POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 41 



Although it does not come within the scope of 

 the present volume to give a complete account of 

 the structure of the horse, such as is to be found in 

 the numerous works on veterinary anatomy, there 

 are certain structural features, in addition to those 

 already mentioned, which demand special notice on 

 the ground of their morphological interest. The 

 first of these is a wartlike structure buried in the 

 tuft of long hair on the hind surface of each foot, 

 which gives the name of fetlock (i.e. footlock or feet- 

 lock) to this segment of the limb (pi. vi. fig. i). 

 When the tuft of hair is cut away, there will be 

 revealed on the summit of a fatty cushion a bare 

 patch covered with a warty growth to which French 

 veterinarians have given the name of ergot, a word 

 properly signifying the spur of a cock. The ergot 

 is relatively larger in the ass than in the horse. 



Sir William Flower^ appears to have been the 

 first to point out the true significance of the ergot, 

 which really represents the large fatty pad or cushion 

 on the sole of the foot of a dog situated above, and 

 to a slight extent between, the four smaller toe- 

 pads. Although now a rudimentary, or vestigial, 

 structure, it was evidently functional in the early 

 ancestors of the horse, which applied a considerable 

 portion of the side of the foot to the ground, instead 

 of resting only on the tip of the middle toe. 



Although the term hoof is generally applied 



^ The Horse^ Modern Science Series, London, 1891, p. 168. 



