Scientific Latin - Prescriptions, Anatomy, Species Names and the Inscriptions in the Ground

Pharmaceutical Latin: prescriptions, pharmacopoeias and drug names

Prescriptions in Georgia, as across the former Soviet space and much of Europe, are still written with Latin abbreviations - Rp., D.S., q.d., b.i.d., ad us. ext., in caps. gelat. - and pharmaceutical education, pharmacopoeial monographs and drug nomenclature rest on Latin. Georgian pharmacy students, pharmacists and physicians, foreign-trained doctors adapting to Georgian practice, and pharmaceutical companies preparing labels and leaflets need Latin prescription formulas read, written and standardized; insurers and courts examining prescriptions in medical disputes need them translated exactly; and pharmaceutical regulatory files carry Latin pharmacopoeial names for substances and dosage forms. We translate and check prescription Latin, pharmacopoeial texts and the Latin elements of INN and pharmaceutical nomenclature, with a pharmacist and a philologist working together, and we prepare teaching materials on pharmaceutical Latin for Georgian faculties.

Anatomical and clinical nomenclature

Anatomy is named in Latin under the Terminologia Anatomica, histology and embryology under their sister terminologies, and clinical medicine keeps Latin for diagnoses, positions, procedures and the abbreviations of hospital records in many systems. Georgian medical faculties teach anatomical Latin, Georgian and foreign physicians read each other's records through it, and medical translators depend on it for consistency across languages. We translate and check anatomical and clinical Latin in textbooks, atlases, examination materials, medical records and forensic reports, maintain a Georgian-Latin-English anatomical glossary aligned with the international terminologies, and support our own medical translation team when a Georgian, Russian or German record's Latin needs rendering into another language without loss.

Botanical and zoological nomenclature on trade and regulatory documents

Every phytosanitary certificate, veterinary certificate, CITES permit, seed and plant passport, timber document and food or cosmetic ingredient list identifies species by Latin binomial, and customs officers, regulators and buyers match those names exactly. Georgian exporters of wine grapes, hazelnuts, fruit, herbs, honey, timber, plants and fish, importers of seed, feed and ingredients, and the Revenue Service and National Food Agency officials who check them need the Latin names correct, current and consistent with the vernacular names in the accompanying documents; a synonym or an outdated name can hold a shipment. We check and translate the nomenclature on trade and regulatory documents, reconcile Latin names with Georgian, English and Russian vernaculars, flag synonyms and taxonomic changes, and prepare bilingual species lists for exporters and certifiers. Georgian endemic and traditional varieties - grape cultivars, wheat landraces, medicinal plants - have their own naming problems that we handle with the relevant institutes.

Taxonomy, natural history and scientific publication

Georgia's biodiversity - the Caucasus is a global hotspot - is described in a scientific literature that still uses Latin for species descriptions, and Georgian botanists, zoologists, mycologists and paleontologists describing new taxa must publish a Latin or English diagnosis under the botanical code and correctly formed Latin names under both codes. We compose and check Latin diagnoses and descriptions, form and verify new species epithets and genus names for grammatical correctness and priority, translate historical taxonomic descriptions from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for revisions, and translate Georgian natural history texts and museum catalogs into and out of Latin where required. Herbaria, the National Museum, the Institute of Botany and university departments use this service, as do foreign researchers working on Caucasian material.

Epigraphy and archaeology: Latin inscriptions in Georgia

Roman soldiers, officials and traders left Latin in Georgia: the inscriptions and stamped tiles of the fort at Gonio-Apsaros near Batumi, the Latin inscriptions of Mtskheta and Armazi including the famous bilingual and the Vespasian inscription, milestones and dedications, and the Latin epitaphs and dedications of later European communities in the Tbilisi Catholic cemetery and churches. Archaeological expeditions, the National Museum, regional museums and heritage authorities need these read, transcribed, translated and interpreted, and new finds appear regularly. Our epigraphist works from photographs, squeezes and drawings and on site, delivers transcriptions in the conventions of Latin epigraphy with expansions and restorations marked, translations and commentary, and prepares bilingual labels, catalog entries and publication texts.

Quality control for scientific Latin

Scientific Latin is checked, not merely translated. Prescription and pharmacopoeial Latin is verified by a pharmacist against the relevant pharmacopoeia; anatomical Latin against the Terminologia Anatomica; species names against current taxonomic databases with synonyms noted; new taxonomic names against the codes of nomenclature for formation and priority; inscriptions against the epigraphic corpora and the conventions of the discipline. Every file passes through a philologist and a subject specialist, and a second Latinist reviews anything that will be published, registered or carved. Source errors - a misspelled species name on a certificate, a malformed epithet in a manuscript, a misread letter in an earlier transcription - are flagged rather than silently corrected. Certified translations are provided for regulators, customs and courts, and notarized where required.

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