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 L A B O R AT O RY M A N U A L

for Anatomy &

Physiology
Sixth Edition

Elaine N. Marieb . Lori A. Smith

 EXerCISE

1
The Language
of Anatomy

Materials Objectives
● Human torso model (dissectible) • Describe the anatomical position verbally or by demonstrating it.
● Human skeleton • Demonstrate proficiency in using terms describing body
● Scalpel landmarks, directions, planes, and surfaces.
● Demonstration area:
• Name the body cavities, and indicate important organs in each
Station 1: Sectioned and labeled kidneys
(three separate kidneys uncut or cut so cavity.
that (a) entire, (b) transverse, and (c)
longitudinal sectional views are visible)
Station 2: Gelatin-spaghetti molds

M
ost of us are naturally curious about our bodies. This curiosity is apparent
even in infants, who are fascinated with their own waving hands or their
mother’s nose. Unlike the infant, however, an anatomy student must
learn to identify body structures formally.
This exercise presents some of the most important anatomical terms you will
be using to describe the body and introduces you to gross anatomy, the study of
body structures you can see with your naked eye.

Anatomical Position
When anatomists or doctors refer to specific areas of the human body, they do so
relative to a standard position called the anatomical position. In the anatomical
position, the human body is erect, with head and toes pointed forward and arms
hanging at the sides with palms facing forward (Figure 1.1a).
□ Assume the anatomical position. Notice that it is not particularly comfortable
because you must hold your hands unnaturally forward instead of allowing them
to hang partially cupped toward your thighs.

Surface Anatomy
Body surfaces provide a number of visible landmarks that can be used to study
the body. Several of these are described on the following pages.

Activity 1
Locating Body Landmarks
Anterior Body Landmarks
Identify and use anatomical terms to correctly label the following regions
in Figure 1.1a:

Abdominal: Anterior body trunk region inferior to the ribs

Acromial: Point of the shoulder
Antebrachial: Forearm
Antecubital: Anterior surface of the elbow
Axillary: Armpit
Brachial: Arm
Text continues on next page. ➔
1

M01_MARI6332_06_SE_C01.indd 1 10/09/15 11:47 am

 2 Exercise 1

Thorax

Abdomen

Back (Dorsum)

(a) Anterior/Ventral (b) Posterior/Dorsal

Figure 1.1 Surface anatomy.

Buccal: Cheek Patellar: Anterior knee (kneecap) region

Carpal: Wrist Pelvic: Pelvis region
Cervical: Neck region Pollex: Thumb
Coxal: Hip Pubic: Genital region
Crural: Leg Sternal: Region of the breastbone
Digital: Fingers or toes Tarsal: Ankle
Femoral: Thigh Thoracic: Chest
Fibular: Side of the leg Umbilical: Navel
Hallux: Great toe
Inguinal: Groin Posterior Body Landmarks
Mammary: Breast Identify and appropriately label the following body sur-
Manus: Hand face regions in Figure 1.1b:
Nasal: Nose Brachial: Arm
Oral: Mouth Calcaneal: Heel of the foot
Orbital: Bony eye socket (orbit) Cephalic: Head

M01_MARI6332_06_SE_C01.indd 2 10/09/15 11:47 am

 The Language of Anatomy 3

Cervical: Neck region Otic: Ear

Femoral: Thigh Popliteal: Back of the knee
Fibular: Side of the leg Sacral: Area between the hips
Gluteal: Buttocks or rump Scapular: Scapula or shoulder blade area
Lumbar: Area of the back between the ribs and hips; Sural: Calf or posterior surface of the leg
the loin
Vertebral: Area of the spinal column
Occipital: Posterior aspect of the head or base of the skull
Olecranal: Posterior aspect of the elbow 1

Body Orientation and Direction

Study the terms below (refer to Figure 1.2). Notice as you
read that certain terms have different meanings depending
upon whether they refer to a four-legged animal or to a
human.
Superior/inferior (above/below): These terms refer to the
location of a structure along the long axis of the body. For
example, the nose is superior to the mouth.
Anterior/posterior (front/back): In humans, the most an-
terior structures are those that are most forward—the face,
chest, and abdomen. Posterior structures are those toward the
backside of the body.
Superior
(cephalad)
Posterior
Anterior
(dorsal) (ventral)
Medial/lateral (toward the midline/away from the midline
or median plane): Medial structures are closer to the body
midline (which is the spine in humans). Lateral structures are
farther away from the midline.
The terms described above assume the person is in the
anatomical position. The next four pairs of terms are more
absolute. They do not relate to a particular body position, and
they have the same meaning in all vertebrate animals.
Cephalad/caudal (toward the head/toward the tail): In hu-
mans, these terms are used interchangeably with superior and
inferior. But in four-legged animals, they are synonyms of
anterior and posterior, respectively.
Ventral/dorsal (belly side/backside): In humans, the terms
ventral and dorsal are used interchangeably with the terms
anterior and posterior, but in four-legged animals, ven-
tral and dorsal are synonymous with inferior and superior,
respectively.
Proximal/distal (nearer the trunk or attached end/farther
from the trunk or point of attachment): These terms locate
various areas along the body limbs or an elongated organ,
such as the intestine. For example, the fingers are distal to
the elbow; the knee is proximal to the toes. Note: The terms
proximal and distal would not be used to describe the rela-
tionship of two structures in the torso.
Superficial/deep (toward or at the body surface/away from
the body surface or more internal): For example, the skin is
superficial to the skeletal muscles.

Proximal Activity 2
Practicing Using Correct
Anatomical Terminology
Use a human torso model, a skeleton, or your own body to
specify the relationship between the following structures.
1. The wrist is _______________ to the hand.
Inferior
Distal
(caudal) 2. The trachea (windpipe) is _______________ to the spine.
3. The brain is _______________ to the spinal cord.
4. The kidneys are _______________ to the liver.
Figure 1.2 Anatomical terminology describing body 5. The nose is _______________ to the cheekbones.
orientation and direction in a human.
6. The chest is _______________ to the abdomen.

M01_MARI6332_06_SE_C01.indd 3 10/09/15 11:47 am

 4 Exercise 1

(a) Median (midsagittal) plane (b) Frontal (coronal) plane (c) Transverse plane

Figure 1.3 Planes of the body.

Body Planes and Sections

The body is three-dimensional. So, in order to observe its 4. Draw the appearance of each of these spaghetti
internal parts, it helps to make use of a section, or cut made sections below, and verify the accuracy of your section
along an imaginary surface or line called a plane. There are identifications with your instructor.
three planes of space (Figure 1.3), or sections, that lie at
right angles to one another.
Sagittal plane: A plane that runs lengthwise or longitudi-
nally down the length of the body, dividing it into right and
left parts, is a sagittal plane. If it divides the body into equal
Transverse cut        Longitudinal cut
parts, right down the median plane of the body, it is called a
median, or midsagittal, plane.
Frontal (coronal) plane: A longitudinal plane that divides
the body (or an organ) into anterior and posterior parts. Longitudinal Transverse
Transverse plane: A plane that runs horizontally, dividing sections sections
the body into superior and inferior parts. These sections are
also commonly called cross sections.
A sagittal or frontal section of any nonspherical object,
be it a banana or a body organ, provides quite a different view
from a transverse section (Figure 1.4).

Activity 3
Observing Sectioned Specimens (a)

1. Go to the demonstration area, and observe the entire

(uncut) and transversely and longitudinally cut kidneys
at station 1. Pay close attention to the different structural
details you can see in the sample.
2. After completing step 1, obtain a gelatin-spaghetti mold
and a scalpel and bring them to your laboratory bench.
3. Cut through the gelatin-spaghetti mold along any (b)
plane, and examine the cut surfaces. You should see
spaghetti strands that have been cut transversely (XS)
Figure 1.4 Comparison of longitudinal and transverse
and longitudinally.
sections. Sections of (a) a banana and (b) the small intestine.

M01_MARI6332_06_SE_C01.indd 4 10/09/15 11:47 am

 The Language of Anatomy 5

Body Cavities
The axial portion of the body has two main cavities
(Figure 1.5).
Dorsal Body Cavity
The dorsal body cavity consists of the cranial and spinal cavi-
ties. The cranial cavity, within the rigid skull, contains the
brain. The spinal cavity, which runs within the bony verte-
bral column, protects the spinal cord. Because the spinal cord
is a continuation of the brain, the cavities containing them are
continuous with each other.
Ventral Body Cavity
Like the dorsal cavity, the ventral body cavity is subdivided.
The superior thoracic cavity is separated from the rest of
the ventral cavity by the muscular diaphragm. The heart and
lungs, which are located in the thoracic cavity, are protected
by the bony rib cage. The thoracic cavity is further subdivided
into the lateral pleural cavities, each of which surrounds a
lung, and the medial mediastinum. The mediastinum con-
tains the pericardial cavity, which encloses the heart, and
it also surrounds the remaining thoracic organs (esophagus,
trachea, and others).
The cavity inferior to the diaphragm is the abdomino-
pelvic cavity. Although there is no further physical sepa-
ration of this part of the ventral cavity, some describe the
abdominopelvic cavity in terms of a superior abdominal
cavity, the area that houses the stomach, intestines, liver, and
other organs, and an inferior pelvic cavity, which is partially
enclosed by the bony pelvis and contains the reproductive
organs, bladder, and rectum. The pelvic cavity tips away from
the abdominal cavity in a posterior direction (Figure 1.5).
1
Abdominopelvic Quadrants and Regions
The abdominopelvic cavity is quite large and contains many
organs, so it is helpful to divide it up into smaller areas for
study. The medical scheme divides the abdominal surface
(and the abdominopelvic cavity deep to it) into four approxi-
mately equal regions called quadrants, named according to
their relative position—that is, right upper quadrant, right
lower quadrant, left upper quadrant, and left lower quadrant
(Figure 1.6). Note: These directions refer to the patient’s
left and right—not yours!
Another scheme, commonly used by anatomists, di-
vides the abdominal surface and abdominopelvic cavity into
nine separate regions by four planes (Figure 1.7a). Read
through the descriptions of these nine regions below and lo-
cate them in the figure. Notice the organs they contain (refer
to Figure 1.7b).
Umbilical region: The centermost region, which includes the
umbilicus (navel, or “belly button”).

