AUTHOR’S PREFACE
This little work is an epitome of a course of lectures which for about ten years I had the honour of delivering at the École des Beaux-Arts. If during that time I have arrived at a right understanding of the teachings of anatomy, I owe it to the great interest taken in the subject by my listeners of all ages; and my first duty is to thank them for their free interchange of ideas with me, thus enabling me to understand their requirements and the mode of satisfying them. But if the mode of exposition I have adopted is to be rendered clear to a constantly renewed audience, I must, in publishing this work, first explain to the reader how the lectures are to be used, and the principles which guided me in their production.
This summary of anatomy is intended for those artists who, having commenced their special studies, have drawn the human form either from the antique or from the living model—who, in a word, have already what may be termed a general idea of forms, attitudes, and movements. It is intended to furnish them with a scientific notion of those forms, attitudes, and movements. Thus it is far less a description of the forms of a particular region than the anatomical explanation of those forms, and of their modifications in a state of repose or movement, that we have in view. That is why, instead of proceeding from the surface to the deeper organs and to the skeleton, we take the latter as the starting-point of our studies. In this way alone can we determine the laws which govern the movements of the adjacent segments of the limbs upon each other, and the movements of the limbs with regard to the trunk, as also the reciprocal action of these segments towards each other and in relation to the whole body.
When to these fundamental notions is added a knowledge of the muscular masses which move these bones, the artist will at once be enabled to analyse through the skin, as through a transparent veil, the action of the parts which produce the various forms with their infinite variety of character and movement.
This method of teaching, which may be said to proceed by synthesis, differs from that followed by the generality of works on this subject—books which treat by analysis. We make special allusion to the treatise of Gerdy,[1] which is about the most careful work on plastic anatomy yet published, but which errs in a somewhat too lengthy description of external form, whilst sufficient space is not devoted to explaining the anatomical reasons of those forms. On the other hand, the remaining anatomical works in the hands of the students in our art schools generally comprise a volume of text and an illustrated atlas.[2] Under these conditions, may I be allowed to remark, somewhat severely, it may be, that our young artists study the atlas by copying and re-copying the plates, but do not read the text? Thus it will be understood why, in this work, a different method has been pursued; and the fact of the plates being intermixed with the text, and in such a way that they cannot well be understood without the aid of the accompanying pages, will in all probability result in the student thoroughly and carefully perusing the text.
Passing on to the manner of using the present work, we must acknowledge that reading anatomical details is at first dry; it will always be so, unless proceeded with in a simple and systematic manner. In the oral courses, the lecturer, handling the objects, and aided by his improvised drawings on the blackboard, can make the most complex parts interesting; and by adroit repetitions and varied illustrations, fix the attention and render the subject comprehensible, whereas it is quite different in a written description. In this case it is the reader who must animate the text for himself by examining and manipulating the parts needful for the elucidation of the descriptions. For this purpose a skeleton and a good plaster cast will suffice. On the cast, with the aid of the plates which accompany the text, it will be easy to follow the course of the muscles; and in this way alone will the study of them become profitable, the student being enabled to examine the model on different sides. By handling the bones, by placing the articulating surfaces in contact, the dry descriptions of the mechanism of the joints will take a tangible form, and will henceforth remain impressed on the memory. For example, notwithstanding our diagrams of the movements of pronation and supination, it is only by handling the bones of the forearm that the student will be enabled to fully appreciate the marvellous mechanism by which the rotation of the radius round the ulna is effected, allowing the hand to present alternately its palmar and dorsal surface; and the same is the case in regard to the skeleton of the foot and head, and the movements of the lower jaw, &c.
The artist will find in this book some pages devoted to the facial angle, to the forms of the head, brachycephalic and dolichocephalic heads, and to some other questions of anthropology, and will doubtless thank us for having considered here ideas which are daily becoming familiar to the general public.
Our only regret concerning these anthropological studies is that the limits of this volume did not permit us to go deeper into the teachings of the anthropological laboratory, the direction of which was confided to me after the loss of our illustrious master, Broca.
I take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to my excellent master, Professor Sappey, who allowed me to borrow from his magnificent treatise on anatomy the figures on osteology and myology which constitute the chief merit of this work; and to my friend and colleague, E. Cuyer, whose skilful pencil reproduced the figures from the photographic atlas of Duchenne, as well as the two illustrations of the Gladiator, and the sundry diagrammatic drawings which complete the theoretical explanations of the text.
M. DUVAL.