10G FORM AND ACTION. 



to the regular scale, should come in contact with the toe of the 

 hind foot, but in Eclipse struck the ground half-a-head 's length 

 (eleven inches) in front of the hoof. 



The sixth descends from the point of the hock, along the 

 tendon of the hind leg, and, touching the heel of the fetlock, falls to 

 the ground behind the heel of the hoof. 



The SEVENTH falls equidistant between the hind legs. 



The EIGHTH and ninth have reference to the body. One 

 falls from the withers to the ground, touching the point of the elbow 

 in its descent ; the other from the middle of the back, through the 

 body, to the central point of the quadrilateral figure described by 

 the position of the four legs. 



All these perpendiculars proved true in Eclipse; one alone 

 differed from those of the approved scale, and this difference, we 

 shall find, was attended with advantage : indeed, Eclipse's forma- 

 tion in this respect would appear to have corrected a grand error 

 in the geometrical figure of the French schools. 



In describing the differences between the proportions of Eclipse 

 and those of the table of the French schools (which he reckoned 

 to be five, viz. extraordinary height, both of head and body ; extra- 

 ordinary length of neck ; the perpendicular from the stifle ; and 

 the greater length of arm) St. Bel omitted a very important differ- 

 ence, deducible from his own statements, which is, extraordinary 

 length of limbs compared with the depth of body. St. Bel's ad- 

 measurements, as far as they go, have no doubt enabled us to 

 make out what sort of a horse Eclipse was ; but his mensuration 

 might, in such a case as this, with much advantage have been 

 carried a great deal farther — might, for example, in the instance of 

 the limbs, included the circumferences of different sections, and, in 

 many other parts, their relative span or thicknesses — also due allow- 

 ances ought to have been made for the age and condition of his 

 subject. He tells us, he "took the proportions of Eclipse while 

 living, and satisfied his curiosity after his death upon his skeleton, 

 by dissecting his body himself." 



It may not be out of place, or unacceptable, to conclude this ac- 

 count of our prodigy of horse-flesh with the remarks, that Eclipse 

 lived to the age of twenty-six, and died of " a violent cholic," on 

 the 27th of February, 1789, at 7 o'clock, P. M.; and that, after a 



