56 
THE HORSE.-NO. 2. 
THE HORSE.—No. 2. 
The Anatomy of the Bones. 
a, b, c, d, e, /, the head. 
a , the under jaw. 
b, the upper jaw ; near the letter is a hole for the 
passage of the nerves and blood vessels from the 
brain to supply the lower part of the face. 
c, the orbit, or socket of the eye. 
d, the low part of the upper jaw, containing the 
upper nipper teeth. On the opposite side is the 
lower part of the under jaw, containing the under 
nipper teeth. The lower part of the upper jaw in 
quadrupeds is a separate bone, that is, the upper 
jaw consists of two parts, the upper and lower, with 
the nipper teeth in the lower, and the grinder teeth 
in the upper. 
e, the bones of the nose. 
/, the top of the head, or bone dividing the wall 
bones of the head from the bones of the back of 
the head. There are, besides, in the head, a number 
of bones, not seen in the cut, or seen only in part. 
They are the frontal bones; the bones of the walls 
of the skull; the bones of the temples; the bones 
of the arch above the eye; the bones of the pit 
above the eye; the bone of the back part of the 
head; the bones for the passage of tears from the 
eye to the nose; the cheek bones; the bones of the 
nose; the bones of the palate; the bone dividing 
the two portions of the brain ; the base of the bone 
of the back part of the head; the wedge bone ; the 
sieve bone; the spongy bones of the cavity of the 
nose; the bone of the tongue ; and in a five year 
old horse, forty teeth, twelve nippers above and 
below, four tushes above and below, and twenty- 
four grinders above and below; the mare generally 
lacks the tushes. 
This complication of the bones of the head (in- 
The Skeleton. —Fig. 11. 
finitely greater than in any other part) has a varied 
object; the jaws are levers, the front teeth knives 
to cut, and the grinder or back teeth mill-stones to 
grind to pulp, and thus prepare the food for the 
stomach. The bones of the upper part of the head 
are necessary to shield and protect the brain and 
organs of sensation there, especially hearing and 
seeing; hence the brain is covered by an arch 
(which is the strongest form of protection), and the 
eye by arched and projecting sockets for the same 
reason. The head is liable to blows, and concus¬ 
sion of the brain would be fatal; therefore the large 
number of bones, many of them joined by dove¬ 
tailing processes that yield on pressure, closing and 
opening, and render the skull very difficult to be 
fractured/ The arch or roof of the brain consists of 
two plates, the outer one hard and dovetailed, which 
resists all pressure and blows; and the inner one 
elastic, to yield and prevent pressure on the brain. 
Thus the vibration of blows and all shocks are pre¬ 
vented, unless from a force so great as to overcome 
all these means of resistance; but this rarely occurs. 
g, h, i, j , k, the spine or back bone. 
g, the bones of the neck, seven in number. 
h, the withers; h to i, the bones of the withers 
and the bones of the back, eighteen in number. The 
wither bones rise from the spine ; the first but little, 
the second more and runs back, the third and fourth 
more, and the fifth most; then decline to the level 
of the back at the twelfth. 
i, the bones of the loins, six in number. 
j, bones of the spine, which are included in the 
haunch, five in number. 
k, the bones of the tail; varying in number, but 
generally about fifteen. 
The back bone or spine of the horse is composed 
of a wonderfully contrived series of bones. They 
are not united directly the one to the other; had 
