Page:A thesaurus of Medical words and phrases.djvu/17

 kinds of morbid fears, and the various kinds of Mania will be found under that title.

Many other tables or lists of words somewhat on the same plan will be found under the captions Canal, Muscle, Amputation, Bath, Bandage, Fever, Eating, Massage, etc.

Under the caption Drug has been given not only a complete list of the various terms that have been applied to drugs for their therapeutic action, but, in addition, an alphabetic list of all their common names, with their technical equivalents opposite.

The caption Prescription has been made use of to present, on the thesauric plan, a list of Latin phrases that are generally used in reference to the taking of medicine.

It is impossible that a work such as this one, entirely original in conception, should be perfect in execution; nevertheless, the authors trust it shall not fail to render, in some degree, the services for which it was designed.

Though incidental to the real purpose of the work, if it does nothing else, this attempt to arrange words according to a new system, which brings together synonyms and related words in a way never before done, may give some valuable hints to philologists. The opportunity here offered to compare words and detect their defects and discrepancies, the better to see their faulty etymology and their unscientific foundation, in some cases their needless multiplication and in others their insufficiency, may lead, it is hoped, to the suggestion of reforms that may conduce ultimately to the purification of our technical language.