THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



DECEMBER, 1874. 



THE PACES OF THE HORSE. 1 



IN the November Monthly we gave a brief account of Prof. Marey's 

 method of representing the step of animals by means of graphic il- 

 lustrations, with its application to human locomotion ; we will now con- 

 sider it as applied to the more complex paces of the horse. Hitherto, 

 the locomotion of the horse has been mainly studied by means of the 

 eye and ear. In the horse, even at a walk, the motions of the limbs 

 are so confusing as to make it difficult for the untrained eye to follow 

 them, and, when the pace is more rapid, the movements seem hope- 

 lessly intricate. Indeed, observation by the eye alone long since gave 

 place to the use of the ear, which, taking account of the rhythm of the 

 steps by the sounds they produce, afforded much more accurate results. 



An expedient which greatly aided the observer, and which we shall 

 find of service in explaining the results obtained by the graphic method, 

 was to concentrate the attention on a single pair of limbs, instead of at- 

 tempting to keep all four under observation at once. Any two limbs 

 thus selected are called a biped, and this is designated according to the 

 relative position of the limbs chosen. The horse may thus be parceled 

 out into six different bipeds. The forward limbs constitute the anterior 

 biped ; the hind-limbs, the posterior biped ; the two right limbs, the 

 right lateral biped ; the two left limbs, the left lateral biped ; the right 

 fore-leg and the left hind-leg, the right diagonal biped ; the left fore- 

 leg and the right hind-leg, the left diagonal biped. The horsey reader 

 may dwell a moment upon this bit of equine technics, as it will mate- 

 rially assist him in understanding the explanation of the various paces. 



The quadruped, when walking, has been compared to two men, 

 placed one before the other, the hindmost following close upon the 

 forward step of his companion. According as these persons (who 

 ought both to take the same number of steps) move their limbs simul- 

 taneously, or alternately, according as the man in front executes his 



1 Abstract of Chapters IV., V., and VI., of " Animal Mechanism," by Prof. Marey. 

 (Vol. XI. of " The International Scientific Series.") 



VOL. VI. 9 



