22 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



be divided into three parts : the head, the body, and the members ; and 

 the expressions fore extremity and hind extremity may be replaced to 

 advantage by those of anterior quarters and posterior quarters. 



The head and the body are the most impoi-tant parts of the animal 

 machinery, for they contain the organs that are indispensable to the 

 maintenance of life. 



The members, broken columns articulated from space to space, sup- 

 port the trunk and, by their movements, transport it from one place 

 to another. 



Besides these principal divisions, there are secondary ones ; these 

 are faces or planes which limit the animal in front, behind, above, 

 below, and laterally. 



The lateral faces, in ordinary language, are sometimes designated 

 in a particular manner. Thus, horsemen often call the left side 

 (mounting side) the near-side, in opposition to the right, which they 

 call the off-side. As it is usually on the left side from which a rider 

 mounts a horse, these expressions are only suitable for the training- 

 horse, and would be out of place in all other cases. 



Drivers also employ, for the same reasons, denominations which 

 it is well to understand. One who drives draught-horses is always 

 stationed on the left of the team, and it is for this reason that this 

 side is designated under the name of the side of the man, the right 

 being called the off-side of the man. 



In Paris and in a large number of departments there are reasons 

 for the use of these expressions, but in cei-tain localities, Finistere and 

 the northern coast, for example, they would be void of sense, since 

 men often drive horses on the right side. 



We have so far only indicated the primary divisions of the horse. 

 Each of them is again subdivided into secondary regions, which we 

 have consigned to the following synoptical table as well as to the 

 explanatory figures which are annexed to it. 



In order to facilitate for persons little familiar with dissection a 

 knowledge of the summary anatomical description which accompanies 

 each region, we have, by guiding the artists in the exact representation 

 of the forms of the horse, reproduced Figs. 16, 17, and 18, indicating 

 the various structures. In fact, all the prominences — bony, ligamentous, 

 tendinous, and muscular — which exist under the skin and may become 

 apparent on the exterior are illustrated here. 



