NIPHER EVOLUTION OF THE AM. TROTTING-HORSE. 



13 



final advantage of the trotting-horse after the process of develop- 

 ing and adjusting of his muscles and chest shall have been suffi- 

 ciently carried on, so that the contest between the trotter and the 

 racer shall have been reduced to a matter of muscular capacity. 



It is w^ell known that some herds of wild horses on the Texas 

 plains were natural pacers, and even when pushed to the utmost, 

 and for days together, by the best running-horses, the greater por- 

 tion of them held to their gait. One large white pacer became 

 widely known and his capture was often attempted, but he al- 

 ways proved more than a match for the best horses that could be 

 brought against him. 



Whatever may be said about the particular numerical results 

 of this discussion, it is clear that the trotting-horse is very likely 

 to reach a much higher speed than has been heretofore thought 

 possible. 



Added Nov. 7, 1883. 



In the November number of the American Journal of Science 

 Mr. W. H. Pickering has criticised the method of reduction used 

 in the present paper (which had been printed from advance 

 sheets in the July number of that journal), and has reached a very 

 different conclusion from that reached in the present paper. 



Mr. Pickering thinks that it is objectionable to determine the 

 value of ^^ by taking the alternate differences in s and Z", and 

 he has reduced the observations by taking differences between 

 consecutive values in the table. In this way he gets the values of 

 the third column in the table below. 



Plotting these values of -^ and the corresponding values of 5, 



he then goes on to say that the points so determined may be rep- 



ds 

 resented by a curve, such that the value of -^ increases as s 



