THE LEGS. 45 



the body suspended, as it were, between them through the inter- 

 vention of muscle. 



The scapula is a bone of a triangular shape, having two long 

 sides and one short : the latter, known as its base, is in situ turned 

 upwards ; its opponent angle, obtruncated and corresponding to 

 the apex, being turned downwards. The position of the bone 

 in relation to the body is oblique : its basis lies as far back as 

 against the seventh rib, while its apex is protruding forward enough 

 to be opposed to the first rib* : at least this appears to be the common 

 situation of the bone, it being evident that any increase or decrease 

 of obliquity must alter its relative apposition as regards the ribs. 

 We see horses with oblique shoulders, and with straight or upright 

 shoulders, and we shall find that the scapula varies in its degree of 

 inclination very materially in these two cases ; and that this varia- 

 tion constitutes one especial point on which depends the " goodness" 

 or " badness" of the horse's shoulder. Before, however, we can 

 comprehend the advantages and disadvantages of certain positions 

 of the scapula, it will be necessary for us to examine, both in 

 and out of its situation, the other component bone of the shoulder 

 — the humerus. 



This is one of that class of bones termed cylindrical; and cylin- 

 droid, though irregularly shaped, it is. It is surmounted by a 

 spherical top, whose surface, the segment of a globe, is smooth and 

 polished, evidently for the purpose of playing, after the manner of 

 a spherical hinge, within a cup-like concavity occupying the place 

 of the apex of the scapula. There are no two bones in the skeleton 

 whose articular connexion is of a nature to admit more varied and 

 extensive motion than exists between the scapula and the humerus. 

 Let a man take a horse's fore-leg in his arms, and he will find that 

 he can not merely bring it forward and carry it backward, but can 

 also, to a considerable extent, make it perform a sort of rotatory 

 motion : and this, the latter especially, he is enabled to effect in 

 consequence of the mobility existing in the joint formed between 

 the ball or head of the humerus and the socket in the lower end 

 of the scapula. 



The power of throwing the leg outwards or inwards in action, of 

 turning the toe out or in, of performing those motions in the manege 

 * Turn back to M The Skeleton;" page 7. 



