THE LEG. 243 



fly. The common application of gunpowder and lard may, by blackening 

 the part, conceal the blemish, but can have no possible effect in quickening 

 the growth of the hair. 



In examining a horse for purchase, the knees are very strictly scru- 

 tinized. A blemish on them should not induce us at once to condemn 

 the animal ; for a bad rider, or the merest accident, may throw the safest 

 horse. A broken knee, however, is a suspicious circumstance, and calls 

 for the most careful observation of the make and action of the horse. If 

 it be accompanied by a thick and upright shoulder, and legs far under the 

 horse, and low slovenly action, he is unwise who does not take the hint : 

 this faulty conformation has produced its natural consequence. But if the 

 shoulder be oblique, and the withers high, and the fore-arm strong, the 

 good judge will not reject the animal, because he may have been acciden- 

 tally thrown. 



THE LEG. 



The part of the limb between the knee and the fetlock consists of three 

 bones — a large one before, called the cannon or shank^ and two smaller or 

 sjjlint bones behind (see N, p. 63). The shank-bone is rounded in front, 

 and flattened, or even concave behind. It is the straightest of the long 

 bones, as well as the most superficially situated, for in some parts it is 

 covered only by the skin. The upper head is flat, with slight depressions 

 corresponding with the lower row of the bones of ihe knee. The lower 

 liead is differently and curiously formed. It resembles a double pulley. 

 ^i'here are three elevations, the principal one in the centre, and one on each 

 side ; and between them are two slight grooves ; and these so precisely cor- 

 respond with deep depressions and slight prominencies in the upper head 

 of the larger pastern, and are so enclosed and guarded, by the elevated 

 edges of that bone, that when the shank-bone and the pastern are fitted to 

 each other, they form a perfect hinge : they admit of the bending and 

 extension of the limb, but of no lateral or side motion ; which is a circum- 

 stance of very great importance in a joint so situated, and having the 

 whole w^eight of the horse thrown upon it. 



The smaller bones are placed behind the larger on either side ; a slight 

 projection only of the head of each can be seen in front. The heads of these 

 Ijones are enlarged, and receive part of the weight conveyed by the lower 

 row of the bones of the knee. They are united to the larger bone by 

 the same kind of substance which is found in the colt between the bone of 

 tlie elbow and the main bone of the arm ; and which is designed, like 

 that, by its great elasticity, to lessen the concussion or jar when the weight 

 of the animal is thrown on them. They reach from one-half to two-thirds 

 of the length of the shank-bone, and, through their whole extent, are 

 nnited to it by this substance ; but, as in the elbow, from the animal being 

 worked too soon, or too violently, inflammation ensues, and bony matter 

 is deposited in the room of the ligamentous ; and a bony uni-on takes 

 place instead of the natural one. There is no doubt that the ease of mo- 

 tion is somewhat lessened by this substitution of bone, but other elastic 

 principles are probably called into more powerful action, and the value of 

 the horse is not perceptibly impaired ; although it is hard to say what secret 

 injury may be done to the neighbouring joints, and the cause of which, 

 lameness appearing at a distant period, is not suspected. 



In this process, however, mischief does often immediately extend to the 

 neighbouring parts. The disposition to deposit bone reaches beyond the 

 circumscribed space between the larger and smaller bones of the leg ; and 



R 3 



