The elements of anatomy / by Jones Quain.

  • Quain, Jones, 1796-1865.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of anatomy / by Jones Quain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    These considerations at once point out the neces- sity of applying the principle of analysis, aided by experiment and observation, to the study of Anato- my; they indicate also a mode of arranging diseases according to a natural method, by grouping them to- gether according to their mutual affinities, and there- by introducing into medicine those rigorous methods of investigation which have already effected so much for other departments of natural science. When the structure of the body is investigated in reference to practical Surgery, a different method is pursued. The body is considered as divisible, not into elementary textures, but into separate regions, or compartments, each requiring a special degree of attention, inasmuch as it may become the seat of a disease, or the subject of an accident, requiring an operation for its relief. Anatomy studied in this way becomes a sort of topography, as it includes a consideration of the extent and boundaries of each region, and of the lines and ridges which intersect it, at the same time that they serve as so many land- marks to guide the steps of those who explore it. But attention is not to be confined to the surface of things ; the anatomist dips beneath it, and scrutinises the form, size, and structure of the different lamella? which lie, layer after layer, one upon another, fill- ing up the interval between the skin and the solid substratum, the bone. Each part is thus seen in its natural position, and every circumstance is taken into account which can influence the choice of one operation rather than another, as well as the method of executing every step of the operation which is selected. These views and objects were constantly