STIFLE. 87 



trochanters partake of the increased length of the femoral bones : 

 the reverse of this — short quarters and drooping or rounded stifles 

 —shewing that the femoral bones are short, and their trochanters 

 likewise. 



Taking a side view of the quarter, three prominent points 

 attract attention ; the round-bone above, the point of the quarter 

 behind, and the stifle in front ; which three prominences may be 

 said to constitute the lateral boundaries of the quarter, and, by their 

 relative distances from one another, and their degrees of promi- 

 nence or projection, principally to determine its lateral form and 

 dimensions. It will be remembered that the point of the quarter 

 owes its existence simply to a process of bone ; whereas both the 

 round-bone and stifle are constituted of joints, are not fixed but 

 moveable parts ; not so much parts from which muscles act as on 

 which their action operates. The round-bone joint we have already 

 considered ; we will now pass downward to the 



STIFLE. 



This joint is one of peculiar and beautiful construction — one from 

 which it would appear the idea of that mechanical power and use- 

 ful invention, the pulley, took its origin. The joint is formed by 

 the adaptation of the lower or condyloid end of the femoral bone 

 to the upper end of the tibia, with the super-addition, in front, of 

 the patella. The condyloid projections of which the lower end of 

 the femoral bone is constituted revolve within ovoid, shallow, cup- 

 like cavities excavated in the top of the tibia; but so superficial 

 are these cavities, or rather depressions — so incommensurate with 

 the condyles revolving in or rather upon them, that, in the angu- 

 lar position in which the femoral and tibial bones relatively stand, 

 were it not for the super-imposition of the patella, the front of the 

 joint would be left dangerously insecure and entirely unprotected. 



The Patella, or stifle-bone, of the horse, corresponds to the 

 patella or knee-pan of a man : their anatomical situation and 

 relations are the same, and they answer similar purposes in both 

 animal machines. However irreconcileable with any notions of 

 relative situation it may at first appear to an unprofessional mind, 

 the stifle of the horse is regarded bv the human anatomist as his 



