POSTERIOR MEMBER. 261 



in those of the North of France and some of the districts of the 

 West, the skin and the hairs are thick, the subcutaneous connective 

 tissue abundant, and all the osseous reliefs more or less effaced. These 

 animals frequently have & fat, full, doughy hock. We must not con- 

 found this state with an absolutely blemished condition of the parts, 

 for we should thereby frequently be liable to discard many excellent 

 horses, in which, on account of the race, the climate, and the soil, it is 

 impossible to obtain the dry hock which is usually observed in horses 

 of meridional countries, above all in the finer races. 



Width. The width of the tarsus is an absolute quality, but in 

 order to appreciate the same it is indispensable that the members be 

 stationed in their normal axis. It is measured from the point to the 

 fold of this region. It will be readily understood that, if the canon 

 be placed well under the trunk, for example, this dimension will appear 

 more considerable in consequence of the diminished obliquity of the 

 calcaneus upon the tibia. It is precisely on account of this possible 

 error, resulting very frequently from d defect in the vertical axis or a 

 variable obliquity of the leg, that deception as to the width of the 

 hock may arise, and the latter is not always far from it the ex- 

 pression of the length of the calcaneus, even as many think. With 

 H. Bouley, we should recommend the intending purchaser not to be 

 satisfied with the one dimension indicated above. He should, more- 

 over, appreciate the distance comprised between the cord and the ante- 

 rior profile of the leg on the one part, and the perforate tendon and 

 the anterior profile* of the canon on the other. In other words, it is 

 absolutely necessary to ascertain the width of the hock above, in the 

 middle, and below. If these three conditions are not fulfilled the 

 region cannot be qualified wide, for it is eminently defective from the 

 very disproportion of its parts. 



It is ordinarily at the inferior extremity, at the level of its base, 

 that the region shows an abnormal narrowness, owing to which it is 

 styled strangled. The tarsal bones of the lower row are, in this case, 

 not in relation, in their development, with the dimensions of the astrag- 

 alus, the tibia, and the calcaneus ; above all, with the last, which loses 

 none of its power and acts, by this very reason, with so much more 

 force upon the ligaments which unite it to the metatarsal lever, of 

 which it really constitutes the superior extremity. Such a hock, there- 

 fore, becomes blemished very soon, and should be rejected for very 

 severe services expected from the saddle- or the draught-horse. 



When the region is deficient in width over its whole area, it is 

 called slender, narrow. This is, we believe, a serious defect, although 



