PART III. 

 DISSECTION OF THE RABBIT 



The plan of dissection as outlined in the following pages presupposes 

 in the first place that the entire dissection is to be made on a single 

 specimen, and secondly that the latter has been prepared for gross 

 dissection according to the method given in the appendix. These 

 points may be mentioned as explaining many details of procedure and 

 also to a certain extent the selection in preference to others of those 

 structures which are more readily made out by the method employed. 



Because of the convenience of dissecting in circumscribed regions, the 

 plan has been divided, although of necessity very unequally, into several 

 parts. The order of these is such that the visceral dissection is introduced 

 at an early stage. The somewhat more logical plan of completing first 

 the dissection of the anterior and posterior limbs may be followed, but on 

 account of the fact that it involves a lengthy muscular dissection to 

 begin with, it is perhaps not to be recommended. 



The account itself aims at a statement of the various structures as 

 met wdth in order of dissection and the features by which they may be 

 identified, rather than at a full description. The student should make 

 his own observations and prove them by personal drawings and de- 

 scriptions of selected parts. In this connection he will do well to bear 

 in mind that while dissection is nominally a means of obtaining anatom- 

 ical information, its chief value as a laboratory exercise consists in the 

 training to be acquired from critical observation and analysis. It is 

 therefore of quite as much practical importance that he should make 

 his observations extensive and accurate as that he should employ only 

 good instruments, or maintain the proper sequence in dissection. 



I. EXTERNAL FEATURES. 



The external structures, subdivisions of the body, and superficial 

 skeletal points may be made out as follows: 



1. The division of the body into the head (caput), neck (collum), 

 trunk (truncus), tail (cauda), and the anterior and posterior limbs or 

 extremities (extremitates). 



2. In the head : 



(a) The division into a posterior, cranial portion (cranium), and 

 an anterior, facial portion (facies). 



(b) The mouth (os), bounded by the cleft upper lip (labium 

 superius) and the undivided lower lip (labium inferius). 

 The large sensory hairs or vibrissae. 



