566 APPENDIX. 



special piece or preparation for the study of those serous membranes. 

 He may also very easily inject their interior with plaster of Paris, or 

 with tallow, coloured black, so as to distend their cul-de-sacs, and favour 

 the study of their connections with the ligaments, tendons, or muscles. 



THE MUSCLES. 



Choice of a Subject. If a number of subjects are at the disposal of the 

 student, so that he has it in his power to make a choice, he should give 

 the preference to those in which the muscular system is well developed, 

 avoiding, however, very fat animals. Subjects of small or middle size are 

 always more convenient than those having great masses of muscle and fat. 

 Asses and mules, when they are very lean, show the muscular system 

 very distinctly. 



Position of the Subject. It is important to place the subject, imme- 

 diately after death, in a convenient position, as cadaveric rigidity 

 preserves it. Without this precaution, the different parts of the body of 

 the animal may take an inconvenient attitude, and all attempts to rectify 

 the position will be for some time futile, especially in animals of great 

 size. 



The subject may be placed in three different positions : 



1. The animal is placed in the first position when it is laid upon its 

 back, and the four extremities are raised in the air, and supported by 

 means of cords or ropes fixed to the pasterns and passed through movable 

 rings, which are fixed to the extremity of four upright bars or posts at 

 the corners of the table upon which the animal is laid. The head passes 

 over the end of the table, and rests upon a stool, on a lower level, so that 

 the neck may not be twisted. 



2. To place the animal in the second position, it is turned upon its 

 belly, the extremities extended upon the table, and the head supported 

 between two upright bars, by means of a rope passed under the jaw. 



3. The subject is said to be in the third position when it reposes on 

 its side. 



As far as possible the skin should not be removed, except from those 

 regions which are to be dissected at the time. If it can be done, the 

 student should take the precaution of wrapping up the parts with cloths 

 wet with some preservative fluid, to prevent the drying up of the apo- 

 neuroses and the superficial muscles. 



To dissect a muscle, raise the aponeurosis, or the other muscles which 

 cover it, and dissect off the cellular tissue which enwraps it, the fat, and 

 after ascertaining their names, the glands, vessels, and nerves lodged in 

 the interstices. Dissect the aponeurosis in strips, making the scalpel glide 



