PREFACE vii 



on this subject, while putting aside every personal senti- 

 ment of an author. 



No one now disputes the value of anatomical studies 

 made in view of carrying out the artistic representation of 

 man. Nevertheless — for we must provide against all con- 

 tingencies — the conviction on this subject may be more or 

 less absolute ; and yet it must possess this character in an 

 intense degree in order that these studies may be profit- 

 able, and permit the attainment of the goal which is 

 proposed in undertaking them. It is in this way that we 

 ever strive to train the students whose studies we direct ; 

 not only to admit the value of these studies, but to be 

 materially and deeply convinced of the fact without any 

 restriction. Such is the sentiment which we endeavour to 

 create and vigorously encourage. And we may be per- 

 mitted to add that we have often been successful in this 

 direction. 



Therefore it is that, at the beginning of our lectures, and 

 in anticipation of possible objections, we are accustomed 

 to take up the question of the utility of plastic anatomy. 

 And in so doing, it is in order to combat at the outset the 

 idea — as mischievous as it is false — which is sometimes 

 imprudently enunciated, that the possession of scientific 

 knowledge is likely to tarnish the purity and freshness of 

 the impressions received by the artist, and to place shackles 

 on the emotional sincerity of their representation. 



It is chiefly by employment of examples that we ap- 

 proach the subject. These strike the imagination of the 

 student more forcibly, and the presentation of models of 

 a certain choice, although rough in execution, is, in our 

 opinion, preferable to considerations of an order possibly 

 more exalted, but of a character less clearly practical. Let 

 us, then, ask the question : Those artists whose eminence 

 nobody would dare to question, did they study anatomy ? 

 If the answer be in the affirmative, we surely cannot permit 

 ourselves to believe that we can dispense with a similar 



