ON DRAUGHT. 535 



distance which it is thrown beyond the feet, and is Hmited only by the ca- 

 pabihty of resistance at B, or the muscular strength of the legs. This is 

 evidently the case in practice ; for even if the body were brought nearly 

 horizontal, when its weight would act to the greatest advantage, still, if 

 the legs are incapable of resisting the strain, they would yield, and no 

 effect be produced. In a man, this muscular strength of the limbs is very 

 great, and he can Hft or carry immense weights, and ascend easily, even 

 loaded, a ladder ; but he is not well adapted to the purpose of dragging : as 

 his own weight is small proportionally to his strength, and the centre of 

 gravity is low, and by the construction of his body cannot be thrown far 

 beyond the fulcrum at his feet ; consequently, however capable his legs 

 may be of resisting a great strain, AE remains small, and his muscular 

 force is not advantageously brought into action. 



A horse, on the contrary, by the formation of the body, can relieve his 

 weight partly from his fore-legs ; and, extending his_ hind-legs as in fig. 2, 

 throw the centre of gravity a considerable distance in front of his feet B. 

 AE is here proportionably much greater than in the former case, and the 

 whole of his force is, therefore, advantageously employed. He is, in fact, 

 by his mechanical construction, a beast of di-aught. 



The same train of reasoning which has here pointed out the species ot 

 work pecuharly adapted to the different structures of the man and of the 

 horse, if continued further, will now serve to show the circumstances in 

 which the power of the latter is best applied, and the greatest effect 

 produced. 



We shall here consider both the quality and the degree of the draught. 

 And first, it is to be observed, that, although the weight of the animal's 

 body is the immediate cause in the action of pulling, yet, as before stated, 

 it is by the action of the muscles in advancing the legs and raising the 

 body, that this cause is constantly renewed, and the effort continued. The 

 manner and the order of succession in which a horse thus lifts and 

 advances his legs may, of course, influence the movement of his body, and 

 ought therefore to be examined into: accordingly we find that many 

 writers upon draught have touched upon this part of the subject, but they 

 appear to have contented themselves with inventing in their closet the 

 manner in which they conceived a horse must have moved his legs, rather 

 than to have taken the trouble to go out of doors to see what really did 

 take place, and, consequently, many have arrived at erroneous conclusions. 

 The ancient sculptors, who generally studied nature so faithfully, either 

 neglected this point, or othermse our modern horses, by constant artificial 

 training, have altered their step : for we find in the celebrated frieze from 

 the Parthenon at Athens, a portion of which, now in England, is more com- 

 monly known under the name of the Elgin Marbles, the only horses which 

 are represented trotting have both their legs on the same side of the body 

 raised at once, the other two being firm upon the groymd — a position 

 which horses of the present day never assume while trotting. 



In the case of these rehevos, it is true that there are only four horses, 

 out of more than two hundred, which are in the action of trotting, all the 

 others being represented in a canter or gallop ; and only two of these four 

 are entirely in the foreground, and distinct from the other figures. It 

 would not be safe, therefore, to draw too general a conclusion from this ex- 

 ample alone ; but we have another decided proof of the remark we have 

 made, in the case of the fouj- horses of the church of St. Marc at Yenice._ 

 Whether this was then the mode of trotting or not, it is certain that it 

 is never seen to occur in nature in the present day ; and indeed it appears 

 quite inconsistent with the necessary balancing of the body, and was, 

 therefore, more probably an error of the artist. 