Cranial
Cranial cavity cavity
(contains brain)

Vertebral
cavity

Superior
Dorsal mediastinum
Thoracic
body cavity Pleural
cavity (contains cavity
heart and
lungs) Pericardial
cavity within
the mediastinum
Vertebral cavity
(contains spinal Diaphragm Ventral body
cord) cavity
(thoracic and
Abdominal cavity abdominopelvic
(contains digestive Abdomino- cavities)
viscera) pelvic
cavity

Pelvic cavity
(contains urinary
Dorsal body cavity bladder, reproductive
Ventral body cavity organs, and rectum)

(a) Lateral view (b) Anterior view

Figure 1.5 Body cavities.

M01_MARI6332_06_SE_C01.indd 5 10/09/15 11:47 am

 6 Exercise 1

Epigastric region: Immediately superior to the umbilical

region; overlies most of the stomach.
Hypogastric (pubic) region: Immediately inferior to the
umbilical region; encompasses the pubic area.
Iliac regions: Lateral to the hypogastric region and overlying
the superior parts of the hip bones.
Lumbar regions: Between the ribs and the flaring portions
of the hip bones; lateral to the umbilical region.
1 Hypochondriac regions: Flanking the epigastric region lat-
erally and overlying the lower ribs.
Right upper Left upper
quadrant quadrant
Activity 4 (RUQ) (LUQ)

Locating Abdominal Surface Regions

Locate the regions of the abdominal surface on a torso Right lower Left lower
model and on yourself before continuing. quadrant quadrant
(RLQ) (LLQ)

Figure 1.6 Abdominopelvic quadrants. Superficial

organs shown in each quadrant.

Liver Diaphragm
Right Left
Epigastric Spleen
hypochondriac hypochondriac
region Gallbladder Stomach
region region

Ascending colon of Transverse colon

Right Left of large intestine
Umbilical large intestine
lumbar lumbar
region region region Small intestine Descending colon
of large intestine
Cecum Initial part of
Right iliac Hypogastric Left iliac
(inguinal) (pubic) (inguinal) sigmoid colon
Appendix
region region region
Urinary bladder

(a) (b)

Figure 1.7 Abdominopelvic regions. Nine regions defined by four planes. (a) The
superior horizontal plane is just inferior to the ribs; the inferior horizontal plane is
at the superior aspect of the hip bones. The vertical planes are just medial to the
nipples. (b) Superficial organs are shown in each region.

M01_MARI6332_06_SE_C01.indd 6 10/09/15 11:47 am

 E xe r cise

1 Review Sheet
The Language of Anatomy
Name ________________________________________________________ Lab Time/Date ____________________________________

Surface Anatomy
1. Match each of the following descriptions with a key term, and write the term in front of the description.

Key: acromial cervical patellar scapular

brachial crural popliteal vertebral
carpal digital

1. lower portion of the lower limb 6. anterior aspect of knee

2. referring to the fingers 7. referring to the arm

3. posterior aspect of the knee 8. your backbone, or spine

4. shoulder blade region 9. point of the shoulder

5. wrist area 10. referring to the neck

Body Orientation, Direction, Planes, and Sections

2. Several incomplete statements are listed below. Correctly complete each statement by choosing the appropriate
anatomical term from the key. Write the key terms on the correspondingly numbered blanks below. Some terms may
be used more than once.

Key: anterior inferior posterior superior

distal lateral proximal transverse
frontal medial sagittal

In the anatomical position, the umbilicus and knees are on the 1 body surface; the calves and shoulder blades
are on the 2 body surface; and the soles of the feet are the most 3 part of the body. The ears are 4 and 4 to
the shoulders and 5 to the nose. The breastbone is 6 to the vertebral column (spine) and 7 to the shoulders. The
elbow is 8 to the shoulder but 9 to the fingers. The thoracic cavity is 10 to the abdominopelvic cavity and 11 to
the spinal cavity. In humans, the ventral surface can also be called the 12 surface; however, in quadruped animals,
the ventral surface is the 13 surface.
If an incision cuts the brain into superior and inferior parts, the section is a 14 section; but if the brain is cut so
that anterior and posterior portions result, the section is a 15 section. You are told to cut a dissection animal along
two planes so that the lungs are observable in both sections. The body plane that would not meet these criteria is 16 .

1.  6.  12. 

2.  7.  13. 

3.  8.  14. 

4.  9.  15. 

 10.  16. 

5.  11. 
7

M01_MARI6332_06_SE_C01.indd 7 10/09/15 11:47 am

 8 Review Sheet 1

3. A nurse informs you that she is about to give you a shot in the lateral femoral region. What portion of your body should
you uncover?

������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

4. Correctly identify each of the body planes by inserting the appropriate term for each on the answer line below the
drawing.

1. ������������������������������� 2. ������������������������������� 3. �������������������������������

Body Cavities
5. Which body cavity would have to be opened for the following types of surgery? (Insert the key term(s) in the same-
numbered blank. More than one choice applies.)

Key: abdominopelvic dorsal thoracic

cranial spinal ventral

1. surgery to remove a cancerous lung lobe 1. ������������������������������������������������

2. gastric bypass surgery to reduce the size of the stomach 2. ������������������������������������������������

3. surgery to remove a ruptured spinal disk 3. ������������������������������������������������

4. appendectomy (surgical removal of the appendix) 4. ������������������������������������������������

5. removal of a brain tumor 5. ������������������������������������������������

6. removal of the gallbladder 6. ������������������������������������������������

6. Correctly identify each of the described areas of the abdominal surface by inserting the appropriate term in the answer
blank preceding the description.

1. overlies the lateral aspects of the lower ribs

2. surrounds the “belly button”

3. encompasses the pubic area

4. medial region overlying the stomach

7. What are the bony landmarks of the abdominopelvic cavity? ���������������������������������������������������

������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

8. Which body cavity provides the least protection to its internal structures? ���������������������������������������

M01_MARI6332_06_SE_C01.indd 8 10/09/15 11:47 am

 Exercise

2 Organ Systems Overview

Materials Objectives
● Freshly killed or predissected rat • Identify several organs of the various organ systems on a
(if available) dissected rat.
● Probes
• Identify several organs on a dissectible human torso model,
● Forceps
and, given a list of organs, assign each to the correct organ
● Scissors
system.
● Dissecting pins or twine
● Dissecting trays
● Disposable gloves
Human torso model (dissectible)

T
●

he building block of all living things is the cell. Cells fall into four different
groups according to their structures and functions. These categories corre-
spond to the four tissue types: epithelial, muscular, nervous, and connective.
An organ is a structure composed of two or more tissue types that performs a
specific function for the body. For example, the small intestine, which digests and
absorbs nutrients, contains all four tissue types.
An organ system is a group of organs that act together to perform a particu-
lar body function. For example, digestive system organs work together to break
down foods moving through the digestive system and absorb the end products
into the bloodstream to provide nutrients for all the body’s cells.
An important concept in your study of anatomy and physiology is homeo-
stasis, which can be defined as a state of body equilibrium or a stable internal
environment of the body. Keep this concept in mind as you study the organ sys-
tems listed in Table 2.1 and begin to think about how each of these important
systems works to maintain homeostasis in the human body.

Activity 1
Studying the Organ Systems of the Body and Their Functions
In all, there are 11 organ systems (Table 2.1). Read through this summary
before beginning the rat dissection.

D i ss e c t i o n

Rat Dissection and/or Observation

Many of the external and internal structures of the rat are quite similar
in structure and function to those of the human, so a study of the gross
anatomy of the rat should help you understand your own physical structure.
The following instructions complement and direct your dissection and
observation of a rat. In addition, you can easily adapt the general instructions
for observing external structures to observing a human cadaver, if cadavers
are available.
Note that four organ systems—integumentary, skeletal, muscular, and
nervous—will not be studied at this time, because they require microscopic
study or more detailed dissection.

