Abbreviations and symbols

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS. Abbreviations, like alcohol, are good servants but bad masters; used in the right way, at the right time, they are not only helpful but necesin moderation sary, used intelligently and they are harmless, but used lavishly and indiscriminately they are very definitely objectionable. Medical men appear to be amongst the worst addicts of the abbreviation habit; presumably they acquire it during their notetaking student days, and in later life the necessity for making records of their cases, hurriedly and in small note books or on small cards, and the writing of prescriptions prevent their throwing it off. In India the habit is very deeply rooted. Recently we suggested that for the abuse of initial capitals official reports could probably be blamed; in the case of the abbreviation habit we are inclined to think that official correspondence and the indent have been the corroding influences; " " " indenting for "buckets, G. I.?4 or tents, E. P. I. P.?1 is probably the best way to obtain four galvanized-iron buckets or a tent of a particular pattern suitable for the use of European personnel in India, because the few persons who will read the indent and those from whom the articles are to be obtained know them only by these names, but when contributing to a medical paper the writer must overcome his natural modesty and try to visualize a wider circle of readers, including even persons in foreign lands who, though familiar with the English language, may have " no the case had K. A. and was idea that treated with U. S." means that " the patient was suffering from kala-azar and was treated by injections of urea-stibamine It may be taken as a general rule that in the text of a paper abbreviations should be avoided; there are of course a few exceptions. It would, for example, be wrong to write videlicet, or exempli gratia instead of the abbreviations viz, and e.g., because the extended forms are not now used, and in the case of the former it is doubtful if many readers would grasp the "significance of the word. Again if the patient's temperature rose to we wrote one hundred degrees Fahrenheit ", it would not convey the meaning to the reader nearly as " the patient's temperature rapidly as would From time to time expressions rose to 100?F." appear in medical literature which are better known in their abbreviated than in their extended form. A good example is T. A. Bvaccine; another, a more recent one, is B. C. G* vaccine. It is easy to understand how the first example established itself; one could scarcely refer to typhoid-paratyphoid-A-paratyphoid-B vaccine. The second example EDITORIALS. Nov., 1931.] harder it has now, however, been universally accepted, but it is not a good precedent. Great care should be taken to avoid abbreviations that are current locally or amongst a small group of specialists only; for example most leprologists, certainly those in India, understand that the initials E. C. C. 0. mean ester-creosote-camphor-oil, but to the majority of readers they are a hieroglyph. to excuse; The form in which numerals should be given is a very open question. There appear to be three guiding principles; these are?that small numbers are printed in words and large numbers in figures, that a sentence should not begin with a figure, and that uniformity should be maintained. It is quite obvious that these be in conflict with principles will continually " one another; e.g., Two insects died "on the first day, six on the second, and 4,599 on the third" seems to be the obvious solution, but had the numbers been 215, 164 and 8, respectively, one would be tempted to change the sentence round so as to avoid beginning with the numeral and to put all three in figures. For money units, when expressing an exact sum, symbols should be used, but when a coin is indicated, when expressing a round figure, or when the associated number is in words, the word should be written in full. " The whole scheme was estimated to cost Rs. 1,225", but " He threw the man a rupee " and " He lost over a thousand rupees ". " % " should not The symbol be used, even when associated with a figure. " Per " centum has gone completely out of use, and " the abbreviation per cent." is now scarcely looked upon as a Latin word, it is never printed in italics, and it often appears without the " stop, e.g., 95 per cent cures were effected ". Terms of measurement, e.g., pounds, drachms, minims, grains, feet, inches, grammes, grammes, ounces, kilo- milligrammes, kilometres, metres, centimetres, litres, cubic centimetres, cubic millimetres, etc., should usually be given in full; as the last two of these examples are rather unwieldy expressions it is permissible in certain circumstances to use the common abbre" " viations, but even here Ten cubic "centimetres 10 is often a better form than c.cm.", " especially at the "beginning- of a sentence; 10 is hard to justify, whereas cubic centimetres " ten c.cm." is inexcusable. Titles are given in the abbreviated form " Dr. Smith took when prefixed to the name, " Smith but not otherwise, his degree in 1930 " " became a doctor