Shin

“ Does the thigh have one bone in each? The shank of man has two bones, shin and splint bone. Do you see a groove near the end in the shank bone of a frog (Fig. 252) , indicating that it was formed by the union of a shin and a splint bone? The first two of the five bones of the ankle are elongated, giving the hind leg the appearance of having an extra joint (Fig. 253) . The foot consists of six digits, one of which, like the thumb on the fore limb, is rudimentary. The five developed toes give the five digits of the typical vertebrate foot. ”

“ The calf of the leg has much work to do, even as much as running on the toes. The muscle, however, that suffers most is that which rises on the outside of the shin bone, near the knee, and runs down the leg, crossing the shin near the ankle, to be inserted near the inside of the sole of the foot. This muscle raises the foot, and draws it back towards the leg at the end of the stride, and also points the heel at the commencement; so that in fast walking it has no rest, and consequently becomes very painful. The front and back muscles of the thigh also come in for a large share of work. ”

“ Shin, shin, n. the large bone of the leg or the forepart of it: a bird's shank.—v.i. to climb a tree (with up) : to tramp, trudge.—v.t. to climb a tree by swarming up it: to kick on the shins.—ns. Shin′-bone, the tibia; Shin′-piece, a piece of armour defending the forepart of the leg; Shin′-plas′ter (U.S.) , a patch of brown-paper steeped in vinegar, &c., laid on a sore: a small paper note or promise to pay. [A.S. scina, the shin (esp. in the compound scin-bán, shin-bone) ; Dut. scheen, Ger. schiene.] ”

“ And a certain dangerous mental state is always indicated when the foot is put forward and the shin bone slightly stretched out, with all the toes drawn in toward the sole of the foot, like a cat when it feels good. ”

“ This long shin-bone indicates that these men were swift of foot, quite in keeping with their undoubted nomadic habits and wide distribution. The flatness of the tibia, which is strongly marked in 62 per cent of the skeletons, may well be due to the habit of squatting while engaged in fashioning flints and in other industrial occupations. The leg, long in comparison with the arm, and the thigh-bone, strongly developed, are both characters of a hunting race. ”

“ The knee-cap, for instance, which really belongs to the thigh, is attached to it by muscle, but to the shin-bone by a stout ligament. And so with the bones of the arm; they are connected to one another by ligaments; but to the trunk only by muscle, excepting at one end of the collar-bone.
"But this was a very significant fact. Ligament decays much more slowly than muscle, so that in a body of which the muscles had largely decayed the bones might still be held together by ligament. ”

“ Without presuming to enter into a controversy which must be settled by the experts, I venture to think that there is little room for doubt that Professor Sayce is right. As shown on the drawing, the lower ends of the strokes of this shin are not much further apart than the ends of the lateral strokes of the raish on that side, and the prolongations of the strokes required to make a perfect shin appear to me no more "imaginary" than the prolongations required to complete the raish, which is a letter no one calls in question. ”

“ It is much safer to wear them, and when they are properly made and fit well they but slightly affect the freedom of the legs. The sense of confidence that comes from wearing them more than makes up for the slight loss of freedom. No doubt the old players of whom we hear so much from certain old fogies did not like being hit on the shin any more than we do at the present time, so some one invented pads or shin-protectors, which consisted of two pieces of wood so placed as to guard the legs. ”

“ It must be remembered that no one questions the modifiability of the individual. That the epidermis of the oarsman's hand is thickened and hardened; that muscles increase by exercise; that the capacity for thinking may be developed by steady application;—these facts nobody doubts. That well-fed fish grow to a larger size than their ill-fed brethren; that if the larger shin-bone (the tibia) of a dog be removed, the smaller shin-bone (the fibula) soon acquires a size equal to or greater than that of the normal tibia ”

“ Among them are the small ears, elongated head, the presence of a deep groove alongside the nostrils, the small size of the thumb, and the great length of the arm, which reaches half-way down the shin-bone (tibia) in the erect posture. ”

“ There is scarcely any regulated use of typical forms; and in the proportions of the figures especially there is no rule. The principal figures are about 61⁄2 heads high, and in others the heads are often larger, while the arms and legs are out of all proportion gigantic, the muscles being exaggerated into masses at the calf and knee, and the shin-bone absurdly prominent. ”