M02_MARI6332_06_SE_C02.indd 9 10/09/15 11:55 am

 10 Exercise 2
Table 2.1 Overview of Organ Systems of the Body
Organ system Major component organs
Integumentary Skin, nails, and hair; cutaneous
sense organs and glands
Skeletal Bones, cartilages, tendons,
2 ligaments, and joints
Muscular Muscles attached to the skeleton
Nervous Brain, spinal cord, nerves, and
sensory receptors
Endocrine Pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid,
adrenal, and pineal glands; ovaries,
testes, and pancreas
Cardiovascular Heart, blood vessels, and blood
Lymphatic/immune Lymphatic vessels, lymph nodes,
spleen, thymus, and tonsils
Respiratory Nose, pharynx, larynx, trachea,
bronchi, and lungs
Digestive Mouth, esophagus, stomach, small
and large intestines, and accessory
structures (teeth, salivary glands,
liver, gallbladder, and pancreas)
Urinary Kidneys, ureters, urinary bladder,
and urethra
Reproductive Male: testes, scrotum, penis, and
duct system, which carries sperm to
the body exterior
Female: ovaries, uterine tubes,
uterus, and vagina
M02_MARI6332_06_SE_C02.indd 10
Function
• P
 rotects deeper organs from injury due to bumps, chemicals, bacteria,
and dehydration (drying out)
• Excretes salts and urea
• Helps regulate body temperature
• Supports and protects internal organs
• Provides levers for muscular action
• Stores minerals (calcium and others)
• Cavities provide a site for blood cell formation
• S
 keletal muscles contract, or shorten; in doing so, they move bones to
allow motion (running, walking, etc.), grasping and manipulating the
environment, and facial expression
• Generates heat
• A
 llows body to detect changes in its internal and external environment
and to respond to such information by activating appropriate muscles or
glands
• Helps maintain short-term homeostasis of the body by rapidly
transmitting electrical signals
• P
 romotes growth and development; produces chemical “messengers”
(hormones) that travel in the blood to exert their effect(s) on various
target organs of the body
• Plays a role in regulating long-term homeostasis
• C arries blood containing oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, wastes, ions,
hormones, and other substances to and from the cells where exchanges
are made; pumping action of the heart propels blood through the blood
vessels.
• Protects body with blood clots, antibodies, and other protein molecules
in the blood
• P icks up fluid leaked from the blood vessels and returns it to the blood
• Cleanses blood of pathogens and other debris
• Houses cells (lymphocytes and others) that act in the immune response
to protect the body from foreign substances (antigens)
• K eeps the blood continuously supplied with oxygen while removing
carbon dioxide
• Contributes to the acid-base balance of the blood via its carbonic acid/
bicarbonate buffer system
• B
 reaks down ingested foods to tiny particles, which can be absorbed into
the blood for delivery to the body’s cells
• Undigested residue leaves the body as feces
• F ilters the blood and then rids the body of nitrogen-containing wastes
(urea, uric acid, and ammonia) that result from the breakdown of
proteins and nucleic acids by the body’s cells.
• Maintains water, electrolyte, and acid-base balance of blood
• Produces germ cells (sperm) for producing offspring
• P
 roduces germ cells (eggs); the female uterus houses a developing fetus
until birth
10/09/15 11:55 am

Activity 2
Observing External Structures
1. If your instructor has provided a predissected rat, go
to the demonstration area to make your observations.
Alternatively, if you and/or members of your group
will be dissecting the specimen, obtain a preserved or
freshly killed rat (one for every two to four students), a
dissecting tray, dissecting pins, scissors, forceps, and
disposable gloves. Bring these items to your laboratory
bench.
! 2. Don the gloves before beginning your obser-
vations. This precaution is particularly important
when you are handling freshly killed animals, which may
harbor internal parasites.
3. Observe the major divisions of the animal’s body—
head, trunk, and extremities. Compare these divisions to
those of humans.
Figure 2.1 Rat dissection: Securing for
dissection and the initial incision.
(a) Securing the rat to the dissection
tray with dissecting pins. (b) Using
scissors to make the incision on the
median line of the abdominal region.
(c) Completed incision from the pelvic
region to the lower jaw. (d) Reflecting
(folding back) the skin to expose the
underlying muscles.
(a)
(c)
M02_MARI6332_06_SE_C02.indd 11
Organ Systems Overview 11
Activity 3
Examining the Mouth (Oral Cavity)
Examine the structures of the mouth or oral cavity, the
most superior part of the digestive system. Identify the
teeth and tongue. Observe the hard palate (the part sup-
ported by bone) and the soft palate (immediately poste-
rior to the hard palate and with no bony support). Notice
that the posterior end of the oral cavity leads into the
2
throat, or pharynx, a passageway used by both the di-
gestive and respiratory systems.
Activity 4
Opening the Ventral Body Cavity
1. Pin the animal to the wax of the dissecting tray by
placing its dorsal side down and securing its extremities
to wax (Figure 2.1a).
Text continues on next page. ➔
(b)
(d)
10/09/15 11:55 am
 12 Exercise 2

2. Lift the abdominal skin with a forceps, and cut

through it with the scissors (Figure 2.1b). Close the
scissor blades and insert them under the cut skin.
Moving in a cephalad direction, open and close the
blades to loosen the skin from the underlying connective
tissue and muscle. Once you have completed this skin-
freeing procedure, cut the skin along the body midline,
from the pubic region to the lower jaw (Figure 2.1c).
Make a lateral cut about halfway down the ventral
2 surface of each limb. Complete the job of freeing the
skin with the scissor tips, and pin the flaps to the
tray (Figure 2.1d). The underlying tissue that is now
exposed is the skeletal musculature of the body wall
and limbs. It allows voluntary body movement. Notice
that the muscles are packaged in sheets of pearly white
connective tissue (fascia), which protect the muscles
and bind them together.
3. Carefully cut through the muscles of the abdominal
wall in the pubic region, avoiding the underlying or-
gans. Remember, to dissect means “to separate”—not
mutilate! Now, hold and lift the muscle layer with a for-
ceps and cut through the muscle layer from the pubic
region to the bottom of the rib cage. Make two lateral
Figure 2.2 Rat dissection: Opening the ventral body
cuts through the rib cage (Figure 2.2). You should
cavity. Making lateral cuts at the base of the rib cage.
easily see a thin membrane attached to the inferior
boundary of the rib cage: this is the diaphragm, which
separates the thoracic and abdominal cavities. Cut the carefully cut through the rib cage to view the contents
diaphragm away to loosen the rib cage. You can now of the thoracic cavity.

Activity 5
Examining the Ventral Body Cavity
1. Examine the structures of the thoracic cavity, starting
with the most superficial structures and working deeper.
As you work, refer to the figure that shows the superficial
thoracic organs (Figure 2.3).
Thymus: An irregular mass of glandular tissue overlying
the heart.
With a probe, push the thymus to the side to view the heart.
Diaphragm: A thin muscular membrane attached to the
inferior boundary of the rib cage; separates the thoracic
and abdominopelvic cavities.
Follow the esophagus through the diaphragm to its junc-
tion with the stomach.
Stomach: A curved organ important in food digestion
and temporary food storage.

Heart: Medial oval structure that lies between the lungs.
Lungs: Lateral to the heart on either side.
Now observe the throat region to identify the trachea.
Trachea: Tubelike “windpipe” running medially down the
throat; part of the respiratory system.
Follow the trachea into the thoracic cavity. Notice where
it divides into two branches—these are the bronchi.
Bronchi: Two passageways that plunge laterally into the
tissue of the two lungs.
To expose the esophagus, push the trachea to one side.
Esophagus: A food chute; the part of the digestive sys-
tem that transports food from the pharynx (throat) to the
stomach.
2. Examine the superficial structures of the abdom-
inopelvic cavity. Lift the greater omentum, an apronlike
membrane fold that covers the abdominal organs.
Continuing from the stomach, trace the rest of the
digestive tract (Figure 2.3b).
Small intestine: A long coiled tube connected to the
stomach and ending just before the saclike cecum.
Large intestine: A large muscular tube coiled within the
abdomen.
Follow the course of the large intestine, which begins at
the saclike cecum, frames the small intestine, and ends
at the rectum. Notice that it is partially covered by the
urinary bladder.
Rectum: Terminal part of the large intestine; continuous
with the anal canal.

M02_MARI6332_06_SE_C02.indd 12 10/09/15 11:55 am

 Organ Systems Overview 13

Trachea

Thymus

Heart
Lung
Diaphragm

Liver

(a) Thoracic cavity

Liver

Stomach

Spleen

Small intestine

Large intestine

Urinary bladder

(b) Abdominal cavity

Figure 2.3 Rat dissection: Superficial organs of the thoracic and abdominal
cavities.
Text continues on next page. ➔

M02_MARI6332_06_SE_C02.indd 13 10/09/15 11:55 am

 14 Exercise 2

Inferior vena cava Descending aorta

Adrenal gland
Kidney

Ureter Ureter
2

Urinary bladder

Seminal gland
Prostate

Bulbo-urethral gland

Ductus (vas) deferens Penis

Testis
Rectum
Scrotum
Anus

(a) Male

Adrenal gland
Kidney

Descending aorta
Ureter

Ovary

Uterine horns

Uterus
Urinary bladder
Vagina

Urethral opening
Vaginal orifice
Anus

(b) Female

Figure 2.4 Rat dissection: Deeper organs of the abdominopelvic cavity.

