198 ANATOMICAL TECHNOLOGY. 



4. " The best workman uses the best tools." — Owen. 



5. The value of instruments depends not upon their handles, 

 their iinish or their cost, but upon the adaptation of their size, form 

 and temper to the work in hand. 



6. Fingers are often the best forceps. 



7. Handling and cutting are necessary evils. 



8. Neglect of the knife may leave the truth concealed ; its misuse 

 may establish an error. 



9. "Let the eye go before the hand, and the mind before the 

 eye." — O. W. Holmes. 



10. Fat is the anatomist' s worst enemy. 



11. " Drying is even worse than decomposing."— R. M. Hodges. 



12. The skin makes the best wrapper. 



13. There are two sides, but only one meson. 



14. The bones are the guides to the muscles, the muscles to the 

 vessels, and the vessels to the nerves. 



15. The attachments of a muscle determine its homology and 

 function ; the thickness and length of its body indicate respectively 

 its power and the distance through which it may contract. 



16. The attachments of a muscle are often closely associated 

 with those of others, but its body is usually distinct. 



17. In dissecting muscles, the science consists in discriminating 

 between fascia or tendon and mere connective tissue ; the art, in 

 removing the latter so as to leave the muscles distinct. 



18. Dissection according to direction favors the acquisition of 

 methods and the learning of names and specified relations ; but the 

 knowledge of parts is not complete until they have been approached 

 and examined from all sides. See also § 122. 



§ 588. List of Instruments and Materials for the Dissection 

 of Muscles. — Arthrotome, Fig. 16, § 135 ; blocks, § 137 ; coarse 

 forceps, Fig. 18, 145 ; fine forceps. Fig. 20, § 146 ; scalpels, medium 

 and Charriere, Fig. 23, 24, § 155 ; coarse scissors, curved flatwise, 

 Fig. 25, § 156 ; hair scissors, § 158 ; towels, § 165 ; sharp tracer. Fig. 

 17, § 166 ; tray, § 167 ; waste pail, § 195 ; waste papers, § 172 ; 

 wetting bottle, Fig. 27, § 170. 



§ 589. The Material for Dissection. — A lean animal should be 

 preferred ; it should be divided by abdominal transection (§ 234) ; 

 injected with alcohol (§ 285), but not — for the first dissection— with 

 plaster ; kept in 42-55 per cent, alcohol (§ 286), and not allowed to dry. 



