POINTS FROM WHICH THE PROPORTIONS ARE STUDIED. 359 



the bony segments of the members. Our colleagues, M. Neumann ' and 

 Professor Lemoigne,^ of Milan, have confirmed, on their part, the 

 results published by M. Colin ; we will say the same about our own 

 personal researches.^ 



But Colonel Duhousset is indeed the man who, in France, is the 

 most interested in the measurements of all the regions of the horse. 

 We have had the pleasure of guiding him in his first attempts and 

 investigating, afterwards, the correctness of his observations. These 

 are published in a pamphlet, from which we have borrowed the greater 

 part of the following details.* After the example of Bourgelat, M. 

 Duhousset has chosen the head as a unit of measure, and considers its 

 length from the poll to the extremity of the upper lip. This dimen- 

 sion, as well as those of which we will hereafter speak, is obtained 

 by the aid of a compass of thickness, and not by the tape-measure 

 system, in order to avoid the causes of error inherent to the promi- 

 nence of the parts whose outlines this measure would have to follow. 

 It is also well that the animal be placed in normal equilibrium, and 

 that his head, a little raised, should as nearly as possible be parallel to 

 the direction of the slope of the shoulders. 



We will annex to our description the following drawing (Fig. 127), 

 a reproduction of a photograph on which the subject is shown abso- 

 lutely in profile, a position which in no way alters the reciprocal rela- 

 tions of the parts ; ' the animal here represented was as high as he was 

 long. 



" The length of the head almost exactly equals the distance : 



1st. From the back to the abdomen, NO (thickness of the body). 



2d. From the top of the withers to the point of the arm, HE (shoulder). 



3d. From the superior fold of the stifle-joint to the point of the hock, J'J. 



4th. From the point of the hock to the ground, JK. 



5th. From the dorsal angle of the scapula to the point of the haunch, D'D. 



6th. From the xiphoid region to the fetlock-joint, MI; above this latter for large horses and 

 race-horses ; below and in the middle, in small horses and in those of medium size. 



7th. From the superior fold of the stifle-joint to the summit of the croup in subjects whose 

 coxo-femoral angle is large ; this distance is always less in other cases (G. and B.). 



1 G. Neumann, Des aplombs chez le cheval, in Journal de m6d. vet. milit.. t. viii. p. 352. 



2 A. Lemoigne, Recherches sur la mScanique animale du cheval, in Rec. de mSd. vet., annee 

 1877, p. 81. 



'See, besides, J. Ki6ner, Journal de I'agriculture, annee 1884, t. ii. p. 341. (He treats there 

 of the relation of the widths of the anterior and posterior canons.) 



* E. Duhousset, Le cheval, p. 63 et suiv., Paris, 1881. 



* In measuring a horse from a photograph, it is necessary to take him absolutely in profile. 

 Without this precaution the regions are not shown perpendicularly upon the same plane; the 

 length and the height of those which are more distant from the observer appear shorter in rela- 

 tion to those which are nearer. 



