History of the Lithuanian anatomical terminology

Physicians who had graduated abroad actively participated in this activity: Vincas Kudirka (1858- 1899), Jonas Basanavičius (1851-1927), Petras Avižonis (1875-1939). They had all experienced the consequences of the ban on the Lithuanian language in their youth, so upon returning to Lithuania after studying abroad, they took an active role in reviving the Lithuanian language, script, and its usage, and in creating national medical terminology. B. Briaukienė's monograph "Ophthalmologist Professor Petras Avižonis" revealed the particularly significant works of the early 20th century Lithuanian physician, a prominent representative of culture, education and science, and one of the creators of Lithuanian medical terms. He created 330 Lithuanian medical terms, 15 of which are still used in Lithuanian anatomical terminology (choroid, ciliary body, lens, sclera, cornea, iris, vitreous body, retina, pupil, blood vessel, lymphatic vessel). A significant role in the development of the Lithuanian anatomical nomenclature was performed by Jurgis Žilinskas (1885–1957), the pioneer and creator of Lithuanian anatomy. J. Žilinskas, with the help of colleagues from the Institute of Anatomy, outlined a textbook of anatomy, publishing: “Lectures on Neurology”, 1923; “Osteology and Syndesmology”, 1932; “Splanchnology”, 1934. In the first part, he used only Latin terms, and in the others – Lithuanian terms, which we use till now. Hovewer, the terms provided by J. Žilinskas were not equally accepted by the colleagues. Biologist P. Šivickis, who graduated from the USA, used Lithuanianized Latin terms: faringas, laringas, uteras, duktas, etc. These alien names were not accepted because they clearly contradicted the traditions of the Lithuanian terminology. After the Second World War, J. Žilinskas' students Artūras Jurgutis in Kaunas and Salezijus Pavilonis in Vilnius, while translating V. Tonkov's "Human Anatomy" textbook from Russian in 1957-1958, essentially reorganized the Lithuanian anatomical terminology according to the Basel nomenclature. They created Lithuanian names for joints, ligaments and most muscles. Most Lithuanian terms were fairly accurate translations of Latin names. In the publications of the sixties: A. Jurgutis "Osteology", 1965 and A. Jurgutis et al. "Human Anatomy: A Textbook for Secondary Medical School Students", 1967, the developing anatomical nomenclature was adapted to the Paris Nomenclature. Later, the Lithuanian nomenclature was developed by preparing the first Lithuanian anatomy textbook for higher medical studies by S. Pavilonis et al. "Human Anatomy", 1972, 1984, and the last two-part anatomy textbook "Human Anatomy Vol. I", 2008 and "Human Anatomy Vol. II", 2007, 2016. The most important anatomical terms were presented in the "Dictionary of Medical Terms", 1980. The Lithuanian terms of these textbooks, with some corrections by linguists, were included in the "Anatomijos vardynas”, 2020, approved by the State Lithuanian Language Commission. The terminology was prepared according to the 1st edition of the Terminologia anatomica, approved by FIPAT in 1998. The glossary of anatomical terms (7674 in total) in Latin, English and Lithuanian is arranged according to the principle of systemic anatomy - a collection of general terms is presented at the beginning, followed by organ systems - skeletal, joint, muscular and other organ systems. Lithuanian anatomical terminology will continue to be improved by adapting it to 2nd ed. of Terminologia anatomica, which was approved by FIPAT in 2019