

Vou XVI., Second Series. 



ROCUESTER, N. Y., NOVEMBER, 1855. 



No. 11 



h 



PRINCIPLES OF IMPROVING DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



CHAPTER IT. 

 THE HORSE. 



Continued. 



The last of the stries of bones of the limbs are 

 those of the pastern and foot. The uppermost of 

 these, the upper pastern, is jointed to the lower part 

 of the cannon bone. Inferiorly it is jointed to the 

 lower pastern or coronet bone, 

 and the coronet bone again is 

 articulated with the coffin bone, 

 which is of a soft and spongy 

 nature, and enclosed within the 

 horny covering of the hoof 



These several bones of the 

 limb are more distinctly repre- 

 sented in the accompanying 

 figure, where s is the lower 

 part of the shoulder blade, h 

 the humerus, working, by its 

 rounded head, into the socket 

 of the scapula; _/^ the fore-arm; 

 e the elbow; r, the carpus or 

 knee; o, the cannon-bone or 

 ghank, with its splint-bones be- 

 hind, I; p, the upper pastern; 

 5, the lower pastern or coro- 

 net-bone; r, the coffin-bone; i, 

 the hoof. 



Besides the bones enumera- 

 ted, there are small bones, g, 

 V, placed behind the others, 

 and acting somewhat in the 

 manner of pulleys, namely, (1) 

 the sesamoid bones, ^, behind ^'°' 



the joint commonly termed the fetlock; and (2) the 

 navicular bone, v, placed behind the common joint 

 of the coronet and coffin bones. Over these small 

 bones pa^s from the cannon bone a ligament and ten- 



/ 



dons, which being connected with the bones of the 

 foot, give surpassing elasticity combined with strength 

 to these parts. In the annexed section of the foot, 

 L is the ligament, T the tendons, and N the navicu- 

 lar bone. The hoof, by which the foot is covered, ig 

 of a substance tough 



■~,l.-ii 



and elastic in an emi- 

 nent degree. 



Directing attention 

 to the hinder vertebral 

 column, fig. 1, there is 

 the pelvis, p, formed 

 by two large bones, 

 one on each side of 

 the spine, and firmly 

 united to it. The up- 

 per part of each pel- 

 vic bone, termed ili- 

 um, forms the haunch 

 bone or hip-bone; and 

 into a cavity in the 

 lower part of the same 

 bone is inserted the round head of the first of the 

 bones of the posterior limbs, namely, the femur, q, or 

 great bone of the thigh. The femur is not vertical, 

 like the thigh bone in man, but it has an oblique di- 

 rection from behind forward. It corresponds with 

 the thigh-bone in man, but being covered in the 

 horse with the thick muscles employed in moving it, 

 it appears to be a part of the trunk. The size of 

 this bone is connected in an important degree with 

 the power of progression of the animal ; for being 

 extended backwards by the action of the nmscles, 

 while the foot remains fixed, it forces the body 

 forward. 



In front of the lower extremity of the femur is the 

 patella, or stilie-bone, r, which corresponds with' the 

 pan of the knee in man. It is one of the class of 

 bones termed sesamoid, and is designed for the at- 



