A Glossary of Biological, Anatomical, and Physiological Forms.

Abstract

MR. DUNMAN'S glossary is the result of an attempt “to place before the student the pronunciation, derivation, and definition” of the terms “usually employed in that department of biological science which treats of animal life, as set forth in standard text-books of Huxley, Carpenter, Foster, Flower, and others,” and will be a useful book, no doubt—the more so as there is no other work covering exactly the same ground. At the same time the derivations and definitions appended to the terms are not always quite correctly given, particularly as regards the zoological terms. The order of birds called “Dromæognathæ” was so named by Prof. Huxley because the Tinamous which compose it have the palate formed like that of the ostriches (Dromæus, an Emeu)—not from the Greek “dromaios” directly. “Holothuridea” is from Holothourion—a good Greek Aristotelian word—and has certainly nothing to do with “thuris,” a little door, as Mr. Dunman would have us believe. A more probable derivation is θov̂pios, furiosus, because the Holothuria burst in pieces when touched. There are no such Greek verbs as “πvέvσw, I breathe” (given under Pharyngnopneusta), or “ππów, I fall” (given under ptosis). The correct Greek derivations in these cases are nvea and πvέw and πíππw.“Egest” is not formed from “egestio —getting-rid-of,” but is simply the participle of egero, meaning such things as are got rid of. Nor are Mr. Dunman's explanations of the purely anatomical terms always faultless, although there is less occasion for criticism here. The “ligamentum nuchæ” s formed of elastic not of “connective” issue. The “sectorial” tooth of the dog is certainly not definable as the fourth premolar, for the dog has no fourth premolar. The “trifacial pair of nerves” are not so called because they arise by three pairs of roots, but because they send three main branches to different parts of the face. We doubt “amnion” having anything to do with “amnos—a lamb.” It is an old classical word for one of the fœtal membranes, as may be seen by reference to a lexicon. Lastly, we may remark that “hernia” is very imperfectly, not to say incorrectly, described by Mr. Dunman.

A Glossary of Biological, Anatomical, and Physiological Forms.

By Thomas Dunman. (London: Griffith and Farran, 1878.)