40 THE HORSE IN MOTION. 



enables him to assume the cross-legged position of a tailor, is named 

 by Chauveau the long adductor. It has its origin on the tendons of 

 the psoas muscles at a distance from the mesian plane equal, in the 

 normal position of the animal, to that of its insertion at the inner head 

 of the tibia. The distance of its corresponding origin in man would 

 carry it fully seven inches farther outward and across the great body of 

 the iliacus muscle. Its action, therefore, is simply as a flexor of the 

 thigh upon the pelvis, but from its great length, eighteen inches, it has 

 a sustained action in carrying the limb forward to a new position.* 



There are some other small muscles, such as the pectineus, small 

 adductor, etc., whose weight is so inconsiderable, and whose action is so 

 near the centre of motion, that they cannot be supposed to have any 

 special influence in locomotion. They are of more interest to com- 

 parative anatomists, but mechanically they are of small weight. The 

 action, such as it is, seems to be allied to the last, or that of adduction, 

 to preserve the balance between the adduction and abduction of the 

 great propelling muscles, for it appears to be true that nothing in the 

 animal economy was made in vain, and no vacuum exists. When 

 the ancients propounded the law that " Nature abhors a vacuum," they 

 " builded better than they knew." 



In the complicated mass of muscular furces involved in each of the 

 propelling limbs of the horse, it is impossible to determine whether 

 adduction or abduction predominates: under the exercise of the will, 

 either may do so; but when the mind of the quadruped is directed to 

 some exterior object, to the attainment of which the co-ordination of 

 all the locomotive forces are necessary, the adductor and abductor 

 action of the muscles may be considered literally side Issues, and the 



* Herein. lies a curious conundrum for the Darwinians of tlie atlieistic scliool. If ctianges 

 were by insensible degrees, how did the origin of this muscle become transported from the 

 superior spinous process of the ilium in man, to the tendons of the psoas muscles across that 

 body of the defenceless iliacus ? That it should have been effected by imperceptible degrees 

 seems entirely out of the question; and as there is a doubt as to priority in order of descent, 

 or ascent as the case may be, we will take the liberal side, and admit that tlie two families, 

 Equus and ffomo, are of equal age and still evolving, but like parallel lines they can never meet; 

 that tlie Equus can never be so much as a ninth part of a Homo, or a Homo so much as an 

 Equus asinus without tangling his legs worse than with a too free use of his favorite beverage, 

 or an interchange of the origins of the sartorius. 



