1 62 



Bits and Bitting, 



of bitting, and there is no difficulty in understanding 

 that its immediate consequence will be to render bits 

 of small dimensions equally efficient and much more 

 certain and reliable in their action than the monstrous 

 pieces of ironmongery usually manufactured and sold 

 ever can be ; and we now proceed to enter into further 

 details. 



The first question that naturally presents itself is, the 

 absolute length of the lever — that is to say, of the upper 

 and lower bars of the bit taken together ; the next, that 

 of their relative proportions to each other. Before going 

 into the consideration of these, it will be well to clear up 

 one or two preliminary matters, merely premising what 

 is self-evident on inspection — namely, that a bit may be 

 regarded as a pair of levers connected together by the 

 mouthpiece. At first sight this might lead to the con- 

 clusion that the centre of the rivet on each side is always 

 the point from which the length of the upper and lower 

 bars is to be measured. This is, however, only true for 

 those forms of mouthpiece which consist of a port and 

 two lateral straight portions ; but if the whole mouth- 

 piece form one curve, the line of bearing — that is to say, 

 the line connecting the two points of the mouthpiece 



Lm.^. 



^faring 



Fig. 10. 



which rest on the bars of the horse's mouth — does not 

 coincide with the axis of the bit passing through the 

 centre of the two rivets, which must be taken into ac- 



