WORK PRELIMINARY TO DISSECTION 39 



or internal side of foot (side on which tibia is and the hallux or 

 great toe should be), and the cranial or dorsal side of the foot. 

 The digits (fingers and toes), metacarpals and metatarsals 

 are designated by ordinals (I, II, III, IV, and V) and the pollex 

 and hallux (of man) are designated the first digits (digit I). 



C. TOPOGRAPHICAL TERMS 



Difficulties with terms of direction or terms used in locating 

 anatomical structures in man and four-footed mammals will 

 be reduced if the four-footed animal is stood up on its hind feet 

 or if it is assumed that man walks on all fours. Since the 

 rabbit happens to be the material with which this laboratory 

 work is being done, instead of the human cadaver, it will 

 necessitate the student's being able to recognize the fact that 

 certain terms employed in mammalian anatomy, although 

 equally applicable to human anatomy, are supplanted by 

 synonomous terms in most of the text books of human anatomy. 

 Thus, in combinations each of the three following groups of 

 topographical terms mean essentially the same thing: (i) 

 Anterior, superior, and cranial (e.g., articulating processes of 

 vertebrae); (2) ventral, of rabbit; and anterior, of man (e.g., 

 abdominal region); (3) dorsal, of rabbit; and posterior, of man 

 (e.g., region of back). Thus, the liberties of anatomists in. 

 employing a dual system of terminology, to say nothing of the 

 vast number of purely synonomous terms, make it necessary 

 for the student to master both sets of terminology so that he 

 can translate one to the other. 



It would save much confusion if such terms as superior and 

 inferior, anterior and posterior, which are commonly used in 

 human anatomy, were not employed at all and the more 

 concise terms cranial and caudal, ventral and dorsal (including 

 their adverbial forms) were used in their stead. In order to 

 simplify the meaning and application of these terms the writer 

 has employed the use of an anatomical position for the rabbit 

 in which the axial skeleton is extended in as nearly a straight 



