Anatomy, Artistic; Animals in art; Zoological illustration
In studying an animal, it is usually by one of its lateral aspects that
one first observes it; it is, in fact, by these aspects that it presents
its greatest dimensions, and that the morphological characters as a
whole can be more readily appreciated. Hence, possibly, the order of
description adopted in most texts, or in the figures which accompany
them. The first representation of the human figure as a whole, in a
treatise on anatomy, represents the anterior aspect; the first view of
the horse as a whole, in a treatise on veterinary anatomy, for example,
is, on the other hand, a lateral view.
We break with this latter custom, and, without taking into account the
tendency above indicated, we will commence our analysis with the study
of the aspect of the trunk, which corresponds to the anterior aspect of
the same region in man.
The first muscles usually presented for study to artists being the
pectorals, it is their homologues that we will first describe here. We
will afterwards describe the abdominal region, then the muscles which
occupy the dorsal aspect of the trunk. With regard to the lateral
surfaces, they will be found, by this fact alone, almost completely
studied, since the muscles of the two preceding (back and abdomen),
spreading out, so to speak, over them, contribute to their formation.
Nothing further will remain but to incorporate with them the muscles of
the shoulder; but these will be studied in connection with the anterior
limbs, from which they cannot be separated.
The neck, in man, may be considered in an isolated fashion, because, on
account of its narrowness in proportion to the width of the shoulders,
it is clearly differentiated from the trunk; for this reason we combine
the study of it with that of the head. In animals, because of the
absence or slight development of the clavicles, the neck is generally
too much confounded with the region of the shoulders to make it
legitimate to separate it from that region in too marked a fashion. It
will, accordingly, be considered next.
We will then undertake the study of the muscles of the limbs, and end
with the myology of the head.
THE MUSCLES OF THE TRUNK
We shall divide them into muscles of the thorax, of the abdomen, and of
the back.
Muscles of the Thorax
=The Pectoralis Major= (Fig. 66, 1, 2; Fig. 67, 3, 4; Fig. 68, 7; Fig.
69, 10; Fig. 70, 11).--Further designated by the name of _superficial
pectoral_, this muscle is described in treatises on veterinary anatomy
as formed of two portions: an anterior one, called the _sterno-humeral_
muscle; the other, situated below and behind the preceding, bearing the
name of _sterno-aponeurotic_.
It occupies the region of the breast, and, as a whole, it takes origin
from the median portion of the sternum, from which it is directed
towards the arm and forearm.
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