“ TO NERVE A HORSE How to nerve a horse that is lame. Make a small incision about half way from the knee to the joint on the outside of the leg, and at the back part of the shin bone; you will find a small white tendon or cord ”

“ But the legs are more hairy than the body, both in front and behind, though less hairy on the calf than on the shin. Now, it will be obvious that both by day and night we rest more upon our backs and haunches than upon our legs, the latter being free when we sit down on a chair or bench, doubled in front of us when we squat on the ground (the normal position of savages) , and thrown about loosely when we lie down. ”

“ An itching sensation on the shin, foretells that you will be visited by a painful and long-continued affliction.
When your ankle joints itch, be sure that you are about to be united to one whom you love, if single; if married, that your domestic comforts will be largely increased. ”

“ So long, however, as a camel does not drag his hind legs he will be no worse treated than by having all the hair worn off his shins. The side of the foot is an easily affected spot, and a raw there, gives them great pain and is hard to cure. ”

“ The knee of the horse corresponds to the human wrist, and his hock, or “back knee,” as the children call [Pg 141] it, to our heel. The shank of the fore-leg, then, or the part between the knee and fetlock, corresponds to the hand, and the hoof and pastern to the fingers; while the shank of the hind-leg, or the part between hock and fetlock, corresponds to our foot, the hoof and pastern being the toes. The horse may thus be said to walk upon the tips of his fingers and toes, and it will readily be seen why the leg weakens in proportion as the pastern and shank lengthen. ”

“ Where the leg, for instance, has been lost, they feel as if the foot was present, but as though the leg were shortened. If the thigh has been taken off, there seems to them to be a foot at the knee; if the arm, a hand seems to be at the elbow, or attached to the stump itself. ”

“ On each front leg, at the back of the knee, there is a bony projection, giving attachments to the flexor muscles, and affording protection to certain tendons. The Orientals set a great value upon the presence of this bone, believing that it favors muscular action, and the larger this prominence is the more highly do they prize the animal that possesses it. The pasterns of the high-bred horse are of medium length, and very elastic, while the foot is circular and of moderate size. ”

“ The bones of the column meet and form articulations that are held together by ligaments, and attached to their faces, borders and extremities are muscles and tendons. In the superior portion of the limb the muscles are heavy, tapering inferiorly, and terminating in the region of the foot in long tendons. Each limb is divided into four regions. The regions of the fore-limb are the shoulder, arm, forearm and forefoot. In the hind limb are the regions of the pelvis, haunch, thigh, leg and hind-foot. ”

“ For what we call a horse's knee is really his wrist, and just below it we can still find under the skin those two small splints running down the bone of the hand, while the long middle finger, or toe, with its three joints, forms what we call the foot. ”

“ Then we follow the angles, and find they break into large simple curves. We trace the great curve of the body, its backward thrust, the width of shoulders, and comparatively narrow width across the hips, the thick curve of the thigh and its narrowing line to where the knee bends on the chair, the curve of the calf, and the flatter line of the knee to the foot where it bends downward in a great spoon-shaped curve. The right leg has far more delicate curves. ”

“ On the front surface of these bones we notice a tendon or sinew which comes from above the knee and is fixed to the upper part of the pedal bone. At the back of the bones two very large tendons run down and are [Pg 23] fixed on the last two bones. These tendons are the structures through which the movements of the foot are made. They have in themselves no power of contraction but they are connected above the knee, and in the hind leg above the hock, to powerful muscles which possess the power of contraction. ”

“ The word is also used of articulation resembling the knee-joint in shape or position in other animals; it thus is applied to the carpal articulation of the fore leg of a horse, answering to the ankle in man, or to the tarsal articulation or heel of a bird’s foot. ”

“ These, whether taken conjointly or singly, present the greatest analogy with the muscular arrangement of the same parts in man. We find the rounded, elongated, conical thigh, the knee extending itself in the same direction with the thigh-bone, and a well-fashioned calf to the leg. ”

“ Tendons in front of ankle.—Over the front of the ankle, when the muscles are in action, we can see and feel, beginning [Pg 55] on the inner side, the tendons of the tibialis anticus, the extensor longus pollicis, the extensor longus digitorum, and the peroneus tertius. They start up like cords when the foot is raised, and are kept in their proper relative position by strong pulleys formed by the anterior annular ligament. Of these pulleys the strongest is that of the extensor communis digitorum. ”