Anat. [ad. F. sylvien, f. the name of François de la Boë Sylvius, a Flemish anatomist (1614–72); often erroneously referred to that of Jacques Dubois, latinized Jacobus Sylvius, an earlier French anatomist (1478–1555).] Described by or named after the anatomist Sylvius: applied to certain structures in the brain, viz.:
Sylvian aqueduct (aqueduct of Sylvius), the passage between the third and fourth ventricles of the brain. Sylvian artery, the middle cerebral artery. Sylvian fissure (fissure of Sylvius), the fissure between the anterior and middle lobes of the cerebrum. Sylvian fossa, a depression of the cerebral hemispheres in the middle of the Sylvian fissure, containing the island of Reil. Sylvian ventricle, the fifth ventricle of the brain.
1871. Huxley, in Darwin, Descent of Man, vii. (1874), 204. In the human foetus, the sylvian fissure is formed in the course of the third month of uterogestation.
1890. Billings, Med. Dict., Sylvian fossa … Sylvian ventricle.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 773. Lesions in or about the nuclei in the gray matter of the Sylvian Aqueduct. Ibid., VII. 608. The middle cerebral, or Silvian artery, is practically the direct continuation of the internal carotid.
