TENDONS. 43 



Whenever a limb or any portion of the body has to 

 be bent, there are always two opposite sets of muscles, 

 one called the ' flexors,' because they bend the limb, 

 and the other ' extensors,' because they straighten it. 

 As a rule, the former are far more powerful than the 

 latter. 



This we may see exemplified in the well-known 

 schoolboy experiment. When one boy presses together 

 the tips of the forefingers, and another grasps his 

 wrists, and tries to pull the fingers apart at right 

 angles to the body, the latter cannot succeed unless 

 he be very much bigger and more powerful than the 

 former. The reason of this discrepancy is, that the 

 first boy uses his flexor muscles, while the second boy 

 employs the extensors. A very familiar example of a 

 flexor muscle is to be found in the ' biceps,' of which 

 an athlete is apt to be exceedingly proud. 



The tendons, which in fact surround the muscles 

 as a thin membrane, and are brought to a cord-like 

 shape at the extremities, take their name from their 

 muscles, and of course are of proportionate strength. 

 I may here mention, as another very familiar example, 

 that the * stringiness ' of meat is due to the thin coat- 

 ing of tendon which envelopes the muscles. 



At i and K is seen the double flexor tendon. This 

 ligament divides after passing over the sesamoid bone 

 of the fetlock, the front portion being attached to the 



