103 



digits supporting the motions of the rear C should 

 still remain on the ground, while those supporting 

 the front C are being brought in action. Tliis seems 

 to be accomplished for the hind limbs by the pro- 

 jecting heel, which, by means of the strong muscle 

 passing from it to the thigh bone, allows of the 

 foot being rotated on to its outer side, while the 

 passing line of gravity, at the same time, brings its 

 inner side down,— or vice versa. The elbow in 

 the horse may answer the same purpose in respect 

 to its fore limbs ; while in man the power of turn- 

 ing at the wrist should seem to make any other 

 appliance unnecessary. 



The heel muscle of the hind limbs subserves, of 

 <?ourse, other purposes ; being one of many which 

 ;give to the limb, and that mth vastly increased 

 force, all the elasticity of the most elastic ribs. "^ 



* It maj' be doubted that the heel of a man should, in perfect loco- 

 motion, touch the gi-ound at all; but the idea of this being an essential part 

 of the step has caused an ingenious writer, and apparently capital 

 horseman, Captain Raabe, of the French cavalr}', in his work '• Examen 

 du Cours d'Equitation de M. d'Aure," 1854, to suppose that each foot of 

 a man, when walking, goes through the motions of the galloj) of a horse, 

 leading with the left leg for the right foot, and with the right leg for 

 the left foot ; that is to say, the outer edge of either heel stands for the 

 horse's outer hind foot {1st. beat) ; the inner edge of the heel and the 

 outer toes, for the inner hind and outer fore-foot (2d. beat) ; and the 

 great loe for the inner or leading fore-foot (^d. beat). He says the 

 change of the leading foot, which can thus be performed in place 

 at each atep b\' man (as in "maik time'), was never perforaied by any 



