A question was asked on Autocat recently about where to classify Anatomy of the dog by Kerstin Mielke. The answer to that question depends on two different important distinctions on Dewey:
(1) That between domesticated plants and animals in 630 Agriculture and related technologies and plants and animals in general in 570 Life sciences Biology (and the subordinate topics 580 Plants and 590 Animals).
(2) That between external processes of plants and animals in 578 Natural history of organisms and related subjects (and the subordinate topics 576, 577, 579, 580 and 590) and internal processes of plants and animals in 571-575 Internal biological processes and structures.
Both of these distinctions need to be understood by classifiers working in the life sciences.
The first distinction is explained in two Manual notes: 571-575 vs. 630 Physiology, anatomy, and pathology of agricultural plants and animals; and 630 vs. 579-590, 641.3 Agriculture and related technologies vs. Natural history of specific kinds of organisms vs. Food. Since the book in question is about anatomy, the first of these Manual notes is more relevant here. It says (with the parts just about plants removed):
When domestic plants and animals are studied for agricultural purposes, observe the following guidelines:
… use 636.0891-636.0892 and similar numbers in 636.1-636.8 for physiology and anatomy of agricultural animals.
... Use 636.0896 for comprehensive works on pathology and diseases of agricultural animals . Use 636.1-636.8 for pathology and diseases of specific kinds of agricultural animals plus notation 39 in add table under 636.1-636.8 or notation 0896 as instructed in certain entries in the schedule, e.g., diseases of race horses 636.1239 , diseases of horses 636.10896
When the note says “agricultural animals” it means animals included in 636 Animal husbandry, as the example of race horses makes clear, so it includes dogs as pets. When the note says “for agricultural purposes” it includes all the purposes of 636 as well, including books for pet owners (including the book in question).
This means that works on the anatomy of dogs would be classed in 636.70891. This is built, first by following the instructions at 636.7001-636.708, and adding to 636.70 the digits 89 at the end of 636.089 Veterinary sciences Veterinary medicine; and second by following the instructions at 636.089 and adding the digit 1 at the end of 611 Human anatomy, cytology, histology.
The second distinction would only come into play if you had a scientific work on the anatomy of dogs. It is explained in the Manual note on 579-590 vs. 571-575 Biology of whole organisms vs. Biology of internal processes. This note describes it in this way: “The distinction between the biology of whole organisms in 579-590 (the first biology) and the biology of internal processes in 571-575 (the second biology) is based upon the recognition of fundamental differences between the literature of the two biologies.” The note goes on to list ways of distinguishing the “two biologies”, including
3. In the first biology, topics are usually seen as typical only of the specific kind of organism being studied, e.g., snail shells, reproductive behavior of sticklebacks, weaverbird nests. In the second biology, the process studied in one organism is usually seen as typical of all living organisms (or as typical of a large class of organisms such as animals, vertebrates, or mammals), e.g., cell division, blood circulation, immune reactions.
Anatomy at 571.3 Anatomy and morphology falls into the second biology, because in this context anatomy of a specific animal is generally studied, not for the sake of that particular animal, but as an example of the anatomy of all animals or of a class of animals. So, for example, Anatomy & dissection of the rat by Warren F. Walker and Dominique G Homberger is classed at 571.319352. This is built by adding to 571.3 Anatomy and morphology the final digit 1 from 571.1 Animals as instructed at 571-572, and then adding notation 9352 from 599.352 Rattus (Common rats) as instructed at 571.1. In theory you could have a similar number 571.319772 for the anatomy of dogs, built using the notation 9772 from 599.772 Canis, but such a work is unlikely to be published, since rats are common laboratory animals and dogs are not.
Comments