THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XVI, No. 186 . JUNE 1843. New Series, No. 18 . 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S., Veterinary Surgeon , 
First Life Guards. 
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 ; nor 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, 
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