A Polyglot Medical Vocabulary

Abstract

THE current literature of medical subjects is extensive and polyglot, and those who endeavour to keep themselves abreast of the most recent research in any branch require to dip into works in many languages, and need to have at hand some such aid as the present vocabulary, wherein they can seek for the several vernacular synonyms of those newer technicalities which modern developments of science have produced, and which are not to be found in the ordinary dictionaries. Moreover, it is often necessary that the special senses in which some of the older and more general words are used by medical writers should be defined. One may be very well acquainted with the anatomy of the brain as described in the English standard works, and yet have much difficulty in following the descriptions in German or French books on cerebral pathology, when vernacular names are used for the several parts; and one longs for some international agreement as to a uniform system of scientific terminology like the Latin generic and specific names of the Linnæan nomenclature.

Terminologia Medica Polyglotta: a Concise International Dictionary of Medical Terms.

Compiled by Theodore Maxwell. Cantab. (London: Churchill, 1890.)