16 THE MECHANISM OF 



indisputable demonstration of the disputed problem of animal 

 motions. 



Acting upon this plan, a few sets of photographs of horses 

 moving at their various gaits were taken in 1878 with electro- 

 photographic exposors or shutters devised by Mr. Muybridge 

 especially for tiiat work; and although the experiments were 

 made with wet plates in the heat of a California summer, the 

 results were wonderfully fine. They were published the same 

 year by Hon. Leland Standford, under the title of " The Horse 

 in Motion," and (together with others made in 1879) were ex- 

 hibited by Mr. Muybridge in lectures delivered before the most 

 important scientific and art societies of this country, France, and 

 England. While abroad he met with such hearty appreciation 

 of the value of his pictures, especially on account of the positive 

 facts which they gave in contradiction to many of the accepted 

 theories of animal locomotion, that he decided to pursue the sub- 

 ject still further with as exhaustive a set of photographic investi- 

 gations as could be made into all the various motions of men, 

 women, and children, animals and birds. Moreover, these new 

 experiments were to be made with new and greatly improved 

 apparatus and methods, with the new "dry plaies" that had made 

 possible an amount of detail in instantaneous photography un- 

 attainable with wet plates, and with the addition of devices and 

 instruments of accuracy for automatically recording the data of 

 each set of pictures, distance, time, etc., necessary to make them 

 of practical value for scientific purposes. Upon the conclusion 

 of the investigations the photographic results were to be system- 

 atically arranged and printed without retouching by photogravure, 

 and finally published by subscription in a manner befitting the 

 magnitude and importance of the work. 



After unsuccessful application had been made to several pub- 

 lishers and institutions of learning for the necessary means to 

 carry out these plans, the University of Pennsylvania took the 

 matter under its care, and by its liberal support Mr. Muybridge 

 was enabled to carry on his work in the most thorough manner 

 to its completion, with the gratifying results now shown in his 

 ^'Animal Locomotion." 



All of the photographs for "Animal Locomotion" were made 

 in Philadelphia, — the birds and wild animals at the gardens of 