M02_MARI6332_06_SE_C02.indd 14 10/09/15 11:55 am


Anus: The opening of the digestive tract (anal canal) to
the exterior.
Now lift the small intestine with the forceps to view the
mesentery.
Mesentery: A delicate membrane; suspends the small
intestine in the abdominal cavity. Notice that it is heavily
invested with blood vessels.
Locate the remaining abdominal structures.
Pancreas: A diffuse gland; rests posterior to and between
the first portion of the small intestine and the stomach.
You will need to lift the stomach to view the pancreas.
Spleen: A dark red organ curving around the left lateral
side of the stomach; considered part of the lymphatic
system.
Liver: Large and brownish red; the most superior organ in
the abdominal cavity, directly inferior to the diaphragm.
3. To locate the deeper structures of the abdominopelvic
cavity, move the stomach and the intestines to one side
with the probe. Refer to Figure 2.4 as you work.
Examine the posterior wall of the abdominal cavity to
locate the two kidneys.
Kidneys: Bean-shaped organs; secured to the posterior
wall of the body trunk.
Adrenal glands: Small glands that sit on the top of each
kidney; considered part of the endocrine system.
Carefully strip away part of the membrane covering a
kidney with forceps. Attempt to follow the course of one
of the ureters to the bladder.
Ureter: Tube running from the indented region of a kid-
ney to the urinary bladder (see also Figure 2.4b).
Urinary bladder: The sac in the pelvis that serves as a
reservoir for urine.
Activity 6
Examining the Human Torso Model
1. Examine a human torso model to identify the organs
listed below. If a torso model is not available, refer to
Figure 2.5 for part of this exercise. You’ll need to re-
move some organs on the model to see deeper organs.
Dorsal body cavity: Brain, spinal cord
Thoracic cavity: Heart, lungs, bronchi, trachea, esopha-
gus, diaphragm, thyroid gland
Abdominopelvic cavity: Liver, gall bladder, stomach,
pancreas, spleen, small intestine, large intestine, rec-
tum, kidneys, ureters, bladder, adrenal gland, uterus,
descending aorta, inferior vena cava
M02_MARI6332_06_SE_C02.indd 15
Organ Systems Overview 15
4. In the midline of the body cavity lying between the
kidneys are the two principal abdominal blood vessels.
Identify each.
Inferior vena cava: The large vein that returns blood to
the heart from the lower regions of the body.
Descending aorta: Deep to the inferior vena cava; the
largest artery of the body; carries blood away from the
heart down the midline of the body.
2
5. You will perform only a cursory examination of re-
productive organs. First determine whether the animal
is a male or female. Observe the ventral body surface
beneath the tail. If a saclike scrotum and a single body
opening are visible, the animal is a male. If three body
openings are present, it is a female. (See Figure 2.4.)
Male Rat
Make a shallow incision into the scrotum. Loosen and lift
out the oval testis. Pull very gently on the testis to iden-
tify the slender ductus deferens, or sperm duct, which
carries sperm from the testis superiorly into the abdomi-
nal cavity and joins with the urethra. The urethra runs
through the penis of the male and carries both urine and
sperm out of the body. Identify the penis, extending from
the bladder to the ventral body wall. You may see other
glands of the male reproductive system (Figure 2.4a), but
you don’t need to identify them at this time.
Female Rat
Inspect the pelvic cavity to identify the Y-shaped uterus
lying against the dorsal body wall and beneath the blad-
der (Figure 2.4b). Follow one of the uterine horns supe-
riorly to identify an ovary, a small oval structure at the
end of the uterine horn. (The rat uterus is quite different
from the uterus of a human female, which is a single-
chambered organ about the size and shape of a pear.)
The inferior undivided part of the rat uterus is continu-
ous with the vagina, which leads to the body exterior.
Identify the vaginal orifice (external vaginal opening).
2. Before continuing, identify each organ with a leader
line in Figure 2.5.
3. Assign all of the structures listed above to one of the
following organ system categories.
Digestive:

Urinary:

Text continues on next page. ➔
10/09/15 11:55 am
 16 Exercise 2

Cardiovascular:

Endocrine:

Reproductive: 

Respiratory:
2


Lymphatic: 

Nervous: 

Figure 2.5 Human torso model.

M02_MARI6332_06_SE_C02.indd 16 10/09/15 11:55 am

 Exercise

2 Review Sheet
Organ Systems Overview
Name ________________________________________________________ Lab Time/Date ____________________________________

1. Using the key, indicate which body system matches each of the following descriptions. Then, circle the organ systems
(in the key) that are present in all subdivisions of the ventral body cavity.

Key: cardiovascular integumentary nervous skeletal

digestive lymphatic reproductive urinary
endocrine muscular respiratory

1. rids the body of nitrogen-containing wastes

2. is affected by removal of the adrenal gland

3. protects and supports body organs; provides a framework for muscular action

4. includes arteries and veins

5. composed of glands that secrete hormones

6. external body covering

7. houses cells involved in the body’s immune response

8. breaks down ingested food into its absorbable units

9. loads oxygen into the blood

10. uses blood as a transport vehicle

11. generates body heat and provides for movement of the body as a whole

12. regulates water and acid-base balance of the blood

and 13. necessary for conception and childbearing

14. is damaged when you fall and scrape your knee

2. Using the above key, choose the organ system to which each of the following sets of organs or body structures
belongs:

1. lymph nodes, spleen, lymphatic vessels 4. trachea, bronchi, lungs

2. bones, cartilages, ligaments 5. uterus, ovaries, vagina

3. thyroid, pancreas, pituitary gland 6. arteries, veins, heart

17

M02_MARI6332_06_SE_C02.indd 17 10/09/15 11:55 am

 18 Review Sheet 2

3. Using the key below, place the following organs in their proper body cavity. Some responses may be used more than
once.

Key: abdominopelvic cranial spinal thoracic

1. stomach 6. urinary bladder

2. esophagus 7. heart

3. large intestine 8. trachea

4. liver 9. brain

5. spinal cord 10. rectum

4. Using the organs listed in item 3 above, record, by number, which would be found in the following abdominopelvic
regions:

1. hypogastric region 4. epigastric region

2. right lumbar region 5. left iliac region

3. umbilical region 6. left hypochondriac region

5. The five levels of organization of a living body, beginning with the cell, are as follows: cell, ,

, , and organism.

6. Define organ: �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

7. Using the terms provided, correctly identify all of the body organs provided with leader lines in the drawings below.
Then name the organ systems by entering the name of each on the answer blank below each drawing.

Key: blood vessels heart nerves spinal cord urethra

brain kidney sensory receptor ureter urinary bladder

1.  2.  3. 

M02_MARI6332_06_SE_C02.indd 18 10/09/15 11:55 am

Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Once more, far be it from any reasonable person to blame
Erasmus, or any of his immediate contemporaries, for not doing what
it was not their chief business to do. That chief business, in the
direction of criticism, was to shake off the critical promiscuousness of
the Middle Ages, to insist on the importance of accurate texts and
exact renderings, to stigmatise the actual barbarism, the mere
mumpsimus, which had no doubt too often taken the place not only
of pure classical Latinity, not only of the fine if not classical Latin of
Tertullian and Augustine and Jerome, but of that exquisite “sport” the
Latin of the early Middle Age hymns, to hammer Greek into men’s
heads (or elsewhere), to clear up the confusion of dates and times
and values, which had put the false Callisthenes on a level with
Arrian, and exalted Dares above Homer. Even the literary beauty of
the classics themselves was not their main affair;—they had to
inculcate school-work rather than University work, University work
rather than the maturer study of literature. Of the vernaculars it was
best that they should say nothing: for except Italian none was in a
very good state, and Humanists were much more likely to speak
unadvisedly with their lips if they did speak on the subject. They
worked their work: well were it for all if others did the same.
For the reasons given, then, Erasmus and those whom he
represents[18] could do little for criticism proper; and for the same (or
Distribution of yet others closely connected) the northern nations,
the Book. of whom Erasmus is the most distinguished literary
representative, could for a long time do as little: while some of them
for a much longer did nothing at all. Of the others, the criticism of
Spain, the criticism of France, and the criticism of England were all
borrowed directly from that of Italy. The Spaniards did not begin till
so late that their results, like those of Opitz and other Germans,
cannot be properly treated till the next Book. France was stirred
about the middle of the century, and England a very little later. These
two countries, therefore, will properly have each its chapter in the
present book. But two of much more importance must first be given
to those Italian developments, in our Art or Study, on which both
French and English criticism are based. The first will deal with those
who write, roundly speaking, before Scaliger; the second with the
work of that redoubted Aristarch, with the equally—perhaps the more
—important name of Castelvetro, with the weary wrangle over the
Gerusalemme Liberata (which, weary as it is, is the first great critical
debate over a contemporary vernacular work of importance, and
therefore within measure not to be missed by us), and with certain of
the later Italian critical theorists, of the sixteenth and earliest
seventeenth century, who are valuable, some as continuing, some
as more or less ineffectually fighting against, the neo-classic
domination.

