THE PROPORTIONS OF THE HORSE. 97 



represent what sort or stamp of a horse Eclipse was : a matter so 

 difficult to determine with any exactness from any painting or 

 print of him, knowing, as we do, that painters do not, in general, 

 proceed in their works after any geometrical calculations. 



We learn from LECOQ* that the first idea of " proportions" ap- 

 pears in an Italian work published in the sixteenth century ; 

 though to Bourgelat are we indebted for their establishment upon 

 a rational basis. Following Grisonie, Bourgelat assumed as his 

 " unity of mensuration," the head of the animal to be measured ; 

 and this he subdivided into three parts, which he called primes; 

 each prime into three seconds; and each second into twenty-four 

 points ; making, altogether, 216 subdivisions. Lecoq has reduced 

 these subdivisions down to hundredths, and has submitted the fol- 

 lowing scale as that of Bourgelat, with some slight improvements, 

 founded upon changes in the position of the head and that of the 

 hind quarters. 



The height of the horse, measured from the poll of the head to 

 the ground, is estimated at three heads' length ; from the top of the 

 withers to the ground, at 2£. The distance from the point of the 

 shoulder to the point of the quarter, at 2£ heads' length. The 

 height from the summit of the croup to the ground at 2 T 3 o 8 <J . From 

 the summit of the withers to the point of immersion of the neck in 

 the throat -^V From this last-named point to the point of the shoul- 

 der r 8 5 %. From the same point to the mane, half a head's length. 

 From the withers, in a horizontal line, to a level with the lowest 

 point of the back T 6 oV From the last-named point, still in a hori- 

 zontal line, to a level with the summit of the croup -£q%. From the 

 summit of the croup, extending the same horizontal line, to a level 

 with the point of the quarter T 6 o 6 ff . From the point of the quarter 

 to that of the stifle -ffo. From one haunch to the other in a direct 

 line T 8 5%. From the point of one shoulder to that of the other in a 

 straight line ■££$. The greatest breadth of the belly, in a straight 

 line, equal to one head's length. The depth of the body, from the 

 lowest part of the back to its greatest dip, the same. The depth 

 from the summit of the withers to lowest dip of chest, 1 head T y<j. 



* Traite de TExterieur du Cheval et des Principaux AnimauxDomestiques. 



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