DISSECTION OP THE ANTERIOR LIMB. 35 



After descending through the cai-pal sheath, it is joined by a very strong 

 fibrous band — the inferio7-car2ml lig ament, y^'hich. is the downward continua- 

 tion of the posterior common ligament of the carpus. This fuses with 

 the tendon about the middle of the metacarpus, and it is of consider- 

 able importance, being frequently involved in what is commonly termed 

 " sprain of the back tendons." In that condition it may be very distinctly 

 felt by manipulating in front of the flexor tendons, just below the carpus. 

 The tendon, as thus reinforced, descends between the suspensory liga- 

 ment in front, and the perforatus tendon behind ; and at the fetlock it 

 glides over the sesamoid pulley, and passes through the ring of the 

 superficial flexor. It then passes between the terminal branches of the 

 last-mentioned muscle, glides over the smooth surface on the back of 

 the second phalanx, plays over the navicular bone, and finally becomes 

 inserted into the semilunar crest of the os pedis. The terminal portion 

 of the muscle, as well as the navicular sheath developed in connection 

 with it, will be examined with the parts contained within the hoof. 



Action. — The muscle flexes successively the interphalangeal joints, the 

 fetlock, and the carpus. 



THE FOOT. 



Directions. — By the term foot, as here applied, is meant the hoof and 

 the parts contained within it. If it is intended to study this in a limb 

 the whole of which is to be successively dissected, the student must 

 proceed in the following manner. When the dissection of the fore-arm 

 has been completed, and before the removal of the skin from the meta- 

 carpus and digit, the hoof* must be forcibly removed by the aid of a 

 shoeing-smith's hammer, toe-knife, and pincers. To facilitate this, the 

 hoof may be heated in a fire, the skin of the digit being swathed in a 

 wet cloth to prevent charring. This is the speediest method of removing 

 the hoof, but it has the double disadvantage of destroying in great 

 measure the hoof itself, and also the injection of the vessels, provided 

 that has been executed. The following is a preferable method of pro- 

 cedure : — Procure a foot severed a few inches above the fetlock, and 

 inject the arteries and veins from the metacarpal vessels. When the 

 injection has solidified, roll the foot in a piece of wet cloth, and bury it 

 in a fermenting heap of stable manure. Decomposition will speedily 

 set in, and after a week the preparation should be examined at intervals 

 of two or three days, the metacarpal bone being fixed in a vice while 

 forcible attempts are made to pull off the hoof. When this has been 

 effected, the foot and removed hoof should be immersed for a day in a 

 saturated solution of carbolic acid in water, to which a little methylated 

 spirit may be added. This will speedily remove all odour of decom- 

 position, and dissection may then be proceeded with. 



The Hoof (Plate 10, figs. 4 and 6). This is made up of the wall, the 

 bars, the sole, and the frog. 



