The adoption of new official nomenclature by the “Federative Committee on
Anatomical Terminology” (FCAT) has made a complete revision of the Pocket
Atlas of Human Anatomy necessary. In its latest edition, the Terminologia Anatomica
has incorporated results from more recent studies, mostly from research
on the urogenital and central nervous systems. This has greatly expanded the
total number of terms.
A number of these findings are derived from experiments on animals. The FCAT
has added such findings to the Terminologia Anatomica without noting their
origins in animal experimentation.
Experience has shown, however, that such findings and their interpretation can
initially be applied to human beings only with the greatest caution. Relevant
text passages thus alert the reader again to the uncertainty of such terms.
As we had already observed while writing earlier editions of this work, newly
added terms have not been annotated by the FCAT. Attempts at obtaining more
information from the committee were fruitless, with the result that certain
terms remain without further explanation. These are listed in the “Notes” on
page 474.