A FEW GENEEAL EULES 



OBSERVED IN DISSECTING. 



THE necessary incisions to expose any part, while they 

 follow as nearly as may be the direction of, and penetrate 

 through to, the muscular fibres underlying them, should be 

 arranged in such a manner as to preserve the skin in the 

 largest possible flaps, no other covering of the dissection, 

 when temporarily abandoned, preserving it in an equally 

 good condition. The skin is to be removed only so far as 

 freedom of dissection, in any given region, requires. The 

 fingers should take the place of the forceps as soon as the 

 skin is sufficiently raised, as they stretch it more evenly 

 and over a greater extent of surface. 



In dissecting muscles, the fibres must always, if possible, 

 be made tense. The sheath of a muscle should, as a rule, 

 be detached with the skin and never be left behind for 

 subsequent removal. The knife should operate in long 

 sweeps, using its convexity and not its point, following 

 the direction of the fibres, the dissection of any one 

 bundle of which should be completed in its whole length 

 before a second is commenced. The forceps must never 

 seize the muscular fibres, as by so doing they are torn 

 and made to present a ragged appearance. The deep 

 surface of a muscle is to be cleaned as thoroughly as 

 its superficial ; the tendinous extremities are to be isolated 

 with special pains that their points of attachment may 

 be precisely studied.. When muscles are to be divided, 

 the section should always, if practicable, be made in their 