1. At the beginning of Book III. I had practically no obligations to

any general guide to confess; at the beginning of Book II. not very
many. Here, as in the case of M. Egger in regard to Book I., I have
cheerfully to acknowledge the forerunnership and help of Mr Joel
Elias Spingarn, whose History of Literary Criticism in the
Renaissance appeared (New York and London) in 1899. I shall have
occasion to differ with Mr Spingarn here and there; and his
conception of a History of Criticism is not mine, just as, no doubt,
mine is not his. But the obligations of the second treader of a
previously untrodden path to the first are perhaps the greatest that
fall to be acknowledged in any literary task; and I acknowledge them
in Mr Spingarn’s case to the fullest extent possible.
2. The complaints sometimes made as to the ambiguity and want
of authority of this term may have some justification; but
convenience and (by this time) usage must be allowed their way.
3. Mr Froude in the opening of his History.
4. The complete text was, as is well known, not discovered (by
Poggio at St Gallen) till the fifteenth century had nearly filled its
second decade, but the book had been studied long before.
5. Very great influence on sixteenth, and even on seventeenth,
century criticism has also been frequently, and perhaps correctly,
assigned to the grammatical works and Terentian Scholia of
Donatus.
6. Vol. i. p. 457 sq.
7. Spingarn, op. cit., p. 2. On the previous page there is the
equally surprising statement that in the Middle Ages “Poetry was
disregarded or contemned, or was valued, if at all, for qualities that
least belong to it.” What were these “qualities”?
 8. Vol. i. p. 414 note
9. Vol. i. pp. 67, 68.
10. Erasmus is still only readable as a whole, or in combination of
his really important literary work, in the folios of Beatus Rhenanus (8
vols., Basle, 1540-1) or Le Clerc (10 vols., Lyons, 1703-6). It is a
thousand pities that this more important literary work, at least, has
not been re-edited together accessibly and cheaply.
11. First printed at Basle, 1528. Besides the general editions, there
are some separate reprints (e.g., Oxford, 1693). But it ought to have
shared the popular diffusion of the Colloquies.
12. I use the Tauchnitz ed. (with the Encomium Moriæ) in 2 vols.
(Leipsic: 1829).
13. V. E. Fournier, Théâtre Français avant la Renaissance (Paris,
n. d.), p. 334 sq. It is not at all impossible that the indebtedness may
be the other way. The dates of these pieces are very uncertain.
14. I use the London folio of 1642, where the letter to Hessus, the
Fifth of the Twenty-sixth book, will be found at col. 1407-10. I wish
Mr Nichols’ excellent rearrangement had been available. But even its
first volume only appeared when this book was in the printer’s
hands.
15. Hessus, it may be not superfluous to say, was one of the
authors of the Epistolæ Obscurorum, and in verse one of the very
best Humanists of Germany.
16. Mihi semper placuit carmen quod a prosa, sed optima, non
longe recederet.—Op. cit., col. 420.
17. Those who would like to continue this may look, among many
other places, at xii. 7 (praise of Politian); xv. 17 (jubilation over the
confusion of Humanism); xvii. 11 (ditto to Vives); xxi. 4 (a good deal
on writers both ancient and modern), and especially xxvi. 5 (above
noticed).
18. See infra (pp. 27-29) on Augustinus Olmucensis (Käsenbrot)
and Cornelius Agrippa.
 CHAPTER II.

EARLY ITALIAN CRITICS.

THE BEGINNINGS—SAVONAROLA—PICO, ETC.—POLITIAN—THE ‘MANTO’—
THE ‘AMBRA’ AND ‘RUSTICUS’—THE ‘NUTRICIA’—THEIR MERITS AND
DANGER—PETRUS CRINITUS: HIS ‘DE POETIS LATINIS’—AUGUSTINUS
OLMUCENSIS: HIS ‘DEFENCE OF POETRY’—PARADOXICAL ATTACKS
ON IT BY CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, LANDI, BERNI—VIDA—IMPORTANCE
OF THE ‘POETICS’—ANALYSIS OF THE PIECE—ESSENTIAL POVERTY
OF ITS THEORY—HISTORICAL AND SYMPTOMATIC SIGNIFICANCE—
THE ALLEGED APPEAL TO REASON AND NATURE—THE MAIN STREAM
STARTED—TRISSINO—DIVISION OF HIS ‘POETIC’—HIS CRITICAL
VALUE—EDITORS, ETC., OF THE ‘POETICS’—PAZZI—ROBORTELLO,
SEGNI, MAGGI, VETTORI—THEORISTS: DANIELLO—FRACASTORO—
FORMALISTS: MUTIO. TOLOMEI AND CLASSICAL METRES—OTHERS:
TOMITANO, LIONARDI, B. TASSO, CAPRIANO—IL LASCA—BEMBO—
CARO—VARCHI—MINTURNO—THE ‘DE POETA’—THE ‘ARTE POETICA’—
THEIR VALUE—GIRALDI CINTHIO’S ‘DISCORSI’—ON ROMANCE—ON
DRAMA—SOME POINTS IN BOTH—ON SATIRE—PIGNA—LILIUS
GIRALDUS: HIS ‘DE POETIS NOSTRORUM TEMPORUM’—ITS WIDTH OF
RANGE—BUT NARROWNESS OF VIEW—HORROR AT PREFERENCE OF
VERNACULAR TO LATIN—YET A REAL CRITIC IN BOTH KINDS—SHORT
‘PRÉCIS’ OF THE DIALOGUES—THEIR GREAT HISTORIC VALUE.

