APHORISMS OF GENERAL APPLICATION. 53 



"The method may determine the result." — Louis Agassiz. 



" If researches take at the first step a wrong direction they diverge the 

 farther from the truth the farther they are followed." — Gaboriau. 



" It is often as if the truth were rather whispered than spoken by 

 Nature." — Owen. 



Accuracy is more to be desired than speed. 



Books may be consulted in haste, but Nature demands deliberation. 



Non-discrimination is no proof of identity 



Ignorance of a specimen's locality may cause delay ; an error respecting 

 it may create confusion. 



As is the locality to an individual, so is the individual to any of its parts. 



" There is so close a solidarity between ourselves and the animal world 

 that our inaccessible inward parts may be supplemented by theirs. * * * A 

 sheep's heart or lungs or eye must not be confounded with those of man ; 

 but so far as the comprehension of the elementary facts of the physiology of 

 circulation and of respiration and of vision goes, the one furnishes the 

 needed anatomical data as well as the other." — Huxley, 3. 



'• Carpenters and tailors do not learn their trades upon rosewood and 

 clotii of goU.''— Wilder, 2, 8- 



"Felitomy should be the stepping-stone to anthropotomy. " — Idem, 2, 6. 



" No medical student should be allowed to dissect the human cadaver 

 until he has familiarized himself with the anatomy of the cat." — Clevcn- 

 qer, 1, 1. 



He who can skillfully dissect a cat will find little diflSculty in dissecting 

 a man. 



*•' Fiat experimentum in corpore vili." 



The softer the parts, the harder their study. 



Soft parts are perishable. 



Hurried dissection is rarely trustworthy. 



The thorough examination of soft parts can be made only under one or 

 more of the following conditions: A. Limitation of the inquiry; B. x\bun- 

 dance of material ; C. Continuity of dissection; D. Co-operation of several 

 dissectors ; E. Preservation of the parts. 



Filth and bad odors cannot always be avoided, but their continuance is 

 rarely necessary. 



Accurate knowledge of a few" things is better than vague ideas concern- 

 ing many. 



First expressions are rarely correct or perfect. 



A description is perfect only when it enables one who has never seen the 

 object to form a correct image of it. 



