We draw particular attention to what we have just noted in regard to the transverse proportions of the iliac and ischiatic regions of the dog and the cat. These relations are evidently of importance with regard to shape, since the iliac crests and the ischia are noticeable beneath the skin.
[Illustration: FIG. 50.--PELVIS OF A FELIDE (LION), VIEWED FROM ABOVE.
1, Iliac crest; 2, external iliac fossa; 3, sacrum; AA´, bi-iliac diameter; BB´, bi-ischial diameter.]
In the dog, the shaft of the femur is slightly convex in front; but in the cat it is straight. The borders of the shaft are slightly marked, so that it is almost cylindrical. The _linea aspera_, less prominent than in man, gains in width what it loses in elevation; it constitutes what may almost be called a rough _surface_. This surface is narrower in its middle portion than at its extremities, where it bifurcates to go upwards to the two trochanters, and downwards to the two condyles. At the superior extremity, the neck is short, the great trochanter reaching almost to the level of the head of the femur; the digital _cavity_, which is situated on the internal surface of the great trochanter, is very deep. At its inferior extremity it projects strongly backward. The trochlea is narrow; in the cat its two lips are equally prominent, while in the dog the external is a little more elevated than the internal, which on its part is a little thicker. The trochlea is still more independent of the condyles than in the human femur; it is separated from these latter by a slight constriction.
The tibia of the dog is slightly curved from before backward: it has the form of an elongated S; this conformation is in great part due to the very marked projection of the anterior tuberosity and of the superior portion of the crest, which, a little below that tuberosity, turns abruptly backwards, and thus describes a curve the concavity of which is directed forward. The superior part of the external surface is very much hollowed out.
The superior extremity is much thicker than the inferior one. It is not only wide in the transverse direction, but is more especially extended from before backwards; the prominence of the anterior tuberosity is the cause of the elongation of this antero-posterior diameter. On the posterior part of the external tuberosity is found a surface to which the superior extremity of the fibula is applied.