It is not necessary to discuss, or even to expose at any length, the

causes of the relative precocity of Italian Criticism in the
The Renaissance. They are practically all contained in,
beginnings. and can by the very slightest expense of learning
and intelligence be extracted from, the fact that Italy was at once the
cradle of Humanist study of the Classics, and the only country in
Europe which possessed a fully developed vernacular. But for the
greater part of the fifteenth century attention was diverted from
actual criticism—except of the validating or invalidating kind—by the
prior and eagerer appetite for the discovery, study, and popularising,
by translation and otherwise, of the actual authors and texts. For a
long time, indeed, this appetite showed the usual promiscuity of such
affections; and it was scarcely till the time of Vittorino da Feltre that
much critical discrimination of styles was introduced. But these and
other kindred things came surely, and brought criticism with them,
though criticism still generally of the moral and educational kind. The
Boccaccian defence was taken up by various writers of note—Bruni,
[19]
Guarino, Æneas Sylvius—and before the close of the fifteenth
century two of the greatest of Florentines had indicated in different
ways the main lines which Italian criticism was to take. These two
were Savonarola and Politian.
The tendency of each could be anticipated by any one who,
though actually ignorant of it, knew the characteristics of the two
Savonarola. men in other ways. Fra Girolamo’s, of course, is
wholly ethical-religious, mainly neo-Platonic, but
already presenting the effect of Aristotelian details on the general
Platonic attitude to Poetry. Yet he is still scholastic in his general
treatment of the subject, and still adopts that close subordination of
poetry to Logic which is as old as Averroes and Aquinas, and which,
odd as it may seem to merely modern readers, is a very simple
matter when examined.[20] He disclaims, as usual, any attack on
poetry itself, urging only the abuse of poetry; but he follows Plato in
looking more than askance at it, and Aristotle in denying its
necessary association with verse. The Scriptures are the noblest
poetry; all ancient poetry is doubtfully profitable. In fact, he regards
poetry altogether as specially liable to abuse, and dubiously
admissible into, or certainly to be expelled from, a perfect
community, such as that on which the fancy of the Renaissance was
so much fixed.
Savonarola’s remarks, which are contained in his four-book
tractate, De Scientiis,[21] are more curious than really important. Yet
they derive some importance from the great name and influence of
their propounder, from his position at the very watershed, so to
speak, of time in Europe, if not in Italy, dividing Middle Age from
Renaissance, and from the fact that they undoubtedly summarise
that dubitative, if not utterly hostile, view of literature in general, and
of poetry in particular, which, as we have seen,[22] was borrowed by
the Fathers from the ancients, and very much intensified by the
borrowers. Fra Girolamo’s attitude is a rigidly scholastic one; and to
those who omit to take account of this, or do not understand it, his
view must seem wholly out of focus, if not wholly obscure. Poetry is
a part of Rational Philosophy; and therefore its object must be pars
entis rationis. It differs from Rhetoric in working purely by Example,
not Enthymeme. Its end is to induce men to live virtuously by decent
representations; and as the soul loves harmony, it uses harmonic
forms. But a poet who merely knows how to play gracefully with feet
only deserves the name as an old woman deserves that of a pretty
girl.[23] Still more preposterous is the habit of calling poetry “divine.”
Cosmos becomes chaos, if you admit that. Scientia autem divina est
cujus objectum Deus: non illa cujus objectum exemplum. The
making of verses is only poetry per accidens; and as for the Heathen
poets, magnus diaboli laqueus absconditus est in them. He does not,
he says, actually “damn” poetry; but the gist of his tractatule is that
poets as a rule quite misunderstand their function, and that poetry
had better keep its place, and abstain from silly, not to say
blasphemous, airs.
Such a point of view was, of course, liable to be taken by persons
alike unlikely to assume the “know-nothing” attitude of the more
ignorant Catholics, the Philistine-Puritan attitude of Protestantism, or
the merely Platonic and non-Christian theory of some free-thinkers. It
might well seem to thoughtful lovers of literature that its very
existence was in danger when it was attacked from so many sides,
and that it was necessary to intrench it as strongly as possible. Nor
were the materials and the plan of the fortification far to seek. The
suggestion has been rather oddly discovered in the Geographer
Strabo;[24] but authorities much more germane to the matter were at
hand. Boccaccio himself had, as we have seen, both taken note of
the danger and indicated the means of defence: Maximus Tyrius and
Plutarch, the one in a manner more, the other in a manner less,
favourable to poetry, had in effect long before traced out the whole
Camp of Refuge on lines suitable either to the bolder or to the more
timid defender of Poesy. The latter could represent it as the
philosophy of the young, as a sort of Kindergarten-keeper in the
vestibule of the higher mysteries, as not necessarily bad at all, and
possibly very good. The former could argue for its equality with
philosophy itself, as pursuing the same ends by different means, and
appealing, not in the least in forma pauperis, to its own part of
human nature.
It seems by no means improbable that this view was partly brought
about by that remarkable influencer both of early mediæval and of
early Renaissance thought, Dionysius the Areopagite. Readers of Mr
Pico, &c. Seebohm’s Oxford Reformers[25] will remember the
curious and interesting extracts there given from
Colet’s correspondence with Radulphus, and the explanation of the
Mosaic cosmogony as intended to present the Divine proceedings
“after the manner of a poet.” This view Colet seems to have
extracted partly from Dionysius himself, partly from Pico della
Mirandola, the most remarkable of Savonarola’s converts, while time
and place are not inconsistent with the belief that the future Dean of
St Paul’s may have come into contact with Fra Girolamo himself.
Now, this kind of envisagement of poetry, certain to turn to spiritual
account in spiritually minded persons like Colet and Savonarola, and
in mystically, if not spiritually, minded ones like Pico, would, in the
general temper of the Renaissance, of which all three were early
illustrations, as certainly turn to more or less spiritualised philosophy
—ethical, metaphysical, or purely æsthetic, as the case might be.
And we can see in it a vera causa of that certainly excessive, if not
altogether mistaken, devotion to the abstract questions, “What is a
poet?” “What is poetry?” “What is drama?” and so forth, which we
perceive in almost all the Italian critics of the mid-sixteenth century,
and which is almost equally, if less originally, present in their
Elizabethan pupils and followers. If Colet himself had paid more
attention to literature, we cannot doubt that this is the line which his
own literary criticism would have taken; and as his influence, direct
or through Erasmus and More, was very great on English thought,
both at Oxford and Cambridge, it is not impossible that it may have
been exerted in this very way.
The other line (the line which, according to the definitions of the
present work, we must call the line of criticism proper), though it was
perhaps hardly in this instance traced with boldness and without
deflection, started under yet more distinguished auspices. The
Politian. Sylvæ of Politian consist, in the main, of a direct
critical survey of classical poetry couched in the, as
we may think, somewhat awkward form of verse, decked with all the
ornament that could suggest itself to the author’s rich, varied, and
not seldom really poetical fancy, and arranged with a view to actual
recitation in the lecture-room for the delight and encouragement of
actual students.[26]
Neither purpose nor method can be regarded as wholly favourable
to criticism. The popular conférencier (for this term best expresses
Politian’s position) is sure to be rather more of a panegyrist or a
detractor, as the case may be, than of a critic; and the lecturer in
verse is sure to be thinking rather of showing his own rhetorical and
poetical gifts than of the strict merits and defects of his subject. But if
we take the Nutricia or the Rusticus, the Ambra or the Manto, and
compare any of them with the well-intentioned summary of the
Labyrinthus,[27] we shall see without the least unfairness, and fully
admitting the difference of ability and of opportunity in the two men,
the difference, from the critical point of view, of the two stand-points.
In the “Manto,” the first of the Sylvæ, the most important
characteristic of sixteenth-century Italian criticism proper, the
The Manto. exaltation of Virgil, is already prominent. Politian,
indeed, was too much of a wit, and too much of a
poet himself, to let his Virgil-worship take the gross and prosaic form
which it assumed a little later in Vida. But he has proceeded a long
way from the comparatively uncritical (and yet so more critical)
standpoint of Dante. He comes to details. Cicero had won the palms
of sweetness from Nestor and of tempestuous eloquence from
Ulysses (a little vague this), but Greece consoled herself in poetry.
Ennius was too rude to give Latium the glory of that. Then came
Virgil. Even with the Syracusan reed (i.e., in his Eclogues) he
crushes Hesiod and contends with Homer. Calliope took him in her
arms as an infant, and kissed him thrice. Manto, the guardian nymph
of his native place, hailed his advent, and summarised in prophetic
detail his achievements in verse. Her town shall enter the lists—
secure of victory—with the seven competitors for Homer’s origin.
And then a whirlwind of magniloquent peroration (charged with
epanaphora,[28] that favourite figure of the sixteenth century) extols
the poet above all poets and all wonders of the world, past, present,
and to come.
 But Politian would have been faithful neither to those individual
qualities which have been noted in him, nor to that sworn service of
Greek which was the chivalry of the true Humanist, if he had thought
The Ambra of depreciating Homer. The “Ambra,” a poem longer
and Rusticus. than the “Manto,” and not much less enthusiastic, is
mainly devoted to a fanciful description of the youth of the poet, and
a verse-summary of the poems. Indeed the peroration (till it is turned
into a panegyric of Ambra, a favourite villa of Lorenzo) is a brilliant,
forcible, and true indication of the enormous debt of all ancient
literature, science, and in fact life, to Homer, of the universality of his
influence, and of the consensus of testimony in his favour. The
“Rusticus” is rather an independent description and panegyric of
country life, as a preface to the reading of Virgil, Hesiod, and other
bucolic and georgic writers, than a criticism or comparison of them.
The Nutricia. But the “Nutricia” is again ours in the fullest sense.
Its avowed argument is De poetica et poetis, and, in
handling this vast and congenial theme, Politian gives the fullest
possible scope at once to his genius, to his learning, and to that
intense love for literature without which learning is but as the
Carlylian “marine-stores.” In nearly eight hundred exultant
hexameters,[29] the vigour and fulness of which enable them to carry
off without difficulty the frippery of their occasional trappings, he
traces the origin of poetry, the transition from mere stupid wonder
and the miseries of barbarism to sacred and profane verse, the
elaboration of its laws in Judea by David and Solomon, in Greece by
Orpheus, the succession of the Greek and Latin poets in the various
forms (it is noteworthy that Politian is not at all copious on the
drama) through the exploits of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio to the
patronage of poetry by Lorenzo himself.
This is criticism leaning dangerously on the one side to panegyric,
and likely to be (though it is not actually) dragged to the other still
more dangerously by partisanship; but it is still criticism. The liker
Their merits does not “like grossly,” or in accordance with mere
tradition. He loves, as the American poet says, “not
by allowance but with personal love”; and he can give reasons for
the love that is in him. He seeks the poetic pleasure from the Muse;
he obtains it from her; and he savours it, not merely with eagerness,
but with acutely sensitive taste. Though he might not at some
moments be averse to refining on the character of poetry generally,
as well as on the character of this poetic pleasure, it is this itself that
he seeks, finds, and rejoices in. Part at least of the spirit of Longinus
