Anatomy, Artistic; Animals in art; Zoological illustration
With regard to the inferior extremity, its surfaces undergo
modifications which are further accentuated as we pass from the
digitigrades to the ungulates, or unguligrades. We know that in man the
femoral trochlea is continuous behind, without interruption, with the
condyles--that is to say, that each of the condyles is the continuation
of one of the lips of the trochlea. We have just said that the trochlea
is continuous without interruption with the condyles; this is accurate.
Nevertheless, we must remark that, at the level of the junction of these
surfaces, the bone presents a slight constriction, which is more marked
on the external than on the internal aspect. This constriction, which is
but slightly marked in man, is accentuated in the dog and the cat; in
the ruminants and the solipeds it is still more pronounced so that we
may say that in these latter the trochlea and the condyles are almost
completely separated.
There is another modification in regard to the prominence and extent of
the two lips of the trochlea. In man, the external lip of the trochlea
reaches higher than the internal, and it is more prominent in front. In
the dog, these lips are equal with regard to thickness, but the external
still reaches higher than the internal; in the cat, they are equal in
every respect; in ruminants and solipeds the internal lip is wider,
thicker, and rises higher than the external.
In animals the trochlea is, as a general rule, narrower than in man, and
the condyles are more prominent posteriorly; so that, when viewed from
one of the lateral aspects, the inferior extremity of the femur is, in
them, better developed in the antero-posterior direction.
In birds, the femur is shorter than the bones of the leg; its great
trochanter is in contact with a prominence which occupies the posterior
part of the border of the cotyloid cavity. Instead of articulating at
the level of the knee, with the knee-cap and tibia only, as in man, it
articulates, in addition, with the superior extremity of the fibula. A
similar arrangement is found in marsupials and reptiles.
=The Knee-cap.=--This bone, developed in the thickness of the tendon of
the triceps muscle of the thigh, is in contact, by its posterior
surface, with the femoral trochlea. The two articular surfaces which are
applied to the lips of the trochlea present, with regard to their
extent, an inequality which is in proportion to the arrangement which we
have above indicated--that is, while in man it is the external surface
which is the larger, in the horse it is the internal. We shall see what
the general form of the knee-cap is when we come, later on, to study
more particularly the posterior limbs of some animals.
The Leg
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