CENTRE OF GRAVITV. 5 



the body (Fig. 1). Further on, the same author adds : " It is clear that the posi- 

 tion of the centre of gravity and the distribution of the weight of the body upon 

 the members must vary very much according to the conformation of animals 

 whose head, neck, abdomen, and croup present such diverse proportions." 



The position of the centre of gravity of the horse, as indicated by M. Colin, 

 seems to us very nearly correct, at least judging from the experiments which we 

 have conducted. 



At first, it seems extremely probable that this point is situated in the median 

 plane of the body. In effecting a series of weighings bearing alternately upon 

 both of the lateral bipeds of the same subject maintained as much as possible in 

 an invariable attitude, we succeed in determining that the left lateral biped, for 

 example, supports a weight very nearly equal to that of the right lateral biped. 

 On the other hand, if, from the example of MM. Raabe and Bonnal,^ we consider 

 that the dorso-lumbar column AB, Fig 2, measuring the interval comprised be- 



FiG. 2. 



tween the centre of the movement of the shoulder and that of the haunch, — that 

 is to say, the length of the base of support of a well-formed horse, — is attracted 

 by two parallel forces F and F\ distributing the weight of the body upon the 

 posterior and anterior bipeds, it will be easy to determine with considerable 

 approximation the position of the point P, through which passes the line of 

 gravitation, — that is to say, the resultant of these two forces. It is known that 

 this point divides the line AB into two parts inversely proportional to the forces 

 F and F\ in such a way that we have 



F ^PB 

 F' PA 



1 Raabe et Bonnal, Determination des lignes de gravity du cheval. etc. In Archives v6t6ri- 

 naires, 1883, p. 538. 



