LECTURES ON HORSES. 
305 
the hocks,” or, in other words, with muscle and sinew from upper 
end to lower, nothing can surpass it for speed in the gallop and 
bottom in continuing it. 
I have observed that length and obliquity of thigh are, com- 
monly, correspondent formations ; but they are not necessarily so : 
we now and then meet with thorough-bred horses with straight 
and lengthy quarters, and extreme length of thigh, and yet the 
thigh is so straight that its line of descent approaches even the 
perpendicular. I remember a racer — Wouvermans” — who was 
most remarkably straight and lengthy in his gaskins, and yet he 
performed with considerable eclat. In these cases, length of thigh 
affords great stride, and muscularity tells in maintaining it ; but 
in the absence of obliquity it is impossible there can be that spring 
or elasticity in the movements which is likewise a great prompter 
of speed, and which must ever tend to render the production of 
speed less expensive to the animal machine. Some greyhounds 
are very straight-thighed ; but hares and rabbits, and many other 
animals of great speed, possess extreme obliquity, as well as length, 
in the conformation of their hind limbs. Perhaps the oblique 
hind quarters are the most suitable for efforts of bounding or leap- 
ing ; and that, as such, they are of more value in hunters than in 
racers. 
THE HOCK. 
The hock — the old and proper spelling of which is hough — of 
the quadruped is the same as the heel of man ; the os calcis being 
the bone, in both instances, by which the projecting parts, com- 
monly distinguished by these appellations, is formed : the hock- 
joint, altogether, being correspondent to our ancle-joint. The joint, 
either as hock or ancle, is composed of six bones, being a sort of 
correlative structure to the knee ; but why, like the knee, so many 
pieces enter into its composition, is not very apparent, and espe- 
cially in the instance of the hock, wherein, as far as the motion of 
the joint is concerned, but one appears absolutely requisite. In a 
situation where so many pieces are placed to receive the jar or 
shock, and where these pieces are reposing upon elastic cushions, 
concussion must, no doubt, be very much counter- acted ; to my 
mind, however, this does not altogether account for the curious 
mechanism displayed in the instance before us, as well as in some 
other parts of the skeleton. The lower end of the tibia has two 
deep furrows or grooves running obliquely across it, and these are 
fitted with admirable precision to a pulley-like surface, presented 
upwards by the main bone of the hock, the astragalus, upon which 
the tibia rests ; and between these two bones, the tibia and astra- 
galus, is carried on almost all the motion of which the hock is capa- 
