Anatomy, Artistic; Animals in art; Zoological illustration
The ulna has a triangular shaft, situated at the posterior surface of
the radius, with which it is fused. It disappears completely at the
level of the inferior third of the forearm. Occasionally, in some
horses, the ulna is abnormally long, in the form of a slender tongue of
bone; and extends to the neighbourhood of the external tuberosity of the
inferior extremity of the radius (see Fig. 79, p. 196). Its superior
extremity is chiefly represented by the olecranon process, which is
voluminous in bulk, and forms the projection known as the point of the
elbow. This process is flattened laterally; its internal surface is
excavated; the anterior surface, which is concave, forms a part of the
great sigmoid cavity; the remainder of the cavity is formed by the
radius.
In the ass, the ulna is a little longer than in the horse--that is to
say, it descends lower; and the radius is a little more convex
anteriorly.
The carpal bones are seven in number--four in the superior row, and
three in the inferior. The trapezium is wanting in the latter.
Sometimes, however, in certain varieties of horses the trapezium is
developed, but then it is no more than a very small osseous nodule. The
pisiform bone, situated at the external part of the first row of bone,
is prominent posteriorly. It is of rounder form and flattened from
without inwards. It articulates with the trapezium and the radius. It
presents, on its external surface, a groove for the passage of the
tendon of the posterior ulnar muscle, which is named by veterinary
anatomists the _external flexor of the metacarpus_.
The carpus, as a whole, is of an irregularly cuboid shape; its anterior
surface, slightly convex from side to side, forms the skeleton of the
region of the _knee_ (wrist). The metacarpus is formed of three bones:
the principal metacarpal and the two rudimentary ones.
The principal metacarpal, which forms the region of the _canon_, is
directed vertically; its anterior surface is slightly convex
transversely. This surface is covered by a number of tendons, which
slightly alter its appearance; so that it is the principal base of this
part of the fore-limb. Its posterior surface is flattened. The superior
extremity of this metacarpal presents plane surfaces, variously
inclined, with which the bones of the inferior row of the carpus
articulate. On the anterior surface, and a little to the inner side, is
found a tuberosity, which is destined for the insertion of _the anterior
extensor of the metacarpus_, the homologue of the radial muscles. The
inferior extremity is formed by two condyles, an internal and an
external; between which is found a median crest.
This extremity, the superior extremity of the first phalanx, which
articulates with it, together with two sesamoid bones--the great
sesamoids--which are situated on its posterior surface, collectively
form the region which from its rounded outlines is called the _ball_.
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