PART III. 
DISSECTION OF THE RABBIT; 
The plan of dissection as outlined in the following pages pre- 
supposes in the first place that the entire dissection is to be made 
on a single specimen, and, second, 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 with 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 descriptions of selected parts. In this connection 
he will do well to bear in mind that while dissection is nominally a 
means of obtaining anatomical 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 exten- 
sive and accurate as that he should employ only good instruments, 
or maintain the proper sequence in dissection. 
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