5J0 SINEW y HORSE. CARTILAGE 



oeives the nann of cartilage, and is liable in some measure to be absorbed oi 

 taken up into the system, or, in cases of diseased joint, to become stiff and 

 bony. Consult sect. 23, &c. on those points of information. We may notice 

 this absorption in very young animals, whose bones are all substituted by 

 cartilage; until the blood furnisheth the means of forming a more substantial 

 frame, such as I have been describing ; and teaches the validity of some re- 

 marks I made in a preceding section (15) on the kind of attention we ought 

 to pay to our brood mares while the fcetus^ or unborn animal, is being formed 

 in the womb. 



Not only between bones, and embracing ever joint, but at the termination 

 of the four legs in their horny feet, is this springy substance to be found, the 

 whole being liable to wear out, to contract or to harden with age or disease. 

 Besides this casing of the joints in cartilage, the ligaments connect or tie the 

 bones together. These ligaments are seldom troubled with any ailment but 

 that of great lassitude when the animal is tired, and occasionally to sprain. 

 This accident takes place when the horse steps aside upon uneven ground, 

 and the ends of the bones press laterally upon the ligaments. It follows, of 

 course, that mis-shapen horses whose feet are always constrained to take an 

 uneven tread must be subject to a constant strain, and must be more liable 

 than others to incur permanent accident, — every step forming a trivial one. 



But the ligament demanding the student's most serious attention is that 

 which suspends the neck bones, on the same principle as our old fashioned 

 lamp-irons are suspended by a small one from above, only that the ligament 

 lies closer, and covers the intervals of the upper side, as at a — b of the annex- 

 ed sketch.* So placed, and passing from the skull to the backbones, to both 

 of which it is fastened, it has the power, at 

 the will of the animal, of bending down or 

 ^ drawing up the head, which would, in fact, 



but for this support, fall to the ground. Horses 

 in their last moments, when that will niay 

 be supposed to have left them, always carft 

 back their heads considerably, by reason of 

 the contraction of this strong ligament dur- 

 ing the paroxysms of departing Ufe. At a, however, where is the seat of 

 poll-evil, it is usually thin, the cavity there found between the bones being 

 mostly filled with muscle (s. 27); but this does not happen invariably, as some 

 horses have little or no cavity to be filled with ligamenlary substance, or with 

 muscle. Our frontispiece is the portrait ol a subject of this latter kind ; but 

 the reader is referred to some subsequent observations and cases on " poll-evil • ' 

 for more detail on this hitherto-neglected point of conformation. 



17. At the joints formed by the bones and covered by cartilage, the whole 

 are surrounded by a strong membrane, which wraps the bones tightly, and se- 

 cretes an oil at the joints for its further defence from the effects of friction. 

 Of this secretion, and of the membranes generally, some further notice is given 

 in the second chapter at section 22. 



This strong membrane is not, however, confined to any particular part, but 

 continues its close attachment, or embracement of the bone, over the entire 

 frame of the horse. Throughout its extended course it serves as an excellent 

 holdfast for the sinewy ends of the muscles (see sect. 27), which are attached 

 to it above and below joints, whereby they act as levers to raise the lower bones 

 of the Umbs, as described hereafter. 



• Called by the learned "cei-vical ligament" and "the cervicular." In operatioivs for th« 

 poll-evil this ligament is frequently diviideJ by the unskilful farrier cutting it aerosB raihw: itaa 

 lengthwise, which L"? the only right practice. 



