76 THE HORSE. 



With reference to those fifty horses, let it be added 

 that : — 



26 were less long than they were high. 



14 equal in height and length. 



10 were longer than they were high. 



I lay the more stress upon the measurement of the 

 arm with reference to the head, because neglect of taking 

 this into account has caused the commission of grave 

 errors, both in former times and at the present day. 



All the bas-reliefs of the Parthenon have horses, the 

 humerus of which are too long, and this is an absolute 

 anatomical defect ; for, if objection be made because of 

 the necessity of augmenting the arm, owing to the 

 obligation of placing the subject at a higher elevation 

 with reference to the spectator, it would be equally 

 imperative to magnify the neck and thicken the heads of 

 the animals for the same reason, which has never been 

 done, and should therefore give additional weight to the 

 observations I here make. 



It is not necessary to go back as far as Albert Durer 

 to discover abuse of the development of the chest, both 

 in size and height. Sculptors and painters of horses 

 in the last century, and even Gericault, placed the point 

 of the arm far too high, for in nature it is found at about 

 the level of the superior portion of the sternum. 



I have always been forcibly struck by the frequency 

 of the equality of the vertical of the withers with that of 

 the summit of the croup from the ground. Sufficient stress 

 has not been laid upon this in the treatises upon the 

 exterior of the horse. I have discovered that the reason 

 is to be found in the difficulty of appreciating, off-hand, 

 these two distances without recourse to the metrical 

 slidino--rule. 



o 



This optical error arises from the obliquity, lowered 

 from the culminating point of the withers at its inter- 

 section with the back, being very short in comparison 

 with the one starting from this latter point to rejoin the 

 summit of the croup. This latter, having a gentle 

 slope, has not the appearance of attaining so elevated 

 a point. 



It should be mentioned that when the vertical of the 

 withers is higher, the horse easily carries its rider, the 



