The Anatomy of the Horse

George Stubbs

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486140483
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Teaching Art

George Stubbs (1724–1806), an English artist famous for his portraits of thoroughbred race horses and for other animal paintings, was also the author of the illustrations and text of The Anatomy of the Horse, one of the truly remarkable anatomical studies of its subject. First published in 1766, Stubbs' work was based on numerous dissections, a practice far from generally accepted in his century. Stubbs' horses, shown in this edition on 36 large plates, are memorable for their uncanny life-like quality, nobility, and extreme anatomical precision.

In this systematic study, Stubbs depicts the horse in three positions ― side, front, and back. He first presents the skeleton alone in each of these three positions, then devotes to each position five studies of layers of muscles, fascias, ligaments, nerves, arteries, veins, glands, and cartilages. Accompanying each of these eighteen etchings is a schematic etched outline with lettered parts that are keyed to the identifying text. The text is given both in Stubbs' original version and in a modernized version prepared in the Thirties by J. C. McCunn and C. W. Ottaway.

THE ANATOMY OF THE HORSE

ORIGINAL VERSION

TO THE READER

WHEN I first resolved to apply myself to the present work, I was flattered with the idea, that it might prove particularly useful to those of my own profession; and those to whose care and skill the horse is usually entrusted, whenever medicine or surgery becomes necessary to him; I thought it might be a desirable addition to what is usually collected for the study of comparative anatomy, and by no means unacceptable to those gentlemen who delight in horses, and who either breed or keep any considerable number of them.

The Painter, Sculptor, and Designer know what assistance is to be gained from the books hitherto published on this subject; and as they must be supposed best able to judge, how fitly the present work is accommodated to their purpose, any address to them is superfluous.

As for Farriers and Horse-Doctors, the Veterinarian School lately established in France shews of what importance their profession is held in that country; amongst us they have frequent opportunities of dissecting, and many of them have considerable skill in anatomy: but it were to be wished that this, as well as other parts of medical science, were as generally attended to by them, as by those gentlemen who treat the diseases and wounds of the human body. If what I have done may in any sort facilitate or promote so necessary a study amongst them, I shall think my labour well bestowed.

I will add, that I make no doubt, but Gentlemen who breed horses will find advantage, as well as amusement, by acquiring an accurate knowledge of the structure of this beautiful and useful animal.

But what I should principally observe to the Reader concerning this my performance, is, that all the figures in it are drawn from nature, for which purpose I dissected a great number of horses; and that, at the same time, I have consulted most of the treatises of reputation on the general subject of anatomy.

It is likewise necessary to acquaint him, that the proportions which I have mentioned in several places of the book, are estimated from the length of the head, as is usually done by those who have treated on the proportion of human figures; this length is taken from the top of the head to the ends of the cutting teeth, and is divided into four equal parts, each of which is again divided into twelve minutes.

ERRATA

The First Anatomical TABLE of the Skeleton of a HORSE explained

Bones in the Head.

aaaabcdefg

THE os frontis, or forehead bone; b a small hole which transmits an artery and nerve out of the orbit to the frontal muscle; c a suture which joins the frontal bone with the zygomatic, or jugal process of the temporal bone; de the coronal suture; d a squamose, or scale-like suture; e the part of it which makes a serrated or true suture, common to the frontal bone with the parietal bone; f a suture common to the frontal and nasal bones; g a suture common to this bone with the os unguis.

hik The vertical, or parietal bone; i a squamose suture, common to the parietal bone with the temporal bone; k the lambdoid suture, common to the parietal bone with the occipital bone.

lmnoppq The occipital bone; / the occipital protuberance, which in this animal is very large, together with the internal spine, or protuberance, which, directly opposite to this, makes a strong body of bone in this place; betwixt m and n is a suture, which, in young horses, is easily separated, but afterwards becomes firmly united; o a process which makes a considerable addition to the mammillary process of the temporal bone; p the condyloid process, which is incrusted with a smooth cartilage.

rsstuwx Os temporis, or temporal bone; r the zygomatic, or jugal process of the temporal bone; t the part which articulates with the lower jaw bone; uw a part which, in young horses, may be easily divided, but afterwards becomes firmly united; it is distinguished by the name of os petrosa, or apophysis petrosa; u the mammillary process; w the bony meatus, or entrance of the ear; x a suture common to the cheek bone, with the zygomatic process of the temporal bone.

yz The orbitary portion of the bone of the palate; y a suture common to it with the os frontis; z a suture common to it with the upper jaw bone.

