After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin in 1820, Jones Quain studied in London and Paris. In 1828 he published Elements of descriptive and practical anatomy, an enormously successful work that went through eleven editions over the better part of a century. Between 1831 and 1836 he served as Professor of General Anatomy at University College, London. It was during this period that he began compiling an anatomical atlas of lithographic plates. Five volumes appeared between 1836 and 1842, beginning with The muscles of the human body. This was followed by volumes on the vessels (1837), the nerves (1839), the viscera (1840), and the bones and ligaments (1842), co-authored with Erasmus Wilson, dermatologist and philanthropist, who played an important role in the abolition of flogging in the British Army. Most of the plates in these volumes were drawn on stone chiefly by J. Walsh, William Fairland, J.W. Giles, and George Childs. They were printed by Charles Hullmandel, J. Graf, and Graf & Soret.