THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XV, No. 175.] JULY 1842. [New Series, No. 7. 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
By William PERCIVALL, M.B.C.S., Veterinary Surgeon 
First Life Guards. 
LECTURE IY ( continued ). 
THE SHOULDER {continued). 
THE muscles attaching the scapulae to the sides of the chest 
impart to the shoulders that strength which enables them to sup- 
port the fore parts of the animal machine, and move under their 
burthen with a facility that no joint or other contrivance could 
have afforded them. The scapula or blade-bone, in the position we 
behold it while the horse is standing, possesses — in relation to an 
imaginary line let fall perpendicularly from the withers (see the 
fig. dotted line C D) — a degree of inclination or obliquity which 
varies more or less almost in every individual : one horse is said 
to have shoulders oblique , another to have them straight , depend- 
ing on the more or less inclined position of the blade-bones ; and 
the former is valued as a riding-horse, and justly so, while the 
other is despised and rejected. The reason of this will appear 
evident when we come to learn that every time the shoulder is 
put in motion the scapula makes a sort of partial revolution on its 
own centre or axis, which at first slightly depresses, but instantly 
afterwards elevates and advances its base or upper part, while its 
lower part or obtruncated apex, which was at the commencement of 
the movement advanced, recedes until the scapula has nearly or 
quite revolved* into a straight or upright position. The more ob- 
lique the original position of the scapula the greater will be its 
VOL. xv. 3 c 