is on him; he is transported, and he knows the power that transports.
At the same time, it must be difficult, for all but the extremest
Virgilians, to think that he does not err by way of excess in his
estimate of that poet; and it must be still more difficult, even for them,
not to perceive that the pitch, even if excusable in the individual, is
and danger. dangerous as an example. Followers will make-
believe; they will give inept reasons to support their
made belief; and worst of all, by that fatal catachresis of “imitation”
which is always waiting upon the critic, they will begin to think, and to
say, that by simply copying and borrowing from Virgil and other great
ones you may go near to be thought not entirely destitute of their so-
much-praised charm. The danger very soon ceased to be a danger
only, and we find a victim to it in Vida; but before coming to him we
may divagate a little.
The furor poeticus of Politian put him much beyond other
Humanists in critical respects. His contemporary and friend, Petrus
Petrus Crinitus,[30] was, if not quite of the same caste as
Crinitus: his Politian, by no means of the mere ordinary
De Poetis Humanist type. His kissing-verses, Dum te Neæra
Latinis.
savior, are among the best of their kind between
Petronius and Johannes Secundus; and his curious pot-pourri, De
Honesta Sapientia, is quite worth reading, though one may know
most of its constituents well enough beforehand. Yet the literary
inquiries here are surprisingly few, and treated in no critical spirit
whatsoever, so that there is no disappointment in one sense, though
there may be in another, with his three books, De Poetis Latinis.
These consist of a large number of separate articles in more or less
chronological order, by no means ill-written in the classical-dictionary
fashion: Genitus est here; obiisse traditur there, and in such a year;
totum se dicavit poeticæ facultati, and the rest. The taste as
expressed by preferences is not bad, and the approaches (they are
hardly more) to critical estimate, though very obvious and mostly
traditional, are sound enough and fairly supported by quotation. But
of original attempt to grasp and to render the character of Latin
poetry generally, or of any one Latin poet by himself, there is hardly
a vestige.
It is not at all improbable that Poetics in one form or another, both
Italian and “Tedescan,” may exist in MSS. of this period: there is
Augustinus certainly work, even in print, of which very little
Olmucensis: notice has been taken hitherto. For instance, a few
his Defence of months ago my friend Mr Gregory Smith saw in a
Poetry.
catalogue, bought, and very kindly lent to me, a
Dialogus in Defensionem Poetices, printed at Venice in 1493, and
written by a certain Augustinus Moravus Olmucensis.[31] This writer’s
family name in vernacular appears to have been Käsenbrot; and he
was one of the early German Humanists whose most famous chiefs
were Reuchlin earlier, Conrad Celtes and Eobanus Hessus later,
who achieved much tolerable verse, and in the Epistolæ
Obscurorum one immortal piece of prose, but who were whelmed in
the deluge of the Reformation struggles, and accomplished little of
the good which they might have done to Germany. The Dialogus—
which has the perhaps not quite accidental interest of having
appeared in the year between the writing of Savonarola’s somewhat
dubious backing of Poetry, and the first printing of Boccaccio’s
uncompromising and generous championship thereof—cannot be
said to be of much intrinsic importance. The author gives, or rather
adopts, the definition of Poetry as “a metrical structure of true or
feigned narration, composed in suitable rhythm or feet, and adjusted
to utility and pleasure.” But his text is rather rambling. A parallel with
Medicine (the piece seems to have been written at Padua, which
helps it to its place here) is not very well worked out, and the latter
part is chiefly occupied with rather dull-fantastic allegorisings of the
stories of Tiresias, the Gorgons, the geography of Hades, and so
forth. Still it is a sign, and welcome as such.
Another Transalpine may be admitted here, for reasons of time
rather than of place, to introduce two undoubted Italians. It is
Paradoxical customary to mention the name at least of Cornelius
attacks on it Agrippa,[32] if not exactly as a critic, at any rate as
by Cornelius being a denouncer, though no mean practitioner, of
Agrippa,
literature. It is perhaps a just punishment for his
Landi, Berni.
 blasphemy that no one who only knew this would
dream that the adept of Nettesheim was as good a man of letters as
he is. It constitutes the fourth chapter of the De Vanitate Scientiarum
(1527), and is a mere piece of hackneyed railing at the art which
aures stultorum demulcet, which is architectrix mendaciorum et
cultrix perversorum dogmatum, which is pertenuis et nuda, insulsa,
esuriens, famelica. Alas! if some tales are true, Cornelius (who really
was a clever man) found that Occultism could starve its votaries as
well as Poetry. His attack is, in fact, nothing but an instance of that
measles of the Renaissance (nor of the Renaissance only) paradox-
quackery; and it has no solid foundation whatever. The later (1543)
Paradossi of Ortensio Landi[33] exhibit more frankly the same spirit,
but in regard to individuals, especially Aristotle, rather than to poetry
and literature generally. And it is probably not absent from Berni’s
Dialogo contra i Poeti[34] (1537, but written earlier), in which Poetry is
dismissed by this agreeable poet as suitable enough pastime for a
gentleman, but out of the question as a regular vocation or serious
business.
But we must return to serious persons. Of the critical texts to
which we pay chief attention in this book, there are not a few which
Vida. are of far higher critical value than Vida’s Poetics.[35]
But it may be doubted whether even the similarly
named treatises of Aristotle and of Horace have had a greater actual
influence; and I at least am nearly certain that no modern treatise
has had, or has yet had a chance of having, anything like so much.
In the recently renewed study of Renaissance Criticism there has
been, naturally enough, a repetition of a phenomenon familiar on
such occasions—that is to say, the deflection of attention from pretty
well-known if half-forgotten material to material which had been still
more forgotten, and was hardly known at all. Daniello, Minturno, and
the rest had, since the seventeenth century, rested almost
undisturbed; even Castelvetro and Scaliger had more or less shrunk
to the position of authorities, of some importance, in regard to
ancient criticism. But Vida, owing to the unmistakable though
unacknowledged borrowing of Boileau, the franker discipleship of
Pope, and the inclusion of a very characteristic translation by Pitt
among the usual collections of “British Poets,” had taken rank once
for all. It is true that it was a rank somewhat of the museum order,
but it existed. Now, the critics who followed him and refined upon him
have been disinterred, and are enjoying their modest second vogue;
and he is comparatively neglected, though a judicious American[36]
has put him in modern dress once more between his master Horace
and his pupil Boileau.
Of three things, however, the one is absolutely incontestable as a
fact, and the other two are not easily, I think, to be gainsaid by
Importance of competent authority. The first is, that Vida
the Poetics. anticipates in time even the earliest of the prose
critics of the new Italian school by some couple of years, while he
anticipates the main group of these critics by more than twenty. The
second is, that though no doubt he took some impulse from Politian
and other Humanists, he is practically the first to codify that
extravagant Virgil-worship which reigned throughout the Neo-
Classical dispensation. The third is that, not merely in this point but
in others, he seems, by a sort of intuition, to have anticipated, at the
beginning of the sixteenth century, almost the whole critical
orthodoxy of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth. It is this
which makes the translation of him by Pitt so interesting; because
the translator is, for once, no traitor, but plus royaliste que le roi—
fanatically imbued with the principles, and equipped to the finger-tips
with the practice, of his original. But for the purposes of the scholar
that original itself must of course be taken.
The temper and the faith in which Vida writes are made manifest
by the very beginning of his poem—an invocation to the Muses
woven of unexceptionable gradus-tags, and deftly dovetailed into a
dedication to the luckless Dauphin Francis, who had then taken his
father’s place as Charles the Fifth’s prisoner at Madrid, and to whose
captivity the poem is modestly offered as a solace or pastime. These
Analysis of invocations accomplished more majorum, Vida
the piece. proceeds to occupy his First Book with a sort of
general clearing of the ground. He is ready to teach the secret of all
kinds of poetry; but the poet must very carefully inquire what are the
kinds to which he himself is best adapted and best inclined.
Commissioned work is dubious, unless under a king’s command. But
there is more than this: the poetic child must be carefully nursed in
the arts suitable to his great calling. He must be as carefully guarded
from the taint of vulgar and incorrect speech; and must be regularly
initiated into Poetry—Latin first, especially Virgil, and then Greek,
especially Homer. A short historical sketch of poetry follows; but it,
like everything else, is brought round to the deification of the
Mantuan. Hence Vida (who must be pronounced rather long in
weighing anchor) diverges to a good-natured intercession with
parents and teachers not to have the boys whipped too much, telling
a moving legend of an extremely pretty[37] boy who was actually
whipped to death, or at least died of fear. Emulation, however, is
quite a good stimulus; and by degrees work will be loved for itself.
But original poetical production must not be attempted too young;
there must be time for play; the rudiments of metre and so forth must
be thoroughly learnt; and, above all, non omnes omnia must be
constantly kept in mind. It is better to begin with pastorals and minor
subjects; solitude and country life are very desirable circumstances.
And so Book I. closes with a fresh invocation of the spirit of poetry
and a fresh celebration of its power.
After this rather ample prelude the author somewhat unreasonably
(seeing that the delay has been his own doing), but in coachmanlike
fashion, says Pergite! Pierides, and proposes to unfold the whole of
Helicon to coming ages. The first disclosure is scarcely novel. You
must invoke Jove and the Muses; nor will one Invocation do. When
in doubt always invoke.[38] Next you should, without holding out
bombastic promises, allure your reader by a modest but sufficient
description of the subject of your poem. So far the method of turning
the practice of the ancients into a principle is impartially adjusted to
Homer and Virgil alike; but after a few score verses the partisan
appears. The beginnings of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the plunging
into the midst of things with the wrath of Achilles, and the sojourn
with Calypso, instead of the rape of Helen (why not of Hesione?) or
the launching from Troy, are duly praised. But the elaborate Homeric
descriptions—as that of the car—are boggled at; the introduction of
Thersites shocks Vida (Drances seems a far nobler figure), and the
pettiness of the subjects of some of the Homeric similes would never
suit the magniloquence of the Latian Muse.[39] In Virgil, on the other
hand, he can see no fault; even the demand of Venus for arms to
clothe her bastard son, which had given qualms to admirers of old,
does not disturb Vida at all; and his poem seems to be slipping by
degrees into a mere précis of the Æneid, that each trait actually
found in Virgil may be registered as a pattern to poets generally. He
wrenches himself free for a moment to inculcate the following of
nature; but presently lapses into an elaborate demonstration of the
beautiful way in which the Mantuan does follow nature. In short,
though now and then to “save his face” an illustration is drawn
honoris causa from Homer, this Second Book on the ordonnance of
the poem is, till it ceases with a panegyric of Leo X., little more than
a descant On the Imitation of Virgil.
It cannot be said that the Third Book offers much difference in this
respect—though the idolatry of Virgil is in parts a little more
disguised. It is, again more majorum, devoted to Diction, and, the
Muses having been invited to cross the stage once more, our Mentor
first reprobates Obscurity. But though you must not be obscure, you
may and should be Figurative, and not a few of the best known of
our ancient acquaintances the Figures—Metaphor, Hyperbole,
Apostrophe, and so forth—are introduced and commended, or
sometimes discommended. It is extremely noteworthy that the
warnings-off include one far from ugly conceit—

