POINTS FROM WHICH THE PROPORTIONS ARE STUDIED. 371 



The Determination of the Articular Angles. — Several at- 

 tempts have already been made to gain a knowledge of the articular 

 angles of the horse. Vallon* and Daudet^ have, indeed, indicated in 

 their works angular openings in opposition to the ideas of General 

 Morris, in vogue at the time among all horsemen. But these observers 

 no doubt lacked sufficient instruments, judging from the conclusions 

 to which they were led, and which otherwise fail in accuracy. They do 

 not relate in their writings either their method or the class of horses 

 they experimented upon. Some of their ideas are even so far from 

 being true, that we are tempted to believe that in many cases they de- 

 pended only upon the accuracy of their eyesight. However it may be, 

 and though their researches were of so little account, it was already 

 praiseworthy to invalidate in their time, as they have done, the classical 

 opinions of the day. 



In this way they made it easier for their followers to obtain the 

 general acceptation and the ultimate triumph of ideas for which they 

 had, so to speak, paved the way. 



Little by little the theory of Morris fell into disrepute, unable as it 

 was to stand the slightest investigation, and it would have remained 

 thus if some observers of merit had not very recently attempted to set 

 it up again. 



And yet, as early as 1865, Professor Alexis Lemoigne,^ of Milan, 

 published his researches upon the articular angles, with the intention 

 of determining the direction of the final resultant of the horse's efforts 

 in the act of pulling. This is what they consisted of: 



Our learned colleague, in his measurements, made use of the tape- 

 measure, the hippometer, the plumb-line, and the goniometer, provided 

 with a spirit-level. 



First of all he sought to establish with great accuracy, upon the 

 skeleton, the axis of rotation of the bones, — that is to say, the centres 

 of movement forming the mathematical summit of the angles of loco- 

 motion. We have, on our side, verified M. Lemoigne's principles ; they 

 are absolutely precise. Here is the resume. The reader can more easily 

 follow this review by consulting Fig. 1 34, which represents the copy of 

 a photograph of 'Fitz-Gladiator. 



a. Anterior Member : 



1st. Scapulo-humeral Axis. — Its point of external localization, upon the living 

 animal, is situated about at the level of the convexity of the great trochanter. 



1 A. Vallon, Cours d'hippologie, Saumur, 1865. 



2 Daudet, Traits de locomotion du cheval relatif a I'^qultation, Saumur, 1864. 



' Alexis Lemolgne, in Giornale delle razze degli animali utili e di medicina veterinarla, 

 fascic 11 et 12, Naples, 1865 ; ibid., in Recueil de m6decine v^terinaire, ann^e 1877, pp. 81 et 208. 



