LECTURES ON HORSES. 
307 
having a longitudinal ridge running upon it, unequally dividing it 
into two smaller surfaces. Between the scapula and the ribs there 
is no joint — neither osseous nor ligamentary connexion, but only 
a fleshy one : muscles alone attach the shoulders to the body ; and 
as the body is supported anteriorly by the fore limbs, it follows 
that thus much of the weight is borne by muscular action, or, at 
least, by muscles becomes transmitted to the legs or pillars of sup- 
port. A man by passing a knife between the scapula and the 
ribs would easily sever these fleshy attachments, and in this man- 
ner let fall the fore part of the trunk, and thS head and neck along 
with it, to the ground. This constitutes the essential difference 
in their relations with the body between the fore and hind extre- 
mities : while the latter are connected to the trunk and support 
the hind parts of it through the medium of joints, the former hold 
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 , being 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 this is 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 sca- 
pula, it will be necessary for us to examine, both in and out of 
its situation, the other component bone of the shoulder — the hu- 
merus. 
This is one of that class of bones termed cylindrical, and cyl in- 
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 
