most contiguous to it, will be called sacral; nor can it be otherwise, consistently with the general system. It may indeed be argued, and not without reason, that these terms so applied have here only a relative signification, like

north and south, and wherever one is employed absolutely, the other must be used relatively as its opponent; but till by long habit we come to sink the etymology of these terms altogether, such a stretch of nomenclature must appear as strange as if, in a reformed geography of this island, Tweed and Thames were assumed as synonimous with north and south, and the traveller was directed to turn his horse's head Tweedwards, to find his way from Stirling to Inverness.

Dr. Barclay has not thrown his system before the public in the state of an unfinished sketch, but has filled up many of the minuter parts with care, and obviated some objections which would naturally occur. One that he suggests is the following:-The terms denoting aspect are uniformly derived by the author from the names of certain organs, whose relative position is sufficiently invariable for his purpose; so that all the common appellations of situation, upper, outer, &c. are totally discarded; but the derivatives

from these selected terms would also naturally imply something belonging to, or proceeding from the part itself; thus a fibular artery (which is one of the new terms) would imply both an artery situ ated on the fibular or external side of the lower extremity, and an artery belonging to the bone called the fibula. The au thor has no other way of avoiding this difficulty, than by changing the termination, giving to the former meaning fibular, and to the latter fibulen. This distinction stands on a par with the sulphate and sulphite of the chemists; that is to say, sufficient where due stress is laid on the terminating syllable, but far inferior to the antient terms of vitriolic and sul phureous.

The author has given some good out. line plates in explanation of his system; a system which has convinced us of the practicability, as we long have been of the utility, of effecting a thorough reform in all the erroneous or defective parts of anatomical nomenclature.

ART. XXXIV. Cases of the successful Practice of Vesica Lotura, for the Cure of diseased Bladders. Parts I. and II. By JESSE FOOT, Esq. 8vo. pp. 139.

THE idea of injecting liquids into the bladder has been occasionally adopted in different diseases of this organ. As the readiest and directest means of applying any supposed solvent liquid to calculus when contained within this cavity, it has been employed experimentally by several eminent men; but the success has not corresponded with expectation. One great reason of failure has been the difficulty of ascertaining previously the nature of the calculus (except Colonel Martin's celebrated filing or scooping plan were adopted), and analysis has shewn such a vast variety in the composition of calculi that no single solvent could be applied with a certainty of success. But the chief reason for laying it aside appears to have been the pain, trouble, and difficulty of persevering in it for a sufficient time to give it a fair trial, considering that a bladder, even in its healthy state, and still more irritated by a painful disease, is not quite the properest vessel for chemical experi

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with the most distressing symptom of incontinence of urine, owing to an actual thickening of the coats and diminution of its cavity. Dissection fully shews that this is a frequent state of disease.

It is in both the above cases, but principally the latter, that the author recommends the injection, and in this he revives a practice mentioned by Le Dran, who has given a very good case in point which is quoted in the present publication. Mr. F. attempts to estab lish the following diagnostic rule.

"In the fifth edition of my "Critical En quiry into Diseases of the Urethra and Bladder" I have particularly noticed this observation; and I have there pointed out, for the served, a leading principle, by which a disfirst time, I believe, that it has ever been obeased bladder is always to be detected, and distinguished from any other cause with which it might be otherwise confounded. It is this: that at no time the bladder can hold more than a certain portion of urine, and of course that at no time, more than that portion, if so much, can be ever discharged

at once.

For example thus: suppose that a patient, for a series of time, has not been able to evacuate more than two spoonfuls of urine, upon any effort and suppose that such has been the habit without any exception, for two or three months; suppose that

mucus comes away with the urine, and at the same time the urethra has been carefully distended by bougies; in that case I should have no hesitation in declaring, that the capacity of the bladder was contracted, and that its contraction was just in proportion to the diminished quantity it would contain, from a comparative view formed with a sound bladder. Whereas in all other possible affections of the bladder, there will be times when it is not contracted, that the full contents of a capacious bladder can be evacuated. This is a distinction a priori; but injecting the bladder will readily decide the question a posteriori, for just so much as the bladder will possibly hold, can be injected; and by the fluid being measured when it is evacuated, any further doubt about the nature of the ease is completely removed."

Several cases are given in which the injection was used with success. A part of the first we shall quote, it is given in the patient's own words.

"To afford as clear an idea of my case as

I possibly can, I conceive I should detail it, by stating what my symptoms were before the injection was applied to the bladder, and what they were after.

"My symptoms before, were an almost continual inclination to urine, in the day time, and in the night rising for that purpose from the bed seven, eight, and nine times, with seldom any thing like a continued stream of urine, the volume small, and the quantity from two to three spoonsful, and that with great uneasiness. From the first of my finding the difficulty of urining abovementioned, my urine was accompanied with mucus; and it generally was of a strong red colour, mostly turbid, sometimes ropy, and it hath continued thus for many years. Another formidable symptom was growing on me apace, a constant state of irritability, and which the most trivial incident, notwithstanding my own mental precautions, would frequently provoke; feeling at these times great irritation and uneasiness in the region of my bladder. Walking on wet grass, and being in damp rooms, would bring on a

stranguary.

Such, Sir, was my state as nearly as I can recollect, previous to the operation of injecting my bladder. Time by neglect, and the want of proper treatment, of course gradually reducing me to a worse and worse condition.

The account of my subsequent condition will, happily for me, be more comfortable and pleasing. My urine has been no way perturbed or mucus discharged, since March lást. I retain it much longer in the day time, and I rise upon an average three times in the night only. The quantity of urine discharged in the night at those three times, is generally about three half pints. The quantity my bladder would hold when you first began to inject it, could not possibly ever amount

to three ounces, with mucus included. You encreased the capacity of my bladder, so much by the operation of injection, as when you left off this time twelve month, it would contain nearly fourteen ounces. And I have by injecting myself occasionally since, rather gained upon that quantity, although I have purposely discontinued it for more than a fortnight at times, without finding that I lost ground. The irritation of the bladder, I have greatly though not entirely subdued, by a rigid adherence to your directions of lessening my quantity of animal food; and I have experienced, that if at any time I forget myself and indulge myself, I am punished."

The term capacity of the Wadder is however liable to some misconception. A bladder may be so diminished in size from the thickening of its coats, or

from a condensation of mucus into

membrane lining its cavity, that it actually will not contain more than three or four ounces of liquid; or it may below of being filled to more than three or come so habitually irritable as not to alfour ounces, without bringing on the natural efforts to expel its contents. The cases given by the author may be of a mixed kind, partaking of the nature of both these morbid states; and it appears very largely of the latter; since by use of the injection, the irrita bility of the bladder seems to have declined in proportion as its capacity for liquid has enlarged. This is proved by

the circumstance that the time in which the injected liquid or the natural secre tion could be retained, has lengthened, as its quantity has encreased. It does not however detract from the importance which may attach to this practice.

The second part contains several additional cases of irritability of the bladder and incontinence of urine, arising from abscess in the kidnies, some of them fatal. The injection in some of them appears to have done what could rationally have been expected, that is, it proved a useful palliative for one of the most distressing symptoms of a dangerous and commonly fatal disease.

The author in relating them takes an opportunity of throwing extreme censure on the use of the caustic in strictures; and he does not scruple to affirm that in two thirds of the cases for which caustic is applied, no other obstruction is present than what arises from the irritation of a diseased kidney.

The author considers phymosis as a cause of disease of the whole urinary organs, and thus explains it.

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