Notes on Veterinary Anatomy

Osteology is a term applied to that section of descriptive anatomy which treats of the bones. Arthrology, to the consideration of the joints or modes of union between the bones, while by Myology is meant the doctrine of the muscular system. Splanchnology treats of the viscera, Angiology of the circulatory and absorbent systems. Neurology deals with the nervous system. Aesthesiology with the organs of sense; while Embryology, as before stated is the consideration of the animal frame at periods preceding its birth.

In this work the various departments are discussed in the order here given. The structures which are the subject of the first three divisions are sometimes classed together as the Organs of Locomotion; for bones form the frame work of the body and often act as levers; the joints connect the bones, permitting more or less motion between them; while the muscles move the bones, and so produce motion of a part of the body—or it may be locomotion, or change of situation in the entire frame.

In the study of comparative Anatomy the terms analogy and homology are frequently met with. Although these words are unfrequently used indiscriminately, the following differences should be noted. Organs are said to be analogous when, though differing in structure, they perform the same function; but when their functions are different, which, in the broad sense, they correspond in structure or form, they are said to be homologous. Thus the middle finger of the human hand is the homologue of the anterior (front) digit of a horse, because they have the same general structure, and relation to the rest of the limb; but as the functions they perform are quite dissimilar, they cannot be termed analogous. Again, the lungs of a mammal are analogous to the gills of a fish, for, though they differ widely in structure, position and form, and


 are therefore not homologous, their ultimate use is the same—each of them being an apparatus in which is carried on the process of purifying the blood.