t in a very young foal, is really
the lower extremity of the ulna.

"What is commonly called the knee of a horse is its wrist. The
'cannon bone' answers to the middle bone of the five metacarpal
bones which support the palm of the hand in ourselves. The
'pastern,' 'coronary,' and 'coffin' bones of veterinarians answer
to the joints of our middle fingers, while the hoof is simply a
greatly enlarged and thickened nail. But, if what lies below the
horse's 'knee' thus corresponds to the middle finger in
ourselves, what has become of the four other fingers or digits?
We find in the places of the second and fourth digits only two
slender splint-like bones, about two-thirds as long as the cannon
bone, which gradually taper to their lower ends and bear no
finger joints, or, as they are termed, phalanges. Sometimes small
bony or gristly nodules are to be found at the bases of these two
metacarpal splints, and it is probable that these represent
rudiments of the first and fifth digits. Thus the part of the
horse's skeleton which corresponds with that of the human hand
contains one overgrown middle digit, and at least two imperfect
lateral digits; and these answer, respectively, to the third, the
second, and the fourth digits in man.

"Corresponding modifications are found in the hind limb. In
ourselves, and in most quadrupeds, the leg contains two distinct
bones, a large bone, the tibia, and a smaller and more slender
bone, the fibula. But, in the horse, the fibula seems, at first,
to be reduced to its upper end; a short slender bone united with
the tibia and ending in a point below occupying its place.
Examination of the lower end of a young foal's shin-bone,
however, shews a distinct portion of osseous matter, which is the
lower end of the fibula; so that the apparently single lower end
of the shin-bone is really made up of the coalesced ends of the
tibia and fibula, just as the apparently single lower end of the
fore-arm bone is composed of the coalesced radius and ulna.

"The heel of the horse is the part commonly known as the hock;
the hinder cannon bone answers to the middle metatarsal bone of
the human foot, the pastern, coronary, and coffin bones, to the
middle-toe bones; the hind hoof to the nail, as in the fore foot.
And, as in the