77 

 LECTURE VII. 



THE HIND LEGS. 



" — Whereas, the narrow pin buttock, the hog rump, and the falling 

 buttock, are all natural deformities, and in general render the creatures to 

 which they belong unfit for either pad or pillion." — Farrier s Dictionary. 



The three bones below the pastern, properly speaking, belong 

 to the foot ; a part I shall defer the consideration of until we have 

 completed the present series of lectures " on Form and Action :" 

 in accordance with this plan I now proceed to the hind ex- 

 tremities. 



In my description of the fore limbs, I observed that they dif- 

 fered materially from the hind ones in their superstructural divi- 

 sions, notwithstanding that below the knees and hocks there 

 existed, both in the living and dissected subjects, every identity 

 between their structures : the osseous fabric of the fore limb 

 exhibits, as a whole, a tolerably fair representation of the limb of 

 the living animal; but than the haunches of the living horse and 

 the parts representative thereof in the skeleton nothing can be 

 more unlike. The framework of bones composing the hind quar- 

 ters* exhibits a bold, rugged, zigzag structure, remarkable only 

 for its irregularities, having here a huge projection, there a large 

 void, with such a disposition of the component pieces as to offer 

 every advantage, consistent with the general conformation, to the 

 muscles that once filled the vacuities, and had their attachments 

 to projections so strangely, yet wisely, shapen and disposed. The 

 hind limbs are the agents of progression : though the fore contri- 

 bute to the operation, they are no more than auxiliary forces, not 

 absolutely requisite, and only on occasions called into action. This 

 accounts for the especial development of the hind quarters in 

 quadrupeds of speed, or such as are gifted with extraordinary 

 powers of saltation, such as kangaroos. In surveying the points 

 of a race-horse, the practical man on the turf sets great value on 



* " Hind quarters," and " quarters" are expressions used here and in other 

 places in the sense of buttocks. 



