Basel Nomina Anatomica

BASEL NOMINA ANATOMICA (BNA—Baseler Nomina Anatomica). In 1887, on the initiative of W. His and W. Braune, at a meeting of the German Anatomical Society held in Leipzig, the question of reforming anatomical nomenclature was raised in view of the complete anarchy prevailing in it, from which teachers, students, and even researchers suffered. For many organs and their parts, there were often multiple designations; countless examples of such synonyms can be found in any large anatomy textbook (e.g., Bardeleben's). There was even more diversity in terms associated with the names of researchers, due to the inaccuracy of historical data and a peculiar kind of patriotism. In 1889, a special commission of German anatomists was created, chaired by Kölliker, with W. Krause as editor; the terms from Gegenbaur's textbook were taken as the basis for its work, and the terms of Henle, Hyrtl, Krause, Langer, Quain, and Sappey were compared with them. Soon this nomenclature commission was strengthened by scientists invited from other countries as well. In 1890, the Association of American Anatomists set itself the same tasks but followed a different path, creating a new language of telegraphic style with a number of artificial words (praecornu, postcornu, terma, postramus, cimbia, etc.). In 1893, the British commission developed a new nomenclature ("Journal of Anatomy and Physiology," vol. XXVII, 1894). The general principles of the commission under the German Anatomical Society were: 1) each part must bear one name—Latin, as short and simple as possible; 2) it must be an "Erinnerungszeichen" (mnemonic sign), but not a description or explanation; 3) proper names must be placed in parentheses. The work of the commission was completed in 1894 and reported to the Anatomical Society (which had an international character) in Basel in 1895. The commission's proposals were accepted, while full freedom was retained to use terms in the language of the given country in parallel. Since it is impossible to establish anatomical terminology as unchangeable for a long time, and further additions to it are necessary, it was decided to form a standing commission, the work of which should be reported to the Anatomical Society every five years. Gegenbaur showed a negative attitude toward the BNA in his preface to the 7th edition of "Lehrbuch der Anatomie" (Leipzig, 1903). Prof. H. Triepel, in "Die anatomischen Namen," a work that appeared in 1927 in its 11th edition, subjects anatomical terms to further careful correction. A fairly complete collection of them with a significant number of synonyms is available in "Vademecum anatomicum" by Paul de Terra (1913). The history of the commission's work on the creation of the BNA was published by His in "Archiv für Anatomie und Entwicklungsgeschichte," 1895, suppl. Band, under the title "Die anatomische Nomenklatur." The BNA was fully introduced by Batuev in the translation of Spalteholz's atlas and in a number of anatomy textbooks in the Russian language.

P. Karuzin.