GENERALITIES OF THE GAITS. 501 



With a view of remedying this defect, we have constructed a model slightly 

 different from the preceding. The reglets are replaced by clear, independent 

 blocks, but gliding freely in grooves with a black surface. It becomes easy, with 

 this modification, to represent the notation of any gait whatever. 



FIG. 191. 



After these general considerations upon the gaits, we will resume 

 their study in particular. Before doing so, it is indispensable to give 

 (Fig. 192), in a table which we borrowed from M. Marey, 1 a synopsis 

 of their notations, such as most authors admit. Except the amble and 

 the trot, upon which all are in accord, all the others are defined in 

 different manners. 



" The variation," M. Marey very wisely remarks, " explains itself 

 sufficiently : first, because the observation of these movements is very 

 difficult, and, secondly, because, in nature, the walk may, according to 

 circumstances, present the different forms which each author has arbi- 

 trarily taken as the type of the normal walk. Each man, in this case, 

 allowed himself to be guided by theoretical conditions. Those who 

 admit equal intervals between the four beats thought they saw more 

 clearness in this kind of rhythm and a better-marked distinction be- 

 tween it and the amble and the trot. 



" Others have sought, in the walk which served as their type, the 

 realization of a certain ideal. For Raabe this ideal was the maximum 

 stability which is obtained, according to theory, when the body rests 

 longer upon the diagonal than on the lateral bipeds, hence his selection 

 of the type represented by notation No. 6. Lecoq, thinking, on the 

 contrary, that the best step is the swiftest, chose as his type that in 

 which the body rests longer upon the lateral biped than upon the 

 diagonal (notation No. 4)." 



The reader will therefore not be surprised now that our own views 

 differ from those of the authors who have preceded us. Let him not 

 for an instant lose sight of the fact that the gaits, as a whole, constitute 



i Marey, loc. cit., p. 153. 



