PREFACE. 



THE " Practical Dissections" is not a Treatise on 

 Anatomy, nor in any way a substitute for one. It is 

 intended to be simply a practical guide in the ordinary 

 dissections of the Medical Student, describing on the 

 same page, and in connection, the muscles, nerves, 

 arteries, veins, or other structures which are conjointly 

 exposed, and only so far as exposed, in dissecting any 

 one of the parts into which the dead subject is usually 

 divided. Remembering that "the smallness of the size 

 of a book is always its own recommendation, as, on the 

 contrary, the largeness of a book is its own disadvan- 

 tage, as well as the terror of learning," all Minute 

 Anatomy, and the details of arterial distribution, beyond 

 what an ordinary injection exhibits, or of nervous rami- 

 fications which only special dissections can demonstrate, 

 have purposely been omitted, or, if introduced, as has 

 been done almost of necessity in a few places, are ac- 

 companied by the statement that their verification in 

 an ordinary dissection is not to be expected. 



The order observed in the following pages is an 

 entirely arbitrary one, but which an experience of 

 seven years in demonstrating, and more than ten in the 

 special study of Anatomy, has shown to be the most 

 convenient in the Dissecting Room, and the most 

 economical of material. The division of the descrip- 



1* 



