28 
Organs of the Animal Body : their Forms and Uses. 
Bones are very important organs in the animal-body. They 
form a solid base on which flesh and fat are conveniently sup- 
ported. By their junction with each other, joints are formed 
which are essential to motion from place to place. They also 
form boundaries of cavities in which all the vital organs are 
contained, secure from risk or injury. 
Dissection of a Carcass. 
Under ordinary circumstances, with some knowledge of the 
bones and their uses to start with, the farmer may with some con- 
fidence aspire to a post-mortem examination, and if he desires 
to see the most which can be seen by the rough-and-ready 
method of cutting up which is possible in a field or shed, he 
will arm himself with a strong knife, with a blade some six inches 
long ; a sharp saw, a foot long, without a back ; and an iron hook, 
to use instead of his fingers, to hold any parts which it may be 
necessary to lift up or remove. 
The Skin. — First, if the animal's hide is worth saving, it must 
be taken off carefully, and put on one side, but not without a few 
thoughts as to its structures and uses. 
On the surface the hair or wool is seen coloured variously, 
differing in texture and character in different animals, forming 
a protective covering to the body. 
The skin itself seems to be a mass of dense fibres, closely 
woven together ; but if a very thin slice be cut quite through 
it, and put under a magnifying glass, it will be found that it 
has many parts, all of which have their uses. 
In Fig. 17 the several tissues of the skin are well shown. 
At the upper portion of the figure is the scarf-skin (cuticle), 
which is made up of cells flattened into scales, arranged like 
tiles on the roof of a house, covering the sensitive structures 
beneath. This same structure forms in certain parts of the 
body a still more dense substance, hoof or horn. 
Under the scarf-skin or cuticle is the true skin, with the 
hair-tubes, sweat-glands and their tubes, and the glands which 
secrete a yellow waxy matter, which is very abundant on the 
skin of the sheep, and is known as the "yolk" (sebaceous 
matter). Sweat-tubes end on the surface of the skin, and so do 
the hair-tubes. The tubes which carry the " yolk " usually end 
in the hair-tubes. 
To the naked eye the surface of the skin seems to be quite 
solid. It is really, to use a common expression, " full of holes." 
The sweat-tubes alone in a square inch of the palm of a man's 
hand amount to 3528, and if pulled out straight and joined 
