Elementary Anatomy of a Hound 31 



These bones articulate amongst themselves, and 

 some of them with the ulna, and also the metacarpal 

 bones. Extending from the wrist to what corresponds 

 to the knuckles in man are the five metacarpal hones, 

 of which the third and fourth are the longest, and the 

 innermost or first the shortest, just as in the case 

 of the human hand, to which the dog's hand corre- 

 sponds. Each of these metacarpal bones has the 

 form of a slender rod, the fifth or outermost being 

 the thickest. 



They all articulate amongst themselves just below 

 the bones of the wrist, and each has two very tiny 

 bones — the sesamoids — placed at the back of the lower 

 end just where the bones articulate with the fingers 

 (digits). 



Now there are five fingers, and that representing the 

 human thumb, i.e., the innermost, does not touch the 

 ground. Each of the four fingers is composed of three 

 small rods of bone — phalanges — the middle ones being 

 the longest. 



This completes the description of the bones of the 

 fore limb, and all that it is needful to add is that the 

 metacarpus corresponds to the canon of the horse 

 and ox, represented in the latter animals by one large 

 bone and two small (splint bones) bones at the back 

 of it, the other two metacarpals being suppressed. 



It is the canon bone only in the horse that bears a 

 digit, and this corresponds to the middle finger in 



