u 



ANATOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



are fixed. Tliose marks indicate the points where a substance, hke to 

 white of egg, is interposed between the extremities of the bones. Each 

 separate bone thus not only rests upon a Hquid, but the ends of these 

 formations are likewise tipped with cartilage, thus 

 doubly securing the ease of progression. Nor 

 have the perfection of these various arrangements 

 received full justice, for concussion of the foot has 

 not only to travel through different bones tipped 

 by cartilage and separated by the interposition of 

 a fluid, but it also has to progress through the 

 various structures of which the limb itself is com- 

 posed, and to travel in different directions. 



So elaborate an arrangement, or one better 

 fitted to answer its intention, no human study 

 could invent. Man has for ages labored to dis- 

 arrange the parts thus admirably adjusted ; when 

 so employed, he has only followed the example 

 of the savage who destroys the product he is in- 

 capable of understanding. No injury, no wrong, 

 no cruelty can be conceived which barbarity has 

 not inflicted on the most generous of man's many 

 willing slaves. While this has been going for- 

 ward, nations, at a vast outlay, have retained 

 expensive establishments to entreat the mercies 

 of a Superior to be lavished upon themselves, 

 and at the moment these people were boasting 

 aloud of their refined feelings or of their exalted 

 civilization, they have been incapable of sympa- 

 thizing with the agony which was imprisoned within the walls of their 

 premises. 



Looking toward the quarters of the horse, we perceive the spines of 

 the lumbar and sacral bones arranged in so peculiar a manner as to 

 excite remark. Those of the loins bend forward, while those of the 

 haunch incline backward, thus leaving a free space dividing the upper- 

 most bones of two neighboring regions. There must be a reason for so 

 evident a design. Inspecting the last lumbar bone, we ascertain it to be 

 united by its lateral processes, yet it does not touch the first sacral body, 

 all other parts of the chain joining at their centers. 



Here is cause for reflection 1 What takes place at this spot which 

 could render imperative such an arrangement ? In what action is the 

 inclination of the trunk so opposite to the position of the quarters as to 

 render imperative such a special provision as is here exemplified in the 



THE artist's idea OF A HOBSE'S 

 FORE LIMB. 



The lines indicate the places 

 ■where synovia (or a fluid re- 

 sembling white of egg) is in- 

 terposed between the different 

 structures. 