1 2 3 4 5 6 Os unguis; 1 a small protuberance or roughness from whence arises the orbicular muscle of the eye-lid; 2 a sinus or cavity belonging to the nasal canal; 3 a suture common to this bone with the cheek bone; 4 a suture common to this bone with the bone of the nose; 5 a suture common to this bone with the bone of the forehead; 6 a suture common to this bone with the upper jaw bone.

7 8 9 10 Os jugale, or cheek bone; 8 9 a suture formed by the union of this bone with the upper jaw bone; 10 a suture formed by the union of the orbitary part of this bone with the os unguis.

11 11 12 13 14 15 Os maxillae superioris, or the upper jaw bone; 12 the foramen or hole of the channel 12 which passes along the bottom of the orbit of the eye; 13 a suture common to this bone with the bone of the nose; 14 a suture common to the anterior part of this bone 15, and the posterior part 11 12 13. 16 Os nasi

17 17 17 17 1819 19 20The lower mandible or jaw bone; at 17 17 17 17 are marked roughnesses, from which arise the tendinous parts of the masseter; 18 a hole out of which passes a nerve of the fifth pair and blood-vessels to the chin; 19 19 the coronal or acute process; 20 its condyle or head that is joined with the temporal bone.

21 A moveable cartilaginous plate which is interposed in the articulation of the lower jaw.

The Vertebrœ of the Neck.

AÆEabbcdeThe atlas or uppermost vertebra; AÆ the posterior and superior part of the left side of this vertebra, which articulates with the condyloid process of the occipital bone; A the anterior and superior part of the right side of the atlas, which articulates with the occipital bone as a large tubercle on the anterior part of this vertebra; bb the transverse processes; c the protuberance, tubercle, or inequality on the posterior part of this vertebra, which seems to be in the place of a spinal apophysis; d the posterior, and inferior part of the right side of this vertebra, which articulates with the second vertebra; e the transverse hole through which a nerve and blood-vessels pass. N. B. This vertebra receives the articulating part of the occipital bone, as well as the superior articulating part of the second vertebra: the rest of the vertebræ in the inferior articulating parts of their bodies receive the superior articulating parts of the vertebra below, and have their superior articulating parts received by those above, so it is with the back and loins; E the superior and posterior holes.

fghiklmn 12 The epistrophæus or second vertebra of the neck; f the inferior part of the body which receives and is sustained by the third vertebra of the neck; g the superior part of its body, which is received by and sustains the atlas or first vertebra of the neck; h the anterior protuberance of the body of this vertebra; i the transverse process; k the spinal process; l the lower oblique process on the right side, which is covered with a smooth cartilage within the dotted lines; m the lower oblique process on the left side; at 1 is a hole where the vertebral artery goes in and comes out at 2, called the transverse hole.

opqrstuwxy The third vertebra of the neck; o the anterior protuberance of the body of this vertebra; p is the superior part of the body of this vertebra, which is received into the inferior part of the body of the second vertebra; and q is the inferior which receives the superior part of the body of the fourth vertebra; r the transverse process; s the right upper oblique process; t the right lower oblique process; u the spinal process; w the transverse holes through which the vertebral arteries and veins of the neck pass; x the left upper oblique process; y the left lower oblique process seen thro’ the large foramen or hole which contains the medulla spinalis, or spinal marrow.

N. B. This explanation may serve for the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh vertebra of the neck; only that the anterior protuberance is wanting in the sixth; but instead of that there is a process on each side which is obliquely placed a little more anteriorly than the transverse process but ascends obliquely outwards to join with it; it is marked z.

A continuation of the bones of the spine from the neck.

IabcdefG The first or uppermost vertebra of the back; a the body; b the transverse process; c the upper oblique process; d the lower oblique process; e the spinal process; f the lower oblique process of the left side, seen through the large hole which contains the medulla spinalis; G the ligament interposed betwixt the bodies of the first and second vertebra of the back.

2 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18The vertebrae below the 1st, to the letters of which the explanation of the first will answer.

ABCDEF The six vertebræ of the loins; the explanation of the first vertebra of the back will answer to the vertebrae of the loins.

ggghiiiiikklllmmmm The os sacrum or great bone of the spine; ggg the anterior part or body of this bone which, in young animals, is divided into as many bodies as there are spines in this bone, it being then like five vertebrae, whose transverse processes make the unequal rough part h of this bone; iiiii the five spines; kkk three inferior and anterior holes, which transmit the nerves on each side; lll posterior foramina or holes; these foramina, both anterior and posteria, answer to the foramina through which are seen, in this table, the oblique processes of the left side of the vertebrae both of the neck, back, and loins; the transverse processes of this bone being joined, make two holes, one anterior, the other posterior, of which there is but one in the neck, &...