VI. 

 STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE. 



Our limits allow, and our purpose requires, but a short dis- 

 cussion of the horse's structure. It is our object to communicate 

 a general knowledge of his structure, so that in the treatment of 

 disease the part affected may be readily known and the remedy 

 intelligently administered. 



Our first division will be the internal framework on which the 

 body is built, the endo-skeleton. This internal framework, sup- 

 porting the soft tissues of the body, forms various cavities for the 

 location of important organs, as the brain, spinal cord, eyes, 

 heart, and lungs, and act as levers for the action of the muscles 

 and joints to aid in the locomotion of the body. 



In describing the framework, we present the engraving of a 

 perfect skeleton, accurately indexed for reference. This will 

 enable the reader to locate the various bones of the body and to 

 learn their proper names. It will also aid in shortening our de- 

 scription of the bones. Anatomists differ as to the number of 

 bones composing the skeleton, some enumerating all ossific 

 bodies, including the teeth and sesamoids, which others elimi- 

 nate; some, again, regard certain cranial bones as single, other 

 authorities as double. It is of little practical importance what 

 view is taken; it will be found that there are about 216 separate 

 bones, or, including the teeth, 256 pieces in the skeleton of the 

 horse. In our description, we take the anterior limb first, begin- 

 ning superiorly and ending inferiorly. First in order is the 

 scapula, a fiat bone situated on the antero-lateral surface of the 

 thorax, with its long axis sloping downwards and forwards to 

 articulate with a somewhat twisted-looking bone, the humerus. 

 The humerus extends from the scapula to the radius in an oblique 

 direction, downwards and backwards. The radius occupies a 



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