“Aut crines Magnæ Genetricis gramina dicat.”

This, of course, is quite in accordance with the horror of a daring

metaphor—of one which runs the risk of seeming “frigid”—which we
find prevailing from Aristotle to Longinus, and even in both these
great men. To us, most assuredly, the likening of the grass to the
tresses of Mother Earth is not in the least absurd, but a very beautiful
and poetical phrase, awaking, and adjusting itself aptly to, a train of
equally poetical suggestion. But before very long the advice as to the
choice of language takes the plain and simple form, “Strip the
Ancients!” The poet is bidden to fit

“exuvias veterumque insignia”

to himself; he is to gird himself up to the “theft,” and drive the spoil

on every occasion. He who trusts to his own wit and invention is
unhesitatingly condemned and pitied. If you want to live, to have
your works escape decay, you must “steal.” Vida repeats the very
word over and over again, and without the slightest bashfulness or
compunction. He is, however, good enough to admit that, if a new
word is absolutely wanted to express something not in the ancients,
it may be invented or borrowed—say from Greek—as the older
Latins had themselves done. When one word is difficult to find or
awkward if found, you must employ Periphrasis. Compounds are
permitted to a certain extent (the weakness of Latin and its brood in
this respect is well known), but never to a greater than that of two
words. Perterricrepas is stigmatised by innuendo, though the word
itself is Lucretian, and though there is absolutely no principle in the
restriction. You are to tone down ill-sounding proper names, as
Sicharbas into Sichæus. But in all cases your words are to be
entirely subservient to the sense, though they may and should be
suited to it—a doctrine which lends itself of course to extensive
Virgilian illustration. And so the poem concludes with a peroration of
some length, drawing ever and ever closer to, and at last ending in,
the laudation of the unrivalled Maro.
Had it not been for the astonishing accuracy with which, as has
been said, Vida actually anticipated the dominant critical taste of
something like three hundred years, and the creative taste of about
Essential half that period, not many more lines than we have
poverty of its given pages might have been devoted to him. That
theory. the poem as a composition is a sufficiently elegant
piece of patchwork may of course be freely granted; and it deserves
perhaps less grudging praise for the extreme fidelity and ingenuity
with which it illustrates its own doctrines. But those doctrines
themselves are, whether we look at them in gross or in detail, some
of the poorest and most beggarly things to be found in the whole
range of criticism. That the prescriptions are practically limited to
those necessary for turning out the epic or “heroic” poem does not
so much matter—though it is not entirely without significance. Vida’s
idea of poetry is simply and literally shoddy.[40] That fabric—the fact
is perhaps not invariably known to those who use the word—differs
from others, not as pinchbeck differs from gold, or cotton from silk,
but in being exclusively composed of already manufactured and
worn textures which are torn up and passed afresh through mill and
loom. And this is the process—and practically the sole process—
which Vida enjoins on the poet, going so far as to pronounce
anathema on any one who dares to pursue any other.
When it is examined in detail the proceeding may excite even
more astonishment, which will be wisely directed not more to the
Historical and original conception of it than to the extent
symptomatic to which, from what followed, it seems to
significance. have hit certain peculiarities in the
æsthetic sense of mankind as regards poetry. We may easily go
wrong by devoting too much attention to the fact of Vida’s individual
selection of the poet to whom all other poets are bound jurare in
verba. It is certain that, from his own day to this, Virgil has appealed
to many tastes—and to some of the greatest—secure of his result of
being pronounced altissimo poeta. Those who like him least cannot
but admit that Dante and Tennyson among poets, that Quintilian and
Scaliger—nay, that even Boileau—among critics, are not precisely
negligible quantities. But the real subject—not merely of
astonishment but of reasonable and deliberate determination to
adopt a position of “No Surrender” in the denial of Vida’s position—is
this selection of any poet, no matter who it may be, as not only a
positive pattern of all poetic excellence, but a negative index
expurgatorius of all poetic delinquency. Not Homer, not Dante, not
Shakespeare himself, can be allowed the first position; and the main
principle and axiom of all sound Criticism is, that not merely no
actual poet, but no possible one, can be allowed the second. This
kind of poetical predestination—this fixing of a hard-and-fast type,
within which lies all salvation and without which lies none—is utter
blasphemy against the poetical spirit. Not only will simple imitation of
the means whereby one poet has achieved poetry not suffice to
enable another to achieve it, but this suggestion is by far the least
dangerous part of the doctrine. It will probably lead to the
composition of much bad poetry, but it will not necessarily cause the
abortion, or the mistaking when born, of any that is good. The
damnatory clauses of the creed must have, and did have, this fatal
effect.
 Vida and those who followed him excused themselves, were
accepted by their disciples, and have recently been eulogised by our
newest Neo-Classics, as following Nature and Reason. That they
The alleged said—perhaps that they thought—they followed both
appeal to is unquestionable.[41] But as a matter of fact their
Reason and Law of Nature—like the Articles of War in Marryat’s
Nature.
novel—was a dead letter, owing to the proviso, from
the first more or less clearly hinted at and latterly avowed, that all of
Nature that was worth imitating had already been imitated by the
ancients. As for the appeal to Reason, it is a mere juggle with words;
and it is astonishing that at this time of day any one should be
deluded by it. What Reason prescribes Invocations to the Muses?
What Reason insists upon beginning at the middle instead of at the
beginning? What Reason is there in the preference of the pale
académie of Drances to the Rembrandt sketch of the demagogue
whom Ulysses cudgelled? of the shield of Æneas to the car of
Achilles? of Sichæus to Sicharbas? What has Reason to say (more
than she has to say against poetic transports altogether) against the
exquisite and endlessly suggestive metaphor of “the tresses of the
Mighty Mother” for the grass, with its wave, and its light, and its
shadow, and the outline of the everlasting hills and vales as of the
sleeping body beneath it? In all these cases, and in a hundred
others, we may boldly answer “None and Nothing!” The true Reason
—the Mind of the World—has not a word to say against any of these
forbidden things, or in favour of any of those preferred ones.
But there is, let it be freely enough granted, a false Reason which
has, no doubt, very much to say against the one and in favour of the
other. The warped and stunted common-sense, the pedestrian and
prosaic matter-of-factness, which is no doubt natural enough in a
certain way to mankind, had made little appearance during the
Middle Ages. These Ages may be called, if any one chooses,
childish, they may be still more justly called fantastic; but they were
never prosaic. It might be said of their Time-Spirit as of the albatross,
that

“Ses ailes de géant l’empêchent de marcher.”

But there was no doubt about the wings. With the Renaissance,
prose, in the good sense no doubt as well as in the bad, returned;
and as if to revenge itself for the universal employment of poetry
during the Middle Ages themselves, it proceeded to lay hands even
upon the poet. He might “transport”; with Longinus before them (if
Vida had him not, his followers had), they could not very well deny
this. But his methods of transporting must be previously submitted to
a kind of inspectorship; and anything dangerous or unusual was
strictly forbidden. His bolt was not to be “shot too soon nor beyond
the moon”: he was most particularly not to be “of imagination all
compact.” On the contrary, his imagination was to be alloyed with
doses of the commonest common-sense. He might not even imp his
wings save with registered feathers, and these feathers were to be
neither too long nor too gay.
Such are the principles that we find in Vida, and such their
inevitable result. Only let us once more repeat, not merely that he
may well, in the admirable words of Lord Foppington, “be proud to
belong to so prevailing a party” as the Neo-Classics of the following
three centuries, but that he actually led and almost made that party
himself.
A considerable time—more than a quarter of a century—had
elapsed between Politian and Vida; but from the appearance of the
latter’s book to the end of the century not more than three years on
the average[42] passed without the appearance of a critical treatise of
The main some importance. Every now and then a short lull
stream would occur; but this was always made up by a
started. greater crowd of writers after the interval. Such
“rallies” of criticism (which occurred particularly during the fourth
decade[43] of the century, about its very centre,[44] throughout the
seventh,[45] eighth,[46] and ninth[47] decades, and just at the end[48])
were no doubt to some extent determined by the academic habits of
the Italians, and the readiness with which members of the same
academy, or different academies, took up the cudgels against each
other. The individual exercises took various forms. A very large part
of the work consists of commentaries on Aristotle’s Poetics; another,
closely connected, of set “Arts Poetic,” more ostensibly original;
some deal with vulgar and some with “regular” poetry, while the
concrete and comparative method is by no means neglected, though
the abstract and theoretic is on the whole preferred. To attempt
classification by kind would be a sacrifice of real to apparent method;
and to trace the development of the same ideas in different writers
would lead to inextricable confusion and criss-cross reference. We
shall probably find it best to follow the rule which has been observed
with rare exceptions throughout this History—that of giving the gist of
particular books and the opinions of particular authors together, and
leaving bird’s-eye views to the Interchapters.
Only two years after the appearance of Vida’s poem appeared the
next critical Italian book of importance, the first instalment of
Trissino. Trissino’s Poetica. The first instalment—for a
singular interval took place between the beginning
and the completion of this work. The first four parts were, as has just
been said, published in 1529, when the main stream of Italian
criticism had hardly begun to flow; the two last not till 1563, two
years after the publication of Scaliger’s great work, and after a full
generation (in the ordinary count) of active discussion of the matters.
[49]
Such conditions cannot fail to affect the homogeneity of a book.
But still Trissino put it forth as one book in different parts, not, as he
might very well have done, and as others actually did, as two books;
and we are therefore entitled, and indeed bound, with the caution
just given, to treat it as a whole. The handsome quartos,[50] well
printed and beautifully frontispieced and vignetted, of the standard
edition of Trissino’s Opere, are perhaps, taking them together, rather
an ornament to the shelf than a plentiful provision of furniture for the
mind. The disadvantages of versi sciolti have not often been shown
more conspicuously than in the Italia Liberata, and the Sofonisba
has little but its earliness and regularity to plead as a set-off to the
general shortcomings of the modern classical Drama. The better
repute of Italian comedy would hardly have arisen from such pieces
as I Simillimi; and the Rime are most ordinary things. In our own
division he is of some historical account; for it is impossible not to be
grateful to the first publisher of the De Vulgari Eloquio, and that
praise of earliness, which he has earned in more than one respect,
must be extended to the first four parts of the Poetica. He boasts