THE HORSE IN MOTION. 6l 



universal opinion of writers on the horse that the fore legs are 

 merely supporters ; and the latest and standard authority on the 

 horse, in England, compares them to the spokes of a wheel, and asserts 

 that their only functions are to support the centre of gravity and keep 

 out of the way of the propellers, the hind legs. It will be apparent 

 to the reader before the conclusion of this chapter, if it is not so 

 already, that each limb is required to support the body and act as 

 propeller in turn, and that the anterior one does more than its share 

 of both offices.* 



It will be shown, when we come to analyze the fastest pace of 

 the horse, that the strongest propulsive force of either of the legs 

 is given with the anterior one in each stride ; indeed, it is so strong 

 as to raise the centre of gravity several inches above the horizontal 

 line of its motion. As the case now stands between the anterior 

 and posterior extremities, they may be compared to a peasant and 

 his wife in certain foreign lands, in which the latter is required to 

 share equally with her husband in all his labors and also to bear 

 burdens which he cannot share with her. 



The beautiful contrivances by means of which the anterior limb 

 is enabled to support weight as a crutch, to be acted upon as a 

 passive instrument in propulsion, and at the same time to consti- 

 . tute an autonomy of its own, independent of both the others, for the 

 accomplishment of the same general result, cannot fail to excite the 

 most profound admiration, and wonder that its mechanism has not 

 been better understood. 



On reference to Plate IV., s, one will see the posterior half of 

 the £-fea^ seri'atus brought into \iew by the removal of the superficial 

 muscles that hide it in Plate III. It is so called because its lower 

 border is serrated or notched, the lower attachments being to the 

 first eight ribs; the anterior half of the muscle is concealed by the 

 shoulder. This muscle is fan-shaped, its fibres converging upward 



* Mr. Walsh (Stonelienge) gives the authority of M. Baucher for tlie statement that 

 the weight borne by the anterior and posterior extremities, as determined by placing them 

 upon different weighing-machines, was as 210 for the former to 174 for the latter, the total 

 weight of the horse being 384 kilogrammes. 



