THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY 



OP THE 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



GENEKAL CONSIDEKATIONS. 



DEFINITION AND DIVISIONS OF ANATOMY. 



Anatomy is the science of organisation ; it studies the structure of 

 animated beings when these have been deprived of life. It comprises two 

 grand divisions : physiological anatomy, which describes healthy organs, and 

 pathological anatomy, whose object is the description of diseased organs. 



Physiological anatomy, in its turn, embraces : 



1. General anatomy, which is occupied with the analogous matters or 

 tissues of the animal body, with regard to their texture, and their physical, 

 chemical, and physiological properties, irrespective of the organs in which 

 these tissues exist. The particular study of the anatomical elements 

 entering into the composition of the tissues is named histology. 



2. Descriptive anatomy, which studies the situation, form, and relation 

 of organs, as well as the relative arrangement of the various tissues 

 composing them, with the exception of the structure and properties of these 

 tissues. 



If this study be devoted to a single species, it is designated special 

 anatomy. Example : human anatomy, or anthropotomy ; the anatomy of the 

 Horse, or Jiippotomy. 



When descriptive anatomy embraces the study of the organisation of the 

 entire animal kingdom, and examines the differences which characterise the 

 same organ or the same series of organs in each class, family, genus, or 

 species, it is named comparative anatomy. Eestricted to the domesticated 

 animals, this study constitutes veterinary anatomy. 



Philosophical or transcendental anatomy differs from comparative anatomy, 

 inasmuch as it indicates the analogies of organs or apparatus, in order to 

 exhibit the simplicity of Nature's plan in the general laws of organisation. 



Finally, if descriptive anatomy is limited to denoting the relations 

 existing between the various organs of a region, particularly with a view to 

 the performance of operations and the diagnosis of external diseases, it takes 

 the names of topographical, regional, or surgical anatomy. 



