THE HORSE IN MOTION. II 



him, as appears in the following quotation from his work on Animal 

 Mechanics : " There is scarcely any branch of animal mechanics 

 which has given rise to more labor and greater controversy than the 

 question of the paces of the horse. The subject is of great impor- 

 tance to a large number of persons engaged in special pursuits, but 

 its extreme complexity has caused interminable discussion. Any one 

 who proposed at the present time to write a treatise on the paces of 

 the horse would have to discuss many different opinions put forward 

 by a great number of authors." 



Bishop, the author of the article on "Animal Motion" in the 

 "Encyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology," says: "The study of 

 the mechanism of which the locomotive organs of animals is com- 

 posed, of the laws by which their progression is accomplished, and of 

 the vital force which they expend in propelling the body from one 

 point in space to another with different velocities, serves to interest 

 alike the anatomist and the physiologist, the artist and the mechani- 

 cian. Ignorance of these laws has been productive of grotesque 

 delineations of the human figure as well as of the lower animals, when 

 represented in motion. We have abundant evidence of this in the 

 productions of painters and sculptors, both of the ancient and modern 

 world." 



The difficulty in this, as in many controverted questions, is to 

 determine the facts; and the facts have been most difficult to obtain. 

 It seems to many unaccountable, that the horse, whose movements 

 are so open, should play such a leger-de-pied as to deceive all eyes, 

 and give rise to controversies as earnest as did the colors of the cha- 

 meleon in the fable. All attempts hitherto made to analyze these 

 movements have failed, for it is not possible for the eye to distinguish 

 them ; or rather, to state the case more accurately, the mind is unable 

 to distinguish the impressions conveyed to it through the eye. 



Controversies were going on to the last as to which foot was ad- 

 vanced first in the trot ; whether the toe or heel first touched the 

 ground ; whether in a gallop the legs were stretched out fore and aft, 

 or the knees were flexed. All were dabbling in the shallow waters 

 of a sea whose depths there was no known method of exploring, and 



