Anatomical Nomenclature

Anatomical nomenclature is the vocabulary of anatomists that is used to describe the structure of the human body. Historically it has been complicated by an overabundance of synonyms, and obscure and ambiguous terms. Efforts to produce a uniform, simple nomenclature began with the Basle Nomina Anatomica (1895), which dealt with macroscopic anatomy. Subsequent work by international committees included several revisions, the latest being Terminologia Anatomica (1998), and compilation of lists of histological and embryological terms.

Schematic illustration of the regions of the head and neck (surface anatomy) from the Basle Nomina Anatomica. Source: Barker LF. Anatomical Terminology with Special Reference to the BNA. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Sons & Co., 1907.

Early history of anatomical nomenclature

The oldest surviving book on anatomical nomenclature was written in Greek by Rufus of Ephesus (about 100 A.D.).^[1] As anatomy developed during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, anatomical nomenclature became a confusing mixture of Greek, Latin and Arabic terms, which only became more disorganized with new discoveries and a proliferation of synonyms. Through the ages, individual anatomists tried unsuccessfully to introduce simpler, standard nomenclatures. Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle's (1809-1885) textbook,^[2] with its simplified terminology and avoidance of eponyms, was an acknowledged model for future work on the Basle Nomina Anatomica. A call for reform by Josef Hyrtl (1810-1894) ^[3] is sometimes credited with the resolution of the First Congress (Leipzig, 1887) of the Anatomische Gesellschaft (German anatomical society) to revise and standardize the anatomical nomenclature.

Basle Nomina Anatomica

A Commission on Nomenclature (chaired by Albert von Kölliker, 1817-1905) was appointed by the Anatomische Gesellschaft in 1889 with the objective of producing a uniform vocabulary in which each part would have only a single name and this name would be as simple and descriptive as possible. The Commission set out the following rules during their deliberations:

• Each part is to have only one name.
• Each term must be in Latin and be grammatically correct.
• Each term shall be as short and simple as possible.
• The terms shall be merely memory signs and need not be explanations or speculative interpretations.
• Related terms shall, as far as possible, be similar (e.g., femur, arteria femoralis, vena femoralis, nervus femoralis).
• Adjectives, in general, shall be arranged as antonyms (e.g., dexter and sinister, major and minor, superficialis and profundus).
• Descriptive terms are preferable to eponyms.

The Commission considered about 30,000 terms and compiled a list of about 5,000 terms.^[4] An editorial committee consisting of Wilhelm His, Sr. (1831-1904), Wilhelm Krause (1833-1910), and Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz (1836-1921) produced the final list that became known as the Basle Nomina Anatomica (BNA). The BNA was organized in the following sections:

• Terms indicating the position and direction of parts of the body
• General terms
• Parts of the human body
• Osteology
• Syndesmology
• Myology
• Bursae and mucous sheaths
• Splanchnology
  • Digestive apparatus
  • Respiratory apparatus
  • Urogenital apparatus
    • Uropoietic organs
    • Male genital organs
    • Female genital organs
• Angiology
• Neurology
• Sense organs and common integument
• Regions of the human body

Subsequent anatomical nomenclatures have followed this pattern of having sections for each of the three traditional perspectives of macroscopic anatomy - regional anatomy ("parts of the body"), surface anatomy ("regions of the body"), and systemic anatomy - with the emphasis on systemic anatomy. Changes in ideas about the functions of various organs lead to the introduction, in revisions of the nomenclature, of the endocrine glands and lymphoid system.

Early 20th century

The First International Congress of Anatomists (Geneva, 1905), as a step towards adoption of an international standard anatomical nomenclature, passed a resolution that the BNA be reviewed. Little was accomplished toward the goal of an international anatomical nomenclature until after World War II. Although BNA was a list of Latin terms, it was not universally accepted by non-German-speaking anatomists. In addition, new or revised lists were created in the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and Japan.^[5] The best known of these national efforts were the Birmingham Revision (BR, 1933) and the Jena Nomina Anatomica (JNA, 1935).

