A directory for the dissection of the human body / by John Cleland.

  • Cleland, John, 1835-1925.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A directory for the dissection of the human body / by John Cleland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    clean, without the preliminary of inflating the ab- dominal cavity, a clumsy and inelegant proceeding still recommended by some. Whatever the direction chosen in relation to the muscular fibres, care should be taken so to regulate the line of dissection that the margin of the undissected part, where it meets with the dissection, shall not be allowed to take the form of a concavity, which prevents the textures from being properly stretched. In dissecting blood-vessels it is still more im- portant than in the dissection of muscles that while the point of the scalpel is brought near to the struc- ture, so as to make it perfectly clean, the edge shall be slightly turned away from it, so as to prevent injury to its walls. In tracing nerves, rapid and effective work can often be done by laying hold of the branch to be followed, turning the back of the scalpel towards it, and placing the point close to it, then running the scalpel along its course, so as to divide the con- nective tissue which binds it down. The flattened extremity of the handle of the scalpel is not without its purpose. It is useful in separating structures which are loosely adherent, and has the advantage that with it the dissector feels his way between structures without running the risk of injuring them by cutting. It may be thus used in separating fasciae and laying bare their adhesions, in separating in a preliminary fashion the contents of large spaces like the axilla from the sur- rounding walls, and in following out the planes of contact of muscles which are either in close associa-