COMPARATIVE LENGTH OF THE BONES OF THE LIMBS. 189 



stating the following inverse proportions : — Shoulder-blade, 

 long ; humerus (from point of shoulder to elbow joint), 

 short ; fore-arm, long ; cannon-bone, short ; pastern, long. 

 In other words, a long shoulder-blade is accompanied by a 

 long fore-arm and long pastern, and by a short humerus 

 and a short cannon-bone. The converse of this holds 

 equally good. Taking the shoulder-blade as the base to 

 start from, we may infer that the difference between these 

 alternate proportions should be best marked in animals, 

 like the hunter or steeplechaser, which specially require 



I'hotobij] [M. II. H. 



Fig. 285. — Fore Foot drawn up, so as to touch the Elbow. 



to have this bone of considerable length (p. 274). It may 

 be objected that the greyhound (Fig. 8), which is possessed 

 of extraordinary speed and marvellous jumping power, 

 has, comparatively speaking, a short shoulder-blade and 

 long humerus. Although the length of the latter, which 

 is detached from the body, gives him great forward 

 " reach ; " the shortness of the former makes him too 

 bad a weight-carrier (p. 274) for him to be accepted as 

 a model for our purpose. We are probably justified in 

 assuming that a similar series of inverse proportions should 

 exist in the hind limb. Thus : pelvis, long ; thigh, short ; 



