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.
We shall divide them into muscles of the thorax, of the abdomen, and of the back.