ATROPHY OF THE PLANTAR CUSHION. 
365 
1 s reinforced by a thick tibrons band rising from the posterior 
ligament of the carpus or of the tarsus. The superficial 
flexor of the phalanges receives also a band of reinforcement; 
but its disposition is .not the same in both extremities. In 
the anterior, the tendon of the preforatus is reinforced at 
its origin “ b}^ an enormous fibrous production rising from 
the eminence of insertion situated downwards on the posterior 
face of the radius* in the posterior leg, the reinforcing 
band is given from the thick fibrous layer depence of the tibial 
aponeurosis. These two fibrous bands perform toward the ten¬ 
dons to which they unite, an action analogous to that of the bands 
which from the post-carpal and post-tarsal ligaments unite to the 
tendons of the deep flexors ; like those, they prevent stretching of 
the flexor tendons and allow the corresponding muscles to relax 
completely while in the standing position. Let us add that these 
reinforcing bands are powerfully assisted by the suspensory 
ligament. 
On the other side, if one studies comparatively the anterior 
and posterior extremities, he will find in them, viewed as to their 
functional aptitude, one of those magnificent proofs of the har¬ 
mony with which the Creator made everything—in the anterior 
legs, whose principal action is in standing, very voluminous 
bands of reinforcement; in the posterior, principal agents of the 
impulsive power in progression, a third muscle, the oblique flexor, 
an auxiliary of the perforans muscle. 
There is another anatomical disposition to which but very 
little importance has been given, and whose play, however, is far 
from being useless in the accomplishment of the acts of locomotion. 
By the insertion of its two terminal branches, on each side of the 
superior extremity of the second phalanx, the tendon of the 
superficial flexor throws upon the phalangial spds, after reducing 
it, the fraction of pressure of rest that it carries at the fetlock, 
Again, this organ constitutes at the point of origin of its 
two terminal branches, a true pulley upon which in passing over 
it the perforans tendon rests in such a manner that the per¬ 
forate carries again oyer the bony column, not only the pres- 
* A. Chauveau. 
