CHAPTER IV 



PROPORTIONS 



Inasmuch as we have taken for granted, in connection with 

 the present volume, that before entering on the study of the 

 anatomy of quadrupeds the reader was prepared for it by a 

 sufficient knowledge of human anatomy, it is quite natural 

 that we should extend the same supposition to the study of 

 proportions. 



For this reason, the definition of proportions, considered 

 from a general point of view, their signification, their 

 function and their utility, are questions which it would 

 be superfluous to enter upon here. We will content 

 ourselves by calUng to mind that the common measure 

 chosen by preference is the length of the head, and that, 

 ordinarily, it is with it that we compare the dimensions of 

 other parts. 



Among the animals whose structure we have examined, 

 there is one of which the proportions deserve to be marked 

 in preference to every other : this is the horse. 



Wherefore this preference ? In the first place, it is because 

 of the overwhelming position which this animal occupies in 

 the artistic representation of quadrupeds ; that it is more 

 frequently associated with man ; that, notwithstanding 

 its division into different races, its general proportions may 

 be referred to a special type. 



It is also because the indications relative to these propor- 

 tions will suffice to show the way which the artist must 

 foUow in order to find for himself, at the time when the neces- 

 sity for it arises, the proportions which characterize the 

 other animals. 



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