This chapter is concerned with the descriptive anatomy of the bones, joints, and muscles, which is the study of systematic osteology, arthrology, and myology, respectively.

The accounts of these three classes of organs are grouped according to the major divisions of the body—the trunk, the head, the fore­limb, and the hindlimb—as this breaks them into more manageable, and possibly more palatable, fragments.

The system has the further advantage of better suiting the needs of any reader who is concurrently engaged in dissection. The descriptions are based on the structures of the dog, and only the most salient comparative fea­tures are noted. They omit much that is commonly included in books of systematic anatomy, but many additional details, particularly those that have an applied value, are found in the regional chapters. The introduction to each section mentions those features of development that are likely to be immediately helpful in understanding adult anatomy. These digressions are intended to recapitulate, not to supplant, the descrip­tions in the standard embryology texts.

More on the topic This chapter is concerned with the descriptive anatomy of the bones, joints, and muscles, which is the study of systematic osteology, arthrology, and myology, respectively.: