POSTERIOR MEMBER. 283 



Form. — The canon is subdivided into four faces : an anterior, a posterior, 

 and two lateral. They offer some slight differences according as they are examined 

 in the anterior or in the posterior biped. 



Viewed from in front, the region is rectilinear in its length, rounded trans- 

 versely, and widest towards its extremities. 



The lateral faces are flat, and leave the parts under the skin, which we 

 already recognize, tangible to the eye and finger, — namely, in front, the borders 

 of the principal metacarpal or metatarsal bone ; behind and above, under the 

 hock or the knee, the eminence of the corresponding rudimentary bone ; below 

 and a little above the fetlock, the button of this bone ; posteriorly and in the 

 middle part, a groove augmenting in depth and width down to the fetlock, which 

 separates the suspensory ligament from the principal canon bone ; it is in this 

 groove that herniae or dilatations of the synovial membrane of the metacarpo- 

 or metatarso-phalangeal articulations appear; more posteriorly, the suspensory 

 ligament of the fetlock, whose prominence increases from above to below; then a 

 second groove, less deep than the preceding, separating this ligament from the 

 flexor tendons, and lodging the synovial dilatations of the great sesamoid sheath ; 

 finally, the cord of the flexors, known in the exterior under the name of tendon, 

 strong and resisting, which falls perpendicularly from the supra-carpal bone or the 

 calcaneus upon the fetlock. 



The tendon, an eminence rectilinear from above to below, narrow 

 and round from side to .side, forms exclusively the posterior face. 



The shin of the canon, as well as the layer of the subcutaneous 

 connective tissue, is more or less thick, according to the fineness of the 

 race. These minute but important details which we have described 

 are not observed in all subjects. They are the characteristics of horses 

 of fine breeding and of good qualities. 



The hairs on the posterior face are always longer, more abundant, 

 and coarser than the others, except in animals of the finer races, the 

 Aryan or the English thoroughbred, for example. 



Coarse, sluggish, and lymphatic horses are remarkable, on the con- 

 trary, for the abundance and the length of these hairs, which are only 

 the origin of those of the f oof lock. Horsemen and many horse-owners 

 have the habit of cutting, clipping, or singeing them, in the preparation 

 of the animal for sale, in order to give to the members an appearance 

 of fineness and of good qualities ; they are spared in draught-horses to 

 make the limbs appear more voluminous. We will again have occasion 

 to return to this practice in discussing the toilet. 



Beauties and Defects. — The canon, in order to be beautiful, 

 must be vertical, short, wide, thick, fine, and neat of outline ; its pos- 

 terior part, or the tendon, must also be fine, unblemished, firm, and well 

 detached. It is defective in opposite conditions. 



Direction. — We have only one word to say on the subject of the 

 direction of the canon, which should be perpendicular to the ground 



