ANATOMY OF THE HOUSE. 
163 
zium and the cuneiform bone. They have all their own proper 
capsular membranes, which are attached around the borders of 
their cartilaginous surfaces, and consequently have no communi¬ 
cation one with another. The knee-joint altogether is further 
maintained by—1st, The lateral ligaments: the external , passing 
on the outside from a tubercle on the arm-bone to the head of the 
external metacarpal bone; the internal, divided into two portions 
proceeding together from a similar tubercle on the inner side of 
the arm-bone, the longer to be fixed to the head of the internal 
splint-bone, the shorter to the inner and fore part of the large 
metacarpal bone. Besides these, there are two annular liga¬ 
ments, one, the anterior, traversing the front of the knee, being 
attached on the sides, and confining down the extensor tendons ; 
the other, the posterior, passing across, behind, from the scaphoid 
and cuneiform bones to the trapezium, inclosing the flexor tendons. 
The fetlock-joint is composed by the apposition of the in¬ 
ferior condyloid extremity of the cannon bone to the upper bi¬ 
concave surface of the pastern bone, and by the addition, poste¬ 
riorly, of the sesamoid bones, which are also fitted to the con- 
dyl es of the cannon. Its binding parts are—1st, The capsular 
membrane, which is infixed into the bone around the borders of 
the cartilaginous surfaces, and in front is inseparably united with 
the extensor tendon. 2d, The internal lateral ligaments: the long 
one passing from a little projection on the side of the large meta¬ 
carpal bone to the pastern; the short one, passing underneath the 
former, from a depression immediately below the eminence to the 
pastern behind the insertion of the long ligament. 3d, The se¬ 
ven sesamoid ligaments: — a, The suspensory ligament* (so 
called, I imagine, because the sesamoid bones seem to be sus¬ 
pended by it) is, perhaps, the strongest in the whole body, and is 
remarkable for its high degree of elastic property. It takes root, 
superiorly, in a projection at the upper and back part of the 
cannon, whence it passes, inclosed within a cellular sheath, be¬ 
tween the splint bones, filling up their interspace. Opposite to 
about the terminations of these small bones, it splits into two di¬ 
visions, which, diverging in their descent, become implanted into 
the lateral and posterior parts of the sesamoid bones, and into the 
fibro-cartilaginous substance uniting them. From the places of 
implantation, two lateral slips are continued from it downward 
and forward to join the extensor tendon. Between the suspen¬ 
sory ligament and the joint, enveloped in adipose membrane, 
are some large bursa mucosa . In composition and texture, this 
ligament possesses peculiarities : it has a sanguineous tinge inte- 
• Bourgelat lias regarded it as a tendon—“ le tendon suspenseur da huulcl 
Girard, as a muscle—“ M. Tarso-phalangien 
