Abstract
Admittedly, reviewing a dog anatomy book for an audience of feline practitioners poses an inherent challenge. I started by looking up cat/feles/felid/feline in the index. It is not listed.
However, for the most part, the dog and the cat have been assembled similarly, and, from that mammalian perspective, this is an excellent anatomical reference for any small animal veterinary library. The editors and authors have done a convincing job of disseminating their knowledge between the covers of this fourth edition, thus propagating a solid and well-referenced work which Malcolm Miller started in 1944.
The book adheres to terminology from Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria 2005 and is clearly organized into conventional anatomical systems over 21 chapters, starting with an introduction to the species: ‘The dog and its relatives’ and ‘Prenatal development’. The feline practitioner would likely fast-forward to chapter 3, where the systems approach begins with ‘The integument’.
Each chapter is complete with illustrations and accompanying text, all of which are clear and detailed. The text thoroughly describes respective morphology and includes comments on physiology and function where applicable. The chapters covering the skeleton and the joints contain radiographic images of respective body parts to augment the detailed hand-drawn diagrams.
Comparing the two most recent editions, the noticeable improvement is that the fourth edition is the first all-color version, thus imparting a clear aesthetic advantage. The new edition is also thinner than its precursor, a feature attributable to slightly smaller typeface and to diagrams that occupy a half page rather than a full page. This latter modification seems helpful, as full-page illustrations can be difficult to examine in their entirety without backing away from the page. Otherwise, there is understandably not much difference in content between the two editions, as the dog itself has changed little since 1993.
A notable, but inherent, ‘deficiency’ with this canine anatomy book is the omission of comments on how feline anatomy differs. Although beyond the intent of the book, the inclusion of cat-specific anatomical variations would have greatly expanded the scope of the book’s clinical application. In reading this textbook, the clinician might therefore keep in mind such feline distinctions as, for example, in the humerus, the radial nerve is precariously superficial, and the median nerve and brachial artery pass through the supracondylar notch; the medial saphenous vein is more prominent than its lateral counterpart, thus preferred for venepuncture; and the pelvis has no sacrotuberous ligament.
In summary this is a highly-detailed and clearly-illustrated anatomy book. Despite being canine-specific, the morphological overlap between the cat and the dog is sufficient to make this a very useful reference for veterinary students, small animal researchers, small animal surgeons, and both small animal and feline-exclusive practitioners.