TENDONS AND TENDINOUS 



TEXTURES. 



Several varieties of these textures are to be found entering 

 into that complex organism, the foot of the horse. 



i. The tendons directly connecting the bones with the 

 muscles that act upon them. 



2. The tendinous expansions that envelope joints. 



3. The tendinous structures that connect bones that are in 

 close apposition to each other in joint formations. 



4. The external lateral ligaments of joints. 



5. The stellate ligaments of the navicular bone. 



GENERAL CHARACTER OF TENDINOUS TEXTURES. 



All the above structures have the same general composition, 

 differing only in the arrangeme?it of their fibres. The dense, 

 tough, white, tendinous expansions that embrace the joints, 

 and the inelastic silvery ligaments and tendons that form ex- 

 tensions of muscles, are alike of the white fibrous variety of 

 tissues, and are composed of white filaments, similar in every 

 respect to the fibrous areolar tissues. They only differ in the 

 arrangement of their fibres. They are all, however, arranged 

 in a parallel manner, and, being inelastic, give a firm union to 

 those structures with which they are continuous at their ends. 

 Yet, though they are described as inelastic, they are not abso- 

 lutely so, as is shown by the fact that a small number of yellow 

 elastic fibres is interspersed among the bundles of white fibres. 

 This undoubtedly imparts some security against the chances of 



