In Classical Latin lacertus was a polysemic word which in addition to meaning "lizard" had the meaning "muscle" and so especially in anatomy "(upper arm) muscle, upper arm, arm". In the Middle Ages, semantic narrowing of lacertus began and the word referred mostly to the muscle. At the same time, a distinction was made between musculus and lacertus, but often without clear criteria for distinguishing between them. Great modern history anatomists, beginning with Andreas Vesalius, presented, in addition to the expression musculus, other terms for muscle-lacertus and pisciculus-but they showed a preference for musculus. In the 18th century, there was a further semantic reduction of lacertus to "little bundle of muscle fibers, fasciculus". In 1694, William Cowper was the first to describe the aponeurosis of bicipital muscle calling it fascia tendinosa. Later, other terms were also used for this structure. In 1864, Josef Hyrtl added the synonymous term lacertus fibrosus to the German aponeurotisches Fascikel. Finally, this term (lacertus fibrosus) became part of the first unified anatomical nomenclature, BNA in 1895. The synonym aponeurosis m. bicipitis brachii was added in the Paris anatomical nomenclature of 1955 and these two terms have persisted in the official anatomical nomenclature to this day.
The humanist writer Johannes Gregor Macer Szepsius (circa 1530-after 1579) came from the small town of Moldava nad Bodvou in present-day Slovakia. He studied at the Faculty of Arts in Cracow, and he continued working in Cracow after completing his studies. He wrote typical Latin occasional poetry, but he also became interested in alchemy and natural sciences. One of his friends, the Swiss physician Anton Schneeberger (1530-1581) published a catalogue of Latin and Polish plant names, and Macer contributed with a commendation poem here. It is written similarly to the well-known fourth ode of the first book of Horace and it has two parts, the first inspired by the arrival of spring, while the subject of the second part is Schneeberger's book itself. In 1562 Schneeberger published a work on salt and a commendation poem by Macer again appears there. The epigram is written in elegiac distich and partly reflects the content of the treatise, but Macer also adds his own thoughts. Both poems are good examples of occasional poetry, in which the author presents himself as a poet and a natural scientist.
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