418 



-'r 



STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE OX S FOOT. 



bones. They cover the posterior surfaces of the perforans 

 tendons of the claw, and serve principally to prevent the claws 

 being too widely separated. 



The movements of the joints of the toe are effected by 

 muscles lying in the region of the fore-arm, and arranged in 

 general like the analogous muscles of the horse. As, however, 

 in the ox the muscles and tendons are attached to a double 

 limb below the fetlock, some differences necessarily exist. 



Each of tlie two claws has a separate extensor muscle, as 

 well as a muscle w^hich is common to both claws. The muscle 

 corresponding to the extensor suffraginis of the horse is, in 



Fig. 398.— Atitero-external view of ox's left fore-foot. 1, extensor tendon of outer claw; 

 2, extensor tendon of inner claw; 3, extensor tendon common to both claws; 3', limb of 

 do. attached to left, and 3", to right claw; 4, superior sesamoideal ligament; 4' and 4", 

 reinforcing slips from same to extensor tendon ; 5, left ' after-claw.' 



the ox, the extensor of the outer claw. From the compound 

 extensor of the foot, which consists of several masses of muscle, 

 two tendons spring ; one passes to the bones of the inner claw 

 becoming the extensor tendon of the inner claw, the other 

 passes down the centre of the great metacarpal bone and at its 

 lower end divides into two parts, one of which is attached to 

 the pedal bone of the outer, the other to the pedal bone of the 

 inner toe. 



The arrangement in the hind-foot is similar. The extensor 

 (peroneus), whose tendon in the horse runs parallel with that 

 of the extensor pedis, is in the ox the extensor of the outer 



