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PREFACE 



MANY instructors in anatomy have for some time felt the 

 need of more systematic, more orderly, and more thorough work 

 in the dissecting-room. Anatomy, one of the first sciences to 

 be taught by the laboratory method, has not always kept pace 

 with her younger sister sciences in the advance of methods of 

 instruction. A number of laboratory manuals are, it is true, 

 available ; but it has been complained that even the best of these 

 is unsatisfactory, partly on account of nomenclature, partly 

 because so much is included that the student tends to lean 

 entirely upon his manual, rather than to observe at first hand 

 for himself and to consult larger text-books and atlases. So 

 convinced have some anatomists become of the inadequacy of 

 present manuals that they have banished all dissecting guides 

 from their laboratories, and insisted upon their students work- 

 ing with no guide whatever except large atlases and text-books 

 and occasional hints from the instructor. This latter plan has 

 worked very well in some instances, especially where men enter- 

 ing upon the study of medicine had previously undergone rigid 

 laboratory training in physics, chemistry, and biology. But 

 even such men had to pass through a period of doubt, perplex- 

 ity, and discouragement before they became independent dis- 

 sectors, and some of them completely failed to do so. Students 

 without such preliminary training in science are very apt to 

 be utterly lost if thrown entirely or almost entirely upon their 

 own resources, especially where classes are large and more than 

 ten students have to be cared for by one instructor. It is 

 believed that the use of the Laboratory Manual here presented 

 will enable the good student to become an independent worker 

 much more quickly than wien b^. is left without such guidance ; 

 he will be able to do his wora in less time and can assure himself 

 that he is doing it thoroughly, using the Manual, if he prefer, 

 merely as a control of his work ; at the same time the student 

 who is less well-equipped will be gradually led into independent 

 work, to which he might otherwise never attain. 



There should be also a marked saving of time and energy for 

 the instructor, a matter of no little importance if he is to make 



