POINTS FROM WHICH THE PROPORTIONS ARE STUDIED. 367 



wishes to know the truth should, at least once in his life, doubt all 

 that he has been tauo;ht." It will be acknowledged that the general 

 might have been better inspired ; not only was he satisfied to doubt, 

 but he never learned what he represented ! 



Still, it is upon this horse that he traced his geometrical lines. It 

 is true that he himself admits that the directions considered are not 

 strictly those of the bones, but those of the regions Avhose base they form. 

 AVith such a reservation we may conceive that the most inventive mind 

 has a free field and may persuade itself into believing in the objective 

 reality of its conceptions, whatever may be their exaggerations. 



We would not oblige the reader to formulate an opinion upon the 

 theory of the similitude of the angles and the parallelism of the bony 

 segments if the views of General Morris had not found partisans, even 

 among men of great merit. His arguments in favor of his doctrine are 

 (the expression is. not too strong) absolutely unintelligible. As to the 

 theory of the similitude of the angles, taken in itself, it has no scien- 

 tific value, since common sense and facts are opposed to it. Its onlv 

 merit consists in having drawn horsemen's attention to a question 

 formerly completely ignored. 



The most judicious criticism of it that we know of is that of our colleague 

 of the school of Toulouse, Professor Neumann.^ We will review his principal 

 arguments, which, in all points, are the same as ours. 



And first of all, since the ideal conditions of speed imply certain angles and 

 certain inclinations of the bones, how is it that these conditions are applicable 

 only to the horse and not to other animals as swift as the horse, for example, the 

 hare the dog, the gazelle, etc. ? Whence comes this exception to the laws of 

 nature, which always show us organisms adapted in the same manner to the 

 same needs? It being granted that long members and a tall form are especially 

 necessary to produce speed, in order that they may be able to move extensively 

 under the body ; it being granted, on the other hand, as a deduction of this prin- 

 ciple, that animals with long members have all their articular angles very open, 

 we do not see why the horse, so very similar to them with regard to locomotion, 

 should have been endowed with a particular and contrary disposition residing in 

 the closing of his angles and the parallelism of his bony segments. A priori, the 

 theory of Morris presents itself, then, for examination as an exception to the 

 natural laws of speed, which should already arouse our apprehensions against its 

 consequences. 



Let us pursue the purely theoretical objections which result from its appli- 

 cation to the construction of the horse ; this M. Neumann has very fortunately 

 attempted ; we will resume our colleague's reasoning and confirm it with our own 

 observations. 



In subjects which are well formed the length of the anterior and the 



1 G. Neumann, Des aplombs chez le cheval, in Journal des veWrinaires militaires, t. viii 

 p. 352. 