in 1930";" Doctor Smith a Dr. in became Would be as incorrect as 1930". The rule cannot be applied quite so a rigidly to honours, degrees, etc. following " he is a write to correct name: it is more " Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons than "he is an F. R. C. S", though the latter is " he is Medicinae the commoner form; but " Doctor ", for he is an M.D.", would be pedan- tic, not 639 and " he is a convey the Doctor of Medicine idea. " might same There are some abbreviations, very dear to contributors to medical journals, that cannot be allowed to appear in the text; examples of " " M. P." for these are malarial parasite " " B. for W. white blood cell", " poly." C." " " for W. R." polymorphonuclear leucocyte" " " for either or Wassermann reaction Widal " " reaction ", and I. K." for interstitial keraThe habit is slovenly and unnecessary; titis it does not aid the reader and it may hinder " him. He has to decide whether W. R." means " " " or Widal reaction Wassermann reaction though admittedly" the context will" usually indicate whether M. P." means malarial " " ". The parasite or Member of Parliament " W. B. C." for space saved by substituting " white blood cell " is negligible and the reader who pronounces the words as he reads them? either mentally or aloud?will not find it any " to say quicker Double-you bee see" than " white blood cell Chemical and mathematical symbols are a to a certain class of contrigreat temptation " He then drank a glass of H20 " is not butor. " He unknown, though an extreme example. was ordered to take no NaCl with his food ", " he was given increasing doses of KI for a 11 the test gave a + result" are weekand common, but inexcusable in medical literature. be used Abbreviations may freely in diagrams, charts and tables; in diagrams and charts, if the full words were written they would often have to be so small that it would be difficult or impossible to read them, and in the same way in tables abbreviations are essential in order to keep the size of the tables within reasonable bounds. Even here great care should be taken that the full meaning is conveyed to the reader, and, in than those cases where abbreviations other universally accepted* are footnote must be added. used, an explanatory It is not sufficient A short list of abbreviations and symbols, which generally accepted as being suitable and to which for the sake of uniformity in this journal contributors should adhere, is appended:? * are Milligramme Gramme or = = grammes mgm. gm. kgm. Kilogramme = Metre Centimetre or centimetres Micron (or 1/1,000th of = m. = cm. = /<. a millimetre). Millimetre Cubic centimetre Cubic millimetre = c.cm. = c.mm. Kilometre = km. = gr. = min. = Grain or grains Minim Ounce Pound Inches Feet Degrees Fahrenheit = Degrees centigrade = Male = o" = = = = Female = mm. oz. lb. ". '. ?F. ?C. $ . 640 THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE. that an explanation of the abbreviations will be found in the text; diagrams, tables and charts should be made, as far as possible, even at the risk of repetition, completely self- explanatory. With regard to frequently exhibit prescriptions contributors carelessness; they write them half in Latin and half in English, and they use the most unjustifiable abbreviations. Dispensing chemists are no doubt hardTn. Dig.", but in a scientific paper ened to it should appear as Tinctura? digitalis ", or at Tinct. digitalis least as The symbol R for recipe ", i.e., take, is not only justifiable, but on account of the mythological significance of this symbol it is preferable; for grains, drachms, minims, etc., the abbreviations can be used, though it is better to write in full three times a day, after meals ", than t.i.d., p.c.". Again in reporting the pathological findings in extreme " " " " " " " " paper abbreviations should be avoided as far well for the busy possible. It is all very " R. B. C.?5,000,000 " pathologist to scrawl a as " L. M.?21 per cent." or " L. D. pres." on his report, but for purposes of publication this " must be translated into Red blood cells? " 5,000,000 per c.mm. ", Large mononuclears? 21 per cent." and " Leishmania donovani were present". Finally, contributors should remember that, paper is sent to press, so it appears in print; mis-spelt words do not correct themselves, wrongly-used capitals do not shrink to lowercase letters, roman figures do not convert as a themselves into italics, nor do abbreviations elongate themselves, unaided and mysteriously, during the process of being set up in type. When a carelessly prepared paper acquires a certain amount of polish between the time it is posted and the time it appears in print, it is usually because the editor has spent many hours correcting and re-correcting it. As astute clinical observers and accurate research workers are not necessarily masters of the English language, very frequently the editor does not grudge the time spent; but editors are human, and usually busy men, so that when the choice lies between a paper that is ready for the press and one that has to have some hours spent on it, thej^ are liable to choose the former. [Nov., 1931.