LOCOMOTION IN MAN 179 



man is preparing for his thrust, and the second is when 

 his arm is extended to its utmost limit after he has 

 executed the lunge. 



Fig. 40 was taken from two equally good photographs 

 of a boxer.* 



In all possible actions, such as pulling a string, 

 lifting a weight, turning a wheel, pushing a wheel- 

 barrow, etc., there are some attitudes which last longer 

 than others, and which may be called "positions 

 of visibility." t Chronophotography would determine 

 these with the greatest precision. 



Importance of having a Series of Photographs from 

 which to choose the most Expressive Attitude. — If a 

 movement had always to be represented in its slowest 

 phase, Art would be beggared of all originality of 

 expression. We should then have a sort of catalogue 

 of stereotyped attitudes, just as we have laws of 

 anatomical proportion. Hampered by these limita- 

 tions, the artist would lose all individuality. He ought, 

 on the contrary, while taking Nature as his model, to 

 make an independent choice between the objects offered 

 to him. Among the many photographs we have 

 obtained, some have struck us as particularly expres- 

 sive, and we believe that they are the very ones that 

 an artist would select. 



In a series of photographs that we took of a man 

 striking a forcible blow with a stick, there was one 

 that particularly appealed to us. At the moment of 

 supreme effort almost every muscle in the body stood 

 out in forcible contraction. This would not occur 

 in a quieter action, or in a more limited movement. 



* These two figures were borrowed from an article on physical 

 exen-ise bv M. Denieny, illustrated by means of chronophotography 

 (La Nature, October 11, 1890> 



t With regard to the locomotion of quadrupeds, we shall show, 

 further, that in the horse, for instance, these phases of slow motion 

 never occur in all the limbs at once. 