Nomina Anatomica

The Fifth International Congress of Anatomists (Oxford, 1950) established the International Anatomical Nomenclature Committee (IANC) to prepare a new list of anatomical terms. The first two meetings of the IANC were hosted by the Ciba Foundation in London (1952 and 1954). The list of terms prepared at these meetings was approved by the Sixth International Congress of Anatomists (Paris, 1955), and subsequently published as Nomina Anatomica. Like subsequent revisions, Nomina Anatomica was considered a conservative revision of BNA; it contained 5640 Latin terms - 4286 unchanged terms from BNA, 886 modified BNA terms, about 268 terms from JNA, and about 200 new terms.^[6]

Revisions of the Nomina Anatomica were periodically prepared by the IANC, approved by IFAA at the International Congress of Anatomists (New York, 1960; Wiesbaden, 1965; Tokyo, 1975; Mexico City, 1980), and published. In the 1980s, a rift occurred between the IANC and IFFA. Following a proposals to reform the IANC, the IANC published a sixth edition of Nomina Anatomica, without submitting the list to IFAA for approval at the International Congress of Anatomists (Rio de Janiero, 1989).^[7]

• Nomina Anatomica (1956) - originally called Parisiensia Nomina Anatomica (PNA)
• Nomina Anatomica, 2nd Ed. (1961)
• Nomina Anatomica, 3rd Ed. (1966)
• Nomina Anatomica, 4th Ed. (1977)
• Nomina Anatomica, 5th Ed. (1983)
• Nomina Anatomica, 6th Ed. (1989)

Terminologia Anatomica

At the Thirteenth International Congress of Anatomy (Rio de Janeiro, 1989), a new committee was established to prepare revised lists of anatomical terms, the Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology (FCAT, now called FICAT). Terminologia Anatomica, a revision of Nomina Anatomica with corresponding English terms, was published in 1998.

• Terminologia Anatomica (1998)
• Terminologia Anatomica, 2nd Ed. (in preparation)

Histological and Embryological Nomenclature

At the Seventh International Congress of Anatomy (New York, 1960), a subcommittees on Embryology and Histology were established to prepare lists of terms. The Ciba Foundation hosted a meeting of the Embryology Subcommittee (London, 1968) to finalize a provisional list of terms. The Ministry of Public Health of the USSR hosted a meeting of the Histology Subcommittee (Moscow, 1969) to finalize a provisional list of terms. The provisional lists of embryological and histological terms were distributed for comment at the Ninth International Congress of Anatomy (Leningrad, 1970). The amended lists were approved by the Tenth International Congress (Tokyo, 1975) and published in 1977. Revised lists were approved by the Eleventh International Congress (Mexico City, 1980) and published in 1983. FICAT has published a revised list of the histological terms (2007) and is preparing a revised list of embryological terms.

• Nomina Embryologica (1977) - published with Nomina Anatomica, 4th Ed.
• Nomina Histologica (1977) - published with Nomina Anatomica, 4th Ed.
• Nomina Embryologica, 2nd Ed. (1983) - published with Nomina Anatomica, 5th Ed.
• Nomina Histologica, 2nd Ed. (1983) - published with Nomina Anatomica, 5th Ed.
• Terminologia Histologica (2007)
• Terminologia Embryologica (in preparation)

Other Resources

Barker LF. Anatomical Terminology with Special Reference to the BNA. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Sons & Co., 1907.
Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology. Terminologia Anatomica. Stuttgart: Thieme, 1998.
Federative International Committee on Anatomical Terminology. Terminologia Histologica. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007.

References

1. ↑ Daremberg C and Ruelle CE. Oeuvres de Rufus d'Éphèse. Paris: Baillière, 1879.
2. ↑ Henle FGJ. Handbuch der systematischen Anatomie des Menschen. 3 vols. Braunschweig: F. Vieweg u. Sohn, 1855-1871.
3. ↑ Hyrtl J. Onomatologia anatomica. Geschichte und Kritik der anatomischen Sprache der Gegenwart. Vienna: W. Braumüller, 1880.
4. ↑ His W. Die anatomische Nomenklatur. Leipzig, Veit u. Co., 1895.
5. ↑ Di Dio LJA. History of International Anatomical Terminology. In: Terminologia Anatomica, Stuttgart: Thieme, 1998, pp. 157-162.
6. ↑ Donath T. Anatomical Dictionary. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1969.
7. ↑ Di Dio, op.cit., p. 160.

External Links

International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA)
Anatomische Gesellschaft