GENEALOGY OF THE HORSE, ETC. 
9 
is discernible. The shoulder blade of the anterior limb corre¬ 
sponds to that of man, the humerus to the humerus, the forearm 
to the ulna and radius of man ; it will be seen that instead of the 
two separate bones of the forearm in the horse, there is appar¬ 
ently but one, that is the radius; still the ulna is present but not 
separate, only rudimentary and united with the radius. In man 
the two bones are fully developed and separate. The bones of 
the fore-knee correspond to the wrist of man, the canon bone to 
the metacarpal, the pastern, coronary and coffin bones to the 
three phalanges of the middle finger; thus the middle finger of 
the horse is most strongly developed, and it may be said that the 
horse steps on his powerful middle finger. The femur of the 
posterior limb corresponds to that of man, the leg to the leg of 
man. Still some deviations are found : whilst the leg of the horse 
has for its base one compact bone, the tibia and a small undevel¬ 
oped bone, a rudimentary piece, the fibula, the leg of man con¬ 
sists of two separate bones, fully developed, the tibia and the 
fibula. The knee-joint of man corresponds to the stifle-joint of 
the horse, the hock-joint is nothing less than the heel of man, the 
canon bone of the posterior limb corresponds to the metatarsus; 
the pastern, coronary and coffin bone to the three phalanges of 
the middle toe of man. 
From this comparison it is at once perceptible how incorrect 
the nomenclature of the separate bones of the horse’s foot is, 
and how a revision is needed. 
If a close examination of the bones of the horse’s foot be 
made, it will be discovered that the canon bone (which corre¬ 
sponds with the the metacarpals of the human hand and the 
metatarsals of the human foot), is composed of three bones in¬ 
stead of one. On the posterior face of the canon bone two long 
pyramidal bones are attached which taper downward free; these 
must be accepted as remains of former toes, more so as the upper 
end has distinct articular surfaces and terminates in a small tubu¬ 
lar knob which can be felt through the skin (and often errone¬ 
ously taken for splints) and is nothing but an aborted joint. 
Consequently these splints must have played a certain role, and 
have served another purpose than at the present time, for the ob- 
