Every organ in the human body has a name. Everyone knows this, but few, except for doctors, are aware that any dimple, hump, notch or groove is also endowed with “nicknames”. At the beginning of its journey, anatomy was a descriptive science from the “what I see is what I sing” cycle, so doctors called every component that came to hand a new name.
Historically, the language chosen for communication in a professional medical environment has become Latin. Why this happened is not necessary to explain, but why he lasted so long in the scientific world is a mystery even for "advanced users" of the medical environment. Probably out of habit.
Definition
Nomenclature is derived from the Latin word for "list". In fact, this is a set of terms, names and basic concepts that are used in any branch of knowledge. In order to compile it correctly, you need to useclassification system.
Anatomical nomenclature is a system of terms in Latin that denote parts of the body, organs or their fragments. There is a national nomenclature, which, as a rule, is compiled in the national language, in our case, Russian, and international, drawn up in Latin.
The emergence of anatomical nomenclature
Anatomical nomenclature appeared as a result of the accumulation of human knowledge about his own body. At some point, there was a need to systematize all the information available at that time. And although the nomenclature was compiled in Latin, it contains many terms that have Greek and Arabic roots. This is due to the development of medicine in the East.
The very first definitions appeared about five thousand years ago in ancient Greece. They arose sporadically and depended only on the imagination and observation of the anatomist. At that time, doctors knew about seven hundred names. When the Romans took over Greece and turned the whole area into an empire, they adopted the culture and scientific achievements, supplementing the code with their own terms in Latin.
The main pool of these concepts, as well as their primary classification, was proposed by the anatomist and physician Claudius Gallen. In connection with the spread of terms in Central and Northern Europe, new word forms, hybrids and barbarisms appeared, which reflected the linguistic features of this area. The growing number of synonyms among anatomical names created chaos and caused errors.
Development of nomenclature in the 19th century
Anatomical nomenclature evolved erratically until the brilliant artist Leonardo da Vinci appeared in Florence in the 15th century. He made an attempt to systematize the names of the muscles of the human body, using their function as a classification. A little later, after the death of da Vinci, Vesalius tried to contribute to the ordering of the nomenclature and removed Arabic definitions from it, and also translated all foreign words into classical Latin.
Despite all this, by the end of the eighteenth century there were more than thirty thousand names. Of course, their number had to be reduced. Henle and Owen made their own changes to the terminology, and also introduced concepts such as planes and axes. Ultimately, a special commission was created in Germany, which at the end of the nineteenth century compiled an acceptable, in their opinion, list of terms. It received the corresponding name - Basel anatomical nomenclature.
Basic terms
International anatomical nomenclature is based on a relatively small group of words that are most commonly used. Such nouns include: hole, channel, ridge, process, furrow, surface, share, edge and the like. They are needed to describe the appearance of an organ or structure. Adjectives are combined with the presented words, such as large, small, oval, round, narrow, wide, square, etc. They help to better represent the anatomicaleducation.
The following words are used to describe the situation:
- lateral (farther from the middle);
- medial (closer to the middle);
- cranial (closer to the head);
- caudal (closer to the bottom);
- proximal (closer to center);
- distal (towards the periphery).
There are, of course, many terms that just need to be learned, because there is no logical reason why they are called that way and not otherwise.
Axes and planes
In August 1997, the final anatomical nomenclature for today was approved. We decided to use the axes and planes that describe the position of the organs the same as in the rectangular coordinate system.
Three axes of the body are distinguished:
- vertical;
- sagittal;
- horizontal.
They are perpendicular to each other. The vertical axis passes through the human body and divides it into front and back parts. The sagittal has an anterior-posterior direction and divides the body into right and left sides. The horizontal one is parallel to the plane of the support. Several sagittal and transverse axes can be drawn, and only one vertical axes.
Paris and Basel anatomical nomenclature
The Parisian Anatomical Nomenclature is still valid international document. adopted in the middle of the twentieth centurySixth International Congress of Anatomists. It was developed on the basis of the previous nomenclature. The document was taken as the basis for the compilation of domestic terminology.
Earlier, in 1895, at the meeting of the German Anatomical Society in Basel, the first nomenclature was adopted, which received international recognition. It was based on terms that indicated the direction along the axes and planes.
Russian anatomical nomenclature
How were things in Russia? The anatomical nomenclature of a person in our country began to take shape by the middle of the eighteenth century. It was at that moment that medical publications in Russian began to appear in the country. Such outstanding anatomists as Zybelin, Ambodik-Maximovich, Zagorsky and others have made their contribution to the development of terminology. A special merit in popularizing the international nomenclature belongs to Shein, who translated the German edition into his native language.
This made it possible to introduce many Russian terms into everyday medical use. They differed from the Latin ones in that they were more understandable and logical. And besides, no knowledge of Latin was required to understand the basics of anatomy. A significant place in the popularization of the nomenclature was played by the Dictionary of Anatomical Terms, published in 1928.
During the Soviet Union, the anatomical nomenclature was approved in 1949 at the All-Union Congress of Anatomists. And in 1956, the Parisian nomenclature was adopted.
Eponyms and atavisms
Latin is deadlanguage, so it contains anachronisms and atavisms. The anatomical nomenclature was no exception. Its main terms can be created using combinations of nouns with adjectives, as well as changing these constructions by case. The total number of terms is about seven thousand. Some of them are found once, for example, "torn hole", "keel", "filtrum". But these are just flowers. Remembering the names of organs or their components is only half the battle, you need to understand how they are located relative to each other and what function they perform. Nomenclature reference books do not write this.
Despite the fact that the terminology is regularly reviewed and unnecessary constructions are removed from it, still sometimes there are wonderful combinations that can mislead the uninitiated person. Examples include the "muscle of the proud", the vagus nerve, the Turkish saddle and others.
Printed publications
Anatomical nomenclature, as a rule, is published in the form of a book or booklet, which contains terms in several languages. Usually this is Latin and a national language, such as Russian. On the left, classical international terms are written, and on the right they are duplicated in another language. In addition, a list of common terms and their abbreviations is provided at the beginning of the book to help you navigate.
All words and phrases are arranged in groups reflecting their hierarchical position. Organ systems come first, then thematic subgroups are located within each system, andthen they break down the terms for each formation. This hierarchy can be shown by font changes, numeric or alphabetic ciphers, or by changing the position of a term in a line.
There are editions of anatomical nomenclature that simultaneously reflect terms in three or more languages. The combinations can be very different, but the Latin language is always present, and the rest is left to the taste of the compiler, the needs of the sales market are also taken into account. If these are European countries, then English, French and German prevail. In Asian countries - Chinese or Japanese.
