The artistic anatomy of the horse / by B. Waterhouse Hawkins, with twenty-four illustrations drawn on wood by the author.

  • Hawkins, B. Waterhouse (Benjamin Waterhouse), 1807-1894.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The artistic anatomy of the horse / by B. Waterhouse Hawkins, with twenty-four illustrations drawn on wood by the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    17/80 (page 15)
    4) , or those of the loins, situated between those bearing the ribs, and the haunch bones. It should be borne in mind, however, that the number of ribs is sometimes found to exceed that stated above; nineteen, and, occasionally, twenty ribs are found in the horse; but in such cases there is no actual increase in the number of bones in the vertebral column. The dorsal and lumbar vertebrae together are always twenty-four, so that if one or two ribs above the normal number are present, thereby in- creasing the contents of the dorsal series, the lumbcur vertebrae are proportionately reduced. The fourth (PI. II, 5) , the sacral, includes five bones which are anchylosed or united together into one mass, and, thus joined act as a hind of wedge or keystone to the arch formed by the approximation, at this point, of the haunch bones. Great strength and solidity are required here, as the united bones of the haunch, or pelvic arch, as they are called by anatomists, are the great pivots on which the hinder limbs turn, and by which they are enabled to throw forward the whole weight of the animal. The remaining vertebrae are those of the caudal (PI. II, 6), usually fifteen ; they are, however, exceedingly subject to variations to the extent of two or three above or below the number above mentioned. To recapitulate, the normal contents of each series of vertebrae will stand thus: Cervical, 7 ; Dorsal, 18 ; Lumbar, 6 ; Sacral, 5 ; Cau- dal, 15; total, 51. The form of these bones varies considerably in the