THB RABBIT. 7 



10. Descriptive Terms. We may note bore the mean- 

 ing of certain terms we shall be constantly employing, and 

 which are as important for our purpose as north, south, 

 east, and west, are to the geographer. The head end of 

 the rabbit is anterior, the tail end posterior, the backbone 

 side of the body the upper side in life is dorsal, the 

 breast and belly side, the lower side of the animal, is 

 ventral. If we imagine the rabbit sawn asunder, as it 

 were, by a vertical plane passing through the head and tail, 

 that is the median plane, and parts on either side of it 

 are lateral, and left or right according as they lie to the 

 animal's left or right. In a limb, or in the internal organs, 

 the part nearest the central organ, or axis, is proximal, the 

 more remote or terminal parts are distal. For instance, 

 the mouth is anteriorly placed, the tongue on its ventral 

 wall ; the tongue is median, the eyes are lateral, and the 

 fingers are distal to the elbow. The student must accustom 

 himself to these words, and avoid, in his descriptions, the 

 use of such terms as " above," " below," " outside," which 

 vary with the position in which we conceive the animal 

 placed. 



A word of warning may here be given, as to the use of 

 certain terms derived from human anatomy. The human 

 body being conceived of as in the erect posture we find 

 that human anatomists speak of anterior and posterior, 

 where we should say ventral and dorsal', while superior 

 and inferior take the place of our anterior and posterior. 

 The human head, however, is twisted back, as it were, into 

 the same position as in the rabbit, in spite of the erect 

 body, and so anterior and posterior have the same meaning 

 in both cases as applied to the head. 



11. The Rabbit a Worker. So much for the general 

 form : we may next note a few facts of general knowledge 

 in connexion with the rabbit's life-activity. In a day 

 of a rabbit's life a considerable amount of mechanical work 

 is done the rabbit runs hither and thither, for instance : 

 this means that the momentum of every part of its body 

 is continually being altered. It scratches out earth, therein 

 overcoming resistance. Again, its temperature is con- 



