Édouard Cuyer

“ The Fibula.—This bone, situated at the back of the external surface of the tibia, is, as we have said, more or less developed. Its superior extremity, or head, articulates with the external tuberosity of the tibia. Its inferior extremity, when it exists—it is this which disappears in animals which have the fibula incompletely developed—forms a prominence which, placed on the external surface of the inferior extremity of the tibia, articulates with the astragalus, and recalls the external malleolus of man. ”

“ The prominence, which also exists in the ox, is a fibro-muscular pad which blends with the orbicular muscle of the lips, and receives on its superior aspect the insertion of the two muscles (levator menti) by which it is suspended. These arise, above, on each side of the symphysis of the inferior maxillary bone. They raise the lower lip with force, and they are the agents which, as we can sometimes observe in the horse, make it click against the upper lip, suddenly projecting it upwards. ”

“ Let us now suppose that a man wishes to walk in the attitude of a quadruped. It will be necessary, in order that his upper limbs, being for the moment anterior ones, may act as members of support, to place the forearm in pronation, in order that, as is more normal, the hands may rest on the ground by their palmar surfaces. In this position the radius, being rotated on its own axis at its upper extremity and around the ulna in the rest of its extent, shall have its inferior extremity situated on the inner side of the corresponding extremity of the latter. ”

“ The necessity of knowing, from an artistic point of view, the structure of the human body makes clear the importance we attach, from the same point of view, to the study of the anatomy of animals—that is, the study of comparative anatomy. ”

“ A fourth muscle exists, which veterinary anatomists include in the study of the three portions of the triceps which we have just been discussing, in giving it the name of small extensor of the forearm. But, as this muscle is no other than the anconeus, and as, in human anatomy, we describe the latter, according to custom, in connection with the forearm, it is when on the subject of the latter that we will concern ourselves with it. ”

“ In animals possessed of hoofs (ungulates) , such as the sheep, ox, and horse, the clavicle does not exist. Indeed, in them the freedom of movement of the anterior limbs is limited; they move by projection in the forward and backward directions only; they merely fulfil the functions of giving support to and carrying about the body. The clavicle is rudimentary in the cat and the dog; in the cat it is a small, elongated bone (Fig. 16) , 2 centimetres in length, thin and curved, connected with the sternum and the scapula by ligamentous bundles. ”

“ With regard to the posterior muscular mass of the arm, it does not undergo the same change. The muscle which constitutes it—the triceps cubiti—occupies, on the contrary, a greater area. Let us suppose, further—for it is the best method of comprehending the homologies which now occupy our attention—the humerus of man to be shortened as before, and directed downwards and backwards (as in quadrupeds) , this bone would form an acute angle with the axillary border of the scapula. ”

“ In our teaching of plastic anatomy, especially at the École des Beaux-Arts—where, for the past nine years, we have had the very great honour of supplementing the teaching of our distinguished master, Mathias Duval, after having been prosector for his course of lectures since 1881—it is our practice to give, as a complement to the study of human anatomy, a certain number of lessons on the anatomy of those animals which artists might be called on to represent. ”

“ We desire, above all, to give some indications which, from the practical point of view, can be utilized in the representation of the horse, and at the beginning to demonstrate the advantages of these indications. Now, there is a fact which we have had occasion to note; it is the following: almost invariably, when a person who is little accustomed to represent the horse, or not previously informed of certain proportions of lengths, begins to draw from nature, the error generally committed is that of making the head too small and the body too long. ”