ABSTRACT
We discussed in a previous paper the amazing etymology of the term fornix and its historical connection with sexual intercourse and prostitution at the time of ancient Rome (Olry & Haines, 1997). However odd it may seem, the anatomists of the last centuries also applied the terms vulva, penis, testicles, buttocks, and anus to some components of the central nervous system. ln 1902, the French anatomist Joseph Auguste Aristide Fort wondered why “les anatomistes de ce siècle s’étaient plu à donner des noms indécents aux différentes parties qui entourent le troisième ventricule” (the anatomists of that century enjoyed giving indecent names to the different parts surrounding the third ventricle; Fort, 1902, p. 571). We shall attempt to show, in this paper, the grounds for these rather surprising terms.
