THE HIND EXTREMITIES. i)l 



ischium, so that its arc of motion will be the further 

 advanced the more drooping the quarters. 



To judge the length of the femur in the living 

 horse, you draw an imaginary line from the promi- 

 nence at the tail to point 1, then the head or top 

 of the femur is at the end of the first third of this 

 distance, and the other end is quite well repre- 

 sented by the depression or notch, formed at the 

 stifle joint. The femur is a very thick bone, and 

 very powerful, and clothed by the large muscles of 

 the thigh. It extends from the socket on the ilio- 

 ischium, whilst the lower end is placed upon the two 

 bones below (tibia and fibula) with the patella or 

 knee-cap in front, and thus forms the largest joint 

 in the body called the stifle joint (our knee joint.) 



78. — One bone only, the tibia, reaches from the 

 stifle joint to the hock joint (See Fig. 14). It is a long 

 bone with two ends. The upper end as aforesaid helps 

 to form the stifle joint, and is rather a large end. The 

 lower end is small^ and with the astragalus forms 

 the true hock joint. The length or shaft of the 

 bone is not round, but has three flat sides'; one side 

 looking backwards having upon it the bellies of 

 large muscles corresponding to the calf of our own 

 leg. Another surface looks inwards and for- 

 wards, and is covered by skin only, as seen in 

 Fig. 14, just as in ourselves, and in us is called the 

 shin, and can be felt as a bony surface from our 

 stifle or knee down to our hock or ankle, where it 

 ends in a very sharp bony point in both cases called 



